It seems the latest topic in the immortal thread is underwear, so here you go, more underwear. The ladies and the gay men may enjoy this video, the rest of us…well, smile and buck up over your temporary objectification.
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
Backing up from the trainwrecked comment thread-o’-idiots, what about SK’s OP? “The Value of Science Blogs?”?
The first question to answer would be “WTF is a ‘Science Blog’?”
Take this one. (Please.)(ba-dump chhhhh) Back in the day, this was PZ’s personal blog. He teaches and does science, so some of the time he blogged about science, but it was never, ever advertised as a Science Blog. Once the Seed overlords set up the Borg, and PZ was one of the first 5 or 6 to be assimilated, it was Seed who put it all under the rubric of ‘ScenceBlogs’, not PZ. His blog has remained his personal blog, and it got labeled as a ‘Science Blog’ by somebody else.
So what exactly are these Science Blogs we are supposed to question the value of? Isis? Brayton? The librarians? Really, the only blogs I look at much that are all science all the time are Tet Zoo and Ed Yong. And they are great–but that doesn’t mean everyone who is a scientist or is interested in science has to follow those particular templates.
Yo, Ms. Kirshenbaum: Pharyngula is what it is, and that’s what it always has been (but now it’s a lot bigger). If it doesn’t fit your cookie-cutter notion of a Proper Science Blog, then don’t call it one.
*shrug*
problem solved
OOH, we made it!
Something’s been nudging my memory and I finally found it. Over a year ago PZ had a thread Open season on fresh meat where he wrote:
Bilbo et al don’t understand the concept and refuse to understand the concept. Fortunately, the regulars here do understand the concept and abide by it.
Or maybe we didn’t, by 1.
She drops in once a month or so to check on things. I think I can safely speak for most of the regulars when I say we wish she would post more often.
I used to have to log the date/timestamp for every 100th comment, but with these last few subThreads there’s no point…a stright line between first and last comments looks exactly the same.
JefferyD, I send you my condolences.
Yeah!!!! B-)
(To be sure, if a guy is to be hairy, I perfer it if it fits his body well. I perfer the rugged look, which means there will be some chest hair usually.)
I’m not accustomed to doing that so I wouldn’t know, but I’m told there could be danger.
I can drink 12 stubbies and still talk about
footballphilosophyastroturf !Gyeong Hwa Pak! Thanks so much :D
I don’t know if I want to link to either my crappy under-used blog or my five years out of date website that I threw up in a weekend and then never properly worked on, or even my garageband which I just noticed has stuff on it I… don’t remember why I thought would be a good idea to put up. I’m embarrassed by my terrible web presence!
What’s a post amongst friends. You did it. So it ain’t bragging (besides, the eternal thread needs some competition).
Eww. I write about such gross things.
From now on, you’re gonna see a new Brownian. Yessiree, from this point on it’s all gonna be puppies and “Thank you ma’ams”. After all, this is a ScienceBlog. Why, whatever would the Queen think if she were to stumble upon this place, what with its copulating cephalopods, genitalia-resembling blossoms, and gratuitous use of those colourful words the proles are so fond of?
?
And Etha Williams! Came out of nowhere, immediately got a Molly, and disappeared into nowhere. :-(
btw, that was 31K you saw rocketing out of sight in the rearview up there.
31228
Broken Soldier
yup. Josh the Airborne Geologist seems to have disappeared as well.
Brownian, OM #511
You forgot “slam, bam,” in that phrase.
What I’m talking about is BBQ places not even really smoking their meat and just relying on sauce and “fake smoke”.
oh yeah, those places die out quick where I used to be from.
I know how the places that last do it, the exact smoker to order to process the right amounts of meat, etc.
just sayin… if you ever get that urge…
I would find it an interesting diversion, and it probably wouldn’t be too hard to get the funds to set one up down here.
I still say David looks better than me, but I managed to dig up the second cover of Crystallography News featuring me.
Don’t think I wasn’t thinking about it today when me, Mr. sole IT guy was not only fighting with the finance department about renewing our Tivoli service contract with IBM but also dealing with an end user who unplugged their printer and couldn’t figure out why it wouldn’t print… their kids baseball schedule.
sigh
Why don’t you just free them, good sir?
I am not foreign to making idiotic remarks on the web.
Paul W. #499 wrote:
Yes; saw that, and (like many of your posts) copied it. You are very, very good at explicating the position(s) of the so-called New Atheism. Much kudos.
A few months back in a coffee shop conversation I found that it’s possible to be uncivil, charge into an argument, shred your opponent, and be rude as hell to a fraud — while simultaneously being excruciatingly polite, kind, gentle, and good-humored. Nary a single swear word, or insult — ’twas laced with flattery, reassurance, and genuine respect. And no mercy.
Damn, that was fun.
/evil
For anyone playing at home, Mooney still hasn’t added “Templeton Fellow” in any place on his intro blurb or longer bio at the Intersection. Having his cake and eating it too? He could at least openly parade his association, instead of trying to bury it in one blog post (even Kirshenbaum’s followup didn’t contain the word “Templeton”, they’re really trying to hope people forget it).
Also, there’s a notable lack of bridge-building in his guest choices for Point of Inquiry. I suppose I shouldn’t complain as I haven’t been listening, but it’s worth noting when a person doesn’t take their own advice.
Sili, how do we find you on that cover? The red or green shirt under a jacket perhaps?
@Rev. BDC, 515:
Yes! Where is that guy? He was a really insightful commenter, and I miss his posts. Hope he’s OK.
sigh
is that your stuff?
I’ll take a gander later.
here, shoot me an email just in case…
fisheyephotosAThotmailDOTcom
You evil people made me reread that whole thread just then, and I should be asleep !
Fully immersed in classical music these days.
Isn’t that what is commonly called “British English” ?
Cricket commenter : “He’ll be disappointed with that shot” .
Translation : “What utter rubbish that shot was ” .
;)
Sastra,
Will take this opportunity to confess that, at times when I’m trying to keep from flying off the handle in a comment my motto is ‘What Would Sastra Say?’ – and I like to think I applied that quite well (for me) in my posts over on Whiny Pissant Central (aka The Intersection).
Here’s an increasingly infrequent update on teh Thread.
commenting continues apace
The last posts on his blog appear from last October. It would be nice to know he is OK.
If you Google “etha williams”, she appears to have a facebook page and Amazon profile for music. Since it mentions music and UChi., I presume it is our OM.
@ Wowbagger OM #528
Ah, thanks. I think I’ve figured out my underlying strategy: to argue the strong, no-holds-barred New Atheist position — using the Accomodationist style. If nothing else, it really seems to mess with their heads.
The situation I referred to above involved a new member of our usual coffee group directly challenging me on a particular issue, even putting out her hand to shake on an agreement to debate. Topic: “Therapeutic Touch and Energy Healing was based in good science, and now accepted by the mainstream of scientists.”
Not even that it worked, mind you. But that it was scientific.
(She happened to be a professional energy healer, with ‘training’ and clients. For animals. A self-styled “Pet Whisperer.”)
Bambi vs. Godzilla. Really.
About half an hour later, someone shut it down with “why don’t you both agree to disagree?” We ended with smiles, reassurances, and mutual expressions of pleasure that we’d had such an interesting conversation. We hugged. Said we looked forward to next week.
Four days later she sent out a looong group email declining to return, only because of Sastra — ripping into me with several pages worth of personal insults about how mean and vicious I was the worst person she had ever met and that includes the Fundamentalists. Close-minded. Rude. Hurtful. Boo hoo hoo hoo.
I responded by email explaining once again that I thought her a wise and caring person, who obviously helped so many people, but the evidence for the existence of ‘healing energy’ was simply too poor to accept, and it was likely that her sensitivity to animals was really at the heart of her ‘cures.’ And followed it up with the history of science, and its recognition of human cognitive errors. To twist the knife, I guess.
Cheezus f’in’ Christ.
Pet psychic.
No, it hurts.
That was also, incidentally, the first time I referred to this – one of my all-time favorite comments (don’t think I knew how to link to it back then):
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2008/06/judge_myers_presiding.php#comment-921538
Regarding the enjoyable trip into the past to visit the Judge Myers thread to which aratina cage linked at #431, I would like to note that I am not, most certainly not, “Lynnai” of comment #11 on that thread. Not even on the days when I am most afflicted with Rev BDC’s cooties do I commit that many spelling sins, nor do I use “then” when I mean “than”.
Patricia was in fine form on that thread.
Sastra, you’re the other side of the coin from truth machine.
Importantly, it’s the same coin.
:-)
David Marhanovic #535 wrote:
Hey, didn’t you once suggest that I was truth machine?
Not outright… :-)
Anyway, I’ll finally go to bed (half past 1 at night). See you all next subthread, I suppose.
I keep forgetting Jadehawk isn’t applying to grad school. Hard to believe.
It’s funny, though, to imagine her application, packed with gushing recommendation letters from like a dozen PhDs in diverse but relevant fields from here. Who else could have that? I smell scholarship.
:)
Re: Asilisaurus kongwe being named after Sili. If you go with the Bantu languages, A- as a prefix is the formal form (or plural, like vous in French. So maybe you can claim it after all!
@Dianne: I am swamped in paperwork in Canada, so I cannot begin to imagine the horror of having to negotiate every test. I feel for you.
I’m 34 years old. I think things peaked at 32, had a bit of a downswing for a year or so (which coincided with residency) and are on their way back up. Or I really hope so. It can’t be all downhill from here, can it?
Before I got up the nerve to comment on Pharyngula, it was Josh the broken soldier and geologist who often kept me coming back. I was really pleased to see him get a Molly Award. Here’s a little excerpt from his blog:
http://brokensoldier.blogsome.com/
I have no problem remembering my age.
I’m exactly the same age as:-
? I think you’re combining two separate people.
Sorry Lynna, Josh the geologist is not brokensoldier. Josh the geologist, IIRC, is army reserve, airborne or ranger, who might be in harms way at the moment (he never speaks of deployment, but his silence is deafening). Brokensoldier, IIRC, predated Josh the geologist, and is the person of your quote. I hope both are a well as they can be.
I keep forgetting Jadehawk isn’t applying to grad school. Hard to believe.
It’s funny, though, to imagine her application, packed with gushing recommendation letters from like a dozen PhDs in diverse but relevant fields from here. Who else could have that? I smell scholarship.
:)
And we do have a couple of state universities near her that offer graduate degrees in a number of fields….. :)
Sastra (#532)
Did you at least get a chance to point out theraputic touch was debunked by an eleven-year-old?
I’m a little older than Walton and just younger than ‘Tis.
Actually, I have the mind of someone 15 years younger than me, and the body of someone 15 years older. If only the reverse were true.
Caine #118: I’m one of those women who has very little body hair. I rarely shave my legs…
Tsssss. Lucky kid. I’m blonder on top than under, and my skin really resents razors.
Hey, I came of age before the invention of pantyhose. And I was (am) such a klutz that I stayed with an electric shaver until I gave the whole thing up.
When I had to quit my arborist gig and lost my ladder dents, I decided I’d compensate by shaving again and wearing shorts, knee-length skirts, like that. That was cool for a few years especially when I got a decent tan. I never did wear pantyhose, but did invest in a couple pairs of tights. They kinda got on my nerves.
Then I came into my inheritance of hypertension, got asthma a lot, got all blobby and fat-ankled, and gave up the shorts. I do have a bunch of long skirts, because a friend talked me into getting one for book-signings and talking to garden clubs. I figured if I’m ignoring gender conventions I might as well ignore them in all directions, and I’ve already got the long hair and dangly earrings. Got a big straw hat too.
Plus, the skirt I got (and wore out!) was three yards of sage-green gauze, and boy was it comfortable. Lots of good cheap clothing here, too, with secondhand stores and Tienda Ho!’s $20 rack and the like. My next quest is for an ankle-length muumuu in my size so I can be a proper Auntie. I can femme it up when I feeel like it, and no more shaving.
BTW, you want hawt? Red body hair on a guy. Mmmm-MMMh.
Ron Sullivan @ 547:
:D I love long dresses and skirts. I have many in my closet. I did turn 14 in 1971, and a whole lotta of people were wearing long dresses, so they’ve been pretty much a life-long love for me. I’m wearing one right now!
David Tennant has legs many women would kill for.
There seem to be a lot of Smiling Faces in peoples’ comments. But you know, sometimes…
Um, only if they’re dying to compete for Chicken Wing Legs With Least Meat, Lo-Fat(TM)!
After watching that video I was reminded of the title of a Tom Robbins’ novel: Skinny Legs and All.
A. Noyd #545 wrote:
Yes. Of course.
Her big piece of evidence, which she expected would bowl me right over, and the reason she initiated the entire debate? Some statement signed by a nursing organization.
I pointed out that nurses weren’t scientists, and there are a lot of problems with drawing conclusions from ‘clinical experience’ — and why. The pseudoscience infiltrating the nursing profession was well known; but scientific disputes are not resolved by considering popularity.
The weird thing was, I knew this woman already, from a Nia class I’d taken. Back then, she had been telling all of us about some “experiment” she’d seen done in Madison involving nice words and bad words on glasses of water filled with crystals (this is the Emoto nonsense ala What the Bleep Do We Know, and I was familiar with it.)
When I mentioned that such evidence ought to win a Nobel Prize — and yet these folks could apparently do this at will, and had shifted no paradigms — (didn’t she find this fishy?) — she started up with scientists being in some close-minded cabal where no amount of evidence would change them (except for Brave Mavericks on the Cutting Edge, and people like her.)
It’s no surprise to find that the apologetics of the religious, are eerily similar to the apologetics of the paranormalists, right down to the cries of persecution, and the attempts to shift the argument away from the subject matter, and towards personalities, style, and tone.
Being “open minded” is not about what you believe. It’s about how you hold the belief, and how you handle dissent: do you meet criticism, or find ways to duck out of it? I asked her if she could be wrong, and she said “I know, what I know.” Meaning, no.
But skeptics and atheists are just like the fundamentalists.
Only, I’m meaner.
WATB.
In regard to all the talk about birthdays:
I just celebrated my 37th. Go me. And had a raucous good time of it, and intend to KEEP having a good time of it for at least a few years to come. I can, to a degree, understand the trepidation about hitting the big 30. It fucked with my head for a while. So did 35. But I’m just here to tell ya, there IS life after 30. ;)
KJ
Is it too late to talk underwear more? ’cause I was seriously struck by Aratina Cage of the OM’s description of folding underwear in half, and half again, and using the elastic waistband to roll it into a little tube. I am all over the first part, but the latter? Brilliant!! Also, people sleep *without* underwear!!?? Even in the winter? Uh oh, am I repressed?? I fear that it is so! Except that I keep my upstairs downright chilly in the winter by keeping the heat vents closed. I need my layers . . . :)
Feynmaniac @ 549:
Not this woman. Skinny legs aren’t all that attractive. A man who had absolutely fabulous legs? Barry Bostwick. (See the Floor Show scene in Rocky Horror.)
#555
I sleep without underwear. Its extremely comfy. But then again, I’m one of those guys who wanders around his house in the nude in the morning. Sometimes I even eat breakfast in the nude. Which is a little weird. You have to be really careful not to dribble hot food on anything important. :(
KJ
re: exercise
I too feel down if I haven’t gone to the gym in a while. I find that listening to music while working out helps a lot.
I had to google to make sure it was the one I was remembering. So long ago. I loved the…object stories.
Testify! I keep the heat low (58 degrees at night), and I shut off the upstairs registers at night. Must have layers of quilts for New England Winter Sleeping. Underwear helps keep things warm, and helps one keep one’s bed clothing. . . acceptable.
ctenotrish @ 555:
Why yes, they do. I sleep nekkid, happily so, even in the winter. I keep the house on the chill side over winter too, to keep propane cost down. I have a featherbed and a down comforter which are snug and warm. Space heaters are a good thing.
KillJoy:
Happy Birthday!
From tonight’s Rachel Maddow:
For Psychic, Suit Came as a Surprise
Somehow, I can’t find it in myself to feel any sympathy for the people who got taken by this POS. Personally, I invested most of my money in booze, drugs, and loose women. The rest of it I wasted.
KillJoy, are you one of those walking spaceheater types? ’cause I am one to absorb heat from my surroundings, not one who generates much excess. :) Your type (if that is so) is super handy in the winter, you know . . .
Thank you, Nerd, for the correction. Arrggh. Embarrassed here.
Hee hee… excellent headline.
(/I still remember the jokes when whatserfraud running some TV psychic network went bankrupt… ‘What, they didn’t see that coming?’)
AJ, wasn’t that “Miss Cleo”? I remember that, she wasn’t so hot on the psychic ability when it came to fraud charges.
Josh, I am with you – that is about what my upstairs is. I love to be burrowed under the covers with just my nose sticking out! Caine, alas, I must live a feather-free existence ’cause of allergies. I do pretty well with synthetic, but I need a layer or two to be warm enough to fall asleep. And underwear. I am pretty sure I need underwear. Do I not need underwear? The mind boggles . . .
For FSM’s sake, what sort of nocturnal emissions are you “I wear underwear at night to keep the sheets clean” people having? I can understand the utilitarian purpose of wearing nightclothes to keep warm, but srsly.
I’ve slept in the nude for most of my 39 years (like my father and my father’s father before) without a problem*. Although, our respective definitions of “acceptable” may differ.
*Excepting one shameful incident in my hard partying youth where I shit the bed. Somehow I don’t think underwear would have made much difference.
@ctenotrish:
Josh, I am with you – that is about what my upstairs is. I love to be burrowed under the covers with just my nose sticking out!
Yep. Love the nippy air, all bundled down in my quilts!
ctenotrish @ 568:
Oh poor you. I have a friend who has the same allergy, and did some shopping with her for the allergen-free synthetics and was surprised at how expensive they are. I am seriously attached to my down comforter, winter sleeping would be a lot more difficult without it.
Ah yes, sounds right…
Good times. I like it when these jerks flame out nicely brightly, like a freakin’ bolide breaking up in the atmosphere before noisily flattening a good-sized hardwood forest in Siberia… Serves as such a great object lesson to anyone living through it and paying attention: yes, just ‘cos s/he’s on TV and insanely famous for the schtick doesn’t mean it’s not complete bullshit…
(/Now look ’round, anyone so noticing, and think about some other prominent self-styled mystics, including those in the nice old stone buildings downtown with crosses ‘n minarets on top… And now we’re getting somewhere.)
@boygenius:
Well, I don’t know about you, but some of us recognize that one. .sweats. . .and stuff. Has nothing to do with “nocturnal emissions” (oh, how I wish I could still have them!). Everything to do with keeping the sheets crisp, cool, and fresh-smelling.
I’m no prude when it comes to bodies and how they smell and stuff. As you’d see from other threads, I like my menz manly . . . grrr. Lol. But I do like crisp, clean cotton sheets.
Oh, boygenius, I almost aspirated a Reese’s Pieces . . . . Thanks for the visual! :)
Yep, nekkid sleeper too – except now that I sleep alone I have taken to wearing merino or cashmere socks. *sigh*
BTW, Patricia, please note my comment
Patricia @ 576:
I get that. My toes always seem to be cold, but I’ve tried wearing socks in bed, and it seems that not even two minutes later, I have to tear them off because my feets are too hot all of a sudden. It is much nicer to just be able to use a partner as a handy foot warmer.
Josh, I know you’re no prude, but I’m genuinely curious here. Are you wearing full top and bottom nightclothes or just briefs/boxers? How does covering up 10% of your surface area make a discernible difference in how often you have to launder the sheets? YMMV, but I don’t think my balls and buttocks sweat any more than the rest of me while I’m sleeping.
(And I’m with you on the nocturnal emission thing. I miss ’em.)
@boygenius:
Generally just boxer briefs. Any more clothes, and I get too hot and uncomfortable. Sometimes, nothing at all, actually (yes, in defiance of what I wrote earlier!)
It’s irrational, I know.
*blush*
To be honest though, whenever I’ve allowed myself the extravagance of thinking past just getting that damned Bachelor degree, I kept thinking that my only chance for admission anywhere would be to beg Pharynguloids for recommendations, since my own CV ain’t lookin’ too sniny. :-p
Fair enough!
I vow that this is the last comment I will post regarding underwear or shitting the bed.
maybe
When it comes right down to it I sleep when I can where I can.
But I so hate a draft. If I have my way I sleep in bedclothes and with sheets and a blanket. Even in summer. Even in Texas summer. Even in Dallas humidity. It just feels good and warm and snuggly.
I’m sort of the hot weather version of the people who keep their house at 60 degrees. In summer I leave it above 80 unless some one is coming over.
Ah… hot weather.
boygenius, I am pretty sure that we can always make space for underwear commentary. I’m just sayin’.
Josh, yes, love the burrowing! I suffer in the summer – just a sheet is bizarre . . .
Caine, I do have feather envy. Sigh. But I get along pretty well. Best thing about winter and a chilly house is the mounds of blankets under which I can curl up.
Is it TMI to say we both sleep nekkid, kinda glued together? Whatever the weather. Secret of a long and happy relationship, I suspect. Mmmmmm, skin.
Speaking of, no I mean of relationships—Peez, good Gub, you aren’t taking TW with you to OZ? I’m aghast. But I hear that’s a good place to get pearls, and 30th is the Pearl Anniversary… We went out and ate oysters.
Sometimes I even eat breakfast in the nude.
Never never nevernever NEVER fry bacon nude. Just warnin’.
Caine: I love long dresses and skirts.
I find I go through periods of wanting to dress up often and of not wanting to give a shit and stick to jeans and aloha shirts or sweatshirts. (Aloha shirts are religious garb. My religion is Aloha. Only it’s better than religion; it’s just Aloha.)
My underwear gripe? I can’t find cotton hi-cuts (“French” cuts) in my size anymore except for nasty old white granny things. I’ve lived through hip-huggers once, and I’m over them no matter how fashionable they are this time around, just for comfort. I got to like hi-cuts when I was gardening for a living because I could squat with getting Spontaneous Leg Tourniquet.
Oddly, the best source used to be Victoria’s Secret.
Let’s see: I don’t claim to be a role model (None Dare Call Me Role Model) but I’m 60 and majored in English Lit, did many odd jobs including retail, got CEQA training and went into nursing, burned out and went to hort school and gardened for a living (you can do that here; we garden all winter), apprenticed with a genius and did that arborist gig I talk about, got clobbered by asthma and fell into writing about gardening and enviro stuff and editing for a living. Now I find I’m burning out on writing.
What’s next? I haven’t the faintest notion.
@boygenius:
Sigh. See, you straight boys just don’t get it. You may continue to post about underwear, for that is titillating. You may not continue to post about your disgusting, infantile toilet habits.
That is not titillating. It is, in fact, disgusting. Is that clear enough, or do I need to start doling out spankings?
AJ Milne #572 wrote:
As I recall, there was a particularly satisfying denouement on the “Miss Cleo” scandal, when it came out that her name wasn’t Cleo, she didn’t believe she was psychic, and she wasn’t even Jamaican; she was an actress, and you could find clips of her on bit roles on TV, sans the famous accent. The defense was that it was all for “entertainment” and everyone should have known not to take her seriously. Right.
I knew someone who worked as a payed “psychic,” and admitted that ESP had nothing to do with it. But her defense was that she wasn’t defrauding people, because they were calling up with sad and sorry problems, and she was giving them good advice they’d listen to and follow because they thought it came from a magic place. These were poor people, she said, who couldn’t afford a therapist.
Of course, given that they were so freakin’ poor, I did wonder how they afforded the $3 a minute telephone charges (or whatever it was.) Plus, there’s the little matter of giving therapy without a license (though she insisted that most of the problems were no-brainers.)
She herself was freakin’ poor as well; she had incentive then to rationalize her crummy job.
Ron Sullivan @ 584:
I hear ya. If I’m not in a long dress, I’m in jeans. I live in rural ND, there’s not much need to get seriously dressed up.
I went commando in my early teens and never looked back. My only concession, underwear-wise is to wear them for my neurologist appointments. That’s only because I have to have an EMG done, and I’d rather not have my ass hanging out during the process.
Sorry nude sleepers, just skip over the following.
Oh, my, I need to quack my little duck head on this one.
On hands on “energy” treatments. Wasn’t it some 13th century king that isolated orphans to see what a lack of human contact would do with disastrous results? Touch is helpful for infants and individuals in pain, and aids outcomes throughout standard medicine. Having someone touch you is an effective treatment for anxiety, and alters cortisol levels. So the real question is whether any special energy field exists, or whether “thinking positive thoughts” about someone can help them. The Stephen Barrett (quackwatch) organized “study” with some skeptic’s child as “tester” was just a circus to gain publicity. He “disproved” something that had something like eighty studies showing positive blood alterations, and people continue to study the same phenomenon today. Here’s a nice study, single blinded, on volunteers. Notice no one is using children to generate press coverage. (Get your flames on, people!)
Brain Res Bull. 2010 Jan 15;81(1):66-72.
A randomised controlled single-blind trial of the effects of Reiki and positive imagery on well-being and salivary cortisol.
Bowden D, Goddard L, Gruzelier J.
Psychology Department, Goldsmiths, University of London, ITC Building, New Cross, London SE14 6NW, United Kingdom. deborahebowden@hotmail.co.uk
The study investigated whether participants who received Reiki would show greater health and well-being benefits than a group who received no Reiki. A method of blinding participants to Reiki was also tested, where non-contact Reiki or No-Reiki with random assignment was given to 35 healthy psychology undergraduates whose attention was absorbed in one of three tasks involving self-hypnosis/relaxation. Participants experienced ten 20-min intervention sessions over a period of two and a half to 12 weeks. Reiki was directed by the experimenter who sat behind the participants as they were absorbed in the tasks. Self-report measures of illness symptoms, mood and sleep were assessed pre-post-intervention as was salivary cortisol. While the Reiki group had a tendency towards a reduction in illness symptoms, a substantive increase was seen in the No-Reiki. The Reiki group also had a near-significant comparative reduction in stress, although they also had significantly higher baseline illness symptoms and stress scores. The Reiki blinding was successful – the groups did not differ statistically in their beliefs regarding group membership. The results are suggestive that the Reiki buffered the substantive decline in health in the course of the academic year seen in the No-Reiki group.
PMID: 19819311
Yawn, Quack, Qwack, Qvack, you have nothing to say to us that is cogent, other than you are retiring from comitting deception on your patients. Until then, STFU. You are nothing but an unscientific fraud, and should be jailed as a con man.
Quackster Fraud, you’re full of shit, as usual. You always want to scream “big pharma! they only want money!” when you lie your ass off in order to line your pockets. You should be ashamed.
Jesus H Christ man,
What do you keep turning up here for? Unless you’re getting some sort of mastubatory, self-flagellation glee out it I cannot understand why the fuck you’re turning up here. No one here believes you, no one here respects you and we sure as fuck think you’re a fraudluent, money grabbing charlatan who has self-delusionary grandeuer fantasies about being a doctor.For fuck’s sake man, go and dilute some water or something and leave us alone.
..oh, and to continue to taunt you with the fact you faint at the sight of blood I leave you with this image…great big, gushing, arterial spurts of bright red viscous, copper smelling blood.
..enjoy.
The Quack is pushing Reiki now.
It’s time to link to Homeopathic A&E again.
Bride of Shrek:
Oh, that metallic tang. I’ve injured myself enough over the years that the scent is immediately recognized. Makes me think of wheat pennies, of all things.
I finally met some one who faints at the sight of blood IRL. I always thought it was just sort of a movie gag or something.
He’s an artist though. Doesn’t give any medical advice. Tries not to ever see blood, especially coming out of people.
Poor thing. He really does faint. Like flat on his back on the floor.
Caine
..and yet really it should smell of iron. It’s such a weirdly distinct smell though isn’t it.
I find it hysterical that Mr Baloney faints like a child at the sight of it so I find it amusing to poke him with that particular stick at every given opportunity. Doctor my arse.
To clarify, I don’t find it amusing someone faints at the sight of blood- hell, I’ll always allow someone their phobias, god knows plenty of my own.
What I find amusing is that this particular assclam faints at the sight of blood, yet is simultaneously the world’s greatest doctor. Wanker.
Bride of Shrek, yes it should smell of iron, but it’s copper all the way. I don’t know why it works that way.
I laughed at the Quackfraud over that too. There’s no reason at all not to poke him over it. The last time I had to have stitches, it was due to my losing my balance and landing on a storm window, bits of which impaled both legs. The blood was *everywhere* – I’m so glad I didn’t have to deal with wannabe docs who are terrified of blood.
assclam? Oh, I’m stealing that one.
New Law Would Ban Marriages Between People Who Don’t Love Each Other
(Minnesota gets mentioned!)
Assclam comes to you courtesy of SC OM. I only wish I could claim such linguistic genius.
I always think it smells like baking soda. Mine tastes like baking soda at least. No, I don’t go around drinking my blood for fun. I’ve just had injuries on my face/mouth that bled a lot so I really remember getting big gulping mouthfuls of it.
Warm baking soda water.
weird… I think it smells and tastes like rust
According to theists don’t we all drink the still warm blood of tiny babies on a daily basis?
Josh – No worries, I understand now. :)
Caine – Yeah, I’m with you on having a nice furry man to warm your feets on!
I’ll probably miss half of this thread – I’ve been asked on a 2nd date, so am preparing a picnic for tomarrow. *sly grin*
have fun, you minx
Go fuck yourself. You’re a quack, and it isn’t funny. You’re actively hurting people with your pseudoscientific bullshit. If you had any shame, or any ethical compass, you’d shut your quack operation down. Make no mistake: you suck, you hurt people, and you ought to be shut down. You only operate in this country by the grace of the too-lenient licensing laws. You’re not a doctor, you’re a fucking fraud.
Josh, OSG #585
See #588.
As for myself, one (1) time does not a habit make.
Re: the spankings- Do you have a sister?
Patricia:
Oooh, Patricia. Careful, you might get your socks knocked off. ;D If you’re providing the food for your picnic, I know his socks will be knocked clean off.
and yeah, I’m talking about you. You’re a fraud, and a quack. Shame on you for hanging a stethoscope around your neck, with your white collar doctor costume.
I don’t care how well-meaning you are, you’re a fraud, and you’re an asshole.
I find it hysterical that Mr Baloney faints like a child at the sight of it
Oh please, tell me it aint so?
the REAL reason quackadoodle never went to a real med school was…
blood is icky?
heh
hehhehehhe
BWWWAAAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAAHHAHHHaaaaaaaaaaa….
*breath*
BWAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.
*ruptures diaphragm*
damnit, back to the hospital again.
Josh, as someone that is proably a lot older and a smidge wiser than you, don’t spank anyone with a bed shitting problem. They just get encouraged.
Sage advice Patricia, sage advice.
This is a place-mark.
Caine – I plan to stay firmly in my socks. ;) This is a ‘date’ to a regional art deco palace. The food will be smoked salmon, deviled eggs, three flavors of cheese, homemade pickles, and for a treat bananas sauteed in butter then slathered with cashew butter. The gentleman is responsible for the libation.
boygenius@612 – That sort of baldfaced flattery will get you a rosewood paddle, and one extra turn at the spanking couch with the naked Bunny or Chicken of your choice.
Ichthyic
..The dick actually “boasts” about it on his site like he’s divulging some precious secret to you to try and bond or something. It’s basically his excuse for not being able to draw blood in his practice when in reality it’s probably because he failed phlebotomy 101 and couldn’t hit a vein with a chainsaw.
As to what a fake doctor who, amongst other things, recommends some fellow charlatan who draws “toxins out of your feet into some electronic bath” ( you know the scam everybody in the known world seems to have heard about except Dr Assclam) needs to have bloodwork done for is anybody’s guess. I thought they could just about diagnose any old shit by looking at your irises.
..well to be fair this is probably not the REAL reason he didn’t go to a real med school.
More likely the fact he has a double digit IQ was a hinderence.
Patricia @ 614:
You know he’s going to following you home and camping on your porch, right?
Patricia, your picnic sounds delightful. I am so happy to hear that you have this pleasure to look forward to.
JeffreyD, you have my deepest sympathy. If you are ever in Central Texas, I’d love for you to stop by my own Chaos Manor in Austin for a drink. You and Mr. Science and I can sit out on the patio and discuss the mysteries of life.
Patricia, Ignorant Slut OM @615; Umm, OK. If you wish to go against your own sage wisdom, I hope you at least have a protective slipcover for the spanking couch. And the Bunny. And the Chicken.
As a lifelong woodworker, I do appreciate the rosewood paddle, though. Classy touch.
That means it’s several orders of magnitude more intelligent than I thought.
Power restored, yay !!
Uhoh.
I think we have been found out !
It would seem the UK Conservatives are aping the USA Thugs, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/06/tory-madrasa-young-britons-foundation
The nasty party is getting even nastier?
In these parts ‘What’s up? Shit the bed?’ is a fairly common response to the on time arrival of a normally tardy colleague .
Hee heeee… ‘Detox foot baths’? Srsly? You’ve got to be shitting me.
This thread needs an Orac link…
… oh, but don’t get me wrong, I think it’s totally awesome that any ole’ nutter can dispense medical advice around here…
… so, following this principle, I’d like to ‘recommend’ to ‘Dr.’ Assclam that he find his charming friend with the magical foot bath what turns ugly colours due to corroding electrodes whether or not your feet are actually in it and request a special high-intensity therapy specifically for himself…
(/… I’m thinking somethin’ like 20,000 volts. Guaranteed™ to cleanse the world of his bullshit, anyway…)
What! This subthread is still up! I’m disappointed with you.
Do you all have a life on Friday night, or something?
@Patricia: for a picnic like that I’d camp out on your porch if you weren’t so darn far away. Sounds delicious, and your date sounds like it will be a lot of fun. Have a good time.
@Leigh Williams: nice to see you commenting. Are you all over your creeping crud and is your team recovered from the East Coast trek? I’ve finally stopped trying to cough my lungs out, and it is SO lovely to sleep at night without drugs. (Sex and wine don’t count as drugs, right?)
As for the underwear/sleeping naked: I wear it during the day usually…sometimes go commando. I almost always sleep naked (I make exceptions when I visit someone else’s house), and always have my little down comforter between the sheet and me because I get cold year round. I have to sleep with the window open because I love the air on my face. We let the house get cool at night. (60 degrees F) Robes or naked wandering in the evening or morning depending on if there are visitors in the house or not.
Collecting the babies for the Sunday BBQ.
My first late night after recovering from pneumonia; but everyone else seems to be partying elsewhere at this hour.
Here is the long-promised “pink fluffy God” post.
Rorschach | March 6, 2010 4:55 AM:
Looks like God is off by about 5 or 6 days. His aim is terrible, as usual.
How widespread is that preference…?
?
Never!
Thick pyjamas, featherbed, window only slightly tilted instead of seriously open.
(Yeah, OK. Here I’m alone, so the air doesn’t get hot and stale that quickly, and the window even has slits for air circulation, so I don’t need to open it at night. I also don’t need a featherbed and can use a washable blanket instead, that’s better for my dust allergy.)
Too cold for that in here.
Similar for me. Goes so far that I have serious trouble sleeping without any sort of blanket. As mentioned, when it’s hot, I take the blanket out of its cover and throw it somewhere, but I still keep the cover and still tuck it in around me at all sides except the head; even if I first have to ventilate it for several minutes.
Indeed! Except… I thought conifers are not “hardwood”, and broad-leaved trees are?
The other option, of course, is to go somewhere where recommendations are not needed, where studying is a right. That would mean doing it more bottom-up than top-down, which might have its own advantages. You’d have to finally do your Abitur/Matura – where I come from there are special schools for the single purpose of getting adults of any age through that one exam –, and then you’d simply have the right to attend a university in countries like Austria or France, same for Germany except for the restricted numbers and the fact that you’ve told us how <headdesk> arbitrarily irrational your fellow students would be. Next, you’d need to get the professor who’s charged with that to accept the stuff you’ve already done (maybe the entire Bachelor!) as equivalents to some of the required exams; that’s what I did to avoid having to repeat stuff between (paleo)biology, chemistry, and molecular biology. That way, you could get a Master’s degree or two or three in the minimum time (!!! !!! !!!), and that would give you the right to start a doctorate by simply telling the bureaucracy you’re doing so. Then, find a supervisor and a topic, tell the bureaucracy about that, and you’re all set… sniny title 3 years later, as well as several publications if the supervisor isn’t too silly (and fewer and fewer are).
Sounds lovely :-}
So mainstream women’s underwear is as absurd and uncomfortable as it looks. Good to have confirmation.
Fine…
Why should such unparsimonious assumptions be “the real question”? We don’t need them. The psychosomatic effects you described above (previous quote) explain the observations on their own.
What was the treatment the control group got? Were they stroked and hugged?
It’s known that my grandpa “can’t see blood”. I don’t think he’d actually faint, but I’m not going to do the experiment…
<headdesk>
TSIB.
<headdesk>
Through the skin. Yeah, riiiiiiiiiiiiight.
Mr Maloney, you can’t possibly believe this yourself. Do you know what this means? It means you’re lying. It means you’re committing fraud.
WTF. I could have expected that shit from the BNP, but not from the Tories.
…Though, actually, the BNP is probably too stupid to organize such a thing.
Oh yeah. <sigh> Insert standard lamentation about my lack of meatspace social life here.
Great, I’ll check it out.
I’ll echo that; I fully expected to come home from seeing show number, er – damn it, I’ve lost count; maybe 28? – of the Fringe and see a fresh new thread ready for some rambling; all I’ve got is this old, sluggish tosh about underwear.
So, it’s off to bed. Night all!
I miss Austin. I grew up there. Really. In the south. Still go visit my dad some times when I can. I sooo want to move back there, but I don’t want to leave my job.
Anyway, that aside… poor JeffreyD. Yeah, if you ever make it to Texas and end up in Dallas I’m sorry. Haha… we have a bad reputation for not being as friendly as other Texans.
We can go to some trendy bar full of SMU students and watch their mating rituals or something!
Don’t want to get you all over excited. I don’t think this is trollish but I’m confused and would welcome some feedback.
Miss M has for many years been active in the field of Care for the Elderly and has become involved in a local issue regarding the closure of a Day Centre. The Day Centre was built and run for many years by four RC nuns who ‘started with nothing – not even Church support’. The nuns were held in very high regard by the community, regardless of faith. (the only survivor of the four is now 90).
The charity is now operated by Trustees appointed by the (RC) Bishop of Plymouth. The chair of the trustees is a RC priest as is one of the other four, but at least one trustee describes himself as a Protestant.
The closure has been handled very poorly and the trustees have appeared to treat the staff, users and concerned citizens with contempt, refusing to attend public meetings or even to turn up on the day of the closure. Many of the protesters have emailed the Bishop. Responses so far have been absent or empty of content. (Miss M emailed the Bish and copied the Pope – no response)
A nephew of two of the nuns is so concerned that he has travelled to Cornwall from Northern Ireland on at least 3 occasions in the last 2 weeks and has pledged to cover any losses for a year to allow for time to find a way to keep the operation going. He has even offered £50,000 up front to this end. The local MP believes this offer to be genuine, as do I. This offer (and many others ranging from a few pounds up to £20,000) have been virtually ignored by the trustees.
Many of the very angry protesters are committed Xtians who are very conflicted about the perceived dichotomy between their faith and the huge respect and affection they have for the founders and the way that the trustees and the Catholic Church have behaved.
I also am confused (the default state for me). What I have learned about the founders and the many Xtians involved leads me also to the position of respect – not for their faith but for their actions – and the evident hurt shown by many is upsetting to me and Miss M. We have never made a secret of our atheism, indeed, Miss M’s honesty has obliged her to point it out quite forcefully, but generally we have seen no hostility from the professed faithful.
I am sometimes at a loss how to react – people whose beliefs I find, at best, silly are nevertheless clearly good citizens whose values I largely share. So far I have fallen back on the Good Manners position.
Do you find hypocrisy in this?
Any suggestions for effective methods of continuing the protests?
http://www.thisiscornwall.co.uk/latestnews/Angry-Closure-act-human-vandalism/article-1882232-detail/article.html
Greetings fellow Pharynguloids.
The sun is shining, the birds are coughing in the trees, there’s hardly a cloud in the sky. There’s just a few things to discourage me from spending a day out on the water:
1. The temperature is 37ºF/3ºC.
b. The wind is less than 5 knots/8 kph.
iii. The boat won’t be put in the water for another three weeks.
But other than that it’s a great day to go sailing.
No. So long as I am not being coerced into their beliefs I don’t. I think it’s fairly easy to disagree with people on several points but not several others, and in order to cooperate some times you have to work with people you don’t agree with entirely.
I don’t know about the protest though. In this case I would say it is sad if people’s faith is keeping them from fighting for a good cause. In general publicity is good, so maybe make attempts to get this story to larger press venues where the RC gets more attention. Given all the terrible things that have surfaced… maybe they’ll want some better PR.
Is there no way that this could become a public charity?
SteveV,
Has anyone spoken to a solicitor? I know of several instances where official indifference has ceased when someone uttered the magic word: “Lawyer.”
No. Actions speak louder than words.
It came here courtesy of me, but I didn’t come up with it. I mentioned that I didn’t invent it shortly after I introduced it, but should have linked to the source*:
http://whywomenhatemen.blogspot.com/
The reason I didn’t at the time, I think, was that I used it in the course of some debate over sexism and I didn’t want some jerk reading the name and flinging back a dimwitted retort. But Weasel’s clever and a good writer, and I’m happy to give him a plug. I don’t know if the term originated with him, either – just the first place I saw it.
*I found this recently. I mention that because, reading through the archive (which I highly recommend), I came across an early post about the experience of an SC with a PhD, who isn’t me. I’ve never done any online dating.
Unless this counts. ;)
Of course it counts. If it doesn’t count then Josh the Official Spokesgay wouldn’t have made a proposal of marriage to Lynna.
And I wouldn’t have twice spent the night at MAJeff’s.
:P
But…but….Josh OSG proposed to me!!
You mean, he wasn’t sincere?? *clutches simple, tasteful strand of small, elegant pearls and slips into unconsciousness gracefully, landing supine on the fainting couch with a sigh*
But…but….Josh OSG proposed to me!!
As far as I know, polymarriage is hard, but not impossible, to sustain. Chief practical hurdle is the law; chief emotional hurdle is jealousy.
Not for me, but I don’t object to other people giving it the old college try, and best wishes to them. :)
Quackmeister says, “Oh, my, I need to quack my little duck head on this one.”
Was it good for you? Assclam.
SC! That blog is funny!!!
Emphasis on random. Why? Because if I’m in the room alone with a guy I’m hot for, and he locks eyes with me and starts talking about his his dick with pointed intent (pun completely intended), I am so listening.
Ah. So this is where I picked up WWHM (I assume). And the now defunct Psychotic Letters From Men.
These are why I ask the the assembled Pharyngulistas for socialising advice. (I’d ask Dan Savage, but he’s likely too busy.)
Thanks, aratina, but no cigar.
No, the premise is about men who include graphic descriptions of their penis in personal ads. So the emphasis is on random because the women seeing it are pretty random. It being their first impression of a person they’ve never met before and all.
Oh. Yeah. Eww.
Ask any random woman if she’d rather hear about your dick or get two free tickets to a tractor pull, and I guarantee you within five seconds she’d be walking off with her tickets and a wad of Skoal in her mouth the size of a small eagle.
What is this, the question you hear when stepping into the sixth ring of hell?
If I had to choose, though? I’d rather hear about the dick. It takes how long to do that, what? 1 second, then it’s done, unlike the tractor pull., which entails being stuck in a building for hours with a bunch of dicks, and getting a headache from the exhaust fumes, like I always do if I’m exposed to too much of it in too short a period of time.
And then, after I hear about the guy’s dick, I get to have my fun with what he’s told me. One can hope he has a strong ego. He’s going to need it.
Upon further consideration it’s been determined you would not be a suitable mate for Josh. Being an Official SpokesGay is a hard, grueling job, demanding much from the incumbent and his entourage.
Quite frankly, you’ve been letting yourself go. You haven’t been going to the gym every day like you should. Too many beers and not enough tofu, that’s your problem.
On the other hand, Lynna is a mountaineering amazon, fully capable of enduring the strenuous, demanding schedule required of an Official SpokesGay companion.
However we will keep your application on file and, if we determine you might fulfill any future needs, we may call you again. Thank you for your interest in Official SpokesGay LLC.
Sincerely,
‘Tis Himself
Mouthpiece for the Official Spokesgay
Haha! And now I’m reminded of chatroulette!
Why do some men even do that? It’s not as though they’re all subnormal mental cases who live in their mother’s basement. Do they honestly believe a woman is going to be all “Oh yeah baby, come and get it” just because they waved their magic wand at her?
I had a chat (in person) with an immature art student, about 20, who went to school with my ex. For some reason I came off as the den mother/public Ann Landers to that crowd. The kid asked me, and I’m serious, “Why do I have to do special things for a woman to get her to like me and want me? I mean, if a woman wants sex, she should just be honest about it. I don’t need a woman to get me stuff and be all nice to get me to have sex with her.” (OK, how many ways was that wrong?!)
I suppressed my initial reaction (Hey, padawan, how long have you been studying under Jedi Master Darth Asshole?) and contented myself with asking Mister Smooth how many women’s pants he was able to get into by standing around with his fly open, holding a “come and get it” sign?
“A…a couple.” Yeah, right. :) I introduced him to the general principle of flies, honey, and vinegar, which he had never heard of until that minute. Texas “education” for the lose.
Oh badgersdaughter, answer that and you’ll have solved one of the great mysteries of life!
I recently had some one tell me. “I need a girl to be able tell me everything she wants in a relationship, and in a guy, and in sex. You HAVE to! Because then I can tell you what I can give you, but I’m not wasting my time with you if you can’t…”
And I just interrupted him to say “Well this girl wants to finish her Balvenie and find some one who doesn’t consider her company a waste of time if it doesn’t meet some far off terminal ideal..”
WTF?
Okay, time to fess up that I’m feeling a little naked, name-wise. Leigh, I adore your new nym: Leigh Williams, Queen of Cognitive Dissonance, OM
Walton, your new nym is also very fine, but I would edit out one “special” and leave it at “special dumpling of awesome”
Patricia, Janine, and Josh all have memorable nyms.
‘Tis did say I was a “mountaineering amazon”, but somehow that doesn’t have the right self-depreciatory ring to it.
I tried on “Reflector of the Light of God” for a little while — a title given to me by a mormon fan of one of my books. But that would encourage mormons to see me as a reflector of the light of god … and imagine their disappointment when they start reading Pharyngula.
Sigh. Life is tough, innit?
‘morning
*bleary*
*coffee, Thread, CD*
hey, when all you ebil athiests are in Oz you should jump at a chance to see these guys:
Speaking of reflecting the light of god, which is apparently also the light of prejudice, here’s some news on what my state lawmakers are up to:
Idaho House pushes English, God in resolution
Threadjacking a bit from this *fascinating* discussion of underwear and attendant bits, I thought some of you might be interested in the discussion over at Making Light on managing a successful online community. (I went over there and posted that I thought that Pharyngula was a very different model than Making Light is for an online community, but equally successful)
Pick up line from Orin Incandenza: “Tell me what sort of man you prefer, and then I’ll affect the demeanor of that man”
Lynna, Master of the secrets of Mormon Underwear?
Lynna, Master Mormon Underwear Exposer? Wait, no.
Yeah, if I had my way I’d change my name every week. Or just go by my real name.
But then that would be confusing for people.
Fixed to say what he really meant. I don’t think he realized that spending money wasn’t necessarily a requirement, but being nice definitely would be.
No wonder the guy couldn’t get laid. I hope you steered him away from the abyss of really stupid male attitudes.
I liked that, Sven. Thanks. I’ll have to think about whether I can grant them a one/mountain rhyme, though…. There’s also a bit of another song there in the middle that I should be able to identify instantly, but for some reason I’m having a mental block. Will bother me throughout the day, though not nearly enough to interfere with my enjoyment of the glorious weather!
AE, wait, you’re a biologist, right? (I mean, of sorts…plants and shit? wasn’t it?) and you…enjoy DF Wallace?
I thought I was the only one.
Lynna, Latter-Day Lady Lucifer?
Lynna, Poison-penned succubus?
In response to the lament by ‘Tis Himself regarding spring and not-quite boating weather:
Lynna’s Poem, In Which We Celebrate Spring
A bunch of little-ass birds
break up the morning with
all their pissy whistles
pipes and other stuff.
The shame of spring
comes along downwind
with that dairy farm
warming up.
Birdsong floats in on the smell
and the likewise bile
of morning mouth mourning
all the booze gone,
but for pale sun-liquor saying
its one more springtime
for an old man
to totter about
slamming his gums down.
Sash slam shut those bird throats
and any other notes of promise
faked last night
when he dreamed he was twenty
and the calamitous future
was a thin trap
not yet sprung.
The first psychotic robin of spring
plays funky music on the pane.
Flat notes all, breast
kerplunking and splatting
into the dirty glass
like a rag with a stone in it.
All day long he’s
looking for a way in—
looking for his ideal
rumpled mate.
Even pulling the shade
(It’s solid, you idiot!)
doesn’t work.
Plank on the all-American robin comes
exercising his one idea.
But the neighbor is on the move now
fast for an old man
and feeling pretty good
considering.
hi ‘Danio’, what’s up?
Hi ‘Sven’!
believe it or not I have been following the endless thread for most of its existence as an occasional lurker–just drinking in the brilliant wit and wishing I could slow down and join in.
‘What’s up’ is lots of excellent shit, in and out of the lab. Our first Usher syndrome paper is in press at JCI as we speak, and two more are burning a hole in my MacBook.
Hope all is well for you–I detected a slightly-less-than-blissed-out tone re: your career path in this or the thread or the last, I think. And here I thought you had nothin’ left to do but smile, smile, smile…
:D
Lynna, Mocker of Mormon
Lynna, Miner of Mendacity
Awww, thank you, fellow Pharynguloids. That’s so sweet of you to come up with nyms that live up to my evil nature:
As much as I like exposing mormon underwear, I fear to claim the title less desperate men and women from the Singles Stake mob my doorstep. Connecting “Latter-Day” and “Lucifer” is appropriate, but people might mistake me for someone who fell for the mormon scam once upon a time. Even Lady Lucifer’s have their pride. Nevertheless, I will keep all these titles and submit them to the Committee.
Lynna, Kicker of magic-underwear-clad asses?
Well… I can answer that (if you mean “why does a man have to be nice to a woman to get sex”), at least from my own thoughts and experiences, and I can partially generalize the answer to other hetero women culturally similar to me.
Now, I can’t provide an answer to the perennial question of the form “why do women, generally speaking, provide sex to get love from men, while men, generally speaking, provide love to get sex from women?” I’m not sure that is even true as stated. Certainly women crave sex as such, I can assure you of the truth of that. I happen to be attracted to a man at the moment, but it’s not a safe situation for many reasons. Because I care deeply about him I would actively discourage it if he were to make any advances. Then again, if I were to wake up one night and find him sitting on the edge of my bed wearing nothing but a smile and what he wears under his kilt, he would be best advised for the sake of our professional relationship and his peace of mind to run faster than I can grab. Anyway, I think the question is better stated as, “Why does a woman find it natural to have spontaneous sex with a man she cares about in other ways, and why does a man find it natural to spontaneously begin to care about a woman he has sex with?”
In my experience most men crave love even more than most women do, but a man’s ideal of love includes a satisfying sex life as much as it includes having someone to do things for, who admires them, and who provides safety and comfort for them. Indeed, I think that sex is itself comfort, and proof that his mate admires him. Needless to say I’m not a man and I’m talking out of my… inference. But I think I’m on to something.
Women do, indeed, spontaneously form attachments to men. But something about the man has to reassure the woman that he’s going to enhance her quality of life and her self-image. Flowers and dinners and such may be hokey, but they are still signals with semantic meaning, even if all it means “I’m willing to put up with this bullshit in order to show you how much I like you.” It also can mean, “I can function adequately within social norms, so odds are I’m not going to think it’s OK to mistreat you.” Optimally, it means, “I’ve always thought this old-fashioned stuff was sweet and touching, and you’re the woman I choose to do sweet things for.”
It’s conventional in our culture to think of the woman as more vulnerable to exploitation than the man. I don’t have an answer for that because I am myself deeply mired in some not-rational traditional ways of thinking. I could only recently entertain the idea of being OK without a mate. But in my past relationships, I’ve always been the responsible one and the provider, emotionally as well as financially. I’m exploited and tired and it’s hard to see, from here, how I could agree to a casual encounter without making myself vulnerable to another exploiter. For that reason alone, I would need a new man to make the first move in showing me he cares.
Bah, confessional time over. I have work to catch up on. :)
Hmmm. Nerd, I could turn both of your suggestions into “Lynna, MM, MM, OM”
Suggestion is in the Committee’s hands.
Lynna,
in my head it sounds like “Lynna, OMNOMNOM” making you sound like a voracious devourer of flawed reasoning. It could work!
Test.
Let’s see if this works.
Sorry guys. I’m trying to put that link in my name now.
Enough with the underwear. Time to move on to talking penises.