k e e l y | d u n n

xkcd has been hanging out in my dreams

Via xkcd

if only my flights were this quick and this beautiful

(Via BoingBoing.)

the periodic table of awesoments

Dapperstache's Periodic Table of Awesoments almost needs no introduction. But the introduction is hilarious, so it shall be included:

In the 300 B.C., years before the birth of black Jesus, Aristole postulated that all good things were made of "win." That was a pretty good guess, but he was drunk and probably also having an orgy. Modern day awesominers know there are actually 118 fundamental "awesoments" that compose all good things. The Periodic table of Awesoments can be a very useful tool. It's designed to show the relationships between awesoments, and often one can even predict how awesoments interact simply by their positions on the table.

Click on the partial for the (Dapperstache via BoingBoing)

how america stopped worrying and learned to love the nerds

Jay Smooth is my long-time internet crush because he's SMRT and can actually compose and perform a song about self-doubt accompanied by his own beatboxing. Dreamy. Anyway, in this vlog, he finally explains why Americans have been voting for dumb people for too long and how it's screwed us all. Make sure you check out Ill Doctrine for more wisdom.

duty calls

Hey. I resemble this remark. Via BoingBoing via xkcd.

the best superbowl ads, according to me

The eTrade baby, pts. 1 and 2.

eTrade Talking Baby Super Bowl Commercial: Baby Buys Stock

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eTrade Super Bowl Commercial: Talking Baby Rents a Clown

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if life were like YouTube

Very, most definitely, don't even think about it, NSFW. But you'll pee. (Link courtesy of 43 Folders)

cancer vaccine even more effective than previously thought

To follow up on the NL Right To Life group's weak-ass objection that the HPV vaccine may be premature, MSNBC reported yesterday that Gardasil partially blocks even more strains of the virus than previously thought.

There are more than 60 strains of the HPV virus. About 15 are thought to cause cervical cancer; Gardasil protects against 12 of those, plus another two that cause genital warts but not cancer.

Two strains cause 70 percent of cervical cancer. Merck studies following 17,600 young women for three years found the vaccine to be 99 percent effective in blocking those strains.

New analysis of that data shows the vaccine reduced incidence of HPV-caused precancerous lesions by nearly two-thirds for the three next most common HPV strains in North America. While those three strains are less common elsewhere, together they cause about 11 percent of cervical cancer worldwide.

“There’s the potential for an additional 30,000 to 40,000 cancer cases being prevented each year,” mostly in developing countries, based on preliminary estimates and widespread vaccination in those regions, said Dr. Eliav Barr, head of Merck’s research on infectious disease and vaccines.

There are 9,710 new cases of cervical cancer and 3,700 deaths in the U.S. each year. Worldwide, there are nearly 500,000 new cases and 233,000 deaths a year.

No more delay, no more "please package the vaccine with a particular moral stance on sexuality"... just save women's lives.

faith smackdown: dawkins vs. collins

I'm still winding my way through Dawkins' book The God Delusion but enjoying the intellectual challenges contained therein immensely. So continuing on today's theme of theism, Wired has put together a little audience participation nugget they call the Faith Smackdown. Round 3 has just gone up - vote and be counted!

Link: Wired Geekipedia: Faith Smackdown - Gloves of God vs. Punch of Proof.

nebraska senator sues god to stop terror threats

Some posts just write themselves.

Nebraska State Senator Ernie Chambers filed suit against God Friday, asking a court to order the Almighty and his followers to stop making terrorist threats.

The suit (.pdf), filed in a Nebraska district court, contends that God, along with his followers of all persuasions, "has made and continues to make terroristic threats of grave harm to innumerable persons." Those threats are credible given God's history, Chambers' complaint says.

Chambers, in a fit of alliteration, also accuses God of causing "fearsome floods, egregious earthquakes, horrendous hurricanes, terrifying tornadoes, pestilential plagues, ferocious famines, devastating droughts, genocidal wars, birth defects, and the like."

Finally, someone is willing to call on this supposedly omniscient being to account for his massive failure of his duty of care to humanity.

Link: Threat Level - Wired Blogs.