Don’t tell anyone, but I might occasionally read poetry for fun…and right now, this would be my favorite, “The Mask of Anarchy”, by Shelley.
Yeah, it’s long, but I love the ending.
And if then the tyrants dare
Let them ride among you there,
Slash, and stab, and maim, and hew, –
What they like, that let them do.With folded arms and steady eyes,
And little fear, and less surprise,
Look upon them as they slay
Till their rage has died away.Then they will return with shame
To the place from which they came,
And the blood thus shed will speak
In hot blushes on their cheek.Every woman in the land
Will point at them as they stand –
They will hardly dare to greet
Their acquaintance in the street.And the bold, true warriors
Who have hugged Danger in wars
Will turn to those who would be free,
Ashamed of such base company.And that slaughter to the Nation
Shall steam up like inspiration,
Eloquent, oracular;
A volcano heard afar.And these words shall then become
Like Oppression’s thundered doom
Ringing through each heart and brain,
Heard again – again – again –Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number –
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you –
Ye are many – they are few.
If you’re wondering, it’s about the Peterloo Massacre in 1819 — with which all you fans of popular labor movements are well acquainted, I’m sure.
(Episode CCCXXVI: Singing scientists, sorta.)
“Taking the Watchdog Off Its Leash: Personal Prejudices and Situational Motivations Jointly Predict Derogation of a Stigmatized Source”; Stephen D. Livingston and Lisa Sinclair; doi 10.1177/0146167207310028
«Lower- and higher-prejudiced individuals may strategically derogate negatively stereotyped individuals. Regardless of degree of prejudice, participants with a directional goal to discredit a threatening message and its source were more likely to do so when the source belonged to a negatively stereotyped group. They also were less persuaded by that stigmatized source. When this directional goal was negated by making the message nonthreatening, lower-prejudiced individuals evaluated the stigmatized and nonstigmatized sources, and their messages, similarly and were equally persuaded by both sources. When an accuracy goal was simultaneously introduced, lower-prejudice participants again rated the stigmatized and nonstigmatized sources comparably yet continued to derogate the stigmatized speaker’s message and were less persuaded by him. Removing the directional goal or adding the accuracy goal did not affect higher-prejudiced participants’ evaluations. The importance of examining situational goals and individual differences when studying biased responding is discussed.»
http://www.anonstorage.net/PStorage/829.LivingstonSinclair.pdf
John Morales, I take your point – but it’s not just that I “don’t like the photo” (I think it looks a bit silly, but not repulsive or anything like that and I suspect this bloke could look perfectly nice under other circumstances (such as if he weren’t so obviously posing)). It’s more that he has failed to convey gravitas and sincerity when his self-proclaimed expertise “ought” to make him more, not less competent than average at conveying whatever he wants to convey. Of course I could be wrong in assuming that he wants to convey gravitas and sincerity (or something along similar lines) but it seems a reasonable assumption in this context. I put it to you, m’lud (I’m just being silly I know, but for some reason I am put in mind of Henry Cecil’s “Brothers in Law”) that adopting a frown and a “thinker” pose which make the photo look highly contrived is not a good advertisement for his competence as a psychologist. Doesn’t prove anything, just suggests.
Ah yes, the old “weirder you are the more rights you get” complaint from the bigots. Whoa, it must be nanoseconds since I last heard that.
Well bigots, you know what to do. Get out there and start fucking. Me, I’m starting weird. I’m into bestiality, sadism and necrophilia. Tell me, am I flogging a dead horse?*
I have developed a moderate paraphilia to do with bananas. Does that count? If so I want the right to exceed the speed limit by five miles an hour. If I extend the paraphilia to citrus fruits as well can I just drive as fast as I like?
Basically I want this perversion for rights deal quantified. If I get erotically charged by a Coco de Mer do I get an extra tax break? Does enjoying a good spanking get me to the front of the queue in Starbucks? If I am performing a Lucky Pierre do I get to urinate on the back wheel of a police car any time I like? Do my windows get cleaned for free if I slam my balls in a desk drawer? Can I lower my insurance premiums by diddling myself on the tube? Is my national insurance contribution increased if I don’t frotter a willow tree on the third Sunday after Pentecost whilst wearing lederhosen and singing “Barbie girl”?
Enquiring (and dirty) minds want to know. Precisely what scale is this perversion for permission principle practised under?
Louis
* Old joke is old. HEY! When they start making new bigotry, I’ll start making new jokes. Don’t complain to me.
At least the Big Buzzy Flies seem to be smarter than small ones. When a BBF finds its way into my place, it generally makes one or two circuits and then, finding no poop, leaves by the same window. The small ones need to be pursued.
Rev:
These nuts always seem to believe that the ghey secks is just so damn irresistible that one taste of it will “turn” you.
And the citing articles for that paper.
A couple of them look interesting:
“Stigmatized Sources and Stigmatized Content: Liberals and Conservatives React Differently to Fat Authors” is free to download.
“Maintaining a Positive Self-Image by Stereotyping Others: Self-Threat and the Stereotype Content Model” looks good but I can’t get at it.
The crucial part is that the treatment did not trigger cancer.
In mice. Let’s see how it looks in human trials. Promising, though. Note that a 2 year old mouse is old. So trying the treatment in 70 year old humans might make sense. I’d probably start there and move to younger people if the initial trials looked promising. Also they mentioned reversal of insulin resistance. Type II diabetes treatment?
Fixed that for them.
Gah.
I just got back from having my broken foot examined. The good news is, it’s mending nicely.
The bad news is, the doctor himself. The first time I saw him was a few weeks ago, and he was nice enough. This time, he creeped me right the fuck out. Bad enough he looked me in the chest instead of the eye, but I could really have done with his parting gesture of trailing his fingers down the top of my spine while I was at the front desk paying my bill.
I wasn’t sure how to handle it, and I’m still not. What do you think, Horde: Should I cancel my appointment with him coming up in a few weeks and say nothing? Should I wait for the office manager to return next week, and speak to her? Should I try to speak to him?
I’m looking forward to getting a faceful of “But I/he was just being friendly! That’s just my/his way!” With of course the implication that I’m being oversensitive and flattering myself. Grr.
lol
No, this was New Jersey. We were not exactly innovators. Why, we used to tie an onion to our belt–that was the fashion then…
(I didn’t move to Venice Beach until 15 years later.)
Ms. Daisy Cutter, he did WHAT?!
Let’s hope that your report to the office manager is the final nail she needs for his coffin.
Ms Daisy Cutter,
Whoa whoa WHOA!
Women have EYES? And you can LOOK at them? This is a big development. Did he call you “sugartits”? I mean, it’s not proper unless you’ve been called “sugartits”. I think you should at least wait until he asks you to get naked before examining your foot, after all there may be something wrong with your…{ahem} “eyes” that helps him diagnose your foot.
Okay, okay, I’ll be serious {grumble}.
If you are really squicked out, and you sound like you are, speak to the office/practise manager. I couldn’t say whether or not going in strong or gentle would be better. After all going in strong is what’s needed but it makes it easier to dismiss you as “hysterical” (YAY!), but then going in gentle might get you listened to as a “rational” (YAY!) complainant, but it makes it easier to dismiss as not serious.
To my mind there is only one real thing to consider, will reporting this damage you in any way? If reporting this can be done without harm to you, then do it. However you do it the prevailing culture (as with almost any complaint in almost any situation) will be to minimise it. I think the best outcome you can expect is that this is part of a pattern and your complaint is the straw that breaks the camel’s back.
To play kind of devil’s advocate for a second, and you know *I* don’t disbelieve your account for one second, if this is “miscommunication” (it doesn’t sound like it) and if this is “over sensitivity” (it doesn’t sound like it), you don’t want to be in an adverse therapeutic relationship with anyone. Rightly or wrongly, this recent contact with this doc squicked you out for whatever reason. Even if you’re batshit deluded and making the whole shebang up, and you’re not, THAT is enough to change doctors at minimum. You have to feel comfortable with your doc, and you don’t.
So pseudo-devil’s advocacy aside, the minimum you should do is switch appointments to a different doc, preferably female, if you can. IMO, given that he thinks BEWBS = WINDOWS TO SOUL, a quiet, polite word with his practise/office manager is entirely appropriate. At the very least, if this is a dumb lapse on his part, it’ll get mentioned and he’ll be more conscious. At the worst, if this is a pattern of behaviour, it’s another good bit of data for his reviews.
Don’t approach him unless you a) feel very safe to do so, b) are sure he will respond appropriately, c) 100% convinced there is no fall out for you. He’s in a position of relative power and wouldn’t be the first person to manifest absolute arseholery when challenged.
Louis
Ms. daisy Cutter – sure, I’d tell the office manager that the doctor is too handsy. And if he tries the same thing again, haul off and swing your arm back directly into his face, and then say “Oh! I thought that was a fly on my back! Don’t startle me that way!” :)
Ms. Daisy Cutter: My advice: Tell the office manager, get a new orthopedist, consider whether to file a formal complaint. The last is probably going to end up being more trouble than it’s worth, but do consider it because people who do this sort of thing rarely do it only once. He’s probably behaving in a similar way to other patients. It’s just possible that he doesn’t realize how offensive he’s being, though, so a complaint to the office manager MIGHT prompt some self-examination and better behavior. One can hope.
Also, consider confronting him IF AND ONLY IF you feel safe doing so. Don’t feel obligated to do so if you don’t feel safe.
Daisy,
I would not go back to that fucker, but I’d also let the office manager know why. Is there another doctor in the group that you can see instead?
Ms. Daisy Cutter
WTF?
I’d call the manager and insist on getting a different doc (if that’s possible). That’s wayyyyyyy off.
There are personal boundaries and they’re there for a reason. Such a gesture is a very intimate one and I wouldn’t trust somebody who can’t hold his fingers to himself in such a way with examining me.
No matter what they claim it’s not professional conduct.
Caine
Here are the promised pictures of my first try at free motion embroidery. It’s a combination of machine embroidery (the cute rabbit), free-motion embroidery (doors, stuff) and painting. It’s an interesting technique I’m sure going to give another try.
On the other hand, it’s good to hear that you’re healing up. :)
Daisy, if you want a personal bodyguard/chauffeur next time you go, don’t hesitate to ask. Not that women should have to “buddy up” to deal with this bullshit, but whatever helps, helps.
SQB, Louis, Carlie, Dianne: Thanks.
Yeah, I’m going to wait for the office manager to return next week and speak with her. I don’t feel unsafe, strictly speaking, confronting the doctor, but it would be uncomfortable, and my sense is that it would not be very effective.
As for a follow-up exam, I happen to have a physical the same week with my primary-care physician. She can check out my foot and, if need be, send me down the hall for x-rays.
@quidoo
That’s me. Click my name and check my blog its the last one on figures that are better than jesus.
Guanyin the buddhist mercy goddess
Note I made one mistake I need to fix, its an incarnation of her not necessarially the original mortal incarnation whose story I cite as christlike. It doesn’t change the point much as even Jesus existed before his incarnation.
@Giliell:
OMG cutest bunny!
Giliell/Audley/Mero, thanks. I’m good, I think.
Stephanie Zvan linked to this discussion of Dell!Fail. I spotted this in the comments, bold being my emphasis:
Sounds familiar.
Apparently Filipino Boxer, Congressman and Christian something or other thinks Obama is wrong on Gay marriage.
uh
ok
While I like the idea of early intervention and treatment for children who have been diagnosed as psychopaths, the genetic factor is one that’s hard to control for. I also saw quite a few instances of behavior in the article that kids at school exhibit. For most, I figure they’ll grow out of it, but for one or two in particular, I have my doubts. And one of the kids has a mother who’s not only expecting a second child, but is also callous and undoubtedly manipulative. I fear for the baby, because between its older sibling and the mother, who knows what will happen; I fear for the sibling because who knows what will happen to her relationship with her mother once the newborn comes into the picture.
———————————————–
Yes, I am home. There was no way I was going to work feeling like I did earlier. On top of which, my ear is now in pain, likely due to the tubes getting clogged from my blowing my nose so much.
Ms. Daisy Cutter, my sympathies from afar are yours as well, FWTW. Hope your foot continues to get better.
Seconding all the yikes to Ing and backing up Ms Daisy Cutter. I’m particularly worried about a doctor/other professional who’s professional on the FIRST visit but gets touchy-feely on the NEXT visit. That smacks of boundary-probing to me. *shudder*
—
…Is it just me or has Laden been getting really provocative with the post titles lately, more than usual for him? I keep double-checking the FTB Recent Posts to make certain I’m *not* about to go to his blog, and it didn’t used to be this annoying.
Daisy: Ew and ugh. There are ways to show affection and to reassure someone WITHOUT touching the spine in such a manner. Learn some, you git! Is it required that doctors be utterly clueless about comfort levels these days? Sheesh….
Anyway, hope your foot heals up right, and unless you’ve got a good reason to, don’t bother with that doc if you can help it. There are plenty more out there in his field who don’t act like nitwits.
——————————————————–
I find myself wanting to be like the leads in Rosemary & Thyme: living in a tent or out of a car, the occasional hotel, and puttering about with plants and gardens. I could do without the murders and frauds, though. Used to be I found the likes of artists, writers, and musicians to be the most fascinating; now I find the same of people with jobs like anatomist, geneticist, plant pathologist, and so on.
*goes back to watching on YT*
I don’t know how you broke your foot, ms. Daisy Cutter, so I choose to believe that it happened by kicking an MRA.
And that he was far worse off.
Funny immunology linky. No, seriously, it’s really teh funny!
Shit, am I glad I clicked through. Found this comment by duxup:
“We’re sorry you’re angry about our weasel words.”
via Shakes comments, this from Salon:
http://www.salon.com/2012/05/14/our_real_first_gay_president/
Giliell, that’s absolutely fabulous, I loves it!
Ah, yes. And Buchanan’s presidency was followed immediately by Lincoln’s. It was a good decade for the radical gay agenda.
Caine!
I’m jealous of you BPAL purchase ‘cos when I started to place my order, I looked at my total, then at my bank account, then back at my total… and decided to wait until payday.
I will be ordering Burial, Event Horizon, and Highwayman this weekend*, though. :)
*Only those three, Audley!
BPAL still hasn’t finished with fixing the search function on the site? Very well . . . I can guess which sections some scents mentioned in-thread would be found in, but Highwayman has me stumped.
PTI,
It’s in the same section as the other two I mentioned- Bewitching Brews. I’ll sample from the other sections at a later date. ;)
Since you’ve been talking about them – how do solid scents work?
@Kathrine
By commission
(random) Anybody else here interested in prosthetics? Also via Shakes, NYT article on high-end prosthetics and the decision to further amputate limbs so that better prosthetics will fit.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/15/health/losing-more-to-gain-more-amputees-once-unthinkable-choice.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all
The discussion at Shakes adds a lot to this article, such as obvious prosthetic devices becoming more socially acceptable (as opposed to you’d-never-know flesh-looking ones) and instances where doctors are TOO enthusiastic about amputation.
http://www.shakesville.com/2012/05/machine-beauty.html
Kat,
The ones I’ve used, you just rub on. The nice thing is that the scent lasts a loooooooong time, so you don’t need a lot or to reapply. I have one that I absolutely love (blood orange and patchouli. Yum!) and a little behind the ears goes a long way.
I don’t think Black Phoenix scents are solid scents, though. Maybe I’m wrong; I’ll have to double check.
Extremely well-aged bacon
–
6 Types of Apologies That Aren’t Apologies at All.
–
My first, and last, skateboarding experience was back in…hmmm…’68? Thenabouts, anyway. It ended abruptly when the front wheels came to a sudden stop on accounta the sidewalk (on a steepish angle, yet!) had built-in cracks. Physics took over at that point; and I decided that Physics could keep it.
–
Giliell, in my experience, the brown and the black are similarly durable.
–
Oklahoma Rep. Says Homosexuality Is A Choice Worth Being Fired For
bah grumble.
Parts of that link above are a bit annoying. Sorry.
Oh this should get the wingnuts in a furor
Lightning strikes new French president’s plane
IT’S A WARNING!
GOD HATES SOCIALISTS!!!!
Now, now. Don’t be so hard on the lad.
I’m sure that’s just a screenshot from Zach Weinersmith’s latest Youtube sketch.
… Or the French.
I didn’t know Howdy Doody went into politics
Pteryxx: Interesting; I guess if people want to do so, and are capable of informed consent, let them. It’s their body.
Rev. BDC: The fundies don’t know that happens all the time.
Ok there is an advert here I honestly don’t get
“HOUSE MD LIKES ISRAEL FIND OUT WHY!? steupupforisreal.com”
Was this ad generated ala mad libs?
Obnoxious, yes, but I had no idea he as that stupid as well.
I have his book, actually. Not that I’ve used it much.
Former editor of Euroman. No idea what he does today. Prolly being celeber on the telly and designing striped socks.
Christ, and that twit shares a name with a friend of mine. How blush-inducing.
Ing:
Actually he appears to be the love child of Howdy Doody and Ted Haggard. That’s one serious thousand-yard stare.
Also, I’ll just leave this here.
Blargh.
So I had this bright idea. Our new cat has front claws, and therefore needs things to scratch. She has a thing, but likes to go higher than the thing, which means our couches and speakers. Do you know how much those stupid things cost at the store? They are expensive! Like between $30 and $40 for a standy scratchy thingy! So I looked at them and thought huh, I could make that MYSELF.
So I had a piece of 1/2 inch board left over from the attic job, so ok there. No good sized pieces of wood, so I had to go buy a 2×6, and some fence nails, and a roll of sissal: $14. Realized partway through the winding and nailing that I needed more sissal: $7. Then realized I needed shorter staples for the fabric overlay on the board, had to go back again: $3. Had my own fabric to top off the thing and cover the bottom, also a huge piece of felt because I was worried about the floor being scratched by the particle board through the fabric. So far I’ve probably spent about 3 hours on this, between the cutting wood and board to size (I use a hand saw), cutting and fitting the felt layer, cutting and fitting the top fabric layer, trying to staple it in and realizing I had bought the wrong width of staples, so had to nail in the staples instead. And I still haven’t drilled the holes and screwed the two parts together yet, which will be a bit challenging due to having to do it all upside down.
So I’ve spent $24 plus the gas money for three trips to the store, plus already 3 hours of my time and probably another half-hour, for something that cost $35 in the first place. Yeah, that was a really thrifty calculation I made there. (grumble)
Daisy:
AH HAHAHAHAHAHA! Poor widdle Perry, his butt plug is soooooo short!
Short, and to the point.
:D
–
carlie:
Ah, but next time, you’ll know exactly what materials to get, where to drill the holes and all that other stuff – and you could make some to sell or donate, or give to friends. Learning-costs are always higher. (Small comfort at the moment I’m sure.)
O_O
…Cracked is at it again, with more history that makes some of us go WHAT WHAT WHAT WHY DID I NEVER KNOW THIS:
http://www.cracked.com/article_19864_6-ridiculous-lies-you-believe-about-founding-america.html
Caveat, it IS Cracked, so it’s likely to say some crappy things in passing and may make mistakes.
@Pteryxx
Wow, the native Americans kicked Viking asses. That is impressive.
Giliell:
So would I. Thus the headdesking. I think probably it’s more a “not really hearing what Mom is saying even though Mom is being excruciatingly careful to speak directly to you and restate the question” thing.
(I always told my kids “chew and swallow before you talk”. I guess I remember being pretty literal myself.)
My kids are trained. Whenever they hear me scoff about ‘chemicals’ they chorus “Everything is made of chemicals” and roll their eyes.
Not even close! Most of the matter in the universe is not made of chemicals.
@life
I think the context is clear that it refers to matter that interacts with electromagnetic force.
Context is no fun.
“Feeling socially powerless makes you more prone to bumping into things on the right and induces leftward line bisection error”; DOI 10.3758/PBR.17.6.910
«Social power affects the manner in which people view themselves and act toward others, a finding that has attracted broad interest from the social and political sciences. However, there has been little interest from those within cognitive neuroscience. Here, we demonstrate that the effects of power extend beyond social interaction and invoke elementary spatial biases in behavior consistent with preferential hemispheric activation. In particular, participants who felt relatively powerless, compared with those who felt more powerful, were more likely to bisect horizontal lines to the left of center, and bump into the right-hand (as opposed to the left-hand) side when walking through a narrow passage. These results suggest that power induces hemispheric differences in visuomotor behavior, indicating that this ubiquitous phenomenon affects not only how we interact with one another, but also how we interact with the physical world.»
http://www.springerlink.com/content/f8261h64g1523h33/
http://kar.kent.ac.uk/27458/1/Wilkinson_et_al_BumpingIntoThingsOnTheRight_PB%26R__2010_Manuscript.pdf
Here are the things I found so bizarre about the social psychologist explaining about why skepticism just might accidentally sort of seem, completely inadvertently, to be unfriendly to Those Sorts of People Who Are Not Like Us™, not that there’s anything really wrong with that, mind you… Mainly,, the super earnest facial expression, trying really hard to convey that within that skull are a whole lotta Deep Thoughts that You Probably Wouldn’t Understand™, combined with the thinker-style pose. The tweed blazer and bookshelf background were just icing on the cake. (In my neck of the woods, hipsters have a bit of a different look, I suppose, or I get exposed to the Art Hipsters instead of the Deep Thought Social Psychology Hipsters.) Seriously, how difficult is it to find or take a different, pleasant friendly looking picture? In photos, I manage generally to look like both ugly and angry, especially in casual photos, but even I can find pictures where I look pleasant, friendly, and attractive and use those for websites, etc. The photo I use at the store where I teach spinning got cropped out of a picture of me, Sili, and DDMFM on 9th Avenue in Manhattan, and I look actually friendly and engaged.
We have a new cat!! A 7 week old kitten named Turing, he’s black with a patch of white on his chest, weighs 2 pounds, really likes Gerber turkey baby food, and has already been to the vet and been declared healthy. We got him from Nice Mormon Boy’s family, who seem to view spaying their female cat with suspicion since she *might* already be pregnant since cats go into heat very shortly upon weaning their kittens. And isn’t it nice for the girls to experience the Miracle of Birth™? The name of the female cat? Momma Cat – she doesn’t even get her own name. To their credit, they did find actual homes for the kittens, but the extension of abortion fetishes to felines is a bit on the peculiar side.
Oh, welcome Turing!
Our cat still is named Kitty, but I’m starting to wonder if there’s a name that means “obstinate”. I got the scratching post done, it looks nice (pic on twitter!), she went right up to it and hugged it and rubbed her face all over it and snuggled on it.
Then she walked over to the couch and started scratching the couch.
Giliell:
I’m 50; can you tell me when I’ll be past that stage? Many’s the time I’ve taken a statement or question literally, responded accordingly, and had the speaker look at me like I’m an idiot and explain what they really meant. I can parse language competently, and rarely have trouble when it’s in written form, but spoken… my brain just frequently jumps to the most literal interpretation, even if it’s ridiculous. It can be frustrating.
I recall a slice of life series from a Danish veterinary clinic that focused on the irony of the local Catholic priest getting the pill for his cat.
I am so unbelievably impressed with the caring, real meatspace nuts and bolts practical caring, that happens in this weird community we have formed around a blog composed of PZ’s random ejaculations. Different people hang in different parts of it, but it’s an amazing thing, and I’m privileged to be part of it.
We would be so much poorer if it were just disembodied archived arguments, or if it were just meatspace cat picture sharing and the like. It’s both, and it’s amazing.
Wonderful to hear a New Testament scholar explain the sexual revolution in relation to second century Christianity to a room full young adults.
I particularly like how he emphasises the baggage of “fucked” and “sucks”. Being fucked is bad, doing the fucking isn’t. Male good, female bad.
wow
that Gawker link ran me through a hall of old internet memories. Links to Goatse, then alt.tasteless vs. rec.pets.cats and more
Two minutes before I was supposed to leave to get the younger kid from school, I smelled something burning and couldn’t identify it. Cue mild panic and Misterc picking the kid up while I stayed home to make sure we weren’t burning to the ground.
Turns out it was an incipient electrical fire in the living room CPU. Which was just upgraded a week ago at some expense and now has to be torn apart to figure out what went wrong. Gah.
HI.
I’m ba-ack. Did I miss anything?
Florida was nice.
My SIL is 46. She has one of the Down’s Syndromes. She has also had some seizures and one stroke. For the past two years, she has been exhibiting some odd, and oddly timed, seizure behaviour. After an MRI and a 72-hour EEG with video monitoring, during which there were almost 100 events, (and this is one of the reasons we went down to FL) we have an answer.
No seizures. None. Zero. Zip. It is totally behavioural. She is a very good manipulator. Part of me is very happy because she is not having seizures. Part of me wants to strangle her for putting MIL and FIL through this for two years. Most likely because she felt she needed more attention.
Aaaaaaaaaaargh.
==========
Saw a bumper sticker in FL (in Sanford, actually):
Saw a handmade sign along one of the roads with a photo of Obama with scope sights over it.
But remember. It is the left that is, according to the press, radical and unhinged.
@Mattir
Yeah, I guess if it weren’t for this blog, I would have never met you, or never been to the reason rally.
Gray hair? Hah! Eumelanin is for other people!
Well, except for the somatic mutations. I have, for instance, 1 black hair (and 1 white one) on each wrist.
First white hair on my head: at age 10. Haven’t found another since then, though.
Ah, yes. They were all around me. They were just never abbreviated, and they vacillated between “Ninja” and “Hero”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninjemys
+ 1
+ 2
+ 3
Crowning Moment of Awesome.
[imagine a link to TV Tropes here]
what
I had no idea this existed. #thingsilearnedonpharyngula
*facepalm* X-)
Maybe it’s actually an object lesson, and he’s deliberately trying to look privileged.
Maybe.
But even so, the thinker’s pose is just way over every available top. X-)
:-D
So true! Subthread won.
I don’t think it’s sloppy at all. It’s carefully calculated.
Oh crap. I switched my vocal cords on. It’s almost half past midnight, and the walls are a joke – not a particularly good one at that.
X-D
He’s not cute, though.
Oh for… crap… the beard… the sideburns… *Picard & Riker double facepalm* X-)
So much for free will.
*chortle*
The bookshelves… there’s Einstein in there, very prominently placed. What an accident.
The furrowed forehead!!! ROTFL!
Not well visible, because the camera or something reflects in them.
I’m so going to steal that.
Urgh. His cheeks look about as soft as mine, plus he’s got those sideburns. :-S
Never happened to me, because every time I’m surprised enough that I think “huh? How am I? How could I be? I’m, uh, fine, I suppose…”
But then, I know only one person who asked me anew every day how I was. I got him to explain that that was just a greeting. That was in France; he was from La Réunion.
I need to explain that there’s no word for “go” in German. There’s only “walk”.
O hai! I maded you this internet out of fresh lavender cookies, and I did not eated it.
Do you know the statue “The Thinker” by Rodin? The dude is consciously imitating it.
Do I need to read on?
I don’t. :-)
I shouldn’t have. He’s fantasizing. *shaking in disgust*
All seconded.
Well, you can, but teh mighty peen might fall off in the process.
ROTFL!
Thirded.
As I ignore his blog and… actually… most of FtB, I haven’t noticed, but it wouldn’t surprise me. Is his traffic going down?
+ 1
*mousing over*
Wow. There’s a Wikipedia article “Sexuality of Abraham Lincoln”.
I like your way with words!
X-)
Because the extent of it hasn’t been known for a long time. After all, smallpox was almost never deliberately introduced; nobody knew what was going on.
When Pizarro almost single-handedly conquered the Inca empire, he had the advantage that the empire was weakened by an only recently ended civil war over the succession of the previous Inca who had died relatively suddenly and unexpectedly. Well, what had the good man died of? Smallpox!
WTF.
…Surely some of those can be regarded as death threats?
That’s because homophobes fought to keep any mention of it out of the main article, and they won. Lincoln is much more prominent than Buchanan, so they didn’t care about his article as much.
Some summary of Lincoln’s sexuality article could probably be reintegrated into the main article nowadays — individuals come and go at Wikipedia and old “compromises” are forgotten.
Well those are standard tests for hemispheric activation, so all they’re really trying to say is “we found preferential hemispheric activation”.
Well, sure. And I guarantee that anyone on the US political left who had displayed similar feelings during the Bush II regime would have not only been investigated, but would have been in the ten-minute rotation on Faux News propaganda feed. Considering that the cross hairs-over-a-politician has been used, rather recently, in the US on political adverts, that one is considered, by the right, as protected political speech. The first one just might be obscure enough to allow for alternate explanations for someone on the right.
*headdesk*
I don’t even know what 13 is, but “hemp” refers to a rope, not to smoking it, right?
From memory. Hemp is obviously rope and 13 is the number of coils in a hangman’s noose.
so yes death threat
yep
DDMFM:
Prior to the Spanish-American War, at least in the US, hemp was also the term for the smoked version. Hearst’s yellow press introduced the term marijuana to the US in order to demonize the Spanish troops in Cuba.
Quite successfully, too. Even today, marijuana is viewed by ‘right-thinking’ Americans as evil.
In today’s context, you are correct. Hemp rope.
Rev:
Right in one.
But in my cynical mind, I see these as yet another example of it’s-okay-if-you’re-conservative.
At least, during the drive home, that was just about the only explanation I could come up with.
?
The 13 knots in the noose. Sorry.
and the hemp… wouldn’t it be silly to mention hemp and 13 and not mean rope?
Rev:
I’m sorry. I was trying to be cynical and failed.
Gahhhhhh!!!
This sort of thing features prominently in my Menu of ‘Favorite’ Nightmares (though considerably less so than “Giant Flaming Superspeed Tornado Swarms”, or “I’m In College And It’s Finals Week And I Just Now Remember That I’ve Had A Class That I Haven’t Been Attending”, or “No Escape From [Redacted} Oklahoma”.)(Of course I rank my nightmares! Don’t you?)
So very glad that you stayed home to investigate, kristinc, and that family and property escaped disaster.
–
Welcome home, Bro Ogvorbis. Same ol’ same ol’, here.
(But in a good way!)
–
I perceive your flattery, and I wallow in it.
:) :) :)
–
You’d think so, wouldn’t you? But then, you are a rational human being, and not a bigoted AmerRepub.
Chances are fair that you don’t have a Confederate flag on the back window of your pickup truck, just in front of the gun rack.
–
Regardless of her character, powers, personality or background, Power Girl was always most famous for her breasts. The fact that she was one of the most independent and empowered women the DC Universe had seen, makes this focus on her body seem all the more disrespectful. Kara demanded to be treated as an equal by the male heroes around her and was angry at the fact that that usually wasn’t the case. Her look was not the willowy build of other women heroes, but stocky and muscular, with short hair and a stylish costume. She didn’t care what others thought of her appearance, and would snap at anyone who belittled her with sexist language.
Girl was a powerful strong women, and many readers punished her by reducing her to a pair of boobs. No matter that she wanted equality or promoted feminism as long as her best assets were on display and rigorously defended against “prudes”. But it’s not prudish to point out that in a world where women are judged on looks first and foremost that a choice of clothing can diminish a strong character.
Okay. Am threadrupt.
Have been doing a lot of ranting on PET about assholes on FB.
Here, I have a question. Do any of the people here that have four-legged companions know if there is a solution to feline pica? Because two days of Morgan puking all over everything and producing funny stools led me to watch her very closely.
Grumble.
CRAP! I meant to most a comment about Power Girl losing her boobwindow and clicked the wrong button. Failed the blockquoted as well. Figures.
The paragraph is from here .
Que lots of menz defending and saying R.I.P. Boob Window. Gah. I’m late to seeing this but it figures since I’d given up on comics due to shit like the boobwindow.
Esteleth, what is xe eating?
*waves at Oggie!* Good to see you back!
E,
You’re going to probably have to take her to the vet. My bet is that they will prescribe a tranq until the habit breaks.
(Personal experience: I had a cat who tore out and ate his own hair and my BiL has an adult cat that suckled another adult cat.)
Mike,
She’s chewing on plastic bags.
Google U. tells me that pica is frequently the result of cats acting out in frustration from a change. Probably the food. Her pet food was recalled (salmonella contamination), I googled, found a history of the company I didn’t like, and switched to a different brand.
Lady at the pet store categorized it as similar in taste, texture, etc. Hopefully she’ll get used to it and stop eating plastic. :/
E,
Is she swallowing them? Could the loose stools be related to the food change and not the bags?
If she’s eating the bags, take her to the vet immediately. If she’s not actually eating them, eh whatevs. My cat Pickles licks plastic bags all the time and it’s probably because a lot of plastic products actually contain animal by-products.
She’s chewing on bags and shredding them. If she swallows any, she pukes within 15 minutes. I think the loose stools are about the food change, yes.
cicely:
I have that dream too. Usually, in my dream I also have to pee so badly that I can’t concentrate on the exam, and I discover that it’s over and I haven’t written anything.
I’ve finally almost stopped having the dream where I’m sent back to high school to do two more years of gym class.
It’s funny how some nightmares are almost universal. I’m sure most people who’ve been to college have some variation on the exam nightmare.
E,
I’m serious, take her to the vet as soon as you can. You do not want her to have swallowed a big piece and end up with a blockage. D:
Okay, will call the vet in the morning.
Yeah, if she’s not eating the bags, I think it’s a “wait her out” kind of game. Is she eating the new food? If so, i’ll go with Audley’s ‘whatevs’. The stools should clear up as the gut flora and all that junk adjust.
Reading back, I was not cautious enough by a long shot. I agree again w/ Audley. My previous statement applies only if the intestines are clear.
Yes, she’s eating the new food with a decent appetite. Drinking water a bit above the usual rate, but then it has been warm lately.
…and the vet agrees.
I’ll shut up now.
Will call the vet first thing in the AM.
I honest to god switched to a “It’s finals and I just now remember I was supposed to teach a class all semester” dream right after I got my faculty gig. That ranks just under the “I’m on a scary long big bridge that oops seems to be going right down into the water now” dream.
But mostly my recurring dreams are of needing to go to the bathroom but having nowhere to go. Based on this Animaniacs episode, I think I’m not the only one with that dream.
Sorry, Og. That sounds like some family dynamics that will need some serious work.
kristinc – ah, the smell of burning computers. I know that smell. I empathize.
WTF is going on in the cheat code thread?
Esteleth, I hope everything is fine and this is nothing. I also hope that this isn’t a hardship for you. why can,t animals have a diagnostic readout?
With that, I think I better crash. Night all.
Esteleth – some asshole wants somebody to declare exactly how much worse lesbians have it than gay guys, so that he can whip out some little factoid to “debunk” it and thereby show that the entire concept of privilege is fatally flawed. That’s my guess, anyway.
I’ve had the “I Just Remembered This One Class I Haven’t Been Going To” dream a few times. The last time, it felt so real that I spent part of the day trying to remember if I DID actually have to take such a class or not at some point during my school years. I tell you, THAT throws you for a loop, because you can’t stop thinking about it until your mind finally says, “Ah screw it, if it happened, it’s over and done with.”
—————————————-
I must be getting close to burnout. It was nice to have a day off, even if I was sick for most of it. I think I’m going to just spend the day after school ends sleeping.
I almost want to get my ears pierced again just to be able to get these earrings.
Yeah, I got that part, Carlie. I’m just WTFing over it.
*shakes head*
A “but I was only asking a question” troll. Turns out it did it before. If PZ wasn’t at his party, the TZT thread would probably have another denizen.
E,
That’s our little Ryan! Remember, the dude with one Jewish friend and Wikipedia, so he felt he knew everything about Judaism?
Surprise, surprise, he’s an all around idiot.
Speaking of Lesbians, I was watching TV with the Ex-ex today and there was a dog food commercial. I didn’t even notice at first, but then she pointed it out: “This is the first commercial I’ve ever seen with a lesbian couple in it.”
Sure enough, it was two women, one reading a magazine on the couch while the other did yoga with her dog. And the whole arrangement of the scene made it pretty clear it was supposed to be a ‘domestic’ scene and not just two friends hanging out. And I didn’t even notice until it was pointed out!
Question 1: Anyone else know what commercial I’m talking about?
Question 2: Has the inevitable uproar and ‘moral outrage’ happened yet, or is everyone else as clueless as me?
Yep, I remember the little fucker.
TLC, I did not see that ad. I did see the ad for KY jelly that featured a lesbian couple.
David:
You are certain of this, how?
There was also a Sprint ad that feature a gay couple when they were first plugging their family plans years ago.
And speak of the devil! Pickles is licking a plastic bag as we speak. What a weird cat.
John Morales, Considering the cultural ubiquity of Rodin’s ‘The Thinker’, I think it’s more of a stretch to imagine he’s NOT conciously imitating it and it’s ‘just a coincidence’.
There’s a third possibility: That the person taking the publicity photograph was an idiot and got him to pose that way because xie thought it would ‘look smart’. But I’m not feeling nearly so generous.
Just out of curiousity, since you’re a person I have a very difficult time figuring out sometimes, why are you so intent on defending this douchebag from our mockery?
From J_A_L’s #88: http://www.comicbookgrrrl.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/peeg_2012.jpg
!
I don’t read comics, but that first picture could be tagged “boobs with woman attached”.
So, after postmortem, it appears that the smell from the CPU was the new power supply frying itself to death, significantly less scary than an actual incipient electrical fire. New new power supply is installed, let’s hope we don’t get an encore. The poor CS rep at Best Buy was traumatized by the smell wafting from the box when Misterc exchanged it.
TLC:
You imagine that’s what I’m on about, rather than critiquing the basis for such mockery?
(I know nothing about the guy; I assure you I am not (consciously) white-knighting)
My mistake then. But I did just say you are a person I have a hard time figuring out sometimes.
I criticize your critique: Considering the cultural ubiquity of ‘The Thinker’, it’s almost as ridiculous as me posing in a white bedsheet with ketchup on my hands and a blackberry vine wrapped around my head and people saying “How do you know he’s consciously imitating *Jesus?”
*in case you all haven’t noticed, I vaguely resemble medieval paintings of jesus.
TLC,
If it’s ubiquitous as you claim, what criteria are you employing to determine whether the adoption of that pose is conscious or unconscious?
Also, I note not that all elements are echoed — is there an elbow upon the knee? Is the wrist turned inwards? Is the gaze unfocused, and the head downwards? (etc etc)
(Or: Why do you focus on one congruence, salient as it may be, yet ignore numerous incongruences?)
John Morales: You got me there. Good old instinct. I’ve got a fairly good nose for pseudointellectual jackasses, so good infact I can detect the scent from the pixels of a picture uploaded on the internet. ;)
So far though, I haven’t developed the ability to smell them through text alone, but give it time and practice.
Your critique seems needlessly nitpicky. Also, stop ruining my fun. You’re being a bit of a killjoy.
[meta]
TLC,
Most people just call me an asshole.
(But, one day, you may be glad when I “defend” you by addressing the basis of those who may be accusing you. It works both ways.)
I assume that John is pointing out that we normally frown on picking on a person’s appearance.
I agree, except that there are specific things about the way he is choosing to present himself that are the things being mocked here, not about features of himself he can’t really help. One can argue whether that is a distinction without merit or not, but it is there nonetheless.
carlie, yes.
(That there is some basis is not the worst possible start, but then I’d expect no less from regulars)
Nope, John, I won’t call you an asshole (THIS time…).
Not that I’ll ever need you to ‘defend’ me, (I am like the skunk… quite capable of defending myself!), but this is why I call you ‘killjoy’ instead of ‘asshole’.
I can’t figure you out, true, but I am ‘on to’ at least some of your ways.
Also, I thought we’d already established that we were mocking his presentation and not the features he can’t actually help.
If I had to comment on the man beneath the ridiculous getup, I’d say he looks shockingly average and amazingly unremarkable.
I am not criticizing his appearance. I am criticizing his choice to use a photo of himself with a furrowed brow and a thoughtful hand on chin. If I can avoid looking like an angry homely fat southern ady stereotype in my online publicity photos, I’m fairly sure he could have come up with one that didn’t make him look like a pretentious hipster with pompous delusions of intellect.
In other news, did I mention that we haz a kitten? Watching him chase an aluminum foil wad on a string for an hour was fabulous.
I never present well in photos. The only way to get a good photo of me is to play like a wildlife photographer. If I’m not immediately aware of the camera, I can avoid looking like a weirdo. Photograph me like wildlife. As long as I give permission to take photos of me without permission for the night.
I envy Mr Mattir’s talent. So much less complex.
Incidentally, thanks for paying attention to the intended subjects of all my pathetically amateurish webcam photos and not the creepy looking dude behind them, hoarde.
I cheered myself up today by designing my wedding cake!
We’re not doing a tiered one so I just am giving the design to a bakery tomorrow for a regular sheet cake
I don’t know how some of you guys can keep responding to ryanwilkinson. That person is unbearable!
Mr Claw (aka The Bloke) photographs well, I don’t.
David M, I do actually think that he’s mildly cute – a slightly effeminate young man, pretty enough to make the “baby playing dressup” take work for me. It’s just *slightly* kinder than the “annoying pretentious adult” approach that most here are taking. The chubby cheeks are metaphorical baby cheeks, not real.
And y’know, there’s a small chance that his approach might get through to some of the bros, so I will give him 1% extra credit. Some blokes only listen when men talk. Mr Claw has been very bemused at seeing an instance of this at work: it’s a really special level of stupid when the woman you won’t listen to is your supervisor. And she controls whether your contract will be renewed or not. (Hint: it’s going to be “not”.)
The Scalzi article is a good case of how it should be done – a privileged man explains privilege well, without the weaselly ifs.
Interesting comment over at Ed’s place re stop and frisk:
I have this exact same feeling every time I see a police officer, and I know that it is partly justified by my age.
And when I think of this, and how I hear about what the police get away with wrt “disorderly” people, how interacting with the police sets me on edge in any case and at worst sends me into a complete meltdown, and how “you did something wrong” is used to justify pretty much everything the cops do to you…
I do not want to visit New York City as long as that asshole Bloomberg is mayor.
Good morning
Ogvorbis
Good to see you back
esteleth
I’m wondering how she knows that…..
Moggie
Well, there’s always the possibility that one is a Discworld dwarf ;)
Joking aside, i can imagine that it must be difficult in a world where most people process language differently than you do. Esecially since communication is tricky to start with.
Ah, I know them, but mostly I’m back in highschool. Often I am actually my current me but have to do math again and notice that I have forgotten everything.
kristinc
Dunno how it is in the States, but over here the electrician once told me that cables are designed not to burn but to stink a lot so that you actually have a chance to find the smoldering source of danger before there’s a fire.
Since Theophontes brought up my drawing of the Corn Mimicking Anus in the Cheat-code thread, I thought I’d humbly post a drawing of a pathetic monster I made up that I have just a bit more affection for:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1386007765290&set=a.1120391725055.2018725.1084897594&type=3&theater
Hoping the facebook link works, I’m not particularly private about my settings.
Re exam nightmares – I once had the opposite one: the morning after my last exam in finals I dreamed I was just about to start sitting the first. Then I woke up enough to remember I’d just finished them. One brief moment of bliss.
.
Welcome back, Bro Og! I feel for your MIL and FIL going through all that worry. The amount of worry involved in having any offspring is way more than enough already, let alone offspring with a disability that can exacerbate any prior level of worriness (I have one Spawn with a disability and one without; my worry levels seesaw alarmingly between them at times – trying not to inadvertently neglect the neurotypical Spawn while dealing with the needs of the differently-abled Spawn is a minefield all its own).
.
Cat commiserations, Esteleth. Hope teh kitteh’s health is restored and you don’t have to deal with all that (literal and metaphorical) crap any more :(
.
Sili, who/when/what was this pustular excrescence?
.
I find it very hard to get it through my head and really grok that gehen is not really go but walk (and have to make myself remember that fahren is NOT go but drive/go-by-vehicle). Doesn’t gehen function as go, though? I mean, does child’s rebellious act stem from genuine misunderstanding, or was it deliberate nitpicking?
It’s more Roman paterfamilias good, everyone else bad, especially women and slaves. The Romans at that time had a different attitude to gay sex, in that it was considered very shameful and scandalous for a man to suck cock or to be fucked.
You, as a male citizen, did that to other people. Their gender didn’t matter at all. You absolutely did not have it done to you! Hence some of the scandals about Julius Caesar being “the Queen of Bithynia”. It was maybe just marginally OK since he was a youth at the time… but the scandal wasn’t that there was gay sex, but that he was perceived as the penetrated, rather than the penetrator. Rome subservient to Bithynia! Say it ain’t so!
The attitude survives still, in the old “which one’s the man/woman?” question that bigots ask gays. And the idea of the prison bitch, and similar situational homosexual activity.
@ Alethea
“Wyfie” is the (not quite) equivalent in the South African prison system. The rapist of a wyfie does not regard himself as gay/bi-sexual as the “wyfie” is to all intents and purposes female. Abuse of women is taken for granted.
Link to Institute for Security Studies (SA) (Substantial PDF)
Sili, I may have grossly misunderstood you – I was taking “wonderful” and “I particularly like” to be sarcastic. But maybe you were referring to actual explanation here?
Re: My 139 – be warned:
The link is quite disturbing. Also the attitudes reflect a lot of what goes on in the “prison” of strongly religious communities. (Compare with of the Romney/Santorum ilk. That is, a control relationship.)
You will be forgiven for thinking the above quote refers to the religious right.
FUCK THE JUSTICE SYSTEM!!!!
The wrong Carlos: how Texas sent an innocent man to his death http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/may/15/carlos-texas-innocent-man-death?newsfeed=true
— — — — — —
“Scientists sound acid alarm for plankton” http://phys.org/news/2012-05-scientists-acid-alarm-plankton.html
-The comment thread is infested by denialbots. A little help, please?
Hi there
Talking about men and women, today I saw the worst. t-shirt. ever.
Worn by a little boy in the playgroup it said “Anything girls can do, boys can do better”.
If you’re anywhere where S. Oliver is a brand, it’s one you don’t want to shop up and drop them a line why that is the case.
This little boy has an older sister. That older sister is maybe 16 and has a 1 year old son herself. She usually comes to the playgroup, too. I haven’t heard her saying a word at all. Now I guess I know why.
Hello before I say goodnight.
This week’s new books in at the library, (where I work) included:
1/ Treatment of the neurologically atypical with dietary interventions, “proven to work” the primary example being the “cure” of the author’s developmentally disabled child.
2/ Psychic children
…and my favourite..
3/ An Idiot’s Guide to Chakras.
Indeed.
We obviously have some Fox News fans at my work. Maddow’s blog got blocked! (I can access it on the other connection, though, so we’re good.)
Probably a mistake – or at least I hope so.
@Amblebury:
“An Idiot’s Guide to Chakras”:
Page 1:
They don’t exist.
Is that by or for idiots?
I’m guessing both.
“I’ve had the “I Just Remembered This One Class I Haven’t Been Going To” dream a few times”
Unbelievaby, I had a dream that I was going with a cruise ship from the Bothnic Bay (the depth is often too shallow to allow big ships which is one indication it was a dream).
Also, I noticed the ship had odd Tardis-like qualities, like the inside being bigger than the outside.
And the visible infrastructure of harbour towns we passed was much more impressive than the real thing. It is as if my dreams are sponsored by some PR company, making stuff more impressive than real life.
— — — — — —
“Hearst’s yellow press introduced the term marijuana to the US in order to demonize the Spanish troops in Cuba”
And likewise, everybody “knows” Swedes are more prone to suicide than others. Bad memes never die.
— — — — — — —
Sweden’s enormous education experiment improved longevity http://www.nature.com/news/sweden-s-enormous-education-experiment-improved-longevity-1.10630
Giliell, there’s a reverse shirt as well. Not that it helps much.
SQB
Well, at least now I know where I would personally draw the line and reject a gift. I wouldn’t do it with fucking Disney Princess shirts, but no daughter of mine wears something like that until she can read, translate, understand and understand it.
And it’s not like there’s a few thousand years of “boys are better” around, no no.
I’m wondering what all the mummies and daddies and grannies who think that their boy is soooo manly cute in that shirt would think if a muslim boy wore it while his sister wore a headscarf…
Giliell, if they buy that nasty shit for their own son/grandson they’d probably think any little boy looks cute in it. As for the headscarf, well “that’s just their culture” isn’t it? (as long as they don’t just hate both kids for their skin colour, that is)
Speaking of dream weirdness…I had a dream in which the US had broken up along racial lines. The east coast and most of the south was African, the west coast and southwest Hispanic, the midwest white. Except that the “white” part got struck with Arizona. This seemed to me entirely unfair. The representative of the new country of Northern Mexico pointed out that they had taken Texas and there was only so much bad karma that any one country could be expected to absorb. I proposed that if no one wanted it, the whole state should be turned into an international park. Everyone seemed to like the idea, but I don’t have the impression that there were any Arizonans represented.
@151: Nah, they’d use the little girl in a headscarf as an excuse: “You’re complaining about this little joke t-shirt when those evil Muslims make their kids wear head scarfs. How outrageous!” (See Rebecca Watson, elevator, Richard Dawkins.)
dianne
Well, I mean, elsewhere in the world baby-girls are killed after birth for being baby-girls and you complain about a harmless shirt!
I’m always wondering if those people (like Dawkins) realize that they’re esentially threatening you to shut up. Stop complaining or….
I’m always wondering if those people (like Dawkins) realize that they’re esentially threatening you to shut up. Stop complaining or…
I doubt that they consciously realize that. To me the worst of it is that they’re arguing that women only have rights because the enlightened males of the west generously gave them to them. And, of course, they can take them back out of our silly little female hands any time they feel like it…Again, not a conscious threat or a conscious statement that only men’s opinions matter, but both statements are unquestionably there.
Sometimes listening to “enlightened” atheist men gets so disgusting that I’d rather have an honest fundamentalist with his biblical crap. At least they admit that they’re sexist.
Social convention demands that I add an apology to the actually enlightened atheist men who do make an attempt to consider their own and society’s prejudices and find ways to fight them. Yes, I know you’re out there and your efforts are appreciated. But that doesn’t make up for Dawkins, Harris, etc.
@dianne #153 and 156 – yes, you’re right.
Yeah. We are all wondering what her next attention ploy will be. In the last twenty years, attention ploys have included starving herself, overeating, running away, refusing to sleep, refusing to get out of bed, bowel release, etc. I really hope the in-laws consult a behavioural psychiatrist.
Father-in-Law now refers to the episodes as ‘Thespian seizures’.
They are in their 70s and have been dealing with this for 46 years. Not fun.
I hope your spawn is able to fledge, partially or fully. Boy is in the process of fledging and he is seriously non-neurotypical.
Well, why not? The NPS has lots of experience interpreting culturally and historically (and even geologically) sensitive material — labour, industry, slavery, Native American genocide. Would we get more money to do it?
Great.
Of course, the fighter pilot could have pointed out that the BUFF is the same age as the fighter pilot’s father.
The NPS has lots of experience interpreting culturally and historically (and even geologically) sensitive material — labour, industry, slavery, Native American genocide.
It wouldn’t be run by the NPS, there being no more US in the world in question. Though I find it hard to believe that the countries formed from the US would do much better…The main point being that I think my subconscious has written off AZ as a hopeless case. Between their tendency to elect nuts, reaction to the shooting of the one decent person that was elected from there, abortion laws and proposed laws, attitude towards guns, immigration policy…it’s bad. And I say this as an ex-Texan.
More from the introduction of this study:
«Power has been defined as the ability to influence others (Lewin, 1941) or control others’ outcomes by providing or withholding resources, be these material (e.g. food/shelter) or social (e.g. knowledge/affection) in nature (Fiske, 1993; Keltner Gruenfeld & Anderson, 2003; Thibaut & Kelley). Social psychological research has shown that power affects the propensity to act in social situations. Less powerful people are slower than their more powerful counterparts to determine the appropriate course of action, slower to initiate goal-directed activity, are more distracted by irrelevant cues during goal pursuit, and hold more regard for the social consequences of their actions (Guinote, 2007a, 2008). These qualities are thought to arise from a greater dependency on others for external resources, which increases the sensitivity to social constraints and limits the perceived opportunities for action (Galinsky, Gruenfeld & Magee, 2003).
Intriguingly, recent data suggest that power may not only affect the willingness and motivation to act. Rather, it may also affect action in a more fundamental way, impacting basic sensori-motor processes involved in movement control. This suggestion is based on the finding that changes in social power alter the distribution of activity across the two sides of the brain, such that heightened power preferentially activates the left hemisphere and reduced power preferentially activates the right hemisphere (Boksem, Smolders & De Cremer, in press). This physiological observation is important because we know that asymmetries in hemispheric activation can directly affect how physical actions are carried out. One notable effect is a shift in behavior towards the side of space opposite the activated hemisphere (Kinsbourne, 1993). […] In healthy volunteers, the ‘pseudo-neglect’ induced by uni-manual movement also influences, albeit to a lesser degree, which physical stimuli are selected as targets for action (Nicholls, Loftus, Mayer & Mattingley, 2007). […]
To date, the effects of power on cognitive processing have been restricted to tasks involving perceptual discrimination, memory and problem-solving that require simple button-press responses and which are insensitive to lateral spatial bias (e.g. Smith, Jostmann, Galinsky & van Dijk, 2008; Guinote, 2007b; Guinote, Reese & Wilkinson, 2009).
The idea that social power modulates hemispheric activity stems from the motivational account of Keltner et al. (2003) who proposed that high power facilitates approach-related behaviors that are sensitive to reward and positive affect, while low power facilitates inhibitory, withdrawing behaviors related to threat and punishment. Biochemical studies suggest that approach-related behaviors elicited by powerful feelings are associated with increased dopamine activity in the left hemisphere, while the inhibition-related behaviors elicited by powerlessness are associated with increased norepinephrine activity in the right hemisphere (Ashby, Isen & Turken, 1999; Davidson, 1992). Recent EEG data appears to support this distinction, demonstrating that individuals primed to feel powerful show stronger left-frontal activity than those primed to feel powerless (Boksem et al., in press). The key, unanswered questions are whether these differences in hemispheric activation are sufficient to affect outward, physical behavior, and if so, how?»
Thank you, Bro Og. Partial fledging looks to be on the cards, we’ll see how it goes over the next few years – I’m cautiously optimistic. Sometimes I just stop and remind myself how it used to be a few years back, when for a while it looked like there might be absolutely no chance of any fledging whatsoever, and it’s just bloody brilliant now compared to that! (the plasticity of the brain is an amazing thing. Also having found that there’s one thing he’s good at is a total lifesaver, and has sort of transformed almost everything imo)
All my very best wishes for Boy’s whole fledging experience. Don’t know how hard he and you are finding it, but I hope he ends up with some really great feathers :D
I don’t like to borrow worry prematurely, but I sometimes get a jolt of fear about my own spawn eventually fledging. He’s high-functioning enough that keeping him at home would definitely be holding him back, but there could also definitely be…incidents… that could arise if there isn’t intervention on his behalf (I’m thinking outbursts at work costing his job, or not quite keeping track of paying all his bills on time, or never eating anything but pizza and popcorn chicken…) Maybe as he ages he’ll grow into those things. I guess I’m just saying although my issues are probably minor compared to what you’re both going through, I have a small glimmer of what it must be like and I feel for you. Best wishes for OgBoy and opposableSpawn.
Well, I’m glad to say that NY State has re-banned kiddie porn, closing a loophole opened by the Court of Appeals.
(Incidentally, is there ANY part of that sentence that makes sense?!)
Good morning, all! *waves!*
E,
Nothing in NY ever makes sense. Just roll with it.
Facts to remember and to bring up as often as possible when engaged in conversation with mormons.
Lots of people do not display a proper amount of respect when talking about mormons. Some of them even stoop so low as to write “Mor(m)on” or they say “moron” out loud all innocent like.
Of course I deplore this convenient mode of dissing. And I would like to point out that “Moron” is a term of approbation in the Book of Mormon. King Moron makes an appearance in Ether 1:7-8 and Ether 11:14. Land of Moron is recorded in Ether 7:5-6.
I am waiting for mormon scholars to provide proof that Utah is the Land of Moron.
Lynna,
I’ve always been amused by the angel Moroni, myself. No, Joe Smith wasn’t laughing at you suckers at all.
By the way: I took Morgan to the vet. No intestinal blockages.
Vet suggested that I examine my houseplants for tooth marks. This may be the cause of the loose stools. Nothing toxic (I’m careful about that), just stuff that she can’t digest fully.
Good news!
We have had to severely restrict what plants we have, and where they are, due to our 2.5 cats. The only one they can really be around is our indoor/outdoor migratory lemon tree (they seem to not like the lemon oil on the leaves) but anything else (jade plant, herbs) are considered fair game and lead to lots of horking.
Apparently, there were half-digested spiders (i.e. the rootballs that spider plants sprout) in her stool.
Best guess is that she though they looked cool, batted them until they broke off (they do this), then ate them.
Carlie – I often have the “having to pee but no bathroom in sight”, dream. Which is better than the one my 5-year-old had 2 nights ago, which was, “I dreamed I was in the bathroom going,” but, no, he was indeed still in his bed.
Ogvorbis – Wishing the best for your boy.
Now that I’ve kind of caught up reading TET, I have to go to girl kidlet’s school for her “Author’s Tea”. The kids each write a book and show it off to parents and friends.
I assume that is exactly why my brain throws up so many roadblocks to me being able to go in my dream! :D
Good news, Esteleth. Silly Morgan! She’s supposed to eat bugs, not plants.
OT Rant:
I REALLY wish people would be acknowledge the flaws of their movement forebearers. Acknowledging that someone in the past of your movement said/wrote/did something racist/sexist/transphobic/bigoted-in-general is NOT an acknowledgment of weakness on your part. It does, however, protect you from accusations of being bigoted like them. It also lays the groundwork to working with allies who were insulted/hurt by the bigoted thing said/done/written.
Failing to acknowledge is not just also insulting and bigoted, it is STUPID. And it fucking HURTS THE MOVEMENT.
Good to see you back, Og.
Esteleth, I’m glad Morgan’s okay.
I also have that as a recurring dream. Oftentimes it’s an art class and I have not even begun a project. Sometimes I’m back in high school and it’s a regular classroom-type class that I haven’t been attending. Sometimes I’m wandering throughout the building trying to find the classroom but I can’t.
(I have a lot of dreams in which I’m wandering around lost, running late and trying to catch a public transit vehicle, or driving around in a geographical area that exists in real life but is distorted in the dream. For example, crossing a border between Wyoming and California.)
Carlie:
Ah, yes, “pee dreams.” I frequently find bathrooms in my dreams but either they’re dirty or there’s no privacy at all, so I can’t go. Male friends have told me that in their pee dreams, they urinate and urinate but can’t empty their bladders.
Credit to everyone in the “cheat code” thread who has continued to argue with Ryan Wilkinson. He’s more coherent than Daniel Haven, but that isn’t saying much. Trying to follow his “arguments” is painful.
E,
That’s good news about your kitteh!
re: pee dreams
My lizard brain is often kind enough to tell me “you can’t pee, you’re still in bed” but fails to wake me up. Which means that this dream can go on for a while…
Note to “reporter” Granville Ampong at the right-wing Examiner: You look like a fucking idiot when you write that a world-known athlete has called for GLBT people to be put to death… when he said no such thing.
Not that I have any fondness for Manny Pacquiao. He’s a devout Catholic — and a congressman back home in his native Philippines. Last year he opposed a law that would have made contraception accessible to most Filipinos and made sex education mandatory.
I don’t know if The Grove in LA (retail/entertainment complex) is aware of Ampong’s fuck-up yet. They canceled a planned interview with Pacquiao. Note from the Twitter conversation that they got the usual stupid demands that they tolerate intolerance, especially the religious kind.
Ms. Daisy Cutter:
I wouldn’t worry too much about The Grove. It’s really just an overpriced mall with attitude. We tried seeing movies there a couple of times, and it was just such an annoyance that we stopped going.
But I don’t think they’ve got any authority in any sense about anything. It’s like doing an interview at a local Wal-Mart, but with FAO Schwarz prices.
I have the lack-of-privacy one as well.
I shoulda known those were real. I’d tipped them as Regretsy.
I suck at that game.
Today’s fill-in Moment of Mormon Madness. Today the Utah House was debating proposed protections for sage grouse, and the head of the public lands office, Kathleen Clarke was one of those throwing out some incredible bombs of stupidity.
From the live coverage via Twitter, earlier today, comes the following:
Clarke admitted that we have no regulations whatsoever protecting this species, but that she opposes protections (as does the governor) because it could impede business interests such as ranching or developing tar sand extraction.
Clarke recommends that of the 14 areas where the birds live, we really only need to keep 6. (No evidence for this proposed)
Clarke then attacks science. A lot:
Turns out we shouldn’t trust the research that comes out of Dept. of Fish & Wildlife because they are
Clarke also apparently claims that we can’t trust existing science as sufficiently peer reviewed, and that in general, “science is pretty slippery.”
And finally, demonstrating that she not only doesn’t understand science, but doesn’t care about whether it actually tests the hypothesis politicians want, Clarke says she is directing all those writing their reports and recommendations to the governor to ensure their reports come out favorable to oil and gas interests.
For once in my life I wasn’t being sarcastic. This guy is an excellent scholar and very entertaining lecturer. He got everything right in his attempt to demonstrate just how much our world has changed since the 1970es, and how difficult it can be for our modern minds to understand the 0070es.
I liked the comment ““I don’t want to live in a world where Roseanne head earrings aren’t readily available for purchase.”
Yeah, I know, it’s Patheos, but what the FUCK is this shit.
This same asshole also wrote a piece called
This is a great little op-ed on the rejection of Tracy Thorne Begland.
I learned something important today: you know those foam cheeseheads that Packers fans wear? They make excellent seat cushions.
All that debate about whale hunting and not one single “cetation needed”? You are disappointing me, commentariot.
“Cetacean,” not “cetation.” :D
*buries head in hands*
Oh Jebus.
The pun! The pun!
Katherine, I’m snickering at the comments to that piece, which are full of Poe-ish goodness. ReZ in particular amuses me. Example:
Ms. Daisy Cutter, I don’t even know where to start with that festering mound of shit. A doucheyacht Catholic wants to tell women to STFU and stop being dirty sluts because society stereotypes gay men? Really?
It looks like this asspimple also thinks that contraception is wrong because it violates “natural law” so he’s just another religious misogynist we can ignore, and fuck him.
There is so much more bullshit waffling there. But the fact that a piece of shit Catholic who supports oppressing women by denying them the great equalizer of reproductive choice is trying to use gay men as an excuse to keep women down is beyond description.
Of course he’s all about teh natchurrraaalll law.
The comments on that piece are full of equally stupid Catho-holics telling critics that natchurrraaalll law has nothing to do with what’s found in nature but is a “philosophical law,” i.e. theological crap, and Why, exactly, should I bother to “learn” nonsense that blithely ignores the real-world consequences of acting on it?
You know, I’m always struck by those who praise nature as proof of god(s), their intentions and/or as a guide for ethical behavior.
I’m sorry, but I regard the “natural” state of my reproductive system (just survivable enough) as one of the greatest fucking proofs of non-existence of gods. There is nothing praiseworthy about a species that reproduces in such a way that without intervention results a fair number of deaths and cripplings. Even at optimal working, it’s far from a stellar system. Why do these fuckers think there’s something great about it?
Mitt Romney’s Jerk Advice for Jerkface Bullies
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Top 10 Green Energy Good News Stories Today.
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Mr. Mattir, congrats on being owned by the new kitten.
Try giving him a paper bag. Hours of fun!
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I ain’t photogenic, and for years have avoided being photographed. Son, though much more sightly, is also quite photographophobic (or whatever the legitimate word would be). So when my mother tried to put pressure on me to put pressure on Son to furnish her with a photograph, I told her that I couldn’t/wouldn’t, as I have no “moral” high ground from which to make such a demand.
She was pissed off.
And it was good.
–
My Bitsy-cat loves crickets. Dinner and toy, all in one! I gather that she values them for the random-chance jumps they make when one or more limbs are missing. Spiders remain boringly predictable.
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Oh, hells yes! And this one pairs so neatly with the Unattended Class nightmare. I keep looking at my class schedule (the finding of which is often quite a nightmarish ‘undertaking’ all on its own), and misreading the class number, and then the classroom numbering is discontinuous and I don’t know where it takes up again.
*shiver*
Horses. Let’s talk about Horses, instead. Or peas.
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HORSES!!!
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That…explains quite a lot, actually.
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@cicely, I thought it was extraordinarily honest as well. Not just about her feelings on science (because holy crap does Clarke not get science), but for a Mormon to admit to picking and choosing what sacred things to follow publicly was kind of amazing.
Small bit of Mormon madness, having to do with getting our new kitten yesterday: MormonDad was, completely accidentally, wearing a Hebrew-language t-shirt for a liason group connecting Jewish scouts in Israel, the US, and Canada. Did he really think this was going to just slide under the radar? And given that he’s not actually Jewish anyway and thus not part of this group, why precisely was he wearing this shirt? Would he have worn a similar t-shirt for Catholic scouting groups, or muslims, or is it only the unfortunate Jews who come in for this weird cultural appropriation? I’m assuming it was part of the being-artificially-friendly-and-nice-to-witness-for-our-group thing, but grrrrr…. Also, they haven’t spayed their cat due to financial difficulties, and mom just quit her job because she had an epiphany that her children needed her at home (dad is unemployed already). So there’s a good chance the cat is pregnant again already, her third litter in less than a year. The burbling about teaching the girls about motherhood via litters of kittens and a worn out female cat was so cheery that I wanted to kidnap the exhausted mother cat and get her spayed myself.
I finally got to see the handwritten note taped to the paper towel dispenser in the downstairs bathroom, visible right in front of your face as you sit on the john: It is NOT repentance that saves man, but the blood of [Teh Magikle Dead Jew™]. I presume that this is some sort of weird anti-wanking device, but really, I don’t need Zombie Warnings while I take a wizz.
Natural Law. Of course, what the fuck does that mean? Nothing humans do is ‘natural’. You don’t see a spider monkey driving a car, nor a chimpanzee doing a spreadsheet, nor do you see a colobus monkey building a two storey house with a garage and basement suite, or an orangutan sporting the latest stylish jungle-threads.
What the fuck does ‘natural’ mean to a species that has modern medicine?
You may recall the controversy when the owners of a Swedish web site dedicated to swapping copyrighted music got prosecuted. This eventually gave rise to the Pirate Party (which recently made inroads into German politics).
Today, the owner of a web site dedicated to trade with restricted, narcotic substances was sentenced to four years in prison. He did not himself participate in the trading, and made no money from it, he had the web site to demonstrate his opinion about the need to legalise drugs (a belief I do not necessarily share).
Expect the sentence to be appealed, and a lot of coverage in international media.
— — — — — — — —
Sweden’s comedian of the year Al Pitcher http://www.thelocal.se/40880/20120516/
Yes, we have to import humorists. This one we got all the way from New Zealand.
Mattir:
It’s been my understanding that Mormons are especially prone to appropriating, well, anything Jewish. I mean, look at how they use the word “gentile”, for instance.
Anyway, as for the cat: it is possible to abort the pregnancy*. I’m sure the good Mormon family can make an exception for a critter without a soul, can’t they?
(Besides, not having a pet spayed because of “financial constrants” is a load of bull. They could contact the local Humane Society and see if there’s help available– friends of mine had a cat spayed for only $20 because of their financial situation.)
*Is “kitteh aborshun” too crass?
Fuck, some Humane Societies (and equivalents) will sterilize an animal for free.
They’d rather swallow the cost of the operation than have to outlay the funds to deal with the unwanted puppies/kittens.
Oh… oh my. I don’t like the man, but still… Dubya is taking some MAJOR snubbing from the Romney camp. Ouch… poor Bushie.
@Estleth, we have a number of events where groups will offer free sterilization as well. I don’t know if the local shelters and Humane Society will do it for free year round, but there are fairly regular specials where you make an appointment during the event and all you have to do is show up.
I like watching wingnuts eat their own.
I sent MormonMom a note thanking her and the kids for the kitten, who was socialized beautifully and is healthy, curious, unafraid, and used to being handled already, and sticking in a note about a low-cost spay-neuter clinic in their community. Hope that helps.
slignot:
Genesis 3:16, of course.
@Daisy:
Oh yes, me too. It’s… sympathy combined with gleeful hilarity in a way.
Shadaim?
@Moggie, it’s always so hard to grok that to people like this, misogyny is a feature, not a bug. *Sigh*
I had my first order to smile from a lovely and helpful man in the office for the day a little while ago. So that’s checked off the list for Wednesday.
Gah. Hospital is being “threatened” with a strike because they won’t come to terms with the union for custodians and food service people. The argument is that they make more per hour than the average custodian working in an office building (never mind that the average custodian doesn’t risk getting a deadly infection every time they change the garbage) and their health care plan is “too good”. It’s “too good” because it doesn’t have a copay for prescriptions. This is supposedly unfair because the health care plan for salaried employees does have a copay. Of course, the average salaried employee is making 5-10X as much, but let’s not go into that. Finally, there is a new policy whereby employees get into trouble if they clock in 5 minutes late OR five minutes early. Can’t see why anyone would possibly resent that (rolling eyes).
The one area of the hospital that I’ve never heard of anyone having problems with is the custodial staff. They’ll clean up five bodily fluids promptly and without turning a hair. The kitchen staff manages to get food to the patients consistently, even when it’s requested at 2 am. They’re doing their freaking job. Why can’t we treat them decently?
Because they actually work as opposed to creating jobs. Plus, unions are evil.
One of the claims I hear, quite often, from conservatives is that taxing the rich is class warfare; if we don’t let them keep all their money, we are communistsocialists who want everyone to earn the same amount of money and have the same benefits. Then, when a union stands up for workers and says, ‘no, you cannot cut their wages and benefits which the workers earn,’ suddenly you get the bullshit about similar workers earn less and have shitty benefits and it is suddenly okay to want everyone to earn the same amount of money and have the same benefits. It is commiesocialism when we ask the rich to pay a little more but capitalism when we do the same to the workers.
Only caught up till comment 115.
Jennifer Clack has silver models of the skull roofs of Acanthostega (which she monographed) and Ichthyostega (which she has at least occasionally worked on) as earrings, one left, one right.
the The Zombie Thread thread
Oops, not 115 – 615!
That ryan fool is really quite something. I feel sad that I somehow overlooked his existence and that particular thread, but I did plonk a similar moron at Ophelia’s.
I feel so sorry for all the unfortunate affluent, intelligent, white, straight, cis, neurotypical (well, maybe just a tad on that callous-unfeeling spectrum from the NYTimes article this past Sunday, but that’s not necessarily a handicap in the quest, really), good-looking, well-dressed, socially adroit straight guys out there I can hardly see to type. You evil people on Pharyngula are just soooo awful, not to understand how deserving of compassion and tenderness they are.
[insert whining about Pharyngula and tone here, while carefully ignoring the fact that we actually manage to get shit done, from learning stuff to changing other people’s minds about stuff to assisting Horde members with medical expenses, travel costs and the like, to sharing reading lists, music videos, and pictures of cats.]
No. The zombie TZT thread, you fool.
–o–
I hope my own teachers put more effort into giving me my grades, than I have just done with my kids …
Poor suckers.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-18097238
So the court finds that the RCC is legally responsible for one of its priests having abused a child, and of course the RCC appeals (on the grounds that they’re not like an ordinary commercial employer … oh no, of course not – so normal employment law doesn’t apply).
I hope for the sake of all the victims that the shits do not succeed in wriggling out of it yet again.
Jeezis Dianne—your hospital administration should be ashamed of itself. Resenting the least-paid employees with the most unglamorous work? What the hell is wrong with them?
Hey folks, I just been forwarded about this census by e-mail…
http://atheistcensus.com/
Perhaps some of you have already heard of it, it’s new to me. Feel free to participate, it just asks a few questions and you only have to confirm by e-mail.
Oops. *I’ve
Someone sent me this the other day: Necropants.
That’s… interesting.
Got a big luscious box of soap* from Chagrin Valley today. Mmmmm. I really do highly recommend them. They have a bit of the naturalistic fallacy goin’ on, but it’s probably the very highest quality, gentlest soap I’ve ever used. Misterc has been using their Honey Butter for over five years just because it’s the only thing that doesn’t make his eczema flare up.
*Oh yeah, soap-buying ban. Well, that applies to fun soap, of which I have a surplus. And this order was for shampoo bars and facial soap that Misterc and I need, because we were running out. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Mmmmm soap.
In the news: Last 50 years were Australia’s hottest: study
Entomologists—Is it possible for a lay person like to sex common house spiders (in a “let’s determine if it’s m/f” kinda way, not in a “Ima wear that chitin OUT!” kinda way)?
Something for PZ. (Source.)
Hi brother Og!
I cannot catch up.
If people do not STOP demanding things of me while I’m working on the financial statement, I shall KILL something.
I’m so hungry.
Josh: clicky.
absolutely. I check for the little boxing gloves on every spider I can see without a magnifying glass.
(why yes I read a whole five comments of TET…)
Thanks Esteleth!
It’s more complicated than I anticipated (though I should have). Sexing spiders the other way would be easier.
Oh yeah baby, spread those legs—all eight of ’em.
Wilting Wallflowers of Special Sensitivity are Very Upset™ about an article Mano Singham linked to about therapists who call patients on their bullshit whingeing.
Um.
I see that the whaling thread is hopping. Is there any conversation happening over there? Any value in reading it?
Esteleth: no, not really. The whaling thread’s almost entirely folks poking sketch and the resulting howls of outrage.
I did look into the claim of fast/humane killing, if anyone cares, that’s here:
http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2012/05/16/p-z-myers-slandi/comment-page-1/#comment-338491
or I could just email it rather than load that mess.
Josh – in a lot of species, the female is bigger than the male.
On soaps etc. – I have ordered from this woman and I really like her stuff. Her soaps last forever, and she sells lip balms that smell nice but are uncolored (this was good for child 2 when he needed lip balm, wanted the “pretty” smells, but didn’t want his lips to look like he was wearing lipstick).
Esleteth, I was last in that thread when it had just topped 200. Mostly it’s Sketch being dumb and getting flamed for it. As Brownian is among those doing the flaming, you may find that aspect of the thread worth reading. Other than that, there are comments of conversational substance from Pteryxx, David M., Sveinn, and a few others.
Oh – unless by “conversation” you meant “fun with baiting the troll”. That there’s plenty of; sketch can’t resist ANY poke whatsoever. Pardon, I’m thrashed.
Well I know that, Carlie, it’s just that I have point of comparison:) Also have never seen one spider eating another, which I understand many females when they’re done fucking.
Hey, chigau. Just popped (whoo… almost wrote ‘pooped’!) into this thread and read:
Entomologists
+
If people do not STOP demanding things of me while I’m working on the financial statement, I shall KILL something.
+
I’m so hungry.
—
Hmmmm…
Josh, just as an aside, I really advise against attempting to sex spiders the other way.
A spider bite, especially a venomous one, is not a good thing to have there.
If the spiders are brown tarantulas in the US Southwest, you usually only see the males. They are the ones running all over the place (and getting stepped on, run over, and eaten) as they try to find a receptive female who is hiding in her hole.
Nice little guys. Useful for scaring tourists.
But they’re just so. . .leggy and tempting.
Esteleth, first, your #226 is part of what I love about this place; second, in that thread ‘sketch’ is no troll, just overwhelmed by the Pharyngula vortex and sucked-in by it.
IMO, it could go either way… but it’s now more of a test of character than of value. There’s much acrimony, but little substance there.
(I’ll wait and see)
My 226? Two word comments?
Yeah, John’s right. That thread is shit.
John: clicky.
John Morales
I found some beef stew and cookies.
No new killing needed.
Ah, tinnitus. It’s so nice being partially deaf in one ear due to a cold. /sarcasm
Stupid chest congestion…
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I have now decided to try and update my blog a bit more regularly. The courses I signed up for should provide interesting material to write about.
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Soap: A student who is no longer at school gave me three bars of almond soap for Christmas a year or two ago. It’s YUMMY. I don’t use it very often, since we usually Dove in steady supply. But when I do, mmmmmm.
Chigau, have some one-day-old grog. Should calm you slightly, and not effect your mental acuity. Put a glass under your USB port.
I am having a delicious cup of coffee.
My job is to stop doing that in the evening because I keep not falling asleep, but just now I feel like I need to because I had a four-hour nap and feel all funny and have a midterm to study for tonight.
A store near us has remaindered/overstock soaps. Wife and I love the almond soaps, though there is a peach ginger soap that is so freakin’ refreshing.
Thanks Nerd.
My glass is half full of rum.
Is that OK?
Insomniac:
I’m interested—do you have ringing in your ears normally? I have what I take to be a mild case of tinnitus. High-pitched ringing mostly in my left ear, and constant. What annoys me the most about it is I can’t isolate the actual note on the diatonic scale.
Close enough. Transfer terminated (lets make the internet happy).
Josh, that WSJ article has valid points about complaining as both resistance to therapy and as a negative interpersonal pattern. I suspect a lot of therapists let their clients whinge unchecked because it pays for sports cars, swimming pools, and extravagant vacations.
That said, a good therapist doesn’t just sit there and let the client do all the talking. One can call a client’s attention to unproductive and prolonged whining in a variety of ways, and the “best way” depends on the client. Some will respond better to “Just stop it,” and they often pick a therapist with a blunt personality because they find it bracing. On the other hand, someone who was frequently talked over/interrupted and otherwise treated dismissively by their family of origin might benefit better from gentle redirection of discussion.
Also, the phrase “a nation of whiners” is, shall we say, quite politically loaded and about what I’d expect from Uncle Rupert’s Wall Street Urinal.
Okay. Here are my ten jobs to finish before midnight (ha ha):
1. Re-read my Greek assignments from two weeks ago.
2. Review the verb parts I’ll be tested on tomorrow.
3. Take a shower.
4. Do my German online homework for this week.
5. Translate the first scene of my Latin homework for this week.
6. Re-read my Greek assignments from one week ago.
7. Get enough laundry done that I have clothes to wear tomorrow.
8. Do my dishes and pack my lunch.
9. Re-read my Greek assignment from this week.
10. Review verb forms, especially for μι verbs.
That’s not what I meant!
I meant “Can I mix grog with rum?”
(I’m not actually saying that to share that information with y’all, much as my academic habits are fascinating, but in hopes that posting about it here will make the list feel more “official” so I will do it.)
Daisy:
Oh yes, and I took it with the tablespoon of salt required. This clearly leads to WSJ newsroom erections. . .it’s a silent dick-whistle.
Controlling for that, it still makes sense to me that sometimes the most helpful thing a person can hear is “stop it.”
Oh Cipher, I don’t envy you that workload!
My jobs for tonight:
Buy groceries for me (and cough drops for the Redhead)
Do load of laundry (the Redhead’s rehab sweats plus some of mine to fill out load)
Nuke and eat dinner
Pay mid-month bills
Do dishes to return the plate from the neighbors
All done. Thinking about early to bed.
*restarts transfer to Chigau*
Cipher:
Skip the shower — you’re a student.
Skip the laundry — you’re a student.
See? Twenty percent of your workload is poof!
At a fire, I once went nine days without a shower — with two t-shirts, two pairs of boxers, one pair of sox, and two uniform shirts. I don’t recommend it, of course, and it was not by choice, but it still has nothing to do with your predicament.
Nerd, how is the Redhead (and you?)? When might she come home?
Josh,
You could with other notes? I can’t tell with notes that I should, let alone with artifacts.
Thanks Nerd.
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I also hafta pack girl-clothes for the banquet.
Do I even own any girl-clothes?
Ha! I have found the perfect solution to the bigot who keeps spamming the feminist page on FB that I frequent: every time she starts posting crap, some other posters and I put up pictures of our cats. :D
Dhorvath:
I don’t have absolute pitch but I have good relative pitch. Middle C is firmly fixed in my mind along with b-flat and a few other pitches. I work from there in my head either through “singing” intervals in my head or using the reference pitch as the tonic for a scale until I find the note.
For some reason it drives me nuts not to know the pitch of common everyday sounds. For example, my shower head vibrates a metallic F-natural. If I hadn’t worked that out on the keyboard it would be driving me berserk every time I bathed. My friend’s Sonicare electric toothbrush is set to a perfect middle C.
Yeah, I’m weird that way.
Cipher: may I suggest, prioritize “test tomorrow” before “this week” and “review” ?
Also, dishes? DISHES? They’re the definition of low priority. When they get too crispy to re-use, you can always eat off a spare sheet of paper. <_<
I seem to remember my sister in law saying a transformer hum was b flat, but for me, even figuring out that it differed from some other note was a stretch. Should I assume you are starting from A440? (Grin with tongue firmly planted in cheek.)
Those are both for the test tomorrow :D
Also, sadly, about the dishes, I have a shared kitchen and my landlady has a habit of passive-aggressively doing my dishes for me. It’s very frustrating for me because the longest I’ve ever left them out is overnight.
re passive-aggressive dishes: GAH I hate that. Hide ’em in the pillowcase. <_<
…more seriously, I found I reviewed better by going "oh crap I only have ten minutes!" than I did "REVIEW ALL THE THINGS". If desperation strikes, really, try reviewing a whole section in five minutes, or ten minutes – whatever it takes to divide (time available) by (number of things). Also, sleep's more important than pulling an all-nighter. *USBhugs* Good luck
I am firmly camped in the “if you don’t know it now, it’s too late” camp. Eat, sleep, shower.
Dhorvath:
Are you tone-deaf (not a provocation, but an honest question)? Do you have trouble carrying a tune?
You know that feeling when you realize that your worst nightmare exists, but you had never even imagined the possibility of its existence before? I just had that feeling.
Cipher – do not separate the laundry. Throw three days’ worth of clothes (pants/shirts/underwear/socks) all in together on cold. They’ll be ok, as long as you don’t put in any major light/dark combos. Throw the dishes into a dishpan and let them soak all night, and then in the morning it’s rinse, quick wipe, and done. Do tomorrow’s assignments while the laundry is in the washer, leave the review for some other time. Just my suggestion. Also, no more internet. ;p
Today I was all excited because I bought sandals last weekend, and today was warm enough to wear them. Sadly, that meant I paid some extra attention to my feet, which I usually don’t, and I found something unusual that I’m pretty certain wasn’t there a couple of months ago. A few minutes of Bing U. told me that it was probably exactly what I was afraid of.
I’m not even 40 yet, and I have a bunion. *cries*
I have to decide whether I want to see a podiatrist to see if I can get orthotic inserts to try and stop it before it gets any worse. I would, but I gained some more weight at the end of the winter, and I really don’t want to just walk in and be told my feet are screwed up ten ways to Sunday because of my weight (the podiatrist is the same facility as my regular doctor, so they have my fall weight on record). Do podiatrists weigh you when you go in? I’m guessing they do.
She’s “walking” farther and the therapist is beginning to work on getting her to lock her knee on her own. So theoretically the end is in sight. No release date yet. I’m thinking of taking a “catch-up” day to do things I just can’t do with the present schedule. For example, the dust bunnies are becoming dust kangaroos…
Oh yeah, I know it. Thankfully it’s not nearly as nightmarish as it seems (and I totally get why it would seem that way).
Poor you- a bunion?
Thanks for the update, Nerd. I’m pulling for the release date. Defintely take a Nerd-Sanity Day Off to catch up with mundane housework. It’ll do you good.
I second Carlie’s advice on not sorting the laundry. I’ve never sorted my lights from my darks and it’s never created a problem (I have very few white clothes, mind).
^ thank you for the update, Nerd.
Good to hear, Nerd.
Cipher, you already know it, but concentrate on getting the broad shallow knowledge of everything on the test first, then add more detail to it as you have time. Partial credit on everything is better than none on a lot and full credit on a little bit, if the professor grades that way.
Josh – maybe. It’s a bump at the base of my big toe, but it is towards the top rather than right on the side, so I’m not entirely sure. And when I called my mom to whine, she said oh yeah, she had those. Thanks for the genes, MOM.
That is a good thing. Does your brain sort of tune it out most of the time?
chigau,
Water and rum have much the same when diluting Nerd’s grog.
(After the seventh day, you might as well try diluting it with elemental fluorine*)
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* There are rumours of 8-day old grog… but I’m skeptical about those.
Do that.
Carlie — those soaps look good :) One of the reasons I, as a soap snob, would order them is the variety of oils and butters she lists as ingredients. A surprising number of “handmade” or “artisan” soaps (some quite expensive) are entirely or mostly palm oil and coconut oil, which are the same economy-type oil used in the cheap bar soaps at the grocery store. Nothing wrong with them, but if I’m paying more than I would for Ivory I want to get more than I would with Ivory.
I found Aromatics Elixir soap. It will so be mine.
Yes, and it waxes and wanes. Very mild tonight. Sometimes aggravated by meds, lack of sleep.
At night I run a fan next to the bed for white noise, but I’ve been doing that for decades since I find it comforting for some odd reason.
NEW THREAD!