SilverJacket

The Rapper as Comedian

Hip hop has long been a venue for laughter. Consider songs like Eminem’s “My Name Is” (“Dr. Dre, don’t just stand there, operate”) and Digital Underground’s “The Humpty Dance” (“I use a word that don’t mean nothing, like looptid”). But even songs that on the surface appear hard sparkle with puns and one-liners. The lyrical intermingling of menace and mirth may derive from a tradition in Black culture known as the Dozens, a game in which contestants trade snaps, aka yo’ mama jokes, hoping to both intimidate opponents and entertain onlookers.

Who's Your Daddy on First?

Yesterday I had an absurd text chat with a representative of GoDaddy, which hosts my SilverJacket.com website and email server. Over the years, their support has been good, but this chat was practically "Who's on First?" At one point I wondered if I was being trolled, even though it was the day after April Fool's Day. Here is the transcript. To save yourself the 55 minutes I spent, you can just read the blue.

The Truth is Out There

Conspiracy theorists drive me batty. They distract everyone from the truth. Like those people who think the government brought down the World Trade Center on September 11. When the real cover-up is much more subtle. Everything happened exactly as the government says it did… but on September 12. Memory is so malleable, we don’t even remember that. They shaped the media portrayals because it’s much easier to sell a war when the twin towers graphically line up with the date.

Beware of the Unicorn

This is the actual cover of the January 2009 issue of the Journal of Consciousness Studies (a publication I have read recreationally, albeit sporadically, since college).

Books for Poors

Recently a friend asked me what I thought the tanking economy was going to do to the book industry. I said those Chicken Soup for the Soul books would probably get a sales boost, but everyone else is fucked. Well, except for me, because I'm publishing a new line of books modeled on the X for Dummies series. It's called X for Poors. Here's my first one: Wine for Poors.

Now taking suggestions. (Feng Shui for Poors? Like, which way should the entrance of your carboard box face?)

A series of tubes, such as.

 

[Photo morph courtesy John Gartner.]
The Internets: I read all of them.

Thumbs Up to Masturbation!

The ad placement is just too good. Click for full size.

Link to story. The idea that masturbation prevents prostate cancer is not new by the way.

UPDATE: Per the comments, my sister sees the following ad with the story. I sure as hell want to prevent anything resembling those things. BRB.

TURN UP THE JUICE!!

My boss sent me this.

Transformers

If you haven't seen them already, you really need to check out these amazing, amazing photos of kids' science fair projects. For so many of them I can't even imagine what the null hypothesis could be. It's like science from a semi-parallel universe.

I can't really make fun of how the kids look, though, because check out this pic of my two best friends (since 6th grade), Ken and Glen:

And see how they turned out:

Reminds me of the tale of another computer hacker's transformation:

I am awesome for unspecified reasons!

It's funny to me that Dan Ariely & co. are using HOTorNOT for research purposes. First, because I didn't realize that site was still around. Second, because a few years ago, when I was a HoN profile moderator (responsible for viewing people's submitted pics and personal statements and approving or rejecting them), I emailed a friend, "After painfully reading over 1000 profiles I think I could write a sociology dissertation on it." Also: "I have gained a tragic glimpse into the heart of human nature."

Read the full post at Brainstorm.