Episode CCXLI: Squidgirl


Let’s see if closing the old long thread helps a little with the load here. Besides, you want to see the squidgirl anyway.

Also, good news: a fresh new server goes in tonight. Commenting will be temporarily shut down sometime after 9pm while the blogs get transferred, and when they’re switched on again, these performance problems should be gone.

Comments

  1. Clavd says

    I initially got confused yesterday because Mozilla has a Chrome folder containing an userContent-example.css in a folder called Profile under Program Files too. So I thought I must be in the right place and edited that file, changed name and nothing happened. I eventually found AppData/Roaming after someone upthread mentioned that’s where the Profile folder should be and it worked. Just mentioning in case someone got the same problem.

    Going to add the sniny new tweaks now. Thank you, Owlmirror, you saver of blog experience!

  2. says

    Ugh, blockquote fail. Should read:

    Caine:

    Eeeeee! Maybe not the entire horde

    But surely once you remove all PZed’s sockpuppets and paid commenters, it’d be a piece of cake?

  3. says

    Miranda Celeste:

    I don’t understand what’s going on over there. And I freely admit to not having the thickest of skins, so the “Fuck you, Miranda” was really hurtful.

    This ^ is just too fucking precious for words, given that it was posted in Abbie’s Monument thread.

    :shakes head:

  4. Wowbagger, Madman of Insleyfarne says

    Testing – mostly to check which zone is the timestamp set for.

  5. Wowbagger, Madman of Insleyfarne says

    Miranda Celeste wrote:

    I don’t understand what’s going on over there. And I freely admit to not having the thickest of skins, so the “Fuck you, Miranda” was really hurtful.

    Good grief; the lack of self-awareness is almost at a weapons-grade level. Honestly, this whole train-wreck is just getting more and more surreal by the day.

  6. says

    Cath:

    Oh dear, I had a SIWOTI outbreak over there.

    Just read you. You were fantastically clear. I doubt it will help, but you never know…

    Bluharmony/Gender Traitor is making me want to slap a…person.

  7. says

    More suggestions for your personal CSS, until the modifications to my site’s CSS go through:

    Add this to get the drop cap I put at the start of each post:

    p.lead:first-letter {
    font-size: 250%;
    text-shadow: #aaa 4px 4px;
    line-height: 1.0;
    margin: 2px 3px 0px -2px;
    float: left;
    }

    To restore the lovely little octopus I put in the bottom right corner of each post, use this:

    div.postmeta {font-size: 14px !important; font-family: Georgia, “Times New Roman”, Times, serif !important; line-height: 1.75 !important; height: 60px !important; background: url(http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/files/2011/08/brcorner.gif) 100% 100% no-repeat;}

    div.readmorecontent {font-size: 14px; font-family: Georgia, “Times New Roman”, Times, serif !important; line-height: 1.75 !important; height: 60px; background: url(http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/files/2011/08/brcorner.gif) 100% 100% no-repeat; text-shadow: #fff 3px 3px;}

    I detest all those blue bars over everything in the sidebars. Get rid of them with this:

    div.sidebar h2 {background: #fff !important; color: #333 !important; text-shadow: #ddd 3px 3px;}

  8. 'Tis Himself, OM says

    Test of the revised, new and improved, with extra something-or-other, .css file:

    More suggestions for your personal CSS, until the modifications to my site’s CSS go through

  9. says

    Here’s the CSS I’m using, that’s supposed to be installed someday:

    @-moz-document domain(freethoughtblogs.com) {

    .commentlist li {list-style: decimal outside none !important;}

    img.post_thumbnail {background: #fff !important; border: thin solid #fff; float: right !important}

    h2.title {
    font-weight: bold !important;
    font-size: 18px !important;
    text-shadow: #ddd 3px 3px !important;
    padding: 0.5em 2px 0.5em 2px !important;
    }

    div.sidebar h2 {background: #fff !important; color: #333 !important; text-shadow: #ddd 3px 3px;}

    div.postcont {font-size: 14px !important; font-family: Georgia, “Times New Roman”, Times, serif !important; line-height: 1.75 !important;}

    li.comment.even {background: #eee; !important}

    div.comment-author.vcard {font-weight: bold; display: inline; width: 500 px; background: #eef;}

    div.comment-meta {text-align: right !important; background: #eef !important;}

    div.postmeta {font-size: 14px !important; font-family: Georgia, “Times New Roman”, Times, serif !important; line-height: 1.75 !important; height: 60px !important; background: url(http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/files/2011/08/brcorner.gif) 100% 100% no-repeat;}

    div.readmorecontent {font-size: 14px; font-family: Georgia, “Times New Roman”, Times, serif !important; line-height: 1.75 !important; height: 60px; background: url(http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/files/2011/08/brcorner.gif) 100% 100% no-repeat; text-shadow: #fff 3px 3px;}

    p {font-size: 14px !important; font-family: Georgia, “Times New Roman”, Times, serif !important; line-height: 1.75 !important;}

    p.profile {font-size: 12px !important; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Sans-serif !important}

    p.lead:first-letter {
    font-size: 250%;
    text-shadow: #aaa 4px 4px;
    line-height: 1.0;
    margin: 2px 3px 0px -2px;
    float: left;
    }

    blockquote {margin: 0 12px 18px; padding-left: 12px !important; padding-right: 12px !important; color: #111 !important; border-left: 3px solid #ddd; font-size: 13px; font-family: Georgia, “Times New Roman”, Times, serif !important; line-height: 1.5 !important; font-style: normal !important; color: #000;}

    blockquote.jerk {margin: 0 12px 18px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; border-left: 1px solid #fff; background: #fff url(http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/upload/jerk.gif) 0 0 no-repeat scroll;}

    blockquote.creationist {background: url(http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/files/2011/08/tiny_gumby_trans.gif) 0 0 no-repeat; font-family: “Comic Sans MS” !important }

    blockquote.creationist p {font-family: “Comic Sans MS” !important}

    div.commentNumber {float: right; font-size: 15px; padding: 6px; margin-left: 8px; border: thin solid #999; color: #555;}

    .captionedfigure {
    font-size: 11px;
    text-align: center;
    margin: 8px 8px 8px 8px;
    padding: 4px;
    border: 1px solid #ccc;
    }

    .bypostauthor { background: #DBD9D9 !important; border-top: 1px solid #999 !important; border-bottom: 1px solid #999 !important; }
    }

  10. Philip Legge says

    Thanks for the latest temporary CSS fixes. I’m also finding it hard to get the thread to load the comments (and at 521 as I currently read it, we’re not yet pushing the Scienceblogs limit of 666 posts, here). By the way PZ, I suppose you do know that throwaway comment on the dog whistle thread will almost certainly be taken against you and misinterpreted without any hint of charity or irony?

  11. theophontes says

    @ Caine, lichieres pautonnier #513

    Bluharmony

    That is a strange one. She claims to be an “equalist feminist”. To me that is a contradictio in terminis. She will defend a form of feminism from the very worst of trolling and even suggest that there is still work to do. And then essentially undermines it all by pandering to the balmy equalists who are denying that there is discrimination against women.

    Pretending that we are in a post-discriminatory world is just a way to set current iniquities in stone. It is a very old ruse.

    (I feel tired just thinking about the craziness over there.)

  12. says

    I want to put it server side. We’re waiting for more important things to be done.

    I’ve also asked for a more permanent solution than have to mail stuff to the TechGuy and asking him to install it for me. I WANT ACCESS TO THE CODE! I WANT THE POWER!

  13. Matt Penfold says

    Thanks everyone. Let’s hope B&W being down is just a technical glitch rather than as the result of anyone attempting to shut up Ophelia. She has been making some enemies of late :)

  14. llewelly says

    Benjamin “van Driessen” Geiger | 7 August 2011 at 12:47 am :

    Small model rockets are damn near impossible to shoot without specialized hardware. Larger ones are much easier.

    Friend in question started shooting rockets about 2 years ago, with an initial success rate of about 20%, which increased to about 75%. Divide by two for small rockets.
    Small rockets are usually much more difficult, but (a) sometimes people put vmax motors in the high power rockets, which burn all their fuel as quickly as possible, resulting in really fast acceleration, (b) high power rockets are more likely to be customized or scratch built, are built from a wider variety of kits, and a much wider variety of motors, so there is more variation in the timing.

    That’s right: In 0.19s, the rocket completely left the frame.

    For the time between the rocket’s first movement, and the rocket leaving the Field of view, my friend and I have in a few cases looked up the newtons, divided by the mass, integrated over the height of the frame at the estimated viewing distance, and gotten much smaller numbers, albeit neglecting air resistance. But he doesn’t wait for the rocket to start moving; he times it based on the countdown, and seeing the initial puff of smoke from the igniter. There is a delay between when the igniter puffs, and when the motor starts providing thrust. (If there is visible flame, it’s too late.) That makes it a matter having precise reflexes, rather than impossibly fast reflexes.
    We watch all our launches from events at a temporary range, set up by the Utah Rocket club, according to NAR safety regulations, and the first row of launchers is designed for rockets with up to G motors, so nobody is within 6 feet of the launch.

    And here’s the scary part: It was running on a single half-A engine. The rocket is designed for (IIRC) up to a C.

    I think with a C you’d have nearly twice as long between the igniter puffing out and when the motor actually starts providing thrust.

  15. says

    Theophontes:

    She claims to be an “equalist feminist”.

    Oh no, not at B&W. There, she was going on about “equity feminists”. Not that I have the slightest idea of what that means.

    The rest of her shtick was as thus: “you people are saying much nastier things than anyone at erv, oh yes you are! They’re just using epithets which have lost their meaning/power.” Lather, rinse, repeat many a time, then “I’ve been depressed my whole life and you’re mean! You just don’t know how much this sort of horrible stuff hurts meeeeee! Meanies! I’m going back to erv, where I’m loved!”

    Oy.

  16. theophontes says

    @ Caine, lichieres pautonnier #530

    …“equity feminists”. Not that I have the slightest idea of what that means.

    The only thing that scans is “equity = equalist”, the idea is that we are living the ideal. Their belief appears to be that, currently, all people are equal. There is a level social playing field without (I kid you not) any privilege or discrimination. Arguing against them really is a mindfuck.

    I tried to point out further that offensive language that supports the inequalities of the status quo is significantly more offensive than offensive language that is harnessed to create equality. Apparently I am a ignorant n00b PZ bot.

    I cannot say that I am yet as eloquent as many of the regulars but, bloody hell, I do not think they are arguing in good faith.

    I keep hoping they are going to sober up… ;(

  17. says

    The LDS Church is earning some more bad PR in connection with the Boy Scout troops it sponsors.

    …Elsewhere, only families of Scouts are usually targeted, and pleas are often made to groups instead of individuals. In Utah, bishops and stake presidents in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are urged to ask all members for $50 to $100 or more, and armies of Scouts and leaders are sent to visit every home (including people who are not Mormon) to make face-to-face appeals….
    Donations don’t go to local Scout troops. Money goes to the administrative council to operate such things as Scout shops and campgrounds. It also helps pay some large salaries. Compensation of $148,796 was given in 2009 (the last year data are available) to Great Salt Lake Council Scout executive Rick Barnes, who replaced former executive Paul Moore and his $228,174 annual compensation.
    In the Provo-based Utah National Parks Council, Scout executive Steve Royster was paid $169,990 in 2009. In the Ogden-based Trapper Trails Council, Scout executive Michael Marchese was paid $88,596 for part of a year’s work; he was hired there to replace Barnes. The three councils declined to make more current salary information available.

    … LDS-supported Friends of Scouting drives have found some unique ways to increase such peer pressure on behalf of Scouts. It includes having local church leaders suggest specific amounts, and sending people to knock on every door in every neighborhood to personally ask for money.
    A handbook from the Great Salt Lake Council, for example, includes suggested letters to be given to LDS members from their local stake presidencies (that oversee a cluster of congregations) and bishoprics (that oversee individual congregations).
    “The donation level that is being asked this year is $50 per household,” the suggested letter for stake presidencies says, adding that any donation is appreciated. The suggested letter from bishops asks members to consider giving $100 if possible. It adds, “Anyone with children knows that $50 hardly pays for participating in a single seasonal sport.”
    The letters add that the church “fully supports the Boy Scout program and has designated it as an activity arm of the Aaronic Priesthood,” for young males….

    With the LDS Church’s record of killing Boy Scouts in preventable accidents, I would think that people would hesitate to donate.

    http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home2/52319345-183/utah-council-scouts-lds.html.csp

  18. triskelethecat says

    Well I’ve missed so much of TET that I may just have to start from here and forget the rest. Hope everyone is well! Life has been hectic here.

  19. Sili says

    I’ve also asked for a more permanent solution than have to mail stuff to the TechGuy and asking him to install it for me. I WANT ACCESS TO THE CODE! I WANT THE POWER!

    Can’t you just Owlmirror nicely? He seems to have a nack for worming his way into the guts of these places.

  20. says

    In the Readers Comments section beneath the article about funding for Boy Scouts, some readers have also documented the ways in which the LDS Church uses the scout troops as a proselytizing tool:

    When my son was in Scouts, he was told unless he came to church (LDS Ward) for the next 4 or 5 Sundays before Scout camp, he couldn’t go. And you can say this isn’t “official procedure” or it doesn’t happen all you want. It did. I spent a small fortune renting a cabin at Moon Lake that year to make up for his missing scout camp. Haven’t donated since.

    Scouting in Utah IS different: other religions may sponsor troops (in fact, nationally there are more boys in Methodist-sponsored units than in LDS-sponsored units), but no other faith uses BSA for religious indoctrination. Other churches that sponsor troops simply donate their unused (on Saturdays or weekday evenings) facilities, but there are no LDS-style strings attached. Boys of other faiths are not pressured to convert.

    And there’s this all-too-typical defense from a pro-LDS-troops commenter:

    Why do gay activists hate the BSA? They jump on every opportunity to criticize the organization.
    Are you people offended that there is effort to teach boys to become men, because growing up didn’t work out well for you?

  21. drbunsen le savant fou says

    Meanwhile, I am glad to see ERV citing important cultural work in defense of her stance on sweary words slurs.

    Owait, I mean South Park.

  22. drbunsen le savant fou says

    Why do gay activists hate the BSA?

    Wait, what? I thought it was the “fewer dead children” activists? And not directed at the BSA in particular.

    Oh, right, logic. Sorry, as you were.

  23. Sili says

    Are you people offended that there is effort to teach boys to become men, because growing up didn’t work out well for you?

    So the boy scouts are teaching kids to be Macho, macho men?

  24. 'Tis Himself, OM says

    Other churches that sponsor troops simply donate their unused (on Saturdays or weekday evenings) facilities, but there are no LDS-style strings attached. Boys of other faiths are not pressured to convert.

    When I was in the Boy Sprouts ever so long ago, my troop was sponsored by a Presbyterian church. We never saw the pastor who apparently was busy doing whatever busy pastors do to keep busy. We saw his wife a lot, because her boys were in the troop. There was no proselytizing, no prayers, and no pressure to even appear religious.

    But I’m sure the Mormons have managed to make the Boy Scouts part of their church rather than an organization for boys.

    Old joke from my military days: What’s the difference between the Navy and the Boy Scouts? The Boy Scouts have adult supervision.

  25. opposablethumbs, que le pouce enragé mette les pouces says

    Nice one drbunsen.

    btw,

    it was pleasant to see the vote at onenewsnow (the American Patriarchy News thread) gradually swing to 77% “No”, but it’s recently started swinging back a little – just in case anyone has an idle moment ….

  26. says

    Not that I have the slightest idea of what that means.

    it’s libertarian feminism: equality under the law + genderblindness = equality of the sexes. Because as we all know, there’s no such thing as society.

    Basically, these guys are fighting the symptoms instead of the disease, and are complaining that some of us prefer to get at the root of the problem instead of only dealing with the worst symptoms.

  27. says

    Jadehawk:

    wait, what did I miss?

    Kamaka’s #439. He’ll be heading to our place on the 30th and we’re going to the Dinosaur museum in Dickinson (back roads) on the 31st.

  28. 'Tis Himself, OM says

    wait, what did I miss?

    We’re all invited to Caine’s house on the 30th. If you can, help out by bringing a sixpack of good beer or a hindquarter of beef or something like that. Me, I’m bringing potato salad.

  29. says

    He’ll be heading to our place on the 30th and we’re going to the Dinosaur museum in Dickinson (back roads) on the 31st.

    oh, fun. if that weren’t in the middle of the week during the schoolyear, I’d totally invite myself

  30. Tethys says

    Good morning thread! I see you’re busy being mean again?

    Hooray! I hope I haven’t missed the fun.

    Trolls are severely logic impaired, and don’t seem to realize that their poor arguments are the cause of their being bashed.

    It’s so obvious that the horde is full of mean vicious people who spend their days teaching perfect strangers how to fix their css code, and sharing curry recipes.

  31. says

    Jadehawk:

    I’d totally invite myself

    You’d be more than welcome. You know you can show up here anytime. :) It has to be the middle of the week, because both Mister and Kamaka work weekends.

  32. Tethys says

    Caine

    Is Kamaka traveling to you via motorcycle? I could almost make it to you in 7 hours, but I am starting from the cities. (cruise control set to 80mph)

    It seems like he should be able to make the drive in 4 or 5 hours.

  33. says

    Tethys:

    Is Kamaka traveling to you via motorcycle?

    I don’t think so. He’s coming from Grand Forks, but will be able to leave early, figures 6, 7 hours on the road. We’re in Almont.

    If you want to come, feel free! We have room for you. :)

  34. says

    llewelly:

    No way I’m going to catch up with TET, either, but…

    … back from 3 days of watching rocket launches on the Salt Flats of western Utah.

    Wait, there’s another rocket nut in the Horde?!? Actually, I can only fairly refer to myself as a once-and-future rocket nut, since I’ve been mostly on hiatus from the hobby for the last several years. I’m determined to change that this year (i.e., the NAR year, which effectively runs from NARAM, in late July/early August, to the next NARAM).

    I have little to add to your byplay with Benjamin about rocket photography, except to note that it’s not size per se that matters, but acceleration, which in turn depends on thrust-to-weight: You can get a fairly slow liftoff with even small rockets (and neck-snappingly quick liftoffs with even fairly large ones), depending on weight and power/thrust curve.

    ‘Tis:

    When I was in the Boy Sprouts ever so long ago, my troop was sponsored by a Presbyterian church. We never saw the pastor who apparently was busy doing whatever busy pastors do to keep busy. We saw his wife a lot, because her boys were in the troop.

    This was also my experience with scouting (right down to the fact that my troop was sponsored by the local Presbyterian church!). However…

    There was no proselytizing, no prayers, and no pressure to even appear religious.

    …no proselytizing from the sponsoring church, but IIRC Scouting itself included a fair amount of presumed religiosity: Invocations and benedictions at events, grace at meals, even (again, IIRC) a badge called “God and Country.” It never bothered me at the time, because I hadn’t yet begun to question the ubiquity of religion, but looking back….

  35. drbunsen le savant fou says

    We’re all invited to Caine’s house on the 30th.

    -_-

    *shakes fist at Pacific Ocean*

  36. Tethys says

    Reading the dog whistle thread.

    Dr. Bunsen and Jadehawk are just so awesome! (others too I’m sure but I haven’t read that far yet)

  37. Audley Z. Darkheart OM, purveyor of candy and lies says

    Tethys:

    It’s so obvious that the horde is full of mean vicious people who spend their days teaching perfect strangers how to fix their css code, and sharing curry recipes.

    I know, right? It’s shocking how brutal those recipes are. ;)

  38. drbunsen le savant fou says

    Let’s not even get into the paramilitary origins of Scouting. Baden-Powell? Siege of Mafeking anyone?

  39. RemembersABeach says

    Re: Boy Scouts.

    My son is a Cub Scout in a pack sponsored by the local Lutheran Church. Not much proselytizing, just a quick and easily ignored prayer before the annual banquet. However, every year, as part of the advancement requirements, they have to complete a faith requirement. I have simply interpreted “faith tradition” to mean the set of ethics I am trying to teach him, and “faith leader” to mean me. I’m not sure what will happen if he continues to Boy Scouts.

  40. Classical Cipher says

    horribubble

    Ballard: I’m fine and you’re adorable. You’re beyond adorable, you’re…
    Mellie: If you say “adorabubble,” I’m leaving.
    Ballard: I wasn’t going to, but I love the fact you thought it was the next logical word.

    Hee. :)

  41. Tethys says

    Audley

    Well, Caine did post one that has 40 bird chilies as the first ingredient. I think that one would brutalize my taste buds.

    Bunsen, LOLing at your latest comment. What is wrong with these people? My great-grandmother would have ripped blu up and down for valuing herself based on her appearance, and she died back in the 70s. I was thinking that there has been a lot of progress since that time. I was wrong. :(

  42. Richard Austin says

    Random note to fellow horde who visit L.A.: if you like seafood and don’t like fancy restaurants, you have to get to the Paradise Cafe at (appropriately) Paradise Cove in Malibu. It just basic good seafood. It’s apparently also being run by the guy who used to run Gladstones before SBC screwed it up (though they may be claiming a do-over and putting it all back (and no, I don’t expect anyone to know what Gladstones is either; let me just say it’s where Sunset meets PCH*, and for decades it was famous locally)).

    … I think I just did a footnote in a double-parenthetical. Don’t tell any of the people I edit for that I did that.

    Re: rockets

    I had a model rocket set once. It got fired once. I hit a bird (don’t ask me how); I think it was a pigeon. We buried it. I was about 6. I no longer have a model rocket set.

  43. Rev. BigDumbChimp says

    Went this sandwich shop to pick up lunch for Mrs. BDC and I. Was wearing my “><a href="http://www.bustedtees.com/jesushatestheyankees/?jadid=14836822533&jk=jesus%20hates%20the%20yankees&js=1&jmt=1_b_&jp=&jkId=8a8ae4e7313b3248013140f1d26e4009&jt=1&jsid=25715&gclid=CKTsgMXgvaoCFUiW7QodABnj7AJesus hates the Yankees t-shirt. Admittedly not a great t-shirt but it was on top.

    Let’s just say that It didn’t go over well with a lady behind the counter.
    First comment: That shirt is horrible
    My response: Oh it’s terrible (mocking voice)

    Second comment (while she’s helping a different customer mind you and very agitated): Jesus may hate the Yankees but God hates Ugly.
    response: I think your customer is waiting. God hates bad service

    Third comment: I hope you’re proud of yourself
    response: I hope you’re proud of yourself making a scene here over a t-shirt. Good job oh wizened defender of the faith. You’ve put me in my place. Now get back to making that shrimp salad sandwich. Uh oh shrimp?

    I think that is still flying far over her head.

    Not sure I’ll be going back there again. Which is a shame. Good sandwiches.

  44. drbunsen le savant fou says

    Well, I’m inclined to think blu is very young and somewhat sheltered, and new to the internet … but I know plenty of people by that description who aren’t clueless dingbats, so who knows.

  45. drbunsen le savant fou says

    Really? I thought Yankees fans would get upset about that shirt, moreso than Jesus fans.

  46. says

    The tagging may have looked bad but the link worked, so you’ve got that going for you.

    Apparently some employees haven’t been given The Talk about not hassling customers.

  47. Rev. BigDumbChimp says

    Really? I thought Yankees fans would get upset about that shirt, moreso than Jesus fans.

    Maybe she was both. Though I thought the people that owned that place were from Boston.

  48. says

    Rev. BDC:

    Second comment (while she’s helping a different customer mind you and very agitated): Jesus may hate the Yankees but God hates Ugly.

    I admire your restraint, because did she ever leave the door wide fuckin’ open there.

  49. Rev. BigDumbChimp says

    I admire your restraint, because did she ever leave the door wide fuckin’ open there.

    Yeah in days ago I would have pounced but I figured I’d address her words and not her looks.

  50. drbunsen le savant fou says

    … do you suppose she thought “Yankees” referred to all Americans, not the baseball team?

    I mean, it’s clear we’re not dealing with the sharpest crayon in the knife cupboard here.

  51. Sili says

    Well, I’m inclined to think blu is very young and somewhat sheltered, and new to the internet … but I know plenty of people by that description who aren’t clueless dingbats, so who knows.

    Is it still possible to be both a) young and b) new to the Internet?

  52. says

    Rev. BDC:

    Yeah in days ago I would have pounced but I figured I’d address her words and not her looks.

    I was thinking more in terms of ugly personality or spirit, if you will. Taking offense, making Poofdaddy threats, proselytizing, all that, it’s ugly.

    I will confess, though, to having a TV clip pop up in my head. A cop stops a car, walks up to the driver side with his ticket book out, explains the driver was speeding and starts to write the ticket.

    Driver: I thought you didn’t give pretty girls tickets.

    Cop: [quiet for a moment, goes back to writing ticket] You thought we didn’t give pretty girls tickets?

    Cop waits a perfect beat, then, while still writing the ticket, says “You’re right. We don’t.”

  53. Rev. BigDumbChimp says

    … do you suppose she thought “Yankees” referred to all Americans, not the baseball team?

    No. In my experience more Americans don’t think of Americans as a whole as Yankees. Just people from the North East of the US.

    So it’s possible she thought it meant Northerners, but I’m pretty sure she was more upset about Jesus and not about the Yankees.

  54. Rev. BigDumbChimp says

    I was thinking more in terms of ugly personality or spirit, if you will. Taking offense, making Poofdaddy threats, proselytizing, all that, it’s ugly.

    ahh right

    I will confess, though, to having a TV clip pop up in my head. A cop stops a car, walks up to the driver side with his ticket book out, explains the driver was speeding and starts to write the ticket.

    Driver: I thought you didn’t give pretty girls tickets.

    Cop: [quiet for a moment, goes back to writing ticket] You thought we didn’t give pretty girls tickets?

    Cop waits a perfect beat, then, while still writing the ticket, says “You’re right. We don’t.”

    ha!

  55. says

    Wait, there’s another rocket nut in the Horde?!?

    More than one, evidently.
    It’s been about ten years since I launched anything, but rocketry was part of my life for a couple of decades. My first project involved a frog astronaut (named Yuri) who flew twice and was returned safely to earth, kept under observation for a week or so, then released into the wild. Question the ethics all you want (it was 1983, I was much younger then), but I’ve been to some big events and talked to other rocketeers and damn near everybody had a small animal story. The only one I ever heard with a happy ending was mine (thanks to extensive testing and multiple redundant safety features).
    My last launch was a night shot from the bottom of a 300-foot deep volcanic crater in central Oregon while friends watched from the rim. I also pulled off a couple of two-stage night launches.
    Whoosh. I love rockets.

  56. broboxley OT says

    have a pork loin soaking in
    equal parts honey and yellow mustard
    tblspoon cider vinegar
    dill weed
    texas pete to taste(around here lots)
    gonna fire up the bbq after the baseball game

  57. Psych-Oh says

    Oooooooo, recipes! And right on time!

    Rev. BDC – I am finally thanking you for recommending the “Lees Brothers” cookbooks. The recipes are just fantastic. The macaroni and cheese recipe is the best I’ve ever made- and it is now heavily in the rotation of our family meals. I use Mostaccioli instead of elbows, though.

  58. cannabinaceae says

    Hi Thread. Somehow I’ve gotten out of the habit of posting inane beer related comments here. Maybe in a few more days/weeks, who knows?

    Any advice on getting an avatar working here? I sought to use Gravatar, which claimed that having a WordPress login also grants Gravatar login. However, even though my login has trappings of WordPress, Gravatar does not recognize me.

    And I went to all the effort to generate a cute avatar.

  59. says

    cannabinaceae, your FtB login is not the same as a wordpress login. If your FtB login doesn’t work with gravatar.com, go to wordpress.com and register (user name does not matter, won’t affect anything here), just be sure to use the same email address you used with FtB. Once that’s done, go to gravatar.com and sign in.

  60. Tethys says

    Caine
    Extending a barely horde member an invitation to your home? You big meanie!!! (aww, I’m touched!) If finances and circumstance make it possible, I will be there with bells on. Odds are not good that the finances part will allow it.

    My confusion over Kamakas estimated drive time though, is due to the fact that I can cross the entire state of Minnesota and half of North Dakota in 6 or 7 hours. I can’t imagine any route from Grand Forks to Altmont taking more than 4 to 5.

  61. says

    Richard Austin:

    You guys are slacking.

    I’m exhausted, haven’t slept since Friday night. S’okay though, because I need to be early, early, early to sleep tonight. Fucking hospital appt at 10:00 effing a.m. Have to leave home by 8:45, so have to be up at stupid fucking 7:15.

    :grumbles and cusses more:

  62. says

    Tethys:

    If finances and circumstance make it possible, I will be there with bells on.

    That would be great! If it turns out you can make it, you can locate my email address at my Zenfolio. Drop an email and I’ll make sure you can find us okay!

    As for Kamaka’s route, you’re going to have to wait until he shows up and ask him, I’ve never been to Grand Forks. :D

  63. Classical Cipher says

    Here I am! I met with my classmate this morning to go over translations. That part went as well as could be hoped – I’m usually pretty good when I have something clear to focus on and discuss. I just didn’t like the awkward part at the end where I wasn’t sure whether I was supposed to leave or stay there and study. (After a little bit he said he was going to lunch so I figured that meant I should leave, but I still don’t think I handled that whole thing quite the way I was supposed to.) Then I got a little lost afterward, which was also not good. I guess it’s nice that I’ve gotten something done already today, but I’m feeling a little frustrated and disconcerted. Oh well. Time for lunch, then review, then… et cetera…

    Wish I could make it to Chez Caine with the rest of you! That would be neat. And then you fascinating people could carry the conversation, and I wouldn’t have to figure out when I was supposed to leave… Sigh.

  64. Richard Austin says

    Caine:

    I’m exhausted, haven’t slept since Friday night. S’okay though, because I need to be early, early, early to sleep tonight. Fucking hospital appt at 10:00 effing a.m. Have to leave home by 8:45, so have to be up at stupid fucking 7:15.

    :grumbles and cusses more:

    Ack. Not good. I doubt you could use my get-to-sleep-early method (which involves a nice warm cup of kona coffee; yes, coffee puts me to sleep). Still related to the surgery, or just normal “can’t sleep clowns’ll eat me” thing?

    Is this more stabbity hospital, or a “make sure you haven’t mutated and grew it back” kind of thing?

  65. Richard Austin says

    Cipher:

    Baby steps. Take what you can handle.

    I find it’s usually best to have an excuse to use at the end of something. Like, after the main stuff was done: “Okay, well, unless you want to keep working on something else, I probably ought to get back.”

    It’s a polite way to make it unambiguous, since I often have the same kind of trouble reading people in such situations.

  66. Jessa says

    More CSS goodness:

    If you want the entire comment header (including the permalink) to have that light blue background like on Sb while still keeping the separator, replace your line that starts with .comment-meta with the following:

    .comment-meta { background: #eef !important; border-bottom: 1px solid #bbbbbb !important; }

  67. Patricia, OM says

    Sheesh, Naughty Marvin has been working on trying to reset the code all morning with no success. I’m afraid he’s going to tear out his beard if it stays so frustrating. *she whined*

  68. says

    Classical Cipher:

    Wish I could make it to Chez Caine with the rest of you! That would be neat. And then you fascinating people could carry the conversation, and I wouldn’t have to figure out when I was supposed to leave…

    I wish you could too! And no, you wouldn’t have to figure out when to leave, you could stay as long as you wished. We even have rooms so you could have a ‘room of your own’ to retreat to at any time, even while conversation was going on. We’re pretty casual and happily anti-social here. You can hang or wander off, no questions. Well, except maybe “want a beer?” and “you having some of this spaghetti?”

    Richard:

    I doubt you could use my get-to-sleep-early method (which involves a nice warm cup of kona coffee; yes, coffee puts me to sleep). Still related to the surgery, or just normal “can’t sleep clowns’ll eat me” thing?

    A couple of oxy c’s will take care of getting to sleep early. I’m a nightowl, I was ready to sleep at my usual time, around 5 a.m. If I did that, though, I’d be up all Sunday night, yada, yada, yada.

    Is this more stabbity hospital, or a “make sure you haven’t mutated and grew it back” kind of thing?

    Find out about my anemia, get a cat scan of the pancreas (hopefully), have about all my blood drawn, hopefully avoid an endoscopy, all that. Bleargh.

  69. Nerd of Redhead says

    Patricia, I can give Naughty some special grog to mellow him out. Let me know if you need it.

    Caine

    Have to leave home by 8:45, so have to be up at stupid fucking 7:15.

    Teach the Redhead how it can be done. She requires three hours–if I’m lucky.

  70. Owlmirror says

    @Patricia:

    In Firefox, when you got to the menu and click on

    “Help” → “Troubleshooting Information” → “Open Containing Folder”

    What happens?

  71. says

    Nerd:

    Teach the Redhead how it can be done. She requires three hours–if I’m lucky.

    Standard Redhead temper and stubborness* is my trick. I *refuse* to get up three hours beforehand when I should be sleeping!

    *These all differ from one Redhead to another, except in intensity.

  72. Patricia, OM says

    Owlmirror – OK if you are going to have the patience to try, I’ll go over & do the trick.

  73. KG says

    No way I’ll be able to catch up with TET, so:

    1)Thanks to those who sent congratulations to my son.
    2)Commiserations to those unwell andor awaiting medical appointments.
    3) Good to see the new Pharyngula up and running!

  74. Nerd of Redhead says

    *These all differ from one Redhead to another, except in intensity.

    *SIGH*

  75. Owlmirror says

    Yes! There is a Chrome.

    OK. Open that folder. What files are in there (if any)?

  76. Nerd of Redhead says

    Dang, I always love it when the wind swings around to come off the lake. At couple of minutes ago there was a 14 degree F difference between the reporting weather station near the lake, and the Waukegan airport (official for the area), which is further inland. Now it’s down to 11 degrees as the cool air moves inland.

  77. Patricia, OM says

    Owlmirror –
    userChrome-example.css
    Cascading Style Sheet Document
    2KB

    userContent-example.css
    Cascading Style Sheet Document
    1KB

    OK, no laughing by you lurkers about the size of my machine. Thank you.

  78. sandiseattle, confused by them says

    So this temp service/employment agency I got wrapped up with is sending me to a job interview on a Sunday. Don’t know if that is good or bad.

  79. Nerd of Redhead says

    So this temp service/employment agency I got wrapped up with is sending me to a job interview on a Sunday. Don’t know if that is good or bad.

    Can you work at least one day on weekends? Sounds like that will be the case.

  80. sandiseattle, confused by them says

    @Nerd: my ‘case worker’ didn’t give me alot of details, but it sounds like its either outside sales or a mall kiosk. With my Ford POS car there’s no way I can do outside sales, but I think I could handle a workday at a kiosk. Really hoping this isn’t all a waste of my time.

  81. Owlmirror says

    OK, copy
    userContent-example.css
    to a new file.

    Windows usually renames copies to something like

    Copy of userContent-example.css

    Rename that file to be:

    userContent.css

  82. says

    Richard Austin:

    I had a model rocket set once. It got fired once. I hit a bird (don’t ask me how)

    I think it’s safe for you to go back to the rocket field: You could spend the rest of your life earnestly trying to repeat that event, and there’s very little chance you’d succeed; the odds of having it happen again by chance are infinitesimal.

  83. Nerd of Redhead says

    my ‘case worker’ didn’t give me alot of details, but it sounds like its either outside sales or a mall kiosk.

    *Tentacles crossed for mall kiosk.*

  84. Richard Austin says

    Bill:

    It was more the trauma of the event, and the objection of my mother at the time :)

    I like watching big things go “whump-foosh-bang”, so I could probably get back into it.

  85. drbunsen le savant fou says

    I loved the story of Yuri the cosmo-frog making it back to earth safe and sound, feralboy12 :)

  86. Patricia, OM says

    OK, I have that done.
    (Can’t hardly believe I’ve gotten this far, Yeh!)

  87. chigau () says

    Owlmirror
    When you finish that tutorial…
    In your #469 you provided some code to make PZ’s comments stand out.
    Is it possible to do the same for other commenters?
    Can I add custom colours for commentors as I choose?
    (Why does my spell-check not like commenters or commentors?)

  88. Owlmirror says

    @Patricia: OK, now right-click on userContent.css, and see if the menu contains “Open with Notepad”. If it does, choose that.

    If not, open Notepad, and drag userContent.css to the Notepad window, and it should open it.

  89. Owlmirror says

    In your #469 you provided some code to make PZ’s comments stand out.
    Is it possible to do the same for other commenters?
    Can I add custom colours for commentors as I choose?

    It depends on whether they’re registered or not. Or at least, it can be done easily if they’re registered; it might be possible to do it if they aren’t, but I am not sure how.

    Every registered user has a class added to their comment that looks like “comment-author-XXXXXX“, where “XXXXXX” will be the name they registered with. You for example, have “comment-author-kiyaroru“; Caine has “comment-author-caine“.

    You could easily add a line to the css file saying:

    .comment-author-XXXXXX {background: colour}

    To make them stand out.

    It occurs to me that you could also use

    .comment-author-XXXXXX {background: black}

    As a cheapass killfile.

    I actually tried doing {display: none}, for an even more thorough killfiling, but that was a little too much — it removed the comment so thoroughly that the line numbers did not show either, messing up the comment count.

  90. Owlmirror says

    @Patricia: OK, select and delete all of the text currently in there.

    Then copy everything between the “=====” below, and paste it into the notepad, and save it.

    Then restart Firefox.

    =====

    @-moz-document domain(freethoughtblogs.com) {
    blockquote { color:black !important; font-style:normal !important }
    .entry { font-family: serif !important; font-size: 16px !important; text-align:left !important; }
    .comment { font-family: serif !important; font-size: 16px !important; text-align:left !important; }
    .comment { background-color: #f2f2f2 }
    .odd { background-color: #ffffff; }
    .avatar { float: right; }
    .comment-author { font-weight:bold !important; background: #eef; }
    .comment-meta { border-bottom: 1px solid #bbbbbb !important }
    .commentlist li { list-style: decimal outside none !important }
    }

    =====

  91. Richard Austin says

    Caine @629:

    I just realized – I can stand up straight. Yay!

    I stand alone,
    Caught somewhere between the trinity of yesterday,
    Today, and tomorrow.

    I stand alone
    Not because I must, nor because I choose,
    But merely because I do.

    I stand alone
    As I always have, as I always will, and it doesn’t bother me
    That much anymore.

    I stand alone
    In all my battles, but I’ll succeed because I know:
    At least I stand.

  92. says

    drbunsen:

    … manned?

    Crewed</GenderNeutral>

    And, as cool as what Copenhagen Suborbitals is doing, [a] their “spacecraft” didn’t get anywhere near space and [b] if you take a look at the post-recovery photos, I think you’ll conclude you wouldn’t have wanted to be the crew!

    I think it would be possible to launch a human (though not to anywhere near space) using hobby-rocketry technology and have a 50/50 chance of recovering said human alive (best method, it seems to me, would be to have the “crew” come down independently of the rocket, using a parachute of the sort BASE jumpers employ). But given how near real space tourism is to the horizon, what would be the payoff for all that risk?

  93. adrianco says

    Hello everyone, I volunteered to help with performance testing and tuning the new server, and we are doing some testing over the next few hours, which will include creating some artificial load using some tools and help from http://soasta.com who do web site testing.

    The idea is to find out how much spare capacity it has, not to make it so slow it’s unusable, so please comment here if you see any ill effects.

  94. Nerd of Redhead says

    I just realized – I can stand up straight. Yay!

    Like me and when I had my appendix out, almost 50 years ago. A significant moment. Enjoy, and show your physicians/surgeons.

  95. Richard Austin says

    adrianco:

    Alright, so you’re telling us not to start any new MRA wars, then? Cuz that’ll have the same effect, and it’s free…

    Well, monetarily speaking. I don’t know that we can afford to put certain people through that again…

  96. Owlmirror says

    It occurs to me that you could also use

    .comment-author-XXXXXX {background: black}

    As a cheapass killfile.

    Slight correction:

    .comment-author-XXXXXX {color:black !important; background: black}

    It turns out that comment text is a very dark gray.

    Also: The big list of color names.

    http://www.w3schools.com/cssref/css_colornames.asp

  97. Richard Austin says

    adrianco:

    Or, *glances at Caine* you can just continue with the normal testing. Yeah, let’s do it that way instead. I think it’s safer.

    *tries to swallow; can’t, for some reason*

    So, how ’bout that orange goo?

  98. adrianco says

    So we just ran a bunch of loads of TET and it got busier but seemed to be doing fine, so we’ll crank it a bit higher now…

  99. cicely says

    More Madcap MRSA Merriment.

    :( :( :(

    At least, this time, there’s practically a good chance that hospital admission and subsequent surgery won’t be required.

    Yea Janine sighting! But where is blf?

    I hope he didn’t fall prey to the peas.

    Sailor – I think blf is at the International Pea Festival.

    So, you think he’s been kidnapped?

  100. Owlmirror says

    I actually tried doing {display: none}, for an even more thorough killfiling, but that was a little too much — it removed the comment so thoroughly that the line numbers did not show either, messing up the comment count.

    Correcting myself again:

    This utterly kills the text of the comments while leaving the name and line-numbering intact:

    .comment-author-XXXXXX p {display: none}

  101. adrianco says

    We pushed the server to being fairly busy and have now stopped. I hope it was still loading OK for everyone…

  102. broboxley OT says

    Richard Austin on that orange goo
    I read on the intarwebs it was Boehner’s tan

  103. says

    Cicely:

    More Madcap MRSA Merriment.

    :( :( :(

    At least, this time, there’s practically a good chance that hospital admission and subsequent surgery won’t be required.

    Oh no. I’m so sorry, Cicely. All tentacles crossed for you. ♥

    Richard, I’ll be interested in what the orange goo turns out to be. That’s awfully tough on a small village.

  104. Carlie says

    Ugh. I just looked at ERV, I guess for shits and giggles (ok, just for the shits, no giggles to be found), and they’re still going strong with whining about PZ and Ophelia and how they’re so mean and stoopid and such. Phil (the one most of us actually thought might be worth something) is making prostitution jokes about him, Abbie is still calling Pharyngula “heavily moderated and censored”, and in general they just can’t stop talking about it all. It’s more than a bit creepy at this point. It’s like a TET, but they have absolutely nothing else to talk about except how much they hate anyone involved with Watson, especially PZ.

  105. Patricia, OM says

    Hoooooly cow!

    Something worked Owlmirror. I can see Comic Sans & PZ’s Creationist. The avatars have all moved to the right side of the page. But still no numbers on the posts.

    That’s actually a small matter I’m sure – but the fact that I got it to do something is huge, and a first for me! Woo-hoo!!!

  106. cicely says

    Benjamin, you have my sincere, heart-felt sympathies. My son had a colonoscopy at (I think) twenty-two, because of rectal bleeding (also, I’m assured, not penetration-related). They found no reason for the bleeding, but then, they claimed to find no blood in the stool sample, either, even though it was sitting in a pool of blood that was not apparently generated close to the anus. The problem continued intermittently for a couple of years, culminating in the middle-of-the-night phone call I refered to in a previous Thread.

    He was pale enough to portray a vampire, in spite of the generous dollop of yellow/brown skin tones that are his normal coloration. Double-plus ungood.

    The surgeon later chided him for not having the problem addressed previously, Son explained the back-story, doctor looked in the hospital’s records…and found the hitherto-unreported record of that colonoscopy. I’m sure Son could have sued, but he was just so relieved to get a diagnosis and treatment that he let it pass. Fortunately, he had medical insurance that covered most of the bills, unlike when he had that colonoscopy in the first place.

    hotshoe, congratulations on your Paying Employment. May you both be very happy together. :)

  107. Psych-Oh says

    Adrianco – I couldn’t post for a couple of hours. Now, it seems to be working for me again.

    Cicely – Oh no! I hope you can nip it in the bud right away.

  108. adrianco says

    I don’t think the testing we did would have stopped anyone posting, it might have made the site a bit slower for a while, anyway its all done now. Thanks to Dan at http://soasta.com for help and tools. They have a free tool for testing web sites, he was showing me how to use it…

  109. Jessa says

    Owlmirror @631:

    Do those last few entries on your list need semicolons after the !important ? Maybe that’s why some people aren’t seeing comment numbers?

    Just asking. I know just enough about CSS to screw things up.

  110. Owlmirror says

    I can see Comic Sans & PZ’s Creationist. The avatars have all moved to the right side of the page. But still no numbers on the posts.

    Excellent! Glad to hear it.

    The line in the css file that is supposed to show the comments is this one:

    .commentlist li { list-style: decimal outside none !important }

    Can you double check that it’s there, and has the braces showing properly?

    Hm. Maybe the line before it is mangled or missing the closing brace?

  111. Ms. Daisy Cutter says

    Patricia: “I think blf is at the International Pea Festival.”

    I hope blf is enjoying all the country goodness and green peaness.

    Regarding “horribubble” – I tell my cat all the time that she’s “adorabibble.”

    Less amusingly – from a Daily Kos diary about AIDS:

    I went to Puerto Rico from East Harlem and entered scenes lifted from the night of the living dead as homeless junkies with open sores and abscesses hustled to get just one more bag of manteca [heroin] and then went home to infect their wives, constrained by the Catholic Church from condom use. “Better to die of AIDS,” counseled a bishop to a women seeking permission to protect herself, “than to commit a sin.”

  112. Owlmirror says

    Do those last few entries on your list need semicolons after the !important ? Maybe that’s why some people aren’t seeing comment numbers?

    Hm. Maybe. It’s been working on my machine™, in both Firefox and Chromium, though.

    I know just enough about CSS to screw things up.

    Oh, me too!

  113. chigau () says

    Owlmirror @630
    Yes! Thank you.
    That works beautifully!
    Can I change the font colour, too?
    It occurred to me about a q&d killfile.

  114. drbunsen le savant fou says

    Wow Caine! Great news.

    You know, it never occurred to me to ask till just now – why didn’t they take the CO2 out again when they were done?

    .

    But given how near real space tourism is to the horizon, what would be the payoff for all that risk?

    Because it’s cool.

  115. Owlmirror says

    Yes, we’re familiar with your shenanigans. ;-)

    <sound style=”raspberry”>Thbbbbt!</sound>

    (Use absolute positioning once, and they never ever ever let you forget it…)

    Can I change the font colour, too?

    Sure. The property “color” changes the text color, just as background changes the background color. Separate properties using semicolons.

    .comment-author-XXXXXX {background: colour; color: different_colour}

    (Sorry, the standards were written by Americans)

  116. says

    drbunsen:

    Wow Caine! Great news.

    Thank you!

    You know, it never occurred to me to ask till just now – why didn’t they take the CO2 out again when they were done?

    Supposedly, they do. You’re still left with a metric fuckton of it anyway.

  117. chigau () says

    Yea! Standing Caine!
    Your background shall be … BF3EFF (darkorchid1)!

    Owlmirror
    You are a god.

  118. cicely says

    I just realized – I can stand up straight. Yay!

    Huzzah!

    I feel a bit under the weather, so I’ll leave you all to it. ‘Night, all.

  119. Tethys says

    Patricia

    I had the same problem of no post numbers until I re-checked the css code and removed an extra bracket from the very end.

    Caine has to go to sleep when its still light out? You poor thing! Hopefully the meds kick in soon. (3 minutes to bedtime young lady!)

  120. says

    (accidentally psted this in the wrong thread)

    oh PZ, you do give me the warm fuzzies sometimes!

    I stumbled over a forum-post about sexism in atheism over at Nirmukta (Indian Freethinkers); at first I was mortified when the writer said she noticed the male-only composition of the admins of a pharyngula facebook group, and at the sexism that she encountered when she remarked on that. And then PZ swoops in and saves the day: http://nirmukta.net/Thread-The-Glass-Ceiling-in-Atheist-Circles-Few-Women-in-Positions-Of-Power

  121. Tethys says

    Oh, and in other news, Ophelia has banned the fairyland troll.

    Don’t they read the title of the post before they comment?

  122. says

    @ Tethys

    Oooh, oooh, could you really make it?

    C’mon, you have three weeks to plan. A rockhound like you, how could you miss this? http://www.dakotadino.com/

    If you would like, I can regail you with stories of monadnocks and exumed peneplains.

    Seriously, all you need to worry about is the gas money. I’ll be bringing some food and beverage; if we’re all broke, we can fry eggs and potatoes, roast some weinies and we will all have a fine time.

    PS My drive time is based on back roads. 80 on the buzzway? Not this trip. The fucking Interstate is quick but sooo boring in a *Monoculture Hell* kind of way. I want to see the small towns. The birdwatching is way better, too.

  123. Philip Legge says

    Good morning Thread. (I know I’m possibly in danger of being portcullised by writing a long comment.) In the past we’ve had a particular type of denialism regarding dictionary atheists, and PZ has often posted on that (my non-existent-gods, some threads from last year!) – there are some spectacularly obtuse ways that people can reason around the issue, for example, by insisting that a particular dictionary is the only legitimate definition, despite the inability of multiple dictionaries to concur with either each other or common usage.

    A meme that seems to be going around suggests there’s a similar “dictionary misogyny” issue: if the dictionary definition is taken as meaning “hatred against women” then several strategies intervene to deny a possible association with any particular person or practice:

    * first, “hatred against women” is universalised, so that only “hatred against all women” can possibly be regarded as misogynism, and only a person who indeed hates all women can be viewed as a misogynist;
    * as a corollary, the hate speech against individual women is supposedly minimised from being harmful, because it is targeted rather than being indiscriminate. The expression of it – and particularly the obsessiveness of dwelling on it for months, along with the deliberately provocative vile language – must surely bring that into question.
    * language is regularly deprived of context, nuance, and subtlety in these arguments, so that no words can be viewed as embodying “hatred”, in another attempt to escape the definition. An accusation that such-and-such a quotation is hate speech is thus doomed to fail because the targets will say, but you can’t possibly view these slurs as embodying hate? Isn’t it obvious we’re just kidding or pressing people’s buttons! (Even a full quotation of representative comments with context will be repeatedly denied as containing hatred.)
    * lastly, the fact that the targets of the hate speech also include some male allies (like PZ) is likewise a convenient dodge: “we’re not misogynists, because we dislike some men too!” The apparent equal opportunity bigotry does not really avoid the charge that hatred against a certain category of women is viewed as legitimate, and the men who ally themselves with that category can be written off in the same way because of that association.

  124. Classical Cipher says

    WHY IN THE FUCK ARE SO MANY PEOPLE SO STUPID?!

    Sorry, I had to get that out of the way.

    Back to your regularly scheduled socializing.
    Goodnight, Caine! I don’t know if you’re still here, but if you are, go to bed!
    I have too much vocabulary to review before Friday :( I can’t even figure out when I’m going to get enough time. Yes, I realize I’m posting on the internet right now and should be reviewing. If it helps, I just finished one chapter’s worth of flashcards and am about to go over the verbs from that chapter again since they seem to have fallen out of my brain somewhere along the way.

  125. Philip Legge says

    One gloomy afterthought. As a result, it’s probably not a wise idea to assert that anyone, anywhere, at any time in the whole Rebeccapocalypse disaster is a misogynist or a sexist, or even (less controversially) that while they may not be misogynist or sexist, their actions either have been misogynistic or sexist, or may appear to have been misogynistic or sexist – it’s just too easy to invoke one of the above strategies and beat the rap. It’s also way too easy an accusation to take offence at, in a display of either real outrage (“how dare you call me such-and-such!”) or feigned or mistaken indignation (“how dare you call me such-and-such”, when the criticism was not directly a person, but the idea they had given utterance to).

  126. says

    chigau:

    Yea! Standing Caine!
    Your background shall be … BF3EFF (darkorchid1)!

    Ooooh, pretty!

    Owlmirror
    You are a god.

    Geek Superhero!

    Tethys:

    Caine has to go to sleep when its still light out? You poor thing! Hopefully the meds kick in soon. (3 minutes to bedtime young lady!)

    I’m going, took me 20 minutes to load the frigging thread. :(

  127. Nerd of Redhead says

    Yawn, another dictionary fuckwit. *Wakes up the Pullet Patrold™, and heads for the dancing hippo wallow*

  128. Tethys says

    @kamaka

    Circumstance will have to cooperate too. I do plan to come visit my Grandmas in Bismarck before October. I will try to make that coincide with a pharyngufield-trip if at all possible.

    Do take the back roads and meander your way to Caine’s casa. May I suggest Arena Lake for bird watching? (Pelicans!) I’m sure every pothole is full to overflowing. Ducks and various waterfowl will be everywhere!

  129. sandiseattle, disappointed says

    Well the interview was a crap-out. Hourly pay plus milage but still outside sales. Too bad my car is in FUBAR mode these days. Oh well, there’s always tomorrow.

  130. says

    As a result, it’s probably not a wise idea to assert that anyone, anywhere, at any time in the whole Rebeccapocalypse disaster is a misogynist or a sexist, or even (less controversially) that while they may not be misogynist or sexist, their actions either have been misogynistic or sexist, or may appear to have been misogynistic or sexist – it’s just too easy to invoke one of the above strategies and beat the rap.

    except that there really isn’t any other way to describe a sexist action. At some point you just kind of have to ignore the literalists, or maybe explain how they got the meaning of the word wrong, and move on. Not using “misogynist” and “sexist” just means we no longer have words to accurately describe thee actions.

    Unless you have some other pithy suggestion?

  131. Tethys says

    Kamaka,

    Apparently it is also called Harriet Lake. Arena is a ghost town now according to the internet.

  132. says

    @ Tethys

    Pelicans are a favorite of mine. What strange creatures.

    I do plan to come visit my Grandmas in Bismarck before October. I will try to make that coincide with a pharyngufield-trip if at all possible.

    If you can’t make the dino *Pharyngufield-trip*, (c’mon, you know you want to), we will just have to do it at the next opportunity.

    I have no doubt the Grannies will be thrilled to hang out with the flaming atheists.

  133. 'Tis Himself, OM says

    Phillip Legge #672

    You describe a possible problem. However you neglected to provide an answer. Consider the problem and come back to us when you do have an answer.

    Until then, your concern is noted.

  134. Philip Legge says

    I know, Jadehawk. I won’t falsely say its a “damned if you do/damned if you don’t” dilemma, because I think sexism and misogyny – whether unintended or deliberate – should be pointed out. My gloomy reflection is that invariably through this debâcle, exceedingly few people have taken a valid piece of criticism (and perhaps have felt immediately hurt by self-realisation of owning up to the implications of such views), gone away and thought about the ideas raised, and then returned to say “you know what, you were right to point out that I was being sexist, and I’m sorry that I did it”. It seems like the bulk response has been for a lot of Anonymous Internet Tough Guys™ to never admit having been wrong, to write tens of thousands of words reinforcing their positions, rather than admitting that criticism might have some validity.