Yooou wiiiiill coooonverrrrrrrt
Category: Weirdness
Posted on: October 16, 2007 10:18 PM, by PZ Myers
It's awfully risky to put this here, but it is a pretty picture.
Feeling trinitarian yet?
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
Search this blog
Profile
PZ Myers is a biologist and associate professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris.
…and this is a pharyngula stage embryo.
• a longer profile of yours truly
• my calendar
• Nature Network
• RichardDawkins Network
• facebook
• MySpace
• Twitter
• Atheist Nexus
• the Pharyngula chat room
(#pharyngula on irc.synirc.net)
I reserve the right to publicly post, with full identifying information about the source, any email sent to me that contains threats of violence.
Random Quote
(Complete listing)There's lots will take things as they are - fat and stupid; and lots will be worried by a sort of feeling that it's all wrong, and that they ought to be doing something. Now whenever things are that a lot of people feel they ought to be doing something, the weak, and those who go weak with a lot of complicated thinking, always make for a sort of do-nothing religion, very pious and superior, and submit to persecution and the will of the Lord. Very likely you've seen the same thing. It's energy in a gale of funk, and turned clean inside out. These cages will be full of psalms and hymns and piety. And those of a less simple sort will work in a bit of - what is it? - eroticism.
[H. G. Wells, from The War of the Worlds]
Recent Posts
- In case you were wondering…
- PZ's Galápagos Adventure
- Compare and Contrast
- Protecting the Right of Conscience?
- What year is it, anyway?
- Evolve: Sex
- To the clever dicks who think they are annoying me
- Another significant poll that will change the universe
- Poll need pharyngulizin’
- Tropical breakfast
A Taste of Pharyngula
(Complete listing)An updated book list for evolutionists
No genes were lost in the making of this whale
Ancient rules for Bilaterian development
Development, medicine, and evolution of the neck and shoulder
Recent Comments
- Jim1138 on In case you were wondering…
- Nerd of Redhead on In case you were wondering…
- Nicole on PZ's Galápagos Adventure
- Steve_C on What year is it, anyway?
- jrochest on In case you were wondering…
- Bumblebrain on In case you were wondering…
- Rob the Lurker FCD BMWCCA on Compare and Contrast
- Cuttlefish, OM on In case you were wondering…
- Jim1138 on In case you were wondering…
- scooter on Compare and Contrast
Archives
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
- July 2006
- June 2006
- May 2006
- April 2006
- March 2006
- February 2006
- January 2006
Blogroll
(Complete listing)Other Information
Subscribe via Email
Stay abreast of your favorite bloggers' latest and greatest via e-mail, via a daily digest.
« This is the Hitchens I like | Main | It's all just metaphor … and toys »
TrackBacks
(TrackBack URL for this entry: )
Comments
Rejoice, for it is true! Italy will win the world cup!
Posted by: J Myers | October 16, 2007 10:21 PM
Wow. Those guys can really go.
Posted by: Kent Kauffman | October 16, 2007 10:23 PM
Wait: glaciers swim upstream in time for the spawning season, after all?
Dang.
Posted by: Adnan Y. | October 16, 2007 10:37 PM
It's just not right for a guy living in Minnesota to get this excited about ice.
Posted by: Dan | October 16, 2007 10:44 PM
It is very pretty and striking. But I kind of see Satan frozen in the middle of the ice fall for me to believe it is an act of the big sky daddy.
Posted by: Janine | October 16, 2007 10:45 PM
That's not Satan. Don't you see the big bushy beard and the cap?
That's Santa.
Posted by: Owlmirror | October 16, 2007 10:51 PM
Cute octopus sighted by Canadian robot.
Posted by: melior | October 16, 2007 11:07 PM
Wow! Look at all those thousands of icicles! I think I'll become a Hindu.
Posted by: Yedgy | October 16, 2007 11:12 PM
Looks to me like a giant flipping the bird.
Posted by: John S. Wilkins | October 16, 2007 11:21 PM
#7--Hmph. All cephalopods are cute.
A waterfall
Is cool, and all...
But ice
Is nice.
Posted by: Cuttlefish | October 16, 2007 11:22 PM
There's a giant squid frozen in there, right in the middle! See it? No? How about now?
When he thaws, may we be worthy to do his bidding.
Posted by: cm | October 16, 2007 11:24 PM
Oh. My. God.
I'm having my book discussion group over this week, and I've been overwhelmed by the task of coming up with a dessert. As I logged on to Pharyngula and saw a beautiful and unexpected frozen waterfall, hundreds of feet high, I knew my search was over. That very moment, I knelt on the carpet by my computer and decided to make a cream cheese jello mold.
Posted by: Sastra | October 16, 2007 11:34 PM
Hmm...I see a hand giving either a peace sign or the bird.
Posted by: Captain C | October 16, 2007 11:45 PM
OT, but I hope, PZ, that you checked out the PBS special (Nova) on epigenetics.
I rather think it would be a great subject for a thread here.
Posted by: Ichthyic | October 16, 2007 11:48 PM
Looks like a phallus to me. I think God's just trying to boost his ego and pick up some chicks by showing off his package.
Posted by: Eric | October 16, 2007 11:48 PM
Oh, this was obviously designed. I mean, look at it.
Posted by: J Myers | October 16, 2007 11:50 PM
I hate these things - I have been staring cross-eyed at my computer screen for 5 minutes now and it *still* hasn't gone 3-dimensional.
Posted by: Hamish | October 16, 2007 11:51 PM
"Feeling trinitarian yet?"
Um ..... wait for it ..... no.
But I could use some of that ice to chill my beer.
Posted by: Michael X | October 17, 2007 12:01 AM
Looks like a giant squid in the center, to me anyway.
Perhaps it's CTHULHU!
Posted by: Steve_C | October 17, 2007 12:04 AM
I've got a question: "Also bear in mind that creationists were the first to seriously question Lyellian Uniformitarianism and that the evolutionary geologists didn't abandon it until the 1970's, due to their realization by observation that canyons can be created extremely rapidly--in a matter of days or weeks, depending on a water source."
Is that true?
Posted by: Skeptic4u | October 17, 2007 12:12 AM
It looks like someone wearing a sheet, this obviously represents the Holy Ghost!
Posted by: Gary | October 17, 2007 12:17 AM
don't tell me, let me guess, you went to a creationist site that posted something about "canyons" created by the floods of the Mt. St. Helens erruption?
if so, short answer:
"Is that true?"
no. Creationists love to compare canyon formation between things like the St. Helens erruption and the grand canyon, conveniently leaving out the vast differences in size and compositions involved.
btw, what's an "evolutionary geologist"?
a paleontologist, perhaps?
Posted by: Ichthyic | October 17, 2007 12:19 AM
In theory, a canyon could be created in a matter of days by a sufficient quantity of water under sufficient pressure. No known mechanism for providing either exists.
Posted by: Azkyroth | October 17, 2007 12:28 AM
Google up "Francis Collins" +waterfall to get the reference.
Posted by: NYCatheist | October 17, 2007 12:43 AM
"But I could use some of that ice to chill my beer. "
Heresy! I believe they burn you at the stake for that in some countries.
Posted by: Jeremy | October 17, 2007 12:43 AM
Hey great, a penis!
Posted by: Nick Gardner | October 17, 2007 12:46 AM
Re: #24
I only just realised it was a Francis Collins reference before I reached that post.
I spent quite a while trying to see the Elder Gods in that waterfall.
I guess it's proof that they do exist and they have better things to do with their time.
(Crit reason for 5000. Reason is slain. You gain 0 XP)
Posted by: zayzayem | October 17, 2007 12:55 AM
"Heresy! I believe they burn you at the stake for that in some countries."
Ah yes, those lukewarm Guiness drinking zealots! But, sayeth I, my beverage must be either cold or hot, but if it is lukewarm I shall spit it out of my mouth.
Posted by: Michael X | October 17, 2007 12:58 AM
I love #11 and #28. Although, I really just love PZ's readership in general.
Posted by: Gabe | October 17, 2007 1:44 AM
You know, now that you mention, I really hadn't seen any sign of God in the structure of DNA. But when you shewed that picture, it became immediately obvious to me.
So, others also got the Collins connection before I came back to this post. I thought I was so smart. But at least I found a biblical reference...
Posted by: Mike Haubrich, FCD | October 17, 2007 2:15 AM
Well I see the Virgin Mary beckoning me forward to anoint my head with her pristine grace.... Oh, hang on, that was in my pizza topping last night. My bad. I've got Virgins popping up everywhere and I'm buggered if I can keep a track on them.
Posted by: Bride of Shrek | October 17, 2007 2:21 AM
Fuck, but I hate this kind of shit. Collins is indeed an idiot if a waterfall and CS Lewis converted him.
I wonder what he'd believe if he came face to face with a scene like this from the 2004 tsunami in Indonesia?
Really, I don't care what your beliefs are, but if you come to believe in god because of some sort of "there's so much beauty in the world" moment, you're a self-centred asshole and you really need to get the fuck out of your bubble.
Now I'm in a bad mood and won't be able to get to sleep.
Posted by: Brownian | October 17, 2007 2:54 AM
[#17] I hate these things - I have been staring cross-eyed at my computer screen for 5 minutes now and it *still* hasn't gone 3-dimensional.
It's a schooner.
[#14] OT, but I hope, PZ, that you checked out the PBS special (Nova) on epigenetics.I rather think it would be a great subject for a thread here.
Please do write about it, PZ. It was quite interesting.
Posted by: Ragutis | October 17, 2007 3:23 AM
OH NOES
UNEXPECTED WATERFALL
I R THEEIST NOW.
Posted by: K. Signal Eingang | October 17, 2007 3:28 AM
I totally see Charles Darwin's profile in the lower center there...
Posted by: Maz | October 17, 2007 4:04 AM
nice picture though.
Posted by: Danon | October 17, 2007 4:44 AM
Must be some kind of Rohrschach-Test. You win salvation if you get the right answer. Most of the people here failed it though.
Posted by: Don_Quijote | October 17, 2007 5:04 AM
If I simply ignore the meaningless "evolutionary" part, uniformitarianism has never really been abandoned. It has only been expanded to take events into account that happen once every 10 or 100 million years. (This started in 1980 when the first serious suggestion & serious evidence was published that a mass extinction had been triggered by a planetoid impact.) The present is not the key to the past -- the past is the key to the present, and to the future.
Posted by: David Marjanović, OM | October 17, 2007 6:54 AM
Er... am I supposed to be seeing something religious? Because all I see is a rather spectacular frozen waterfall...
Posted by: Celandine | October 17, 2007 7:03 AM
Nice photo. I fail to see anything remotely religious about it, though.
Posted by: truthilicious | October 17, 2007 7:17 AM
You don't see the halo around the guy on the right?? Look closer...
Posted by: minusRusty | October 17, 2007 7:40 AM
But where does the Pope in the Bonfire fit in?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/10/16/wpope116.xml
Posted by: raindogzilla | October 17, 2007 8:12 AM
No it's not. It's a sailboat.
Posted by: Matthew Morse | October 17, 2007 8:17 AM
If I simply ignore the meaningless "evolutionary" part, uniformitarianism has never really been abandoned. It has only been expanded to take events into account that happen once every 10 or 100 million years.
Precisely. I've always felt that 'Old School' Uniformitarianism have been a little maligned anyway, although Steven Jay Gould has to take some of the blame for that one.
Posted by: Chris Rowan | October 17, 2007 8:30 AM
Re: #20
Channeled scablands in Washington State.
-- CV
Posted by: CortxVortx | October 17, 2007 8:43 AM
To be fair, modern uniform(itarian)ism only deserves that designation when compared to Cuvier's catastrophism. When compared to Lyell's or Darwin's or G. G. Simpson's uniformism, it's utterly catastrophistic.
Posted by: David Marjanović | October 17, 2007 8:52 AM
I see that frozen waterfall, and I want to climb it. The bottom part looks easy, and the upper part is probably no harder than WI 3. Maybe WI 3+.
Posted by: Brian | October 17, 2007 9:11 AM
Obviously not enough people with art backgrounds here. You don't seem to be able to decipher images correctly. Look at the center figure. Notice how it looks just like the abominable snowman in "Rudolf"? Only this time it's not just claymation. God (the artist) is telling us we must all loose our teeth to become his true servants. Glad I could clear this up for you all.
Posted by: Dahan | October 17, 2007 9:11 AM
I sort of see a body smashed on the "rocks" near the bottom. Maybe it's just some kind of Oedipal thing.
Posted by: obscurifer | October 17, 2007 9:54 AM
CM (#11) - Ha Ha Ha!!! Thanks for the 'how to see the shape in the ice' photo. I laughed out loud. :)
Posted by: ctenotrish, FCD | October 17, 2007 9:55 AM
Hallelujah!
I see the light of Geologism! Praise the Rockgods!
Posted by: Abner Cadaver | October 17, 2007 10:13 AM
People, people!
It's not ice, it's pillars of salt.
Minnesota is the new Sodom.
Posted by: Steve_C | October 17, 2007 10:20 AM
"In theory, a canyon could be created in a matter of days by a sufficient quantity of water under sufficient pressure. No known mechanism for providing either exists."
Actually, the channeled scablands of Washington are an example of cataclysmic flooding from a glacial lake breach rapidly carving out "canyons". However, in that case there is overwhelming sedimentological evidence for the flooding - evidence which is entirely absent in other canyons. If I were a creationist, I'd just leave out the second part.
Posted by: heterocronie | October 17, 2007 12:20 PM
Oops, I just became a polytheist. Damn these waterfalls, the theology of them is so tricky.
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/2kxyc7
Posted by: Glen Davidson | October 17, 2007 12:41 PM
Um. I understood that the Washington scablands do not have canyons, precisely because the sudden flood of water scoured everything, in precise opposition to a canyon, which is to say, a river that sinks lower and lower over millenia as the river itself floods, but not the surrounding channel and banks (for the most part, obviously).
But correction from someone with more geological knowledge than myself would be welcome.
Posted by: Owlmirror | October 17, 2007 12:52 PM
Except the picture is from China.
Posted by: TheBlackCat | October 17, 2007 1:29 PM
Brother Dr. PZ Myers-
That image is just the Lord trying to speak to you using a Miraculous Apparition He KNOWS that you must understand.
He speaks to us in Many Ways (but only uses American English when Speaking to Us with actual words that we can hear).
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977138181
Why is your Heart so Dark Sided?
-RPTH
Posted by: Hipple, Rev. Paul T. | October 17, 2007 1:57 PM
What am I supposed to conver to? Höðr - the Norse god of winter? Skadi? Freya? Ull?
Especially as it just looks like ice to me...
Posted by: Moses | October 17, 2007 1:59 PM
Two legs, and a... uh, and a torrent coming out of the... uh... ;-)
It needs kleenix.
(Hi, Rev. Paul Hipple! I'm still a "lebian Islamofacist harlot." How are things?)
Posted by: Kristine | October 17, 2007 2:11 PM
Bride of Shrek #31:
There's something fundamentally wrong about this statement.
"Fundamentally," ha! I slay me!
Posted by: Just Al | October 17, 2007 3:22 PM
Damn you people with your links to God-tards' mumbo-jumbo. My IQ dropped 10 points from reading that "God made your DNA and DNA is MAGIC, JUST LIKE GOD!", only to have it plummet another 10 from "I found my sock! God exists!"
I have a journal club this afternoon and now, thanks to this garbage crap idiocy input, my contribution to the scientific discussion will likely be as such: "Klotho inhibits Wnt signaling! Just like God inhibits ... homosexual desires if you pray enough! God exists! And, look, today, I'm wearing TWO SOCKS AND THEY MATCH! Glory be to God!"
Posted by: Inky | October 17, 2007 3:25 PM
For some reason, this reminds me of an episode of 'Everybody Loves Raymond' when Ray's mom produces an 'abstract' sculpture that clearly resembles something anatomical....I think, under the circumstances, that we should feel free to worship same....:)
Posted by: Scott Hatfield, OM | October 17, 2007 3:40 PM
...is there supposed to be something remarkable about that photo?
I'm not getting it.
Posted by: Will Von Wizzlepig | October 17, 2007 5:26 PM
If you squint, you can see the easter bunny.
If you squint and turn your head sideways, it looks a little like a duck.
Posted by: JDP | October 17, 2007 5:48 PM
We're making fun of Francis Collins.
A while back, PZ reviewed his book, Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief. Collins was the director of the National Human Genome Research Project, and spends most of the book making good arguments for evolution and against Creationism/Intelligent Design. Then he explains why he was once agnostic, but now believes in God. That part is not as good.
The big turning point for him turns out to have been his coming unexpectedly across a frozen waterfall while on a hike, and realizing that his "search was over." He kneels and gives himself to Jesus -- because the waterfall was in three parts. Three parts. Clearly evidence for the truth of the trinity. Get it?
Posted by: Sastra | October 17, 2007 9:45 PM
16: "Oh, this was obviously designed. I mean, look at it."
Well, yes. It's a bridge.
Posted by: ajay | October 18, 2007 7:57 AM
Shorter Pharyngula-
Christopher Hitchens: Atheism + Oxbridge accent + books trump racism, alcoholism, and war-mongering. Lauded.
James Watson: Good science + Nobel Prize + CSHL trump racism, arrogance, and misogyny. Mixed reaction.
Francis Collins: Christian beliefs + book + down-to-earth demeanor trump good science, contributions to medical genetics, and Human Genome Project. Reviled.
Posted by: Barn Owl | October 18, 2007 8:05 AM
Wow, Barn Owl, you've sure got some twisted views there.
My recent condemnation of Hitchens' bloodthirsty and simplistic approach to the Middle East has some people demanding that I retract and apologize.
My recent posts on Watson haven't expressed a mixed reaction at all: he's a repellent racist.
As I've said several times before, Collins is a prime example of compartmentalization: good scientist with screamingly insane ideas about religion.
If you'd like a short, simple analysis of the commenter known as "Barn Owl" that pretends you don't have a mixture of different ideas, I could do that.
Posted by: PZ Myers | October 18, 2007 8:49 AM
Shorter Pharyngula:
Being reasonable, intelligent, and correct in one area doesn't mean you get a pass when you blow it. Nor does blowing it in one area mean that everything else you believe is now tainted.
I think that if we were allowing our dislike of Collins' reasoning on religion to trump the rest of what he does, we'd be saying now his science is bad and his views on evolution are wrong. We'd be so annoyed by that waterfall crap we'd be willing to grant merit to Intelligent Design. Don't see that happening.
Posted by: Sastra | October 18, 2007 8:52 AM