Scuffulans hirsutus

Snark 101.

An introduction to medieval harmony (N.B.: crude language):

(Via Aliens in This World.)

The inhabitants of the moon never see an earthrise or earthset. However, spacecraft orbiting the moon, e.g., the Kaguya, do. Here is the earth rising and setting, as recorded in HD. (Via Aziz.)

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Speed Racer is probably worth skipping (though I might listen to Racer X). If you’re looking for an exciting race story, I recommend instead the Kuricorder Quartet’s take on “Highway Star”:

Here’s the quartet again with some tunes you might recognize.

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Understatement of the week:

Something tells me the commenter hasn’t met all that many nuns.

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Give peas a chance:

(Via Blackadder.)

Fun with juxtaposed pictures:

Can’t remember your dative endings? Brush up with The Latin Declension Song.

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This week’s quotes:

Want a more polite internet? Bring back dueling!

Kansas is a heroic land well deserving of a mountain or two. 

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The McDonalds hamburger: death on a bun or balanced meal? (Via Steven.)

Lunchtime with Groucho. From I’ll Say She Is:

And an old favorite:

Robert thinks that the appropriate response to Victor Borge is the Marx Brothers. I think Igudesman and Joo are more to the point.

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The habitués of Chess House (which was on 72nd Street, but no longer exists) were mostly elderly Jewish men. The air was dense with pipe and cigar smoke. Opponents did not talk to each other much, but it was the custom to engage in incessant thinking aloud, chattering to oneself, and verbigeration. Once, when I blundered by leaving a knight en prise (meaning undefended and liable to capture)—or in the chess slang “hanging”—my elderly opponent wondered aloud, “Why is this knight different from any other knight?” I thought he was just making a sarcastic comment about my play, until ten years later I finally got the joke while watching a TV show about Passover!

Answers here, here, here, here and here.

The best answer remains Poul Anderson’s: because it’s too far to walk around.

For my sister: 

… matches your eyes.”

I haven’t heard this in nearly forty years.

(Via Dawn Eden.)

Fred recently discovered Komar and Melamid. I first encountered them half a lifetime ago when they made an appearance at Wichita State. Their schtick then was that they bought and sold souls. They were particularly proud of purchasing Andy Warhol’s. The business wasn’t as lucrative as they had hoped, though, so by then they only accepted souls on consignment.

They came to Fred’s attention through their fusion of musicology and statistics. By polling, they attempted to define the characteristics of the “most wanted” and “least wanted” songs, and then realize the songs. I’m afraid that I’m the in the 28% that dislike the wanted song. The unwanted song, however, is an amazing hodgepodge of accordion, bagpipes, tuba, banjo, operatic soprano and obnoxious kids, and it’s worth 22 minutes of your life. Once will probably be enough.

Oh, yeah, Komar and Melamid are painters, too.

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Mr. Darwin is the son of a planetarium lecturer. He reminisces about the artificial skies here.

Let’s take a break from ballet and look at some other kinds of dance. Via Mark Sullivan comes this example of dance as a martial art:

Bonus points if you can identify the pianist.

Via Robert the LLama Butcher, an outstanding canine performer.

And there’s the dancing stormtrooper of Akihabara.

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One more reason why I intend to remain the last person in North America without a cell phone.

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If three women together mean “mischief,” what would, say, three geeks mean?

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An epic win for the Japanese: the Gurren-Lagaan Jack. 

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Let’s get into the Olympic spirit: 

Over at the LLama Butchers, Gary noted that today is Repeal Day. That does call for a celebration. Here’s Lindley Armstrong Jones with an appropriately exquisite chansonette.

Congratulations to the LLamas, who turn five today.

Congratulations also to Angus and Sarah.

Final Fantasy A+ (Via Shamus).

One way to handle a telemarketer (Via Ken the Brickmuppet).

I found a website that makes Flash jigsaw puzzles from pictures on your computer. There’s one made from one of my photos below the fold.

Update: A memory from my days in the SCA that I’d like to forget.
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