What if Lady Gaga had been around in 1920?
Episode CCCVIII: Watercolor is a nice medium for cephalopods.
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
What if Lady Gaga had been around in 1920?
Episode CCCVIII: Watercolor is a nice medium for cephalopods.
Hi Threadladies and -lords.
Bankrupt for what seems like forever. Had me some blues, but now life seems hunky dory again.
Anyone going to the European Atheist Convention? I’m sorta thinking of maybe possibly considering the notion of thinking of going, myself. Flights are priced mercifully reasonable from Helsinki, accommodation would be affordable especially if shared with someone… wink wink.
Well, someone half deaf, apparently I snore like a walrus.
Richard Austin:
Yeah, that’s the thing: working with the proverbial crooked timber of humanity. Always good to push for more reason and more-humane policy, but how much can be expected in the world we actually inhabit is another question.
Right now, I expect very little.
****
I’m not on FB, but I am told through a friend that another friend of ours posted this article and added that the real thing undermining the RCC is their cover-up. His indignant Catho-holic relatives jumped down his throat, then sarcastically said of his (recently) deceased mother, “Oh, she would be SO proud of you!”
Then they sent him private messages, threatening to defriend him if he ever posted anything like that again.
Xtian love in action. He feels unable to defriend them because they’re family, but he says he’s also tempted to post more anti-Catholic stuff. I hope he does, because, blood relatives or not, he needs people like that around like he needs a hole in the head.
pelamun, email me regarding the Facebook PET group (unless you’ve spoken with one of the other mods already. :)
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
PHROGGE, please email me as well so I can send you the Reason Rally information.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
(dear Horde, please forgive me for posting this frequently, I want to make sure I get everyone!)
If you are going to the REASON RALLY, and have not already filled out the poll please go here to do so. Reservations for breakfast and dinner have already been made, so I need to know ASAP if I have to increase numbers.
The Pharyngula encampment will be on the Mall in front of the Smithsonian American History Museum. We’ll have a sign up and I’ll be giving out my cell phone if anyone has difficulty finding us.
Ok, so much to respond to:
Asian men and pink: I wear pink ties and occasionally a pink contrast collar shirt, does that mean my testosterone levels are unusually low? (I’m a nearly 100% English American).
Wisconson GOP: Good. Might be a sign for November.
There are protestors at my campus today, telling us all about teh evulz of GMOs. At least that’s what they’re supposed to be telling us about – I walked by them and thought they were protesting tuition fees. Coherence is not their strong point.
I’m not genetically modifying anything (yay for species with minimal sequence data), but some folks in the same lab space are. It’s kind of a weird feeling, to know that the protestors on the quad would be outraged about the work my labmates are doing. We don’t get a lot of that kind of protest in this city.
A.R:
it means sweet fuck all =) Which it should. I love pink, especially with black. I hate blue but kinda get along with green. Yellow irritates me to no end, while orange and purple rock. Brown, meh.
Also, I see colors as numbers, and vice versa, sometimes.
I guess I’m kind of trying to say that color perception is very, very individual, and I hate this fucked up society that tells what colors one should like and/or wear. And if you differ from the norm, it’s a question of your sexual orientation.
Fuck people with a Kinsey scale rigid ruler.
Nutmeg: Then they would hate my work!
Minnie: Agreed.
That’s… that’s horrifying! To live off sushi for your entire life but be unable to taste Umami!
I saw a full grown male steller’s sea lion up close in the wild at the Skookumchuk Rapids. He was huge. In my memory he’s as big as a cow, but I know that has to be an exaggeration. What was not an exaggeration: The sea lions off in the distance fucking doing huge jumps and playing around in the rapids (Skookumchuk Rapids have to be seen to be believed, I’m talking whirlpools and 8 foot tall standing waves here, no mammal of any kind should be able to survive in that water).
NiftyAtheist: Good post.
@cccvii.613, love moderately ॐ:
Very interestink. Two additional persuasion resistance methods:
1) “Inferred Justification”, which seems to be “imagine new ‘evidence’ that would justify original position, then treat such imaginings as further evidence”
2) “Disputing Rationality”, which seems to involve rejecting the need for reason/evidence/etc outright.
Also, the delusional persuasion ACCEPTANCE technique of “that’s what I said all along” is noted, as well as the less-delusional “Baysian Updating”.
I’d like to to note an interesting bit from the methodology discussion: “Our choice of subjects should not be taken to imply that the processes we are examining here are particular to conservatives”. Well, yes; both liberals and conservatives are capable of such wooly-headed thinking. However, Altemeyer’s “Authoritarians” suggests that while the behaviors are qualitatively present in both groups, the frequency of such may not be quantitatively equivalent. The data suggest high-RWAs, who lean conservative, also tend to greater abstract reasoning difficulties. (Of course, there may be a confound lurking in the interrelationships there. Then again, there may not.)
The Laughing Coyote:
Ummm, umami.
Synesthesia is bliss. As I said earlier, I can see colors as numbers and vice versa, but I can also taste words like umami as I read them =)
Not to mention the music I hear when I taste something really good.
Pot should be smoking me.
Minnie: I envy you!
mind-blowing:
Sen. James Inhofe interviewed by Rachel Maddow, calling the Daily Telegraph a liberal newspaper
And “Nature” is a liberal publication? Lolwut. Well, he later corrects himself “a publication on your side”.
Inhofe calling Maddow hysterical. Groan.
All in all, Inhofe made a confused impression.
Whereas I, on the other hand, apparently snore “like a chainsaw fucking an air compressor”.
–
A.R:
Mostly, it’s really great. Sometimes, it’s distracting when I work (numbers getting equaled to colors is not a good idea when one’s producing materials for publications).
And the real downsize is that music can make me really ill in certain situations. My BF is a professional techno/hardcore/hardtrance producer, and there are times when I have to leave the room because the music causes me physical pain.
Oh well, I’m not complaining. Life just is.
The Telegraph is liberal? That must mean that Stormfront is moderately conservative. And Nature is objective. Teh stoopid, it buuuuurns!
Minnie the Finn: That’s cool. But does it work in reverse? If someone says something gross, do you taste that too? (Don’t worry, I’m not about to test it out. Enjoy your Umami)
Minnie: I’ve always been quite interested in Synesthesia. Unfortunately, I haven’t the time to read many of the literature.
Arrgh!: Meant much, not many!
Coyote: yes, it does work in reverse, too. But luckily not as strongly as the positive things do.
There are words that make me taste or smell foul things (and no, not going to tell them what they might be! neenahneenah)
The words are not strongly associated to anything particularly meaningful. It’s just that they taste bad. Very hard to explain… but no, they are not positive words – if they were they would either taste nice or have no taste at all.
Ok, so I’ll give you one example:
arbitrary
smells like molten lead, sweat and (what I imagine) testosterone. In a very unpleasant way.
Yet, there’s nothing wrong with the word itself.
No surprise. This is the guy who said:
Minnie: So, I’m sorry that I have to ask this, but what does santorum taste like? I’m dying with curiosity! :)
Racism’s totally over, everyone. No, really.
JFC. How soon are we going to start hearing the word in campaign speeches again?
A.R:
Santorum tastes like dry sand and dust. Like something you’d taste if you were lost in Sahara. No life, nothing organic, just dryness and choking small particles.
Minnie: That must be what his brain is like.
I “loved” how Inhofe would make some charge, switch to being folksy charming, make an other charge and back to folksy charming.
Also, David Coe is the kindest person in the world and Inhofe had no idea that David Bahadi wanted to have homosexuals killed.
He claimed to watch TRMS on a regular bases. If this was true, he would have known about Bahadi. Besides the one interview with him, Bahadi’s name came up regularly when the topic was C Street and The Family.
Slimy liar.
janine: Are their trolls somewhere? I need to snine my fangs.
Miss Daisy Cutter, did you see the image of the t-shirt that WND is selling. I linked to it yesterday.
All hail Tpyos etc etc etc
A. R.
What?
janine: Your comment gave me the impression that there were trolls somewhere to be attacked.
A.R.
There are. There always are. I’m not sure whether to laugh or cry.
Louis
yeah, unfortunately Inhofe is no internet troll; rather, a US Senator.
here, let me google that for you:
you’re welcome
Why do these people get elected?
in this case, because he runs for office in Oklahoma.
Chas: Thank you. Perhaps not such an exaggeration after all. I really only saw his head and shoulders, the rest of him being distorted by the water, but I was close enough to hear him blow and snort and note the big lump on his forehead.
Hard to tell from the distance, but the ones playing joyously in the rapids (which are known for randomly sucking huge logs down into the whirlpools and then launching them vertically at unpredictable times like spears thrown by Titans) appeared to be females and/or juveniles.
And, despite living by the ocean for 11 years and spending huge amounts of my time staring at it, that was the largest marine predator I ever saw. Never once did I see an orca in the wild. I am disappoint.
I hate it when twenty year old jokes become reality.
The joke I am talking about.
TLC, some sea lions do weigh as much as some cows.
+++++++++++++++++++
@ Minnie the Finn
Welcome back!
Thanks for talking about synaesthesia. It’s one of the many things I’m interested in.
Do others in your family also have it?
Do you recall when you found out that other people mostly don’t have it?
I have the vague memory, btw, that you know Irish Gaelic. Do I recall correctly? (I’m trying to find the words to a song sung by Iarla Ó Lionáird, and of course, I have no idea how to transcribe any of it besides the title. Google has not been helpful.)
Later, I must run.
I’m wondering… :-)
what
I laughed at this twice.
Nature is liberal? What next, do colorless green ideas sleep furiously?
You read me, David. 8 foot tall standing waves. Deep whirlpools where lurks the Scylla.
It’s a wave. The water is moving (FAST), but the wave itself is just standing there.
The skookumchuk rapids have to be seen to be believed.
second largest tidal rapid in the world.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLtW3Dtng5A Here, though this video doesn’t do it justice. At the height of its power, those kayakers would not be alive.
Also I’ve been spelling it wrong. Skookumchuck.
*picks self up off floor, noticing feathers all around.*
I think Walton just arrived.
*sees a PP™ gang hug in progress*
Yep.
Tomorrow is St. Patrick’s day, and the Redhead, who must celebrate every holiday, is demanding a corned beef/Reuben sandwich and a mint shake (made with real ice-cream), from a place here in Chiwaukee, for lunch. But her rehab is a half-hour away. How to keep the warm warm, and the cold cold, during the trip? Perhaps solidly freezing the shake first would help.
Ah yes, I almost forgot: Welcome back, Walton. ‘Tweren’t quite the same without you.
Pack the shake in ice. At only a half hour, this will keep the shake in shape. Just prepare a container big enough to hold the cup and fill it with crushed ice. You should be fine.
Insulated bag, like they use for pizza delivery.
Walton! It’s good to hear from you :)
When I started this school year in fall, I didn’t really intend to be on the news and in the news paper so often. Yet, here I am. I got my Freethinkers group into the school news paper (they got our name wrong) earlier this week and now I’m about to go to the middle-of-no-where, central Florida and the local news will be out. I looked on the event page for this thing; I’m one of the only women going and I’m probably the youngest and I’m the leader of a student group… they’re going to interview me D:
Ugh, I have been sick since yesterday, although I do feel much better now. That’s what I get for reading a visual novel until five thirty in the morning.
Nerd, also there is the problem of bread sogginess. Hard to avoid without assembling on-site.
Dang, the Redhead always uses blue ice containers, so I keep forgetting about regular ice due to lack of use. Problem solved and some salt may even be applied…
Yes, ice water works best. That way, there is something cold on all f the outside surface of the cup.
*thumbs up*
As long as it has corned beef, and I had some part in its procurement, all will be well. It’s like her stopping to pick up a meal on the way home from X. May not be perfect, but good enough.
@walton
It’s good to see you. I have always appreciated your comments regarding laws and stuff.
This is so awesome. I’ve known Millicent for 30 years or so.
this is the piece
Nerd: Aren’t you, like, a chemist? And don’t chemists do complex shit that would appear to be magical to the average dope? I say apply chemistry magic-knowledge. You know, with the appropriate mixture of salt, ice, foam, desiccants, and such. You should be able to knock it out of the park.
Hope you and the Redhead have a great St. Paddy’s. I bought, like, several cases of Guinness. I will be traveling nowhere.
Happy day, Walton! (something of a red letter day!) Good to see you back, and wishing you well. Hoping to read you here when you have time and inclination.
Hope the blues stay away from you too, Minnie! (also incidentally feeling quite envious of at least some aspects of the synaesthesia).
Happy green Guinness day to all who celebrate it.
Antiochus, really? I always thought chemists just poured red liquid into beakers and watched it turn blue and/or explode a little, occasionally drinking their concoctions and turning into their evil alter egos (always at the most comically opportune times).
I confessed to limited thinking above. Guilty as charged. Once cued, it all came back.
While the Redhead would probably love a Guinness, she realizes it won’t happen where she is due to a vigilant staff. Incentive for more connections to her weak leg. Once she can stand and walk with minimal assistance, HOME! Still a ways off though :(
I am pretty sure it’s more fun to confuse a smart cat than any other kind of cat.
Janine, #529: Yeah, I did. Hatred of the SPLC is a reliable indicator that one is, as Louis would put it, a shitknuckle.
Anyone know why I can’t comment on Libby Anne’s blog? I could up until a couple days ago, but not anymore. When I post, it reloads the page as normal, but my post isn’t there. If I have the sub box checked, I don’t end up subbed, either.
AoS, yeah. You’re doing something wrong.
WTF? Pat Robertson saying something sane?
Wow, Pat Robertson smokes pot!
As soon as he snorts meth off a gay hookers ass he’ll think god told him to do that too.
The Sailor @564, :)
(Insightful +1)
The guy behind “KONY 2012” has been arrested in San Diego for, uh, “freeing his invisible children” in public.
sigh
Pat Roberston says something logical! The crowd goes wild!
——————————————
The recent spate of bills which stomp on women without a care has me wound up still. Even if this is just the death-throes of the right, it’s still scary to be in the middle of it. Sure brings new meaning to “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.”
——————————————-
Walton, you’re back! Yay!
——————————————-
Starstuff: sorry to hear some people in your group are giving you a hard time. Good luck with the interview.
Laughing Coyote #508, thank you!
starstuff – congratulations on the interview and I like the sound of YOUNG WOMAN LEADER! Good for you!
Just finished a 7 hour drive with my two youngest – nifty kids are nifty! Sure it’s a little dangerous when people are opening windows trying to photograph the planets, and shouting, Mom, swerve a little south! but hey, I love ’em!
Hi Minnie!
How do you feel about the word “moist”?
Nerd – for the Redhead’s sandwich – I know this is super simple, but I find a foil-wrapped sandwich in a brown paper bag (roll it up tightly) keeps warm for a long time. I htink there must be an insulating quality to brown paper?
Happy St Patrick’s Day, tomorrow!
I think my kitty has ear mites :(
@572 The treatment for that is you put some brown oily medicine in their ears, then they shake their heads and fling it all over and stain your couch and clothes.
Another young black man murdered by racism, in the form of an overzealous neighborhood watch patroller. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/17/us/justice-department-investigation-is-sought-in-florida-teenagers-shooting-death.html?_r=3&src=tp
Trayvon Martin’s killer walks free because of Florida’s fucked up “Stand your ground” laws. Basically George Zimmerman gets to claim self-defense, and the police have been treating it as a claim they have to disprove, rather than one that he has to prove. So they haven’t arrested him. The Justice Department is now investigating. Please sign the petition to have his killer arrested. http://www.change.org/petitions/prosecute-the-killer-of-17-year-old-trayvon-martin
StarStuff
If you can see black goo in her ears, it’s probably mites.
Talk to your vet.
—-
AceofSevens
It’s Spring in the North Half, StarStuff can do that outside.
(I don’t deny your description.)
chigau: I have a friend who hates that word. She also hates the word “teat.”
ME TOO.
A fact: I also hate the word “man.” I’m not joking. I really, really hate the word. Everything in it is nasal.
CC: Hmm, interesting. What about “men?”
Hello Walton! Sometimes just getting a diagnosis can be an enormous relief. I missed your comments too.
Also, I have just acquired 3 Barnevelder pullets. Does that give me automatic entry to the pullet patrol, or are there arcane rituals to be enacted? (I love the fact spell check comes up with bartender for Barnevelder.)
Rorschach, count us in for 3 at the table for the GAC dinner, if that’s OK, should I let Wowbagger know the details? Otherwise just light a torch on the PET.
Where the fuck is my moist comment‽
chigau: It’s at 570 for me.
I can see it – and I’d love to know to. I have a friend who freaks out at the word ‘moist.’ Such fun.
I have another friend who’s a synesthete also. Just colour for her, though.
A. R
I had another moist comment, with a link to pfft and it is not here.
Too, I meant. Gah.
That one is shorter.
moist
moist
Apparently it is caused by a phenomenon known as word aversion.
Even more threadrupt than I usually am when I declare myself such, having just come off a week of ~65 hr spent at work on a project that ended up getting (mostly) postponed by our external customer after we’d killed ourselves trying to meet the original deadline. Just wanted to say…
Walton! Yay!…
and
SallyStrange, would mo’ money still help at this point?
Off to get some sleep….
Takamisakari lost again.
Why do I even stay up this late?
http://youtu.be/_merxlnhhtY
http://youtu.be/i1bV51tez4M
Can anyone confirm/deny that these are white-footed mice?
The Osaka audience seems more enthusiastic than the Tokyo audiences.
(or drunker)
Starstuff:
“Tim, this is my advice to you: Go have some fucking (consensual) sex with someone (anyone; any kind of sex). Seriously, you might change your mind about it being “only for reproduction” if you had some more sex. In the meantime, the rest of us will continue to enjoy safe, fun, pregnancy-free, consensual sex”
***
For some reason (medication + middle age?) I have no libido at all, but it would never occur to me to go Catholic and demand that others mimic the condition. Those who think ascetic life is virtuous should join Hinduism and become fakirs.
— — — — — — — —
Swedish feminists bare pits to ‘reclaim the hair’ http://www.thelocal.se/39702/20120316/
— — — — — —
Swedish court disallows teen’s Sharia marriage http://www.thelocal.se/39690/20120315/
— — — — –
Something for red dwarf stars? “Far-out photosynthesis” http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-03-far-out-photosynthesis.html
happy amateur day
Rev. BDC: Lolz.
Cabbage, potatoes, and beer tonight: No one’s gonna be able to hold a candle to me tomorrow!
Mary Black: Song for Ireland
Dead Can Dance: The Wind that Shakes the Barley
The Chieftains, with Joan Osborne: Raglan Road
Ms Daisy Cutter:
Guh-ross!
:p
Daze:
Thanks for making me think of Joan Osborne with that “Raglan Road” link. Relish was such a fucking awesome album; I thought she was going to be my generation’s Janice Joplin… and then, nothing.
Well, not really nothing: The Pfft seems to indicate she’s gone on recording; just nobody was listening. I’m’a have to do some iTunes spelunking to edumacate myself.
In the meantime….
Right Hand Man
St. Teresa
Let’s Just Get Naked
Arrghh!
…Jan<is Joplin. </dork>
OK, I can see now that today is just FAILday.
Libby Anne of Love, joy, feminism is moving to Patheos :(
I feel the same way :'(.
But it looks like it’ll be a better fit for her.
If you need a replacement ex-fundie with a similar background, I’m there. (My parents softened up quite a bit over the years, unlike hers, though.) I also have a bit of an adult industry background, my girlfriend is trans, I’m a vegan and an I’m ex right-libertarian so I’m full of helpful diversity.
I guess with Libby Anne gone, Natalie gets promoted back to my favorite. (sorry PZ)
This sloth is really excited about a piece of fruit.
I only occasionally skim Patheos front page because reading two or three articles is usually enough to put me of my lunch, but I did it today to refresh my memory of why I avoid it.
Wanna know what did it for me today? This (link) commentary by an anti-abortionist. She comments a very sad and powerful article (link) written by a woman whose child suffers from Tay-Sachs, about how she would have aborted if she had known it when she was pregnant.
Beatrice,
Ugh. That’s terrible.
Some of the comments are spot on, though. At least some people are thinking straight. (Of course, there is the comment equating women who terminate their pregnancies to Nazi eugenicists.)
In my absence, I’ve been involved in the campaign here in Massachusetts against Senate Bill 2061, a punitive anti-immigrant law along the lines of those in Arizona and Alabama which is currently being considered by the state legislature. (If you’re in Massachusetts, it’s not too late to contact your state senator or representative and express your opposition to the bill.)
Among other things, the law would require state law enforcement to participate in the federal “Secure Communities” program and check the immigration status of those in police custody. Forcing state and local police to enforce federal immigration laws ensures that undocumented immigrants are afraid to come forward to police, and that, for instance, those who are victims of violent crimes are afraid to report it; it also means that an undocumented arrested for any reason, whether guilty of any crime or not, faces the prospect of being handed over to ICE for deportation and forcibly separated from his or her family. The bill also excludes families from access to public housing if any member of the family is undocumented, even if (as is very common) other members of the family are citizens or legal residents. And it forces undocumented immigrant students to pay out-of-state tuition at public universities.
I was at an anti-SB 2061 rally on the steps of the State House a few weeks ago, standing with immigrants, documented and undocumented, including children, and their allies from across the state. There are some undocumented immigrants who came here as children and have lived here their entire lives; there are many mixed-status families in which some members of the family were born here and others are undocumented. Some talked about their experiences of harassment and civil rights violations by ICE. I honestly don’t know how anyone can support America’s violent, punitive, discriminatory immigration laws.
Oh, I love Natalie’s blog. She’s a brilliant writer, and she’s really helped to educate me about trans issues, about which I didn’t previously know very much at all.
Here in MA, I heard a talk a few weeks ago by a transgender rights activist who was involved in the campaign to pass the Transgender Equal Rights Act last year. Unfortunately, although the Act now protects trans people from discrimination in housing, employment and credit, it doesn’t protect against discrimination in public accommodations. Apparently there were some bigots who pressured the legislature with the traditional transphobic scare stories about public bathrooms, and they succeeded in convincing the state senate to modify the final version of the bill (which makes me very angry).
firstapproximation: Yeah, I know… it was distinctly surreal to find myself agreeing completely with Pat Robertson. It isn’t even a traditional case of stopped clock syndrome, since I don’t think he’s ever said anything sensible about a political issue before.
(Legalizing marijuana is a really, really, really, really good idea.)
@Beatrice
Yeah which is why I’m probably not gonna read her comments section anymore though I will try to visit every few days at least.
…undocumented immigrant arrested for any reason. (I need to proofread my posts.)
(These things are important. For instance, I strongly dissuade people from using the terms “illegal immigrant” or “illegal alien”; that terminology is legally inaccurate, and I’m also convinced that labelling people “illegal” contributes to stigma and marginalization.)
Yes, commentators, or at least most of them, were a nice surprise. I’ve started expecting worse on Friendly Atheist, let alone other blogs there.
Also, they have apparently taken on Bristol Palin. Huh.
Er, my #612 was in response to Audley.
Oh! Look at what popped up in my fb feed just now:
“First Degree Homicide Of The Unborn Child Bill” Passes CO House On Second Reading
Fuck me.
When the fuck is this shit going to stop?
Yeah, I’m thoroughly disgusted with Patheos. They tried to lure me away a few weeks ago, too, and now they’re poaching our bloggers.
I’m personally boycotting them. I don’t read any of their blogs now, and I will not be linking to any of them. Sorry, Hemant, you’re off my blogroll — nothing personal, but your network is extremely sleazy.
Hugs to Walton. Hang in there, and I’m glad you’re getting the help you need.
I was sad to see that Libby Anne is moving. I was starting to get comfortable there. Neither Slacktivist nor Friendly Atheist got me to make a Patheos account, so I guess I’ll just read her sometimes without commenting now.
Bill – so sorry about that client! What a pain.
Beatrice – that’s appalling. Does she know anything at all about Tay-Sachs? It’s horrifying. The children lose their senses and muscle control little by little, becoming more and more helpless, and I don’t know if anyone knows if there’s a concommitant loss in brain function or not. They die by degrees, at such a young age that they have no idea why this is happening to them. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone, nor on any parents to have a child with it.
PZ – so they’re actively poaching with FtB as a target? Fuck them, then.
I’ve always wondered – does reading in a rss feed count towards page hits or anything of the sort? Not sure if doing it that way does or doesn’t add to relevant page stats.
*headdesk*
This is getting worse and worse and worse. Forced sonograms and the shutdown of the entire Medicaid family planning system in Texas, laws punishing women for using birth control in Arizona, and now apparently Colorado is getting in on the act. It’s like some sort of sick competition.
It seems like some state legislators are intent on making this a country where life is as miserable as possible if you’re a woman, poor, or both. (With some more misery added if you’re also gay, transgender, or an undocumented immigrant.)
Good for you, PZ, for not getting poached by opportunistic theists, but I understand Libby Ann’s doing what she needs to do, financially, and I’ll follow her over there anyway.
Does freethoughtblogs need an atheist to critique the irritating homeschooling world? (Sign me up??)
Yeah, I can understand Libby Ann making the move, but it really pisses me off, because now on principle I won’t be reading her blog or linking to it ever again.
I know we’d like to have an atheist parenting blog here, but we’re getting picky about taking on people with good track records in blogging.
Walton,
It took me a little bit to find this, but here’s a news story (from the Denver Fox affiliate) about Colorado’s personhood bill.
Long story short, the Republicans are claiming that Bill 1130 would make it illegal to cause “a child”* from dying from “a violent interaction”. The example given is of a hit-and-run driver who struck a pregnant woman. If the driver is ever found, they can’t be charged with terminating the pregnancy under current law.
The Dems are (rightfully) wary. It looks like the way the bill is phrased, “personhood” is granted to the fetus and this “simple, one page bill” has far reaching implications.
*It’s a fetus, assholes.
Actually, I’d consider getting in touch with the woman who wrote the Bitter Atheist Wish List and the Bitter Homeschooler Wish List – she’s fantastic. And I was speaking not so much about the parenting thing as specifically the HOMESCHOOLING thing – you do have a fairly large homeschooler readership (of whom I know you disapprove, but you’re not perfect…)
Clarifying:
My brainz ain’t workin’ too gud write nao.
carlie,
I’m going to guess that she doesn’t know anything about it. That’s the only thing keeping me from trying to reach trough my screen and whack her over the head.
I knew next to nothing about Tay-Sachs until very recently. It was part of a discussion on Feministe, so I read up a bit more about it. I can’t imagine how heartless religionists who would force a woman to carry a fetus tested positive for Tays-Sachs until term have to be. That child is going to die a horrible death, but they still see it as better than abortion. *spits*
The way she trots out her younger sibling’s death to attempt to immunize herself from accusations of being a heartless unfeeling wretch of a person was just the icing on the cake. Pro-lifers seem to be defined by their callous disregard for the circumstances and suffering of others.
Beatrice – there is a special called “Cracking the code of life” that PBS did that at one point does a segment on a family with Tay-Sachs; it’s very moving. It’s available here, in chapter 3 (they’re labeled in the load bar). I’ve shown it in class I don’t know how many times, and I still cry.
Audley:
Not cake. Jell-o mold. Or…something. I know everyone said it was tasty, but I’d have the same problem trying to eat Kitty Litter Cake.
re: “Cracking the code of life”
Ms Daisy:
Hey now! That Jell-O mold was the culinary hit of the party! I mean, it was popular like a train-wreck attracts a crowd, but still. People ate it!
(The cake I made that day was way tastier, though.)
AceofSevens: http://www.hiltonpond.org/ThisWeek040201.html
Here is a page with some info on white footed mice and relatives, as well as many pics (Left a longer comment on your blog too)
I’m exhausted. Just got back from a camping trip with a friend. It rained in the night, and I didn’t sleep at all, but at dawn I was rewarded by a good view of a male hermit thrush displaying loudly and proudly, a brief visit from a kingfisher, and a dipper who hung out really close to us, completely unconcerned. I started imitating its movements though, and it took offence and flew away to a further perch.
Beatrice – darn, I’m sorry. I can’t find it anywhere else. It’s the story of these families. One baby had Tay-Sachs, and then within a week or so of that diagnosis they realized that the dad’s identical brother’s daughter had it too. Obviously if one brother had the gene the other did too, but they managed not only to both pass that allele to their children, but had both married carriers as well (who were unrelated to each other).
HI there
So, apparently my mum is devastated.
Can you believe that if you kick somebody out that they will not come back and apologize for being kicked out?
And she has no idea what’s going on.
Yes, I absolutely believe that. It’s bcause she didn’t take in a word I said. Well, she’s getting a letter tomorrow.
With that she can do what she deems fit.
Good news:
-Cleaned the balcony
-Went to the Zoo again. Well, mostly we sat in the falconery and ate ice and cake, but it was nice. Funny thing, the little one was veeeeery cautious of the tiny owl that the kids could hold and look at closely.
Give her an Irish wolfhound and she’s happy!
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I’m sad Libby Anne is leaving
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This repugnant, disgusting, high blood-pressure inducing sorry excuse for a human being.
No, I can’t be any nicer.
I went through a horrible 2 weeks not knowing whether my child had Potter Syndrome or not. Yes, thanks to prenatal testing. It gave me the heartache and it gave me the relief.
And yes, I would have aborted my child who’d be doomed anyway. It would have broken my heart, but the pain would have been mine, not that of my child. And I know many women who did this, who chose their own suffering to shorten that of their children.
You have to be a rotten asshole to big for all the porcupines in the world to fill to react to such a story like this.
carlie,
Oh dear. That is a lot of unfortunate circumstances.
I’ll keep an eye out for the series, in case it appears on YouTube.
Everything I have just learned about Tay-Sachs is completely heartwrenching.
So I take it that Facebook picture I linked is a white-footed mouse or a closely-related species? It seems the Iowa Association of Naturalists is quite unhelpful in their mammals guide due to insufficient illustration and brief, misleading descriptions. So far, it has yet to give me the necessary info to ID a single animal I have tried to ID using it.
http://www.extension.iastate.edu/publications/ian601.pdf
Dr. Darkheart:
If the anti-choice forces are going to finally start framing abortion as first-degree murder, I think it’s a win for the forces of Truth and Justice™: Their rhetoric about personhood and “unborn children” inevitably implies that an abortion is not only first-degree murder, but murder for hire, with the woman hiring a
hit man[1] to assassinate her child (never mind their possible co-conspirator in the form of a man who puts up the money)… and yet, they always treat it like a minor crime (or sometimes even a regulatory matter) when it comes to enforcement (e.g., the South Dakota law from a few years ago, where the doctor got a max of 5 years and the mother got nothing).The thing is, all these anti-choicers know and love somebody who’s either had or paid for an abortion (if they haven’t done so themselves), and they can’t bring themselves to think of these people as cold-blooded murderers. One hopes that an honest law that has penalties commensurate with the actual logic of personhood will force people who think of themselves as “pro-choice” to confront the simple facts:
People who have abortions are not murderers.
And abortion is not murder.
***
[1] Do we care about finding a gender-neutral term for this, or is hired killer a profession women are happy to leave to doooodz?
Ace of Sevens: Try a google image search for ‘white footed mouse’.
Caturday
carlie:
Yeah, that was the same job that was the reason my dinner with you and your family was just a break on a Sunday at the office!
Argh.
Hate writing emails in French.
Note to self: always check whether the verb actually exists or whether you just made it up from Spanish…
@TLC
Don’t feel too bad about the Sealion thing. A lot of people who haven’t had a lot of interaction with maritime life tend to think of seals as either the cute cuddly little white puff balls or the harbor seals or what not. I remember the Nostalgia Critic in one review involving penguins made a comment about how absurdly over sized the leopard seals were drawn…and was shocked to be corrected that such a size is perfectly reasonable.
Assuming top results are correct, that one my friend caught in Iowa City was probably a deer mouse (though white-footed look pretty similar) and the ones I caught in my house are European house mice, except the two that were short-tailed shrews.
Ing: I won’t, mainly because I’m not sure what to feel bad about. The sea lion actually WAS as big as I remember it appearing, that’s pretty damn cool.
Leopard Seals… seriously, can’t we just call them sea monsters at this point?
Skatje is back on the one thread if you’re feeling brave.
@Walton
Thumbs up. Youz doing goodz workzeses
Bill:
Um. Assassin?
But, yes. CO’s bill isn’t a straight up “doctors go to jail!” bill– it’s supposed to add extra punishment for people who harm a pregnant woman so badly that she miscarries. There are quite a few states who have similar laws on the books (IIRC, NY is one), but 1) these types of laws give far too many* rights to the fetus, no matter what the intention is and 2) the timing of this bill coupled with the fact that it’s apparently pretty vague** is whoa suspicious.
*Any at all, really.
**Haven’t been able to actually find the bill. It’s not listed on the CO legislature’s website yet. Hell, I had a tough time just finding a news story to back up the Daily Kos post.
I know they’d never do it but if it was a problem they could just pass a law making assault more aggravated if it causes irreparable damage to an organ or appendage that permanently cases it’s biological function.
Ing,
That’s what I was thinking. Hell, we already have different levels of assault and there’s no reason why you couldn’t add another without giving fetuses special treatment.
But, then again, it wouldn’t be all about protecting the baybeez! And what kind of tough-on-crime politician would accept that?
We spent the morning getting the boat hoisted into the water, filling up with fuel, water and wind (a necessary ingredient for sail boats). Then this afternoon we went sailing!
Bill – does that mean it at least eases up on your schedule for the next couple of weeks, since they’re over and done with?
Hey you guys, I just made this broccoli cheese strudel, and if tasting just the filling is to go by, it’s pretty fantastic (it’s in the oven now). Not nearly as dry as some of the others I’ve made (I’m staring at you, Moosewood). I did modify it to add the bread crumbs directly into the filling and added a little milk to compensate.*
*that makes me feel like all the recipe reviews I read on allrecipes.com, which are hilarious. “This recipe was amazing! I just substituted x for y, added z and a to it, doubled the amount of q, and halved the amount of r and it came out great!”**
**by that point, every single ingredient in the original recipe has been changed.
Damn you link bork!!!
recipe
It’s a ridiculously early spring here. I’m sitting on my parents’ deck in jeans and a T-shirt, catching some sun and frantically updating my collection permit applications so that I can get out in the field as soon as possible.
I saw a robin and heard a killdeer this morning.
I love spring.
(Definitely not looking at the latest MRA-attractant thread right now. I’m going to enjoy the sunshine, dammit!)
***
Who else is doing their best to avoid going out for St. Patrick’s Day? As a non-drinker who can only tolerate all the people in bars for short periods of time, this holiday has no appeal for me. I’m really hoping no one calls me to go out. Maybe I’ll bake something green to appease my Irish ancestry, but that’s about it.
Yay, ‘Tis!
If I sailed, I’d be on a boat right now. As it is, I’ve been sitting out in my courtyard for hours, enjoying the weather.
It’s supposed to be even warmer tomorrow.
“I’ve got you chest high to a ringer!” – Spencer Tracy in The Last Hurrah.
I have to admit, there is a beauty in language when you can’t curse.
++++++++++++++
Danny Boy – Diana Krall & The ChieftansIt’s over produced, but her voice and the song match so well. I would have done it with nothing but her and the pipes, but that’s just me.
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I’m fantastic at telling everybody all about my paper topic.
Writing it…. not so much with the happening.
I observed five species of tits (tee hee) from my parent’s kitchen window yesterday: willow, coal, blue, great, and crested. They told me a few days ago there was also a long-tailed tit, so far I haven’t seen one.
The Sailor:
Not only do I see no beauty, I don’t even get what that’s supposed to mean.
Can you explain it?
‘Tis, beautiful shot! I can’t launch for another 2 weeks and it’s bothering me greatly. It’s the middle of March and it’s been mid 70s F for 2 weeks. Normally it’s cold and blustery here this time of year, with occasional nice days.
I keep revising my retirement plans (it’s gonna be on a sailboat) but I’m not sure where my harbor will be. I used to think Cocoa Beach area, now I’m starting to wonder about the Chesapeake. Or maybe my fantasy of going back to Antigua.
Audley:
I actually considered that word, but it strikes me as having a connotation of mission, rather than the purely commercial criminal that hit man conveys. Perhaps the right term is simply hired killer, even though it’s not quite so colloquial.
***
carlie:
The more likely result is that I’ll get to spend next week, which otherwise would’ve been pretty light at work, doing some combination of revising what we’ve already done and doing the stuff we originally didn’t think we had time for. In my business, it’s a truism that an extension is never good news, and a last-minute extension is the worst. But I feel silly complaining about my work, for which I’m respected and generously compensated: first-world problems, eh?
Two men kiss at a Santoum-For-Brains speech. It is roughly at the 3:30 mark. Before that time, SFB is explaining how he truly believes in American Exceptionaliam while Obama is just routing for the home team.
My hatred for that person is not the increase. My dislike for him was high to begin with. If he had actual power, I would hate him more than the double team of dubya/Cheney.
I need Horde Hivemind Help for the computer-incompetent :(
My assignment sheet says that if, in my paper, I want to use Greek, I should use a unicode font. I don’t know what that means and I don’t know how to know if I’m using one. I have a thing where I click on an EN over by my clock and I can choose EL and that lets me type in Greek letters. *shrugs helplessly*
Hugs to Giliell if you’d care for ’em. If she won’t listen I suppose she may refuse to read too (actually read, that is) but at least you can then just keep things short and simple, and say/send the message “I told you all about X (or Y, or Z) in my letter, please read it”
Any way, keep hanging in there. I have a relative who has caused me and other family members misery and all kinds of trouble, but of course it’s always the others who are mean and unreasonable for avoiding hir – not the same as your situation, but by FSM I do sympathise.
CC, Greek in Unicode.
(You might take a look at TZT, where some have been playing around with character sets)
Thanks, John :) I’ll be honest and say that I’m still fairly confused, but the internet informs me that recent Times New Roman is a unicode font.
Weed Monkey, “Caturday”. That is, as we say in these modern times, straight-through-processing.
“willow, coal, blue, great, and crested”.
I have blue, great, coal, and long-tailed. Many, many, long-tailed, they’re having a renaissance or something.
And in other bird-related news, my ducks are back! (Yes, the ones that walked into the kitchen.)
NEW THREAD!