So pregnancy means a total surrender of autonomy?

This is is how to handle a depressed person:
On December 23, 2010, Shuai, a 34-year-old pregnant woman who was suffering from a major depressive disorder, attempted to take her own life. Friends found her in time and persuaded her to get help. Six days later, Shuai underwent cesarean surgery and delivered a premature newborn girl who, tragically, died four days later.
On March 14, 2011, Shuai was arrested, jailed, and charged with murder and attempted feticide.
Don’t get pregnant, ladies! It means that every risk you might take becomes a criminal offense! I always thought it was a joke to criminalize suicide, too, but here’s a case where they’re actually prosecuting a woman for the crime.
Next up: every time you kick a man in the balls, you are a mass-murderer.

Elmhurst today!


Rats, I didn’t realize what day it is, and now no one is going to believe the announcement I just made is real…at least not until the 2nd rolls around and the persistence of reality sinks in. So I guess I better post stuff both here and there, just for today, since no one is going to switch their feeds around just yet.
Anyway, I’m in Illinois, at Elmhurst College! Some people were asking for the details: I’ll be speaking at 4pm in Illinois Hall, the auditorium in the science building on campus. It’s an open lecture, feel free to show up.
I currently have no specific plans for the evening afterwards. If any locals want to make suggestions, do so in the comments. I’m easily swayed, so if you can’t make it to the talk, maybe we can get together afterwards.

Three And A Half Years Is A Pretty Decent Lifespan For A Cuttlefish

In which I reveal my secret identity and announce a radical change
The Cuttlefish Poet started out as a joke. I had posted about Cephalopod
Awareness Days, including a cephalopod poetry contest, and just for
fun, added a handful. I have my reputation to think of, so a quick
nom de tentacle change was required. I honestly thought that would be
the end of it.

But then, Gary Aldridge made the news, and in the ensuing respectful,
solemn thread, I was struck with a rhyme. So… why not let
“Cuttlefish” make another appearance? So he did. This time, though,
the reaction was overwhelmingly positive, with just enough “that’s
inappropriate” to convince me to put it up as its own post.

I am strong, but I am not immune to public reaction. It was fun being
“Cuttlefish”, at least at first. The very first month commenting
“he/she” won a Molly! I had to start another blog for Cuttlefish,
just to keep my thoughts straight. I don’t update it nearly as often
as Pharyngula, so it’s not a great time-sink. And little or no
editing takes place—if I like a comment Cuttlefish makes on
Pharyngula, I post it on the Cuttle blog; if not, I can just let it
stay and get buried in other comments.

There were some close calls. A few people did guess, but their
guesses were either buried in comments, or on their own blogs with
very few readers. Sometimes “his” comments came altogether too
quickly after my blog post, and I worried that it would be too
obvious. After a while, though, I started toying with that, making
Cuttlefish appear nearly psychic. The biggest benefit to this, of
course, was seeing how this intimidated Truth Machine.

It has been fun, but now my own book is coming out, and well, three
and a half years is a good long life for a cuttlefish. And as you know, we’ve had a few problems at Scienceblogs, which have led to a little dissatisfaction with the current digs…but hey! I’ve already got this other blog where I’m comfortable, so I’ve decided to just up and move wholesale from scienceblogs to digitalcuttlefish.blogspot.com. If I do any more rhyming there, it will be under my own name, but otherwise, look for new material to appear here at the Digital Cuttlefish from now on.

—
PZ Myers, Ph.D.
Division of Science & Math 2135, 2390 Science
University of Minnesota, Morris
Morris, MN 56267 http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/