Today's Roundup (December 26, 2009)

Worst Gadgets of the Decade Gallery -- Hattip: BuzzFeed


Roger Ebert: The ten best animated films of 2009


How the Brain Encodes Memories at a Cellular Level


Study finds link between house chores and sex -- Hattip: LISA KATAYAMA


Brand Skeptic


Pseudoscience the gift that keeps on giving


The 13,000-year old tree that survives by cloning itself


A Philosophical Top 10 LIst for the 21st Century -- Hattip: Rationally Speaking


Chicken waste turned to watts


Do Consumers Always Approach Pleasure and Avoid Pain? New Study Suggests an Alternative


WEIT: The Darwin Show


"Dad Dancing" May Be The Result Of Evolution, Scientists Claim


Turtle farts raise a stink -- MAGGIE KOERTH-BAKER


GraphJam: How My Cat Reacts to…


Fuel spill at same Alaska reef as Exxon Valdez
A tugboat struck the same reef as the Exxon Valdez tanker 20 years ago, spilling diesel into Alaska's Prince William Sound and creating a three-mile-long slick, the US Coast Guard said on Friday.


S.Korea issues warning against 'yellow dust'


2009 review: Favourite picture galleries
Pictures of exploding supernova were some of the most exciting images this year


New Adidas shoe collection inspired by the Star Wars


Voyager makes an interstellar discovery
Voyager flies through the outer bounds of the heliosphere en route to interstellar space. A strong magnetic field reported by Opher et al in the Dec. 24, 2009, issue of Nature is delineated in yellow. Image copyright 2009, The American Museum of Natural History.

Star Trek: Confusion

Star Trek: ConfusionCaptain Kirk Skywalker fights the Romulans in a galaxy far... wait. Is that right?

If Religions Were Real

Hattip: Doctor E
If Religions Were RealEvery religion has stories that are alarming or bizarre. If Religions Were Real shows you those tales in live action, as imagined through the mind of a child.

Y-O-D-A

YODA

Whoa man! Found out Vader's my dad.
I say, oh man! Han got stuck in a slab,
but I saved him… and my friends from Jabba.
There's no need to be unhappy.
And now, there's a place I must go.
Keep a promise… to a guy you all know,
and I'll show him, I meant it when I said, I
would Return of the Jedi.

"Woo hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo!"

I go to learn from the Y.O.D.A.!
I go to learn from the Y.O.D.A.!
He knows everything about wrong and right.
You can become a Jedi knight.
I go to learn from the Y.O.D.A.!
I go to learn from the Y.O.D.A.!
To avoid the dark side is the path he'll endorse,
He'll teach you to use the force.

"Young man, listening to me are you?"
He said, "young man, I'm nine hundred and two."
He said, "young man, you need no more training,
But you got to do this one thing:
Vader… You must face him you see,
And only then, a Jedi will you be."
Then his last words were a real shocker.
"There is another Skywalker."

Leia's my sister?

I go to learn from the Y.O.D.A.!
I go to learn from the Y.O.D.A.!
He knows everything about wrong and right.
You can become a Jedi knight.
I go to learn from the Y.O.D.A.!
I go to learn from the Y.O.D.A.!
To avoid the dark side is the path he'll endorse,
He'll teach you to use the force.

Next came, a very big surprise.
Poor old Yoda, who's so old and so wise,
He just faded right before my own eyes
like he was beamed on the Enterprise.
That's when Obi-Wan came to me
And said, young man, go get Vader for me
and George Lucas. Re-release it for yuks,
make four-hundred-million more bucks!

"Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine!"

I go to learn from the Y.O.D.A.!
I go to learn from the Y.O.D.A.!
He can make some more cash, for George Lucas's bank.
He has all the fanboys to thank.
I go to learn from the Y.O.D.A.!
I go to learn from the Y.O.D.A.! "Woo hoo hoo hoo!
Don't underestimate all the things you can do,
And may the force be with you!"
…Y.O.D.A.!
I go to learn from the Y.O.D.A.!

"Woo hoo hoo! Macho, macho man! A macho man, want to be I! Woo hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo!…"

Paul Simon — Gumboots

Paul Simon — Gumboots

I was having this discussion in a taxi heading downtown
Rearranging my position on this friend of mine who had a little bit of a breakdown
I said, "Hey, no breakdown is called a breakdown if it goes, so
What are you going to do about it that's what I'd like to know?"
You don't feel you could love me but I feel you could

It was in the early morning hours when I fell into a phone call
Believing I had supernatural powers, I slammed into a brick wall
I said, "Hey, is this my problem?
Is this my fault?
If that's the way it's going to be, I'm going to call the whole thing to a halt"
You don't feel you could love me but I feel you could (You don't feel you could love me but I feel you could)
You don't feel you could love me but I feel you could (You don't feel you could love me but I feel you could)

I was walking down the street when I thought I heard this voice say
"Say, ain't we walking down the same street together on the very same day?"
I said, "Hey Senorita that's astute"
I said, "Why don't we get together and call ourselves an institute?"
You don't feel you could love me but I feel you could (You don't feel you could love me but I feel you could)
You don't feel you could love me but I feel you could (You don't feel you could love me but I feel you could)

I was having this discussion in a taxi heading downtown