I don’t care what the last installment of the interminable thread was about — I have to show this horrifying clip of a gentle octopus’s last moments beneath the jaws of ravening chordates.
OK, now talk about whatever you want…if you can.
(Current totals: 10,157 entries with 983,758 comments.)
MAJeff @998, you could be right. I got this from the Associated Press:
And… comment #1000 was about granny panties. We here at Pharyngula discuss only the most important, the potentially earth-shattering topics.
http://www.endofworld.net/
It’s an End of the World flash animation. Even the long load time is made amusing by the addition of humor.
John Morales #992 (quoting someone else)
Sexual “escapades” are a conservative tradition. Look at the Family and any number of fundamentalist and/or Catholic clergy for examples.
I hadn’t even thought of /that/. Are mormons even that kinky?
Act 2 Scene 1 part 1 the Opera
The scene opens on the tavern/saloon. At one corner of the bar is a picture of a man draped in black bunting. Another picture close to the first shows what appears to be an almost endless pile of casseroles/baked goods with a thank-you not attached. A bright LED sign keeps rotating, and says all OM’s get their first drink free, and that Sastra, David Marjanović, Owlmirror, and Cuttlefish drink all night for free. Behind the bar is a fat bald man singing in the key of atonal, complaining that the proprietor is busy, but never stating why she is busy, and also she isn’t paying him overtime, and cursing to the FSM to cure that problem. Also keeps muttering something about a one millionth post party coming up that he isn’t going to plan.
A display over the bar shows all the connections world-wide, and this time of night the North American continent is predominant. Lesser amounts of observers from all over the world. The bar has the usual aggregation of nerds at the computer terminals, and a sighting of red hair above a computer at the far end of the bar a bit of red hair can be seen. A man looking faintly chimpish comes from the transporter area, receives a bacon sandwich and a very hoppy beer, and goes to a terminal. A woman enters giving off “don’t mess with me vibes”, hollars an insult at the barkeep, and goes to the jukebox and sets up a series of tunes. Then goes behind the bar and tells the fat dude of a barkeep to take a break. He draws a grog, and heads for the back room where he is seen in PPE mixing something.
A petite woman comes in, brandishing an award, and receives a round of applause from the saloon, back room, the Pullet Patrol™, and the online visitors. She then goes to a computer and posts some stoopidy by Mormons. And an English sounding gentleman gets up and mentions something about Ed saying it is time for bed and disappears toward the transporter area.
The overhead shows a liberturdian posting, and an gentleman in a sailors cap sings about the fallacies of the Austrian school of economics while posting a torrid rebuttal. The rest quickly join in to refute the inane post.
The fat man takes off his PPE, and returns with his grog and pulls up a stool next to the red hair. A post about the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin occurs, and everyone quickly reads and start responding. After a give and take, the poopyhead posts and says it was a banned troll. Every one relaxes.
To be continued…
Rutee, maybe mormons have to be kinky in order to get past the ill-fitting nylon undies and into the good stuff.
Mormon fundamentalists in Canada must be good at it. This story comes with a frightening photo of the guy who fathered 101 children. http://www.nationalpost.com/related/topics/story.html?id=1748307
Well done, Nerd of Redhead! I was surprised to learn that ‘Tis Himself can sing, and furthermore, that he can sing about the fallacies of the Austrian school of economics.
We might want to put a few trolls in the transporter so that they could be feted face-to-face …. or maybe not. It could get bloody, and then someone would have to clean up the mess.
Ha! 1000 preportcullis; excellent.
As if Orange County isn’t bad enough…
Perhaps PZ has run into a nefarious highwayman like Willie Brennan:
Keeping to Nerd’s script, here’s some more mormon stoopidy: Prophet, Seer, and Revelator, Ezra Taft Benson, wrote “God will have a humble people. We can either choose to be humble, or we can be compelled to be humble.”
Rorschach @857: Meant to thank you earlier for the link to the article about the morals of babies. Great fun — babies who can’t speak can still pick out who’s good and who’s bad. The bit about no divine intervention being needed was well done.
No, I can’t carry a tune in a bucket. I can, however, discourse at length about Austrian School economics. As an aside, to my knowledge no present day Austrian economists belong to the Austrian School.
Lynna – Do missionaries have a website with photos and descriptions of their attributes, so that we can select the ones we’d like to lift our luggage?
I got 3 sheep fleeces washed today and am going to
settle down to listen to audiobooks and spin. Perhaps I can contribute my needlecraft to the proposed commune.
I can’t sing about economics but Tom Waits can:
Tammy Bruce on CSPAN: Liberals have had to organize and push hard because all their goals are unnatural. The Tea Party is a natural growth.” “The Death of Right and Wrong” is one of Tammy’s books.
The Austrian School of Economics
Mattir @1014: Here are some mormon missionaries for you. I think you can see their attributes quite clearly in this presentation. Remember, though, that’s it likely that you will have to take them on two at time … all the better to lift your luggage. They always come in pairs, the “companion” is not optional.
Mattir, if you would like to chat live with mormon missionaries before choosing two to lift your luggage, go to this web page:
http://www.mormon.org/mormonorg/eng/ask-a-question/chat-live
If you don’t want to chat online, you can talk on the phone:
I’ve figured out what happened to PZ: he’s busy.
In order to padd the trhead.
I just ate some (2) asparagus from the garden.
We actually ate the first (1) of the year on April 22. The cherry tree was blooming on April 26. The blizzard with 15cm of snow ☃ was on May 4. Everything seems back to normal now.
Time to spade ♠ the garden!
A whiter shade of pale
Ah, just like me and the key of atonal (although I was a good technician with a flute). Don’t worry, I’m just having some fun, and killing time until the Redhead called me for dinner, and nobody thinks the plots of opera is close to the truth. Now, how to combine Smoggy, Josh OGS, Ichthyic, KnockGoats, and a few others like our eternal thread master Sven? Looks like I’ll have to sleep on that one.
Weirdness stumbled upon: Houses abandoned and overgrown by trees and/or bushes and/or vines:
http://www.jamesgriffioen.net/index.php?/prairies/feral-houses/
@Lynna –
I was thinking about the missionary sex thing and was wondering if ratting the guy out isn’t actually the right thing to do. Clergy are not supposed to have sex with the people they’re supposed to be clergying for (or whatever the right word is – ministering?) because of the power differential, just like teachers and their students aren’t supposed to. It’s obviously a rule that’s often broken, but it can do a lot of damage to a community and to the congregant who is the recipient of this special attention. A missionary who has sex with a woman in his stake might also be on track to become a bishop who has uses that authority to engage in whole bunch of misbehavior. Even for a missionary, it can’t possibly be all that hard to find a sex partner who isn’t a member of the congregation where you’ve been assigned.
So the worst thing that can happen is that the missionary kid gets in trouble, which might make him shape up and obey the rules or cause him to leave the church and find other sex partners. I’d actually say the same thing if, say, an official in an ethical culture society was misbehaving in a similar way.
How long does a thread have to get before it is officially to large to kill?
Just watched the full episode of Real Time that Feynmaniac linked to @993, and I just have to say;
Sarah Silverman can wet my bed anytime.
Owlmirror #1024
Damn! Some of those houses were expensive buildings when they were new.
Mattir #1025
If I remember correctly, Mormon missionaries are supposed to be in pairs at all times. So unless the two missionaries collude it would be pretty difficult to have the time necessary to arrange to have sex, let alone be able to have sex.
The initial video illustrates why octopodes in barren areas hang on to their coconut shells so doggedly. Maybe we should all be throwing our cracked bowls into the ocean to provide more shelter for sea life.
Owlmirror,
You should look up Kudzu on google. There are houses that are completely covered by the vine that ate the South.
A couple of examples
http://www.jjanthony.com/kudzu/houses.html
http://writersforensicsblog.wordpress.com/2009/09/26/kudzu-to-your-health/
http://grandpacliff.com/InvSp/Kudzu.htm
@Tis
So I could request a pair of the young men from the calendar? This is sounding better and better. Lynna, is there a special kind of mormon “pain” that is particularly delicious and exotic?
Rand Paul? He named his son after Ayn Rand?
*facepalm*
Tis,
There are some (once upon a time) really nice houses and other buildings in various rust belt cities that have been overrun by urban prairies. Until I started watching Life After People I hadn’t really thought about how fast the vegetation comes back once there are no more lawn mowers or bush trimmers to keep it manicured.
I did part of my archaeological field school on a site where the native vegetation (and the elements) had consumed houses down to the foundations in a few decades.
Nerd: In the next act of your play, I’d be honored to be the Igor to your Frankenstein, helping mix anti-troll potions, or whatever it is you’re doing in the back room that requires PPE.
I can present my CV for your perusal. So far, my achievements include a thesis on PRCB (Perfect Roasted Christian Baby), slipping roofies into all Josh OSG’s drink orders, and causing a teleporter malfunction that turned Ken Ham inside out (disappointingly, it didn’t seem to change his appearance or behavior one bit).
Yes, please.
On that note: New Things I Won’t Work With: Isocyanides.
And dimethylmercury ([Hg(CH3)2].
And this is supposed to be a problem?
I seem to recall someone writing to Dan Savage, that in response to his complaints about Mormon support for Prop 8, he’d received a visit from two Mormon hunks. – He still complained.
You know, there is a much easier way to solve that problem …
You nitwit. That was not a transporter, it was a replicator. Now we have dozens (due to your malfunction) Ken “Piglet Rapist” Hams running around.
Bacon may never be safe again.
Every time I hear Ken Hams name I can’t help but think of this article.
More commercial What the Hell: the Hardees commercials that portray men as completely incapable of feeding themselves or using horrid gender stereotypes to sell their food really piss me off. I just saw one where a group of d00dz are sitting around the TV watching a game when a guy wearing an apron walks in with a baking sheet full of biscuits and asks who wants a homemade biscuit. The voiceover says “men don’t bake.” Seriously, men bake. My brother gets really mad about these commercials and won’t eat at Hardees because of them. The one where a guy couldn’t even make his own cereal caused a fifteen minute rant! Personally, I don’t eat at Hardees because their food tastes like crap, so I get to support my bro’s cause without missing out on anything. :)
[PSA]Hardees = Carl’s Jr[/PSA]
Thanks for the PSA, Jadehawk. I forget that it goes by a different name in other parts of the country.
Betty White has hosted Saturday Night Live, and I can now die a happy SpokesGay.
I sincerely apologize for this post.
Hubba Habba Ding Ding Woof Woof
Hoo!
Is there no internet in Costa Mesa, or have those freethinkers just fed him too many alcoholic beverages ??
Not like him to let us go over 1000…:-)
Loved this from Maher :
“The Taliban said we had nothing to do with this guy(the NYC bomb dude), the next time we want to wreak mass destruction on the US, we hire BP”
Hardees = Carl’s Jr = ?
I’ve never heard of either.
*shrugs*
“The Taliban said we had nothing to do with this guy(the NYC bomb dude), the next time we want to wreak mass destruction on the US, we hire BP”
LMAO. Now that is how a darkly funny joke should work!
Walton@952,
Yes, I know you’re in no way racist – I just think you’re a bit of an Iain Dale groupie!
Incidentally, I was listening to Sunday on Radio 4 today (Note to non-Brits and those who have a lie-in on Sunday: this is a programme of “religious news” – always useful to know what the enemy are thinking!). The first item was about the religious complexion of the new House of Commons: more Muslims (but how many are observant, rather than just from Muslim backgrounds is not clear – certainly the women don’t cover their hair); fewer conspicuous Christians among Labour and LibDem, but more among Tories, and a definite “Christian right” forming. This is apparently focused on issues of faith schools, abortion, stem cells, “family values”, immigration and terrorism, but not, according to the commentator, opposed to “equality” (presumably for gays – I don’t believe this last). Evan Harris was apparently pushed out by a concerted campaign by this group. I wish the Greens hadn’t stood there – given that they didn’t stand in all constituencies, it would have made sense not to do so in LibDem marginals. This Christian Right group may give Cameron trouble in his attempt to come to an agreement with the LibDems.
On BP – I haven’t yet seen any explanation of why the rig exploded. Anyone?
I recall hearing that a methane build up and explosion seems the most likely explanation. Rather similar to what happened on Piper Alpha if I recall, but with a lower human toll and a greater environmental one. Part of the problem seems to have been the failure of a safety system that should have shut off valves on the seabed. They worked with Piper Alpha but not on the rig in the Gulf.
I don’t have anything in particular to say; I just checked in to see how many comments y’all had racked up while PZ was gallivanting about.
Switching to US politics, I see the Teabaggers have forced Sen. Bob Bennett off the Utah Rethuglican ticket. According to the BBC “Sen Bennett is barred by state law from running as an independent”. WTF? Does Utah not allow an incumbent to change their label, or what? I had a look at Utah election law, but couldn’t find anything relevant.
Switching to US politics, I see the Teabaggers have forced Sen. Bob Bennett off the Utah Rethuglican ticket. According to the BBC “Sen Bennett is barred by state law from running as an independent”. WTF? Does Utah not allow an incumbent to change their label, or what? I had a look at Utah election law, but couldn’t find anything relevant.
Knockgoats,
Well, can you blame me? :-D
True. That’s partly why I didn’t campaign for Nicola Blackwood in Oxford (along with the fact that I had finals and was busy). Her campaign against Evan Harris introduced an ugly kind of American-style divisive religious politics that I don’t want to see in this country. Had I been in Oxford West and Abingdon instead of Oxford East, I would probably have voted Lib Dem in protest. (I did, in fact, vote Lib Dem in Oxford East, but that was a tactical vote aimed at removing the Labour incumbent.)
Well, Iain Dale’s arse (if it really is his), doesn’t do anything for me – but then I’m pretty much a Kinsey 0. However, I would like to see him run naked down Whitehall, as per his promise after the exit poll!
On Oxford East, yes, I’d have liked to see the slimy Andrew Smith removed – I remember him from my years in Oxford.
Really, though? You didn’t even slightly appreciate my vivid allegory at #326 involving hot, muscular, sweaty Lib Dems in showers? :-P
Damn, Waton.
Just… damn.
Dude, hot sweaty tryst. Do that. You may even find love. Conservatina will be free to find young men (and women!?) that may love her for what she is, rather than what they want her to be.
Otherwise you may grow bitter, lashing out at people you know don’t deserve it but damn it you made a promise and some one should thank you for sticking to it. And it sure won’t be “Conservatina” because she thinks you owe it to her anyway.
And… maybe it’s time you got out more. Really. And play with some boys your age!
lol XD
Still under investigation, albeit interviews with the survivors and others in the area are pointing the finger at a huge methane gas buildup/escape, possibly triggered by the cementing operation reacting with methane hydrates (plus the very likely failure of the blowout preventor):
(Marinelog, “Methane hydrate build-ups sideline BP cofferdam”.)
*Faints for Walton*
Matt Penfold, blf,
Thanks for the info on the rig explosion. Thought it might have been God punishing Alabama, in mistake for Arizona!
Ol’Greg: You do realise it was entirely metaphorical, and I was talking about political parties and elections rather than actual sex, yes? :-)
And to extend the metaphor, I did technically cheat on “Conservatina”, since I voted Lib Dem in the election. However, I did so primarily to unseat an incumbent Labour MP, as the Conservatives had no chance anyway of winning in my constituency.
I forget to add: The company which did the cementing operation was Halliburton.
You didn’t even slightly appreciate my vivid allegory at #326 involving hot, muscular, sweaty Lib Dems in showers? – Walton
Amusing, but not arousing! I can remember 3 faint man-crushes in my late teens/early 20s, none of them involving even slightly erotic fantasies, so call it 0.1.
Though incidentally, I didn’t originally invent the analogy between political allegiance and sex – the idea was inspired by this post that Knockgoats made in January:
:-D
Ol’Greg:
:-D :-D :-D
Pops in.
No new threads.
Pops out. Goes for a sail.
Sure you were, Walton. Sure you were.
;)
Almost as good as amateur sex….(Hang on, I’m not endorsing sex between amateurs at all here right ! )
Whiskey in the jar version
I just posted this on FB in response to one of my few xtian loon FB friends, who is going on about awesome mother Teresa…
Hell’s Angel
Still no new posts? I’m beginning to worry about our Overlord, although I hope he’s just taking a well-deserved rest.
Speaking of FB, I just got depressed by it; I was getting weirded out by all the privacy glitches but can’t manage to leave it entirely, so I started a new profile and will delete the old one with all the years of detritus it has built up. But then I found out I can’t be friends with PZ on the new profile because he’s reached his limit. Now I have a sad face. :(
Also happy Mother’s Day to everyone who is celebrating it today, and condolences for anyone who is feeling a loss.
Also it is snowing outside. The hell? I guess we were just a little behind you, Caine.
Well, I’ll get a cpl Pogues links in before the portcullis then !
*waves to Janine*
Dirty old town
A pair of brown eyes
Argh. Just look at this dishonest buffoon, an Anglican priest gloating in the Telegraph about the defeat of Dr Evan Harris. Again, I’ve rarely seen so much concentrated wrong in a single article.
I hope Professor Myers, when he returns from wherever he is, will write a scathing post demolishing this woo-soaked religious idiot.
The House of Commons has lost two MPs who knew about science.
Evan Harris was well know as a supported and advocate of evidence based policies and he lost his seat as a result of an orchastrated campaign by the Taliban wing of the Conservative party.
We also lost Phil Willis, who was chair of the Science and Technology Select Committee that produce the recent damming report on NHS funding of homoeopathy. Willis had chosen to stand down at this election but will be missed by those of us who think evidence matters when it comes to policy.
I agree. As I said above, that’s why I deliberately abstained from supporting the Tory campaign in Oxford. I was profoundly unhappy with the kind of religion-soaked right-wing campaign that Nicola Blackwood ran against Evan Harris. We don’t need that kind of divisive American-style religious politics in Britain.
Evan Harris was a good MP and will be missed. However, it isn’t all bad – it looks like there is now a chance of a Conservative-Lib Dem coalition, which will, hopefully, be dominated by secular values and sanity rather than by reactionary idiocy.
Just in case anyone missed it last week, here is an article in last weekends Observer detailing the rise of the Christian Right in the Conservative Party.
Where *is* PZ? Our Thread overfloweth, and there’s nothing new on the front page for over a full day…
OK. Where the fuck is PZ and why isn’t he providing us with tidbits of stuff to be outraged/amused by?
Dammit, I’m managing to do work without procrastipharyngulation.
Louis
Oh horror.
From 4:10 to 4:12 he actually tries to sing…
Thanks, but… no, thanks.
LOL!
I hope the orange juice is worth it…!!!
That’s probably correct.
Austrian politics used to be sort of Keynesian, but delayed with respect to boom & bust, leading to huge debt and a “we must slash expenses (and will raise the taxes through the roof)” backlash that is now slowly ending.
Delicious! Read the comments, everyone.
Seconded.
@Matt Penfold
Thanks for the link. I hadn’t credited the Christian Right with the ability to exert much influence but I’ll certainly be keeping a close eye on them from now on.
Owlmirror @1024:
Those feral houses are in Detroit. Some of those old neighborhoods are really something to see.
The 16-year-old daughter (almost the same age as my daughter) of a very good friend died on Friday in an accident. My pal and his son were both hospitalized with major injuries. They have my profound sympathy, best wishes and hope for good therapists.
Warning — Angry RantAnd, of course, I have already heard, twice, that she is in a better place.
BULLSHIT!!!!!!
Pure and unadulterated bullshit. She is dead. Her familiy will now experience some major problems (Dad was driving and, I’m sure, will, along with the son, face some major league survivors guilt) associated with the loss of a family member.
This better place — better than being with a family she loved, and a family who loved her? Better than being with friends and extended family? Better than discovering love? Better than finding out who she is? Better than living a life and helping to found a new branch of the family?
I have also heard, once, that she is with god and that is much better. Her family should be happy for her.
Again, so much bullshit.
I understand that one of the minor reasons religion exists is so that people don’t feel so bad when someone dies. That it was not a stupid accident, but rather part of god’s ineffable plan.
Angry Rant Over
Sorry. I’ve had a bad few days. (((Wife))) and I ranted to each other but, in the area I live (my family is in Maine, (((Wife)))’s is in Florida), ya’ll are a good sounding board for things not suitable for work.
Again, sorry to rant on a weekend (for you) morning.
LOL, so true. At least stock up on them when you go in case the gubmint comes looking for you.
Double LOLs.
Just reading up on how it went at Joe.My.God because I missed the broadcast.
Ok, my work on this planet is done…..I think…maybe…;)
I put doubts into the heart of a hardcore brainwashed super fundie christobot friend, with the Argument from Dan Barker
Just wanted to wish all the mamas out there a happy -freaking- Mother’s Day!
Side note: I hate making quiches, even if they’re for my mom-in-law’s brunch. It’s really not worth the trouble for scrambled eggs in a pie shell.
<smug grin>
Billy: That’s awful. I’m really sorry for your friend’s loss.
I can’t imagine anything that would be worse than losing a child.
Iambilly,
Feel free to rant all you like. Better you rant here than introduce your fist to the face of one of those insensitive wankers.
And now some more Pogues
Walton:
I kinda accept these things as bad and normal. My sister was killed in a single car drunk driving accident back in ’88 and it took me about ten years to fully recover (she was drunk and the driver of her car was drunk). Some good therapy helped me sort it out.
I really feel for my friend, but the religiobots mantra claiming she’s better off just pisses me the hell off! They just cannot accept that it is chance modified by personal decisions.
And I second OurDeadSelves: a hearty Happy Mother’s Day to all to whom it is appropriate.
@Walton
I don’t think so. I’ve been researching rises of Christian Right groups in conservative parties (Republicans, Liberals) in America and Australia and it seems once they get a grip, their power keeps on increasing. My best hope is that the Libs will keep the idiocy under control, because without their support, the Tory party can’t really do anything as they don’t have majority.
Has the UK got religious parties? Like Family First in Australia? If they have then i’m not so optimistic.
ECO sighting.
Just under the 48-hr wire.
he’s been “busy”
The Christian Party stood in some constituencies this time, although less than 1/6th of them. It got a total of about 17,000 votes nationally.
I think there is some hope at preventing the Tories moving, and indeed a more general move, to the religious right. Most of the Tory MPs who can be considered on the Christian Right are not that open about it. Their campaign literature tends not to mention their religious affiliations and convictions. This will be because they know the British Public will be put off by those convictions and affiliations.
What is puzzling is why Cameron has allowed the religious right to gain a foothold in the Conservative Party. He has also seemed to be fairly tolerant, in Tory terms at least, on social issues.
*skeptical voice* Sure…
Ok, downer of the day….
13yo girl stoned to death for being raped
How long is western society going to allow this shit?
You know, call Pat Condell an islamophobe, I say good om him.
2 years old article I just realised, but still sickening….
There’s no oil in the former country of Somalia, and no pipelines are planned through it. I think this answers your question.
Good time to retire then….Nite all, see you on, ehm, this thread tomorrow?
Iambilly,
Really sorry to hear that. As has already been said, the endless thread is open for ranting.
@Matt Penfold
Good. The fact they aren’t open is worrying though. Honesty is one of the most important traits a politician should possess. Of course though, if they aren’t open about it, it makes it harder for them to “get away” with enforcing those reactionary laws.
It’s like religious people aren’t willing to openly admit their affiliation or waste their vote (no one does though) so they have to infect the major parties if they want power. It’s a smart political strategy, props for that, but terrible for anyone not them living under their undercover rule.
let’s see, next subThread is Ep LV…
I’m bad, bad, bad — too distracted to attend to the ever-growing thread. Have no fear, though, it has metastasized again