The nominations are in. I think these are the biggest news stories therefrom:
[...]the conclusion of two recent studies that confirm a long-standing stereotype of flirting: that women like joky men, while men like women who laugh at their jokes.
[...]Women ranked the humorous men as better potential partners, the researchers found - and as more friendly, fun and popular. Men's view of a woman, on the other hand, appeared to be uninfluenced by her wit.
Bressler suspected that men and women do, in fact, both value a sense of humour in a mate, but that they might be looking for slightly different things: women valuing an ability to be funny and men valuing an ability to see the joke.
According to one theory, proposed by psychologist Geoffrey Miller at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, women prefer funny men because their wit reveals an active and healthy brain - and a fine set of underlying genes. "It's a very powerful and reliable way to show creativity and intelligence," Miller says.
The entire idea remains speculative, however. And this particular study only looked at humour in North American college students.
- Ask any woman, "What's the single most attractive quality a man can possess?"
And what do they invariably answer?
- Sense of humor.
- Sense of humor.
- Sense of humor is huge. Definitely.
And yet, if two lean, mean, play-by-their-own-rules, motorcycle-riding men strolled up to this booth, and beat the shit out of us two humorous guys, right, and asked you out for a ride, you would be weak at the knees.
- No way.
- Weak at the knees.
- Well, actually, guys who ride cycles are pretty sexy.
- Thank you. You see?
- Sorry.
The fact is that touchy-feely, weepy, in-touch-with-their-feelings guys...
make you sick-- you're repulsed by them.
Give me the Ice Age, okay? Survival of the fittest.
No mixed signals. No bullshit.
Just the meanest, hairiest bastard wins all the time.
This just confirms what we hipsters all knew already - being a jock blows.
Props to Sam Venables (formerly of Keble) for finding and scanning this in.
The good news: we'll get to see the last 4 episodes of AD after all. The bad news: we will have to wait until Feb 10th, when they'll be shown in a 2 hour block (apparently they're up against the Winter Olympics opening ceremony over at NBC).
While administering the kiss of life, IslamOnline adds, rescuers should be careful to do it with "neither lust nor pleasure".although
if it is certain that the victim has already died, mouth-to-mouth resuscitation becomes impermissible, for there is no necessity in such a case.comes a close second.
With a 61 note range, the instrument's size is 6 x 3 ft. weighing approximately 150 lbs, and built with an estimated 100,000 LEGO pieces! [...] The project took two years of theorizing, designing, collecting parts, building, testing, and rebuilding.She don't sound too good, though..
A new sitcom - set among IT workers in the dingy basement of a glamorous company - is due to arrive on the UK's Channel 4 next month. The IT Crowd, written by Graham Linehan (the scribe behind Father Ted, Black Books), will debut on the internet on 27 January, a week before its terrestrial broadcast on Friday, 3 February at 9.30pm.There is also an official site up now.
Channel 4 describes the show's premise thus: "The high-rise towers of Renham Industries are full of go-getters, success stories, and winners... apart from in the basement. While their beautiful colleagues work upstairs in fantastic surroundings, the I.T. department - Jen, Roy and Moss - lurk below ground, scorned by their co-workers as geeky losers."
The six episode first series was filmed in front of a live studio audience and stars Chris O´Dowd, Richard Ayoade and Katherine Parkinson. Chris Morris, the well-known satirist, makes a rare acting appearance as the trio's dour Scottish boss, a character more akin to 70s corporate fantasist Reggie Perrin than The Office's David Brent, according to Linehan. The series is produced by Ash Atalla, whose previous credits include The Office.
The Gadget Wars are hotting up; Apple's just announced a remote for the iPod, which doubles up as an FM tuner. All for the low low price of $50. See here.
Recently, there's been a bit of an internet buzz around the newly released Creative Zen Vision:M, which is Creative's answer to the ViPod. Both products have a great deal in common, e.g. same height/width dimensions, same screen dimensions, practically identical menu look and layout... Here are some of the distinguishing features though.
with these Sopranos actors? Always getting in trouble (and he joins a long list):Tony Sirico, who plays "Paulie Walnuts," was indicted on charges of extortion, coercion and felony possession of a gun in 1971. He was sentenced to four years in jail.
Vincent Pastore — "Big Pussy" — pleaded guilty to attempted assault for a scuffle he had with gal pal Lisa Regina in April. Prosecutors said he threw her from a car. He was sentenced to community service.
Robert Iler, who plays Tony Soprano's son, A.J., pleaded guilty in 2002 to taking part in the mugging of two tourists on the Upper East Side and got three years' probation.
Richard "Richie Blue Eyes" Maldone, who played capo Albert Barese, was arrested in 2003 and charged with buying drugs.
From the 'ardian:
(click to enlarge)
I must admit, I think I'm starting to see where the problem lies. Groening just said that he loved working with Gervais, and implied that the character might come back. If that happened to me, and if that many microphones were in front of me every time I opened my mouth, I doubt that my system would be able to cope and I'd develop illusions of grandeur in much the same way.
I urge you to find this week's issue of the Radio Times and look at its cover. It has Ricky Gervais in a white suit and messianic pose on a cloud background, and the phrase 'Heaven Sent'.In The IT Crowd, Graham Linehan (Father Ted, Black Books) turns his idiosyncratic eye on office life in a new comedy produced by Ash Atalla (The Office). Chris O'Dowd (Festival) and Richard Ayoade (Nathan Barley) are Roy and Moss, IT support staff sequestered in the kind of dingy basement that could only ever make you deeply strange; Katherine Parkinson is Jen, their boss, who thought she was going for a job in the glamorous offices upstairs but was sorely mistaken. Meanwhile in Hyperdrive, writing partners Kevin Cecil and Andy Riley (Black Books, Smack the Pony) turn their gaze to the cosmos in a new science-fiction comedy in which Nick Frost (Shaun of the Dead) and the wonderfully strange Kevin Eldon (Nighty Night) play everyday guys on a mission to the stars: to promote British interests in a fast-moving galaxy.
