Because you just never know when this kind of thing might come in handy.

A couple of interesting tests designed to probe beyond the false dichotomy of "left/right" politics: The Moral Matrix and The Political Compass.

For those who are interested, my co-ordinates on the first chart are (-2, -1.5), which makes me a fellow-traveler of John Kerry (who knew? I was never able to figure out his position on anything) and on the second, (-0.63, -4.05), putting me closest to the Dalai Lama, but otherwise a pretty long way from any of the social/political figures listed.

Me and the Dalai Lama. Just ... wow.

BaconWhores

Every now and then when your life gets complicated and the weasels start
closing in, the only cure is to load up on heinous chemicals and then drive
like a bastard from Hollywood to Las Vegas ... with the music at top volume
and at least a pint of ether.
-- H.S. Thompson, "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas"

RIP, Hunter S. Thompson, we hardly knew ye.

This is a very cool idea - using particles with enormous energies, generated when cosmic rays from deep space strike the upper atmosphere, to look through solid objects here on Earth.

Neato.

The Germans, as we all know, are very fond of potty humo(u)r, so it comes as no surprise that the meticulous engineers of Germany would bring us this. On the other hand, the Belgians are no slouches when it comes to toilet chuckles either, so when the creative types put together the popular kids' show "Pig and Betsy" ("Big en Betsy" in Flemish), they made sure to capitalize on the pig flatulence possibilities. For comparison, here's a live-action clip, and an animated segment.

Finally, then, we come to what appears to be an Anglo-Swedish collaboration about, ahh, Margaret Thatcher, a huge lo-res London-eating rabbit, some intercontinental ballistic fish and ... OK, I'm totally lost. I have no idea what this is about. But it rocks.

Ever wondered about the origins of such useful inventions as stairs, or how poetry came to be? Wonder no more.

It's not that I am very concerned that an airport screener missed the butcher's knife in a woman's purse. I'm sure that happens fairly frequently. What really scares me, is why the knife was there at all...

This is probably SFW, as long as you don't work at RadioShack

All true wisdom is found on T-shirts, bumper stickers, and clothing labels.

Those wily Japanese. Not content with using their own pictographic writing systems, now they're getting inventive with ASCII. I thought I'd seen all the emoticons (starting with the Piltdown smiley :-) through the more advanced XD and the pre-Cambrian variants such as >_< and O_o) but there's a whole new genus based on alphanumeric DNA rather than the punctuation-derived underpinnings of its predecessors.

The canonical type exemplar is "orz", although variants include "JTO", "STO" and so on.

Confused? Hornswoggled? Clicky for enlightenment. Then clicky to visit the sculpture garden.

I'm so proud of my home state. Having solved all the other problems facing society, they are taking the time to try and outlaw baggy trousers (no, not those Baggy Trousers) and make sure gay marriage never happens in Virginia.

On the other hand, a bill to ban protect people from second-hand smoke in bars and restaurants was defeated.

"Freedom", "liberty". Yay.

oops.

Truth in advertising.

Dick Cheney tells it like it is (transcript available here)

Worst. Weather report. Evar.

Are you happy with the terms "system crash" and "blue screen of death"? Enjoy driving your overpriced Toyota, er, I mean Lexus? Maybe you shouldn't look over here.

Blind man goes on shooting rampage at old-age home.

Sound like a bad movie? You wish.

I've always liked words that sound innocent or that have both innocent and very guilty meanings depending on context. Examples include: sounds (definition, examples) and wands (definition, examples).

The best thing about these words is the in-joke character of them - in other words, to be offended by them, you have to know what they mean, and if you know what they mean, you're probably not going to be offended by them. Example: do a demo/presentation for a prospect. Create a new record of a person in your system. Enter their employer's name as "Acme Stuffed Toy Co." and their profession as "fluffer". See if anyone notices.

For advanced students: if someone does notice, and they're of the appropriate gender, and they giggle - ask them for a date.

I have a sneaking suspicion that reprobates has been infiltrated by HACKERS!