It’s a trap! Someone is trying to make Richard Dawkins’ head explode!
Harper’s Magazine (June 2011, last page), or so I have just been informed, reports that “Existential anxiety was found to make people dislike Richard Dawkins.”
Should I feel flattered, hurt, or existentially anxious? If the latter, will I get caught in an escalating positive feedback loop?
That’s dirty pool, trying to off Dawkins with a Logic Bomb.
Since there is so much noise about the predicted Rapture, everyone seems to be planning to riff on it this weekend. Wichita State University is have a Rapture Day, just for the shenanigans.
Ah, another opportunity to laugh at religion. As if there’s a shortage of such opportunities.
I’m about to head off to that wretched hive of scum and villainy, the Philadelphia airport, to make the Morris run (we’ll do it in less than 12 parsecs!) I just wish TSA would lighten up now that that horrible terrorist is dead.
Awww, my presence in Philadelphia today is acknowledged in Faye Flam’s blog with a poll. I’m sure you’ll all be able to give the correct answer to this one.
The structure in the back of your throat that hangs between your tonsils.
A retractable “penis bone” that supports erections in cats, dogs, hedgehogs and chimpanzees but not humans.
The language spoken by the aliens that Scientologists believe started life on Earth.
An advanced Kama Sutra position that requires partners to put both feet behind their heads.
A tiny parasitic catfish that lives in the Amazon and occasionally invades the human urethra.
A stage in the development of vertebrate embryos when construction of a spine begins and we all have brief possession of a “post anal tail.”
Yes, as you all already knew, the correct answer is #4.
The Florida legislature has just banned sex.
An act relating to sexual activities involving animals; creating s. 828.126, F.S.; providing definitions; prohibiting knowing sexual conduct or sexual contact with an animal; prohibiting specified related activities; providing penalties; providing that the act does not apply to certain husbandry, conformation judging, and veterinary practices; providing an effective date.
At least there are a few loopholes. “It’s alright, officer, she’s judging my conformation and I’m studying for the NAVLE!”
Also, Disneyworld won’t care. They suck the sex right out of everything, anyway.
I don’t need people posting stuff their students have submitted. I’m in the middle of grading, so I’ve got my own, thank you very much.
Salon has a tidy summary of the end-of-the-world claims of Harold Camping.
On May 21, “starting in the Pacific Rim at around the 6 p.m. local time hour, in each time zone, there will be a great earthquake, such as has never been in the history of the Earth,” he says. The true Christian believers — he hopes he’s one of them — will be “raptured”: They’ll fly upward to heaven. And for the rest?
“It’s just the horror of horror stories,” he says, “and on top of all that, there’s no more salvation at that point. And then the Bible says it will be 153 days later that the entire universe and planet Earth will be destroyed forever.”
There you have it: plan your parties for next week at 6pm in your local time zone (how convenient!). You can all count down to the great big 6pm earthquake, and brace yourselves and your drinks just before it hits.
I’ll be hanging out with Jamie Kilstein just before our event at the Washington DC CFI. I’ll have the iPad with me, ready to blog about all the Republicans zooming up into the sky. I’ll be sure to mention any unusual signs and portents on Twitter (hashtag: #RAPTURE) as I stand in the heart of Babylon during the big show.
There’s this strange website run out of Morris, Minnesota: it’s called Giraffes Drawn By People Who Shouldn’t Be Drawing Giraffes, and what it is is a collection of sketches of giraffes drawn by random people Josh Preston collars (perhaps he will ask you for a giraffe someday). He managed to get a giraffe badly drawn by me, which just goes to show that the title of the site is pretty darned accurate, and he’s also got one by Jen who apparently was born to draw giraffes.
Anyway, read them for the stories about getting the pictures, not for the pictures. Although don’t read mine — he reveals awful secrets that may mean he’ll have to disappear soon. Even if it actually is true and accurate in every word.
It’s the meta-argument that’s especially hilarious: here’s a facebook argument over who would win in a fight, Batman or Jesus. The Christians are taking it quite seriously, insisting that Jesus would win. The magic moment is when one declares, “And you’re neglecting the fact that bruce wayne is FICTIONAL!!!”
Yes? And?
Besides, everyone knows the Batman would so kick Jesus’ ass.
…except for the reminder of all of the surveillance cameras my parents used to keep me out of trouble.
