Fuck the Deniers

Climategate got ya down? Those leaked memos have probably won more borderline skeptics over to the full-on denier side than any red-faced huffing Republican ideologue. But the media is skipping over two crucial details from this debacle: first, scientists are humans and humans act like petty little douchebags sometimes--get over it; next, and certainly most important, THIS DOESN'T CHANGE THE SCIENCE ONE BIT!

This editorial in Nature magazine summarizes it pretty well. To see why the science doesn't change a bit, check out this beautifully produced data visualization by one David McCandless. It will blow your socks off.

--Matt

'The Truman Show' Taken Out Back, Shot

This multi-layered stuff is to, like, deep, man! But really, I enjoyed the following a lot:

--Matt

"Jesus is a Raisin"

I can see this starting a meme:

--Matt

I'm Freeeeee! Freefallingggggggggg!

Finally, a photographer with a far out vision that I can get behind! Kerry Skarbakka has released a photo series containing himself in various stages of falling. Some of them are absolutely cringe-worthy, your brain automatically connecting the dots on what follows in the proceeding milliseconds. Impressively he did it all with the help of some simple climber's rigging and what I like most is that his statement is decidedly not pretentious, breaking down to about this: we struggle to right ourselves on a daily basis, but what does it mean to simply let go?

Find out at the link above.

--Matt

Mmm...Stoke Those Inadequacies, Baby

This may be a first, posting a link to a list here, but it just so happens I came across what I consider to be the first really worthwhile internet list courtesy of Asylum (a pretty unlikely place to find it). So, here it is, a list of five ridiculous overachievers. Concerning Philip Parker, the man who authored over 200k books, yes, he has an automated program that sets into action the fully hands-off process of writing the tomes, but the man also holds three undergraduate degrees, two masters and one PhD. Zing!

The big whammy that floored me last night and got my brain juices bubbling--as they do when a pointless-yet-fascinating niche of this world reveals itself to me, plus considering my educational history--was the multilinguist Ziad Fazah, who claims mastery in 59 languages. Fifty. Nine. Throughout history only a handful have approached or breached this astonishing number. As somebody who struggles with only a single foreign language I can feel deep down what an achievement this is.

(Interesting factoid: J.R.R. Tolkien was fluent in 13 and knowledgeable in 12 other languages. I'm sure inventing the Elvish language was child's play to him.)

As it happens, statistically, most inhabitants of Spaceship Earth are polyglots, with the good ol' U.S. of A leading the way with most monolinguists per capita. Huzzah. If it feels like America's been getting dumber recently I think this may be the cause, or at least a good scapegoat since being a polyglot seems to increase cognitive abilities across the boards, according to studies. C'mon, American families, teach those kids Finnish already!

--Matt

Ooh, They're Such Rebels!

I am banging my head with a frying pan trying to figure out where I saw this kind of thing on the street recently--somewhere in Berkeley or Oakland, obviously--but I do recall it was basically a tea cozy for one of those green phone switcher boxes. I imagine this is how the Amish womenfolk express their urban art sense.

A certain friend of mine from Wyoming could become the next Banksey or Yok in this field of graffiti me thinks.

--Matt

Brock Samson Presents THE CHEESE & BURGER SOCIETY

There is absolutely no better voice to do this site--sponsored by Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board--than that of The Venture Brothers' Brock Samson (Patrick Warburton). Concerning the Farmer John, the Lumberjack, the Sheboygan and the Macho Nacho...Oh. My. Fucking. God.

http://www.cheeseandburger.com/

--Matt