Bags are packed, passports in hand, we’re about to scurry down the road to the airport to commence an agonizingly long journey to Australia. And you all know the one reason to go to Australia, right?
I wonder if my wife knows what horrors await her at the end of the flight. With my luck, she’ll love the stuff and end up importing a few cases home.
(Episode CCCXV: But I am going to Salt Lake City!)
Ah it’s not so bad here. Given enough time you even get used to Vegimite. Seriously.
Is there going to be a Pharyngula meetup? One that I might be able to afford to go to?
Um, for some reason, all of the comments but FossilFishy’s last have disappeared for me.
Mind you, it’s been over 4 years now and I still can’t get used to the light switches being wired upside down.
Wow, ignore my above, total early morning brainfart.
Hmmm I was last to post on the previous TET and last to post on the one before that. I smell conspiracy!
It must be Space Lizards. Has to be. Has to be. Obviously PZ is a 7 foot Space Lizard Reptiloid in League with the Bilderbergers and the Queen and Colonel Sanders.
You heard it here first folks.
Louis
P.S. Vegemite? Tish and pshaw! MARMITE FTW MUTHAFUCKAZ!
Hmph. I knew I couldn’t possibly have been first in, best dressed, on a new TET.
Marmite? Vegimite? DEEEEEP RIFTS!!11!!
Sort of portcullis’ed:
Due to a weird Amazon e-mail, my colleague expressed her interest in learning to knit. She’s left-handed, though, and all the instructions she’s found are right-hand-oriented. Any advice for a left-handed knitter?
Glad to hear the knee is good, PZ. Marmite? Vegemite? Mister likes both of them. Heh.
OH NOES NOT TEH DEEEEEEEEP RIFTSSES1!!!!!!1ONE111111!!!!
That is bad. We must all now believe in Jesus or something.*
Louis
* Or perhaps peanut butter.
Mmmm, love my Vegimite. I like it thick on toast with butter. It’s supposed to be a spread but I like to treat it more like a topping!!
@FossilFishy – The light switches are the right way up. It’s just (predictably) you are now upside down.
*hugs* I never knew we were sisters!
Don’t get me wrong. I love my mom. But she’s not someone I ever rely on for any sort of emotional support. I won’t share my stories now, because frankly I’ve been in a dark place for a while and I’ve got to stop dwelling on negative things, but I’ll say that I know that it’s very painful and challenging to have a mother like that, and that despite my own best efforts, I still desperately seek connection with her far too often when I know better than to try anymore.
Embrace the
darkred side. We have cookies. Ginger snaps, to be precise.Really, really fucking cool! I’ve only read through issue 8. Then things with the guy I was borrowing them from broke down, and I lost my supplier. Perhaps I’ll buy the compendium.
Learn right-handed. It’s not very challenging to learn to knit with your nondominant hand (I can’t even say I taught myself to knit left-handed; I simply did it), and the patterns are all right-handed. She should utilize YouTube, because videos help immensely (and an in-person tutor would be good).
Buying bread from a man in Brussels
He was six foot four and full of muscle
I said, “Do you speak my language?”
He just smiled and gave me a Vegemite sandwich
{watches video, pukes up onto the moss}
Bleeeaugh! Vegemite is the scrapings off the Marmite factory floor – you really don’t want to go there.
Wait…what? You mean there are people who eat that stuff without being pressured into it by a spousal type person who really, really wants you to pass the citizenship test. Which, I have on good authority, includes a blood test for marmite to vegemite* ratios.
*And I bloody well better learn how to spell it before that test. Gah.
Katherine Lorraine,
What a disgusting perversion! I am normally sex positive but there are some things even I refuse to countenance. Accept Jebus as your saviour immediately young lady. That’s the only way to prevent you darning in such a manner.
I had to clean up after someone had done some “left handed knitting” once. The fluids of various types I shall not describe for fear of scaring people. Needless to say, one young man ejaculated so hard his pancreas inverted and his Meckel’s diverticulum turned upside down. Have you any idea how hard it is to clean the effluvia from an inverted pancreas out of silk restraints?
And that doesn’t even begin to describe what happened to the capybara.
Louis
Marmite is OK, Vegemite – meh… What you really want, is Patum Peperium, The Gentleman’s Relish.
Well, that explains the headaches and my complete inability to play pool. But what about the letter “R”? I seem to recall liking it a lot but it doesn’t seem to come round much anymore.
@Louis:
No no. My colleague is the left-handed knitter, not myself.
Something more disgusting than Vegemite, George Zimmerman has a badly designed web site up asking for money.
You see, you SEE!? If he’d just had a little dab of healthful Vegemite on his morning toast he would have had the fortitude, the forthrightness of physique as it were, to withstand such a pedestrian little kink as left handed knitting.
@Jules
” Embrace the
darkred side.”You will love “The Heart of Redness” by Zakes Mda.
{references to that disgusting “vegemite” slurry have brought out the inner nationalist in theophontes}
With apologies to Mark Twain: “the Aussies very much like their Vegemite – you can tell it from road tar from the label.”
PZ, glad to hear the knee is doing better. Take care of that treacherous sucker; they can get vicious when provoked.
–
Vegemite is awesome. If you want to see a really vile, cruel & uniquely Australian foodstuff, track down a Pie Floater. That poor innocent pie…
If it is the real Zimmerman, and he’s to be charged, he’s going to need money for a good legal defence. Ideally, those charged shouldn’t have to beg for it, but the system requires that defendants has adequate legal representation in order to work properly.
@FossilFishy
The letter ‘R’, ah yes, well we find that when pissed, it is difficult to say (especially on the end of a word) so it is slowly being removed from the venacula. It has however been retained in words like arse hole where we find it more useful.
@Katherine Lorraine: I also recommend youtube videos, I taught myself almost all the knitting I know using them. I am right-handed but I think that there are left-handed ones too.
@PZ: Vegemite is awesome! I’m strongly considering backing Pribble for the most huggable atheist competition at the GAC :P
I was expecting you to say beer there PZ! But vegemite works too.
BTW. The Aussie ABC TV channel is going to be screening this doco :
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/changeyourmind/
“I Can Change Your Mind About…Climate” soon with a web site and online survey already up now. That has been swamped by the denialati with the vast majority currently “Dismissive” of the subject.
Pharnygulation time perhaps if the Horde is willing / interested?
(Discovered via comment #218. Anthony David | April 10, 2012 1:28 AM on the Deltoid blog – http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2012/03/april_2012_open_thread.php#comment-6255663 )
Fair enough AussieMike. In all seriousness though, I’ve been here long enough that I no longer really notice the Australian accent. It’s become normal to me. But my internal voice still has its Canadian accent and that’s normal to me too. Lately I’ve been not noticing that Canadians and even some Americans aren’t Aussie when I first meet them. It seems like my brain has lumped both accents into the category of “normal” and doesn’t prompt me that there’s something different about a person with a North American accent. It’s a little disconcerting.
Katherine,
I am not a lefty of a high order, but my left tends to be cleverer than my right at new skills. I found perling rather more natural than knitting because the manipulation of the yarn and needles suited the directions that my hands work better. Which is to say, my left thumb could guide the working needle down past the storage needle more effectively than my fingers could guide it up. I don’t know as that helps much, I was still holding the working needle with my right hand, but it seemed interesting and your request brought it to mind.
Oh & more Human Induced Rapid Global Overheating (HIRGO) news via the latest issue of ‘New Scientist’ magazine – April 7th 2012, page 5, top of the “60 seconds” column – on the Heartland Institute losing GMH sponsorship – just in case folks hadn’t seen /herad that and were interested.
Kat, I’m not just saying to learn right-handed out of hand-dominance privilege. I taught a lefty left-handed knitting, and she eventually abandoned it in favor of right-handed knitting, which was just as easy and offered more options.
It’s standard advice, from what I’ve read. You actually do more of the detailed finger work with your left hand anyway.
In other (gross) news: I was burping baby over my shoulder, and she turned and projectile spit-up on my cheek.
After 20 years of doing this, some things are still disgusting, and a warm blast of curdled formula to the face is one of them.
Katherine Lorraine,
Suuuuuuure. My “friend” once got his balls caught in a zip. The bad part was it wasn’t his zip.
It seems our “friends”/”colleagues” get up to a lot. Your secret is safe with me.
Louis
P.S. I know a place where you can get southpaw cross-stich for under $100.
See you there, PZ!
I dunno about Vegemite. I do loves my Marmite though. It is an acquired taste and not for everyone. One of my favorite comfort food snacks is a hunk of fresh french bread, sliced down the middle, thickly spread with butter and Marmite and an ice cold glass of milk. Almost like a vegetarian bacon.
Cmon guys it’s not like you find Vegemite hopping down the main street of Melbourne like the kangaroos and koalas …
Pools flow the opposite way down under.
@FossilFishy
You’re evolving right before our eyes!
I have no doubt that Zimmerman will get money for his legal defense. I just hope he doesn’t mind how slimy it will be. I recommend handling it with dish gloves.
I bet the libary’s got ’em.
Please, I’m trying to eat my soggy cereal over here.
REPENT, REPENT, REPENT!
left-handed knitting
Use a mirror.
Koalas hop?
Here’s a Feministe post on a subject that, unfortunately, never stops having to be revisited: Why men’s preferences w/r/t women’s bodies are irrelevant at best, derailing at worst, to feminist discussions. (And, sure enough, whiny menz are bingoing the thread left and right.)
I love this comment:
I dedicate that entire thread to Larry Lewis.
Absolutely, Audley.
Everyone Knows™ that the way that all Antipodean creatures locomote is via hopping.
Slowly recovering from a nasty 24 hour bout with viral pharyngitis/laryngitis. Hopefully my vocal faculties will be fully recovered in time for my lecture Friday. Curse you, unknown virus!!!!!
A. R
How soon can you learn sign-language?
WOW IMHO Dan Savage got a rape question really really wrong and came out as both minimizing and misandrynist (victim was male so the double standard is disgusting to me). Appealing to the good old days when we had a gray area of abuse where people could feel violated but not raped, Dan? Really? *shakes head and sighs*
chigau: How does one say “O-glycosylated immune epitopes on ebolavirus sGP similar to those found on GP function as antibody decoys” in ASL?
I get email.
It was hard to drink my coffee this morning without sputtering it out all over my keyboard. A religious right-wing nutter named Eugene Delgaudio snagged my email address. This guy uses letterhead that looks semi-governmental (or just “mental”). There’s an eagle superimposed on the outline of the USA, which is, in turn, colored like the American flag. “Public Advocate” is writ large on the banner, followed by the subtitle “of the United States.”
This Public Advocate of the United States sent me an email with the subject line “Obama to mandate immoral education in schools.”
Here are a few choice excerpts:
Hmmm. I’m getting the distinct impression that this is how Eugene makes a living. Comes off as a Newt Gingrich-like scam to collect money.
Wait. Didn’t this guy already ask for money?
Tiny disclaimer at the end of a very long email newsletter that was replete with photos of innocent children in classrooms.
Something the Australians do not like the rest of the world knowing is that Koalas do not actually exist.
All the wild koalas are actually stuffed toys. In order to help keep this a secret every few nights a cherry picker will be used to move the koalas. The few koalas that are are to be seen in captivity are actually animatronic.
They Australian Government tries to keep this quiet. People who get too close to the truth may have venomous kittehs set on them.
Ing, Dan Savage is often very wrong about that particular subject whether it’s men or women. He lives in a magic world where sex without consent can simply be a Very Bad Thing But Not Rape™.
I still listen to him, but I cringe every single time a caller has a scenario that starts with, “I’m not sure, but I kinda think I was maybe raped,” or “My friends say this was rape…”
Because experience shows he’s going to be wrong.
A. R
you tube example
I bet you can figure it out!
chigau: Hmm, this video could be useful… {Loads video into the LOLstar’s armory}
Paging Walton…
Ing, #47: Do you have a link to the bad advice in question? I’m not seeing anything relevant in his recent Savage Love columns.
Jules, #51: Savage has some serious issues with empathy. He’s really, really bad at understanding any form of privilege other than the straight kind. He also believes that because he prioritizes sexual pleasure over many other things, other people are obliged to do the same. This is a toxic combination of attitudes that leads to strawmanning, for example, the assertion “Straight men aren’t entitled to any particular sex act that their partners do not enjoy” as yelling at one’s partner, “I don’t owe you anything!!”
I’ve been feeling more and more disillusioned with “sex-positivity” lately. Not because I’m anti-sex, anti-pleasure, etc., but because so much of what’s deemed “sex-positive” glosses over power differentials and other issues of oppression. Whether it’s the above-linked column, or it’s Violet Blue browbeating straight women who don’t like porn into watching it with their SOs, or it’s Susie Bright blithely declaring that everybody in an office job should deliberately look at NSFW content because “NSFW” is an oppressive concept. (Not hunting down links right now b/c I’m at work.)
[sidebar]
Excuse me if this has been brought up here, but I don’t get out much, and I was just thinking: “what’s the difference between Jesus and a Rogue Time Lord?”
Any Whovians out there want to take that one ?
[/sidebar]
Reading through the thread: I see Lynna, OM has something disgusting to point at. Proof positive that Teh innertubes haz hairball.
I’ve run afoul of that Delgaudio guy before. Pure hairball, with a bit of old half-eaten catfood. okay, I’ll quit before I reach grossout scale 9.
According to azcapitoltimes
Its the podcast.
I agree with the first comment — well, OK, minus the prayer — here: “Dear God can this please happens at Foxnews?”
Concern-trolling about how this is “assault” and “we should be better than that” in 5, 4, 3….
@Matt Penfold:
Drop bears don’t exist either.
@Lynna:
Same old tripe as always. Can’t we go one day without someone resurrecting the whole 1950s “gays can’t reproduce so they’ve got to recruit” bullshit?
OT
I listen to the Best of the Left podcast and recommend it but was seriously annoyed when the host Jay Tomlinson said that Atheists, unlike “real minorities”TM [my words] did not suffer Civil Rights violations. So I emailed him and this was his response [edited]
Feel free to let Jay know what you think at Jay@bestoftheleft.com
Link to podcast #593 and Best of the Left Website
Katherine- knittinghelp has both right and left handed videos for everything. It is my favorite kitting instruction site. Your friend definitely needs to do it Continental style, whether right or left handedly. Not just because it’s easier and makes five times more sense, but also because if they do try to learn right-handed, there’s less fiddling to do with that hand.
Oh go fuck yourself Jay.
Is this not like discussing whether something is an “illegal” invasion? Your building a spin to make something morally wrong less so, because of a definition.
Quoderatdemonstrandum, I’d never heard of “Best of the Left” before. If Tomlinson’s podcast is representative of the best the left has to offer, we’re fucked.
Ohhhhh my but my hair is orange today. Flaming neon Cheeto orange. I know it’ll calm down and darken once the lawsone oxidizes, but I think I’ll have to wear a hat to class tonight.
Is this guy an idiot?
How about TN’s “academic freedom” bill? I certainly consider having someone else’s religion shoved down my throat– especially considering that the religious teachings in question are government sanctioned and funded by the government– a direct violation of my civil rights.
Unless he’s arguing that religious freedom does not exists and the government has the right to establish a state religion. In either case, he’s a moron.
Ms. Daisy Cutter,
the Best of the Left podcast contains clips of various TV, radio, podcast media with a progressive bent and is normally quite good but the host sometimes screws up in his commentary at the end.
He also had to be schooled on Feminism.
I was taught to knit Continental style in primary school, so I’m seconding Carlie’s advice on the technique.
This is my shocked face. :-|
Had one of those days where I found myself desperately searching for something in my house for so long I started checking irrational places that made no sense on the off chance I had put it somewhere nuts and forgotten about it.
Finally had to give up on finding office passkey, and borrow one from the front desk. Really hoping I can find it tonight. I feel decided resentful at having to pay for a lost access fob when I’m being laid off in a couple months.
Carlie, did you know Son of Neptune is out? I picked it up today.
Serious point first
If petitioning the government is a civil right then I’m pretty sure G. Bush Sr. stepped all over atheists on more than one occasion with his assertions that we shouldn’t be considered citizens.
Not so serious point
The R’s that have fled Australia have been given refuge in the state of Arizona where they are used in the word “warsh”
I’ve just heard French candidate (for the presidency) Mélenchon‘s answer on France Inter radio to a caller and I was very glad of something he said.
(Mélenchon is left-wing, otherwise that doesn’t make sense)
:)
Caine – IT IS SO GOOD. I accidentally stumbled across the release date in December, and drove four towns over to find a library that had it in stock. :) Thanks for remembering I liked them. :)
My son just made me read I Am Number Four, and it isn’t bad either (also the sequel The power of six). Not in the same league in terms of writing, but a fun read. I’m now trying to make him read Ursula LeGuin’s Gifts. A lot of my YA reading is making up for lost time – I was a voracious reader, and books at least weren’t restricted at all b/c of religion in my house, but I didn’t have a good guide through the worlds of sci-fi and fantasy and missed a lot.
Ms. Daisy Cutter, sex positivity doesn’t have to mean those things, so please don’t abandon us! It takes more sane and fair-minded people to present it in order for it to get better. We need you.
I appreciate a lot of what Dan Savage has done. I do. But his podcast is often an exercise in frustration for me.
There is a way to be sex-positive and feminist. And you don’t have to be an idiot, even!
In some ways, he does seem to have grown a bit. But it’s kind of a two steps forward, one step back progression.
Gingerist!
@ A.R # 53
I SAW THAT!
Reference material – I haven’t seen this one before. From the Bixby center at UC San Francisco, a 2008 study on how miscarriages are handled when Catholics take over hospitals.
http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/8dm907hm#page-1
http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/8dm907hm.pdf
When There’s A Heartbeat – Miscarriage Management in Catholic-Owned Hospitals
Pteryxx, they do that even when it’s an ectopic pregnancy. I know a woman who has a horror story about how they had to delay her treatment because the ultrasound tech (I believe, maybe it was another nurse?) thought maybe there was possibly a heartbeat.
She’s ok. It was a long time ago. But yeah. No thanks to them.
Vegemite: we spent two years in the Solomon Islands may years ago. Being in the West Pacific and under the Australian sphere of influence, Marmite was unobtainable – only V*g*m!te was available. My wife developed a perverse love for the stuff, and for the past 20 years in order to satisfy her cravings I have had to hunt the stuff down in seedy back streets and even worse Tesco supermarkets.
PZ take my advice mate, don’t let her near the stuff.
Is Vegemite the Australian Marmite or is Marmite the British Vegemite?
At any rate when we were in the UK a couple of years ago we discovered that while we couldn’t just eat Marmite straight up on toast, we did like Marmite flavored crisps (“chips” to fellow Yanks of course) and also found Marmite cashews that were killer. We looked for the Marmite cashews when we were back last month, but alas, could not locate any.
Jules: yeah, there isn’t much reference material though that I’ve been able to find. Maybe it’s harder to dismiss as anecdotal this way.
Look at today’s xkcd (large version). It’s awesome!
Santorum not surging from behind any more …
Scientists boycott academic journals to protest the high cost of paywalls
Carlie:
Ooh, thanks! I’ll be glad to get back to Percy for a bit. A lot of YA books are good, and as long as they are, I’ll keep reading them.
Jules:
Of course there is. I’ve just become a lot more skeptical that most sex-positivity out there for public consumption is feminist in practice, except in the most superficial “empowerful” way.
No, I’m not a Twisty Faster acolyte. I can’t wrap my head around her assertion that all erotic depictions are inherently oppressive and all one should need is one’s own imagination. But “empowerful” is one of those words that captures, perfectly, the bill of goods someone’s trying to sell you when they attempt to position breast implants, for example, as just as empowering as equal pay for equal work, or not being blamed if you’ve been raped.
Not so much “ginger” as “Bozo orange”, Jules honey.
Charlie Pierce on “welfare reform.” (I made the mistake of reading some of the comments on the NY Times piece he links. I have to remind myself that at least some of the commenters there buy the paper for the likes of Bobo or Douchehat.)
There’s a comment in Pierce’s thread from one Charlie Gannon about Rick Warren’s “libertarian theology” that should be shared here, gendered slur notwithstanding:
Also: 10 Unbelievably Shitty Things America Does to Homeless People. And, coincidentally, just before I’d seen it, I had overheard someone here giggling about her husband donating unwanted clothes to charity because “LOL, homeless people walking around in Brooks Brothers!” Can you imagine? Aren’t rags good enough for them these days? /spit
Re: Discrimination against Atheists as a civil rights issue following my # 61
So I was doing a bit of research and found D.J Grothe and Austin Dacey claiming Atheists suffer no civil rights violations at the hands of the religious or the State.
Unholy shit but do I despise motherfucking accomodationist Quisling motherfuckers.
Does anyone else here smell an accomodationist shit pile of lies?:
Yeah, ’cause in a small evangelical community with evangelical cops, judges and school Principals and a local press interested in pandering to “local values”, violence against atheists would totally see the light of day.
link to motherfucker’s article here
FFS what about that kid in Louisiana who got kicked out of his house and disowned!?
Oh, I hear you loud and clear, Ms. DC. I just don’t want reasonable people to get so fed up we’re left with only the morons.
That’d be Damon Fowler, who’ll be speaking at the SSA event in north Texas this weekend.
http://www.alternet.org/belief/151086/high_school_student_stands_up_against_prayer_at_public_school_and_is_ostracized,_demeaned_and_threatened?page=entire
and Richard Mullens, who lost his teaching job for being suspected of being an atheist.
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2009/02/it_must_be_tough_to_be_an_athe.php
I get ya, Jules. Owning the label to help outnumber the idiots.
Unrelated: Rod Dreher and Andrew Sullivan had a theology discussion for “Holy Week.” The only silver lining is that Roy Edroso wrote about it and his commenters had fun with it:
Oh hey, and atheists specifically get discriminated against in child custody hearings! That’s as civil as it gets, right? (Thx Greta)
http://www.alternet.org/belief/151241/10_scariest_states_to_be_an_atheist/?page=4
Phew…
(/I thought that was just me.)
Yo, Dreher and Sullivan, Imma let you finish, but Oral Roberts had the best sex sermon of all time!
NSFW. I guess. Unless your coworkers are down with hearing a gross televangelist postulate nostril sex.
Here’s another comment.
The internet is over, everybody. Go home.
As someone said: “That’s odd. I thought Santorum didn’t believe in pulling out.”
–o–
Just been invited to a job interview by the headmaster friday. Dunno if that’s bad or good since I’ve already worked for him a year.
–o–
Also just received my copy of Proving History.
Officially ill. Apparently I have a rather nasty H1N1 strain. Going to be a fun two weeks!
Ah yes. Favourite quote from Sex and The City.
A.R.:
Ack. The one I had took me out for a week. Hope you get plenty of rest and fluids and lots of comfy, comfy blankets.
Back from town, brought home books:
The Son of Neptune, Rick Riordan
The Gods of Gotham, Lindsay Faye
The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos, Brian Greene
Periodic Tales: a cultural history of the elements, from arsenic to zinc, Hugh Aldersey-Williams
The Sailor: “Pools flow the opposite way down under.”
But only if they are the size of a big lake, or larger. Bathtubs will drain 50% one way, 50% the other.
— — — — — —
I take it vegimite was created by Kangaroo Bloke, back in The Dream?
— — — — — —
“Try to have no sexual desires, feelings or moments of attraction…. That’s Jesus’ standard. We all fail that standard.”
Unless you suffer from a very bad case of anhedonia.
I have been there. Not recommended.
Richard Austin: I wish I could do that, I’ve got flies to cross, Westerns to run, and a lecture Friday! Not to mention my coursework. I shall endeavor to rest though.
Just curious if any one has a suggestion for a good book outlining humanist ideas and values for maybe a younger crowd, or someone who isn’t exactly the biggest reader? I’ve recently gotten a young man who is not a huge reader excited about skepticism and humanism. Most of the books I have to loan him would bore him to tears. So Im looking for something a little more his style. Not familar with anything right off hand. Suggestions?
Thanks!
KJ
A.R.:
Blech.
Well, do what you can obviously :( And hopefully try to keep from infecting others.
(I doubt licking your USB port while the anti-virus is running would help.)
(… though it sounds like an *awesome* bit for a sitcom, now that I think about it…)
Periodic Tales: a cultural history of the elements, from arsenic to zinc sounds good. Care to review?
–o–
Any bets on how long it’s gonna take before the Anti Defamation League goes after John Stewart?
Be sure to get a mince pie with mashed peas!
KillJoy, if your acquaintance has an e-reader, I highly recommend Why Are You Atheists So Angry? by Greta Christina.
Sili:
Periodic Tales: a cultural history of the elements, from arsenic to zinc sounds good. Care to review?
I just came home with it, give me a few to read it, eh? ;D Yes, I’ll be sure to review it when I’m done.
Sili: I had no idea that was a SATC quote. XD
???
Is that like blowhole sex?
+++++++++++++++
and oriented north-south.
+++++++++++++++
We have enough M.D.s here, is it true that doctors are taught that?
Having had UTIs that were given to me by my GF, and then traded back, it sure seems unlikely.
I know, I know. I haven’t even unwrapped my own Carrier yet.
kristinc,
It’s not quite, but there was a dye-job gone wrong in there, that was described as “Bozo the Cunt”.
Tuna noodle casserole for dinner (yellow fin). With peas. And canned cheese soup.
Yes, I am really going to eat it.
=============
Vegimite and/or marmite is very useful for creating an effect of chipped paint on scale models of AFVs. I had no idea it was meant to be eaten.
That’s disgusting.
He’s throwing in the towel. I guess he has some santorum to wipe up.
He was trying to de-Judaise Seder to make it more palatable to children and Christians. A traitor to his faith!
/snark
…But they only studied women. Is male urine sterile? >_>
In case anyone wants another update, apparently George Zimmerman’s lawyers have quit, citing that Zimmerman ignored their advice, contacted the special prosecutor in the case for unknown reasons, and that they’ve lost contact. Worst case scenario? He probably skipped the country. I guess I can thank the racist, retrofuck Sanford PD for letting another murderer get away.
During WWII, German, Italian, Commonwealth and British soldiers serving in North Africa used urine to clean themselves and their clothing. Petrol and sand was also used to avoid problems created by water shortages. I don’t know if US soldiers did or not.
Speaking of that, I’ve been trying to learn how to knit for awhile now, but for some reason the videos and books I’ve watched/read haven’t been much help. Any advice for someone that’s a beginner in general?
Everyone:
I’d like some advice on a serious issue that came up recently. I have a female roommate who used to work at a bar that is tangentially related to the one I work at (the owner of my bar is part owner of the one she worked at, but it’s more of a silent partnership I believe). She informed me yesterday that she quit her job because of the sexual harassment she received by the manager/GM/primary owner of the bar. I was pissed to hear that. She asked me to stay quiet about the issue, but I’m having a hard time doing that. I don’t want to violate the trust she has in me, but workplace sexual harassment is a serious issue and I’m not at all cool with it. I want to do something, but I’m not sure how to handle this.
Any thoughts?
Welp, third grade teacher was asked today about a letter of reference. She’s on board with it, has agreed to keep this on the DL for now. Now to get maybe 2 more, and possibly one from the principal.
I’ve lost it, haven’t I? An economy like this, with people losing their jobs left and right, more homeless people filling the shelters and parks . . . and I’m trying to lay the foundation for finding another job. Oh, greedy, short-sighted twits in power, you have never been such a thorn in my side as now. Now if only there were a way to eject you from your comfy jobs as easily as some fire the grilling crew.
Obviously mine wasn’t.
++++++++++++++++++
catlicks are supposed to pull out early!
also, too, they swear they’ll only put it in a little bit, they’re not lying, it’s all they’ve got.
After being the butt of all the jokes it’s not surprising he pulled out early. It’s even in the babble: wither, thou goest.
It was a tight race, but in the end he withdrew in a whimper, not a bang.
I only know of US soldiers using urine on Afghani corpses.
Best is to go find a knitting group somewhere. Yarn shops ought to either have them or know of them, cafes/libraries often host them, and/or craft stores sometimes have knitting classes. It’s easier to learn from another person in person than watching videos, but it’s not impossible.
If you can’t find any real live people, I think knittinghelp.com has the clearest videos I’ve seen. And start with big needles and smooth yarn. It’s tempting to do a baby project for the first thing because they’re small, but they require freakin’ small needles and are generally a pain in the butt. Think decorative potholder instead. If you really want it to be a project, think approx. 6″x6″ squares, that you can later stitch together for a blanket or scarf. The first square can all be knit stitch, the second all perl, and so on.
Indeed. To scale, Mount Everest is a grain of sand stuck on a basketball.
And British redcoats. And Mexicans. And Yankees and Seceshes. And Native Americans. And Filipinos. And Germans. And Haitians. And Japanese. And Germans. And Italians. And Koreans. And Vietnamese.
This is an old, very old, tradition.
Respect her wishes.
America: the Land of the Free needs to be changed to America: We Cracked the Seal Too Early, it seems.
Katherine Lorraine at #8: Continental or European knitting makes much better use of the left hand than the heavily right-handed ‘British’ style. They hold the yarn in the left hand. It really looks very sensible, but I cannot for the life of me get out of the habit of the style I learned.
If she goes all out and learns to knit both styles, she’ll be able to do stranded colour work with enviable ease.
Anyone interested in depressing news from Utah? Turns out that the CDC did a review of sexual health/education in 45 states, and Utah came out dead last in teens knowing about condoms and having some idea how to get them. And the vice president of Utah’s Eagle Forum thinks that’s “great news.”
Seriously, what the fuck is wrong with these people?
Slignot, Mormons…always Moronic. And most of Mister’s family is Mormon. I know that brand of moronic up close and personal.
They know what they want (ignorant young women, young women marrying early, lots of pregnant young women, control over women) and are willing to hurt lots and lots and lots of people in order to get what they want.
Tony: re your roommate, you’re kinda limited to supporting and encouraging her to report the guy if possible. Depends on whether she has documentation or witnesses, whether local business oversight is likely to be supportive, whether she feels safe pursuing it and such. Butting in on her behalf probably won’t go well.
If you’re concerned about sexual harassment in general at these bars, though, you might be able to review their sexual harassment policy with the part-owner who’s closer to you, and make sure the policy’s good and tight, that employees and managers are aware of it, and that people feel confident in bringing problems up for solving. As “a concerned employee” without getting all personal, y’know.
@Caine, I suppose what’s thrown me so strongly is that despite numbers like this, the legislature still passed its ignorance only education bill (which allowed schools and districts to drop the health curriculum relating to puberty/sex/pregnancy entirely). How does someone look at those numbers and think, “no, our kids just aren’t ignorant enough yet.” It terrifies me that had our conservative governor not caved to popular outrage, this would have become law.
I’m just amazed at this sort of shit, and I should really be used to it by now. Maybe I should get on with it and become angrily cynical about everyone and everything.
Tony:
Then don’t.
Ogvorbis, you really are right. And with that spirit crushing truth, I’m going to run to the store.
If I didn’t need technology, I’d seriously contemplate moving to the woods.
slignot:
I don’t know, really, except for the standard god belief rots the brain.
My mom-in-law, devout Mormon, used to be a school teacher. She’s retired now. Years ago, I remember her telling me that one of her students was pregnant – at 12 years old. This sort of shit has been going on for effing ages.
For some of these people, if the girl/young woman/woman says, “No,” she is not ignorant enough yet. A well-educated and confident woman is the absolute worst thing in the world for a religious authoritarian. They know how to say, “No.”
But not the French. They just fart in your general direction.
Ogvorbis:
Don’t make the mistake of thinking this especially in force for girls/women. In Mormonism, the emphasis on virginity & ignorance is the same for boys/men.
The boys/men aren’t the ones that get shamed or blamed when a girl turns up pregnant though?
The scoutmaster when I was in Cub Scouts back in the 70s was Mormon. Ignorance is a big part of it.
Pteryxx:
If they are Mormon, yes they are shamed and blamed. They are also generally shotgunned into a wedding right quick.
*ahem*
Green Velvet – The Preacher Man
(If anyone has an attribution for the sermon, I’d appreciate it.)
Because that doesn’t ever lead to abusive marriages.
You call it an ‘abusive marriage,’ the right wing religious authoritarians call it a ‘biblical marriage.’
Sorry. I am really cynical today.
If it helps narrow down the problem with my knitting, it’s tension. It seems like my work ends up being too tight, but if I try to loosen up my grip it just falls apart. I can’t seem to find that special sponge-cakey kind of layer where the tension is just right, lol.
George Zimmerman’s attorneys have removed themselves from the case, citing an uncooperative client. pRick Santorum has petulantly and angrily quit the GOP primary race. I’m sitting here rubbing my chin and wondering if it’s time for a drink.
Just read this in an article about Mr. Frothy’s withdrawl:
That’s just nasty.
But volcanoes can be understood. The benignity or destructiveness of an eruption is directly related to the composition of the magma, the amount of silica and water. Every time Mr. Frothy opened his trap, regardless of the underlying strata, we never knew what was going to happen.
In short, unfair to compare Santorum to a volcano.
As a Leftie myself, I learned to knit ‘regular’, I.e. Right handed. I didn’t have any trouble learning, though the book I used neglected to tell me that I have to move the yarn to the back to purl. Doh! That led to some serious hot messes at the beginning. It’s not hard, and both hands are required, so like guitar and golf, I just learned the standard way.
Maybe it’s another way rightie’s keeping us down.
RX – I have tension problems myself a lot of the time; knitting with one size larger needles than you’re supposed to helped me out a lot. That forced the stitches to be the “right” size even though I was knitting too tightly, and after awhile getting used to the feel of what right-sized stitches felt like to knit helped me self-adjust when I was back on the correct needles. Not that there is a correct size needle – if using a larger size all the time gives you the right gauge, then just always use a size larger. Somehow larger needles + smaller yarn = not as tight knitting, even with the feel of doing it.
Oh, pfft!
Request withdrawn. ;)
With the ticks!?
I seriously recommend sailboats. We have technology without the ticks. And we can sail it to other places, that also don’t have ticks.
Grar.
I took an early departure from work today, to go home and immerse myself in my baking.
So:
2 lemon meringue pies, sans-meringue, as it failed to stiffen. I am out of eggs.
1 key lime pie, inexplicably runny.
The bread is still in the oven. Seriously though, if this doesn’t work, I think I may cry.
In other Esteleth-is-pissy news, one of my co-workers is UTTERLY FLABBERGASTED that ladies cuss. I dropped a fixed sample as I was mounting it, said, “Fuck!” rather loudly, then carefully fished it up and mounted it. Cue wide-eyed amazement.
I need a beer. Or six.
Esteleth, there is a Yuengling on the way. Nothing fancy, but it gets the job done.
Slightly treadrupt, but I just stumbled across a trailer for a documentary featuring Billy West (Fry) and John Di Maggio (Bender)!
I Know That Voice
Esteleth: {Looks in liquor cabinet} There’s some absinthe in here if you want it.
I’ll just leave this here….
http://gawker.com/5899787/finding-goatse-the-mystery-man-behind-the-most-disturbing-internet-meme-in-history
SFW, at least in terms of images.
I had two this evening. Which is about double my normal beer intake for a week. But, tomorrow is Monday, so . . . .
*takes MikeG’s Yuengling, grabs a Guiness from the fridge*
Mmm… black and tan. Hits the spot.
Adding insult to injury, I have burned my hand. There is a stripe of angry blisters along the back of my hand, mysteroulsy oven-rack shaped.
I’ve never had absinthe, A.R. Is it any good?
In the news: Norwegian mass killer declared sane
Oh, but I do love a bit of Derrick Carter.
(Extraordinary 4:4 rework of Take Five in there.)
Esteleth: Nor have I, but from what I hear, it’s very herbal. A short video of a distiller explaining absinthe.
@mass effect fans
Hey guys, you know the Dawkins vs. Pell debate? Well, someone managed to sneak in a Mass Effect reference via twitter, showing up in the ticker at the bottom of the TV: http://kotaku.com/5900509/mass-effect-prankster-livens-up-tv-show
It will make you emit flatulence that sounds like the name of a Japanese automobile.
/yes, I’m 12 years old, shut up
I am sad. I got out of class, which didn’t go that badly for the second session of that very scary class, and immediately went into a tearful, flailing panic for no reason at all. :( That’s the fourth indicator that something’s up with me and my stress level (nightmares, trouble sleeping, recurrent nausea). It makes sense for me to be stressed out right now, so I shouldn’t be too concerned, I think – but weirdly enough, most of the time I am feeling unusually good and relaxed? My friend I talk to on the phone says that I have been sounding unusually good too. The combination honestly kind of bothers me.
Sigh.
Safe travels Cephaloprofessor!
Wish I could be there, stuck in Brisbane (the stinky river city).
Don’t eat the vegimite, and if you want a good Aussie beer, try James Boags ^^ (from Tasmania, the state we don’t count — like your Alaska?)
Anyway, rock on Professor. Represent!
Cipher: that makes perfect sense to me, actually. Half the time I seem to panic *after* doing something well, as a sort of “Wait a minute, your life is supposed to SUCK!” delayed reaction. Good things are scary, too.
Well God’s a dick in the ME universe too.
Speaking of that: interesting article on art to me http://techgnotic.deviantart.com/art/The-Future-of-Storytelling-Has-Arrived-293860261?utm_source=elnino&utm_medium=messagecenter&utm_campaign=040312_NET_Storytelling&utm_term=button
If any fans missed it the final response to fans upset by the ending seems to be “Oh you don’t like it? Let me explain it again LOUDER AND SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWER”
I have good news for Caine – since it is she that seems to especially enjoy them – and indeed any others that enjoy cupcakes. I noticed a ‘cupcake’ wine in our local booze emporium. Now I’m not about to taste test it for you since I don’t do alcohol (seriously, have you seen what it does you your sniping accuracy? ) but it immediately struck me as a potentially enjoyable beverage when pharyngulating a particularly tasty creationist. They even have pretty blue bottles.
It will make you emit flatulence that sounds like the name of a Japanese automobile.
I didn’t know Buick was made in Japan.
Unrelated: I nearly never have the need for allergy medicine, but tonight’s a Benadryl night. I freely confess that I love me Benadryl buzz…It’s like a little wave of happy, then darkness.
CC:
I think you’ve just trained yourself to await “the shoe drop” and when it doesn’t, your anxiety level hits the redline. Breathe and remind yourself it’s perfectly normal and okay for good stuff to happen to you.
Blockquote fail. I only just now took the Benadryl…I can’t blame the drugs.
@Ing
Pretty much. There is no point in extending the ending when the ending is a whole load of garbage. It just makes the pile of garbage larger.
Plus, they promised that we would get very different endings depending on player choice. We aren’t even getting that.
tim:
I’ve had it. From what I’ve tried (there’s several varieties), it’s not half bad. Drinkable, anyway.
For all those enjoying beers tonight: Have one for me, please? I miss being able to come home from work and having a beer or a glass of wine or a cocktail. :(
@Ibyea
pretty much the only way it can work is if they’re going with blatent lies (which with a Summer release, I’m doubting) or they confirm indoctrination which just makes every ending a nonstandard Game Over
What really interests me about the whole thing is how the narrative puts the artist and consumer in antagonistic positions. This seems perverse to me.
I’ve had a few varieties of wine from Cupcake Vineyard, it’s okay. I found the chardonnay to be the best. I did slice out the cupcake from the metal foil on the top and glued it above my laptop keyboard…just because. ;D
Just watched this. (Hitch on the future of the Middle East in 2008-ish.) Seriously missing his insight on foreign affairs. I wonder what he would say about the Korean rocket test, and the Syrian situation…
…and the bread failed to rise.
I have made bread-like rocks.
Dammit.
I’m going to bed.
Esteleth: Did you forget the yeast?
I love Vegemite, it is even better than Marmite. I say that and I’m English.
Vegemite on hot buttered toast and a glass of Champagne or at any rate while we’re in an Oz mood Seaview Brut – superb.
It’s heaven – heaven without god and godbotherers – what could be better than that
OK, I’m going to throw my hat into this, Marmite > Vegemite
This! :
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dTgArIjXico/T4Tc-zkoGcI/AAAAAAAAAis/clkOUbL3jb0/s1600/JesusisSIQ_blogV.jpg
(Hope link works okay, spotted on facebook.)
Would’ve been good on the “Did Jesus exist” poll thread maybe but guess its a bit late in the day for that, yeah?
@83. opposablethumbs : Santorum not surging from behind any more…
Mittens Rmoney was apparently wiping Santorum all over his home state as he was pulling out.
Santorum’s departure leaves Republicans with a bad smell after the climax of a messy race.
Santorum departs from behind leaving Romney to clean up.
(Got to get those last few in before Mr Stinkyfroth disappears into well deserved obscurity forever.)
So the richest contender wins the republican race, who would’ve guessed. Going to be a lot harder for him to buy his way to the job of POTUS though. It was always easily predictable really that Mittens would win – and will now lose bigtime to Obama in the Main Event.
Heads up on this one folks via Nine MSN online news site :
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/8449714/coffin-depicts-jesus-resurrection
Guess the fundamentalists will make lot of this even though when you look closely there’s really not that much to it.
Note the highly misleading headline for starters. (eyeroll.)
Guess ‘Bone box carving references fishy legend’ won’t attract enough attention or clicks, eh Nine?
From Cracked: is Comic Sans undermining PZ’s purpose?
http://www.cracked.com/article_19518_5-seemingly-random-factors-that-control-your-memory.html
SCIENCE dammit.
Caine, I am slow and stupid, but what is cupcake vineyard?
Gilliel and Jules, sending you comforting thoughts.
Cassandra, sometimes people experience a stress reaction after the stressful situation has passed – even if uneventfully.
I can’t believe Tennessee today. ARGH!
Happy travels, P.Z. and Mary!
Threadrupt, and catching up
I grew up in UK and live in Australia and I can not stand either marmite or Vegemite. It is popular but not mandatory. Has anyone mentioned the Amanda Palmer Vegemite song yet?
I gre up in Australia & can’t stand vegemite.
The video that PZ posted just makes me want to rip my eyes out!*
*(not really, my eyes are slightly higher in the value scale than vegemite ads from the sixties)
Are you there yet? Are you there yet? Are you there yet?
Vegemite toast – the breakfast of champions!
Have any plans been made for catching up before the GAC on Friday? Pre-drinks drinks, so to speak.
A beer with the naked lady (its art!) and PZ was a great way to start the last GAC.
Not liking Vegemite is unaustralian. You will have to turn in your boomerangs and emigrate to Patagonia or New Zealand.
Great quote seen on Facebook today as well :
Not sure when he was running for president – 1970’s-80’s perhaps?
Too late to post on the Reagun quote thread I guess now?
Still interesting for some folks here and for future reference hopefully?
PZ is pretty fully booked for Friday already afaik, so it would have to be just the Pharyngulites or something.
14 hours to go.
Oh, and we’ve apparently cured cancer.
This is the second promising cancer news this year, the first was about an antibody therapy that blocks pretty much all cancer cells from signalling to the immune system “nothing to see here, move along !”, with the result of human solid cancers melting away in mouse models. Give it 10 years, and we should see major progress.
Good , more Promite pour moi.
Big quake strikes off coast of Indonesia
Say what you like. Laugh and jig about. Wear lederhosen and do the happy clappy dancing thing if you wish
It avails nothing. There is Vegemite in your future.
And afterwards comes The March of The Marsupials. You are doomed, Placentals, doomed I say!
Goldwater ran for President as the GOP nominee in 1964. And he helped to create the present GOP’s hyperconservatism.
*sighs* not the first time I’ve been called that. Nor the only reason.
Didn’t Pauline Hanson call people unAustralian? Is it unAustralian to call people unAustralian?
It may well be unAustralian to call people unAustralian, but ‘Tis isn’t Australian anyway, so maybe he’s allowed?
Now I want vegemite toast.
T’isn’t Australian…..
Indeed. I’m old enough to remember Goldwater. He was anti-theocratic, but he was still a fucking far-right fruitcake, who advocated the use of nuclear weapons in the Vietnam War.
Bed now. City tomorrow. Catch up with the overlord and all, hopefully. Any Pharyngulites around tomorrow, leave a comment and we can figure something out, I’ll check the thread in the morning.
@197: Yeah, yeah. I’ll believe it when I see the phase III results.
This is not the first time we’ve cured cancer. Remember angiogenesis inhibition? Hailed as The Cure in the 1990s, followed by an immense crash as people discovered that it wasn’t actually nearly as useful as they thought. We’ve finally started getting useful compounds out of it and some success and angiogenesis inhibition has settled down to being part of some protocols. It’ll be the same with immune stimulation.
What if I’m wrong? I think this XKCD expresses my feelings. I’ll be too excited about the new medical options to worry too much about being wrong.
Wow, I hope the research mentioned in #197 does yield some great progress over the next decade.
RahXephon, have you been knitting long? I think the tension issue is something that everyone experiences at first (it is probably what puts people off continuing to try to knit). I don’t know if it is worse for left-handed knitters or not. My SIL is left handed and I do remember she was frustrated with her tension at first, but I can’t remember if it took her longer or the same amount of time as it did for me.
If you have only done a couple of projects so far, then practice may be all it will take to get your tension really nice. Something I did was to cast on about 20-30 stitches of thickish wool on medium needles and then just knit rows and rows. Straight knitting (both sides, so of course it will not be stocking stitch). The point is to perfect tension, not to actually knit something (though the result can be used as a scarf potentially!) After knitting about 3 feet of this over a few days when I had time, I found my tension was much more even.
Rorschach, I’m around Thursday. Evening is a possibility for me
This phrase from his acceptance speech in 1964 says a lot about Goldwater and about modern conservatives:
He basically laid out the tactics later used by Nixon, Reagan, and both Bushes. If you are fighting for liberty (of course, this is the right-wing definition of liberty) the rules do not apply. And it has worked. Between Goldwater’s no-rules policy and Southern Strategy, which has been used to make the old south a regressive hellhole, the GOP has managed to convince a large portion of the population to vote for policies that will make the economy weaker and the rich more wealthy. Look at how many people in the US vote to make themselves more poor.
OK, so day two of super-flu, and I feel like I’m going to die. Don’t believe the people who say that walking is good when you have Influenza, they lie!!!
Damn. You have my sympathy.
Some undiluted grog is on its way.
I had a ‘flu-like illness’ last week, on top of my knee problems, and I managed to pull about a dozen muscles from shivering.
Be safe and get well.
Antiochus:
…. I actually have to explain a sixth-grade joke to the Horde?
Okay: Absinthe makes the farts go “honda.”
/ducks
Ing:
That’s not a new trope. There’s that whole idea that if you make any sort of art that’s pleasing to The Masses™, you’re Selling Out. By which I don’t just mean utter crap like what Kinkade made, or had his assistants make; I mean anything charming or pleasant whatsoever. You’re not a Real Artist™ unless your work is discordant and ugly.
(Yes, discordant and ugly work can be good. Yes, it’s good that some artists challenge people. No, I’d rather have Tamara de Lempicka’s work than Damien Hirst’s in my living room, kthx.)
Pteryxx:
I find it odd to see Comic Sans and Bodoni grouped together. Bodoni is very much what I’d call a “classic” font. Perhaps it catches readers’ eyes because it’s not used anywhere near as often as Times Roman or Arial.
I’m guessing it’s very much an example of frequency-dependent selection. The less a font is used, the more you notice and the harder it is to decipher.
Dear Americans,
Please get off my internet. You waking up and getting online has slowed my torrent download.
Bastards.
Louis
Tony, stay out of it and be supportive of her for the time being. If she recently quit, they’ll know exactly who is upset (most likely), and any contacts or connections she has with the whole place could be compromised. I left my last job (that I hated anyway, but this definitely contributed) when a coworker started doing that sort of thing with me (he escalated to figuring out where I live and driving by at night one time). I told another coworker I was very close to so she could keep an eye out for me, and I quit with nothing but praises on my lips for the company. To this day, I would not dream of telling anyone else about it. It could hurt my professional reputation (should I ever try to go back into that field in this town). But maybe when enough time has passed, you can suggest that because of the environment (bar), it’s a good idea to do a refresher on what sexual harassment entails and what the specific policy is.
That’s not an option for me because of the industry I was in. And it won’t help your roommate now as much as you’d like. But it’s the best thing I can think of.
RahXephon, I second Carlie’s recommendation to increase your needle size. I still knit very tight (after 15 years of knitting) and almost always have to go up a size or two.
Please get off my internet.
YOUR internet? Don’t you know that Al Gore invented it?
Tim Berners-Lee actually. An Englishman. In Europe.
Off. Now. Naughty Americans!
;-)
Louis
P.S. I will accept people being off for ~3 hours when my torrent will easily have finished. Now shoo. Get!
Actually, since I like Americans generally, I’ll soften. You can look at /b/ and do low bandwidth editing of Wikipedia.
No, no. No need to thank me.
Louis
To be pedantic, he invented the World Wide Web, which is part of the Internet, but not the whole thing!
If you move to Patagonia it helps to speak Welsh.
Matt,
Tish, pshaw, stuff and nonsense! How dare you allow mere facts to get in the way of my Yank-baiting! Now go and stand in the corner and think about what you’ve done.
If we act reasonably towards these colonials they will eventually think they are people. And we cannot have that.
Louis
Don’t be ridiculous! It never helps to speak Welsh. A vile and unpronounceable mish mash of phonemes. It was clearly invented by someone’s dad who was losing at Scrabble. It can also lead to close harmony singing and excessive leek consumption.
Louis
If we act reasonably towards these colonials they will eventually think they are people.
But if you act unreasonably, we will think you are our poodle. Just ask Tony Blair.
Besides, everyone knows that Britain has been a colony of the US since we saved you from Nazis in the Franco-Prussian war and established moral superiority over Britain by abolishing slavery with the Monroe Doctrine. Or something like that. Fox News said so.
So I saw that XKCD comic from the other day with the lakes and oceans and started looking up shipwrecks… and I saw the HMS Hood for the first time. Seeing the pictures of that ship on the ocean floor gave me chills. It’s so ghostly and creepy…
Shipwrecks are really neat things… but so chilling.
Dianne,
Ahhhh I see you make a common error. It is a Well Known Fact* that America’s national debt is merely a fraction of the ~200 years back taxes you owe Her Majesty. And you’d all be speaking Japanese if it wasn’t for us.
Or something.
Louis
* Actually neither well known nor factual.
Louis, clearly history is taught with the same rigor and objectivity in Britain as in the US.
Right, dianne – Form-1066 and all that.
Dianne,
Oh absolutely. We have whole sections on “Why the French Smell and have Despicable Sexual Diseases” and “Why the Whole Map Used To Be Pink and Why It Still Should Be”.
We’re deeply enlightened.
{Ahem}
Louis
A.R.:
People say that? Really?? I usually don’t even want to move when I’m sick (which isn’t often, thankfully, but tends to hit me like a Trinity in bullet-time).
IIRC, H1N1 was 3 days of curl-up-and-die, and then a week or so of feeling like I could almost be better but every time I tried to do anything significant I felt exhausted.
Fuckital, my post got eaten.
Louis, I give you Five Facts That Are Totally True About Brits
1) All Brits have terrible teeth.
2) All Brits are addicted to tea.
3) All Brits carry umbrellas everywhere.
4) All Brits are always impeccably dressed, including wearing neckties. This includes
footballsoccer hooligans.5) All Brits constantly say shit like “pip pip,” “jolly good,” and “cheerio.”
BONUS!
6) A congenital abnormality gives Brits super-stiff upper lips. This, due to the transitive property of Who-The-Fuck-Knows™, makes Brits impervious to feeling down due to shitty situations.
@2001. Ogvorbis: Insert Appropriate Appelation Here says:
11 April 2012 at 6:16 am
Oh. Okay. Cheers I guess. I didn’t know that. Still a good quote tho’?
BTW. Latest random snippet of stuff seem online that may be of interest (Assuming it hasn’t been mentioned / blogged on already? I must go to bed – hours ago) :
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2012/04/11/tennessee-passes-law-allowing-creationism-in-the-classroom/
Time for another Scopes trial perhaps Tennessee?
Esteleth,
All true except 1). We’ve had orthodontistry since the 70s. Some of us have very nice teeth.
I’d also modify 6). We are very capable of feeling down in shitty situations, but if this occurs we must immediately write poetry and wear lace, or possibly be Wilfred Owen. No exceptions.
Other than that, spot on actually.
Louis
That’s great, Louis!
Incidentally, I saw a study once (that now I can’t find – ha!) that said that American women find the Scottish accent the most sexy (seckshy?) accent, followed closely by the Australian and New Zealand accents. The RP English accent came in at “just funny.”
Hunt-and-peck one-handed typing at -5 for off-hand and -3 for non-proficiency penalties. Oog.
–
Hydrocodone + Benadryl = four hours of pain-free sleep, and a further intermittent three hours of only-mildly-uncomfortable sleep. Boffo.
–
Pile of self-serve *hugs*.
Pile of *Righteous Loathing of Peas*; apply where applicable.
–
My specialty. Yeast hates me.
–
The Australian Accent sexy ?
Not the Sydney accent for sure. That always sounds as if they are asking a question!
Esteleth,
Oh everyone loves a Scottish accent. We Brits apparently find the French accent sexy, but what I only learned recently is allegedly the French find the English accent* sexy.
Louis
* The RP one. No one finds Geordie sexy, even Geordies, and I defy anyone to get turned on by a Scouser.**
** Actually, I defy anyone to spend any time in the company of a Scouser and not have their car nicked.***
*** What do you call a Scouser in a suit? The defendant.
P.S. Right, that’s Aussies, Americans, the Welsh, Geordies and Scousers dealt with. All I need are the French, Jews, Asians, Disabled people, Black people, Women and The Gays (with their Agenda {shakes fist}) and I’ll have the bigotry polyfecta! Hurrah! I’ll be given the Prince Philip Award for Advanced Diplomacy yet!
[WARNING: Some of the foregoing may not be serious. Also, it may have been packaged in an environment containing nuts.]
Don’t ask me, Matt.
IMO, the most awesome accent is that of a Scandinavian who is speaking English. Rawr.
Hmm. Esteleth, assuming that a lot of the US women in that study probably tend to fancy blokes, what do you reckon USanians who mostly fancy women might like in an accent? (Does the Scottish accent also work, do you think?)
Stephanie Zvan has a post entitled “I’m voting with my vagina” which refers to a campaign and a bumper sticker bearing that self same slogan.
Look, people, I have a hard enough time keeping the jokes to a minimum as it is. Really, the tawdry output you poor bastards have to cope with from me is the tip of a very large bad joke iceberg. I realise that women are particularly oppressed and marginalised in Western, esp US, society. I get it. I truly do. I see that disenfranchisement and unequal treatment and it makes me mad and so I act on it in a constructive way. I am really trying very hard, I really am. But please don’t give me slogans which make me think “I hope you brought your own pen” or “I admire your dexterity…is that the right word?” or…
…seriously I have just had over 9000 vagina jokes scroll across the screen in my head. It hurts. It makes it hard to be a decent human being. I am going to have to take myself off into a corner and give myself a really stern talking to. I’m not proud of this.
Help!
Louis
Louis, you are missing something very important.
To an American, there are 5 types of English accents:
1) The RP. This is silly, spoken by inexplicably unsexy men in three-piece suits and bowler hats. Found in period drama and the Beeb.
2) Cockney. This is silly and endearing, and spoken by adorable street urchins and dancing chimney sweeps.
3) Whatever the fuck it is that the Monty Python boys (except Gilliam-the-American and Jones-the-Welshman) speak. Adorkable. Gilliam is an American of the hello-Midwesterner variety, Jones is Welsh, which is also adorkable, but differently so.
4) Scouse as spoken by the Beatles. Swoon.
5) Tough, solid Oop North. May feature unflappable housewives and leather-jacketed toughs. Also miners.
Scottish is different from all of the above (because dude, it’s bloody Scotland, home of Sean Connery and his chest hair).
Ogg:
Yeah, I intend to implement total bed rest to the greatest extent possible.
—
Richard Austin:
Yeah, I heard someone suggest exerciser for flu once, not sure where.I think I may be in day one of the “I think I’m going to die” phase of Influenza.
—
I find all of this accent talk to be quite interesting. My speech tends to be General American heavily influenced by early 20th century RP. As far as Scottish accents go, watching Craig Ferguson and The Thick of It for way to long has associated that accent with comedy. Thus most things Scottish people say to me sound funny.
Ugh. Bret (misogynist extraordinaire from Friendly Atheist) now reveals his side as a transphobe.
Oops, you kind of may have answered my question before I asked it. Tachyon.
Esteleth,
The Python chaps all speak with varying degrees of RP. Okay, so not quite as RP as “BBC Radio 4 Continuity announcer from the 1950s” but pretty plummy by average standards.
Should I point out that I have the same accent as those guys?
Louis
Louis, I’ll have to watch a few MP clips when I’m not at work. I don’t hear them as RP, but that’s probably due to my “RP does not involve fart jokes” blinders.
Of course, my point about Gilliam and Jones stands. They definitely don’t speak RP.
To my (admittedly biased) ear, RP is what the Queen, Beeb announcers circa 1940, and the titled characters in “Downton Abbey” speak. Oh, and the inexplicably named “Sin-Jin” (St. John = “Sin-Jin”??!) on “Mad Men.”
Obviously, they didn’t ask me.
Regarding Monty Python, Michael Palin has more of a north country thing going on than the rest of them. “Yeah, remarkable bird, the Norwegian Blue, beautiful plumage, innit?”
NOM’s Twitter account was hacked this morning! BWAAAAAA!!!
E,
You forgot:
6) The Guy Richie unintelligible crime-drama accent. (As heard on Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and non- Guy Richie films like Layer Cake.)
Oh, that’s right, Audley.
See also: whatever the fuck was going on in Hot Fuzz. Because (1) LOL and (2) I am inexplicably turned on.
Oh, and screw accents.
French speaking individuals make me all floaty…
Had some very odd effects on young Kat when her dad was speaking French…
Alright, Louis, now I have a question.
Are there stereotypes in the UK about American accents? Is there even much awareness of them (beyond the Southern one, I presume)? When I categorize my own accent as “Midwestern flat-as-a-pancake,” does that mean anything?
niftyatheist:
http://www.cupcakevineyard.com/
The first time I saw the label at the liquor store, I burst out laughing. Had. to. have. I posted about it on the TET of the time, along with a link to a pic. Here it is again. Turned out the wine wasn’t bad at all, so that was a plus.
Gad, it’s windy and cold today. *Brrr* Just got back in from putting out black oil sunseeds, 5 other varieties of seed, peanuts in the shell, corn, suet and oranges for the birds and assorted wildlife. Now to clean out and set up the hummingbird feeder.
You might find this enjoyable: Gunshow Comics – Sad Parrot Sketch
Re accents and language: I can’t understand about 1/2 of the British accents I’ve heard. Just can’t get the meaning out of them. Scottish is even worse.
Australian…well, the first time I went to Australia I walked up to customs and the official said something. My first thought was, “Shit! I thought they spoke English here!” He repeated himself slooowwwlllyyyy, using easy words and then I finally got it. It got better when I wasn’t totally jet lagged.
French sounds incredibly harsh to me. OTOH, I find German very melodic. Americans usually look at me very oddly when I tell them that. I’ve had people actually argue with me that my observation that it’s easier to find vegetarian food in Germany than in France is impossible. An argument almost always made by people who’ve never been to either country in their lives.
Esteleth,
I’m probably the worst person to ask having lived in the US at one point. I’m acutely aware of Matters American, so yes, your “Midwestern flat as a pancake” accent is familiar to me. I think the stereotypical stupid Southerner exists and the stereotypical New Yawwwwwwker etc, i.e. any trope that might have made it via a movie. I’m not sure my compatriots would be all that interested in distinguishing between Portland and Seattle hipsters for example…
Louis
Not the sheep. Not the sheep.
Thought the goats find it quite amusing. Not the accent, the sheep.
I kept trying to keep going. Probably made it last longer.
We just had a flurry of pellet, or corn, snow.
And a person said to me, “Where’s this global warming they keep talking about?” I successfully avoided going off on him. Though I did say, “Yeah. That record warm winter doesn’t mean a thing, but a cold spell in April? That trumps it all.”
Ogvorbis:
Here in ND, it’s perfectly normal to see snowfall in April. I have no idea why anyone who lives in place that has winter would find that remarkable.
Ogg: You can talk to me about late snow when your 4th of July party gets snowed on. Stupid Michigan weather…
Alright, fair enough, Louis. I was just curious.
I was speaking with a co-worker who is Brazilian who studied in Tennessee. She said that she was utterly flabbergasted by the accent when she arrived – not quite “generic American movie/TV” not quite “stupid Southerner.”
Of course, the “stupid Southerner” is a meme that really fucking needs to die.
Esteleth: Creationist laws, Personhood Amendments and transvaginal ultrasound requirements do not help kill the meme though…
No they don’t, A.R., but I will point out that that shit is (1) not restricted to the South and (2) there are plenty of Southerners who oppose it.
We can get snow here into late April.
I was trying to maintain my temper with the man. After the warmest March on record, the warmest winter on record, this guy was using a cold snap in April to complain about ‘global warming liars’.
Never mind. I am having trouble making myself clear. Disregard.
Caught my eye:
The Sailor @122.
Um, isn’t that what Onan was struck down for? “Spilling his seed on the ground” instead of knocking up his sister-in-law or whatever?
But, yeah. I am going to miss all of the Santorum jokes (whether intentional or not). I do find Newt’s insistance on staying in the race HILARIOUS, though. :)
E,
Well, if you’ve ever met someone from rural TN, the accent’s pretty thick. And really, when their lege stops writing creationist and anti- “gateway sexual behavior” bills, I’ll stop considering them stupid.
And I borkquoted it.
I fucking give up.
I hate hate hate embedded comments. I’m trying to follow discussions about sex work on Taslima and Natalie’s blogs, but it’s almost impossible to track every new comment.
ITA, Beatrice. Nested comments make me sad.
Ogvorbis, I understood you perfectly. I wasn’t commenting on what you said, but the ‘global warming’ idiot. All things considered, it’s still pretty fuckin’ warm out today, especially given that the whole winter has hardly been winter at all.
The Lilacs have leaves already! Normally, we wouldn’t see this until May. We are going into drought though, unless we get rain (and a whole fucking lot of it) very soon. Burn bans went up last fucking month, when there would normally still be at least a foot of snow on the ground.
I can’t stand morons who go on about global warming when they don’t have the fucking sense to notice what’s going on around them. One shiver, and they start pontificating. Assholes.
Oh, and whoever is whinging about snow in July? Shut up. Standard to have at least one (usually three) hail storms every July here.
Also, I should add that the South consistently has the poorest performing schools in the country. They may not be stupid, by they sure as shit are ignorant.
I mean, come on! Poverty in the deep South is a real problem as are things like teen pregnancy, but they keep voting in Republicans, who have made the problems worse. Voting against your own self interest time and time again is not the hallmark of an intelligent or rational population.
I do feel bad for anyone stuck in the South who is not an ignorant fundamentalist, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that people outside of the bible belt will judge it to be a backwards place.
Beatrice:
You mean threaded comments? I loathe threaded comments.
I’m not disagreeing with you, Audley. I am disagreeing with the meme that says “all people from the South are idiots.”
Voting against your own self interest time and time again is not the hallmark of an intelligent or rational population.
Or at least not an educated population. The propaganda is reasonably heavy in the south in favor of politicians with “family values” and against taxes, despite the fact that most southern states are net tax recipients. The urban northeast supports the whole country.
That aside, though, Santorum (now out of the race!) comes from Pennsylvania and Romney from Mass. Both were successful politicians in their home states before going national. Plenty of people voting against their own interests in the north too.
Esteleth,
Sorry I couldn’t be much more help. And yeah, the stupid southerner trope is not a good one.
I suppose the stereotypes we have of Americans here are the “flyover states”/”red states” hick, all of whom are southern and stupid. See also, racist, fat, bible thumping etc. Or perhaps “Texan”. The other stereotype is the Californian fitness freak uber American with a trust fund/million dollar salary and a vegan lifestyle.
Like every other nation on earth, our stereotypes are as sophisticated as a puddle of spit. They’re not exactly informed by anything approaching reality. Still, they’re fun to annoy tourists with. ;-)
Louis
US Southern accents vary quite a bit. The US South had divided accents by class just as the English did (and both still do, to certain degrees).
Even now, a drawl indicates you’re from good people, and a twang means you’re dumbass white trash. People stay fairly divided along those lines. And both types of accents occur in people born and raised in the same geographical location.
Tennessee tends to be twangy as fuck. I’m sure it’s a bit of a challenge for people unacquainted with it.
My accent is mostly Midwestern, but I drawl and twang on some words (Southern is a drawly one; ain’t twangs). I may also drawl when tired or drunk or in the presence of my crush, who has the best super-Southern drawl-twang ever. *dreamy-eyed gaze into the distance*
Do the folks who have met me in person detect any Southerness?
Favorite accent: South Carolina
Next up: German (but not Swabian, which is too harsh, or Swiss, which is too…lilting maybe? I dunno. Hard to describe)
Dianne:
This is a problem all over the States and it keeps getting worse.
The “family values” nonsense has been steadily gaining traction for a couple of decades now. It’s by no means limited to one area of the States at all. There are a whole lot of people who pine for “the good old days”, including a lot of educated, otherwise liberal peoples. Of course, “the good old days” is rarely thought through, it’s nostalgia for something that didn’t exist in the first place.
Yes of course, sorry, I meant threaded/nested comments.
Totally true, Caine.
I’d argue that a lot of the nostalgia for the “good old days” is economic. The good old days when an average person could get a decent job that enabled them to live a good life. The oligarchs have done an EXCELLENT job of convincing the working class that the problem is women and PoC getting all uppity, not outsourcing and the economic and tax policy that has led to the evaporation of the jobs that enabled a person with a high school (or less) education to live a middle-class life and the collapse of the social safety net.
Whenever I hear “family values” I’m always reminded of this line from Futurama’s Future Stock:
“Family values” is like “God”. It can mean anything you want it to mean.
The good old days. *spits!*
As far as northerners voting against our self interests- hell yeah, we do and it’s a fucking disaster. Take NY: our lege is pretty much equally split*, and a bunch of the Republicans amd blue dogs campaigned (and won on) property tax reform. So, the lege fought over taxes for years, then finally capped poperty tax increases to 2%, without providing another way to fund our schools.
This is the first year schools have to deal with decreased funding. Some districts are okay (although they have to dip into their emergency funds), but most are laying off teachers hand-over-fist and cutting programs (including sports!) that aren’t core curriculum.
All voters heard was “less property taxes” and voted that line without thinking it through. Now we’ve fucked our kids and the worse part? No one seems to care. Fuck, of anyone was trying to get a creationist bill passed here, now would be the time.
*Our rural areas, like most rural areas, are deeply red.
Hail Tpyos!
There are a whole lot of people who pine for “the good old days”, including a lot of educated, otherwise liberal peoples.
Normally I’d agree with Audley that spitting after saying “good old days” is appropriate, but I have a bit of sneaking nostalgia for the 1990s when the NIH pay line was 20-30% instead of 7%.
Caine:
Absolutely. Mr. Hekuni Cat I and were discussing this last night. The bad things were there all along. You may not have noticed them at the time or, more likely, remember them now, but that doesn’t negate their reality.
Nostalgia ain’t what it used to be.
Louis
Re. The Sailor
Woods? We have plenty of affordable houses here in rural Sweden, not all of them have been bought up by rich Germans or Norwegians (yet). And we have (1) free healthcare and (2) zero religious right nuts.
Pteryxx
Just for the hell of it, you should put the most important passages in cuneiform or Mayan glyphs.
@birger:
But the Swedes sterilize trans persons… :(
Dianne,
Hey, there’s nothing wrong with wanting to restore programs. I would like to see the income taxes on the wealthiest Americans increased to the rate that they were in the ’60s.
The “good old days” that Conservatives want definitely existed, all right, and fuck that shit. Sideways with a weasel.
“The good ol’ days” fails to account for the black population, so I’d argue that it’s a fairly racist concept. Maybe not intentionally, but it erases a horrible history for an entire population.
When one of our black senators spoke at the rally, he said something to the effect of “There wasn’t anything good about those days that I know of.”
I think that hit a lot of the white folks in our audience pretty hard.
It’s yet another reason we need more POC in office.
Women also don’t have fond memories of those supposed glory days. We need more of them in office as well.
{Cocks head, acquires pensive, daydreaming look}
I wonder what that’s like…
Kat:
Sweden ain’t the only one: http://www.autostraddle.com/swedens-only-one-of-seventeen-countries-that-requires-forced-sterilization-of-trans-people-133081/
There are 16 other European countries that require sterilization of trans people before they can legally change their gender.
It looks like Sweden will overturn that law this year, though.
@Audley:
Yea. It really sort of sucks that lots of countries still have those on the books.
I don’t.
–
Jules,
I’ve never met you, to the best of my knowledge, but there’s a sure fire way to test for Southerness: How do you make grits?
Louis
I would like to see the income taxes on the wealthiest Americans increased to the rate that they were in the ’60s.
Wouldn’t that be nice too? Currently, taxes are ridiculously low, even on the middle class, much less the upper class. “Ridiculously low taxes” sounds all very well until you realize that it comes with ridiculously low social services.
Caine: “hummingbird feeder”.
*deep envy*
Best we get round here is a very occasional kingfisher.
They’re kind of hard to entice into the garden unless one has a lake.
Katherine, yes, I only learned about that dumb law now that it is about to be overturned. It was made in the era gender was seen as binary, not part of a continuity.
— — — — — —
The cutest accent I know is the Finland version of Swedish. I associate it with the cute, cuddly Moomin troll family, as written and drawn by Finn-Swedish author Tove Jansson.
— — — — — —
PZ, be *really* careful about the local animal life Down Under: http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/217.html
Eating an Elder god in a single bite?!?!! Holy fucking shit!!!
cm:
We get exactly *one* variety of hummingbird here, Archilochus colubris, Ruby-Throated Hummingbird.
I love Kingfishers. We have a few varieties, the Belted Kingfisher most common. (Ceryle alcyon). Around here, though, it’s damn near impossible to get a good shot of one unless you have *large* glass.
Louis, I’m mostly sacrilecious in my grits making. First, I tend to use polenta.
Then I cook it is milk, salt, butter, bacon fat, and cayenne pepper.
No Southerners have complained, but I certainly defy tradition.
Because I’m a goddamn hussy like that.
Fucking fuck everything.
I’m sick.
God dammit.
I had weird bad dreams last night involving 1.) my evil ex and 2.) Cylons.
And I woke up and I’m sick. My throat hurts horribly in a way I don’t remember it ever hurting before.
I slept through my class, now I’m just sitting here drinking water and sucking on cough drops, hoping it gets better soon.
*stomps around*
(Yes, I’m more angry about being sick than I am miserable. That’s the prerogative of people who aren’t all that sick, I think.)
(*USB chocolate to the people who are all that sick. Usually hugs but we’d just give each other whatever :(*)
I passed an apartment building today with a feeder hung out the front and four or five goldfinches around the feeder. Most goldfinches I’ve ever seen in one place and certainly the closest I’ve ever seen them.
Also, crossing through the park, a female mallard calling quack quack and her mate responding quack quack and hurrying over to quack and nuzzle with her.
CC:
As long as a Gorn doesn’t show up, you’re okay.
*coughs* Sings to CC:
Soft kitty, warm kitty,
little ball of fur,
happy kitty, sleepy kitty,
purr purr purr.
Daze:
“When I see you again,
Expect some champagne wine,
And on Valentine’s Day,
Expect a valentine….”
Kristinc:
Wow. We’ll easily get a hundred or more descend on the deck and front yard throughout the Spring.
You’re just trying to make us more antsy and impatient in line, aren’t you?
Soft kitty!
*happy*
Dalek Relaxation Tape
(from the Peter Serafinowicz BBC 6Music Radio Show)
I was looking at an article about the new Tennessee law earlier today, and I was wondering: What if (honest, rational) science teachers really did teach about “controversy” and “critical thinking”… which is to say, what if they taught quite frankly that assertions of “controversy” regarding evolution or global warming are false, politically motivated, and proper subjects of true critical thinking?
Think guarantees of “academic freedom” would protect them in that case? It’d sure make a fun court case to watch!
***
Re Cupcake Wine: When I first saw mentions of that, I thought y’all meant cupcake-flavored wine! Before you think I’m stupid to even fleetingly entertain such a thought, consider that just the other day I saw cake-flavored vodka in my local liquor store!
I had never heard that, it’s funny.
Abstinence makes the fond grow harder.
+++++++++++++++++++++
In my rock band touring days I was lucky enough to work with several bands from across the pond. I could usually catch on after a day or so. No worse that going to Maine or Alabama. And then, and then … I worked with an English crew that was from all around England.
Fucking impossible, how could they even understand each other!?
+++++++++++++++++++++
The ‘good old days’ is what old white people think when they fondly remember 1950s movies and TV shows. It never happened.
What used to happen back then was a white guy who worked at a gas station could feed his family and his wife could stay home … whether she wanted to or not.
+++++++++++++++++++++
Tying property taxes to schools, district by district, is one of the worst things we ever did in (most of) America.
Rich people get nice schools, poor people don’t. Which perpetuates poverty.
And as a single guy I’ve heard the argument over and over “why should I have to pay for schools?”
Because everyone is benefited by a more educated, and less likely to turn to crime, populace.
+++++++++++++++++++++
As I thought, liberturds are regressing:
http://news.discovery.com/human/brains-cooperatoin-intelligence-120410.html
I can’t beat Caine’s hundred, but if we get one we get a dozen.
More often heard on the wing than seen at rest, though.
—
dianne:
Quibble: Scottish is British (at least, since 1707). Don’t disagree, though. I spent first year of university completely failing to understand someone from Belfast, and I’m English. *shakeshead*
—
Louis: “Why the Whole Map Used To Be Pink”.
This is fun (and why I’m really posting): time-lapse visualisation of sailing ships’ journeys in the 17th and 18th centuries. Britain is, of course, pink. ;)
http://sappingattention.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/visualizing-ocean-shipping.html
(hat tip)
CC: Sounds like you have the same thing I have. Ibuprofen helps.
Scottish is British (at least, since 1707).
You’re right. **Hangs head in shame at geography fail.**
I was smitten with affection for Cupcake wines when I saw them in the store too, and bought a bottle of Chardonnay when I saw it. It was fine, but for the same price, I feel like I can usually get a better wine that’s not quite so cutely marketed.
StevoR
It’s not a fish. And James Tabor seems to like to go off the deep end at regular intervals.
Further from Goodacre who was interviewed as the lone skeptic. Plenty of posts on that blog about the bad science going on in the Talpiot tombs.
Tim Groc remains a disgusting piece of work.
Caine: I don’t live in a rural area (not sure if you do) and don’t have a feeder myself so I’;ve always been sort of theoretically aware they’re around, but only caught glimpses before now.
Also, a woodpecker family seems to have moved into the neighborhood and wow are they noisy neighbors. It’s not the pecking that’s so loud (although it’s not exactly quiet, it’s better than the woodpecker at Mr Kristinc’s college that would hammer on the metal gutter pipe every morning at stupid o’clock), it’s more the constant chattering shrieks to each other. Constant. More raucous than the Steller’s jays that nest in our cedar tree and we thought those guys were pretty noisy.
Oh, he’ll be ok. We don’t have too many crocs in Melbourne
Australian accents sexy? Cooool! Where?
(I’m sure they don’t mean Far North Queensland though ;-))
Zimmerman was finally arrested And will be charged with second degree murder.
Jules, #299,
{Faints}
{Recovers}
{Sets up good old fashioned lynch mob}
Louis
Carlie #306,
Oh but of course! Anticipation makes things throb deliciously.
Louis
CM, #312,
Oh thank you! That is one of the coolest things I have seen! I am going to show my wife who will look at my child-like glee with disdain and affection whilst secretly enjoying the video herself but being too cool to show it.
Complex woman the Mrs! ;-)
Louis
A.R., #320,
Result! Now, fingers crossed he gets convicted, sentenced and some large gentlemen decide he needs a lesson in why violence based on extremely prejudiced racial stereotyping is bad.
With overhead projection, diagrams and Powerpoint.*
Why, what did you think I meant?
Louis
* Really bad Powerpoint. With animations. And music. And cluttered slides with too much writing on. Yes, I am evil.
A.R. @ 320: HUZZAH! And I hope he gets a fitting sentence.
Well, to be fair, that wouldn’t happen. The salty would drag the elder god under, hold it until it drowned, then eat it after it had decomposed enough to be falling-apart tender. That’s just how they roll.
Wait, can an elder god drown?
Uh, you live in town? I’m thinking it’s not a Pileated Woodpecker. AKA Woody Woodpecker. They sound like jackhammers.
Your puny little woodpecker goes Tap, tap tap. != “Jeebus fucking christ they’re tearing up concrete in the city, and I moved to the country for quiet!”
And if you shout that out loud, in the country, everything is silent. As silent as Silent Spring … for just long enough for your head to hit the pillow, and relax … and then they start the overture, leading to the crescendo, all over again.
And then, you get used to most of the sounds, and it becomes a serenade.
How am I suppose to INHALE if I’m laughing so much I can’t breathe?
(I’m giving some of the credit to sleep deprivation.)
—
Even for someone with no recollection of previous dealings with Tim Groc, it was pretty obvious that he was just there because he has an axe to grind.
Kristinc, yes, I’m rural. Very rural. Life in the slow lane. :D
Your woodpeckers might be Downys, black & white, males have a flash of red on the back of the head. They are gorgeous, on the small side for woodys and fairly noisy. The larger version of them are known as Hairy woodpeckers. I have a family of both on my property.
It seems tonight I’ve only been watching excellent movies, like Big Trouble in Little China (say what you want but deep inside you know that Carpenter and Russell are the recipe for awesome) and The Guard.
Latter is a marvellous Irish dark comedy that I’d recommend for everyone who can take a few swearwords without smelling salts.
They seem to be Northern Flickers.
Weed Monkey, I recommended The Guard in the previous incarnation. :D It was wonderful. I loves Big Trouble in Little China, too.
Kristinc:
Oooh. There’s a nesting pair of those across the street from me. They’re often in the trees outside my studio window. They have one of the most interesting calls.
I’m not sure if it’s the fact that I’m currently incapable of tasting anything, but mixing cayenne and black pepper with mustard tastes really good.
I’m back from camping. I saw, heard, and smelled so many new things, but I’m exhausted as hell now.
A few highlights:
First off, something of scientific value: On Crater Mountain Forest Service Road in the Ashnola River Valley of Keremeos, BC, the three of us saw a displaying male sage grouse.
According to Wikipedia, it’s been Extirpated in BC. But there it was, bobbing its silly yellow throat sacks for all of us to see. I can’t remember if we got a photo or not, unfortunately. But I feel privileged to have seen it.
Saw lots of deer, and heard lots of drumming ruffed grouse. Sometimes in the middle of the night.
I found: Two winter deer shed antlers, one an old broken weathered one that’s so huge I almost find it hard to picture on a living mule deer.
Also, a coyote skull. This skull is interesting, it’s the second coyote skull I’ve found and this individual has even worse dental problems than the first! One of its canine teeth wasn’t only missing, the socket was grown over, as was one pre molar. And one of the carnassials has exposed root and is surrounded by spongy looking bone (though the whole skull is fairly old and weathered).
A bear skull, still attached to the ribs and spine! SCORE! Beautiful teeth, nearly perfectly clean, though still gooey and stinky in the brain cavity. (we only kept the skull though)
I also saw mountain bluebirds. We found some strange caves, and two geocaches!
We also checked out the ghost town of Granite City, founded 1885. The ‘town’ itself wasn’t much, just a few collapsed cabins next to a weird small (still active) town, but the graveyard was something else. Most of the graves had no markers and could only be discerned by the circle of stones. I found it kind of sad how many of the graves were exceedingly tiny- the graves of children.
All in all it was a beautiful cemetery though. No tacky fake grass. No fake cheery shit. Just pine trees and stones from the surrounding mountainside. Some of the graves had massive trees growing right from the center of them, and I really found that beautiful. Apparently I’m not the only one either… not all the graves were all that old.
And I slept outside, and I roamed wild mountains and hills where other carnivores crawl, and I ate meat cooked on sharpened sticks over a fire, and I played with my tomahawks and big knives and went everywhere with them on my belt with no one to call the cops or ask me what I’m doing…
Possibly the best camping trip I ever went on
Oh yeah, and I’m also totally threadrupt. I’m sure you all understand.
this seems appropriate:
image: Spring Has Sprung
TLC: pictures! *protosquee*
Thank fuck George Zimmerman has been arrested and charged with murder (yes, yes, I know; his guilt will be determined at trial, not because of his arrest and charges, so don’t even start with the lectures on due process. Really, don’t.).
I wrote an email to my instructor in German explaining about being sick. Maybe it was bad German, but I’m still proud of the effort. :) Anyone wanna proofread for me? (I’ve already sent it and received a response, I just want to know how I’m doing because some of the structures are things we haven’t learned in class yet. Rather awesomely, we just learned all the words about being sick yesterday.)
“Guten Abend,
Ich bin heute sehr, sehr krank. Ich habe schlimme Halsschmerzen und
Schnupfen, und ich bin sehr müde. Ich glaube, dass ich die Grippe
habe. Einige Kommilitonen in anderen Klassen sind auch krank. Ich will nicht das anderen Studenten geben. Es ist schwer, zum Arzt zu gehen, weil ich kein Auto habe. Muss ich eine Entschuldigung von Arzt bringen, wenn ich diese Woche zu Hause bleiben? Ich weiß, dass wir zu Hause drei Tagen bleiben können, aber ich möchte lieber nicht alle meine Absenzen so früh im Quartal benutzen!
Danke,
[Cassandra]”
(I already realized I put “Tagen” even though I knew it was Tage :C)
Aarrgh, I be cheap. But I’m happy! :D
Caine, it’s wonderful! What’s not to like with pirate skulls?
Your sewing skills are magnificent compared with mine, which I freely admit border on nonexistent.
Josh:
Zimmerman admitted to shooting an unarmed teenager, as far as I’m concerned he’s guilty as shit.
Thank you, Hekuni Cat! Oh, sewing skills…whatever little I possess, they are abysmal. If I’m in the same room as a sewing machine, I swear, a black hole of suckitude happens. For realz. ;D
Pteryxx: Photos might be a while in coming, my brother’s the one with the camera, and he has several years worth on his that he hasn’t downloaded yet.
I really hope to get a hold of the photo of the sage grouse (if we managed to take it), because if the species is really considered ‘extirpated’ in BC, and if ‘extirpated’ means what I think it means, than that kinda becomes a bit important doesn’t it?
Oh yeah, We also might have seen a female near where the male was displaying. I’m not sure how to ID a female sage grouse. It was large though.
TLC: Aww. Keep on him about the sage grouse. How about some webcam pics of your skulls; or did you keep them?
Caine – that cupcake wine is for realz?!?! I did not expect that! :D
Talking of birds and spring- my dueling cardinals were out of control today! Literally it was “flap, smack, smack, bumpy bumpy..wap wap wap wap spa WAP WAP!” all morning! Not the owl pix nor the chairs I shoved up next to the windows nor anything else would dissuade them. Happily, I didn’t see any drop to the ground senseless, so I guess it is ok!
So glad that charges were finally laid int he Trayvon Martin case.
Sending out “get well quickly” wishes to Cassandra and AR. Flu is miserable.
Ogvorbis, I got what you were saying immediately – not poorly written at all (though I want to award you bonus points for the word “borkquoted” :D). People say that sort of shit here all the time. Our spring came a full FIVE weeks early – and with almost o snow or rain all winter so likely drought around the corner – every spring and early summer plant/flower has rushed to bloom in a collision of overabundance – pollen choking the air – it is crazy. THen this week, we returned to more seasonal temperatures and the first thing I heard at the grocery store? “Huh! Where’s all that global warming those uppity college types keep going on about?’ Ugh.
NRO seems to be cleaning house as fast as it can. Wonder if they’ll be taking Bill Buckley’s name off the masthead?
Unrelated, but eeeeeee!!! It needs a macro caption of some sort. If I weren’t headed off to bed shortly I’d attempt it.
OK, on further research, what we saw might have been the dusky grouse instead. Disappointing, but only slightly, because it was still pretty cool to see. I knew that there was something off about the tail… it was smooth edged, not all spiky like a Sage Grouse.
I guess the sage grouse remains extirpated in BC, but I might still be wrong. I’ll have to check the photo to be sure.
As for the skulls and antlers, of course I kept them! That bear skull is a freakin JEWEL. And the coyote skull was just too cool to find… being able to tell something of the life it led from the horrible condition of it’s teeth.
Yeah, a sage grouse is pretty danged distinctive. They make the weirdest sounds too.
CC @ 340,
it’s not a bad effort, but not perfect. It’s “vom(=von dem) Arzt”, und “bleibe”, as in “ich bleibe”, as opposed to “wir bleiben”. Also, you would write “drei Tage zuhause” instead of “zuhause drei Tage”. Pretty good otherwise !
I’m off to meet the overlord. We’re having a geology lesson or something.
Rey Fox: That is what we call ‘jumping to conclusions’ on my part. I feel a little silly, but at least I found the true identity of the cool displaying male gamebird I saw.
We’re gonna have to wait on pics of the new Bear Skull though. While the outside is cleaned almost perfectly, the brain is just too smelly to have in the house. It’s pretty nasty even through two garbage bags.
Hopefully my webcam will be able to show the details on the coyote skull.
Thanks very much, Rorschach! I’m sad that I missed the error with “bleiben” actually – what is it with me and extra n’s?
Petition alert: via Thinkprogress and SPLC, a teacher in Michigan was fired for helping her students organize a Trayvon Martin fundraiser.
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/04/10/460859/teacher-fired-for-organizing-a-fundraiser-for-trayvon-martin/
http://www.tolerance.org/blog/teacher-fired-over-trayvon-martin-fundraiser
The latter link is to SPLC’s blog and a change.org petition calling for Brooke’s reinstatement.
Dang, I thought I had something new to offer Caine; well never mind
Esteleth –
I’d say my accent would be considered RP but that’s because I grew up in Cardiff, Cheshire and Kent, all areas with strong local accents. It sort of ground off the edges for me and I adopted a BBC accent for simplicity. But at least in the parts of Siicon Valley where I later lived a BBC accent seemed to be quite the prize. I swear it was worth $20000 a year on my salary, 50 perceived IQ points and an extra 2″. I would get hit on *everywhere* once women (and some guys) heard me talk. I do not wear suits other than a) ninja and b) space.
Now I live in a rural part of Vancouver Island where a british accent might be more common than a Canadian one and I’m so ordinary it’s depressing…
Accents: I’m actually not certain how my Midwestern accent got partially RPified, but you would be surprised at the impressions it can make on people. Rather like the general negative stereotype in the UK of RP speakers, in the US, RP-derived phonemes tend to be associated with generally negative stereotypes, specifically aloofness/haughtiness etc. Though part of that may be due to my daily suit wearing.
AR, by the way, thank you for telling me about the ibuprofen. I took some and it does seem to have helped a little.
Pteryxx (And anyone else who’s following):
http://tinypic.com/r/25hfh1g/5
Here is the right side. It’s hard to tell if the incisors all fell out pre or post mortem, because I found a few underneath the skull, but you can clearly see the gap where the premolar should be. The socket is completely healed over with bone. Note also the spongy diseased looking bone around the carnassial.
http://tinypic.com/r/51u6tx/5
The lower canine on this side appears to have fallen out after death or only shortly before, but the socket for the upper canine is also completely healed over. There’s a hole in the brain case. Cause of death? Or did the damage occur post mortem?
It’s too jagged to be a bullet hole, IMO, and there’s no exit wound. Big cat? Bear?
CC: No problem, it always seems to work well for me.
Yesterday I watched a movie about a Samurai who was *transported* to 2009 Tokyo, befriended a single mother and her son, became an award-winning pastry-chef and was *transported* back to Edo.
It was fucking awesome.
Pteryxx: Whoa. “Paid to be a teacher, not an activist”? What’s so horrible about . . . no wait, don’t tell me. I can see where this is going.
Screw you Cassell, people like you are the reason teachers can’t teach the important stuff. Parents with equally shitty attitudes towards education are the shit-flavored icing on the cake.
———————————————-
I have a new favorite sandwich: Wendy’s Spicy Chicken. It left a pleasant burning sensation in my mouth and throat. Just enough to make my eyes water. And it’s tasty.
———————————————-
Hugs and tea/hot cocoa/whatever restoratives you prefer to those who are ailing.
———————————————-
To whoever said they’d move to the woods if not for their reliance on technology: Yep. Some days it doesn’t seem worth waking up to face the world.
Hmm, conservative party still maintains majority in South Korea: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17685360
I am seriously tired of seeing the public vote for pro-corporation parties.
Re: the sterile urine thing- the study doesn’t say that normal urine isn’t sterile: these women had symptoms of a UTI.
UTI by definition says the urine is not sterile, it’s infected. The study addressed infections not detected in the usual manner.
Normal urine should be sterile (with some exceptions- asymptomatic bacteriuria is pretty common, in fact).
Not that you want to be drinking the stuff, anyhow.
So, now that’d be needing this reference at this point
Alethea H Claw and I are discussing pre-GAC Pharyngulite meetup at a pub on Friday arvo over on the “We have arrived!” thread.
Any interested parties? Show of hands?
I’ve suggested the bar under PZ’s hotel as an idea.
Has something else been discussed that we’ve missed?
This will happen, PZ will announce the details. Anyone want to come there now, I may be around…
Know what’s awesome?
A transwoman catching a glimpse of her body in the mirror with just a bra (with forms) and undies on and seeing the body shape of a woman.
When I still had a blog and wrote the odd medical tutorial, I planned on writing an explanatory article on transsexuality a while back. I gave up after studying it for 3 days or so, it’s just too bloody complicated, and really hard to condense into a few paragraphs !
Katherine Lorraine, #367,
1) Wooot!
2) I have had 2 hours sleep and not enough coffee. This is relevant to everything today I feel.
Louis
@Rorshach:
That’s probably why Natalie Reed writes so durn long XD
Best part is I’m not even on hormones or anything – this was fully me and some very nice silicone breastforms.
And a very comfy bra, I might add.
This really does help when I’ve got this nagging self-doubt about myself. I am going to – as soon as I move to the new apartment – go see to getting a therapist. I’m in “ohmygawdI’mmoving” mode at the moment, so to put “go see your therapist” on top of “need boxes” would make me explode into a ball of anxiety.
I thought you called yourself British. What is all this talk of coffee then ?
Ugh… Some nasty stuff has surfaced about what’s actually being said in mosques in Brussels after a reporter went undercover with a hidden camera.
Here’s a link (in dutch): http://www.deredactie.be/cm/vrtnieuws/binnenland/120412_islam_brussel
Besically, the Imam talked about how women and men are not equal, he called International Women’s Day a celebration for ‘vulgar women’, an invention by the Jews that is ‘not part of islamic culture’ and said that true muslims should avoid cultures that aren’t ‘part of islam’. The reporter also interviewed some young muslims who were there, and they held equally stupid beliefs (women shouldn’t have a job, women should be veiled,…).
Argh…
So that’s where I got the idea of watching it in the first place. Thank you! I didn’t remember.
Tonight I’m planning to watch another film with Brendan Gleeson, In Bruges.
Matt,
Oh I am, I am. But sometimes tea doesn’t cut it. I drink tea for pleasure, I drink coffee for necessity.*
Although I think the cocaine, direct injection of adrenaline and atropine habit might be a step too far.
Louis
*The caffeine is more bioavailable for one, and tea is usually more dilute than the equivalent coffee. Pound for pound some teas have more caffeine than coffee, but you just don’t get it out of the leaves. Cheap, shitty, ground nasty coffee…caffeinetastic. Add to that a Red Bull or two and BOING! You have a fully fledged addiction. 250mg per day? Bollocks! Why is everything vibrating?
It’s funny, at some point a few weeks ago I totally lost all interest in and enthusiasm for the GAC, and that seems to correlate with the media echo here as well, it’s nowhere near the hype that we had 2 years ago. It’s only been this week that I have had a little bit of a shiver of anticipation, I still won’t go to all the talks, or expect great things, but the fact that PZ has again been gracious enough to spend some of his time, 2 years after the Bride of Shrek and I took him for dinner here for the first time, and the outlook of meeting with some of the folks who met 2 years ago, has me a bit more energized now. Should be good.
Katherine – high 5!
Rorschach – I hope you enjoy yourself. Have you heard from Bride lately?
Carlie,
Oh I SO heard that in my head as Borat saying it. I am hallucinating due to too little sleep and far, far, FAR too much caffeine. Tell me, should the universe be noticeably blue-shifted as I move through it? And why are those wavefunctions collapsing so slowly? Hmmm. I’ll just nip over to another universe where things are collapsing differently…
…Oh no. Republicans. Those fuckers get everywhere.
Louis
Jealousy is not something I am prone to, but I’m feeling it today. :)
Rorschach and all down at the GAC…Jealous!
Coyote with his skulls and proper camping trip…jealous!
Louis and his alternate universe…jealous! (except for the Repugs, not jealous of that part.)
——————————-
Coyote,
Something that might be cool, if you can glean a story of the animal from it’s remains, would be to scrimshaw a scene from that story onto the skull.
I’ve done that with a couple of skulls and it really seemed to help viewers relate to the once living animal rather than “just a skull”.
I’m still now trying to figure out whose voice to read your emails in, based on the accent info you gave us. :D
Katherine,
#367 is one of the most beautiful Comments I think I’ve ever seen. So simple and yet so very very complex. I am sincerely very happy for you.
{theophontes leaps onto stage, cape flowing, waving paws to distract from the fact that there is much catching up to do on TET}
@ Kitty
Angola?
(More inspiration for you. Angola is awesome too!)
{exeunt}
Attacks on climate science by former NASA staff shouldn’t be taken seriously
Louis: They are easiest to find hiding in people’s bedrooms though. Or at least that’s that’s the way is seems lately.
@ TLC
{yes, I am reading TET backwards}
Mmmmh… Ideas spring to mind: CSI programs are really doing well, as are survival programs, as are nature programs. Imagine a backwoods whodunnit, where you try and solve the mystery of who killed brer rabbit or cock robbin. (Explain each animal, look for clues, enemies, 3d animation…)
(You will of course need a crotchety tardigrade in a labcoat a la House ™ )
and some of us who can’t get to GAC at least get the little SSA conference north of Dallas this weekend, *squeee*… I am so nervous. >_>
Katherine – That’s great news! I’m very happy for you.
TLC – I’m insanely jealous of your camping trip. It makes me want to get out into the back-country RIGHT NOW. Never mind that it’s still below freezing here most nights lately and I’m swamped with work and I need a new backpack.
Louis – 250mg caffeine?! If I have 60mg, I’m jittery and hyperactive and can’t sleep for 12-20 hours, and I get a caffeine hangover the next afternoon. I think my heart would explode if I had 250mg.
***
Guess what? I have data!
*does the “I have data” dance around the lab*
Nutmeg: Yay for data!
gratz Katherine and Nutmeg! (There needs to be an “I have data and/or a bra!” dance.)
ot: thanks to a commenter at Ed’s who pointed to this Salon article. Stand Your Ground laws are NOT applied equally when a black person’s defending against a white assailant.
http://www.salon.com/2012/04/11/when_stand_your_ground_fails/singleton/
Ye Olde Blacksmith:
That could be interesting. How would the coyote have lost its teeth though? Perhaps kicked in the face by a deer? Or just a simple case of long-term gum disease?
I kinda feel bad for it, the way the jawbones align on this skull is fairly messed up even ignoring the missing teeth. They don’t seem to attach symmetrically to the skull. The last part of this animal’s life was probably painful and miserable.
Theophontes: Man, I love doing that. The body that my bighorn sheep skull came from a few years ago was interesting… a near complete and unscattered skeleton, with the hide neatly peeled back in one piece. I read somewhere that this is a classic sign of how black bear feed. And, waddaya know, there was a black bear in the area. We didn’t see it, but we saw plenty of fresh tracks and feces, and a half a watermelon that someone had left just across the road from our site was completely eaten out in the morning.
Nutmeg: It was below freezing the first night I spent in Keremeos, on this trip. It’s OK, I have a really good sleeping bag. And a really good inflatable pad.
TLC: The last time I went camping, I was able to recover a complete male Whitetail deer skeleton, with a rather large set of antlers. I’m planning on assembling it for display this summer.
@Nutmeg:
Yay data! *does the dance with you*
@Pteryxx:
Well obviously there is a “data” dance. Not sure if a “bra” dance is exactly work friendly.
Carlie, #379,
Richard Dawkins’ accent is not far from mine. Mind you I would argue his voice is nicer. But then we all hate our own voices to some degree don’t we?
Louis
A.R: That’s awesome. I’ve never thought to actually try assembling a complete skeleton… usually we just take skulls when we find them. We’re usually too loaded up with camping gear to take much more than that.
How would you go about doing it?
Also, I think Gorgeous Potbelly Sandwich Guy was either fired or found employment elsewhere :( Poot… he was so dreamy gorgeous.
Nutmeg, #386,
1) Data. YAY! Data is good. I like data. I used to do the data dance too. HAH! Used to! I still do.
2) Caffeine. My PhD was (unofficially) sponsored by Red Bull. No one actually knew that at the time of course, my liver did! I’m a caffeine sensitive caffeine addict with a well developed (and therefore larger) caffeine tolerance….if that makes any sense.
Louis
TLC: A zoologist friend of mine has a guide to the technique. That and the comparative anatomy class I took a year or two ago should to the trick. But in terms of technique, you normally use wire, glue, and pins to do the assembly, but I’m planning on using a type of non-permanent adhesive my friend normally uses.
Kat,
Fuck yeah! Your 367 is nothing short of awesome!
Louis,
I feel ya on the caffeine addiction. I used to drink 32+ oz of coffee a day, but now I’m down to just 8 oz. Let me tell you, cutting caffeine has been more difficult than quitting smoking.
In completely unrelated news, Mr Darkheart put a pickle in my lunch today*. Aaaaawwwe. :)
*That sounds far too dirty.
@Audley:
Yep. Being able to realize right now – before hormones, before any work – that my body is feminine is a hugely satisfying boost to my self-confidence. It was that little hurdle I needed to jump over to be able to call up the therapist next month.
Also, pickles in lunches are awesome. I had a pickle in my sandwich. It was tasty. Now I’m eating spicy soup and drinking blue soda.
Blue is my favorite flavor.
Weed Monkey:
Oh, you’ll fucking love it. Be sure to watch the fucking fuck extra. ;)
Speaking of Brendan Gleeson, he was the best thing about Lake Placid along with Betty White. It was disturbing hearing him speak in a flat ‘Merican accent though.
Blue haz a flavr?
TLC and A.R: this isn’t a how-to, more of an FYI, but it might help? (also, awesome site.)
This is preparation and articulation of a sugar glider skeleton from a dead pet. (Warning, icky.)
http://arsanatomica.tumblr.com/post/6775823380
Kat Lorraine:
Hopefully, you haven’t had a pickle in your lunchbox for the same reason as Audley. :D
@AR:
Yes. Blue has a flavor. Blue is whatever flavor it is. If I’m provided with a choice between the blue drink or the red drink, I will pick the blue drink.
Which means I’d fail at the Matrix cause I’d be all “ooh, blue pill, nom nom.”
@Caine:
No, no hubby slipping a pickle into my lunchbox quite yet o.o I merely asked for a pickle on my sandwich.
Day two: My throat barely hurts at all, but now my voice is leaving, and I feel absolutely like shit. I am all congested and falling-down tired, and my eyes have noticeable dark circles. Being sick is very frustrating when you have things to do. I have to translate a fair chunk of my Latin today at the very least, and there’s some Greek I should be doing too but that I might ignore.
A.R: Very cool. I might consider it next time I find a complete skeleton.
Difficulty is, out where I camp you aren’t likely to find a complete skeleton. You find bits and pieces, usually scattered over a wide area. Oftentimes when its fresher I end up finding an articulated skull and spinal cord, with chewed off ribs. That’s how we found the bear skull, though it had a hind leg attached. I’ve also found many deer skeletons in that condition, including one with some decent antlers on the skull.
Our prevailing theory on the bear is that a larger bear killed it. For one thing, it’s young. For another, there was a pile of fur near the bones. Why would a person shoot a bear in the backwoods like that and not keep the hide or meat or anything? It doesn’t make sense to me, though human beings do end up doing some pretty wasteful assholish things like that.
Here’s something I don’t get though: Compared to our other black bear skull, it’s slightly smaller. But it has more of a saggital crest and heavier muscle attachments in general, as well as more of a ‘stop’ in the forehead. Is this sexual dimorphism? Individual variation, or perhaps variation due to different regions? I strongly doubt it’s a species difference, though the fur around the bones was brown, there is no way this thing is from a grizz.
*sigh*
I have 18,885 rows of bullshit data that can’t be analyzed because someone didn’t think about the next step in the process.
Why do I have to play with others?
I’m going to go have lunch. Muffins will make the world look better.
TLC: A young male bear, maybe? The more highly developed sagittal crest is usually a male characteristic.
Thanks, Pteryxx! I have to wonder how easy of a time that person would have had if the skeleton was disarticulated, though. That’s a lot of little bones to glue together.
Nutmeg: If it was a young male, that would explain why a bigger male likely killed it for sure. I shall do some research.
CC: You might feel a bit better tomorrow or Saturday, that’s what happened to me.
CC:
Oh no. Okay, Sings:
Soft kitty, warm kitty,
little ball of fur,
happy kitty, sleepy kitty,
purr purr purr.
*ahem* Now sings the specially adapted Caine version:
Soft rattie, warm rattie,
little ball of fur,
happy rattie , sleepy rattie,
brux, brux brux.
Not *easy*, but still possible. I used to read about forensic anthropology, and those folks do things like excavate decades-old mass graves and reassemble human skeletons, even infants. There’s an anecdote from Maples’ book (IIRC) about forensic anthropology students having to identify 10 bones: which bone, right/left, male/female, damage, signs of use, and whether it’s human or something similar like bear phalanges. At first, a student’s 10 samples fit in a grocery bag. When they graduate, their 10 samples might fit in a matchbox.
When does data become data? If a data point occurs and no one is around to record it, does it test a hypothesis?
If those damn undergrads would get the hell out of my computer lab, I could go make a jigsaw puzzle of spatial data.
Hurr hurr hurr pickle hurr hurr.
Sorry.
Louis
Pteryxx: Are all human bones ‘sexually dimorphic’ to some degree? Even phalanges and vertebrae and stuff?
Louis:
If that amused you, here’s another for you. I’m getting the Darkheart Duckie Project™ going and I’m about to apply Stiffy* to 8 pieces of linen.
*Crisp, Firm, Tear-Away Stabilizer. Actual product description, that. Btw, the brand name of this stabilizer? Sulky. It’s Sulky Stiffy. That enough material for you?
Around here, blue IS a flavor.
————————-
I’m not sure why*, but the words “slipping a pickle” in any context is just funny to me.
*ok, I do know why
The oldest of Girl’s rats, Splinter, died today. He is now decomposing under the Eastern Redbud tree.
Wife put a Godiva truffle in my lunch. To go with the leftover stir-fried pork with udon.
It worked.
When I was in the army, bug juice came in the follwing flavours: red, yellow, orange, blue, purple and green. These were supposed to be fruit flavours but lost something in the translation.
Because humans are social animals?
*dies of cute*
Not *all* of them are; mostly pelvises and skulls, but to a lesser extent (and thus a lesser degree of certainty) some bones such as clavicles and femurs, and hand/foot bones which *tend to* be more gracile in females. When I read up on this I didn’t know about endemic unconscious sexism though, so there may well be some sexism-based inaccuracies in forensic anthropology, though they tend to be careful about saying “this might be a female or a young/gracile male” and such.
Also, use in life leaves marks on a body; not just parturition scars left on a female pelvis by the tendons detaching, but muscle attachments in general become more robust the more they’re used. You can read from bones whether a person was right- or left-handed, how much lifting or standing or running or carving or writing they did, sometimes what particular sports they played. I find that reassuring, that my right hand has artist scars and my knees probably have a record of ice hockey.
Caine, #417,
THE PAIN! TOO MANY WILLY JOKES!
{Faints}
Louis
Louis,
My thoughts exactly.
(It’s nice to know that we’re both still 12 years old, eh?)
*correction: parturition scars are from the pelvic *ligaments* detaching. It’s been a while.
That’s cool to know, Pteryxx. Even without dissecting them and examining the bones, I can tell my right hand and wrist definitely have noticeably bigger bone structure. There’s also my broken hand-bone on the right, which healed shorter and kinda messed up (because I felt stupid and bad and didn’t go to the doctors about it for a few days).
In one of my carving books by E.J. Tangermann, there are photos of a left-handed woodcarver, and just at a glance one can notice how much larger and more heavily muscled his left forearm is.
“Tea is soothing. I wish to be tense.”
Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!!!!!!!!!
I am not going to be able to go to the SSA con in Frisco. And it is only 20 miles away.
Proof that god exists and is a vindictive ass.
Hooray for Kat!
I easily did 250 mg of caffeine a day until a few months ago, when I decided perhaps my insomnia was related to my coffee addiction. So I went to half-caff. Still have insomnia, but I think it’s a little better.
Hugs to CC. I’m sorry you’re sick. It really does suck, especially when you’re busy. Luckily, illness is one of those things that most teachers make an exception for, so relax and get well.
Today’s edition of Cute Things Toddler Says™
1. “Can I have a come here, please?” (the companion to “Can I have a down, please?” It means, “Will you hold me?”)
2. “Oh, Dewie*! Your computer restartled!”
3. She calls corks accordions. I have no idea.
*That’s me.
dang, Blacksmith, anything I as a local can do to help? Could you come for *part* of it?
My condolences to you and Girl. Chas is 2.5 years now, and I’m so happy to see him up and about every day.
I was reading last night about the Culper Ring, an American spy group during the Rev War, and came across this in Wikipedia:
One of my hobbies is the British Navy during the Napoleonic Wars and I had never heard that the Americans had the RN’s signal book.
As I recall, signal books weren’t standardized yet and each Admiral had their own, which may have led to the clusterfuck at the Battle of the Chesapeake, but I’ve heard of the French and Americans having the RN’s signal book.
Has anyone else?
I really, really hope so. I’m glad you’re feeling less terrible, though. You said two weeks for yours? (I haven’t been to a doctor and I probably won’t.)
I immediately went and looked up a bunch of these on Youtube :D My favorite is the one they did in a round. Though I’m too scratchy to sing along :(
Eeeeee :D
:( *sterile internet hugs to Girl and Og*
Okay, but you’re destroying a perfectly good cultural stereotype here.
I’m trying, but there’s just that one class… I feel like I have to perform in it no matter what. I’m at least doing a pretty good job of doing my readings for it, which take a little less power than the translating. And in German I deliberately got ahead a few days ago, so I don’t have to worry about that at all.
*re-reads everything Louis writes in Dawkinsian voice*
*swoons*
Mormon Moment of Madness, polygamy/FLDS news: now that some of the trials of the patriarchs of the Yearning for Zion Ranch are over, Rebecca Musser is speaking out.
She testified in trials against FLDS men in the past, but has recently been working quietly behind the scenes. It’s interesting to get a glimpse of her attitude, and of how she had to work against the cult on her own, with no support from family and friends.
Full story.
The Darkheart Duckie Project has begun. All of you – stop distracting me! ;)
OMG CAINE THOSE DUCKIES ARE SO CUTE.
I’ve had one (or two or a billion) of those kinds of commitments (either class or work). So I’m entirely unqualified to tell you how to not feel that way. But here’s some internetz chocolate.
You’re a badass. You should be proud of that shit. Maybe so proud it helps you relax about the other class.
(Did that work?)
CC: I’m actually starting to wonder if this is going to be over sooner. You might recover within the next week if my experiences translate to you. {A. R is concerned that his or a very similar strain of Influenza is infecting someone so far away}
CC:
Hee. I love them, I do. I was actually thrilled when Audley told me she was pregnant, ’cause it gave me a valid excuse to stitch them. :D
Caine:
*Squee!*
♥!
Agree in full. All caps included.
Audley:
♥ right back! You have no idea just how great it is to stitch a baby quilt where Mum approves of things like a Zombie Duckie. :D
Jules:
:D For those with embroidery machines, Urban Threads has those patterns too. I’d love to do some of these on towels, but you really need a machine for that.
Caine: My aunt does quite a bit of embroidery, but she does all of hers by hand, so I have to wonder, how do the results compare to machine work?
Jules:
Ok, this is now officially a thing. Working in IT, I plan to use this until my cow-orkers are sick of it.
“May I mambo dogface to the banana patch?”
A.R, machine stitching has less detail than hand-stitching, however, it’s simply not possible to get such tight (or tiny) stitches by hand. Think of patches – those are all done by machine. I can stitch pretty tiny but I can’t compete with a machine on that score. When it comes to something like a towel, terry cloth is a very loose weave, there’s simply no way to hand-stitch something solid on one which will hold up. An outline of something could be hand-stitched on a towel and hold up, but that’s about it.
Caine and the duckie blanket:
Sooooooooooooooooo adorable!
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CC: hope you are feeling better soon.
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Pteryxx:
It is an obligation I can’t get out of or postpone, not anything bad. I am going to try to make the earlier part, but am not sure yet. Is there going to be a Pharyngula meeting of the NOrth Texas Horde, as far as you know?
A.R, here’s an example of the difference: Astronaut Skully machine stitched, Astronaut Skully hand-stitched.
Caine, my mom does embroidery, but I only ever got as far as counted cross-stitch (which I loved as a kid). Maybe I should get her to teach me. I remember the octopus you did for the Hitchens quilt (I know, maybe we shouldn’t even mention it, because that was heartbreaking), and I was so impressed then too.
:-D
Sorta like that, only instead of nonsense, it’s just ridiculously convoluted, circuitous, and nerdy. Notice how she keeps taking the long way to make her point?
I dunno. PZ’s post on the topic has all of seven local responses. I might be that brave, though.
http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2012/04/04/where-north-texas/
Caine: Thanks, that’s quite interesting. I must say that the hand-stitching is more visually appealing to me, but I imagine that it takes massive amounts of time to complete.
Jules:
I get distracted too easily for counted x-stitch. Getting started with embroidery is easy enough, there’s always time to learn more. Geez, I’ve been learning tons lately, things like couching, which I was blissfully ignorant of until recently. If you draw, that’s a bonus, because you can just draw on fabric then stitch.
Oh, the Tentacled Heart Hugger. Yep, loved that. That’s a free pattern from Corvus Tristis, who comments here when she has time.
Sympathies to Girl upon the demise of Splinter. And {hugs} to Cassandra for severe under-the-weatherness with what sounds like malice aforethought.
Assorted hugs to other threadizens for things both good and bad, such as data that then turns out not to be in usable form, or skulls, or the-right-body-in-the-mirror (so great!)
Kitty, I’m very happy for you. :)
CC, I’m sorry you’re feeling ill.
Caine, I first learned of Stiffy because I spotted it at a garage sale. I had no use for it, but it was like 50 cents for a half-filled bottle… so I bought it for purely Beavis & Butthead reasons. Hurr hurr, that bottle says “Stiffy.”
A Sulky Stiffy sounds like something found on an MRA.
Also: DUCKIES!!!!!!!! Ahem. Sorry, I have a small collection of rubber duckies on shelves in my bathroom. Including two Devil Duckies.
When I say “small,” I mean about 20, including several miniature ones. Nothing like this, even though I feel a twinge of envy for the collector.
Some news passed along from a friend in the UK: An xtian group put up some anti-gay ads on London buses. Mayor Boris Johnson had them taken down.
I wish I had more time to try random things like embroidery. Argh! {A. R is wondering if he could reconstruct the lost section of the Bayeux Tapestry from the available history)
A.R:
That it does.
Boy and Wife, when boy was about 4, had the following conversation while Wife was driving in heavy traffic on the Interstate:
Boy: I have a haddock.
Wife: What?
Boy: I have a haddock.
Wife: You have a fish?
Boy: No. I have a haddock. It hurts.
Wife: What hurts?
Boy: My head. I have a haddock.
Wife: Oh. You mean you have a headache?
Boy: No. I have a haddock.
Wife: It’s headache. You say, ‘I have a headache.’
Boy: Oh. So do I.
Boy has also been responsible for one of the strangest things I have ever said: “Boy, please take your cheeseburger out of my armpit.”
Sweet Jesus on crack, I wish I could get a spine transplant.
Saying YES!!! to drugs. Go, cyclobenzaprine!
(Makes me dizzy, though.)
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Best answer I have for this one is, “So, how much education do you want your future heart surgeon to have?” Second best might be, “How much did you pay for your basic education?”
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I wouldn’t think so in Cthulhu’s case. R’lyeh is under water, after all.
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Big Trouble in Little China is awesome.
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When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for me to haul out the sewing machine, The Husband knows that it’s time to run for the hills, for it is my mortal enemy. Damned spawn of a Horse!
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Katherine: *big smile*
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Certainly true in my case.
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CC, hope you get to feeling better, soon.
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:) :) :)
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Oh, yessss, indeed they are.
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Christ on a cracker.
*sigh*
First, my document was eaten by my computer. Then my comment got eaten by FtB. Then the page wouldn’t load. The universe hates me.
Ok, let’s try this one more time.
*In a frustrated, “I’ve said this three times already” tone*
Accents: I’ve always hated my South Carolina accent. I spent years as a teenager trying to learn to speak without it. Apparently, I’ve been successful because no one ever believes me when I tell them where I’m from. “Oil” is still a struggle to say and often comes out as “ol” the first time, though.
Determining sex from (human) bones (I know nothing about other animals): If I remember correctly from my physical anthro. course*, the only bones that can reliably help determine sex are the pelvic bones, and those only after puberty. Before puberty, it’s impossible.
Hugs, chocolate, well wishes, etc…to those who need it.
*Which was approximately seven or so years ago, so, like I said, if I remember correctly.
It smells like rain outside. It’s not raining though. Aarrgh.
Just sat this, found it rather amusing:
Stupid me, the above list should be entitled: Why God Never Received a PhD
‘Women and children first’ a myth: study
Damn, I lost the link….
Anyway, the Titanic was an exception, its captain threatened to shoot any man who tried to get ahead in of his place in the line. Without enforcing the ‘Women and children first’ rule with the threats of violence the strong will tend to push ahead to the lifeboats.
(Fox News: “Victorian captain a feminazi!”)
Pteryxx
*LE GASP*
But that’s unpossible!
We’re living in a post-racist society!
Link to 465: http://www.thelocal.se/40216/20120412/
Chas just walked behind my laptop, rubbed the sides of his head over the power cord where it plugs into the laptop and then started boggling. Okaaaaay.
Strange little rat. Cute, though. I’m beginning to realize that non-human animals have far more personality than many give them credit for.
Also: Duckies! They’d all make such great plushies. Say . . . if someone made a zombie duck stuffy which made noise, what would it sound like, I wonder?
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OK, off to make soup for dinner, back later.
PTI:
Yes, he is. We love weird and always end up with it. He was rubbing the same way a cat does, when they are claiming something territorially. I get that, but my laptop power cord?
Hmmm. I’ll leave that one to Audley.
Rats love chewing power cords, right? Maybe they have as yet undetected flowing-electricity-sense.
Pteryxx:
Depends on the rat. Chas has never been one for chewing on them. Bruce chewed every fucking cord he could find and Esme has a penchant for some cords.
Possibly. More likely, it was just Chas being an odd boy. He’s been agitating for me to put out Nutella or pour chocolate milk for him. Perhaps he thought that would work.
Space is full of surprises:
Herschel spots comet massacre around nearby star http://phys.org/news/2012-04-herschel-comet-massacre-nearby-star.html
Maybe rats’ little ears can pick up a sound from live electrical wires that we can’t?
{Apologies for a long post, feel free to skip over.}
In shock.
My friend from high school (let’s call her Abby, age 23) just called. They found out a couple months ago that her older sister (let’s call her Jane, age 26), is pregnant.
Due to her Catholic background, Jane doesn’t feel comfortable having an abortion. The father could be one of 2 or 3 men, none of whom are in a long-term relationship with Jane. Not a big deal, right? Jane is a strong woman who should do just fine.
Not exactly. This is complicated by the fact that Jane and Abby’s parents were killed in a car accident 21 years ago, and the accident left Abby with mild brain damage. She’s got a steady job with a decent wage, but her brain injury makes it difficult for her to control her emotions and impulses. Abby also needs surgery on her leg this July and will have mobility trouble for a while afterward.
Jane and Abby were raised by and still live with their grandparents. The grandfather has moderate dementia, which gives him trouble with memory and anger. Abby and her grandfather often fight, but Abby can’t afford to move out.
And the cherry on top – they found out yesterday that Jane is having triplets. The caesarian is scheduled for a week after Abby’s surgery.
In late July, that house is going to contain:
-one new mother
-three babies, who may have problems associated with multiple births
-one elderly man with dementia and heart problems
-one young woman with a brain injury and a recently-repaired leg
-one able-bodied but elderly woman, who will be holding everything together
What a mess. I feel like I should start making casseroles now.
What’s the atheist version of counting your blessings?
I have 100 million rows of data and 40% of them are bullshit (ok: demonstrably wrong). My job right now is to find out why. On a deadline.
I haz a sad.
But off work
tomorrowtoday! Yay!Sufficient unto the day are the troubles thereof and all that.
Kristinc:
Who knows? For all I know, Chas could be like Bender and be jacking on. :D
Kitty, Woo hoo!
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Oggie, man that’s sad about Splinter:-(
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to all: When I comment from work it’s w/o being caught up, and usually just a link to what I think to what I thought was interesting, when I surf on the news sites on my breaks.
When I get home, and read the whole thread I’m amazed at how often it seems like I’m just being insensitive. It’s not by intent.
Not a word. Even rang her office, phone just rings out.
North Korean rocket launch has failed.
Maybe he detected a bit of Caine-scent on the power cord and wanted to roll in it a little, much like my dog and a pile of fresh deer turds? (not to compare you to deer turds or anything of course :p)
Also my condolences about Splinter- for me the heartbreak of pet rats will always be the fact that the relationship is necessarily brief. Sweet, but brief. A good rat is every bit as loyal as a good dog, though admittedly not quite as good at home defense.
Caine:
Even though I’m not sick like CC, this makes me feel better. ^_^
TLC, possibly, but I don’t think so. There’s a lot of stuff in my studio which is much more heavily Caine-scented (including me!), suitable for rubbing and rolling in. Rats don’t really do the rolling thing, though. I suspect he was getting a buzz, hence the boggling.
Hekuni Cat:
:D :D :D Chas loves it when I sing it to him.
Sounds like a double-blind experiment waiting to happen.
As expected. And what a waste of food aid.
Pteryxx:
I’ll leave that to those who work with rats. I’m just the waitress in this joint.
more in Catholics being jerks: RCC cuts off thousands of dollars in aid, half the budget, from a small immigrant rights nonprofit because it came somewhere near those icky gays.
http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2012/04/06/459571/catholic-church-cuts-funds-to-immigrant-group-because-it-doesnt-discriminate-against-gay-people/
The North Korean “cleanest race” does not expect their dear leader and his incarnations to buy them food, they expect to be shown that their race is superior, and that means militarily. Without the military ideology, the system would crumble.
Off for some breakfast, then clothes shopping, then opening of the GAC after drinkies with the Pharyngulites. No rest for the wicked.
Sorry to hear about Splinter – it never stops being sad to hear about a pet dying no matter the circumstances.
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Caine: Aside from the, “Owner is singing to me, yay!” feelings, maybe Chas knows you’re referring to him and his equally lovable ilk in the song. Does he sometimes falls asleep to your singing? It sounds like the perfect rat lullaby.
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Nutmeg, what a mess indeed! I don’t know about making piles of casseroles, but any help you could offer would surely make things easier. I hope everyone will be all right at the end of it all.
Well, pet rats like being taught things, and they love games. If I had pet rats right now, I’d totally rig a wire-and-switch system and see if I could teach them to point out which wire had no current running through it.
If I still had pet rats I’d be tempted to try the experiment- it doesn’t sound like anything that would actually hurt them (theoretically they could chew into the cords, but an experiment of this nature would necessarily be supervised anyways wouldn’t it?)
in other pet news, my blue-faced chicken “Lucy” may be showing signs of getting into a ‘broody’ mood.
The great question now is, do I:
A: Discourage the behavior?
Or
B: If she’s as broody as the silkies I kept before (And I suspect this mongrel bird is part silkie), should I attempt to acquire a few fertilized eggs for her?
I only really have room for one more (female) chicken.
Option C: (unlikely) I acquire a sexed chick somehow (shouldn’t be impossible, though acquiring just ONE would be kind of difficult) and after a period of letting her brood a fake egg for a while, remove it at night and replace it with the little peeper? Would that actually trick her into mothering it?
PTI:
Oh yes, he does. He prefers it sung to him when he curls up on my pillow when I’m in bed.
Pteryxx:
I’ll bring it up to Mister. He’d probably do it. I’m supposed to be stitching here… ;)
TLC: From experience, I would say try option C in your situation. Otherwise go with B.
also cool: Robert Spitzer disavows his own gay-therapy study.
http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2012/04/11/462292/ex-gay-study-disavowed/
120v 60Hz AC does hum, even I can hear it. with enough amps.
Oh, Splinter. Now I get it.
Sorry it had to wait until he left us.
The Sailor, I tend to be sensitive to electric humming, but not usually at such a low voltage. Perhaps rats gravitate towards what they know is safe…Esme has a thing for the wireless booster cord, she’s chewed through four of them. It’s all of 5 volts.