I was out all day, so the last thread got a little full…here’s a new one!
(Episode CCLXXXVIII: Haute cuisine)
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
I was out all day, so the last thread got a little full…here’s a new one!
(Episode CCLXXXVIII: Haute cuisine)
Jeffrey:
That’s an excellent suggestion, Jeffrey, I didn’t even think about that. Way back, I used to fill notebooks at light speed, writing, writing, writing. This was before the ‘net, obviously, and even though I wasn’t talking to anyone at the time, writing helped me tremendously. Kept me sane for a good while.
Walton @ 414:
You’re welcome, I think. All I asked about was marmalade. :P
Theophontes:
Hot marmalade and honey, you say? I’ll def give it a shot.
Audley: As praiseworthy as I’m sure your stance on marmalade is, I was, of course, referring to your firm opposition to the death penalty.
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In other news…
Immigration does not cause unemployment, study shows
That’s one of the stupider arguments of the xenophobes comprehensively demolished.
As a side point, many of the things Americans consider “marmalade” aren’t; they’re often more like orange jam. This is marmalade.
Walton:
Amazingly enough, despite the inherent stupidity which automagically goes with being American, many of us are perfectly aware of what marmalade happens to be. Some of us even knew it from a young age!
;)
I would put Ronald Reagan’s name on a death note.
BECAUSE ONCE ISN’T ENOUGH FOR THAT FUCKER
I would put Reagan’s name on it to make re he stayead that way. I wouldn’t put it past some rethuglican to perfect cloning in a 21st century version of ‘The Boys From Brazil’.
On a side note, why do I get hungry when reading TET?
Sally
Yes, that’s a prerequisite for machine sewing (there are people who do it by hand, but I disgress). Although at that point it cancels out the “occupy the hands while listening to something else” idea.
I only do that if and when I do some small hand embroidery.
Having said that, I need to publicly flog myself for falling back into bad habits. It took me 2 weeks and three hours to make some phone-calls after I fell out of the routine before christmas when I was sick.
And unfortunately I couldn’t even make an appointment when I finally did pick up the phone.
*grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr*
Caine, I was joking. (As I often do about Anglo-American cultural differences.) I should, perhaps, have added a smiley, but I thought it was obvious.
But whatever. *shrugs*
Of course I know all about Marmalade. She sang “Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir?”, right?
PZ, I beat you to that. Please keep up.
*raspberry*
I hate sewing.
When knitting, I prefer to knit stuff that I don’t need to sew pieces together at the end (socks, sweaters).
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If I had Death Notes, the first few would be Worthy™® thaen it would get ugly.
Meh. Caine, I’m sorry. I certainly didn’t mean to insult Americans. I’m not at my best this week, and evidently my intended humour didn’t come across.
Walton,
I know. I was joking. :P
I never paid much attention to marmalade ‘cos (as I think I’ve said before), I hate cooked fruit. But, yeah, the stuff I have sitting in my fridge is basically tangy orange jelly with some chunks of zest in it. I had a hell of a time finding even that, and the only British import store I know of is about an hour and a half drive from my apartment.
ARIDS explains why he justified murder by comparing people with dogs:
I appreciate the importance of being properly understood, so I’m glad if you feel you’ve clarified matters.
Again, you justified the killing of a human by comparing them to an animal which more people are comfortable killing. This is in fact dehumanizing. Please don’t do it. Your fuzzy fee-fees for Fluffy don’t override the social effect of your words.
I smell a false dilemma in your “it is the X which is Y” which may be meant to imply “[not my Z]”.
The fact that our prison system is dehumanizing does not change the fact that your justification of murder by comparing people to other animals which more people are comfortable killing is also dehumanizing.
As it happens, I agree with you that the prison system is dehumanizing.
So in response to dehumanization, you are advocating murder, characterizing it as involuntary euthanasia. As it happens, Giliell already answered you sufficiently:
However dehumanizing prison is, it is all that dehumanization and more for you to decide that you get to resolve your discomfort with prison by murdering inmates.
It sort of doesn’t matter what any of us think about the summary executions of war criminals and terrorists; governments will always act illegally against those they deem enemies of the state. That’s fine and all; I don’t have a problem with that in principle.
But then you’re conflating them with more common criminals like Charles Manson, who are handled by the civilian justice system. Problem: whatever the government can do to Charles Manson, it will also do to innocent people. To whatever degree you justify the death penalty for Manson, you are justifying the real death penalty in the real world, the death penalty which is carried out on a racist basis.
You probably can’t get to the ideal kind of world you want, so your arguments have to be considered instead in the context of the world we actually live in. Your arguments would be less objectionable if we already lived in a world where the death penalty was outlawed in civilian contexts and unlikely to return; then you’d be just floating a basically irrelevant hypothetical, which could do very little harm.
Unfortunately, we are in a world where every justification for the civilian death penalty will be twisted to justify the current system.
As long as people believe that the death penalty can be implemented fairly and accurately, most of them will believe that it already is being implemented fairly and accurately. We can predict that from studies of the Just World phenomenon.
Nothing good is likely to come from you arguing this. If there are any consequences — that is, if you change anyone’s mind about anything — it’s likely to be in a bad direction, and more still to the degree you make these arguments among acquaintances who are not hardcore anti-death-penalty liberals.
+++++
You know that you are advocating the murder of innocent people. Why doesn’t that bother you?
Ah, but which Reagan would you be assassinating? The real one, who’s already dead? Or the imaginary deified Reagan who apparently lives on forever in the hearts of Republicans? (Given that some conservatives also seem to conflate Reagan with Jesus – hence Supply Side Jesus – you’d probably also be taking out the entire basis of right-wing fundagelical Christianity in one fell swoop.)
Of course, you’d also have to be careful to write out the full name, so as to avoid accidentally taking out his son, Ron Reagan, who seems to be a decent sort.
^^QFT. This.
All I know about Ron Regan is that he’s pro- stem cell research. Based on that, he could be worse.
Thinking about my stance on the death penalty, I’m totally not okay with The State ™ killing anybody— whether we’re talking about a punishment to a crime, war, assassinations, whatever.
I’m much more forgiving of individuals who kill in certain circumstances such as self defense or assisted suicide.
If that is all you know, you have much to learn, Grasshopper.
Aw, jeez, not this shit again…
My younger son has an affinity for and apparently a little talent in French. (“talent” being loosely defined as “being able to approximate the accent fairly decently due to some immersion in it by a caregiver early in his life”)
This became a bit awkward when he was about 5 and delighted in singing the lyrics to Lady Marmalade. I was complaining earlier about people giving me mean glares when he was having a meltdown – I don’t know that the odd looks at having a preschooler coming on to everyone in French were much better. ;)
We all know the story of marmalade, right? Devised by Janet Keiller in Scotland after her husband rashly bought an entire shipload of inedible Seville oranges at a cheap rate after it almost shipwrecked.
(yes, yes, marmalade already existed, but she popularized the currently most common version. And it’s a good story.)
Janine,
Learning more about little Ronnie will be my project for tonight, then.
I’ve been writing an ex girlfriend some kind of a thank you note for introducing my privileged ass to many kinds of social issues, especially feminism.
I’m not going to send it to her though, it seems impossible to write it in a way that wouldn’t be many kinds of creepy. She has another life now, and I’m not a part of it.
But writing, rewriting and rewriting again has been a great exercise in thinking.
I thought it was her son.
Matt – my info was from Pickled, Potted and Canned by Sue Shepherd; that one didn’t say anything about her son.
I can’t remember where I got the idea it was her son from.
Apropos of the last discussion:
Netherlands to close prisons for lack of criminals
Group accused of handing out anti-gay death sentence leaflets
For raise awareness read indimidate, at least they are being held accountable.
And on a happier note cute cute cute and
What do books do when the book shop owner has gone?
At last, there’s a vid!
;-)
Sorry about posting to TET by proxy, everyone. @rorschach, my apologies. You were the only regular whose email I knew how to find, and for whatever reason I thought it would be okay to ask. Next time I’ll make sure to ask Caine (and my thanks, @Caine, for offering.) In retrospect I should have just held onto the post until I grew back spoons enough to find another source.
As far as internet out here, …the short version, it’s a rural area and not that simple. I’m online now because it stopped raining, as far as I can tell.
There are two versions, the Manga, Anime and LA movie series
SPOILER
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Movie series he’s outsmarted by his logician nemesis who sacrifices himself to expose him. Other series he manages to kill his nemesis but is still ultimately outsmarted by said nemesis’s replacement.
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In both his hubris and desire to not just see justice done, but be recognized as God for it is his weakness.
I listed three versions but said two, the manga and anime follow the same story, the movie deviates slightly and IMHO is better (though I think I’m in the minority there)
Of course, PZ would have no doubt preferred mutant mutant mutant to cute cute cute, but this does balance the octopic link in the previous thread.
Rorschach did post a mea culpa, Pteryzz, so I think it’s no harm done…
Ptery
zzxxArgghh.
Sorry…
My answer after consideration and observing myself seems to be that I’d squirrel it away as an awesome yet impractical artifact, not wanting to use it too easily but seeing it as too potentially useful to get rid of so holding onto it as a nuclear option.
But could you resist the big red button of doom that says Universe self destruct – do not press?
@Serenditity
I end every RPG with like 12 elixars in my inventory I never use because things aren’t bad enough to justify using them. I wouldn’t push it because I’d be too worried about the idea that I might need to push it more later.
@Serendipitydawg: Yeah, I saw the mea culpa, but I still gather from Rorschach’s reaction that my request was an imposition in and of itself, so I still should apologize for that. I couldn’t remember if Rorschach was around for the original discussion or not, just that his name isn’t in the notes I made. So it was bad form of me to involve just any regular instead of a regular who knew what I was talking about.
Also, it’s not your fault that the Z and X keys share the least dexterous position on the QWERTY layout, natch. ~;>
No! Bad! No killing my very favorite character in the whole show! *finds L and gives him a hug*
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Re: Shutting up and listening,
I don’t know how to shut up properly.
I mean that. I don’t. I’ve been trying to restrict myself to mirroring things people say back to them, but I don’t actually know what to say so that people know I’m listening but I’m not pushing my interpretation of things on them. I know you have to say something or people think you’re not listening or you’re not interested, but I never know what the right things are. :/ Is just saying “yeah” or “I understand” enough? I’m usually “listening” to people via text, if it helps.
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Re: marmalade,
I actually don’t know what that is, but in German die Marmelade apparently just means any and all jams or jellies. I could be wrong, but that’s the impression I got.
Why I like the movie better :-D
CC:
Ditto.
There is a very fine line (which the Horde here is very good at helping moderate) between “adding in personal anecdotes to enhance a conversation” and “turning the conversation into one about me” that probably gets crossed more often than intended (at least by me); it’s very similar to the “asking for advice” vs “asking for consolation” line and the “telling you what I think” vs “telling you what you should think” line. But, it’s mostly a matter of finding people that are both willing to put up with minor transgressions and willing to help correct behavior in situationally-appropriate methods.
The Horde here (and in PET) is very good about such things. Yay Horde!
Beatboxing. On a flute.
Whoda thunk it.
####
I’m gonna be reading a metric fuckton of papers this term. “Foundations of Software Security” requires reading and analyzing two papers a week (plus doing an original research project); “Operating Systems” requires analyzing at least two or three papers a week… I’m hesitant to find out what “Intro to AI” will require…
@Classical Cipher:
“Yeah” or “I understand” work, as long as you mix it up a bit so you’re not typing the same responses over and over. Also, different people react better to some emotes than others, and some need more frequent responses than others. My friends and I use: *nod*, “mhmm” and variants, question marks, ellipses, “Go on,” “I’m here”, “It’s okay,” sometimes *hugs* or *pats*, appropriate smileys and the like. You do have to customize it so the emotes are appropriate to whatever the person just said. Which, when one’s actually listening, isn’t all that hard.
/aspie >_>
Classical Cipher, I’d express that I’m still listening by keeping my eyes open and letting the other person speak. :D But it’s clearly a cultural thing, and the Finnish lack of pretty much any small talk can seem impolite to others.
People can’t see if my eyes are open through the internet, is the problem :( And also, since under a lot of circumstances I don’t make eye contact, even in person they have reason to assume I’m not listening.
#504 (But it’s not Walton’s fault! He only gave us the link.)
I wonder who did the web page:
Sorry but such English bugs me. I do not like tautological and repetitious tautology.
Sure, those cats are cute, as long as they are shredding someone else’s furniture. Who knew marmalade was such an interesting topic?
Oh, right. My bad.
This is the part where I can get away with it by living in a culture where eye contact isn’t that much expected.
CC and Pteryxx: Sometimes, when I listen intently to someone, I turn my head away a bit. This is almost universal body language for ‘I’m not listening anymore’, but sometimes it’s the only way I CAN listen. If I maintain too much eye contact, I zone out on their faces and start losing track of their words.
Also, lacking mobile ears, what I’m doing is the same as what owls do with their immobile eyes.
Still, causes misunderstandings with people who don’t know me well.
In the thread on the YEC article about “The Wave” and the Navajo Sandstone Formation I have set a challenge (#101) to onceforgivennowfree. There is an outside possibility that he/she might turn up here.
His/her complaint was that people were not answering the science (what science??) but were launching in with abusive comments – as if that would ever happen on Pharyngula, even with a YEC troll!
I would be grateful if you would give me a bit of room with him/her rather than pitching straightin (tempting though it might be).
Pretty Please.
Hmm, I’m not sure how you can avoid “pushing” your interpretation, or at least having a different one. What constitutes good listening depends very much on what is being said, but it’s an activity, not something passive like soaking in the information they’re giving you without putting yourself and your views into the picture. That probably isn’t very helpful. Respond with what you think follows from what they’re telling you, not just a stock phrase like “uh huh” or “yup” — I wouldn’t take that as an indication someone’s really engaged in a conversation with me. They should want to get your input as their listener. For it to be productive, both have to move the conversation forward based on what the other is saying, but “forward” could lead practically anywhere, including the starting point, or that one of you isn’t worth listening to on this subject, or a dozen more conversations that neither of you had planned to have.
And in other news, a panel of federal appellate judges has authorized Texas officials to enforce a controversial abortion sonogram law while its constitutionality is being challenged in court. Folks are referring to it as “Rape by the State“. Naturally, Gov. Perry thought getting the go-ahead was splendid.
This is the law that will require individuals who wish to get abortions to undergo an ultrasound first.
—Beverly McPhail, Houston Chronicle
Katrina- now that the federal definition of rape has been revised, I wonder if any woman can sue Texas for requiring her to do this, or bring up criminal charges towards the state?
Carlie:
The definition was (to my knowledge) only redefined for statistical reporting purposes; there’s no legal ramifications to the change in definition. That would (I’m reasonably sure) have to go through Congress.
The opposite of talking isn’t listening. The opposite of talking is waiting.
Fran Lebowitz
I have the opposite problem. At work, I deal with visitors constantly and have learned to keep eye contact as much as possible (if I am with a group, I keep shifting from person to person). It helps them feel included. When I am, say, shopping, people frequently ask where things are, or for help with a product, even though I am in mufti. I guess the eye contact makes me approachable?
Oh. My. God. When you can’t even count on a federal court to say, “No, the state may not mandate that doctors penetrate a woman’s vagina against her will, how could you even question whether this was constitutional?” I don’t . . I don’t even know what to say.
@Pteryxx,
I have no excuse, I had a Petite Typewriter from a very young age and have spent nearly 40 years using QWERTY with computers (starting with ASR/KSR33 Teletype) so it isn’t as though I don’t know where the keys are :D
Funny.
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That sounds yummy.
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While I’d like to say that I’d burn it, I can easily see me persuading myself taking the ‘just in case’ option; ‘just in case’ of a new
HitlerStalin or Pol Pot, or…. It’s that whole “the needs of the many” thing. But then the question of how bad someone would need to be to qualify, comes up. How does a Kim Jong-Il, for instance, stack up in the Genocidal Maniac Stakes? Cheney? Milošević? Saddam Hussein? Um….I don’t trust myself to make that distinction. And what happens if I die with it still unburned, and it falls into the wrong hands?
It’s probably safer to just wish the damned sausage onto my nose and be done with it.
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*hugs* for TLC and Ex. And maybe point out to Ex (when the time is right) that the abusers and their enablers want her to feel that way; it helps protect them from consequences, keeps them in control, and perpetuates their mind-set.
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And awesome.
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Brownian made my day. He said corn-mimicking anus. Read that again.
Corn-mimicking anus.
Corn-mimicking anus.
It cannot be retyped enough. Sweet Jesus you can’t imagine how hard I laughed this morning. It’s happening again.
Corn
Mimicking
Anus.
A corn-mimicking anus. What would that look like? I picture the faux corn dangling like a uvula-like hemorrhoid from the roof of the strange creature’s Goatse-like nether cavern, waiting for an unwary hungry chicken to stumble into it.
Ms. Daisy Cutter – yes!!!!
Won’t one of the artists here please please please please please please please please PLEASE make a cartoon corn-mimicking anus? Please? I so desperately want it for my avatar.
Cornhole.
Corn-mimicking anus for some, puddle of dumb for me. Can’t get enough…
Puddle
Of
Dumb
Marvellous. So stolen.
Not just draw it. Animate it.
Because we all want to hear the noise a corn-mimicking anus makes when it slams shut on a chicken.
I may attempt to draw it later today but I need a few more details. By ‘corn mimicking anus,’ do you all mean it looks like an actual cob of corn, or does it look like the little kernels that chickens might be more inclined to peck at?
What does the rest of the animal look like?
cornhole?
atlatl
Did someone call for Cornholio?
Chigau: Tethys showed me one of those the other day.
Anyone have any theories as to why the ibex is pooping a big human turd instead of little ungulate pellets? Some have theorized that the ibex is actually giving birth, but it appears to be a juvenile animal.
The story my mind keeps coming up with is that one day, a greedy young ibex ate too much and got so constipated, he had to call on two birds to help him out. But then their feet became lodged in the turd, A La ‘Tar Baby’.
Hi there, good evening
Man, Tuesdays are long, but all in all I love my job.
Also, there’s still raspberry-mascarpone dessert in the fridge.
No, not really. Marmelade is made from whole fruit, Gelee is made from juice. And whatever you make from plums is Pflaumenmus.
TLC
Tethys’s link is where I saw it.
If the “ibex” has a corn-mimicking anus maybe the turd is not what it seems.
I would like to know just how the hell this got past all production stages to actually be made: scotch in a can. Not just any can, a 12-ounce can. Not just any 12-ounce can, the usual soda-like can that is not resealable.
One can. That can only be opened once. That is the exact same can that we’ve been trained for the last 50 years is equivalent to one serving size. That has eight shots of 80-proof scotch in it.
Yeah, that won’t cause any problems at all.
I’m actually very fascinated by the art piece. Leaving aside the turd, I like how they portrayed the ibex. I like how the natural shape of the material carved was used quite effectively to make it look like it’s perching on a little rock precipice, as mountain-dwelling ungulates are known to do. It also has just the right level of detail for my liking. And a tiny bit of expression… subtle enough to avoid being cartoonish, but undeniably there.
Sometimes, when it comes to prehistoric art, people seem to strain themselves looking for cultural or religious significance. “What does it mean?” they ask themselves. I think maybe, 10 or 20 000 years ago, people took the same pleasure from a well-executed carving as I do now. Maybe some of it means nothing more than that?
Justicar and Munkhaus invade Greta’s place. Greta’s comment policy makes it not worthwhile to argue with them.
Ah, thinking about it Classical Cipher, I think I understand what your confusion is. German “die Marmelade” also is the umbrella term, especially in colloquial speech. So, I’d ask the kid if she wants a “Marmeladenbrötchen”, it could be either. Or when I ask somebody to put “die Marmelade auf den Tisch”. Or a description of a breakfast includes “Brötchen, Butter, Marmelade oder Honig”.
Cynicism suggests that, somewhere in the planning stages, someone offered the argument, “Once we’ve got their money, it’s no skin offa our corporate nose if they use a coupla shots-worth and pour the rest down the drain, and it’s not like the heavy drinkers aren’t gonna drink that much any way….” The third option (“Oooh, but what if people who wouldn’t ordinarily drink that much, drink it any way, rather than throw it out/waste it?”) is…not anything they wanted to contemplate (with its attached undesirable consequences), ’cause that doesn’t rake in the profits.
That would be Someboy Else’s Problem.
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Wait, did I just hear NPR portraying a couple of Xian door-knockers in a sympathetic light because their job is harder than political campaigners’???
For fuck’s sake.
Yes, yes I did hear that! http://www.npr.org/2012/01/10/144984613/mormon-missionaries-discuss-proselytizing-in-n-h
What was the fucking point?
NPR, Nice Polite Republicans. Gets truer every day.
NPR also had one with the great “we’re intentionally raising the meme to legitimized levels!” story “Is Obama waging a war on religion? with his pro-gay agenda” story.
Is there a single fucking journalist in this country that understands that objective=/= equal
I just had coffee with a good friend.
Does anyone remember a LIFE magazine cover, or perhaps it was National Geographic, of a little naked vietnamese girl running in terror, her clothes burned off of her skin? It was a pretty famous image. It certainly stuck with me….
Anyways, my friend told me he met her and had tea with her.
Aw, but it’s easy to feel sorry for Mormon missionaries.
I always feel like I should buy unneeded coupon books from them.
@TLC
Ah yes the “Kerosine Barbeque Accident” as I believe was the spin on it.
TLC: this is her
TLC: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phan_Thi_Kim_Phuc
That photo is iconic, it’s more than LIFE or Nat Geo, it’s in history textbooks and has been for a couple of decades now. It’s meant to illustrate the My Lai massacre.
Amazing to think that she is alive and well, just living her life. What a strange place is this world.
It’s a hard image for me to look at. Much like the photos of Emmett Till’s body.
But to look away because it’s ‘unpleasant’, to close our eyes and whistle as we try to ignore it, to me that is infinitely worse. We have to look the horror in the face, because to look away is to allow it to continue.
I also had no idea that President Nixon tried to claim the photo was fixed or doctored somehow. Some things never change, eh?
No connection to My Lai. At all.
Calley and his boys weren’t using napalm.
Ing:
Ah, yes, Babs Bradley Hagerty, lyin’ fer jeezus again. Ophelia posted about it.
So, I had an interesting day.
I just got back from an impromptu sit-in (my suggestion, actually) at the state Capitol. They wouldn’t let people ‘from’ Occupy into the public Senate gallery (but let other people, who they thought weren’t with ‘us’ go in; as long as they weren’t young looking or dressed casually). The ACLU is now involved.
Also, you’ve got to read what one of the Representatives tweeted about Occupy today.
Old! ;)
He was on iCarly ages ago. Yes, you may now criticise my kids’ taste in TV.
I AM SO FUCKING SICK OF FUCKING NEW HAMPSHIRE!
Jesus Christ.
I think I just had an aneurysm
This should probably go on Questions To Which The Answer is “No”.
(Fun blog, but warning: many posts link to the Daily Mail.)
janine, I beat you to it @ 318. Try to keep up.
++++++++++++++++
After trying for 2 hours the goddam page would finally load all the way. I’m threadcrupt from 500.
Off topic: Is it just me, or do almost all soups consist of onion, salt, pepper, broth, milk/cream, and whatever ingredient the soup is actually named after?
@ Pteryxx
Pretty much. Unless it’s not a creamy soup. Also, don’t forget the carrots and celery.
Pteryxx,
Yep. That’s why they’re damn tasty and damn easy. And why stock is so damned versatile. :)
Let’s see:
Bean soup: beans, broth, onions, salt, pepper, and whatever else was in the vegetable drawer.
Chicken Noodle Soup: Chicken, broth, noodles, onions, celery, carrots, salt, pepper.
Beef Barley Soup: Beef, stock, barley, onions, salt, pepper.
Split Pea Soup: Split peas, ham, broth, potatoes, salt, pepper.
Clam Chowdah: Clams, salt pork, sherry, milk, cream, potato, celery, onions, broth, salt, pepper.
Give or take the milk/cream, yeah. Not all of them have the lactose base.
Well, it seems like I missed most of the earlier excitement.
Knitting: I’m making this, in Melody Jojoland. I think it shall be pretty when is done. Using the same yarn, I’m also making this. I think it shall be teh prettie when done.
Today, after deciding to do so months ago, I closed my accounts at Too-Big-To-Fail Bank and moved all my money to a local credit union. It felt nice.
A conundrum: I recently moved. I didn’t know the area before I came, so I mostly chose a place after a single visit and getting a good vibe. My new place is quite nice, a good distance from work, etc, and I like it. My new landlord owns a bunch of old houses (Victorians, mostly) in a run-down-but-on-the-upswing neighborhood that he fixes up, splits into units, and rents out. One of these units is mine. This is all well and good. However, a pair of uncomfortable facts has come to my attention. Firstly, the city is about 40% black. The neighborhood is about 50% black. My landlord had a potluck dinner the other night, to which he invited all his tenants. I went, and he commented that most of his tenants were there. There was not a single black person present. He also referred to my next-door neighbors (not one of his buildings) as “sketchy.” They seem like perfectly nice people to me. Their building is a bit run-down, and I’ve gathered that their landlord is not the best. But sketchy? I’m suspecting that “sketchy” was code for “black and poor” and this makes me uncomfortable. IIRC, my landlord does not rent to “Section 8” renters (i.e. those with low incomes who get rent-controlled units). Gentrification is not a value-neutral phenomenon, and, had I been aware of these facts, I may have taken a different apartment. I’m stuck in my lease for a year. I’m debating saying something, but what?
I’m so bored with the USA.
Indeed. And then there’s Gumby Soup, which consists of onion, salt, pepper, broth, beans, rice, fish stock, cumin, coriander, precisely eighteen Troy ounces of bara brith, a television aerial, half a squid, raindrops keep falling on my head, and a single hair follicle from the left arm of the Prime Minister of Greece. Also, ducks.
(The management would like to apologize for the extremely poor quality of this post. Unfortunately, Walton has lost his mind. Normal service will be resumed shortly.)
Aw yeah. Made the news.
Walton:
Have you been imbibing? Or studying too hard?
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I just used birthday money to order the first 10 (chronological) Discworld books (all used). Thank you, Amazon.
Congratz, StarStuff.
@Esteleth:
…I’d suggest, to start, that you simply make a point of getting to know your “sketchy” neighbors, and as you live there, make diverse friends and invite them to your place. Over the course of the year, the other tenants may show whether the group’s too badly infested with racism to be tolerable. In any case, it can’t hurt to set a good example.
Oh, Ogvorbis, I love waiting until Amazon offers me a Prime trial and then ordering a huge stack of used hardbacks at ridiculous prices. Last time I ended up with about 8 books for $30. Yep, some of them were Discworlds.
Neither. (Unless you count Diet Mountain Dew as “imbibing”.) But lack of sleep seems to do strange things to the Walton’s mind.
Well, there’s egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam; spam bacon sausage and spam; spam egg spam spam bacon and spam; spam sausage spam spam bacon spam tomato and spam … spam spam spam egg and spam; spam spam spam spam spam spam baked beans spam spam spam … or Lobster Thermidor a Crevette with a mornay sauce served in a Provencale manner with shallots and aubergines garnished with truffle pate, brandy and with a fried egg on top and spam.
You can substitute broth or milk for spam.
Pteryxx,
My thoughts have been along those lines as it is. I not going to make a habit of going to my landlord’s potlucks – in addition to the racism, there was rather too much discussion of woo and magic mushrooms for my taste – but I am going to make an effort to get involved with the neighborhood.
Which, incidentally, dovetails with my irritation with left-leaning white people with not-so-subtle racism, embracing of woo, and being generally snobbish about science in general. At that potluck, I went from explaining what brought me to the area (I have a job as a staff research scientist at a medical school doing stem cell research) – which got people commenting about how great that was, wishing me luck, etc – to defending the scientific method and explaining why vaccines are good. GAH.
Such as referring to The Walton in third person?
Justicar and Munkhaus got banned from Greta’s blog. Since she won’t appreciate me posting it there, I’ll post it here:
HAW-HAW!
/nelson.
BTW good going Josh.
Apparently you’re not the only one.
Good grief.
Just started flipping channels on the tv, and found Dirty Jobs. Hey, cool! That’s fun for a bit of a muck. But he’s… in a barbershop. Maybe doing something gross with all the extra hair? Nope, just watching the guy cut hair. And the barber just gave an extremely detailed, authoritative-sounding, and completely wrong description of what seborrhea is. Wow. What happened to this show?
I may have occasionally not turned the tv off when iCarly was on even when the kids themselves weren’t watching it. Ahem.
Hey, I’m planning on getting renter’s insurance for the first time in a month or two, because while we don’t have much of financial value, the reason we don’t have much of financial value is because we have no money and the only thing worse than losing it in a fire or something would be knowing we couldn’t afford to replace most of it.
Anyone have any advice or recs? Naturally, I don’t want to pay money for years to some bunch of schmucks who won’t pay out if we do have a disaster. But I’m kind of ill-equipped to sort out the good guys from the schmucks.
The Onion: One of those fucking guys wins New Hampshire primary
kristinc – same advice as homeowners insurance – go for whatever company has a good reputation for that. Definitely a good idea to get renter’s insurance, and it’s pretty cheap. When i was in grad school, there was a story in the paper of a poor guy who lived in an apartment above a restaurant, which burned down, and he lost everything, having not gotten renter’s insurance. He then moved into another downtown apartment above a bakery, which…burned down. He hadn’t gotten renter’s insurance then either, because as he put it, what were the odds that it would happen to him again?
Hey Walton, this one for you. Texas School Police Jail/Beat Studentss
TLC, #567: I was agnostic about whether the “bait” should resemble a kernel or an ear of corn, but the former sounds more plausible.
I was thinking that the critter should be a furry mammal large enough to suck up a chicken with its hindquarters. If you want to be a stickler for zoological plausibility, you could try to create something feliform, I guess.
Josh: After much deliberation, I have decided that the noise made by this animal when it posteriorly inhales the chicken is FFFWHHHOOOOMP.
Ing, #617:
….
The fuck.
Shouldn’t it be the sound of a traf?
I imagine those are the same sorts of people who wonder why the youth/minorities do not respect authority.
@kristinc: I recommend State Farm. They’ve never given me anything but excellent service, among three agents in two cities, AND when my rented property had a water leak and flooded several rooms (scaring my renters half to death) they stepped up and guided us through the emergency cleanup, repairs, drying of the property, repair of damage to the interior, and inspection afterward. And, compensated my renters for their hotel stay while the place was rigged out with giant fans. I know it’s only an anecdote, but still. Now that I don’t have money, my word is the best I can do for them as a customer.
ot again:
…It worked.
I admit, I was wondering whether the food-like substance I’ve been working on was going to be *soup* or just very drippy rice with chicken. I did the onion thing, salt/pepper/garlic, chicken, mushroom soaking water from a week of stir-fries, leftover rice (made with stock), and a frozen brick of stock when the stuff looked too much like porridge. Finished with more salt/pepper, a few seconds of milk, and a goodly shot of sriracha (because.) Sampled it… and it actually tastes like food. I want more.
Wow.
(The deviled eggs also succeeded, though battle-scarred. And each one has two taps of paprika on top. *nodnod*)
Juxtaposition: on one channel, “Taboo”, featuring polyamorous relationships and how “weird” they are. At the same time on another channel, “Mistresses”, the drama.
*headdesk*
@Carlie
I want one on how weird monogamous relationships are
Pteryxx:
I know how that goes and it wasn’t all that long ago I was on dial-up. Keep my e-address stashed, I don’t mind doing relay if you run into the hassles of connection problems again.
Thanks Caine. I hoardededed it in my hoard. >_>
…
. . .
…When I saved that article, in my hoard I saw this.
Nathan Bootz, Ithaca Superintendent: Please Make My School A Prison
That piece on mormons almost gave me my first face-steering wheel.
I like cinnamon on my devilled eggs.
–
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/560/cornmimickinganus.png/
I present to you, a quick and clumsy sketch of a corn mimicking anus from a guy not used to his tablet.
Ahem.
Long thought to be a type of feline, recent DNA studies have shown the Corn Mimicking Anus (Cornholious Goatsei) to be an aberrant mongoose relative.
Due to its unique feeding style, the teeth and jaws of this unique mammal have been reduced to a mere vestige. As one would expect, waste is expelled orally. Paradoxically, this creature has an extremely accute sense of smell, which it uses to find chickens.
The anus and much of the external colon have evolved to mimick the appearance of a mostly picked over cob of corn, such as a hungry chicken might scavenge. Powerful suction muscles trap the hapless foul and constrict it to death, much like an inside-out boa constrictor.
Little is known about how this unique mammal has evolved, and this has caused many evolutionists to rethink their entire position on natural selection, darwinism, their place in the universe.
Ooh, that sounds nice, cicely. I usually put paprika on mine.
Incidentally, I’ve known lots of people who put PICKLE RELISH in their devilled eggs. WTF? Here is how I make them:
6 eggs, hard boiled. Slice, scoop out yolk. Set whites aside.
Smash yolks, add:
2 spoonfulls mayonnaise
splash vinegar
pinch dry mustard.
Mix well. Scoop mixture back into whites. Sprinkle with paprika.
…I could have left the pickle relish out? WHAT A CONCEPT
I always wondered how to devil an egg. Thank you Esteleth!
Corn-mimicking Anus Beast!!!!!
That second sentence just killed me. Fuck I’m still cackling.
Fwoooohmmmp!
Esteleth, that is the only proper way to make deviled eggs-perfect recipe. I like mine pure; no ghastly pickles.
I must disagree. You lot seem to be making perfectly acceptable stuffed eggs. Where is the devilish part? HOT ENGLISH MUSTARD AND CHILI PEPPER DAMNIT!!! Worcester sauce and horseradish optional. Smoked paprika is a nice modern touch for the sprinkle. And I know nothing of this “pickle relish” of which you speak.
*wibble*
This is the paper I have to read and summarize by tomorrow afternoon.
For all I’ve been able to parse, it may as well be written in Tengwar.
Benjamin: Take the conclusions and closing remarks and work back? It looks like clear and organized writing, for all that the subject matter’s intimidating. (And I know nothing about software; I just read cell biology papers, mostly.)
Todays google doodle is in honor of the birth of Nicholas Steno 375 years ago.
TLC #631
Cornholious Goatsei
*applause*
I found a made for TV british version of “Treasure Island.” It’s actually pretty good. 3 hours long though.
I do not have the smallest, slightest, remotest hope of catching up with all them other threads. So I’m going to bed. The rum is on me!
literally
dammit
Hi there
Esteleth
That cap will sure look nice. Not on a head like mine, but probably on yours.
As for your apartment: you can’t help it now. I’d make sure to not give off the image of supporting your landlord’s racist postion and see how things turn out.
Tethys – argh! I hate it when things like that get stuff wrong. William Smith is the father of stratigraphy; Steno is the father of paleontology.
Although I guess there isn’t a strict definition of “father of” in these kinds of things.
Further to #641 tethys
Steno was an interesting character, especially for this site.
As well as being a pioneer in anatomy, geology and crystallography he was also a bishop in the Catholic church and was declared “beatus” (the first stage towards “sainthood”) in 1988. He has a saint’s day in December.
He seemed to have been an all round good egg; giving his bishop’s ring and crozier to feed the poor.
(Incidentally, why have you chosen the name of an ancient sea as your moniker? Just interested.)
Chinese tree extract stops rats getting drunk http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21337-chinese-tree-extract-stops-rats-getting-drunk.html “This supports other data that GABA receptors are key in the actions of alcohol and that targeting this interaction is a viable approach to reducing alcohol intake,” [The tree mentioned is the oriental raisin tree (Hovenia dulcis)]
#646 carlie
Agreed. “Father of …” is a difficult title.
However, I thought Georges Cuvier is generally considered the “father of” paleontology.
William Smith is referred to as the “father of English geology” although to be fair to him, his geology map included Wales as well.
Steno does seem to have the title “father of” stratigraphy – his laws laid the foundation from which William Smith worked, whether or not he referred to them as Steno’s Laws. For all I know, WS may have re-discovered them independently in his own work.
To be fair to Thethys, he uses the term “a pioneer” for Steno which does seem to be realistic.
Alan B – I’d call Steno the father of sedimentology (along with geology), but Smith definitely has the title for stratigraphy since he was the one to first recognize that you can correlate strata from different areas, and was the one to really cement (heh) the whole time scale business. Steno was the first (Westerner who wrote things down for other scientists) to understand what fossils were, hence the paleontology.
I have my opinion, and I shall not be moved! :P
Brownian is now directly or indirectly responsible for the following memes:
– gay sex…all welcome but get in line;
– balling and pilling;
– a general sentiment about using conservatives as livestock;
– corn-mimicking anus;
– probably at least as many others.
Quite an accomplishment I say.
I’m sure everyone will be shocked by the results of this poll.
Sorry if this was posted
Just talked ot Wife on phone.
This morning, as she worked her street corner, she got witnessed.
The corner she works is on a street that is being widened from 2 lanes to five lanes. Because of lane closures, there are often flaggers directing traffic (which makes it even more of an adventure for Wife as she gets the elementary school kids through the traffic).
This morning, the flagger was at her corner. He asked if she had any close calls or was ever scared. So Wife told him the story of the Blue Cadillac and the Woman With the Cell Phone (wifh full orchestration and four-part harmony) and he said, “Stop right there, have you ever been hit?” So she told him the story of the mirror brushing her hip as her old stop sign cracked the window on the Cadillac (with full orchestration and four-part harmony) and he said, “Stop right there, do you know the 23d Psalm?” So Wife proceeded to tell him that she is an atheist (with full orchestration and four-part harmony) and he said, “Stop right there, have you heard the Good News of Jesus Christ?” So Wife proceeded to tell him that there is no contemporary evidence that Jesus ever lived and that much of the New Testament is full or retellings of older myths from other religions and shows so much evidence of rewriting and mistranslation as to be almost useless and he said, “Stop right there, you mean you are angry with god, right?” So Wife proceeded to tell him that she is an atheist (with full orchestration and four-part harmony) and he said, “Stop right there, so you really don’t believe in god? But everyone believes in god even if you are angry with him.” So Wife proceeded to tell him that she is an atheist (with full orchestration and four-part harmony) and he said, “Stop right there, so you really do not believe in god and haven’t accepted Jesus as your personal saviour?” So Wife proceeded to tell him that she is saved (with full orchestration and four-part harmony) and he said, “Stop right there, but you said you haven’t accepted Jesus?” So Wife proceeded to tell him that she is an atheist and therefore her brian has been saved from the damaging fantasy of faith (with full orchestration and four-part harmony) and he said, “Stop right there.” And he moved to the other side of the road.
Now, kid!
Have I mentioned that I love Wife for many reasons?
er, ‘brian’ should actually read ‘brain.’ All Hail Tpyos and all that (with full orchestration and four part harmony).
“why have you chosen the name of an ancient sea as your moniker? ”
I like it. The closing of the Tethys sea was a profound event, resulting in altered global ocean currents and thus altered climate (affecting the evolution of hominids, among other things)
— — — — — — — —
Regarding my drive-by posting about blocking alcohol craving in mice: I forgot to mention, this could be a very important tool to reduce one of the biggest social problems. Feel free to discuss if alcoholics with children should be required to use such a medicine against their own will.
Ogvorbis, your Wife and you are among the best relaters of events (or tellers of tales that are true) ever. Also, I really like the orchestration (and the four-part harmony).
I’m not certain (Hail Tpyos!) but I think Oggies haz birthday!?
Ogvorbis, this is approximately the 837th time that I wished I lived in your town so our families could hang out and be buddies. Great story.
“Also, I really like the orchestration (and the four-part harmony).”
and the twenty seven eight-by-ten colour glossy photographs with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one.
opposablethumbs:
Thank you. As I started to write (and embellish) Wife’s tale of woe, the Guthrie thing just seemed to fit.
The Sailor:
Right you are. I am now 46. And I have a 1.5 inch ribeye birthdaysteak for dinner and some Ommegang Abbey beer. And rosemary, olive oil and sea salt bread.
carlie:
Trust me. You do not want to live in the Valley. Their idea of multiculturalism is that, when the art class makes Christmas ornaments, those who don’t wish to participate get blue paper.
The Sailor:
No. No photos. Sorry.
Benjamin,
The gist I get is that they’re saying that while security monitors have become more sophisticated, existing models are rather dated and focus almost exclusively on truncation automata that enforce safety properties and don’t capture the possibilities of edit automata that are capable of more dynamic, nonsafety enforcement. They’re developing a framework for thinking about security enforcement that deals with all of these in order to help people get a better grip on what the capabilities and drawbacks of different monitors are for enforcing various security policies. (So, like, if you were talking about a security system at a factory, their model would cover both mechanisms that would detect and block the introduction of a contaminant or shut down a product line and also those that could detect and continuously neutralize chemical compounds or even determine later that a substance was wrongly recognized as a contaminant and retrieve sequestered product.)
I skimmed/skipped past much of the symbol-heavy stuff, but the meaning of safety/nonsafety, soundness, liveness,etc., was conveyed pretty well via scattered examples. (Why the hell don’t people use more examples?!) I assume some of that is more familiar to you.
Happy birthday (((Relatively)))Oggie!
Was this in Stockbridge MA?
I would have lost patience somewhere around the fourth “stop right there”. And perhaps located his supervisor. (I suppose all his victims don’t have the time to do that since they’re in cars going from point A to point B).
chigau:
Thanks.
Rev:
No. Wilkes-Barre, PA.
Rey:
Keep in mind, I freely interpreted her story. He really wasn’t saying ‘stop right there’ in so many words, but it is a good paraphrasing.
You could live here, but it’s not entirely better. I just found out last week that child’s social studies class watched “Prince of Egypt” as part of their Egyptian studies unit. He said “I think it was more about Moses and God than about Egypt.” Good call, kid.
carlie:
erg.
A kid I knew in high school (he went to a different school (this was the Cumberland Valley of Maryland (not the same valley I live in now))) told me that in his freshman biology class, the teacher showed some of the Disney wildlife movies to illustrate god’s directing hand in nature. Such as the lemmings (which were actually hamsters) falling off of a cliff in the arctic (which was actually Georgia) as they committed suicide to avoid overpopulation (which is also bullshit).
Sometimes I feel really sorry for college professors who teach biology. Considering some of the shit taught in high schools, they must have to spend the first half of the freshman year deprogramming the students. PZ, you have my sympathy and admiration.
Testing testign, comments getting eateded
Ing:
Well, it can’t be a coherence filter, ’cause mine are getting through.
ok
“Colbert: Media jumped on Romney like ‘Gingrich on a younger, healthier wife’”
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/01/11/colbert-media-jumped-on-romney-like-gingrich-on-a-younger-healthier-wife/
To be perfectly clear:
I should have said, “(So, like, analogously, if you were talking about a security system at a factory, their model would cover both mechanisms that would detect and block the introduction of a contaminant or shut down a product line and also those that could detect and continuously neutralize chemical compounds or even determine later that a substance was wrongly recognized as a contaminant and retrieve sequestered product.)”
(Warning! The link I will provide leads to an insane place!)
A boycott of Girl Scout Cookies is being proposed because Girl Scouts USA will accept as member those who present and live as girl. The cookies provides money to extend the control that radical homosexuals and transsexuals have on society.
Mmm, radical homosexual cookies, those are the best cookies.
Wow, just encountered a commenter on the DT website who is trying to give Timecube a run for their money…only they seem to have a weird obsession with the Duchess of Cambridge… linked for the *blink* O.O
http://www.facebook.com/people/Valeria-Valeria/100002343501100?sk=wall
Re: Renter’s insurance
I got my renter’s insurance through the same company that does my auto insurance, but since it’s USAA*, they may be slightly unusual in doing that. But, it might me worth checking.
Also, if you have a decent relationship with your manager and/or landlord, xe may be able to recommend a company; when I moved into my current place, part of the requirements for the rental contract was having renter’s insurance, and the manager had a list of companies that supplied it cheaply.
* It’s only for military folks and their dependents – my step-dad was Navy – but if you get the opportunity to work with them, it’s a really good company. I’ve now got two IRAs, a credit card, auto insurance, and renter’s insurance through them. And they helped me buy my car (and held the loan while I had it).
Leonard Cohen might be a bit depressing, but hardly crazy!
Oops! Sorry about that. Everybody know that is an insane place.
Financial aid has been disbursed! I’m not going to starve. Yay :D
Fuck. When did transgender become gay? Or did I miss a memememo?
Ogvorbis – it’s all the same to that sort of person, the ho-mo-secshuls, the lesbohs, the trannies – they don’t bother with distinctions, we’re all going to hell so why should they bother…I think that’s also why they have such a hard time distinguishing gay men from paedophiles.
It all comes under the classification of “icky”.
janine,
In other news from the land of homophobic conspiracy theories, apparently the Roman Catholic Bishop of Córdoba declared in his Boxing Day sermon that UNESCO has a secret program to turn half the world population homosexual in the next 20 years. Seriously.
(Link in Spanish. I got the story originally from Secular Europe Campaign, a campaign group. But a friend of mine succeeded in tracing it back to the original Spanish source, and apparently the Bishop did, indeed, make this claim, although he said it on Boxing Day 2010 rather than 2011.)
So… apparently the Vatican now employs people who one would otherwise expect to see featured on /r/conspiracy, or hiding out somewhere in the Rocky Mountains stockpiling food and guns. I’m surprised the Bishop didn’t proceed to warn his flock about the Illuminati, the New World Order and fleets of UN black helicopters.
Emrysmyrddin, in that last case, it is just a way to paint a person as evil. Teh gayz are child rapist just like teh athiest is communist tyrant mass murderer.
???
Wait a minute. Testing
Watson.
TLC: That’s…. hilarious. I should mention, though, that species names are lowercased, and the suffix -ous isn’t correct Latin. So I think it would actually be Cornholius goatsei.
Also, immediately after your comment, I saw Esteleth say “Ooh, that sounds nice,” and Pteryxx talk about pickle relish. The juxtaposition with your comment was amusing.
Happy birthday, Denephew Ogvorbis!
“Traf” as an onomatopoieic? Because I can’t find any definition for “traf” other than “short for traffic” or an acronym for various things.
Also, one of my friends grew up in the Wilks-Barre area. I am really not surprised at your anecdotes.
Janine, quoting Whirled Nuts Drooly:
“Control,” of course, meaning “any attempt to be treated as human beings.”
Speaking of which, Roy Edroso mentions yet another skin-crawly comment from Rod Dreher:
They’ll probably also hit on her, too, but it’s okay…so long as she knows her place, right?
Ah figured out why my posts are being eaten. Tw*tson is being filtered out.
I’ll take this one.
If you are Really™ Male™ but you think you are Female™ that means you want to have sex with Other™ Men™ therefore Teh Homo™.
(works for Real™ Women™, too.)
Oh, yes. You may recall that there was a time we were invaded by mobs of trolling misogynists — filtering on Tw*tson was like magic, and made them all go away.
I think I remember PZ saying he had added it to the filter following an invasion from ERV.
I know you are being facetious, chigau, but I cannot help but thing of the trangendered dykes and gay transmen I have met.
NEW THREAD!