Category Miscellaneous

Connections

It occurred to me that humorists and magicians have something in
common: they both rely heavily on misdirection.

Disclaimer: I’m neither a magician nor a comedian (as you can tell from my
previous post)
so I may not know what I’m talking about.

Magicians use misdirection in their tricks, to draw the audience’s eye
away from the card being palmed, or to trick the mind into thinking
that the coin was dropped or the ball passed to the other hand.

A lot of humor also relies on misdirection, in that the setup to a
joke establishes a certain mental image of a situation, and the
punchline destroys that image and puts another in its place.

Where it gets interesting, I think, is when the audience knows how
things work. Comedians tell jokes to each other, and I’m pretty sure
magicians do tricks for one another. This brings another level of
difficulty to both crafts: how do you misdirect someone who knows
they’re being misdirected?

I’m not sure what magicians do to impress each other — perhaps
something along the lines of “Wow, while we were watching his hands to
see him palm the card, he was actually distracting us from noticing
that his assistant changed from a white outfit to a black one”. But
I’ve noticed a fair amount of meta-humor in The Simpsons and Futurama.
For instance:

[Fry is being Zoidberg’s Cyrano]
Fry: Start with a compliment. Tell her she looks thin.
Dr. Zoidberg: [calling to Edna] You seem malnourished. Are you suffering from internal parasites?
Edna: [pleased] Why, yes. Thanks for noticing.

Here, Zoidberg’s line leads us to believe that in his bumbling manner,
he has misunderstood what Fry was telling him. But Edna’s line reveals
that no, what he said is actually a compliment on this planet.

Of course, in order to make misdirection work, both the magician and
the comedian have to know how their audience thinks, in order to make
them think a certain way. I know that humor doesn’t travel well at
all: what’s hilarious in one country is merely absurd or
incomprehensible in another. I wonder if magic tricks suffer from the
same thing, or whether they tend to rely more on (presumably)
universal psychological elements, like the fact that an object moving
from A to B passes through all the points in between.

Also, are there types of brain damage that prevent one from being able
to appreciate a magic trick?

Romeo

There’s a popular misconception that in Romeo and Juliet, when Juliet asks, “O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?”, she’s wondering where he is. “Wherefore” means “why”, not “where”.

In other words, she’s saying, “Of all the guys I could’ve fallen in love with, why did it have to be Romeo?”

Hope this sets things straight.

About the “Expelled” Animation

In case you missed the flap over the animation of cellular processes in the upcoming movie Expelled, here’s the nutshell version:

People at prerelease screenings said they saw footage from XVIVO/Harvard’s The Inner Life of the Cell. Bits of very similar animation appear in promotional clips for the movie such as this one. There’s a post at antievolution.org that shows stills from both films, side by side.

Now XVIVO, the makers of the original animation, are suing the makers of Expelled for copyright infringement.

My IANAL thoughts below the fold. Read More

A Million Red Roses, and Huge Boobs

In the packrattish hoard of accumulata that is my music collection, I recently discovered a song by Russian singer Alla Pugacheva, about a man who loves a woman so much that he sells his house and buys a million red roses, so that she opens her blinds and sees a sea of flowers outside her window. In the end, she can’t stay, and he winds up alone, but it’s okay because they shared a moment in this sea of flowers.

Apparently this is supposed to be romantic. I confess that my first thought was, “Where’s this moron going to live, now that he sold his house to pay for a bunch of flowers that are going to wither in a few days?”

It’s one thing to have larger-than-life events in a story or song; it makes things more exciting. But the story in this song is just insane. So there must be something else going on.

Read More

They Liked It

If I may boast for a bit, it looks as though the folks at the ACA liked my April Fools piece, enough to mention it on the latest episode of The Non-Prophets (about 6:00 through 6:30 minutes into the episode). (You can listen to the intro to hear where the phrase “Dillahunty International Studios” comes from. Short version: it’s really the host’s apartment.)

Masturbation Etiquette

Every so often, I run across an Internet forum where people discuss how to stop masturbating. Now, I happen to think these people are misguided, but neither do I think everyone should just jack off whenever they feel like it. So here are my recommendations on how, where, and when to masturbate. These are written from a heterosexual male perspective; please adjust for your preferences.

It’s okay. Masturbation is sex with someone who knows exactly what you like and is always in the mood when you are. But since you’re not going to marry yourself, it’s not premarital sex, so it’s not even a sin.

Don’t do it in public. Masturbation is like defecating: we all know you do it, and we’re fine with that, but we just don’t want to watch you doing it. Or if we do, we can find the right web sites.

Don’t do it in the morning unless you’re sure that you have time to wash up, get dressed, and make it to work on time.

Don’t do it too often. If you’re feeling sore, stop and try again in a few hours or days.

Don’t masturbate instead of having sex. This is the most important rule. If your SO might be looking forward to dinner with you, it would be rude to come home and say, “No thanks, I stopped for a burger on the way home.” Likewise, it’s rude to masturbate if your sweetie might want to make love. If, on the other hand, she’s sound asleep after you’ve gone at it three times and you’re still horny, then hey, have at it (assuming she’s okay with it, of course).

A Sri Lankan Mystery

The last thing that came out of recently deceased author Arthur C. Clarke’s printer was a sheet that said:

<blockquote 

lurrlsrtr lurrlsrrt lurrlrtsr lurrlrtrs lurrlrstr lurrlrsrt lurrlrrts

lurrlrrst lurltrsrr lurltrrsr lurlsrtrr lurlsrrtr lurlrtsrr lurlrtrsr

lurlrtrrs lurlrstrr lurlrsrtr lurlrsrrt lurlrrtsr lurlrrtrs lurlrrstr

lurlrrsrt lultrrsrr lulsrrtrr lulrtrsrr lulrtrrsr lulrsrtrr lulrsrrtr

lulrrtsrr lulrrtrsr lulrrtrrs lulrrstrr lulrrsrtr lulrrsrrt ltusrrlrr

ltursrrlr ltursrlrr lturrsrrl lturrsrlr lturrslrr lturrlsrr lturrlrsr

lturrlrrs lturlrsrr lturlrrsr ltulrrsrr ltsurrlrr ltsrurrlr ltsrurlrr

ltsrrurrl ltsrrurlr ltsrrulrr ltsrrlurr ltsrrlrur ltsrrlrru ltsrlrurr

ltsrlrrur ltslrrurr ltrusrrlr ltrusrlrr ltrursrrl ltrursrlr ltrurslrr

ltrurrsrl ltrurrslr ltrurrlsr ltrurrlrs ltrurlsrr ltrurlrsr ltrurlrrs

ltrulrsrr ltrulrrsr ltrsurrlr ltrsurlrr ltrsrurrl ltrsrurlr ltrsrulrr

ltrsrrurl ltrsrrulr ltrsrrlur ltrsrrlru ltrsrlurr ltrsrlrur ltrsrlrru

ltrslrurr ltrslrrur ltrrusrrl ltrrusrlr ltrruslrr ltrrursrl ltrrurslr

ltrrurrsl ltrrurrls ltrrurlsr ltrrurlrs ltrrulsrr ltrrulrsr ltrrulrrs

ltrrsurrl ltrrsurlr ltrrsulrr ltrrsrurl ltrrsrulr ltrrsrrul ltrrsrrlu

ltrrsrlur ltrrsrlru ltrrslurr ltrrslrur ltrrslrru ltrrlusrr ltrrlursr

ltrrlurrs ltrrlsurr ltrrlsrur ltrrlsrru ltrrlrusr ltrrlrurs ltrrlrsur

ltrrlrsru ltrrlrrus ltrrlrrsu ltrlursrr ltrlurrsr ltrlsrurr ltrlsrrur

ltrlrusrr ltrlrursr ltrlrurrs ltrlrsurr ltrlrsrur ltrlrsrru ltrlrrusr

ltrlrrurs ltrlrrsur ltrlrrsru ltlurrsrr ltlsrrurr ltlrursrr ltlrurrsr


At first, it was thought that this was a test pattern, but today, estate executors discovered a storage room in Clarke's home filled with similar pages. The oldest ones were written out by hand in notebooks. Later ones appear on reams of fanfold printer paper, while the most recent ones appear to have been printed on a laser printer and bound together.


No two words are the same. All use only the letters A C E H K L R S T U. It is not known why these letters were significant, nor which rules were used to generate the "words". For instance, although many "words" contain two, three, or four instances of the same letter, never does a letter appear three times in a row.


With ten columns of eighty "words", each double-sided sheet holds 1600 "words". Investigators estimate that the entire collection comprises about nine billion such words.
C-SPAN.edu?

One common meme among the religious right is that universities indoctrinate students.

If you don’t trust academia, what can you do to keep an eye on it? Well, if you don’t trust the government, you can watch C-SPAN and see sausage legislation being made. Wouldn’t it be nice if there were a C-SPAN for academia?

As it turns out, there is: universities aren’t exactly shy about sharing their stuff. A bit of googling turns up all sorts of course videos online. So not only is it possible to keep an eye on those evilibrul academics as they indoctrinate our precious bodily fluids, it’s easier than ever before in history.

So if you’re a creationist or other rightard who thinks universities are out to indoctrinate students, consider this an invitation to watch some courses, in the name of keeping an eye on them.

Old Media

Things I Miss About LPs

  • Big cover art. You could spend hours looking at the details in the cover of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, or feel overwhelmed by the lips on The Cure’s Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me. They really have to be seen at 12″×12″ for full effect.
  • Double albums. If 12″×12″ cover art was good, then opening up a record for a 24″×12″ inner image was even better.
  • Innovative packaging. I know, the important part is the music, but still, I liked things like the zipper on the Stones’ Sticky Fingers, or Styx’s Cornerstone, which opened up like a book, or textured covers, and the like.
  • Occasionally seeing a note or the recording engineer’s initials scratched in the master disk, by the label.

Things I Don’t Miss About LPs

  • Skipping.
  • Scratches, pops.
  • Quality loss after repeated playing.
  • Having to stop in the middle of the album to turn the record over.
  • Damn cheap paper sleeves that tear if you’re not oh-so-careful when putting the record back.
  • Plastic sleeves that stick closed with static cling, making it impossible to get the record back in.
  • Having to clean the record surface and/or needle before playing.
  • Having to be careful not to dance too hard next to the record player, or bump the furniture, especially while recording.
  • Size: can’t just bring a dozen LPs to listen to while on vacation.
  • Wondering why the music sounds like Alvin and the Chipmunks, then realizing that I forgot to switch the record player from 45 to 33 RPM (or alternately, wondering when Chrissie Hynde started singing baritone.)

Read More

The Pun Is the Most French Form of Humor

I’ve often been struck by how much French humor relies on puns and wordplay. I suspect that this has to do with how easy it is to make puns in French vs. English. For instance, every time I pass the canned foods aisle at the grocery store, I think of how “ravioli” in French is a near-homonym for “delighted in bed”. And I just ran across the song “Aux sombres héros de l’amer”, meaning “To the dark heroes of bitterness”; but as TehPedia points out, this can also be heard as “O Sombrero of the Sea”.

Read More