“A plains Indian had just placed food on a new grave, when a whilte man looking on jocularly asked, “Do you expect the dead man to come up and eat that food?” To which the Indian responded, “As soon as your dead come up to smell the flowers you place on their graves” [Story told by anthropologist Margaret Mead, and which I read about this morning (and laughed, seriously) in Taking Laughter Seriously by John Morreal]

Who knew that youtube could be so darn educational!… that is, you can learn how to identify if your son is a computer hacker.

While it may not be half-naked chicks and dinosaurs, the general point is so on the money. Thankfully a good portion of my research is on and about the Internet.

Apparently the link gets redirected so here here is the link to the blog entry with image

The religious and sprit does pervade hacking, and even better, often reflexively and amusingly….

Want your daily geek?

Then check out this entry by Og så alligevel… on humor and stories on the Internet.

And check out a newish blog on free software news by Samir Chopra and Scott Dexter, two computer scientists from the NYC area who are now writing a book on ethics, licensing and free software for Routledge.

So, this email was posted on an english grad list at the University of Chicago. Now that is some serious dissertating!

*******

From: XXX
To:
Date: Wed, 7 Sep 2005 11:19:54 -0500
Subject: [Annc-enggrad] Little Kittens Need Homes
Dear all,

An odd thing happened this summer: a cat we don’t know had a litter
of kittens in our bedroom closet. We discovered them when they were
about 5 weeks old. (This should indicate the kind of focus finishing
your dissertation can bring: 5 kittens not 5 feet away & I had no
idea….)

They are now about 10 weeks old and ready for new homes. There are 3
that don’t have homes as I write this. They have not had shots, but
seem very healthy and robust. Let me know if you want one! I have
attached a photograph, jpeg style.

I am in the “tri-state” area looking for a new place to live. I have been looking at ads, lots of them but I tell you, nothing has come as close to this ad in terms of… well I don’t know how to classify this odd-ball of an ad but I can say that just laughed my pants off for at least 10 minutes.

Funny, one may say hilarious and not so funny, one may say downright disturbing

brilliant

So today I finally walked to the one local bike shop in Hyde Park to fix my bike so that I can enjoy one last summer biking on the Chicago lakefront. On the way there, I noticed new, government issued signs shelving out the rule for dog poop in the city: don’t dare leave in on the ground, or else you may be fined. Ok. America, given it is land of the free, land of the rule, this is unremarkable and I agree, scattered dog poop, especially in burningly hot chicago summer, is .. gross. But the fine range was somewhat more remarkable. According to the sign you can be fined between 50-500 US dollars for the first offense. Who could not but ask: what would induce the larger fine? More dog poop? An especially large dog who dumps an especially large dump? Do little poodles, being the “refined” dogs, get less of a fine than some ugly mongrel with one or two benign tumors and scabies? I imagine puppy owners get off easier than the owner of some middle age lab? Does the judge or the issuing officer decide on the fine price? Did they include the range to take into account inflation?