Comments

  1. Torbjörn Larsson says

    Genius, only marred by the reference to nihilism on the linked page. Facts makes the future a better adventure – I’ll have the red pill, thank you.

  5. craig says

    I just finished feeding the squirrel that comes across my balcony to my window for breakfast, and sat down and saw this.
    Yay squirrels.

  6. bpower says

    But if there’s no god then there’s no morality. So what’s stopping the guys from raping and killing the squirrels?

    See?

  10. says

    That reminds me of a poem I read years ago in alt.usage.english.

    “I” Before “E” Except After “C”
    by Duncan McKenzie

    It’s a rule that is simple, concise and efficeint.
    For all speceis of spelling it’s more than sufficeint.
    Against words wild and wierd, it’s one law that shines bright
    Blazing out like a beacon upon a great hieght,

    It gives guidance impartial, sceintific and fair
    In this language, this tongue to which we are all hier.
    ‘Gainst the glaceirs of ignorance that icily frown,
    This great precept gives warmth, like a thick iederdown.

    Now, a few in soceity choose to deride,
    To cast DOUBT on this anceint and venerable guide;
    They unwittingly follow a foriegn agenda,
    A plot hatched, I am sure, in some vile haceinda.

    In our work and our liesure, our homes and our schools,
    Let us follow our consceince, sieze proudly our rules!
    Will I dilute my standards, make them vaguer and blither?
    I say NO, I will not! I trust you will not iether.

  11. Torbjörn Larsson says

    “”I” Before “E” Except After “C””

    I have never heard of that (I’m monkey see, monkey do when it comes to languages, grammars are too exceptional. :-) but as soon as I tried… Well.

    But anyway, even before that I was ROTFL. Thank you for the spiel!

  12. lo says

    Well our existence is based on only one principle to get a reward (mostly dopamine). So our very existence and the one of animals is based on that.

    From a universal standpoint we do have a purpose as well, namely be part of the univeral process to get to the point of equilibrium thus raising total entropy.

    And from an even further standpoint we have no meaning whatsoever. But we are always doomed to assume our own anthropogenic standpoint – even though we can displace ourselves for some time and try projects ourselves into other things or beings.

    Ultimately it is the reward pathway that connects us all, people and animals, it connects a serial killer to mother theresa, a mother who sacrifices herself for her child in a leathal situation and why people kill themselves, and why live feels so frigging damn good most of the time. Ultimately we are all selfish, but so what we can blame it on our genes :D *yes, the reminiscence to Dawkins is intended*

  16. Chris says

    Well, I don’t know about rape, but around here some people *do* like to kill squirrels in order to eat them.

    I am not making this up.

    But as someone who indirectly pays other people to kill cows so I can eat *them*, I don’t really have any grounds to criticize squirrelophagy, either.

  18. David Harmon says

    Oolon: That spelling rule has a third phrase… I learned it as, “I before E, except after C, unless it’s pronounced like ‘neighbor’ or ‘weigh’“. That takes out most of McKenzie’s examples….

    Chris: I live in NYC (this year, at least). I suspect eating a city squirrel (or pigeon) would not be too safe… they probably accumulate unholy amounts of assorted pollutants, never mind the point that they’re human commensals (disease!).

  19. Stogoe says

    I’ve enjoyed XKCD ever since the “Science – It works, bitches” comic PZ put up. Lots of funness.

  21. CML says

    You have the old version of the ei/ie saying. The new version goes like this:
    “‘I’ before ‘E’, except after ‘C’, unless it sounds like ‘A’, like neighbor and weigh, or unless it’s weird.”

  22. minusRusty says

    I before E, except after C,
    Or when sounded like ay, as in neighbor and weigh.
    Either, neither, weird, leisure, seize, are exceptions, if you please,
    And if you encounter height or sleight, put e before i and you’ll get them right.

    One of the very few things I remember from high school English….

  25. llewelly says

    I before E, except after C,
    Or when sounded like ay, as in neighbor and weigh.
    Either, neither, weird, leisure, seize, are exceptions, if you please,
    And if you encounter height or sleight, put e before i and you’ll get them right.

    An eloquent expression of the futility of simple spelling rules for English.
    (In 7th grade English, I was told to go sit in the back of the class for that remark. So I’m still indecently proud of it. :-)

  27. khan says

    “I” before “E”,
    Except after “C”,
    Or when sounded like “A”
    As in neighbor and weigh.
    Neither leisured foreigner seized weird heights.

  28. says

    Gosh, now I’m done. I don’t need to write anything anymore.

    Yet, there is much more drivelous horsefeathers to follow. . .another broken promise. . .

  29. DMWW says

    Is it likely that anyone could climb a tree and “find squirrels”? Squirrels are very skittish – surely they would run away at the first sign of someone climbing their tree?

    (I hope I’m wrong, because I want to love that comic)

  30. MJ Memphis says

    “Is it likely that anyone could climb a tree and “find squirrels”? Squirrels are very skittish – surely they would run away at the first sign of someone climbing their tree?”

    Depends on the squirrels- some (especially those in some park areas) are so docile you can practically walk right up to them. My mother (ex-biology teacher) mentioned that the squirrels around the bio building at LSU were extremely tame back in her college days- the bio students fed them a lot to make them associate humans with tasty treats. This made it easier to capture them later for dissection.

  31. says

    The squirrels around my building on campus were notoriously unafraid of humans. They frequently came in windows and entered our offices, and stood their ground in the face of us trying to chase them out.

    As an aside, squirrel crap looks very much like watermelon seeds. Imagine walking into your office and thinking that someone snuck in and ate watermelon at your desk, then finding out what really happened was much worse.