The first rule of Tautology Club is the first rule of Tautology Club

"Now, does anyone else think that the law of excluded middle is a fallacy?"

Big thanks to XKCD!

The famed San Francisco columnist Herb Caen had a regular feature called “Namephreaks”, which featured people whose names are related to their occupations. Well, meet Carla J. Dove, director of the Feather Identification Lab in the National Museum of Natural History. Dr. Dove is in charge of identifying the birds that hit US Airways Flight 1549 and forced it to crash-land in the Hudson River.

Nils Holgersson Airlines

Sarah Lyall of The New York Times has just published an article about places in the UK with… unfortunate names. One such place is Crapstone, Devon. One of its residents has taken to telling people that “It’s spelled ‘crap,’ as in crap.” And pity the people who live in Butt Hole Road, South Yorkshire: pizza companies hang up when they say their address, thinking it’s a prank call.

Ever methodical, the Gray Lady included a map of some of these spots. It would make for a great road trip in England! After gazing at the historical colleges of Cambridge, why not take a side trip to nearby Titty Ho?

Americans might now be chuckling about those quaint Brits with their funny names. They should look closer to home, such as at Bald Knob, Arkansas or Hicksville, Ohio. (Thanks to the good people at Squidoo for collecting all too many such place names.)

My favorite poorly-named town would have to be Hell, Michigan, because I lived 15 miles away, at Ann Arbor, for 3 years.

The Wilhelm Scream (originally called “Man being eaten by alligator”) is an inside joke in Hollywood: it’s a short but distinctive scream that has been used in hundreds of movies. Someone with too much time on his hands compiled this video with clips of many of the movies where the scream appears:

The more you watch this video the funnier it gets. Villains scream it, usually while flying through the air. Animated characters scream it. Every Star Wars movie features the scream, as do Star Wars spoofs. Sometimes even heroes scream it. It gets so ridiculous you want to scream it yourself. Oiaaaaargh! The next time you host a party, have a Wilhelm Scream Competition. The winner gets a Lacoste shirt.

Compare the Wilhelm Scream to Howard Dean’s famous scream during the 2004 Democratic presidential primaries, the one that ended his chances. He really nailed it! (Turn up the volume for full effect.)

(Via Freakonomics)

The Obama compaign is hiring developers to create software for his presidential campaign. It was suggested to make this software open-source. But why stop there? Whenever a successful website comes along, someone invariably creates a service that lets anyone churn out a clone in five minutes:

• Want your own social network? Ning.
• Your own Digg? coRank.
• A Wiki to call your own? Wetpaint.
• Want to show the Twitter folks how to keep a site running? ReVou.
• Starting a presidential campaign? Contendr!

He coulda been a contender, if only he'd had Contendr. (Marlon Brando in "On the Waterfront")

Suggested features:

• Collect signatures to get the candidate’s name on the ballot by harvesting .sig’s from Slashdot and other forums.
• Ask for campaign contributions with a tip jar on the website.
• Spread the candidate’s message by link-spamming the appropriate sites: Instapundit for Republicans or Daily Kos for Democrats. Actually, link-spam both sites; everyone deserves to hear what you’ve got to say.

The name is available (but sadly, the domain is not). Act now, and help democratize the democratic process!

The movie Glengarry Glen Ross is about a group of sleazy real-estate salesmen and their desperate attempts to hoodwink reluctant customers and one-up each other. It was adapted from David Mamet’s award-winning play of the same name. The movie contains a memorable scene where Alec Baldwin, as the representative of the head office, tells the salesmen that they must win a sales contest in order to keep their job.

According to Baldwin, the following things are reserved for Closers (salesmen that close deals):

• Coffee
• The Glengarry Glen Ross leads
• Their job

I will add a fourth item to this list:

• Cookies

Especially the kind with lots of chocolate chips.