Atheism book found in home linked to fire suspect! » « The Duggars visit the Creation “Museum”

Happy Threadiversary!

The endless thread apparently turns one year old today. What the heck have you people been talking about?

Anyway, you know the drill. Comments on the old post closed, commenting resumes here. Are you planning to keep it up for another year?

May your conversations continue to blossom.

Atheism book found in home linked to fire suspect! » « The Duggars visit the Creation “Museum”

Comments

  1. Lynna, OM says

    ‘Tis Himself, I’ll thank you here for your short comment (#57)on the thread that offered Congratulations to Chris Mooney.

    Thank you, Sastra, Paul W, and Lynna for your comments and quotes on neuroscience. That’s much more interesting, to me at least, than some faitheist selling his soul for $15K.

    Those were my thoughts after I’d enjoyed comments from Paul W. and Sastra. Here was another post from PZ documenting the kind of sloppy thinking that makes one despair, and then the whole discussion was turned into a thread that was not only worthwhile, but positively enlightening.

  3. Josh, Official SpokesGay says

    Because I’m very, very naughty, here’s the comment I left at Chris Mooney’s blog. It was civil, no? :

    Congratulations on your being awarded the Templeton Fellowship for journalism, Chris. Are you going to announce it here?

    /curtsy

  4. Lynna, OM says

    Sven @502: The Threadiversary Retrospective is fucking beautiful, Sven. I love both the graphs and your commentary. You have done us proud.

  6. Rorschach says

    I miss Hunter.

    Who ?

    Actually, that reminds me, where’s Dana Hunter the Tequila Lady ?

    And certain Assistant Professors have some explaining regarding their time management to do !!

    :D

  7. Patricia, Ignorant Slut OM says

    Oh, good Bride. Would you do me a favor?

    Please goose Wowbagger in a manner that raises him about 1/2″ off the floor, and tell him it’s from me. Thanks, I’ll owe you one. ;)

  8. boygenius says

    Sigh. Self described leader of the Aryan Nations, Paul R Mullet, has announced the group’s intentions to purchase property in John Day, OR to establish a headquarters and training facility.

    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704625004575090473593719004.html?mod=WSJ_WSJ_US_News_5

    While I would be glad to have them out of Idaho, if they move to John Day they’ll actually be closer to me than if they stay in Coeur d’Alene. Luckily, the locals in John Day are putting up a fuss.

    http://www.krem.com/home/Oregonians-protest-North-Idaho-white-supremacists-in-Oregon-85548962.html

    Fuckin’ Nazi fucks.

  9. Caine says

    Jadehawk, OM @ 486:

    as a matter of fact, the middle of the night is the only sensible time to try to read anything without distractions.

    Amen, Sister.

    Jadehawk, OM @ 495:

    I dispute you anti-nightowl assumption that people who read at night don’t get “a good night’s(!) sleep”.

    I never get a good night’s sleep. I do, however, always get a good morning’s sleep.

  10. Jadehawk, OM says

    Self described leader of the Aryan Nations, Paul R Mullet

    Paul R Mullet? Paul R Mullet?!

  11. Rorschach says

    Hm, on the topic of strokes in the US :

    African-americans have higher risk of strokes

    I wonder if this is really all genetic though, and not just due to the fact that their secondary prevention is lacking, and fewer can afford to eat Statins and Aspirine.( or have access to a doc to prescribe the shit in the first place)

    Over here, the Aussie equivalent of your african-americans in terms of cardiovascular risk are pacific islanders, bad food and bad genes, lethal combo.45yo guy I saw last night, went to sleep at home, and never woke up, sent him for urgent neurosurgery, but was all too late.

  12. boygenius says

    I shit you not. His name is Paul R. Mullet. Unfortunately, he’s not sporting one in any of the pictures I’ve seen. He’s not stereotypically skin-headed, but neither is he mulleted. :(

  13. maureen.brian#b5c92 says

    Walton,

    I know you’re studying hard – and good luck to you on that – but have you not once looked out of your window this past couple of years?

    The UK’s growth for the last quarter of 2009 was revised up yesterday – from 0.1% to 0.3%. In other words, it looks as though we might just and if we all hold our breath have avoided a total collapse whose genesis is global and fuck-all, really, to do with either Gordon Brown or Alistair Darling.

    (Yes, I know there’s an election coming up. I’m trying to stick with the real world here.)

    And why? Well, it turned out that the “wealth” created by the Masters of the Universe was largely imaginary. Vast empires were being built not simply on sand – biblical allusion, folks – but on candyfloss (cotton candy).

    Now the buggers are out creating even more candyfloss and demanding million-pound bonuses for doing it. Is that what you mean by “produce” or am I missing something?

    Look, neither of us is an economist so let’s try with something very basic. Could you please explain, according to your world view, how I now own a house – even after recent price falls – which is worth more in cash terms than I ever earned or inherited in my life? Is it really worth that or should that be what it was worth when built in 1805 plus the actual cost of the 2006 updates to the electrics and the plumbing?

    I live in it, I love it but I still believe that a large chunk of its value is imaginary!

    As you and I are both in England let us look at one of this place’s more obvious displays of wealth – the English country house. Yes, some of them are magnificent but where did even the cost of building them come from?

    Taking things in order and going back only one millennium we have rapine, serfdom, state sponsored piracy, throw in a civil war with profits for some, the enclosures, slavery and the factory system – with child labour! – in its early days. Not an awful lot of “production” by the beneficiaries that I can see.

    Once you’ve done your finals – and I wish you luck with those – then as bobber says @ 478 you’re going to have to define your terms. And defend them, including against those of us who did the work which created the “wealth” from which others have benefitted. That’s most of us, matey!

  15. Alan B says

    There has been what is defined as a “Great” earthquake in Chile. Great means greater than 8 on the Moment scale (similar to but not the same as the old Richter Scale – which ought to be dumped but is probably too engrained in the public mind).

    Since this was only a few hours ago things are changing rapidly. Google USGS earthquakes and keep to the USGS site to get accurate info.

    Currently:
    8.8 Moment
    epicentre about 50 miles deep, About 50 miles offshore
    closest city Concepcion (industrial – not a tourist destination)
    6 deaths known but will rise
    Santiago (capital) lights out but cars moving, tsunami warnings for S American coastline (this is something that will change rapidly)
    currently sized as 5th largest quake worldwide since 1900
    1985 Chile had a larger and very destructive quake so they are familiar with the drill
    In general, Chile is a well-off country because it supplies one third of the world’s copper
    building regs are good (as long as they are followed)

  17. Walton says

    Comrade, wouldn’t you agree that worker-owned cooperatives — of the type that exist now even in capitalist countries, where only the workers at a particular business own the business, not a universally-owned dictatorship of the proletariat — meet this requirement?

    Yes. There are several businesses in the UK which are collectively owned by their workers, such as the John Lewis Partnership. I don’t know of anyone who has a problem with this; in a free society, if people want to set up a worker-owed co-operative, they are entirely free to do so. It works fine, as far as I can tell, and is no less legitimate than any other business model.

  18. Carlie says

    Random comment: This pisses me off. Yet another scare article about the “rise of” antibiotic-resistant diseases. The phrase isn’t “rise of”; it’s “evolution of”. Argh. No wonder three-quarters of the country doesn’t believe in evolution when even the most clear-cut cases aren’t labeled correctly.

  19. Rorschach says

    The phrase isn’t “rise of”; it’s “evolution of”

    Hm, yeah, thats true in parts where known bugs evolve to develop resistancies to antibiotics.There are however also bugs that we just learn about, even in 2010, e.g. I saw a patient this week that is, I kid you not, one of 13 known cases in the world infected with a bug called Dietzia, its slowly eating her right breast, Penicillin is supposed to work theoretically, but somehow doesnt work very well, nooone has a clue.
    So, yes, we are still learning.

  20. Matt Penfold says

    Yes. There are several businesses in the UK which are collectively owned by their workers, such as the John Lewis Partnership. I don’t know of anyone who has a problem with this; in a free society, if people want to set up a worker-owed co-operative, they are entirely free to do so. It works fine, as far as I can tell, and is no less legitimate than any other business model.

    It seems to be a very effective model. Better than shareholder ownership in terms of stability.

  22. boygenius says

    @ Alan B; Sounds like a big ‘un.

    Thanks for the updates and the links. Cue Pat Robertson or some other asshole blaming it on lesbians/liberals/copper mining(?), etc. in 3.. 2.. 1..

  27. Rev. BigDumbChimp says

    One has to Wonder what the Chileans did to deserve this. I’m sure pat Robertson will be telling us soon.

  28. Nerd of Redhead, OM says

    One has to Wonder what the Chileans did to deserve this.

    I’m sure it has more to do with living near a plate subduction zone, than anything the delusional Robertson comes up with.

  31. WowbaggerOM says

    Rorschach – Hunter S. Thompson. The Rev’s post #472 is a quote from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

    Anyway, I just got home from the Soundwave festival; Placebo were great, Jane’s Addiction kicked ass and Faith No More blew my fucking mind – they played Stripsearch (my favourite of their songs) but made it even more awesome by segueing into it with a rocked up version of Chariots of Fire.

    I’ll see if I can find a YouTube version to link.

  33. Rorschach says

    The Rev’s post #472 is a quote from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

    Ah, I C !

    U C, if I got an email from the Big Kahuna now saying, sorry mate, gotta terminate your employment contract here, you have one night, that you can spend with any of 2 chicks you know from the Pharyngula blog before I switch you off in the morning, I would ask for Dana Hunter and Aquaria…:-)

    Oh shit, I will so regret this in the morning…:-)

  36. Knockgoats says

    All it means is that we derive benefits from others acting in their own self-interest. It’s common sense: if A produces something that B wants, and B produces something that A wants, then, by exchanging, they both benefit. Both are acting in their own self-interest, but the transaction is good for everyone. Where’s the “magical thinking” in that? – Walton

    The magical thinking is in personifying “the market”. But I was mostly teasing: presumably only magical beings could have “invisiblehands”.

  39. Walton says

    One has to Wonder what the Chileans did to deserve this. I’m sure pat Robertson will be telling us soon.

    Letting a woman (Michele Bachelet) out of the kitchen for long enough that she was elected president. Quelle horreur! [/idiot]

    (Ugh. I wouldn’t put it past Robertson to actually think this.)

  40. David Marjanović says

    just want to say that there’s absolutely no benefit to reading at 2am

    That depends entirely on when you got up and how much sleep you need.

    Besides, I once or twice started reading a book in the evening and, undistracted, simply couldn’t stop before I had finished the book at probably 6 am. (I didn’t dare try to find out if that estimate was correct either time.) I can’t seriously regret that – while both books weren’t ingenious, they were well written, and they gave me something to think about. I did get several hours of sleep afterwards in both cases.

    Multiculturalism, multi-orientationism, multi-everything is inherently self-contradictory, for to the extent that “equality” is a value above all else, we recognize that the US would be quite the same country as if it were 60% latino, 30% black, and 50% gay. But of course it would be an enormously different country that most of us would be unhappy with.

    :-o

    <headdesk>

    What would make you unhappy about it?

    What in the fuck makes you think any population ever could become 50 % gay? Male homosexuality, at least, runs in families (together with increased female fertility!), and is more common in younger brothers than in elder ones. Unless someone enacts a cruel breeding program for teh ghey, 50 % just ain’t gonna happen.

    mmmm….. roleplay…..

    :-)

    Or to put it another way: I also found this. And hate* is… not good. It… poisons the… something… whatever. Uh… a Jedi… fuck the Jedi. I can explain everything I understand. If I couldn’t explain it to others, I couldn’t explain it to myself, and if I couldn’t explain it to myself, I wouldn’t understand it.

    And it’s not like I wouldn’t learn anything in the process either.

    * Let alone self-hate.

    Here was another post from PZ documenting the kind of sloppy thinking that makes one despair, and then the whole discussion was turned into a thread that was not only worthwhile, but positively enlightening.

    Oh, so I should check it out after all. Will do so soon.

    The International Journal of Thread Studies has finally published posted its gala special-issue Threadiversary Retrospective.

    And the first comment is by PZ :-)

    I shit you not. His name is Paul R. Mullet. Unfortunately, he’s not sporting one in any of the pictures I’ve seen. He’s not stereotypically skin-headed, but neither is he mulleted. :(

    Is that something to look up in the Urban Dictionary? My dead-tree one knows the word but only equates it with two fish species.

    There has been what is defined as a “Great” earthquake in Chile. Great means greater than 8 on the Moment scale (similar to but not the same as the old Richter Scale – which ought to be dumped but is probably too engrained in the public mind).

    I had no idea of that earthquake or the moment scale. Wikipedia explains the latter (footnotes removed):

    [The Richter] scale was based on the ground motion measured by a particular type of seismometer at a distance of 100 km from the earthquake. Because of this, there is an upper limit on the highest measurable magnitude; all large earthquakes will have a local magnitude of around 7. The local magnitude’s estimate of earthquake size is also unreliable for measurements taken at a distance of more than about 350 miles (600 km) from the earthquake’s epicenter.

    The moment magnitude (Mw) scale was introduced in 1979 by Caltech seismologists Thomas C. Hanks and Hiroo Kanamori to address these shortcomings while maintaining consistency. Thus, for medium-sized earthquakes, the moment magnitude values should be similar to Richter values. That is, a magnitude 5.0 earthquake will be about a 5.0 on both scales. This scale was based on the physical properties of the earthquake, specifically the seismic moment (M0). Unlike other scales, the moment magnitude scale does not saturate at the upper end; there is no upper limit to the possible measurable magnitudes. However, this has the side-effect that the scales diverge for smaller earthquakes.

    Moment magnitude is now the most common measure for medium to large earthquake magnitudes, but breaks down for smaller quakes. For example, the United States Geological Survey does not use this scale for earthquakes with a magnitude of less than 3.5, which is the great majority of quakes. For these smaller quakes, other magnitude scales are used. […]

    Magnitude scales differ from earthquake intensity, which is the perceptible moving, shaking, and local damages experienced during a quake. The shaking intensity at a given spot depends on many factors, such as soil types, soil sublayers, depth, type of displacement, and range from the epicenter (not counting the complications of building engineering and architectural factors). Rather, they are used to estimate only the total energy released by the quake.

    I feel smarter now. :-)

    Interestingly, the article also exists in Haitian Creole, though it’s a bit short there.

    8.8 Moment

    :-O

    Scary.

    blaming it on lesbians/liberals/copper mining(?)

    :-D

  41. Walton says

    Well, to be fair, my sleep patterns are not great. I went to bed at 2.30 am, intending to get up and work no later than 8.30 am… unfortunately, I overslept and didn’t even get out of bed until 9.15. I then found I had run out of both coffee and cereal, and had to go shopping.

    I desperately want to get this work done so I can go to the gym. Unfortunately, it’s also raining outside. :-(

  42. boygenius says

    David M asked:

    Is that something to look up in the Urban Dictionary?

    Yay!! I finally get to teach David something he doesn’t know, instead of it always being the other way around.

    This is a mullet. Long in the back, short in the front and nothing in the middle.

  44. Antiochus Epiphanes says

    I might have mentioned a few weeks ago that I was faith-healed following a panel-discussion with some UU’s. The student who healed me* gave me her phone-number so that I could call her when my conversion was complete. I got better, thanks to the love of Jesus and a strong cocktail of antibiotics. The problem is, that I am sick again, and of course this leaves me in a pickle. Dealing with the sickness is no big deal…I get another cocktail of antibiotics and schedule surgery for the early summer. Both of these are effective at treating my problem…I’m a little young to be in trouble with the disease I have, but whatever…it’s not life-threatening.

    The pickle is this: I could call the student and explain that the woo only took temporarily or not at all. But its not a good experiment in my eyes; it’s hardly unheard of for people to recover from this malady entirely without the aid of talismans…I can’t imagine that my continued suffering would shake her faith either…what’s worse, I dread the repeat interaction where I get waved at and gestured to and chanted over again. I’m not sure what is considered good etiquette during such a ceremony. Here’s what it reminded me of. Have you ever had an acquaintance read you bad but original poetry?…you just stand there with your thumb up your ass trying to appear to be interested in the poem, but at the same time growing more and more uncomfortable because you have no idea when the poem will end. On one hand you could say something afterwards that would not be rude, but insufficiently positive…basically a form of damnation with faint praise. On the other hand, you may choose to gratify the poet by saying something insincere but positive…in which case you may have another poem said at you.

    I guess there is no dilemma, because there is no way in hell I am ever calling that chick. This has been a pointless post.

    *Well…really it was Jesus, but she was the instrument of his love for me. This makes the experience sound worse than it was.

  45. Antiochus Epiphanes says

    I should mention that the faith-healer was not herself a UU…she had come to the discussion to 1) convert and then 2) denounce both the UUs and the athiests, some of which were also UUs.

  46. boygenius says

    And it’s dreaded cousin, the skullet.

    Hehe. The “skullet”. Freakin’ Jesse Ventura; have y’all seen his show Conspiracy Theory?

    As a born and raised Minnesotan, I am ashamed that he was ever elected Governor. The fact that he has either sold out or gone off the deep end with his sniny new woo saturated TV show only turns that shame into contempt.

  47. monado says

    Happy New Year of the Thread.

    If you-all would like a new favorite charity, how about the educational charity fund for No Longer Qivering? (Motto: There is no U in Qivering)?

    One of the recent articles is about the child abuse and even murder that can result from ‘Christian’ child-rearing techniques. This article is a repost from another blog and so it not the direct experience of Ms. Unquivering, which explains why it is written from a religious point of view.

  48. Dania says

    …and Faith No More blew my fucking mind – they played Stripsearch (my favourite of their songs) but made it even more awesome by segueing into it with a rocked up version of Chariots of Fire.

    Damn you, Wowbagger. Such high levels of envy cannot be healthy!

    [But thanks for the link. ;)]

  49. Dust says

    Antiochus Epiphanes @544

    Have you ever had an acquaintance read you bad but original poetry?…you just stand there with your thumb up your ass trying to appear to be interested in the poem, but at the same time growing more and more uncomfortable because you have no idea when the poem will end.

    Oh man! Do you know my brother too? An alleged poet in the family who seeks you out to read his horrendous drivel, then proceed to wax on and on about how wonderful and subline the piece is as a whole, how such clever turns of phrasing were created from his mind plus all the never ending minutia of how the poem was written in the middle of the night…
    While your trapped there with your knees locked and you mouth agape and your poor whimpering mind
    begging “Oh Sweet Jesus if you really wanted me to believe in you now would be the time for some rapturing to be happening” but of course it doesn’t happen and just when you are admitting to yourself that you really are all alone in the universe but HELL does exist after all the monologe stops and you see the expectant look on the face of your tormenter and out of your traitorious mouth come the final humiliation “Yeah, nice poem man.”

    Oh yes, I been down to that perverse level of hell, oh yes.

  50. Alan B says

    #528 Nerd of Redhead OM

    I’m sure it has more to do with living near a plate subduction zone …

    Now, Nerd. You’ve been told that’s all wrong.

    Where are Alan Clarke and RogerS when you need an explanation? Oh yes. I remember. Alan Clarke got himself banned and RogerS seems to have lost a bit of interest in the Thread.

    Hey, RogerS, my friend. You’re welcome to come on in and explain all about how real geologists have got it wrong about plate subduction – you remember, Alan Clarke was going to put us all right according to his hypothesis (read “wild guess”) about Flood geology&#174 but he seemed to have other things to do like fill in his tax return …

    Can you find out what his “wild guess” was so that we can put Nerd straight on this?

    (Or not as the case may be.)

    Before you (or Pat Roberston) go too far, remember what Jesus had to say about the 18 deaths when the Tower of Siloam fell in His time. You won’t need me to tell you but it’s Luke 13, is it not?

  51. Bobber says

    Maureen Brian wrote:

    Well, it turned out that the “wealth” created by the Masters of the Universe was largely imaginary.

    and

    I live in it, I love it but I still believe that a large chunk of its value is imaginary!

    which fits in with my earlier comment of

    There’s playing within the rules of the game, and then there’s understanding that the rules of the game have very little bearing to anything more than a contrived reality, established by the rulesmakers themselves. And how did they get to establish the rules? “He who has the gold…”

    What do societies find valuable? How do they determine what qualifies as a medium of exchange? Even within the larger economic system, there are microsystems that function quite well – for instance, here on the farm I’ve traded goats for labor, soap for hay – there’s a thriving barter system on the margins (particularly because cash is in short supply). The property next door has been on the market for four years; if sold to as a residence, it could go for $300K, but the owner is trying to sell it commercially for ten times that. Who decided that the same dirt should vary in price by a factor of ten depending upon who the buyer is?

    The system that has been established can only exist for as long as a majority of people believe they can benefit from it; whether this system is political or economic, there may come a point where dissatisfaction with the system leads to change. Whether that change is peaceful or violent, evolutionary or revolutionary, once the social contract is in doubt, change will come. And a winner-take-all system, where an increasing majority are “losers”, and the wealth is concentrated at the top, will eventually become so top-heavy (gold is weighty, after all) that it will topple over.

    (Yes, I’m rapidly throwing shit out there again. But the Thread That Never Ends seems to be a place I can make my own “random ejaculations”.)

  52. Knockgoats says

    Do you have any plans to visit the south or do I need to make the trek up the far north for a drink? – JeffreyD

    I’ll be making a brief visit “daarn saarf” in late March – I’m doing a PhD oral as external on 23rd. I’m returning on the sleeper from London late that day, but haven’t yet booked my travel down, so could come down a bit early if you’d be around. I’m then away in France (brother-in-law and partner have had a place in the Alps for several years, always asking us to come and stay, we’re finally getting round to it) until (I think) 2nd April. No specific plans after that, but let me know your dates when fixed – maybe we’ll finally get to meet!

  53. Rev. BigDumbChimp says

    This is a mullet. Long in the back, short in the front and nothing in the middle.

    Business in the front, party in the back.

  55. Knockgoats says

    I think it was Jadehawk who postulated earlier that I could have the necessary tests and still not know what the hell is wrong with me. I guess I would prefer not to die from something preventable. – Lynna, OM

    Lynna, I mentioned this before, but you may not have seen it: IIRC you’re on statins, and I have read that a possible side-effect of some statins is transient global amnesia (can’t find a good online reference that isn’t behind a paywall). Might be worth asking about if you haven’t done so, anyway.

  56. Alan B says

    #540 David Marjanović

    Hey, my friend. You’ve got the Moment scale sussed out. How about the Modified Mercalli scale or MM?

    That will give you the set:

    Moment to estimate the energy involved and
    Modified Mercalli to express the intensity of the effects of the earthquake.

    The lower degrees of the MM scale generally deal with the manner in which the earthquake is felt by people. The higher numbers of the scale are based on observed structural damage. Note the scale is from I to XII i.e. in integers expressed as Roman numerals:

    I Instrumental. Not felt by many people unless in favourable conditions.

    II Feeble. Felt only by a few people at best, especially on the upper floors of buildings. Delicately suspended objects may swing.

    III Slight. Felt quite noticeably by people indoors, especially on the upper floors of buildings. Many do not recognize it as an earthquake. Standing motor cars may rock slightly. Vibration similar to the passing of a truck. Duration estimated.

    Through to:

    X Disastrous. Some well built wooden structures destroyed; most masonry and frame structures destroyed with foundation. Rails bent.

    XI Very Disastrous. Few, if any masonry structures remain standing. Bridges destroyed. Rails bent greatly.

    XII Catastrophic. Total damage – Everything is destroyed. Total destruction. Lines of sight and level distorted. Objects thrown into the air. The ground moves in waves or ripples. Large amounts of rock move position.

    Moment Scale is a measure of the energy released and in principle is unlimited in magnitude: the Great Valdivia Earthquake in Chile was rated as 9.5 moment. The energy difference between each unit on the scale is a factor of 31.6. Thus, going from 6.8 to 8.8 is 1000 times more energy.

    The MM scale is limited to XII, “Catastrophic” i.e. Total Damage

    Seven earthquakes have taken 200,000 or more lives. Haiti in January 2010 is at #4 with the loss of 230,000 and counting.

  57. Knockgoats says

    And people who are successful seek to pass on to their children whatever advantages they have gained in life. – Walton

    What a narrow view of humanity you have, Walton!

    I’ll certainly seek to help my son materially as long as he needs it, and I don’t deny benefitting from a significant material legacy from my parents (about 1/4 of the price of the house we bought three years later), but this was of infinitesimal importance compared to their love and example; and I hope my son will be able to say the same of me when I’m dead. With regard to material advantages, whether I leave anything to him is really not important to me, provided (as I hope), he’s by then a productive member of society being reasonably recompensed for what he does. I’ve no desire to see him become rich, because I think that has a strong tendency to turn decent people into selfish shits. I’d much rather we both play a part in making national and global society far more egalitarian than it is, which would undoubtedly reduce his relative advantages, as it would mine.

    BTW Walton, you’ve already received reams of good advice on your exams, but I’ll just add mine. Make yourself a timetable of what revision you’ll do when, starting from the exams and working backwards. It should be reasonably demanding, but leave yourself time for relaxation – maybe in the morning, when you’re not at your most productive, but if so, set an alarm for the time you will start work, and when it rings, make yourself coffee and get to work. You’ll be the best judge of how to relax, but I’d urge you to consider that it may be best to leave Pharyngula aside until after the exams, as you will want to answer points from both wooists and lefties, and even if you stop at the appointed time, will still be composing your arguments when you should be revising!

  58. David Marjanović says

    Thanks for the mullets! I had no idea that had a name. :-) I know an autotheistic professor with a skullet. He failed me twice in Introduction to Ecology*. The first time I hadn’t learnt enough, OK, fine. The second I had learnt enough, but just couldn’t write fast enough to answer enough questions in the limited time! He summoned me to his office and told me bullshit about things like “nature optimizes for performance/output”. Fortunately another professor gave that course the next semester; that exam was arguably even too easy, and I got the best mark. Had I failed that third time, a likely outcome under the previous professor, I’d have had to repeat the exam orally in front of a commission**; and if I’d failed that, that would have been the end of my biology studies.

    * Would probably be called “Ecology 101” in the USA. I have little idea of that system.
    ** This happened to me in an immunology course. Molecular biology is having a load of knowledge dumped on you; if you can eat it all up, good…

    I went to bed at 2.30 am, intending to get up and work no later than 8.30 am

    Ehem… there are people who only need 6 hours of sleep per night, but there aren’t many of them. I don’t think you’re one.

    If you get up before having slept enough, you’ll simply be tired and unproductive the whole day long.

    There is no U in Qivering

    :-D

  60. David Marjanović says

    Molecular biology is having a load of knowledge dumped on you; if you can eat it all up, good…

    Better: Studying molecular biology is to have a load of knowledge dumped on you; if you can eat it all up, good… <burp>

  61. Alan B says

    #550 etc.

    One of the problems Alan Clarke had was that he seemed to think, as Dania reminds us, that the volcanoes were on the wrong side of the subduction zone, although I never understood what he meant.

    Where the volcanoes are is a matter of fact. Why they are there and not somewhere else is the explanation devised by Plate Tectonic Theory.

    I know scripture says that God can move mountains but even if all the volcanoes moved to where ever Alan Clarke wanted them, he would still have to explain why they were there and how they were formed. “Miracles” may be a logically acceptable explanation but not if you are going to teach it in US classrooms. Last Thursdayism is another explanation. At least he didn’t try that one here!

  62. Lynna, OM says

    A publically-funded college uses its resources to recruit mormon students.

    A letter written by Northwest College President Paul Prestwich and mailed to 1,002 Mormon students earlier this month was intended to generate interest in the college. The letter has indeed accomplished just that — but likely not the kind of interest Prestwich originally had in mind.
         Within weeks of their postmark date, the recruitment letters have caught the attention of a national publication, local media, the American Civil Liberties Union’s Wyoming office and the Northwest College campus community.
         In a letter posted on college letterhead and mailed by NWC, Prestwich identifies himself as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and highlights the “remarkable opportunities for LDS students” at Northwest College.
    The envelope also included a letter on church letterhead from Fred Hopkin, president of the Cody Wyoming Stake, describing the student ward’s offerings.
         For some, the recruitment letter raises serious concerns about the ethics of a publicly funded college’s recruitment of students on the basis of faith…. — public institutions should not be in the business of marketing themselves on the basis of religious affiliation….Article 7 Section 12 mandates that secretarian tenets and doctrines will “not be taught or favored in any public school or institution” established by the Constitution.
         …Neither Patrick nor Nassirian sees a problem with Prestwich identifying himself as an LDS church member, but rather, the way he disclosed his beliefs…. the issue is that the president of a public college is selectively targeting students of faith for recruitment…
         The 1,002 students who received the letter are Wyoming high schoolers enrolled in an LDS program already, and the college was simply giving them information about opportunities they may be interested in at NWC and Powell, Prestwich said.
    “Students are more likely to succeed in an academic sense if they can be included in organizations within the college and external groups in the community,” Prestwich said.
         The LDS church has supplied the college with a list of potential students in the past. “We would send out general packets, and they (ward leaders) would follow up with letters,” Hammond said. Hammond said the college also plans to work with Campus Ventures, a Christian campus ministry, and the Newman Center to mail out letters to other religious students.
         Prestwich added that the college has worked with a variety of international student agents, including one who works with LDS students from Asia. The students want to attend a school that serves Mormon students with a student ward, or congregation, and the agent typically helps them attend colleges in Utah…

    Source: http://powelltribune.com/index.php/content/view/3083/2/

  63. Matt Penfold says

    Alan B,

    Something I have been meaning to ask you for a long time but never seemed to get around to.

    Can you recomend a good popular science book on geology ? I am woefully ignorant on the subject. I have read Richard Fortey’s Earth, and seen a number of documentaries by Ian Stewart on the BBC but what else is good (if indeed those are!) ?

  64. JeffreyD says

    Knockgoats at #552.

    Heading back to the UK within a week or so. Barring unforeseen difficulties late March should work. The run down to London is easy for me. I finally remembered I had your email, so will let you know when I return. I will not be checking this place as much for a while so email best anyway. I am probably staying until June so we have some time. First drink on me.

    Ciao, Jeffrey

  65. Lynna, OM says

    Knockgoats @555

    Lynna, I mentioned this before, but you may not have seen it: IIRC you’re on statins, and I have read that a possible side-effect of some statins is transient global amnesia (can’t find a good online reference that isn’t behind a paywall). Might be worth asking about if you haven’t done so, anyway.

    Thanks, Knockgoats. I did see that, and I looked into it. I’m taking Zetia, which is not actually a statin. The generic name is ezetimibe. Zetia is often prescribed with a statin, but in my case I’m taking Zetia alone. I have reduced the dose to 5 mg/day (from 10 mg/day). The incidence of global amnesia associated with Zetia is very rare. My doctor feels it’s an unlikely cause of my brain-offline event. However, I realize that it can’t be ruled out.

    Here is a study that points to some pretty bad problems with Zetia: http://www.drugs.com/news/new-study-raises-new-questions-cholesterol-zetia-20925.html

    I’ve been considering not taking the drug at all, but my doctor and I agreed to try that for 3 months more than a year ago. We did a blood test before, and a blood test after. My blood tests “rocked” while on the drug. When I quit taking it, the upward trend in cholesterol levels was clear.

    I tried a statin, but was one of the patients that experienced muscle pain, which is definitely not a good sign.

    Niacin sounds interesting. But for the most part, I don’t know what to do. And part of the problem is my inability to pay for testing of various kinds, nor can I pay the $160 minimum it costs for a visit to discuss test results with my doctor.

    Someone else (I think it was Nerd) said that Zetia was a dangerous chemical, active in ways that would require people working with it to suit up and have a protected air supply.

    So far, the only thing we do know for sure is that my carotid arteries look good.

  66. Lynna, OM says

    boygenius @508: I like the understated humor of the journalist who wrote the first article for which you provided a link:

    While declaring itself UN-free appears to have had little impact on Grant County’s everyday affairs…

    Gotta give kudos to the guys who managed to kick the Nazis out of northern Idaho in 2000. Those men are still giving the Nazis fits by traveling to places like John Day, OR in order to give the locals the full skinny on Paul Mullet’s proposed “compound”.

  67. Carlie says

    Example of someone with a mullet (plus explanation near the end!)

    For David and anyone else not A)American and B) old enough, this is an 80s video by a group called Tears for Fears. This guy started making voiceovers to them that explained exactly what was happening in the video, which is funny given that 80s US music videos were often…odd. Others have tried to copy the idea since, but he’s still the master of the genre.

  68. Nerd of Redhead, OM says

    Someone else (I think it was Nerd) said that Zetia was a dangerous chemical, active in ways that would require people working with it to suit up and have a protected air supply.

    Well, what I indicated that it is a very potent compound, which means a small amount is needed to do the job (hence your 5 mg dosage). Anybody working with the bulk drug (kilogram quantities) would have to be suitably protected so they wouldn’t even come close to a clinical dosage. One way to do this is to wear supplied air respirators, so that there is no chance for airborne particles to be inhaled, as there is a constant flow of air from the respirator to the environment. Some steroids and cancer drugs are used microgram dosages. These are handled in even more stringent environments like glove boxes.

  69. Dania says

    One of the problems Alan Clarke had was that he seemed to think, as Dania reminds us, that the volcanoes were on the wrong side of the subduction zone, although I never understood what he meant.

    Where the volcanoes are is a matter of fact. Why they are there and not somewhere else is the explanation devised by Plate Tectonic Theory.

    He never explained what he meant because he himself had no idea (he copied it from Walt Brown’s site, IIRC). But his “reasoning” seemed to go like this:

    <Alan Clarke> 1) Plate Tectonic Theory predicts that volcanoes should be on a specific side of the subduction zone, though I don’t particularly care which side it is; 2) Walt Brown says most volcanoes are on the opposite side and that must be true because it helps my argument; 3) Therefore, Plate Tectonic Theory is wrong and I win. Also, Goddidit.</Alan Clarke>

    It’s all very logical, you see…

  70. Sven DiMilo says

    And certain Assistant Professors have some explaining regarding their time management to do !!

    yeah, ya think?

    (story of my life)

  71. Sven DiMilo says

    So far, the only thing we do know for sure is that my carotid arteries look good.

    pix or gtfu

  74. Alan B says

    #563

    Hi Matt

    I am old enough to remember The Brain’s Trust on BBC steam radio. There was a speaker, the late Professor C M Joad, who always seemed to begin his replies with, “It all depends what you mean by …”

    I can say the same thing. It all depends what you mean by “good” and “popular”. Anything I can come up with is going to be immediately contradicted by others (and quite rightly …). Richard Fortey has written other books including an excellent one on Trillobites. However, I would suggest:

    1 Earth Story from the BBC – not a book but a DVD set.

    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Earth-Story-DVD/dp/B000FS9SGE

    The presenter is Professor Aubrey Manning. A biologist IIRC who looks in from the outside to understand the forces that formed the Earth and made it the environment suitable for “his” living organisms. His style is quiet, reflective, and wanting to be taught by some of the world’s experts. Very English and totally different from Ian Stewart.

    It is also available at:

    http://www.torrentreactor.net/torrents/1658151/BBC-Earth-Story-Documentary-XviD

    I haven’t tried it and I have no idea of the legality (copyright etc.) of this.

    There is also a book that goes with the series (there always is with the BBC!):
    Earth Story (the forces that shaped our planet) by Simon Lamb and David Singlton.
    ISBN 0-563-48707-0
    My copy is the paperback version, just under A4 size and £12.99 when I bought it.

    The DVDs are far better (IMHO)

    I don’t know where you .live but if it’s the UK then:

    2 The Geology of Britain – an introduction
    by Peter Toghill
    My copy is the paperback version, A4 size, £16.99 when I bought it
    ISBN 1-84037-404-7
    Peter Toghill is an enthusiastic retired geology lecturer and probably the expert on the geology of the Welsh Marches and Shropshire so the book is weighted in that direction.

    3. Teach Yourself Geology
    by David Rothery

    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Teach-Yourself-Geology-McGraw-Hill/dp/0071439722

    I should declare a (non-financial) interest. David is a lecturer (I would guess he might be a “Professor” in US style) at the Open University in the UK. He has written or co-written some of the OU Earth Sciences material. This book is a sound introduction to Geology as a subject to study rather than as a picture book. David has also produced a Teach Yourself book on Volcanoes, Earthquakes and Tsunamis

    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Yourself-Volcanoes-Earthquakes-Tsunamis-General/dp/034094241X

    and on the Planets (planetary geology if you like):

    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Teach-Yourself-Planets-Science/dp/0340867604

    4. Openlearn Another non-book – instead on the internet

    http://www.open.ac.uk/openlearn/get-started/get-started-learner.php

    This is an explanation of a collection of segments from Open University modules, some of which are science but it covers the whole range. The material is free and is obviously there to encourage an interest in the Open University. Try browsing the Science and Nature index at:

    openlearn.open.ac.uk/course/category.php?id=10&perpage=15&page=1

    (Obviously, copy and paste the partial URLs and add the “http etc.” in front.)

    There are far too many segments to list but the material is split into about 10 hour (variable, 5-30 hours at a quick look) study segments including earthquakes, plate tectonics, life in the Palaeozoic, introduction to evolution (very basic), Darwin, Mountain Building in Scotland and many others.

    Hope you find something of interest. Let us know what you think when you’ve got hold of any of them.

  75. Matt Penfold says

    Hi Alan,

    Thanks for those.

    The first one, Earth Story I have seen. They are forever repeating them on one of the UKTV Channels. It was excellent.

    Did you ever catch another series by Manning, in which he looked a six areas in the UK (such as The Weald and the Fens) and worked out what effect human activity has had on the landscape. Answer: A lot! The title eludes me at present. I particularly liked the one of The Weald as I grew up on the South Downs and The Weald.

    I will check out the other suggestions.

  76. David Marjanović says

    Waiting for the Chain of Command videos to load… YouTube is being slow again.

    “Students are more likely to succeed in an academic sense if they can be included in organizations within the college and external groups in the community,” Prestwich said.

    Except if they’re not into peer pressure.

    <Alan Clarke> 1) Plate Tectonic Theory predicts that volcanoes should be on a specific side of the subduction zone, though I don’t particularly care which side it is; 2) Walt Brown says most volcanoes are on the opposite side and that must be true because it helps my argument; 3) Therefore, Plate Tectonic Theory is wrong and I win. Also, Goddidit.</Alan Clarke>

    Bingo.

  77. SC OM says

    Lynna, thanks for the update. I’ll be sending another little amount soon to help with the next one.

    ***

    Were you wondering if it was possible for Greg Laden to be any more ignorant and muddle-headed?

    It was:

    http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2010/02/an_open_letter_to_richard_dawk.php

    (See the “Outrage and Civility” thread he links to, and Pierce Butler’s valiant efforts to have a reasoned discussion with him and the sidekick. Witness their continuing tendency to side reflexively with the powerful and belittle those objecting to disrespect and abuses of power.)

  78. https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawncr0FDc8gdl7yJBz0SJ15D0etcTIOtL0s says

    Lynna OM: I channelled the Mormon joke from Utah Phillips, who said he named himself after the only state he ever got deported from.

    Here. I needed a dose this morning. My longtime old friend genius hardheaded irish allergist died this week; she wasn’t all that much older than I am.

    And my favorite venue (pays in the high two figures, like Victor Navasky) is giving up its print edition, which means I lose a good chunk of my local audience.

    Damn I hate mortality.

    Ron Sullivan
    http://toad.faultline.org

  79. Aquaria says

    I’ve been charged for oven cleaning because I simply forgot to do it,

    That’ll teach you not to use the darn thing. ;)

    I’m constantly finding ways not to use mine. I’m down to frozen pizza and the occasional bread or cake.

  80. Lynna, OM says

    Rev BDC @472, I used to have an heirloom, a copy of the Rolling Stone issue that contained part of Hunter’s “Fear and Loathing” in Las Vegas. Somebody stole it.

    Hunter S. Thompson changed my mind about writing “non-fiction”, which I have to put in quotes here considering the substances Hunter imbibed while on a reporting gig. Before reading Hunter, I thought of non-fiction as restricting my creativity. I was wrong. His take on political conventions makes me long for someone to tell it like it is. Put Hunter in the middle of the Teabaggers, I say, and let ‘er rip. (I would accept that as proof of god’s existence.)

  81. David Marjanović says

    I finally made the two requests to visit the museum collections… I thought that would take a lot of time because so many bureaucratic forms are to fill (online), but not only was it quicker than expected, the first video still hasn’t loaded completely! But there were already two scenes with 4 lights. :-)

  82. David Marjanović says

    …that I’ve been supposed to make for months. <facepalm> Autistic hesitation to set the next step can be pretty annoying.

    The first video is finished. Maybe boredom will drive me to write to my thesis committee* to arrange the next and last meeting which has to take place in March…

    * Not the jury who will give the marks. It’s another body that is supposed to follow my thesis and prevent me from embarking on projects that aren’t feasible within 3 years.

  83. Lynna, OM says

    Rorschach @519

    I saw a patient this week that is, I kid you not, one of 13 known cases in the world infected with a bug called Dietzia, its slowly eating her right breast…

    Judging from a few of your posts on Pharyngula, I’d say that you have all the material you need to write some horrifyingly realistic scripts for armageddon movies.

    Dietzia should be added to the Creation Museum as proof of god’s love, mightiness, and psychosis.

  84. Aquaria says

    Ooh, AlanB–thanks for those, but don’t blame me if Mr Aquaria gets mad at you for encouraging my “rock fetish,” as he calls it.

  85. Jadehawk, OM says

    And hate* is… not good. It… poisons the… something… whatever. Uh… a Jedi… fuck the Jedi.

    it’s not so much hate as passionate and virulent education envy. I mean, it could be argued that you’re not that much smarter than I am, but you’re decidedly vastly better educated in all sorts of ways. Which just reminds me how horribly I fucked up my own education. And that’s frustrating.

    And it’s dreaded cousin, the skullet.

    lol

    for instance, here on the farm I’ve traded goats for labor, soap for hay – there’s a thriving barter system on the margins (particularly because cash is in short supply)

    same thing exists at the bottom of the food/service industry. people exchange the perks which companies give them instead of money: day old bagels from Noah’s Bagels, milk and coffee from starbucks, etc.

    Would probably be called “Ecology 101” in the USA. I have little idea of that system.

    yup, 101 would be first year, first course (they do get somewhat random in number later on, but usually the 1st number means which year you’re supposed to take it in).
    Incidentally, I’m kinda hoping that if/when i get to NDSU, they’ll let me skip over a lot of the 101 classes, since this is stuff I already did in high-school. For example, there’s 2 classes before you even get to Organic Chemistry. Luckily in that case they’re only “recommended”, not “prerequisites”.

  86. Paul W. says

    SC@557

    Yeah, kinda sad. Greg and Stephanie don’t seem to think that it’s important to figure out what actually happened, and what people are actually complaining about, before deciding that the problem is that they’re just whiny titty babies and giving them advice about how to suck up more.

    I also find it funny that somebody complained that Josh was acting like a tinpot dictator—which is quite a good analogy, so long as you realize that the stakes are much lower than in real life—but Stephanie took that person to task for using such an over-the-top, loaded analogy.

    Apparently it’s heinously unfair to compare a person who runs a web site autocratically to a dictator, but it’s just fine for Greg to compare mere commenters on such a website to a genocidal firing squad.

  88. Alan B says

    #575 Matt Penfold

    Yes, there were two series: “Talking Landscapes” and “Landscape Mysteries”, 6 programmes in each series IIRC. Made in collaboration with the Open University where Prof Manning had an Honourary Degree. Excellent mix of geology, archaeology and natural history. I had a chance of meeting and talking to the Prof. when he came to a range of hills near where I live. Amongst many other activities he was the President of our local voluntary organisation looking at geoconservation.

    He is a warm, gentle man in the true English sense, hugely knowledgable, willing to share that knowledge and willing to listen to pick up more. Bet he was a superb lecturer – I could imagine his students hanging on every word. If not, they deserved to be chucked out so others would be able to learn from him.

    Enjoy whatever you decide to go for!

  89. David Marjanović says

    Forgot to add… when Picard starts growing a beard, he ends up looking like Éric Buffetaut who actually is French! :-D :-D :-D

    it’s not so much hate as passionate and virulent education envy. I mean, it could be argued that you’re not that much smarter than I am, but you’re decidedly vastly better educated in all sorts of ways. Which just reminds me how horribly I fucked up my own education. And that’s frustrating.

    I know. I’m offering to get you out of that.

    (And BTW, even when your “starving artist” days are taken into account, it’s possible you got more fun than I while I was getting my education.)

  90. Sven DiMilo says

    Laden on editing:

    Then read it over and tweak it.
    Then red it over and tweak it again.

    needless to say, [sic]

  91. Jadehawk, OM says

    (And BTW, even when your “starving artist” days are taken into account, it’s possible you got more fun than I while I was getting my education.)

    I doubt that. I mean, sure, if we’re only counting the fun days you’re probably right. If you average the fun against the abject misery, that ends up in the negative. That however is not the effect of not getting an education, it’s the cause.

  92. https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawmHzDpTLP2mp-qpt639sa9q2J8Wl4QREfQ says

    Dust @549

    You mean your brother is a Vogon!

    Try Pangalactic gargle blasters next time he recites poetry

  93. SC OM says

    Yeah, kinda sad. Greg and Stephanie don’t seem to think that it’s important to figure out what actually happened, and what people are actually complaining about, before deciding that the problem is that they’re just whiny titty babies and giving them advice about how to suck up more.

    Yes, trying to excuse their own bad behavior by implying that anyone objecting to someone’s actions is a pathological blame-seeker, or at least that holding people responsible for their actions and expressing hurt and anger with them is childish and counterproductive. Those people have no place!*

    Laden:

    I noticed in the maneno that erupted here on my humble blog that apologies were being demaned a lot, and the standard reply to a demand for an apology is to demand an apology. I also noticed in that discussion and much more broadly in discussions I’ve been involved in that blame weaves together the conversation.

    “You must apologize becasue you said the sky is blue, and it is not!!!11!!”

    “Sorry, I don’t remember saying that the sky is blue. I apologize if that is what you were thinking and were bothered by that somehow, but I don’t think you said it.”

    Appalling. And no, there is no “standard reply” to a demand for an apology. Reasonable, responsible adults, if they’ve done something hurtful and/or blameworthy, respond to a demand for an apology by apologizing.

    *Also funny that he characterizes people’s real reluctance to turn away from a person and an organization to whom and which they’ve felt friendship and trust and loyalty and dedicated time and energy for years as sycophancy, while not recognizing that his reflexive refusal to take their statements and feelings seriously actually is.

  94. Lynna, OM says

    SC Lynna, thanks for the update. I’ll be sending another little amount soon to help with the next one.
    Thanks, SC. As usual, I don’t know what to say.

  95. Alan B says

    #584 Aquaria

    I wouldn’t dream of trying to encourage or discourage anything you wanted to do …

    However, while not a fetish, geology can be catching.

    I have been known to pull over into a parking area for the sole purpose of looking at the gravel because it might be interesting. It was – Criggion Dolerite – dull green mass with black and white flecks of various minerals.

    I know where the aggregate used in the tarmac for making the local roads comes from. I stopped some workmen to ask if I could have a piece of the aggregate they were using to make a path (they were so surprised they gave it to me – a different form of dolerite and spot on for the use they had it for).

    I have been known to bring out my handlens in a cathedral to determine what the fossils were in some limestone. I know where the stone came from at another cathedral – not the main building stone but a small area, high up in the vaulting. I know what it is, why they chose it and where else it can be found. It’s tufa as I have explained before in The Thread.

    I am a complete nutter when it comes to rocks…

    Local to me is a shop that sells New Age and Wicka items – crystal balls, crystal wands, all sorts of weird items. The owner and I are on very good terms – I explain where the rocks come from and their scientific significance and try to get her to come on a field trip with a group Open University students. She’s given up trying to convince me about crystal healing etc.

    You havn’t got to the stage yet where your rock collection is causing a gravitational anomaly on the local geology maps. Or you have packs made to fit to the pet dog so that it can help carry the samples.

    (OK, I haven’t done the last two … yet.)

    Have a good read!

  96. David Marjanović says

    (Me and my perfectionist interest in utter completeness. I shouldn’t have included that distracting parenthesis at all. <sigh>)

  97. Aquaria says

    that you can spend with any of 2 chicks you know from the Pharyngula blog before I switch you off in the morning, I would ask for Dana Hunter and Aquaria…:-)
    Oh shit, I will so regret this in the morning…

    That’s sweet of you, Rory. Thanks.

    But I’m starting to wonder if my blog posts put off pheromones.

  98. Lynna, OM says

    Ron @578: Thanks for the introduction to Utah Phillips — funny guy. He seems to have the right attitude to the history of the wild west. He deflates the myths and doesn’t take himself too seriously. “Madder than a boiled owl” — I can use that.

  99. Alan B says

    #597 Aquaria

    No. It’s your magnetic personality.
    We men are merely iron filings to your bar magnet.

    We are moths to your flame – flying ever closer to the dangerous, flickering light.

    (or something)

  100. Jadehawk, OM says

    (Me and my perfectionist interest in utter completeness. I shouldn’t have included that distracting parenthesis at all. )

    *poke*

  101. Aquaria says

    I am a complete nutter when it comes to rocks

    I stand in awe of your nuttery. I’ve always appreciated rock formations, enough that family and friends have teased me mercilessly about seeing the rocks in a forest rather than the trees, but I never bothered to look up things about them in the past. Those look like good starting points. Thanks again.

  103. Aquaria says

    Yeah, Alan, a lot of people forget that personality really can make a difference. IRL, I’m not an incredibly attractive woman, but I can’t go to any party without winding up as the center of it. I don’t look for it, but, apparently, if you’re wiling to say the most outrageous things in a funny way, people will pile up six deep to hear it.

    Admittedly, I learned this trick from my brother, who was a natural at it. Things that would get other men slapped (or worse), he would say with impunity. Like the time the Dairy Queen drive-thru speaker was broken, so we had to pull up to the window to order our chocolate-dipped ice cream cones. The order taker was a woman, and she was leaning on the sill. This only emphasized that she had a Dolly Partonesque bosom. My brother openly gawked at the sight, looked back at her face, grinned, and said, “I’ll have two big ‘uns–dipped.”

    She didn’t punch him or throw something at him or given him the ice treatment. She giggled, “adjusted” her rack a little to give him a thrill, and went to prepare our order, The only thing that was a surprise was that she didn’t give him her phone number, like usually happened when he said such things to women.

  104. Jadehawk, OM says

    I know. I’m offering to get you out of that.

    ah, crap. you keep on saying this, and I keep on steadfastly refusing to answer because…. well, just because. so I guess I’ll thank you for the offer now, if only on principle since I can’t take you up on it (for the moment) :-p

  105. Owlmirror says

    “Miracles” may be a logically acceptable explanation but not if you are going to teach it in US classrooms. Last Thursdayism is another explanation. At least he didn’t try that one here!

    Actually, he kinda did, whenever cosmology was brought up.

    Why do we see stars billions of light-years away, and a universe that appears to be 13.7 billion years old?

    Because 6000 years ago, God “stretched” the heavens after/while creating them.

    RogerS, btw, is still leaving droppings of ignorance and contempt in the “Ken Ham, baffled” thread. He even cited Walt Brown again, on the topic of carbon-14, demonstrating that he still hasn’t learned anything about the topics he is so eager to make ridiculous assertions about.

    It occurs to me that I was wrong, on that thread, to predict that PZ would probably ban RogerS. RogerS has been restricting his comments to one thread, and has been posting very infrequently. This is generally the sort of thing tolerated by the (E)CO, despite the typical Creationist godbotting, insipidity, stupidity, and occasional wanking (“I lift up a light in gross darkness for those standing on the precipise.”[sic]) demonstrated.

  106. Lynna, OM says

    Elizabeth Craig, former beauty queen, and über mormon of renown, has been arrested for scamming a scammer. NuSkin, a well-known multi-level marketing scam, headquartered in Utah, was ripped off by Ms. Craig and cohorts.

    Sister Craig has been a beacon of light to LDS women:

    “Elizabeth Craig knows what peer pressure is. In this fireside presentation given especially for LDS young women, she shares her unique experiences competing in the Miss America Pageant and what she had to do in order to stand up for what she believed in as a member of the Church. She also talks about LDS Church standards and why we have them. In particular, young women’s testimonies will be strengthened as Elizabeth shares stories and lessons about the importance of modesty, the Word of Wisdom, and always standing as a witness of God. Elizabeth says, “If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.”

    See her book, “It’s Not the Dress, It’s the Girl in the Dress.”

    Deseret Book (deseretbook.com) is busy revising history by removing Sister Craig, so you may have to resort to google website cache.

  107. SC OM says

    Random questions:

    ‘Tis: part of my family* was down at the sub base there today and mentioned to me that they had tried unsuccessfully to find a good restaurant for lunch in New London. It’s too late now, but for future reference, are there any good places to eat there?

    Lynna: Why are there so many Utah Mormons on So You Think You Can Dance? Is dance really big there?

    *Most of the others are on a cruise in the area of the earthquake / possible tsunamis. They’re out in the pool/jacuzzi right now and the sea is calm, so I’m trying not to worry.

  108. David Marjanović says

    Now on ScienceBlogs: Neurosurgical patients get closer to God.

    First paragraph:

    REMOVAL of specific parts of the brain can induce increases in a trait which predisposes people to spirituality, according to a new clinical study by Italian reseachers. The new research, published earlier this month in the journal Neuron, provides evidence that some brain structures are associated with spiritual thinking and feelings, and hints at individual differences that might make some people more prone than others to spirituality.

    * * *

    Because 6000 years ago, God “stretched” the heavens after/while creating them.

    Don’t you just love the Argument from Error in the King James Translation? Apparently “hammered out” would be better, the sky/heaven being a goulash cauldron and all.

    RogerS, btw, is still leaving droppings of ignorance and contempt in the “Ken Ham, baffled” thread.

    The last one is from Threadmas of all days…

    Ah, yeah, the precipise. The gross darkness is rather original, too.

    über mormon of renown, has been arrested for scamming a scammer. NuSkin, a well-known multi-level marketing scam, headquartered in Utah, was ripped off by Ms. Craig and cohorts.

    ROTFLMAO! :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D

    Week saved!

    “If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.”

    That’s true. However, if you stand for gullibility, you’ll also fall for anything.

    <Mr Burns’ hand gesture and grin, but without saying “excellent”>

    * * *

    *poke*

    :-)

    (…And in the parenthesis, I should have included that you seem to know a bit or three more about history-of-politics and economics than I, and not just from personal experience with the latter. :-þ )

    because…. well, just because.

    I can imagine a reason, but I’m not telling. Would be seriously embarrassing if I were wrong about that one.

    Anyway, I’ll end this day’s clumsiness and go to bed, even though it’s only 10:30 pm. I don’t sleep well these days, I think the birches and/or hazels have started to blossom; it’s also warm now – today it was warm enough for the famous white jacket, and stayed so even after I watched the cloud layer form in the early afternoon (it’s now raining). At least I got out a little… the sedentary lifestyle makes my legs hurt and even threatens to pad my middle (I might one day reach the modal European BMI if that goes on); I’ve hardly been hungry all week long.

  110. 'Tis Himself, OM says

    ‘Tis: part of my family* was down at the sub base there today and mentioned to me that they had tried unsuccessfully to find a good restaurant for lunch in New London. It’s too late now, but for future reference, are there any good places to eat there?

    New London itself doesn’t have any really good restaurants, at least none that I’ve found. Two towns to the east is Mystic, which has some great restaurants. I recommend the S&P Oyster House, the Captain Daniel Packer Inn, and the Seaman’s Inn (next to the Mystic Seaport) for seafood. Bravo Bravo is an excellent Italian restaurant but somewhat overpriced (except in winter, when their prices come down about 25%). Margarita’s is good if you like Mexican. There’s also Mystic Pizza, after which a movie was named, but there’s better and cheaper pizza available elsewhere (Ciro’s in Groton or Ocean Pizza in New London).

    Of all the local restaurants I like The Fisherman in Groton Long Point the best. But it’s easy to get lost going there if you’re not familiar with the area.

  111. Jadehawk, OM says

    (…And in the parenthesis, I should have included that you seem to know a bit or three more about history-of-politics and economics than I, and not just from personal experience with the latter. :-þ )

    that’s almost entirely from reading ‘Tis Himself, Knockgoats, SC, and various recommended literature.

    I’ve told you: everything I know I’ve learned on Pharyngula. :-p

  112. David Marjanović says

    (Shaker’s Law knows no exceptions.)

    Not going to happen to me! I choose the date… well, I’ll have to put a jury together and then write to the members for a date they can agree on. I have to submit the thesis till June 30th, but that’s a long time away.

    I won’t even have to resort to the next comic…

    This, however, is just beautiful.

  113. SC OM says

    Thanks, ‘Tis!

    Two towns to the east is Mystic,…

    Um, dude, I know Mystic. :)

    Of all the local restaurants I like The Fisherman in Groton Long Point the best. But it’s easy to get lost going there if you’re not familiar with the area.

    Never been. Shouldn’t be a problem with a GPS. BTW, what’s your email again?

  114. 'Tis Himself, OM says

    Most of the others are on a cruise in the area of the earthquake / possible tsunamis.

    A tsunami at sea isn’t too bad. It’s basically a long, high swell that a ship can easily ride over. It’s when the tsunami comes into shallow water that the wave builds and breaks.

  115. David Marjanović says

    and various recommended literature.

    See? :-) I’ve never managed to follow any such recommendation.

    One minute. You beat me by one minute. But I mentioned it in a better context.

    I’ll check it out (and go to bed). :-)

  118. Walton says

    ‘Tis Himself @#610: Your list of restaurants is making me hungry. :-(

    (I had a nice low-fat, healthy chicken korma for dinner, containing only 400 calories. Unfortunately, I now seem to be craving more food, perhaps as a substitute for sleep. I’ve been trying to keep my food intake within sane levels, but it’s hard to concentrate on studying when I keep getting hunger pangs.)

  119. Lynna, OM says

    SC @607: The high percentage of mormons on Dancing With the Stars is a fascinating cultural conundrum (I think Dancing with the Stars has a higher mormon component than So You Think You Can Dance, though both are heavily flavored with mormons). Ex-mormon Bob McCue speculates:

    Dogmatic religions tend to be conservative. That is, they resist most change. Mormonism exemplifies this. Each major change must be approved by 15 ancient, white males. This guarantees that evolution will proceed at glacial pace. Young people are only encouraged to innovate within the playing field established by institutional authority. This produces artistic prodigies like The Osmonds, and the occasional finalist on American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance.

    For more on McCue’s essay that ties narrow artistic tastes to communities steeped in dogma, see http://www.exmormon.org/mormon/mormon554.htm

    I think McCue is correct, but I would add a another factor: mormon networking skills. You get one or two successful mormons into an organization and they’ll bring fellow mormons on board. Let’s look at Julianne Hough and her brother Derek:

    Julianne Marie Hough was born on July 20, 1988, in Provo, Utah, and is one of five children. Julianne is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or Mormon Church. She is a professional ballroom dancer featured on the television show, Dancing with the Stars. Julianne won the competition her first year on the show, dancing with and coaching Apolo Anton Ohno, the Olympic speed skater….
         Julianne comes from a family of dancers. Her brother, Derek Hough, is also a dancer and is featured on Dancing with the Stars, and her parents and grandparents were competitive dancers. Julianne began her formal training at Center Stage Performing Arts Studio in Orem, Utah, which has also trained several finalists on So You Think You Can Dance. [source: http://www.mormonwiki.com/Julianne_Hough ]

    Note the prevalence of dance studios in Orem, Utah. Which brings us to one more factor: the dance studios seem to be unofficially approved by the Relief Society bigwigs (LDS women) and by the General Authority (LDS men), so, with few artistic outlets that are “godly”, more mormon kids are putting creative energy into dance and singing (within limits, of course). Once they succeed, the church bigwigs take the credit, or claim that LDS family life should get the credit.

    I’ve seen mormon blogs where Donny and Marie Osmond were taken to task for wearing costumes that were not compatible with mormon under garments, but for the most part famous mormons get away with breaking a few rules.

    I think Marie, and later Donny, Osmond ended up on Dancing With the Stars because Juilianne was there. They networked.

    Dancers like Julianne have to push the boundaries a little bit in order to make it to the top, even in a pop-culture-oriented genre. The result is always tension between the desire to succeed and the pressure to maintain a mormon-goodness facade. The favorite mormon interview for women is the one about remaining a virgin until they get married. In 2008, magazines were all over Julianne’s story:

    Dancing with the Stars’s Julianne Hough says that she has been tempted by the excess of Hollywood, but is sticking to her vow to remain a virgin until marriage. …
         “My dad, whom I’m very close with, will text me, ‘Are you doing the right things, in the right place, at the right time?'” she says. “And it’s usually when I’m someplace I shouldn’t be. So I’ll call him and say, ‘Thanks, I needed to hear that.'”
         “I tried to go out and mingle with people in the industry and date people, but I felt I was different than most of them,” she says. “I don’t drink, smoke or do drugs, so those things immediately separate me. It’s all very enticing, though.”…

    Julianne now shares an apartment with her live-in boyfriend, and Derek has been linked to many live-free-and-fast women, so there are no current “I’m a virgin” interviews that I can find.

  120. Lynna, OM says

    Uh-oh, I have to take that back about Julianne Hough living with boyfriend Chuck Wicks. Apparently they broke up last November and I missed it! I am, of course, mortified that I have not kept up the sex or non-sex life of Julianne.

  121. Jadehawk, OM says

    I am, of course, mortified that I have not kept up the sex or non-sex life of Julianne.

    as you should be! keeping up with the details of the private lives of all mormons is what we’re paying you for, after all! ;-)

  122. Lynna, OM says

    Favorite quote from mormon blog that discusses and judges the private life of Derek Hough: “He should ask himself, ‘What would Joseph Smith do?'”

  124. Lynna, OM says

    Our favorite mormon apostle of inanity spoke at Harvard yesterday. Elder Oaks at Harvard: Higher education marginalizes religion

    … Elder Oaks, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said, “My object is to illuminate several premises and ways of thinking that are at the root of some misunderstandings about our doctrine and practice.”
         Elder Oaks acknowledged that LDS doctrines and values are not widely understood by those not of the LDS faith, and said that his disappointment with that “is only slightly reduced” by research that shows “that on the subject of religion Americans in general are ‘deeply religious’ but ‘profoundly ignorant.'”
         Elder Oaks was introduced by Harvard law professor Mary Ann Glendon, the faculty adviser for the LDS student group (Harvard Law School does not have an LDS professor). Glendon is a devout Catholic and former U.S. ambassador to the Vatican.
         Elder Oaks said the higher education system was partly to blame for prevailing ignorance about many aspects of Christianity and other religions.
         “Many factors contribute to our people’s predominant shallowness on the subject of religion, but one of them is surely higher education’s general hostility or indifference to religion,” he said. “Despite most colleges’ and universities’ founding purpose to produce clergymen and to educate in the truths taught in their chapels, most have now abandoned their role of teaching religion.
         “With but few exceptions, colleges and universities have become value-free places where attitudes toward religion are neutral at best. Some faculty and administrators are powerful contributors to the forces that are driving religion to the margins of American society. Students and other religious people who believe in the living reality of God and moral absolutes are being marginalized.”
         “(I)t seems unrealistic to expect higher education as a whole to resume a major role in teaching moral values,” Elder Oaks said. “The academy can pretend to neutrality on questions of right and wrong, but society cannot survive on such neutrality.”…
         “We affirm that marriage is necessary for the accomplishment of God’s plan, to provide the approved setting for mortal birth and to prepare family members for eternal life.
         “There are many political, legal and social pressures for changes that de-emphasize the importance or change the definition of marriage, confuse gender or homogenize the differences between men and women that are essential to accomplish God’s great plan of happiness. Our eternal perspective sets us against such changes.”…
         Ben DeVan, a student at the Harvard Divinity School, asked Elder Oaks what made Mormon revelation different from revelation received by Muslim founder Muhammad and Mary Baker Eddy, founder of the Christian Science movement.
         “If you want to know, go to the ultimate source,” Oaks replied. “The answer to that question can only come from God himself. That’s what I encourage anyone who asks me about it. … I can’t promise when it will happen with anyone, but I can promise it will happen.”…

  125. Carlie says

    I had a nice low-fat, healthy chicken korma for dinner, containing only 400 calories. Unfortunately, I now seem to be craving more food, perhaps as a substitute for sleep.

    Possibly, or because that’s not nearly enough calories for a 20 year old male. Seriously, you shouldn’t be starving yourself for any reason if you can afford to eat. If you’re obsessed about your weight, just make sure whatever you eat is mostly nutrient-dense and go for walks. All that never eating enough to be satisfied will do is make your body hoard calories when it does get them and give you a really messed-up mental relationship with food. {/mom voice]

  126. Jadehawk, OM says

    former U.S. ambassador to the Vatican.

    didn’t even know such a thing existed…

    With but few exceptions, colleges and universities have become value-free places where attitudes toward religion are neutral at best.

    because tolerance, understanding, communication and desire for knowledge are not values *facepalm*

  127. Carlie says

    David – this was the first literal video. It’s fantastic. I went around singing “band montaaaaage” for days. Someone made a t-shirt.

    (Yes, I’m aware that personal nostalgia has a big role to play here.)

  128. SC OM says

    Lynna – Thanks! Far more information than I could’ve hoped for!

    ‘Tis:

    A tsunami at sea isn’t too bad. It’s basically a long, high swell that a ship can easily ride over. It’s when the tsunami comes into shallow water that the wave builds and breaks.

    Thanks. Of course, I spent time this afternoon googling things like “poseiden adventure possible.”

    :/

    Oh – another random question: Have you seen Masquerade (the one with Rob Lowe)? I always thought it was underrated, and never understood why it wasn’t on TV, but would be interested to know if competitive sailors laugh at it…

  129. SC OM says

    So typical:

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/philip-goldberg/religulous-dogma_b_477533.html

    Best response (in the comments), by PalmPete:

    You have told us what you don’t believe in, and it seems you are closer to atheism than christianity.
    Try telling a christian fundamentalist your views and you will be damned as an apostate.

    You have told us what you don’t believe in, but you have not said what you do believe in.
    This is a regular response to Hitchens and Dawkins “Thats not my god they’re talking about”

    Tell us what you do believe, present the evidence that supports your belief and then maybe it can be discussed and compared to other positions. We could then decide wether, or no, the atheists criticisms apply to yourbeliefs. At the moment there is insufficent information to make any discussion worthwhile.

  130. SC OM says

    Stephanie Z., historical ignoramus and all-around idiot (we’re not talking about workers at a capitalist firm but volunteers at a nonprofit):

    Pierce, even in union negotiations, the staff doesn’t get to determine who management is. It’s never on the table.

    Posted by: Stephanie Z | February 27, 2010 6:16 PM

  131. windy says

    A review of Religulous? Way to stay current, PuffPo. But I shouldn’t complain, I’m only watching Flock of Dodos for the first time now…

  132. Sven DiMilo says

    Flock of Dodos

    meh

    Sgt. Z should read the interesting Notebook column in Harper’s this month about the German system of works councils and co-determined boards. Very interesting indeed.

  134. Alan B says

    #614 ‘Tis Himself, OM

    I agree with your main point about boats in deep water. The waves are barely noticeable, especially as the wavelength from crest to crest is timed in minutes or hours.

    Wind-generated waves usually have period (time between two successive waves) of five to twenty seconds and a wavelength of 100 to 200 meters. A tsunami can have a period in the range of ten minutes to two hours and wavelengths greater than 500 km.

    source:
    http://www.tulane.edu/~sanelson/geol204/tsunami.htm

    When you are closer to land, even if you escape the building and breaking waves, you may well have unexpected problems with strong currents from the unusual build-up and drop of water levels. You could also have debris to contend with that has been washed off the land.

    Small boat + big tree torn off the land by vigorous currents = problems!

  135. Alan B says

    Last thing I heard was tsunamis from the Chile earthquake were a bit of a damp squib – nothing seen at Hawaii around the expected time.

    I’m to bed – there’ll be more tomorrow, no doubt.

  136. Rorschach says

    Walton, 400 calories is not enough for a guy studying all day.If you eat and know you will be studying or working out after your meal, I suggest to at least add enough vegetables to your meal to make you feel full, or small amount rice/potatoes/pasta( what east-germans used to call Saettigungsbeilage),alternatively a protein drink or jogurt, because otherwise your body will burn muscle to make energy.

  137. Lynna, OM says

    Lynna – Thanks! Far more information than I could’ve hoped for!

    Yeah, my brothers say you have to be careful about asking me questions. I might answer. :-)

  138. SC OM says

    what east-germans used to call Saettigungsbeilage

    Unfortunately, calling it that aloud burns off the calories in question.

  139. Antiochus Epiphanes says

    Yeah, Walton. FFS just eat a damn sandwich or something. I’m on a liquid diet sometimes for a week or ten days at a time, and I can find ways to get more than 400 calories a day.

  141. Antiochus Epiphanes says

    OK–While I’m thinking of Walton studying and DM with his upcoming defense, I’m feeling all kinds of nostalgic. The awesomest, craziest 6 months of my life was just prior to my defense. There is nothing so wonderful as being obsessed with a project and working every day on it until your brain gives out–food in mouth, 4-6 hours of sleeping like the dead, and back at it as soon as the old brain comes back online. I hadn’t had a television through the rest of my grad career (or actually, really since I was fledged from the parental nest), but if you need to turn that brain off for forty-winks, nothing will do the trick better than late night TV–someone gave me one ~4 months before my defense and it did wonders getting me to sleep. . A few years later, I’m all familied up, and if I tried that shit again, I am reasonably sure that they would leave my strange ass.

  142. Rorschach says

    I’m trying to find an english therm that best describes Saettigungsbeilage, essentially it means something down the line of “something you add to your plate only to make you * “.

    Where * signifies the fact that there doesn’t seem to be a word in the english language other than “full” that says “my stomach is filled to the point that I am not hungry anymore” .

    The awesomest, craziest 6 months of my life was just prior to my defense

    What’s a defense ?
    And this retro in pink view of your past lifetime is quite common, to me it just always feels as if any time was better then the now….:-)

  146. boygenius says

    Where * signifies the fact that there doesn’t seem to be a word in the english language other than “full” that says “my stomach is filled to the point that I am not hungry anymore” .

    Satiated?

  152. Jadehawk, OM says

    I made a chicken pot pie for dinner today. it was tasty, but I think I’m gonna explode…

  155. https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawncr0FDc8gdl7yJBz0SJ15D0etcTIOtL0s says

    Nah, Sven, I’m here, catching up on the Mormon gossip. I have no idea why I

    Hey! I just heard a barn owl! Too cool!

    um, why I find it so entertaining, but I do. Maybe it’s because I spent 16 years in Catholic school and believed with all my heart until I didn’t anymore, and somehow it’s good to hear that there are other ways of stupidifying oneself. Or maybe it’s like IDing roadkill. Anyway. Thanks, Lynna.

    Utah used to say that the most radical thing in the world is a long memory. That tat on his arm is a locomotive, btw. If it wasn’t “Moose Turd Pie” that I linked, go find it. I’m too crosseyed to make links just now.

    Walton, ferfucksake eat some food. You’re what, 20? You need low-fat chow? Hmm. I can bear witness, as an old night nurse, that not sleeping makes you want to eat. You don’t have to sleep at night, but you do have to sleep.

    Here, some crossover pop.

  157. Rorschach says

    Sorry, but I had a Cricket game to watch ! Australia lost to New Zealand by a whisker in a real nailbiter, game was tied after 20 overs each, and a “Super over” decided.

    I made a chicken pot pie for dinner today.

    I don’t know what that is, but you have obviously been assimilated into the american food culture !! Although I have to say my few attempts at cooking german, or even just carb/veg/meat or fish, for ex were not received very enthusiastically either.

  158. Jadehawk, OM says

    I don’t know what that is, but you have obviously been assimilated into the american food culture !!

    I assimilate recipes from every culture I can get my hands on. and there’s nothing wrong with traditional american food culture (mmmm…. clam chowder… cornbread… philly cheese steak… but I digress), it’s the fact that it’s a dying culture that’s the problem. Americans are shooting themselves in the foot with their disregard for their own cultural heritage.

    first attempt at a chicken pot pie ever, and it turned out pretty well. it’s basically a shell of fluffy dough filled with chicken, thick sauce, and veggies, baked in the oven. yumyum.

  159. Jadehawk, OM says

    oh yeah, and my own food heritage is polish, not german. i can’t think of a single traditionally german food that I know how to make…

  160. Rorschach says

    I assimilate recipes from every culture I can get my hands on.

    That’s pretty easy down here in a country with immigrants from every corner of the globe, and I do it all the time, but then, I love cooking !
    But when I’m sick or hungover or in a bad mood, it’s back to Huehnerfrikassee, Kartoffel-Lauch Auflauf and Zwiebelkuchen !

    ;)

  161. Jadehawk, OM says

    But when I’m sick or hungover or in a bad mood…

    chicken soup; the worlds only true comfort food.

  162. llewelly says

    Knockgoats | February 27, 2010 11:01 AM:

    And people who are successful seek to pass on to their children whatever advantages they have gained in life. – Walton

    What a narrow view of humanity you have, Walton!

    With regard to material advantages, whether I leave anything to him is really not important to me, provided (as I hope), he’s by then a productive member of society being reasonably recompensed for what he does.

    I have put in bold the most important advantage a parent could hope to pass on to their children.

  163. Walton says

    For the avoidance of any concerns: I did, in fact, end up eating a large bowl of cereal before going to bed last night.

    On another note, I’m glad I’m not the only person who finds sports fans incomprehensible:

  164. Rorschach says

    Random quote currently displayed :

    Christianity did not destroy paganism; it adopted it. The Greek mind dying, came to a tranmigrated life in the theology and liturgy of the Church; the Greek language, having reigned for centuries over philosophy, became the vehicle of Christian literature and ritual; the Greek mysteries passed down into the impressive mystery of the Mass. Other pagan cultures contributed to the syncretist result. From Egypt came the ideas of a divine trinity, the Last Judgement, and a personal immortality of reward and punishment; from Egypt the adoration of the Mother and Child, and the mystic theosophy that made Neoplatonism and Gnosticism, and obscured the Christian creed; there, too, Christian moanasticism would find itsw exemplars and its source. From Phrygia came the worship of the Great Mother; from Syria the resurrection drama of Adonis; from Thrace, perhaps the cult of Dionysus, the dying and saving god. From Persia came millennarianism, the “ages of the world,” the “final conflagration,” the dualism of Satan and God, of Darkness and Light; already in the Forth Gospel Christ is the “Light shining in the darkness, and the darkness has never put it out.” The Mithraic ritual so closely resemled the eucharistic sacrifice of the Mass that Christian fathers charged the Devil with inventing these similarities to mislead frail minds. Christianity was the last great creation of the ancient pagan world.

    [Will and Ariel Durant, The Story of Civilization]

    I did, in fact, end up eating a large bowl of cereal before going to bed last night.

    *headdesk*

  165. windy says

    So, is it common for a band to thank the “troops” for being able to play? It’s a little distracting… I don’t see any connection to Vietnam, Walter.

  166. Aquaria says

    Americans are shooting themselves in the foot with their disregard for their own cultural heritage.

    What cultural heritage, especially with food? Nearly every major cuisine in the country that is edible comes from people who are, or recently were, disdained minorities. When they weren’t virtually wiped out, like the Native Americans.

    American cuisine before the big ethnic trends starting in the 50s/60s, was to cook (usually by boiling) until all flavor is a distant memory. There wasn’t much confidence around the spice cabinet, and it showed. Still does, in way too many parts of the country without heavy ethnic/minority influences.

    So actually, on the food level, America has done itself a favor by rejecting its WASP culture heritage and embracing ethnic diversity. Even small cities like Tyler have

  167. Aquaria says

    Ugh–this stupid Macbook. I don’t know how it sent that, but it did.

    Anyway, small cities like Tyler offer a selection of ethnic restaurants: Chinese, Italian (to them that’s ethnic), Thai, Mexican, and Cajun restaurants to go with the fish fry, Southern, BBQ and Steakhouse restaurants.

  168. boygenius says

    Ugh–this stupid Macbook. I don’t know how it sent that, but it did.

    Aquaria, I wouldn’t blame your Macbook. I think The Thread cut you off because you were comment #666. The Thread has become cognizant. The Thread is on It’s way to becoming prescient. The Thread is striving for omnipotence.

    Plus, The Thread feels neglected by the pitiful number of comments offered up over the last 8 hours. (The Thread can be petulant when It feels slighted.)

  169. Aquaria says

    I don’t get it, either, Walton.

    I moved to San Antonio in 1999, only a few days after the playoff win that featured what locals call “.” IOW–the city had just exploded into full-blown, out of its mind Spurs mania. Fans rightly smelled a championship coming, and what ensued until the victory parade at our famous Riverwalk (where the floats really do float!) was an orgy of sports crazy, citywide.

    It would take me all day to list the surreal things I saw then, but I’ll mention only my all-time favorite Spurs nuttiness: The Honda Civic with a bajillion Spurs stickers and flags and FSM knows what else that you’d usually see on a fan’s car. What distinguished it from the others was that it had a stuffed gorilla as big as the car tied to the roof–and wearing Spurs gear.

    Just thinking about that one still makes me crack up.

  170. SC OM says

    Hate groups in the White House!*

    http://scienceblogs.com/effectmeasure/2010/02/freethinker_sunday_sermonette_194.php

    What cultural heritage, especially with food? Nearly every major cuisine in the country that is edible comes from people who are, or recently were, disdained minorities. When they weren’t virtually wiped out, like the Native Americans.

    American cuisine before the big ethnic trends starting in the 50s/60s, was to cook (usually by boiling) until all flavor is a distant memory. There wasn’t much confidence around the spice cabinet, and it showed.

    This is wrong. Here in New England we have a long tradition of regional cooking in addition to great additions and influences from immigrants from around the world (which began long before the 1950s). There are numerous cookbooks available attesting to this.

    *(according to Bill Donohue)

  171. Dania says

    chicken soup; the worlds only true comfort food.

    Yes, and one of the few foods containing chicken that I don’t like. :S

    That’s why my preferred comfort food for when I’m feeling sick is my mom’s cod soup (rice, cod, peas, onion…). It’s her chicken soup substitute for people who don’t like chicken soup (i.e., me), and I love it.

  172. David Marjanović says

    Walton, eat. Your brain is burning sugar at a phenomenal rate, so you need more.

    One way to provide more sugar for the brain is to supply the rest of the body with fat to burn instead (fatty acids somehow don’t get through the blood-brain barrier). If you’re thin like me, worrying about low-fat food is ridiculous at best and clinical anorexia at worst.

    Find out what “sane levels of calorie intake” are by experiment.

    Eat, eat till you’re no longer hungry.

    (Then, however, don’t force yourself to continue. On the other hand, if you get hungry again, just resume eating – the Western cultural convention of having everything clumped into just 3 meals a day is not really healthy anyway.)

    …And just for the record, I’m hungry right now (surprising as that is after what I just wrote yesterday) and will start to cook as soon as I can peel myself off the computer.

    While I am at it, I think I finally found out why my… biceps… bicipites are at all visible even though I’m not getting any exercise other than walking and running (they’re still small, but a bit larger than I’d expect from there simply not being any fat above them): it must come from holding the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology to my eye level up to 4 times a day, up to 10 minutes in a row (in the Métro). One issue has, like, 370 pages; it’s almost A4 format (probably it’s US Letter), and the paper is shiny and heavy. X-D

    Favorite quote from mormon blog that discusses and judges the private life of Derek Hough: “He should ask himself, ‘What would Joseph Smith do?'”

    Well, what would he do? He’d marry them all where they stand, and quickly proceed to the marital duties. Wouldn’t he.

    David – this was the first literal video. It’s fantastic. I went around singing “band montaaaaage” for days.

    :-D I can imagine!

    Unfortunately, calling it that aloud burns off the calories in question.

    ROTFL!

    So true, so true… It’s either communist bureaucratic terminology or a parody thereof (Poe’s Law applies).

    The awesomest, craziest 6 months of my life was just prior to my defense. There is nothing so wonderful as being obsessed with a project and working every day on it until your brain gives out–

    Won’t happen to me. I have to submit the finished thesis long before the defense, so that the jury members can read it all and so that the two bureaucracies can keep up.

    Satiated?

    Yes, except that that’s not what anyone ever says. It’s almost a technical term. Satt is an everyday word.

    Huehnerfrikassee,

    Sounds edible…

    Kartoffel-Lauch[-]Auflauf

    Perversion. Out of potatoes and leek, you can make a blended soup, but not a… sautée is probably exaggerated…

    and Zwiebelkuchen !

    Onion cake. No further comment necessary.

    (Austrian food is more like Czech and Silesian one. It’s not just the “separated by a common language” factor.)

    chicken soup; the worlds only true comfort food.

    :-)

    You should meet my grandmother. Even my bizarrely soup-o-phobic sister eats that chicken soup.

    :-D :-D :-D

    Pure genius.

    I did, in fact, end up eating a large bowl of cereal before going to bed last night.

    *headdesk*

    Seconded.

    So, is it common for a band to thank the “troops” for being able to play? It’s a little distracting… I don’t see any connection to Vietnam, Walter.

    Wrong thread. I think you’re using an RSS reader. :->

    Nearly every major cuisine in the country that is edible comes from people who are, or recently were, disdained minorities.

    Wiener Schnitzel comes from upperclass Renaissance cuisine from Milan. In fact, the difference between the medieval cuisine of Europe (which survives in England) and the later one is more or less entirely due the innovative Milanese upperclass, Catarina de’ Medici in particular (because she married the king of France).

    Yes, and one of the few foods containing chicken that I don’t like. :S

    Yet another invitation to my grandmother’s.

  173. David Marjanović says

    It’s not just the “separated by a common language” factor

    …that distinguishes Germany and Austria, I mean.

  174. windy says

    Wrong thread. I think you’re using an RSS reader. :->

    No and no… Are you implying that comments in the Thread can be off topic? Heretic!

  175. Walton says

    If you’re thin like me, worrying about low-fat food is ridiculous at best and clinical anorexia at worst.

    I’m not that thin: when I most recently weighed myself, I was about 62 kg (at 1.72 metres height), which is a BMI of about 20-21, putting me right in the middle of the “healthy weight” range. That was about a month ago, and I’m not sure if my weight has changed.

    But what worries me is the difference in my exercise levels. During the holidays, when I’m at home, I go to the gym at least four times a week, run several km. a week on the treadmill, and do some intensive weight training. By contrast, during this term, I’ve been so busy that I’ve barely been going to the gym at all, and have basically stopped weight-training altogether. This week, I haven’t been to the gym since Monday (and it’s now Sunday), and have been doing no exercise other than walking to various places.

  176. Walton says

    I now seem to be inadvertently abusing the endless thread as a combination of a running commentary of my life, a therapy session, and a fitness advice centre. :-

  177. Dania says

    By contrast, during this term, I’ve been so busy

    And if you don’t eat enough, you’re just going to feel even more exhausted. You may be exercising less, but your brain needs energy too. David is right: eat whenever you’re hungry… and till you’re no longer hungry.

  178. Aquaria says

    This is wrong. Here in New England we have a long tradition of regional cooking in addition to great additions and influences from immigrants from around the world (which began long before the 1950s). There are numerous cookbooks available attesting to this.

    New England–or Boston?

    And when did New England = all of America?

    Cuisine was bad in most of America, because most of America didn’t live in or near cities to enjoy their enormous ethnic diversity before the 40s/50s. That has changed, and to the better.

    If you look at the average person’s cookbooks, not the gourmet fare, they’re stuffed to the rafters with exceedingly boring American “classics,” and pathetic attempts at European cuisine. You won’t find burritos in there. You won’t find Stir-fry. You won’t find sofrito.

    I’ve inherited or bought a lot of these plain-jane cookbooks of the 50s–Betty Crocker, Pillsbury, Better Homes & Gardens. You just don’t find much variety in them. Now are there small-print books that did well? Sure. But not as well as these, the books that most of the average women used.

    Wiener Schnitzel comes from upperclass Renaissance cuisine from Milan. In fact, the difference between the medieval cuisine of Europe (which survives in England) and the later one is more or less entirely due the innovative Milanese upperclass, Catarina de’ Medici in particular (because she married the king of France).

    You’d be amazed at how many Americans think of a hot dog when you say Wiener Schnitzel, not a dish of breaded veal.

  179. Lynna, OM says

    From SC’s link @670, in which people like Bill Donahue are complaining that President Obama had the effrontery to actually invite secularists to the White House:

    For the period April 2001 through June 2006, Focus on the Family Founder and Chairman Emeritus James Dobson visited the White House 24 times; 10 of those visits were to President Bush.
         Andrea Lafferty, Executive Director of the Traditional Values Coalition, made an astonishing 50 visits to the White House starting on February 1, 2001, and continuing through March 16, 2008. Six of those visits were to President Bush.
         The late Jerry Falwell, of Jerry Falwell Ministries, made eight visits to the White House between May 2001 and September 2004. Three of those visits were to President Bush.

  180. Matt Penfold says

    Walton,

    To add to what others have said, there is research that shows that learning ability is degraded when the brain does not have sufficient energy. Further, it seems that one is not always aware that this is the case.

    So the answer is clear. When studying make sure you eat enough. Take regular breaks to take on food – taking breaks is a good idea anyway for a number of other reason. Even have Mars Bar to keep you going.

  182. David Marjanović says

    Are you implying that comments in the Thread can be off topic? Heretic!

    <cowering in corner and whimpering>

    But what worries me is the difference in my exercise levels. During the holidays, when I’m at home, I go to the gym at least four times a week, run several km. a week on the treadmill, and do some intensive weight training.

    Man. If that is the case, you have an immense muscle mass*, which means your BMI is completely misleading – that extra weight you’re carrying around isn’t fat, it’s muscle! And you’ll lose it if you don’t get enough carbohydrates.

    * I really need to stop comparing you to myself. Looks like you’re more like Timothy… whatever, the actor of the latest Spiderman films.

    I now seem to be inadvertently abusing the endless thread as a combination of a running commentary of my life, a therapy session, and a fitness advice centre. :-

    :-)

    If we don’t do that for you, who will? :-)

    You’d be amazed at how many Americans think of a hot dog when you say Wiener Schnitzel, not a dish of breaded veal.

    Ah, so they think of Wiener Würstchen, the sausages that are called Frankfurter in Austria. (They were invented in one place by a butcher named after the other place.)

    (BTW, it’s usually pork. Veal is expensive, except apparently in France, where the cafeteria buries us in it. O_o )

  184. Matt Penfold says

    Just not a deep-fried one X-D

    I have been in Fish and Chip shops where they were on sale, but have never had the courage (been stupid. (or drunk) enough/valued my arteries to much) to try one.

  185. Lynna, OM says

    Richard Dawkins has gone to the trouble of designing a test for homeopathic medicines. His proposed test is in response to the press coverage of a report issued by The British House of Commons Select Committee on Science and Technology — a report on homeopathy, recommending that “The Government should stop allowing the funding of homeopathy on the [National Health Service].” Dawkins’ purpose is to encourage that the recommendations of the report be adopted. He gives contact info so people can write, and he proposes dealing a final blow to homeopathy. Scroll down to “Here’s my experimental design” to see the test: http://www.richarddawkins.net/articles/5139

    The experiment I have proposed is not technically difficult, and it wouldn’t cost very much money, as medical research goes. Prince Charles, whose backing of homeopathy has greatly helped it to achieve the degree of respectability that it enjoys in Britain, including NHS support, could easily afford to fund the research. He should do so. Nothing in the experiment I have described violates his preference for a ‘holistic’ approach to medicine. On the contrary, my design bends over backwards to accommodate it, even allowing the treatment prescribed to every patient to be uniquely tailored to that individual.

  186. Walton says

    Man. If that is the case, you have an immense muscle mass*, which means your BMI is completely misleading – that extra weight you’re carrying around isn’t fat, it’s muscle! And you’ll lose it if you don’t get enough carbohydrates.

    Well, I possibly created an exaggerated impression when I said “intensive” weight-training. I don’t particularly have lots of muscle mass – my upper body strength is really not that great – and I’ve certainly lost quite a bit over the last month or so. But yes, my body fat is, I suspect, fairly low as a proportion of my overall weight (though this is an educated guess, as I haven’t had it measured recently).

  188. Lynna, OM says

    Walton, I agree with David M. that the habit of eating just three times per day, at set times, is not the best plan for your body. It’s better to eat about five small meals. And younger men may need to add snacks to the five-meal regimen.

  191. Lynna, OM says

    Ex-mormon “Cricket” redefines some mormon terms:

    Uma and Thurman : The device through which Joseph Smith received the revelation to kill William “Bill” Law with a flaming sword and fulfill the law of Blood Atonement.
         Tithing Sediment: LDS Church funds used to built the City Creek Mall on a major geological fault line in Salt Lake City.
         Ther-MO-dynamics: 1. (from the Reformed Egytpian, therme, meaning “heat in the bosom” and, dunamis, meaning “power in the priesthood”) is a splinter group of philosophy and of religion that reveals the effects of changes in doctrine, peer pressure, and volume of hot air at the general conference scale by analyzing the collective motion of their particles of faith using statistics. 2. The total entropy of any isolated cult system tends to increase over time, approaching a maximum value as evidenced by the aging gero-theocracy of its governing body.
         Testimonium: Most basic and common of all elements composing the planet Kolob. Mormon male sex hormone

  192. Walton says

    @#690: Please, please, please let’s not get into an animal rights argument. Please. My poor brain can’t handle it right now. :-)

  193. Matt Penfold says

    Sven @687: very nice portcullis!

    I have always been rather taken with idea of murder holes you find in castle gates protected by a pair (or more, I know of one Castle that had five portcullis in one gate). Suffice to say anyone making the mistake of attacking the main gate was going to have a bad day.

  194. Nerd of Redhead, OM says

    The many small meals is also recommended for us older folks. The small meal may only be piece of jello with fruit, or more of a snack.

  195. SC OM says

    New England–or Boston?

    New England.

    And when did New England = all of America?

    You’re the one who referred to “American cuisine before the big ethnic trends starting in the 50s/60s.” This ignores local/regional cuisines completely. They are part of “American cuisine.” They have also been influenced by immigrants and world trade for centuries.

    Cuisine was bad in most of America,

    Evidence?

    because most of America didn’t live in or near cities to enjoy their enormous ethnic diversity before the 40s/50s. That has changed, and to the better.

    In fact, 50% of the US population lived in cities by 1920. And there are of course immigrant populations outside of cities. And there are local cooking traditions outside of cities.

    If you look at the average person’s cookbooks, not the gourmet fare, they’re stuffed to the rafters with exceedingly boring American “classics,” and pathetic attempts at European cuisine.

    Who is “the average person”?

    [Incidentally, I was arguing with a friend of mine once when he was sneering at the alleged lack of a culinary tradition in the US. He started listing urban chefs who were coming in and shaking things up, including David Bouley. I informed him that Bouley is from eastern Connecticut and was most powerfully influenced by her:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adelma_Simmons

    and her rural herb farm.]

  197. Sili says

    Mmmmmm… buried in veal. Delicious, maltreated dead baby cow.

    Well, duh!

    Only human babbies are supposed to be eaten alive.

    But, yeah, wienerschnitzel = pork. Though I was just informed that I’ve been eatin’ it rong. No horseraddish or capers – and I’ve prolly forgotten a coupa other garnishes.

  199. Antiochus Epiphanes says

    Aquaria–Respectfully, discounting Native American foods, all other American cuisine is historically chimeric…blends of immigrant cuisines using local ingredients. Think of the creole dishes of Nawlins and Galveston as good examples. Or Tex-Mex, NY vs. Chicago style Pizza, KC, Memphis, NC, Tex style barbeque, the cheese-steak, soul food, buffalo wings or pasties, or…blah, blah, blah. Just because these recipes were not in the Betty Crocker pantheon, doesn’t mean that people weren’t eating them.

  200. Sven DiMilo says

    When I hear “Wiener” I think of hot dogs, but made the way my mom used to sometimes, slit lengthwise and stuffed with cheese.

    When I hear “Frankfurter” I think of the SCOTUS.

    When I hear “Danish” I think of women’s curling.
    Recently, anyway.

  201. SC OM says

    I’ve inherited or bought a lot of these plain-jane cookbooks of the 50s

    I guess no one cooked before the ’50s.