Spaceballs: The Billboard

Wow! This is so awesome!

(Tip of the cap to Jerry Sharp.)

Spaceballs: The Anniversary

Saturday 24 June marked the 30th anniversary of Spaceballs, one of the best movies of all time.

Life Imitates Spaceballs (Yet Again)

And, once again, life imitates Spaceballs.

From the movie: "It's my industrial-strength hair-dryer, and I can't live without it!"

Ten Thousand Years of Fresh Air

Well, life once again imitates Spaceballs: A Canadian company is important canisters of clean air to China.

The need to get fresh air from the planet Druidia is one of the central plot points of Spaceballs. Here is one of the relevant quotes: Ah, planet Druidia. And under that air shield, ten thousand years of fresh air. We must get through that air shield!

And, of course, life has imitated Spaceballs several times: This includes not only an incident of "mowing the ocean" (which is only slightly more effective than combing the desert) and the hacking of a combination that is the kind of thing an idiot would have on his luggage but also a chastity belt and canned oxygen for sale. This story revisits the canned oxygen.

Origin of the Word "Jam"

University of Oxford has asked a pressing question in Oxford Today. Just what is the origin of the word "jam"?

And why is this so important? (Or at least I am imagining that you are asking this question.) Well, obviously it's because of the movie Spaceballs. With the word "jam", we wouldn't have memorable quotes like the following ones:

Raspberry. There's only one man who would dare give me the raspberry: Lone Star!

Radar about to be "jammed."

How Many Assholes Are There On This Paper?

I knew it! I'm surrounded by assholes! (Yes, really.)

On a similar note, you can also read about an application of the "BS method" on the arXiv today.

(Tip of the cap to Improbable Research.)

Update: Improbable Research has now posted a blog entry about this.

Update (10/14/14): Improbable Research has posted an update about the story.

RIP Joan Rivers (1933–2014)

Joan Rivers, a comedy legend, died today.

I don't remember when I first heard of her, but it was a long time ago, and vastly predates when I saw her in 1987 in Spaceballs, where she played the voice of Dot Matrix (who is, roughly, analogous to C3PO). That's her role that I know the best (by far), and my favorite quote of hers from that movie is the following one: That was my virgin-alarm. It's programmed to go off before you do!

(Tip of the cap to David Blau.)

It's My Zero-Gravity Espresso Machine, and I Can't Leave Home Without It!

If I ever go into space, I am going to insist on taking a zero-gravity espresso machine along with me.

(Tip of the cap to whoever posts for Physics Today on Facebook.)

Life Imitates Spaceballs: "Mowing the Ocean"

The first thing that "mowing the ocean" made me think of was "combing the desert". Life imitates Spaceballs.

A New Way to Give People the Raspberry

Hopefully, nobody who goes to the market and notices the liquid-droplet remnants from the minor raspberry avalanche will think that those are drops of blood.

Only one person would dare give them the raspberry...

Life Imitates Spaceballs

I'm not sure how I missed this, but apparently the Syrian president, whose (office's) e-mail account was hacked, used the same combination I have on my luggage.

I thought this story was fake, but quick googling suggests that it's actually true. (Maybe deeper googling will revealing that it isn't? Please let me know if that ends up being the case.) It's amazing that I didn't catch this for 2 full weeks.

(Tip of the cap to the Demotivational Poster blog.)

Royal Wedding

If you care about such things, I recommend that you watch this royal wedding instead.

May the shwarz be with them, as it were.

"Yes. I always have my coffee when I watch radar, you know that."

I thought of two things when I saw this story about a coffee spill leading to a false communication about hijacking from an airplane (which was subsequently diverted from its intended landing airport to a different airport):

(1) The beginning of the music video for "Land of Confusion" in which the DC Follies version of Ronald Reagan accidentally hits the 'nuke' button in the morning instead of the button to get his morning coffee.

(2) A certain seen from Spaceballs that contains the above quote.

Caltech imitiates Mel Brooks and Douglas Adams

This doesn't actually affect me (my office is in a different building), but because I am on the Daraio group mailing list, I received the following message earlier today (I removed parts of it; all emphasis is mine):

"Beginning Monday, August 6 through Friday, September 7, the air conditioning system will be restored throughout the entire Firestone building. In consequence, the building's air vents will be shut down. The basement and subbasement occupants will receive the worst of the air shortage. Please have patience while were all dealing with the reconstruction. If you need anything to make this situation a little easier, please let me know and I'll try to help. Sorry for the short notice and inconvenience."

Anybody for Perrier Air? Not to mention interstellar bypasses...

Overheard in Sloan Annex

"Sorry for going over your helmet."

I point this out only because I didn't instigate the quote.