Sometimes an out-of-context headline will stop you dead in your tracks with the most ridiculous image or idea. Happened to me just minutes ago when I caught sight of this one:

“Penguin Going to Court on Plagiarism Charges.“

I could just see him, stood there in the dock with a hang-dog expression…

I imagine that most of VCTB’s regular readers will have heard of the Ig Nobel Prizes. The Annals of Improbable Research is the magazine that sponsors them, a humerous science journal focussing on ‘science that makes you laugh, and then makes you think’. Continue reading “The Improbable Research Lecture Tour 2007″

I don’t know much about writing fiction as of yet, but I do know enough to see that good ol’ T-Rex from Dinosaur Comics probably has all the wrong ideas:

(Image © Ryan North 2007 – click through on image for image source page.)

Then again, maybe he doesn’t!

I love Dinosaur Comics, but I think they’re a real Marmite website – people either love them or hate them. If you can deal with utter silliness and a hefty dash of postmodernity, you could do worse than put them in your RSS feed.

… but I see via the BBC website that some other folk have been having a high old time in it:

That’s just priceless.

(But the owner of those instruments is going to discover that the necks won’t agree with the temperature one little bit.)

Yesterday’s Penny Arcade strip struck a chime with me that will probably feel familiar to a great many bookworms, science fiction or otherwise – click on through for the the oh-so-familiar denouement:

[Image © 1998-2007 Penny Arcade, Inc.; used without permission, will remove upon request.]

Continue reading “What are you reading?”

A priceless bit of cultural referencing from the always-funny XKCD:

(Original image source)

Now, don’t misunderstand me, I love a bit of time off work. Hell, I’d like a whole lot more of it. But free time brings its own dilemmas, as illustrated below:

(This cartoon ©Shannon Wheeler; click through on image for original location.) Continue reading “Productivity versus procrastination”

Well, we can blame Niall Harrison for this one, but he’s a nice guy, so don’t get too crazy at him when this little game consumes an hour of your life…

Continue reading “Meme attack! Sorted science fiction”

How awesomely evil and simultaneously cute is this?

Continue reading “From Cthulhu to Cute-thulhu!”

This has probably been done before. But my version has been optimised for the science fiction blogosphere (or maybe just personalised to my particular pathologies) – any additions you can provide, please hammer the comments field.

Continue reading “Blog pathology: 18 signs you spend too much time in the blogosphere (the science fiction edition)”