The best response so far (much better than mine) is Possum Momma’s. She points out that all the sins Siegel sees expressed in the godless seem to be just as prominent in contemporary Christians.
I really didn’t need to know about “Christian Domestic Discipline” or Christian porn.
Good news: the new education commissioner for Florida is not Cheri Yecke. It’s someone named Eric Smith, about whom I know nothing, so we’ll have to wait and see if they’re an improvement.
Ugh. The improvement is only marginal. He’s another conservative testing rodent who thinks the answer is privatizing schools.
One last compendium, I think, unless I find unusually large quantities of Cephalopod Awareness links in my mailbox tomorrow.
A whole museum dedicated to octopus balls? The Japanese can be very strange, Tikistitch.
What? A whole collection of squid posts at Progressive Gold, and I’ve been missing them?
What? Is that woman vomiting up a tentacle? Or is that supposed to be her tongue? I don’t know whether I’m supposed to gag or be aroused.
A Nude, Transexual, Pornographic LOLCthulhu. Enough said.
A few more from the Cuttlefish Poet:
Architeuthis Double-Dactyl
Haughtily, naughtily
Deep-sea biologists
Claimed “We will never find
Fifty-foot squid!”
Nobody told, though, the
Cryptoteuthologist
Blissfully ignorant,
That’s what he did.
Nautilus Limerick
The nautilus swims back-to front
Which is quite an unusual stunt
But his shell–which is odd
For a cephalopod–
When he bumps into things, bears the brunt!
Cuttlefish Physiology Limerick
Look again, and you might doubt your eyes:
It’s the cuttlefish, cloaked in disguise!
As it changes, within
Its remarkable skin
Are chromatophores, changing in size.
Sam Harris responds to the reaction to his speech at the Atheist Alliance meeting.
Is it really possible that PZ Myers and Ellen Johnson think I was recommending that we stop publicly criticizing religion or that I am hiding my own atheism out of “shame and fear”? I would not have thought such a misreading was possible, given the contents of my speech and my rather incessant criticism of religion in my books, articles, and lectures.
It’s puzzling to be accused of misreading Harris when his misreading of PZ Myers is so far off base; perhaps my name was just tossed in as an afterthought, and he’s really trying to address Ellen Johnson’s comment. Even there, though, I think he’s mangling the point.
Since it is close to dinner time, it’s probably the perfect moment to gather your kids around and show them this movie of a snake vomiting up a dead hippo. Tell them we have a fun new game to play after our meal. Don’t tell your spouse! And don’t tell anyone I told you about this!
More cephalopods are being celebrated everywhere. Send me more!
Cephalopod eyes, and a question: Does your god like octopuses more than men? I don’t know about you, but any gods I might have would be cold and cruel and regard us both with unheeding contempt.
A tentacled bra? For belly dancing? Paging Kristine…
Peter documents attacks by cephalopods on humans. There are three. That’s pathetic, and somebody needs to put some spine in those invertebrates.
I had not realized that the Canadians were trying to usurp our day with Canadian Thanksgiving. Do they serve stuffed squid on this day? With poutine?
We are advised to visit the alt.sex.cthulhu archive. Sensing a nameless dread, I recoiled in horror…and I hate to break the dreadful news, but the tentacled ones really aren’t interested in our meat-swaddled bony bodies, dry hairy skins, and inflexible, clumsy limbs in that way.
Watch out: squid can be overfished too.
Where cephalopods writhe, knitters are sure to follow. They are adorable.
True dedication is having your octopus inked into your skin.
If nothing else, you have to love squid for their contributions to neuroscience.
Shelley Batts of Retrospectacle is up for scholarship for bloggers, and she needs your vote. You must vote for Shelley. She once gave me a special cookie in her bed. None of the others have ever given me or you a cookie of any kind, and we aren’t going to get anywhere near their beds, so the choice is clear.
Vote Shelley Batts. The one with the cookies. And the parrot. And the nice blog about neuroscience.
I’ve known for years that this was going to happen: Mario Capecchi, Oliver Smithies and Briton Martin Evans have won the Nobel Prize in Medicine for their work on targeted gene mutations. If you’re interested in what kinds of work they’ve done, I described one paper on Hox regulatory evolution, and this work on the evolution of the Hox code wouldn’t have been possible without their knockout techniques.
We have another round of cephalopodic loveliness. Send me more!
Kevin submits the ubiquitous octopus vs. shark movie.
How can something so cute be angry? (Oh, man, I hear that one all the time.)
Poulperia. I think it’s a variant on Santeria.
Roger Burnham sends us some movies: Caribbean Reef Squid 001, Caribbean Reef Squid 002, and Common Octopus 001
Octopuppy. It’s art!
More cephalopoetry, from the Cuttlefish Poet:
A Cuttlefish Limerick or Three
The cuttlefish: Squid-like, you think?
Just a cephalopod in the drink?
Then you also should know it
Refers to a poet,
Or any who hide in their ink.
For writers who think that they’re odd
And ignored, by indifferent God,
Don’t allow yourself–perish
The thought, and just cherish
Your label of “Cephalopod”
For today, there will be no rebuttal–
We will celebrate, loud and unsubtle!
Just the same as each squid
And each octopus did,
We’ll shake all of our legs, and our cuttle!
A Cuttlefish Double-Dactyl
Inkily, thinkily,
Deepwater cuttlefish
Hide in their ink (to a
Poet, that’s odd)
Writing, you see, is not
Characteristically
Part of the life of a
Cephalopod.
the classic Ogden Nash–
THE OCTOPUS
Tell me, O Octopus, I begs
Is those things arms, or is they legs?
I marvel at thee, Octopus;
If I were thou, I’d call me Us.)
Yes, it’s true: we have now absorbed Laelaps. Update your links and feeds.
It’s like some ravenous chthonic entity, isn’t it? Got a blog? We’ll devour it. But it’s a good thing, and I like being part of an all-consuming juggernaut of science.
