Comments

  2. Louis says

    Don’t kill me, I had to try it once in my life. If it helps, I’m very ashamed of myself.

    Louis

  5. Louis says

    PZ, #4,

    Bugger. I’ve been rumbled. It’s a fair cop, guv. I’ll come quietly.

    Louis

  7. Sili says

    Cassandra got it. (Pity noöne will believe her.)

    I like badass Hillary. Made more sense of the one Chad Orzel linked to, too. (Rice’s shades.)

  15. Louis says

    Fastlane, #13,

    Thank you for being the first person to seize that set up!

    You win one go on Brownian.

    Louis

  17. Part-Time Insomniac, Zombie Porcupine Nox Arcana Fan says

    I swear I’ve gotten more colds and shit in one year of working with kids than I have in my entire life. Woke up today and found my nose clogged, again. Peppermint tea has been consumed. Next it might be squirting warm water directly into my nose.
    ——————————————–

    Sleeping late is awesome. Especially when you know you’ve got at least two more days to make up for whatever is left undone.

  18. cicely (Normal Service Has Been Restored) says

    kristinc, congrats on talking in class!
    *high five* and *confetti*
    –

    Atheists (well, me, anyway) view morality as a community exercise that we participate in because we want to build something better and not hurt people.

    Well said, Og (No Relation).
    –

    Zombie… fetuses?

    Totally showed up in a D&D game.

    Stats?
    –
    –
    “Teen Girl Exorcism Squad” sounds like a cheesy TV series. “Buffy” extra-lite.
    –
    Here now, Louis; you should at least consult Brownian before you barter him off to someone just because they take up on your punchlines.
    –

  19. says

    Repost

    Atheists (well, me, anyway) view morality as a community exercise that we participate in because we want to build something better and not hurt people.

    We really need to retake the word “moral” and start driving home the point that obedience =/= morality. Morality is the state of caring about your actions and their consequences; it is not following the decrees of some authority either because of respect for that authority or because you hope to gain a reward.

    Stats?

    IIRC I used a Zombie Gnome and cut it’s stats in half for some, others counted as a Swarm Creature.

    Necromancer + Ancient Civilization’s Children’s Cemetery. The necromancer was also an cat with a human familiar.

  21. Louis says

    Cicley, #18,

    Oh I have full rights to Brownian at the moment. He lost a bet. He doesn’t know that yet as it is a retroactive bet we made in the future, but he’ll find out. Eventually.

    Louis

  23. Louis says

    Ing,

    Oh but of course. And he willon haveon done agreed* to open access last Thursday. It was a splendid day. I’m still sore.

    Louis

    * Future pluperfect retropast indicative active.

  25. Jules says

    Oh but of course. And he willon haveon done agreed* to open access last Thursday. It was a splendid day. I’m still sore.

    Louis

    * Future pluperfect retropast indicative active.

    Thank you for this, Louis. As I spend today trying to complete a copyediting project this past Wednesday, this tense will be quite useful in corresponding with my project manager.

    Also, it made me smile.

    About the only other thing that’s done that lately is the discovery that my niece has red hair (she’s a baby, so mostly it was just a shiny head until now) and thus is still on course to be my clone*, and bacon.

    *Not really. She barely looks like me at all. But still. We old maid aunties must have something to fawn over, and narcissism seems as good a choice as any.

  26. DLC says

    So. trip to doctor’s over. rewarded myself with a mexican coke.
    (they’re made in mexico with sugar instead of HFCS. taste about the same to me, but someone suggested I try one.)
    Sold in real glass bottles too. none of that wasteful hydrocarbon-using plastic.

    The Sailor @9 : I saw that item too. Exorcisms. 300 years after the Enlightenment. All I can say is What The Fucky-fuck-fuck!
    Exorcisms! Holy shit!

  27. The Laughing Coyote (Canis Sativa) says

    Sold in real glass bottles too. none of that wasteful hydrocarbon-using plastic.

    A bit off topic, but what with my hobbies of ‘primitive’ survival and bushcraft and all, more and more it occurs to me that manmade trash is an irreversible part of the wild landscape now, and as such is now something of a ‘natural resource’ to be potentially used.

    Old plastic bottles can carry water around, the bottoms of glass bottles can be knapped into arrowheads and small blades, and the cooking pot I use in the bush is one I ‘rescued’ from a trashed abandoned camp at the river, though I may eventually retire it in favor of something a both a little lighter and a little bigger.

    It’s a bit of a sad commentary on human nature that ‘primitive’ bushcraft is now beginning to involve manufactured human waste out of ‘necessity’, but in a way it’s kind of a cool commentary on adaptation as well.

    Fuck, and I can’t wait to get out in the bush for a few days. I think it shows.

  29. says

    So folks, I wish you all happy return of the Easter bunny, the sun and cheap chocolate molded in cutsie shapes.
    We packed all day (it simply is unbelievable how much stuff you need for ONE FUCKING WEEK), ate meat and now we’Re smothered.
    Maybe I’ll check in for some greetings from France.

    See you

  31. A. R says

    Gilell: I’ve got a couple of gigantic steaks waiting for me when I get home. Very excited to commit some sins!

  33. says

    I just watched a show about processing cacao beans to make chocolate.
    Now I’m watching a show about how they make rope.

    It seems closer to Valentine’s Day than Easter.

  36. Louis says

    Ing, #24,

    Ah of course. Although I believe the correct form is willon haveon been still sore.

    Louis

    P.S. I have ripped this all shamelessly off Douglas Adams by the way.

  37. David Marjanović says

    Limited connection, limited time. Will try to catch up later.

    Next it might be squirting warm water directly into my nose.

    Do you have an inhalator? I use saline and a few drops of an actual medicine.

    Future pluperfect retropast indicative active.

    Awesome.

    my niece has red hair (she’s a baby, so mostly it was just a shiny head until now)

    I was born with almost as much hair as I have now. :-) Similar length, too. As I’ve said before (elsewhere), I’m a direct-developer.

    (I probably lay large single eggs on land… wait… that sounds wrong somehow.)

    none of that wasteful hydrocarbon-using plastic

    Except, where does the energy to melt sand come from?

  38. Louis says

    Ms Daisy Cutter,

    That is not a tense in English. it is a fluent expression of a related language called “Incoherentese”. Commonly seen on the interwebs, particularly from creationists.

    Louis

  39. Jules says

    I was born with almost as much hair as I have now. :-) Similar length, too.

    Due to my lack of ability to make mental pictures, I can’t actually imagine this, but I am fully convinced that it was adorable! Because, squee! Baby DDMFM! With hair!

    As I’ve said before (elsewhere), I’m a direct-developer.

    I look absolutely nothing like my baby pictures.

    But you know who does? My niece.

  41. Rey Fox says

    All Christains should invest in a X and chain, wear them loud and proud and flood the courts !

    A cross and chain would be even better than a ball and chain because it would keep getting caught on things.

    (I love how it’s easier to tag something with the Comic Sans than it is to tag it as a normal quote.)

  42. cicely. Just cicely. says

    The necromancer was also an cat with a human familiar.

    Ooooh! I like it!
    *filing serial numbers off of idea and appropriating it*
    –

    (I probably lay large single eggs on land… wait… that sounds wrong somehow.)

    I’m looking forward to the documentary.
    :D
    –

  43. birgerjohansson says

    The “zombie Jesus” illustration looks as if it was made by Simon Bisley, or possibly John Templesmith.
    — — — — — — —

    I watched a documentary on Swedish Tv this evening. Apparently, El/Yahwe is the same El that was boss god in the Caananite pantheon (you know, the boss of Baal, husband of Asherah).
    So up until ca 700 BC the Jews remained polytheistic, the later written versions of the old testament got the Pravda treatment sometime around the Babylonian captivity.

    And a blessing inscribed on an artefact from ca. 700 BC found in the Sinai desert in the seventies was a joint blessing from Asherah and Jahve. So it looks like god had a wife…right up to the Babylonian captivity.
    As for the conflicting parts of Genesis, the program did not discuss it, but I seem to recall a theory they are the result of an unsuccessful attempt to joining together slightly different creation myths of different Israeli tribes (some believing in pre-adamite people, some believing Adam being the first).

  46. dianne says

    Ugh. Two patients today who couldn’t afford medications and have few or no options for getting them for free or reduced cost. I’m going to have to spend Monday morning shamelessly flattering drug companies to try to get them to cough up some product to help the pts. I hate humanity and may the US be eaten by chthulu at the first opportunity.

  48. Cassandra Caligaria (Cipher), OM says

    I am BEING OPPRESSED by PEEEEEEEEEEEEEECEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
    sorry

  49. dianne says

    On second thought, forget that last bit. Wouldn’t want the poor elder god to get indigestion.

  51. Richard Austin says

    dianne:

    I’m going to have to spend Monday morning shamelessly flattering drug companies to try to get them to cough up some product to help the pts.

    It’s people like you and my friend’s cardiologist (who has kept him going on “free samples” of his meds for literally years) that redeem many of the rest. Because many people won’t say it and you don’t hear it often enough, thank you.

  54. The Laughing Coyote (Canis Sativa) says

    “PC” AND CONSIDER OTHER PEOPLE’S CUSTOMS!!!

    These fuckheads always accuse us of being all ‘PC’ and shit, but let us take a look at actual politics today.

    One glance is really enough to tell us that what’s ‘politically ”correct” in this day and age appears to be desperately licking the collective anus of the religious right.

    Thusly, THEY are the ‘politically correct’ ones.

  55. Nutmeg says

    kristinc:

    I see that it was a bit hopelessly naive of me to expect college instructors to necessarily be intelligent people.

    To some extent, yes. I found that the instructors for the first two years of my undergrad were a mixed bag. Some were brilliant and excellent teachers, some were brilliant and terrible teachers, and some were dull and terrible teachers. The instructors for the upper years were all pretty good.

    I feel your pain. Sitting through a class with a poor instructor is incredibly frustrating.

  56. says

    Dianne:

    I’m going to have to spend Monday morning shamelessly flattering drug companies to try to get them to cough up some product to help the pts.

    Almost all the doctors here in ND do that, so they have cupboards full of samples they can give to patients. I’m really sorry you have to do that, that any doctor has to do that, but know it’s really appreciated.

    Janine:

    Did I miss something?

    In the magical border thread, ‘thy goddess’ is going on about how Canadians are being all upsetty and oppressed by the PC “holiday tree” and all, ’cause xmas isn’t religious at all in Canada, ya know.

  57. says

    Richard Austin, my heart goes out to the students in the video, but it’s never going to “get better” for them unless they figure out that their religion wants them to live a lie and they leave it, preferably for atheism.

    “I don’t go to school with a bunch of hateful people,” one woman says. Uh, yeah, you do. Not all of them, but a plurality of them. If they’re nice to you personally but they still vote for laws like Prop H8, they’re hateful people.

    I’m glad, at least, that the first speaker says that he can’t guarantee the viewer’s life will get better. That promise is a serious weakness of the IGB project.

  58. says

    Sitting through a class with a poor instructor is incredibly frustrating.

    I don’t even know yet if she’s a good or a poor english composition teacher, but yesterday the class was treated to an explanation of how “when feminism started” (second wave feminism, natch) feminists thought that men and women were exactly alike, haha, but now of course we know that men and women have very different brains Doctor Phil science!

    Also that prehistoric men were out hunting all day and prehistoric women were at home in the cave “nurturing”.

    I’ve realized what my problem is, my problem is I hang out places like here surrounded by not only intelligent people but actual professors and academics who are very smart, well informed, and good thinkers. I’ve never had to cope with teachers who aren’t any of those things.

  61. says

    Daisy Cutter: Eh, I was all ready to point out that in hunter-gather societies childrearing typically comes second to the job of gathering food and the majority of the calories consumed by the group are provided by the women and their gathering activities. Had my hand up and all, but the discussion moved on before I was called on.

    And really, how can you argue with the scientific authority of Dr Phil??

  62. A. R says

    Um, isn’t there some kind of rule that the “War On Christmas” bullshit has to end by magical Jew-on-a-stick day?

  63. The Laughing Coyote (Canis Sativa) says

    Dr Phil (My ex watches him, not me unless I happen to be with her when she’s watching him) has been getting ridiculous lately, trying to always play ‘devil’s advocate’ and seeming to take the side of the abusers.

    Unless of course the esteemed ‘Dr’ Phil has always been like that, and I just never noticed.

  64. Pteryxx says

    It’s people like you and my friend’s cardiologist (who has kept him going on “free samples” of his meds for literally years) that redeem many of the rest. Because many people won’t say it and you don’t hear it often enough, thank you.

    this. Thank you, dianne.

    Also, thank you for all the examples and information you keep giving in the abortion threads. I’ve had to go throw up a few times because of them, but I’m just that much more fucking determined.

  66. Janine: History’s Greatest Monster says

    Just wondering why people are being oppressed by pee.

  68. cicely. Just cicely. says

    Because many people won’t say it and you don’t hear it often enough, thank you.

    Yes, thank you, dianne.
    –

  69. dianne says

    Blush. Thanks, all. You do realize I haven’t actually done anything yet? Actually, the social worker found a solution for one of the patients. Social workers are full of win!

  70. Esteleth, Who is Totally Not a Dog or Ferret says

    Allo, allo.

    I haz finished a knitting project (clicky) that some people described as “looking like seaweed.”
    I also have started two new projects:
    A blankie for Audley’s behbeh when it arrives (clicky). This is a deep green, which didn’t photograph well, as I don’t have the best light and only a cell phone camera.
    I’m guessing that, once done, it’ll be about 3 feet long at the hypotenuse (it is right-triangular). It’s a thick wool. :D

    Just ’cause I’m a sucker for punishment, I’ve started making myself a shawl using fingering yarn and #13 needles. It will be very lightweight of a very open lace.

  71. carlie says

    I saw a comment today by some prominent Republican (can’t remember who) who actually said that Obama was demeaning all of the soldiers who have ever fought by using the phrase “war on women” wrt Republicans. My immediate first thought was whether he thinks Pat Robertson is equally demeaning soldiers with the war on Christmas.

  72. dianne says

    But the medical system in the US still sucks. Not saying it’s perfect elsewhere, but it’s mind numbingly stupid in the US sometimes.

  74. Esteleth, Who is Totally Not a Dog or Ferret says

    Thanks, CC.
    Do you knit?

    (BTW: when is Rhinebeck?)

    Which reminds me:

    General Horde Announcement:
    I knit stuff for people who ask. My rates are very reasonable: I recently traded a scarf-and-hat set for a case of beer.

    I must warn that I’m rather slow, but I am a perfectionist. :D :D

  75. Cassandra Caligaria (Cipher), OM says

    Do you knit?

    Extremely slowly and badly.
    I’m theoretically working on it.

  76. Louis says

    Esteleth,

    Ooooh you have no idea how tempting it is to take you up on a knitting offer!

    Knitted Cthulu hat for my spawn…..mmmmmm. ;-)

    Louis

  77. Esteleth, Who is Totally Not a Dog or Ferret says

    Louis,
    A search for “Cthulu” in ravelry got me 12 hits: 3 hats, 2 dice bags, 2 holiday tree ornaments, one set of mittens, one blanket, and 3 whimsical WTF-items (one being a penguin).

    Uh…

    ????

    Alternatively, I could do this in green (that is not me).

  78. Louis says

    Esteleth,

    Oh you are awesome, but really, REALLY don’t get me started! I have all the imagination and none of the talent to create things like this. I will exploit you mercilessly! ;-)

    Louis

    P.S. That is a cool hat!

  79. Esteleth, Who is Totally Not a Dog or Ferret says

    It is a cool hat. That is not my etsy, I just did a search for “octopus hat” in Ravelry and got that.

    ___

    Okay, Morgan is a BAD KITTY.

    I need to go wash my sheets now.

    Damn cat, you HAVE a litter pan! >_<

  80. says

    I slept with a baggie of henna paste (containing a test swatch of hair) tucked in the front of my pajama pants last night. Don’t look at me like that, you’re supposed to keep it warm. Anyway, the dye release was so strong some of it migrated through the plastic and left an orange stain (in the shape of the baggie) on my skin. XD

  81. says

    Dianne:

    Social workers are full of win!

    Yes, they are. So are doctors who go above and beyond to do their jobs properly and are disgusted by the healthcare situation in the U.S. and do everything they can to help their patients.

  83. Sili says

    On reflection, I see that it was a bit hopelessly naive of me to expect college instructors to necessarily be intelligent people.

    Mine were pretty good (the ones I remember). Coupla lecturers who were crap, but I’ve not always realised until comparing notes lo these many years later (I never was very social).

    My abilities as a instructor though …

  84. says

    I want to thank all my doctors who gave me ‘samples’ and kept my body running when I had no $$.
    +++++++++++++++++++

    Anyway, the dye release was so strong some of it migrated through the plastic and left an orange stain (in the shape of the baggie) on my skin. XD

    So, the carpet and drapes no longer match?

  85. Ogvorbis (no relation to the Ogg family) says

    Went to the doctor today for a physical.

    Got my tetanus shot.

    And am now on blood pressure medication.

    My BP has been ‘borderline’ for a few years.

    And my doctor was kind enough to tell me that ‘at my age’ this is not at all unusual.

  86. Janine: History’s Greatest Monster says

    Don’t look at me like that…

    Sorry, I cannot help it.

  87. carlie says

    Og – join the club. My doctor, who was the best doctor ever until she moved away and couldn’t be my doctor any more, softened the blow considerably by reminding me that even when people act as healthily as possible, some people are just genetically prone to things like high blood pressure and it’s not their fault and it just happens. Cest la vie.

  89. carlie says

    Speaking of health, though, we have to make a concerted effort into more heart-healthy(tm) choices to lower a certain family member’s cholesterol levels. Yeah, I know basically what to do, but it would be nice to kick off with some new recipes and/or twists on old ones. Anybody have a cookbook they’d recommend for such a thing? (especially good if it contains spicy and/or Mexican-ish food)

  90. cm's changeable moniker says

    Ms DC:

    JFC, shut the fuck up, you wittering shitbrain.

    What does “JFC” stand for again? Are you being something-centric. :)

    “PC” aside, the instutionalisation of teaching about religious symbols and ceremonies in school is actually rather effective. Having had my kids study comparative religion (Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Muslim) at an early age they seem to have realised that it’s all bunk (yay! for multiculturalism).

  100. Cassandra Caligaria (Cipher), OM says

    Apparently, it’s obnoxious nitpicking trolls who can’t read for comprehension day. Nobody told me.

  102. John Morales says

    Caine to CC,

    Apparently, it’s obnoxious nitpicking trolls who can’t read for comprehension day.

    Isn’t that every day around here?

    Less abundance and less variety of prey than in days of yore. :|

    (Take what you can, one must)

  105. says

    Tonight I saw the rings of Saturn through my scope for the first time.
    It was a good day.
    Good thing the clouds rolled in, or I’d be out all night.

    Don’t forget to look up every now and then.

  109. Janine: History’s Greatest Monster says

    Thanks Caine. It is good to know that their basic message has no improved in forty years. Though I am kind of surprised that I did not stumble across that tract back in the seventies, I found a lot of other strange conservative christian stuff (America must remain friends with Israel! Get US out of the UN!)

    I did not know that by twelve weeks, the fetus is ready, just need to grow. Also, the vacuum page reminded me of the Silent Scream.

    I found Abortion Eve to just be weird. I loved the discussion of the trip when you are under medication.

  112. Richard Austin says

    MikeG:

    Don’t forget to look up every now and then.

    Sorry, some of us spend our nights looking out, not up.

    (Fun exercise: go out on a clear night. Find north. Lay on the grass/sand/a handy towel/whatever with your head pointed north and your feet pointed south. Close your eyes. Picture yourself stuck to the side of a ball spinning through blackness, looking out at a bunch of other balls floating around you. Focus on that image in your mind for a few minutes.

    Then open your eyes.)

  113. says

    MikeG:

    Tonight I saw the rings of Saturn through my scope for the first time.

    Isn’t that amazing? There’s that “oh, shit! It really does have rings!” moment; everyone I’ve ever shown Saturn to has had that reaction. It’s not as if anyone’s hobby scope can match all the amazing photos folks have seen… but somehow seeing it with your own eyes in real time is just different.

  114. Richard Austin says

    (Was trying to be funny about the out-not-up thing, not crass, but it may have come across wrong. If so, sorry.)

    (Also, warning on the “fun exercise”: I’ve known it to trigger panic attacks in people, as well as just pure terror – and the more acceptable utter fascination. So, be careful.)

  117. The Laughing Coyote (Canis Sativa) says

    Tonight I saw the rings of Saturn through my scope for the first time.
    It was a good day.
    Good thing the clouds rolled in, or I’d be out all night.

    Don’t forget to look up every now and then.

    I’ve been doing this more and more in life. When I was a little kid, I’d look at the star spangled sky and think “Just how in fuck does anyone keep track of constellations amongst all those dots?”

    Then a few years later, a less little kid me recognized the big dipper, and I was like “Oh, I get it!”

    Right now, I like the constellation Orion. We all know about Orion’s belt, but those three stars below it are clearly Orion’s Wang.

  119. The Laughing Coyote (Canis Sativa) says

    A.R: I think Dong makes more sense judging by the placement. I suppose, if one wants to be all victorian about it, they could imagine it as a sword on his belt, but for me those three faint stars will forever be Orion’s Johnson.

  121. A. R says

    TLC: Yes, the traditional interpretation is a sword. Though your conception is rather amusing.

  122. Josh, OSG, Abortia N'ondemande says

    ‘Rupt.

    Mother.

    Fuck.

    I can tolerate spiders. Boxelder bugs. Even the seasonal ant infestations only annoy me.

    But I WILL NOT HAVE A skitters-about in my house.

    Most especially not on the wall where my cast iron pans hang on pegs over the stove. Sweet jumpin’ jeebus those things give me the hateful willies.

  125. The Laughing Coyote (Canis Sativa) says

    Nameless my ass.

    That’s a house centipede. It’s a predator on small spiders and silverfish and other crawlies that live in houses.

  127. Josh, OSG, Abortia N'ondemande says

    It’s a predator on small spiders and silverfish and other crawlies that live in houses.

    I don’t give a fuck what it’s called. It’s a SCREAMING HORROR and I never want to see it. Ever. Ever.

  128. Cassandra Caligaria (Cipher), OM says

    THAT THING IS NOT OKAY. Everyone please evacuate the planet immediately so that we can nuke it until those things stop existing.
    (I am sorry that horrible nightmare creatures are trying to invade your house.)

  129. Josh, OSG, Abortia N'ondemande says

    Oh, Audley, they love the motherfuckin’ bathtub, they do. Come right up out of the tub drain. Disgusted shiver. They are only marginally less disgusting than roaches.

  130. Josh, OSG, Abortia N'ondemande says

    THAT THING IS NOT OKAY

    I know that’s right, girl. Nuking the planet from orbit is the only option.

    KILL ALL TOO-MANY-LEGGED THINGS.

  131. Josh, OSG, Abortia N'ondemande says

    If I could find their vile larval lair I’d ABORT them all. I have knitting needles of various and infinite sizes. Just in case.

  132. Cassandra Caligaria (Cipher), OM says

    I am now afraid of my entire house. Especially the bathtub. But also EVERYTHING.
    TOTAL PLANETARY DESTRUCTION NAO PLS.

  134. Josh, OSG, Abortia N'ondemande says

    I am now afraid of my entire house. Especially the bathtub. But also EVERYTHING.

    Oh, dear. Don’t do that. I get it, really, but the best stance to take is blissful ignorance. Pretend you know nothing of the horrors in my house, and that they don’t exist outside some fictionalized, overdramatized whining from a guy on the Internet. That’s how I survive.

    Seriously, you’re unlikely to encounter a skitters-about, CC. Not worth your anxiety. Spend your tranquilizers on something better.

    Love,

    Me

  136. Josh, OSG, Abortia N'ondemande says

    Also, my house is 140 years old, so it’s bound to have Ancient Atrocities that you’ll never encounter.

  137. Josh, OSG, Abortia N'ondemande says

    Audley, honestly. How much worse could it be? You’re already on Sigourney Weaver’s ship with that bullshit thing bouts to burst outta you in like 7 months or so.

  138. Cassandra Caligaria (Cipher), OM says

    Is yours gone? What’d you do with it? *shudders forever*

  139. Josh, OSG, Abortia N'ondemande says

    I annihilated that fucker with a tennis shoe. Winked it right out of existence in this universe. My home (and by extension, yours and every other thing that exists in this universe) is safe and bed-ready.

  140. The Laughing Coyote (Canis Sativa) says

    I don’t get what’s the big deal.

    It has lots of legs and moves fast.

    Kills spiders and stuff. They show up in your bathtub for the moisture.

    Eh, then again I’ve never seen one in its natural habitat (which is houses).

    The Giant House Spiders scare them all away. Charming roommates and far less obnoxious than a large part of the human variety.

  141. says

    OhhhhhhSHUDDER Coyote. I cannot be reasonable about the big house spiders. Around here they’re mostly relatives of the Hobo spider (CASSANDRA DO NOT GOOGLE THAT), which, oh joy, are known for being aggressive. I have a genuine fondness for the spiders outside in the garden, and most species I find in the house, but those big creepy fuckers just, gah, nooooooo.

  142. Josh, OSG, Abortia N'ondemande says

    I don’t get what’s the big deal.

    Well then, I don’t know what to tell you.

    It has lots of legs and moves fast.

    That’s a problem right there. Two legs or four legs is acceptable. No legs or bajillions of legs gives me the screaming meemies. You don’t have to share that feeling, but that’s what it is.

    Kills spiders and stuff.

    Unacceptable. I like spiders (they’re an exception to the leg thing). They kill “stuff.” I don’t need or want nasty-ass skitters-abouts to kill “stuff.”

    They show up in your bathtub for the moisture.

    And you don’t see how this is a setup for the sickest and most soul-sapping horror movie evah?

  143. says

    Josh:

    I like spiders

    As do I. Anything which kills spiders isn’t welcome in Chez Caine, which has a good-sized population of spiders, mostly orb weavers.*

    *As Jadehawk can attest to – she’s spider-phobic and I swear, no matter where she sat, there was a spider directly over her. I did a lot of spider moving while she was here. :D

  144. Josh, OSG, Abortia N'ondemande says

    Caine:

    I can understand spiderphobia, as I have many-legged-thing-o-phobia. But I don’t suffer from it (though I have a friend who FREAKS the fuck out about them). I’m quite happy to share my house with spiders. They tend to care only about making their living, usually in a corner near the ceiling, and they don’t give a shit about me or the cats. They catch flies and gnats, for which I’m grateful, and the only work they give me is occasionally sweeping out their abandoned webs every few months. I call that a bargain.

  145. The Laughing Coyote (Canis Sativa) says

    Kristinc: Apparently, the giant house spiders we get here EAT Hobo spiders and brown recluses.

    I can’t help but like them and their inoffensive ways. They mostly hang out in their little territories, except when the males move around searching for mates. And as a male who likes mating, it’s hard for me to hold that against them.

    I suppose I can understand the distaste for house centipedes if one is a fan of spiders though.

  148. The Laughing Coyote (Canis Sativa) says

    Looks like we’ll be heading into the wild tomorrow sometime in the afternoon.

    Trouble is, we just can’t decide on a spot yet.

  149. Minnie The Finn, avec de cèpes de Bordeaux says

    Happy Dead Jew on a Stick Day everyone!

    I’m threadrupt++ (so what’s new), but I still want to wish GINORMOUS CONGA RATS to Dr. Audley! Hope you start feeling better soon.

    No arachnophobia here, but my sympathies for all who suffer from it.

    In other news, three weeks to go before our migration to the granny cottage starts. Based on last summer, I better find me a good blog host so I can start keeping a cottage diary – far too many things, thoughts and moods were lost last year. While we still have hundreds of pictures, they do not convey the full story. Also, I’ll be damned if I can remember where I planted and what. In spring, they all look like weeds, unless they happen to sprout in a nice square formation.

  150. Minnie The Finn, avec de cèpes de Bordeaux says

    Re: Saturn’s rings. I saw them once while staying the night in a Bedouin camp in Sahara (no kidding; long story, tell you later). We had a powerful telescope and through it, the rings were so easily seen, I couldn’t believe my eyes at first. It looked exactly like in cartoons.

  151. Lyn M: Just Lyn M. says

    Yes, first sight of Saturn’s rings was pretty awesome. I can shut my eyes and see them still, and that was 47 years ago.
    I recommend Google Sky Map, an app I have on an Android device. You turn it on and also have “location” services on in the device. It shows you the sky wherever you point it, including straight down. I double check what planets are where fairly often.
    *********************************************************************

    Warning, story about humongous spider and assorted creepy crawlies.
    I lived in an apartment here in China, which was on the ground floor. That meant that there was a thin layer of concrete poured over the dirt and then linoleum was added. As a result of this and other building peculiarities, lots of bugs liked to get inside when winter hit.
    One day, I was typing away at my computer, and I heard something behind me. It sounded kind of scuttling. I turned and there was the largest, blackest spider I had ever seen, hoofing it for the door to the centre room of the place. In that room, there were large grey bugs that liked to climb the walls. Those bugs looked like dead zombie flesh. There were also large centipede kind of bugs that huddled at one end of the room. The huddlers clearly ate the grey things, for which I was grateful. What function the noisy spider performed, I hesitate to think.
    Sometimes, I went to sleep with a large can of Raid clutched in my hands as once in awhile, a huge bug would drop onto my bed in the night. Man, was I fast on the spray button.
    I left that job at the earliest opportunity.

  152. says

    Did anyone else see Martin Wagner’s post about the church that not only sent out a postcard featuring a dead Easter bunny, but lazily ganked an ancient image thereof from the intarbuttz?

    While I’m sure the parents at that church weren’t too happy about that marketing effort, its bad-idea-ness is as nothing compared with The Passion of the Bunny.

    (And if you imagine Mel Gibson in the bunny outfit, it gets even funnier.)

    Josh:

    But I WILL NOT HAVE A skitters-about in my house.

    /opens link, literally yells “AAAAAAAAAAAA!!!”, closes tab really fucking fast

    The fact that it eats silverfish is not enough to cancel out the SHEER HORRENDOUSNESS. I agree with CC: Evacuate everybody and carpet-bomb the planet for centipedes, roaches, silverfish, and, while we’re at it, blackflies and yellow jackets.

    You’re already on Sigourney Weaver’s ship with that bullshit thing bouts to burst outta you in like 7 months or so.

    Now that you mention it… last night I stumbled across gay erotica starring HR Giger’s aliens. I really don’t understand the erotic appeal of a blowjob performed by one of those things.

    They show up in your bathtub for the moisture.

    And you don’t see how this is a setup for the sickest and most soul-sapping horror movie evah?

    THEY WANT TO DRAIN YOUR PRECIOUS BODILY FLUIDS AND LEAVE YOU A RASPING HUSK AT THE BOTTOM OF A BONE-DRY BATHTUB.

    (I really wish FTB enabled blinky text, larger fonts, and colored fonts. The above statement really needs all three.)

  153. says

    Richard Austin:
    Out, up, away from our local gravity well, it’s all good. It can cause mild existential trauma at first, but it is worth it.

    Caine,
    It’s just a little galileoscope but it does the trick.

    Josh, OSG,
    I’m with you on the too many legs thing, but no legs are just fine with me. We have a healthy population of black racers in the yard, popping their heads up from the weeds to check stuff out. It keeps the rat population in check.

    Ok, time to start Passover prep. Get the lamb on the smoker, ms he’d cauliflower or fritters (haven’t decided yet), charosets, cucumber salad, deviled eggs, veggie soup with matzoh balls, and meringue cookies with dark chocolate mousse. It’s kosherriffic. Oh, and a little bit o wine for the chef.

  156. Josh, OSG, Abortia N'ondemande says

    Thomas Kinkade is dead.

    That makes me happy. But now I’m going to have to find a new Official Nemesis.

  157. Josh, OSG, Abortia N'ondemande says

    Best (of a horrific lot of hagiographic grief) comment so far on Kinkade’s death:

    I just saw him on QVC several weeks ago and ordered an Easter item. What a shock. My sympathies to family and friends!

  158. says

    Josh:

    Also, my house is 140 years old, so it’s bound to have Ancient Atrocities that you’ll never encounter.

    Dude, my building was built in 1815, but the basement/foundation predates that by at least 100 years.

    What I’m saying is, we know from Ancient Atrocities. :)

    Audley, honestly. How much worse could it be? You’re already on Sigourney Weaver’s ship with that bullshit thing bouts to burst outta you in like 7 months or so.

    Yeah, but I don’t have to look at it.

    Minnie:
    Thank you! I am already starting to feel better– I woke up this morning and felt hungry instead of barfy, yay!

    The real test for today will be separating eggs for the “heavenly pie”* that I’m making for dessert tonight. If I can handle that, I can handle anything!

    *Recipe to follow.

  160. says

    I’m in Salt Lake City.

    I was planning a walking tour this morning.

    To my great shock when I woke up and leapt out of bed, ready to meet the day, my right knee is swollen and angry and sending waves of pain up to my otherwise cheerful brain. This is very annoying.

    I’m going to hobble around cautiously for a bit and see if it will wise up and start working fluidly and without agony. Otherwise, I’m going to take it out back and shoot it like it was a lame horse.

    Not a good start to the day…

  165. Janine: History’s Greatest Monster says

    PZ better be careful when he is around those fire ants that he likes, he might have a hard time getting away.

    Seriously, get better.

  166. says

    Heavenly Pie*

    4 large eggs, separated and at room temperature
    1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
    3/4 teaspoon salt
    1 1/2 cup sugar
    1 Tablespoon grated lemon zest + 3 Tablespoons juice
    2 cups heavy cream, chilled

    1- Adjust the oven rack to the middle position and heat oven to 300°F. Grease 9-inch deep-dish pie plate.

    2- In a large bowl, whip egg whites, cream of tartar, and 1/2 teaspoon salt with hand-held mixer on medium-love speed until foamy (about 1 minute). Increase mixer speed to medium-high and whip whites until soft, billowy mounds (1 to 3 minutes). Gradually whip in 1 cup sugar (1 minute). Continue to whip whites until glossy and very thick (3 to 6 minutes).

    3- Spread meringue into prepared pie plate and smooth into even layer. Run fingertip around the inside edge of the pie plate to create a small gap between the meringue and the rim of plate. Bake until golden brown and set, about an hour. Turn off oven and let meringue dry completely for 3 hours longer. Let meringue cool completely on wire rack, about 30 minutes.

    4- Whisk egg yolks, lemon zest and juice, remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt and remaining 1/2 cup sugar in medium saucepan until smooth. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens slightly (about 170°), about 5 minutes. Strain curd through fine-mesh strainer into a large bowl and press plastic wrap directly on the surface. Refrigerate lemon curd until cooled completely, about 1 hour.

    5- Whip cream in large bowl with hand-held mixer on medium-low speed until frothy (1 minute). Increase mixer speed to high and continue to whip until cream forms soft peaks (1 to 3 minutes).

    6- Fold half of whipped cream into cooled lemon curd until no white streaks remain. Spread lemon mixture into cooled meringue shell and smooth into an even layer. Spread remaining whipped cream over top and refrigerate until set, about 1 hour.

    *I’ve got to get cracking on this, or else I won’t have enough time to finish it before dinner. Eep!

  167. says

    MikeG:
    Here’s the recipe for the South American charoset:

    2 Valencia oranges, cut into bite size pieces
    1 sliced ripe banana
    1/2 cup honey
    1/4 cup orange juice
    1 cup chopped pistachios
    1 teaspoon cayenne
    1 teaspoon cardamom
    1 teaspoon ginger
    3 dates rolled in coconut, cut into small bite size pieces

    Place oranges and bananas in a large bowl. Add 1/4 cup honey and orange juice. Mix. Add remaining ingredients. Mix. Add the remaining honey. Mix. Refrigerate 1/2 hour. Serve. Refrigerate any leftovers.

  169. Louis says

    Nasty stuff PZ. I recommend hard drugs, neat alcohol and swearing at passers-by.

    But then I always recommend that. I’m predictable that way.

    Louis

  171. says

    Louis, but I do that all the time as a preventive.

    Hobbled about for a bit, it’s not getting better. Now to try the lie in bed with leg elevated trick for a while. I can also practice shouting tonight’s talk at the ceiling while doing that, which is sure to encourage god to send a flock of nubile angels with divine massage techniques to make it all better.

  172. rorschach says

    To my great shock when I woke up and leapt out of bed, ready to meet the day, my right knee is swollen and angry and sending waves of pain up to my otherwise cheerful brain. This is very annoying.

    Gout ? Unlikely to be septic, but it’s possible I guess. Rest, elevation, anti-inflammatories, see what happens.

  173. Muse says

    Also with the Pesach here – I cooked ALL THE THINGS. I pretty much cooked dinner for thirty people with a minimal amount of help. Lamb, lasagna, salad, potatoes, green beans, macaroons and fruit salad.

    Now time to do it all again – community seder instead of household seder tonight.

  174. starsend42 says

    OMG! Saw Dawkins and Faircloth last night here in San Diego. Awesome!!

    Protesters ouside were duly giggled at, as well as the ones during the questioning session after lecture! :)

    Post-lecture my group met at the Prado (a restuarant in Balboa Park) and shut the place down whilst discussing life, the universe and monty python!

    Truly an excellent evening!

  176. Pteryxx says

    Dr Audley: what does the charoset end up as? Is it supposed to be bite-sized, finger food, or spooned out of a bowl or something?

  177. rorschach says

    Tony Jones is a blithering fool, but this sounds like fun : Q & A: Pell vs Dawkins. Two years ago Pell got taken apart by Dan Barker, I might tune in Monday to see how he goes against Dawkins.

  178. Louis says

    PZ, #171,

    Hmmmm a tricky case. Really hard drugs? Proper stuff? I’m talking tea, maybe lukewarm coffee. Possibly a herbal infusion like…{looks around shiftily}…camomile. I, erm, know a guy who can get you…{whispers}…Lapsang Souchon. Shhh, keep that under your hat.

    I suppose the sensible suggestion would be the old RICE protocol (rest, ice, compression, elevation), but it sounds like you’re doing that already.

    I’ll see what I can do about the nubile massaging angels, but I will need to see a permission slip from The Trophy Wife™ first. Form 221B-D filled out in triplicate please. We’re not causing Strife again, not after that incident in Mozambique…I don’t want to talk about it…

    Louis

    P.S. The neat alcohol was for rubbing, the swearing at passers by was for oaths not profanity. Why, what did you think I meant?

  179. Louis says

    I will be COOKING ALL THE THINGS on Monday. I have just managed to get out of a visit to the in laws by virtue of extreme tiredness, lots of paperwork and pleading with a very nice and understanding wife.

    One of the conditions of my release was my wife and child are to return to a fully cleaned domicile and a selection of meals for the forthcoming week. So I shall also CLEAN ALL THE THINGS.

    Good trade I thought.

    Don’t get me wrong, I love the old in-laws. They are lovely people. Kind hearted, generous, welcoming. More racist than the average BNP member, but I’ll skip over that! But I just need a weekend of quiet. A bit of work and domesticity. Does that make me a bad person? Probably. But meh! I kinda knew that already!

    Louis

  180. Matt Penfold says

    I, erm, know a guy who can get you…{whispers}…Lapsang Souchon.

    You jest, but I got questioned taking some Twinings Lapsang Souchong into Australia. I think they thought I was using the smell to mask the smell of something more illicit.

  181. Louis says

    Matt,

    I can believe it. Lapsang’s a pungent beastie. Don’t Gentleman of the Drugs Trade use coffee to mask the smell of certain popular Columbian products?

    Louis

  182. dianne says

    Late to the party on this, but I have to say: I like spiders. Spiders eat mosquitoes. The enemy of a mosquito is my friend.

  183. Minnie The Finn, qui devient bientôt vierge says

    Lapsang Souchon? Isn’t that the stuff that tastes like tar?

    Me, I go for milder stuff, like Earl Grey. Wouldn’t dare to experiment with anything more hallucinogenic than that.

    I’ve just finished eating the big family meal complete with a leg of lamb and all the other trimmings, (pasha for dessert, ye gods!) and I’m happy to announce that BT COOKED ALL THINGS! Well I did peel some carrots and garlic gloves but that doesn’t really count, does it?

  184. Matt Penfold says

    Lapsang Souchon? Isn’t that the stuff that tastes like tar?

    Me, I go for milder stuff, like Earl Grey. Wouldn’t dare to experiment with anything more hallucinogenic than that.

    Lapsang does have something of a tar like quality it is true.

    What is truly delicous is to make some Earl Grey using tea leaves, and add a 1/2 tsp of Lapsang. Lovely! Twinings used to put a tiny amount of Lapsang in their Earl Grey until they reformulated the tea and added lemon instead(*)

    *. Only for the UK market as far as I know. The rest of the world still gets the original stuff. There was great furore about it, with articles in newspapers and so on.

  185. Muse says

    Audley – I’ve got to figure out what to do with leftover lamb to make a nice meat main dish for second seder.

    Doing a matzah kigel?

  186. Muse says

    Pteryxx

    Dr Audley: what does the charoset end up as? Is it supposed to be bite-sized, finger food, or spooned out of a bowl or something?

    Not Audley, but rabbi’s kid. Charoset is a ritutal food. It gets eaten usually on a piece of matzah during the seder.

  188. Beatrice, anormalement indécente says

    If Giliell drops by:
    I used your Gugelhupf recipe and it turned out great!
    Because I’m insatiable, I used raisins, prunes, dried cranberries and candied orange peel instead of just raisins (in the whole, I doubled to amount of dried fruit).

    Hope you’re having fun in France!

    —————————————–

    Congrats to Audley!

  189. Minnie The Finn, qui devient bientôt vierge says

    Matt Penfold:

    Lemon in Earl Gray? *shudders*

    I’m sure the stuff we get here is the original blend and may indeed have a dash of Lapsang in it. At least I haven’t noticed a difference in taste and I’ve been drinking buckets of it for decades (mostly Twinings).

  190. Matt Penfold says

    Lemon in Earl Grey? Bergamot surely!

    It is bergamot, but Twinings decided to add lemon as well since they concluded most people drink Earl Grey with lemon anyway. The lemon totally overpowers the tea.

  193. Pteryxx says

    Charoset is a ritutal food. It gets eaten usually on a piece of matzah during the seder.

    *headscratch* Thanks Muse. I didn’t understand any of that, but it sounds like the charoset’s sort of a sloppy food item that could go on, like, a pudding cup. I dunno from ritual, I just noted that it sounds tasty/cheap/easy. Think any of my friends might freak if I serve them *religious* coconut-date fruit mix? >_>

  194. Minnie The Finn, qui devient bientôt vierge says

    Next time I’m in London and staying in a posh hotel, I’ll make sure to ask for ‘any Earl Grey, as long as it’s not Twinings’ for my high tea.

  195. Matt Penfold says

    Next time I’m in London and staying in a posh hotel, I’ll make sure to ask for ‘any Earl Grey, as long as it’s not Twinings’ for my high tea.

    I’ve switched to Tesco Own Label!

  196. Louis says

    TWININGS ADDED LEMON! THIS IS AN OUTRAGE!

    I was unaware of this travesty, Matt. I am glad you informed me. I shall now go on a killing spree to sate my wanton lust for vengeance over this atrocity.

    I mean, we get worked up here about sexism and misogyny. About ableism, about racism, about homophobia. About religiously inspired atrocities of thought and deed. But this. THIS. THIS is important.

    Excuse me. I have to clean the streets.

    Louis

  197. Muse says

    Pteryxx replying to me

    Charoset is a ritutal food. It gets eaten usually on a piece of matzah during the seder.

    *headscratch* Thanks Muse. I didn’t understand any of that, but it sounds like the charoset’s sort of a sloppy food item that could go on, like, a pudding cup. I dunno from ritual, I just noted that it sounds tasty/cheap/easy. Think any of my friends might freak if I serve them *religious* coconut-date fruit mix? >_>

    Sorry – I forget the in-group language sometimes. Charoses is a kind of chunky paste usually. It’s often tasty. What I said was that charoses is a ritual food eaten during the ritual meal/reading of the Haggadah (the book that tells you what to say and is usually part of the telling of the story of the Exodus from Egypt). It’s eaten on what’s basically a cracker (Matzah is also a ritual food, it’s symbolic of the idea that the Israelites left too fast to allow the bread to rise)

  198. Art Vandelay says

    So my daughter got an easter basket from her babysitter and in it was this big chocolate crucifix, which I suppose is innocuous enough but it begs the question…if in a couple thousand years we’re giving our children chocolate IV needles and chocolate electric chairs, would anyone think that’s weird?

  199. Minnie The Finn, qui devient bientôt vierge says

    Louis! Don’t you dare go all judgmental over our terribly real first world problems! If I can’t whinge on TET, then where? =P

  200. carlie says

    Thanks for the suggestion, Markita Lynda!

    Lemon in Earl Grey? *clutches heart*
    Blech. I’ll keep my nice Stash brand Earl Grey, thanks. I currently have a box of regular, one of decaf, and one of double bergamot sitting in my office.

    I am somewhat jealous of everyone who is cooking all the things. We have only ourselves here, so it’s just the four of us on holidays, so there is never a need for cooking many of the things. I let myself get a bit maudlin for awhile, but try not to wallow.

  201. carlie says

    Yesterday I overheard a conversation between three people at the optician about Easter. One woman wished the other two a happy Easter and asked what they were doing for it; the Indian woman in the group said “I don’t celebrate Easter, I’m Hindu.” Then the first woman tried to explain what Easter was, in the process getting it wrong because she said that the crucifiction was celebrated on Holy Thursday since it’s three days after that to Sunday, and the Hindu woman said “I know, I went to Catholic school for all elementary.” Then the three of them tried to figure out/remember all the Catholic holidays associated with Easter and Lent and all, and never did figure out what Shrove Tuesday was. I opted not to interrupt and explain it, because obviously even the devout one who started the conversation didn’t quite care enough to know what the dates involved were.

  202. says

    Ouch, PZ. I hope your knee feels better soon.

    Josh:

    That makes me happy.

    As I said to a few people earlier today, “…and nothing of value was lost.”

    Although:

    Two former employees, Terry Sheppard and John Dandois, told the panel of further examples of Kinkade’s unpredictable behaviour: bringing disorder to a Las Vegas performance by the illusionists Siegfried and Roy by repeatedly yelling the word “codpiece” from his audience seat, and urinating in public – in an elevator and on a model of Winnie the Pooh at a Disneyland hotel. “This one’s for you, Walt,” Mr Sheppard claimed the artist said as he did so.

    Okay, Kinkade was a hack, a fraud, a sexual harasser, an otherwise bad boss, a business cheat, a liar, an all-around asshole, and, of course, a fundie. But I’m fine with giving him a few style points.

    I just saw him on QVC several weeks ago and ordered an Easter item. What a shock. My sympathies to family and friends!

    I LOL’ed. That was a masterful dodge of any expression of real regret.

    Louis and Matt: There’s a saying that kissing a smoker is like licking out an ashtray. I’d say that drinking lapsang souchong is much, much more like licking out an ashtray. Or, rather, filling the ashtray with hot water, stirring the tar up, and swilling it.

  204. Matt Penfold says

    I quite like lemon in Earl Gray, but it has to be a slice of lemon, and the tea has to be served black. Most of the time I prefer to drink it with milk though.

  206. Sili says

    :googles “Shrove Tuesday”.

    –o–

    Thomas Kinkade is dead.

    In other sad news, a grief-stricken nation just awoke to the reports that Rick Santorum was discovered alive in his home.

  207. The Laughing Coyote (Canis Sativa) says

    Tea with milk?

    Lemon juice and a bit of sugar. Save the dairy products for coffee, I says.

  208. says

    Pteryxx,
    Charoset is basically a fruit paste, so you can eat it spooned right out of the bowl or on some matzo. For the most part, you’re supposed to use whatever fruits and nuts are available to you, a little bit of honey and some kosher wine and Boom! Delicious.

    Muse,
    Nah, egg noodle kugel. The in-laws don’t keep kosher at all*, so it makes Passover all the easier.

    *My MIL** once refered to bacon as a condiment.

    **Not Jewish, but she feeds all of the Jewish part of the family.

  209. Sili says

    I can also practice shouting tonight’s talk at the ceiling while doing that, which is sure to encourage god to send a flock of nubile angels with divine massage techniques to make it all better.

    Just get a big mirror so you can face the audience, and begin the talk by apologising for forgetting your iron lung at home.

  210. Pteryxx says

    …What on earth is kosher wi- y’know, this is complicated enough already. Fruit paste! *flees*

  212. Sili says

    Ms. Daisy Cutter,

    Now that you mention it… last night I stumbled across gay erotica starring HR Giger’s aliens. I really don’t understand the erotic appeal of a blowjob performed by one of those things.

    Perhaps, but imagine the rimjob you could get.

    I rather like the parts of the Internet you frequent.

  213. says

    Just get a big mirror so you can face the audience, and begin the talk by apologising for forgetting your iron lung at home.

    Now that’s just Sili;-)

  214. says

    Pteryxx,

    …What on earth is kosher wi-

    By itself? Disgusting. At least the major brands, but I’d like to think that there’s some decent small-winery kosher wine available somewhere.

    Muse,

    locshen kugel is easier adn not revolting like most matzah kugels

    I’m not a huge fan of either type, but I’m more-or-less “filling in” for a family member who decided not to come tonight, who always brings kugel.

    Beatrice,
    Thank you! ♥

    I love teh Horde.

  219. Louis says

    Ms Daisy Cutter, #217,

    There are not enough palms for my face. What abhorrent scum.

    Louis

  220. cm's changeable moniker says

    Matt Penfold on smelly tea: “I’ve switched to Tesco Own Label!”

    Mrs M recommends their own-brand bourbon. I couldn’t possibly comment.

  224. says

    Caine:

    Funny how the postmodernist “hey, we’re beyond racism” morons fade into the woodwork over this sort of thing.

    They’re still answering telephone polls, though.

    I’m normally a sucker for comment-thread trainwrecks but you couldn’t pay me enough to read that one. Or, for that matter, this one to Margaret Wente’s plaint about how she misses being catcalled and leered at, so feminists should shut up about the (het) male gaze.

  226. says

    Daze:

    Or, for that matter, this one to Margaret Wente’s plaint about how she misses being catcalled and leered at, so feminists should shut up about the (het) male gaze.

    Nope, not going there. No. My blood pressure is barely recovered from the Fapster thread and ‘alexmartin’ showing up in the 30,000 watch thread, declaring victory because a zillion people aren’t responding to his drivel.

    If Ms. Wente is missing being the target of sexist assholes, I have a number of suggestions for her. FFS.

  227. Esteleth, Who is Totally Not a Dog or Ferret says

    Allo, allo.

    I braved the hordes and went grocery shopping at 11 on a saturday morning.

    I’ve only just now recovered (it’s just about 4 pm here) and went to make myself a strong cuppa.

    And I realized that I bought this by accident.

    RAGE. SEETHE. SMASH.

    So, now what? Do I drive back to the store and exchange it for REAL tea? Or do I suck it up?

    Re: Earl Grey: I knew there was a reason I only drank Bigelow or Tetley.

  228. says

    Alexmartin’s back? Oh, joy.

    Joey is unbelievable. I mean, not that I’m unfamiliar with right-wingers who take a Humpty Dumpty approach to the meanings of commonly understood words or who want to reject our scientific reality and substitute our own. But you add Joey’s rampaging bad faith, his inability to express himself clearly, and his Dunning-Krugeresque conviction that he’s sneaking his agenda right past us…. and arguing with him is just painful.

  229. says

    Esteleth, please accept my deepest sympathies on your misfortune. (And the supermarkets are clogged today, too, with everybody shopping for Jesus Forgot His Safeword Day.)

    I’ve been buying this brand of Earl Grey at one of our local closeout/overstock emporia; I’ve never seen it in the supermarkets. It’s quite good. I am finishing my second cup because I am still kind of thwacked by melatonin, even though I took none last night, and I really want to get more cleaning etc. done this weekend than I’ve already done.

  230. says

    Daisy:

    arguing with him is just painful.

    That’s the fucking truth. Someone filled his head with shit and he’s going to defend that shit, no matter how stupid. In the end, what is it all reduced to? sharp stick up the mother. Ugh.

  233. carlie says

    Esteleth – I see, the problem is that you got English Breakfast.

    *runs away*

  234. Esteleth, Who is Totally Not a Dog or Ferret says

    I am resolutely staying out of both of those threads. My BP is bad enough.

    I am curious. Is “English breakfast” a style of tea that is actually drunk in England? Or is that an Americanism? Most tea companies that sell in the US have such a blend. I note (from reading the Twinings box) that “Irish breakfast” is also a blend that they offer. Republic of Tea sells what they call “British breakfast” (which, hilariously, is sold in a box featuring an umbrella and a black bowler hat).

  236. Part-Time Insomniac, Zombie Porcupine Nox Arcana Fan says

    I just read that piece from Wente. I’d like to know how she could confuse leering and catcalling with a simple, yet not obnoxious glance that says, “Oh hi there, good-looking,” much less the kind of playful, even gentle flirting that can pass between people in public. One is something that even those who weren’t ever thought of as pretty or handsome could enjoy. The other is something there’d be an uproar about if it were only men who were on the receiving end day after day of their lives.
    ————————————————-

    Ever since reading about shipping container homes, I’ve been keeping a closer eye on my bank account. Just seems like something that’s a viable alternative to living in an apartment, and more so now that I know it’s not terribly hard to rig a solar power setup. Yes, I’m a dreamer, but the world needs ’em, mostly to spit on and kick in the head, right?

  237. Ogvorbis (no relation to the Ogg family) says

    To my great shock when I woke up and leapt out of bed, ready to meet the day, my right knee is swollen and angry and sending waves of pain up to my otherwise cheerful brain. This is very annoying.

    Sounds familiar.

    Do you remember doing anything to your knee?

    Was it with you all day?

    Lots of anti-inflammatories (that don’t interfere with your other meds), ice, elevation, yadda, yadda, yadda.

    Have you tried a .0000000000000000000000000001 infusion of morphine?

    In other sad news, a grief-stricken nation just awoke to the reports that Rick Santorum was discovered alive in his home.

    Damn. That really sucks.

    Though I would not put it past him to fake his own death and then, miraculously, reappear three (or so) days later.

    Hope for cremation.

    =====

    Girl has announced that she and Future Son-In-Law will be moving in together at the end of this semester. Our first child has fledged. Almost. She will still keep us as her actual address, but she will no longer live here.

    Torn between Bravo! and Oh, shit!

    Wife and I will be having beef with green peppers and onions over udon noodles (not sure if it’ll be buckwheat or wheat yet). But I found a way to be able to buy the right amount of beef — I found out Wegman’s sells ‘sandwich steaks’ — thin sliced top round in really small packages. just the right amount for two.

  238. Esteleth, Who is Totally Not a Dog or Ferret says

    I am torn between whether “Jesus on a Stick Day” is more, less, or equivalently hilarious/offensive than “Jesus Forgot His Safe Word Day.” I know people who would get more pissed over the former, but (doctrinally speaking) the latter is actually worse.

    I think I shall dial my recovering-fundie-but-still-devout mother and ask her. :D

  240. Josh, OSG, Abortia N'ondemande says

    I’ll be at a BBQ tonight with several very pragnit wimmin. I will aks if they want me to stick sharp up the babby. For funz. With a mani-pedi.

  241. Esteleth, Who is Totally Not a Dog or Ferret says

    But Caine, that is tomorrow. Jesus on a stick/forgot his safeword day was yesterday.
    Today is Jesus is dead so we cook day.

    We MUST keep our theology correct! *nods sagely*

  244. says

    Ing:

    Between Joey and Alex we are filled with chew toys no one will play with! You ingreatful little brats!

    Hey, I batted Alex The Stupid around a bit and the Fapster hasn’t been back.

  245. Esteleth, Who is Totally Not a Dog or Ferret says

    So, I made two lemon meringue pies today. They came out perfectly.

    I find that squirting just a bit of lime juice into the custard produces a truly fantabulous flavor.

  246. cicely. Just cicely. says

    PZ, my knees send their sympathies.
    –
    I seem to have done something terrible to my right shoulder blade and neck. Someone please shoot me.
    *lurches off in search of a hot-pack*
    –

  249. Janine: History’s Greatest Monster says

    It’s not like I make these decisions, my hands are xxxx nailed.

    We must get into the spirit of the holiday.

  252. Ogvorbis (no relation to the Ogg family) says

    Damn. You realize that, after getting nailed on his boards, no way is Jesus getting into law school? Well, Liberty might let him in, but only if he embraces Randian Christianity.

  254. birgerjohansson says

    Caine: “It’s raining. This is good. Esme does not like thunder grumbling”

    Clearly Baal, god of war, thunderstorms and rain is in a good mood.

  255. says

    Birger:

    Clearly Baal, god of war, thunderstorms and rain is in a good mood.

    Not anymore, he be slackin’ on the job. Sunny, cold and very windy today. Need moar rain.

  256. says

    Well, Liberty might let him in, but only if he embraces Randian Christianity.

    Kinda hard to embrace anything when your hands are xxxx nailed.

  257. Ogvorbis (no relation to the Ogg family) says

    Kinda hard to embrace anything when your hands are xxxx nailed.

    Randian Christianity is embraced by the mind, not the hands.

    Well, the hands are useful for taking the money out of other people’s pockets and harassing the wimmenz, but he can always hire some one to do that.

  261. Ogvorbis (no relation to the Ogg family) says

    I wish I could crucify my children right now and get three days of peace.

    I always wondered (back when Kids were young) about the ethicallity of duct tape.

  262. Janine: History’s Greatest Monster says

    Careful there, kristinc. Joey just might that those words and use them as part of his inane live birth argument.

    Seriously, I do hope you can get some peace.

  264. Janine: History’s Greatest Monster says

    I always wondered (back when Kids were young) about the ethicallity of duct tape.

    As long as you duct tape to the wall close to the ground as opposed to the ceiling.

  265. Part-Time Insomniac, Zombie Porcupine Nox Arcana Fan says

    Is your knee feeling any better, PZ?
    —————————–

    Finally downloaded the soundtrack to Myst III: Exile. Yesss…this must go on my player. I can’t believe I never bothered to give this music a chance until earlier this year!
    —————————–

    Fried chicken and sort-of instant mac and cheese for dinner. Mom used cornmeal instead of breadcrumbs for flour. Nice and crunchy. It took some stirring to make the shredded cheese on the macaroni melt, but it wasn’t too bad.
    ——————————–

    For any athletes: are chia seeds really all they’re cracked up to be? I hear about people mixing them with water and some lime juice, putting them in yogurt, mixing with Accelerade, etc. They’re supposed to be very good for you, but instead of only relying on reviews, I thought I’d see if anyone here had something to add.

  266. Ogvorbis (no relation to the Ogg family) says

    As long as you duct tape to the wall close to the ground as opposed to the ceiling.

    What about the mouth?

    (I love my Kids. Sometimes, though . . . .)

  267. Janine: History’s Greatest Monster says

    Who said that you can’t do both.

    Well, besides most reputable parenting experts.

  270. Part-Time Insomniac, Zombie Porcupine Nox Arcana Fan says

    Janine, maybe making a joke about him is the equivalent to sending out a Fapster signal?

  272. says

    I wish I could crucify my children right now and get three days of peace.

    and if they escape and see their shadow you have another six weeks of peace.

  273. says

    Mmm, lapsang souchong. Why the hate? It’s smoked tea. Smoked things are good. Smoked salmon, smoked bacon, smoked sausage, smoked garlic, smoked tomatoes… Yes, seriously, tomatoes; try it if you have a smoker – or if you can obtain Poacher’s Pantry products, which you most likely can’t. They are semi-dried tomatoes in texture.

    The finger lime baked cheesecake was nice, but the lime was pretty lost in it. I think next time I try this, I’ll do an unbaked cheesecake or a lemon curd tart style of thing with the lime pulp stirred in right at the end. Cooking the lime too long makes it lose the fun texture.

    A facebook meme has corrected me about the Zombie Jesus. Actually, Jesus fits the taxonomy for lich much better than for zombie, vampire or other undead. But you do have to be a bit of a nerd to know what a lich is, so I might stick with the zombie anyway. So the days are: Dead Jew onna Stick Day; Jesus in Hell day; Zombie Jesus Day.

  274. says

    Caine, #230: No, no, no, stick sharp up the mother. Who knew that sharp was a collective noun.

    NGL, after Joey’s dimbulbery and scarcely veiled hatred of women, I find Alex… hilariously full of himself. I howled with laughter at “You were mind-fucked into becoming a soldier ant in the coming neo-Communist Revolution.” I don’t know why, but it’s a deeply funny sentence. And “homophobialism” is a deeply funny… uh, word.

    Sailor, #235: Be my guest!

    Ogvorbis:

    Well, the hands are useful for taking the money out of other people’s pockets

    Not when the coins keep falling through the holes in his palms.

    Alethea, I love smoked meats, smoked cheese, smoked vegetables. I do not like smoked tea. I would hypothesize that there is not enough… substance of flavor to offset the smokiness, as there is with meats and cheese and veggies.

  275. picool says

    In PZ’s SLC talk he described liberal believers as “cafeteria realists”. I thought this was wonderful and thought I would share.

  276. Ogvorbis (no relation to the Ogg family) says

    g’night, folks.

    I’m sure that alex the Randian Christian and joey the agent provocateur will still be here in the morning.

    Alathea:

    I just checked my Monster Manual. Litch does work.

    I wonder how they feel about that in Litchfield, Mass?

  278. says

    Alethea:

    Mmm, lapsang souchong. Why the hate?

    No hate here. My Russian Caravan is deeply smoky. Malty, too.

    Daisy:

    Caine, #230: No, no, no, “stick sharp up the mother“. Who knew that “sharp” was a collective noun.

    Oh yes. It’s hard to remember the stupid at times.

  279. says

    Og, ITYM Litchfield, New Hampshire. Lych meaning corpse is folk etymology for the city of Lichfield, England, after one of whose earls the town in N.H. was named.

    I’ve been reading yet another internet shitstorm about misogyny. Menz are in both threads derailing like Amtrak during an ice storm, but if you want to see an especially impressive example, check out all the comments by “avt_tor” on the first page of the first thread. I’ll give him credit for coming back a few pages later to apologize to the OP, though.

    Also, the number of people, mainly men, who refuse to “get” this post and can’t shut up about it is depressing. I don’t know whether I should be heartened or further depressed that one of the guys who does get it, Manju, is a libertarian troll. On the one hand, something finally clicked for him. On the other, if he can get it, but the “liberal” dewds over there can’t….

  282. says

    I just put out fresh salad for the rats, with extra radicchio for Esme. She’s so excited she’s trying to brux while eating it. Goofy li’l heretic.

    I downloaded Drunk With Blood: God’s Killings in the Bible by Steve Wells. I am digging the e-books.

  283. says

    NRO’s Derby has been flung out of the ring. and under the bus. (NSFH (the link is to NRO, not safe for humans)).

    A bus with very low emission standards and high maintenance.

  284. Esteleth, Who is Totally Not a Dog or Ferret says

    Daisy,
    I read Scalzi’s post, and had to bash my head in when the first (!) comment complained about Valente’s use of “unknown” female bloggers.

    …

    RIGHT! Because this dudebro has never heard of them, then (1) no one has and (2) they are therefore unimportant.

  285. says

    I just put out fresh salad for the rats, with extra radicchio for Esme. She’s so excited she’s trying to brux while eating it. Goofy li’l heretic.

    I don’t squee. Really, I don’t. I refuse to. You can’t make m …. squeeeeee!

  286. says

    The Sailor:

    I don’t squee. Really, I don’t. I refuse to. You can’t make m …. squeeeeee!

    I didn’t hear a thing. She’s now being terribly excited over the nutella & peanut butter I put out for them. Why no, they aren’t spoiled at all. Nope. :D

  287. cm's changeable moniker says

    Ms DC:

    Also, the number of people, mainly men, who refuse to “get” this post

    —

    Like a sexually active woman, a forest changed by people is not ruined. Human activity should not change the status of land any more than sex should change how society treats women.

    As Friedman points out, it would be nice if after forty or more years of an active environmental movement, we could use different language to describe the land. But then again, I’d argue that environmentalism has some major gender problems to overcome, as do scholars of the environment

    —

    I don’t “get” it.

    But as a non-US-anian, I also don’t think that we use such terms, or use them in such ways. European foresters, feel free to disagree.

  290. says

    Caine:

    I downloaded Drunk With Blood: God’s Killings in the Bible by Steve Wells. I am digging the e-books.

    I ♥ed that book. I find it’s a nice reference to have on hand. (I also ♥ my e-reader.)

    In other news, it has been a good night. Dinner was delicious– the kugel (which I was a little unsure about) was a success. I am now stuffed.

    Oh and I have another vintage cookbook (which belonged to Mr Darkheart’s grandmother) to add to my collection, yay!

    In other other news, I have seen the saddest thing: a dizzy gerbil. Syd knocked himself silly while tearing though the apt in his fun ball. He just sat stock-still making tiny peeping noises. :( :( :(

  292. says

    Audley:

    I have seen the saddest thing: a dizzy gerbil. Syd knocked himself silly while tearing though the apt in his fun ball. He just sat stock-still making tiny peeping noises. :( :( :(

    Oh no, poor boy!

  295. says

    Utter idiocy. Any one of you could start a business, build a better mousetrap, have a good business idea, fry up a better batch a chicken than KFC and –gasp!horrors!– be successful.

    You yourself could build a new computer in your garage or start an (electric) car company. A fancy new algae/fuel farm or some such.

    And if you’re unfortunate enough at your new business, if you hire employees who make decent wages offa you, you make a superior (eco-friendly, low carbon-footprint, UN approved) widget that the world clamors to buy, your company might actually profit and grow and you might actually, as the guilt-faced owner of said evil corporation… wait for it…

    Get rich in the process (and thereby become the Enemy of your Beloved State)!

    But forgive me, I speak foolishly. Not a one of you would dare aspire to those heights of abomination. Not a one of you would ever try to rise above your Government-designated station.

    Stay down, stay small, stay docile. Stay mediocre. Your comrades demand it.Punish the successful. Revile the rich. Crush the producers. It’s your lot in life.

    Even if you could have done the poor some good with all that ill-begotten gain you stole from the masses that you did not deserve.

    You’d always know that you didn’t get there on your own, that that wealth you unjustly amassed doesn’t belong to you but to your “community”.

    Do I understand your mindset properly, or is this still about some clerics’ fancy watch and a stupid, clumsy attempt at a coverup?

    Am I a horrible person for wishing painful firey death on these assholes?

  296. carlie says

    Brown rice tea also has a smoky roasted flavor.

    The most vile tea I’ve ever tasted is rooibos. The fuck is up with that?

    Easter baskets are finished and ready to go. So nice that the kids are old enough not to do things like egg hunts. This year I found a toy for each that’s a ball with big eyes and tentacles all over – looks kind of like a flying spaghetti monster.

    Is Syd ok now?

  297. says

    Ing:

    Was he having a seizure? Gerbils are highly susceptible to them but they’re pretty much harmless; just brought up by stress.

    I’m not positive, but I don’t think so. He was able to move (he squirmed a bit when I put him back in the cage). Admittedly, I’ve only seen people and dogs have seizures, but it wasn’t anything like that at all.

    Carlie,
    Yep, Syd’s already back to his normal self.

    (In other words, begging for food.)

  298. says

    No, knee is horrible. After about ten minutes of walking, it loosens up an reduces to a throbbing ache; if I stop, standing or sitting, it locks up and it’s agony to get it moving again. I may have to live like a shark, never stopping.

    I’m lying in bed now with an ice pack on it. Not looking forward to the morning.

  300. says

    Am I a horrible person for wishing painful firey death on these assholes?

    Yep. Their lives are so miserable they want others to feel that way. Don’t fall for that.

    I do however, have this nice, glowing with aged iridescence, porcupine you can borrow. It’s like fire, only sideways.

  301. says

    Ing:

    Am I a horrible person for wishing painful firey death on these assholes?

    No.

    Carlie:

    The most vile tea I’ve ever tasted is rooibos.

    HUSH YO’ MOUTH. Rooibos is tasty and good for you. Even tastier when flavored with vanilla.

    PZ: What Audley said. I’m not a doc but I find the idea of knee pain that becomes worse when you stop moving to be frightening. Or any sort of pain, really. Can you get to an ER tonight somehow?

  302. Esteleth, Who is Totally Not a Dog or Ferret says

    Shit, PZ, that sucks. Seconding Audley’s opinion – get that checked out!

    ___
    Auuudleeeey, I went on a knitting marathon today. The bebeh blankie is done. Pics to follow.

  303. says

    PZ, get to a doctor!

    Audley:

    After a couple of minutes of being groomed by Chuck and being tempted with some leftover matzo, Syd is good as new and back to building the world’s greatest gerbil nest.

    Aaaaaaw, sweeeeeeeeet.

  304. carlie says

    PZ – they will understand if you have to miss an appearance due to injury. At least if you go to the ER you should get some decent painkillers out of it, as long as the out of network copay isn’t astronomical.

  306. says

    http://www.gerbils.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/gerbils/seizures.htm

    There are two main types of seizure. The first and less serious involves the gerbil freezing. It will appear to simply stare into space whilst standing low on all four legs. If picked up the gerbil will appear floppy and lacking in normal muscle control. This may last for no more than a minute or two, although it can last longer. The more severe type of seizure will involve the gerbil twitching with a series of violent muscular contractions that will last a few seconds, but rarely longer than half a minute. This more violent type of fit will usually lead to a period of about ten minutes when the gerbil will appear to be suffering from the first type of seizure. Although you will probably not notice it, scientists have discovered that in the days following a fit a gerbil will be more active than usual.

    Both types of fit are usually harmless. Fits that cause damage or are in other ways serious are extremely rare. The warning signs of problems are if the gerbil does not come out of the first type of fit for an excessive period of time, or in the case of the second type, if the jerking goes on for more than a minute, if there are repeating bouts of fitting without the gerbil seeming to recover there is probably a cause for the fits such as brain injury.

    If none of these occur then simply leave your gerbil in a quiet dark place for a few hours for it to fully recover. If there are danger signs there is probably little you can do. However, remember that these problems only happen in an extremely small proportions of gerbils that suffer seizures.

  307. says

    Esme managed to scale a few things in the bathroom, got into the cupboards above the washer/dryer, got into my nice black Converse pants, got tangled up and came tumbling down, pants and all. It must be one of those nights. (She’s okay.)

  309. says

    This reminds me of my mother-in-law. When she and my FIL bought the house they live in now, the different models of home were named after wines (it’s a retirement community, I dunno). The model they chose was the Zinfandel, but to this day she says it Ziffendale.

  310. Cassandra Caligaria (Cipher), OM says

    I’m sorry, PZ. I know how scary and shitty that is.* I hope it is resolved quickly. If it is any consolation for the pain, I could hear my friend glowing through the phone after he went to your talk today. You must have been awesome.

    *My own experience with an inexplicably swelling joint led to a very frustrating ER trip followed by months of badness.

  311. Esteleth, Who is Totally Not a Dog or Ferret says

    So, for photos of the blanket, clicky and clicky.
    The color actually shows on the one photo, which pleases me (the wide zoom).

    I feel like it is a bit small. The long diagonal is just less than 30 inches, which is less than I expected. I have plenty of yarn, so I can extend it.

  313. says

    E,

    Auuudleeeey, I went on a knitting marathon today. The bebeh blankie is done. Pics to follow.

    Good lord! My due date’s not ’til the end of Oct, you know. ;)

    That is so completely awesome, though. Thanks! ♥

    Ing,
    Gracias for the gerbil info. I thought he was moving his legs around, but maybe Syd was just all floppy. It only seems to happen when he’s in his ball– I’ll be on the lookout for it next time he goes all weird.

    PZ,
    I know how badly the ER sucks, but you should go.

  315. says

    No, it stops hurting when I stop moving. I feel fine now. The pain comes because the joint locks up then, and when I next move (I have to move sometime!), it’s agonizing until it loosens up again.

    Doctor is unlikely. I fly home tomorrow. I get one day in Morris, then I fly out to Australia.

    Hey, they have socialized health care in Australia, right?

  316. Esteleth, Who is Totally Not a Dog or Ferret says

    Audley, it was advertised as looking like the wing of a monarch butterfly, which I guess I can see.
    Doing it in green wrecked some of the resemblance.

    So: I was totally going for the aspen-leaf look!

  319. says

    PZ:

    Doctor is unlikely. I fly home tomorrow.

    I don’t like this one bit. Random swelling freaks me the fuck out– nothing good can come of it.

    Besides, last I checked, the ER is open 24 hours a day. At least maybe then you can get some prescription anti-inflammatories.

    Wait, you’re still in Salt Lake City, yes? Did you get bitten by a Mormon or something*?

    *They’re like mosquitoes, right?

  320. ibyea says

    I have a question. Do lots of people work in Sunday during Easter? Just asking because I will have to work tomorrow, and so I am really annoyed right now. :)

  321. Esteleth, Who is Totally Not a Dog or Ferret says

    Audley,
    I’ll be passing through your stomping grounds in late May, so we can meet up and I can pass it on then. Alternatively, you can deposit your snail mail at esteleth at gmail.

    :D

    Now, for my next project…

  323. Esteleth, Who is Totally Not a Dog or Ferret says

    Okies, sounds good to me.

    Incidentally: there is sufficient yarn for, say, a knit hat for mama. Yes?

  325. says

    Hooray! This atheist goy (who was never Jewish) pulled off a hell of a good Seder dinner. The lamb on the smoker came out phenomenal, and all the sides and dessert rocked. I’m full and drunk and going to bed.

    PZ, I hope the knee is but a minor nuisance that can be dealt with wherever you are. Take care.

  326. says

    MikeG:

    The lamb on the smoker came out phenomenal, and all the sides and dessert rocked. I’m full and drunk and going to bed.

    Yay! Have a good sleep, you deserve it.

  327. waydude says

    PZ, you can ignore my request on the Ariel thread, just saw this about flying out tomorrow. But if you need a ride to the airport, I kinda work there.

    That sounded funny. I’m a pilot, So I kinda work at a lot of airports.

  328. Just_A_Lurker says

    Can I ask what happened on the Ariel thread? If no one wants to go there or bring it back up I understand. I’m simply curious, I don’t really see people here complaining about their stuff on a thread raising money and awareness to grant a little girl’s wish before she dies of cancer is all.

    There’s so many people that need help. =(

    I can’t donate but I sent an email to Orlando Studios

  329. Cassandra Caligaria (Cipher), OM says

    Someone threw a tantrum about the worthiness of the cause (because it doesn’t contribute directly to someone’s survival). They were banned but returned to continue their tantrum. Several of us responded repeatedly to their posts (including me), and a side argument spun off from some of those response. It was a shitstorm of shit.

  330. Just_A_Lurker says

    Er, I’m asking here because I don’t want to derail that thread. Asking there seems very…tacky? Wrong anyways. But like I said feel free to not answer that question. I understand if its just best left alone.

  331. Just_A_Lurker says

    Ah, ok. It just was really weird to see PZ comment after everything happened without being there. Thank you CC.

    What a shitty person to say that about her cause. I hope they don’t morph and come back. =(

  332. says

    J_A_L:

    I can’t donate but I sent an email to Orlando Studios

    That might be the biggest help of all. The more they hear about Ariel, the better. It’s good PR for them, and it’s not like they don’t have the money.

  334. NuMad says

    *They’re like mosquitoes, right?

    Do mosquitoes feed on the dead?

    Get rich in the process (and thereby become the Enemy of your Beloved State)!

    The rich the natural enemy of governments? This person has a vivid imagination.

  336. says

    This asshole is bad enough, with his thundering herds of “That letter really breaks my heart, but we xtians really do love homosexuals and that’s why we need to call you out on your sinful behavior” teal deer. But this one?

    It is human nature to want to be like the people you hang out with. If you hang out with drunks and queers they will, directly or indirectly, attempt to influence you to do what they do and to be like them….

    A Christian should treat a non-Christian homosexual the same as someone with a mild case of schizophrenia: there is some kind of mental problem, or genetic aberration, causing one to act contrary to one’s gender. It may also be a moral or character deficiency, or just plain bad judgment (Wgetting high or drunk and hanging out with the wrong crowd). To such people you can tell them, gently, that with Christ one can overcome this deficiency.

    HATE.

  338. says

    PZ, we have not-quite-fully socialised medicine here, and plenty of good doctors. A normal GP visit will cost somewhere around $80. We Aussies get most of it refunded, but you won’t be able to claim that. Your travel insurance might help but possibly not if it’s pre-existing. Probably best to see your own doc if you can manage; a long flight with a bung knee sounds horrible and potentially quite damaging if you’re in cattle-class.

    I’m just back from a long day at the national folk festival. Sleepy now. I have listened to some good music and some indifferent music, and bought awesome science nerdy leggings and crazy columbian shoes.

  340. Louis says

    AHA! The TRUTH finally provided by one of the great think tanks of our time.

    Women: It’s all your fault.

    Louis

  341. Ogvorbis (no relation to the Ogg family) says

    Og, ITYM Litchfield, New Hampshire. Lych meaning corpse is folk etymology for the city of Lichfield, England, after one of whose earls the town in N.H. was named.

    I thought it was Mass. Oh, well. Either way, massive attempted humour fail.

    Virgin Forest: untouched, unsullied, pure, innocent, virtuous.

    Which, considering the evidence for human management of forests during the last 1,000 years or so in North, Central and South America, the forests have been slutty for a long time.

    Not a one of you would ever try to rise above your Government-designated station.

    Right. The rich aren’t trying to get even richer while squashing the middle class.

    Am I a horrible person for wishing painful firey death on these assholes?

    No. You are human.

    I find the idea of knee pain that becomes worse when you stop moving to be frightening.

    Not that unusual (for me, at least).

    A Christian should treat a non-Christian homosexual the same as someone with a mild case of schizophrenia

    I am so fucking sick of ‘you disagree with me/are different so you must be mentally ill.’ Assholes.

  342. Pteryxx says

    It may also be a moral or character deficiency, or just plain bad judgment (Wgetting high or drunk and hanging out with the wrong crowd). To such people you can tell them, gently, that with by renouncing Christ one can overcome this deficiency.

    fix’d.

    —

    >Virgin Forest: untouched, unsullied, pure, innocent, virtuous.

    Which, considering the evidence for human management of forests during the last 1,000 years or so in North, Central and South America, the forests have been slutty for a long time.

    The Onion: Raped Environment Led Polluters On, Defense Attorneys Argue

  343. Pteryxx says

    …

    Attention to a comment over at Crommunist’s. Maybe y’all who are better at sympathy than me can help? This person deserves it.

    I still used to trust the police, though, and believed my parents when they insisted that all stories of police brutality and corruption were made up by criminals and liberals who hated cops. And then I was raped.

    http://freethoughtblogs.com/crommunist/2012/04/03/failure-to-shuffle-bow-and-scrape-the-fatal-consequences/#comment-41647

  344. Antiochus Epiphanes says

    PZ–Try acupuncture. My brother’s wife’s aunt had a bum knee just like that until she saw a naturopathic doctor. Her knee no longer is an issue, and now she can turn invisible and fly.

  345. Ogvorbis (no relation to the Ogg family) says

    Pteryxx:

    I did comment, but I am held in moderation.

    Not sure what I did wrong.

  347. Weed Monkey says

    Pretty much the whole of Finland has run out of eggs. The silly things religious holidays cause. (Around Christmas there was a sudden lack of butter, because of people who had suddenly decided to go low-carb and emptied the stores faster than they could be refilled.)

    Background: the EU banned the smallest cages, so many egg farmers simply quit rather than invest in making things better for the hens.

    Eggs are one of very few things that practically can’t be imported, as they’re subject to a high standard of salmonella control. I suppose Swedish eggs could cut the mustard, but Swedes probably don’t have any extra either.

  348. says

    Oggie,

    I did comment, but I am held in moderation.

    Not sure what I did wrong.

    Nothing, probably. I got held in moderation the first time I commented over there, too.

    Don’t worry, it won’t last long.

    (I didn’t reply to the comment that Ptyrexx linked to– no idea what to say, but it is heartbreaking– but I did drop a comment on the overall thread.

    It’s nice to see Desert Son around, too.)

  350. says

    Og (et al, re “virgin” forests):

    Virgin Forest: untouched, unsullied, pure, innocent, virtuous.

    Which, considering the evidence for human management of forests during the last 1,000 years or so in North, Central and South America, the forests have been slutty for a long time.

    Yah, I suspect that the notion that any> “old-growth” forest in current times can be rationally thought of as “untouched” is rooted in deepest ignorance.

    That post was fascinating; thanks for the linky, Daze. I’ve thought for a long time that the belief in a pristine state of nature that’s invariably debauched by humans was wrong-headed; an expression of a sort of human self-loathing that is frequently a major weakness in otherwise laudable environmental movements.

    Despite the obvious application of the virginity metaphor, though, I’d never thought of it as gendered in the larger sense, until I read that post. Now that I have read it, the connection is “how stupid was I to have missed that” obvious! Thanks for pointing me (us) to the clue.

    Happy Zombie Jesus Day, all!

  353. Nutmeg says

    Ogvorbis:

    an expression of a sort of human self-loathing that is frequently a major weakness in otherwise laudable environmental movements

    Yes.

    [not fully thought-out ideas] Sometimes I wonder if there’s a link to religion in this. It’s almost as if some environmental movements have bought into the whole “man is separate from the rest of Nature” idea from Genesis. And instead of taking the similarly repulsive attitude of man having dominion over it all, they think that we don’t really belong here, or something like that. [/not fully thought-out ideas]

  355. tim rowledge, Ersatz Haderach says

    PZ: knee sounds rather like something I did to my knee many years ago. Twisted the joint just right to tear the synovial membrane thus letting out the WD-40 (or whatever the mechanics used in there originally) and letting in blood. Bad both ways, so I was told. Swelled up like a football (a real football, not silly merkin sorta-rugby ball) and had me in plaster for six weeks.

    Get it checked.

    For fun, take a look at (http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/apr/08/atheism-religion-debate-stalemate-archbishop) – just too funny. He really crucifies us atheists.

  356. says

    There may be a chew toy in the “Selling papers on Easter Sunday…” thread.

    Atheists always deny that they are a religion. But they, along with the humanists, organize themselves as if they were a religion following a set of core beliefs. Is it necessary for atheists to hold national conventions, replete with delegates and speakers? What are they mobilizing for? I dread to imagine. Also, how do atheists deal with ex-atheists? Are they ostracized and chastised? Are they regarded as apostates and traitors?

  357. says

    Dunno if anyone else mentioned it yet but this week(end)s McLaughlin Group (tmg… I call them “the shouters.”) discussed the Reason Rally and atheism and religion in US politics. Good program. The video and transcripts are not up yet but they should appear here:
    http://www.mclaughlin.com/index.htm

    The last question put forward asked for predictions of when the first admitted atheist* could possibly be elected as President of the US. The lowest guess was 2050 and the highest (McLaughlin’s) was 2100.

    *admitted atheist sounds too much like “convicted pederast” (or something.) Need a better way to say that a person is an atheist and everyone knows. Words like: outed, avowed, obvious, die-hard, committed, admitted, evangelical, strident, rabid, outspoken, devout, etc… atheist, seem to be OK these days, but I don’t like any of them. Why not just atheist or nothing at all? Are there any thesaurians (is that a word?) who can think of a better one?

  359. says

    Nutmeg (@353):

    That bit you quoted was actually me talking to Ogvorbis. My guess is that he doesn’t much disagree, but I don’t want him held responsible for my ramblings.

    I agree with your “not fully thought out” ideas: I’ve long held (similarly not fully researched/defined) suspicions that the “people ruin everything” mindset that so often creeps into reform movements (esp. environmental and animal welfare movements in which it’s especially easy to identify people in general as villains) is connected to religious notions of the flawed nature of humankind, and, in the West, specifically to Abrahamic notions of fallen-ness and Christian ideas about innate depravity.

    I see it as a kind of species-wide (or at least many-cultures-wide) psychological defect: We’ve internalized the sense that we’re deeply flawed and destructive, and that leaks out in various kinds of defensive reactions (e.g., “dominion over nature” shit) and expressions of self-loathing (e.g., Earth First/PETA-style extremism, or the ludicrous-but-apparently-not-facetious Voluntary Human Extinction Movement), but also, in subtler ways, in the form of hypermoralism, racism, and sexism.

    In my (eventual) retirement, I might try to do some serious research on this, but for now, my relatively unschooled guess is that a large fraction of humankind’s cultural failings can be laid at the feet of the twin notions that humans are [a] special, and distinct from the rest of the natural world, but also [b] deeply broken in comparison to some Platonic ideal as represented by a deity.

    IOW, we don’t need God; we need a shrink!

  360. Pteryxx says

    IOW, we don’t need God; we need a shrink!

    rofl! This is one of the oldest quotes in my hoard:

    #21 posted by Takuan , February 28, 2008 9:46 PM

    I thought yoga teachers had to be spittle-flecked, screetching Welsh drill sergeants – only meaner – to get their lazy, unmotivated, WEAK and WORTHLESS students to practice regularly. I mean, traditionally.

    #22 posted by Antinous , February 28, 2008 9:52 PM

    Mostly I try to get them to like themselves. That’s much harder than bending them in half.

  361. Antiochus Epiphanes says

    Caine…already got the chain-saw out. I can be there in a jif. Which way is north again?

  363. Sili says

    Thanks for the explanation on the Ariel thing.

    I noticed the comments piling up fast this morning when I went to bed, and I suspected that someone was being an arse.

    Good to get my misanthropy confirmed. Warms the cockles of my heart.

    Or rather, my burning hatred of humanity likely ignited the lump of coal that’s there in place of a heart.

  364. says

    The lowest guess [at the earliest possibility of an atheist president] was 2050 and the highest (McLaughlin’s) was 2100.

    Gee, that pretty much rules out my being alive to see such a thing.

    Hmmm… I’ll turn 90 on 4 May 2050, and I fully expect to live to see that birthday. Given the pace of discovery in medicine and its underlying branches of biology (assuming we don’t turn away from science in the coming years), I wouldn’t bet too heavily against seeing my 140th birthday, in 2100.

    But I actually think these estimates are either way too long or way too short: I think this election cycle is an inflection point in U.S. history. Generational trends favor an increasingly more progressive, humanistic, rational society, while the political right is more anti-progressive, anti-humanistic, and anti-rational than it has been at any point in my lifetime. I almost miss the Cold War, when we had “Commies” to distract the right from its own base ideological agenda!

    If the Republicans win in this election — and my best guess is that if they win the White House, they will also take the Senate and increase their majority in the House (and keeping in mind that there’s already a conservative, if somewhat tenuously so, majority on the Supreme Court) — I think they use their power to secure their power, and we’re at risk for becoming a strict father model (per George Lakoff) theocratic oligarchy.

    If, OTOH, Obama wins reelection, and the Dems at least hold the Senate and maybe retake the House, I think we’ll see movement in the opposite direction, and by the 2016 election cycle the viciously anti-progressive positions of the current Republican party will be so electorally untenable that the party will either massively redirect itself or be shunted aside by a more centrist opposition party.

    Mind you, I’m not claiming that Obama and the Dems are radical lefties: I’m only suggesting that the arc of history favors change in a secular progressive direction. Our choice is between an anti-historical regressive movement and letting history take its naturally progressive course. If we choose the latter, we might see an atheist president (or, at least, a president who isn’t an explicitly declared theist) well before 2050; if the former, it’ll be well after 2100 (if we manage to avoid collapse or armed revolution before then, that is: 2100 is an interesting date WRT antitheocratic revolution).

  365. Ogvorbis (no relation to the Ogg family) says

    Ogvorbis:

    an expression of a sort of human self-loathing that is frequently a major weakness in otherwise laudable environmental movements

    That was not me. That was Bill Dauphin. You can tell as he was erudite, incisive, and wrote something worth reading.

    My guess is that he doesn’t much disagree, but I don’t want him held responsible for my ramblings.

    I do agree. Part of it is, among the environmentalists, a guilty conscience that would do a Catholic proud. Additionally, I would add that the idea that, once a land’s ‘virginity’ has been taken, the land is fair game for clear-cut logging, strip mining, acid pools for gold mines, and strip malls, would tend to invigorate those who want to ravage the land to show that any land they want to despoil has already been despoiled. This explains the western states and their idea that, if a wagon has been through there it is an historical highway and therefore cannot be declared wilderness.

  366. says

    AE:

    Caine…already got the chain-saw out. I can be there in a jif. Which way is north again?

    Hells if I know.

    David:

    Why not just atheist or nothing at all? Are there any thesaurians (is that a word?) who can think of a better one?

    Open.

    Bill:

    I’ll turn 90 on 4 May 2050, and I fully expect to live to see that birthday.

    In November of of 2050, I’d be 92. I fully expect to *not* see that birthday.

  367. says

    :falls over laughing:

    As long as the body doesn’t begin to decompose and rot, its resurrection would not be miraculous: It would be quite possible.

    Did you never watch the episode of Star Trek TNG called “Neutral Zone” (Season 1) where cryogenically frozen humans who died in the 20the century were restored to life in the 24th?

    So why does the regeneration of the body of a man only three days dead surprise you so much? Isn’t this atheistic double standards?

  369. says

    Audley:

    Our little yec is certainly tearing it up today, huh?

    Oh, that last one was a beaut. Made me snort my tea, dammit. I bookmarked that, it’s a sterling example of how theists deal with reality.

    It made me think of the scene in Galaxy Quest where they had to explain acting to Malthasar.

  370. Ogvorbis (no relation to the Ogg family) says

    One of the cycling adverts is one for Fatal Encounters: True Stories of Decisions Turned Deadly” on the Discovery channel.

    Nice.

    A whole programme consisting of, ‘well, if xe didn’t make this decision, xe wouldn’t have been murdered.’ I wonder if they will mention that it was a murderer, a man or woman, a human being, who made the decision to murder someone? (I am assuming (having seen some of the commercials) that this will not be deadly traffic accidents.) What the world needs: a whole tele programme showing why it is the victim’s fault.

  372. Louis says

    The Star Trek therefore Jesus thing has caused me pain. It’s reduced me to a state of brokenness. All I am good for now is holding doors open and masturbation.

    How, simply HOW, can anyone be that fucking stupid? Seriously. I hope he’s trolling. Excuse me whilst I convert to a major religion so I can pray he’s trolling. I can then deconvert and convert to the next one in the list and pray all over again until I reach the end of the list.

    Bah. I am going to /b/ to hurt my brain some more.

    Louis

  373. says

    Oggie,
    What the fuck happened to the Discover Channel? I remember when it actually had interesting programming.

    Caine:

    Oh, that last one was a beaut. Made me snort my tea, dammit.

    I can get behind “The World According to Gene Roddenberry”. He seemed like a pretty alright guy.

    (Not a Trekkie.)

  374. Pteryxx says

    apropos of nothing but my internet wanderings. Texas Observer has been kicking ass for a while now on the anti-woman front. (Their current issue has a twitterfroth-inducing gynecological cover: link )

    But it also has this long article on Guatemala’s disappeared citizens, mass graves of remains that U. Texas is helping to identify, and the first national internal prosecution of genocide in history:

    http://www.texasobserver.org/cover-story/the-long-road-home

    The campaign has had partial success. Thousands of people—Julio Solórzano among them—have had their cheeks scraped for DNA. Many others are scared to come forward. During the war, showing too much interest in a desaparecido—even a family member—was a sure path to getting disappeared yourself.

    That fear, Barrios said, is still alive, and it’s polluted Guatemalan society.

    “People say Guatemala is a violent country,” he said. We were standing outside the camp, eyeing the two National Police guarding the place. He was smoking a cigarette. “They see that we’re second-highest in murders. They see robberies and attacks on buses. And we Guatemalans say, ‘Well, this is how it’s always been.’

    “But that violence came from somewhere. Those bodies in the ground were put there by the authorities. The men who killed them are still free. They are still in power. I think much of the violence in our culture comes from that. Violence was done to the people, and the people responded with violence.”

    “You think the connection is that strong?” I asked.

    “Yes.” He thought a second. “During the early years of the human rights movement, when the military left death threats with human rights groups looking into the disappearances, they liked to say ‘Dejen que los muertos descansen en paz.’ [Let the dead rest in peace.] The government said, ‘We’ll kill these people, and you can’t do anything.’ And for a while they were right.”

    He dropped his cigarette on the wet grass. “For a while.”

  375. tim rowledge, Ersatz Haderach says

    I think they use their power to secure their power, and we’re at risk for becoming a strict father model (per George Lakoff) theocratic oligarchy.

    Aside from the horror of the idea Bill is suggesting, do not visit that wikipedia link. It will turn the delicious taste of chocolate to soap in your mouth.

    But aside from that, yes, the aim of the theocrats is clearly to establish a dictatorship since quite obviously once you have the government ordained by god there is no point whatsoever in any more elections or politics. How dare you suggest any other option is needed in this best of all possible worlds!

  376. says

    Whenever I’m visiting family and I happen to pick up the newspaper, I’m reminded why I haven’t been tempted to subscribe to one in years.

    Shorter Joanna Weiss, one of the stupidest, most self-satisfied and clueless Boston Globe columnists I’ve seen in years: If GLBT people want their rights, they need to be nicer to bigots and stop calling them bigots.

    (If anyone wants to write to her, she’s at weiss@globe.com. (Since she published that column in a public newspaper that carries her email address, I consider posting it here fair game.) She’s also on Twitter: @joannaweiss.)

    And that’s just the rotten cherry on a shit sundae of Easter columns: Glibertarian Cathy Young asking, “What war on women?”, reproductive-rights-derailing Catholic E.J. Dionne fondling his boner for Gnosticism in print, and a review of a book about evangenitals who do things like “make dates with God” (Jeff Sharlet, you can do better than this).

  377. says

    Louis:

    How, simply HOW, can anyone be that fucking stupid?

    I’m afraid we’re surrounded. By the terminally stupid. Remember, double tap.

    Daisy:

    evangenitals

    There’s a word I never needed to see.

  379. says

    Oh, come on, Caine, it’s a highly useful word.

    Bill, #350: Environmentalism has conservative roots: Royalty with private hunting enclosures, which evolved over time to rich white men who wanted to preserve their hunting and fishing grounds from the teeming masses. You can see echoes of it in 20th-century fascism, especially Blut und Boden.

    This is not to say that protecting the environment is unimportant; far from it. But the movement has absorbed a great deal of misanthropic, elitist nastiness from its predecessors. Saving cute animals is considered important; poor people who are being slowly poisoned by the toxic houses and neighborhoods they have no choice but to live in, not so much. The late Edward Abbey ranted about how Latin Americans shouldn’t be allowed into the U.S. because they’ll trash all the natural beauty. And let’s not forget all the comfy First Worlders who think that natural disasters and death in childbirth are just peachy when they happen to brown people half a planet away, because that’ll keep the population numbers down for a short while.

    Overpopulation is a serious problem. The idea that we can just keep making more and more of ourselves on a planet with limited resources is deeply disconnected from reality. But it has to be done through education and persuasion. It can’t be done by fiat, especially by white people with no grasp on the racist or sexist implications and history.

    Ogvorbis, this will probably sound elitist, but I expect that degree of intelligence and empathy from the vast majority of television programs nowadays.

    Here’s some comic relief, posted on Arsebook by a friend of mine hoping to give at least one of her many fundie relatives the fits.

  381. Cassandra Caligaria (Cipher), OM says

    I seriously
    can’t
    YEC is now marveling at our lack of faith in science. Because we told him Star Trek wasn’t evidence of reality.
    I just
    can’t stop giggling

  385. Ogvorbis (no relation to the Ogg family) says

    What the fuck happened to the Discover Channel? I remember when it actually had interesting programming.

    They took the path of maximum profit for minimum investment.

  386. Ogvorbis (no relation to the Ogg family) says

    Isn’t yecch! the one who came up with, “God made Adam, so CPR!”?

  387. says

    Caine:

    Open

    Perfect, thanks.

    Open Atheist.

    Hmmm as opposed to what. “closed atheist”? Perhaps “Openly Atheist.” But Open is good enough for me.

  389. says

    Ersatz Haserach (@375):

    Aside from the horror of the idea Bill is suggesting, do not visit that wikipedia link. It will turn the delicious taste of chocolate to soap in your mouth.

    Yah, I’d hoped to find a link that was more specifically focused on Lakoff’s application of the strict father model to U.S. politics, but I was in a hurry.

    ***
    Daze (@376):

    Shorter Joanna Weiss, one of the stupidest, most self-satisfied and clueless Boston Globe columnists I’ve seen in years: If GLBT people want their rights, they need to be nicer to bigots and stop calling them bigots.

    Yeah, because history is so full of tales of oppressed people gaining their rights by being nice, eh?

    Also, re yours @379, I think we’re in “violent agreement”: I hadn’t particularly addressed the class-privilege aspect of environmentalism, but I don’t disagree with anything you said along that line.

    BTW, I think the best answer to any concern about overpopulation is education and social justice: AFAIK, birthrates (and overall population growth rates) almost always go down (and prosperity goes up) whenever people (esp. women and girls) have improved access to education, and whenever women’s social power is increased (esp. when women have greater reproductive autonomy). There’s really no need even for external persuasion in direct terms, and certainly not for imposition of population control by fiat.

    ***
    Chainsaws? I spend yesterday afternoon chainsawing up the last of the fallen branches from last fall’s freak October snowstorm, and today I can barely lift my arms. It’s easy to forget, in the heat of the moment, that the chainsaw is frickin’ heavy, and a couple hours of nonstop work with it is the equivalent of a couple hours of nonstop weightlifting in the gym!

  390. KG says

    Environmentalism has conservative roots – Ms Daisy Cutter

    It does, but it also has radical left roots: for example Marx, Kropotkin and perhaps most famously, William Morris, were deeply concerned with environmental questions.

  392. Nutmeg says

    FB post from high school friend:

    He rose and concurred the grave! Yes he concurred the grave!!

    What would that even mean? Did he nod and say, “Yep, that’s a grave there all right.”?

  393. says

    Nutmeg:

    What would that even mean?

    Apparently, Jesus and the grave had a chat. Presumably while he was in it and they agreed on something. Perhaps on how nice a little dirt nap can be.

  394. says

    Urrk! I hate it when I mistype nyms… esp. ones as creative as Ersatz Haderach.

    ***
    Nutmeg (@383):

    I haven’t read, and hadn’t previously heard of, that Pain in the Ass book, but it looks great. I’ll have to see if it’s out in audio.

    Speaking of which, y’all may already know this (hmmm… I now see that if you read Greta Christina’s FtB blog more regularly than I, you certainly do), but I just learned via Susie Bright’s (unfortunately pay-subscription) In Bed podcast that Greta Christina’s new book has been acquired for audible.com. Bright has recently become an Editor-at-Large for audible, and Why Are You Atheists So Angry? is her first acquisition in that capacity. No word on who the reader will be, but I’m hoping it’s Greta herself, or, failing that, Susie Bright.

  395. Cassandra Caligaria (Cipher), OM says

    I am done with my Latin! *cheers everywhere*
    Now I just have one sentence left of Greek to translate, a few verbs and forms in Greek to review, a few chapters of a book to finish, a whole second book to start and finish, some German to review, a writing assignment to complete, and probably another run through the Latin to do by Tuesday!

  400. says

    A Catholic bishop in Kansas City must stand trial on charges that he failed to report a priest found with pornographic pictures of young girls on his Church computer to police, a judge said on Thursday.
    —–
    Lead poisoning or syphilis? Neither killed Caravaggio, says a Naples professor in a new book. Instead the master artist was slain and dumped in the sea by the Knights of Malta—with the Catholic Church’s blessing.

    And a couple of links from Ophelia Benson: Ratzi rebukes a group of Austrian priests who call for optional celibacy and women’s ordination by saying that the RCC won’t be reformed via open dissent. Indeed, the Vatican is investigating an Irish priest who has been outspoken in criticizing clerical abuse of Irish children, as well as the ban on birth control and the ban on women priests.

  402. Janine: History’s Greatest Monster says

    Damn, I had no idea that it was we feminists who ran the KKK through the devious charges of false rape charges.

  403. says

    Janine:

    Damn, I had no idea that it was we feminists who ran the KKK through the devious charges of false rape charges.

    It’s astonishing, the things I’m learning about the Matriarchy. I had no idea.

  406. Janine: History’s Greatest Monster says

    Ing, who had the bigger empire; the RCC or the Mafia?

  407. Patricia, OM says

    *Weeee* My ebil atherist plan to make the christian neighborhood sin on Easter Sunday worked!

    My lawn mowing brought out three other mowers and one rototiller.

    Hee,hee, he, hee, evil laughter & naughty smirks!

  410. Patricia, OM says

    Yeah, it was great!
    Evil as I am, I never thought I’d score a rototiller on Easter. That guy tilled so long he won’t be able to lift a forkfull of his kosher ham.

  412. carlie says

    Has anyone heard from JackC lately? Is he on PET? He hasn’t been around here in a long time from what I’ve noticed. :(

  413. Sili says

    I haven’t talked to him since Rhinebeck, I’m afraid, but I just checked Google Latitude, and that had him down as alive for what it’s worth.

  415. Jules says

    JackC was at Reason Rally. He’s on PET, but I think he’s pretty busy.

    He did group photos at RR until the rain came out.

  416. carlie says

    Jules – cool, thanks. :) I hate to feel all mothery/checking up on people, but then I do miss them when they’re not around and I hope they know they’re missed.

    In other news, I just found two ticks on my body from our nature walk earlier today. ARGH. The first I didn’t realize was a tick, and was on my stomach, and I somehow got it out properly without realizing it. (*scratch scratch* the hell is that a scab from a cut? flick out with fingernail without really looking) The second was on my arm and I realized that was a tick, got freaked out/angry and plucked it out exactly the wrong way and now it hurts like hell. Then I realized what the first one was, and now I’m freaked out that it’s crawling around the house someplace. And then I had to freak out my kids by getting them out of bed and checking them over again, and now the Aspie one says he’s never going out in nature again. *BIG SIGH*

    Fucking ticks. If I get Lyme disease I’ll be pissed off.
    But I can’t complain; these are the first ticks I’ve ever gotten, and I’m almost 40, and we have deer in our backyard all the time.

  417. carlie says

    GODDAMMIT TWO TICKS WERE ON ME FOR EIGHT FUCKING HOURS.

    Sorry, still a little rattled there.

  418. Jules says

    GODDAMMIT TWO TICKS WERE ON ME FOR EIGHT FUCKING HOURS.

    :-(

    I thought I’d gotten a new mole.

    Until 3 months later when it came off…

  420. Jules says

    My current record for ticks is 81 at one time. Ahh, tall-grass prairie.

    Attached? *shudders*

    I went camping in Arkansas one time, and we found a terrific spot. Until I looked down and both legs were absolutely swarming with seed ticks. I have no idea how many it was. But none of them latched on, amazingly.

  422. carlie says

    I’m sorry for freaking out, and thanks for the perspective. :) (Jules, I thought they only stayed for a couple of days?) I was mostly upset because it was so much later, and I had checked right when we got to the car, and MY STOMACH. I could understand ankles, but I was wearing a long-sleeved shirt and a jacket! I just don’t want to know how they ended up so far in. It’s one thing to find them when you’re looking for them, it’s another to go to rub your arm and find something attached there that shouldn’t be.

    Spouse just came out of child’s room and found one crawling on his hand, after leaning on child’s bed, so either that was an unattached one that had been on child’s body unnoticed, or it was the one I flicked off of my stomach accidentally while putting child to bed the first time. I’m going with the latter, because I don’t think one would leave child for spouse. YES THAT IS MY STORY AND I’M STICKING TO IT. Also everyone gets long hot showers in the morning.

  423. Cassandra Caligaria (Cipher), OM says

    You’re well within your rights to freak out, carlie. Ticks are slightly down the list of things that are NOT OKAY, but they are still on it.

  424. Cassandra Caligaria (Cipher), OM says

    Cipher, stop arguing with the limp chewtoy and go read your book immediately.
    Okay, Cipher, I’ll do that.

  425. says

    Carlie, ugh, vent all you want. I loathe ticks. Last Spring, went out for a walk to Muddy Creek and ended up crawling with ticks – seriously, over 20 of the fucking things on me before I was outside for 30 minutes. Yeccccch.

  426. says

    Heh. I grew up in Colorado and we had formal “tick checks” whenever we came back from outings. I’ve had them everywhere, and there wasen’t even one part untouched. We used butter to smother them, lit and blown out matches to kill em, tweezers, you name it. The thing that works best is something we got from the vet. It’s a plastic tweezer like thing. I can’t remember what they’re called, but they are strong enough to grab the little bastards and soft enought to do it without breaking them and leaving parts behind. I recommend them.

    But still, eww!

  427. Esteleth, Who is Totally Not a Dog or Ferret says

    I’m going to post once today to say the following:

    WTF MAD MEN WTF

    Okay, I feel better now. Bedtime!

  428. A. R says

    Argh. Migraine. Thankfully it started after Lich Jeebus Day festivities and the Masters. Oh, and I fucking hate ticks.

  430. Nutmeg says

    Clarification: Only about 20 of the 81 ticks were attached. The rest were on and inside my shoes and making their way up my socks.

  433. Jules says

    Carlie, I’m pretty sure it burrowed down a bit and then died. It certainly wasn’t alive when it came detached. I never experienced any redness (that I remember), and it never swelled.

    But my tendency to get little moles and freckles made me not particularly vigilant with it.

    I was quite shocked when a mole with legs was detaching itself from my…inner thigh (we’ll call it).

    I know to check for ticks. I grew up in the woods, and I always get at least one after hikes on the mountain*. But this was a little seed tick, and when it didn’t swell, I assumed it was a new skin thingie.

    Nutmeg, that’s better. In the same way drinking week-old rotten milk is better than month-old rotten milk. Ewww.

    *Unimpressive as a mountain, being here in the foothills. But still some good hiking.

  437. StevoR says

    Reminder the Q&A Aussie TV showdown between Richard Dawkins & Sydney’s shame the homophobic dropkick Cardinal Pell is on in a few hours time. (9 pm~ish scheduled now 3.15 local time.)

    See : http://www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/

    My top ten questions (yeah, they probably won’t ask any, can but try) are :

    1. Modern astronomy and cosmology tell us we live in a cosmos that is about 14 billion years old, full of millions of galaxies each holding hundreds of billions of stars and no doubt even more planets with our own Milky Way Galaxy being 100,000 light years wide and containing 200-400 billion stars incl. our Sun. Doesn’t this modern scientific understanding make the Biblical God obsessed with one species on one planet seem very small, parochial and bronze-age?

    2. Cardinal Pell, you believe in a God that you claim is all-knowing and all-powerful, able to see into everyone’s hearts and judge them – so why then would your God “call” so many child-molesters to the priesthood and why would your God NOT prevent his priests from molesting the children (and sometimes the adult women too) of their flock?

    3. In the Old Testament in the Bible at least, Yahweh /Jehovah / Allah / The Holy Trinity (Plus Mary maybe – Oops does that makes us look too polytheistic?) had this obsession with male foreskins and also with animal sacrifices and on occasion human sacrifices including Jephtah’s daughter (Judges 11:35) who unlike Isaac who isn’t sacrificed isn’t even named – why? What does God need with human foreskins, animal and the odd human sacrifice? (Oh & a starship too!)

    4. Cardinal Pell – your Church has already apologised to Galileo and accepted the Copernican “heresy” that the Earth goes round the Sun not vice-versa, it has it seems belatedly accepted the Theory of Evolution, who and what do you think it will be accepting and apologising in a few more hundred years time – accepting gay marriages and women priests and apologising to the world for its contributions to global overpopulation, AIDS and environmental disasters maybe?

    5. In the USA Catholics Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum are running for the presidency – does Cardinal Pell think these men who have made some hateful homophobic and right wing statements are good Catholics – and would he like to see them becoming President – and if so, which out of the two of them and why?
    (Ah, Q&A so many questions, so little time.)

    6. Question for Richard Dawkins – have you apologised to Rebecca Watson for your “Dear Muslima” sexist and trivialising rant in the “elevator-gate” firestorm in the atheist community yet and do you accept that there is a problem of sexism in the atheist community?

    7. Is the Catholic Church misogynist and homophobic and how does it show it isn’t given the behaviour and statements of its leaders?

    8. Does anyone really believe in Papal infallibility & does anyone *really* think that in a 100, 500 or thousand years time the Catholic Church will still be refusing to allow women priests, abortion (i.e. women the right to control their own bodies) and equal marriage rights for all including those other than just heterosexuals?

    9. In the Bible Jesus mentioned helping the poor and “loving thy neighbour” (showing compassion to them not judging them) an awful lot and abortion, homosexuality and guns hardly if ever at all – OTOH, Christians today (esp. in the US) seem more obsessed over abortion, gays and gun rights than anything else. Have Christians got their priorities right, have they even read the Bible to have such skewed and opposite priorities to the guy they claim to be following?

    10. Our Milky Way Galaxy is 100,000 – 120,000 light-years in diameter and contains 200 – 400 million stars and, very probably, other alien sentience’s equal in intelligence to our own or even superior. So what religion if any do our panellists think such aliens will have and what would they think of our beliefs? Will aliens be Christian and if so how? If not, could Christ “save” them and would they be in God’s image too?

  438. says

    Pteryxx @435:

    Reminds me of a spreadsheet style script for a role-playing game like Traveler. Having it in that format would allow a group of players to select and choose where they go, but still rather randomly end up somewhere. Having white holes exist inside the black holes looks like a means of ending up inside parallel universes and dimensions. Pretty neat, and sort of correct, if you agree with most of what Brian Greene presented on the Fabric Of The Cosmos: Universe or Multiverse episode (streaming available on PBS website).

    I’d like the gamemaster’s rationale for surviving the singularity to end up exiting the white hole. That is some kick-ass tech level.

  439. says

    Come to think of it, if you can excuse Michio Kaku’s gee-whiz enthusiasm for the seemingly impossible, he did imaginary engineer a portal between universes, but his result only allowed communication and nano-critters that could reconstruct a replica version of the individual on the other side, not actually personally passing through and surviving the trip.

    The science channels on cable TV are great fun if you are running a game.

  440. rorschach says

    Two years ago, we had Pell destroyed by Dan Barker, while Dawkins went on Q&A to ridicule the ridiculous Steve Fielding, of “the earth is 6000 years old and I’m a real politician” fame.

    I’ll go and watch Dawkins and Pell now, but I’m not holding high hopes for god’s chief obfuscator in Australia to come up with anything new.

  441. carlie says

    Thanks, Alethea. :)

    Jules and Nutmeg, that is truly the stuff of nightmares.
    Better today, except the arm one still hurts like hell, and it’s got a blood blistery thing now, which I’m pretty sure is from when all the “argh what if the mouthparts ripped off argh get them out get them out” pinching.

  442. Ogvorbis (no relation to the Ogg family) says

    What is it with everyone talking about bugs lately?

    ARGHGHARGH!

    I could share my recipe for pea pudding if you prefer.

    I remember, back in elementary school, doing tick checks after our entire class had been traipsing through the woods for a day. I think the entire year we only found one. Damn thing was tiny (this was northern Arizona).

    Hello, all.

    I’m back to my normal calendar. So today is Saturday.

    More events as advertising warrants.

  443. carlie says

    Been trying to guarantee virgin fruit flies for a lab this week for the last few days. I’m so tired of looking at fruit fly butts.

  445. rorschach says

    This is terrible. Dawkins fucked this one up entirely. He lost against fucking Georgie Pell, he was jetlagged apparently. There was enough openings to crush the sad catholic creep, but Dawkins managed to totally screw it up. I don’t know what to say. Had Hitchens been there, we would have mass resignations from the Catholic church by now. He would have just obliterated the pious fool. Instead we have Christians feeling on a high here now.

    Gah.

  446. echidna says

    And yet Pell was unbearably stupid. Still, couldn’t help but wish Dawkins had been more alert.

  447. rorschach says

    And yet Pell was unbearably stupid.

    I’m walking around in circles in my yard here refuting Pell’s stupid arguments. I will do this in my sleep tonight, I am upset that Dawkins put is such a poor performance. The audience was ready to hear why Pell is a world-class moron (although it seemed nicely stacked in the Catholics favour tonight), but Dawkins failed to deliver.

  449. Rey Fox says

    Five hours between #437 and #438. That’s got to be a record. Too bad our stat-master retired.

  450. Predator Handshake says

    Ugh, last night I went to an “easter dinner” with my sister, dad, and aunt, and not only was it at Applebee’s but also I discovered that there is yet another rather large thing that separates me from my family other than religion: they all watch Dr. Oz and take him seriously.

    My sister was talking about using a Neti Pot to clean out her sinuses and my dad, who I previously thought was at least reasonably informed on medical stuff given that he used to be a pharm rep and hung around with doctors constantly, brought up something he had heard on his show about sterilizing Neti Pots after each use. I agree that it’s probably a good idea to do that, but I was concerned that they all watch Oz and before I knew it I was in an argument against three people in whose eyes he can do no or say nothing wrong.

    Apparently I have to become a surgeon before I’m allowed to question anything on his show, and also it doesn’t matter in the first place because he’s SO GOOD about showing both sides of an issue. Also why don’t I spend more time with my family?

  451. says

    I can’t get an episode of a survivor-like reality show out of my head. Ticks. The contestants were living in a wall tent, supposedly under condition similar to the late 1880s in the American west. Naturally, they all found a few ticks hitching rides on their bodies. So what did they do? They flicked the ticks off, onto the floor of the wall tent. Then they went to sleep.

    I was actually yelling at the TV. You’ve got to kill the tick, not just flick it off. Holy fucking stupidity.

    In more fascinating tick news:

    Beware the ticks.
    http://www.biosciencetechnology.com/News/2012/03/Lyme-Disease-Surge-Predicted-for-the-Northeastern-U-S-/

    The northeastern U.S. should prepare for a surge in Lyme disease this spring. And we can blame fluctuations in acorns and mouse populations, not the mild winter. So reports Dr. Richard S. Ostfeld, a disease ecologist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, NY.

    …Black-legged ticks take three bloodmeals—as larvae, as nymphs, and as adults. Larval ticks that fed on 2011’s booming mouse population will soon be in need of a nymphal meal. These tiny ticks—as small as poppy seeds—are very effective at transmitting Lyme to people. The last time Ostfeld’s research site experienced a heavy acorn crop (2006) followed by a sparse acorn crop (2007), nymphal black-legged ticks reached a 20-year high.
    …

    The May-July nymph season will be dangerous, and Ostfeld urges people to be aware when outdoors. Unlike white-footed mice, who can be infected with Lyme with minimal cost, the disease is debilitating to humans. Left undiagnosed, it can cause chronic fatigue, joint pain, and neurological problems. It is the most prevalent vector-borne illness in the U.S., with the majority of cases occurring in the Northeast.

    …While adult ticks can transmit Lyme, they are responsible for a small fraction of tick-borne disease, with spring-summer nymphs posing more of a human health threat….

  453. Pteryxx says

    (rage warning)

    In case y’all hadn’t heard the lovely news from Tulsa:

    Federal authorities are helping Oklahoma police investigate the shootings of five of African-Americans, three of whom were killed, within a few hours.

    Three men and one woman were shot within 1.6km of each other in north Tulsa at around 1am local time on Friday morning, police and community members said.

    Police said that a fifth victim, 31-year-old William Allen, whose body was discovered outside a nearby funeral home around 8am on Friday, was likely shot at about the same time as the others.

    Each of the victims were African-American, but Chuck Jordan, Tulsa police chief, said it was too early to know whether the shootings were racially motivated, and police have not yet been able to prove forensically that the shootings are linked.

    Source

    Of course not.

    Police arrested two men suspected in a deadly shooting rampage that terrorized Tulsa’s African-American community, and said online postings indicated one may have been trying to avenge his father’s death.

    Jake England, 19, and Alvin Watts, 32, were arrested early Sunday at a home in Turley, just north of Tulsa. Police identified both suspects as white, while all five victims in the early Friday shooting were black.
    […]
    A family friend, Susan Sevenstar, told The Associated Press that England was “a good kid” and “a good, hard worker,” who “was not in his right mind” after losing his father and the January suicide of his fiance, with whom he’d recently had a baby.

    Source

    Y’know, after hearing “he was acting strange” about Trayvon, and “he was mentally unstable” about Chamberlain Sr., when those were used as reasons to justify shooting and killing THEM, I’m REALLY not inclined to listen to “he wasn’t in his right mind” justifying a white assassin.

  455. Part-Time Insomniac, Zombie Porcupine Nox Arcana Fan says

    Predator: Sheesh, ya don’t even need a Neti pot for that! Just grab one of those cheap rubber bulb syringes, and I’m sure you’d get the same effect. Wait . . . aside from maybe clearing out mucus that you can’t quite remove by blowing your nose, what good is supposed to come from sending warm water up there?

    Also, Dr. Oz? He may have some good points (I don’t watch his show or listen to the radio, however he reaches his audience), but he’s not the only doctor worthy of listening to out there.
    ————————————————

    Yesterday was fun! The restaurant we went to is called Shalezeh. The menu’s pretty interesting, and it all looked so good that I had a hard time deciding what to get. Everyone else got some sort of kebab dish. I went with koofteh tabrizi. Who knew that a meatball stuffed with prunes, fava beans, and potatoes could be so delicious, especially when served in a stew of peas, tomatoes, curry and other spices? I’d order it again.

    Shalezah is also the only Persian resturant, at least in NYC, I think, to receive a Michelin star. Just a bit of trivia.

    Dessert was at Firenze, nice little Italian place we’ve gone to before. Port for me and SIL, limoncello for Brother, and grappa for Mom (I still can’t figure out how anyone could drink that – it’s like drinking paint thinner to me). As Mom predicted, the total bill there came to as much as if we’d eaten dinner, rahter than just dessert and drinks.
    ————————————————–

    Not looking forward to this week. I should be, it’s a shortened work week, but I’ll be in charge of the afterschool program on Thursday while all the teachers head up to Boston for some conference or other; I’ll have help, of course, but still acting as head teacher. Christ on a bike, I’ve come to realize that being head honcho outside of a DDO quest or a class project, I really don’t like this sort of position. Maybe we’ll be lucky and hardly get anyone. Friday being a half-day, I think many parents will not bother with getting their kids to school.

  456. says

    A credit union in San Antonio discriminated against a gay teller, then fired him when he complained to HR:

    In a petition he’s circulating online and in a complaint he’s filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, [Keith] Crabtree says the manager singled him out for being gay, and that the credit union ultimately fired him when he brought the complaint to SACU human resources.

    A teller at the branch, Crabtree says his manager forbid him from using the restroom in the employee lounge because he was gay – she made him walk out to the lobby to use the customer restroom. She began filing “bogus write-ups,” he claims, citing him for infractions that never occurred. “It seemed like she was starting a paper trail so she could eventually just get rid of me.” Within weeks the manager barred him from using the employee entrance and made him walk through the front customer doors each time he came to work, he says. She put the breaks on his certification process and wouldn’t respond to requests for time off, he says.

    Then, on January 13 the manager pulled Crabtree into her office. “She told me I could not speak of anything gay in any form or fashion, that she didn’t want to hear it at all.”

    Says Crabtree, “I asked if it would be different if a straight person wanted to talk about their family and their relationship because everybody does it all the time, and she said, ‘That’s different.’” Crabtree says he broke down sobbing in the manager’s office. “I told her, ‘I’m a gay man. What do you want me to do?’ … She shrugged her shoulders and kind of laughed.”

  458. Pteryxx says

    Via Singham, a study linking homophobia to repressed homosexuality:

    In addition, participants who reported themselves to be more heterosexual than their performance on the reaction time task indicated were most likely to react with hostility to gay others, the studies showed. That incongruence between implicit and explicit measures of sexual orientation predicted a variety of homophobic behaviors, including self-reported anti-gay attitudes, implicit hostility towards gays, endorsement of anti-gay policies, and discriminatory bias such as the assignment of harsher punishments for homosexuals, the authors conclude.

    “This study shows that if you are feeling that kind of visceral reaction to an out-group, ask yourself, ‘Why?'” says Ryan. “Those intense emotions should serve as a call to self-reflection.”

    http://machineslikeus.com/news/some-homophobia-self-phobia

  459. Jules says

    brought up something he had heard on his show about sterilizing Neti Pots after each use. I agree that it’s probably a good idea to do that,

    You’re actually supposed to use only distilled water in them as well. They can be quite dangerous. That is not woo. People have died from them. And they do appear to have some efficacy for certain types of problems (if you can manage to avoid the brain amoebas).

    Pteryxx,
    I’m currently on facebook discussing that on an Oklahoma news page. Many people have criticized the notion that it isn’t a race issue. My comment:

    Let’s not erase the fact that this was a racially motivated crime. I can appreciate that everyone is upset, but not everyone is equally impacted or impacted in the same way, and there is nothing wrong with saying so.

    In fact, it is wrong to dismiss those experiences.

    It received 13 Likes, FWIW. There’s another woman whose comments are also getting lots of Likes who is fighting the good fight.

    Of course, this is a news outlet that’s considered extremely liberal, so maybe that’s not much of an indication.

  460. Pteryxx says

    Heya Jules, thanks. I emailed you btw. Currently contacting the Mississippi clinic…

  461. Jules says

    Just got ’em. I don’t know much about it, sadly. I do know that when I thought I had an unplanned pregnancy here a few years ago, I couldn’t even find a clinic in my town, though I’ve been told there is one (and my Googlefu is usually pretty good).

    Apparently Alabama only has two.

    I don’t know. There must be some kind of secret handshake.

  462. Pteryxx says

    Secret handshakes, low profile clinics… this is making me mad. If there’s not a NNAF bowl-a-thon going on in Mississippi, I bet I know why. It’s not like they ONLY shoot black people around here. *grumble*

  465. Jules says

    Mother Faces a Year in Jail For Making Her 10-Year-Old Walk 4.6 Miles to School.

    When I was a kid, I used to have to walk to school uphill both ways in the snow, and it was a helluva lot farther than 4.6 miles, I’ll tell you that much.

    But srsly. Jail? That seems…awful.

  466. dianne says

    Everyone here who needs to be anticoagulated has been anticoagulated! Yay! The health insurance system still sucks though.

  467. says

    Going by the information available on that blogpost — kid’s bus privileges were suspended for a fifth time due to misbehavior; city route with no physical dangers; fears of pedophiles abducting kids off the street are rather overblown; kid himself thinks his punishment was fair — I have to shake my head at the charges.

  468. Esteleth, Who is Totally Not a Dog or Ferret says

    Mother Faces a Year in Jail For Making Her 10-Year-Old Walk 4.6 Miles to School.

    Because I was curious, I asked GMaps to tell me how far the walk to school I had was. It was 0.7 miles, mostly flat, through residential neighborhoods. Along the way, I crossed a busy two-lane street (with no crossing guard) and a busy 4-lane street (with a crossing guard).

    I was a first grader, so I would have been 6.

    So… I guess I don’t really have a problem with the idea of a 10-year-old walking that far.

  469. cicely. Just cicely. says

    Hydrocodone is awesome. Anybody off-hand know how long a given set of pills is good for?

    I’m getting my left arm and hand practiced-in, in anticipation of cutting my right arm off at the shoulder.
    –

    What the fuck happened to the Discover Channel? I remember when it actually had interesting programming.

    Pretty much the same thing that happened to the History Channel; they ran after ratings/profit to the exclusion of any other consideration. And there is a sizable demographic to whom Atlantean Aliens Built The Pyramids (Using Magick!!!) As A Shopping Mall!!!! is much more interesting than anything…plausible. Or merely human.
    –

    Remember, double tap.

    Using violently-explosive rounds.
    –

    The science channels on cable TV are great fun if you are running a game.

    The history ones are, too. I had a blast doing an AD&D scenario where Sitchin’s 12th Planet stuff was all true.
    :D
    –

  470. Jules says

    I was only half-joking in my comment above.

    I lived about 2 miles down a very rural, one-lane gravel road that washed out at least once a year. The hills were steep, and there was no shoulder to speak of (there was only a drop-off to a creek on one side, and the bottom of a cliff on the other). I walked the whole distance to the bus stop with my brother–who was in kindergarten–and walked the whole way back with him every day (unless it was raining really badly). Even in the snow.

    I’m not even that old.

  471. Ogvorbis (no relation to the Ogg family) says

    How’s the knee, Og?

    It hurts. It hurts more when I have no weight bearing on it and less when I am putting weight on it. Weird. It also hurts less while I am sitting than when I am lying down.

    Luckily, on the famous 1-10 scale, I am down around a 1 to a 4 most of the time.

    Mother Faces a Year in Jail For Making Her 10-Year-Old Walk 4.6 Miles to School.

    I only walked 1.1 miles to school when I was in elementary school. And 1.1 miles home for lunch. Then 1.1 miles back to school. And then 1.1 miles home. So 4.4 miles per day. Of course, this was at an elevation of 7500 feet with, sometimes, five feet of snow on the ground. And it was uphill half the time.

    Still.

    I remember taking hikes when I was ten years old, covering up to 15 miles per day. With a heavy pack.

    I have no problem with it.

    Of course, I totally disagree with the use of the heavily loaded term ‘nanny state.’ I have heard people complain about the evil nanny state when a parent is arrested for beating a child black and blue. Or arresting the parents when a child is locked in his or her room for a week with only water.

    So no, the walk doesn’t sound like child abuse.

    However, the dead horse named Nanny State really should get some protection. It has been flogged enough.Mother Faces a Year in Jail For Making Her 10-Year-Old Walk 4.6 Miles to School.

    Hydrocodone is awesome. Anybody off-hand know how long a given set of pills is good for?

    I am not a doctor. However, I am having some good results with some that are over two years old. They were stored in a cool, dark place and there was no fuzz on them.

  472. Beatrice, anormalement indécente says

    Oh dear. Mum had to explain to an old neighbor that gay men really do have sex that way and the newspaper wasn’t lying. Embarrassment all around. Or mostly on the part of my mum. The other woman was apparently too flabbergasted by the possibility to bother with embarrassment.

    (And then I had to restrain myself from correcting mum in that anal penetration isn’t necessarily the way, just one of the flavours. She is pretty open minded, but discussing ways men can have sex with each other might be a bit much.)

  473. Pteryxx says

    Jules: not sure if I’m doing this right, but I emailed you again for possible plans.

  475. says

    Ophelia asks,

    If there were a huge demand for fresh babies to serve in high-end restaurants, would the government tend toward regulation rather than saying our babies should not be eaten?

    I didn’t want to derail that thread, but I thought people here might like to answer that question.

    On a serious note: Radfem asshole jokes about bombing Planned Parenthood in Toronto because they hosted a lecture about transphobia.

  476. Richard Austin says

    Beatrice:

    If you need help, Spokesgay or I could probably provide visual aids…

    (… no, I didn’t say that. You didn’t read anything. fnord)

  477. A. R says

    Ms. Daisy Cutter: That’s absolutely horrible. Exactly the public image problem that the rest of the feminist community has to deal with when engaging people.

  478. says

    aside from maybe clearing out mucus that you can’t quite remove by blowing your nose, what good is supposed to come from sending warm water up there?

    That IS the benefit. Oh god it’s awesome.

    (I use an ear bulb and scrub + bleach it between uses.)

  479. Sili says

    What the fuck happened to the Discover Channel?

    Aliens

    This has been this evenings edition of Easy Answers to Easy Questions, thank you for playing. Please tune in again tomorrow for another round of Easy Answers to Easy Questions™!

    :eats the rest of the chocolate icecream and pineapple:

  480. Beatrice, anormalement indécente says

    Richard Austin,

    “Mum, you know that thing we talked about yesterday? This nice man offered to help so that you can properly answer neighbor’s questions. Now, look at this picture here…”

    Well, the neighbor claimed there was a picture in the paper, but I’m kinda suspicious about that. I doubt the naked woman on the centerfold was suddenly replaced by two fornicating men.

  481. says

    Sally:

    Hey Caine! I also got my Nude Photo Revolutionaries calendar recently. It truly is a thing of beauty. So inspiring to see it hanging on my wall every day.

    Yes! The print job is wonderfully done and the stock is fab. I bought two because I am going to frame each photo, once the calendars are out of date.

  483. David Marjanović says

    Assortment of birds (in a wide sense) from about 120 million years ago! Great photos. Though… the femur is the thighbone, not any “thigh muscle”, and I’m very surprised at Chiappe’s incredulity that feathered hands could be used for grasping stuff. The feathers are at a right angle to the palms and the direction the claws point in.

    Longipteryx is toothy goodness!!!

    Zhongornis is probably just a baby Confuciusornis. Most or all birds of that time took several years to grow up, but were capable of flight at a very early age and may have filled several ecological niches successively.

    It’s mentioned that Yanornis had teeth, but unfortunately not that it had lots and lots of them.

    Now to catch up from comment 200… no, 199 onwards:

    Minnie The Finn, qui devient bientôt vierge

    You become a virgin soon???

    Then the three of them tried to figure out/remember all the Catholic holidays associated with Easter and Lent and all, and never did figure out what Shrove Tuesday was. I opted not to interrupt and explain it, because obviously even the devout one who started the conversation didn’t quite care enough to know what the dates involved were.

    What is Shrove Tuesday? And what does “shrove” mean? In German, there are names for Wednesday through Monday, and informally for the next Tuesday because it’s the last day of school holidays at least in Austria, but that’s it.

    The most vile tea I’ve ever tasted is rooibos. The fuck is up with that?

    …What? …Someone must have been Doing It Wrong somehow. …Was it perhaps made way too strong? I can just barely imagine that tasting suboptimal.

    I am done with my Latin! *cheers everywhere*

    Quite. :-)

    Ratzi rebukes a group of Austrian priests who call for optional celibacy and women’s ordination by saying that the RCC won’t be reformed via open dissent.

    Yep. The initiative calls for disobedience, and Ratzi doesn’t like that word very much at all. However, we’re talking about 400 parish priests here. They can’t be simply replaced. They won’t be laicized, let alone excommunicated, anytime soon.

    Also, the Church hath not been authorised by the Lord to ordain women as priests, quoth he. I visited family for easter; they all, religious grandmother and religion-teaching aunt included, think that’s just stupid.

    Been trying to guarantee virgin fruit flies for a lab this week for the last few days. I’m so tired of looking at fruit fly butts.

    …I thought you were a paleobotanist? …What happened? :-S

    They flicked the ticks off

    You can do that? What kind of loser ticks have you got in America? :-) European ones are almost impossible to get off in one piece. And yes, you have to get all of a tick off – preferably alive! – if you want to stop the meningoencephalitis viruses and Lyme bacteria from getting into your bloodstream.

  484. A. R says

    Been trying to guarantee virgin fruit flies for a lab this week for the last few days. I’m so tired of looking at fruit fly butts.

    Yeah, never fun. It’s even worse when a fucked up cross costs $350!

  487. says

    Re: #485, in particular, I liked this bit of idiocy:

    I’ve read his blog for years, too. People who are truly happy do not act like Myers acts. He is obviously a very angry, very bitter, very unhappy old man. Receiving joy and contentment from family and work does not make people happy. It just distracts them from the unhappiness within them. I guarantee that if his family turned on him or were lost and/or if he was fired, his unhappiness would quickly boil over.

  488. Muse says

    Rey – I think it’s pretty long for a ten-year-old to have to walk to school. I’m not sure it’s worth a year in jail.

  489. says

    Rey:

    Am I the only one who thinks 4.6 miles is a long way for a 10-year old?

    It isn’t a long way. I started walking to school when I was 9 and it was 5 miles from my house to school. After a couple of years, I got my Stingray and biked it. *shrugs*

  490. Jules says

    Pteryxx, got your email and responded. It’s coming together, I think. At least, initial contact is being made.

  491. Jules says

    Am I the only one who thinks 4.6 miles is a long way for a 10-year old?

    It’s long. But it doesn’t strike me as child endangerment long.

    But I’m also the person who regularly has a not-quite-2-year-old walk over a mile a day.

    (I carry her when she gets tired. We do about 3 miles total. She walks anywhere from 1/2 mile to 2 miles. One of the miles is a bit sketchy, traffic-wise, so she’s always on me then.)

  492. Beatrice, anormalement indécente says

    It does sound like a long way.
    But I lived 5 minutes from my elementary school and had overly protective family who wouldn’t let me go alone to the center of the town, let alone walk alone for more than 7km, so I’m not really the best person to judge.
    Still, I don’t think mother should get a year in jail. Or any jail time. The article doesn’t even mention if the woman let him walk for punishment or maybe she wasn’t able to drive him to school. Not everyone can take time to drive their kids to school, and if he couldn’t drive on the bus there might not have been any other option but to walk.

  493. says

    Am I the only one who thinks 4.6 miles is a long way for a 10-year old?

    Depends on the 10-year-old, it’s a pretty good hike, but kids who are used to long walks could definitely do it. If the route is reliably safe and passable through an area not known for actual dangers (pedophile panic does not count) and — most importantly –there are no difficult-to-cross busy streets, I think it’s well within the realm of “safe”.

  495. Cassandra Caligaria (Cipher), OM says

    Catching up over on the Sunday Sacrilege thread. Brownian is wicked. :D
    —
    Can’t have anything but mixed feelings about the calendar. It’s a shame, really. I agree with the ideas put forth in it, I agree with the execution, and it looked very beautiful. But Mallorie Nasrallah is in it, so I can’t help getting a sick feeling in my stomach when I try to think about it.
    —
    4.6 miles strikes me as long, but as other people said, not year-in-jail long. It’s long partly because I wouldn’t be thrilled to hear my 8-year-old brother was walking the two blocks to school by himself (this may be about him specifically rather than about his age, though), and partly because I whine about walking less than that when it’s not for purposes of recreation.

  497. Cassandra Caligaria (Cipher), OM says

    Not any-time-in-jail long. Just “Gee, that’s far! I bet he was tired. Did he make it in time?” long.

  498. A. R says

    kristinc: Good question. I suppose the priests would if they knew small children would be walking by. /snark

  499. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Dang, I’m always amazed at how stupid the telephone solicitor scripts are.

    *Nerd picks up phone with strange caller ID, suspecting stupidity at the other end.* “Hello”

    Other end identifies themselves, still strange and unrelated.

    *Nerd* “If this is telephone solicitation, hang up know as I don’t respond to telephone solicitation”

    Other end “I’m not soliciting”, then starts to talk about Medicare.

    *Nerd getting angry* “I’m not on Medicare yet, this is telephone solicitation, Good day”.

    How stupid to they think we are???

  500. says

    My daughter was 3 when she and I started walking her brother to school in the morning. Half a mile each way. I heard a lot every day for a while about how it was way too far and she would surely dieeeeeeee, but lo, she still lives.