Cockatoos are awesome

Enough said.

Dicing with Death

Not until now did I realise how close to death I came in my days punting in Cambridge. The BBC report that viruses sourced from the River Cam may be useful in treating antibiotic resistant diseases:

A "cocktail" of special viruses which kill bacteria were sourced from the river and shown to treat bacterial stomach infections in mice.

That's right - the River Cam: so nasty, even the bacteria can't cut it. Still, at least at Cambridge we never broke our legs when we jumped in, unlike at Oxford...

via The Ethical Palaeontologist

Should've got the mark

You really feel he should've got the mark. However, my inner English teacher would like to note that 'hopeful' was spelled incorrectly, and 'live' is not, in fact, the opposite of death. 3/5, must try harder.

via god snot, where god's not

The world's most beautiful libraries

As someone whose lifetime ambition is to own a library, all I can say is, well, wow.

Check out this collection of photos of the world's most beautiful libraries over at Curious Expeditions.

Ted Haggard: pining for the fjords?

If you haven't seen this yet, it's brilliant. Have you ever wondered what the conversation between Richard Dawkins and Ted "Oh no I'm a gay meth-user oh no wait I prayed for a bit I'm not" Haggard would've been like, if only they'd been members of Monty Python doing a sketch about a dead parrot? Wonder no more.

(Hat-tip Aardvarchaeology)

Alien: it walks (well, swims) among us

Okay, I'm not ashamed to admit it - this thing petrifies me. Moray eels have a second set of protractable jaws in their throat that they use to drag prey in. I'm just waiting for confirmation they have acid blood... For more, see Pharyngula and Neurophilosophy.

The Truth

This is the truth. Posted mainly because currently UK creationist loons Truth In Science (who incidentally, are great for a laugh if you haven't seen them before) rank higher on google than the truth when I search for it. And not at all because they're offering an iPod. Okay, maybe a little.

BREAKING NEWS: Shakespeare to pwn n00bz! OMG.

"The issue of correctness didn't bother him," says Ms. Paster. "He loved to play with language." As for leet, "He would say, 'Bring it on,' absolutely."

Alright, so maybe it's not exactly breaking news, and Shakespeare didn't actually say it, but but for a few trifling centuries he would have. And that's what counts. Go read about the evolution of leetspeak and how Shakespeare would have loved it here.

(Hat-tip: Language Log)

Now why didn't I think of this?

Tea brewing uncertainties look like being over for ever, thanks to SUCK UK. Their MyCuppa Mugs have a colour guide around the rim, allowing you to specify exactly how hideously strong/pathetically weak you want your tea. A fantastic idea, but it should be extended - I look forward to the day I can walk into a cafe, pick a colour off a poster behind the till, and say: "I'll have a Milky British Classic please." Then, truly, mankind will be able to progress no further.

Okay, this is cool

The BBC reports that an outbreak of virtual disease in World of Warcraft could be used to study how people react to outbreaks of infectious disease. If only I hadn't canceled my account, I could be online right now getting some phat lewtz doing some serious research!

Welcome

Welcome to Principles of Parsimony. I'm a grad student in London, and this blog is going to contain thoughts on science, religion (or lack thereof), and, well, anything I feel like really. It is my blog after all. In case you're wondering, the guy on the top right of the title is William of Ockham, inventor of Ockham's Razor, or the law of parsimony.