Ted Rabinowitz's Blog, page 35

Beat-keeping in Mammalian Test Subjects

So psychologists used to think that only animals that could vocalize like humans - us, parrots, and a couple of other bird mimics - could keep a beat.

But it turns out that a bunch of California marine zoologists have trained a sea lion named Ronan to bop to the beat.

The only problem? She really seems to groove to disco.

See it here.

Mendelssohn's Fantastic Almanac - Pornomancy

Pornomancy: That school of magic which derives its power from works of pornography...especially the stuff from the '70s with the moody synth music.

Mendelssohn's Almanac - Pornomancy

Pornomancy: That school of magic which derives its power from works of pornography...especially the stuff from the '70s with the moody synth music.

Fake Geek Boys

Maybe you've heard of the "Fake Geek Girl" meme. The idea is that (hot) girls can't be geeks, nerds, etc. Can't like comics, science fiction, fantasy, games. Maybe it's because Nerd-dom is supposed to be a Big Bang Theory, lonely-boys-only club; maybe it's pure misogyny. I'm not a fan of the meme - I like women, I like inclusion, I figure the more the merrier - but I can put a (slightly) more charitable spin on it.

Some of what powers the meme is the feeling among the moodier loners of Nerd-dom that the popular kids who humiliated them are now appropriating nerd culture for their own ends - and once bored with it, they will move on, like New Age Anglos at a Native American pow-wow. The Nerd Trope includes unpopularity, suffering, humiliation and social rejection, so the idea of neo-nerds who have never endured the dark side of the culture irritates those who have. The ONs (Original Nerds) feel used.

But with that in mind, I think we can strip the FGG meme of one of the "G"s. After all, there are Fake Geek Boys, too. Go to any Comic-con and you will see packs of pony-tailed indieprods looking for the next Hellboy they can monetize.

So let's do this - let's measure authenticity by the passion and love people have for the subject. Let's measure stature by the wit, originality and invention they bring to it. Let's measure gravitas by the rigor of their ideas. And then let's all get drunk.

Mendelssohn's Fantastic Almanac - the Quezzl

Chief and ruler of the Seven Cities of Gold is the Quezzl, which can be trained to undertake any task. Upon the appearance the conquistadors, the Quezzl, well-taught by the priests of Cibola, did appear and offer them nougat, misleading them from the cities and preserving those cities until this very day.*


* see Kingman, Barstow, San Bernardino.

Mendelssohn's Almanac - the Quezzl

Chief and ruler of the Seven Cities of Gold is the Quezzl, which can be trained to undertake any task. Upon the appearance the conquistadors, the Quezzl, well-taught by the priests of Cibola, did appear and offer them nougat, misleading them from the cities and preserving those cities until this very day.*


* see Kingman, Barstow, San Bernardino.

Lord Jason Jannister. He DIED!

What it's like to read "A Song of Ice and Fire" for the first time.
Hilarious.
Seriously.
And I enjoyed the books (and the series more).

Oh, yeah - NSFW from Brevity.tv

Dinosaurs Are Not Extinct

This wasn't Photoshopped.

Crocs and gators have been around since the Triassic, by the way - the earliest of the three periods of dinosaurs. (Modern crocodilians emerged in the last period, the Cretaceous.)

Officially, Crocodilia were never dinosaurs, even back then - but they look pretty prehistoric to me.

If Only All Crises Were Like This

Lululemon's Lyon yoga pants are...ahem..."too sheer," and according to the business reporters, it's a quality crisis.

This definitely falls under the heading of First-World Problems...reassuring that this is big news on a Monday morning.

What Can I Say? I Like the Guy

I admit, pictures like this make it easier.