Why are chickens funnier than ducks? Can humor help us cope with tragedy? And what makes funny, well, funny? To answer such questions we look back at some of the most humorous moments from The Infinite Mind, with guests including stand-up comedians, humor columnists, and a surprise visit from Jonathan Katz, the voice of Dr. Katz: Professional Therapist and Dr. Harold Stein on the new IFC TV series ?Hopeless Pictures.' We listen to past interviews with star comedians Robert Klein, Lewis Black, and Margaret Cho as they relate their experiences in the comedy industry, and the knowledge they've gleaned. We hear a clinical explanation of how humor can help assuage fear and pain from Stanford University's Dr. David Spiegel, and humorist Al Franken relates a very sobering example of this and its relevance during the aftermath of September 11th. Other guests include author, columnist, and professional hypochondriac, Gene Weingarten, BrainBanker and singer, Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, and two of the original members of the Firesign Theater, Phil Proctor and Peter Bergman. With commentary by John Hockenberry.

The book contains popular expositions (accessible to readers with no more than a high school mathematics background) on the mathematical theory of infinity, and a number of related topics. These include G?del's incompleteness theorems and their relationship to concepts of artificial intelligence and the human mind, as well as the conceivability of some unconventional cosmological models. The material is approached from a variety of viewpoints, some more conventionally mathematical and others being nearly mystical. There is a brief account of the author's personal contact with Kurt G?del.An appendix contains one of the few popular expositions on set theory research on what are known as "strong axioms of infinity."

Dont believe the hype; believe what you see. Apocalypse, as we have come to fear, is not apocalypse as it truly is. We live today in the time of apocalypse, and for some, it is pure torment. For those around the world living with bombs raining down on them, yes, that is apocalyptic torture as we feared. For those thousands and millions, throughout the universe, visited and killed by the deadly flu and flu-like diseases (SARS, swine flu, bird flu, West Nile virus, etc.), Ebola, tuberculosis, measles, cholera, dengue fever, EV-D68, and HIV/AIDS, yes, those are apocalyptic diseases as we feared. For those ravished, killed, left homeless, and totally dispossessed by these record-breaking seemingly wicked weather events we are currently experiencing, yes, they would agree that these are for certain apocalyptic changes as we feared. However, given there are over seven billion of us on the planet and those apocalyptic events mentioned have only killed millions, not billions, of us, they dont seem to rise to the level of chaos and destruction we have been conditioned to fear as being apocalyptic. Nevertheless, our over exaggerated, deep-seated, and conditioned fears notwithstanding, Armageddon is upon us, and the signs of it have been for almost twenty years that we know of. Those above mentioned apocalyptic occurrences are the signs we were all told would be by John the Revelator in Revelation. November 1995 to May 1996, no fewer than seventy of us were told by an angel, Awaki, and his Angels of God that the signs had already begun and that Armageddon would begin in the year 2000. Our story, no matter how far-fetched it may seem, is true. The evidentiary events of war, disease, and bizarre weather changes we witness daily provide for us the credibility of what we were told. The angel Shakardak told us, Some will see and they will believe, some will not see and they will believe, some will hear and they will believe, and some will not hear and they will believe; and then there will be those who will see and they will not believe, and there will be those who will hear and they will not believe.