But perhaps some of our Korean readers will appreciate it. All I know is that I was interviewed for an article on the Han/Warda paper, and that’s my face in the Korean news.
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
I dig the freaky blogger D&D beholder.
It says: “Koreans: Don’t Tell This Man That We Accidently Erased The Interview” Then it has a bunch of sports scores and the weather report for Seoul.
Looks like you will have a celestial dictatorship of readers.
Does anyone know the taxonomy of Beholders? Perhaps it is a secret member of Cephalopoda that only PZ knows about.
Any D&D player worth their salt knows that Beholders are from the aberration family…come on!
Wow! Eight eyeballs on tentacles!
I can read Korean. It says, “Godless evilutionist PZ Meyers was shown to be a fraud in the upcoming film EXPELLED which stars Ben Stein. Don’t miss it in theatres once its producers have convinced enough ministers to encourage their flock to see it.”
It’s been years, but I was pretty sure the Monstrous Manual indicated that they were intelligently designed/special creations/exobiological imports. I thought an Aberration was a Construct that was self-propagating.
What’s the life-span of a naturalist in Greyhawk?
It says because of your expert “hawk eye” you helped the Hon Professor Han find critical editing errors just before publication of a groundbreaking manuscript he had written, thereby saving him from certain dishonor.
I have no idea what the article says, but I certainly recognize the Flying Spaghetti Monster when I see him.
PZ, I believe you’ve been pwnd by pseudo-religionists.
@7: Currently constructs are a completely different creature typ…oh wow…
WHY DO I KNOW THIS?!
The first article outlines the commandments of our His Noodliness, followed by an article about his highest priest (You, PZ), followed by an article about pirates successfully landing a 747 loaded with baby squid at a safe distance from the cafes and seafood bars of Seoul.
That is absolutely hysterical. This has happened to me in Japan a few times (I’m big in Japan). Only without the squid. (but I usually get skeletons)
Great photo! Got rid of the bald spot and double chin at the same time. I wish my wife could do that.
I think it says something about you openning for Eric Clapton in Pyongyang.
OT (off topic) yet OT (on target): At this moment the Discovery channel is showing a show that shows octopi being used as some kind of evidence!
The shadow of the tentacles comes up with a atomic-ish symbol (3 electrons? Li?).
Other than that, I have nothing to add.
It says:
I’d start by shaving the beard, and trading in the specs on contacts.
followed by an article about pirates successfully landing a 747 loaded with baby squid at a safe distance from the cafes and seafood bars of Seoul.
Thank heavens!
By the way, the squid ink pasta putanesca was AMAZING tonight, as was the fried calamari. The ritual consumption of our “deity’s” representation is truly a good thing.
Do you know which paper or magazine it was? I speak and read a little Korean but the photo is a little blurry. I would prefer to see the original site, if that is possible. There are a few Korean blogs discussing your name, the paper and humiliation, but I cannot find the original article.
Oh, they also point out that Warda is Egyptian – I have to wonder if they are trying to shift the blame – Hwang Woo-seuk’s American partner (the pair that claimed to have great success in cloning) was torn apart by Korean media (and seems to have deserved it – but no more than Dr Hwang).
That’s a pretty good likeness of you, but I think your eyestalks are slightly longer than that.
I have it on authority (mine) that its a really detailed personals ad from the Korean edition of “Playgirl”. It starts if “Hi, my name’s PZ and I’d like to study your biology…”
I don’t know Korean, but I can transcribe it poorly.
The headline says something along the lines of of “All Your Base Pairs Are Belong to Us”, and the headline next to the first picture reads: “Main Screen Turn On.”
I cannot tell if the above comment is incredibly racist or just bizarre…
If you give me a bit I can get it translated for you. I got a butt load of favors owned to me by a butt load of Korean friends :)
Yikes! Its the FSM!
Ok, I actually know some korean, and the title above the bolded text actually phonetically reads: “bul-lo-guh pa-ling-gyoo-la ma-e-yo-su” which is korean phonetic for blogger pharyngula doctor meyers. It’s been several years since I’ve had to translate Korean, but it actually looks like the picture and the article are about you and pharyngula in Korean. It’s legit. My old korean teacher was also a fervent godbot, sweet lady, but loved to preach… so I’m looking in the text for “Ha-Na-Nim” which is korean for god. Its saying that you’re a blogger, a scientist, an american and it mentions evolution a few times. However, I dont see any mentions of god or atheism in korean. I’m a bit rusty, and i’m sure some smarter people will see it, but I’m very interested to see the translation.
I’ll grab my old textbooks and see what i can come up with. Nevertheless, you, being pictured by a cousin of the beholder is absolutely appropriate. I can only say I’m a little jealous :)
I’ve always wanted an article written about me in a language I couldn’t understand. The hard decision is whether to get it translated or leave it as a mystery. ;)
#2
“It says: “Koreans: Don’t Tell This Man That We Accidently Erased The Interview” Then it has a bunch of sports scores and the weather report for Seoul.”
It’s only a matter of time before science proves that Seoul doesn’t exist.
As Americans, don’t you just bomb anything you don’t understand?
“As Americans, don’t you just bomb anything you don’t understand?”
As an American, I find this comment horribly prejudiced, even racist. It disgusts me that people still think this way about Americans.
Everyone knows Americans SHOOT what we don’t understand. Most of us can’t afford bombs.
The headline for the PZ photo article on the right says roughly:
the smaller font:
“Blog paringgoola (no ph or ability to write ry in Korean) master, a professor of the University of Minnesota”
the bigger headline says (roughly)
“he (or maybe the blog) helps to swiftly disseminate information about the credibility of research ”
From the headline it doesn’t seem like they’re trying to make it seem like an evil american is once again try to trash Korean science while he then steals Korean ideas for himself. A popular anti american theme here in the land of the morning calm.
As requested, this is the page.
http://hani.co.kr/arti/science/science_general/272574.html
The article is linked from the front page of the online version.
http://hani.co.kr/
The big headline says “A plagiarism case spotted within 8 hrs since publishing: the Strength of Science Blogs”. Also my hearty thanks to Brownian OM(Am Korean).
Here is Google translation’s first effort. As jp sherman points out foreign words are often translated as characters that phonetically approximate the original sound of the foreign word. Google doesn’t know many of these.
After eight hours’ thesis plagiarism ‘OK, the power of science blog!
Domestic professors’ thesis critiques’ journals announced onrainpan
Comments beulrogeuseo screening discussion question… ‘plagiarism’ disease
, But a full-scale domestic ‘science blog era’ after preparation
The maximum growth gongronjang blog is a science, and science.
Recently, a blog is an international scientific journals abroad onrainpan to identify plagiarism in a paper published critiques of the papers that came out, the cancellation announcement, science blogs around the eye of his dad. Comments on this blog discussions and research scientists in various activities, and then 23 minutes to eight hours to determine plagiarism.
Being a professor at the University of Cairo, Egypt, and Mohammed Wada Inje thesis critiques of professors’ mitochondria, the soul and body of the missing links: Scientific evidence of danbaekjilche ‘ onrainpan June 23, it announced. Some bloggers were immediately when the paper was published deungjae automatically receive the information and systems. ‘Pim’ (PIMM), a master craftsman of biotechnology Attila chodasineun blog e-mail sent to the “Report of the 25th green, and the Title ‘soul’ he wrote scientific papers on the same terms and Bizarrely yeogyeotda” . He questioned the relevance of science thesis blog post in the olryeotgo raised, as the paper is a discussion topic dwieoeo comment. 100 visits a month from chodasineun mangeon blog ‘paringgulra’ owner Paul Myers (biology) professor at the University of Minnesota have announced this fact.
Myers, a professor of February 6 in his blog ‘absurd failure of the peer review’ called Creationism perspective that the title of the journal Science how the papers containing colleagues to pass the examination strongly questioned whether. 10:07 a.m.. Discussion 2:00 pm Comments that happen as a blogger who is 17, said some of the evidence that plagiarism. This is a tough 20 yeogunde 6:30 p.m. plagiarism. John McDonald of Delaware professor of plagiarism cases that the United States made public until the controversy is a comparison chart three periods. official said, “After receiving the harshest criticisms original research papers. Abbreviated screening, unlike in the wild, I know,” he said.
Comments Europe has confirmed this blog plagiarism “collective intelligence, the web is a great show Story” “fantastic blogs,” “rational saw hope in the future” as they celebrate fell. Chodasineun “blog this space many people would not have to spell everything out research papers and plagiarism to quickly balhigin been possible,” he said.
The new blog is a science in recent years, many scientific journals have the same Discussion of the scientific criticisms are looking for space science and tens of thousands of day-to-day operations, or blog sites are created specialized research critic of the bloggers autonomous Organization (bpr3.org) kkuryeojil enough to be rapidly expanded. Plagiarism and research, but they are denying one of the major concerns.
In the era of full-scale domestic science blogs are also trying to prepare. Bulletins researchers’ Brick ‘Biological Research Information Center operated by the first half of this year, the researchers plan to promote science blog to partially implement. One researcher, “to inform his own research and other studies while receiving criticism that the domestic critics in the scientific culture gradually ppurinaeril blog,” “The blog is a frequent critic thesis scientists have done everything it would not participate mid situation,” he said. Blogs in domestic science, and scientists are scattered in a blog jeonmuneopchena sojipdan several criticisms of the network, will lead a discussion ‘hub’ blogs are still not being noticed. Ohcheolwoo reporters cheolwoo@hani.co.kr
[Hankyoreh related articles]
▶ “jagged… more suspected cases jjagipgi find a thesis”
▶ ‘plagiarism disgrace’ scientific papers published clear finish
▶ academia ‘bakmiseok plagiarism’ kaenda
▶ editorial / Republic of Korea Republic of plagiarism?
After open-source peer review when the paper showed up, we now get open-source translation of the news article…
It’s only a matter of time before Google decides to buy Pharyngula.
@36:
“OK, the power of science blog!”
I like that. It should be the unofficial motto of PZ or something. :)
The translation is hilarious.
official said, “After receiving the harshest criticisms original research papers. Abbreviated screening, unlike in the wild, I know,” he said.
To the uninitiated this would seem to have something to do with natural selection…
Also
Myers, a professor of February 6
Now that’s a specialism!
Hard to comprehend the translation with all the goofy phonetic transcriptions of loan-words.
I think “onrainpan” might mean “online”. In korean there is no real distinction between “r” and “l”. Other strange words may be deciphered likewise…
“John McDonald of Delaware professor of plagiarism cases that the United States made public until the controversy is a comparison chart three periods.”
A professor of plagiarism? Just how does one become a professor of plagiarism?
Oh Google and you’re literal translations!
Just as an update: I notified the Glycoconjugate Jounral of the other Warda and Han plagiarism that Sarah W. found. We’ll see how they respond….
Cephalopods get eaten in Korea…
It’s easy! You don’t even need to write your own thesis or papers or lesson plans!
Praise be…is that the many seeing eyes of our great Noodly maker?
It’s an obituary. It says, “Man falls asleep with fan on. Dies from suffocation”.
I speak Korean fluently. It says,
Using atomic radiation, Korean scientists recently caused a computer screen to mutate into into an 8-eyed, superintelligent automatic pilot. After reading a blackboard full of differential equations describing the flow of air over a wing, the automatic pilot safely landed a commercial airliner, pulling it out of a steep dive just 50 meters above the ground, and using only 60 meters of runway. American scientist PZ Meyers commented that the autopilot reminded him of a certain species of ocotopoda, and wondered what it would taste like sauteed in butter, garlic, and parsley.
Which one are you? The bearded guys or the creepy tentacle eyes? :)
I know a young Korean woman who lives in Japan teaching Japanese how to pronounce R’s to communicate with Europeans. I’ll see if she can translate the whole page. if I see her in the chatroom I meet her in.
#49
Chatroom, eh? Say no more! Chatroom! Wink, wink, nudge, nudge! A nod’s as good as a wink to a blind bat, eh? But still…whooooaaaaa, eh? Whoooooaa!
I can do that one better: I’ve written an article — a whole series of them, actually — in a language I couldn’t understand!
I’ve mentioned here before that my wife and I spent a year in Korea, teaching in a commercial English language school. The company that owned the school was Si-Sa-Yong-O-Sa, a giant publishing firm specializing in English-language books, tests, and study materials. One of their products was a monthly magazine, The Study of Current English, that covered topics of interest to English learners, but which was published (mostly) in Korean. For about 9 months, I wrote a regular column in which I explained the meaning of idiomatic expressions in Doonesbury cartoon strips. While I drafted the columns in English, they were translated into Korean for publication (only the Doonesbury strip itself and direct quotes from it appeared in English).
So I have a whole set of published articles, under my byline, that I can’t read!
Once again, Pharyngula has the best blogfans ever! The spontaneous translations made me laugh out loud.
I wrote a regular column in which I explained the meaning of idiomatic expressions in Doonesbury cartoon strips.
Damn, I miss Doonesbury. And Jim’s Journal.
Hey fellows. I’m a korean. U r so mean. Why did u write that even u don’t know what it means.
This means that scienceblog-payryngula-was found a fake paper by blogers during 8 hours. So it wants to tell how strong blog is.especilly blog for science.
Do the Boston papers not print it? It’s available on teh intertooobz, you know. (I would post a link, but navigating to a comic strip site on my work computer would probably set off alarms.)
Or were you making a subtler comment about the current state of the strip?
I meant to add, re Doonesbury, that I’m very pleased to have a book that reprints the original strips Trudeau drew for the Yale newspaper, when he was a student there. It’s fascinating to look back at them and see how his work has evolved.
I believe it says that you are Mr. Sparkle.
Or were you making a subtler comment about the current state of the strip?
Actually, the pain pills and sedatives had me thinking of something altogether different (Bloom County). disregard…I think bed may be in order.
So it’s an article about that bogus, plagiarized paper that somehow passed peer review but was recently outted by the many-eyed creature(s) of ScienceBlogs?
Uh… Ignore me. I’ll catch up.
*stare*
(This is no mere cold. Maybe it’s walking pnemonia. I seem to be coughing up small amounts of blood. Let’s hope it’s not the start of a scene from Alien or The Hidden.)
I seem to be coughing up small amounts of blood.
GO. TO. A. DOCTOR.
But… but… I’m IMMORTAL!
(Don’t worry. I will.)
And with the blood thing: how well humidified is your space, and how hydrated your body? I notice that when I’m sick, and I get dehydrated, there tends to be a bit more blood in the mucus than when I’m well hydrated.
But get your ass to the physician! And stay well rested and hydrated!
And just wait…the older you get, the more shit goes wrong. It’s really awesome!
Sorry Kseniya and MAJeff, but you’ve both been found guilty of being sick and weak. Off to the rendering vats with you.
We are Darwinists after all.
CHOI S.Y.: The comments were joking about our inability to understand the article, not about the article itself. Thanks for confirming its topic, which I agree is noteworthy.
Sorry Kseniya and MAJeff, but you’ve both been found guilty of being sick and weak. Off to the rendering vats with you.
Oh, well. It was a good run while it lasted. And if last night’s dinner was my last good meal, I can die with that.
Aside from the lost-in-translation hilarity, can anyone enlighten us as to what has actually happened at the journal as a follow-up?
-The paper is now listed in the back pages of Volume 8, issue 3 as retracted. The PDF of the text is no longer available.
-The abstract has been removed both from the journal and from the PubMed citation, and replaced with the retraction statement.
– There has been no indication that anything else will be done, apart from a weak claim in James Randerson’s blog at the Guardian, in which the editors say they’re looking into it.
This story seems to have disappeared from the spotlight in recent days, and it would appear that the journal’s current strategy of “wait it out and the problem will disappear” is working.
What power does someone like PZ have to push the journal for real hard answers? Not wishy-washy apologies but real hard facts about what has changed at the editorial level to ensure this NEVER happens again, and to restore confidence in the journal?
So far, I haven’t heard anything to convince me that the journal’s integrity has been restored. It has now been over a month since this paper first appeared. That is more than long enough for a full investigation, and yet we have not heard anything. Please keep up the pressure on Proteomics – the editors cannot be allowed to get away with such a massive screw-up just because the story has faded out of the blogosphere!
Spot-on, Jeff. My space tends to be dry. I’m aware of this problem and take steps to ameliorate it, but my efforts are inconsistent…
But enough about me. Have you read The Stand?
I actually have been neglecting the humidifier for the last couple weeks myself (bad boy!), and the Diet Coke doesn’t help.
Haven’t read The Stand. Anything like Logan’s Run?
I’m just pissed that I ended up canceling class today. I’m going to hold a special research techniques session next week, and figure out how to make up the rest of the material (shouldn’t be hard; just means re-doing some scheduling over the weekend)…I just can’t wait for it to warm up. When I walk more, my back tends to be stronger and this kind of nonsense doesn’t happen.
Just loving my kitty.
Haven’t read The Stand. Anything like Logan’s Run?
not a bit.
It’s Stephen King’s book about a virus that basically wipes out humanity, except for pockets of immune folks, who then for some odd reason sort themselves into “good” and “evil” camps and vie for the fate of the world.
comical mayhem ensues.
what Kseniya is likely referring to is that the sign someone was infected with the virus (100% fatal if infected) was coughing up blood.
I once gave an email interview (in English) to a Taiwanese magazine. I answered their questions kind of glibly, though with self-deprecating humor. When they sent me a copy of the issue, it dawned on me that my answers were translated into Chinese. I still don’t know if the humor survived the translation or if I just ended up sounding like a jackass.
Take away lesson: if you’re going to be translated, don’t try to be funny or cute.
Noooo. Not at all. More like I Am Legend. I loved it.
Diet Coke… feh. Caffeine. Sodium. Aspartame. In a word: drying.
Diet Coke… feh. Caffeine. Sodium. Aspartame. In a word: drying.
One thing to remember: the darker the yellow, the more dehydrated you are.
Enjoy everyone!
I gotta get my urolagnic friend to read this site!
this is what happens when raised in a medical household (mom-nurse; dad-veterinarian; aunt-md) in which after dinner conversations almost always ended up in the PDR coming off the shelf; and then having a career that has included editing medical research papers and working in a neurology research clinic, among all that sociology stuff and the music degree. Some odd juxtapositions.
‘s all right, Jeff–I always tell everyone my decorum receptors were burnt out with all those bio courses, but Mr. thalarctos says for that to be true, I’d have had to have some to begin with, and he’s seen no evidence of that.
Hope urine better health very soon!
So I have a whole set of published articles, under my byline, that I can’t read!
I would be so totally paranoid that it had been replaced with something entirely different without me knowing about it. For all you know, you are now the magazine’s expert in 70s porn.
not a bit.
It’s Stephen King’s book about a virus that basically wipes out humanity, except for pockets of immune folks, who then for some odd reason sort themselves into “good” and “evil” camps and vie for the fate of the world.
You are bleeping kidding me. I spent MONTHS trying to find a good fiction novel about disease to use in my interdisciplinary disease-based class and never came across this. Ok, weeks. A few hours, at least. Dammit.
(#78) “The Cobra Event” by Richard Preston was good, and he seems like he has a clue. There should be nonfiction about the 1918 flu – I think there’s a Katherine Ann Porter story, “Upon A Pale Horse” about it. I have lots of disease nonfiction at home.
I spent MONTHS trying to find a good fiction novel about disease to use in my interdisciplinary disease-based class and never came across this. Ok, weeks. A few hours, at least. Dammit.
ooh,
try “Blood Music” by Greg Bear.
way more interesting (shorter, too).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_Music
then there’s the classic:
“The Andromeda Strain”
(written before Crichton went bugfuck nuts)
You are bleeping kidding me. I spent MONTHS trying to find a good fiction novel about disease to use in my interdisciplinary disease-based class and never came across this. Ok, weeks. A few hours, at least. Dammit.
And there is an entire genre of AIDS fiction–almost anything written by American gay men in the late 1980s; it was the fact of gay male life during that time. (Hell, there’s Angels in America–if ya want theater instead)
Wasn’t it Bersani who wrote that all gay sex during that time was group sex because the spectre of death was always in the room with you? I think it was him; but I remember that sense.
One of the only moments I’ve ever been stunned into silence in a classroom was when a student said to me, while we were studying ACT-UP, “You mean there hasn’t always been AIDS?”
I wasn’t touching Crichton, he’s totally soured for me now. :( At the time I was pretty narrowly focused on trying to find historical fiction; real pandemic, realistic responses, fake characters, something besides the Decameron or Journal of the Plague Year. These are all good ideas, though, and I’ll look them up for next semester. I particularly like the conceit of focusing on the immune folks battling it out, because we spent a lot of time on how small groups can get targeted and demonized during such events (using the Russian Jews in the New York typhus epidemic of 1892 as the main example)
MAJeff and Kseniya, have some fluids and feel better soon.
One of the only moments I’ve ever been stunned into silence in a classroom was when a student said to me, while we were studying ACT-UP, “You mean there hasn’t always been AIDS?”
I was telling my students about the early days, when a child in my school district was HIV positive and his school made a separate trailer for him and wouldn’t even let him in the main school building for assemblies because they were so scared, then realized none of the other people in the room had even been born when that happened.
I was telling my students about the early days, when a child in my school district was HIV positive and his school made a separate trailer for him and wouldn’t even let him in the main school building for assemblies because they were so scared, then realized none of the other people in the room had even been born when that happened.
A couple years ago that hit me. Someone was doing those “Your freshman this year…” things, and what came up was that the AIDS crisis was no older than pretty much all of my students. That was such a depressing moment.
I’ve got a summer course on Mass Media and Queer America, and one thing that serves as a central point in the class: AIDS changed everything. I don’t think they have any clue how much AIDS changed queer life and the place queers occupied in American society–and having them watch Philadelphia juxtaposed against Silverlake LIfe (a bit unfair, I know–but we talk about genre; more importantly we talk about narrative position within the relations of producing media texts, and the intended audiences–too much for this comment) is still an overwhelming experience for me…blows them out of the water.
I can’t wait to get a full-time gig and expand this to a semester-length course.
AIDS crisis was now older than pretty much all of my students.
That little letter matters.
yes, Archbishop Nudge, a chatroom. At stickam.com
LOL. I’d like to tell you that this page’s URL is floating around in some Korean sites… :)
The title says “Plagiarism in a paper confirmed in 8 hours: the power of science blogs!” (Sorry, there’s no “OK” there.) And then there’s an interview article, too. URL is:
http://www.hani.co.kr/arti/science/science_general/272573.html
BTW don’t trust google Korean-English translator for ANYTHING. Just type any sentence, translate it to Korean and then back, and see it for yourself. (Warning: if you’re drinking something, put it down first. I’m not liable for any damage to your keyboard or books.)
If anybody is VERY interested in a translation, tell me and I’ll give it a try in a few days… if I can find some escape time from two screaming kids.
‘s all right, Jeff–I always tell everyone my decorum receptors were burnt out with all those bio courses, but Mr. thalarctos says for that to be true, I’d have had to have some to begin with, and he’s seen no evidence of that.
Telling urban kids about growing up as the vet’s kid–including like coming home to find bowls of rocky mountain oysters sitting in salt water in the refrigerator–always gets some interesting responses. When you grow up with certain smells and stories at the dinner table, well, not much grosses you out after a while.
Wow. I never heard of Silverlake Life. I’ll have to put it on my List. I did see something a few years ago called And The Band Played On. Whew.
One of my dad’s friends is bisexual. (He’s married with children now, but years ago he was in a de facto marriage with another man. He lost dozens of friends to the virus. I can’t even imagine.) Anyway, point is, I mentioned the movie to him shortly after I’d seen it, and this is what he said: “Robert Gallo will burn in Hell.”
:-|
The Band Played On is one of those weird ones. Shilts’ writing of the book got some of the epidemiological stuff ok, but also fucked it up in a causal-blame-based way, so that one person became, rather than the center of an epidemiological cluster, the person responsible for spreading HIV. It’s not without its merits and its problems.
Philadelphia I despise to this day. It’s straight America letting itself off the hook for its own callousness; but it was a major Hollywood production so in order to make any money that’s basically what it had to be.
Silverlake Life is a man documenting the last year of his life. The most devastating scene is when his partner videotapes his body the day he dies. This was a time when wasting was very, very common. He looked like he’d died in one of the camps. It’s absolutely devastating.
That week is a very difficult one emotionally for students (and for me), but it is also amazingly effective educationally. I’m looking not only at the media texts, but how the practices of production affect those texts (and also conditions of circulation). I gotta say, for a summer class, that’s a pedagogically inspired week.
Silverlake Life is a man documenting the last year of his life. The most devastating scene is when his partner videotapes his body the day he dies. This was a time when wasting was very, very common. He looked like he’d died in one of the camps. It’s absolutely devastating.
The scenes showing his eyes with Kaposi’s lesions are pretty horrific as well.
I’ll be honest, I’m sometimes amazed I’m here. I grew up in the 1970s. Nuclear Holocaust was going to happen. As an elementary school student, we were discussing Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles and how many times over the US and USSR could destroy each other. I didn’t think I’d live to this age.
Then come the 1980s. In addition to Reagain’s nuclear buildup, I come of age as a gay man when the federal government was saying to me, “please die; Well, forget the ‘please.'” I emerged from all of that without that fucking virus, and having lost very few people (I’m lucky I was in Iowa). But, even then, I was told by others that I would get the disease and would deserve it.
Suck it motherfuckers!
Life is precious. I wasn’t supposed to have this much. Too many aren’t here to share it. Every so often I reflect on those days in particular (esp when I have to prep for teaching these classes).
Now back to snark.
Suck it motherfuckers!
I have to say, Jeff, of anyone who posts on this board, I think you most of all have the right to say that with impunity.
embrace it and let loose.
oh…
and finish your damn thesis.
:p
I have to say, Jeff, of anyone who posts on this board, I think you most of all have the right to say that with impunity.
embrace it and let loose.
Thanks, but as I’ve said, I’m one of the lucky ones. I was in Iowa and not San Francisco or New York (or Chicago or Minneapolis). I wasn’t going to memorial service after memorial service. I didn’t become numbed to death. I’m lucky!
But, I lived through the Reagan years, have had the harassment on the street and in the workplace, threats of violence in real time and of death on the answering machine. Yeah, I’ve had that, too.
Yeah, I’ve earned a right to some anger, and I’ll let a fabulous flury fly from time to time. But, what also just got me thinking as I was brushing my teeth, is how privileged I’ve also been to be part of and make history. In small ways in Ames, Iowa and Mankato, Minnesota, in a training session in Morriss and a public education event in Hibbing, I did some cool shit. Little things, but the more I think about all of this in the context of my dissertation, it’s kind of cool.
And the dissertation is progressing (a thesis was finished at Minnesota State a decade ago). It will be finished; and I’m gonna stop getting reflexive and sentimental and shit–that’s for my blog (and eventual memoires…LOLOLOLOL)
Hm. Dunno if these are good, but nevertheless:
The White Plague, by Frank Herbert (yes, he of Dune). Thumbnail: Man’s wife is killed in IRA terror attack; man goes bugfuck nuts and creates garage lab to synthesize disease (I forget if it was viral or bacterial (I think the former)) which targets only women and leaves men alone, and has a near 100% mortality rate.
To Die in Italbar, by Roger Zelazny. Man has (quasi-mystical)? healing powers. Problem is, after doing a healing, he goes into a state where he generates terrible diseases. Wacky hijinks ensue. Can you tell that most of my memories of the book are gone?
Emergence, by David Palmer. More of a post-apocalyptic novel than about the disease that caused it. Actually, the disease was a human-engineered one that spread in a benign/inactive state, then was triggered to virulence by bursts of radiation from Soviet neutron bombs. And the 1918 flu epidemic is mentioned, in that it is allegedly responsible for identical mutations in a bunch of people that makes them disease-resistant, much more intelligent, able to see into the IR, and makes them prettier and gives them fresh, minty breath, too. In fact, they’re so advanced that they consider themselves (and are considered by others) the next step in human evolution. OK, maybe this isn’t such a good book about disease.
Cowboy Feng’s Space Bar and Grille, by Steven Brust. Hm. This was his response to the loss of a bunch of his friends from complications with AIDS. It’s hard to summarize the plot, other than to say that it’s about a group of musicians and a bar that hops forward through time, which might be metaphorical of something else. I’m not sure it quite works, but nevertheless, there it is.
Finder, by Emma Bull. Another targeted epidemic, and might also be meant to be a reaction to AIDS, now that I think of it. Has a very powerful and moving ending. I’d say give this one at least a shot.
Maybe more later.
This is an odd one: David Feinberg’s Eighty-Sixed or Spontaneous Combusion. Feinberg was a bitchy queen’s bitchy queen. He wrote dark, campy novels that were fairly popular among gay male reading publics, but when he changed to AIDS he wrote dark, campy, angry novels. He also documents a lot in Queer and Loathing, which includes writings from being an ACT-UP activist (which is what I tended to use), and very difficult…it’s very angry, in ways that a lot of people have a hard time relating to these days.
I’m blanking because I was so involved in the politics and doing sexuality education and HIV/STI prevention that I read a lot more nonfiction than fiction (“The Man with the Night Sweats” is a fantastic collection of poetry, though).
FYI, I had inquired about the Han/Warda paper in question at BRIC (bric.postech.ac.kr), a famous Korean biology community site, and then none other than Professor Han Jin himself made a reply. He claimed that he made a mistake of accidently mixing up the initial draft and the final version of the paper.
I am not a biologist, but that didn’t sound terribly credible to me. Well, at least he admitted his fault and retracted his paper. Something that can’t be said for many professors in Korea…
Yeah, that’s the same excuse he gave to PZ.
I wonder if you could ask him what his actual disproof of the endosymbiotic theory of the origin of mitochondria was supposed to be? After all, that should have been in the “final draft”.
And who were the “peers” who reviewed the paper in the first place?
I’d also be interested in seeing him state clearly what the fingerprint of a mighty creator would look like, and why.
Well… I’m just an occasional visitor there, and I don’t think Mr. Han frequents the site, either. So, if I post the question, the chance that Han would see it and make a reply is rather small. Also, my impression is that the site suffered too many trolls and doesn’t act kindly to outsiders (like me) writing potential flamewar topics. (Understandable—BRIC was the cyber-frontline in the war against Hwang Woo-Suk during the infamous scandal.)
In short: sorry. :)
Besides, what do you expect from a creationist? You already know his answer anyway.
I would’ve taken that gig straight up; no need to trick me into it!
Sadly, even when it’s completely surrounded by indecipherable (to my mi-guk saram eyes) Korean, it’s hard to mistake Doonesbury for porn. Boopsie isn’t that hot.
Despite all stereotypes of exotic, erotic Asia, I actually found Korea fairly prim. Maybe it was just a matter of being a foreigner who didn’t know where to look, but I didn’t see much in the way of porn or sexually oriented businesses. I suppose there’s no country in the world that doesn’t have strippers and hookers, but the only recreational nudity I saw during my year there was a Western-style topless floorshow at a nightclub that catered exclusively to foreign travelers. And the closest thing to prostitution I saw was b-girls hustling drinks and (very chaste) dances.
Then again, there were some odd exceptions: It was commonly believed by us Western teachers that standard practice in Korean barbershops was for female attendants to provide a “happy ending” to your haircut. (Sadly, my wife never permitted me to do field research on this point.) And at one of the large multi-vendor markets we used to shop at, there was invariably a large crowd around the booth where a fellow was hawking penis-enlargment vacuum pumps. (Male “vigor” was something of a national obsession, if the number of foods reputed to enhance it was any measure.)
All in all, a fascinating place. It’s been >20 years now since I was there; I’d love to go back and see what has (and hasn’t) changed.
PS: Not only do they eat cephalopods, but when I was there you could buy squid out of vending machines… in one case (for which I have photographic evidence) both hot and cold squid out of the same machine! It’s heaven on earth….