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Unicorn Chaser: John Hodgman Spamasterpiece Theater BloopersToday

If it's Friday, and, why, yes it is, it's time for a Unicorn Chaser on Boing Boing tv. Today: SPAMASTERPIECE THEATER bloopers, out-takes, and oblique lulz from the amazing John Hodgman, minor television personality and author of More Information Than You Require (Amazon link). Direct MP4 Link, if you prefer download.

Previously:

Before/after tattooed faceToday

The gentleman above is Michael Campbell in two mug shots taken five years apart. The photo at left depicts Campbell in 2003 and the right is from October. "Mug Shot Metamorphosis" (The Smoking Gun, thanks Gil Kaufman!)

Birth control pill may alter women's taste in guysToday

New research suggests that the birth control pill can affect some women's taste in men. The reason is that the pill seems to shift a woman's preference toward men who share a particular group of genes with them. The genes, the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) gene family, are expressed in odor. From Scientific American:

Women who start or stop taking the pill, then, may be in for some relationship problems. A study published last year in Psychological Science found that women paired with MHC-similar men are less sexually satisfied and more likely to cheat on their partners than women paired with MHC-dissimilar men. So a woman on the pill, for example, might be more likely to start dating a MHC-similar man, but he could ultimately leave her less sexually satisfied. Then if she goes off the pill during the relationship, the accompanying hormonal changes will draw her even more strongly toward more MHC-dissimilar men. These immune genes may have a “powerful effect in terms of how well relationships are cemented,” says University of Liverpool psychologist Craig Roberts, co-author of the August paper.

"Birth Control Pills Affect Women's Taste in Men" (Thanks, Marina Gorbis!)

Documentary on a hot dog launcherToday

Atheist sign at nativity sceneToday

An atheist group placed this sign beside a Nativity scene at an Olympia, Washington government building, and some people aren't pleased. The Freedom From Religion Foundation previously posted a sign in Madison, Wisconsin that protestors have reportedly turned around so it can't be read and thrown acid on it. From CNN:

"Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds," the sign says in part.

Dan Barker, a former evangelical preacher who now heads up the atheist and agnostic Freedom From Religion Foundation, said it was important for atheists to see their viewpoints validated alongside everyone else's...

"It's not that we are trying to coerce anyone; in a way our sign is a signal of protest," Barker said. "If there can be a Nativity scene saying that we are all going to hell if we don't bow down to Jesus, we should be at the table to share our views."

He said if anything, it's the Nativity scene that is the intrusion.

"Most people think December is for Christians and view our signs as an intrusion, when actually it's the other way around," he said. "People have been cel