Comments

  1. neon-elf.myopenid.com says

    evo-devo

    This is an embarrassingly stupid, but quite serious, question:
    Is it pronounced eevo-deevo or evvo-devvo?

  2. Ciaran says

    Unfortunately I’ll be doing a radio show at 1 on Friday so I’ll not be able to make the seminar, but any plans for a meet up later in the day PZ?

  3. PZ Myers says

    eeevo-deeeevo.

    I’m also doing a talk in the evening, but we certainly should be doing something fun afterwards.

  4. Cruithne says

    Fucking hell, a new season of Lost starting on telly AND getting to see Prof Myers, all in the same week?

    Oh frabjous day!

    Looking forward to it.

    We need to have a secret symbol to identify all pharyngulites.

  5. plien says

    But PZ, are you a catholic atheist or a protestant athiest?

    Be sure to blaspheme both sides equally, lest they complain that the other side got an easier PZ. Stupid xtians, same faith, same region, same European Union, but numerous deaths and wounded…
    And the most euphemistic euphemism; the troubles.

  6. UkkotheIrish says

    NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. I’m working Friday afternoon… please, reschedule the entire thing just so I can come. :)

  8. NMcC says

    And don’t forget to follow any humourous comments you might make during your talks in Belfast with putting on a Northern Irish accent and shouting “That’s a cracker!”

    Don’t ask. Just do it and hear the roar.

  9. JackC says

    I just finished watching a bunch of Robert Llewellin videos where he picks up “notables” and ferries them around for a video chat. I think you should get him to drag his Prius up to give you a ride between pubs and seminars – he just carpooled with Rebecca Watson – what better follow-up than you?

    Yes, I watch Red Dwarf. why do you ask?

    JC

  10. Harvey says

    I would love to go, but was wondering what time it starts? is it 1800 or 1300? hope it’s later!

  11. EvilSooty says

    Damn, shame my student days are over. My flat was just round the corner from the MBC.

    Plien:

    I remember being asked what kind of atheist I was at school. My schoolmates couldn’t seem to grasp that religion isn’t passed in the genes.

  13. Cruithne says

    I may have told this before but early last year I was unemployed and went to register and the unemployment office in Belfast, they actually had me on their computer files as a protestant and I had to argue with them to remove it. They had no option for atheist, and they couldn’t understand why I should be bothered by it.

  15. PaleGreenPants says

    This whole thing is starting to feel like watching a slide show of someone’s vacation.

  16. EvilSooty says

    Cruithne:

    What about completing the Equal Opportunity Monitoring forms when applying for a job? Apparently we are all either:

    (a) A member of the Protestant community;
    (b) A member of the Catholic community; or
    (c) A member of neither the Protestant or Catholic community.

    But if you select (c) they then use the ‘residuary method’ of determining which so-called community you belong to by looking at the schools you attended.

    It seems that atheism does not exist in Northern Ireland.

  17. recovering catholic says

    They should have used the photo of PZ taken by the Thames–he looks like a gnome in this picture…

  18. Glen Davidson says

    All because you don’t want to say, “It’s so because God wanted it to be so,” you have to do all of this “science” stuff, and come up with “mechanisms” like evo-devo.

    The work people will go through to avoid ignorance theism.

    Glen D
    http://tinyurl.com/mxaa3p

  19. Shane McKee says

    PZ, you will be most welcome to our fair city, although word appears to have got out, so it should be a fun time!

  20. Blondin says

    They should have used the photo of PZ taken by the Thames–he looks like a gnome in this picture…

    The perspective is screwy, too. His hands are bigger than his head – like a cartoon.

  22. recovering catholic says

    @Blondin–yeah, and having seen him in person I know for a fact that his hands aren’t bigger than his head. But the rest of his body parts I know nothing about.

  23. Romeo Vitelli says

    You know, we’ve been patient up to now. Still, if you aren’t doing serious jail time soon, we’re going to start wondering what you’re really up to there. Blaspheme already!

  24. Adrian Tippetts says

    I hope you have organized an interview with the Belfast Telegraph – it will alarm the fundies no end!

  25. Bill Dauphin, OM says

    PZ:

    eeevo-deeeevo.

    Logically, shouldn’t it be evvo-deeevo? Don’t be captured by the lure of the specious rhyme! ;^)

  27. Bill Dauphin, OM says

    Cruithne:

    I may have told this before but early last year I was unemployed and went to register and the unemployment office in Belfast, they actually had me on their computer files as a protestant…

    Wow, it’s astoundingly strange to this American that there should even be such a field in your records! Unless you’re specifically looking for church-based or clerical work, for FSM’s sake, what possible bearing could religious affiliation have with your unemployment benefits? Do Catholics get some portion of their payment in the form of wine and crackers?

  28. Bill Dauphin, OM says

    BTW, @27 I meant clerical in the funny-collar sense, not in the filing-and-sorting sense. ;^)

  29. Knockgoats says

    Wow, it’s astoundingly strange to this American that there should even be such a field in your records! – Bill Dauphin

    It would be to do with anti-discrimination legislation. Until quite recently, it would have been routine in NI for a Protestant-owned business, or Protestant-run local council, to refuse to employ Catholics, and vice versa. That’s now illegal. Of course “Protestant” and “Catholic” here really refer to community membership – usually obvious from the surname – not individual belief.

  30. Cruithne says

    what possible bearing could religious affiliation have with your unemployment benefits?

    Given our history of institutionalised discrimination on religious grounds, I understand and support the very strict monitoring systems we have in place.
    I just wish they didn’t have to put everyone into one camp or the other, it perpetuates sectarianism.

  31. truthspeaker says

    Posted by: EvilSooty | February 2, 2010 11:05 AM

    Cruithne:

    What about completing the Equal Opportunity Monitoring forms when applying for a job? Apparently we are all either:

    (a) A member of the Protestant community;
    (b) A member of the Catholic community; or
    (c) A member of neither the Protestant or Catholic community.

    But if you select (c) they then use the ‘residuary method’ of determining which so-called community you belong to by looking at the schools you attended.

    It seems that atheism does not exist in Northern Ireland.

    Or any other religions than Catholic Christianity and Protestant Christianity. Does Protestant just mean Presbyterian up there, or does it also include Church of England?

  32. https://me.yahoo.com/a/W_KaLNspkO4iF8vJbVLP7dStrikZ6RGMVxsk2DfimMN935pW08H.M6rU#3772e says

    Belfast Evening Event Friday
    All Welcome

    ‘Complexity and Creationism’ Promoting evolutionary biology to non-specialists

    Peter Froggatt centre (Room G06) QUB
    6pm Friday 5th Feb 1010

    PZ Myers
    Professor of Biology, University of Minnesota Morris
    American Humanist Association’s ‘Humanist of the Year 2009’
    Science Blog http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/
    Opponent of Creationism and Intelligent Design

  34. Sven DiMilo says

    Is it pronounced eevo-deevo or evvo-devvo?

    throatwarblermangrove

    (this is the most useful joke ever!)

  35. Blind Squirrel FCD says

    They should have used the photo of PZ taken by the Thames–he looks like a gnome in this picture…

    I was thinking dwarf, but gnome works too.

    BS

  36. Laura says

    I’ll be there on Friday :D awesome news, can’t wait!
    Would be great to go for a swall* after, there are some great bars in the university area.

    *swall = northern irish slang for a drink

  40. https://me.yahoo.com/a/SaqGVG0xvJEQVwURVamS3DTCdvov0BLhXK1jOsYPPJQ-#b4893 says

    Technically, shouldn’t it really be “evvo-deevo”?

    I say “Evolution” with a short e, and “Development” with a long e.

    I don’t know of anyone who does it any other way.

    MikeM, also with the O/T above.

  42. Cruithne says

    Does Protestant just mean Presbyterian up there, or does it also include Church of England?

    Church of England?, you do know this isn’t England?

    Protestant includes all protestant denominations, with the anglican one being the Church of Ireland>/b>

    Actually, for the purposes of monitoring, there’s Catholic and there’s everything else, no matter what you are you’re included in the Protestant block.

  43. Bill Dauphin, OM says

    KG (@29) and Cruithne (@30):

    Just goes to show you what a difference perspective makes: It honestly never occurred to me that a government might collect that data in order to protect you from religious1 discrimination!

    1 Which, yes KG, I understand really means community in this context.

  46. https://me.yahoo.com/a/SaqGVG0xvJEQVwURVamS3DTCdvov0BLhXK1jOsYPPJQ-#b4893 says

    One more O/T, and I am really sorry.

    Sierra College has to cut three vocational programs, six sports teams and 35 positions, because of an $11.2M budget shortfall.

    http://www.sacbee.com/topstories/story/2506185.html

    I am really sorry about this. Education in CA is being gutted.

  47. Norbury says

    I don’t know anyone who says either evolution or development with a short e, so eevo-deevo.

    I have heard tell of a far off land that films come from where they use short e’s in evolution, but I had dismissed it as too ridiculous.

  48. phoenixwoman says

    Quick O/T, but since it involves sex (which is part of biology) and religious nutters rifling the US Treasury to fund their nuttiness (and as a reward for helping out the Republicans during election years), I wanted to pass this on —

    Know that loudly-trumpeted study that (after decades of studies showing the opposite) actually says that abstinence-only sex ed can “work” if taught properly? Well, the problem is that what they recommend for abstinence-only sex ed is not really abstinence-only sex ed. In fact, it is soooo not really abstinence-only sex ed, it wouldn’t qualify for Federal funding as such! http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/27815

  49. https://me.yahoo.com/a/WIO36jl8vpuBkL5yl3Z3Zm76ntjTZF4qMVZjHqCeXLj7L4tOGaY.tA--#3d76f says

    And OT, the Lancet has FINALLY got around to retracting the article published there in 1999 by Andrew Wakefield
    *********
    Beside the fact that the data was fraudulent, the study, even if the data were “valid” was junk science. How about exposing the people who reviewed the paper and the editors who accepted it for publication.

    IIRC, Wakefield had received ~$750,000 from the lawyers who were involved with the lawsuits. All of these people are pure scum.

  50. Punk'd by Entropy says

    PZ: Remember that 3/4 of the population recognize the city of Derry. There is no london in the name, and the reason has nothing to do w/religion.

  52. MolBio says

    Guys, I wrote this up last night, my Athiest Hymn.

    Plant it in churches if you can. :D

    There is no God in existence
    No Fascist sky father up there
    No mind reading policeman
    Or even sky aupaire
    They’re all praising ignorant fiction
    As only the blinded masses can
    The evangelical conviction
    Is as false as that of the Taliban
    They say the book is the inspired word
    As only could conceive
    But it’s man’s way of holding us backward
    Written to deceive
    Written by unscrupulous nationalists
    Who thought superior their tribe
    For the godless rationalists
    Know the Bible is Hebrew Apartheid
    Before you cast from you your hand
    Build your house on the stone of fact
    For building on religious act
    Is as foolish as on sand

  53. lenoxuss says

    Wow, I’d never thought before how weird my pronunciations were. I have always said “evvo”-lution (partly so as not to say “evil”-ution, and partly because that’s how I usually hear it), and always said “devv-elopment” (which is how I have always heard it. I don’t even think saying “dee-volopment” is logically possible, never mind normal).

    But I have also always said eeevo-deeevo. I suppose I felt that “evvo-devvo” sounds like I’m mumbling. Also, it’s just how each of the word fragments looks like it should be pronounced if it were a word in its own right. Kind of like how “Eva” never looks like it should be pronounced “Evva”. (This present is… for evva!)

    I’m also reminded of the classic arrays of spelling for the name Devon/Devin/Devan, which I have known as the name of both boys and girl (including one boy who kind of looked like a girl, to other middle-schoolers’ confusion…). Devan/in/on…

    Devonian!

  54. eddylinc says

    So I think this is important. Apparently, the Lancet has OFFICIALLY RETRACTED their 1998 autism study that started all the anti-vaccination bullshit. Wanna take bets on whether or not the anti-vax nutjobs just keep on going?

  55. Norbury says

    lenoxuss,
    I think this is all due to the difference in emphasis between British and American English, we normally emphasise the first and third syllables whereas you do the second and fourth. cf: CARribBEan vs. carRIBeAN.

  56. David Marjanović says

    People, how many dozen times do you need to post the fact that The Lancet has retracted their 1998 failure of peer review?

    I don’t even think saying “dee-volopment” is logically possible, never mind normal

    What about dee-VELL-opment?

    That’s how I know it…

  57. lenoxuss says

    Whoops, “volopment” was a typo. I actually meant to (jokingly) say that it’s not logically possible to say “deeeee-velopment.” To me, not using a schwa or similar vowel after the D sounds wrong, wrong, wrong. It’s like saying every syllable in “vegetable”. But that’s just where I live, in central Pennsylvania.

  59. https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawkBSMeADPoPaKK-z3uWENxvLgXZ_yotY-I says

    A shame… I left Belfast just a week ago. Gad I left, mind you, but I would definitely have attended a talk by PZ.

  60. Shane McKee says

    PZ, thanks – that was a great talk (Belfast 1pm 5/2/10); very well pitched for a general audience. I had a couple more questions that we ran out of time for; I might ask you later, but in the meantime, here they are for the general horde:

    1. How much does developmental plasticity affect the ability of an organism to weather changes in its environment in real time? e.g. seasonal effects. Is it conceptually straightforward to suggest that some degree of plasticity might reflect itself as an actual selectable phenotype? Or is such a concept best thought of as homeostatic physiology?

    and 2/ if you include a bat-style enhancer in the Prx1 gene of mice, you get longer limbs… what’s going to happen if you selectively delete that enhancer in the bats?

    It’s great to have you in our fair city; we’ll go easy on you this evening; it sounds like our Southern pals have sapped all your energy!