costela.net

From this Scientific American post on the “60 Second Science” blog:

This week, Purdue University is auctioning off the rights to name seven newly discovered bats and two turtles, the Associated Press is reporting. The winners — who will shell out a minimum of $250,000 for at least one of the bats, a Purdue spokesman told ScientificAmerican.com — can link their own name or that of a pal to the animal’s scientific name.

Someone please call Adam West! He’s gotta enter this thing!
What could be better than using this opportunity to honor one of the most – if not the most – famous bat-derived characters in the world? And what better way to honor Batman than having his most chubby and hyper(homo?)sexualized incarnation into the annals (no pun intended) of science!?
“Desmodus adamwestus“, please!

Why didn’t anyone think of him before? Come on! You call yourselves scientists!? Pff…

Of course, if someone wants to make a more direct homage, they could name it “Desmodus batmanus“, but that’s just silly.

(via johnhawks.net; which I got to know via my very own crazy-scientist friend)

And now for something (not) completely different.

While checking out Adam West’s IMDB entry (just to make sure he was still alive and could still shell out the 250K), I noticed he’s been married to a woman named Ngatokoruaimatauaia Frisbie Dawson.*
Read that again, please.
I’m left wondering if the “Frisbie” was a way of shocking you out of the first name, or if perhaps it was the other way around…

* disclaimer: the internet can be wrong, you know? I googled, found tens of sites mentioning the name, and none mentioning it as a hoax… so… it still doesn’t prove squat. Funny stuff, nonetheless.