Bunnie’s latest blog post is interesting — I was fooled as he was. It teaches me that small improvements on the worst mileage cars is more effective than improving the mileage on cars that are already moderately efficient. I recommend it to anyone interested in the general issue of reducing gas consumption.

Here is a short list of some cool words. If you have a cool word, add it with a comment (make say what it means and why it is cool)!

crapulent / crapulence

• definition: sick due to excessive eating or alcohol, excessively drunk
• why it’s cool: this should be obvious

pulchritude

• definition: beauty
• why it’s cool: ugliest word for beauty I’ve ever heard

chaotropic

• definition: disrupts the structure of proteins and/or DNA, denaturing them
• why it’s cool: sounds bad ass

UPDATE 7/8:

callipygian

• definition: having well-shaped buttocks
• why it’s cool: fancy-ass ass-fancy

I don’t care if it’s not cool anymore, I still love lolcats. Chris found this one – I don’t know who made it but I feel I must post it.

I made this picture today in the new version of Inkscape, making extensive use of the new thin/thicken tool.

From Science magazine news Hobbit Redux? article:

Paleoanthropologist Lee Berger of the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg discovered the bones while on vacation in Palau in 2006. (His wife had deliberately chosen a remote, young island because it was unlikely to have fossils on it).

Looks like my Genetics article was overdue for a “good article” rating. I think I’ll work towards getting a featured article rating, the GA reviewer encouraged me to do this…

The double-blossom article was in the Did you know section of the front page for seven hours yesterday morning. It got the top spot, with the pretty double impatiens photo.

… that double-flowered mutants (pictured) were first documented over two thousand years ago by Theophrastus and are found in many popular flower varieties — including carnations, camellias, and most roses?

I made this new wikipedia article in the last couple days and have submitted it to the Did you know
project for display on the main page.

Our kitty Zoe likes to play fetch. She’s always bringing us a little plastic toy or fake mouse and dropping it at our feet. Then she eagerly waits for us to throw it.

But if we pick up the a toy and throw it she just watches or maybe chases it but won’t bring it back to us. So instead instead of training her to play fetch I think she’s taught us to play the game “throw”.

• on Etsy: Monster hoodies

• Words cannot begin to describe The PCR song. There’s even a “behind the scenes” video.

• Assuming you’ve seen the Yes We Can music video, you should check out this john.he.is parody.

• In contrast, a painfully lame Clinton ad.

Someone made a game from this image I made! So cool!!