I never tried this. That must be why I’m an atheist.
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
I never tried this. That must be why I’m an atheist.
I hate to admit it, but this theory actually makes a kind of sense to me.
Challenging long-held views on the origins of divinity, biologists at the University of California, Berkeley, presented findings Thursday that confirm God, the Almighty Creator of the Universe, evolved from an ancient chimpanzee deity.
The recently discovered sacred ancestor, a divine chimp species scientists have named Pan sanctorum, reportedly gave rise over millions of years to the Lord Our God, Maker of Heaven and Earth.
“Although perhaps not obvious at first glance, there are actually overwhelming similarities between the Supreme Being of today and this early primate deity who preceded Him,” said Dr. Richard Kamen, a leading biologist who also heads Berkeley’s paleotheology department. “The holy chimp moved around on all fours, but its descendants eventually began walking upright to expend less energy while foraging across the infinite reaches of the universe. This of course led to the bipedalism of modern-day God.”
Then watch this video of two people resisting arrest for using a stolen credit card. They try to escape in ridiculously futile ways.
The best thing? Nobody gets shot. This would have been a tragedy in the US, but hey, the kids are white, and it’s in Canada.
Second best thing: watch for it at the 2 minute mark.
He was a loud-mouthed jerk, and he was also colossally opinionated and entertaining, and passionate about so many things. I first heard him speak in the early 1980s, and man, he was a fast-talking raconteur.
Impossibly, Harlan Ellison, who relished his status as science fiction & fantasy's chief curmudgeon and controversial, celebrated raconteur, has died. He was 84.
This is a piece we published last year, reflecting on his storied career: https://t.co/mVcTPxsj9S pic.twitter.com/0UHN3aD45g
— B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy (@BNSciFi) June 28, 2018
What I really liked, though, was the whole of his story collections. He’d bare his soul describing how he came to write each story (although, sometimes, that soul was “I had to type fast to meet a deadline and get paid”), which was a useful glimpse into a writer’s mind.
I knew the words to all of these songs, and thoroughly enjoyed them.
I am not embarrassed to admit it, either.
Especially since it has such nice illustrations of the possibilities.
I also have to point out that cephalopods don’t have these awkwardnesses. Tentacles solve a lot of mechanical difficulties.
Browse through the entries for Janelle Monae’s “I am a dirty computer” album. She lists her inspirations for each track, so it’s a peek into the mind of the artist. She’s definitely a big SF nerd, and also makes some fascinating juxtapositions of the influences that shaped her music.
The versions of Donald Glover’s “This is America” are coming fast and furious. The first one I saw was Nicole Arbour’s — she turned it into a song about the oppression of women, a cause to which I am sympathetic, but I detested her video. It had way too much Nicole Arbour in it, and seemed to be mainly about her, and it was musically flat and dull. Coming from someone who has a history of punching down, it felt more like an appropriation.
But this one is much more interesting: it’s “This is Nigeria”, by Nigerian rapper Falz The Bahd Guy.
I came away from that more aware of the problems in Nigerian culture than of how pretty the rapper is (and he’s pretty good, too). I guess my feeling is that if you’re going to steal from an instant classic like “This is America”, you’d better bring some real talent and authenticity to the table, because you’re going to always be compared to the original.
You all follow Movies with Mikey, right? He’s a guy who really loves the movies, and does these wonderful analyses of pop culture — between him and Lindsay Ellis I’m learning to see movies with a fresh eye.
Anyway, he’s started a new series, “Lessons Animation Taught Us”, and it’s…interesting.
Much of it is about how children and adults see these kid’s movies with a different eye. Lessons learned:
He really liked Disney’s “Sword in the Stone” as a kid — I didn’t care for it myself, but I read TH White’s book first, which I found much more vivid than the movie — but it’s really the story of an abused child deprived of all agency and trapped in a fate he didn’t want.
“Dumbo” is horrifying. It’s the story of an abused, tortured child told through the lens of a racist culture. Don’t show it to your children.
But the movie we are all obligated to see, and the one we should take more lessons from, is “Grave of the Fireflies”.
Let that one sink in for a moment.
I took my daughter to see that one when she was a teenager. We thought, ah, Studio Ghibli, it’ll be fun and quirky and thoughtful and beautiful. It’s a about a 3 year old girl dying slowly of starvation after the firebombing of Japan in WWII. We walked home afterwards in a kind of shocked silence.
Mikey is right, though. Americans should actually all see the consequences of our actions abroad.
