I knew the place was missing something

Our lack has been filled. Iris has opened a Freethoughtblogs Abbatoir.

Here, we perform extractions of lifesaving organs–whether people consent to them or not!

Don’t worry! The Abattoir does not harvest organs from just anyone, willy-nilly. That would be morally reprehensible, barbaric, and inhumane. You see, all of our involuntary organ donors meet one, and only one, very specific criteria: they would eagerly and happily force other people to donate lifesaving organs without the donor’s consent. And these donors do so with absolutely no regard for the harm this may cause, whether physically, psychologically or financially. Since all of The Abattoir’s donors feel so very strongly about this particular principle, it is only just and fair that they live by it!

She has a few photos of the place, I think prior to the actual opening. Once the site gets going, it’s going to be significantly less tidy, and things will get blood-drenched quickly.

Uh-oh. Do we have a Freethoughtblogs Laundry? No, we do not. Do we have a Freethoughtblogs Autoclave? Nope. I’m not in any hurry to open one, I think we can satisfy our donors with reassurances that it’s somewhat cleaner than a back alley.

The spidering resumes!

We explored the local horticulture garden for spiders and found a few — a lovely young Dolomedes and a rather grumpy looking Philodromus. I try to avoid posting spider photos here, so you’ll have to check out my Patreon or Instagram to see them. Sorry. In recompense, here’s a fly:

I have to ask…so many people are arachnophobic and reflexively avert their eyes at spiders, but do you have the same reaction to close-ups of flies? You know, flies are likely responsible for far more disease and death than spiders, and don’t get me started on their Dipteran cousins, the mosquitoes.

Also, I looked at my Instagram, and it’s just jam-packed with exciting spider photos. Then I looked at the Instagram pages of my more popular, attractive, and charming friends, like David Gorski and Rebecca Watson, and what do I see? Puppies. Lots of puppies.

Am I doing something wrong?

Book Giveaway #2!

It’s the end of my semester, just one optional final to give and then I’m off to live with the spiders for a few months. Look at the photo! The UMM BioClub gave me a little succulent as a present!
Last week, I gave away a few old textbooks, and this is going to be a weekly tradition for a while. Today what I’m giving away* are:

  • Neurobiology, 3rd ed., by Shepherd. Another good text I’ve used in classes in the past. I’ve got a few of these general neuro texts that I can part with, since I’ve also got the monster tomes by Zigmond et al. and by Kandel et al., which have me covered for reference works.
  • Principles of Development, 4th ed., by Wolpert & Tickle. This has been my go-to text for developmental biology for years, but I’ve got the 6th edition, so this one is redundant.
  • Introduction to Cancer Biology, by Hesketh. I’ve used this in undergrad cancer biology courses because it is a lot more digestible than that dense volume of Weinberg’s standard biology of cancer text.

Last time, I also gave away evil, bad books, but this week I decided to be kind. If you want stupid books to laugh at, let me know and maybe I’ll include some in future giveaways.
So how do you get your hands on one of these? Easy, just ask, either here or on Patreon. You don’t need to be a patron to get one, I’ll just read the requests and pick those that seem worthy to me. If you don’t get what you want this time, I’ll be posting a selection every week. I’ve got to get these bookshelves cleaned up a bit!
*Evolving Darwin playset, Darwin bobblehead, box of Eppendorf pipette tips, or any of the miscellaneous other clutter on my desk not included.

He’s supposed to be one of the vaguely, kinda OK ones on some issues, I hear

That’s what I keep hearing about Mitt Romney, anyway. He’s one of those rare Republicans who hasn’t gone full MAGA, Trump-worshipping ditto-head. If he’s one of the better ones, though, what does his recent remark say about the Republican party?

OK, Republicans are just bad, every one. There’s no excuse for voting for that party, ever.

So this is how the semester ends

I just finished my third zoom meeting of the day, and also buckled down and got all those lab reports graded, and then wrapped it all up by calculating my students’ tentative final grades. Tomorrow I’ll write up the optional final, which I expect only a few students will take, and then I’m done.

I gotta say, though, seeing that all the women in the country are being stripped of their reproductive rights did put it all in perspective, making my struggles relatively light work. It would have been nicer to see certain horrible people hauled off in chains, though — it’s hard to whistle while you work when the fascists are taking over, and even now I can’t feel much relief at the finish.

Everything everywhere all at once

This would be a good day to sit and seethe until I melt down into an angry little puddle, but unfortunately, today is also the last major hoorah of the semester. The lab reports are in, I just have to grade them, and I’ve also got three seminars I have to attend, and then I have to assemble all the grades into a final assessment for the students.

At least I’ve got lots of distractions, I guess.

(Oh, yeah, I also saw the movie with the same title as this post the other day, in a gap in my schedule as I was waiting for more assignments to flood in. It was very good, highly recommended, I want to go see it again.)