Rare footage of a solar eclipse » « Science and human rights

Checking in, briefly

Hiya gang, have you missed me? I’ve only got a moment before I have to go chase down flightless cormorants, so I thought I’d just pop in and tell you all I wish you were here, it’s a fabulous place, and I’ll have more to say when I get back after this weekend.

Until then, the guest bloggers are doing a marvelous job and have my full support!

Rare footage of a solar eclipse » « Science and human rights

Comments

  2. Danio says

    Great to hear from you, PZ! You are missed indeed, and I’m very much looking forward to hearing the details of your trip. Cheers!

  3. James F says

    Now, two boys have been found rubbing linseed oil into the school cormorant. Now, some of you may feel that the cormorant does not play an important part in the life of the school, but I would remind you that it was presented to us by the Corporation of the town of Sudbury to commemorate Empire Day, when we try to remember the names of all those from the Sudbury area who so gallantly gave their lives to keep China British. So, from now on, the cormorant is strictly out of bounds!

    Enjoy, PZ! Thanks for checking in!

  5. Azdak says

    the guest bloggers are doing a marvelous job and have my full support!

    Except for the one post that’s had me craving kalamari for nearly a week.

  6. says

    PZeeeeeee!!!! You are ruining my life. Come back right this instance and get back to blogging. Work is intolerable without you. :(

  8. joeyess says

    Oh, your back. Have a nice time? All done galavanting around the globe? Elitist bastard.

  10. says

    Pharyngulites:

    Since PZ is not here on a regular basis, I’ll give you this poll. It may be too late to swing it around but it’s worth the try.

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10103521/

    Should the motto “In God We Trust” be removed from U.S. currency?
    Yes. It’s a violation of the principle of separation of church and state.
    No. The motto has historical and patriotic significance and does nothing to establish a state religion.

    9% Yes
    91% No

    PZ (or PZMinions), if you are still here, please feel free to delete my comment and make a post. Thanks.

  12. says

    I only miss you when your guest bloggers remember to post their identity and I can’t make believe it’s you. ;-)

    Seriously, they’ve been doing a fine job.

  15. ThirtyFiveUp says

    Snark, at least I sure hope so.

    Good to hear from you.

    John McCain is now the presumptive CIC and he is trying to start a war to punish Russia. Russia has lots of nukes, so there may not be a USA soon.

    I am sorry if you lose half of your round trip ticket, but stay where you are and be safe. Think of your silenced USA minions every now and then if Russia believes McCain has any battaions to match his belicose words.

  16. joeyess says

    Hey P.Z. did ya see the bit on the federal judge in California rejecting the idea of homeschooled or “christian” educated kids being allowed in university? I can’t find the link right now. I’ll be back.

  19. llewelly says

    John McCain is now the presumptive CIC and he is trying to start a war to punish Russia. Russia has lots of nukes, so there may not be a USA soon.

    Surely you’re exaggerating the danger Mr. ThirtyFiveUp . The US and Russia together have only 9600 deliverable nuclear weapons.

  20. Rey Fox says

    You don’t want us all there. Trust me.

    Coin poll:
    What is “patriotic significance”, exactly? Pavlov language? Code for “If you don’t believe in the Christian God, then you’re not American”? Sheesh. Like anyone even knew the damn phrase was on their money until someone said they wanted to take it off. Take it off and put NUMBERS on the coins like in every other country in the world so that people who don’t speak the language can at least tell what they’re worth. Nah, forget it, too damned sensible.

  21. SC says

    Not to be a buzzkill, but the poll for “In God We Trust” is from an article in 2005 about Michael Newdow.

    Well, if they’ve kept it open this long (that explains the 111,000 votes), we might still have a chance at skewage. :)

  22. llewelly says

    It’s at msnbc, it’s about “in god we trust” on currency. So far, the wrong answer is winning.

    Please see the msnbc article the poll is attached to. It appears to mis-report Michael Newdow’s suit against the use of ‘under god’ in the pledge.

  23. says

    John McCain is now the presumptive CIC and he is trying to start a war to punish Russia. Russia has lots of nukes, so there may not be a USA soon.

    This is completely off-topic, but I came across a very interesting clip taken from Fox News:

    http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-60197

    I’m not sure what to make of it. Media conspiracy buffs seem to think it buttreses their ideas; Bush-haters might claim it’s evidence of the administration’s incompetence. Fox critics appear to relish the “pwning” of said station.

    FYI only

  25. Lana says

    Who is that PZ guy?

    Just kidding! Have fun, PZ and don’t worry about us. The guest bloggers are making us clean our rooms and eat our vegetables. Really. And nothing irreplaceable has been broken. Yet.

  28. MikeM says

    Well, I’ve really enjoyed your guests.

    I’m commenting less, and as a result, I modified a whopping 91 Cold Fusion programs YESTERDAY, and got another feature working last week.

    I think a compromise of some sort is in order here. My productivity is WAY up.

  30. Nobody says

    Nah. Not missing you. MAJeff has all your brainless chops when it comes to stirring the pot like a true demagogue, and the others, for the most part, actually blog about science.

    Take your time. Take the rest of your life, in fact.

  31. MikeM says

    In fairness, Danio, the Chronicle article is much better, and it has comments from actual Californians in it.

    Make sure you read x4x’s completely idiotic comments, everyone. Now that’s a creobot.

  33. Alan Chapman says

    Rather than removing “in god we trust” from the currency I’d much rather see the currency, itself, removed altogether. The currency is a far more serious problem than the words printed on it.

  34. Danio says

    Mike M: How was my comment unfair? I just wanted to let joeyess know that the topic had been covered here in PZ’s absence.

    The Chronicle article is almost certainly a better report, and the comments should indeed be a fun read, but note that it was published one day after I posted my blog entry about the ruling.

  36. joeyess says

    Jeeeez! I didn’t intend to start a flame war. Easy, folks. I simply haven’t been here to read the various posts. I stopped by and saw a post by PZ, wondered if he’d seen the story, thought I’d pass it along. Both pieces are great. All of you elitist bastards need to chill out!!!!!

  38. Longtime Lurker says

    Hey, I heard flightless cormorant tastes like cuy. You’d best bring back plenty of pictures, PeeZed!

  40. Barklikeadog says

    While checking my hairline this morninf I noticed two little bumps. I guess I’m on my way to minion status.

  42. MikeM says

    Danio, I meant no harm. I just liked the article Joeyess found more, even if it was already covered.

  44. Naked Bunny with a Whip says

    I have to go chase down flightless cormorants

    No need for euphemisms, PZ. *wink*

  45. Kseniya says

    Nah. Not missing you. MAJeff has all your brainless chops when it comes to stirring the pot like a true demagogue, and the others, for the most part, actually blog about science. Take your time. Take the rest of your life, in fact.

    So says the neighborhood masochist, Nobody The Idiot Troll.

    The guest bloggers have been doing a fine job. Especially MAJeff. Oh, and Sastra. And Danio. And Lisa. Did I miss anyone? :-)

  46. Shaden Freud says

    llewelly @19:

    Surely you’re exaggerating the danger Mr. ThirtyFiveUp . The US and Russia together have only 9600 deliverable nuclear weapons.

    But…it’s OVER NINE THOUSAAAAANND!!!!

  47. ThirtyFiveUp says

    #19 llewelly and #46 Shaden Freud

    Between 9000 to 10,000; that is one for every year the earth has existed. Surely proof that the Bible is inerrant in every way.

    Bow your heads.

  48. ThirtyFiveUp says

    #25 Lana

    Hey, don’t tell, but I did not make my bed today and I ate candy before lunch.

  50. Naked Bunny with a Whip says

    MAJeff has all your brainless chops

    “Nobody” again demonstrates his deep, personal understanding of brainlessness.

  53. Bride of Shrek OM says

    He’s back after the weekend?

    Dang- we haven’t even had time to organise a party at his empty house yet.

  54. says

    Dang- we haven’t even had time to organise a party at his empty house yet.

    Organise? Organise? You don’t organise an empty house party–you flyer a few local high schools and let the party develop organically.

  56. SC says

    Now 31%. I think it would be a coup to skew a three-year-old poll starting from 9% with 111,000 votes already cast.

  58. PoxyHowzes says

    Do we miss you? Yes, we do! But, PZ, you said:

    If you decide you like them better than me, I shall be heartbroken, but I will be kicking them off on the 18th of August anyway. Maybe they’ll be inspired to go on to new blogs of their very own…?

    I’m absolutely ready for regular blogs from Danio, LisaJ, Sastra (especially Sastra) and MAJeff. In fact, I think they should all abandon you entirely and unceremoniously on August 19 in favor of their own blogs. Then, the next time you take time off to chase flightless cormorants with beaks of undisclosed dimensionality and microfunction, we shall be treated to the spectacle of your scrambling for other minions to take over pharyngula.

  61. varlo says

    Totally OFF subject, but am I the ONL:Y one offended with tonight’s reports about Obama’s July 7 flight which had the problems and the ATC asking “How many souls on from board?) Even worse, (I believe MSNBC, although I surf so much I may have inadvertently defamed them) response from the plane was “51 “souls” on board.”

    51 souls, 100 soles. (One passenger was barefoot.)

  62. speedwell says

    MSN says it is unable to record my vote for “technical reasons.” Anyone else getting this?

  64. John C. Randolph says

    Should the motto “In God We Trust” be removed from U.S. currency?

    The motto is the least of the problems with our currency.

    -jcr

  65. StuV says

    The motto is the least of the problems with our currency.

    jcr wins the thread.

    Game Over.

  68. says

    Yay! Now Russia is threatening Poland with nuclear annihilation becase they agreed to take a piece of our missle shield that hasn’t, doesn’t, and never will work!

    I love geopolitics under the Bushies. “Well, we’ve spent billions, and have barely managed to get the thing to fire, much less hit anything. Let’s really piss off the only other nation that has the strike capability to harm us by sticking it near their borders like it actually does something.”

  69. says

    Question! (I apologize about the randomness of the post)

    Can someone be presented with a sample of DNA from a mammal and determine what species it is? For example, if I were to give you a sample, could you determine that it was a squirrel, rather than a gorilla? Can you get more specific than that? Can you determine what *kind* of gorilla it is?

    Thanks for the assist, pharyngulites. This was the first place I thought of when this question came up.

  70. SC says

    If anyone has any brain cells they feel are unnecessary, go read Ray Comfort’s latest post.

    Ay, Rev. Way too early for that. I liked MudSkipper’s comment.

    (Why can’t he spell Berkeley correctly? Why, why, why?)

  71. says

    (Why can’t he spell Berkeley correctly? Why, why, why?)

    Because Ray is a dumb dumb. A lying, smarmy little weasel. But most of all, a dumb dumb.

    I can’t state it any more clearly than that.

  73. raven says

    Yay! Now Russia is threatening Poland with nuclear annihilation becase they agreed to take a piece of our missle shield that hasn’t, doesn’t, and never will work!

    There is 5X blame to go around in this SNAFU and no good guys. This could lead to a new cold war at the least or WWIII. Or not but why is anyone taking the chance?

    The Georgians miscalculated and ended up in a war with an opponent two orders of magnitude larger and didn’t even seem to give a good account of themselves. The only way to fight the Russians would be to do a Cheknya. Let the Russians level everything and fight from the mountains as guerrilas for a few years until they bleed out.

    The Russians have gone loco. Empires are expensive and they collapsed because the last one didn’t work and because their mickey mouse economic system didn’t work. The cold war damaged both sides but they eventually lost the war of who can spend the most money on threat displays that might get used but probably won’t. It was a lose-lose situation. So why bother repeating the same old mistakes?

    The USA has screwed up big time. Much as I didn’t like Reagon, he had a point. No one ever lost a war by being too strong and armed. The pointless war in Iraq is bleeding our military and economy out. This is our Russian-Afghanistan conflict. As Hitler brilliantly showed, fighting multi-front wars doesn’t work well. We may end up going eye ball to eye ball with the Russians yet again. With our arms and legs tied by Iraq.

    I wouldn’t trust Putin who seems to be a megalomaniac intent on restarting the cold war. I would make sure we have the military we might need to ensure that we don’t need it. And Bush/Cheney should be tried for treason. Not that he was actively malevolent but at his level of stupidity, that is indistinguishable from it.

  75. llewelly says

    Can someone be presented with a sample of DNA from a mammal and determine what species it is? For example, if I were to give you a sample, could you determine that it was a squirrel, rather than a gorilla? Can you get more specific than that? Can you determine what *kind* of gorilla it is?

    If that someone has the proper equipment, the proper data, and is trained in the proper techniques, yes. Think of DNA paternity tests. The principles are the same, but of course there is a much greater genetic difference between a lowland gorilla and a mountain gorilla than there is between a parent and a potential child.

  78. SC says

    Looks like there may be a counteroffensive on the poll.

    I think you’re right. Now down to 52% Y.

  79. Pr0t0ur says

    the poll caught my eye when I checked it over the course of a couple minutes and it literally jumped by thousands of votes.

  80. Chuck S. says

    I envy you PZ. It’s always been a dream of mine to visit the Galapagos and see Darwin’s finches. I hope you take a lot of pictures and enjoy yourself thoroughly.

  82. says

    It’s always been a dream of mine to visit the Galapagos and see Darwin’s finches.

    I’m still trying to figure out how they fly with those huge beards

  83. unclejeffie says

    PZ
    Miss you? Hell no. We are having a “hoot” with the PZ minion’s posts. Have a great time. Take your time. Don’t hurry – relax, evolve, drift a bit. Just remember, some of us don’t get away a lot or aren’t allowed out to play much.

  84. says

    Scooter (#52), I laughed out loud. Would someone please PhotoShop(R) a few “Darwin’s finches”?

    Better than a poll: help Graham Linehan to decorate the set of The IT Crowd. He’s asking for details for its third season to make it look like “a cross between a comic book store and the Batcave.” Geek heaven, in other words. See “Be my Hive Brain” for details.