Vatican Rewrites History On Galileo

Many of you may not remember this, but Galileo was condemned by the Catholic Church for his radical belief in Copernicus‘ ideas of a heliocentric solar system.  Cardinal Robert Bellarmine (for whom my high school was named, incidentally), was the one who did the honors — arguing for the bible and against things like logic, scientific progress, etc.  Galileo was found guilty of heresy, and was sentenced to life imprisonment (later commuted to house arrest).

BUT WAIT!!!  Just in time for the holidays, the Catholic Church is gearing up to change history!  Rather than condemn Galileo, they’re all set to re-cast him as the patron saint of “the dialogue between faith and reason.”  Which, as you can imagine, seems somewhat ironic given how that particular ‘dialogue’ ended.  And how pretty much every other ‘dialogue’ between science has played out since the beginning of time.

But hey!  The church is totally hip!  They can be with it!  They can change their minds 400 years after the fact.  On a geologic scale, that’s a really quick decision!

Right?

… I know.  You have your doubts that this will change anything.  But if the church can transform a former member of Hitler Youth into the current Pope, maybe they can re-fashion the way they interact with the scientific community.

photo courtesy The Onion

Thanks Jen!

via FFFFound

Time Machine! via FFFFound

Glad I wasn’t drinking milk.  It surely would’ve come right out my nose.

via FFFFound

The result is hilarious.  Check it out.

The Parallel Universe Film Guide

It’s fast becoming one of my favorite pastimes at work to browse through this and see if I can figure out which real movie they’re mocking (although films like ‘Big Ass Monkey’ and ‘Ow, That Shark Bites’ are pretty straightforward).

What’s also amazing is how insanely intricate the site is.  Stars and directors are cross-referenced.  Plot descriptions, movie quotes and fun facts are fully fleshed out.   This whole thing is slowly becoming its own comic book universe.

from FFFFound

via seiz whaa: http://chumpsview.tumblr.com/

This was the one I saw a few months ago:

via 13gb: http://13gb.com/media.php?media_id=2575

Really.  It never gets old.

I only wish I could find a link to the episode of Robot Chicken where the Kool-Aid man is playing baseball.  (Oh No!)

6 Retarded Gas Saving Schemes (People Are Actually Trying)

I have to say, though, I love the websites with a big sticker on the front page that say ‘Top Secret’.  Shh… don’t tell anyone else on the internet!

But really.  The best part of it is these guys. Spokespeople for #5. The brains of the operation:

Just becuase it’s so amazing, i’ll provide you with a little excerpt of what you get when you watch the video.  Pure science.

“I’d like to explain how our product works.  The enzymes in our product break down the molecular structure of the fuel.  So if you were to look at gasoline or diesel under a microscope, on a slide, you’d see clusters of molecules.  Much like clusters of grapes.  Our enzymes attack those clusters and break them down into individual molecules, allowing for a more complete burn of the fuel.  So if you’re shooting less out your tailpipe as an emission of our byproduct, you’d go further down the road and your fuel economy would be on the rise.  It’s as simple as that.  Thank you.”

It’s like he learned chemistry from Peter Griffin.