Thursday, May 22, 2014

Beware of musical floppy drives

Jewish date:  22 ’Iyyar 5774 (Parashath BeMidhbar).

Today’s events:  Emancipation Day (Puerto Rico), Buy-A-Musical Instrument Day, International Day for Biological Diversity (UN).

Greetings.

In honor of Buy-A-Musical Instrument Day, today’s weird thing is a weird use of something which most of us would never think of as musical instruments:  “‪Doctor Who Theme on eight floppy drives‬‏”.



Enjoy, share the weirdness, and beware of Daleks.

’Aharon/Aaron

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Beware of armed and dangerous mathematicians

Jewish date:  7 ’Iyyar 5774 (Parashath BeHar Sinay).

Today’s event:  International Tuba Day.

Greetings.

1) As I remind you every year, if you ever manage to get use of a time machine, be sure to attend the Time Traveler Convention on May 7, 2005 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (East Campus Courtyard, 3 Ames St. Cambridge, MA 02142, USA) events starting at 8:00 PM.  Note the unusual events that allegedly occurred there.

2) Considering that I post rarely these days, today’s weird things are “Thriving Bottle Garden Hasn't Been Watered in Over 40 Years” (thank you, David) and the bizarrely improbable-sounding—but real—“How Mathematicians Used A Pump-Action Shotgun to Estimate Pi”.  Enjoy and share the weirdness.

’Aharon/Aaron

Friday, April 4, 2014

Beware of guitar-playing robots, fake papers, and Darth Vader

Jewish date:  4 Nisan 5774 (Parashath Meṣora‘).

Today’s events:  National Reading a Roadmap Day, National Repot your Plant Day, International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action (UN).

Greetings.

It has been too long since I last posted, and I have too many things, including weird things, accumulating on my desktop.  I therefore present you with three weird things:

1) “Squarepusher Explores ‘Emotional Machine Music’ With 78-Fingered Robot Guitarist”, which is arguably a defictionalization of Animusic.

2) “Publishers withdraw more than 120 gibberish papers”, the papers in question being generated by
SCIgen - An Automatic CS Paper Generator.  This is the sort of hoax which reveals that some people are not doing peer review correctly.

3) For all you science-fiction fans out there, “Ukraine's Darth Vader bids to lead nation to the dark side”.  As if there weren’t enough people in office who had gone over to the Dark Side already…

Enjoy, share the weirdness, and Shabbath shalom.

’Aharon/Aaron

Thursday, January 30, 2014

Beware of Pacific Northwest tree octopuses

Jewish date:  30 Shevaṭ 5774 (evening) (Parashath Terumah).

Today’s events:  Inane Answering Machine Day, Escape Day.

Greetings.

I am sad to report that I am sick (upper respiratory infection according to the doctor), and my mind seems affected in now thinking up all sort of bizarre ideas, including fantastic creatures.  This prompts today’s weird thing:  “Save The Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus”.  This is a well-done hoax, with links to other hoaxed animals as well.  Enjoy and share the weirdness.

’Aharon/Aaron

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Beware of joke-telling androids and frozen soap bubbles

Jewish date:  7 Shevaṭ 5774 (evening) (Parashath Beshallaḥ).

Today’s events:  World Asthma Day, Dress Up a Pet Day, Old Rock Day, Distaff Day.

Greetings.

I have way too many links open in Safari, and in the process of reducing them, I am going to post two weird things.

The first weird thing hearkens back to the Star Trek:  The Next Generation episode “The Outrageous Okona”.  In this episode, Data starts to tell Guinan a joke starting with “A monk, a clone, and a Ferengi decide to go bowling together—”, but he never finishes it due to being paged and having to leave.  “Finish Data's Joke” provides a number of suggestions of what the rest of the joke is, some of which are actually funny.  (Now if only someone would give me the start of the joke about the clown and the Ferengi in the gorilla suit…)

If that doesn’t suit your fancy, see “While We All Hid Indoors, This Boy And His Mom Tried A Crazy Experiment In The Freezing Cold Weather” for pictures of what happens when people blow soap bubbles in some of the crazy winter weather the US has been getting lately.

’Aharon/Aaron