STOKEDNESS

Getting stoked is as big a part of growing up as "living large" or "getting weirded out."

—Onion News Network

FISH IN THE PERCOLATOR

LET'S BURN DOWN MCDONALD'S

After typing "burning mcdonalds" into the search engine I was shocked to discover an absurd amount of youtube videos depicting McDonald's fires: 

Watertown, WI (2008)

 Cincinnati, OH (2010)

Apache Junction, AZ (2008)

Butte, MT (2011)

 Central Point, OR (2010)

 Fayetteville, AK (2009)

 

Frankfort, KY (2010)

 

 Frankfort, KY (aftermath)

Frankfort, KY (news report)

Jacksonville, NC (2009)

Omak, WA (2010)

Renton, WA (2007)

Mooresville, NC (2009)

Springfield Township, OH (2010)

Tampa Bay, FL (2010)

Unknown mystery McDonald's

Melbourne, Australia (2009)

BONUS PIZZA HUT FIRE:

Guaynabo, Puerto Rico (2010)

KISSING A SNAKE

A Burmese priestess must lure a king cobra from his cave and kiss him three times on the brow in order to bring fertility to the women of her village.

"MAN, HE MUST BE SMOKIN' SOME HEAVY DOOBIES"

YOU GOTTA BE

Well okay then.

OH MY CAR

OOH, SWISH!

TWO ANGRY CAMELS IN A CAR

PEE-PEE 1990

Evan introduced me to this last night (via Melanie):

WOLVERINE

IDENTICAL TWINS

1920'S RUDENESS

In slightly higher quality:
- here
- and here

A PERFECT THING

INTENSE FLAPPER

- from The Show of Shows (1929)

PLAY (PART TWO)

PLAY

Then I had another thought: Physics disgusts me a little bit now, but I used to enjoy doing physics. Why did I enjoy it? I used to play with it. I used to do whatever I felt like doing- it didn't have to do with whether it was important for the development of nuclear physics, but whether it was interesting and amusing for me to play with. When I was in high school, I'd see water running out of a faucet growing narrower, and wonder if I could figure out what determines that curve. I found it was rather easy to do. I didn't have to do it; it wasn't important for the future of science; somebody else had already done it. That didn't make any difference: I used to invent things and play with things for my own entertainment.

So I got this new attitude. Now that I am burned out and I'll never accomplish anything, I've got this nice position at the university teaching classes which I rather enjoy, and just like I read the Arabian Nights for pleasure, I'm going to play with physics, whenever I want to, without worrying about any importance whatsoever.

Within a week I was in the cafeteria and some guy, fooling around, throws a plate in the air. As the plate went up in the air I saw it wobble, and I noticed the red medallion of Cornell on the plate going around. It was pretty obvious to me that the medallion went around faster than the wobbling.

I had nothing to do, so I started to figure out the motion of the rotating plate. I discover that when the angle is very slight, the medallion rotates twice as fast as the wobble rate- two to one. It came out of a complicated equation! Then I thought, "Is there some way I can see in a more fundamental way, by looking at the forces or the dynamics, why it's two to one?"

I don't remember how I did it, but I ultimately worked out what the motion of the mass of particles is, and how all the accelerations balance to make it come out two to one.

I still remember going to Hans Bethe and saying, "Hey, Hans! I noticed something interesting. Here the plate goes around so, and the reason it's two to one is..." and I showed him the accelerations.

He says, "Feynman, that's pretty interesting, but what's the importance of it? Why are you doing it?"

"Ha!" I say. "There's no importance whatsoever. I'm just doing it for the fun of it." His reaction didn't discourage me; I had made up my mind I was going to enjoy physics and do whatever I liked.

I went on to work out equations of wobbles. Then I thought about how electron orbits start to move in relativity. Then there's the Dirac Equation in electrodynamics. And then quantum electrodynamics, QED. And before I knew it (it was a very short time) I was "playing"--working, really-- with the same old problems that I loved so much. that I had stopped working on when I went to Los Alamos: my thesis-type problems, all those old-fashioned, wonderful things.

It was effortless. It was easy to play with these things. It was like uncorking a bottle: everything flowed out effortlessly. I almost tried to resist it! There was no importance to what I was doing, but ultimately there was: the diagrams and the whole business that I got the Nobel Prize for came from that piddling around with the wobbling plate.

- Richard Feynman, "The Dignified Professor", Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman!

HUMAN AMERICANS FROM THE PAST

LOU REED AT HIS MOST LOU REED

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU DIE...

You get to spend eternity with Reg Kehoe and his Marimba Queens, performing this song in an endless loop forever. Sort of like Sisyphus. It's the next best thing to spending an eternity with the lady in the radiator.

I can't decide if this is heaven or hell.