I saw this on sci-ence, and had to post it. Poor Sean Bean — he’s notorious for his awful grisly deaths in his movies. Warning: It’s an awful grisly video, too.
(Episode CCCV: Don’t do it, Carrie!)
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
I recall trying a “milk”shake at a Burger King in Israel. It was quite unpleasant.
I guess this would be shocking to Santorum and his friends. Are they not supposed to kill by stoning? It would be a lot more fun, and make for smaller budgets too. All they’d have to do is stone somebody at the start of the movie, that lasts a while and it wouldn’t be awfully necessary to make the rest of the movie.
Just you be careful with showing a square millimeter of boob. That would be another stoning right then and there. Yahweh is quite jealous. It wants to be the only one to see the “porn”.
That’s because she’s the one on whom the meme originated. She was discussing with some cupcake who told her she just wanted gay sex with Brownian. Evidently the cupcake didn’t know Mattir is of the female persuasion.
Only women can have gay sex with Brownian. Them’s the rules. Everyone else has to settle for… whatever…
Oh dear.
Oh dear oh dear.
:-)
I ♥ Sean Bean.
I think I pointed that out on the last Thread. :p
Reposted from previous thread: Sailor, my experience suggests that if you see one rat it’s highly unlikely that you have just the one rat. Sorry.
Added for this thread: I’m pretty sure when my rabbit was being extra cautious she walked, one step at a time, both her front and hind legs. I guess I could be remembering incorrectly though …
PS: Sean Bean didn’t die in Silent Hill, if memory serves.
From the previous thread (since I’m terribly behind)
@Just_A_Lurker,
We had bed bugs when we moved into our house, although it took us a while to figure out. (We suspected from early on, but couldn’t find any proof of bugs for weeks, so we put out spider traps thinking it might be spiders.) It was AWFUL; I seem to be allergic to their bites so every bite became a welt. Going to bed was met with teary dread.
I don’t know if we just lucked out but we used an exterminator recommended by my work’s building manager, and he came in and killed them all in a single treatment (really) and charged us very little money (around $50 at the most). Whatever chemicals he used did not make the dog sick, though we had her out of the house until everything was dry. I know you’ve said you don’t have enough for an exterminator, but maybe you could call to see if the quoted prices are as high as you fear.
Whatever you end up doing, I would be careful with diatomaceous earth, as mentioned. If you have pets, I wouldn’t use it all.
I’d recommend washing all your linens in very hot water, but that won’t help you much if you can’t figure out where they’re hiding during the day. I’d suggest focusing on wood surfaces, although they can be in your mattress. In our case, they were primarily hiding behind rough-sawn wood paneling in our bedroom that we’d planned to remove anyway.
If you’re looking for something mild to help get rid of them, washing furniture down everywhere with Murphy’s Oil Soap.
I hope you’re able to get rid of them ASAP. I can sympathize with your pain and frustration. Good luck!
*hugs for Esteleth*
I think you got it in one, honored ally.
The only unforgivable sin is tolerance.
Well, excuuuuuuse me. I’m not a certified IPA transcriptionist.
I made a lovely cream of potato-asparagus soup the other day. I used two small Yukon Gold potatoes and … eight thinnish spears of asparagus? that I needed to use up. Sauteed onion, added a clove of garlic, enough chicken-vegetable stock to cover the diced potatoes, cooked till the potatoes were soft, added broken-up asparagus, cooked till that was soft.
Pureed it all with a stick blender, added salt and pepper to taste, then a dash of cream and a grating of parmesan. I was pleasantly surprised by its distinctive asparagus flavor; I tasted it both before and after the parmesan and honestly I’m not sure I didn’t prefer it before. It was one of my most fortunate soups yet.
Boo. 2 minutes flat for Set. And it wasn’t even difficult.
Well, I love Sean Bean.
And he’s really good at dying, maybe that’s because of the practice.
Thanx for the wellwishes on my friend’s mum.
Results will be in tomorrow, but at least her blood tests were better today.
re: flat tyre
I booked my dad for tomorrow morning. No, it’s not that I can’t change one myself, but all I have at hand are the crappy tools that come with the car and he has the nice and shiny ones that allow you to do things without breaking your fingers.
Well, they’re hard to confuse in German *gg*
I actually tried to explain to him that moles keep the voles out of the garden but with no result.
It has become quite an idiom in the family to say that when somebody gets upset about nothing that they’re like grandpa and the moles.
+++
Also signed petition against horrible ultrasound bill
That’s an impressive series of deaths for Mr. Bean.
Someone should do one for Paul Winfield (if it hasn’t been done already). Just off the top of my head, he: phasers himself in Star Trek: Wrath of Khan, gets disintegrated in Mars Attacks, rips his own head off in Serpent and the Rainbow, and…well, Martin Luther King.
I tried the “shake” once at McDonalds. Never again. I don’t think there was any milk in it. Hell, I don’t think it was even cold, just some chemical effect or other.
I’ve been reading about animal locomotion in one of my books by Ian Stewart. He talks a lot about neural nets, central pattern generators, oscillators, and spatiotemporal symmetries…I’m still making sense of it. Of course, it’s a mathematical approach, breaking down all the common gaits of animals as fairly simple patterns generated by networks of oscillators, in phase, out of phase, etc.
I haven’t said anything for fear there might be actual scientists about.
Garret Dillahunt has a similar history (though with more tv appearances than film), and on Twitter a few months back he was answering people’s questions. So I asked him if, given he’s got a regular gig in the sitcom Raising Hope, he was happy to be playing a character who, unlike so many of his others, wasn’t likely to die a violent death.
He replied that he was, yes.
I love Sean Bean. The LotR films are my favourite, and I can’t wait for the Hobbit. A bit off-track I know.
From what I read, Sean Bean is such a gentle fella in real life, he’d rather spend an evening reading than going out.
What a gent.
@Dr. Audley Z. Darkheart
Indeed, he has lived in more movies than he has died. It’s just that he tends to die in the blockbusters (LotR, Goldeneye, Patriot Games, etc). There’s a great link to a list of the movies he has died and survived in in the post.
Poor guy even died in Elder Scrolls: Oblivion…
Poor Sean, he makes all the way through the peninsular war, and he gets it in a 6/10 level movie. Sob….
All post numbers are from previous iteration of TET
«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»
changeable moniker (492) re: headdesking context
Originally it was the CPC BS with the legal system, then I realized that context doesn’t really matter much. “The US” is sufficient context. There’s so many flaws to point out that piss me off that I would be here all day trying to think of even a minor fraction of them. America might be better than some places, but it’s still got plenty of shit to deal with!
«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»
Ms Daisy Cutter (505) re: Synonyms and euphemisms for Penis
I knew of about a hundred of them, it’s not all that hard to come up with them, so many objects are phallic, hard, or weapons (any two, or even all three in the case of missiles). 1200 on the other hand floors me… that is a LOT of different ways to refer to the man-tackle!
(506) re: Boston and rape apologist coach
Girls everywhere and lots of booze mean rape is inevitable? *inhale* *exhale* Fuckwits like him make me want to have been created as an AI. That way I couldn’t be compared even via binary to that… ARGH!
That actually has me shaking with rage… Ignore all the platonic friendships why don’t you, invalidate all the comfort people derive from intimacy and companionship, demean male self control, dismiss their agency, proclaim that women are helpless in the face of the Evil Man, degrade them into objects, ARGH
People like him are what make my life into such a damned twitch-fest! Being hyper cautious so as not to poke the wrong button because while I might not mean anything by a comment or gesture, merely by being a male, I’m a dangerous and threatening creature!
Well you know what Mr Parker? I have this morning star, please shove it up your ass sideways and shuffle off the mortal coil? You’ll be doing the world a favor, and making my day just a little bit brighter for never having to deal with you again! Thank you!
«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»
Jules (534) re: Alabama abortion definition
That… but… how… when… if…
Ok, so having to do the slideshow and forced penetration is bad enough for your normal run-of-the-mill abortion. I can see why the religious fuckwits are doing that one — I don’t agree, but I can at least understand. Then you get to removing a DEAD FETUS and I’m like… the fuck? The thing is dead, as in no longer alive, you’re not having an abortion, you’re cleaning up after a tragedy. But whatever, they’re fuckwits, they want to terrorize womenfolk. Still pretty much par for the course. Ok, so they start defining dead fetuses that fall under this bill. Natural causes? Huh, so when her body rejects the fetus because of any of the factors that can naturally terminate the pregnancy, you’re going through this song and dance? Classy. Accidental trauma? Soo… you’re going to make her sit through the presentation and getting a probe shoved up her hoo-ha because she tripped down a flight of stairs? Wow, you’re a bunch of callous jackasses!
“..or a criminal assault on the pregnant woman or her unborn child”
Uh… WHAT now? Come again? So, you just had a woman come into your office who was BEATEN to the point that she had a miscarriage. You’re going to shove an ultrasound probe up her vagina, subject her to the lengthy procedure and having to see pictures that will likely haunt her with images of the unborn child for some time to come, then show her what her fetus WOULD have gone through if she hadn’t been brutally attacked… before she can get some closure? Really? Seriously? HOW IN THE FLYING FUCK CAN YOU POLITICIANS SLEEP AT NIGHT?!
«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»
theophontes (548) re: Linux and video cards
Actually yes I have, I know the the last version of Ubuntu I used (pre-unity) was set to clone on both channels. But I don’t use Linux much, WINE hates my guts. Which means I didn’t dig into the x .conf file, because I only use it once in a blue moon. I can deal with one monitor for a day or so. My point is that it’s a software problem, because windows can do it. If anyone can do it at all, the card is perfectly capable of doing it. If you can’t with your environment, then it’s because of the programming not being there. Your OS, your drivers, your window manager, SOMETHING isn’t allowing you to do it, but it sure isn’t the card itself!
«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»
opposablethumbs (567) re: DaughterSpawn, the US, and contraceptives
That is extremely sound advice no matter where you’re traveling to, but most assuredly here in nutbar America. At least it’s California and not somewhere in the bible belt! One thing though, keep them with you in your carry-on unless it’s a whole hell of a lot of them, if that’s the case you might want to ship them via fed-ex or a competitor.
CHECK THE SHIPPING COMPANY POLICY AND US CUSTOMS REGULATIONS BEFORE DOING THAT!
«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»
Mass Effect
I’m going to be buying it just as soon as I fix my 360; I have a SPECIAL one (Pic, a Halo 3 Special Edition. Awesome at LANs, it’s impossible to mistake my stuff for anyone else’s) and the power cord is rare anymore, I don’t want to spend 50 bucks for a 4-foot length of power cord. I just lost the bit from the wall to the brick FFS! Here’s hoping it just got lost in the junkyard that is my bedroom.
I played 1 and 2 as FemShep, and yes, Hale does a much better job than Mark Meer (ManShep’s Voice Actor). Meer’s not bad, Hale’s just a VA goddess. That and FemShep is one of the strongest female characters I’ve seen in a while. She does everything that ManShep does, which means she’s the most bad-ass warrior in the entire GALAXY, and is the lynch pin upon which the fate of the galaxy hangs. Oh, and that, much like Dr Audley, I have and will always play female characters given the chance. I identify with female characters better.
ROT 13 SPOILER ALERT!
Zbevqva nccrnef va gur qrzb ba n zvffvba gb gur Fnynevna ubzrjbeyq gb ergevrir n Xebtna Srznyr, gur uvtu cevrfgrff VVEP. Ur vf nf njrfbzr nf rire, gubhtu fghpx va n zbivat obk jvgu gur Xebtna gelvat gb trg ure gb gur ybnqvat onl. Juvyr lbh sraq bss Preorehf — Lrnu! Gurl’er gur onq thlf sbe ng yrnfg cneg bs gur guveq tnzr. V’z tbvat gb RAWBL gung!
I actually have three Shepards. Two FemShep, one Paragon, one Renegade; and a ManShep which I just pick whatever option I feel like doing. So he ends up being mostly paragon with a vindictive streak. God did I ever love punching-out Khalisah Bint Sinan al-Jilani! Worst example of a journalist I’ve ever seen! She was trying to get the story that she wanted to smear the HELL out of the citadel council. I liked them! Well, except for the Turian… he was a bit of an ass.
As for the “Reapers? PAH! Mere rumors” rot13 again! Gurl vainqr Rnegu va gur ghgbevny/bcravat zvffvba naq perqvg frdhrapr.
I too left nobody behind, though I had the benefit of a friend that already did it… and I don’t consider using a wiki during play to be cheating… I don’t care about spoilers myself, heh. Moridin got used as my escort, while I took Tali and Kasumi to fight End Boss. (Mostly because this is the death order, and also happens to be the reverse order of efficacy for holding the line Zbevqva, Gnyv, Xnfhzv, Wnpx, Zvenaqn, Wnpbo, Tneehf, Fnznen/Zbevagu, Yrtvba, Gunar, Mnrrq, Tehag the TheoryCraft behind that list if you’re a nut like I am). If I wasn’t going for a Full Survival clear, I SO would have taken my two snipers! Mmm firepower! My only gripe with 2? THEY BROKE MY FAVORITE CLASS! I played as a Soldier because they made Adept blew cookies. The M-98 Widow was HAWT! The M-300 Claymore was awesome, but I was long-range not a Vanguard… and the M-76 Revenant Light Machine Gun? You cave me a MACHINE GUN as an assault rifle upgrade?! No thanks, gimme my M-96 Mattock, if I wanted an SMG, I’d USE ONE. Yes I know, LMG’s are more powerful than SMG’s… They’re still machine guns, I am NOT a spray-and-pray player, tyvm! I might give the first few missions a shot as all the classes before my Final Playthrough where I carefully craft all my choices to fit the desired story because I’m obsessive like that.
I actually prefer the Hammerhead to the Mako, I played with both on the PC and the X-Box 360. Anyone that has not played the PC version? Consider yourself lucky. Your hacking minigame was 40 times easier, and your vehicles didn’t handle like someone turned off the gravity and you use explosions to move. Twitch the arrow key in the Mako and I’ll give you 2:1 odds you flip over. No joke.
Oh and Moggie, he IS the default, unfortunately. The cover art features him, your choices always default as male. You can change them, yes; but he comes pre-selected, he’s the quick-play option, etc. Yes Pong counts, my first video game was NES (Archon – The Light and the Dark), but I had a decidedly retro media consumption pattern. I watched Bewitched, and I Dream of Jeannie, and played PONG, Asteroids, and Centipede. I freak people out when they know both how old I am, and what my first OS was.
Planet Scanning minigame YES! A BILLION TIMES YES! I knew all the tricks, and I’m the crazy kind of person that ENJOYS GRINDING (my guild in WoW loved me to death, I was their own personal gatherbot, and liked it!), and that minigame sucked ass for me. The limited credits REALLY didn’t help, you should have been able to buy probes with Palladium, I mean jeez I had so much of that laying around even when I was AVOIDING PICKING IT UP!
«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»
RPG’s and Inventory
I too matured as a gamer on grindfest inventory micro-management RPG’s… I like them! Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, Diablo, etc. I hear tell I’m strange like that, see previous bit about enjoying farming in MMO’s.
«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»
David Marjanovic (665)
If they were the component words, you’d have a point. But it’s a constructed pseudonym, which means I, as the architect of it’s assembly can really choose any pronunciation I feel like, though any that are unreasonable are likely to be ignored.
So that was a dozen-pager, eh? Impressive!
«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»
Mmmm, Equilibrium. Gun Kata (as patently ridiculous as it is) is SO DAMN PRETTY TO LOOK AT! Also I don’t think Sean Bean dies in National Treasure. The one from Game of Thrones stuck with me though, I really liked Ned Stark! Oh hey, I forgot about Goldeneye!
And I just added “fuckwit” to my dictionary file in my browser and word processor… I use that word entirely too much to put up with the red squiggly lines.
David M from the last thread:
Defeats the purpose of a pressure cooker, eh? (I keed, I keed;-)
An excellent example by David, but eyelids are not enough protection, DO NOT do this for very long.
A lot more wavelengths come into the eye from the sun than are blocked by a mere layer of skin. And you won’t get an aversion response because they’re not in the visible spectrum.
I did LOL at the 9gag jpg!
+++++++++++++++++++
I’m reposting (now with editing!) from the last thread:
Update on the Rat-Who-Won’t-Leave; When I woke up at 4 this morning, (bladder alert, not something going bump in the night), there was a gift laying just outside my bedroom.
No, not that kinda gift, he’d taken a wrapped fortune cookie off my desk in the living room and left it there in the middle of the floor, unwrapped, whole, with no discernible tooth or claw marks.
hat section of floor is about as far as you can get from a hiding or food or interesting place in my apt. I picked it up, trashed it, and when back to bed.
When I woke up to go to work there was a paper napkin, still folded, in the exact same spot. Which just happened to be the spot where he was standing when we had our staring contest a couple of days ago.
Either he’s leaving me offerings to appease the giant monster living in his apartment, or he’s trying to lull me into a false sense of security before biting my face off in the middle of the night.
+++++++++++++++
kristinc – “Sailor, my experience suggests that if you see one rat it’s highly unlikely that you have just the one rat. Sorry.”
I know, I know … but in this case I think he may have slipped into my apt during a small time frame when my furnace had blown its own pilot light out (it’s a whump when it lights off) and I removed the covers to light it and left them off a short amount of time. Those covers also cover the access the cold air return to the crawlspace.
I don’t have any evidence there is a family … but of course I was hoping it was a squirrel.
From last thread
I love Wrex, he’s not even in the squad but is still awesome in 2.
Also
http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/27/health/rich-more-unethical/index.html?eref=mrss_igoogle_cnn
Yes, the job creators are indeed less ethical apparently
@Ing, oh yes, I loved him in 2 as well. Wrex adds so much fun to the dialogue that I never went without him in my party in the first game. I didn’t dislike Grunt in the second game, but it just wasn’t the same.
Did you do any of the DLC? The dossier contents for your squad members was really fun, and seeing Grunt searching for shit on dinosaurs and sharks amused the hell out of me.
@slignot
The dossiers were awesome
My favorite was Legion’s hobbies.
First two times I didn’t punch the reporter, but if we’re still on Reapers are just a myth IngShep is snapping and taking a swing.
McDonald’s shakes are made of water, flavor, food coloring, and kappa-cargeenan.
Just saying.
No milk, no dairy, no calcium.
@Ing
My brother punched the reporter both times. It was awesome. :)
Ing,
http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2012/02/20/keep-that-santorum-out-of-our-science/comment-page-1/#comment-275166
(for you about energy)
In the US, even back when I worked FastFood, *spits*, it became illegal to say ‘Milk Shake’ as it contained no milk. McParts, Burger King, et al had to drop the ‘milk’ from their hydrogenated, soy based, whipped, food by-product.
Ing/Slignot:
Oh god, me too.
How
terrifyingawesome would he have been as a love interest*? XDI popped that reporter. What can I say? She was looking for it.
*No, I am not looking for that fanfiction.
Speaking of rats; I’m wondering where Caine is?
The Sailor,
She was around yesterday. *shrugs*
The Sailor: She was on the “Regal Standard” thread talking about sex goddess cults.
Now, now. In the UK they’re made of …
See? “Milk.” And, beetroot! That’s one of your five a day, right?
(I’m surprised there’s not more Ascorbic Acid (capitalisation theirs).)
Esteleth:
Not surprising. I’ve always found it interesting that there’s something in store-bought milkshakes that irritates my asthma. However, if I make one at home from fruit, milk, and ice cream, it’s not a problem.
It must be one of the highly artificial ingredients. Being a nerd, I’d like to know which one, but I suspect it’s a long list to investigate.
The Krogans were permanent members of my teams (1 and 2) as soon as they showed up. I also loved Mordin Solus and his sudden operatic breakout.
Hey all, remember down in the Knitting thread when we were saying “Well why don’t you blame diabetics for not eating right, then”?
Here y’all go:
http://freethoughtblogs.com/almostdiamonds/2012/02/27/the-blunt-amendment-making-health-care-worse-for-all/
From the proposed Blunt amendment:
And, of course, our dastardly socialist governments actually make firms list their products’ ingredients in a standardised way. Curse them!
Every cosmetic product’s list ingredients seems to start with “aqua”, whatever that is. A mind-control drug, no doubt. *shakeshead*
Bloody EUSSR … /DailyTelegraph
Oh, I found this “of” wandering around the kitchen. Could you find him a home in #36?
As far as my first gaming system goes, I can’t quite claim Pong, but I was the proud owner of a ColecoVision. I remember trying to record a video of me playing Carnival. It was a good lesson on in/out ports (never actually worked).
Therrin:
His safe-sex discussions were pretty choice, too.
HA!
David M. @665 in the previous chapter of The Endless Thread:
If it helps, here’s a selection of photos from the same area. These were taken by my brother. I didn’t take the photos, but I was there. :-)
David wrote about the February photo on his Geology of Utah calendar because I had mentioned that:
Utahans would not be caught dead honoring President Obama on President’s day, so David M.’s calendar marked the day as “Washington and Lincoln Day.”
Quoting myself:
I should have known better than to make a sweeping generalization about Utahans. Dear Utahans, forgive me.
Let’s limit that comment about calling Presidents Day “Washington and Lincoln Day” to those Utahans who are very conservative.
Got to say, one of my favorite movies of all time.
Kitteh is home. She must be doing well, because she’s her normal feline vacuum cleaner self. The veterinary nurse said she would likely not eat more than half her normal dinner. Instead, she had three to four tablespoonsful of wet food, plus some dry food, and she didn’t hork up any of it.
Also, I discovered that stuffed clams and onion rings are really good with a mixture of tomato ketchup and banana ketchup.
Slignot:
Ew, I can’t imagine knocking boots with anybody on the Democratic Leadership Council.
/what?
Ms. Daisy Cutter
yeah, regarding emotional states, I don’t think it’s possible to circumscribe the definitions of words referring to them in the way Ladd seems to do. I’m sure there will always be a certain range of variability about what a given word describes, even across native speakers.
The only reason other than what you said initially would be that Ladd has used the word “agitated” in a technical, narrowly defined sense in his work, but his reply doesn’t seem to indicate that.
David M.
After reading up on the issue, it apparently is not the first time the French government tried to ban “Mademoiselle”. Oh well.
I find it hard to tell women insisting on being called “Mademoiselle” that it’s sexist. But at least linguistic MRAs shouldn’t use that as an excuse..
opposablethumbs
I don’t know if she would have been arrested, or just have the medicine confiscated.
Actually, that can happen on entering the US too (or actually any other country with the exception of inside the EU), if you have prescription medicine not licenced in the country. I once saw some TV documentary about an East European man complaining bitterly to US Customs about his heart medicine being taken away from him. In such cases, you should always have a letter from your doctor, or a copy of your prescription on you.
I was always wary when I was carrying a six months’ worth of supply of Malarone with me, which costs something like $6-10 a day..
Pteryxx
I don’t think Tàijí quán would have been fundie-proof. Like Yoga can be tied to Indian religious practices, it can be tied to Chinese ones, like Taoism and for some schools, even to Neo-Confucianism. The entire Qì stuff is woo anyways, though I don’t doubt that the exercises themselves are beneficial.
According to Msgr. William Lynn, the highest-ranking priest charged in the Philadelphia child-abuse scandal, his boss — the late Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua — ordered Lynn to shred a list of 35 child-rapist priests that he had had compiled.
I don’t have any trouble believing that, but it’s kind of convenient, isn’t it, that several of the “real criminals” (according to Lynn’s lawyers) are dead or retired?
Hmmm debating whether it’s worth it to go for the delux when I do my ME3 preorder for the goodies…any thoughts?
Utah is also squishy about calling the third Monday in January “Martin Luther King Day.” There have been efforts to call it Civil rights day or something instead. Sigh.
I have been known to say “Utah. It’s a weird place to be from.”
Ing,
I didn’t even look for any delux/special edition versions, ‘cos I can’t spend too much money right now– $60 is about as much as I can handle.
Maryland priest denies communion to lesbian parishioner — at her mother’s goddamned funeral.
One of my dearest friends:
♥♥♥
Is anyone going to the CFI conference in Orlando this weekend?
I am!
@ PZ
Yeah, you’re on the schedule and everything!
It makes me wonder if Bruce Dern and Brad Dourif have it in their contracts that their characters have to die, if possible, in whatever tv show or movie they appear in.
Does anyone from the Horde regularly frequent BMEzine? Does anyone know when they started requiring a paid subscription to access some of the personal stories about being pierced?
I’m pretty pissed, tbh, because I wrote up several experiences with my genital piercings years ago and now they’re behind a paywall — I can’t access my own freakin’ experiences. I didn’t spend that time and energy to create revenue for BMEzine, I did it because I thought I was supporting a free community resource. And that the genital piercing categories are behind a paywall is gross. Makes it feel like my not-at-all-sexualized writing is being used as porn.
Next time I need to search Pharyngula Past, may I just call you instead?
I don’t know the site at all… but you might find the wayback machine to be helpful, both in accessing what you wrote, and in finding out when it changed.
http://wayback.archive.org/web/*/bmezine.com
Owlmirror! Excellent! I was able to access at least 2 out of 4 of my pieces, so at least I still have them (I did keep my own copies, but it was years ago and I think they got lost in a hard drive shuffle or similar).
And it looks like the site changed look and organization in early 2011, so that’s probably when they changed it. Asshats.
An insiders look at how mormons treat their own members if they don’t toe the line.
http://mormonstories.org/?p=2518
This podcast comes with a warning:
With a warning like that, you know it’s going to be good.
Grant Palmer talks about being subjected to a “Court of Love” and being told to deny his own research, and his own writing.
They’re great because they work for fresh greens. Better than duck mechanics, they stick you with a large bill.
Wow…that sounds painful. And time-consuming.
Thank you folks, tip safely and don’t forget to drive your waitress.
…why did I watch the video linked in the OP?
WHYYY?!
I see that no one has linked to this yet.
Cardinal George complains about Catholic hospitals being compelled to supply contraceptives.
How easy it is to omit that fact that if one accepts government, one cannot impose their own religious dogma.
Remember, he is also the one who compared a gay pride parade to Nazis.
Does anyone here know how frog blood causes parthenogenetic activity in frog eggs? Google has failed me :(
Mass Effect 3 pre-orders
I’m not going to… partly because Mass Effect has this really annoying thing about pre-orders in different areas from different retailers getting different items, partly because I play on the PC and if I REALLY want the content I’ll find it online.
Everyone (that gets one of the collector/deluxe editions) gets the N7 Arsenal Pack, Robotic Dog, Squadmate Alternate Outfit Pack, N7 Hoodie (casual outfit), and bonus mission “From Ashes”. As for the other 4 possible items… I’m just going to link to the Mass Effect wiki. I was really tempted by the bonus mission until I noticed it can be bought separately. The bonus gear is rarely worth it, because if they made them much better than your defaults upgrades in-game would become worthless.
All of the physical stuff in the Collector’s Edition is meh to me, except for the metal case and the soundtrack and I know one of my friends is buying the collector’s edition, so I’ll just rip a copy for myself. I make copies of all my game CD’s in iso form anyway, so the case isn’t worth the extra 20 USD. At least to me.
@ David Marjanović (previous incarnation of TET)
A shotgun!
(A hundred “balls” of shot… geddit? This one is really old. I thought it really funny when I was 12.)
@ feralboy 13
Check out Theo (no relation) Jansen (Link here to video.)http://www.ted.com/talks/theo_jansen_creates_new_creatures.html
@ Tome Wyrm 18
{theophontes tries same}
«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»…
(weeeee… that was fun)
*snarfle*
The Dutch expression: “Het is beter om over je fiets te lullen dan over je lul te fietsen” does not carry into English so well, unfortunately.
(“It is better to talk about your bicycle than ride over your [own] penis.”)
@ sailor 19
Only way to boil at high (above 100 C) temperatures. (Or fry at high temperatures … eg pressure cooker is the best way to fry juicy chicken.)
Starstuff:
My google-fu isn’t much better than yours tonight, but try starting here
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jez.1401770204/abstract
My brain isn’t working too well at this hour, but this seems to say that a protein, maybe related to microtubules, is necessary to induce parthenogenesis. From there, I would say that that protein is present in the blood.
I’ll post if I find anything more directly relevant.
Try these too:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0012160678900271
http://jcs.biologists.org/content/108/6/2187.short
Thanks Nutmeg!
Looks like the people do those studies were able to get their parthenogenetic embryos to develop a lot more than mine. Mine didn’t go beyond a really messed up second cleavage.
Starstuff: Still, that’s pretty cool. Developmental bio class? Parthenogenesis fascinates me, I would have loved to do that experiment. We just got to screw around with sea urchin fertilization and hybridization when I did a lab-based developmental bio course.
I’m not keeping up too well, so I’m sorry if I missed anything and here are *congratulations, hugs, chocolate, thanks* for anyone who wants them…
—
Replies to David Marjanović ♥:
Yes. Except I made them more stompy! And Roman!
*long hug back, and also to cicely and Ms. Daisy Cutter* Thanks. I keep worrying now because I remembered about dog lifespans. (It’s not like I forgot before, exactly – it just wasn’t salient.)
I grinned :)
See, I was going to reply to that with the first line, but then at first I thought I must be wrong, then I decided I’d think about it for a while, and then I forgot. Glad to know I was right!
Why thank you :) There seem to be some weird stress-related things going on.
What? No. I don’t believe it. There is no such thing as that. Carlie, clearly David is wrong and there are dark magicks involved.
—
Seconded.
Hee. I like your guest.
Yay! Yay! *kitty hugs, which are more like skritches*
That is some EXCELLENT snarl.
—
I got triggered in class today! Reading the Medea! I was pretty startled about that, myself. Sitting there trying to discuss Jason’s “but I’m such a nice guy” speech (hate hate hate) and some little undigested bit of memory resurfaces and suddenly my heart’s racing and I’m shaking and in a rage and somehow it’s two years ago again. So… Great. I’m apparently triggered by one of the most compelling and interesting portrayals of a woman in all of surviving ancient Greek literature. Awesome. So glad I’m studying gender in classics.
@ Pharyngucyclists:
I wonder if the expression is in any way related to:
(“Life is beautiful when you don’t make it tough for yourself.” (lit: “Life is beautiful when you don’t break your bicycle”)
@Caine, Fleur du Mal
*HUGS*
Thanks for the moral support on the Difference thread. It helped me calm down about it. I also think you and pelamun helped the other person reassess their own comments, which I am grateful for.
A quick search on “Bloggies” gave me nothing on this page, but it looks like the climate denialists have pharyngulated the votes there (Jo Nova and WUWT both got gongs, and oh boy are they triumphant about it). Should the actual-science camp make sure to mount a counter-campaign for more balanced votes next year?
Oops, forgot the link:
http://2012.bloggi.es/
Hello there gentle viewers… Please don’t bite me,
I was told that someone asked what it is like to be raised Seventh Day Adventist (SDA). I was raised by very strict SDAs. I hope that I can adequately answer the question from that vantage point. Please note that I stopped practicing before I moved away from home and so I cannot answer any questions about out of the nest SDA life. Also, I am going to simplify some of the beliefs so that this is an understandable but not exhaustive reply to those readers of non-SDA background.
The words suppose to, laws, don’t, and can’t ruled my everyday life growing up because of the many rules/laws that the SDAs follow. As “good” followers my parents believed in the teachings of the “prophetess” Ellen G. White in addition to the bible. A significant teaching of Mrs. White’s is that it is wrong to eat meat, even “clean” meat, because the SDA’s deity instructed humankind to eat vegetables while in the Garden of Eden. This significantly affected my life because I grew up in a region of the Great Plains, which has a “meat and potato” culture. This made eating at a non-SDA’s house difficult because I had a specific diet. Also, it wasn’t uncommon for my non-SDA peers to tease me because of my diet.
I could not participate in sports because (1) most sports events were on Saturday/Sabbath/theholydayofboring(your choice of expletives) and (2) Mrs. White’s writings teach that competition is bad. The fact that I couldn’t participate in sports was very disappointing to me as a child. Also, it too made it difficult to socialize with non-SDAs in the region because most children were involved in a sport.
Saturday is the SDA’s holy day or Sabbath. It begins at sundown on Friday and ends sundown on Saturday. There is a list of don’ts to follow during those “holy” hours. For example: No working, No buying or selling, No nonreligious entertainment material. This meant that in their strictest days my parents would not let me go swimming on Sabbath because it was a form of “work”. I could not read or watch anything that was not about the SDA deity, nature, or the martyrs. Because of these rules I couldn’t wait until Saturday night when I could play videogames, watch movies, read my novel, or play secular games. The only good thing about Sabbath was the food, which was always prepared on Friday and was the best of the week.
I hope this adequately answers the question. If not or if there are other questions just let me know and I will do my best to answer them ☺
Surprise, surprise! Someone is saying something idiotic on HuffPo Religion:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-lux/what-bible-is-santorum-reading_b_1288094.html
Mike Lux thinks Santorum’s interpretation of the Bible is wrong because it is full of liberal progressive ideas.
Good morning
Ah, in Germany you have the reoccuring discussion about the “Milchschnitte”, a sweet snack that is a white, sweet cream between two layers of biscuit which is marketed as practically being the milk you need.
Only, of course that milk is only 30% of the cream, the cream only 60% of the whole thing, the whole thing weighing about an ounce, the actual amount of milk is neglegible.
I love very much how food companies are always “technically saying the truth”. Beetroot juice serves as colouring, but you don’t have to list it as colouring, so you can write “no colouring”. “Natural flavour” is most likely fermeted tree bark, but you really don’t have to tell people that. “Yeast extract” is flavour enhancer but you don’t have to tell your customers who’d like to have food without flavour enhancer*.
*No, I know that glutamate is a naturally occuring pretty harmless substance. But in food it is simply a sign of a low quality product.
Neil deGrasse Tyson for
presidentEmperor.CC:
There’s a Connie Willis short story… not her novel To Say Nothing of the Dog, which I haven’t read yet, but a short story about some virus to which all the dogs on earth succumb, one by one. It’s not as profoundly heartbreaking as her novel Doomsday Book, but possibly only because of the length. I’m a cat person but I do love teh doggehs, too, and I can’t imagine a world without them.
Kitteh usually gets hugs as well as skritches from me, but I’m waiting for her to get back to her normal, fully hydrated and motivated self and do some washing. There’s a rank whiff about her that I guess cat saliva would ordinarily keeps in check.
Huh…just watched the thread video. What is Sean Bean? Some sort of necro-zombie-Rasputin-Energizer Bunny? Even the Christian deity would look at that many deaths and resurrections and say, ‘Hey! I’m only one supreme being here! How many of these fucking miracles do you think we can whizz out in one day?’
I must find that… Actually, I’m just putting everything by Connie Willis on my list.
Tangentially related: I came across Connie Willis for the first time on the High Octane Nightmare Fuel: Literature page of TVTropes, where she had landed for her story “All My Darling Daughters.” In my eventually failed quest to read everything on that page, I trudged in the snow for miles uphill both ways to find that story (meaning, it was in Special Collections or something in the library and I got lost trying to find it and engaged with actual humans and various things that aren’t actually a huge deal but I was really determined is what I’m saying). And at the time, three-ish years ago, I didn’t really get it. I thought it was sad, yeah, but… You know, just strange sad scifi. Now it’s available online. I just skimmed it. Giant huge flashing red trigger warning. That story is different now. Ugh.
:( Poor kitteh :( I hope she feels better soon.
OK, for the love of whoever is the patron Saint of tyres, I can’t find out which one is losing air.
Went to the station, checked all four of them. All towards the lower end of normal since winter is coming to an end soon, but nothing remarkable.
Brought them all up towards the upper end and will check again this afternoon.
*hugs for CC*
I like Connie Willis’ short stories more than her novels, but I recommend “…To Say Nothing of the Dog”.
— — — — — —
“Video games depict religion as violent, problematized, study shows” http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-02-video-games-depict-religion-violent.html
This is followed by a looong comment thread at Physorg…
— — — — — —
“Extreme poverty: 2.8 million children in the U.S. live on $2 per day” http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-02-extreme-poverty-million-children-day.html
Thank you Ronald Reagan. Thank you Fox News. Thank you Democrat GoP enablers.
— — — — — —
We Are Ing beat me to it: “Upper class people more likely to cheat: study” http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-02-upper-class-people.html
“The upper class has a higher propensity for unethical behavior, being more likely to believe – as did Gordon Gekko in the movie “Wall Street” – that “greed is good,” according to a new study”. (my comment: After Enron and the banks this is hardly news!!!)
(…but it is the blue-collar people who are most likely to get a jail sentence when caught)
— — — — — — —
“Immortal worms defy aging” http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-02-immortal-worms-defy-aging.html
— — — — — — —
“Universal’ vaccines could finally allow for wide-scale flu prevention” http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-universal-vaccines-wide-scale-flu.html
Women of the future may not have to worry about choosing between career or children if postponed childbirth can be achieved without risks… basic research below:
“Egg-making stem cells found in adult ovaries” http://www.nature.com/news/egg-making-stem-cells-found-in-adult-ovaries-1.10121
— — — — — —
DNA robot could kill cancer cells http://www.nature.com/news/dna-robot-could-kill-cancer-cells-1.10047
— — — — — —
Turing 100 years old: “Alan Turing’s bridging of logic and machines laid the foundation for digital computers, says George Dyson.
Nature magazine: ”Turing centenary: The dawn of computing “ http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v482/n7386/full/482459a.html
— — — — — — —
“Brown Mountain Lights, Mysterious Orbs In NC, Are Decades-old Mystery” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/26/brown-mountain-lights-nc_n_1302204.html
“The cool thing is, if ball lightning is preferentially made by nature in the Linville Gorge, at least we have a place to look for the conditions that might create it,” he said. “Otherwise, it’s hopeless to try and study ball lightning because it’s just randomly made and you don’t know where to look for it.”
— — — — — — —
Study shows Maya civilization collapse related to modest rainfall reductions http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-02-maya-civilization-collapse-modest-rainfall.html
Shit, shit, shit, fuck
My friend’s mum has cancer.
They don’t know much more than “it’s the big C” yet, they need to do CT scans and further tests.
I told her she can come over at any time if she doesn’t want to be alone, but I’m afraid there’s nothing else I can do :(
Giliell, FWIW there was a time when I mysteriously kept getting a flatter and flatter front tyre, but only when my bike wasn’t in the workshop and after some riding.
Long story short, it turned out to be the valve: centrifugal forces* pushed the stopper out when I exceeded 80 km/h (or thereabouts), and a replacement valve fixed my problem.
—
* As an aside, there was a time when the Bad Astronomer was on my reading list — I like those who know their science.
birgerjohansson,
Ah, memories.
Back in the day, every introductory text to computers essentially began this way: “There are two types of computers: digital and analog”.
I’ve tried setting up a linguistics tumblr
And this is relevant to atheism:
Sports conditional leads to confusion whether judge is Muslim or not
@ Nutmeg
Yeah, I’m in developmental bio lab. We did sea urchin fertilization first, then early frog development, and now we’re doing chick embryo development. It’s so awesome. We put little windows in fertilized chick eggs, so now we can look into the egg and see the developing embryo (beating heart and all!).
Ouch, poor Sean Bean. Tremendously awesome deaths. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen Goldeneye, so I can’t remember but, why did the Cradle explode?
The Connie Willis short story about the dogs, or related to the dogs dying was called “The last of the Winnebagos” and was in a collection called “Impossible Things”
Dead tired. Stayed up and got to watch the Daytona 500 for the first time in years (it is normally on Sunday afternoon, and I almost always work on Sundays (right now, Sunday is my Monday!)) and, what with the aviation kerosene fire and repairing the track, it was almost 1:00am by the end.
———-
Previous Thread
———–
Holy crap. I’ve been there. It was raining and the damn shale was so slippery we could have sledded on it.
By the end of a day, no underwear actually fits.
You both have my sympathy. I’ve given up trying to control it which means, of course, that I have very few actual friends.
Go ahead. Rub it in, you ageist!
———-
This Thread
———-
Very well. They are doing gods’ work here on earth and are secure in the knowledge that they and only they know what is best for lesser beings.
Mmmmm. Brown carageenan. [drool]
[insert sound of a record needle dragging all the way across an LP of Tiny Tim’s greatest hit]
That would be Deflatus. He was a cleric living in the suburbs of Rome in the year 1855/60r15, and, after refusing to contribute to the state religion, he was pierced with a short sword. He immediately began to deflate, making a phphphphphphpht! noise as he, for a full minute, flew in circles around the Roman soldier. This was considered a miracle and the Roman soldier left the army and started a very short-lived rubber chariot-tyre business (it failed because (and this is ironic as hell) vulcanizing had not been invented yet).
Fuck.
Giliell, I’m so sorry.
CC:
Not a bad idea. I also recommend her humorous short novel Bellwether, which is about trends and fads. (Also, thanks, Ariaflame.)
Kitteh will be fine. She’s just a little sluggish, I think, because she had anesthesia yesterday and because she’s still on painkillers for her pulled tooth. She still wants to eat dry food, but she’s eating it very, very gingerly, so she’s getting wet food for a change as well. (Normally she just bolts and barfs it, so she almost never gets it.)
Pelamun:
I’d read that.
Apropos of nothing, I clicked on the Alain de Botton post and got a pop-up for “5 Foods Never to Eat.” It displayed a drawing of a banana. Coincidence?!?
Lemme correct that so it makes sense:
That would be Deflatus. He was a cleric living in the suburbs of Rome in the year 185/60r15, and, after refusing to contribute to the state religion, he was pierced with a short sword. He immediately began to deflate, making a phphphphphphpht! noise as he, for a full minute, flew in circles around the Roman soldier. This was considered a miracle and the Roman soldier left the army and started a very short-lived rubber chariot-tyre business (it failed because (and this is ironic as hell) vulcanizing had not been invented yet).
Repost:
REASON RALLY!
If you’re planning to attend the Reason Rally in March here in DC and would like to hang out with the local Horde, please go here to fill out a poll with the salient details.
We’re planning to meet for breakfast early and stake a good spot on the mall (Location TBA, based on where the stage is), and then go out for dinner afterwards to celebrate.
Email me with questions, because I will most likely not be back on TET until my life settles down a little! :) (I’m thinking around mid-March, possibly…)
uh oh
I think the yogurt I just ate might have been a little spoiled
this could get bad quick
I found this interesting: that whole “black people like watermelons” stereotype? Turns out that isn’t just a coincidental thing, it was specifically engineered as propaganda to justify slavery. see here
(From story: “Why watermelons? According to David Pilgrim, the curator of the Jim Crow Museum, defenders of slavery used the watermelon as a symbol of simplicity. African Americans, the argument went, were happy as slaves. They didn’t need the complicated responsibilities of freedom; they just needed some shade and a cool, delicious treat.”)
Erm, isn’t yoghurt milk that has spoiled in the right way? That’s like saying that your sour cream has soured. Or your Roquefort is mouldy.
Sorry. Couldn’t resist the humour (or the attempt thereof). I hope things come out all right.
Sorry again.
Ogvorbis @99: I’m sure he’ll get to the bottom of it eventually, or something else will come up.
Ms. Daisy Cutter,
Thanks, it’s at http://linguistblog.tumblr.com/
I’ve reblogged some stuff from TET, including the Italian cruise ship thing..
Oooh. Thanks, Pelamun.
Carlie:
Earl Butz, anybody?
Oh, yogurt definitely has a “use by” date. Unpleasant things happen after that.
Today is the day of the 228 Massacre. May the victims never be forgotten and their legacy carry on.
http://taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2012/02/28/2003526560
and for those who read German, here’s a very good write-up about it in the NZZ (probably the best German language newspaper, at least stylistically)
http://www.nzz.ch/nachrichten/politik/international/taiwan_gedenkt_eines_massakers_vor_65_jahren_1.15322949.html
Transplanted from another thread:
Dr. Audley Z. Darkheart, purveyor of candy and lies #63
My favorite Plasmatics story:
When W.O.W. died I was visiting family in the Rochester NY area. The newspaper article included the obligatory local interest item, about a show they played outside of town.
A tavern decided to build a stage in their beer garden and have bands play. The Plastmatics were the first show. A neighboring business called the police to complain about the noise.
The complaining business? An airport.
Hmm, I haven’t looked at Annals of Online Dating in a whi— AHAHAHAHAHA. (SFW.)
carlie: interesting link, thanks.
I wonder if something similar’s going on with welfare and lobster? Those poor folks should be happy with their crumbs and not try to get civilized real-people treats? Or Natalie’s catches-22 where daring to be happy even a little bit justifies other people erasing any victimization that ever happened to you?
*headshake*
We had one idiot a while back who talked about how charitable he was organizing donations for the poor on xmas…only to be horrified at how they wasted the money on childrens presents and luxary.
still following racism watermelon links…
There’s a Jim Crow Museum? Cool… also, ugh.
http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/question/may08/
*headdesk*
*headdesk*
*headdesk*
*still* following racism links… isn’t there an xkcd about this?
Anyway, the Jim Crow Museum’s quite a find – a huge online collection of racist memorabilia and discussion of stereotyping. Here’s a long essay well worth reading, by David Pilgrim, the curator and founder:
The Garbage Man: Why I Collect Racist Objects
This is a “thing” with wingnuts and lolbertarians. They argue that African-Americans are better off than Africans whose ancestors were not abducted and enslaved. This argument, of course, disregards the role of European colonialism in turning much of Africa into hellholes.
Santorum comes from behind in Alabama three way
Sounds messy
Lucky in the same way a kid may be lucky their mother was raped.
Aren’t you lucky that something horrible happened to someone else to produce you as you are today!? Imagine if things had been different why right now things would be different than the way they are! Be glad we basically retroactively sacrificed people for your benefit!
Welcome in, amidamaro. :)
–
I could vote for that.
–
I also recommend To Say Nothing of the Dog. Awesome book, with sly bits of humor tucked in everywhere.
–
And likewise, fuck, fuck, fuck, shit.
Sorry to hear it.
–
Huh. That is interesting. I never would have guessed.
–
This short story is really good (however, this is coming from a person whose favorite kind of book is dystopian novels).
Mormons are in the hot seat over their necrodunking rituals … again.
This time, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is being taken to task for proxy baptizing Diana, Princess of Wales.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2107396/How-Diana-baptised-Mormon.html
The article not only provides details of the People’s Princess being subjected posthumously to mormon baptism, but it also highlights other oddities, like marrying dead people to dead people.
Aratina Cage, *HUGS* right back. I was quite surprised to see you being lectured on inequality.
birger,
this relates to the discussion regarding pojkvän/flickvän (girlfriend/boyfriend, gendered terms for s.o.) from some time ago: here, someone proposes the word henvän, hen of course being an artificially constructed gender-neutral third person singular pronoun.
How wide spread is that word? 52 paltry google hits don’t seem to be like much…
In this special on Aristotle’s Lagoon (starts here), Armand Leroi says that Aristotle did the same thing, thousands of years ago, and was the first to do so and describe what he saw.
The documentary includes video capture of just such a developing chick.
The segment with the chick starts at about 7:21 in the second part of the documentary.
Note to PZ and cephalofans: This segment also includes cuttlefish eggs — some of which are clear, rather than inked by their moms — and a cuttlefish dissection.
We Are Ing
I really hope things turn out OK for your grandmother. If there’s been an update after the PoA discussion I must have missed it, but I’ve been thinking about her/your situation since the week-end and am holding thumbs for a good outcome. Strongs.
Starstuff, 116
I loved that story, though I, too, must confess a special place in my heart for the Dystopian.
Connie Willis and All My Darling Daughters
I’d never heard of this author before but since someone mentioned that this story is available on-line and I’m an incurable bibliophile and it just sounded damn provocative, I looked it up and read it just now.
I am still reeling. o.O I don’t even have words.
Giliell, 86
I’m so sorry about your friend and her mother. That severely sucks.
ALSO, you were right about the thing we talked about whenever way back it was (I only know it was somewhere in December, the most shitty of months in my life to date), about telling my husband. My cousin died the 17th of December, and I only worked up the courage to talk to him about that this past weekend.
Anyway, I just needed to tell you thank you, you were right.
On that topic, to all of the horde
I apologize for the breakdown I had over some or other linguistic thingie during that time (can’t even remember what it is and it’s too painful (and painfully embarrassing) right now to look it up. I’m so sorry, everybody.
Cassandra Caligaria
I love the new ‘nym! But I’m sorry about the doggie :(. And I’m really sorry that you got triggered. That seriously sucks horribly, but it’s not something wrong or defective in you, please remember that.
Strongs to you too.
Miss Daisy Cutter
Yay for kitteh! Glad she’s ok, here’s to her continued recovery.
Necrodunking rituals
What is that I don’t even
“…told he’s lucky his ancestors were slaves…”
I see this too often here. The “argument” goes: “yeah but “we” (meaning: the rich, more intelligent and vastly superior white folk (PUKE) who came and STOLE INDIGENOUS PEOPLE’S LAND AND MEANS OF CREATING A LIVELIHOOD AND SO MANY OTHER ATROCITIES THAT I CAN’T…. AAAARGH!) gave them schooling, jobs, this, that and the other thing! They were certainly better off during Apartheid than they are now, struggling in squalor and poverty! I don’t understand why this makes me a racist asshat that should be ashamed of taking up valuable biological matter. QQ. ” Double Puke.
So many things wrong with that argument, I don’t even know where to begin. Usually I get so angry and frustrated that I start crying and have to walk away (which leads them to claim “victory!”, of course).
On that note, anyone else find that when they get angry, they start crying uncontrollably? I guess I still don’t know how to express anger appropriately, and I’m past 30.
***
First time in a while I post, because most of the time I’m completely threadrupt, being only able to read bits at a time. However, now that we have free interwebz at work (AT FUCKING LAST! YAY!), I’ll hopefully be able to contribute a bit more. That is, if the (secular, partially publically funded) Uni where I work doesn’t nail me for infringing on their PC use policy which includes not being allowed to access “anti-Christian” sites.
But if they do bring it, I’m up for the fight, coz that shit’s just ridiculous and discriminatory and if I slavishly followed it, I wouldn’t be able to actually DO MY FUCKING JOB, which is (mostly) what I use the PC and network for.
Fuck you, Sam Brownback.
***
The mother of a child with Tay-Sachs syndrome writes, “Rick Santorum, meet my son. He has a degenerative disease that has left him blind, paralyzed, and increasingly nonresponsive.If I had known before he was born, I would have saved him from suffering.”
***
Misogyny kills:
A bit of awesome from Colbert’s writers (from last night) (on the forthcoming Lorax movie):
One more Pharyngulite has made an appearance in a dream of mine.
░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░
PNAS: Higher social class predicts increased unethical behavior
That’s the paper behind comment 21.
Abstract:
Seven studies using experimental and naturalistic methods reveal that upper-class individuals behave more unethically than lower-class individuals. In studies 1 and 2, upper-class individuals were more likely to break the law while driving, relative to lower-class individuals. In follow-up laboratory studies, upper-class individuals were more likely to exhibit unethical decision-making tendencies (study 3), take valued goods from others (study 4), lie in a negotiation (study 5), cheat to increase their chances of winning a prize (study 6), and endorse unethical behavior at work (study 7) than were lowerclass individuals. Mediator and moderator data demonstrated that upper-class individuals’ unethical tendencies are accounted for, in part, by their more favorable attitudes toward greed.
░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░
Alas, I still don’t have Internet at home, and there’s no sound here in the museum, so YouTube is pretty useless to me at the moment. :-(
Sure, but appalling amounts of people have no idea. That includes the whole general culture: Käpt’n Blaubär claims the moles eat his cabbage, and the gophers that regularly invade Scrooge McDuck’s money bin are always translated as moles, even when their rodent faces are plain for the world to see. Now please hold me before I get all outraged about Erika Fuchs.
Krtek forever.
Wonderful :-)
Oh. Yeah. I wear glasses. UV probably doesn’t get through. :-) IR should be felt as heat after some time.
*twitch* Don’t say that in German. :-)
*squee* *cute overload*
Thanks, but… there’s no link. :-(
*clenched-tentacle salute*
You may, but I’ve been absent during a few important events, and actually finding the (sub)threads I remember is sometimes difficult.
Well, for some value of “fuck”.
:-}
^_^
~:-| Never encountered that. Only la bicyclette and of course le vélo.
Hooraaaaaaaaaaaaay.
Shortening telomeres are great protection against cancer. Our metabolism is a lot more active than that of any flatworm, and that means we produce a lot more oxygen radicals and stuff.
Not true.
And mine came in bulk from a cheap store.
Subthread won.
Hooraaaaaaaaaaaaay.
I love the comments…
X-) It does.
Fuck you, indeed. From the link:
For my wife, that would mean either she change careers, or we move. The only place here offering the job she wants is run by Catholics.
Something for fans of both interior design and snark: Fuck Your Noguchi Coffee Table. Even if I occasionally disagree with the blogger’s disapproval. (Vintage typewriters, card catalogs, and metal fans as décor elements are neat.)
OK, I’m confused. Can anyone explain the linguistic argument to me? #
In Spanish, negro, or rather un negro would be a nominalisation of an adjective. Or in the feminine form, una negra, right?
How does the nominalisation of an adjective make this still refer to a thing?
Also when we then talk about the Germanic languages, where we still have an animate/inanimate contrast:
– ein Schwarzer (masc.), eine Schwarze (fem.)
It might hold for English, though I’d have to look up when exactly English lost grammatical gender.
Note: I do not deny that slaves were dehumanised, and language use reflected that too. But I fail to see how the nominalisation of an adjective reflects that.
If it’s about being reduced to the colour of one’s skin, I understand the argument. It’s the “color is a thing” line that confuses me, as all properties are things, and in that sense, even African or American would refer to a property.
Giliell, I’m so sorry. Cancer absolutely fucking sucks. Hugs/booze/chocolate being stuffed in the USB port now.
I’m actually in the middle of growing my hair out to donate (and hating it) as a gesture of support for a coworker with terminal cancer. She’s been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and she’s had to start wearing wigs in the last few weeks now. Thankfully she’s tolerating the chemo very well and it looks like it’s buying her some more time.
It doesn’t. What happens instead is that this noun gets used like “man” or “person” – instead of them, as if referring to another species.
That’s the effect of German Neger. Negerkinder is downright creepy.
whut?
*sigh* More school shooting news
Just do NOT read the comments (not that you need the warning. I’m just self-destructive in that way). Sample:
Emphasis mine.
Fuck you, you over-privileged asshole. The lack of a desire to take your own life has very, very little to do with being “stronger and smarter”. So just fuck you, piss off, and stop making my fucking miserable life even more horrible by trying to heap guilt on me for not being “strong” or “smart” enough.
AAAAAAAARG!
/incoherent rage rant.
Well, I’m no linguist, but this makes as much sense to me as:
@Ms Daisy cutter:
Are you sure the blogger is showing disapproval with the decor? It didn’t seem that way to me, just pointing out some interesting interior decor, that I probably would not put in my own home (had I a home that wasn’t a single room…)
David,
ok, so basically it’s othering. That I get. I don’t get the “colours are thing” thing.
animate inanimate:
was my shorthand way of saying that most Germanic languages have retained such a distinction in their gender system:
animate: masculine or feminine : in some languages merged to utrum
inanimate: neuter, but also masculine or feminine
there are some exception in that neuter nouns can refer to animates (probably should have said human / non-human contrast to begin with)
Erulóra,
the person who wrote that calls themself a linguist, so that’s what got me confused and afraid I had overlooked something…
We are Ing:
http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2012/02/20/keep-that-santorum-out-of-our-science/comment-page-1/#comment-275166
For you, if you haven’t seen it already.
Yeah. It is all a part of the conservative ownership society. You gotta own your victimhood. Just like the poor are allowed to own their poverty.
What the fuck is wrong with people? Why are so many people (here in the US, because that is what I know) so big on allowing people to suffer? More than that, wanting people to suffer? Do they really think that bullying is a good thing and that the suffering it creates causes character?
Actually, it does. Unfortunately, it creates even more bullies. Parents beat children thus teaching children that violence is an acceptable way of correcting behaviour. Children bully children and the victim is told to either suck it up and be a grownup about it, or they are told to stand up to the bully (which either gets the victim beaten up, or just reinforces the idea that violence is an acceptable way to correct behaviour). Adults abuse children — physically, sexually, mentally — and can the abused fight back? Hell no! So what do they do? They find their own victim and carry on the wonderful tradition. Boys and men abuse their girlfriends, and wives, and yes, I know that sometimes women and girls are the abusers, and guess what? The abuser has been taught, in school, at home, by society, by the military, by entertainment, by sports, that hurting people is an acceptable method for changing behaviour. Add guns to the mix? Yeah. That solves the fucking problem. Now we have an entire nation made up of dumbfucks like me who think that violence solves problems (what I was taught (may not have been the intended message, but that’s the one I got)) and, if I wanted, easy access to firearms. And, certainly, blaming the victim always works, too. It’s okay to pick on him, he’s different. It’s okay to pick on her, she reads books. It’s okay to pick on those kids, they are black, or latino, or asian, or whatever. And then we all have the fucking nerve, after socializing ourselves to accept violence, to worship violence, to see violence as somehow cleansing and wholesome, to see abuse as acceptable, we have the nerve to be surprised when someone commits murder. Or goes on a shooting spree in a school. Because bullies are the paradigm. Bullies are the majority. So the victims are the minority and guess what? In this country, the minority is always at fault. Every fuckig time.
G’bye. I gotta walk awaya.
Good evening
Jeez, I’m hungry
I got a very belated christmas present today from two of my students: A bottle of wine. It was so late because they had to drink the first bottle to make sure it’s good :)
Gen Fury
You’Re welcome.
I’m glad it worked out
Yeah, but grandpa was what used to be known as a Bergmannsbauer, miners who grew and raised lots of their food themselves, so he could tell you precisely which small animal he planned to kill ;)
pelamun
I think the argument goes that the author understands a bit of linguistics but not enough and then thought xe had found something.
I think xe was confused by the zero-derivation and the lack of inflection.
*wave* bad bad internet, but I had to give a shout-out to Cracked. They’ve got a story on racism! With lots of the good points!
http://www.cracked.com/blog/4-things-jeremy-lin-story-reveals-about-modern-racism/
I’ve still got this fucking cold.
The wrapper on one of my cough drops said, “Let’s hear your battle cry!” What the hell? I can barely speak, let alone holler “SPOOOOOON!” at the top of my lungs. Your drops are okay, Halls, but they ain’t that good.
Anyway.
David M:
Do I even want to know? ;)
I finished my lab an hour early today. I the first person done. When I was done and packing up I was looking around the room like “Did I do something wrong?” But I didn’t. So now I nap. And that’s my story.
speaking of racial perception…
The wonderful people at http://spreadingsantorum.com/ have begun to redefine Romney as “to defecate in terror.” Please visit http://spreadingromney.com/ on a regular basis via Google, and post the link everywhere.
Audley:
Aaaaw, I’m so sorry you have a cold. Miserable times.
Thanks, Caine. :)
Life would be much better if I could just stop fucking sneezing. Ew.
A little word substitution, and this sucker’s ready for wider application:
“But the existence of
kidney thievesFGM doesn’t makepickpocketingdate rape OK, and it doesn’t mean people beingpickpocketedraped by a date should shut up and stop whining and be grateful they still haveall their organstheir clitorises.”–
Audley
Sorry to hear about the cold.
If you popp the reporter in German, Mr. Darkheart might want to ask you some questions, Unless, of course you decided to have an open relationship beforehand ;)
Giliell:
Hee hee hee. I wasn’t too far off the mark, then. :)
@cicely
I thought you were going to say something about elevators in that comment.
David M. @125
Oh FFS, I borked the link and never returned to fix it. My Pharyngula Saloon privileges have probably been revoked. Here’s the link.
http://lelandhoward.photoshelter.com/gallery/Utah-southern/G0000Hzxbg5bnzkk/1
There are a lot of options on that page. “Wildhorse Butte” and “Crack Canyon” are in the general area depicted on your Utah calendar.
Audley:
I could make a terrible joke here…but I won’t. ;D
Giliell:
Hmmm. A good friend of mine has the surname Popp.
Caine:
I blame the cold meds for my wacky posts. :D
Chas: Do you see some utility in having this conversation again? Coyne’s post is largely about the same Rosenberg 2002 paper that we have already discussed. A lot.
Even if we treat people like we would any other animal, taxonomy below the species level is every bit as arbitrary (or moreso) than taxonomy at the species level. What is the goal of erecting subspecific taxa in humans? Is it an adequate description of diversity? Recognizing that clinal variation exists in metapopulations does not require a taxonomic act. Further, taxonomic acts ought to be associated with nomenclatural acts. If you and Jerrry think its beneficial to recognize biological races in humans, you ought to at least be willing to name them.
Hey Lynna, I wanted to ask you for pretty wilderness recommendations if they exist.
Once it gets more into early spring, spouse and I are planning on going to visit Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park in Nevada and camp a bit in the surrounding area. Do you know of any cool little spots to check out while we’re there? Or even any fun little spots to check on on the way there from Salt Lake? I’ve spent almost no time in Nevada outdoors, honestly.
I am perpetually drooling at your shots. One of these years we’ll budget to get a nice dSLR, but it won’t be for a while.
We interrupt this discussion to bring you:
GIANT PREHISTORIC CAVE PENGUINS!!!!
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/02/kairuku-fossil-penguin/
whee!
CBC (Canadian Broadcasting..) has jumped into the discussion of mormon necrodunking rituals.
http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/episode/2012/02/28/mormons-baptizing-holocaust-victims/
There’s a podcast there that features a song, “Baptize,” from the Broadway play Book of Momron. The song is about consensual baptism.
There’s text as well, but not much. The podcast is the meat. Excerpt from text portion:
Caine
Not to bad, Herr Popp.
Infinitive is “poppen”, so “popp” only exists as imperative.
It is also stricktly related to having sex, so you can’t use it like fuck.
AFAIK there is also no noun “ein Popp” like a fuck and no agent, so Mr. Popper’s penguins doesn’t make people giggle.
But my sister has a patient whose last name is Ficker. That is fun…
Lynna
Beauuuuuuuutifull
Nothing I have ever done on Pharyngula has had anything to do with ‘utility’.
Who’s “we”? when? where? I’ve never discussed that paper.
That’s not my goal, nor Coyne’s, nor Rosenberg’s et al.
It’s not about ‘recognizing clinal variation’, but rather about recognizing geographically correlated multivariate clustering of variation that may or may not include clinal patterns.
And nobody is advocating a taxonomic act.
Did you read Coyne’s post? If so, here’s a quote you missed:
and another:
In other words, it’s not your father’s typological race concept. It doesn’t require that every individual can be precisely pigeonholed. What’s ‘beneficial’ is not erecting taxa, but recognizing such empirical patterns of variation that exist instead of sweeping everything but Lewontin 1972 under the rug for ideological reasons. IMO.
But if you don’t get this, then there’s little hope that anybody else around here will either. I just wanted to link to what struck me as an interesting and dogma-challenging read.
Or, I suppose, Karl Popper either.
Oh, well.
Chas: We (you were there for part of it) had a long discussion that involved Rosenberg’s use of STRUCTURE in episode XXVI-XVIII of the endless.
Coyne also says this:
If he doesn’t mean race as a taxon*, or a social construct, I don’t know what the fuck he means.
Then why use the same term?
Tomato, tomahto.
*Not necessarily a typological thing, man.
I can recommend the novel – I must get hold of some of her short stories. OTOH, Blackout, which takes place in the same time-travel universe as To Say Nothing of the Dog is – or at least the first 120 pages are – dull, dull, dull. It seems to have been written as a tribute to the “plucky Brits” of WWII, rather than to be entertaining.
*happy noises*
My new desk arrived! It’s going to be all shiny and transparent and adjustable and artsy!
Ing:
Cool! My desk is old, old, old now, but it’s huge and black, so I never seriously think about replacing it.
Don’t want to get into it with Chas, just pointing out that your position seems very racially blind.
Hey all, no time to chat. I just popped in to gush. I have a job again. Fixing Bikes! SO EXCITED! And I can walk to work. Ha!
Pretty nifty:
All Alone in the Night – Time-lapse footage of the Earth as seen from the ISS
http://youtu.be/FG0fTKAqZ5g
I particularly like the flashes of the thunderstorms seen from above. And the aurora borealis seen from above.
CongaRats, Dhorvath!
Yay, Dhorvath!
*confetti!*
Ing: How is that not getting into it?
Dhorvath: Boo yah!
Hmmm. Well a lot depends on the route you take. Are you coming down from the north (Interstate 80); or up from the south (I-15 to 95); or are you going to try the more difficult route across the middle, Highway 6 across the desert, over mostly dry mountain ranges to Baker, and then around the northern end of Great Basin National Park (finally, some trees and forests)?
Going south, same route you’d take to Vegas, there’s the Beaver Dam Wilderness in the Virgin River Gorge. Link to photo. At the risk of self-promotion, check page 129 in my book Utah’s Wilderness Areas. This small wilderness is right on the route. See also pages 118 and 119 in the book.
The southern route also takes you close enough to detour near the city of St. George in order to explore the Pine Valley Mountain Wilderness. (Polygamist colony at the base of this mountain range.) Page 124 in the book.
Longer detours near Cedar City will take you east on 14 to Cedar Breaks National Monument, and Ashdown Gorge Wilderness (all described in the same book).
If you drive through the middle of the western half of the state on Highway 6, be sure you have a good spare tire, your own food and water supplies, etc. The route is paved all the way, but islands of civilization are few and far between. You are essentially crossing a whole bunch of basin-and-range geography. A lot of that territory is managed as if it were wilderness, and is BLM land designated as Wilderness Study Areas. These include: Wah Wah Mountains, King Top, Conger Mountains, Notch Peak, Howell Peak, and Swasey Mountains. All are described in the book. Photo. There’s some good rock hunting on this route, including a trilobite-rich area.
One advantage of taking the middle route is the close proximity to the high mountains of Great Basin N.P. on the Nevada/Utah border, and spectacular scenery. The mountains will probably still be snowed in, with limited access in the spring. You could check this before you go. So far this has been a low snow year.
On the middle route, you’d make your way from Baker to Ely, Nevada, crossing more basin-and-range territory. There’s no direct route from Ely to Ione, which is the town just north of the state park you are headed for. From Ely, you can cross basin-and-range land to the north; or you can do the same to the south. The route that is almost directly west, and a bit north goes through Eureka, and that’s somewhat more interesting, with fewer long stretches of total desolation. Eureka has a museum, a historical district, lots of mining history, etc., and it is surrounded by mountains.
If you take the northern route out of Salt Lake City, (Interstate 80), short detours will take you into the Deseret Peak Wilderness, North Stansbury Mountains Wilderness Study Area, and Cedar Mountains WSA. Descriptions begin on page 94 in the book. You will cross Utah north of the Dugway Proving Grounds, entering Nevada at Wendover. Travel NW on I-80 to Wells, and then W on I-80 to Elko. Elko is rife with mining history. Continue W on I-80 through fucking desolate scrub lands to Battle Mountain. Turn south on 305 and drive through one whale of a lot more Great Basin Desert.
The middle route is the shortest, but there’s no freeway. Most adventurous, most dangerous if something goes wrong. Depending on weather and snowpack, I would take the middle route and camp out in the desert. But I’m crazy.
The south route is the longest (I didn’t figure it out exactly). You drive to Vegas, and then to Tonapah before you turn north. There’s lots of civilization along the way, and Beaver Dam Wilderness is at a low elevation, definitely warm enough for early spring camping or hiking.
The north route allows for a gambling/casino, yuck, wtf stop at Wendover.
Best advice, read the book and decide what wilderness or wilderness study areas appeal to you most (take early spring access into account), then plan your route accordingly.
Slignot, you can also cross western Utah on the old Pony Express route, but that requires driving more than 70 miles of unpaved road — maybe not the best idea in early spring.
Well, actually, in some states you are allowed to shoot someone if you feel ‘threatened’. And you’re not a kid.
My older brother is a bully, he’s always been a bully, and now he just does it, usually, with guilt. His son turned out to be VERY accomplished physically, but turned around the bully thing to where he’s a protector of people. I’m so proud of that
kidadult!Even if Oggie has left the forum I hope he kept his ports open, ’cause I’m sending lots o’ chocolate his way.
I want to be a Giant Prehistoric Lynna so I can be bigger.
I’m going through McDonalds’ (US) ingredients (and DIETARY WARNINGS):
Eh?
~{:-/
Dhorvath, woo hoo! (The Conga rats were already hired by Caine, so I just offer confetti & sparkling rum.)
+++++++++++++++++
“Don’t want to get into it with Chas, just pointing out that your position seems very racially blind.”
I am probably missing something, but I thought that was the point.
+++++++++++++++++
changeable moniker IRT ingredients; whippet, whippet good.
Lynna, we had planned on going mainly via I-80 and approaching from the North. (I-80 really is a hideous highway, though and if I can talk spouse into another path, I’m all for it.) Keep in mind we have cars and not all wheel drive cars either, so we will push our luck with some dirt roads, but once I start getting into washed out areas we tend to turn back. I do not want to get stuck.
But the middle route sounds really fun to me. I’m more adventurous like you, but I have to assuage the concerns of a more cautious spouse who for years claimed any time we went outside, bears would eat us. (I can’t wait to have a truck to scratch those “oooh, I wonder where that road goes” itches.) I wonder if I could convince spouse to spring for it and camp in the desert; I’m half convinced the only reason he’s excited about this is because he loves dinosaurs.
The lack of snow has alternately been just bizarre (much of January felt like April here) and kind of worrisome. If it weren’t for the super wet year previously, I’d be freaking out about the reservoirs. But since it’s been super light, we may be able to pull that in the spring. Good thoughts, especially to add to rock collections.
Plus neither of us gamble, so Wendover is fucking pointless. (Hell, when we go to Vegas, we don’t really go to Vegas. We visit his dad and stepbrother and eat at the nice buffets.)
changeable moniker,
That’s how US nutrition labels work. I’ve bought soy-based breakfast bars with the big ol’ warning Contains Soy underneath the ingredients list*. Hell, I wouldn’t even be shocked if the flour in my cupboard had a warning on it, too.
*Is a soy allergy a problem? I mean, I get warnings about nut products, but soy?
Ooh, I was just playing with google maps to look at the middle route, and I can see cool rocks just from the colors on the satellite imagery.
I’ll see if I can coerce him to risk bears. It’s supposed to be a decently long camping trip, so I may be able to make progress.
When I lived in Las Vegas I became amazed at the people who only thought it was there for gambling. It’s like saying L.A. is only there for movies.
It’s one part of the city, the rest of the town is like most other places.
anecdote: when my Dad flew into LA we both flew up to visit my sister in Reno. She wanted to take us to a movie, Dances With
Perfect HairWolves. I demurred, saying “when you come to LA do I take you to the Bicycle Club?”Slignot, as far as I know there are no damned bears on the middle route. Probably some black bears in the high country of Great Basin National Park.
The rest of the route is not good bear country. Maybe you better not tell your spouse about the mountain lions. You could mention the wild horses.
There about 150 acres of trilobite fossil beds within Swasey Mountain WSA. The BLM estimates that 200 to 300 visitors per year come to this nationally significant fossil bed. The spur road to Antelope Spring Trilobite Bed is off the Dome Canyon Rd., about 1 mile east of Dome Canyon Pass.
Owlmirror @166. Thanks for the link. That was awesome. I kept wanting to slow it down.
We humans certainly have lit the place up in some spots.
The aurora borealis was awesome.
I did some research.
Apparently the Milk Producing Alliance of America (MPAA) got in a fight with the American Cream Producer’s Collective (ACPC) resulting in a lawsuit over whether nitrous oxide encouraged whipping, and—remember, this was the Clinton era—whether ACPC vs. MPAA could serve as a test case for tort reform. Creamers and milkers were summoned to Washington to testify before a House Commission. In back room deals, the following were established:
1. Cream would declare that it was in fact a milk product, but would be indemnified for any role in causing coronary heart disease, and any class actions arising therefrom.
2. Milk would refrain from referring to cream as the “20%”, but would be exempted from having to explain that it was in fact, milk. Milk was further permitted to refer to its totally-cream-free variant as “milk” despite the fact that its scientific designation was, in fact, “ick” or “eww”.
3. Half-and-half would continue to be regulated as the illogical aberration that it so demonstrably is (“the law of the excluded middle”) although lobbying from a prominent coffee chain resulted in a provision allowing its, erm, provision in their shops.
Here concludes today’s session of the Improbable Legislature.
Geology for Slignot:
House Range: Cambrain and ordovician strata
Confusion Range: Silurian and Devonian strata
Conger Range: Mississippian, Pennsylvanian, and Permian rocks
All have been called “well exposed” by geologists, which means very little of that messy vegetation and silt etc. Many fossils exposed.
Near Notch Peak there is a Jurassic intrusion in Paleozoic strata.
Gen Fury, 122:
Yes. This is the main reason why my standard approach to conflict is avoid-at-all-costs.
Lynna, 150
Those pictures are gorgeous.
*adds Utah to list of destinations for eventual post-graduation road trip*
Antiochus Epiphanes, 160:
Hey, I’ve actually read that paper! I doubt I’ll be able to contribute to your conversation, but I’ll be reading with interest.
*scuttles off to find archives from long before I even lurked here*
Dhorvath, 165
*cake and sparklers*
Slignot, 179:
Glad to know I’m not the only person who does this. My evening plan involves some guidebooks, topographic maps, and Google Earth. It may still be freaking winter here, but in my mind I’m going canoeing.
@Lynna:
VLC allows you to change the speed of playback to faster or slower. I got it down to 1/32 (or rather, 0.03x). At 1/8 and slower, the sound turns off.
Came across this idiotic specimen who calls himself a pro-life atheist
Reading stuff like
just makes me wanna puke…
Gargh
Back to the show: Apropos of something foodie upthread:
Jeffrey Steingarten
(At “My quest for the perfect pizza”, it’s Steingarten talking.)
“[like] any man who believes in gender equality, the right to life outweighs our personal discomforts”
What? What?!
Gender equality, ur doin it wrong.
I didn’t want to address this at first, it’s kind of a trigger as I understand the term.
My Mom would get angry when she was hurt. I ‘inherited’ that trait. She once caught her fingers in the garage door when pulling it down and cursed a blue streak. When I was really sick or hurt she was really, really nice. When she was mad at me for getting hurt, I knew I was OK.
Either way, I always knew she and my Dad loved me.
Sorry for the long comment, the point is, when I get angry I want to lash out. I run out of words because the stupid? It really does burn.
But it’s getting better, a little better all the time.
changeable moniker, the moment I see someone employ “unborn child”, I know they’re not thinking cogently.
(Unless of course they acknowledge they are undead corpses ;) )
I actually do think this is something PZ might wanna take up (if he hasn’t already, apparently this guy has been around for some time), I mean invoking science for his preposterous position:
What he basically does is impose his misogynistic morality on everyone and claim science supports him.
He also claims Christopher Hitchens’ agreement:
changeable moniker, so, I followed your link to Jeffrey Steingarten’s piece.
Apparently, he thinks good tomato sauce is made with canned tomatoes — need I say more?
(Bah)
Shall I bite the idjit troll? Do I dare to break my teeth?
—
Let’s see how many things we can find wrong with this picture, shall we, eh?
—
I have heard the Catholics singing each to each.
I do not think that they make sense to me.
Today’s best bits from Wikipedia:
This person is both an idiot and a giant asshole, just as if they had declared the donation of a kidney to be no more than a pinprick.
Pregnancy is not a “personal discomfort”. It is the donation of all the woman’s organs to a potential. Not necessarily a “potential person” – some pregnancies, and some childhoods, end in disaster. There is no reason to accept the contention that someone other than the woman is best equipped to decide whether said potential is deserving of the donation of all her organs.
A man is never required to donate any part of his body, even easily replaceable parts, such as blood, for the health of a potential – or even another person. Not even if that person would die without said donation. There’s a very good reason for this: there is no right which you can exercise, without control over your own body. Every right is dependent on body control. To interfere with body control is to interfere with every other right.
For women to be equal to men, they too must have absolute say over when they will, and will not, donate their own organs.
So, I spent today attending a lecture series on genetics and epigenetics. Along the way, I learned a few thing (some of which are way cool) and wanted to bang my head against my desk a few times.
And now, I am left with a conundrum.
I have long maintained that the gene Sonic hedgehog (which, no joke, is inhibited by the action of Robonikinin) is the stupidest-named gene in the entire fucking genome. The fact that there is a human developmental disease caused by a mutation in Sonic hedgehog (which features abnormalities in central nervous system development) is just salt in the wound.
But then, today, I learned that the gene Nanog, which is involved in embryonic stem cell self-renewal is an abbreviation. For Tír na nÓg.
The facepalms, I haz them. Jebus, people. My stock answer to questions (“Drosophila scientists are weird.”) is coming up way short.
___
I decided to re-watch the “Sean Bean dies” video. This time, I muted the sound. I played this in the background. It seemed to work oddly well.
what was the epigenetics part of the lecture like?
always on the lookout for decent presentations on the subject myself.
I have just watched Birdemic, and simultaneously lost all faith in humanity. God, that movie was fantastic.
There is also a podcast called “How did that movie get made?”, which this week featured Weird Al discussing Birdemic. It’s pretty epic. http://www.earwolf.com/episode/birdemic-shock-and-terror-live/
Josh,
Uh, wow.
Have you considered submitting that to [Citation Needed]?
Ichthyic, it was pretty technical. Most of the time was spent on chromatin methylation and acetylation.
Pretty neat though. There was a fair amount of hypothesizing that the reason why the only species to date that has had SCNT work with minimal (rather than catastrophic) levels of failure of epigenetic reprogramming is Bos taurus is due to the elongated period spent in the demethylation of the transplanted nucleus.
Pretty neat. The part where the lecturer had to stop and explain very patiently to someone the fact that (!!!!) two individuals can be genetically identical and phenotypically different was pretty mind-boggling though.
Soy is definitely an allergy problem. It can be a direct allergen, or it can provoke the production of estrogens, and thus cause people with estrogen allergies, or estrogen sensitivity, to suffer. I have a friend who has a severe negative reaction to soy. (She also has a severe negative to any estrogen-based birth control).
Just re-read my @201 and realized the sheer level of technobabble in it. Go me!
#197: I feel exactly the opposite. The weirder the gene name, the better. It makes it easier to break people of the habit that they think they know what the gene does just from its name.
#199: I own a copy of Birdemic. Where some seek balms for a troubled soul, I seek irritants. It counts.
llewelly,
I had no idea. Thanks for clearing that up!
@PZ:
Well, both Sonic hedgehog and Nanog have semi-logical progressions from function to name. In the case of the former, mutations in the gene and its family members make fruit flies, uh, spiky. Hence “hedgehog.” The first two such genes were named after the two real-world species of hedgehogs, but then they discovered the third one. So it was named Sonic.
Nanog regulates self-renewal, or basically the “holy crap, stem cells are fucking immortal!” property. So the myth of Tír na nÓg came to mind for the scientists who found it.
Why INDY (short for I’m Not Dead Yet) is a bona fide gene is anyone’s guess, though. I blame John Cleese.
slignot:
Bears? Great Basin National Park is bat country!
Joking aside, driving Salt Lake City streets is substantially more dangerous than camping in bear country.
(Note, there are mountain lions, but I wouldn’t worry about them.)
The podcast I linked to also interviews the woman who played Natalie. She has a very interesting perspective on it, including how it started out with the guy holding her audition in a high school parking lot. And how she had to do everyone’s makeup after the makeup person quit.
Reminded of a probably (like most things he allegedly said) apocrypha comment from Churchill, giving a reminder to military intelligence to keep the human cost in mind when it comes to naming operations “No mother should ever have to hear that their son died for Operation Rubber Ducky”
They should name a gene ‘IADYM’, in honor of Richard Pryor, as in “I Ain’t Dead Yet, Motherfucker”.
@Josh, OSG: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/2698507.stm ;)
Yep. That’s my real problem with it. Yeah, it’s cute that you have Sonic hedgehog in flies and its homologues in roundworms, tiggywinkle and echidna. It’s somewhat less cute when the doctor or genetic councilor has to explain to the parents of a sick child that the reason for their child’s severe problems are due to a mutation of their Sonic hedgehog gene.
Or Wingless, Tribbles, or Cheap date (added creep factor bonus! Cheap date mutations are associated with increased sensitivity to alcohol).
According to CN-fucking-N, Mittens Romney is projected to win both Arizona and Michigan.
Newt received 16 and 7% of the vote, respectively. Who wants to bet that he’ll pull out before Super -fucking- Tuesday?
(God, I can’t wait to hear that pasty asswipe’s “I’m suspending my campaign” press conference. Fuck Newt.)
Esteleth:
Why? It’s but a label.
(As is your appellation, not that I see much Mischief, Mayhem or Hilarity in the concern you here express)
Katherine Lorraine: I can’t see any other way to interpret “Fuck your….,” unless the blogger is instructing people to copulate with their home furnishings.
Giliell: There’s always one of those types in every such comment thread.
That said, this article seems to indicate that bullying wasn’t the main problem here.
In fact, he had tried to kill the shooter’s mother at one point. The shooter himself had a prior case in juvenile court.
Pteryxx: The Atlantic article to which Christina H links is just… all kinds of special. And by “special,” I mean “fail.”
Antiochus and Ing: Agreed w/r/t race. Also note that A WILD STEVE SAILER APPEARS! in Coyne’s comments.
Dhorvath: Awesome news.
Josh: Saucy faggots, at that. Years ago, there was a billboard advertising this product that read, “It takes Brains to make faggots so full of pork.”
John Morales,
You do realize that Sonic the Hedgehog is a fucking stupid video game and cartoon character?
I’m all for defusing a tense situation with a bit of carefully applied humor, but there’s a time, a place, and a limit.
A devastating disease having a cutesy name is not just a label, it is adding insult to injury.
OMFFSM, I just scared the kitteh off the desk laughing. HappiestSadist sent me this link. The Failblogger obviously has never seen Don Hertzfeldt’s classic cartoon compilation Rejected. The relevant “sketch” is from 4:55 to 6:24, but you can start at 5:42 if you want.
I’m making a website for my Freethinkers group! I kind of like tinkering with it (it’s kind of like messing with a wordpress blog, but with more stuff).
@ Dr. Audley
I’m right there with you. I love defeated Republicans :D
Nobody tell Crommunist about this. Although even Crommunist could agree that this candidate would make a better public servant than most of the ones Virginia has now.
Esteleth, yeah I’m aware, but a gene ain’t a devastating disease, and I already asked why you think it’s problematic (of course, now you’ve escalated your claim to contend that it’s an insult).
(BTW, your attempted hyperlink lacks an URL, but I’m guessing you meant to refer to Wikipedia)
John, the a mutation in the gene causes the disease.
So the name of the gene is immediately relevant.
And yes, I was linking to the Pfft page on the videogame.
Here’s a possible sentence given the weirdo names for genes:
“I’m sorry, but your baby has only a 5% chance of surviving to a year old due to a defect in her Harry Potter gene.”
It’s literally that ridiculous. Most researchers I think would be cognizant of that and not name a gene for a horrible defect something frivolous, but the problem is that often it’s not known what genes/alleles cause what effects until long after they’re named.
Exactly my point, carlie.
Esteleth – yep, and I had never thought of it that way until you pointed it out. Now I’m pretty annoyed about it.
<Sigh>
OK, if Esteleth and Carlie want to think that levity in nomenclature is ridiculous and insulting, I guess that’s their prerogative.
(Me, I think that is itself ridiculous, but since I’m an asshole, I guess I’m just being arrogant)
I disagree completely. If you’re dealing with patients, and you explain their problems by listing obscure gene names, YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG. It would not be better to be telling them, “Your baby is dying because she has a defect in her X887A gene.” That has zero explanatory power.
It’s like an auto mechanic listing part numbers at you. Completely unhelpful.
Tell them the child has had a failure in neural tube closure; an incomplete septum in their heart; an error in metabolism that makes it impossible for them to process certain foods.
I’ve heard this same silly beef for years, and it just makes me want to slap the doctors who are whining that scientists use gene names that don’t sound dignified and ultra-scientific. These names aren’t given to boost the pomposity quotient of MDs. And when some gene is identified in Drosophila, they sure as hell aren’t going to know from a mutation in bristle pattern that it might also someday be found to be important in schizophrenia, so it’s ridiculous to demand that they possess precognition.
I was under the impression that human genes were given their own names, no matter what the drosophila silliness was.
They are. And it’s even more annoying.
BRCA1? Give me a fucking break. IT IS NOT A BREAST CANCER GENE. That’s pure pandering: ignorant doctors love the idea of deferring blame that way: “your breast cancer gene BRCA1 is broken!” It’s not an explanation, it’s a copout.
That’s pretty much the issue, carlie. The overwhelming majority of genes are discovered in Drosophila melanogaster, Caenorhabditis elegans, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, or Xenopus laevis (that is, fruit flies, nematodes, yeast, and frogs). The human homologues are not discovered for years (if not decades) later. Sometimes there is a clear relationship in functioning – the Homeobox genes do essentially the same thing in humans as in flies – but sometimes the differences are profound.
Of course, something that is “huh” (or “neat!”) producing, like, say Antennapedia – (do a Google Image search at your own risk!), in flies is much less cute and much more horrifying if the possible human equivalent is contemplated.
Of course, there is always the option of renaming a gene when the human homologue is discovered (or if it is realized that there is an associated mutation/disease), but that has downsides as well. There are solid scientific reasons for the same (or very similar) names to be used in describing homologous genes in different species.
…and this is why I should hit “refresh” before submitting long comments.
I totally agree that a doctor shouldn’t throw around the gene name immediately. Any MD worth his or her salt shouldn’t. But, it will come up, either in conversation or if the patient or whomever does a google search – that’s really my concern. There’s no way around it – it isn’t possible to hide this stuff from people, yet the names are at least somewhat problematic.
*shrug*
PZ, yes on the BRCA genes – it’s naming it by what goes wrong when it breaks, not by what it actually does. Common in gene names. And I quite like the silliness in drosophila (though sometime, ick – cheap date??). But in the case of human substitutes for the silly names, what would you do?
Yes, a doctor should say what’s actually wrong and not some technobabble. But I also don’t want to have doctors who refuse to give the scientific information to their patients when asked for more information. And in that case “this is a gene called X567A” is a neutral thing to say to a patient with a disease, while “this gene is called F’tang F’tang olé biscuit barrel” sounds like you’re mocking the sick.
Congrats on the new job, Dhorvath.
changeable moniker:
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!11!!!
Their name is “doody.”
All:
Mistaking it for a stray piece of ham from my soup pot, I just accidentally ate a greenie. Sweet ever-loving fuck but I’m going to have a hard time not puking the rest of the night.
What does such a cat treat taste like, you ask? A Nameless Horror. Yeah. It’s that bad.
Josh, what in the fuck kind of ham are you cooking if you could mistake one of those for a chunk of it?
Alethea:
You too, eh?
(So, if a doctor told that to you, you’d really think he was mocking you?)
Coyote:
The kind that’s just bits and bobs that fall off smoked neck bones (suitable for soup) and get all chopped up on the cutting board to be put back in the soup. Also the kind that slightly drunk cooks are want to pick up off the cutting board because they’re goddamn gluttonous pigs and don’t pay attention to what they’re stuffing in their gob.
Eeeeeee-eeeewwwwww!
So gross!
Don’t you dare kiss me when you finally get your ass to bed!
I kiss and cuddle the cat instead.
Oh, Janine, you don’t even want me to tell you the horrible nightmare in which you were featured last night. Don’t worry; you were the narratrix of a grand drama and did nothing wrong. But girl—do you have to be so gory?
:)))
What can I say, I am red in the claw and tooth.
That cat treat looks more disgusting than all of my gross food stories.
I ate a dog biscuit once, because I had to prove to some guys that I was tougher than they were. It tasted like very dry sand.
Eating fishflies (mayflies for you Americans) was a rite of passage for staff at the summer camp where I worked as a teenager. They taste like grass.
Every year the Mountain Equipment Co-op offers prizes for voting in the annual election of Board members.
This year one of the prizes is a Stand Up Paddleboard Package.
What in the name of all that is wholly is Stand Up Paddleboarding?
No comment. It just amused me.
Just one question, sometimes, after sex, did you want to give your partner a clown face and take the pants?
I ♥ Terry Pratchett.
from Men at Arms.
*sigh* John Morales, why is it so hard for you to comprehend that people usually prefer to be treated with some dignity? There are times when joking is appropriate, and times when it is not. When someone is in a vulnerable situation, and is actually suffering in some way – generally that’s not an appropriate time for jokes.
Yes, there’s exceptions for black humour, but that’s a more advanced concept. I’d advise you to steer well clear of it until you’ve mastered the basics.
Busy in St. Louis today, sorta skimmed a bit, congrats to Dhorvath for finding a swell job.
Alethea, why is it so hard for you to comprehend that naming something by its name is not treating someone with indignity or joking?
What, pray tell, is the joke in the hypothetical situation to which you allude?
You would, would you? :)
(Feel free to do so anytime)
I advise you that your attempted condescension is not merely futile, but also amusing to me.
I understand the geneticists didn’t mean to offend people with genetic disorders.
But Sonic Hedgehog is still a fucking stupid name.
Sonic, especially in his cartoon form, epitomized that mindless 90s ‘Tude’ that all ‘hip’ cartoon characters were supposed to have. That defiant pose, raised eyebrow, and oh-so-rebellious bad boy glare all scream “I have no real personality, just a whole lotta ‘Tude’.” Fucking lazy ass 90s cartoon writers.
Oh yeah, genes.
Looking up Sonic Hedgehog on wikipedia led me to something even dumber: Pikachurin. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pikachurin
Thank you, thank you for the DE recommendation! As soon as I read up on it some, I bought a bag and am insanely happy. I was finally able to sleep.
The method of death alone gave me the mental image of a epic cartoon illustrated by Hyperbole and a half about the dead little diatoms bringing hideous death to every living thing. Especially when killing roaches by digestion and then breaking free. hehe. I came up with this when I was awake for almost 36 hours and even after getting sleep it brings me immense joy.
My biggest problem is I have carpet and my bed is on the floor w/o a frame. But with borrowing a steamer from the landlord and DE I’m hopeful. Long term is hard to think about though because this apartment building is so old and shitty. There are plumbing problems, like an area when the sewer pipe gets routinely overflowed, and holes in the line between walls and ceiling. I’m already infested with roaches since day 1 and not a damn thing I can do about it. Just try to bring the population down and work around it. Ugh.
And I swear I will punch the next person who says my roach and bed bug problem is due to uncleanliness.
Well, I don’t play Sonic the Hedgehog games for their characterization.
What’s wrong with using abbreviations, if talking about them in a serious context?
Why not just Shh?
======
Huh. I see that the gene names issue has been controversial for a while.
Maclean K (January 2006). “Humour of gene names lost in translation to patients”. Nature 439 (7074): 266
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/439266d
Rey Fox: Good. Because it’s terrible. Absolutely fucking terrible. I know Sonic has a bit of a fandom, but I demand higher levels of character development from my frivolous 90s cartoons-based-on-videogames.
And he has nothing on the complex, multilayered personalities and sibling dynamics of Mario and Luigi.
http://things90skidsrealize.com/
There are two mentions of Sonic right on the first page =)
Good morning
These rats are doing a conga for you, Dhorvath
pelamun
Somehow I’m under the impression that I’ve dealt with that guy before on some comment thread or other. It might even have been one of those about Hitchens.
Who actually had a shitty position on that issue.
It’s always “nice” to see how people, when they decide that fetuses are people, also decide that women are not.
No person on planet earth is entitled to one single ounce of my blood, not even if I’m the sole reason they need it.
So why on earth should anybody be entitled to the use of my entire body for 9 months?
But it really, really takes an ignorant dude to call a pregnancy an inconvenience.
re: angry states
If I’m really, really angry or really really in pain I go quiet.
If I hurt myself and start cursing like mad I’m OK. If I get angry at you and tell you quietly that I am, get under cover.
That’s something I taught my husband early, because especially in cases of “hurt” it is important that other people know this.
As a child I once got my fingers caught in the car door. My dad locked the car, moved to the door where the rest of the family was waiting and everybody became impatient and started calling me until my mum noticed that I was turning quite pale…
random y’all may appreciate: Advice God
http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/advice-god/photos
“Create entire universe out of nothing — Need Adam’s rib to create one more thing”
“Allow humans to exist in completely isolated jungle tribes in the Amazon — Send them to Hell for not being Christian”
“Abraham, kill your only son for me — LOL J/K”
“Evolution is not real — Unless they prove it, then it was my plan”
“I made you that way — I hate you because of it”
Plus, something like Sonic is going to be really dated really soon. PZ’s point, I think, was that the cutesy names can convey more information than a neutral designator would? But for something like Sonic, that only makes sense for a few years when people know what it is. Then it becomes even more cumbersome.
“Oh yes, this gene is named Henry. You see, there used to be a tv show 80 years ago that was popular in Australia that had a character named Henry who liked to wear plaid, and this gene is related to pigmentation and was discovered in octopuses, so that’s how it was named…”
Carlie, how many people know helium was named after Helios (the Greek god of the Sun), because it was first discovered by its spectral line in its light?
(Of course, ‘spectral’ itself is the adjectival form of ‘spectrum’, and I doubt many know its genesis)
John – anybody who learns anything about Greek. One of the main reasons that Greek and Latin is still used in naming is that it’s a static thing that is now unchanging (ancient Greek, that is). Plus it had worldwide influence for several centuries, and a lot of languages are still based on it. Every time I introduce a new science word to my students I tell them the Latin or Greek etymology, which they can link up to words they already know and then they not only remember that more easily, but also are able to then use languages derived from Latin and Greek better because they understand the entire suite of words with the same derivation. That’s a far cry from using something based in pop culture of one small group.
John,
Helios also means “sun” in Greek.
I’ve always associated He with the name because of the name. But I’m told it mostly consists of H and He, so it’s appropriate, yes? (and in the universe in general, don’t astronomers call everything but H and He “metals”)
Dhorvath,
congratulations!
Giliell,
I haven’t read Hitchens, so I don’t know how much of it is quote-mining. But what really pisses me off about this is how theists claim how rational a pro-life position can be. Rationalising misogyny… grr..
Carlie, fair enough — but I do think that, in the future, anyone who wants to look up the origin of some bit of nomenclature will be able to easily do so.
(The internet is still in its early, primitive stage)
—
Pelamun, no surprise there, after all Helios the God and Helios the Sun were the same entity, just like Oceanus was the sea. :)
As for astronomers, apparently they do use the term thus (I just pfftd), but it’s just their jargon, and it doesn’t correspond to its use by chemists.
(I presume astronomer-chemists just switch contexts as required)
I’ve always associated Helium with the SUN because of the name. Apologies.
In Chinese, Helium is 氦 hài, a newly created character just for the element. I don’t find it informative it at all. Chinese does this with many elements (except for the most common metals of course)
Japanese went the other route and uses calques, like German:
hydrogen: “water substance”: Wasserstoff and 水素 suiso. (Chinese 氫 qing, is a reference to its lightness)
oxygen: “sour substance”: Sauerstoff and 酸素 sanso. (Chinese 氧 yang3 was created because 羊 sheep sounded like 養 “nurture”, so it’s the nurturing gas)
this is where German has deviated from the neo-Latin-Greek, and Japanese has followed (indicating that in the 19th century, the Japanese were coining chemistry related terms from German sources)
nitrogen: “suffocating substance” Stickstoff and 窒素 chisso. (Chinese 氮 dàn from 淡 dàn “tasteless”)
But French also chose a different Greek root, azote “lifeless”. Seems that using the Greek word for saltpetre didn’t catch on..
But in general, Japanese went with calques of English/German, which keeps its terminology transparent. It’s great Chinese coined even new characters just for chemical elements, but it puts additional burden on having to learn the international set as well (as science still uses English, not Chinese (yet?) )
Gosh John, it seems like you don’t like to be made fun of when you’re in perfectly good health and not feeling at all vulnerable or afraid, and it’s by someone who’s not in any kind of personal or power relationship with you. Good. Now extrapolate.
The names themselves are jokes. This is widely acknowledged by one and all, including the people who made the jokes in the first place. It’s even quite funny when you’re talking about fruitflies. There’s no need for science to be humourless.
There is a simple solution, which is to use the human gene names when talking to humans about humans. Because most people don’t want to joke about somebody in distress. Unless you’re a Republican. Or Tony Abbot.
(the Chinese for Helium is just a phonetic coinage, i.e. the character components were chosen for their sound. Japanese just borrowed the neo-Latin term, thus heriumu)
John,
AFAIK, because most of the universe’s baryonic matter only consists of H and He, they’re looking for areas where you can find any of the heavier elements, which they thus label metals.
Thus says the Pfft
pelamun
Well, Hitchens was pro-choice, but in a, shall I say, strange way.
In this article he goes for a bit of a gish-gallop over the issue, where I find the worst this musing over possible children.
Honestly, been there, done that. After my first-born was there I spent some time pondering upon the fact that this wonderfull baby, the apple of my eye, was only there because of the worst day in my life when I misscarried.
But if you think about it for 5 seconds you notice that there are thousands more of wonderfull children that never came into being for every time I used contraception, for every time I didn’t have sex and so on.
In this video at around 2:00 he makes the argument that with the progress of science it isn’t only for women to decide about it but an issue of all society and I find that dangerously close to pro-lifers deciding what women have to do..
I think in the end it’s one of the things where Hitchens showed his own arrogance to talk about issues he had not much knowledge about and thought he didn’t need any, and anything related to women and feminism seems to fall into that category.
That people can rationalize misogyny?
I think the last year has clearly shown that people can rationalize anything. That people are skeptical and rational in one area of their lives doesn’t translate into any other aspect and often makes it harder to change their mind because they see themselves as being rational.
It’s the whole “we must be skeptical of feminism” bullshit.
Sonic Hedgehog would be a nice name for an asteroid. And they must be running out of names from classic Greece for those innumerable objects so we should be allowed more frivolity in naming practices.
BTW asteroid “2011-something-or-other” is probably going to miss Earth in 2040 despite the media hype. Damn!
pelamun, as I indicated, that usage by astronomers was unknown to me (so thanks for that).
Perhaps, but I think the circumstances are changing; I think it more likely that good-enough automated personal real-time translators* aren’t that far into the future — perhaps a generation or two.
—
Alethea, I’m surprised you imagine I think you made fun of me.
Still, I think this is one of those times where I should make it explicit I wasn’t trying to be offensive.
—
* If and when such become a reality, I hope they’ll be called babelfish(es) in English. :)
Let the following non-nym blog post be a lesson to you all! When you have a natural, tangible energy source indistinguishable from magic, don’t misuse it, make sure you do use it, and whatever you do, make sure your technology also uses it!
Otherwise the ley lines might explode and people will die. Truly a sad, sad day.
(and yes, although the tallis race in my stories uses technology (steam technology to be precise) they also are learning about how magic actually works and trying methods to harness magical energy as a source. If they rig up an electric motor, it’s going to be magitech rather than plain old tech.)
1. I don’t care if genes have frivolous names. However, I wish that there was a system of nomenclature in place so that homologous genes were distinguishable as such. A similar convention should also be extended to paralogy. And while I’m making pronouncements, I think it’s fine that a gene have a provisional name indicating the phenotype of mutants, but when the function of that gene is discovered, it ought to inform nomenclature.
2. pelamun: I enjoy the linguistic tidbits. Keep em coming as long as it suits you.
apparently Google discriminates against people born on Feb 29, making their birthdays disappear on non-leap years.
“229 birthers” are also preparing for the seven years they will have to spend without being able to celebrate their birthday properly, from 2097 to 2103…
@Pelamun:
“I am a little boy of five?“
No. Quite the opposite. It conveys the information that the name is entirely arbitrary: no one assumes Sonic Hedgehog got its name because it was blue and runs very fast. And as the memory of old video games fades, it becomes even less predispositional.
#268: The only alternative would be a descriptive functional nomenclature, and we’ve already got that to a small degree — we talk bHLH structures, or Ig motifs, or whatever — everyone who digs into specific genes finds themselves talking about general properties of structure. We don’t have anything like chemistry, however, where there is a convention for naming with a formula. Proteins are just too complex and variable for that.
I suppose we could just do a sequence dump.
Functional names applied to genes of general importance are useful, from my point of view, in that if one wants to find all the homologs of a gene on Genbank, an Entre search for that name will bring them all up, and you wouldn’t have to sift through all of the partial/full genomes that arise with the kind of lax BLAST search that one would have to do if one were attempting to search over some broad lineage.
Or in other words, why can’t we have a system for naming genes that suits my needs in particular?
That makes sense, I guess, but then it’s the opposite: the arbitrariness won’t kick in until nobody knows who Sonic is. Esteleth’s point was that in the meantime, there’s a chance of a rotten coincidence that a silly name will turn out to be responsible for a devastating problem.
Exactly. :)
I want this shirt so much. It’s awesome. Most people wouldn’t get it, but I don’t care! But I don’t have the money to spend (unless I want to starve for a day while in Orlando… but maybe it’s worth it).
Asteroids already are a free-for-all as the only objects out there.
There’s even one called – get this – Pzmyers.
I swear, they’ll let any old riff-raff get an asteroid named after them these days.
(Funny story in Mike Brown’s book about how some sticklers tried to get an asteroid named Sedna, because he’d announced that name for his second dwarf planet without going through the proper channels.)
You’re expressing my point better than I was, carlie. :)
I’ve got no problem with people who identify genes giving them vaguely silly names. Like, I rolled my eyes at Nanog being short for “Tír na nÓg,” but I’m mostly okay with it. I guess my problem is with the habit of frankly stupid names. Yeah, the name recognition of Sonic the Hedgehog is dropping and it will continue to do so, but enough people still know of it. But what’s the justification for Cheap date? As a name for a gene involved in alcohol metabolism, the name actually offends me.
FWIW, the names of homologous genes cross-species are rarely identical. They are similar (for example, Sonic hedgehog in flies is Shh in humans. This keeps the relationship while indicating the difference (we can debate the relative merit of unpronounceable acronyms). But – the “google problem” remains. I just typed “Shh gene” into google and the first hit was the Wikipedia page on Sonic hedgehog, which (1) makes total sense and (2) is illustrative of the entire damned problem of genes implicated in human disease having silly names.
Josh:
I’m so sorry but I can’t stop laughing. If I weren’t laughing, I’d be retching. Greenies are vile.
Janine: That one ties for total weirdness with #7, Passing for Human by Jody Scott:
This is terrible but the first thing I thought of was the gawd-awful short story referenced here (TW for mentions of rape).
Also, I’m highly amused that Harold Bloom wrote a s/f novel.
What.
The.
Fuck???
this SHH stuff got me thinking about hedgehogs, so I read a bit about them. Then I moved on to gymnures and solenodons, which are pretty cool. I wish we had something like that around here, though I guess their ecological ‘role’ is taken up by the Virginia Opossum round these parts.
But then I found the streaked tenrec species, and I’m pretty fascinated. How can something be so simultaneously pretty and ugly?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hemicentetes_semispinosus.jpg
I mean, this guy looks like some cartoonish attempt to draw a grotesque sewer rat.
Or what happens when a shrew does the nasty with a porcupine.
Carlie, Cheap date has (AFAIK) been renamed, but still.
@ TLC 234 & (Josh 233)
VOILA!
this gene-naming business reminds me of how AIDS was originally translated as “love-death disease” into Chinese, was then deemed as offensive and re-coined with the characters “mugwort” and “sprout”
1. 愛死病 ai4si3bing4
2. 艾滋病 ai4zi1bing4
In both cases the characters were primarily chosen to sound like the English “AIDS”, but those who came up with 1 also intended to have the phonetic similarity coincide with an appropriate (or as it turned out later on, inappropriate) meaning.
chigau:
It’s actually pretty common in Hawaii; my understanding is that, historically, it’s a Polynesian thing.
Here is a look at what it looks like. But, basically, it’s standing on a surfboard with a paddle. You can, then, cruise around pretty easily in non-surf conditions and then surf to shore when you’re done.
From one link:
Owlmirror @186
Thank you. That may turn out to be quite useful.
Hemant Mehta defends Stedman and de Botton.
I especially appreciate the tone-trolling — on a blog that has been hostile to the idea that sexism runs amok in the atheist movement. “Team Elevator Guy” t-shirts, anyone?
Apropos of nothing, here’s an amusing picture of PZ.
Good news everyone –
http://boingboing.net/2012/02/28/elsevier-withdraws-support-fro.html
Grumble grumble. My medical alert bracelet just snapped in half (don’t ask me how, it just did). So I need to buy a new one. In the meantime, I have to wear a duct-taped together bracelet. Grumble grumble.
via Singham – Climate scientists are organizing to defend themselves against misinformation, attacks and legal threats. There’s even a new Climate Science Defense Fund to provide legal support, and they take donations:
http://freethoughtblogs.com/singham/2012/02/29/climate-scientists-organize-to-fight-back
After a week of problems, I finally got my nice fast computer back.
I feel better than James Brown.
I feel better now.
How do you feel?
The urge to destroy is a creative urge!
I Blew Up The United States-Was(Not Was)
I Wanna Destroy You-Soft Boys
Ron Klaus Wrecked His House-Big Dipper
Memphis, Egypt-Mekons
I Love The Sound Of Breaking Glass-Nick Lowe
I need the noises of destruction!
Ah. A creative urge. I feel much better about myself now.
Originally, I was; but I was displeased with the lack of conciseness of my attempts. Oh, if only I’d thought to use “skeevy”, instead of “being a creep with a major sense of entitlement cornering women in an elevator”!
–
Congrats on Employment, Dhorvath!
–
*snortle*
–
llewelly @ 207
Very true. Although I should note that he’s not actually concerned that literal bears will eat him (I think). It’s more like this, actually. As for me, you just take precautions with your food, have plenty of water, spare tire, tell people where exactly you’ll be and when you’ll be back… I like outside. Outside is great.
Nutmeg @ 185
How can you not do this? Google maps is amazingly cool and useful. I like figuring out exactly what trails I’ve been on if the resolution is good enough. I have no idea how I coped before the internet in traveling or with work. (I work in real estate. I don’t know how I’d do my job without street view.)
I’m trying to run down signatures to sell a property today and I’m just frazzled.
Davy Jones is dead.
And, yes, this is a fucking great song!
Cicely, you will be profoundly saddened to hear that my pea plants have started sprouting.
This is amazing to me, because at first I thought that I had fucked up by not sterilizing the loam in the oven to prevent damping off. So I kind of neglected them for about a week, although to be fair it was a really busy week. They got plenty of sunshine, not quite enough water. Though, again, I think I may have overwatered them initially.
When I checked on them this morning, three out of a total potential seven sprouts were poking their little heads above the loam. Yay!!
–
First, may we destroy you a beverage of some sort?
–
Happily, we are purged of our old destructive impulses and now live only to destroy. And by “destroy” I of course mean “serve obediently without destroying”.
–
2 has not been allowed out front since attempting to destroy a guest. He is destroying a nutritious snack for us all.
–
Please, follow us into the safehouse, where you will be graciously destroyed. And please do not be frightened by our cultural dialect which requires us to say “Destroy” when what we actually mean is “Destroy”.
janine – oh no! I hadn’t heard that. Man, that’s an actual hit to my heart. He wasn’t old, either. Oh wow. That’s a hurty bit of shock, there.
@janine:
How bout this song? It’s, in my opinion, the sound of a guitar in ecstacy.
Muse – Hyper Music
I took the assessment test to start school today, after dreading it and putting it off for so long I missed the start dates of the past two quarters.
Unsurprisingly, I am not allowed to retake the English portions of the test, because it’s not possible to assess any higher. (Remember that this test is for assessing high school graduates who have never been to college before, so it’s not like I’m a super genius.)
Somewhat more surprisingly, despite having dyscalculia and massive math test anxiety, I did not bottom out on the math portions of the test! I assessed into Elementary Algebra, which is actually huge, because I was pretty sure I would end up in remedial arithmetic and had given up on taking pretty much any college level math (and thus science) at all.
Ms. Daisy Cutter, the only real question is, Is this the true harbinger of the Apeacalypse, or merely one of those Regrettable Incidents staged by the Horses in an effort to lead the True Believers astray? For it is written that as we approach the Final Days, False Sprouts will arise in divers places (or, possibly, Sprouts will Arise Falsely; there’s some ambiguity in translation of Writ); yea, verily, and there will be a dearth of Mildly Deranged Penguins (which we have, alas, already witnessed), while Trolls will litter the ground like…litter (though the precise nature of the “litter” is unclear; I subscribe to the view that “litter” in this context should be understood to be a shortening of “used kitty litter”).
There are some (schismatics and heretics) who also believe that there will be showers of santorum; but to me, a single man is too short, and insufficiently sharp, to constitute a “shower”. Still, I suppose that it would provide fertilizer for the True Sprouting.
In any event, your news is, indeed, dire. I mourn.
–
@kristinc:
So you’re not Kristin C, Super Genius?
Awesome, though! Congrats on the tests.
PZ wasn’t kidding about le Botton’s Twitter feed. But it’s not just sappy. It also contains some hilarious irony, and some rather unpleasant displays of privilege.
Janine:
Aaawww. He wasn’t my favourite, still, sadness.
That’s one seriously privileged, toxic douchetart.
Caine – I had a crush on Peter when I was a child. And Mickey, secondarily, but that was not as strong due to his wacky tv persona. I never went for the popular boys like Davy. But my best of the Monkees cd is in the car, and will be listened to on the way home today.
I’m reading all of those quotes from le Botton’s Twitter feed in the voice of Gilderoy Lockheart in my head.
Carlie:
Back in the day, I was all alone in my crush – I had a thing for Nesmith.
Ugh. Someone has emptied my tube of Matrigel and didn’t bother to tell me about it. I have cells that I was hoping to plate in the next hour before I have to go to some bullshit university meeting (which is apparently mandatory for all labs for some reason) so now it looks like I’m staying way later tonight than I meant to. I don’t get what part of “[My Name]’s Matrigel- All others HANDS OFF” is not clear.
Make sure to blast Steppin’ Stone, Pleasant Valley Sunday (I know, not Davy.), and Porpoise Song.
So does Sonic Hedgehog…you’re still going to have to take the time to explain what the gene does and it adds the awkwardness of a Doctor having to try to navigate through a grime discussion with words like “Sonic Hedgehog” in them.
“I’m sorry your son didn’t make it. His submarine Aquaman was attacked by North Koreans in international water. Due to the efforts of him and the other brave souls of Operation Rubadubdub they were able to stabilize the breach and ensure that vital information for Project I Like Big Butts and Cannot Lie was able to stay out of enemy hands”
Good evening
Congarats, kristinc
I need to start sowing the tomatoes
Anyone else see the movie Mystery Men?
Me, too. :)
I had a friend who had a severe crush on Davy; in her mind, because she was born in England, they were fated to be married. Boy, was she pissed off when he had the nerve to marry Someone Else! Betrayed!
–
Ing, I’ve seen it, but it was years ago, so the reference is zooming over my head.
I’m catching up with the “Officially Disgusted” thread and I kind of like Therrin’s suggestion.
A good part of mental health is the capacity to respond to humiliation without (too many) tears…in bed.
Time to leave a job is not when it’s difficult or frustrating, but when it’s ceased teaching you things…in bed.
And here’s his latest tweet:
If the definition of a friend is ‘someone you can be weak in front of’, how many of these is the average man blessed with…in bed?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKGX9tdPeN0
Everything De Boton says reminds me of that character
Count me among those sort of sad, and feeling rather old today, at the news of Davy Jones’ death.
I always thought Mickey was the best singer, and Michael Nesmith the best musician, and Davy was pretty much one of those mostly useless tambourine people that proliferated back in the day, but hey, I’m not made of stone.
I think it would be fitting to bury Davy Jones at sea, what with already having a locker down there.
(Sorry–somebody had to say it.)
Historical note: back around 1967 or so, Frank Zappa was quoted as saying he liked the Monkees better than the psychedelic bands coming out of San Francisco at that time. Why? They just made better sounding records.
Online-early publication in Science: people took a gene for cellulase from Neurospora crassa and put it in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Result: yeast that can grow on plant fibers – yeast that can make alcohol out of plant fibers. Cheap bioethanol not made from food, here we come!!!
Ötzi: genome sez he probably had brown eyes, brown hair, and blood type 0, was lactose-intolerant, was prone to coronary heart disease and had indeed begun to develop “vascular calcifications”, and belonged – at least in the male line – to people whose descendants are found today on Sardinia and Corsica. Also: “Sequences corresponding to ~60% of the genome of Borrelia burgdorferi are indicative of the earliest human case of infection with the pathogen for Lyme borreliosis.”
░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░
SallyStrange or someone, could you please poke Jadehawk on Twitter or somewhere and beg her to 1) read the latest few e-mails she got and 2) respond?
░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░
That would apply to English, but much less so to German. In English, you almost never continue with “it” when you’ve mentioned “child”, “kid” or “baby” (in fact, I’ve never seen it with “child”/”kid”), but in German, you must (or you must choose “boy”/”girl” to begin with).
Northern German even retains the general Germanic* feature of having neuter as some kind of default which is used with “who”, “somebody” and the like. (In southern German, all such words are treated as masculine – wer aller, jemand Anderer –, and at least some dialects avoid applying them to known females, resorting to eine for them.)
* Or so I’ve read in a Google Books preview of Don Ringe’s book From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic.
Agreed.
I just posted this comment over there:
Any objections?
Why?
Awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome!!!
Just for the record, I can’t help you here, I only know poppen from the satire page of a TV program. It isn’t used where I come from. Do you know pempern or pudern?
And I must wonder, is there something… unambiguous about [p]? ~:-|
Then why does he equate races with subspecies and then say they exist? Is he not familiar with the big-C Code?
…Wow. Nine links. And a great big blockuqote fail.
Part 1 of 2:
Online-early publication in Science: people took a gene for cellulase from Neurospora crassa and put it in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Result: yeast that can grow on plant fibers – yeast that can make alcohol out of plant fibers. Cheap bioethanol not made from food, here we come!!!
Ötzi: genome sez he probably had brown eyes, brown hair, and blood type 0, was lactose-intolerant, was prone to coronary heart disease and had indeed begun to develop “vascular calcifications”, and belonged – at least in the male line – to people whose descendants are found today on Sardinia and Corsica. Also: “Sequences corresponding to ~60% of the genome of Borrelia burgdorferi are indicative of the earliest human case of infection with the pathogen for Lyme borreliosis.”
░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░
SallyStrange or someone, could you please poke Jadehawk on Twitter or somewhere and beg her to 1) read the latest few e-mails she got and 2) respond?
░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░
That would apply to English, but much less so to German. In English, you almost never continue with “it” when you’ve mentioned “child”, “kid” or “baby” (in fact, I’ve never seen it with “child”/”kid”), but in German, you must (or you must choose “boy”/”girl” to begin with).
Northern German even retains the general Germanic* feature of having neuter as some kind of default which is used with “who”, “somebody” and the like. (In southern German, all such words are treated as masculine – wer aller, jemand Anderer –, and at least some dialects avoid applying them to known females, resorting to eine for them.)
* Or so I’ve read in a Google Books preview of Don Ringe’s book From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic.
Agreed.
I just posted this comment over there:
Any objections?
Why?
Awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome!!!
Just for the record, I can’t help you here, I only know poppen from the satire page of a TV program. It isn’t used where I come from. Do you know pempern or pudern?
And I must wonder, is there something… unambiguous about [p]? ~:-|
Then why does he equate races with subspecies and then say they exist? Is he not familiar with the big-C Code?
Then why talk about subspecies? That implies precisely that every individual can be pigeonholed (either as a member of one or at least as a hybrid of two or more of the subspecies).
Part 2 of 2:
Thirded!
Sister 2 gets angry, too – and that means she 1) kicks whatever hurt her, 2) throws things that would still be needed, and 3) is very angry at everyone who happens to be around.
Tsk, tsk. That ignores everything from identical twins to microchimerism. Dr. Dunning, meet Dr. Kruger.
Learn about the Arabidopsis genes superman and kryptonite.
Of course, Sophophora melanogaster still has the greatest amount of humor in its genome: eyeless, sine oculis (not the same gene), sevenless, mother of sevenless, decapentaplegic, mothers against decapentaplegic…
Shh is straightforward: S. melanogaster has hedgehog, and vertebrates have three orthologs that are named after the only three kinds of hedgehog known to the *snort* molecularists in question, desert hedgehog, Indian hedgehog and Sonic hedgehog.
(sine oculis = “without eyes”, Latin.)
Emphasis mine.
*sigh*
Wikipedia counts 16 species.
*projectile barf*
And that by people whose discipline was pretty much founded by a woman (Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, whose name has its own unfortunate-but-humorous implications).
Oh, BTW, in this room there’s a Miocene newt that actually grew up. The skeleton (well, what’s left of it – a natural mold of the front half, and the cast we had made of that) is fucking incredible to look at. Its size is unremarkable, but all other salamanders (and even the biggest and the gnarliest frogs) look like babies compared to it. It was once identified as a totally different animal that was 300 million years older, and I almost identified it as another such animal of similar age. There may be a paper in this.
“[…] fertilize the eggs internally, with the male depositing a sac of sperm in the female’s cloaca.”
– Pffft
It’s a gene for a protein that has a function in DNA repair. When it doesn’t work properly, the risk for cancer in general rises, as (I’m sure) does other shit. It, and BRCA2, just happened to be discovered in people with breast cancer.
…Yeah. Are you red/green-blind, Josh?
*eyeroll*
No, Esteleth wouldn’t, because she happens to already know where those gene names come from. And you know that full well.
Who doesn’t…
Meh. Not everyone grew up with religion-based swears.
…Horror. :-S :-S :-S
Latin, yes. Greek, no. Greek hasn’t successfully branched in a very long time.
I think the Chinese characters are an enormous hurdle to Chinese ever becoming the kind of universal language of science that English is now.
No. Hedgehog in flies is desert hedgehog, Indian hedgehog and Sonic hedgehog – 3 different paralogous genes – in humans. Shh is the abbreviation for Sonic hedgehog, not a name in its own right; Hedgehog is abbreviated hh.
Disclaimer: I don’t know what the capitalization and italicization conventions for human or even vinegar fly genes are.
*squee* That’s a baby!!!
Obligatory mention of the textbook case: Coca Cola = kěkǒukělè = can-mouth-can-joy = you can taste it, you can enjoy it… Coca Cola means “Taste and Enjoy™” in Chinese.
(…That’s a significant improvement over earlier attempts that mostly got the sounds closer but meant such things as “bite the wax tadpole”.)
Yep, I posted that 1 or 2 days ago. :-)
…Yeah. Whatever. I begin to understand why Godzilla wins in Godzilla vs. Destroyer.
“Farewell, dog” with ugly b.
Haaaaaaa! Outdated. :-)
:-) :-) :-) :-) :-)
That moron has never been to Brussels.
I once read recommendations on how to protect an RNA lab. (The thing is that we have RNases lying around on our skin. RNases are fucking everywhere.) They included to put up big warnings about things like “Montezuma’s Revenge is nothing against what I’ll do to you when you…”.
What about the rest of the comment you quoted from? Here is it again:
See? PZ says you shouldn’t mention particular genes at all, because most patients don’t know them anyway. Describe what’s up in terms of phenotype.
BTW, I’d like to introduce “much surer than hell” into the English language.
…um. That was 10 links, not 9.
…not in bed. :-/
I have no objection.
:)
–
Oh, yes! There’s a movie that fills me with pseudo-nostalgia! Reminds me of any number of Super groups we ran in the Marvel Superheroes game. Accidentally nuking Manhattan Island, making ugly divots in Daley Plaza with a rocket launcher (shooting at the wrong guy), dropping a helicopter through the skylight of a museum (setting the whole thing aflame (and incidentally destroying the item we were supposed to be protecting)), wiping out Disney World….yeah, there’s a distinct resemblence.
:D
Favorite quotes:
“We struck down evil with the mighty sword of teamwork and the hammer of not bickering.”
“Maybe you should put some shorts on or something, if you want to keep fighting evil today.”
And my very favoritest:
“What you mean we? I was standing over here.”
–
Here’s the link:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/09/100909141531.htm
O hai! Not only did Tyrannosaurus rex have the strongest bite of any land animal ever, and not only did its bite strength increase faster than linear with age/size, but the paper is not behind a paywall!
Oops! :-D :-D :-D
Playing Villains and Vigilantes, my group of superheroes accidentally destroyed the Statue of Liberty. And in the same battle against supervillains, we also took out the Empire State Building, Yankee Stadium, and the Brooklyn Bridge. There’s a good reason we all wore imaginary masks as a part of our imaginary costumes.
Yes but then I wouldn’t get to tell the joke :-p.
Chas maybe you can help me out here. Because in the day and age where The Bellcurve and other racism and that still rears its ugly head, when we had people not to long ago dismember each other with machetes over incredibly flimsy racial barriers, why would we ever want to actually try to prop up the idea of race with science? The answer you gave actually seems to boil down to “Because we like kicking over hornets nests and pissing off dogooders”.
I know pimpern, but pudern is new to me.
Rolling it around in my head doesn’t fit. Too soft.
Flies: How is it that Drosophila can continue to torment me even when I’m not working on grants or in the lab? I suppose that’s what you get for using Drosophila for human virology research.
…
Looks like Google has been screwing around with their search results to deactivate the frothy Google bomb.
Oh, christ, fuck this asshole.
We did that, too. Collapsed it into itself like a mini black hole (and just handwave the physics).
Our group kept current plane tickets to Toledo, Ohio, to facilitate our serially-inevitable hasty retreats to change costumes and identities. Except for the one time I had a character who was the ruler of a small polynesian island/country; that set of characters is missing, presumed beach-combing, in the wake of some nonsense involving the accidental destruction of 32 squad cars and a Brinks truck full of cash. There was collateral damage, as well.
Good times….
–
Give in PZ…strike him down!
Also is anyone seriously that fucking clueless to not know that the instant you say “This is the thing that bugs me the most and will shut me up forever” 50+ people will jump on the chance to spring it on you?
Ing, I belatedly recognize Bret as someone who’s whined in various places on FTB whenever the topic of atheist misogyny has arisen.
David M:
However, we will never know whether he died with semen in his rectum, because his entire groinal area was eaten by scavengers before it could be preserved.
David,
Two things:
1: You failed to note to whom I addressed that rhetorical question.
(That was uncharacteristically sloppy of you)
2: What I was suggesting is that it seemed patronising to (ahem) lesser people, unlike Alethea, unless she herself would have that reaction.
Y’know what? I knew ex-Mormons would come blasting into my WIAAA claiming it’s bullshit. But I’m still disappointed.
It’s absolutely not bullshit. I could give real names, but I didn’t out of courtesy. I could name the church but I didn’t want to because that poor man has suffered enough.
It was not in Utah, probably not the same as Utah.
It wrecked my gut to write that and people will just focus on the faults, rather than the overall story. The story is true. Camp LoMia is a real name. The rest are false, though the titles were the ones given to me. I don’t give a rat’s ass about Mormon hierarchy, I only wrote down–in my extensive diaries (I have 42)–what had happened each day.
YES, criminy, it was a CTR ring and not a PTL ring. Who cares?
Anyway, apparently I HATE being called a liar about something that was all too true. And I had to purge. Thank you so much for your support.
Now on to more interesting conversation.
Koshka, it was absolute shit that someone called you a liar. Your essay was a good one and it resonated with a lot of people. Thank you for taking the time and effort to write it and having the courage to submit it.
Skippin’ over the
oceanEndless,Like a stone… —
John:
If the latest episode of The Worst Cooks in America is any guide, so does Bobby Flay. Given all the complaints I hear about the “fresh” tomatoes available in your local MegaMart, I’m not sure they’re wrong: It seems plausible to me that tomatoes destined for the can might have been bred, grown, and picked with something other than maximum shelf life in mind.
It’d be nice if everybody had ready access to a third alternative — say, sustainably (and locally) farmed organic heirloom tomatoes from the farmers’ market — but assuming that’s the case is an error of privilege.
In point of fact, I’ve heard numerous food experts point out that, for certain products in certain applications, properly preserved (frozen, dried, canned, etc.) ingredients can be superior to what the typical home cook can find fresh.
***
I wouldn’t want to defend gene names like Sonic hedgehog or Cheap date, because they do seem a bit silly to me, but… speaking as a parent who’s been through the life-threatening illness of a child, I don’t think I would’ve been been at all insulted or bothered by such terminology. In our case, the illness (brain cancer) was not (as far as anybody knows) the result of a genetic defect, but our daughter’s doctors were so kind and empathetic that I never would’ve imagined they were mocking her illness, no matter what the technical terminology sounded like.
And if they had been the sort of people I could imagine mocking our daughter’s illness, they wouldn’t have been her doctors!
***
RIP (or whatever the secular equivalent is; I recall we kicked that around once), Davy Jones. I wonder if folks are gathering at the home of Peter Tork (who lives in nearby Storrs, CT) to lift a glass?
I’m having a nostalgia moment for made-for-TV bands: not just the Monkees, but also the Partridge Family and the Archies (but about the Brady Bunch and Josie and the Pussycats, the less said, the better, eh?).
The problem with scientific publishing.
Caine @335:
You continue to be one of my role models.
Thank you. (And I’m not young. Age has nothing to do with it.)
Bill, re produce, I do not dispute you at all.
I’ve mentioned my dismay with commercially-produced tomatoes before; for handling purposes, they are not picked once they have begun to ripen (and therefore soften). Alas, that includes canned tomatoes.
(I use home-grown tomatoes, of course — bursting with ripeness, they are. No added sugar, they don’t need it at all)
@Josh: “Their name is “doody.””; humour or sarcasm? I can’t tell. *worry*
firstapproximation @337, wow!
(A very powerful polemic, that)
Congrats, kristinc!
*Brown sugar brownies with pecans and chocolate chips* will be arriving through your USB port shortly
Hmm. Had to click the link:
Weird. So “This is what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps!” turns out to be a direct paraphrase?
While I’m on a roll:
Valentine’s Day–Don’t care about it, but my Russian gf thinks it’s a very important holiday for me. It’s really not, but she works from 8am to 11pm and I never see her so I went along with her wanting to have a dinner proper with me in a restaurant.
It started off great. Right on the Neva River about 50 meters from our flat is a very fancy “kavkas” restaurant. I love Georgian, Azerbaijani, Armenian food so that sounded fantastic. It was, at first.
Then this barrel-bellied man decided two women alone needed a man. He just plunked himself at our table and I expected my gf to get rid of him post haste, but no. She didn’t at all.
My girlfriend is an ex-Soviet champion rower. She rowed for ten hours a day for ten years. She’s massively strong. She owns her own company and bosses men around all day long. But she let him paw me (he wanted to dance with me and kept plopping his hand on my head, rubbing my hair like I’m a pet, and grabbing me just under my tits).
I was furious. She said, “Just go dance with him.”
“I am not rewarding shitty behavior, sorry. Plus, I own my body.” I was livid. WTF?
This is the one part of Russian culture I just don’t get. She could’ve kicked his ass but she just acquiesced. I don’t know enough Russian yet to properly admonish her. Believe me, I wielded my broken Russian ruthlessly.
In every other way, she’s fantastic. My birthday is Saturday and she’s taking me to Istanbul.
What am I looking for? Maybe some explanation for why she acted that way at the restaurant? It made me feel a lot less safe around her. Why did she do that? She’s such a kick ass woman all the time, in every store, in every situation, but that one. We’ve been together for three (really rough–red tape-wise) years.
And, maybe I’m lonely for intelligent English conversation, honestly.
Koshka, it sounds like lifelong cultural conditioning on your gf’s part, probably something that will take more than one chat to get to the point of communicating clearly on both sides.
Not so! Before being a Monkee he had been nominated for a Tony award for originating the role of the artful dodger in both the London and Broadway runs of Oliver!, and performed on the Ed Sullivan show the same day the Beatles did.
Caine, true.
I just keep thinking “if some guy came up to her in America and was doing that, I would dispatch him, quickly”.
She asked me at one point, “If a man was doing this to you in America, could you have him arrested?”
In my mind, I thought the many restaurant staff would step in. I don’t know why I expected this but it didn’t happen.
Ing – finally got home and was able to watch the Mystery Men clip. It’s apt, except I don’t see Sphinx losing his cool over swear words. Or telling Ben Stiller’s character “I will hate you till the day I die and wish you nothing but ill will in every career move you make. I will be watching with interest and schadenfreude.”
Regarding your question to Chas at #325, the answer I am usually given when I put this question to people who are, shall we say, tone-deaf on the subject is a lecture on not running away from “the truth,” no matter how “politically incorrect.” Which in and of itself elides any number of truths that do not stare the speaker in the face.
David M.:
“Little She-Nut, Full Hard”?
Brownian:
Where do you want your sniny new Internet delivered?
Koshka: The restaurant staff may or may not step in on their own. However, if you called over the host/ess and informed them, “This man is bothering us; please make him stop,” they almost certainly would take action.
Yeah but it’s not “The truth”. People are explicitly asking “what benefit is there to this model?”
It’d be like arguing that we should reclassify trans people as mentally ill because clearly there is SOME issue with the disconnect between mind/body etc. It solves nothing and just seems to be inflammatory for the sake of it and actively hostile to people who give a shit about racial issues.
Daze:
In Russia or the U.S.?
So you’re with Team Davy, then?
Okay, I’ll grant that he wasn’t as talentless as he seemed to me back in 1968 or whenever. Keep in mind that Tony awards didn’t carry a lot of weight with teen and pre-teen rock ‘n roll fans back then, as a general rule.
Even Elvis was considered a dinosaur by then, at least before the comeback special on TV. Pretty much everything that happened before 1964 was passe.
(Other than maybe Johnny Cash, who seemed badass enough to be worthy of respect, and was something of a patron of young folksingers, recording his first Bob Dylan song in 1964.)
Between the psychedelic thing, the Summer of Love and so forth, and the revelation that the Monkees didn’t play their own instruments, they fell out of favor pretty fast.
And don’t get me started on the movie Head.
Sure, we can give Davy his due. Still, between Elephant Parts, Television Parts, producing Repo Man, and being the writer of Linda Ronstadt’s hit “Different Drum,” count me with Team Michael. Even if that wasn’t his real hat.
Ms. Daisy Cutter @348:
If only I could’ve said that in Russian! I didn’t know the word for “disturbing” then. I do now! (“Bothering” is not really recognized as a problem here.) As it was, I was depending on my gf to say it and she wasn’t concerned. Disturbing.
Plus, to Caine’s point, Russian men (people, apparently) find this quite normal.
It’s a steep learning curve between the two cultures, I suppose.
I have spent the past half-hour modifying the “Clean ALL the things!” image from Hyperbole and a Half to read “BLAST ALL the contigs!”
This makes me disproportionately happy.
And I’m off to sleep. It’s nearly 4am here. I appreciate you all so much, you probably have no idea. You keep me informed and, in many ways, sane.
feralboy – I’m Team Tork. :) I have always felt badly for all of them and the rap they got, though – they were all decent musicians in some way or another but weren’t allowed to use their own talents because of being hired just to be pretty faces, and by the time they were allowed to start experimenting musically they were already past peak of popularity due to being widely decried as fake. They were in a bad catch-22.
Ing, the response would be that Truth™ is more important than outcome, so benefits are a moot point. The same rationale Andrew Sullivan gave when he was JAQing off last year about whether black people just might be dumber than white people.
Caine: I meant in the U.S., which I should have clarified. I misread Koshka’s last paragraph at #347 to mean that because of the reference to “in America” in the preceding paragraph.
Koshka: That sucks, that “bothering” is not considered a problem in Russia.
Unrelatedly, the caption on the photo made me yelp and cross my legs. And I don’t have any bits that would hang down within pincer reach.
@Daisy Cutter
Should probably end this for now, not fair to talk for Chas’s side.
I wasn’t trying to speak for Chas himself, but fair enough.
Uhh, no. Google ‘santorum’ and it’s still on the top page.
While I don’t appreciate Google’s new ranking algorithms, (if I wanted ‘news’ I would have click on ‘news’), Google didn’t do anything to specifically deny the frothy mix as a legitimate return. (Check your settings, I have “Safe Search” off.)
Google did try to change the algorithms to avoid a ‘Google Bomb’, but santorum is not a bomb.
+++++++++++++++
Echoing things up above, when I get hurt I get mad, when I get really hurt I’m very calm.
You wouldn’t like me when I’m calm.
+++++++++++++++
IRT to gene names, I gotta go with John Morales, no one meant to be hurtful when they did this, and MDs have a lot of different ways to express themselves and still get the point across.
+++++++++++++++
kinda related; I have a cold and I went to my doctor today, not because of the cold, it’s a follow up visit (if it had been a dental appt I would have canceled).
While we talked about my general health and how the new meds were working, I told him about my cold and symptoms, and he did notice I had a fever. Then he said ‘there’s really nothing I can do, it just has to run its course.’ Woo hoo! No suggestion of anti-biotics or any scripts to make me feel better.
Sailor: is your experience that it’s unusual for doctors to be so commonsense about colds? If so then wow, I must just live in a happily progressive area when it comes to this stuff because I’ve not had an on-call nurse or a doc say anything else in … well, within memory at least.
@Krasnaya Koshka
I blew a mental gasket when I saw that. I’m damn sick of it. Would it have hurt clarysage to be, you know, just a little bit more generous, a little less paranoid, and to have maybe read your story more carefully? Talk about things that keep women out of atheism–that has got to be a big one to have your own personal experiences dismissed as rubbish because you got a few details about some cult you were never much part of wrong.
I mean, WTF? Why would anyone submit a false story about why they are an atheist? What in the world would be the reasoning behind that? Why the paranoia about a false portrayal of Mormonism making it into PZ’s “Why I am an atheist” series?
:( That’s awful. Clarysage really needs to apologize to you for that if she hasn’t already.
Oh, goodness, is it March already? Break out the leeks and the daffs!
(With serendipitous timing, Where I Live™, the daffodils have just come out. The snowdrops are still coming out. And I crossed paths with a frog on the pavement (sidewalk) last night. It’s all a bit confused. I’m holding out for the Vinca minor; when that’s in flower, it’s definitely Spring. Probably. Maybe.)
Google Doodle.
kristinc, yes, IME it is unusual. I have a colleague get prescribed antibiotics for the same damn symptoms.
+++++
“MDs have a lot of different ways to express themselves ”
We were talking about genes, folks. {sigh} [Sailor thinks he’s funny.]
The International House Of Fail?
Thread bankrupt, I’m just popping in to request a bit of Pharyngulization, after a fashion. WBUR (in Boston) has a daily call-in show, “On Point.” It’s generally a pretty good show. Tomorrow they’re doing an hour from 11am – 12pm, called “A New Age Of Reformation.” They’re inviting church historian Diana Butler Bass says that a new reformation may be leaving religion behind. They have an excerpt from Ms. Bass’s book. Here’s a sample:
They are inviting comments on the website, some of which will undoubtedly be quoted during the show tomorrow. In my comment, I quoted the bit I italicized up there, and said:
“In other words, it’s s shift towards values that are universal human values, rather than values that are particular to one faith or another. It’s not a spiritual revolution, it’s an ethical revolution. A humanist revolution of secular ethics. I don’t quite understand how Ms. Bass feels justified in claiming all this for ‘spirituality.'”
I’m hoping more folks will leave similar comments.
Jesus wept, I fucking hate these people.
The asshole linked in the Alicublog post wants welfare recipients to be restricted to buying “government-branded” products, of which “taste and quality… would not be a top priority,” at “government stores,” which would be the only places recipients could spend their benefits. Oh, and they’d also have to be tested for tobacco and drugs monthly:
Fuck Comic Sans; quoting this shit requires Fraktur.
I’d lie were I to claim SallyStrange (sorry, ma’am, I shan’t be contributing to your admittedly worthwhile cause) didn’t inspire my recollection of this little ditty: Age of Aquarius.
David:
A fair question, but no. And the smoked ham necks were brown anyway, just like the “greenies.” I was Cooking While Drunk, though.
changeable moniker:
Don’t worry. Humor. “Doody” in USAnian means “shit” in baby talk. Equivalent to “Mommy I made a poopy.”
Sally:
I can only ever listen when Tom Ashbrook is off for the evening.
It is rather Age of Aquarius, isn’t it, John? I hope the interviewer asks her if she’s a fan of Hair the Musical.
Flotsam—
The 19th-century-fication of SpokesGay’s Hobbit House continues apace. We have begun Lighting With Kerosene!™ and will continue until the whole fuckin’ place becomes Little House on the Girl-It’s-So-Country-Out-Here Prairie.
Super Number One Quality Acquisitions:
1. Depression-era table lamp with heavy fluted base for $3 at the thrift store.
2. 19th century lamp with original heavy chimney and wrought-iron wall bracket. $65 at local antique store.
Tips for lighting with fire:
1. Do not use “lamp oil” if you’re a USAnian. “Paraffin” oil in the US is liquid paraffin (candle wax). It’s inefficient, expensive, and shitty for your lamps.
2. Use kerosene or a cleaner substitute such as Kleen-Heat. I got rid of the paraffin oil in my lamps this evening, changed the wicks, and put in KH. It burns twice as bright and it’s 25 percent of the cost.
Josh, sounds great, although the only time I ever did homework by oil lamp was in the great Northeast Blackout.
I just dropped by to point you-all at the most beeyooutiful take-down of rape apology evah!
Who wants another shot of rage? Five whiniest quotes from bankers deprived of their bonuses.
;__;
Markita Lynda, that link’s borken; please repost?
Anybody who can utter the phrase “crammed into 1200 square feet” with a straight face should be smacked with a baseball bat.
Fuck that shit. Anyone who complains about doing dishes by hand deserves a turn in a dish washer.
Josh OSG:
Just keep Mrs O’Leary’s cow the hell away from your house!
;^)
They should be forced to share the dishwasher with ball bearings and shards of broken glass. Also, Pure Cap should be added to the detergent before the cycle.
Coincidentally, just after I linked to those quotes, a friend sent me this article on the subject. The comments, as you’d expect, are pure bile.
Le Dauphin (and I just heard someone the other day pronounce your name “Doffin,” which I refuse to recognize—you know who you are, person. Mais non. It is Dough-FAN, but with a very short ‘a’. Now you know.)
I shall, believe me. No one needs a Chicago-style fire up in here. Mrs. O’Leary got sloppy and that was her downfall.
Chez SpokesGay is totes more charming and cozy with the addition of Fire-Based Lighting™, I have to say. ‘specially with snow storm moving in.
If anyone’s hearing news of the current Australian flooding – I’m fine. Tigger & Kel live further south than me, and it’s worse out their way, but still more of a nuisance than a danger. No casualties reported anywhere yet. Evacuations in some towns north and south.
For more –
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/live-flood-watch-in-act-and-surrounding-regions-20120301-1u4fp.html
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-03-01/towns-prepare-to-evacuate-as-rain-continues/3861458
Sailor: Not sure how that’s working for you, but Google recently changed their search algorithms, and the new #1 is the UD definition. In fact, spreadingsantorum.com isn’t even on the first page. There’s a Politio article out there somewhere if you’re interested.
@ Alethea (& Kel & Tigger)
Keep safe. Warm hugs if you need them.
@ Josh
W.r.t. firing up the Shh = Spokesgay Hobbit House ™: Flueless Fireplace runs on bioalcohol. (I chose the most deco-ish I saw on my google-quest. You might want to try your own (google) foo-ness on a flueless.
Dead Davy Jones makes me sad.
Mike Nesmith was always my favorite.
—
I’m reading Prophet’s Prey by Sam Brower.
I’m only on page 50/300 and I’m not sure I can do it.
—
Japanese language is horse deer.
PS
@ David Marjanović (De Botton thread)
The response you ordered is getting cold.
/ gratuitous cajoling
Thanks Theophontes. I’m actually having a lovely peaceful afternoon sitting at my new desk, looking out at the rain in the garden, and listening to music (currently it’s Un Bel Di) while I do some boring work.
Theo, those are charming, to be sure!
Ah, Davy Jones, yeah. Sad. National Public Radio played the instrumental master (no vocals) of the original “Daydream Believer” behind their broadcast today. That song always give me the bittersweet chills. It’s so sweet and so achingly sad at the same time.
Huh. Talk about sensationalist headlines: Blood-sucking mega-fleas once stalked Earth
—
“So nat’ralists observe, a flea
Hath smaller fleas that on him prey,
And these have smaller fleas that bite ’em,
And so proceed ad infinitum.”
(Jonathan Swift)
More topically, the ADF (Australian Defence Force) is in damage control mode: Racism, sexism rife on ADF Facebook group.
I have the fucking flu. But I am at work. Why? Because so many employees are laid off right now that it is me, one fee collector, and one volunteer providing all visitor services today. And yesterday.
Which would put even more people out of work, putting more people on the welfare roles. Boy works in a quicky-mart; despite the higher prices, his store is a place that many on assistance can walk to.
And I wonder how I would be handled? I am a career federal employee. I am also a disabled vet and get a monthly pension. Would my spending also be scrutinized? What about my parents who recieve social security? Or my sister-in-law, who recieves SSDI? Then again, would federal student loans be considered federal slavery? Or driving on interstate highways? Do these people even think about what they write (Okay, I know the answer to that one.)?
Agreed. My two-story 1920s house is only about 1100 square feet. Do these people even think about how they sound (okay, I know the answer to that one, too.)?
Oggie:
Dude, that fucking sucks.
I was hella sick on Monday and Tuesday. I took Monday off, but had to show up on Tuesday because I work with idiots who can’t function for two days without supervision.
I guess I shouldn’t mention that I closed the office today due to snow then, huh?
WOO SNOW DAY!
Still not fully caught up, but re: foodstamps:
It’s the perfect Conservative plan! Screw the needy while giving a big fat handout to multi-national corporations!
‘Cos we know all know who really needs the help. Those captains of industry are suffering so fucking much in this economy, while families are just wasting their bennies on lobsters and cigarettes, anyway.
@John Morales:
Huh… well at least you could find them if your cat got fleas.
Here’s the original Bloomberg article that the article Ms. Daisy Cutter† linked to was based on. I must admit, until I read that, I thought it smelled of Onions.
† Driving Ms. Daisy Cutter — I just had to say it.
<cynical>You know, there must be some sort of equation of exactly how poor the poor must be kept to yield maximum profit for ‘the 1%’. Too poor, and they don’t have any money to spend. To rich, and they start eating into your profit.</cynical>
SQB:
Meh, that has never mattered. Sure, you or I might argue that keeping people out of extreme poverty has many benefits, but these jerkasses just want to punish them, even if they end up dragging everyone else down with them.
Josh, how many Acadian-Americans, at least in New England, actually pronounce their surnames in accordance with the rules of French pronunciation? Even if we stipulate Québécois rules instaed of Parisian rules? :)
Alethea, I’m glad you’re all OK down there.
Theophontes, are those two glass chimneys on one fireplace, or are they sort of like two separate flueless candles? They are gorgeous, although TBH I’d be terrified of a stray draft picking up the flame.
John M, the “blood-sucking mega-fleas” haven’t gone away; they’ve just evolved into two-legged organisms wearing expensive business suits.
Here’s another article on the ADF scandal, with a video featuring some extremely hateful comments displayed and read aloud. Unsurprisingly, there’s homophobia as well as misogyny and racism, and there are threats against whoever leaked the story to the press.
Ogvorbis, your employers should have either found a temp or closed the damned office down. It’s cruel to you, and it’s posing a health risk to the public.
The asshole who wants to shame welfare recipients isn’t interested in the real-world effects of his suggested plan. More importantly, the billionaires who sign his wingnut welfare check are interested — but, to them, fewer jobs, fewer government services, and more desperately poor people are all features and not bugs.
My house was built in the same era that yours was and is less than 1000 square feet. Granted, it’s just me here, rather than four people (except for the five months the other year when a friend returning to the East Coast moved in with me). I’d say I don’t get the greed for humongous homes — you have to pay taxes on, heat, maintain, and clean all that extra space — but I realize that some people value status above everything else.
SQB, you wouldn’t be the first to make that joke. :P
As for “too poor,” what Audley said, but also remember that this isn’t the era of Henry Ford anymore. The megacorps can sell their products to customers worldwide, meaning that the meager purchasing power of desperately poor USians will be offset by the growing purchasing power of, for example, Asians. (Not that it was ever right for USians to thrive at the expense of people in other countries, which sums up a great deal of 20th century history…)
http://www.allout.org/stpetersburg-dont-go
Allout campaign against imminent homophobic gagging law in Russia.
I’d be surprised if I was.
can anyone tell me how to quote in these blogs; say quote the previous thing someone said in order to respond. Im new to the blog scene.
Chris
The republican strategy has always been that in times of famine we should give all the food to the fattest guy we can find and everyone else can eat his shit.
Wonderful. I presume that since Congress Critters get their money from the public fund they are under the same scrutiny? Personally I think that if CCs can only spend their cash on non luxuries while in office that would do us a world of good. Keep them focused.
—————–
Partner teaches an intro class for freshman that’s basically crit thinking and rhetoric. Partner also does workshop tutoring for people needing help in papers. Partner got one this week, very well off African American young woman; apparently very attractive; who is given the assignment to respond with her personal thoughts on a video on the desegregation of US schools. Her problem was that she “just didn’t care” about the subject matter. We’re post racial after all with a black president and it’s so boring, that was then it’s like she just can’t bring herself to care. Partner isn’t sure how to tutor someone whose problem isn’t that they’re a bad writer, it’s that they’re a bad person :-p
Hello Tentaclets,
I’d like to quickly remind you of PZ’s earlier post about those nasty UK acupuncturists and their pointless poll.
As reasonably expected, upon being pharyngulated, they reset (or “fudged”) their numbers at least twice, and then introduced a user registration. After these disingenuous shenanigans the poll now stands at 68% in favor of and 32% opposed to more acupuncture on the NHS, the British public health care system.
Do we want to let them get away with it? I say no – let The Wrath be upon them once more, send The Minions, and may The Horde again do their dirty (dirrrrty) work.
Copy the link address into a new window so you won’t be spotted as an Assassin of the Order of the Pharyngula, create an account and show them who’s boss.
Thank you.
I totally ♥ you, Ing.
Chris:
There are instructions above the comment box. However, you can use <blockquote>text</blockquote> to get
<blockquote>Quoted text goes here.</blockquote>
Result:
Also, see juuuust above the input field; the permitted tags are right there.
Chris, you enclose the quote in <blockquote> and </blockquote> tags. For example, if you typed the following (ignore the word spacing):
You would get:
Apparently Andrew Breitbart has died.
@chrisco #400
Sure thing, Chris – all I did was copy/paste the text into the reply window and enclose it it <blockquote> tags like this:
<blockquote>This is something someone else said</blockquote>… comes out like this:
Similarly to include links, you write
<a href=”WHERETHELINKGOESTO”>WHATPEOPLECANCLICK</a>
and get this:
WHATPEOPLECANCLICK
Thank you, ButchKitties, for putting a huge fucking grin on my face.
Good riddance to bad rubbish. And anyone who wants to lecture me on how this is “irrational” can fuck off.
@ButchKitties:
Much as I disagreed with him, that’s a shock to hear! He was young, too. My thoughts and condolences to his friends and family.
How tragic America has lost one of its….people
Holy shit, Butchkitties.
I’m sure there’s an appropriate Twain quote to describe my reaction.
I’ll have to do some Googling.
Now if O’Keef is sent to jail for violating his parole for committing voter fraud this will be the bestest day ever!
Ing, don’t count on anything happening to li’l Jimmy up here in Tea Hampshire.
Awesome Gawker comment:
God, I can’t wait until Wonkette posts about Breitbart. That’s gonna be awesome.
Feels appropriate.
Audley – without Googling, I believe the quote is something along the lines of: While I do not wish this person harm, I would pass up all other entertainment to attend his funeral. From Roughing It, I believe and in regards to the man who sold him a bad horse.
Jeffrey:
That’s the one!
Audley, the front page of Wonkette is fucking depressing today. There’s also an article about the Daily Caller asshole who wants welfare to be even more humiliating than it already is.
As for Breitbart, there’s a thread on him in an unrelated post.
Audley, ah, we crossed. Different quotes, however. Will have to see if I can find mine now.
WTF is the malfunction with pro gun people?
“well making guns illegal wont get rid of every accident it’ll always happen so why bother trying am I right!?”
Does that make a lick of sense to anyone?
“well food contamination will happen no matter how hard you try so why bother testing for arsenic am I right?”
Apparently I need a handler today. Might be best to just get back into bed with a book and try not to interact with humans or the environment for a bit. Nothing broken, yet, but I really should not try to engage either brain or hands.
Jeffrey:
Don’t worry, I couldn’t find it, either.
Ms Daisy:
Oh, I know. I’ve dropped a couple of comments on some of those stories.
But I loves me the Wonkette. They can take the most depressing story and turn it into a funny rage-fest. It helps.
CNN hails Tpyos:
(At least that’s how it read when I happened to look).
@ SQB
(You are far to rational to be able to muster the cynicism that would reflect the reality of the GOP agenda.)
A similar logic was expressed by Walter Reuther on a visit to Ford Motors (then in the process of replacing workers with machines):
@ Ms Daisy Cutter
Those are two separate fireplaces. They come in many sizes and designs, from very traditional to forms such as the small ones shown. The bioalcohol is so pure and clean burning that one does not need a flue. They are genuine fireplaces, that just replace the outdated and dirty wood/brickets/gas with a liquid fuel.
Jesus Felching Christ, Gawker. “Here Are Some Gross Photos of a Cockroach Giving Birth.” :-X
Apparently I hailed Tpyos as well, because my link it was borked.
http://roachparty.tumblr.com/
DDDDDDDDD:
And here it is:
Andrew Breitbart Drops Dead
Is no one working on dole yeast and soylent green for all those welfarites?
Clearly, he needs to pray to God for a solution to his needs.
Oh Lord,
Won’t you buy me
A Mercedes-Benz?
My friends all have Porches
I must make amends . . .
(I was going through some old clippings, and I found a cartoon or two bemoaning the fact that Mercedes-Benz actually had the chutzpah to use that song in a commercial for their car)
And already I’ve seen the first claims that Breitbart was assassinated ‘because he knew too much’. On the Pft! talk page for his article.
Die Antwoord:
Penis microphones (NSFW)
Rats (NSFW)
Insects (guess)
SQB: The conspiracy engines are already humming. Breitbart = Vince Foster II.
Ms. Daisy Cutter, that link does not go to the quote that is the start of the conspiracy mongering. I do not feel like going through the almost four hundred statements (at this point in time) to find it.
Apparently, the conspiracy mongering is raging on Twitter.
As long as it keeps the idiots so occupied that they cannot do anything else, I am all for it.
More nerdy video game news:
Assassin’s Creed III! American fucking Revolution!
*nerdgasm!*
My heart, it bleeds.
–
Fuck that shit twice; they deserve a turn as a dish washer, for a living, trying to support themselves and their family on the wages thus earned. Minimum time of a year.
–
Wishing safety and dryness to all our Aussie associates.
–
Sympathies and *hugs* for Ogvorbis. The flu sucks.
–
Cockroaches!!! killkillkillkillkill!!!
The Story Limits of Assassin’s Creed
–
cicely,
I’ve read through that article twice and I’m not really sure what they’re getting at.
They admit that Desmond’s story has been wrapped up, then they’re whining about guns changing the gameplay…?
Okay:
1) The gameplay itself has nothing to do with Desmond.
2) From what I’ve seen there’s been confirmation that Desmond is even in the next game.
3) Guns were in the last couple of games. It’s worked fine so far and there’s no reason to assume that Ubisoft can’t adapt the gameplay and weapons as they advance in time.
Janine, I waded in without a hazmat suit. Here are a few choice ones:
Someone on PZ’s Breitbart thread already posted the Buzzfeed link.
Unrelated: Sex toys for Polish Catholics. Moar here.
Dr. Audley, I am merely a disinterested on-looker in the Assassin’s Creed matter (not my kinda game), though I’ve watched Son (in whose opinion it consistently out-performs Sliced Bread) play it. Just thought the article might be relevant to someone’s interests.
–
Thanks cicely!
I may not be the usual Assassin’s Creed fan, but I can’t wait to see where they go from here. If Ubisoft keeps evolving the games, I’ll keep playing them. :)
Fixed it for me.
Totally threadrupt, but I saw this article in my inbox and was both happy and slightly excited. Yet one more grain of sand in favor of the US government not being totally corrupt and out to turn us into a mindless zombie slave engine for the rich and powerful.
Unfortunately other countries still have idiotic privacy laws, so I sure as hell ain’t taking anything I care about across national borders.
TomeWyrm:
Who are you?
FoxNews headline:
Santorum exudes confidence ahead of Super Tuesday
Even Fox can’t resist a santorum joke.
It’s not that I’m threadcrupt, I’m just purposefully avoiding the gene-naming controversy right now, since (hard) biology is so far away removed from my field of knowledge that I (barely) know about plants and photosynthesis, and that’s about it.
So, first off, many hearty congrats to kristenc on doing great work, Ing on the new desk and Dvorath on the job! Good news is always good!
***
Ms. Daisy Cutter, 368
That is just vile, vile, vile. So vile in so many despicable ways… I mean, I don’t even know what to say.
As for the bankers’ QQing, though, I’ll admit to having a chuckle, a good eye-rolling with a side-dish of “Cry me a river, your first-world problems, they suck so much you priviledged douche”. All-around, very cathartic and all that.
Dr. Audley Z. Darkheart, 393
Yeah. That’s it exactly. OF course, it also smack of so much liberturdianism – I got mine, fuck you and and FREE MARKET VIA SCREWING THE NEEDY.
***
Alethea H. Claw, 382
Thanks for that, glad to hear y’all are allright!
***
So in US Politics, this following bit of good (? with the US you just never know!) news:
Senate kills controversial “conscience” ammendment
****
Something else I’d like to pick the Horde’s collective Hive Mind (TM) about if anyone would be willing and kind enough to indulge me: the other day I was chatting with my psychologist about death and the atheist view and she challenged me on how I can believe that people just stop existing after dying, and I was like “well, what happens to a butterfly when it dies?” and she said, “well, but what about the energy!?! It can’t be destroyed so where does it go?”
I was totally caught off guard, since here I was, talking about grieving for my cousin WITHOUT the believe I’ll see her again one magical day and be able to make up to her the things I’ve failed to do and having to live with that, and this comes out of the left field! I don’t know physics! At all!
So I just totally avoided the actual question and said it’s re-abosorbed into the earth through the process of decomposition, but I could see she wanted to press it (but PEOPLE! Consciousness!) and just stopped the conversation right there.
So the question is, I guess… huh? WTF and a side dish of Well, what DOES happen to it, in animals too, assuming that “consciousness” is a state of energy in the first place? And is that something that’s generally accepted in terms of physics and all that?
I know these are stupid questions, but I can’t really ask any “scientists” here, they’re all pretty much bought and sold on the X-tianity life-after-death thing and willing to twist all science and data to support their superstition and besides, it’s not like I can just go up to my clients and go “So, dude. Death, speaking of physics and stuff and whatnot, what’s up with THAT?”
where does the castle go when you put the leggos away?
Additionally I think this therapist is violating ethics by forcing the damn religion on you rather than helping so fuck them.
This exchange from this thread made me pound my desk in mirth.
Did I ever mentioned that life is strange?
I’m sitting here with tears running down my face.
My friend just contacted me. Today the doc told her mum that she’ll live some more years.
The crazy thing: That’s good news.
The last thing they were told was that it was not curable, they could only buy her time.
Now time turns out to be several years.
So, knowing that she’ll die one of the nastier deaths in the next years is good news indeed.
Life is strange.
Ing, I would agree, but it’s hard enough to find an adequate therapist even in a secular area, let alone one that’s totally jeebus-addled. GenFury, maybe do a cost/benefit analysis of what you get from that therapist overall and see if it’s worth keeping her around.
Gen Fury, your linky at 446 appears to be borken.
–
Why, it goes to feed the Machines, my dear Coppertop. :)
More seriously: well, where did that energy come from in the first place? Photosynthesis plus various materials uptaken by the plants, which are consumed through however many passes-down-the-line by animals, including humans. Energy is spent in metabolism and physical activity, materials are released back into the system for recycling. (And I feel that the word “entropy” probably needs to be in here somewhere, as well.) Lather, rinse, repeat. My undoubtedly under-informed two cents, worth every penny you didn’t pay me for them. :)
And what happens to the data, when the computer crashes and burns?
–
Consciousness likely isn’t “a state of energy” – it’s more “a state of everything” in the brain. All that “everything” starts to break down pretty quickly after death (and sometimes before). IIRC, most of it is potential energy stored in various molecules to begin with, and that simple deteriorates into more basic states. At least part of it ends up as radiant heat.
Your answer of decomposition and recycling back into the ecosystem is probably the most practical one.
Consciousness isn’t seperate from metabolism. Thequestion is akin to saying that the jogging has to exist somewhere after you stopped running because energy! Its a profound failure of physics and chemistry. Consciousness isn’t energy that needs to be preserved its a process that requires energyjust like running
Illinois congressional candidate says Holocaust never happened.
“Family-friendly neo-Nazi events.”
Like, they serve birthday cake for the li’l Aryan chilluns? Do the Kinder play “Pin the Star on the Jew”?
Ms Daisy Cutter, Arthur Jones just longs for the days when Henry Ford and Adolph Hitler made for a cuddly mutual admiration society.
Not a physicist or biologist, but arguing that there must be an afterlife because energy can’t be destroyed seems a bit like arguing that waving a high powered magnet over a magnetic storage device doesn’t really erase your data because it while it completely rearranges the ferromagnetic material on the disk, it doesn’t actually destroy it.
neither, evidently, does your psychologist.
Whatever ‘consciousness’ is, it’s not a state or form of energy (whatever ‘energy’ is).
Whtever ‘consciousness’ is, it’s empirically an emergent property of living brains that are big and complex enough. As far as we can tell, so far at least, you need all of that: living, brain, big, and complex.
Large, living, complex organisms (e.g. trees or fungi) without brains won’t do it. Dead, small, or relatively simple brains won’t do it either.
When your brain dies, consciousness just stops.
To assert otherwise is woo-woo dualism. Is your psychologist a dualist? For me, that would be a big, big problem.
Maybe Art’s downfall will not be getting caught in two wetsuits with a dildo up his ass but being recorded enjoying a paddling from an Eva Braun impersonator.
Giliell: Hugs if you want them.
I hope your friend and her family can make the most of the time they have left with her mother, and I hope that Mom gets the best palliative care possible when that time is winding down.
Lol, borken links ahoy! Thanks for the heads-up. Let’s see if this fixes it, I probably forgot to close the quotes:
Senate kills controversial ‘conscience’ amendment
Giliell I’m glad your friend and her mother will get to spend some more time together, although saying that seems pretty damn inadequate.
****
Thank you for the replies!
Ms. Daisy and Ing, she’s actually a very good therapist for me specifically and I’ve been seeing her for a while (she even said, after my abortion, that she was glad that I didn’t go the “mandated, government route” that includes “counseling” since that’s all about trying to shame people OUT of doing an abortion via pro-life rhetoric and she’s rabidly pro-choice, which is positively UNIQUE in this neck of the woods), she just has this weak spot on “needing” some form of woo and slash or “spirituality” to be able to live a fulfilled life.
Cicely: Yes, that was my intuitive position as well, I just don’t have the sciency vocab to express it, so thanks a lot.
Richard Austin
That’s exactly it. My cousin had a stroke, was declared braindead (i.e. the “energy” or “consciousness” was already gone before her organs were prepared for donation and she actually physiologically died.
Ing
I really, really like that analogy because, as I said, this was what I’ve concluded intuitively from what I’ve read, but damn language. *shakes fist at language failures*
Also, I tend to be easily intimidated by shows of authority and/or appearance of authority – like when there’s people throwing around terms that I think they have no fucking clue about, unless it’s in my specific field of study and I can immediately reference a scientifically sound study/principle, I’ll generally assume that it’s a deficiency on knowledge on my part. XD
So thanks again, all. And now it’s off to bed – gah, these days I feel like when I’m not interpreting, I’m sleeping.
Montana judge admits sending racist email about Obama
This is a federal judge, folks.
Money quote:“It was not intended by me in any way to become public,” Cebull told the Tribune. “I apologize to anybody who is offended by it, and I can obviously understand why people would be offended.”
Another nonpology.
Chas:
The capacity to do work?
Thanx, folks
I think that medical care is on the way for my friend’s mum.
Yeah, those damn commie socialists, giving an old woman expensive care so she can have a few more good years with her family.
Tonight she was almost cheerfull (my friend, not her mum).
A week ago, this would have been devastating news, now it’s good news.
Gen Fury
What the fuck does the therapist even think to bother you with that?
Your metaphysical views or lack thereoff are definetly not part of therapy.
Still. IIWM I’d remind them that they’re not there to be my priest/shaman/witchdoctor and that such conduct is professionally inappropriate.
Montana judge admits sending racist email about Obama
His defence:
Law school really paid off.
I bet he lets black people use his bathroom too!
Ooops. Try that again…
The Sailor,
His defence:
Law school really paid off.
I bet he lets black people use his bathroom too!
Petition to EU Commission to stop ACTA.
░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░
I asked people to contact Jadehawk. That’s no longer necessary.
However, the Mattir/Liriodendron beacon hasn’t been shining bright enough. :-(
░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░
The gene Indy has been mentioned, and it has been revealed that its name means “I’m not dead yet”.
Indy mutants: live long and prosper
Also, the mouse homologue of Indy is automatically called… wait for it… mIndy.
The abstract mentions INDY. That’s the protein encoded by the gene Indy.
That’s because they’re frozen/canned when they’re still really fresh – not lying around on a supermarket shelf after having spent days on a truck.
Could somebody give me a summary of that? Or is the visual part enough to get the points across? I don’t have sound here. :-(
Read on. It was all an April joke.
No “she” in there, but, yes, “little nut, fully hard” or “like, totally hard”.
!!!
Pics, or it didn’t happen!!!
Ha! With Chuck Norris! :-)
Yes, and it needs to be read aloud by Dr Evil.
Link doesn’t work :-(
Please explain.
Is that like a Chinese four-character proverb?
Oh, thank you! I like warm as opposed to hot food. :-)
It’s interesting; I just replied.
*headdesk*
Well, try not to infect anyone, ha, ha.
+12 or 13 °C over here.
Tomorrow night +1 °C, Saturday night -1 °C. Maybe that’s why I have a headache. (Probably I just haven’t drunk enough today, though – I definitely haven’t.)
I’m too lazy to create an account just for that one poll.
It has been said:
:-)
*headdesk*
Consciousness is not a form of energy. (“State of energy” doesn’t mean much.)
Mass, heat, kinetic energy, potential energy (of electromagnetics and gravity), those are forms of energy. Consciousness is an activity of the brain.
The mind in general is an activity of the brain. Mind is what the brain does.
Caught up!
Ing: “give all the food to the fattest guy we can find and everyone else can eat his shit”.
… reminded me of a saying: if shit were money, the poor would be born without arseholes.
—
Ms Daisy Cutter: “Five whiniest quotes …”
Heh. This lit up Brad DeLong’s blog yesterday.
Do not, under any circumstances, read:
The Rise of the New Global Elite
—
@theophontes, are you sure that’s alcohol? I thought it burned with a blue flame.
—
Josh: “Doody” in USAnian means “shit” in baby talk.
<PeggyHill>I did not know that.</PeggyHill>
Excellent! Double-transatlantic-word-meaning-collision.
Exactly, just like an automobile is the capacity to get to work.
never mind. The last time I tried to explain this point, Ing called me stupid.
Oops. I’m so tired tonight, I forgot to refresh before submitting.
How does the quote go? “Assuming that consciousness can survive death is like assuming that 70 mph can survive the crash of the car”?
or, rather, the rest of her died?
Multicellular organisms die one cell at a time. I mean, I exaggerate, but there’s no magic connection that offs all cells simultaneously.
Heh. That’s almost up there with “not intended to be a factual statement”.
LOL! Day saved :-D
That kind of thing hasn’t stopped you ever before, has it? Please try again. :-)
Jebus crimbo, I didn’t realize that asschapeau was whining about 1200 square feet IN BROOKLYN.
Gimme the damn baseball bat, I’ll do this myself.
Random informative link!
By design, government assistance to the middle and upper classes is hidden, while assistance to the lower class is obvious, leading to a lot of people not realizing they’re on welfare too.
Got my first weird message after posting the ad for math tutoring. At least I haven’t gotten any prank calls yet.
“If you are a girl write to me if you like to drink tea?” (I tried to preserve the peculiar grammar through the translation.)
Anyway, I haven’t tutored since my second to last year at the uni, so I forgot how much I actually like it. A teaching career is still something I’m not seriously considering. I’ll take those additional classes only if I don’t find a marginally satisfying/good/any job in the next half a year, year. But my trouble isn’t the teaching, it’s the discipline. I would either get stomped all over, or go all psycho and scream at someone. Remember, I’m terrible with people. But when I get with some kid who needs tutoring and start explaining it one on one… I’m in my element. I love answering their questions and I love when they get it.
I think, if I could get over a million of my issues, I would really like being a teacher. I even think I would be a good one.
Giliell, I’m sorry-glad to read about your friend’s “good” news. Hugs, if that’s OK.
LOL! No way.
Basically a guy (or computer-animated bear (or cat?) thing) wants to publish a paper and talks to another bear (cat?) thing from a journal. In order to publish he has to sign away the rights to his paper, not be able upload the paper on his (or any) website or reuse any of the graphics he made himself. Also, subscribing to the journal costs > $5000. If a worker in his field doesn’t have access to the journal they have to pay $35 to read the paper.
He can’t believe the paper he and his colleagues have worked very hard on will be owned by the journal and they will be preventing many other from reading it. They offer an ‘Author’s Choice Option’, but that costs $1500. He replies that he can just as easily post the paper on his own website for free.
The other cat-bear points out that he would have to explain to his funding agency the lack of publication, convince his tenure committee that he isn’t some sort of self-publishing crackpot, and his students would have to explain his self-publishing habits to whatever job interviews they are lucky to get. All the while his competitors reap all the benefits of publishing in a journal.
The guy makes a comparison to Tony Soprano, racketeering. He adds that the journal adds huge cost to publicly funded science while budgets are being slashed. Their business model relies on keeping others from accessing scientific works at time when religious fanatics and tea-baggers are turning the country into “a cross between The 700 Club and American Idol“.
He then asks for a pen.
Oh man, that publishing thing was awesome.
Speaking of science, I want to fucking punch my adviser right now. Just a vent, even though that’s been shown not to decrease stress levels. Fuck.
tap, tap, tap… Is this thing on? I’ve tried to post a comment twice, now, with no result: It previews fine, but when I hit Submit… poof! No error message, no moderation notification (and no reason it should go into moderation, AFAICT)… just nothing. Was ist hier los?
Could someone explain to me what “pfft” is, and why that series of letters is used to refer to it?
«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»
On the subject of death, consciousness, and the Law of Conservation of Energy: That law states that energy cannot be DESTROYED. Doesn’t mean it can’t change. The energy that was sustaining your consciousness dissipates or changes. Most of it either leaks into the environment in it’s current form, or converts to kinetic energy (heat). Because consciousness is not a type of energy, in the same way that dancing, running, falling, spinning, orbiting, and talking are not forms of energy. (My brain is strange, it phrases it as: Verbs aren’t energy. Energies are nouns)
That therapist would have gotten an incredulous look and the rough side of my tongue, I’m sad that she’s the best your area has to offer. But if anything makes you upset about her approach, LET HER KNOW. Say something about it on the spot that her questions, the conversation, or whatever are making you uncomfortable. If she’s any good at her job, she shouldn’t keep badgering you about the afterlife stuff.
«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»«•»
Caine, Fleur du Mal:
I’m me. Who are you, and what does who I am have to do with the quoted statement?
OK, now I’m utterly bamfoozled! The comment I’ve been trying and failing to post is just a response to Josh’s comment about the pronunciation of my name. No linkies, no references to particular drugs, no mention of banned commenters’ names. WTF gives?
Also…
I am the walrus.
Goo goo ga joob.
===
Didn’t I post this already? (Maybe it was somewhere else.)
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/12/us/even-critics-of-safety-net-increasingly-depend-on-it.html?pagewanted=all
You see, it’s the wrong kind of welfare. People want the “ownership” kind of welfare. (Oh, yeah, I remember, it was at TNC’s blog.)
TomeWyrm: Wikipedia = “The Pfft! of all Knowledge.”
first time I’ve seen this sticker
http://i.imgur.com/SdGgk.jpg
want
Name update. Please adjust your killfiles if you so desire
Ing, I love the new nym.
I always wanted there to be a book called I Have No Ass and I Must Fart.
Heavily medicated,
Totally unmotivated,
cough, cough,
Lean, mean puking machine!
I really thought I was hallucinating on the drive home this morning after leaving work due to illness. I was cruising along, 3 mph over the speed limit, and six, count ’em, SIX! AMC Concords drove past me heading south. Four wagons, two sedans. I had no idea that many of those rolling mud fences still survived! All of them had South Carolina auto transport tags. In the past few months, I have spotted three more. I think these are the first AMC Concords I have seen this century.
NP’s cannot close due to lack of staffing. I ended up heading home after two hours, before the park even opened, but we had to get a supervisor to step in. Nice thing about being a fed employee — I can just say, “Screw it. I have sick leave. I am not on leave probation. Here’s my leave slip. You (supervisor) can figure the rest out.”
Couldn’t’ve happened to a nicer guy.
My week. And welcome to it.
Damn, these are some strong flu and cold pills. My mind immediately said, “That won’t work. There was only one Bob Dole!”
In Boy’s room (remember, he is now 21!), the lego castles have long ago morphed into lego Beyer Garret steam locomotives with full running gear. WOrking running gear.
Tusk, tusk. Let’s not get unsealy, here.
Yeah, I know, kinda week. But then, right now, so am I.
I wonder if there is a patron saint of influenza?
Perhaps someone who was martyred in the arena’s vomitorium?
Thanks. My idea was either this or a Sgt. Frog reference, and slightly more people would get this reference.
Those family-friendly neo-Nazi gatherings? I am led to understand that breakfast there consists of toast. Served with, of course, tea.
/ ♪ I’m a little Führer, short and stout… ♫
Ogvorbis, I’m glad you got to go home, I’m glad you made it home safely, and I’m glad you can stay put until the bug passes without losing your job.
How about I Must Fart And I Have An Eyeball Where My Anus Should Be?
Maybe I should explain…
That wonderful Japanese monster with the extra eyeball that came up for discussion way upthread (not too far upthread, I hope) is called Shirime.
New billboard up the street: “Speak LORD…I’m listening!”
My first thought was…”uh…Lord? Listening…still listening…listening, listening, listening…okay….go….”
My second thought was that if the LORD does speak on command, you should reward him with a Scooby snack, to re-enforce the desired behavior.
Uh, I have to watch Forrest Gump tonight. It’s one of those films I put on my Netflix list out of a sense of duty to the medium and because of the many pop culture references. I suppose it’ll be pretty good, really, but sometimes these movies seem like chores.
But when I send it back, I’ll be getting season three of Robot Chicken. Huzzah!
Isn’t it about time for Kevin to resurrect the acupuncture thread? Where is he? Maybe he just needs a poke with something sharp.
Feralboy, I guess all cats are inspired by the spirit of Shirime. That’s the “eye” my cat uses when she wants to look deep into my soul. Or when she wants to read a newspaper that’s spread out on a flat surface.
poem in a bus in Seattle:
ASTERISK
little Greek star
denoting absence
of fur
as the cat
walks away
*
feralboy12:
Meh. It’s a decent movie. It’s enjoyable, though it seems it overreaches itself. There are great moments, but as a narrative, it lacks in real emotion because it tries too hard.
Worth watching, though. Really.
Pteryxx:
On a different, less-pleasant note… it’s always nice to hear that the only way to obtain any education is within the walls of a classroom, and nobody could possibly ever want to work with their hands. I mean, how do they grow, if they’re not Nice Respectable White-Collar People Like Us?
What a shit-brained classist dildo Deepak Shetty is.
So The Mr. and I went out to dinner tonight, at a vegan place nearby. We’re vegetarian, but he’s lactose intolerant, so vegan places are lovely. The TV there was tuned to a nature show or channel. What was on? A show about raptors, and how they hunt. We were amused, though some other patrons less so.
Also, Ing, love the new handle.
this is pretty damn good
David Marjanović
re
One of the worst things you can call someone in Japanese is ばかbaka, meaning “fool” or “crazy”.
When written in kanji it is 馬鹿.
馬 = ba = horse
鹿 = ka = deer
I didn’t mean for it to make sense, just to indicate frustration with trying to learn Japanese language.
Ing
I have always admired the tiny, perfect god of thunder.