The automotive mount for my GPS arrived today. Inside the shipping box was the hermetically sealed package containing the mount itself... and a free sample of "Degree for Men", an "Ultra Clear Deodorant Stick" with the catchphrase, "For men who take risks, it won't let you down."

I wonder if the seller is trying to tell me something.

The 2005 Ig Nobel Prize winners have been officially announced. Highlights from this year include testicular implants for neutered dogs (medicine), Nigerian spam scams (literature), and an alarm clock that runs away and hides when you press snooze (economics).

Thus advances mankind.

Framestore CFC has put out a press release about their most recent Guiness advertisement (warning: that's a 16MB Quicktime movie, and may take a while to download) titled noitulovE featuring three men reverse-evolving from Guiness-drinking humans in a bar to pond-muck sipping mudskippers.

It was too much to hope for that they'd actually keep it remotely scientifically accurate, and so some of the transitions, while cool looking, are obviously very silly. It remains highly entertaining, however, and although I'm not a beer drinker personally and don't find even Guiness to be "worth the wait" as the advertisement pronounces it, the advertisement itself is well worth the download time.

Hat tip to Pharyngula.

I wonder how many people will notice a change... though hazing by the FBI can be a heck of a lot more dangerous.

Since someone I know absolutely loves these small, toxically sweet, warningly red, plasticy balls of modified fruit, I felt compelled to note that Majikthise has posted notes on how they are made. Although I would make sure anything soaked in sulphur dioxide and calcium chloride as part of the standard processing gets a "For External Use Only" warning label, it's probably the addition of rats that will bother most everyone else:

This is by far the strangest problem I have yet seen associated with Hurricane Katrina:

Okay, admittedly this is a cheap shot, but it's still funny:

This was broadcast on Sky News Ireland, and published on Daily Kos. Hat tip to Tennessee Guerilla Women.

It appears that at least part of the populace is getting tired of the "in-danger-from-a-strong-breeze" look: fans of actress Lindsay Lohan have started a petition to get her to "eat something" that has already amassed over twelve thousand signatures. They even have a web site devoted to the cause, complete with merchandise.

While I'm not fond of starved and fragile appearances myself (and find myself more amused than perhaps the situation warrants), I have to wonder with some sympathy what the actress thinks of all this. Although she might be healthier on a less restrictive diet, I'm not sure if having a crowd pressure you to eat more is any better on a social level than having a crowd pressure you to eat less. At some point, you're supposed to find the body shape that's healthy for you because you feel comfortable there.

People spend far too much time contorting themselves to meet the expectations of strangers as it is.

In 1994, Jim Hogshire wrote a book called "You Are Going To Prison", filled with useful and not-so-useful tips for people planning (or at least expecting) to be incarcerated. One of these tips involved the brewing of alcohol for the desperate. Since this is the same man who has been described as permanently stoned, I'd be extremely wary of putting anything from one of his recipes into my body, but the loons over at The Sneeze (who ingest dubious things on a regular basis, it seems) actually tried some emergency brewing, and even more amazingly, got some people to drink it and describe the results.

I've never been a fan of makeup. At best, it strikes me as a bizarre religious ritual, like war paint. At worst, it makes me think there is a carefully stage-managed deception going on. Often I have seen someone carefully dolled up and thought to myself, "Why do you put that crap on your face?"

It turns out that maybe the question should have been phrased, "Do you know that you're putting crap on your face?" — Professor Elizabeth Brooks from Rowan University conducted a 14-week university study of store makeup counters and found high levels of bacteria in the makeup, including dangerous levels of E. Coli from fecal matter.

So, ladies, please, stop putting crap on your face. You look better in natural colors anyway.