Happy birthday, Syaffolee!

I can guess what that all means—it’s from a description of the Panda’s Thumb and Pharyngula in a Polish newspaper. The rest of the article…eh, I don’t have a clue.

So there’s this election tomorrow, and the Republicans have consistently screwed the pooch for years, and people are starting to wake up and get more vocal about the incompetence, corruption, and dumbassery of this administration…but I am not sanguine about our prospects for getting rid of the villains. Tom Tomorrow explains why: even if these people were shown to be literally demons from hell, we’d still have to cope with…the undecided voters.

I lost all confidence in the American electorate in 2000 and 2004. I’ll be doing my part on Tuesday, voting and helping to turn out the vote, but I anticipate the election returns with a sense of dread.

There is a tradition among the regulars of the usenet group talk.origins to have occasional gatherings, usually at some major locus of evolutionary activity, and accompanied by beer. Such an event will be happening this Saturday, in London.

We’ll be meeting on these steps at 2pm:

That’s the Natural History Museum here in Kensington. Look for the bearded nerd with a black computer bag and a camera hanging from his neck; that’s me. I’ll be there with a distinguished and professorial science nerd scholar^*; that’ll be Laurence Moran. We’ll hang about the steps for a while, gathering together any fellow science geeks, talk.origins regulars and readers of Pharyngula, and then take a brief tour of the museum. Afterwards, we’ll depart for some local pub. If you’d rather skip the dry old bones stage of the festivities, you could meet us at the steps at 4pm, because that’s when we’ll find a nearby watering hole for the wet work.

After a few hours in the pub, we might go looking for food…you’re welcome to hang with us all that time, too. We can stretch out the festivities for as long as people are willing to talk.

^*He denies being a nerd.

The paternal view of childbirth is that you watch the mother struggle for hours, the child finally emerges, the midwife cleans him^* up, hands him to you, and that’s when he unloads a bladder full of pee on you. This photo of a newly hatched bobtail squid’s first reflex reminds me of that…

Euprymna tasmanica juvenile releasing ink on hatching.

Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide ^{(amzn/b&n/abe/pwll)}, by Mark Norman.

^*Boys are the most obvious culprits, since when they cut loose they hose down your shirt; girls discreetly dampen their blankies.

A news article describes his last moments, and Rangel, MD gets technical.

And please, everyone, we know he was brash and some people found him annoying…but we should all agree that death is deplorable, and there’s no justice in it.

The Crocodile Hunter has died. It is absolutely no surprise that it was an animal that did him in—he was pierced by a stingray—but it’s still sad to see such an enthusiastic advocate for wildlife go.

I’m not alone in feeling this way: it’s
a scienceblogs
thing
to regret this loss. And Skatje had quite the little girl crush on Steve Irwin some years ago.

It’s almost over, so work fast to wish archy a pleasant second half century.

I have just received word that the Friends of Charles Darwin website is getting a facelift and will be relaunched tonight, at 21:30 BST, and everyone is supposed to simultaneously sip from a glass of malt whiskey. That’s in about 4 hours…hey, that’s tea time! We can’t be guzzling alcoholic beverages that early in the day!

Dang, but I seem to be too late. A Seattle newsweekly describes a generous program from Focus on the Family—you could get on to their website store, order up to $100 worth of their enlightening merchandise, and then they only asked for a donation! Pay $0, get it all for free!

Unfortunately, they seem to have caught on. Now you only get a message that the resource center is closed. Keep an eye on it in case it re-opens.

(via Riba Rambles)

It’s backup, and jeez…it worked. At least, we’ll see if it works if the books arrive in about two weeks. Look at it as a way to get your hands on Wells’ Icons of Evolution or some of Phillip Johnson’s books while paying what they’re worth.