Category: Curios & Humor

This is not a joke.

The ESPN sports network is doing an interview with the Pampa, Texas parents of one of two boys in Texas to be named after the network. Two-year old ESPN Malachi McCall, whose first name is pronounced Espen, was named by his parents after the popular sports network. So was another child, four-year old ESPN Curiel, who hails from my home town of Corpus Christi, Texas. A third child, ESPN Blondeel–who is also four–hails from Michigan.

ESPN McCall’s parents decided to name him after hearing a report on one of the other children on the radio:

Rebecca and Michael McCall said their son’s name started as a joke after they heard on the radio about another couple naming their son “ESPEN.”

“He looked at me and said, ‘That’s a cool name,'” Rebecca McCall said in Saturday’s editions of the Amarillo Globe-News.

Rebecca McCall said she resisted her husband’s idea at first, but the idea grew on her.

“I didn’t like it until he was born,” she said, adding that by then, she couldn’t think of calling her son anything else [source].

A network executive explained:

“We don’t have viewers. We have fans,” ESPN spokesman Dave Nagle said Saturday. “And I guess there’s no better testament than when someone names their child after your product. It just shows the bond we have with people.”

Nagle said the feature will air Sept. 6 as part of a two-hour special celebrating the network’s 25th anniversary.

You know those Salvador Dali surrealist melting clocks? Well, somebody’s done gone and invented a real-world version.

A design firm named Normal has come up with a digital clock that looks like it’s melting. The clock doesn’t actually change form (dang!), but it is soft to the touch. You can read more about it here (go to “Other Projects” and scroll down to the bottom of the list; you will need Flash to view this).

Now if somebody could come up with a real flexi-clock.

You know those Salvador Dali surrealist melting clocks? Well, somebody’s done gone and invented a real-world version.

A design firm named Normal has come up with a digital clock that looks like it’s melting. The clock doesn’t actually change form (dang!), but it is soft to the touch. You can read more about it here (go to “Other Projects” and scroll down to the bottom of the list; you will need Flash to view this).

Now if somebody could come up with a real flexi-clock.

Sure, we all love the Google search engine. But have you ever wondered how Google is able to deliver such superaccurate results so quickly?

If you haven’t read the answer before, read it now!

A new study has revealed (not surprisingly) that different parts of the brain are involved in humor recognition and humor appreciation.

This is something we could have guessed from a number of things:

1. People often “get” a joke but don’t find it funny.

2. There are those stoic Hollywood types who hear a joke and respond with the monotone word “Funny,” not batting an eyelash or cracking a smile.

3. We often laugh more often and more heartily when in a group than we do when alone. When watching a comedy program or movie by ourselves, we often “get” and appreciate the humor, but don’t laugh as frquently or with as much gusto as when we see the same comedy in the presence of a group of people, whose laughter reinforces our own appreciation of the humor.

The study suggests that the humor-recognition module of the brain is located in the left hemisphere (connected more closely with rational thought), while the humor-appreciation module is located deeper in the brain (containing structures connected more closely with the emotions).

The study was done by showing people episodes of The Simpsons and Seinfeld and monitoring their brains for activity.

According to one of the researchers, “If some people don’t find The Simpsons funny, it’s premature to say that they have a defective frontal lobe.”

Must . . . resist . . . obvious . . . joke.

A new study has revealed (not surprisingly) that different parts of the brain are involved in humor recognition and humor appreciation.

This is something we could have guessed from a number of things:

1. People often “get” a joke but don’t find it funny.

2. There are those stoic Hollywood types who hear a joke and respond with the monotone word “Funny,” not batting an eyelash or cracking a smile.

3. We often laugh more often and more heartily when in a group than we do when alone. When watching a comedy program or movie by ourselves, we often “get” and appreciate the humor, but don’t laugh as frquently or with as much gusto as when we see the same comedy in the presence of a group of people, whose laughter reinforces our own appreciation of the humor.

The study suggests that the humor-recognition module of the brain is located in the left hemisphere (connected more closely with rational thought), while the humor-appreciation module is located deeper in the brain (containing structures connected more closely with the emotions).

The study was done by showing people episodes of The Simpsons and Seinfeld and monitoring their brains for activity.

According to one of the researchers, “If some people don’t find The Simpsons funny, it’s premature to say that they have a defective frontal lobe.”

Must . . . resist . . . obvious . . . joke.

Has anybody not seen this joke? Well, it is STILL funny.

How to access the joke:

1. Go to google.

2. Type in “weapons of mass destruction” (with the quotation marks)

3. Select the first entry (other than the Google News entry)

Or, if that’s too much trouble for you, just go here.

Okay, so there’s this site in Japan, y’see. And it’s run by a guy named Makoto Nakamura. And the thing is, he’s like really, really interested in tessellating images. Y’know, like M. C. Escher used to make, what with all those interlocking, identical animals completely filling a space and stuff? And like, Mr. Nakamura is SO into tessellating images that he’s, like, made up a whole bunch of them and put them on his site and stuff? And the thing is, he’s ANIMATED a bunch of these, so they’re likely a bunch of little tessellating MOVIES that you can watch and stuff.

Anyway, go watch them and stuff.

Start here.

Here’s his top page.

Really! No kidding! I’m not making this up! An actual, real-word instance of a proverbial “Man Bites Dog” story!

Excerpt:

BEND, Ore. – A man suspected of assaulting his girlfriend set two fires and bit a dog on the head as he tried to escape from police, the authorities said. . . .

“He was given several opportunities to come out of the pipe and he basically signaled with his middle finger,” Stone said.

A police dog named Amor was sent in to retrieve Sernett and bit the suspect in the leg.

Sernett responded by lifting the dog off the ground and biting him on the head, Stone said.

Really! No kidding! I’m not making this up! An actual, real-word instance of a proverbial “Man Bites Dog” story!

Excerpt:

BEND, Ore. – A man suspected of assaulting his girlfriend set two fires and bit a dog on the head as he tried to escape from police, the authorities said. . . .

“He was given several opportunities to come out of the pipe and he basically signaled with his middle finger,” Stone said.

A police dog named Amor was sent in to retrieve Sernett and bit the suspect in the leg.

Sernett responded by lifting the dog off the ground and biting him on the head, Stone said.