I’m listing. Better straighten up then.

December is usually the time everyone puts together their list of top 10, 50, 100, or googol of the year 2008. So what the hell I’m doing one as well but it’s in January. What a rebel. Anyway, this is my top 10 list of top 10 lists of 2008.

10. The top 10 scientific discoveries.
This scrapes in because it does highlight great science. However, this list should really be called “The top 10 scientific achievements”. For example, the LHC hasn’t discovered anything yet. Lift your game Time Magazine.

9. The top 10 Onion headlines.
The Onion never fails to disappoint. ‘Wealthy Teen Nearly Experiences Consequences’. So close to the truth…

8. The top 10 most popular searches in google.
Guess who was bigger than the Olympics this year? Did someone say Sarah Palin??

7. The top 10 strangest stories.
This makes it because it has the “Bigfoot found” hoax. Those guys were even interviewed on radio 774 Melbourne by Red Symons. People are so gullible. Some of the other stories are just plain weird.

6. The top 10 worst predictions.
There’s nothing like predictions by journo’s, pundits and those that think they know. Economists are the worst, like Donald ‘There will be no recession’ Luskin.

5. The top 10 athletes.
Because the Olympics were held in Beijing, I’ll let the Chinese newsagency pick these. Not a bad list. At least it isn’t USA centric. The lists produced by US papers always contain obscure names from sports like the NFL. Widen your view.

4. The top 10 astronomy pictures.
Simply out of this world.

3. The top 10 viral videos.
Shoes being thrown, crazy Christians, and how to use your fridge to score. Did I see Sarah Palin??

2. The top 10 jackasses of the year.
This list contains those whose faculties for reason and clear thought are either non-existent or have left them. Is that Sarah Palin again??

1. The top 10 skeptics who kicked ass.
To balance the nut-jobs in the previous list, here are the guys that did the most to promote sanity and that’s why it’s number one on my list. Hats off to The Guardian in conjunction with Ben Goldacre and Simon Singh.

Among the Living 08: The round up

Well, that's another year gone. How time flies. '08 brought many things. For some it was a sad time as we farewelled Jane McGrath, Charlton Heston, Arthur C. Clarke, and Suharto. But this list brought happiness to our winner, Minkey. Could you image the joy she must have felt when hearing that poor Jane has finally succumbed to cancer, knowing that she couldn't be beaten unless a miracle occurred.

However there were some we wished we would be saying goodbye to. ms dodo must be feeling extremely unlucky. She put Chemical Ali on her list. A wise choice one might have thought. He'd been given five death sentences and was due to be executed in February. The Iraqi has held out and has made it to 2009 and has been given another death sentence, which takes his tally to 6. Will someone choose him to cease existence in 2009????

Elizabeth Murdoch just keeps going on, and on, and on. She turns 1oo in February this year. I'll wish her a happy birthday because we all know she be kicking on.

Other popular names that disappointed us this year were Amy Winehouse, Ariel Sharon and Ben Cousins.
So here are the final points for all participants.



Does anyone wish to play again????

I'd rather be disfigured than have a rash

Some many things to write about, where do I start. Paralysis caused by too much choice. There is so much that I've wanted to rant about the last few months but I haven't been able to select one. But watching Mornings With Kerri-Anne today made me want to write this post.

The guest she had on was Meryl Dorey, president of the Australian Vaccination Network. Now if you go to their website, they are actually anti-vaccination so their name is highly misleading, not a good start. She claimed to have read the scientific literature and come to the conclusion that vaccinations are not necessary. I would question her ability to do science rather than just reading science articles. For example, she wrote a letter to the British Medical Journal in response to an article on homoeopathy writing, "Homoeopathy is a system of healing that has been around for over 200 years. It does not operate in the way that allopathic medicine does." In effect saying we can't use science to determine if homoeopathy works. Great science. Also, can you spot the logical fallacy?

Anyway she must believe that before vaccination the world was like this:


When in fact is was like this:


and hospital wards looked like this:


and to think this still happens in some countries:


Just talk to those who had polio as a kid, and I have. They would have given anything to have had the vaccination.

Why people laugh at creationists

Here are a few youtube videos showing just how poor the arguments are for a literal interpretation of the bible.







There are more episodes of this. One creationist called VFX tried having these videos banned using the DMCA laws. VFX was wrong and had to post an apology.

Nerd alert

Just when you thought maths was boring......

I Will Derive



Pi Day Song (Lose Yourself in the Digits)



Finite Simple Group (of Order Two)