Month: October 2010
The end of civilization
Before it even began.
Thanks Brother Paul
Taxpayer’s receipt
A think tank called The Third Way thinks every taxpayer should get a receipt showing where their tax money goes.
We suggest providing each taxpayer with a receipt that shows them exactly where their money is spent to the penny. Taxpayers could either receive a receipt online (if they file electronically) or through the mail that breaks down their tax bill and provides them the exact contribution they made towards twenty to thirty budget items of interest.
Below is an example of what a receipt might look like for a typical taxpayer with a 2009 U.S. median income of $34,140, who paid $5,400 in federal income tax and FICA. It is very easy to generate and extremely informative to taxpayers.
2010 Ig Nobel Prizes Awarded
The 2010 Ig Nobel Prizes were announced yesterday. The prizes are for achievements that make people laugh, and then make them think, which this year included research into whale snot, bat sex, and swearing.
They’re the ones who awarded the prize to the Emergency Bra we posted about just the other day.
Here are a few of this year’s winners.:
- PHYSICS PRIZE
Lianne Parkin, Sheila Williams, and Patricia Priest of the University of Otago, New Zealand, for demonstrating that, on icy footpaths in wintertime, people slip and fall less often if they wear socks on the outside of their shoes. - PEACE PRIZE
Richard Stephens, John Atkins, and Andrew Kingston of Keele University, UK, for confirming the widely held belief that swearing relieves pain. - CHEMISTRY PRIZE
Eric Adams of MIT, Scott Socolofsky of Texas A&M University, Stephen Masutani of the University of Hawaii, and BP [British Petroleum], for disproving the old belief that oil and water don’t mix. - BIOLOGY PRIZE
Libiao Zhang, Min Tan, Guangjian Zhu, Jianping Ye, Tiyu Hong, Shanyi Zhou, and Shuyi Zhang of China, and Gareth Jones of the University of Bristol, UK, for scientifically documenting fellatio in fruit bats.
Pig walks on two legs
The 10-month-old porker is known by villagers as “Zhu Jianqiang” (Strong-willed Pig) after it was born with only two front legs and learned to balance on them well enough to walk.
According to its owner, Wang Xihai, it was one of nine piglets born in a litter this January.
He said: “My wife asked me to dump it but I refused as it’s a life. I thought I should give it a chance to survive and unexpectedly it survived healthy.”
Several days after its birth Wang decided to train the two-legged piglet to walk by lifting it up by its tail.
He said: “I trained her for a while each day. After 30 days she can now walk upside down quite well.”
Wang said since the birth of the pig, which currently weighs 50kg (110lbs), his home has been besieged by visitors.
A circus even offered to buy for the pig for a large sum but Wang refused to sell.
He said “She proved to us that no matter what form life is it should continue to live on. I won’t sell it no matter how much the offer is.”
If the villagers get hungry he might have to learn to walk on one leg.
Incredible volcano footage
Film maker, storm chaser, and volcano hunter Geoff Mackley and his team rapelled 500 vertical meters (1,640 feet) into the Marum Volcano on Ambrym Island in Vanuatu to the very edge of a huge lake of violently boiling lava.