You've seen the dubbed parodies of the scene in Downfall where Hitler goes into a spit-flying rage upon learning that Germany has lost? This time a reviewer has rejected der Führer's research paper, with predictable results. (Spotted on DrugMonkey.)

The science-art blog Bioephemera reports that every year at this time, Google sees a spike in the number of searches for a certain word, as represented on the chart above. For the grand prize, round-the-world trip to grandfather's house, what is that word? (Tired of trying to figure it out? Click here for the answer.)

Happy Thanksgiving, readers of Tweed!

Last week's death of Uga VII has prompted People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals to propose that the University of Georgia replace its line of bulldog mascots with an animatronic dog.

"It is time for the university to put an end to the cycle of suffering endured by dogs who are brought into the world solely to represent the school's 'brand,'" says PETA Assistant Director Kristie Phelps. "By choosing a humane alternative to the use of live animals as school mascots, UGA can show that compassion always wins."

May we suggest Boston Dynamics' "Big Dog" (below), the four-legged robot financed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency for future use as a sort of pack mule for soldiers in rugged terrain? (Boston Dynamics' two-legged "Petman" robot was the subject of a post a few weeks ago in this space.) We can't imagine any creature more intimating than the beast in this video. —...

BoingBoing likens Brian Malow's standup routine to "science-based Vaudeville," which is pretty accurate description of his schtick at this month's Wonderfest science festival in the San Francisco Bay area.

A few months back, someone sent us the video below of Tim Lee, a Ph.D. in ecology and evolution who uses PowerPoint to wax funny about "the banalities of biology." 

Know of any other great academic comedians? Drop us a line at tweed@chronicle.com, with "Tweed comedian" in the subject line.

Writing in Wired Science, Reed Timmer describes driving into a tornado west of Aurora, Neb., in June to collect data for his Ph.D. in meteorology at the University of Oklahoma at Norman.

Mr. Timmer, who records dispatches for the Discovery Channel's Stormchasers series, drives a specially designed vehicle he calls the Dominator (above), a Chevy Tahoe equipped with bulletproof Lexan windows, a roll cage, and an armor exterior. The shell has a rubber sheath beneath it and can quickly be dropped to the ground to prevent wind from getting underneath and flipping the vehicle.

A Stormchaser video of his encounter with a tornado near Kirksville, Mo., can be seen on YouTube.

If you've ever wondered what college students do when they're bored, click through to this series of videos that Ed Comeau, a former fire investigator and the founder of the newsletter Campus Firewatch, compiled from YouTube.

Mr. Comeau sat down for a Q&A with our colleague Eric Hoover to talk about campus fire safety and why so many young men still think it's cool to play with matches.

We wrote earlier this week about Brooke Magnanti, the scientist at the University of Bristol who acknowledged that she was the mysterious sex blogger Belle de Jour, whose memoirs became the television show Secret Diary of a Call Girl.

Ms. Magnanti said that she began working for an escort service six years ago after running out of money while working on her thesis in forensic pathology at the University of Sheffield. Today New Scientist features a Q&A with her that includes this exchange:

Q. Should British Ph.D. students be paid a proper wage, as they are in other countries?

A. I'm in two minds about this: if paid a wage, they may also be expected to do more teaching, which would result in the Ph.D. taking far longer, as it does in other countries.
I had offers of Ph.D. places both here and in the US, and chose Sheffield because it would take half the time.

As we go into the weekend before Thanksgiving, you might take a few moments to give thanks that you're not having to deal with the problems currently vexing some of your fellow universities:

1. Jeff Schemmel resigned this week from his post as athletic director at San Diego State University after he admitted misusing state funds for a tryst in Alabama.

2. The University of Nebraska at Lincoln agreed to pay $40,000 to an unnamed woman who says she was fired from her job directing a youth program there after an associate dean learned that she was a witch.

3. The Mississippi White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan plan to rally this weekend at the University of Mississippi to protest a recent decision by Chancellor Dan Jones to remove "From Dixie With Love" as the school fight song. Despite the chancellor's request, Ole Miss students had persisted in chanting "The South Will Rise Again!" at...

Just 15 months after being chosen as the mascot of the University of Georgia Bulldogs, Uga VII died Thursday morning of heart-related causes.

The death came just a week after Georgia's vet school had given the 4-year-old dog a clean bill of health, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

"We are all in a state of shock," Frank W. (Sonny) Seiler, owner of the line of bulldog mascots for more than half a century, said in a statement. "We had no warning whatsoever."

The dog's predecessor, Uga VI, died last year of congestive heart failure. Uga VII was the shortest-serving of the mascots except for "Otto," a substitute who served for four games in 1986 when Uga IV was sidelined with an injury.

The Bulldog football team was 16-7 under Uga VII. His successor won't be announced till next season. —Don Troop

The football team at Bethel College entered last Saturday's final game of the season with a 2-7 record, a coach who was resigning after 13 years with the team, and steep odds against beating rival Sterling College (6-3 at the time).

Late in the third quarter, with Bethel holding a surprising 20-0 lead, the quarterback pitched this amazing over-the-shoulder toss into the end zone. Bethel ultimately beat Sterling 30-0, and gave Mike Moore a story to tell about his final game coaching the Threshers in Newton, Kan.