Funniest Joke in the World (Scientifically Proven!)

A couple of guys are out hunting in the woods when one of them falls to the ground. He doesn’t seem to be breathing, his eyes are rolled back in his head. The other guy whips out his cell phone and calls the emergency services. He gasps to the operator: “My friend is dead! What can I do?” The operator, in a calm soothing voice says: “Just take it easy. I can help. First, let’s make sure he’s dead.” There is a silence, then a shot is heard. The guy’s voice comes back on the line. He says: “OK, now what?”

According to the LaughLab in collaboration with the British Science Association, that is the funniest joke in the world. It is very funny. According to the LaughLab this joke works across many different countries, appeals to men and women, and young and old. Many jokes submitted to the LaughLab for this study received higher ratings from certain groups of people, but this joke had universal appeal. Jokes are funny for different reasons – they can make us feel superior, reduce emotional impact of anxiety-provoking events, or surprise us. The two hunters joke does all three.



Note: The 2nd funniest joke: Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson are out camping. They pitch their tent and go to sleep. Sometime in the middle of the night Holmes wakes Watson up and says: "Watson, look up at the stars, and tell me what you deduce ." Watson replies: "I see millions and millions of stars." Holmes says: "And what do you deduce from that?" Watson replies: "Well, if there are millions of stars, and if even a few of those have planets, it’s quite likely there are some planets like Earth out there. And if there are a few planets like Earth out there, there might also be life." Holmes says: "Watson, you idiot, someone stole our tent."

Videogames Can Change A Person's Brain (for the Better!)

Playing videogames is good for you. Lengthy sessions of intense game play can lead to effective multitasking, quicker and more accurate decision making, creativity, and can alleviate symptoms of depression and anxiety.

Learn more...




Note: Video games account for a huge amount of consumer entertainment dollars spent (over $25 billion in 2010). It's about time they start looking for the upside! 

Something else I learned: WoW players collectively have spent as much time playing the game-  about 50 billion hours - as humanity spent evolving as a species.

Chinook Pidgin -Tsinuk Wawa - Trade Language on the West Coast

konoway tillicums klatawa kunamokst klaska mamook okoke huloima chee illahie" - Chinook pidgin meaning "everyone was thrown together to make this strange new country."
~from the poem Rain Language

Chinook, a pidgin language used for trade along the Washington state coast was derived from the language of the Native American tribe of the same name. History has it that the pidgin form of the language developed because the Chinook were too arrogant to teach it to anyone else. Chinook pidgin (or jargon) became widely used once Europeans arrived in the area. The Chinook language died out early in the 20th century, but there are still remnants of Chinook pidgin in American vocabulary.

Chinook pidgin which flourished from 1858 to 1900, was a combination of English, French, Chinook and Nootka (another Native American tribe of the Northwestern coast) and other Salishan languages (the collective languages of Northwestern coast tribes). It was necessitated and facilitated by the fur trade.

Tyee Lake in Concrete, Washington:


Tyee is the Chinook Pidgin word for Chief. And that is a beautiful lake!

Note: Learn more about Chinook pidgin - including numerous examples and translations.

Something else I learned: "Mucky-muck," a word I've used to describe bosses and other important people (usually derisively) is actually from a Chinook pidgin phrase: hayo makamak, literally meaning "plenty to eat."

Last Day to Save Yourself From Google's New "Privacy" Policy!

Gizmodo provides a helpful guide to clearing your web history before their new privacy policy goes into effect (March 1st).  The new policy affects data going forward as well as data they have collected in the past. Clearing your web history now and preventing collection of it in the future is a good way to limit the amount of information gathered about you by Google.

 Note: Once you have cleared your web history the history is paused - you don't need to do anything else to stop web history information from being collected. You actually have to unpause it to allow the data gathering. I have no intention of enabling it!

Nation-wide Strike in India

Millions of workers from trade unions and organizations in India participated in a nation wide strike in response to soaring prices of essential commodities, and the government's 'anti-labour' policy.  The strike took place peacefully with the exception of a few incidents of stones thrown at buses.

Video

Wild Parrots Spreading to San Francisco Suburbs

Much talking is the cause of danger. Silence is the means of avoiding misfortune. The talkative parrot is shut up in a cage. Other birds, without speech, fly freely about.
~Saskya Pandita

The wild parrots of San Francisco's Telegraph Hill are fleeing to the suburbs. 100 or so of the birds have been spotted in Brisbane, a small city 10 miles south of San Francisco. It is likely that the birds migrated in search of food. They have been seen feeding on juniper and hawthorn berries.



The playful birds can still be found around the northern edge of San Francisco, where they have become a tourist draw. Native to South America, the first wild parrot of San Francisco was likely an escapee from a pet importer.

Note: The parrot population in San Francisco is referred to as feral.

Something else I learned: The city of San Francisco passed an ordinance in 2007 prohibiting feeding the parrots.

Solar Tornadoes On the Surface of the Sun (Video)

Tornado-like eruptions of super-hot plasma were captured on video by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, which is constantly recording high-definition videos of the sun. The video shows hot plasma spinning across the sun in early February.



Solar tornadoes are not the windy phenomenon that we know on Earth. They are driven by the magnetic fields of the sun.The plasma particles are being pulled by various magnetic forces causing them to swirl in a way that looks like a tornado.

The Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) is part of NASA's Living With a Star (LWS) Program. The program is designed to study and understand causes of solar variability and how it impacts the Earth. SDO launched on February 11, 2010, and is on a 5 year mission to study the energy of the sun and how it influences the weather in space. Every day SDO gathers a huge volume of data. The collected data is available for viewing by anyone who wants to see it. The SDO website has an up-to-date-picture of the sun on the home page.

Note: The SDO mission is very cool.

Something else I learned: A solar cycle is the period of time between the highest and lowest number of sunspots. he suns magnetic poles reverse approximately every 22 years with two eleven years periods in which the number of sunspots wax and wane. We are currently in Solar Cycle 24 which began in 2008.