I’ve decided that this is how I want to commute to work from now on.
Via The Kid Should See This, a fabulous collection of freaky cool videos.
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
I’ve decided that this is how I want to commute to work from now on.
Via The Kid Should See This, a fabulous collection of freaky cool videos.
So I’m watching the new Dr Who. I’ve never seen a show go Godwin so soon;-)
Well, wearing yellow spandex certainly would complete the Pharangula superhero outfit. You’d need a name for your flying superhero alter ego of course…
Shut up, Hitler! In the closet you go!
“Madman in the sky” is a good title for watching the new Who.
We’re having a Very Tantrum Weekend at chez kristinc. Mr Kristin and I are cracking down on our adorable, intelligent, but spoiled 7-year-old. (YES, you have to pick up your things or there will be consequences. NO, crying and howling will not change it. NO, you may not go play in the bouncy house across the street if you’ve lost your shoes and NO, I will not find your shoes for you.)
I will not be drinking because alcohol + depression is doubleplusungood, but please hoist one for me if you can indulge.
That is how I’ve always wanted to commute to work. I mean the iphone is awesome and everything, but I’ve been waiting for my goddamn jet-pack-of-the-future since at least fourth grade.
Now that I work from home, though, it might be a bit of overkill.
Better!
That’s a really cool video. I found myself trying to remember the geologic sequence in the western end of the canyon. I think (and I may be wrong, here) that we are looking at (top to botom) the Kaibab Limestone (late Permian), Hermit Shale, the Coconino Sandstone (aeolian, not fluviolacustrine), a thinned Supai formation (mixed fluviolacustrine shales, sandstones and limestones), Redwall Limestone (it’s actually creamy white, but the red from the Supai washes down) and a thickened Temple Butte Limestone (which is a gentle purple). If I remember correctly, the Bright Angel Shale and Tapeats Limestone, as well as the Precambrian Vishnu Schist, are well below the river level in this area. Of course, the early morning light makes it harder to see the colours.
At the same time, I also found myself getting a little pissed off while watching. The Hualapai Nation, who were dumped into an area which is totally unsuited for any form of agriculture, too warm for logging or any other form of viticulture, minimal mineral resources, and not enough moisture for pastoral activities (sheep or cattle). In short, the Hualapai Reservation is an economic dead end.
The Nation has embraced tourism (the ‘Grand Canyon Skywalk’), gambling, and renting their part of the Grand Canyon out to anyone who wants to make a buck doing something that the NPS would say “Not only no, but hell no” to. Unfortunately, the money to create the skywalk and the casino came from outside investors and the tribe makes almost no money, other than the wages paid to the workers (and the wages are really low). Prior to the gambling and the skywalk, one of the very few sources of income for the tribe was a per-person fee charged to each person participating in a whitewater rafting or dory trip using the road which wended up from the river to the highway, via the reservation.
So, once again, we (the European settlers (and yes, I am a descendent of a whole line of them, including quite a few who worked for the BIA in the DOI back in the mid to late 1800s and were thus definately in the screwer camp (the Native Americans were in the screwee camp))) have pushed a nation into an economically unviable area and are now busy exploiting them via investments which create jobs.
Shit. Sorry ’bout that. Having gone to school with kids who spent at least part of every year on the resevations (Hopi, Navajo, and Havasu), I have a rather jaundiced view of the reservation system and the benevolent care of the BIA.
kristinc 5:
One? I have so got you covered.
Depression is horrible, and I hope you are getting effective help for it.
Hope you hang in there for the sake of yourself, your kid, and the rest of humanity.
It’s a shame that they didn’t write “Shut up, Hitler! BACK In the closet you go!”
I think I just had an orgasm.
chigau ():
If you only think so, it either didn’t happen or it wasn’t worth mentioning.
Or was it another earthquake?
My favorite line (not a spoiler): “Guilt! Guilt! More guilt! Isn’t there anyone in the universe I haven’t screwed up?”
Well, I disagree. I found it much better than depression by itself. And these days, I just drink because I’m bored most nights.
You’d need a name for your flying superhero alter ego of course…
“Squidnunc.”
“Rule one, the Doctor lies.”
But you had a good date, so be happy!
Iris Vander Pluym
Please do not try to tell me how my body works.
—–
Rorschach
I’ve never said this before but
QFT.
I actually really liked that. I really did. And I’ve been hating on Moffat for all of the crap and discontinuity and rewriting his own storylines etc.
But I really, really liked that.
Bro Og
No earthquake.
Just the city bus going by.
*sigh*
But don’t you live within walking distance of UMM? Wouldn’t a jetpack be just a little trop?
Just watched the new Doctor Who. My mind is currently on the wall across the room.
Speaking of madmen…
I’ve wanted that ever since I first played the original Pilotwings. Damn rocketbelt, getting my hopes up…
I live across the street from my office. I’d take the scenic route.
Hurricane
Of course, ABC Australia isn’t showing the new Who until next Saturday, so I’ll have to stick fingers in ears, say “la la la la can’t hear you“ and ignore the Endless Thread (at least until the horribly slow torrent finishes)…
I sleep downstairs from my office. Scenic route includes the dirty dishes in the sink and the piles of laundry.
Did I have a point?
@ Philip
Don’t worry, no spoilers here. Only this: it was insane.
There are Doctor Who spoilers up there, isn’t it? I guess navigating the thread isn’t safe for now.
@Carlie
I always have thought the show lived and breathed discontinuity and plot holes. Even as I first watched the first four season of New Who.
The new episode answers so many questions and confirms a few wild guesses of mine. Fezzes and top hats are cool! OOOOPS, should have put SPOILER ALERT at the top.
I just bought Unearthly Child which was much better than I thought it would be. I haven’t seen many of the 1st three Doctor episodes. Why did the doctor have to leave Galifrey? Was it ever explained?
Harry Dean Stanton, Sean Penn, Elvis Costello, John Cryer, Charlie Sheen … what do these actors have in common?
Not really any spoilers above – the comments are ambiguous enough, I think.
I just posted in the other thread, but the AV Club has reviews of a lot of the classic Who and new Who. And, of course, Television Without Pity – some of Jacob’s recaps are pieces of art all in their own.
Most of their DNA? They all have Y chromosomes? They can’t pass on their mitochondrial DNA to their offspring?
Equations.
Sorry about what?
The invaders wiped out 90% of the Natives with smallpox and the like, then claimed it was *god’s will*. While the Native People were being destroyed, they were force-fed “treaties” that ruined them further.
I’m leaving out the reprehensible wars here. (See “Black Hawk: The Battle for the Heart of America” by Kerry A. Trask.)
It pisses me off to no end that to this day, Sovereign Nation status is still being exploited by self-entitled, over-moneyed Euros and Organised-Crime Syndicates.
Something that pisses me off more?
Why can’t Indians just be Americans like the rest of us? Why should they have some special privilege to operate casinos?
State governments are cutting into the action as I write this.
/end rant
@ Owlmirror
Why are those things?
May I assume you are looking for a deeper answer then “They have all been on “Two and a Half Men”?
If I knew jet packs were on the market now, I wouldn’t have bought a new car. I have 2 ways to get to work:Freeway construction or via a bridge reconstruction that is 10 months overdue would be a thing of the past. One question: how many cup holders does the standard model jet pack have?
I doubt it. You’re an ass.
The SciFi pay TV channel over here is currently showing Doctor Who episodes with Tom Baker from the 70s, not really my cup of tea I have to say. They “haven’t aged well” is the term I think.
So you East Coast people still have power then, I take it ? I hope everyone’s safe !
Kamaka:
I was apologizing because it was a total nonsequitor and was only a free-association by me from the video. And I think your 90% number may be way too low.
Good night.
Tomorrow, I still have to go to work. Even though there will be zero visitors, and it will be hazardous for some of my coworkers to get there, we’ll still be open.
Randide, yes I am that shallow, and a minor correction, they were all on 2 1/2 Men at the same time.
Sailor, the Poker buddies episode.
(I hope this doesn’t embed)
Shaun Tan’s The Lost Thing, narrated by Tim Minchin, animated short (15 min).
http://youtu.be/5HbM4ffXX6M
Charming. Weird. Tentacular.
Some. So far. Hasn’t hit here yet. My Kindle is charged.
(People who work at Staples have a bad rep, but they were so sweet and helpful. In fact, they were like, “Enjoy your new Kindle!” like it was a motorcycle or ticket to Fiji or something. …But then I started to use it, and it is like those.
…Well, OK, I’d be happy to have my Kindle in my backpack on a motorcycle in Fiji…)
I see you take the same route to work as I.
huh?
@starstuff91
Those are the equations from:
Styer DF. 2008. Entropy and evolution. Am J Phys. 76(11):1031-1033.
That PZ posted about here, which I was looking up for references to post in the response to Bryan Fischer’s repeated idiocy.
@ Owlmirror
Thanks for explaining.
I remember that. It was the thread with Teno Groppi. That was a fun chew toy!
One of my favourite quotes:
Here was one of his examples:
And speaking of Godwin:
Good times.
I’m confused, what is the song that was playing for most of the video? My friend WANTS that song. BAD.
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2011/05/episode_ccviii_adorable_and_an.php#comment-3887228
For example.
FWIW, I can’t parse that triple negative either, and wouldn’t have appreciated that snarky response either. But then, I don’t remember the context of that argument, and who you dislike is not really my concern. I was confused at the random hostility though, and that’s explained now
chigau, like pteryxx, is an opportunistic troll.
Have at it, FB.
Wow. Stand by that, Jadehawk.
Good night, all.
whatever. last i checked, admitting to not understanding something is not a personal attack.
If you are going to post stuff about flying guys this guy should get some love too…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWfph3iNC-k&feature=feedf
Craziest and most exciting thing I think I have ever seen.
Speedwell #52
It’s Adiemus by Nazca.
Oh. FFS. First, ML didn’t entirely misunderstand me. She (snarkily) did understand, or she wouldn’t have “translated” it, which was a statement in context. Then chigau opportunistically threw in, as is chigau’s obnoxious habit. If you think in the context of that argument about real issues that such picayune nonsense about disingenuously misunderstood triple negatives was significant, then you’re stupid. It was a bullshit tangent.
@Snowshoe
I think the second Doctor’s last story, The War Games kind of explains it. It is not very detailed, but he still gives a reason. Although if you are going to watch that, be ready to watch 10 episodes.
I started this last night on a whim in the Paula Kirby thread and decided to put this edited version here.
Because I can’t seem to kick my addiction to enumeration:
Scoresheet for Chewtoys
1. Insults community on first comment (1-5 points). Add a point if PZ is explicitly insulted.
2. States that we are mindless followers of PZ (1-3 points, depending on how insistent they are on this point). Mention of echo chambers, add 1 point to base score.
3. Lays claim to superior education (1-6 points, depending on degree of arrogance and appeals to their own authority) Inclusion of actual, accredited institution of higher education that has conferred degree(s) with dates, subtract 1 point from base score.
4. Claims to have written extensively and convincingly on a proof of God’s existence (1-5 points depending on just how pathetic the attempt to get people to read their stuff is). Failure to provide links add 1 point; writings can only be viewed if paid for, add 2 points to base score.
5. Claims atheism is a religion, and it takes more faith not to believe in God than to believe in God*. (1-5 points, depending on whether any attempt is made to give an example—thus the flat statement “atheism requires more faith than religion does” unadorned gets a 5). Versions that substitute “evolution”, “the big bang”, and/or “science” for “atheism” are acceptable and are scored in a similar fashion.
6. Insists atheists are 1) living empty lives; 2) hate God; 3) pretend not to believe in God so we can be really, really naughty (1-8 points, the more variations on this theme the higher the score).
7. Does not answer any questions from community members (1-3 points) Replies of “answers are in my writings” (see 3, above) add 1 point to base score.
8. States as obvious facts things that have repeatedly been shown, in peer-reviewed journals, to be false and refusal to acknowledge any comment pointing this out (1-8 points depending on degree of frustration engendered).
9. Complains about insults and bad language (1-10 points depending on how hard pearls are clutched and whether fainting couch is used) If they insist that the use of obscenities by opponents prove they are correct, add 2 points to base score. If they use “ad hominem” as a synonym for “insult”, add one point.
10. States that they have done all they can in this den of vipers (or equivalent phrase) and that they will now leave, then continues to argue (1-5 points depending soon after they flounce that they return).
———-
Extra points to add to overall score.
–Misspells Myers, add 2 points.
–Sticks the flounce, subtract 2 points
———-
Anyone who can think of better things to score, let me know.
*Tis Himself provided this one. Good call.
If you can do Usenet, here’s a link to make a NZB for the episode:
http://www.binsearch.info/?q=doctor+who+69955&max=100&adv_age=1100&server=
Torrents always show up at (eztv dot it).
Very surprised at how good the ep was. qvqag pner zhpu sbe gur pyvznk erfbyhgvba, ohg vz fher vg jnf arprffnel gb fbyir shgher (uru) vffhrf rt yvoenel. Off to watch Confidential.
otrame
Looks good but it’s really complex.
Do you have a spreadsheet?
Do I have a spreadsheet. Hell, I have a spreadsheet that shows where to get recipes for various things to cook in WoW. Of course I have a spreadsheet.
Oh, and BTW, Tom Baker was my first Doctor, so you guys aren’t allowed to say mean things about him. Ever. (or if you do, I will assume that you are suffering from a) ignorance; or b) temporary insanity and I won’t hold it against you.)
As for the newest version, I was afraid at first that someone that young might be able to do the “nutter” part and possibly the “wise” part, but could he do “The Oncoming Storm”? Answer? Why yes, and very well. So I am happy.
That is quite the shade of fuchsia.
bullshit. she did exactly what I’d have done when unsure about a meaning: rephrased it into what I thought it meant, and ask for confirmation. In fact, I was taught to do exactly that when not entirely sure about what someone else meant.
fine, I guess I’m stupid. I find making sure I understood what someone is saying especially important in conversations that matter.
as opposed to everyone else on pharyngula. I guess we’re all opportunistic trolls, with the possible exception of Sastra.
I’m fucking sorry I asked.
otrame
Ah. You are after me own heart.
I have spreadsheets for everything.
My first DVD catalog had 35 columns.
Then I came to my senses.
Hey, chigau – I’d be happy to see new knowledge coming from you. Do you have anything original to say? That would be great. Thanks.
Your poor little brain – please help it!
*whoosh*
Nope. The record is there.
How sad.
and this is indeed why a lot of people do not read your posts.
indeed it is; and it is one of everyone on pharyngula having at some point been an opportunistic asshole to anyone else on pharyngula. but you’ve always had a hard time seeing that, even when you’re the target of that behavior
Not enough adrenalin. How ’bout some wingsuit flying?
anyoneeveryoneThis was where ML was coming from:
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2011/05/episode_ccviii_adorable_and_an.php#comment-3885662
There’s no point in claiming that this was purely about a misunderstanding, or really about a misunderstanding at all.
Did you not catch the reference to ML’s comment?
Probably not.
And you know you read my posts. Give it up.
Blather.
onunun gung jnf njrfbzr jura gur fghag thl ghearq naq qrpxrq gur qevire
Ok done with the spoilers; wish more TV could be like this, though, especially having the behind-the-scene bits. I walked in on my brother watching Jersey Shore in Italy last night, quality worked hard to stay off-camera.
I just had a rare, complete conversation with my aspy nephew who just popped in toward the end of the Jetman video. He and I are in total agreement: We’d both strap on that wing in a heartbeat.
Is sad, though, that he is so apprehensive about Irene. The idea of extreme weather bothers him badly. One of the reasons I’m trying to stay awake is because he is such a night owl. He and I are the only ones awake in the house. I’d like to ride out the storm with him. Might enhance our tenuous relationship.
@Audley — I cheered too when Mr. D. came home. :)
of course not. I’m stupid, remember?
but you evidently do not read mine, if you think I regularly refer to myself as “some people”
bite me
or even “a lot of people”
Crudely Wrott
Stay awake.
You and nephew could really bond. (absent any disaster)
—-
I am with you two.
I’d put on that wing without a second thought.
also
nice funeral for Helen.
of course not. people can’t both disagree with you (and be wrong) and make stupid quips about misunderstanding something, no they must do it because of their inherent desire to be assholes to you. because that’s how reality works.
but that’s just more blather from the stupid person. I shall take my poor brain and do something useful with it, elsewhere [/flounce]
Uh…OK.
chigau: “I am with you two.”
Thanks. Means much. Thanks again.
Heathens are often the kindest people I meet. Of course, there are exceptions that test the rule; who the hell glued a hair across SC’s ass? And how come SC can’t deal with it without stinking up the thread?
I’m not going to review umpty-ump comments to find out. I needn’t know but such shit does make me so very weary. Way tired. Too tired to do more than be glad that few have such problems with getting along with others on an adult level.
Crudely, I don’t know what you’re talking about. You might want to review the comments over the past several months, including the responses to your personal posts.
Bullshit. You don’t have the balls to do that. If you want to prove that you do possess the fortitude to do such I hereby invite you to rappel with me. You can tie the rope off, put on the harness, and whatever else you want to do. Buy your own gear if that makes you happy. I want proof that you can follow through. Jump off of a cliff (safely) and I’ll take your boast seriously.
Whups! Forgot to recommend the following Hurricane Brewskis:
Bass, world’s first Pale Ale, first brewed in 1777.
Red Hook Pilsner. “May not look it, but has a dark side.”
MMmmmMMMMmmmm, Goooooood.
tohellwithyourturtle, really, no one cares.
*sigh*
Classical Cipher, *sigh* some of us want more than posturing. *sigh again*
http://youtu.be/AUcgWPyMYwM
Talk about picking uninteresting fights.
SC, I have enjoyed responses to my comments here for several years. Almost all have been supportive, agreeable, funny, instructive, clarifying and constructive. I can’t recall any that made me go off on a tirade.
There are always things in the threads that I am unaware of because there simply is not time to review several month’s worth of comments just to discover someone’s personal gripe.
If there is a crucial element that I am ignorant of that is simply an effect of the sheer volume here. Nonetheless, sequential comments that are posted in order to prove that someone else is responsible for the poster’s sense of being treated unfairly on the internet are tiring and fruitless.
I will retract my statement that your comments here are “stinking up the thread”. I shall substitute the statement that they are lending to the thread a pedestrian cachet.
Only my opinion and you are, as always, free to call it what you will. I do know that you often post comments that are interesting and intriguing.
For now I recommend a liberal application of Ulg* to the affected area.
*Ulg: from The Phantom Tollbooth. Does the opposite of Glue.
I … do not think I have the libretto for this part of the program. *confused*
Anyway. I’m making English muffins from scratch right now. (Yes, at almost midnight, why do you ask?)
That’s fine, CW.
I’ll take you at your word, SC.
Isn’t that the point here? Why else would one cry and refuse to man up? I suspect that your “intestinal fortitude” in meatspace is inversely proportional to your chutzpa on the internet. I’m sorry you are a coward, but I’m sure your boasts help you get by. Keep telling yourself that you are awesome, maybe you’ll believe it someday.
Ah, fuck. Look at this pathetic, tedious loser of a troll. In the lounge trying to pick fights, but only able to provoke yawns. What a sad – and yet thoroughly uncompelling – display.
I have no idea what you’re talking about.
You’re ignorant. So be it.
Hallo everyone. Work, work, work. Not the work I should be doing, but moving stuff about and cleaning up the usual mess my house is, ’cause Kamaka will be here Tuesday. :D
CW:
Oh, one of my most favourite books of all time. Gee, I haven’t re-read that for almost 5 years now. Time to take it off the shelf again.
SC, your marathon grudge holding is well known, and you’re free to hold grudges all you like, however, I don’t think you need to be all nasty to everyone who isn’t interested in who you’re hatin’ right now.
Okay, gonna read for a bit then it’s back to work. Thunder is grumbling, another storm is moving in.
tohellwith:
No. Go toggle your hoggle or something, Cupcake. You’re boring.
tohellwithyourturtle, satire?
Satire? Very weak satire, but yes.
@Caine, could you be any more boring? I know you’re trying, but if that is the best you can do…Cupcake, you’re not as smart as you think you are.
Ah. So you’re a lazy asshole willing to attack others on the basis of limited knowledge. Got it.
If I recall correctly, tohellwithyourturtle’s been here for a bit, making infantile dominance displays in the Markuze threads and generally being boring as hell. I could look it up but I’m paralyzed with not caring very much. Too exhaustingly dull to be satire. Could be a failed attempt.
I love how my reply is delayed which allows cupcake, I mean Caine, to imagine victory.
Try harder sweet muffin; as if you can.
Against whom specifically have I held a marathon grudge? I would love to know.
turtlebrain seems a rather dim pathetic loser who spends his or her time trolling internet blogs. Banning it would not lose us any information.
Is the idea of an iconoclast too much for you to handle? Does it piss you off so badly that somebody thinks differently than you (albeit very slightly)? Why do you feel that you must insult me for poking at you? Are you that thin-skinned?
In short what you are saying is “waa waa.” Grow the fuck up and learn to look at yourself with a sense of humor before you wig the fuck out. In short, grow the fuck up and lose the persecution complex.
SC @61:
Goddammit. My irony meter is smoking again. The projection detector probably needs to be replaced.
tohellwithyourturtle, hm.
Well, I can see why you focus on your meat self, anyway. :)
Since you know me so well, let me know when I’m done wigging. Is it alright if I try a bit of toupeeing while I’m at it, or would that fuck up my growing?
SC, right now you seem to be lashing out at everybody (including parties who are clearly not involved in any kind of fight with you that they know of) in a way that’s really disconcerting. I get the sense that you’re frustrated, but I don’t understand if you’re reacting directly to something that’s happening in this thread or simply airing long-held grievances. (I know about some of these because of being around for other threads or looking them up, but I know I’ve missed a lot of context and other stuff along the way.) Anyway, I don’t mean to presume, but is everything all right? Are you?
tohell:
So you’re saying you’re just here for the purpose of being annoying? Thanks for clarifying that.
You state that with the same authority that I use to state that you rape babies. Which is none. What’s really cute is the fact that you assume to know the reason for my moniker. You would fit in well on conspiracy sites where random bullshit and insults are taken as truth.
Still waiting on the numerous imaginary marathon grudges.
What they would be relevant to I have no idea.
Er.
Turtles are cool.
I haven’t seen any evidence yet that you are capable of thinking. What I do know is that you are stinking up my living room with your obnoxiousness. So how about finding another blog to vent your vacuous vapors ?
I love my meatself! Tiny though it may be, it pleases me when combined with my hand.
Hey, kids! Self-admitted trolls like tohellwithyourturtle getting you down? Go here to get a killfile of your very own!
;)
Not a problem sweetheart.
Yeah it’s installed, I’m waiting with bated breath to hear the story of The Turtle That Done Wronged Him. Hopefully it’s a picture book.
Interesting interview with Behe’s son.
Leo seems to have come to his senses regarding real evidence for design of life, the universe. Good for the science side, if nothing really new to us.
He seems to be more or less disowning his earlier implications of the elder Behes as having been oppressive to him over his break with Michael’s nonsense (creationism, theism). No explanation of the earlier claims, though (was he exaggerating, in fact, or did M. Behe back down due to publicity–or other scenarios?), so I expect the truth will be lost in the murk of history.
Glen Davidson
I haven’t seen any evidence yet that you are capable of thinking. What I do know is that you are stinking up my living room with your obnoxiousness. So how about finding another blog to vent your vacuous vapors ?
You’re so cute! Anger due to glibness, that’s a new tack to take. Unfortunately, you lack the capacity for reasoned thought, so you missed that.
That’s the best picture I’ve ever seen in my life.
Yes, turtles are cool, I have one in my kitchen in a 20 gallon tank. However, regardless of fact, you want to denigrate somebody for…what exactly? What do you know about my pets? What do you know about the reasoning behind my moniker? What was that? Assumptions? I thought so.
tohellwithyourturtle
I hope it’s less inept than your cyber-wanking.
(Does it take you just as long to get off?)
Hm, missed the denigration part. I’ll have to try harder next time.
While giggling aloud, I second that. Hereby showing approximately everybody.
Therrin:
:D Yes, they are. That’s why I have a tattoo of one.
Apropos of nothing: I am so tired of cleaning. Stove’s next. Bleargh.
Moving on.
Would you like to see a picture of my beloved Herbert?
Nice pickup line.
Me too. Hey, weren’t you one of the folks talking about The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo x threads ago? I started reading it today because of that conversation. It’s awesome. So, uh, if that was you, thanks, I guess?
(I tried to watch the movie last night. Got about an hour in before realizing that it was not an appropriate late-night movie choice for me. Maybe we’ll give it another go after I read the book.)
Awww, rorschach is anally hurt because he was wrong. Damn you internet!!!11!one!!1
Thanks very much indeedy! I think I saw that before but neglected to install it.
How does “secret comic sans” work?
Well, then.
In the light of parts of the foregoing and in deference to the human condition, not to mention the uncertainty with which our foibles are so unpredictably manifest, I hereby propose the establishment of
The League of Thickening Hides and Duck
membership in which may be summarily assumed by any aspirant who qualifies themselves by showing proficiency in the following two skills:
1) Developing calluses on those parts that are subject to abuse and irritation from causes not readily avoided so as to provide a cushioned barrier to unexpected abrasion.
2) Emulating the feathers on a duck’s back off of which the foulest waters are shed.
It has been observed that such skills greatly contribute to equanimity and a sort of resonant harmony that some people say they experience both inwardly and outwardly. I once heard an adept describe “not beating up and not beating down” as “living inside the interstices of personalities while trying to leave ’em slow but leave ’em laughing without instinctively grabbing the shitty end of the stick”.
No dues or novel behavior are required. Members are not required to adopt flags or secret handshakes.
The benefits of membership are self evident. Ask the duck and look at the hands of laborers.
Ignorantly and cruelly submitted for your consideration,
Crudely Wrott
I just saw the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo movies a couple of weeks ago. Freakin’ awesome. I was planning to just watch one before going to bed and then ended up staying up until 5 AM to see them all in succession (they’re among the few movies I want to see that are available for streaming on Netflix). Now I have to read the books.
Why ever not ? It can’t be worse than reading the book at night, where you might as well not go to work the next day because you didn’t get any sleep in ! The Hollywood/Daniel Craig version is due to start filming in September btw…..
You use the blockquote cite tag above, and the thing in the quotation marks is “creationist”. It should make whatever you’re quoting appear in comic sans, with the creationist gumby behind it. But only to you and those people in the EXCLUSIVE SECRET COMIC SANS CLUB.(My prodigiously powerful powers of explanation are fading for the evening, so if that didn’t make sense, I apologize.)
@Rorschach: I hope you are loaded because I just ruptured myself laughing at your whining. Cheers!
*picking a rib up off of the floor*
Damn, not only is Behe’s son an atheist, he was flipped by reading Dawkins!
Doctor Who? Doctor Who started yesterday and I FORGOT?!?!
I was convinced it was starting (continuing) in September. Damn.
Classical Cipher:
The movies are outstanding, Noomi Rapace is perfection as Lisbeth as is Michael Nyqvist as Blomkvist. That said, I had a very difficult time with the first movie due to certain themes and scenes. Definitely not a late night while alone flick for many of us.
The books are wonderful too, I enjoyed all three.
Nope, got it (no implications of the above, just testing :)
Rorschach:
I can’t speak for CC, but the rape scene was very difficult for me to get through (it wasn’t easy reading, either).
I couldn’t be less interested in a Hollywood version. Some things simply don’t need to be done.
Cos of that scene an hour in.
Hehe, that’s projected for tonight and tomorrow… I’m trying to tell myself not to pick up the Kindle again, but it’s a losing battle.
Right now, I’m so (yes, prematurely, but I think fairly) in love with Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth that I kinda cringe at the thought of the Hollywood version.
Oh thank goodness! I had this lingering worry that they could not maintain the level of awesome that I was currently experiencing for long.
Goodnight to all! Hugs to the hugworthy! (Y’all know who you are :))
Ah, yes of course. Sorry for not thinking of the effect of that rape scene. My bad. And I agree, Noomi (who declined the role for Hollywood) is the only person who can possibly play Salander.
For CC (sleep tight !) :
Lisbeth Salander – Noomi Rapace
*please don’t let it be embedded*
Rorschach:
It didn’t! Noomi Rapace was absolutely stunning in the role.
Hmm…I’m not sure about that. Granted, she was incredible, but if you look at a random picture of her she doesn’t necessarily jump out as the one to play that role, and it doesn’t look like she had a big career before then. So I wouldn’t necessarily write that off.
I’m more worried about dumbing down everything and reducing it to action scenes. OTOH, I did hear that Let Me In, the US remake of Let The Right One In, was at least as good as the original, so that gives me hope. Especially given how much they fucked up the subtitles for the DVD of LTROI (supposed to be fixed, but it’s still what you get streaming on Netflix).
I agree, that movie gained some momentum in the remake IMO, but I saw the remake first and then checked out the original, so I might be biased…You couldn’t really go wrong with that one though, the story was just too good.
I see your cool turtle, and raise you a punk turtle.
Dance me to the end of love
@kristinc
I’m currently reading this
I’m not thorough it yet, and I’m far from really having changed my ways, but so far it’s good read, makes sense, gives another view on your children and has, I think, already helped me getting over this negative emotions I’ve been having.
I like how the author constantly tries to make you see your kids’ actions in a positive way. Your kid picks a fight? Hey, cool, your kid wants to interact with you!
Two problems so far:
-Mr. can’t read it because it’s in English and so far my attempts to “educating him” haven’t had the desired effects. I can understand him, I wouldn’t want to have my behaviour constantly criticised and I can’t really translate all of it for him.
-It makes me see much clearer what my own mum is doing right now and has always done. My sis just wrote that she’s being ignored. It’s something she always did and boils down to “I want you to hurt as much as you can until you crawl back to me and beg for my love”
Chigau O:
Many happy returns
Ehm, you know that’s a bad road to go down.
I’m rather sensitive about this right at the moment. But you’re an intelligent adult, you have a choice and it’s yours to make.
otrame:
Like your list :)
Hmm, there seems to be an illegal agreement between companies that produce organizer boxes and companies that produce sewing supplies like horribly over-priced boxes to store your thread in.
All the boxes are like 5mm too low to store the thread in…
Yuck
As much as I like Daniel Craig, but that just doesn’t come anywhere near the character
Owlmirror:
Awesomeness! Turtle attacks strawberry!
I raise to turtle attacking camera
Turtles…Snap!
[OK, will do. To hell with tohellwithyourturtle; banned. –pzm]
PZ:
You’re such a forceful muffin, PZ.
Good morning, all.
I won’t be sailing today because the rain is a mite heavy and the boat’s in a storage shed. So as long as I have power and an internet connection, I’ll be inflicting myself on you poor people.
Morning, ‘Tis. I can understand why you aren’t sailing today!
Glad PZ banned the boring turtle. I like turtles and this one was just an insult to all.
Can anyone tell me why greasemonkey isn’t working in FtB? I have it installed and enabled, and it is working for Sciblogs but I don’t get the options to kill/hide in FtB.
Going to get motivated to do some packing up. Bibliophiles should NOT move…
I may never catch up with The Endless Thread (or anything else for that matter), but here are a few better-late-than-never comments:
Patricia, so glad to hear the doctors found that they had removed benign bits from your bits.
Walton, welcome to the USA. We specialize in welcoming guests from the UK with hurricanes.
‘Tis Himself, I loved your contributions to the Tax the Rich thread. Especially this one. As I often do, I sent a copy of your comments to my excellent progeny. They will never be free of their mother as educator.
Brother Ogvorbis, I have enjoyed numerous comments on various threads (though some of your jokes were bad, and I don’t mean that in a good way). This discourse on the goodliness and usefulness of fire was much appreciated. I just returned from an extended trip in Idaho’s Pioneer Mountains and White Cloud Peaks areas. The number of dead trees is disconcerting. Looks like flash fuel for fires. I was dismayed to see that bug-eaten, rotten-looking treescapes extended to above 9000 feet elevation. If trees are dead-by-means-other-than-bugs (Douglas-fir beetle, I think — but why the specific name when lodgepole pines and limber pines and other conifers are also infested?), anyway, if trees are dead by the usual, non-bug-related means, they can be really beautiful additions to the landscape.
Lovely understatement there, ‘Tis!
Thanks all for the turtle/tortoise pics. Nothing like a good belly-laugh before sleep! =^_^=
I made a comment to chigau. I can’t stand chigau. I did nothing to chigau or pteryxx, yet they’ve taken a number of opportunities to snipe at me. Jadehawk asked about it, and I pointed her to an example, which she then proceeded to defend (and to defend the original comment by ML, which was also obnoxious in context). This was surprising as Jadehawk recognized what was going on at the time.
I’m not saying any more about it, as I’m sure PZ doesn’t want it dredged up again. I’m happy to go back to ignoring chigau as long as there’s no further sniping at me.
Seems like a lot of effort for such a short commute. Maybe if they streamline the gearing up. Oh, and Adiemus, very nice.
___
Doctor Who is science fiction fairy tales, if you are trying to squeeze continuity into it, your are trying too hard. I don’t expect much except a vague sense of possibility and a character who is offbeat with some normal companions to ground him. No, I have not seen the new season, I will at some point and I have little doubt that I will enjoy the brain candy.
___
tohellwithyourturtle,
The hell? This is a risk versus reward situation. Rapelling isn’t flying, it’s cool, and yes too scary for many, but it’s bounded far more than a personal jet aircraft. I do scary shit too, I just don’t understand what point you are trying to make.
Ah, I see, trolling. Well, nice to see you go then.
Tax the rich thread – quiet over there now; just wanted to say thanks for the educational opportunity, especially ‘Tis (whose excellent summary has been copypasted into an .odt for me to re-read). This was a particularly brilliant thread, up there with the best.
tohellwithyouturtle:
Note the gravatar I use. I am already repelling*. That is me at age 6.
* if I grabbed a quick shower, would I be less repelling?
Hey, I finally got an ad for something I would like. Telescopes. No money to act, but that would suit just fine.
They’re all listed in comments 33, 35, 39 and 170.
Any of you seen this yet? It’s an old link from some nut in Florida.
http://pastorstahl.blogspot.com/2010/09/putting-atheists-on-national-registry.html
Colin Powell ripping Cheney a new one for being a grumpy, dishonest, headline seeking old fuck on Face the Nation.
Pretty entertaining.
Ramen to that. Halfway through my last move I started wondering whether building a robotic book scanner would be easier.
The reason I started reading e-books ten years ago is precisely because I’m a bibliophile and we move every three or four years. Unfortunately, because I was an early adopter, I have probably six different (DRM) file formats and can’t buy a dedicated reader for less than the cost of a netbook. So my netbook is my reader.
Still, it weighs much less than the equivalent boxes of books.
@ DrBunsen [last TET]
Aaah yes … Spawnphontes returns from the land down under with my new ‘rang tomorrow (not that I would fling it at CC though). Oh happy days!
(That description looks too much like my experience with boomerangs to date. I have thrown money at the problem and hope for something in return…)
triskelethecat:
If you right click on greasemonkey, you should see at the top ‘killfile’ and ‘FtB killfile’. I had to uncheck ‘killfile’ in order to get the FtB one to work. At any rate, make sure you have ‘FtB killfile’ checked.
Perhaps. But does he have any Weapons of Mass Destruction?
Sili:
“Perhaps. But does he have any Weapons of Mass Destruction?”
Of course. Didn’t you see his economic policies?
How Danny MacAskill goes home for the holidays:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cj6ho1-G6tw
How he takes the train (hopefully; not showing up in preview):
Mmmm, whu? Sorry ’bout that. Non-1st links embed?
Date canceled. Hockey canceled. Not enough wreckage outside to bother looting.
I’m just whining.
Again.
@Changeable Moniker
This one is even more amazing: http://youtu.be/Cj6ho1-G6tw
(Apologies in advance if the vid embeds–didn’t show up in the preview.)
Randide:
I’ve been whining the past three days and it’s not been over anything near as serious as Irene. Don’t worry about it.
I’m seriously considering getting one of those little Fujitsu ScanSnap scanners, sawing the spines off my paperbacks, and scanning them in. There are beautiful books I need to keep, of course, and others I won’t part with for sentimental reasons, but the bulk of my old books would be fine in electronic form.
@IndyM, so much more amazing I put it as the 1st link. ;-)
@me, “Non-1st”?! “Subsequent”. That was the word I was looking for …
@Changeable Moniker
I’m braindead this morning! Sorry for not noticing. I think Irene addled my brain…
Alex Kingston > Matt Smith
People complaining about moving their books should have to move my rock collection.
Funny, it works for me with the old one enabled. I never understand how all these things interfere with each other. I can watch every flash video except for the PBS ones (but PBS Kids works!). The flip side is that apparently whatever difference causes it to fail is the same thing that Comedy Central uses for their ads, because I can watch the Daily Show but don’t get any ads. On my work computer, I get both the ads and PBS, even though as far as I can tell all the settings are the same.
changeable: I think if you just type in the link it embeds, but doesn’t if you code it, using a href=”url”>text/a> (add a “<" before the "a href" and "/a" to get it to work; the nohtml tag doesn't seem to work).
None of them have ever been in my kitchen.
Christopher Hitchens wrote a new article for Slate Magazine, The Crimes of Col. Qaddafi.
Excerpt:
A Jewish Rabbi who claimed to have rescued a bunch of Holocaust-era scrolls has been outed as a criminal. Link
Excerpt:
Lynna – Thanks, yep benign is great! But, I’ll join today’s whine…my doctor left the country on vacation after leaving me a voice mail that I need further treatment. No explanation, so now I get to live with the dread of more punches?!? Who knows.
/whine
-0-
Otrame – could you make your list into a bingo card so we can all play?
That secret comic sans stuff is making me feel like a second class poster. Just for the record I checked, Mercury is no longer in retrograde, it should work. *SNORT*
Q wants his bird watching gear back. ;)
Making a Pea salad for dinner and thinking of you all…
WTF? I would sue the doctor for unnecessary cruelty while practicing medicine. Sheesh.
that’s of course bullshit, on both accounts. I didn’t defend chicau, only pointed out that she’d behaved no different than most of us. especially at that time, where everyone was hating on everyone for everything and anything. And what I “recognized” at that time was an emotionally predicated uncomprehension of a very specific argument (the one that’s in the first of only three comments by me on that subject). Nothing about MK (who also made only two comments on that subject, both of them WAY below the average vitriol-level for inter-pharyngula sniping; so low in fact that I’m not seeing it), nothing about that particular triple negative, which I had only gotten after MK translated it (I hadn’t even noticed your sniping at her, because like I said, everyone was sniping at everyone back then).
don’t claim I’m doing/did something that isn’t the case.
anyway, I see it’s time for a break from the Thread again.
@Caine: the weird thing is I don’t have the little monkey face on the bottom of the screen any more. I have it on the toolbar, but right-clicking doesn’t give me the options you are talking about. Maybe because I’m on a Mac? If I hit the drop-down arrow, I get checks next to Enabled and Killfile. No option for FtB killfile. Do I need to download something I’m missing?
Sounds both ominous and interesting.
My natal family once accumulated around 1-2 tons of rocks. Then we had to move. We left near as I can tell 3/4 of them behind. I’m still upset over it and it happened nearly a half century ago.
Serial litigant Toni Patricia Irons Burley’s suits against U.S. government and President Obama were dismissed. This article has links to the judgements. Two of them contain these statments:
triskelethecat:
From the drop-down, select “Manage User Scripts”. Is FtB killfile in there? If so, click “Enable” If not, it didn’t install, and you will need to try again.
Good evening
Today we celebrated gran’s 85th birthday in the hospital.
I think it did her good, seeing the kids and everything (and getting out of the bed, for that matter).
Only I’m expecting a visit from my daughter tonight, since she was pretty upset about the whole hospital thing with tubes and monitors and all that jazz.
BTW, do religious people really find it comforting if other people offer to pray for them?
As we brought gran back to her bed, the woman next to her had two visitors, also elderly women who were just saying good-bye to the “not dying right now” patient. So one of them said “bye then, I’ll pray for you” Maybe it’s just that it’s the first time in Germany that I heard somebody offer prayers for somebody who isn’t dead yet, but to me it sounded mightly like “you’Re dead already, you just don’t know it, any I really think you could do with somebody giving you good references up there”
Triskelethecat:
Hell if I know. (Helpful, ain’t I?) Give a shout out to SG (if you spot him posting anywhere today) or possibly Owlmirror, who might know what’s going on.
Triskelethecat:
Probably. Have you installed the first script on this page, “killfile for freethoughtblogs.com”?
Lynna – How could I sue my doctor, she has sweet baby jesus and all the saints on her side.
Must-read: “When murderers do your propaganda” http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/08/28/1011325/-When-murderers-do-your-propaganda-?via=spotlight
Soo….he slut-shamed the surviving witness, got acquitted for murder, joined the Religious Right and wrote propaganda circulated to this day by Rethuglicans. You can’t get more Republican than that.
I pity the sane non-psychopaths who must share Texas with these critters.
Giliell – I’ll pray for you. Means, I don’t give a shit about you enough to do anything bothersome or worthwhile to help you. So I’ll just go home, talk to myself, and feel smug. Please fuck off and die, so I don’t have to bother to come see you again.
I speak christian fluently. ;)
Hey everybody,
Just wanted to update you all on my situation:
The storm has passed (finally) with no major damage in my city. However, my neighborhood is being evacuated due to flooding. Right now it’s not mandatory, but Mr Darkheart and I are on our way to my parents as we speak.
Drive safe! Stay dry!
Good luck Audley & Mr.!
In absence of more rioting, Englishmen complain about television:
“Hundreds complain over ‘pointless’ Torchwood sex scenes” http://celebrity.aol.co.uk/2011/08/28/torchwood-sex-scene-complaints/
Changeable Moniker and IndyM,
I have a problem. I have been trying for a decade and a half and I still can’t pedal kick. Landing to a fakey manual? Gah, he is not playing with the same tools as I am.
Audley:
Travel safe! I hope your house is safe from flooding.
Is it yellow?
Audley:
Be safe, drive carefully, and watch out for the idtiots (there are lots of us out here). I hope your homestead stays dry. Barring that, I hope it stays where it belongs.
Work closed at 12:30 and we all went home. I drove through an amazing downpour accompanied by 30 to 50mph winds. And as I arrived at home, the rain let up and the wind began to die down. Amazing.
Locally, we had virtually no damage in town, though the south end is being evacuated because of on creek. Wife and I did a quick lookie-lou up in the mountains and the flooding and downed trees are impressive.
Don’t be thinkin’ of me with your mind reeking of peas!
–
Audley, glad to hear/read the lack-of-damage report. Travel safely, stay dry and not-uncomfortably warm.
–
Thanks, everyone. :)
Our neighborhood butts up against the Mohawk river. The river will crest sometime tomorrow– our house *should* be above the flooding, but I didn’t want to risk it and get stuck.
My parents live on top of the highest hill in the county, so no fear of flooding here.
Audley:
Are you anywhere near the Gilboa dam? Apparently, the damn dam has broken.
Pea salad sounds good. There’s an appalling amount of pea discrimination around here. A-peaism will make baby jezus cry.
I’m making tomato, basil, and onion salad. My peas are long gone.
My peas are long gone, too.
But I have broad beans. and potatoes. and tomatoes. and maybe 4 jalapeños.
and a fucktonnne of apples.
Birger Johansson #212
Hey, spoilers! We’re still playing catch-up!
What does this even mean? She jumped in to take a shot at me, piling on to a series of personal attacks. What you said was:
You didn’t even remember, and couldn’t be bothered to refresh your memory of, the thread in question, but you presented the comments (chigau’s was the one at issue) like they were perfectly justified in the context.
What you recognized was that I was being personally attacked by several people. That was the context for ML’s remark and chigau’s snipe. Here are your words:
—
If she had said that in an ordinary context, it would have been different. She inserted her request about my sentence structure in a context in which I was being attacked from a number of directions, merely for presenting an argument people didn’t like. It was thoughtless at the very least.
I’m not.
Don’t bother. I’m going myself. I am still angry about that thread and that so many people were willing to countenance the personal attacks and piling on – which people like pteryxx and chigau seem to creepily revel in – for my terrible crime of making an argument. It was not right. When Brownian, who was arguing with me IIRC, pointed out how bad it was, Caine’s response was “Brownian, okay, whatever. I’m not in this to fight.” I appreciated Ogvorbis’ apology, but his behavior didn’t really warrant it; other people’s did. When Algernon said that there were people who had it out for me, your response was to point out the irony given that I had said prior to that that I didn’t think people were doing that. No one suggested that people intentionally ganging up on me for whatever reason was unacceptable or later criticized the people who had gone after me.
I was having an argument with Josh, but I wasn’t piling on to anyone or hating on everyone for everything. If I do that, I want people to call me on it so I can stop and apologize. That’s not OK with me regardless of who the target is.
SC & Jadehawk, why go, rather than let go?
(Would be less extreme)
2 out of 4 of my mother’s siblings are schizophrenic.
They were actually diagnosed in their 50’s.
I’m scared.
Oggie,
That’s the problem– we aren’t directly affected by Gilboa blowing up, but the Scoharie creek is a tributary for the Mohawk river. So you add that problem with the 5+ inches of rain we got today and BAM! my beautiful historic neighborhhod will be flooded tomorrow.
On a suck scale of one to ten, your town may be at an eleven. But if your house is up high, that reduces the suckiness.
Listening to the news today, Wife and I were reminded of a comment heard on CNN as Katrina approached New Orleans: “All people in low areas get high immediately.”
Not sure how being high will stop one from drowning. I mean, it might make it less of a bummer, dude, but it would still megasuck.
Well, off to pick up Girl at Girl’s Boyfriend’s house so we can give GB a ride up to his college. I most likely will not be returning tonight so, goodnight, and have a pleasant tomorrow.
Oggie,
It’s not up very high, we’re just above “normal” flood stage. But this has gone far beyond “normal”, even though the latest news reports are claiming that the Gilboa dam has not been breached. At this point, I really don’t know what to expect.
Apparently, the river is expected to crest around 8:00 tomorrow morning. Hopefully, this means I’ll be able to get back home soon.
Chigau:
Don’t be. Schizophrenia can be dealt with these days, and it’s your aunts and uncles, right? What about your cousins and so forth? Late-onset schizophrenics often have less severe symptoms. You can read a bit about it here (it’s the second entry, scroll down a bit).
One of the things that helped to make my childhood a fucking hellpit was A’s conviction that I would be schizophrenic because my father had schizophrenia. She started randomly having me institutionalized starting when I was 7 years old. :shakes head:
Pea salad? PEA? Salad? The apocalypse is nigh, storms, flooding, and wind are just distractions. Pea salad is the sign.
Caine
That is so fucking awful.
——-
I actually feel quite safe. My brother (full sibling) and I are OK so far.
My Aunty/Uncle: thing one is dead (in xir sleep), the other is still crazy after all these years. But living in the real world.
Greasemonkey ?
The hurricane didn’t hit Cambridge badly. No flooding or power outages here, and the wind hasn’t been too intense. The cafeteria was even open for lunch, so I didn’t have to exhaust my supply of emergency granola bars and Diet Coke. Hope all east coast Pharyngulites are safe.
(It’s actually much more pleasant for me than the hot, humid weather earlier this week. I don’t cope well with the heat.)
Also, Boston is awesome. I went on a Super Duck tour on Friday (pictures coming soon, whenever I can get a new USB cable for my camera). I’m settling in well on this side of the Atlantic.
(Though I can’t help missing the comforting feeling of living in a monarchy. :-p)
I know I’m smart
But a madman’s all they see
Now there’s finally a person
Who might love me for me
She holds my heart
Just like the way that I held hers
The one from the cadaver
Igor just disinterred
Left nothing to chance now
Double checked every stitch
The Tesla coils are charging up
Igor, throw the switch
Hard work and science
Are what I have to give
And all I’m asking in return
Is that you live…
MORE rampant discrimination and Apeaism!
How dare you assert that the humble and lovable Pea is the spawn of the appockylips. *Snort*
Walton, what kind of camera? Where are you at in Boston? Tell me it’s a Kodak EasyShare M853 and I can hook you up.
Sooo, Benjamin, does your poem mean you’re in love?
-0-
Walton – Fear not, there are plenty of Queens here in America.
You won’t trick me with that pea positive position. Evil I say.
Didn’t I bring that up like three months ago?
Ahh no, it wasn’t the scenes I mentioned, it was the one with two men. *faints daintily*
It only goes downhill in
JudgementMiracle Day. It got a little better last ep, but I feel like this whole thing would be solved in 45 minutes if only Mr. Smith would show up (probably will in the end, anyway).You’re just jealous because we Peaists are know to be sweet little blossoms, and cuddle together in pods. Heathen!
Patricia:
What it means is that I’ve had precisely zero luck with the living.
Wow, I’ve got some privileged American guilt here.
Naughty and I cleaned out our freezer this evening, we threw away enough spoiled, freezer burned and unidentifiable food to keep a Somali family for months.
We are both the children of Depression era babies, so we soaked up their food hoarding habits. What a waste, I need to do better. *hangs head*
You can’t have too many rocks.
And my rock collection pales beside that of my brother, the geologist, miner prophet, and custom jeweler, Steve.
I once earned the undying respect of a Syrian doctor by giving him some perfect skipping stones.
The densest rocks I have are probably my small boulders of Teton jade (which are not really jade, but rock that almost made to the category of jade). I have some nugget sandstone that requires the muscle of two men or three Lynnas to move. Petrified wood is quite heavy, but my pieces are relatively small, probably 40 pounds at the heaviest. I have quite a bit of jasper, malachite, azurite, geodes, plume agate, obsidian, volcanic tuff, and other nearly worthless stuff that I dearly love. I have a small amount of real jade. I have about 30 pounds of mica in thick “books.” Maybe a ton of river rock, some of which have been eroded into nice shapes. Gypsum, mudstones, rippled sandstones, “moki marbles,” boytroidal quartz, fossils, jasperoids, schist with interesting dendritic patterns, crystals, opal ….
All of my rocks that are actually jewelry grade end up at my brother’s shop. Have to make money off my obsessions.
Sweet baby jesus and all the saints aren’t worth one Pullet Patrol.
Benjamin – Maybe you’re looking in all the wrong places.
Events full of women – dog shows, horse shows, knitting shops, knitting events. er, there’s a Pharyngula group going to Rhinebeck (east coast).
That’s assuming you’re looking for women that might be interesting.
Last year I put my 20+year accumulation of random-pretty-stones onto our (unpaved) driveway.
It was a relief.
Lynna – The Pullet Patrol ™ underwent a metamorphosis while you were gone. There is a new Patrol, all fuzzy down, and just getting feathers. They are giving Nerd no end of trouble behind the bar. The little
shitschicks are everywhere.Patricia, OM
Jeez. Don’t you make soup or stew? ;)
In case you were all waiting with bated breath for Glenn Beck’s take on Hurricane Irene, he has weighed in with the pronouncement that it was a blessing from his Heavenly Father and business advisor.
Fuzzy little shits behind the bar … sounds like something from the 60’s. Nerd is the chick wrangler, eh? That’ll keep him out of trouble.
If we could bring in a couple of hawks, we’d have a show. (not serious — little chicks can stop cringing — that shadow is just the light over the pool table swinging during earthquakes, hurricanes, and Nerd’s exertions)
Forgot to provide a link for the full story on Glenn Beck’s latest tap dance on the edge of the abyss of madness: Linky thingy.
@Nightjar (205): No, apparently that script did not install correctly. Went from your line and now it works. Thank you!
Kelly Rowland accidentally unleashed her breasts at a concert in New Jersey.
http://lindaikeji.blogspot.com/2011/08/cmon-kelly-rowland-your-nip-slip-was.html
This was prior to the hurricane, but also prior to the earthquake. And, IIRC, showing boobs or even cleavage causes earthquakes, not hurricanes. Surely more research needs to be conducted.
Getting the FtB killfile installed was a bear. Took awhile to find the new script menu that didn’t take me to the website with the normal greasemonkey scripts. Finally got it load the file. Oops, only the header. Had to do a copy/paste to get the rest of the file, and save it. But, it worked!
Lynna:
Boobquake 2.0? I’m down. (Probably NSFW. Definitely NSFEyeballs.)
chigau – Of course I make soup and stew, but not in 90 degree weather. A lot of what we threw out was old stock, snippets of left over meats for stew & soup, and fruit. It only lasts so long.
Just this week I put up five, one gallon bags full of peeled, sliced peaches for pies this winter. If they don’t all get used then next fall out they will go.
Our pantry, that could make a Mormon blush, gets cleared out everytime the Postal carriers or local schools do a food drive. So that isn’t wasted. I just feel bad about the frozen stuff.
We donate all of our extra eggs to our local food banks, they thank jesus for them.
Some almost-ex-mormons reported in today on the LDS Church’s latest propaganda push:
Here’s a website where one can view most of the TV ads: http://www.boncom.com/mormon/internet/
Nerd – Have you figgered out how to do the comic sans?
The Patrol ™ was out today in the yard. It’s still pretty scary for them.
Here’s the website where one can create one’s own Mormon Profile.
http://mormon.org/create/
All we need are a bunch of Membership Record Numbers (accessed on your temple recommend, or through your Ward clerk). Anonymous should be able to come up with those.
Lynna – 14+! That is SOOO sick. Warren Jeffs must be proud.
I had comic sans before PZ turned it on. I haven’t tried that yet with the latest script. I upgraded to OSX Lion, and it is a different beast. I can’t find my user library file at the moment. Still a work in progress.
Patricia, OM
oh my
oh my. Can I come to your place?
One year I turned all my freezer-bottoms (non-meat) into 1 cup units of gruel™.
Since my cooking tends to be BIG pots-of-stuff I can slip a cup of gruel™ into almost anything.
Sounds like quite a collection to say the least.
I’m guessing you are in the 5-10 ton range. And aren’t going to be moving for a long time.
I wouldn’t call jasper, geodes, and plume agate, “worthless”. What kind of opal and jade? I have a few pieces of common opal, just white in color and something I found at the beach that looks like jade. Some miscellaneous fossils of ancient mammals, cephalopods, and petrified wood.
In one place, I found some green tinted wave polished stones that looked like jade. Eventually, one low tide I found a seam of it that was being eroded out. It turned out to be chrysoprase, quartz with nickle that has a green tint to it. There were a few boulders but they were too big to move.
I was told by a geologist that there are diamonds in Wyoming, in metamorphic kimberlite. She said they are hard to get to though.
I’m pretty excited about the mormon video/TV ad featuring Normon Tolk, who tells us, “I believe in God and His physics.”
Normon is the tight-lipped white guy, with white hair, that unaccountably shows up three times in the picture menu here: http://www.boncom.com/mormon/internet/#E
Couldn’t get Norman’s video to load, so I’ll just have to take his word concerning god’s physics.
Considering that there is one black face in the entire LDS Quorum of the Seventy, plus Quorum of the Twelve, plus First Presidency (all the top dogs), there’s a surprisingly large percentage of dark-skinned people featured in the mormon.org ads.
Ghey secks in Torchwood is a spoiler now?
Raven, the one piece of real jade that I have came from the Granite Mountains in Wyoming.
I guess most of my collection is not exactly “worthless,” but it’s worth more to me than I could get for it in money.
My favorite piece of Idaho opal is not the usual type, but is instead a lovely green. Scroll down on this page and you’ll see actual-size photos of some of the pieces of opal, plus two examples of stones cut for rings. The blog entry provides other photos and a description of the area where I found the green opal.
Hello there. Hope all the US east-coast people are ok!
Over here in a moment of “What the FUCK were they thinking?”, a couple of guys dress up as their favourite soccer player. In blackface. Arguably their intentions were good and they were merely ignorant of the broader context. But international airline Qantas also fails to spot the problem, and gives them tickets to the footie as a prize!
Oops, rugby, not soccer. Whatevs.
chigau – I live in the wonderland of food. Orchards of all types, including nuts, vinyards and miles of grains. Salmon and trout fisheries, Pacific coast shellfish, beef, lamb and wild game herds. Flocks of game birds, wild herbs and fruits.
My little brother and I alone can gather enough Elderberries in one day to fill two barrels to make wine. Free. The Cherry wood that some of you use in your BBQ’s gets burned here by the railroad car load every fall because the farmers simply need the room to pile this years prunings.
If only… if only we could get the surplus fruit wood prunings to those that need wood the deforestation would be greatly curtailed…if only.
Cath
re: blackface
What century are we in?
Cath:
I don’t know how race relations work in Oz, but I don’t see it as inherently insulting in this particular situation. Does Australia have a history with blackface-as-racism similar to the States’? (After all, that’s what would lead to the “are you crazy, or just plain stupid?” reaction here in the US.)
I know intent isn’t magic, but intent should be taken into account when it comes to the repercussions. It makes the difference between labeling someone a racist and simply swatting them and saying “hey, that’s stupid, don’t do it again”. And that goes for both the two guys and for Qantas.
Greek and Latin are not playing nicely in my brain. They are both trying to drive each other out. I think they’re doing a good job. :(
Well, I guess that’s that. Google+ has specified that people who don’t want to use their real names can go fuck themselves.
Classical Cipher, OM
Maybe you could add another playmate … Mandarin? Tagalog?
Lynna – Out here we have geodes (I hope that is right). Also called Thunder Eggs ™. My family has one. Grandpa plowed up the thing in the potato field about a 100,000 years ago. We have kept it all this time, and speculated whether it is a petrified mushroom or a dinosaur egg. Great fun for our family. It’s a dread family treasure, kept wrapped in leather, and stored in a secret box. *makes woohoo face*
Truth – Mom & I took the big round rock thingy to OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry) and the scientists there identified it as a thunder egg. It’s common here. It hasn’t been sawed open.
We haven’t told the kids yet, they think it’s a wicked fun dragon egg. ;)
Horribly, I actually do have to add another playmate, but my options right now are German and French. After that, whichever one I didn’t choose, then Italian, then I can think about a language of my own choosing.
No, we don’t have the exact same history of racism as the US. But we do have our own kind, and anyone of middle age could have seen the Black & White Minstrel Show on Australian TV back in the 70s. I’d say those two guys can be excused; they might not have been born then. It’s even quite cute, in that they were pretty much cosplaying their hero.
But not QANTAS, who really should care about its international reputation. Serious PR fail there.
*moron alert*
The rats thread needs some help. Put on your helmets, the stoopity is crushing.
Recently, I found a really horrifying video from CNN in which they interview a victim of torture in Libya by one of the Gadaffis: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swht21KfotU
Don’t watch it if you are squeamish because the injuries left on the victim is unbelievable. I can’t even fathom the amount of pain that person must have experienced.
@Nerd of Redhead
Same place as it is under 10.6, 10.5, 10.4 and so on. They’ve just hidden it in the Finder.
Use the Go to Folder option in the Finder to go to ~/Library
Cath the Canberra Cook wrote:
Ah, crap. I remember seeing that; I guess that means I’m middle-aged now.
Unrelated: Cath, are you going to the GAC next year?
So apparently Jason Ball will be speaking at the GAC 2012. Funny how that works when you’re in the organising committee ! Maybe my toddler could give a short address too, on secularism in Australian kindergardens, or the tyranny of the tooth fairyists.
*eyeroll*
Thanks for that link CC, it’s becoming clear to me that Google can shove its “identity service” up its ass, I wish everyone would just unregister from G+ now and show them the finger.
Wowbagger, I haven’t yet bought a ticket. There’s a possibility I might be going to Japan with friends, so it depends a bit on their timing. “Japan in the spring” is the general plan, which should mean late March-early April for cherry-blossom time. Very close to the mid-April GAC, so ummm, maybe, TBC. Perhaps I should try to convince them of the beauty of Autumn foliage in the gardens of Kyoto. Or to do the trip next year, so I can go to Scandinavia in northen summer instead.
And if you were a teen in the 70s, then sorry, but you are middle aged. The nice government will soon be sending you invites to a party where will they give you drugs and stick a camera up your bum. And if you’re female you get to have your breasts mashed, too. The kinky bastards. Wheee!
Rorshach – So you are in the medical field, this is an imposition, but my doctor left the country on vacation, I’m scared shitless. I got a benign fucking punch, and scrape test for cervical and endrometrical cancer, but she left a voice message that I need to come in for “further treatment”.
That sounds perfectly stupid to me. If the whole thing is benign then what the fuck further treatment could I possibly need?
Sorry I don’t know – won’t offend me. Anything else as pure speculation would be cream on my strawberries.
Patricia IANADr and I hope I’m not being scary, but “benign” to me means not a negative result, but a positive finding that that there is actually something present. But it’s luckily not a malignant tumour. A benign tumour might still need removing, especially if it’s mechanically awkward and causing harm by pressing on things?
I’m having my own scares, too. I googled one of the many things my doc is testing me for and found scary mortality stats. ARGH! Breathe, repeat mantra “OMMMMM Google U is not an authority, Google U is not an authority…” I have a bunch more tests, including an EKG, on Friday.
@ Lynna # 257
I followed your link and suggestion and have now registered with the LDS. Problem is I cannot set up a profile as I get the following:
(Link)
Is that a server problem on their side or are they just lying for jeeebus again? If I’m not allowed a profile why aren’t they just honest about it?
Here is my official registration: (Link)
Any suggestions welcome. I need to haz me teh holy web presence…
Like this?
The bishop used Powerpoint?! Hasn’t he read any Charles Stross stories? Power Point is the perfect medium for letting the Old Ones fry your brain, using the optic nerve as point of entry once the presentation material has been compromised.
— — — — —
Anyone of middle age will also remember the brief period of sanity in US political discourse, between Nixon and Reagan (sigh). And the moment The Moral Majority got working on TV content, the Saturday Night Live material got bland and unfunny.
I am currently experiencing a serious decline in productivity, after coming across Criminal Intent season 8…
Seriously, Jeff Goldblum, wtf ? He would have been better off playing the Mentalist, given the scripts they wrote for him for CI….
Patricia, I’d hate to comment on that without knowing the biopsy results, sorry….Who would know what they want from you ! Over here, if a doc is on vacation they have someone to look after their patients while they’re gone ?
Chthulhudammit. They could at least chip it and mulch it. No-one’s heard of soil conservation around there?
Good morning
Patricia:
That’s a funny name for a chicken.
But I know what you mean. I was partly raised by people who lived through the war and the post war era (remember, in Germany that’s what for you is the Great Depression). My grandparents built a house in the early 1960’s on a miner’s income, so it was grandma’s job to make ends meet. The original garden layout consisted of a smal luxury part for sitting around in warm weather, a vegetable/potato garden part and an orchard for fruit and hay for the rabbits (in my time only our pet rabbits). So summer and autumn would be full of harvesting, canning, pickling and freezing.
Oh, and baking. One of my fondest childhood memories is when around this time gran would make prune cakes. Usually a whole day long, like 4 or 5 at once because it freezes well. But the best thing was that the left-over yeast dough would then be used for making “Apfeltaschen”, a small apple pasty. To this day I can’t get used to the comercial idea of making them with puff pastry.
As for your doctor:
They don’t think. I have no idea how many times I’ve witnessed this before, since it’s routine for them, and since they actually know what this means, they don’t remember that for their patient it’s probably a major thing.
So they scare people shitless.
With my second daughter, I needed to go to the university hospital regularly (like every other week) for in-utero check-ups because she has only one kidney.
Gyn-ward means looooong waiting times. Emergencies can’t be planned, so it might happen that the doc would leave you with a “I’m really sorry, I need to go” while you’re swimming in ultra-sound lube.
One day, I couldn’t help but overhear the almost hysteric phone-call of another woman with her partner. During the regular second trimester scan, her gyn had detected that the kid has a third kidney and without explaining anyhing had sent her to the university hospital immediately.
There, the people saw a routine case, nothing to worry, no emergency of any kind, and since she didn’t have an appointment, she was put at the end of the waiting list.
So the poor woman was waiting there for hours without anybody telling her anything. I did my best to comfort her, sharing my newly acquired wisdom on kidney-related problems with her.
It’s not professional pride but your referencing of anecdotes, hearsay and folk tales that lets me conclude that you are a clueless idiot.
So, you mean if I’ve witnessed this not only once, but about, say, half a dozen times, when doctors, not through ill-will or maliciousness, suck at communication and scare their patients, when there are wide-spread complains about doctors not using language the patient can understand and then leave them to the dangers of google-university, confused and afraid, that’s all just anectodata.
BTW, what I’ve written is an anectdote. Not hearsay nor folk-tales. I could also rely on hearsay, which would be the experiences of my sister who’s a nurse and spends a hell lot of time “translating” what the doctors told her patients and their families. Which is not her job and not what she’s beeing paid for.
So, your inability to get the easy terms anecdote, hearsay and folklore correct lets me conclude that I’m happy that you’re not my doctor because I’d dread what you’d do to the more complicated medical terms.
Wait, what, Neil deGrasse Tyson is in Melbourne in 3 weeks ? And also Michael Shermer ? And Hitchens via video link ? Well, I be going ! It’s a Think Inc. event, not that I’ve ever heard of them. But, it sounds good !
You’ve witnessed something (or so you say) 6 times and are prepared to draw a general rule from it, and argue based on these 6 anecdotes ? You really are an idiot.
Is your reading comprehension on a vacation?
You generally seem to have a better grasp than that.
Those are the times when people were actually frightened to death by what their doctors failed to communicate. That’s six people who suffered severe stress for hours to days. That’s people crying in fear and no, I’m not exagerating.
Those are not the cases where people are only just worried and confused.
Tell me, was that due because the doctors failed to think about what they were communicating and thereby caused the suffering without intention or ill-will, or is it because they knew what they were doing and didn’t care?
I’d say that my interpretation is more generous.
Did you know that there’s a website now in Germany where people can send their diagnosis to a medical student to have it “translated”?
Do you think that’s a stupid idea or that this is maybe an attempt to:
A) help people now
B) prepare our next generation of doctors so they can communicate better?
Cath,
Ugh. I sincerely hope it isn’t that, then. If there’s anything I can do, please let me know?
Giliell, if I were to list the times that doctors have failed to give me information over the decades I would have to write a ridiculously long post. I don’t think it is malicious (usually) but when they know that there is nothing serious wrong, or something that can be safely left for a while, I feel that they might fail to remember that their patients don’t necessarily know that and will be worrying.
Patricia, almost the exact same thing happened to me a couple of months ago. I had an MRI looking for stroke damage/brain tumour and when I called the GP a few days later, as requested, for the result – I found out she had been seconded to another practice for a month! Well, I assumed that if the results had been bad, she would have informed another member of the practice and asked them to take over so I made the appointment for when she got back; only to be told the day before that her secondment was being extended for ten days. So I made another appointment, only for that one to be cancelled on the day when she called in sick. I eventually got the results a whole seven weeks after the MRI. Had I been expecting a bad result, or been told beforehand that I was going to need treatment, I would have been in terror!
Rorschach, I think you are being hard on Giliell. I am aware that ‘everybody knows someone who has had at least one such experience’ isn’t any sort of scientific study. We are probably all aware that many or most doctors are thoroughly overworked and I don’t think that she was attributing malice to any of them, but it is still a widespread problem that doctors don’t always communicate with their patients adequately even though the old days of the paternalistic medic withholding information ‘in the patients’ interest’ are supposedly long gone. A quick Google Scholar search for ‘doctor patient communication’ returned 460,000 results. I skimmed a few and it appears to be a longstanding and recognised problem.
Good morning! Nothing happened of any interest over the weekend. Yay!
Set: 1 min, 20
1 min, 54 secs. Felt like an eternity.
Work has been closed due to flooding. I am still safe and snug at my mom’s. She made me coffee!
Doctor-patient communication is definitely a problem in the States, and has been linked to our high number of lawsuits against doctors as well. We simply don’t train doctors in how to communicate with their own patients; many med schools are now starting to realize that and instituting courses in bedside manner to try to ameliorate the problem.
Thanks for the link, Classical Cipher. I guess that clears things up. Fuck google.
It’s also not only medical profesionals who have this problem. It happens wherever people with a specialized vocabulary meet the public.
Only if my car mechanic calls me and leaves a cryptic message that there’s something wrong with the fluxcompensator, I won’t be worried that much.
I know there have been a lot of good links posted about why pseudonyms are important; I found this one that Geek feminism compiled as well, if anyone needs a quick compilation link for ammo when discussing it.
Good morning, Audley! Sounds safe and snug.
@Carlie:
I saw that one. It’s very good!
One more thing:
My office is in a neighborhood that was under a mandatory evacuation last night– I couldn’t get there even if I wanted to try. My neighborhood wasn’t under a mandatory evac when I left, but a few hours later, police and city emergency employees were going door-to-door and asking people to leave.
Now they’re saying that the flooding won’t be as high as first thought, so hopefully my house will stay safe and dry.
‘Morning, Carlie!
I had a weird dream about transitioned girl me working out… and I looked good XD
Tigger, thanks for the thought, but of course there’s nothing really to do. Doc & pathology do tests, work lets me go part time, Bloke helps with transport and buying food when I’m too tired. All seems sorted as far as it can be.
Come to my b’day party! I’ve sent you & Kel an FB invite. Warning: house not wheelchair friendly.
@Cath:
Aw, I wanna come to your BDay party :( But if you invite me to Australia I’d probably never leave.
Some of us (with) lucky bums get to start early. =)
—
Patricia,
Could you ask the medical office for a copy of your file? If there’s something the doctor wants to follow up on, it should be written there, and theoretically records are available to patients.
—
Part Timelord? Bonus!
Good morning.
Has anyone else ever noticed that, following on the heels of a tropical system, the weather tends to be absofuckinglutely beautiful? Today is in the mid-70s, breezy and sunny.
Wife is heading off to her annual training in how to work her street corner (the union contract requires it). Then we head up to the farmer’s market. And after that, we are going to head over to the Skinner’s Falls area of the Delaware River and look at Really Big Waves.
Cath, I’m so glad you have everything sorted (but the offer still stands if I can help in any way).
Thank you ever so much for the birthday party invitation; I shall be delighted to come! =^_^=
Katherine, I wish you could come to Australia too.
I didn’t expect to like it, but it was far, far better than I had thought. Arrived in February 2005 thinking to stay for a few months and we’re still here!
P.S. Cath, if I can help with accomodation for interstate visitors to your party, let me know. Don’t worry about the wheelchair; I can manage with sticks when I don’t have a great deal of walking to do.
@Tigger:
The only reason I can’t move to another country is that I have neither a support structure in another country and that I don’t have enough money. If I had one or the other I’d be fine, but since I have neither, I can’t leave.
DIY book scanners.
To be honest, I doubt whether I have the patience to build one of these and then have to turn the pages by hand while scanning, but for non-destructive scanning without spending large sums of money, it’s pretty neat.
There’s a new Buddy Jesus in town, and this one looks like he works out:
A very muscular brand of Christianity
Apparently, those uppity women have over-feminised Christianity (because of their dominance of church hierarchies, I suppose), and consequently manly men are staying away from church. The solution: a rebranding of Jesus as a muscular, tattooed hunk with come-to-bed eyes, who the guys can fantasise ab- I’m sorry, I mean: who the guys can look up to as a role model. Because how can you respect a spiritual leader who has inadequate upper body strength?
Well, Thread, my weekly whining:
As I mentioned before, I”m separating from Husband. Best Friend was supposed to come get me and whatever of my things will fit in her car (anxiety=no public transportation for me…she doesn’t understand but whatever). Friend was delayed by Irene but now says she’s too busy. I’m stuck here until I can find another way to get home.
Also, where have all the jobs gone? I can’t even get anything in retail!
*hugs* to all those dealing with other issues, too.
My daughter got back into her apartment in Battery Park City today, after having evacuated for a couple of days. She said there’s some flooding in the area, but it’s not as bad as was expected. There are also a few downed trees. Her employers gave her the option of working from home today.
On an entirely different subject, I’m supposed to be helping Global Health Equity Foundation in their search for a grant writer. GHEF is a 501(c)(3) organization, and they’ve done some good work, but are really just getting started on some of their bigger projects. If you know anyone who might want to subcontract to write grants for them, please let me know. You can contact me at lynna [at] artmeetsadventure [dot] com.
And on yet another subject, (and this is an unimportant, niggling little thing, but since it involves correct use of language, it’s really bugging me), in the audio book for Master and Commander the readers do not cheer “Huzzah” as expected. It sounds like they are saying something close to “Hooray!” but it’s spelled “ooay” in the book. Any naval experts out there who can clear this up? See page 249 in the book.
Could anyone say how/where you put text in so that it shows up when someone hovers over your gravatar?
/technosaur (I wish)
I want a sekret message too! (actually I want to credit the person I got the image from – it’s a detail from a bigger image all about there being no rabbits in the Precambrian)
Squigit I’m really sorry your friend has let you down. It must be really … unsettling, to use the understatement of the decade, to be all set to go and then have to put all your plans on hold – especially with regard to your child. I hope she comes through after all, or you find an alternative.
Funny that Adiemus should be the background music for the video. Every time I play that music before bed, I have the most kick-ass-awesome lucid dreams about flying.
@opposablethumbs:
Log in to Gravatar. Go to the “My Account” and then “Profile” and the option of “About Me” there’s a box “About Me” that you can fill in that will provide that little blurb.
Good news, everyone!
The river has crested and my house was not in the flood zone. Yay! As of right now, the neighborhood is still closed off to traffic*, but I should be able to go home in a couple of hours. :)
*The whole county is still under a state of emergency, so emergency crews can get this place cleaned up.
@Audley:
Awesome.
(Does anyone else automatically translate “Good news, everyone!” into Professor Farnsworth’s voice?)
Kat,
That’s what I was going for. :D
According to the news at noon, the major arteries have re-opened. Which means I can go back home now, yay!
Caught a glimpse of MTV awards. That Bieber kid (whom I still haven’t heard signing) thanked God, but not only God! Also, Jesus Christ. While he was at it, he should have included the Holly Spirit, just so none of God’s multiple personalities get offended.
A mile for your morning:
http://www.happyplace.com/3080/the-7-most-brilliantly-pointless-street-fliers
The phrase “the major arteries have re-opened” never sounds good to me — it sounds like exsanguination will follow.
@Audley and Lynna
Good to hear about your /daugher’s houses.
@Squigit
That’s bad :(
Any other friend/family member who could help?
Talking about sucks, I wanted to meet sis today, but she couldn’ come. She had to fill in for a colleague whose son has been knived down by neo-nazis for looking “foreign” :(
One of my old high school buddies has a friend with a project. Any ‘militant atheists’ want to be on a reality religious tv show ?
http://jimhendersonpresents.com/save-me/
“Get Ready For Religious Reality TV
Are you passionate about your beliefs?
Do you sincerely want others to come to your beliefs as well?
If so, we invite you to apply for a different kind of reality television show.
Jim Henderson Presents is developing a show called “Save Me!” that will bring people with a wide variety of religious beliefs such as fundamentalist Christians, Campus Crusade for Christ, Jehovah Witnesses, Mormons, militant Atheists, end of world Warners and Hare Krishna practitioners, etc. together in one house.
We want true believers who will go to any length to spread their message, whether that’s saving people from hell, warning people about the end of the world or simply “saving” people from religion altogether.
Actors need not apply! We want real practitioners — people who are willing and able to spend several weeks living in close quarters with others for no pay while spreading a personal faith message to millions of people.
Contestants will play for the opportunity to have their message heard and possibly win converts, as well as the chance to win a significant cash prize that will be donated to the cause or organization of the winner’s choice.
Jim Henderson Presents thinks that spirituality and religion should be thoughtfully and playfully explored just like race, money, politics, and sex. But someone needs to provoke and guide this public conversation. It is not currently taking place in any venue or vehicle that is taken seriously by a broader audience.”
. . . is rorschach an M.D.? Is that why he’s getting needlessly bent out of shape at Gillel for saying something true?
There’s that and they just don’t want us. Without a white collar job you’ve been at for years in specific industries they have a need for, and lots of money – forget it.
Maybe we should set up a Pharyngula “green card” matrimony program. ;)
@britomart:
Erm… why include an atheist in a house full of evangelizing religious people? I certainly don’t care to try to “preach” my “belief” other than to say I’m an atheist and I can’t be convinced otherwise so don’t try.
Because atheism – excuse me, MILITANT atheism – is a religion, silly!
Patricia
Yep, “Thunder Eggs” it is.
The woo factor is pumped up thanks to a Native American legend involving Thunder Spirits who threw spherical rocks at each other. They stole the rocks as “eggs” from the nests of Thunderbirds. One of the most goddamned idiotic myths I’ve heard. And an insult to the nodules or geodes.
Some Thunder Eggs are blah and worthless when sawn open. Some are filled with opal, or with crystal structures. In other words, variety of size, of filling, and of worth is all over the map.
The spherical rocks form in rhyolite, welded tuff, and other formations prone to pockets or cavities, and also easily affected by percolating gases and fluids (or, some say, colloidal gels).
I have often thought the “eggs” might serve well as weapons, but I would want a better way to throw them than just my arm strength.
Illuminata,
Yes, Rorschach is a doctor.
Theophontes @284, I’m looking into the problem with posting your sacred profile on mormon.org. Will let you know if I come up with an answer.
I have always wanted to be the “villain” in a “reality” show. I so want to let a person who thinks that I am “evil” use editing to show me in a really bad light.
This a a losing proposition.
I’m not a doctor, but I play one on TV.
—
So… question.
What should I add to jambalaya to make it vegetarian? I usually just put sausage and chicken in it… what can easily replicate those flavors or add more delicious flavors?
I would never claim that the Pea is the spawn of the appockylips.
The Pea is the harbinger of the (Equine) Apocalypse.
Embrace apeaism. It’s the only rational position. The Peas cannot save you from the Horses, and wouldn’t if they could.
–
Yay indeed! :)
–
Yes.
I believe it is a “thing”.
–
:( :( :(
–
@cicely:
Give peas a chance
(harhar! *heads to the corner for time out for bad / obvious pun*)
Oh, I gave them a chance. And they went and made salad. Eww.
@Kat
Perhaps smoked paprika?
And I am home! Double yay!!
I’m off to take pictures of the flood– there are some streets that got hit pretty badly. Have a good afternoon, everyone!
Re the gravatar, thank you Katherine Lorraine! Most obliged to you :-) (PS hope you don’t mind my saying – I love it that your beau is Beau. J’imagine qu’il est beau, aussi)
@Muse:
It’d be a bit boring as the trinity plus tomatoes and rice… needs… more.
@opposablethumbs:
Actually Beau isn’t his name. I use Beau in the way that people here use Wife or Spawn or such – so as not to put a name to him in case he wouldn’t want it said.
Audley – YAY! Glad you can return home!
Katherine – you need something that will give it that smoky flavor. I am not sure what that would be.
Sorry all, but I am a Peaist, through and through. Especially when they are fresh, young, and oh so sweet.
I am working at home again (waiting for yet another electrician). Of course, my family loves it because I end up cooking yummy meals when I am stuck in the house. Right now, the cornbread is a-baking and the smell is driving me insane!
@Psych-Oh:
I do have smoked paprika which is really tasty, but I think it needs something substantial… like a veggie of some kind.
A good bulker chez Dhorvath is portabello caps.
Pedophile, FLDS Prophet, and general all around god-addled dunderhead, Warren Jeffs, has been hospitalized. He was in prison in Texas, where he apparently fasted himself into a collapse.
Link to story in Salt Lake Tribune.
@Kat ah so you’re asking about bulk not about flavor. The makes more sense now. The smoked paprika was for the flavor.
I might add tempeh or a firm mushroom like a portabella.
Katherine – Maybe some firm tofu or eggplant?
Random pea note: I bought a bag of snap sugar peas the other day, and have been snacking on them raw (in place of something like potato chips). I’m not sure why I decided to do this, but they’re pretty good. So, I think I’m forced to pick a side in the P.Sativum wars.
Um. A friend of mine just told me to “count my blessings; things could be worse”. So here goes:
– thank you, o Lord, for making my sister’s cancer worse than what was diagnosed at first. At least it’s treatable with chemo, unlike worse forms. So, she’ll only be sick until Christmas and lose all her hair _again_, even though she was first told that radiation would be enough. I’m sure she’ll consider this a blessing, too.
– thank you, o Lord, for my menopause, with raging symptoms, combined with my ever more fragile mental health, producing some rather, uh, interesting outcomes (from a psychiatrist’s point of view, I’m sure). It could be worse, I could have diabetes and, I dunno, cancer, too, maybe? And lose a leg or two, while you’re at it? (Thank you for giving the big C to my sister, too, as a constant reminder that whenever you feel like piling on the shit, I’m right there on the genetic firing range).
– thank you, o Lord, for my financial situation, which makes me unable to refuse any work offered, with the result of no holidays for little Minnies this year, which really, really works wonders on my aforementioned mental ‘health’.
—
Ok, only kidding. Being a heathen atheist means I don’t have anything or anyone to thank for these, um, challenges in my life – and I’m sure that in the end they will make me so much stronger and more awesome as a person. As my friend so kindly told me. She must get these little pearls of wisdom from Reader’s Digest. Or the bible. One or the other.
While waiting for that to happen: Life, please stop sucking. I’m really tired of all the shit and could really use a break.
—
Thank you all for the use of your cyberspace for airing personal grievances. I’d use FB, but for obvious reasons (clients, family etc. as friends) I have to filter what I say out loud there.
On the good news: I’ve fried and frozen approx. 8 pounds of boletes today. They will re-emerge as kick-ass mushroom soups, quiches & stews throughout the winter. The cellar’s jam-packed with spuds & carrots, most of the herbs are frozen, too (and there’s a LOT of them), and the chillies are almost ready to harvest. Also, gallons and gallons of black & red currant cordials on the shelves, not to mention various jams, jellies and pie fillings made from raspberries, wild blueberries, gooseberries, cloudberries, berries-I-don’t-even-know-if-they-have-an-English-name… Ima one happy hamster. Come on, winter, I’m ready!
Minnie: you could vent in the PET group on fb; lotsa folks do that. It’s private, so no one outside the group can see any posts in it.
But here works too.
Mm… yea – a tempeh or tofu might be a good addition.
Katherine:
how about smoke/barbecue marinated mushrooms, for both bulk and taste? That would be a substitute for sausages (not their texture though). Whatever could replace shrimp, I have no idea whatsoever. Tiny crispy strips of seaweed for the taste?
Oh, and for bulk, and wonderful texture: nuts. Toasted or not. Peanuts, walnuts, pistachios, almonds…
Richard:
so I could, come to think of it. Seems I just have a ‘do not trust’ attitude towards FB at the moment (I have used PET for venting and TMI before, funnily enough).
Oh well, you lot got it this time, enjoy =)
Why else would one tag “everyone” onto the end of “good news”?
Not a problem, there is a fair bit of crossover.
Minnie – Many hugs to you for your crappy situation. I am jealous of your berry stash.
I was just asked to be on my State’s Disaster Advisory Council! I am so excited! I know I have no time, but I will make time and figure it out- because this is so important to me.
Regarding “Good news, everyone!”, I get it in double-dose: In World of Warcraft, in Icecrown Citadel, there was a boss fight with the boss based on Farnsworth. So, you’d hear quotes like, “Good news, everyone! I’ve fixed the poisoned slime pipes!” at the start of fights.
Which means, if you die and try again, you hear it again. And when you’re learning the fights and dying 15-20 times a night, you hear it over. And over. And over. For hours.
(There are reasons I don’t play WoW any more; this isn’t one of them, but for others it is.)
Pictures have been taken and posted to the fb. Not surprisingly, the bars in my neighborhoos are open (even if all the streets are closed), so I’m having a beer.
@Richard Austin:
Yesterday I was watching someone’s Let’s Play of Clive Barker’s Clive Barker’s Jericho (by Clive Barker.) It was a pretty entertaining game to watch, but at one point it became extremely annoying since the characters have about two lines they spout per special ability.
Hearing “Alright, chiquita, come and get it” (something like that) for the eighth time in a few minutes got really dull.
I gave it a go with their new free to level twenty thing. Still didn’t like it, didn’t even feel different to how I remeber it at launch.
Katherine,
That game disappointed. Maybe I should have tried the pc version, but it was not fun on my 360.
Psych-Oh:
thanks for the hugs, and conga rats! Meaningful things are important. Think of it this way: taking the position in the Council will force you to give up something that is _less_ meaningful, _less_ important in your life. Ergo, you’ll still be busy, doing just the same amount of things, but it will be better things, and things that you care for more =)
Hint: hire a cleaning lady. Delegate minor things. Trust on other people’s ability to perform the tasks that you do so brilliantly yourself, even though their best might not be your best at the beginning.
This is what I’m teaching myself now. I have started to pass on a lot of work to Aleksi (my business-partner-to-be) even though I know that he’s not quite on the same guru level as myself. How would he learn if he never gets a chance? The same with the spawn: when they do dishes, the result may not be quite as spotless as when I do it myself but then, what the hell. Perfection isn’t the only acceptable state. They’re learning, while I have the advantage of decades of practice.
Which is why I recently accepted a translation job, which isn’t quite as lucrative as my language technology end of business – it’s something I want to do, instead. Book translating is paced very differently from what I do most of the time. It’s not hectic (except for those few days before deadline – be prepared for some righteous cursing before the end of the year!), and it spans over a longer time (three months in this case). So, I trust I will enjoy it, and it will be a door towards more challenging (and maybe more lucrative) translation jobs. An investment, so to speak.
@Dhorvath:
League of Legends is so much more fun than World of Warcraft and it’s free :D
And yea, Jericho just looked terrible. Even with the guy LPing it cutting every one of the battles along the way.
I thought Beau might be a nickname – it’s just so neat that it’s an actual name too, though.
Also, gallons and gallons of black & red currant cordials on the shelves, not to mention various jams, jellies and pie fillings made from raspberries, wild blueberries, gooseberries, cloudberries, berries-I-don’t-even-know-if-they-have-an-English-name… Ima one happy hamster. Come on, winter, I’m ready!
Can I move in with you? I especially want to try berries-I-don’t-even-know-if-they-have-an-English-name.
@Lynna, re: Hooray!
OED sez (for the etymology of hurrah):
I am not convinced that MMO are where my interests lie, but I was on my battlenet account making sure my system specs were up to date for the diii beta and thought I would give a go. What I really don’t get is 1.5s per attach. I mean, I got over slow games when I was ten, any game that I can get up and go for a drink mid combat, well, lets just say it doesn’t excite.
JEricho game play was relatively quick, but very repetitive, I don’t think the game was remotely ready to street.
*volunteers Sastra*
(They’ll never know what hit them.)
I at first read this as “Jim Henson Presents”, and wondered, “Will there be muppets?”
@Dhorvath:
Well, good news! LoL is a MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena.) My latest review on my Blog (my latest post, actually) explains it. LoL is very fast-paced and fun :3
Re Beau(s):
A friend of mine (ex-colleague, but we keep in touch) has the same first name as his beau – they’re both called Keijo. They are constantly bombarded by two types of jokes:
1) Keijo in Finnish is pronounced something like Key-oh, so it’s a small step to Gay-oh.
2) Keiju is Finnish for a fairy. The little sparkly one with wings, you know?
They are both considering changing their first names when they get married – the paperwork will be easier then, as (at least) one of them will be likely to change his family name as well.
@Minnie the Finn:
I dated a girl with the same name as my sister for a while, got confusing really quickly.
“Kevin, what are you doing up so late on the phone?”
“Talking to Erin.”
“Your sister?”
“No, girlfriend.”
“Oh, right.”
An “entertaining” read.
Kate:
Oh yeah. I once dated two guys in a row with the same name… my family never caught on. But then, the two guys only lasted about three months put together. As my granny used to say: on sil ottoo mut ei sil oo pittoo – she has the lure but not the net =)
Owlmirror @368. Thank you.
I still can’t find the “ooay!” used in Master and Commander, but am betting that it is just an alternated spelling.
Dhorvath:
Rogue has a 1 sec global cooldown rather than 1.5, but yeah. That’s actually done just to prevent people from “spamming” attacks; pretty much any multiplayer game has some kind of cooldown on abilities.
I’m playing Rift now, which is a bad thing for someone with ADHD – I swear those damned rifts like spawning on top of me.
If you’re on Battlenet, do you do Starcraft at all? I’ve been trying to find people to play with and/or against (and I hate the competition in the ladders).
Lynna: Oh aye? Dunno, just guessing.
Rev BDC @374, thanks for that link. Very interesting indeed. To your excerpt, I’ll add:
Says a lot about the psychopathology of Rand.
Aye is something I hear regularly even nowadays from Irish and Scottish people – it’s not obsolete by any means. They do pronounce it slightly differently, though. (Please don’t ask me to explain the difference, I just hear it in my head, no way can I explain it in words.)
Richard,
I live to spam. Gimme whirlwind or charged bolt and I am a giddy kiddy.
And I don’t seem to be quick enough on the strategy front to excel at RTS. I am more a horde and onslaught kind of player than a tactical player.
Dhorvath:
Oddly, that’s how I play SC (at least when I’m playing maps and not the campaign). But then, I usually do Protoss, and that’s their typical game plan: build up defenses and “turtle” while you move down the tech tree to get the really awesome units (“Carrier has arrived.”), and then mow down the competition.
And that’s why I dislike the ladders: my play style takes time, and most people seem to want a 5-minute game. I’ve actually had people yell at me in chat because I was 1) successfully defending myself against their early attacks and 2) not immediately retalliating. About 25% just surrender outright because they don’t want to play “that kind of game.”
Oh well, my search for SC2 friends continues…
(following up on #370)
It’s time to spew out dogma
It’s time to fight the fight
It’s time for True Believers on the “Save Me!” show tonight
We propagate our faith
Because we know we’re right
And everyone else is wrong on the “Save Me!” show tonight
Why did we have to come here?
Was this a good idea?
Now everyone is fighting
Over just whose God is real!
And now let’s get things started…
Why don’t you get things started?!
It’s time to get things started…
…on the most salvational inspirational ostentational presuppositional…
This is what we call the “Save Me!” Show!
*blatt*
Looks forward to SWTOR and now The Secret World (assuming Funcom can actually pull off an MMORPG launch that doesn’t fall flat on its face).
Well looking forward to at least for the first couple months of each game after which I’ll get bored or RL will distract me enough to not care.
Katherine, how about Seitan? Would that work?
I want to be an explorer class. Sounds like fun.
On the subject of being racistvs. doing racist shit (prompted of all things by tonight’s Prom, but surprisingly on topic):
Fred Astaire in blackface.
I thought it would be fun to dissect bloopers in the scripts of otherwise good films*. (*the bad ones are so full of it that it would not make any sense in reviewing their physics mistakes)
A deleted scene from the Alien Quadrilogy. The crew of Nostromo listens to alien message and gets some information about the planetoid.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8cbFX6yRUo Planetoid: Just 1200 km!? Not nearly enough to hang on to atmosphere! Rotation: 2 hours! It should be disc-shaped with a rotation that rapid!
Pitch Black (Trailer 2000) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-itu1C5oB5I Even if one of the suns is eclipsed, the rotation should bring them into daylight after a while. Barricade yourself for some hours, then go to the escape craft! In theory the rotation could be too slow (consider Venus) but the film shows sun two (or three) rising when they expect dusk, so the rotation cannot be much slower than Earth’s.
Another beef I have is the ecology. One night of rainfall in 22 years cannot power a planetwide ecology. And even if the “locals” spend the time in hibernation, the ratio of time hunting food/hibernation is ridicilous. And where did those skeletal behemoths get their food before they died?
Signs (of mediocricy) – The Alien confrontation http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qY_LBAVWRMU 1950s-era alien! Silly actor in rubber suit. As for “harvesting” humans, Campbell pointed out the silliness of that idea in the late 1930s when he took over Astounding Science Fiction. Could potentially have been a fun low-budget film, but ruined by those mistakes.
Juggling: http://www.xkcd.com/942/ :)
— — — — — —
Muppet true believers: WIN!
#365 Katherine Lorraine
Friend of mine invited me to try League, the one map got boring pretty quickly.
—
#369 Dhorvath
Not really sure what to make of that, other than to say it’s pretty different at higher levels (certainly don’t have time to afk midfight). It does take some time invested to get there, which I’ll be the first to admit can be better spent elsewhere. =) I prefer the healing role to DPS, much more interesting than rotation/priority focus.
—
Katherine Lorraine
Brt after shower.
Good evening
@Minnie
All the huggs you want. I’m envious of your berries. Do you have by any chance some elk-meat, too?
@Same first names
That nearly ended my relationship with the now Mr. Giliell before it even began. He shares his first name with my cousin. Unfortunately, with my very close and very damaged cousin who at that time was known to call every other week asking for help because he screwed up big.
So when Mr called for the first time when we were still kind of unsure whether we were seeing each other, and if whether we were seeing a friend or a friend, I was taking a shower and my dad answered the phone. Mr said his name and asked if he could talk to me.
Dad told him that no, he should call later because I was taking a shower and asked him if he called because he’d crashed the car or been caught with drugs.
Fortunately he did call again.
My brother in law and his beau share the same first name, too, and it’s a source of eternal missunderstandings.
Hail Seitan
This gives me Happy Feet!
I wonder if it explains blf’s absence?
Giliell:
I’m afraid elk meat is unavailable for me at the moment. Don’t know the local hunting societies that well. But I will do my damnedest to change the situation next year. If I win the lottery (as I have planned) and become a landowner, I am within my rights to shoot any elk that happen to pass by. We’ve spotted several of them this summer, and I can always say that they were nibbling on my salad beds, hence, they were pests, which means I can kill them =)
Sure, elk meat is available for non-hunting folks, too, but the prices are way beyond my sphere.
The name of the berry I couldn’t figure out is bilberry. Looks like blueberry, only bigger. Taste-wise, it is quite bland, but contains humongous amounts of vitamin C. Excellent when added to other berries with a tangier taste, like redcurrants.
Haha
Some Tweets:
Minnie – Thanks! And that is good advice. I have to rearrange priorities. Your new project sounds perfect for you!
Therrin,
I am. The speed of action made me feel like an observer, not a participant.
Weed Monkey: Hartola (and Helsinki) says hi!
And now I’m off to my cot, wearing my bunny pajamas. See you all tomorrow, I’m going to sleep for the next ten hours or so (if I’m lucky).
Weed Monkey,
Okay, that was funny. Seitan, Seitan, Seitan, Seitan. Jugga Jigga wugga.
How far did you get, levelwise?
Minnie:
If you succeed, please tell hubby how to win the lottery, it’s something he’s been failing to do for about 20 years now.
Friends of our family migrated to Sweden and found out that unless you hunt yourself there’s hardly any meat to buy at all.
@Stupidity in films:
Zombies never ever really eat anybody. They just bite and infect.
Giliell,
You may not be watching the same zombie films I do.
___
Therrin,
How many hours is it fair to play a game that you don’t find engaging? I played three evenings and one afternoon away trying to pin down what it was I found so dispiriting because ten million subsribers must be onto something, right? Now I get that WoW classes are supposed to be different, I understand that warrior in WoW speak is a damage sink, not a wmd, but my warrior was boring. I have never felt so bleah about an axe swinger before, and that’s a basic archetype character, isn’t it? It’s no great loss, I got to try it for free this time, not like when I paid to play when it first came out. I am just ill suited to the mechanic.
@Therrin:
Ya, the one map does get boring, but they’re making a third map and a different game style (there is a second map for faster 3v3 action.)
Dhorvath,
I wasn’t asking to say something silly like, You obviously didn’t give it enough time, more for a frame of reference. I don’t like RTS games because I have to start over every time; if it’s a progress-oriented game (ie. not Tetris), it should persist. Diablo was good like that, quick to enter and gearing progressed.
I’m not a sycophant who feels everyone who doesn’t like Warcraft just hasn’t played enough. The system focuses on least common denominator, expecting that the player knows nothing about gaming and giving little bits at a time. I stuck with it initially (for me, that was during Burning Crusade, not beta) because I had some friends I was catching up to.
Speaking of free trials, time to check out Rift.
Dhorvath: I admit to not watching a lot of them, but it struck me most obvious in Resident Evil (I probably should have clarified).
It’s explicitly stated that the infected only heed their most basic instincts for food, yet instead of going for the other lurching zombies, they’re going after the fast armed living group.
Whenever any of them falls prey to the zombies, they are sure to come back. They go any length to get that yummie fresh meat into their mouths but then they lose interest. Now one could argue that the infected hunt in a group and therefore don’t attack their fellow mindless eating machines, but they still don’t start eating anything if it’s lying around after the group killed them for good.
*yawn*
Off to bed now
Isn’t there some rule that zombies only eat fresh meat? And if that goes even further and they can only eat meat from live people, that would explain why dead people are “whole” enough to come back as zombies.
Or, if they simply prefer fresh over a bit on the rotting side, they could mindlessly leave barely eaten corpses for fresh ones, therefore enabling their “zombification”.
O hai! Wasn’t able to check in yesterday, because we came home too late, and I was very tired and had a headache. I got to do quite a bit of driving, perhaps more than ever before in total.
Lots of dried-up cornfields in the Po delta.
Perhaps it’s old news, but brokenSoldier has been sighted!
Today morning I found out I finally have access to a journal I wanted access to since it was founded in 2003. I spent the rest of the morning on a downloading spree. *bliss*
Watched the Enterprise episode where T’Pol almost gets mind-raped by Evil-Vulcan Guy With The Sleaziest, Creepiest Smile In The Galaxy. Nice educational aspect. At the end, T’Pol envies Archer in particular and humans in general for having enjoyable dreams; to a lesser extent and in a more specific way, that’s how I feel about some of present female company. :-)
No idea when I’ll catch up.
Hugs and chocolate for kristinc. Keep explaining, he’ll understand it sometime.
Woo hoo! Transportation problem solved: Mom and Mom’s best friend are coming to get me this weekend!
Should I apologize to Friend for being pissed that she backed out on me?
Also, Husband (soon-to-be-ex) took my car key out of my purse today and I didn’t know it until I needed to go somewhere and couldn’t. O.o Why is he suddenly being an ass? /whine
Therrin,
Oh well, maybe I will give it a go too.
___
Katherine,
LoL is player vs player? And teams?
Squigit,
Dare I suggest that the ass nature of ex isn’t a new thing?
I suppose it’s very telling that the first thing to come to my mind is Seitaad, the first dinosaur with an ejective consonant in its name.
@Dhorvath:
Yea – team-based PvP. Two teams of five.
Katherine,
I don’t know if that’s for me either. Competition where a good performance on my part can impede someone else’s experience doesn’t do good things to me. How does the game handle loosing a map?
@Dhorvath:
You gain fewer experience points and influence points than you would if you win and you get an addition to you “games lost” number. I’m about 20 and 13 IIRC.
Dhorvath,
Well, he’s just never been this much of an ass. He’s very, very passive and will avoid conflict at all costs. I wasn’t expecting him to take the car away from me while I’m still living here and helping to care for our son…however, he is going to help with transportation costs and give me some money until I can find employment where I’m moving so family doesn’t have to completely support me.
Still, I fucking HATE being dependent on anyone, most of all him. Gah.
In other news: this article on mandatory drug tests for welfare recipients is good. I mean, it’s just nice to see it in print.
Sorry, broken link
*hands Squigit a glass of swill, and the book Best of Tpyos*
Anyone know how to fix a running toilet that doesn’t have a float in it? I can’t seem to find the right instructions on the internet.
As in the float broke off, or it’s floatless? Got a model or company name?
By float, you mean the old ball at the end of a lever? Nowadays, the float is around the tube that comes up from the water inlet. It will need replacing every 5-10 years.
Squigit,
Sorry to hear that you have encountered new behaviour like that. Sure would be nice to have someone who helps consistently with hard times. Hugs if you want ’em.
The noun is irrelevant.
1. hit with a hammer
2. if still not working, duct tape
3. if still not working, WD-40
4. if still not working, hit with bigger hammer
Chas,
Umm, actually, if it’s loose, duct tape, if it’s tight, WD-40, if it’s still not working get a bigger hammer: it’s broken anyways.
Dhorvath -“How does the game handle loosing a map?”
Well, if you spread it out and show it to all the other players … oops, sorry. All hails Tpyis!
Not only do religious fundies want to make a list of all atheists, they also want to prevent evolutionists from voting.
In an article in the July/August newsletter of the Creation Science Association of Mid-America, the question, “Should Evolutionists Be Allowed to Vote?” is addressed, and then answered with a firm, “No.”
Tom Willis states in the newsletter that evolutionists cannot, by their very nature, interact properly with other human beings. And, in Tom’s opinion, this includes so-called Christians or other religious persons who profess to agree with the Theory of Evolution.
Excerpt below:
As “Christian Dem in NC” writes in the Daily Kos:
I’m reading a book called Value wars: the Global market versus the life Economy by John McMurtry.
I’m plodding my way through the work as one of his talents McMurtry writes in academicese with great alacrity making understanding what he’s trying say sometimes a chore. Aside from his arcane loquaciousness a few problems present themselves to me and would like to call on the Pharyngula braintrust for additional commentary and insight.
First, he dances with conspiracies and goes all 9/11 truther loopy in the introduction. I was going to pitch the text right there but kept going, wending my way through this labyrinthine text. We all have our little quirks, right?
He goes on to analyze and provide a fairly coherent and radical critique of the current state of capitalism (err…corporatism) in our society. All fine and good, but then I also think this is the guy who was speaking on the one of the Zeitgeist movie-trainwrecks and being associated with that particular venture does not do much for his credibility.
McMurtry’s Wikipedia entry is unhelpful and does little other than naming his awards and books he’s written. Is this guy a crank? Cross referencing him with other radicals (Chomsky,Zinn etc.) puts him in the same ballpark, but I still have nagging doubts about him and was hoping you could help.
Thank you in advance. :)
‘Scuse me. Regular reader, occasional poster, here.
I see by the internets that Vermont is flooded and smashed by what’s left of Irene –kind of unexpected. Has anyone heard from Josh OSG, who was generously offering safe harbor to the coastal Pharyngulites? Hope he’s OK, and the also the rest of everyone in the wake of that monster.
By the way, I haven’t been able to keep up with the Thread, or any of them really, because it’s been just too depressing without killfile. I mean, all that hard work, weeding and pruning, taking the most advantage of MRA threads to cull the diseased foliage, all gone for naught. I just noticed a couple hints that a killfile solution has been found — if so, somebody please, please re-post that, so I can catch up again. Pretty please with tentacles on top.
As scary, twisted and abusive as Warren Jeffs is, I can’t help feeling pity. Imprisonment in Texas, with the current state of the criminal justice system there, is something I wouldn’t wish on anyone. (Given the overcrowding, horrific conditions, and prevalence of violence and abuse in many US prisons.) Even child-molesters are human beings, and are entitled to dignity and humane treatment.
I just saw PZ on the Mr. Deity channel. I laughed so much I nearly choked.
And I loved the sushi reference. Anathema, surely?
Just sayin’. I know I’m years too late and way behind the 8-ball, but I really, really enjoyed hearing PZ for the fust time.
Actually, it was not unexpected. On Wednesday and Thursday, the National Weather Service was showing railfall accumulation predictions of 4 to 12 inches for an area from the western Adirondaks to the New Hampshire/Maine border (the wide area was because of uncertainty about the track). The governor of Vermont, and the emergency management agency for Vermont, were planning for massive flooding two days before the flooding happened (as were the states of New York, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachu . . . you get the picture). I remember seeing the accumulated precipitation predictions on Thursday or Friday and thinking that Northern New England, which has already had a really wet summer, is in deep cop.
The resident neocon in our office has been spouting off about the unreliability of the NWS, and how it should be privatized to make it more efficient and reliable, for a couple of days. Why does he think it unreliable? Because they keep having to revise the expected track as new information comes in.
Just because the national news, including The Weather Channel, were not giving dire warnings about flooding in Vermont does not mean it was unexpected. It means that there were more populated areas that were also being threatened which garnered most of the attention.
My sympathy goes out to Vermonters (and all other affected by flooding), but the implication that this was unexpected, either at the state or national level, is, in my opinion (please note that, this is my opinion), nonsense. And it feeds right into neoconservative antigovernment privatization efforts which would make the United States a third world oligarchical hellhole.
Chas – do not come over and help…
Nerd – A-ha! Yup, that’s how it works!
How many Psych-Ohs does it take to fix a toilet? Answer: More than we have in the house.
With Nerd’s advice, the hubby and I poked around in the tank and discovered that it needs a new “float” and probably a new stopper and valve. I just turned off the water supply for tonight and will deal with it tomorrow, since we have more than 1 bathroom.
Thanks, Brother Ogvorbis. I figured they weren’t completely unprepared, but I hadn’t seen any “before” coverage. To be fair, I guess they’ve been a little busy. My FSM, though, some of the photos are awe-inspiring. The sheer volume of water is astounding.
Coverage by the commercial weather channels/websites is indeed arbitrary. You would think, for example, that there is a mysterious no-weather area between the Cascades and, about, Denver.
I hear you about the anti-public-everything people. We get a lot of that here (MT), and sometimes I wonder how often these people were dropped on their heads when young. We live in a place where the _normal_ weather can kill you, and NOAA and USGS are our friends.
Very appropriate offering to Tpyos there, given the source (Brother Ogvorbis). (Is 4 to 12 inches the usual size of rails in that area? Or is there always uncertainty about the track?) =^_^=
Nevertheless, I hope that everyone in the path of the hurricane survived the railfall/rainfall with minimal damage or inconvenience and those without power will have it back soonest so as they can report back here.
Giliell, that poor young man (sister’s calleague’s son)! :-(
I hope that he wasn’t severely injured and recovers soon – plus that his attackers are caught and put away before they can hurt anyone else.
Colleague’s. All hail Tpyos!
I wasn’t aware there were so many fans of the Doctor here. I guess I know where to come to squee next Saturday night.
Yes. EEeee! Did you see last Saturday’s episode?!
I knew that name looked familiar. PZ wrote about him more than once a while back (Willis has been spouting the same malevolent loony blather for a long time), and Willis even left a sneering turd of a comment, here.
NO.
They’re only there for the braaaiiinnss. The rest of the body is useless to them, but valuable to the zombie virus as a vehicle. There’s something there for everyone/thing!
–
and
Crouching Jerkface, Hidden Asshole.
–
They’re not unreasonable; I mean, no one’s gonna eat your eyes.
Psych-Oh – Naughty Marvin says there is an adjustment thingy on the float you are describing, and you need to lower the float by a quarter to half an inch. The adjustment thing is a spring clip affair, a sideways V shape wire attached to the side of the float.
You can pinch it further together with your fingers.
(Trust me it sounds better when he says it)
Carlie:
I’ve got another meeting… maybe we could wrap it up?
I know we’ll get to common ground somehow…
OK – amend that toilet advice. That is for the old style. The newer ones, like Nerd said, have a round doughnut float around a stem. On the top of the stem is a round thing attached to a piece of plastic that has a phillips screw on top. You screw that thing up or down to adjust the float.
test
Catch her eye when she’s pouring my coffee and search my head for an opening line
But I see by the look on her face if I keep my mouth shut I’ll save some time
What if the best I can be just isn’t good enough?
Isn’t it better not to know?
I quit
I’m done
‘Cause I don’t think it’s gonna turn out okay
It’s no fair
It’s no fun
If every time it’s going to end the same way
Me zero
Big bad world one
Nerd are we low on swill? Normally it’s served in buckets and troughs. I’ve been too busy trying to reline the trebuchet sling with skunk pelts, and forgot the swill tubs.
So, what you’re saying here is that the eyes don’t have it?
:D
–
Toilets with running water can be caused by a number of things. The float mechanism is the first place to look. The main height is adjusted during installation, and isn’t likely to change. Sometime a little more pressure is needed to shut off the water, and the adjustment screw Patricia mentions will do that job. It you still can’t get it to stop, replace the unit. Its made almost totally out of plastic, so it will eventually deform and need replacing every few years. The rubber gasket is the weak link, and I haven’t seen a replacement kit for one. Besides, they are generally fairly cheap.
If the water runs intermittently, the problem tends to be with the flap. The flap can be slightly off its moorings, or the moorings have slipped, but usually with that being the case, you don’t get tight enough seal for the water to run intermittently. Sometimes things get caught under the flap. Usually the chain which pulls it up, which can be tied up. Nylon zip ties work wonders for this. Being made of rubber, it still will need to be replaced every so often as it does deform. A good time to put in a new one is if you replace the float mechanism. Takes an extra couple of minutes, and you’re good for several years.
No, traffic has been lighter since the move, so we are OK. The Pharyngula Labs bottomless purse technology also gives a lot of storage space for the counter space it occupies.
Rorshach – Thanks for the answer to my question. I did call my doctors office, but the same nurse said there were no more notes, and my doctor won’t be back until the 8th of September. Since that’s the day of my appt. that’s pretty much the end of that. So end whining too.
That’s good advise on the toilet innards Nerd.
Because I’ve never had to deal with children mucking about with everything I had no idea the little darlings would put toy soldiers and dinosaurs down the tank…. after mysterious toilet running for days, you guessed it, one of my great nieces had dropped a Barbie shoe in there it interfered with the flapper.
Argh. I have a comparatively frivolous complaint to make.
As some of you know, we here in the state of Vermont in the US are having the worst flooding since the deluge of 1927 that devastated our state. The capital is under water, people in dozens of towns are stranded as the roads are washed out (we’re a rural state, and many towns are connected to the rest of the state by only the most tenuous roads).
I’m very fortunate to live on high ground and have had no damage to my home, and no cellar flooding, for which I’m very thankful.
All the human drama duly acknowledged. . .we lost several of our covered bridges. That hurts. Part of what makes Vermont such a wonderful place to live is the continued existence of our Colonial era villages and towns. Rather than tearing old buildings down to make way for “progress,” we carefully preserve our Colonial villages and the town square, as well as our later Victorian towns. The businesses on Main Street change, but they do their trade in the same handsome buildings that have stood there for a century or two.
This is one of the few places in North America where you can walk along a country road and see a real, honest-to-Pete working covered bridge over which pedestrians and cars can move.
So, the complaint:
The Huffington Post re-ran a video that’s made all the rounds. It’s the covered bridge in Bartonsville being swept away by the storm. A couple happened to be there filming it on their phone, and started weeping. The woman said “shit!” several times as she cried. Oh, and there was a “fuck” too.
And. . . .HuffPo puts up a disclaimer above the video – “warning: profane language.”
Fuck you, HuffPo. Fuck you prudish American media consumers. Losing some of our historical landmarks—structures that help define our lives as New Englanders—is an obscenity. Crying out in frustration is not.
You know what, Josh? Thank you. I saw several comments on that video saying something like, “If you are going to film the destruction of a historic bridge in an idyllic countryside [ed: the “idyllic” really stuck out] then make sure your language suits the occasion.
I was like, “It fucking DID suit the occasion.”
—————-
I have an internet crush on Katherine Lorraine for her tireless efforts at getting people to remember that “retard” and “you have a small penis” are stupid, discriminatory insults.
—————
I’ve been working the Champlain Valley Expo! It’s kinda cool. Today I met a guy who’s been working fairs and concerts for his entire life basically and has “so many children he doesn’t want to say how many because you’d call me a slut”. $8.50 an hour, it’s almost an insult. But hey, I’m making more than unemployment this week.
——
StrangeBoyfriend is moving to DC at the end of September.
:( :( :( :(
It’s an amiable break-up with the possibility of getting back together in 6 months to a year depending on how we are both feeling and doing at that time.
This has been coming for a while I just haven’t wanted to discuss it much. I still don’t. I’m just putting it out there so that when I freak the fuck out at the end of the month, you know why.
Unconventional relationships. Yay. :-/
…I just noticed that HuffPo deleted my comment where I told that stupid so-and-so (without profanity of course) that the woman’s response was appropriate, and that the disapproving commenter was likely not from Vermont.
Fuck HuffPoo.
Oh yeah and my truck’s brakes seem to be working fine now.
Sally, we’ll just have to comfort each other. There, there. . . I’m sorry about Strange Boyfriend. It’s awful.
Everything’s awful this week. Glad you understand about the covered bridges and all (though I know household core relationships are way more important, believe me) cuz I’ve shed some tears. I hope those poor stranded people get some help soon. . . too many Vermonters have been flooded out of their homes repeatedly over the past year.
Josh, some of the related videos were just too painful to watch. I’m with you, losing historical landmarks is the worst. We have such relatively young landmarks here, too. They should have centuries ahead of them.
This one is painful to watch, too.
I’ll commiserate about the bridge too, Josh. If an expletive isn’t appropriate at such a moment, then it never is. Fucking puritans.
@starstuff: I did! (Though I distinctly remember them talking about putting Hitler in the cupboard. Did they shoot an Americanised version of the scene, I wonder? Or maybe I’m just misremembering it.)
What do you mean? The episode that aired on BBC America had a scene in which Rory puts Hitler in the cuboard (after punching him in the face!).
Just an aside here: I hate Latin. How did anyone actually speak this language every day?
Thanks Josh. I shall definitely be in need of some commiseration. When the time comes. Fuck, I am so in love with that man.
What in the fuckus shiticus maximus do you mean by thaticus?
SallyStrange –
That is breaking my heart before it even happens.
Dammit.
Haha. But no, seriously, it’s the worst dead language I’ve ever learned (admittedly that’s not a very hard title to earn, since I’ve only learned Latin). Endings… so many endings. If I have to decline one more adjective to make it agree with a noun I’ll lose my mind.
Before she was a pop star.
This is the way a hymn should make you feel.
@SallyStrange I’ll give you a hug and tell you that the months of separation will pass by so quickly you’ll be amazed. I really hope things will work out for you after that.
@starstuff The comments up above suggested that the Doctor told Rory to put Hitler in “the closet” rather than “the cupboard”. I thought maybe they did that Harry-Potter-translation-into-American-English thing.
I love Latin. I studied it for years, and did two summers of Latin immersion in Rome. I, along with a couple of friends, were stuck at Monte Casino after the last bus had left, and we had to hitch a ride with a couple of old Italian ladies. I knew next to no Italian so I spoke to them in Latin instead. The communication gap wasn’t too bad. :) There’s no way I could do it now without a refresher however.
I checked the episode (I recorded it). They say cupboard in the BBC America version.
Big sorries to you, Sally.
starstuff91 – Oh come on Latin is such great fun. People fuckus it up all the time, and get howled at if they misquote it – watch this:
Non illigetimati corrubundom bastardi
somebody knows the correct quote for that horrid mash up of Don’t ever let the bastards get you down that I just completely fucked up. And if you love that, wait til you see Pharyngula Phrench. It’s oh la, la luscious.
Because it never gets old:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9V7zbWNznbs
Holy shite!!
Sorry!
PZ the secret comic sans isn’t the only thang that needs to be fixed.
Sorry everyone. Dammit. :((
Good morning
Tigger:
The criminals punished? Are you kidding? Those are neonazis who, by definition, can’t exist. Not only will this turn out to have been a normal fight amongst youngsters, they will also tell the world why it was essentially the kid’s own fault.
Do I sound bitter? I’ve seen it happen too many times. It’s probably like a poor black woman accusing a rich white man of rape. That can’t happen either.
Sally:
*hugs if you want them*
Mr and I have been sperated for 9 and the again for 3 months. And honestly, the last times was a blessing. Because I was wondering if I was in love with him or being in love, and somehow, since you don’t have to stay with your first boyfriend anymore, I somehow though I mustn’t stay with him and that I was missing out on something and so on and the seperation really helped me to find out what I really wanted myself.
Zombies: Well, in resident evil they didn’t even eat the brains. They never ate anything. It didn’t make sense (but on the other hand, there wouldn’t have been a plot if it did)
A tpyo in a tpyo. Impressive.
@ Lynna
[mormon profile] I sent you an email.
@ Patricia
Illegitimi non carborundum.
/pedantry
(comments not going through….)
/thumbs
Killfile (someone asked): I explained how to edit your current here, then Strange Gods Before Me based a new one on that and put it on the wiki.
That is what Classical Cipher was hinting at.
My youngest (2½ year old) has taken to making smalltalk while I change his diaper
SQB:
Any chance that this is exactly what somebody he knows says? My kids, especially no #1 have the terrible habbit of mirroring me, especially when it’s something I shouldn’t have said (like constant nagging).
It’s really funny to hear myself, intonation and everything in the voice of my kids.
My little one (not yet 2) is becoming a girl *shock grasp*. If her sister has piggy-tails, she needs them, too and she doesn’t care about the fact that she doesn’t have much hair for them. When her sister put on her new dress for kindergarten, she needed to wear hers, too. As soon as she came back home she asked me “dress take off, please”.
[image] Ecologically friendly Lord Ganesh
Giliell, no, not this time. Both of them do it at times, though. Luckily, nothing embarrassing so far. Especially the youngest can be quite the echolaliac at times.
Patricia:
ROMANES EUNT DOMUS
####
“Closet” vs. “cupboard”… I noticed that when watching Jeeves and Wooster. My first thought was, “how many bleedin’ cups do they have?” To this American, a “cupboard” is a small cabinet.
Obviously not caught up.
The way it was spoken, as opposed to the things the poets did to the word order, it wasn’t much harder than Russian. OK, it was full of irregular verbs, but we’re used to that from English, German and so on.
Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres, quarum unam incolunt Belgae, aliam Aquitani, tertiam qui ipsorum lingua Celtae, nostra Galli appellantur. Nothing in there that you couldn’t do in Russian, except for the passive maybe.
I probably translated it directly in my head as they said it. Yeah, to me, a cupboard is the small thing up on the wall you keep cups and dishes in. Hitler wouldn’t fit in one.
Sorry, Josh and Sallystrange. It sucks when people don’t understand and then mock pain. :(
Sally, MrC and I did most of our dating separated. It sucks, but it can be done and isn’t necessarily the end. I wish you luck with it.
FTB ate my comment and link to Hitchens’ article about Rick Perry, not going to bother to post it again.
I’m reading Pinkers’ “The Language Instinct” with interest atm. Intriguing that there would be retards with a full concept of language and grammar as well as highly intelligent people suffering from total language fail. Also that children do not get their language skills from their peers or parents, but just naturally expand on a preexisting talent.
Belittle A Misogynist Day is this Thursday! (Though it should be every day)
Carlie:
Cupboard or closet, I just love that they had an episode called “Let’s Kill Hitler” and made Hitler a minor character in it!
Yeah, I liked how they made him totally irrelevant. A couple of hours after watching the episode, I suddenly remembered him. Like, wait… what about Hitler?
I liked how not only was Hitler a red herring, but they left him in the cupboard/closet. I kind of wanted a shot at the end of the door with a feeble “Hello?” coming out of it.
In case there exists someone who hasn’t watched the episode yet, this is a SPOILER for Doctor Who, but I have a question:
How come Melody only knows her name is Melody Pond and hasn’t heard of River Song? I thought she was raised by people of that forest planet who named her River Song because they didn’t have right words for her real name. Or did I get that completely wrong and she actually got involved with them later and someone else had her from the moment of kidnapping to the time she came to live as Amy and Rory’s neighbor and friend?
SallyStrange: Sux. Sorry. If it’s any consolation, my wife and I were separated by ~700 miles for two years…it was lonely for the both of us, but I think we developed a sharpened appreciation for each other. YMMV. Good luck with that, anyway.
DDMFM: Funny how Caesar can be read easily with one or two semesters of Latin, but not Cicero even if you were born a patrician.
She got raised by the evil kidnap people, who apparently include both what we thought were The Silence the species, but is The Silence the religion that includes that species and eyepatch woman. The forest planet people were just part of the army that was gathered together to try and help out. They mentioned on the episode prior to this one that she would probably be raised on earth because it had the right ecological environment for a human. The River Song name just came from the one soldier who embroidered the cloth for her. Amy and Rory and the Doctor knew the name River Song because of the cloth, but River herself only knew of the name once they told her about it in this episode (and then started using it).
Oh, so I mixed up my villains and the timeline. Thanks for the explanation, Carlie.
THAT was a kick I didn’t see coming.
On her upbringing, I assume the Doctor-killing suggestions were implanted relatively quickly, since she spent so much time with Amelia. Likely those happened (following is mostly supposition)
juvyr fur jnf va gur fhvg, juvpu vf qbhoyl vagrerfgvat orpnhfr gung zrnaf fur zvtug unir npghnyyl nyernql xvyyrq gur qbpgbe ol gur ynxr (vs V unq qbar gung, V jbhyq unir gnxra n fubg ng zlfrys gbb), hayrff gurl cynl gung Bu ybbx, gur fhvg vf ertrarengvat vgfrys gb or ernql sbe nabgure crefba pneq.
Add spoiler show/hide button to wish list.
The whole personal timelines aspect is one of my favorite parts of the show. And they tie it together so awesomely.
“Genes ex silico: Computer-designed virus yields phenotype expression benefits”
http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-08-genes-silico-computer-designed-virus-yields.html
This has implications for gene therapy, but the article is so technical I find it hard to follow.
Irene gave me two good lessons in the-universe-not-being-about-me.
1) While we were waiting out the storm I was ignoring the personal emails we were getting, including two from an old friend in Illinois. Turns out she was letting people know that the “routine” lump biopsy turned into the discovery that cancer had spread to her lymph nodes.
2) Just yesterday I was sitting in the Jiffy-Lube watching a news special on the storm while my car was being serviced. They spent a long time dealing with the devastation in Vermont, and it was then – only then – that I remembered that my next door neighbor and her daughter vacation there every year at this time. It’s so routine that we hadn’t even talked about it. Don’t even know where they stay. I’ll corral their son when he comes around today, but damn.
Oddly, while most of my classmates where having trouble with verbs, the noun-adjective ending agreement was the most difficult thing for me to get. Especially when, for example, you’d have a fifth declension noun and a, say, second declension adjective. The endings weren’t the same and it drove me crazy! I barely passed Latin in college because of it (prof would make our tests difficult; the most points were the first section where we had to decline 4 nouns and adjectives together).
*snort*
:( :( :( :( I’m sorry. :(
Carlie:
Can’t wait to see what the Downfall-subtitling meme crowd makes of this…
Batshit asshole quote of the week.
—-Rep. Michele Bachmann, GOP
Oh and more at this link from her compatriot in evil dumbfuckery, Beck.
This God of Bachmann’s is a really poor communicator. If he hates government spending, why try to deliver that message via an event which will cause a lot of government spending? Maybe, Michele, God’s trying to tell you that he really likes FEMA?