Category Archives: InstaMunger

Over at Cognitive Daily, we’re doing a little survey to help answer the question that’s vexing America: will you do better in your office pool if you’ve actually seen the films nominated for Oscars? Link Take the survey!

I’m not sure I buy this, but it’s an entertaining read about why there aren’t more women in science. Ten-cent summary: if you’re that smart, you can easily get a better job. It would certainly explain why so many bloggers … Continue reading →

When did they start calling the Thirty Years War the “Thirty Years War”? Halfway through? What about the Hundred Years War? You can’t call it “The Long War” until it’s over. Do you think the folks who fought the Thirty … Continue reading →

Normally I don’t link to many Cognitive Daily posts here, since I don’t think the readership of Word Munger and CogDaily intersect much. But today’s post might interest Word Munger readers. Here’s an excerpt: Kruger and his team argue that … Continue reading →

People prefer inferior peanut butter when it’s got a recognizable brand name. People will say the same peanut butter tastes better when it’s labeled as a recognizable brand. Link. Wow. Just wow.

I’ll admit it — I use more than my fair share of dashes. Here’s what John Scalzi has to say about dashes: Dashes: You can use these when you’ve already used a colon or a semi-colon in a sentence, but … Continue reading →

See the rubber band ball crush an old computer monitor! You can even donate money to fund the rubber band ball’s expansion!

Be prepared. You should also realize that none of these things are a particularly big deal. You’ll get through this in a few hours, then wonder why you didn’t switch sooner. Update: make sure you read the comments for my … Continue reading →

Did you know that Seed Magazine has a fiction supplement? I didn’t, and I work for them! If you’re a fiction writer, here’s a chance for you to get some serious exposure for your work — as long as it … Continue reading →

If my son had bought an iPod Nano instead of a regular iPod, he would have been all over this thing: the Tunebuckle.

The article I promised yesterday is finally up on Seedmagazine.com: The Science Left Out of the Speech: The Top Ten Science-Related Items Bush Omitted from the State of the Union. I got the sole byline for the article, but really … Continue reading →

Two editors at Seed Magazine invited me to live chat the State of the Union Address. It’s up now. It was a pretty exciting — if random — experience. That one sitting probably incorporates more live chatting than I’ve done … Continue reading →

Am I the only one who eats chocolate in the morning? Whenever I buy a brownie or a cookie before noon, I always get some snide remark, either from another customer, or from the cashier. Did I miss the “Miss … Continue reading →

Interesting profile of Jared. Unfortunately the article doesn’t settle the debate Greta my kids and I were having the other day: what does Jared make? You know who I’m talking about — it’s Jared. As the article points out, it’s … Continue reading →

I’d nominate this Stephen Colbert parody of MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech for best satire of the year. Unfortunately I can’t get it to play on my Mac. Fortunately I have TiVo. But in case you can, and you … Continue reading →

You probably spotted this web site years ago, but it’s new to me. Hilarious “demotivational” posters and other gear.

So the Sonics beat Phoenix 152-149, an NBA player scored 81 points in a game, and Seattle has a team in a championship game. Sounds a lot more like 1978 than 2006.

… Here’s how they apply themselves to the problem of Noah’s flood. Wow … just … wow. If this isn’t an argument for why we shouldn’t take the Bible literally, I don’t know what is.

This could be bigger than the NY Times article. (And don’t worry, Chad, this time you got mentioned, too!)