Jo S. Wun's Blog, page 20
May 24, 2010
Top hole!
Casting all modesty aside, I've got to point you towards Sa Toya's review of The Jeremy – Snaps of the Dragon over on her blog Paper, Pens & Lipgloss.
Top hole? Not the expression Sa Toya uses — you will have to check the review to find out her equivalent — but in the meantime, for those readers not familiar with the expression, 'top hole' is a chiefly British, and rather outmoded, exclamation regarding something you find rather excellent. It was a favourite saying of the fictitious Lord...
May 23, 2010
It makes you want to chantepleure
Forsooth I am forswunk. But I am not one to whingle. Nay, moffle I might, on occasion, but never will I spuddle over a task. Longsome though a chore may be, which tends my brain to crine, I am not wantsome when it comes to perseverance!
Bendsome am I in thought, fluttersome in deed. No matter how lugsome the task, how sweltersome the air, I will not be tempted to seek comfort in crassulent eugeria.
~:~:~
Okay. Enough of that. It's hard work reading something which contains so many 'obsolete'...
May 20, 2010
Don't be humble…
This sarcastic remark, allegedly said by Golda Meir (4th Prime Minister of the modern state of Israel) to a visiting diplomat, is a fine example of the art, if art it can be called.
Art or not, written sarcasm, of the sort found online in forums, user product reviews, blogs, and the comments sections of such, is often misinterpreted by readers who don't 'get' the sarcasm. So who better to come leaping to the rescue than the Israeli researchers who have developed a...
May 19, 2010
"Homeopathy is witchcraft" says Doctor
The Telegraph recently reported that hundreds of members of the BMA have passed a motion denouncing the use of homeopathy. Junior doctors, at their annual conference, said taxpayers should not have to fund remedies which have no scientific basis to support them.
It was Dr Tom Dolphin, deputy chairman of the BMA's junior doctors committee in England, who said "Homeopathy is witchcraft". He added that "It is a disgrace that nestling between the National Hospital for Neurology, and Great Ormond S...
May 17, 2010
Where's the Like button?
Of course, you can always steal content, if it's good 
Take a peak at XKCD (updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday)
May 15, 2010
Blowing in the wind
Really Simple Syndication. RSS. It reminds me of the words of Bob Dylan's song: "The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind"
RSS feeds are continually pumping out information (and misinformation!) which fuels the appetite of a good RSS reader. Sure, keeping up with all that info can become a bit of an addiction, not to mention a great way to reinforce confirmation bias if you only subscribe to RSS feeds from people and sites you agree with, but who would be that dumb? Okay…don't answer...
May 13, 2010
Book Review – Dandelions in the Garden
I just put up my review of Charlie Courtland's book Dandelions in the Garden on the Book Reviews page.
May 12, 2010
Piano Forte
There's a cliche that's on the tip of my tongue. I can almost taste it. Lateral thinking? No, that's not it. Thinking outside the box? No, not that either. Oh well, whatever it is, they certainly seem to have hit all the right notes with this one.
Hat tip: Open Culture
May 9, 2010
No, no…..No, 'e's stunned!
While I was waiting for this video of Douglas Adams to load I spent a few moments thinking about his untimely death at the age of 49. Nine years on and it's clear that Douglas is neither spending a year dead for tax reasons1 nor is he just stunned nor even pinin' for the fjords. He has definitely ceased to be.2
It was the name of this talk at UCSB which caused me to think of Monty Python's Dead Parrot sketch2. Recorded shortly before his death Parrots, the Universe and Everything is a talk...
May 8, 2010
Chocola-la-la-la..I can't hear you
Mmmmmm..chocolate! Gimme, gimme, gimme!
There's been a lot of talk lately about people who eat more chocolate tending to be more depressed than those who eat less.
BBC News reported that according to research, "those who eat at least a bar every week are more glum than those who only eat chocolate now and again."
'GLUM'? What an excellent choice of words. Was that the word the researchers used?
On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 means 'not at all glum' and 10 means 'extremely glum', please indicate h...
