If I weren’t so heavily invested in the cephalopods, siphonophores would be a great alternative.
« Fear us
Isn’t it cool what you can find in the sea?
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Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
This is proof positive that even marine life has been touched by His Noodley Appendage.
And that not all videos involving Japanese and tentacles need be terrifying.
Oh yeah, siphonophores are deeply weird. Is that a happy monkey in the lower right-hand corner?
cool, I learned something new today… colonies.
Siphonophorae or Siphonophora, the siphonophores, are an order of the Hydrozoa, a class of marine invertebrates belonging to the phylum Cnidaria. They are colonial, but the colonies can superficially resemble jellyfish; although they appear to be a single organism, each specimen is actually a colony of Siphonophoraa. The best known species is the dangerous Portuguese Man o’ War (Physalia physalis)
You say that, but I know great Cthulhu when I see Him.
Oh my Kosh, that’s impressive.
Just more evidence of design, cause, uh, life is designed and it looks like it–if you already know that life is designed.
Funny how many words can be used to write the above, but there’s a whole industry dedicated to expanding the word count.
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/6mb592
Glen D,
Started a little early today on a wee nip of nog, did we?
Holy shit, the alien invasion has begun! Time to call in the Marines. That thing’s a face-hugger or my brain has been warped by too much sci-fi.
You continue to exalt in the feeble ramblings of your feeble brain. Fish and animals are only distractions from the real work you and your fool followers need to do. All of you must repent of your sins and ask the Lord’s forgiveness for your sins. Ask Christ to enter your heart and you will find peace and salvation through his. Do not idolize this “communion wafer killer.” You may laugh at me, but you do so because God has given you the freedom to laugh. You must repent before your God. Prepare for eternal salvation through the living Christ.
In Christ I pray for you.
Why does this fly continue to buzz in our ears? I thought empty proselytizing was frowned upon.
Oh FITTO, FUCK YOU AND THE HORSE YOU RODE IN ON you DELUDED IGNORANT ASS.
Fuck off, godbot, and let us enjoy our nifty sea-dwelling distant relatives.
FLY,
BTW, your savior was gay and your God is a cultural fiction.
I don’t know if what we’re looking at here is actually Lord Cthulhu, I’m thinking it’s actually just a lesser R’lyehian spawn. Nevertheless I take it as a dark prophecy of the bleak future we have in store for us. As an atheist I think this means I need to snack on all the barbequed babies I possibly can before doomsday.
Them be some truly cool siphonophores.
In other news:
I can assure you, there’s no ‘may’ about it:
(Guffaws uproariously…)
So what we’re really watching here is the Voltron of the sea!
“Fish and animals are only distractions from the real work you and your fool followers need to do.”
I think the real work this person would like to see involves giving yourself over to the nebulous fiction of a designer and then sending him/her all the cash you possible can in a deluded attempt to buy your way into salvation. Thanks but no thanks.
OMFSM – it’s his Noodliness, carrying a Holiday tree! I’m sure those have to be glowing meatballs I see in there.
Oh, and Fly, if you can’t be relevant to the topic at hand, you risk winding up in hell with stale beer and ugly infected strippers. (How did you get “in christ” anyway? All my mental images of that are too disgusting to type.)
PZ, I second the call for banishing Fly to the dungeon for the offense of egregious godbotting.
Fly, fish are animals; same as this-here siphonophore colony, you, me, and Jesus (if he lived) too. All animals.
“You may laugh at me”
Oh, we do, Fly. We do.
don’t you have a book that you should be studying? you may actually learn something here that could destroy your faith. you don’t want to risk that do you? or, are you somehow able to remain stupid in the middle of a wealth of knowledge? it would be like dying of thirst in a lake.. that’s quite a feat of stubbornness. strange that one would take pride in it though..
I speak truth as revealed by the Bible and Christ’s living word. You people are like donkeys braying, dogs barking, before God. I fear for your souls as this man intends to lead you all into Hell. Eternal Hell. You may, like children fearful of being punished, claim you have no fear, but I know if the heart of every atheist there is a spark of doubt. Let that spark turn to a mighty flame, let your mind be swayed until you understand the truth. It is backed up by evidence if you’ll just first believe.
In Christ I pray for you.
I prefer what I find in the perfect world of mathematics:
http://pauillac.inria.fr/~ddr/mlbrot/
as long as you aren’t there, I’m fine with that. Now, kindly shag-off please.
“Dear Jesus and God, please make Fly shag-off.”
Love, Newfie.
Fixed it for you again. Just do it in private and clean yourself up afterwards. Try mental floss.
Kind of unclear on the concept of “evidence” there, you proselytizing godbotter.
Hey! Fly said something right!
See, the thing is, we use that doubt as a motivation to look for evidence of the truth. Don’t get bitchy because the evidence isn’t pointing a direction you like, Fly.
Again, fuck off. I hate patronizing fundies; they claim to know what we think and how we feel. I bet you think we eat babies or something. No, we don’t, and in fact, I bet fundies would be entirely more likely to do something so idiotic.
Go away, you child-diddling brainwashing shithole. Your kind is a dying breed, and eventually, your mindlessly breeding kind will be met by poverty and the Earth’s inability to sustain you, and those with brains and scientific knowledge will further solidify themselves as the future of humanity.
And again,
Here are Christ’s living truth as revealed by the Bible, Matthew 6:5-7:
See you in Hell, Fly, you fucking repetitive-like-the-heathens publicly-praying hypocrite. I’m gonna stand on your fucking head and watch you choke on those flames, you fucking asshole, for according to the Bible, God hates fuckers like you even more than we do.
You know no such thing you lying ass. It’s incredible you think Hell exists. You’re such a credulous child. I’m sure you think Santa and the Tooth Fairy still exist. So why don’t you go test your faith on a busy highway somewhere, snookums, the adults are busy.
Fly, you just don’t get it. YOU are the one who a deeply, tragically, hopelessly deluded. Asking us to accept the truth of your mythology is like asking a sane person to willingly undergo a lobotomy. No one here will ever take you up on that offer. We value our brains too much. So just go back to
prayingtalking to your imaginary friend and leave the adults alone. Your ignorant superstitions hold zero appeal to sane, rational people.@ Fly in the Ointment:I know in the heart of every believer there is a spark of doubt. Let that spark turn to a mighty flame, let your mind be opened until you understand the truth. It is backed up by evidence if you’ll just first think.
Oh come now, Fly, dear. We both know that’s just projection. We both know pefectly well you haven’t really believed in your dear sky fairy in years, if ever. But you figure if you shout it loud enough, long enough, and ‘witness’ obnoxiously and frequently enough, you’ll convince yourself you do.
It isn’t working though, is it, now? However much you protest, however much you rave, however determinedly you take your ‘truth’ to the ‘heathen’, you don’t buy your own BS now any more than you ever did. Sure, you can hold up this determined trolling in your own mind and to others of your ilk as evidence of your deathless fealty to your nonsensical creed, but it’s all a crock at the end, and you know it too well.
That’s the only reason you squawk so loudly, dear, as if you didn’t already know. That’s why everything has to be about you and your delusion or it’s a threat. Dear me, whatever will it mean should people take joy in the beauty of the natural world without paying the mandatory and empty lip service to the same silly fiction you yourself continually try to convince yourself is worth all the effort you’ve wasted?
You’re dug in so deep now dear, and it’s such a shame. You’d make yourself a pariah in any company rather than admit it’s all been a con from day one, wouldn’t you? You’d turn any discussion however fruitful and rewarding to vapid hallelujahs at the drop of a hat if only to reassure yourself that despite its utter incoherence, despite its utter inanity, despite its obvious absurdity, you really were somehow ‘saved’ from your ‘sins’ by a carpenter born to an eternal virgin impregnated by a sky good in the iron age.
I’ll give you some free advice: drop it now. All of it; all the BS, all the facade, all the fronting. You already have in every way that matters anyway; you just can’t admit it to yourself yet. It’s hurting you bad, and it’ll only hurt you more the longer you hold onto it. There’s a beautiful world out there it’s hiding from you. And all that effort you’ve put into convincing yourself the insanity you taught was somehow worth it, you can save that, and put it back into living.
Come to the light, baby. I assure you you’ve nothing to lose but astronomical quantities of hilarious lame.
“Fish and animals are only distractions from the real work you and your fool followers need to do.”
Hmm, do I hear the sound of jealousy towards those who get to work with cool fish and animals from someone who obviously lives in a very small and limited world ruled by spooks? Just because you don’t have any real passions in life beyond supplicating an abusive father deity doesn’t mean you can take it out on those who do.
And what real work are you referring to? You’re so darned vague about this. Sort of like that “higher purpose” that you supposedly have. What is it?
“but I know if the heart of every atheist there is a spark of doubt”
You don’t. You haven’t the tiniest clue, so you project your own “heart” onto us. That’s one of the consequences of living in the tiny world that you do.
Don’t be silly.
I can’t be bothered to set up the universe to be permanent; why would I bother to create a place that never, ever cools down?
It’s not my fault that early mystics ate bad mushrooms and had weird hallucinations, although I admit that I did exploit them in My eternal (note: figurative word use, there) quest for amusement.
And, to borrow from an old lawyer joke, all proselytizers like Fly would make an excellent start.
So God, you’re only dedicated to tormenting us in this lifetime, and not eternally? That’s…somewhat comforting.
“If I weren’t so heavily invested in the cephalopods, siphonophores would be a great alternative.”
Surely you can have both?
Because You’re (an) assholy?
Remind me again… why are you giving away all of the secrets of the afterlife to Your True Believers™? I thought you wanted them to be fanatical and unthinking.
All too true, and it reminds me of a couple of jokes with Mormon behaviour as the punchline, but I think they apply to any hypocritical zealot (and really, is there any other kind?):
Q: What are the differences between the various sects of the Abrahamic religions?
A: They’re mostly doctrinal. For instance, Jews don’t recognise Jesus Christ as the Messiah, Protestants don’t recognise the infallible authority of the Pope, and Mormons don’t recognise each other at the liquor store.
Q: How do you keep a Mormon from drinking all your beer at a party?
A: Invite two of them.
I wonder what similar sins Fly committed last night that he needs to proclaim his piety in front of one and all. My money is on something sexual–it’s always something sexual with the Christians.
From the brain of a fly:
Happy Monkey!
So Fly is Byner? A sock puppet of Charlie Wagner? Whoever he is, he’s a god-fellating wackaloon.
Fools, I have nothing to hide. I feel it necessary to reply to your stupid comment, Brownian: I do not have sex, you moron. Now, go back to mentally masterbating yourself, or whatever you people do.
In Christ.
Heh. Noted.
Now that you mention it, mebbe a good way to get a party swinging is: invite the one at 6, the other for somethin’ like 10. Then arrange for six’o’clock cocktails, tell the first the second declined, make sure the first is properly liquored up before the second shows…
Sure, it’ll set you back some booze. But good entertainment is always gonna cost something.
closet homosexual, I’d guess. Trying to pray away teh ghey.
Which, intriguingly, Fly feels obliged to declare.
Sure, dearie. Sure that’s how it is.
Oh, I do torment the dead. I taunt them for being idiots who believed the uncountable number of contradictory things they picked up from their religious books and themselves. That only lasts for so long though; even the most credulous ones eventually flip Me off (so to speak) and find a more self-gratifying way of spending their afterlives. I have mentioned the theomachy competitions, have I not?
Well, yes. But just imagine My heating bills!
Yes, and? If they are truly fanatical and unthinking, I could tell them the truth, direct from Myself, and they will keep on rejecting it and being unthinking fanatics until they die, and sometimes for quite some time after they die. Which just makes it all the more amusing!
Fly, if you have nothing to hide except your gullibility and stupidity (necessary requirements to espouse imaginary deities and pray to non-historical mythical figures), then you should be able show physical proof for the existence of your imaginary deity. Something that can be examined by scientists, magicians, and professional debunkers to confirm it is of divine origin. Of course, if you can’t, then you need to go away until you can do so.
Just like his dear and fluffy Lord.
Ah, that explains a lot…
Based just on this thread, I call Poe on Flinto.
Now, can we get back to the coolest orgasms — I mean organisms — on Earth? My high school’s mascot was a Siphonophore!
I prayed to God and Jesus for you to go away. See? It didn’t work.
classic closet case
Note to self: To get a rise out of Christopath trolls, don’t bother insulting their mind, they don’t care one bit about that gray matter between their ears. Insult their sex life.
Weird – Is this what the creatures under the icy carapaces of Europa and Enceladus might look like? If they exist, they’d probably be weirder still.
I’m guessing ‘FITO’ is just being ironic – you are joking, right ‘Fly’?
God, this is your third personality.
“It’s not my fault that early mystics ate bad mushrooms and had weird hallucinations”
Sorry about that, that’s my bad.
Sincerely,
The Holy Spirit
The Flatulan character from “Treasure Planet” — I think this may be his ancestor.
Cool, the Trinity is a colony. Just like siphonophores :)
Oh, but you want to, do you not? You so, so, want to. And then you coyly talk to Me and say “Oh God, see how I suffer for You? See how I deny the urges that Satan gives me? Am I not worthy of You?”
And I look at you, like I have looked at all the ascetic morons though the tens of centuries that Christianity has been around, and the centuries before Christianity as well, and I say “I’m the King of the Universe, kid. Why should I care one way or the other about your piddling little psychodrama?”
Iä! Iä! Cnidaria Phtagn!
Excuse me?
Oh, right. *Ahem*, *Cough*.
Yes, that was Me all right. Giving urges. Urge, urge, yes indeedy. Rub that highly innervated organ. Rub it, I say!
Only with sockpuppets instead of tentacles. And far more than three.
Dear Santa
all I want for Christmas is an ignore button
ta very much
Great! At least we know he’s not polluting the gene pool.
Of course you don’t, dear Fly–at least not publicly. Don’t feel bad about it; nearly every ‘Servant of God’ indulges in some sort of closeted fetish in proportion to their vocality in praising God. Hell, Ted Haggard was president of the National Association of Evangelicals at the same time he was snorting meth of the creamy thighs of his gay prostitute lover.
(By the way, Jesus doesn’t like it when you call people ‘moron’. Puts you in danger of hellfire (Matthew 5:22). But don’t worry, given the flagrant disregard for the Bible you’ve already shown, I doubt that’ll put you over the top.)
What a lovely creature! And yes, I agree, His Noodly Appendage has surely touched this one.
But then, there’s Fly. Proper food for the siphonophore, perhaps? Certainly not serving any useful purpose here.
In the Monkey.
Did anyone see the recent National Geographic article on nudibranches? There were some awesome photos.
Why they bother denying it when they can just join the Catholic clergy and indulge all they want and have the Church do their denying for them I’ll never understand.
Ummmm, to risk sounding out of touch with all the accronyms flying about inthis text heavy world, what is “POE”?
My thanks and adoration for those willing to enlighten me.
Sincerely, a non-blackberry texting sort of guy
From the brain of a fly (cont.):
At first I thought writing like this was impossible without breaking out in uncontrollable laughter at the utter ridiculousness of it all but then I discovered these handy templates…
The fundy portion of my brain has grown three sizes today. Or is that inflammation hemorrhoids?
Lemme guess, xebecs, a Portuguese Man O’ War? That’s way cooler than my high school mascot, a Titan, which the mascot committee–being well-studied in the classics–decided was some sort of caveman.
http://rationalwiki.com/wiki/Poe%27s_Law
Hi, Fly!
I was once a believer, too. Of course, that was before I reached puberty, and even then only because I was the preacher’s grandkid. I figured out Santa when I was five. I assumed that religion involved great mysteries which would be revealed to me as I grew older, but in a short while I realized that the adults around me were simply insane. Largely mean-spirited, sexually obsessed, intolerant, self-righteous, ignorant and magical thinking bullies.
I *do have a kernel of insecurity; that’s why all my beliefs are based on verifiable evidence, and not the authoritative pronouncements of semi-literate savages.
If you’d stop your public displays of pseudo-piety and paid more attention to the world around you, you’d have a lot more fun and probably feel more charitable, too. Might even get a girl. Or boy; whatever floats your boat. Morality isn’t what kind of sex you have; it’s how you treat other people, you miserable, sexless, and ignorant drone.
Kermit,
I loved how patient and understanding you were right up to the nasty little twist at the end. Kudos.
Wow, I just saw a Poepoo-fly totally pwn a siphonophore.
Never thought I’d see the day.
Waiter !!
Did someone say “nudibranchs”?
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/06/nudibranchs/doubilet-photography
Does anyone have any info on this? Is it moving under it’s own power?
Yes, many siphonophores include individuals/colony members/modular units that are muscular medusoid forms that swim like jellyfish, dragging along the others.
Shame to see a thread inspired by such a wonder could be so diverted by some twunt with his imaginary sky pixie friends.
“”If I weren’t so heavily invested in the cephalopods, siphonophores would be a great alternative.”
I find your lack of faith… disturbing.
Since it’s moving under it’s own power, this organism might have the most wonderfully inefficient propulsion system.
I believe Cnidaria are the simplest animals to possess myofibrils, but they are not sufficiently organized to qualify as muscle. But they do move under their own power.
Oh, Brownian — that’s so cute. You believed me!
So, I totally believe you back. A Titan caveman is very cool too. Did it shoot laser beams out of its eyes? Out of something else?
The Christian view: “They’re strange and I don’t like them…. I’m scared and I want to go home…”
The Atheist view: “cool….”
PZ… two things you should feature;
1) Octopuses Have No Personalities and Enjoy HDTV
2) TED Talks, Jonathan Haidt: The real difference between liberals and conservatives
#2 Is a video well worth the watch (~20 mins), it helps you understand life a little.
Siphonophores, eh? I like ’em. I even like the music they make!
xebecs,
If you had followed his link you would have found that the school mascot is Bam-Bam!
In urging us not to study fish and marine invertebrates, Fly in the Ointment is urging us to commit the sin of Sloth as the Medieval Christians originally defined it, in that the sin of Sloth was the rejection of any and or all of God’s gifts, including that of the world around us. And by rejecting God’s gifts, one becomes dead to the world and everyone else in it, which explains why so many fundamentalists are such dull people utterly devoid of joy and happiness, save when they are attempting to deprive others of any positive thing and or quality.
Speaking of high school mascots, a suburb near here has a mosquito as a mascot. The Skeeters. No. Really.
A town near here (Forney) missed out on an excellent mascot naming opportunity – they could have been the ‘Gators. Just once I would have liked to have heard the announcer say “Let’s give all these Forney ‘Gators a round of applause!”
Perhaps they wanted to be known as the “Forney Crocs,” instead?
Well I for one welcome our new siphony overlords.
Brownian @ #17
the Voltron of the sea!
“…and I’ll form the…wait, do we even have a head?”
Ignoring troll… considering the things I did as a Bio undergraduate (“Go feed the cockroaches in the unlit sub-sub basement – just beyond the cadavers” or “Drain off some of the water on this ice-packed cow stomach – here’s a simple plastic tube..”) I honestly thought I’d seen (most of it) all… but that’s even more disconcerting at first glance than an upended marine isopod.
Very cool critter. I find colonial beings, and symbiotic arrangements, uplifting. One tends to get the “nature, red in tooth and claw” message early on, and the cooperative behaviors open up so much more complexity to the observer.
Speaking of observers, I can’t help noticing that in spite of all of FitO’s prayers, no one has suddenly converted.
Yours in Happy Monkey.
What an utterly spectacular creature. I’ve been a little prejudiced against siphonophores since my close encounter with a Portugese Man ‘o War but this creature is beautiful.
What a pity that a godbot has to intervene to try to remove all beauty and wonder from the moment because his little pocket pet rock god is jealous.
So… does anyone have info on where and at what depth this beastie was found?
I looked again and lo…the depth is 769 units unknown. The temp is 12 some units, also unknown. Damn biologists, no respect for dimensional analysis!
What an amazing animals!
…and in the fossil record:
A fossil spider-relative able to produce silk but not weave it.
“You may laugh at me”
fly in the ointment
im a theist, I’M laughing at you …grow up,
PZ IS a BIOLOGIST & that IS his job, not worrying over whether you like him or not