I spoke at the Imagine No Religion conference in Kamloops, BC last year, and the video just came out, so here it is. I’ll be speaking there again this year, on 18 May 2012, and registration has opened. Sign up, show up! I promise that this time I won’t give slimy details about tapeworms in my talk.
(Episode CCLXVIII: Spooky story time.)
I was there and will be there again in 2012. Tapeworm in talk was very interesting, so ok to leave in . Unless you plan to replace with something even slimier and more interesting :)
But tapeworms could be sooooooooooooo fun.
RTL,
Ha, I suspected as much, but it worked better with my pronunciation trip if I could assume a second mistake.
RTL – hi!!! I have a picture I want to send you, but now that I’m facebookless I don’t know how. Do you have a blog or something? (it’s just a lemur, but it’s an awesome lemur. :) )
Nice shirt, PZ. Is that a desperate plea for us to fund an atheist conference in Hawaii?
OMG–PZ is actually Brian Wilson!
Sorry. Couldn’t resist.
It was the Hawaiian shirt.
Anyone wanna celebrate by helping me eat these brownies? OM NOM NOM.
Sweet, I love coconut.
Dhorvath,
:)
Still warm, too.
She put the lime in the coconut and drank it all up!
Hello again people. I finally bought a new charger for my laptop, so I have a functioning computer again! But now I’ve missed like a billion TETs!
Audley:
I need a Gytha. :D
Speaking of Esme, she has just discovered drinking straws. Good chewin’.
echoing some of the sentiment above, jealous of the Hawaiian shirt. I have yet to find anyplace that sells one at a reasonable price in my size.
So I’ve been think of starting a blog. Any tips? I have no idea what I’m doing.
StarStuff,
I doubt most bloggers know where they will end up when they begin. Write shit, post it, see what sticks. I did stuff for a couple of years, realized that I am a community person and the lectern was a poor fit and just stopped.
So, this Pharyngula store… I presume all the goods will be ethically sourced? Because I’d hate to think of PZ’s lavish rockstar lifestyle being built on the sweat of 14-year-old Bangladeshi sweatshop workers.
@ Dhorvath
I was wondering more about the technical stuff. Like which blog hosting site should I use?
That I’d like to know too. I was looking around, and I like that tumblrs can be private but comments are Disqus and can’t be, and WordPress I think has private mode but only if you pay for it, and I think Google owns blogger so I don’t want to go near it. Blargh. I’m pretty sure what I want requires a paid account somewhere, but then I want to be even pickier about which I choose.
I was on Blogger before it got all squicky. Nothing recent to suggest aside from my store’s website runs through WordPress and I haven’t had too much trouble with formatting pages to my desire.
I went with WordPress, but all I’m doing is documenting work, so it’s not like I have controversial content or anything.
I’m stuck between Blogger and WordPress.
Oh, sandi, I was in your corner for a long time on TET. You seemed reasonable, but your actions on other threads reveal your true self. I find it ugly.
Please find your local porcupine and I’ll prey for your eternal anal acceptance.
@ Sailor
How do you like Blogger?
Just jumping in quickly to say:
For all my blogs I’ve used WordPress and I can recommend it wholeheartedly. You can make posts private (only visible to blog members) or password protected without paying.
(Before going for WordPress, I also tried Blogspot, but liked WordPress more at the time. I found the design better and easier to use and everything better integrated. But that might have changed. Also wanted to support standalone company over big Eevil Google)
I think I’m leaning towards WordPress.
(From the previous edition)
Yeah, I’m the one who jumped on Custador with both feet and then had the nerve to hit him with the worst summer of my life. I plead guilty.
The thing about memories is that I have little control over when they crop up. His insistence that more men are raped than women triggered something in me. Specifically, it triggered some memories to which I have alluded in the past on the thread and in MRA threads. I think what set me off, though, was that he brought up male on male rape and I remembered being nine years old and, well, I went off.
I try to be understanding. I really do. And no, I am not claiming I am not responsible for what I wrote (I still stand by it). The attitude I took was coloured very heavily by memories.
I have a blog now :D The interwebs are amazing.
StarStuff!, I like Blogger just fine. My blog partners have been carrying me on the masthead for a couple of years because I just can’t be arsed to post. I got burned out and a new job at about the same time.
It’s free, I edited the templates and did a couple of bloglifts over the years and you can make comments active or un-active and ban people. Did I mention teh free part?
I have no experience with WordPress.
+++++++++++++++
I’m watching the Burn Notice Marathon on USA and one of the bad guys is the fellow who starred in The Pretender. I liked that show.
StarStuff! LINK! :-)
That Scott Stephens is a supercilious douche bag. For a supposed impartial ethics commenter on the national broadcaster he’s a pretty straightforward theocrat underneath it all. He has a crack at “New Atheists” every few weeks. Here’s another one.
http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2011/09/13/3316962.htm
Could be recycled. He’s wheeling out the ‘atheism is fashionable/consumerist’ angle.
He’s got a long running series of interviews with interesting people about ‘the big questions’, which would be a great collection of guests if he wasn’t involved. If they don’t pay lip service to at least some vaguely expressed spiritualism he gets noticably stroppy. With Julian Morrow of The Chasers, in the face of his unrepentant atheism, Stephens repeatedly tries to pin him down for being a bad person for making jokes that could hurt feelings in any conceivable way. At one point, while Morrow talks about the transgressive and anti-establishment qualities of comedy, Stephens blurts “You know, Jesus was a rebel!”.
It’d be hilarious if it weren’t so irritating.
StarStuff, conga rats on your new blog! Sorry I was late in responding.
+++++++++++++++++
Og, if hugs, bacon, grog, swill are appropriate, check your USB port.
Carlie
Hi!!! back at you.
Do I have a blog? HAHAHAHA.
No. And I never will.
No idea how you could send it to me, as I’m not giving out any of my many email addresses here. Maybe via someone like Algernon, Walton, Jeffery or KG, if you have their email addresses? (They have mine, I think). Or maybe anyone on FB who is also a “friend” of mine. Why did you leave? Privacy etc?
I guess 40% privacy, 60% etcetera. Some of PET has it via the flickr oniongirl set up (and I’m the only one who posted on!), so maybe someone can send it to you that way?
Now I have to write things. This is kind of fun.
Carlie-
You have my email, yes? If you’d like, send me the pic and I’ll pass it along to RTL.
Via the evil fb, of course.
How do I link to my blog with my nym?
Wow, PZ,
that tapeworm analogy was quite something. My research site was actually a risk site, and a fellow researcher got infested with tapeworms, typhoid (one of the variants usually not vaccinated against) and dengue fever at the same time. Triple whammy in one of the poorer regions of a developing country with a lack of adequate health care…
BTW, the video seems to be freezing at 18:44? Does anyone else here have the same problem?
Starstuff,
Click the link to you ‘nym above the comment box. In dashboard, go to “profile”, and the website link field is under “contact info”.
StarStuff, there is a space that says “Website”. If you use some kind of account, you should be able to enter it, but I just comment here without an account (or my MT account from the old site was just migrated here, I dunno)
G’night, all. To bed, perchance not to dream.
OK, sorry. I reloaded and now the video works fine.
Audley – thanks! Putting the kids to bed etc. now, but will send it sometime soon (ish)
@ Audley and pelamun
I already did that. It doesn’t seem to have worked.
Never mind. It works now.
Goodnight, Ogvorbis. *hugs and hugs*
‘Night, Oggie. *♥ and chocolate*
StarStuff:
Now you just need to post. Huzzah!
I posted :D
Esme has discovered tea. It has been deemed good.
Heeee!
*envisioning Esme drinking tea*
Caine:
Awe!
… Now I miss my rats.
Yesterday, Mr Darkheart went to the pet store to get yet another heat lamp for the turtle tank* and when he got home he declared that he wanted a chameleon for his birthday.
I have the feeling that pretty soon reptiles will outnumber the kitties in our home.
*Turns out, it wasn’t the bulb, it was the lamp itself. We discovered this when the new bulb EXPLODED! in the tank and all over Emery. Poor Emery. :(
Hello TET.. I have nothing to say right now, but I wasn’t lurking before (and I am now, thank you Cain, Fleur de Mal). I will comment when/if I have something useful to say.
Frogkisser:
*Waves!*
Here, have a glass of chocolate wine. Trust me, it’s not a gnarly as it sounds.
I did another blog post. This one’s better. It’s actually about something. This is fun :D
♬ Guess me and my tapeworm must go further down the road…. ♪
CC:
She is so damn cute! She has studiously ignored the tea dish until today, now she won’t stay away from it. Right now, she’s racing around the studio like a maniac on speed. She’s getting the hang of things very well! :D
Audley:
Oh my fucking gods, is Emery okay? I’ve had a bulb explode before, right next to my effin’ face. Scary stuff. A chameleon? Oh, they are so very cool! Get one!
Hi ya, FrogKisser! Welcome to TET. :)
Hey, Vermonters (Sally, Josh, etc.).
I’ve got a friend who’s taking a cross-country road trip this winter. (Yep, he doesn’t mind driving through snow and ice.) One of the places he’ll be driving through is Vermont, up I-89 from White River Junction to Burlington, then up to St. Albans.
He’s looking for restaurant suggestions — he leans toward diners, holes in the wall, places that locals don’t tell the tourists about. Any kind of cuisine is fine. But he wants to try to keep his bills under $25 or $30.
Thanks in advance.
Caine:
Thankfully, yes, Emery is fine. She was startled when it happened, but she didn’t get cut by any of the glass and she was back to her sleepy turtley self today.
I am really really considering getting a chameleon ‘cos they are fucking awesome and I’ve found the I really love reptiles. Mr Darkheart’s bday is in about a month, so I have some time to sock some money away to buy him one (plus the set-up). :)
Father Ogvorbis: I enjoyed your story. I recently had some young mormons attempt to approach me while I was going to buy smokes. Mormons here prey on politeness and can smell it like a shark can smell blood, so I knew what I had to do.
The spiel went something like this:
“Hey, how’s it…”
“I’m not interested in being proselytized to, so stick it up your ass prettyboy!”
The ex asked why I came back from the store laughing, and was very angry with me when I told her.
Audley:
What an awesome bday present! You could name him Mr. Vimes!
Chameleons are gorgeous. I’ve always heard it’s hard to keep them healthy in captivity, but OTOH I’ve been seeing them available a lot more lately.
Reptile keeping in general has advanced from when I was a kid, and the local pet store owner was telling us we could feed a green iguana on just lettuce and reptile vitamins and ‘it’ll generally grow to the size of its cage’.
Caine:
Mr Darkheart wants to name him David Bowie. XD
(He doesn’t know I’ve decided to buy him a chameleon. He was so excited about seeing them for sale that he came home, declared that he wanted one, then promptly named the proto-pet.)
Oh yeah, and thank you for all the birthday wishes everyone. It was much appreciated. I had a pretty low-key birthday today, had pizza with the ex and the kid and hung out all day.
The kid has been talking like crazy lately, and doing pretty well, but she’s developed an interesting quirk: She repeats all her K sounds, pronouncing words like stuck as ‘Stuck-ck’. Wonder what’s up with that.
I moved away from wordpress.com this week. It’s a great place to get started with blogging, easy to set up and has everything you need privacy-wise. I just needed some added functionality and plugins now, that’s why I set up my own wordpress.org one.
Still costs nothing, if you are prepared to upload the files to your hoster and do some file-twiddling yourself. But quite a lot of hosters will offer a wordpress install and do the work for you for like 5 bucks a month or so.
no I haven’t read much.
congratz @ TLC, fuzzy.
@Caine:
Proximity to rat =======> “You’re a ratty! And you’re sitting there!”
<:3~
(obviously, that's a male rat emote)
TLC:
I wouldn’t consider that good advice and would stay away from the guy who told you that. Good friends of mine have a house full of reptiles, including Zebe*, an iguana of damn near monstrous proportions. He’s well over 6 feet long. All the reptiles receive appropriate diets, live in appropriate environs, etc. All kept critters deserve a varied diet, it’s shit to give them one cheap, not highly nutritious food and depend on vitamins. A good reptile-specific treat/chew with necessary vitamins are good, but they shouldn’t be given every day.
*I miss him, he’s in Fargo now. He used to look forward to my visits, liked me in purple best and adored having me mist him.
Pteryxx:
Hahahahahaha, oh, I love that!
Audley: When you say chameleon, do you mean the American native (really called anoles), or the African native? Some pet shops sell anoles as “chameleons.”
I can already tell that blogging is going to be a huge time black hole.
I can see it now:
“I’ll just check in and maybe make a quick comment or post.”
*Five hours late*
“Why is it dark outside?”
Caine: I was a young kid, but even then I thought the bit about ‘growing to fit their cage’ sounded like bullshit.
There was a period in that old town when all the kids were getting an iguana, and sure as shit all these iguanas were getting sick and dying young. It’s not that we didn’t care, it’s that the pet store owner in that town was an utter dumbass about reptiles. But what did he care? At 50 bucks apiece, he was all too happy to sell ya another one.
A. R:
I haven’t gotten a look at the lizard selection lately, but I do know that this pet store sells both anoles and chameleons, so I’m hoping that they are really really real chameleons.
Mr Darkheart said that they have the googly eyes and the crazy chameleon feet, so there’s that, I guess.
At the reptile show I got my bearded dragon and pacman frog from they had a chameleon on a little perch. He seemed like a very mild mannered and immensely charming little creature, but there’s no way I’d feel up to something so advanced. I liked the way he was just sitting there, apparently* unbothered by the throngs of people all around him, with only the twitching of his eyeballs betraying that he was an actual live creature.
(*He appeared completely unbothered and unstressed, but he could very well have been scared shitless and holding perfectly still out of fear. Hard to say with a reptile)
Audley: Googly eyes are a qualifier for real chameleonness! :)
TLC:
And making out like a fucking bandit, too! What an ass.
texting by proxy is quite confusing…
Does ratty watty have a widdle tea cup for her widdew hands?
It’d be really cute, is all I’m saying.
Happy birthday to Yote. Been pretty thread bankrupt otherwise.
I feel like my blog is so full of win. Maybe I’m just being silly and excited.
Sometimes it’s hard to say with a mammal. We got my Midnight from a pet store that had an arrangement with a no-kill shelter; on the weekend, cats and dogs were sold (along with a coupon for a next-to-free spaying/neutering) out front, and all the little baby cats were in this one, very large (not crowded!) cage. Midnight was laying all paws-tucked-up, and seemed very calm and composed….but it seems that in ‘real life’ he actually was petrified with terror. It was a long time before he would let anyone but me go anywhere near him.
I miss the anxious little dude. :(
–
And now, to bed, purchance not to drown in my sleep.
*hooooorrrrkk! sniffle!*
–
♥ Good evening TET :3
Breathing a little easier at the moment. My mother was in the hospital with jaundice and stomach pains, and eventually traded her gall blather (three times normal size) for seventeen staples. Back home resting. Says visit her later when here staples are out. Definitely on the mend.
Yup Caine.
We were an isolated little town. Gibsons BC wasn’t exactly an island, but you had to take a ferry to get out of it if you wanted to visit Vancouver or the Fraser Valley, so it was pretty much like one. He was the only pet store in town.
He also used to sell those ‘painted’ Indian Glass Fish, and assured me that the chemical process used to dye them was completely harmless.
What an ass indeed.
StarStuff!@80,
That’s just the perfect way to start out! Sounds like a great creative outlet, good luck!
My day (which was sucking hard 6 hours ago) has turned into awesome.
Firstly! The parentals foolishly cc’d the siblings on their latest “durr why can’t we be homophobic yur being MEEN” email. Cure a chorus of smackdowns. :D :D
Secondly! I went out with friends and had a great time.
Thirdly! I HAVE BEEN OFFERED A JOB.
*dances*
(Oh, and lizards are cute. Thought I’d offer something on-topic.)
Good evening Endless Threadizens!
This evening, I am:
-glad to hear Nerd’s mom is okay
-experiencing a rekindling of my secret desire to have a snake for a pet (snakes are so cool)
-considering whether to take a relatively low-wage dishwashing/deli job.
Pros: it’s at the local co-op, right down the hill. I get a 15% discount on all merchandise, and I do actually shop there rather frequently. It’ll give me a schedule and I will no longer have to grovel at the feet of the state to get my paltry unemployment living allowance. I can supplement it with other part-time work. I will no longer have a limit on how much money I’m allowed to earn (with unemployment, you’re allowed to work basically 10 extra hours per week before they start chiseling away at your benefits). It’s a temporary job so there’s no big commitment. Plus I’ll get to socialize a bit. I’ve been such a hermit lately.
Cons: in total, I’ll only be making $20-@30 more per week than I make on unemployment. It’s drudgery, really, no other word for it. I will have less time to spend on things that are more important, like studying for the GREs, applying for jobs in my field, and volunteer work. (Then again, I haven’t really been making the best use of my time anyway.) Realistically speaking, I’m not going to work much more than 50 hours per week anyway. I’m just not that driven.
Meh. Leaning towards rejecting the job offer.
No need to respond, it’s just me thinking out loud, selfishly using the comment box as an extension of my inner dialogue.
Hope you all are having a lovely night. I really am trying to go to bed early tonight. If I’m still posting in 2 hours, kick my ass and tell me to go drink some hot tea and go to bed.
“Idiots who want to think “There’s no way anyone like ME could be that evil” read “There is evil in my group” as “Everyone in the group is evil”
It’s a defense mechanism. This way they feel if they can show there is ONE good person it separates them from the evil.
If it’s not you; great! Make sure it stays that way. But know that your culture influences your demographic and not always nicely”
Yes. I sure was subtle. That is so easy to miss.
Of course the twit labeled it as TL:DR so he doesn’t get to use that as a real excuse because he claims he didn’t read it.
Nerd, may your mother get better.
The Laughing Coyote@66, Sorry I missed your B-Day (working a lot/ stuff to do IRL, hard to keep up with TET).
So, belated Happy Birthday! (confetti & noisemakers)
I am an atheist because of that shirt. It’s proof there’s no god.
Urk. This Imperial Moka (coffee/chocolate) stout is not as good as I thought it would be. Or perhaps it’s better than I thought it would be, and my tastes just aren’t sophisticated enough.
Happy birthday, Coyote!
———————————-
I intend to use “Conga rats” in conversation from now on.
———————————-
Anyone else ever wonder just how long it would take for something left in the fridge to gain sentience? Also, apparently our schnauzers have the ability to hear Mom from outside the house – they never stay out for long if they’ve figured out she’s getting ready for bed. Then again, it may be just that her voice carries quite a bit more than we realized.
Also, why the hell do our dogs do a sort of “roll onto side while standing” thing when we’re giving them pettins and scritches? Mind you, they lean into our laps when they do this, but it’s not something I’ve ever seen a dog do before.
—————————————-
Chameleons are cool. Don’t think I’d want one for a pet, though. Maybe an anole would be nice. There’s a guy at the ren faire who sells them, cute little things.
Hey PZ, I note that your “Share on facebook” button below the posts is just as greyed out as mine was when I used that plugin the other day. I disabled them all and just went with the set of larger buttons that you can select from the config menu.
My parents’ old dog, Brownie the dearly departed intersexed labrador who looked like a Rottie mix, ALWAYS rolled onto her side from standing whenever you petted hir. I believe the idea was that we were supposed to scritch hir belly.
Good old Brownie. It’s odd going home to my parents house and not being greeted by hir smelly, slobbery, waggy, rolling-over presence.
Congratulations/commiserations for jobs as appropriate.
Sally, I’d consider getting that job just so you won’t have to reapply for unemployment.
Sally Strange: Conga-rats, your parents old dog is the first intersexed dog I’ve ever heard of. How does that work, exactly?
Regarding snakes, I own a unique one. You won’t find her kind in the pet stores. She’s very calm, and enjoys wrapping around people’s wrists to absorb heat like a living bracelet.
Wow there are 13 banned trolls here since I last posted regularly. How’d that happen?
Something to do with lifts, I think.
Sally,
I’d suggest getting the job if for no other reason than to have something when your unemployment runs out. Unless you’re planning on heading off to grad school before it runs out, of course.
Nerd,
I’m sending good thoughts to your mom for a speedy recovery. :)
I don’t get it.
엘리베이터게이트!!
When they got her as a puppy, they thought she was a female (here I’m reverting to female pronouns, because that’s what we used throughout her life, tho it is amusing to use non-gendered pronouns to refer to a dog). But when they took her to the vet to get spayed, the vet called them back the next day and said that there was no need to spay her, because she had both sets of reproductive organs, just internally, and neither set would ever work.
Rey, no, Chas & Esme have their own tea dish. ;)
Esteleth, congrats!
Nerd, all my best to your mom and family.
Gyeong, lift = elevator.
I worry about re-applying for unemployment, because unemployment is based on your wage rate at your previous job. If I take this one and then have to go back on unemployment, I’ll have a much lower unemployment benefit.
I should probably call the unemployment guy and ask his advice.
my search in the three major East Asian languages for “Elevator Gate” (엘리베이터게이트,エレベーターゲート、电梯门) only yielded videos/pics/technical descriptions of elevator doors..
I was going to say I still don’t get it but I just remembered. XD Good grief I’m dense.
Reading that in Hangeul is excruciating (not as bad, though, as reading it in Katakana). :D
that’s interesting, Sally Strange. Dogs don’t seem to have too strict of a concept of gender as it is. I’m no expert and both my dogs are female, but I always get the impression that people tend to project a bit of their own concepts of masculine or feminine on their pets, particularly dogs.
It kinda makes me think of that old myth that female dogs bond closer to male owners and vice versa. I’ve heard it from quite a few people and at least one book.
TLC:
I dunno about that, but my last two male dogs (which includes one of the current ones) had and have a distinct bias against males excepting Mister and my female, who is half coyote, is definitely biased against males (again, excepting Mister).
Esteleth, congrats!
I have had a blogger blog for ages, although I’ve been inactive for quite a while now. I’ve been happy with it. But also, my blog is very uncontroversial, and low traffic. It’s locally aimed and just about food, shopping and recipes. I don’t think it would suit the more high-profile type.
Threadizens, what’s your take on whether Hoggle should be outed? I’m told he was at GAC2010 and will be at GAC2012, and it’s making me quite nervous. I really don’t want to have him around unawares. Talk about atheist spaces being unwelcoming to women. But on the other tentacle, there’s been no direct threats… And on the other tentacle, are not indirect threats bad enough?
Outing Hoggle:
I think it’s a question of “not stooping to their level”. If there is actual danger from this guy, he should be reported to the authorities, or those targeted by him should be notified about his identity too.
At least that’s my take on it. Actually in the meantime they’ve got 160 comments on that EG Challenge 4 post, will have to see what course the discussion has taken…
PZ, the man the myth the legend. And I’m not just just making this shit up.
Well, and why would a dog have a concept of gender? It’s only relevant to them for a week or two out of a year. Otherwise, it’s all about pack hierarchy.
I will say this about Brownie: she was, hands down, THE most submissive dog I’ve met so far. Her reaction to meeting anyone, to seeing old friends, to uncertainty, to conflict, to pretty much anything besides food, was to roll over and show her belly.
My parents got into raising guiding eyes puppies for a while. Brownie was a drop-out from the program that my folks decided to keep.
Alethea:
I am really conflicted about it. What bothers me the most is that someone in his ‘real life’ outed him because they were really disturbed by what he’s doing online. That tells me he comes across very differently when offline and I have to wonder if he won’t try to get information at GAC then use it online as ‘Hoggle’.
I think, at the very least, there should be a heads up to the GAC people. If that means outing him, then yeah, I come down on that side. Reluctantly.
My cattle dog was the runt of her litter, and sort of oddly colored. I picked her because she was off doing her own thing and didn’t feel like following the pack around (that, and I always like the runt. Call it a soft spot). She grew into a petite long legged thing that resembles a shrunken coyote, and is most definitely not submissive.
A drug dealer I knew had an incredibly shitheaded dobermann female, incredibly aggressive and not in a ‘fear of strangers’ way, an intimidating dominating sort of way. She never out and out bit, but she was very keen on threatening people in their own yards.
One day she and my cattle dog were at my former friends house together, and all it took was a growl and a show of fangs to put that dobermann on her belly. And that’s why my dog is the best dog ever.
Outing Hoggle: I’m normally strictly opposed to outing as a Wikipedian (it’s a permabannable offense there) But this troll has actually made me think about it. I’m with Caine here.
I guess go to the organisers and see what they think; they should be informed that they might have someone who’s made threats against women at the convention – and then it’s up to them if they want the name so they can do something about it.
Then again, I suspect Hoggle is the weakest, most pathetic sort of coward – he talks big on the interwebs but would shit himself if someone even raised their voice to him in person.
Yeah, I want him outed for sure! I don’t want him anywhere near me. But I don’t know if that’s “just” an emotional reaction. Conflicted, yes.
This is why cephalopods are so vastly superior, they can extend their limb-related metaphors by a factor of five (or four)!
Regarding Franc Hoggle: I think he warrants outing. Now, I have to admit straight up, I can’t deny that I’d personally enjoy seeing the results of Hoggle’s behavior blowing up in his face. Whether or not that means it would be ‘wrong’ to out Hoggle, I cannot say.
I would also tentatively say that outing him is kind of consistent with his whole ‘free speech’ tirade. He has the freedom to express a desire to do something nasty to a woman he disagrees with, we in theory have the freedom to let his real name drop.
I fully admit though that my opinion may possibly be colored just a little by a bit of a mean desire to stick a firecracker up this revolting bug’s ass and see what happens. Take that as you all will.
@pelanum
God, that phrase sounds horrible in Korean.
I’m all for using the internet commons to publicly shame purveyors of hate. Once you go all in with blatant hate speech, I think all bets are off.
Okay, good night.
It was nice talking about Brownie. She was such a good dog.
Alethea:
Well, remember, I won’t be at GAC. If I was going to be there, yes, I would want him outed, I’d want to know his name and I’d want to know ahead of time what he looked like. I tend to extreme caution, thanks to my own experiences. Also, If I were Ophelia Benson, I’d want him outed too.
Wowbagger:
I wouldn’t be at all surprised if you’re wrong. I wish shit like this would die. Even what you might call ‘a weak, pathetic coward’ can work themselves up into obsession and hatred that drives actions you’re surprised by. There’s zero evidence that Hoggle is any particular stereotype; what we do know is what he is doing online, and that what he is doing qualifies as a fixation. People who are fixated are never fucking safe. Never.
Caine wrote:
Yeah, that’s true. And it’s not something I’d be happy to be wrong about, especially because I know it’s not going to be me he’ll be on the lookout for to be alone or vulnerable – his obvious hatred of women gives away who his targets would be.
Hopefully the presence of a few of us guys around at the GAC will – if he does show up – keep him from getting the opportunity. But it sickens me to know that his presence is making people decide to not go.
ibyea,
probably due to the fact that -게이트 hasn’t really become a productive suffix in Korean (or Japanese, for that matter). I think both languages only seem to use it for terms already known in English with a -gate suffix.
Chinese, OTOH, has borrowed the -门 (mén, door/gate) suffix and has made it a productive suffix within the language, and uses it for domestic scandals as well, for instance this scandal is known as “艳照门, erotic-picture-gate”. Only problem is that elevators usually have doors, and thus the suffix wouldn’t really be recognised as such…
Ms. Daisy Cutter:
He simply must stop in Winooski (right next door to Burlington and right off 89) for a hole in the wall Vietnamese place called Pho Dang. Tiny, cheap, and the Pho Ga is so damned good it’s like crack. For $8. If he’d like company, I’ll happily join him there as it’s a two-block walk for me.
Tiny Thai, also in Winooski, is fabulous and cheap. Around the corner is Papa Frank’s, your traditional Italian-American eatery that looks like something out of an 80s movie with red checked table cloths. Pizza’s fantastic, lasagna is awesome, and it’s cheap too. Not fancy, but just what you want when you’re in the mood for cheap-n-cheerful tomato sauce and cheese.
My email is spokesgay@gmail.com.
This is a bit random, but does anyone here have experience with maintaining extracted human neutrophills in cell culture for over a day? I’m doing student research on an ebolavirus glycoprotein with possible interactions with neutrophills and/or their products, and being able to keep the cells alive long enough to observe the results would be a great help!
Jackson’s Chameleon.
Not that great of a leaper but, hey! How ’bout them horns?
Closest thing to a living Triceratops I’ve ever seen.
So I missed all of that-there Hoggle-stuff.
but
I did have a Pharyngula dream.
We™ were all in an airport (big but not huge) and we™ all knew we™ were there but were having trouble identifiying one another.
Caine and I eventually identified one another by a series of cryptic comments involving rats and porcupines.
—-
Never take an antihistamine and an afternoon nap.
Awesome stuff PZ.
You’re definitely one of our best speakers.
Can’t wait to see you in Melbourne next year!
May your beard grow long with tentacles until then.
Wowbagger, Madman of Insleyfarne | 4 November 2011 at 5:13 am :
Caine is right. Do not allow the desire to insult someone lead you to make baseless assumptions about them. That creature is clearly deserving of whatever vitriol you can think of, but that doesn’t meant they are harmless. We simply do not know.
As for pseudonymity – well, it should be obvious that anyone who makes threats of violence has forfeited any claim to be deserving of pseudonymity.
Chigau:
Sounds about right.
Oy,
SquirmellaEsme is something else. Forced socialization is going soooo slowly. It shouldn’t, but Esme can actually reset her fear limit. I’ve watched her do it 3 times now. Amazing.On the topic of Hoggle, and porcupines, I’ve come to the conclusion that the standard North American porcupine is simply not enough in his case, and even though I personally prefer the use of echidnas, I feel like one or two of these may be appropriate: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7e/Stachelschwein-drawing.jpg (They can weigh up to 30 kilos/60 lbs).
A.R., well, porcupines are traditional, and they must be decaying. This is a must.
btw, I find the etymology for “echidna” cool.
Caine: I’m not excluding the decay :^) But I feel that a larger model is needed. Perhaps with the inclusion of a rusty knife.
A.R.:
No, I think not. Considering that Hoggle and many of the other slimepitters conveniently latch onto the decaying porcupine fuck off as a sign of our inherent violence, it’s enough as it is. Besides, we went through enough shit with the rusty knife. Even now, it brings back memories of J.J. Ramsey…ugh.
Is volume important?
We could use 2 porcupines and 1 echidna.
Or 5 echidnas and half a porcupine.
is there a standard unit?
Pelamun:
I like Echidna too. Wait…
Joking! Because we have a regular who goes by Echidna. :D
True, true. I’m am genuinely worried that Hoggle might make an appearance at GAC though, as a friend of mine is planning on going (I can’t myself, too much work).
Do you still have that sign image, PZ? I want to print it off and put it up around town ;p
Josh – thanks. I’ll pass it along.
Nerd – hope your mom recovers quickly.
I actually didn’t know “echnidna” was a type of porcupine until I found it used in the “insert your porcupine” context here. So naturally I looked it up, and I usually look up the etymologies of words if the origin is not apparent.
I find animal names taken from mythology always very fascinating.
Or Elephant, which is cognate to “phantasy”, and the Chinese term, 象 xiàng, means “phantasy” too. At some point, the animal was a mythological animal to both Chinese and Greeks.
Sorry, got carried away here.
A.R.:
I don’t like the thought of him being there, however, one of the reasons he’s been so busy doing what he’s doing (the Grey Lining blog), the slimepit, encouraging trolling here, etc., is to silence. All of it is a huge silencing tactic. While I understand, on a very personal level, the reluctance of people, especially women, to be at the same conference as him, I hate to see him win by keeping people quiet and keeping people away.
Pelamun: Echidnas are not porcupines nor hedgehogs. They are something far far stranger.
Speaking of monotremes though, why not a live male platypus? Far fewer spines, but more impact.
pelamun: It’s not actually a porcupine, it’s a monotreme (a mammal that lays eggs). They can be used as substitutes in Australia, and when stiffer spines may be needed. :)
What the Hell!?
I’ve just logged on, and what’s this I read? Hoggle at GAC? I’m taking my daughters, FFS. They’re great, take-no-shit kids, but I don’t want us sitting next to the jerk.
It’s unlikely that’ll happen, it’s a big event, but going is also a big deal for us, and I don’t want the experience blighted by jerks.
Caine: I wonder how we might best address the issue then? Would outing him stop him from coming? Of course, even if he did, they could turn him away at the door or at least let attendees know about him.
Hm, Wikipedia disagrees with that interpretation of the Greek. The fantasy thing might have been a folk etymology, I don’t remember where I read that. Sorry about that.
At least the Chinese etymology is reliable…
Oh I know, I meant it in a non-biologist kind of way. But since I like being pedantic about language, I had that coming :D
Possibly the best Tumblr evar.
A.R., I really don’t know. I do think the people behind GAC should know about him, know his actual name and so forth. I think his possible presence at GAC is the most valid reason to out him, so that people will know who they are dealing with.
The Laughing Coyote: Some thoughts on the use of platypi: I believe that a certain state of decay is needed before insertion may be attempted, but the idea of poisonous deceased mammalian suppositories is an interesting one. Perhaps hedgehogs? Some of them rub poisonous toad venom on their spines IIRC.
As far as blogging platforms go, I started with Blogger; but when I heard that people’s blogs were deleted if Blogger decided they weren’t suitable, I transferred to WordPress. My WordPress account has been fine.
A few weeks ago, WP’s automated systems decided that my blog might be a spam blog, and locked it. I sent an e-mail and they reviewed and unlocked it, with an apology, within about an hour.
Caine: That was my thought exactly. He is a legitimate threat to the attendees (imagine an elevator incident that turned out even less well than the last one). (I apologize in advance of that last sentence offends anyone)
What about hedgehog (Igel) v. porcupine (Stachelschwein, “spine pig”)? Probably unrelated too, right…
(also, echidna = Ameisenigel, lit. “ant porcupine”!)
A.R: nonsense, platypi are evolved to squeeze through dark confined muddy tunnels, it’s what they generally do when they aren’t swimming.
argh, haven’t slept much in two days.. Ameisenigel, i.e. echidna, would be “ant hedgehog”
The Laughing Coyote: Hmm, but can they navigate around heads deep in rectums?
I bought 200 little chocolate bars for Hallowe’en.
We had 2 (count ’em, 2) munchkins come to our door. They got about 20.
The Food Bank colectors got about 30.
That leaves me eating about:
10/day for 15 days or
15/day for 10 days or
eat 25 tiny kitkats and see how you feel…
good point, A.R. But to be fair, I don’t think an echidna or hedgehog would have any easier of a time with it.
Perhaps a honey badger?
The Laughing Coyote: No spines though…
TLC:
Whatever it is, the key is it is decaying. I think that pretty much rules out navigating anywhere.
Caine: This is very true. Decay is a prerequisite to insertion. Spines help though.
A.R.: I just noticed, between the two of us we’ve just made 7 posts almost in a row theorizing about what kind of animals would fit in franc hoggle’s ass.
Eeeuuugghh.
Good point Caine. The decay criteria rules out the ethical problem of what the unfortunate animal may think about being inserted.
Honestly though, I think what fits best in Franc Hoggle’s ass is the Boot of Justice. I say let him be outed.
TLC: Perhaps we should consider another topic?
As a cost saving measure, Ireland has closed its embassies in Iran, East Timor and . . . drumroll . . . Teh Vatican.
From the Beeb:
[my bold]
I think that in embassy speak that means that Ireland’s interest in the Vatican has shrunk a bit of late. Much as it might have had in the two other countries.
The amount of money saved by all three closures is not much, $1.7 million a year. The choice of these three particular nations is . . . suggestive of some emerging sentiment of the Irish. One worth considering by other leaderships, I dare say.
This counts as good news.
*see what I just did there? >chortle<*
A.R. and TLC
uumm
yup
[kinda funny, though]
A.R.: I’m OK with it, it just struck me as amusingly weird and kind of gross.
Besides, I think this is a worthwhile topic. I know what I think of the idea of outing him, but I could be ‘wrong’. My opinions may be colored by just a teeny bit of an aggressive streak.
TLC:
I’d be content with his losing his current fixation and getting on with his life. I’m at a loss when it comes to why he’s so obsessed with all things Egate and PZ (and a few other bloggers, but it’s primarily PZ he posts about.)
TLC: Yeah, I’m no fan of Hoggle either, and if outing him is what is needed to prevent him from harming anyone, then there is no question of what needs to be done.
Seriously!
I just ate 7 tiny-aeros and 4 tiny-kitkats……
helpme…
chigau: Check your USB for a chocolate poisoning kit.
Crudely Wrott, it’s good to see Ireland pulling even further away from the catholic corruption. I’m not exactly sure what the fuck they needed an embassy to the Vatican for in the first place.
That is, first aid kit
Crudely Wott,
most countries have their ambassador to Italy also act as their ambassador to the Vatican, seeing that Vatican City is IN Rome, that makes sense. This is what Germany does, but what irks me that Germany’s ambassador to the Vatican is on the same salary level as the ambassadors to the US, UK, France, China and one or two more “super-important” countries (an ambassador to a small country might be not even be on the same level as a division head in a mission to a big country).
(Likewise, if a country closes an embassy in a small country, usually they will appoint an ambassador to a neighbouring country as well, so countries that don’t have a physical presence in Timor Leste will probably have their ambassador to Australia act as ambassador to Timor Leste at the same time too)
Did Ireland have two embassies (physicial buildings) in Rome or does this mean that they also will close their mission to Italy?
A.R. and Caine: I know what it’s like to be bullied and intimidated. My personal philosophy is, there’s only one surefire way to deal with them, and that’s to fight back and attack wherever vulnerable if necessary.
The majority of bullies, by the sheer act of bullying, have already demonstrated that they won’t hesitate to exploit vulnerability and attack sore spots. Hoggle is certainly not one of those rare exceptions.
pelamun: Looks like they had separate missions (this gleaned from a quick glance)
A. R
thanks!
I hope that anti-chocolate thing works with rum.
Then this is purely political posturing. To call their ambassador to Italy a “non-resident ambassador” as far as the Vatican is concerned, while legally correct is ridiculous from a political p.o.v.
chigau: Guaranteed not to interact with alcohol! :)
pelamun: Yeah, they probably saw it as a way to cut costs while looking like they were cutting ties with the church.
Also, I await the Great Tentacled One’s opinion on outing Hoggle in the morning
He did comment on Zvan’s blog, right? Or did I miss something, has something happened?
pelamun: Nope, nothing new, but could you link to that comment?
Oh, and then I remembered how small Vatican City is, and bingo, even the current Irish mission to Vatican City is located OUTSIDE of Vatican City, if I have read Google Maps correctly.
So this might not even be legally speaking a non-resident ambassador.
He commented several times, just use Ctrl-F
TLC:
I’m not willing to make assumptions about Hoggle in his offline life. I have no idea what he’s like or how he behaves. I go on what he does online.
I do think he should be outed at GAC, because I think people not only have the right to feel safe, they should know they are talking with/dealing with someone who may use whatever they are told or hear to be abusive online or may use that information to compromise someone else’s privacy.
At least in online interactions, there’s a stalkerish vibe to Hoggle and people should have the option to steer clear of him.
After reading his posts at Almost Diamonds*, I’m all too aware of what he’d make of this, but when you’re going to go out of your way to upset people, you should be prepared for this sort of thing.
*He actually said he had a vileness deficiency and was taken aback by all the people willing to smear him. If he actually meant that, he’s got one hell of a case of cognitive dissonance going on.
Pelamun:
Yes, he did, specifically about GAC.
Caine,
yeah sorry, I didn’t express myself clearly. So implicitly I meant, he did comment there, so why would he need to open his own entry here UNLESS there was some new development of which I was unaware…
Caine: I’m going by what I see online too.
I’m currently of the opinion that just because I’d enjoy seeing Hoggle feel the repercussions of his behavior, doesn’t mean he shouldn’t see repercussions, but I could easily be wrong.
At the blog post linked, he pretty much says ‘bring it on’, so clearly he’s not too worried about it anyways.
Pelamun, no development that I’m aware of. I expect Hoggle’s psuedonymity will remain intact unless there’s a specific decision about GAC.
@ pelamun:
Yes, Ireland has both an embassy to the Vatican as well as to Italy.
That the salaries of the ambassadors from certain “preferred” nations are higher than average just goes to show that money flows to power. Those who seek power frequently do so, at least in part, for love of money. Those with money who are nearly possessing power but power is just out of reach for them, give their money to the powerful in the hope that a bit of the cachet will rub off on them.
So blessed, they can then parade up and down for the folks at home as a proper example of a proper representative of proper dogmatic dedication and thereby cement their place in history. And get more money, just like that!
Its easy. And too expensive at half the price. Well, you spends your money and you takes your chances.
This wouldn’t be a problem if these sycophantic acolytes didn’t have, in turn, so many sycophantic acolytes.
Fortunately, that class has many exceptions.
*Clenched Tentacle Salute*
TLC:
Yeah, I know he said that, but given his online persona, I wouldn’t expect different. It would be out of character for Hoggle to all of a sudden say “I wouldn’t appreciate that at all, I feel it would be wrong because…”
That doesn’t mean it doesn’t worry him. It very well might, otherwise he’d grab the ball and out himself.
Well, all the other highest-class ambassadorships as far as the German Foreign Service is concerned with I can live with, they’re all extremely important countries as far as German foreign policy is concerned. It’s just this stupid Vatican thing that irks me. Also the Vatican nuncio traditionally gets to be the doyen of the Diplomatic Corps in many Western countries.
Another privilege that needs to be abolished ASAP.
Yeah Caine, it’s a bit of a tough one for me. For instance, I happen to know that it’s incredibly easy to set the little bugshit off on one of his silly rants. Fun, yeah, deserved, arguably, but ethical? Not necessarily.
But what do I know? I’m but a simple baboon.
Yeah, looks like alerting the GAC organisers looks like the best course of action. They could bar him from registering. (I don’t know how open GAC is, if you can enter the premises without a badge etc)
It irks me too. It has irked a lot of people for a long time. But the times they are a changin. This move by Ireland, while its genesis is downplayed by both sides, is just one more indication that the CC is in retreat as is religion in general. Not at a rate that I’d like, but at some rate, however humble it may be.
Privileges need to be earned, not dispensed. If not earned the value is only ritual, ceremonial; of value only as a coupon, not even currency.
And so, good night. It’s late and prone sounds preferable right now.
Oh, Caine. I’m so happy Chas has a new friend. I’ll bet he’s feeling much happier now. If he is, you are, and that’s OK.
Read Zvan’s entry, and Hoggle’s hoggling. Need sleep for my neurons to recover from that assault. Good night all!
Just read up on the latest developments in the BH saga… Gahh.. I need to step away for a moment…
No, just no. Not as a pre-emptive action with regards to the GAC anyway. If we close conventions like this one to misogynists (how would you do it anyway lol), or require some kind of test of pureness of heart, we’ll never have another conference again.
It’s a fact of life that there are such people not only in our movement, but society as a whole. I agree with PZ, I do not ever want anything to do with this person, or be in any way associated with him, but that’s the extent of it. For now.
Create awareness, stand together to make it clear that we despise men like him and the attitudes they stand for. But I see no grounds for pointing him out to police or GAC organisers. Yet.
In Poland people actually claim that tapeworm of religion was responsible for re-gaining independence after 1st World War, “winning” during 2nd World War (we got our asses kicked but no matter), and destroying communist regime (which was falling anyway but no matter). Getting rid of this terrible parasite and announcing it openly only gets you accused of being “not a TRUE Pole” and basically a traitor of your people. Ah, of course Catholics (88% of population) claim they’re “persecuted”…
Kristof,
it is sadly true that Poland is the most religious county in the EU. But the last elections were at least a step into the right direction right?
Also wasn’t public opinion quite divided about the church’s grandstanding regarding Lech Kaczyński’s burial? Another positive sign if I don’t misremember.
And wasn’t there also some argument over a cross commemorating him or sth? But I’ve forgotten the details…
“Hoggle” has an entry in the Urban Dictionary, and it’s kinda weird…
Could use some pharyngulation.
GAC venue is very open and accessible in the main walkthrough areas, though last time they had some parts roped off with badge checking. You needed your badge to get into the lecture hall or the food service.
Echidnas would be most appropriate since we are talking about Australia. It’s much, much easier to find roadkill echidnas here than hedgehogs or porcupines. Though compared to roos, they are quite rare. They are also very smart and totally adorable. Perhaps just a decaying roo tail would do, although it lacks spikes.
Alethea: One thing that bugs me about monotremes is that we know they’re an extremely old group and were probably far more diverse in the past, but it seems all the fossils we find are just variations on platypi and echidnas.
@ Alethea –
How about a decaying cane toad! Aren’t those things poisonous?
Sally Strange: I like it!
When I was in school I had an awesome professor of Environmental History (fantastic field!) who was Australian. He made us watch this documentary about cane toads.
Ah – cane toads,
when I was in Australia, I had this uber-cool physics teacher who used to be with the Air Force or sth. One day he brought us a dead cane toad, cut it open and made its heart beat by connecting it to current. We also spotted its stomach which was apparently full, but he refused our request to slit it open, which was probably a good call.
Another funny memory of this teacher is how he once tried to learn the correct pronunciation of Kirchhoff, but ultimately in vain..
A cane toad would be perfect!
A rotting and still-venomous cane toad carcass would still be no more toxic than the pus hoggle leaks.
I have had an adventure with bees today! A swarm settled into our compost bin and started building a hive. Luckily my chook-loving friend has a beekeeper friend, and she came and moved them for me. They’re settling in to the trap box now; she’ll pick them up in a day or two.
Like Rorschach I don’t see any point in attempting to restrict Hoggle from attending GAC 2012; how would it be permissible? There are arseholes everywhere, and until his arseholish behaviour rises to an actionable level of harassment then not much can be done at all. In fact it’s in everyone’s best interests if Hoggle moderates his behaviour, but for what little it’s worth my opinion is that outing him will probably have little or no effect at all.
It would be worth making the conference organisers aware, though, that Hoggle manifestly has an axe to grind against other participants including at least one of the invited speakers, and that if the organising committee hasn’t written a policy on suitable behaviour for participants then now would be a good time to devise one.
All the same, there’s no way I would want to socialise with someone like him given the opportunity (despite him possibly being sane and even agreeable on subjects other than feminism) and as I am now aware that his identity is known privately, I would be interested in obtaining that information ahead of next year’s conference. I’m sure some others would want to be similarly forewarned and forearmed, while others might not care. I don’t particularly wish to shun people who obviously have some common interests, but life is too short to spend it with obnoxious anti-social arseholes.
Philip:
I haven’t said one fucking word about restricting Hoggle from GAC, nor have any of the other women discussing this situation. You and Rorschach are making some unwarranted assumptions here. The discussion was about outing him, extending from the post and discussion at Almost Diamonds, so that people would be aware of who he is while at GAC.
There are women who may not now show at GAC because of Hoggle’s possible attendance. This is an issue in which women are bound to feel differently from you or Rorschach. If you bother to read all my posts about the matter, it bothers me to out someone, however, in the interests of safety, I think it might be best in the case of the upcoming conference. There’s more than one issue at hand, which I have discussed supra.
It’s really rather stupid to talk about atheists being more welcoming to women and not being willing to confront a problem which makes women feel unsafe and unwelcome.
Has hoggle actually said he’s going to GAC2012?
Ophelia was the one to mention him attending GAC 2012
I don’t think I was making any unwarranted assumptions, Caine. Unwarranted as defined by who, anyway ? I just stated my opinion that there is no grounds yet to warn the GAC organisers about “Hoggle”. Kylie Sturgess seems some kind of friend of bluharmony, and she’s going to be a presenter there, should we warn the organisers about that too ? I don’t think so, I just think that whole concept is a very slippery slope.
As to outing him, PZ has that info, who for the purposes of the GAC is the guy we will most likely be hanging out with, so if there are any transgressions, they can swiftly be dealt with.
I do understand the concerns of Alethea, but I do think that right now they are unfounded.
Caine, if I’m not mistaken pelamun suggested it at #198 upthread.
So what’s your opinion about this?
http://freethoughtblogs.com/almostdiamonds/2011/11/02/elevatorgate-challenge-4/#comment-10377
Good morning
Nerd
All the best for your mum
Esteleth
Three cheers for your job-offer
Concerning Hoggle
Maybe the middle-way is working with the organizers of the conference to make sure he doesn’t turn up there, since that seems to be the biggest concern at the moment.
Caine
Interesting how different the animals are. Rabbits have those crazy weak hearts, so they have an increased surgery risk. If you have a male and a female, it’s better to have the male neutered because that’s easier and has a lower risk. Although them getting fat is a problem, too.
OK, ours could do with a few hundred grams, since they were very lean and need a bit of insulation for the winter.
chigau
Wow, even I had more munchkins calling. And I can always feed the stuff to my own munchkins :)
I made sure to buy stuff I don’t like myself
That is one splendid talk! Very much enjoyed it.
THIS:
“It’s social policies led by religious conservatives who want to claim the MANTLE OF GOD in order to deny civil rights to our fellow citizens”…
PRECISELY AND WELL SAID!
I also love the way the lighting casts the shadow of your glasses, painting an extra warrior countenance upon your usual indominable visage.
pelamun, re: #220
People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones?
As I said on Almost Diamonds, I’m not entirely sure that I want to know who he his, but I do want GAC to know, and I want there to be a firm statement from them that harassment is unacceptable..
But hey, I have bees! Bees are cool!
pelamun
I’d say that Phil earnes every single molecule of the porcupine he was so kindly presented with.
He didn’t come across as stupid when he was here, he even almost seemed to “get it”, so I can only assume he lies when he says that the Slimepit crew make “good, rational discussions” (I doubt they could keep up a rational discussion on the subject of 2+2=4).
And he tries to flatter the posters there, only that it’s probably not going to fly.
In short, he enjoys the company on misogynists and rape-apologists, of people who threaten and then cry “I’m a martyr” when called out on it. That tells more about Phil than anything else.
The platypus has venomous spurs…making it more interesting than the echidna.
— — — — — — — — — — — — —
The Laughing Coyote (Papio Cynocephalus):
“Gibsons BC wasn’t exactly an island, but you had to take a ferry to get out of it if you wanted to visit Vancouver”
In Neal Stephenson’s “Reamde” he mentions the long north-south lakes caused by glacier erosion, making ferries a necessary evil for East-West travel (but those lakes are apparently great for dumping bodies). Is the geology near Gibson similar?
North Scandinavia has similar landforms, but the lakes do not extend to the main traffic conduit along the sea shore (except in Norway, where the “lakes” become “fjords”).
It must be frustrating for the indians along the border to have their neighbourhood sliced apart by a laser-straight border that makes no concessions for terrain or existing communities. The Man is practically asking the pissed-off locals to smuggle stuff when the border is so clearly arbitrary.
Something completely different (almost):
I never made it to show pics of the self-rescuing princess shirt, so here you are
Alethea,
we will all be there and with you, PZ will be there, and the Bride of Shrek will be there. Should Hoggle try to pull any stunts, I hope god will have mercy on him, because the BoS won’t. She’ll get his ass hauled into a holding cell faster than he can say masturbation. I am not concerned at all that a tight-knit community like ours will have any trouble dealing with the slimy likes of Hoggle. But that guy has not met the BoS yet, and I’d actually like to see what would happen should he ever upset her, or her friends who are in possession of his personal identifying information for that matter. Looking forward to the GAC.
Thank you. That is kindly said, and I do appreciate it.
But to be clear, I’m not really personally worried. I’m no easily-cowed young thing any more. I’m more concerned about the general atmosphere, which is why I’d like the organisers to be very clear as to what is and is not acceptable behaviour.
The organisers, now that’s a different story. I would hope they could and would issue some guidelines wrt this, but to be honest, I won’t be holding my breath. Most of them, as far as I can see, are like 12-year olds giddy about having secured the 4 horsemen for the event.
Yum yum blueberry muffin. ^^
Anyone who has any interest in whisky, history and/or explorers should read this. Though I’m not sure the author is consistent in his use of “whiskey” and “whisky”.
Pretty interesting. Watched something on it last night.
Makes me want to get a bottle to try it if only for the experience.
232 comments for one post. Apparently this is a popular blog.
Near the beginning of the video PZ talked about the Christian reaction to atheist billboards — “And how the other side is clearly discomfited by the simple fact of our existence.”
Perhaps some very young brainwashed children who have never met an atheist might think “This is interesting because I thought everyone believed in Jeebus. I’m going to google atheists and find out what’s going on.”
Maybe the atheist ads are saving victims of religious indoctrination from a lifetime of stupidity.
Woo-hoooo
*doing a little happy dance*
The Playmobil I bought for the kids on Ebay just arrived.
A complete farm, bazillions of animals, a boat and all in god condition.
And all together for 30 bucks.
Christmas can come (yep, in November. In December everybody remembers to buy used toys on Ebay so the prices go up)
One qustion: Is the American Playmobil a white kids’ club, too?
Giliell, over here, with title=”Pft!”>Sinterklaas and all, that game starts earlier. Usually, Sinterklaas gives second hand here as well, but this year we happened upon a couple of good sales. Which doesn’t mean we’re not keeping open for this kind of stuff.
Our sons are more into Lego. Which has all yellow people. But somehow…
NICE SHIRT!
Hm. Link fail, but it still works.
Birger Johansson #226: No. The Sunshine Coast (where Gibsons, Sechelt and Powell River are) is on the mainland, it’s just that it’s separated from the rest of the mainland by a combination of inlets and nigh-impassable mountains. The only way is by ferry, either from Horseshoe Bay (near Vancouver) to Langdale (near Gibsons) or from Comox (on Vancouver Island) to Powell River.
Human Ape:
This is not one post, it’s the 269th incarnation of the Endless Thread. Tradition is that the portcullis gets dropped somewhere between 600 and 800 comments.
There’s some larger threads if you scroll down a bit ;p
http://www.eatliver.com/i.php?n=7955
SQB
*mumble* But buying Lego isn’t fun. Buying Lego isn’t necessary. There’s about a cubic metre of my lego and a cubic metre of MR’s lego.
They have a box of Duplo blocks, but I’m not keen yet on giving the small ones to them. I will take them from the attic once they reach the limits of the big blocks. I also think that the two systems go together well. I love the details of the Playmobil, but they also leave enough room for creativity.
By now I’m just glad to have 48 things to put into their advent calendars and I will have to spend a night figuring out how that farm is put together.
I know a bit about the Sinterklaas tradition. A friend of mine’s partner is Dutch and she usually spends that time with him and his son, so she keeps us well informed about his travels from the Northpole.
“Don’t worry…if anything happens to you we’ll be sure to punish the guy!” isn’t very comforting.
I once picked up some used Legos at a thrift store (about 1,500 pieces for $5.00). There were some good parts in there. Oddly, someone had painted the hands and faces of all the Lego people pink. With tan hair. And blue eyes. I felt bad about it, but I tossed them. With no ceremony.
Giliell: Playmobil is great fun, I had a ton when I was a kid. Not sure about the White Kid Club aspect though.
Not well enough, apparently. Listen, he is a Turkish bishop who resides in Spain with his black slaves. Why is that so difficult for foreigners to understand? :)
I have a love/hate relationship with the whole thing. On the one hand, it’s a nice holiday for the kids, and it’s straightforward greed, instead of Christmas’ peace, love and understan… fuck that, I want my presents.
However, I thoroughly dislike the racial stereotypes displayed by the Zwarte Pieten and my fellow countrypeople’s disability to see that. Look, it’s a basic blackface act, shoe polish black, big red lips, playing dumb. Why is that hard?
Attempts to transform them, like the rainbow Petes from a couple of years ago, ended up nowhere.
I just Stumbled onto Dear Photograph, and I got a brilliant idea. There are two photos I think would be perfect.
This one was taken two years ago, right after my nephew turned 1. I see my nephew (now 3) holding the photo.
This one was taken about a year ago, shortly before my grandmother was diagnosed with cancer. I’d like to get a photo where, beneath the photo, he’s there… but she’s not.
I never heard of playmobil until today. Strange. Guess it’s just something I missed.
Any of you smart people know anything about star jelly/pwdre ser?
Wikipeda tells me
I’m hoping that none of my woo friends read this article. Apparently one of the theories is that it is (Wikipedia agan)
I have enough on my plate already trying to deal with their insane HAARP theories. (It’s an evil plot to cause earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis etc).
I had a Lego set as a kid. I also had an old Erector set. I also had a Fisher-Price town playset and about two dozen little people.
I always had great fun building Lego/Erector buildings for my Fisher-Price people to live in. The Fisher-Price little people would team up with my Polly Pockets to attack the Barbie Horde. ‘Cause Barbie was EVIL.
I still break out the Legos on occasion, at age 45. Boy, who is 21, also still uses Legos — of course, he’s building working model steam locomotives and cars with full suspension and working transmissions, but he’s still playing. He also uses Legos for rough drafts of sculpture and to help position objects when painting on canvas.
I play with legos all the time. I have two boxes of them sitting in my office right now. When my friends come over we all get on the floor and build with legos. But maybe I’m doing college wrong.
I never had legos either. Wasn’t allowed :(
…
That start jelly stuff is gross but it does look like some kind of spawn doesn’t it?
Start Jelly? Uhhh… whatever.
Star Jelly. That would be a great band name, or hell, that would just be a great name.
Spend an entire thread defending affirmative action.
Racists get the praise for not swearing.
Oh, I loved Playmobil when I was a kid! We had lots of it… a castle with a wizard and a wizard’s apprentice, a fire truck with firefighters, a police car, a yellow open-top car, a full set of Victorian furniture…
We had Lego as well, but Playmobil was more fun for me. I liked to make up stories about the people.
Ah, Lego. My friends and I spent our time messing around with parts for the Star Wars ships and other Lego stuff I had. I remember having a wonderful capital ship at one point.
‘Nym change coming on?
I had so many LEGO models when I was a child.
There was one model I remember, lemme see if I can find it…
http://www.oldlego.com/alltoys_show.php3?action=desctec&cat=&prod=6987 <— That one!
Oh my god I love this website it's all like "oh I remember that one, and that one, that one was cool."
I didn’t, so I played with Lego. I never understood the other kids, who actually played stories with it.
I’ve been entertaining exactly this idea for quite some time now – Playmobil is for simulating the world, Lego is for constructing a new one.
Your (plural) thoughts on this?
Either this or this was my first Lego set.
Jesus fuck, and now after the racist tripe there’s some idiot touting some shit about “money is debt, we need to get rid of money, 95% of our money is borrowed from private banks”, which I do not want to touch right now after the racist shit. Most of those claims seem to be tied to the “end the Fed” crap, which is partly why, but…eugh. I wish I knew more about economics x.x;;
Obligatory Lego link
http://www.thebricktestament.com/index.html
*headdesk* John Derbyshire: sexist, racist buffoon.
(I can’t believe some of these people are given a platform, as though they were actual journalists rather than moronic hatemongers. Derbyshire’s screed was published in the National Review.)
@SQB:
Those minifigs are creepy…
In the Lego v. Playmobil debate, count me in the Lego camp.
oh theophontes,
yes, Shenzhen, of course. Though I’ve made some negative personal experience with regard to Shenzhen without ever having been there. Though the prospect of beer and urban planning might help me overcome it…
Walton, I linked to that story two days ago. No one said shit about it.
http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=6984-1 – The first one bought specifically for me, IIRC.
Janine,
watching yesterday’s TRMS today, they did feature a Herman Cain quote that made me shudder, something about him saying that he was always careful about not crossing the boundaries to sexual harassment. Sounded a bit like the MRA debate about what situation constitutes date rape and which doesn’t…
Nerd, best of wishes for your mother’s recovery. Was the jaundice connected to the gall blather thing? I ask because I’m keeping a wary eye on my own gall bother; I’ve been advised that stomach pain + vomiting = get me to an emergency room forthwith (but will/would it be easily distinguishable from a flu? enquiring minds want to know….), but nobody said anything to me about jaundice.
–
Esteleth:
1) wicked chuckles for the parentals’ little “oopsy” and its outcome;
2) *confetti* for the job offer. (“Game full employment”???).
–
Sally Strange, I had a dog named Brownie when I was a kid—the cockerpoo with the thing for rolling in steer manure that I mentioned the other day; and (much) later, home of the largest tick I’ve ever seen in my life. Sucker was about the same diameter as a nickel, and hidden by an incredible mat of woolly hair, or it would’ve been caught and removed long before it could get that big!
My Brownie was definitely not intersexed. Key words: mating tie.
–
If I take a Benadryl (okay, its generic equivalent) in the afternoon, I’m going to have an afternoon nap. No choice. That’s why I try reallyreally hard to save those things for night-time.
–
I too wasn’t allowed. :(
Oooh Benadryl. So exciting.
Many moons ago, when I was an ickle high school senior, I trotted off to do college admission interviews. I encountered something that made me break out in a horrid case of the super-itchy variety of hives. So I took something that called itself “Non-drowsy Benadryl.”
LIES!
I still got into that college, which I think is a miracle. I guess the interviews was willing to overlook the fact that I was stumbling around, staring groggily at random things and saying “…uuuuh” a lot. IIRC, I told this very patient woman all about why cheddar cheese is awesome.
My view, as well.
–
No reason, though, that they can’t be undead, as well.
–
cicely,
technical question: how do you get the LaTeX code working here?
FWIW, I made a post on the original article after following your link (though I didn’t comment on it here)
The most recent Lego set I’ve received or purchased was given to me as a Christmas present by my best friend. He and I spent 8 hours putting it together on a Sunday, with his girlfriend at the time laughing at two grown men sitting on the floor among piles of Legos.
I had it sitting at (or above) my desk at my old job for years. My boss complained at first, but when every single visitor to the department, regardless of sex or function, complimented on it and started up conversations with us, he had to relent.
AR, on your cell culture question… I’m afraid I don’t have much experience with extracted cells, only cancer-based lines, but the more finicky ones quite often like an increase in FBS (usually upping from the usual 10% to 15%). There’s often special media you can use, I know someone trying to maintain reprogrammed stem cells using a (expensive!) bought-in media instead of feeder cells. If you’re still having trouble I can get in touch with a friend who used to extract NK cells and keep them alive for several days during his undergrad project.
Lego v.s. Playmobil… my sister and I had both growing up, but probably had more fun with the lego (we also had Meccano, but that kept on disappearing into my father’s office to make engineering models). There was an amusing incident with the Playmobil; my father went on a business trip when my sister was 4, and was asked the usual question ‘Did you pack the bag yourself’ ‘Yes’, followed by ‘Are you sure, sir?’ as several Playmobil people had suddenly appeared in the scanner! My sister apparently thought they wanted to go to the US too.
chigau, I too have a lot of Halloween left-overs (and why, oh why, did The Husband even buy those little Tootsie Roll things in the first place). We had no — zero — trick-or-treaters. Last year, we had lots, and barely enough goodies to cover the job.
Pro-tip: Kit Kats freeze well. I like ’em best that way. :)
–
(Unless it’s undead. Just sayin’.)
–
Legos!
–
By painstakingly following the Sekret Formyula I copied down on a post it, shortly after the Great Migration.
I don’t understand it; I just parrot it. And my attempt to reproduce it here, just now, failed.
–
Tapeworm?
OH!
Needles
___
Nerd,
Mending is good. Take care of yourself too, worry can be hell on sleep.
___
Esteleth,
Hooray on accidental inclusions of siblings. Parentals need some pressure.
And double yay on job offer. Is it something specific you were looking at or just a hold over?
___
PTI,
Err, about four billion years and a constant influx of energy and minerals?
___
Chigau,
I would eat them all up. Get em in, get em out.
___
Lego me.
___
I am not in favour of restricting access, but I am in favour of outing Hoggle based on his behaviour. Pseudonyms are to protect people who are threatened, not people who are threatening.
Yeah I figured it out.
Not that I’d ever need it
http://polymathprojects.org/how-to-use-latex-in-comments/
I meant Yay
it might come in handy next time though when discussing maths formulas. I’m afraid the LaTeX plugin only works for formulae and the like and doesn’t include the TIPA package used to display complex IPA symbols.
If you want to see one of the lowest forms of comedy, check out the Speaking Of bullying… thread. Eric Hovind brought some toadies with him.
The military bully thread has gone waaaay strange.
Arkady:Thanks, I’ll try upping the FBS (would try a special media but my costs are already sky-high)
DvhorathDhorvath (one day I’ll get the spelling right, promise!),It was a job that I wanted. The PI had told me previously that he would hire me immediately if he had the funding, but he just didn’t.
Yesterday, he called me and said that he just got offered a NIH training grant and asked if I was still interested.
:D :D :D
I don’t own any Legos anymore (they’re in a box somewhere at my parents’ house) but I do have a molecular model kit, which I routinely play with. It’s almost as much fun.
I’m having a 13-year-old moment. LaTeX plugin just sounds really kinky.
Esteleth: Congratulations!
@Carlie (#35)
I have been SO bad; have not posted my pix at all but I have been a busy girl (grins evilly) and also had a laptop crash which messed things up. I’ll try to get them up soon. I also lost the link to the flickr site – can you email it to me? I think you have my email…I don’t have anyone except Jules’ anymore (and Josh’s cause his is easy to remember…)
sorry about the blockquote failure….
Once more, thank you again to all those who offered suggestions for my ill kitty, Emily, who was not eating. We took her into the vet and the blood tests came back with liver disease, not unheard of in cats her age, 18. While my mum and I were mulling over the decision if Em would even let us give her an IV to keep her hydrated, she, out of the blue, went and ate all of the other cats wet food. She’s been nibbling more and more, and while she hasn’t touched her dry food still, shes got a lot more energy and is back to her usual, bitey self.
Jebus what fucking assholes.
NO NO NO we can not ever raise taxes.
read their lips
It still gives me the giggles. Sorry.
Reply to a woman babbling about alternative medicine : “Would you be willing to fly on an alternative airplane?”
I think she was insulted. Hehe.
The circular reasoning Hovind’s minions are employing on the “Speaking of bullying” thread is making my head hurt. I may also be a bit hungover, so maybe they seem less coherent than usual.
Point is: to those who are sharpening their fangs, I offer a clenched tentacle salute! Once I saw “He told us” as the answer over and over, I knew there was no way I jump in with anything but dumbfounded rage.
Setar: Thanks for explaining the sunshine coast for me. Though I lived 11 years there, I never could think of a good explanation for why you have to take the ferry.
‘Twas a spooky messed up little town. Stephen King had the movie version of Needful Things filmed there for a reason.
I’m gonna avoid the Hovind zombies. I’ve done my tours of duty fighting against creationists/religionists (Alan Clarke was nothing if not persistent). After a while it’s all the same, since they only ever use a handful of arguments. I’ve half serious when I say we can make a bot to debate them.
This is the best song ever!
WWJD by Axis of Awesome
When I was smaller, I had an appendix. One day it started hurting.
The next day I had this instead:
http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=952-1
Herman Cain is being Herman Cain again (and I blogged about it (yay!)).
I was expecting a lego detailed appendix. Oh well.
Ooh! Apparently I do like Leonard Cohen (h/t PK). Who knew?
Remains Of Ancient Race Of Job Creators Found In Rust Belt
Yeah, links. That’s all I got. Sorry.
When I was in 3rd grade, I had my appendix removed, and I got this. Also this.
I didn’t have my appendix removed :( I missed out on awesome LEGO toys
This has absolutely nothing to do with LEGOs, but I thought it was a worthwhile read:
http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2011/11/04/threat-of-the-day/
Trigger warning on that one, Jill posted a bunch of disturbing messages she’s received.
I hope threats do get posted on Twitter so these idiots become very well-known and very poorly received no matter where they go.
On a happier note, hurray for LEGOs! I want a LEGO Millennium Falcon for my birthday!
PZ
Aha! (Said in Alan Partridge voice)
That explains everything. Now we know where the soul resides.
I still have an appendix, but it isn’t much fun to play with.
Oh, yes… alternative airplanes.
(Well, they make as much sense as “alternative medicine”. And are grounded in equally up-to-date science.)
PZ: according to that weird guy who sent you an email a few weeks ago about magical immortality organs, you can’t be immortal anymore since you don’t have an appendix.
Holy crap! I have been too busy to notice, but apparently we have unblocked youtube at work!
My brother, on the other hand, had nothing removed (although he did break his arm (eewww, bendy!)), but still got Stretch Armstrong. (Features cephalopods, weird contortions, and 70s hairstyles.)
I still can’t work out whether the 70s were brilliant or rubbish.
This is bizarre. I’m finding it impossible to post something with a (particular?) link and I can’t see why. Let’s try again without the link.
I’m too old to have had Lego as a child. We had Minibrix instead.
Much better than Lego. They were made of rubber, which meant that you didn’t cripple yourself when, inevitably, you stood on one while barefoot.
ringtailedlemurian: I’ve been lego impaired several times, so I can see the value of rubber bricks.
We never had Legos or the other types (erector sets, &c) but I did have Lincoln Logs, clay, building blocks, Army Men, and models I would buy but always create something the mfg’s never thought of.
I didn’t like the structured nature of some toys.
Oh, and there were battles, many many battles. I also played with (not kidding) C*ke bottles and P*psi bottles filled with dust as rocket propellant and would launch ships to the moon, Alice.
Yes, I played with dirt. The fewer materials you have the more you use your imagination. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.
A.R – That’s not the only advantage of rubber bricks.
The boy next door and I used to have “battles” where we would each attack each other’s buildings with catapults* (firing marbles) without smashing the blocks to pieces as would have happened with Lego. And you can bounce them round the house without worrying about breaking windows.
* mostly. Sometimes we used pellet guns (BB guns, I think they are called in the US, if I remember the adverts in Harvey Comics correctly).
ringtailedlemurian: I like the idea of catapult attack…
The Sailor
I’m an archeologist.
I still play with dirt.
Rollins Band – Civilized
A tone troll theme song. Yeah.
dirt is one of the best toys. Even George Carlin agrees (there’s a youtube video to that affect somewhere, but I can’t seem to find it right now)
ringtailedlemurian, “pellet guns” have a bullet shaped projectile. “BB guns” have a spherical shaped projectile.
We weren’t allowed either because my Dad thought we wouldn’t take guns seriously. I could shoot the 16 gage shotgun, or the .22, .30 aught 6 rifles, but no playing with guns.
I think he was right.
It didn’t stop us from having dirt clod, rock, and roman candle fights. We waz a wild bunch.
Catapults were also fun w/ Lincoln Logs. Forts are surprisingly resilient, but arcing one over the walls and knocking down the green army men? Priceless.
Speaking of trebuchets, where is blf!!!!?
Lincoln Logs, now there’s a memory. Think I had my last set at about ten or so, our Irish Setters (and the puppies)eventually used them as chewy toys.
sandiseattle: I’ve still got mine somewhere, and they were my mums!
btw, when did the time zone change on the comments? what is it now like Ireland time or something?
sandi: It’s UTC now.
Two or three months ago. It is Universal Time that is displayed.
A R
way cool. It was usually my mom who played with me when we had the LLs. I’m so waiting for the time my kid(s) are old enuf to play with such toys and learn from them.
@Nerd
Thanks, that explains the 7hr diff for me. Seattle is UTC-8.
Glen Davidson on the ZOMBIE thread: “Once they accept the premise that only God can provide a capacity for knowledge, they have no escape. They can only circle round and round in their little aquaria, condescending to all of those sad folk outside who know none of their watery truths.”
Well, that would explain a lot. sandi’s comment reminded me of that.
(I had 3 other previous replies I wrote, but they involved porcupines, decay and nether orifices. I’m taking the high road tonight.)
The Sailor
Sounds exactly like the kind of extremely dangerous things we used to do as children (but would horrify me if my children had ever done anything like that).
We used save our pocket money until we had a pound each and go and buy 240 (a penny each) giant squibs called Thunderflashes every Bonfire/Guy Fawkes/Fireworks Night (Nov 5th).
Then about twenty or more of us would chase each other around the neighbourhood throwing them at anyone in range. Amazingly, no one was ever injured at all.
We also used to put them in the US-style mail boxes on poles that some people had at the end of their drives (we white folks all had huge gardens out in the Empire) and enjoy watching the flaps blow off.
Ah, happy days :)
sandiseattle: Yeah, those are the good toys, that is, the ones that actually teach.
okay, credit where credit is due. Thank you A R and Nerd for the UTC info. (didn’t mean to leave ya out A R just that I saw and responded to Nerd first.)
And that brings this thot: is there such a thing as ‘debit where debit is due”?
sounds like a set up for an accountant joke.
I still am waiting for a better image of PZ’s atheist bus ads.
…
What? I live in somewhat of a fundie hell, I’d at least like to test how much of a fundie hell it is…
So, Sandi, care to explain your rape apologia one of these days?
———————-
In other news, seems as if Chloe Sevigny is going to be playing a trans woman who is an assassin in a new series. It’s called “Hit and Miss,” and it’ll be on DirecTV.
The article is full of transphobic fail, but then apparently so is the press release:
Blargh. No to mention the fact that they should get an actual trans woman, or at least a male-bodied person, to accurately portray a trans woman. I mean, I love Chloe Sevigny, she’s a wonderful actress and I’m sure she’ll do her best, but this is rather insulting.
For one second I thought, Oh great! A TV show featuring a trans woman character, that’ll be good. Now I’m thinking the world would be better off without it.
Sally: You know TV always has to misrepresent every real world concept, right? :)
Oh FFS, what utter idiocy. I see they can’t quite manage to get a pre-op trans actor. No, of course not. You also don’t acquire “maternal instincts”. You either have paternal/maternal feelings or you don’t. I’ve had female type hormones all my life and have zero “maternal instinct”. What a load of crap.
What??? You mean genetic profiling takes longer than 15 minutes???? *Swoon* ;)
I have a cold.
So I’m sitting in a tub of HOT water with a big glass of rum while I watch PZ’s video.
Unless there is some discussion of silencing crying babies this is a load of bullshit. Maternal instincts my ass. Motherhood specifically and parenthood in general do not come easily, there isn’t some magic door in our brains that just opens up and makes us good at these tasks. This needs to stop.
Yeabutlike, Chloe Sevigny kinda has a chin.
And, as we all know, it takes MAternal instincts to be protective of a child.
I noticed also that the article says that Sevigny played Brandon Teena in Boys Don’t Cry. She didn’t. Hilary Swank did. Hilary Swank DOES have a chin. Sevigny played Lana, Brandon’s crush/girlfriend.
People’s brains go right out the door when you start talking about this stuff.
Some asshole on the NYTimes website responded to the criticism that they should have a transsexual actor playing a transsexual character with the following gem of wisdom: “Hey, that’s why it’s called acting!”
Sure, sure. That’s why people of color have NOTHING to complain about when white actors put on blackface and play Asian or African-American characters. It’s ACTING!
Nerd: If only it was that fast…
Yup, agree with Caine, I don’t have those maternal/paternal feelings.
When people do actual research instead of anecdata, a lot of people don’t.
If anyone still cares, the Q&A Session from the Coyne-Haught debate is now up.
Listening to it now and it’s hard to get through Haught’s babbling. He’s definitely much more on the offensive after Coyne’s presentation though.
Lego. Also Capsela.
Hey, wow. I went to Racebending.com to send them a heads up about “Hit and Miss” and guess what I found!
A new graphic novel series called “The Deep” which is all about a multi-ethnic family who spend their days exploring the ocean in their own submarine! They have TENTACLES on their uniforms!
This looks so awesome. Also, there’s a new graphic Avatar: the Last Airbender graphic novel series coming out, detailing the adventures of Aang and his friends after the ending of the cartoon series.
Yip skip hurray! I know what I’m putting on my Christmas list.
That Dearphotograph site (cf. Mr Geiger) is pretty cool. I like the pictures with trees.
I fail to see how maternal instincts can not be synonymous with “killer instincts” anyway.
In fact, I kind of associate maternal instincts with fucking deadly attack potential, but maybe that comes from raising animals.
Algernon: kudos
(we so need a like button here)
Algernon: I’m thinking bears
Not the Mama Grizzlies, surely? “Because moms kinda just know when something’s wrong.”
(Warning: Sarah Palin video. Concentrated stupidity may cause brain-damage.)
Frankly, I would not be terribly surprised if Palin went on a killing spree.
fuck like buttons
—
The PZ video had really bad production values
(I would like to have seen PZ’s slides)
(also PZ is extremely funny-looking)
but it did confirm for me that next time it is remotely possible I will do everything in my power to go where PZ is participating.
(as long as it is not in the USA.)
(maybe Hawaii)
Yeah, weeks, and what we call bunny suits with SAR required to prevent contamination. Doesn’t make for a good story though.
Nerd: Imagine having to sequence RNA in a level 4 suit like I did a few months ago… (thankfully, we were only doing a single ORF)
This is why I’m no longer allowed to watch CSI-type shows around the spouse. The final straw was one show where they placed a carpet fiber in a GC vial and determined within seconds the manufacturer and date of manufacture. Conveniently cross-referenced via a single button click to a database of of customers who bought that particular lot of carpet.
Gwarrrr. I am getting so damn tired of the “let’s get rid of money” utopianism on Occupy Vancouver.
Can someone please give me a start point for refuting that sort of economic ignorance?
@ Setar
Unfortunately, a lot of the Occupy groups have been taken over by complete airheads. My local group is no exception. Please don’t judge us all based on their stupidity and ignorance.
Jessa: That’s new. wasn’t aware that the GC-MS was a magic black box.
But it only takes six pixels to make a face identification, right? Right?
It’s worse than that. Their GC didn’t even have an MS. Yet they somehow produced a mass spectrum.
Increasingly-worrisomely missing. I fear the worst.
I think the Horses got him.
–
cicley: Wow.
cicely (waaay up thread)
re freezing kitkats
Twice a year I buy a case of Girl Guide Cookies.
(for community support. and I like them)
Except for the first 2 boxes they go in the freezer.
Sometimes the freezer-box lasts to the next purchase event.
The SO thinks they stink but I LIKE THEM.
Dhorvath:
Sorry to burst your bubble. It takes eight pixels.
Escher, in Lego: http://www.andrewlipson.com/escher/relativity.html
I’m warning you, I’m doing this until I fall asl[‘aop0oswr8gv\ih
Bumper sticker I saw tonight: “guns don’t kill people … oh, wait, yes they do”
+++++++++++++++
Speaking of childhood mammaries, does anyone else remember the gunny sack? The bushel basket? The peck?
Now get off my lawn.
Jessa,
Eight? Eight? I am crushed.
Silly Dhorvath, it’s six pixels that they:
1) Apply magnification
2) Do super resolution to a single frame
3) ?
4) Profit! (AKA guilty!)
Don’t forget the three-second PCR!
The Sailor
I am old enough to know what is a bushel and a peck.
“gunny sack” no.
You mean like this?
Duh! You can also “enhance” reflections in the images, zoom in to the molecular level and create a COMPLETE 3D recreation from a photograph.
Now that is impressive. The quadrapoles are much smaller than they used to be, but still. I’m reminded of an old Drew Carey show that had a bunch of Mac Cubes on a table. All the parts of three or so computers in a pile in a working office…
I presume those are what we call “moon suits” at our potent facility. Full plastic suits with SAR.
FA,
yes, but that’s in some bizarre world where quirky scientists make eyeballs in curbside shops. I just assumed the print contained more information than our current tech allows.
Nerd: Yeah, these: http://hrsbstaff.ednet.ns.ca/dsmaggus/f67a78e7c9b841299c1d939a447ef698-8.jpg. Does your facility do work with ebolaviruses?
The gunny sack was a burlap bag of about the interior volume of a duffel bag.
Yes, yes and yes.
Hmmph, wha?
Bushels are a perfectly cromulent unit in this modern, modern world.
And Gunny Sax was a line of clothing. I had many of their long dresses way back when.
Heh, I’ll have to steal the term ‘bunny suit’ for our Cat3 gear ;-) Tho that doesn’t stop me being jealous of competitors in the US who only have to work at BSL2 with the same sodding viruses…. Looks like I’ll have to move abroad if I want to do any Cat4 work tho, as far as I know the only Cat4s in the UK are run by the Health Protection Agency and that’s being severely messed around with cutbacks and reorganisations
Yes to all three. Does that mean that I can continue to ruin your lawn?
The Sailor
how many gunny and/or burlaps and/or duffels in a litre?
That old dress line is still very much alive in the form of Jessica McClintock’s empire.
I used to seriously love those old prairie romance style dresses.
Nope, just some pharmaceuticals with OEL (occupational exposure limit) in sub milligrams/8 hr day.
Erm, Gunne Sax.
chigau, about 40 liters can be fit into a gunny sack. But you couldn’t carry it.
Algernon:
Yeah, me too. I wish I still had mine. Vintage Gunne Sax commands some money these days. I wore long dresses to death though, still do. I love long dresses.
I just did my kids’ official portfolio review with our local public school administration. Yes, I have been a criminal, flying under the radar for lo these many years. It’s pretty common – until this year, there was ONE PERSON responsible for 3000 homeschooled kids in the county. But now I need a form signed so the Spawns can get learners permits, so I did the review.
Let me just say that I think that the Rhinebeck meetup and having DDMFM visit was way more of a useful homeschooling review. In the official review, I got asked the following questions: “So what did you do for language arts?” “Well, here’s a list of 40 fiction and nonfiction books Spawn A read, and here’s a writing sample.” “Yes, but what did you do for language arts?” After a couple iterations of this, I finally asked “What exactly do you mean by language arts?” “Well, like a textbook. With sentence diagrams.”
Then there was the review of SonSpawn’s geology merit badge project, which the camp staff actually kept to use as a lesson plan. “Wow, he uses some really big words. [flips back to the photographs of the West Virginia Devonian brachiopods] “I wonder why scientists say they know how old those things are.” I explain radiometric dating. “It’s weird that you found those in West Virginia – that’s nowhere near the ocean.”
Seriously, this moron ignored the fact that my dyslexic kid reads (well, listens to) Richard Dawkins, William Manchester, Jerry Coyne, and George Orwell and focused on SENTENCE DIAGRAMS. And she went off on how she needed more evidence that DaughterSpawn does science – the 6 weeks of TEACHING ecology merit badges at summer camp, the 500 hours of volunteering at a nature center, and the long long reading list of Zimmer, Dawkins, Judson, Coyne, et al. WAS NOT ENOUGH. What the reviewer wanted was a filled out multiple choice worksheets. (Somehow I suspect that if I’d showed up with a lot of A Beka or Apologia science crap (with the obligatory drill-and-kill worksheets) I would have had an easier time.)
Guess it’s not so surprising that this is the same school district that educated my young-earth-creationist nature educator coworker for 13 years, although how her delusions survived a BS in wildlife biology at a reputable public university is beyond me.
Anyway, soon my Spawns will be able to drive, which will simultaneously free up a lot of my time AND make me horridly anxious.
Nerd: Sounds like you and I are in a similar line of work.
Great Big Sea is a Canadian band.
They are very good.
go Google. go youtube.
Nerd: That sounds fun (and toxic!)
Arkady: We’ve got several great BSL-4 facilities here, both governmental and non. What viruses do you do work with? (in case you can’t tell, I’m an advanced virology student with a filovirus specialty)
should have specified, I’m in the US
I’m a process chemist, with some of my work in potent compounds.
I watched that debate yesterday, and was increasingly irritated by Coyne’s not so subtle “I think I’m winning” giggling.
Also, the fact that Stephanie Zvan bans Chas because he dared to remark that Laden is a hypocrite for saying in all seriousness that he’s not in the business of outing people (I paraphrase), has reminded me why I stayed away from those two’s blogs for the last couple of years. Time to do that again.
Mattir:
That really sucks. FWIW, having met your Spawn, I have to say that they are truly fantastic and smart individuals. If there’s any way I can help, don’t hesitate to ask.
Damn. I was trying to give Stephanie another chance at reading her (after the Hoggle stuff came up here), but I guess not. I’m sorry you got that shit, Chas.
Gunny sacks, Gunne Sax, bushels, pecks.
A bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck
Yep, I remember all these things.
I do drug product and API testing, mostly focused on impurity identification. The bulk of my recent work has been with a Cat 5 compound.
By the way, for those of you in the US interested in the “In God We Trust” reaffirmation resolution in Congress, Lawmakers voting against “In God We Trust” include Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-NY), Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich), Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA), Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO), Rep. Mike Honda (D-CA), Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA), Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA), and Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA). Voting present were Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) and Rep. Melvin Watt (D-NC). I envy those of you with these Reps.
Mattir
This caused me to do an actual meat-space face-slap.
Remind me. Why do you need to do this?
Can’t you just teach them?
Real quick before I head off to bed: Two of Boy’s <a href="http://iambilly.wordpress.com/2009/06/02/bored-college-student-plus-lego-bricks-equals-strange-creativity/"creations with Legos.
G’night.
Whose category? The safety consultants we use goes from 1-4.
@A.R, I work with HepC at the moment, our Cat3 is also licenced for HIV but no-one’s currently working with it (a lot of the UK BSL regs seem to be stricter than the US, Dengue, HIV, HepB and C are all Cat3; SARS and H5N1 are Cat4, or at least only Porton Down works with them). All the palaver does seem a little silly when the HepC infectious system is so pathetic that you’d pretty much have to inject it directly into your liver to get it, but them’s the rules.
I know of CDC Atlanta and the Cat4 facility in Galveston, any others you’d suggest? I’ve another year to go on the PhD (uni has very strict time limits, I have to submit by sept 2012 or I fail) so am vaguely considering job prospects at this point
Representative Ellison also happens to be one of the few Muslim members of congress. His district is Minneapolis.
Don’t be too envious, MN has also cursed the nation with the reprehensible Michelle Bachmann.
Great Big Sea is a good band.
At our place, sounds like what we call MD&V. But then, I make the impurities for conformation as one of the myriad of hats I wear.
Maybe the same company that makes Spinal Tap’s amps also does our company’s compound safety categorization? Not sure. I just wear the PPE that the EHS officer tells me to.
StarStuff #360:
I was not and have no idea how you read that into my post given that I specified Occupy Vancouver and was simply asking for help rebutting =/
Furthermore, I should note that based on my experience Occupy Vancouver is the media’s poster boy. Worse yet, a homeless addict ODed there this morning — had he done so in the Downtown Eastside he would have died and not a single fuck would have been given, but because it was at Occupy OMG!! JUNKIES!!!! SO NASTY!!!!!!! — with the major news outlets (most of which are owned by a) Postmedia Corp which owns the National Post, Conrad Black ran that before he ran afoul of US law or b) Jim Pattison who is the richest most privileged asshole in the province) paying no heed to the fact that the medics at Occupy, and the mere fact that he ODed at Occupy rather than in an alley, saved the addict’s life.
And there are even some concern trolls on the FB group who struck up in force calling for OV to ‘pack up and go somewhere else in the city’, because, um, the protest isn’t doing anything here blah blah party line NO I’M NOT PARROTING THE MSM PARTY LINE YOU EVIL EVIL RATIONAL PERSON!
But fuck. The economic ignorance. Would that I only had good sources to refute the Paulbots and postmonetarian utopianists…
Minnesota is even futher from the ocean, but I’ve found lots of brachipod fossils. (Mid-Cambrian to Ordovician)
Economics, economics, a kingdom for a sufficient understanding of economics. Tone and concern trolling I can deal with but I still know precious precious little about econ and barely know where to start.
Mattir – ugh. How did that person get their job, again???
Nerd, glad your mom is ok.
I did this particular review just so that the kids could get their learners’ permits. And since our state’s mandatory education requirement stops at 16, I won’t have to do any after the one for this semester, unless doing them helps with auto insurance rates. And if it does, I’m going to concoct some drill and kill nonsense for the administrator and let the Horde conduct my real homeschooling reviews at our various in vivo experiences.
I forgot to mention that there was some considerable confusion as to what, precisely, human geography was and whether it should be listed under “social studies.” I just got the feeling that real education was so far outside of the realm of what this person had ever experienced that were basically from different planets.
Your kids’ education sounds awesome, Mattir. Helluva lot better than the abstinence-only, evolution-denying, openly-racist public school I attended.
Glad to hear the Spawn are doing so well. :)
Nerd, I’m happy to hear that your mom’s recovering.
Jerry Coyne:
QFT!
I like the shirt. PZ was wearing a hawaiian shirt in a dream I had about him once.
Mattir – I, the former SS teacher, just actually facepalmed at that. FFS, yes, human geography is Social Studies. And if you need my happily formerly credentialed teacher ass to do anything, let me know.
Tethys #409:
In-fucking-deed.
Oh, fuck that noise. Well, I tried to be open-minded and gave her a chance, but I see little has changed.
Chas, I’m sorry that happened. From where I sit, you had every right to post what you did, and it was pertinent to the topic.
Yep, as part of my job SS, the banned troll. Amongst other activities, which would give you the creeps due to the danger involved…
PZ Myers@304, A friend of mind had both of those, Dracula and the Mummy too, as I recall. Good times, man, good times.
PZ, cleanup on aisle 7, please. SS is back and threatening to bore us all to death.
Caol Ila is my new favorite thing.
It goes well with Dave Holland in the headphones.
@ Pelamun
Well worth the trip if you are in the area. Also take in Hong Kong, Macao and Guanzhou. They are all growing into a megalopolis.
What you might not know is Le Corbusier did a huge masterplan for Algiers (that was never built.) Linky. And you must have run into Chandigarh (India) at some stage. More Linky. Corbie (“The Crow” aka Charles-Édouard Jeanneret), for all his contributions to architecture, was a real RWA/MCP/MRA idjit.
@ Setar
I would like to recommend Liaquat Ahamed’s new book:”Lords of Finance”. Highly readable, it goes into the history of the fed which is still (especially now) very relevant.
Yo Yo Pa and Mac are both low grade idiots.
And I see a toxic idiot is in this thread.
Is Slanted Science crabby because his football glory days are behind him?
SS
1) Drop dead and stop sucking my oxygen.
2) You are neither cute nor funny.
3) I mean it about 1).
The Sailor@369, Ah, childhood mammaries.
PZ Myers@304, I also vaguely remember a “Creature from the Black Lagoon”.
JESUS FUCK!!!!
Texas Mom Slams Scenes of Abortion and Suicide at Church’s Haunted House Attraction
oK, I read up to comment 149, but i have to go to bed. If the question of Hoggle hasn’t been resolved, I have a suggestion: tell the organizers who he is. They can declare him persona non grata based on threats uttered, and either refund his ticket if he has one or refuse to sell him one. How’s that?
My computer hasn’t been working all day as it fried its power supply last night, but via Skype the SO helped me to find all the pieces of the spare.
G’night, all!
PZ Myers@304, Ray, rude-ass yankee @245: My best friend in grade school had & built (what I think was) the whole Aurora monster set. What a cool friend. He still is.
Nerd, glad to hear your mother is recovering.
Esteleth, congratulations on the job offer!
Pelamun,
Ouch! (Dengue by itself is so painful it used to be called breakbone fever, as I’m sure everyone here knows.)
Good night again.
First Approximation@435, From the news story:
That would only convince me what a bunch of sick fucks they are (if I didn’t know already).
First Approximation (*waves*), that is truly disgusting. If anyone thought churches had any legitimacy for any reason, those people have just disproved it.
… It’s only a matter of time before the Harper Conservatives start funding them as “community outreach” in Canada.
Well, that’s it for me. I’m off to sleep. To sleep, perchance to dream.
G’night All.
Guys, I love these godbots! They are so funny! And they really are like robots. Compared to the misogynist dudes, who can at least usually string sentences together in ways that make some sense, they are so quaint and ineffectual. I really think the whole religion thing is a cinch compared to sexism and misogyny. I mean, if the quality of trolls is anything to go by.
Of course, the misogynist dudes tend to have much more satisfying meltdowns.
SlantedScience: So I take it the answer is yes?
What’s with this Granted Science fellow? Why is he such a boring troll? I’ve seen more creative and entertaining trolls on my 12 year old cousin’s facebook page.
OMG. Thread Bankrupt. But. .
Oh my fuck. The zombie invasion is nigh on unbelievable. I spend five hours putting up shelving and making curry paste and Pho Ga, and I come back to Eric Hovind’s Special (Ed) Friends copy-pastaing all over Pharyngula?
slant
pathetic
Liar, liar, Jesus on fire. There was zero horror in my abortion. It was easy and over quickly.
Every time he thinks he’s out, WE KEEP PULLING HIM BACK IN.
Apparently he couldn’t get a job running a HPLC machine.
Granted Science is probably a sockpuppet of the banned troll slanted science. He is a very boring grade of troll, similar to a dead tape worm. *flush*
Hi Josh, nice to see you around again lately.
The words curry paste, and Pho Ga are making my belly growl.
Did you know that plate tectonics can’t make fossils, because all fossils form at the bottom of the ocean, so the flood is real?!
A zombie told me so!
Heya Tethys,
Good to be back around, thank you kindly!
This is all so fucking stupid I’m not going to read any of the Special Ed threads. Honestly. What I’ve seen so far is so fucking dumb and common there’s not even any joy to be had scoffing. It’s like some flea-bitten stray finding its way into the house and fucking up the one nice room you have after a long day of toiling away at your flea-infested job. I mean, really. Even here?
Pity.
slanty
you are a waste of space
Hey Slanty, Caine and Starstuff didn’t say your name. Bad troll, bad!
Arkady: Sorry to take so long to get back to you, but yeah, biosaftey is a little less prudish here. HIV is BSL 2 in the US. SARS CoV is still 4 though, and H5N1 is three or four depending on the strain.
With regards to BSL-4 labs, the Fort Detrick Lab complex, Galveston and CDC Atlanta are by far the best in terms of Virology, but NEIDL, NIAD, and Texas Biomed are pretty good too.
I think these labs have BSL-4 capability too.
University of Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory
Georgia State University
National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratory (NEIDL)
Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine
NIAID Rocky Mountain Laboratories
Shope Laboratory
Texas Biomedical Research Institute
Division of Consolidated Laboratory Services
National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF)
Kent State University, Kent Campus
Slanty’s all talk. No need to worry.
SS: Please leave, or, alternatively, insert a decaying African crested porcupine and three decaying echidnas in your orifice of choice sideways.
I have an ecology lab field trip at 8 am tomorrow, but I can’t sleep. I’ll just quit trying and watch more Star Trek!
No, just holding you to your promise: “Stop mentioning me and I will not be drawn back to your tiresome hole of circle jerking.” Now if you couldn’t find your own circle jerk on a Friday night, then that’s unfortunate, but it’s still rather rude to crash another one.
So.
We hafta put up with slanty until PZ is awake(question mark)
(somrthing wrong with my keyboard)
chigau: Yeah, he needs a red troll alert phone… Until then, Killswitch activated!
Why do you lot bother with slanty or any of them?
SS: Thanks for a new suggestion for the MRAs. Otherwise, I advise you to contract Ebola. (damn, need to fix my killfile)
Because Slanty needs us.
O Great and Wise Tentacled One… I call upon thine mighty power to smite the troll Slanted Science and cast him once more into the dungeon. (with an IP block, if possible)
I’m supposed to believe that NerdofRedhead running an HPLC machine is sadder than that? Wow.
Haha, why? Do you really have nothing better to do than come be boring at us and anyone else who mentions you?
Until now, people who have called me a fucking idiot have done so to my face.
I like new things.
Pathetic.
Thank FSM, my killfile started working!
You-tube tangent. I didn’t know I was familiar with The Irish Rovers, until the song reached the chorus and I recognized it from a childhood album.
The Unicorn
Which led me to this hilarious gem from Peter, Paul, and Mary
Blue
Tethys: Thanks for the links!
Hey, I’ve got an excuse. I can’t sleep, so the internet (and Star Trek) entertains me. What’s your excuse?
Also, I’m not the one who’s all in a huff over people talking behind my back on the internet. You are.
StarStuff: TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY, or ENT? (sorry if you mentioned earlier)
@ A. R
I’m watching TNG right now. I’ve seen all of Voyager a bunch of times already. I’ve decided to watch all of the other Star Treks as well, so I started watching TNG from the beginning. I’m on season 4 now.
Slanty
I will be in Tokyo next June.
I haven’t watched Stark Trek in awhile, but TNG is great, especially the Borg episodes. (I started watching on Voyager too)
Yet another day of texting by proxy.
Star Trek
I’m more of a DS9 fan. I tried watching the first episodes of Voyager, but didn’t like it too much. Does it get better? Or should I finish watching the last two seasons of ENT?
theophontes
Ah yes, Le Corbusier. Didn’t he also have his hands in the design of Brasilia? I find designed capitals fascinating. DC, Canberra, Brasilia, Naypyidaw. Chandigarh sounds very interesting (also it is a union territory and at the same time the capital of two neighbouring states. This is even more bizarre than the government of Tokelau residing in Samoa. I have a thing for administrative factoids like that. Will throw this to next Indian person I meet)
Hong Kong was the most favourite Asian city of both my father and stepfather, so I’m no stranger to its mystique. I usually prefer to be able to speak the language of places I travel to, but I might break that rule anyways for HK…
Also, I remembered a piece from a famous architect in Southeast Asia: the Petronas Tower, by Pelli. Not sure if it’s cutting edge design but I have a thing for high buildings.
also, I found the hijinks surrounding Marine Le Pen’s meeting with Ron Paul on Capitol Hill amusing, and at the same time a tad sad. Just as an aside.
“most favourite”, “favouritest”. grmbl…
I never bring you up. Yet your life is so empty that you set a signal that alerts you when someone uses your name? Why the fuck do you care?
I know that there are people who bring me up on a couple of sites. But I do not bother. These people are as worthless as you are. It is hardly worth the time.
Also, fuckface, there was not a death threat. I do not threaten to murder people. I tell them to go die. And that is saved for people who advocate policies that threaten my safety.
I will not do a thing to harm you nor bring about your demise. But if in the morning, you are dead; it would not mean much to me.
Assclam.
Chandigarh is a concrete dump. By far the best thing about it is the crazy, wonderful, secretly-built-in-the-forest-at-night-by-one-man-over-decades Rock Garden.
Having trouble with posting links but these are worth checking out –
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_Garden_of_Chandigarh
http://nekchand.org/public/view_text.php?user_id=4
Sally Strange, OM
Thanks for the tip regarding The Deep. I sense a new household fave coming on.
I am strongly tempted to set up a blog and make a post every day that randomly incorporates the same particular phrase. Such as:
“I really like penne pasta. It’s a fun shape, especially the way the ends of the tubes are slanted. Science tells us that wheat, from which pasta is made, does not fix carbon as malate, despite it being a member of the Poaceae.”
Just moonlighting tonight, I came across this :
I’m not entirely certain how it can happen that someone can a) post something like this in earnest and b) not have the blog he is posting it on erupt in outrage. I just can’t quite parse the mindset. Hoggle is obviously obsessed and quite possibly insane, but Abbie Smith, MK Gray, badger3k and those others ? I just don’t get it.
Or better yet, just start spamming random blogs across the internet with the name.
Thanks, but *shrug*. I wasn’t going back anyway.
Laden is such a smug asshole it just gets my goat sometimes.
I was perhaps a bit belligerent in my follow-up reply to Sergeant Sidekick (doubt it got posted; ain’t going over to look).
However, it did contain a coinage I think deserves to be rescued: I suggested that the blogosphere might be more accurately termed the ‘narcissistosphere‘.
Add windy to that list, sadly.
Didn’t think she would ever take sides with a mob that says something like this :
So classy.
I’m a wiccan? News to me. Also, I don’t know anyone named Barbie.
Is “cuntcresent” like having a bent penis? I don’t quite understand that one.
We’re through the looking glass now.
Yes, Voyager does get a lot better. I like the middle to later seasons better (around4-6). I think I might watch DS9 after I’m finished with TNG. Or maybe I’ll watch the movies that I haven’t seen yet.
Rey:
Whoever the author of that was, I think they were going for cuntrescent, as in putrescent.
HAHAHAHA! (no not because I agree but because I feel like I’m the only one here who is just not surprised.
I think she’s trying to combine the crescent imagery from Wiccanism with the word cunt.
It doesn’t work very well, but then she was never very talented with words.
Nah, just some serious projection.
Algernon:
Oh no, you’re not the only one.
Algernon: I was mildly surprised by the extent, but not the action.
Algernon:
Windy did not write that.
I go to bed and come back to find that we’ve got a new Kw*k and a new defect to the slimepit.
The hell happened last night?
Me too! I’ve always had a geeky interest in the details of subnational governance. Particularly in Commonwealth countries.
And if you’re interested in tiny territories in the Pacific, the weirdest is probably the Pitcairn Islands. It’s a British overseas territory, with a population of only 60 (especially weird given that it’s more-or-less exactly on the opposite side of the planet from Britain). Both the Governor (the official representative of the Queen) and the Commissioner (the administrative head of the government) are non-resident, both being based at the British High Commission in New Zealand. The islands also have their own dialect, called “Pitkern”.
The territory got along without much in the way of government until 2004, when a number of men, including the Mayor (the highest resident government official), were convicted of rape. The Pitcairn Islands Supreme Court*, which had only ever existed on paper and had never actually sat, had to be constituted with judges from New Zealand to hear the charges against them.
(*Confusingly, in some former British colonies, the “Supreme Court” is not an appellate court, but the superior trial court of general jurisdiction – equivalent to the High Court in England, or to the District Courts in the US federal judicial system. In these legal systems, there is also usually a “Court of Appeal” which hears appeals from the Supreme Court. This is the case in Bermuda, Jamaica, the Bahamas and some other Caribbean islands, for instance. Similar terminology is used in New York State – where the “Supreme Court” is the superior trial court, and the “Court of Appeals” is the highest court in the state and hears appeals from the Supreme Court – and in the Canadian province of British Columbia.)
(Sorry if #497 is a little too geeky for others’ tastes. I’m just very interested in constitutional law and governance, and sometimes go on a ramble about such things.)
Walton: No apologis needed for me, I rather enjoyed reading that.
Oh I thought ERV did? Ugh, but now I freaking went and looked. I really try to keep that shit out of my cache.