Friday Night Open Thread: STEM Graduates

In college, I majored in English and Art and goofing off.

STEM majors make me jealous. No, what’s the word? Sick! (We English majors are always sticklers for the accurate word.) Yes, you with your numbers and points of reference.

“STEM” is of recent coinage, of course, meaning “Science, Technology, and Em.” Not a very promising beginning for any field of study.

I know many commenters here, like Vakatunnen or Caleygraph, and I think zzyzx and some others — oh, and FrankJ — have something going for them, but if it isn’t a liberal art, I don’t give a fart. Rhymes are something that English majors excel at and STEM graduates don’t.

If there isn’t currently a meteor streaking towards the earth, what good is a STEM degree? Wouldn’t you rather hear about the many adventures of Winnie the Pooh? Damn straight. I know I would.

In summation, scientists wear weird glasses, but so do poets. It’s a bifurcated (!) mystery that neither branch of study is likely to explain — ever.

Of course, if you have a stray thought, this is an open thread …

Straight Line of the Day: What the Original Indians Might Think if They Looked Around Today: …

Bond Girlathon Friday : Results from 1/24/2025 : New matches 1/31/2025

Hi. I’m this week’s host for the Bond Girlathon Friday. Here are the results from last week and this week’s new matches.

Results

Ursula AndressNo PreferenceLana Wood
1940119
Eunice GaysonNo PreferenceLola Larson
113757

Week of 1/31/2025

Match 1

Zena Marshall (Miss Taro) vs Trina Parks (Thumper)

Miss Taro

Actress:Zena Marshall
Nationality:English
Bond Movie:Dr. No (1962)

Synopsis:

Miss Taro was a spy working for the villainous Dr. No. She got herself a job at government house in Kingston, Jamaica, so that she could steal secret files detailing Dr. No and Crab Key Island. She invited Bond to her house for dinner, where she laid a trap for his assassination. However, Bond smelled something was fishy and got his men to arrest Miss Taro so he could lay a trap for the assassin.

Zena Marshall

VS

Thumper

Actress:Trina Parks
Nationality:American
Bond Movie:Diamonds Are Forever (1971)

Synopsis:

Thumper and Bambi attack Bond, kicking him and using their martial art skills to overcome him. Bond was at a loss, the two girls too nimble for him. However, Thumper and Bambi then throw Bond into a pool, and they lose their advantage, Bond managing to push their heads underwater until they give in and reveal where Willard Whyte is being kept.

Trina parks

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Who do you prefer?
62 votes · 62 answers

Match 2

Tatiana Romanova

Actress:Daniela Bianchi
Nationality:Italian
Bond Movie:From Russia With Love (1963)

Synopsis:

Tatiana Romanova worked for the Soviet Embassy in Istanbul, and was coerced by the deadly Rosa Klebb into a mission to seduce James Bond and (unknowingly) lead him to his death. She helped Bond steal a Lektor decoding machine, and the pair escaped on the Orient Express train. After a failed assassination attempt by henchman Red Grant, Klebb tried to personally kill Bond, but Tatiana’s loyalty to Bond won out.

Daniela Bianchi

VS

Marie

Denise Perrier
Nationality:French
Bond Movie:Diamonds Are Forever (1971)

Synopsis:

As Bond seeks out Blofeld to get revenge for the death of his wife, the trail leads him from Tokyo to Cairo, where he interrogates a gambler about Blofeld’s whereabouts. “Marie… ask.. Marie.” Bond finds Marie, who asks “Is there something I can do for you?” Bond replies with “There’s something I’d like you to get off your chest”, and then removes her Bra and begins to strangle her with it.He gets the information he wants and pursues the lead.

Denise Perrier

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Who do you prefer?
61 votes · 61 answers

Straight Line of the Day: To Save on Funeral Expenses, …

Cartoons and Memes

“Oh Mr. Walrus, you surprised me!”

“Pleasantly I hope.”

“Let’s find out.”

Winner

3.

This week.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

This poll is no longer accepting votes

Which one is funniest?
107 votes · 107 answers

How Can We Commodify This?

66 million-year-old fish vomit discovered in Denmark
BBC | January 28, 2025

A piece of fossilised vomit dating back to the time of the dinosaurs has been discovered in Denmark. …

Mr Bennicke took the fragments to be examined at the Museum of East Zealand…

It was too old for New Zealand

…, which confirmed the vomit could be dated to the end of the Cretaceous period 66 million years ago – a time when dinosaurs including Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops existed.

Jesper Milan, palaeontologist and curator at the museum, told the BBC it was “truly an unusual find” as it helps explain relationships in the prehistoric food chain.

“It tells us something about who was eating who 66 million years ago,” he said.

Walrus: “Phrasing!”

Mr Milan said his museum had only sent the information to the local press but the discovery has sparked global interest. “This is the world’s most famous piece of puke ever,” he said.

There are other candidates for that title.

Straight Line of the Day: The Only Difference Between Giving Your Money to Government and Giving It to an Amusement Park Is …

‘Troubled’ Housing Authority of Cook County [Illinois] spent more than $60,000 at Six Flags
Chicago Tribune | January 24, 2025 | Lizzie Kane

Riding roller coasters. Chowing down on fried food. Catching waves in the pool at Hurricane Harbor.

Hundreds of Housing Authority of Cook County employees and their families could enjoy these activities and more for three years at Six Flags on the agency’s dime.

The state’s second-largest housing authority, which was flagged by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development as “troubled” in part because of an absentee board, low-grade property inspections, incorrect reporting on leases, high outstanding balances for tenants behind on rent and failure to submit financial reports on time, spent more than $60,000 on such trips.

The money came out of HACC’s roughly $22 million annual budget, dollars meant to be spent on providing public and subsidized housing to some of the lowest income residents in the county.

Bond Girlathon : Week 1/22/2025 Results : New Matches 1/29/2025

Another week in the books and another week for your amusement.

Gemma ArtertonNo PreferenceCatherina Murino
1301117

Olgo KurylenkoNo PreferenceBerenice Marlohe
197327

Week of 1/29/2025

Match 1

Tonia Sotiropoulou (Bond’s Lover) vs Monica Belluci (Lucia Sciarra)

ContestantRecordTotal Scores
Tonia Sotiropoulou0 – 1 – 053 – 2 – 91
Bond’s Lover

Actress:Tonia Sotiropoulou
Nationality:Greek
Bond Movie:Skyfall (2012)

Synopsis:

Tonia Sotiropoulou was credited only as “Bond’s lover”, and appeared in a brief scene with no lines or conversation with Bond. They made love, and were then shown lying on a bed, Bond drinking a beer. She is the only girl on this list that didn’t have a speaking role, and is perhaps the least memorable of all Bond girls.

Tonia Sotiropoulou

VS

ContestantRecordTotal Scores
Monica Bellucci0 – 1 – 085 – 1 – 98
Lucia Sciarra

BornMonica Anna Maria Bellucci
30 September 1964 (age 60)
Città di Castello, Umbria, Italy
OccupationsActressfashion model

Instructed by his former superior MJames Bond is assigned to trace notorious assassin Marco Sciarra, kill him, and attend his funeral, knowing his womanizing ways will get him the answers he needs there rather from the assassin himself. Bond travels to Mexico and successfully kills Sciarra, failing his plan of targeting a stadium for a terrorist attack.

Monica Belluci

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Who do you prefer?
67 votes · 67 answers

Match 2

Lea Seydoux (Madelaine Swann) vs Ana de Armas (Paloma)

ContestantRecordTotal Scores
Lea Seydoux1 – 0 – 053 – 2 – 91
Madelaine Swann

First appearanceSpectre (2015)
Last appearanceNo Time to Die (2021)
Portrayed byLéa Seydoux

Madeleine Swann is a complex character introduced in the James Bond film Spectre. Madeline Swann is the daughter of Mr. White (Jesper Christensen), a member of the criminal organization SPECTRE.

Swann studied at the University of Oxford and at Sorbonne University, and later worked with Doctors Without Borders.[1] By the time of Spectre she is working as a psychiatrist at a private clinic in the Austrian Alps.

Dying of thallium poisoning, White tells James Bond (Daniel Craig) to protect his daughter from SPECTRE, so Bond goes to see her at the clinic. Although Swann is initially hesitant to trust Bond, she agrees to share information about SPECTRE and help Bond take the organization down. The two gradually fall in love, and Bond ultimately leaves MI6 to be with her after arresting Blofeld.

Lea Seydoux

VS

ContestantRecordTotal Scores
Ana de Armas1 – 0 – 098 – 1 – 85
Paloma

Ana Celia de Armas Caso (born 30 April 1988) is a Cuban-Spanish actress. She portrayed the Bond Girl Paloma in No Time to Die.

An agent of the CIA, James Bond, meets Paloma at the El Nido Bar after agreeing to Felix Leiter‘s request to go there in order to retrieve the scientist Valdo Obruchev, who has been captured by SPECTRE from a MI6 laboratory. To Bond’s bemusement, Paloma tells him that she has had only three weeks of training, though she nevertheless seems confident in her skills. She works together with Bond to infiltrate the party which is being held in the bar, though it turns out to secretly be a trap to capture and kill Bond. Bond ends up in a spotlight and sprayed with nanobots created from Project Heracles, though it ultimately transpires that Obruchev reprogrammed the nanobots to kill members of SPECTRE instead. In the ensuing chaos, Bond and Paloma manage to capture Obruchev, evading Nomi, an MI6 agent who had been sent with the same objective.

Ana de Armas

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Who do you prefer?
64 votes · 64 answers

Posterior Deportation?

Italy Restarts Program Shipping Illegal Migrants to Albania for Processing and Repatriation – PM Meloni in Saudi Arabia to Sign Strategic Partnership Agreements With the Kingdom
Gateway Pundit | Jan. 26, 2025 | Paul Serran

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is doubling down in the new year, emboldened by the right-wing expansion in the world with the historic election of Donald J. Trump in the US, and several developments in Europe – in Romania, Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK… and many other nations.

Meloni is riding this wave, reigniting her much-praised and much-maligned plan to send ‘asylum seekers’ (a.k.a. illegal migrants) to Albania for processing and posterior deportation.

Straight Line of the Day: How Can You Tell the FBI Is Conducting a Nuclear Incident Drill in NYC?

FBI begins ‘nuclear incident drill’ in New York amid fears of WWIII
Daily Mail | 27 January 2025 | Stacy Liberatore

Officials have begun a large-scale nuclear incident exercise in New York amid fears of WWIII.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said the exercise includes military aircraft, personnel who will carry out scenario threats to be ready ‘to respond in the event of a nuclear incident in the United States or overseas.’

The drills began Sunday, but the agency said the public may now see personnel practising out in the open. The exercise ends on January 31.

‘The training exercise will not pose risks to area residents. Please do not be alarmed by the activity,’ the FBI shared in a statement.

If you’re picturing a certain actor named Kevin saying “Remain Calm! All is well!” . . . Bacon!

Caption This!

British Colonel Drops Monocle in Teacup in Shock at Being Stereotyped

Response Lost in Mustache

Neither Here Nor There: I Prefer Thin-Crust Pizza

Doesn’t even have to be round.

Straight Line of the Day: What Could Russia Possibly Be Spying on the UK For?

Russian spy ship ‘detected loitering’ in British waters ‘gathering intelligence’
Sky News | 1/22/2025 | Ollie Cooper

The UK defence secretary has told MPs that a Russian spy ship was tracked in British waters this week. “Let me be clear,” he said, “this is a Russian spy ship used for gathering intelligence and mapping the UK’s critical underwater infrastructure.”

Ending sentences with prepositions?

Babesleaga Group AE : Oooops, my bad Redo for Julia Roberts vs Demi More

Good morning. Well I messed up and posted this match the wrong day so many people missed it. With so few votes I thought it would be fairer to redo the match. No update on the group until this match plays out through Feb. 2nd. Sorry for the mistake, all my fault.

Julia Roberts vs Demi Moore

Julia Roberts (1-1-0 Pts. 113 Avg. 56.50)

  • Week 1 Defeated Meryl Streep 84-12
  • Week 2 Lost to Cathy Lee Crosby 29-101

VS

Demi Moore (2-0-0 Pts. 177 Avg. 88.50)

  • Week 1 Defeated Susan Sarandon 88-19
  • Week 2 Defeated Drew Barrymore 89-23

This poll is no longer accepting votes

Who do you prefer?
103 votes · 103 answers