Fun Stuff

Like everybody, I get lots of credit card offers in the mail.  Typically, I open them up, find the application with my name on it and shred it.  However, I received one recently from American Express that was a bit different.  In addition to the normal information and application, there was a fake credit card attached, but not just some plastic card with a fake name and false numbering...see for yourself.

Note that rectangular area surrounding the numbers "3759"...Look, it folds out!

So what is it?  Well, its a USB connection.  That's right, they seriously expect me to plug this thing into my computer and have it take me to a webpage for their marketing material.  I don't know about you, but I'm not about to take something I received in the mail from an unknown source and stick it in my computer.  Not gonna happen.

Reminds me of the espionage scheme that was actually used to infiltrate some government and corporate computer systems.  The bad guys would locate the office of the agency they wanted to infiltrate, then they would scatter a handful of USB thumb drives in the parking lot.  When the employees came to work, some would find these thumb drives, pick them up and promptly go into their office and plug them into their work computers.  Voila, access granted.  True story.

So I'm not sure what marketing genius at American Express came up with this mailer, but it would be interesting to see what the actual response rate is on these things.  Given the level of computer literacy, it might actually be higher than I would expect.

For those who don't know Robert Crumb, he is probably one of the best known counter-culture comic book artists.  Beyond his work for Zap Comics and on the Fritz The Cat series, he penned the original "Keep on Trucking" image that became hugely popular in the 1970's.

There's even a documentary on him that provides insight into his life and career that is truly worth the time to watch.

But now, he's taken on the Bible by illustrating the first book of the Old Testament, Genesis.  It's soon to be released and I can't imagine not wanting to get a copy to see his take on this ancient tale.  But that's just it, it's not his take on the story.  In the introduction he writes that he has faithfully reproduced every word from the original text, apparently spending 4 years researching various versions of the text to recreate it in 224 pages of art.  I guess a story this crazy doesn't need embellishment.

NPR recently did a story on the release of the comic including a link to an excerpt.

Apparently, during a press conference about the comic, Crumb was asked about his own belief, or lack of one, in God.  Here was his response.

"I'm a Gnostic — someone who seeks knowledge of God," Crumb responded. "There's some force that rules our destiny: This is obvious. But what it is — this is a mystery we cannot possibly understand."

He went on to add this comment about the Bible itself.

"The idea that people for a couple thousand years have taken this so seriously seems completely insane and crazy, totally nuts. But the human race is crazy if nothing else,"

No argument here.

A couple of videos came out recently that just need to be shared.

The first is a new Mr. Deity video that features PZ Myers as a Science Advisor to God.  It's got some great humor and the bit at the end with the banana is a bit of an inside joke.  If you like this, check out the rest of the videos at the Mr. Deity website or on YouTube.

The next video is a parody of the defense of marriage...this time, defending marriage against divorce.

Today, September 30th, is International Blasphemy Day!!  Celebrate by doing something blasphemous like these guys.

Or by saying Jehovah after a good meal.

Actually, there is some seriousness behind September 30th marking this day.  Check out the links below for more information.

Blasphemy Day Site

Telegraph article on Blasphemy Day

CFI Campaign for Free Expression

The Pew Research Center recently completed a survey of the general public's knowledge and views toward science.  In addition, they've posted 12 general science questions online for anyone to take.  Well, I had to give it a try.

If you want to see how you stack up against those surveyed, click here:  The Science Knowlegde Quiz

To see the results of the full survey, click here:  Science Survey Results

If you're curious how I did, you'll have to click through to see below the fold.

From the comic strip "Non Sequitur".  A few examples of excellent humor with a point.

Today is Father's Day and the family is pretty much letting me spend the day however I like.  So, I've been listening to some music in the background and just taking care of some small things that I needed to do.  But a couple of songs caught my attention and made me stop what I was doing and just listen.

This first one from Puscifer sounds deceptively simple but is full of complexity.

For this next one I couldn't find a video of the song I wanted, Cure for the Common Cold by Ha Ha Tonka, so I'm posting another one from the same album that's nearly as good. 

Here's hoping all the Father's out there have a great day.

This bumper sticker goes along well with my recent posts on Dark Matter.  Actually, I saw this on a car at my daughters school during their annual Astonomy night event.

The elementary school she goes to does some great science events, one of which is Astronomy night.  This year they had a blow-up observatory in their gym that the kids could crawl into and see the constellations.  Outside in the soccer field they had a series of telescopes for the kids to use to view the moon, saturn and sirius.  It was really pretty cool and a great thing for kids this age.  They learn about the planets and the solar system in their classes, but to actually see saturns rings through a telescope brings it to life for them.

It's not my habit to push sites that are selling stuff, but when I saw this, I had to share and I certainly can't argue with the logic.

I ran across these two videos the other day and thought I would share.

and the follow-up

It looks like it comes down to convenience, just like everything else in our society.