Pharyngula

Posted by: Obdurate | June 7, 2009 3:00 AM

Grats! Humanist magazine....hmm...i must look into this.

Posted by: Jake | June 7, 2009 3:01 AM

congrats!

I figured I'd take this attentionful spot to ask if you've given any more thought to the possible merits of meditation? As documented by neuroscientist Richard Davidson at the University of Wisconsin?

In any case way to be :-)

Posted by: Bill Anderson | June 7, 2009 3:03 AM

Oh, yes! Congratulations, PZ! You deserve it. See what you get when you behave?

Posted by: Nic Nicholson | June 7, 2009 3:05 AM

WTG PZ!!!

Of course, WE all knew you were human!

Posted by: Kel | June 7, 2009 3:16 AM

Excellent work PZ :)

Posted by: Roland | June 7, 2009 3:28 AM

WOW that is an ugly tie...

(This is my virgin post! woohoo me!!!)

It's still ugly :)

Posted by: Ken McKnight | June 7, 2009 3:33 AM

Those are crocoducks on his tie.

Posted by: Peter McKellar | June 7, 2009 3:35 AM

Congrats.

Who would have thought a phyranguloid cephlapod could be a humanist?

Posted by: Naked Bunny with a Whip | June 7, 2009 3:38 AM

Some of my best friends are humans.

Posted by: JPS, FCD | June 7, 2009 3:46 AM

Congrats PZ!

(OT but self-explanatory, from the Care2 petition site:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/332/petition-to-have-cheyenne-cherry-tried-as-adult

Posted by: TikiMexican | June 7, 2009 4:04 AM

Sniny?!?!one!!111 Also, congratulations. Hope to read the interview that follows up.
TikiMexico!

Posted by: Jeanette Garcia | June 7, 2009 4:10 AM

Great tie PZ. Congrats for being human, a very shiny individual indeed.

Posted by: Samwise | June 7, 2009 4:18 AM

Congrats, PZ!

Posted by: Rorschach | June 7, 2009 4:37 AM

Paging BoSOM the "I dont answer my emails very often" attorney at law..:-)

Hope all is well,long time no see !!

Presumably Ken Ham didn't get a vote on this award.

Well,who would he vote for,Dino Flintstone??

Posted by: Zarquon | June 7, 2009 5:04 AM

I bet you really wanted the "Cephalopod of the Year" award, though. It's even sninier.

Congratulations.

Posted by: Rorschach | June 7, 2009 5:11 AM

Richard Dawkins said:

Yes, it is a great tie. The Crocoduck Tie, designed by Josh Timonen.

Is there something Josh Timonen cant do??

Posted by: Stephen Wells | June 7, 2009 5:53 AM

For some reason I now have a mental image of Angelina Jolie being blackmailed by the illuminati to steal the two Crocoduck ties from their humanist guardians; when united they will form the Gordian Knot.

I think that's the plot for the third Tomb Raider movie (hawk, ptoooie).

Posted by: Alan Kellogg | June 7, 2009 6:24 AM

Richard Dawkins, #30

And a more fitting symbol for the two of you one would find it hard to visualize.

Posted by: JAMSHED MOIDU | June 7, 2009 6:51 AM

An award fo LYING about creation....an award for propagating the religion called 'DARWINISM'...an award for telling people that we are ANIMALS with no responsibility....an award for wearing the tie with a picture of 'crockoduck'

Posted by: Rick R | June 7, 2009 6:58 AM

JAMSHED MOIDU @37- No, you fool!

PZ got the award for: Best Braised Puppy Recipe!!111!one!!!

Jeesh. Look these things up before you post, poopyhead.

Posted by: Jeremy | June 7, 2009 7:18 AM

Oh, please, please, please everyone click on "JAMSHED MOIDU"'s name @37 for some fun. It links to harunyahya-india.blogspot.com !!

Amongst the highlights:

" These are the real “root cause’ of this SOCIAL DISEASE

a) Indoctrination of young students with Darwinist education
b) Presenting Darwinism as a True SCIENCE and Atheism as a true way of thinking
c) Using media and presenting Darwinism is the only explanation for origin of life
d) Stopping people from talking against Darwinism
e) Banning books against Darwinism
f) Misleading public by using “tough scientific terms” in order to portray Darwinism is a great scientific subject which could not be understood by every one and making it as a ‘ GREAT SCIENTIFIC SUBJECT’which need to have deep rooted scientific knowledge.
g) Creating a misconception in the public that ' if you want to be scientist then you have to be DARWINIST and an ATHIESt'
h) Using political power to impose Darwinist world view
i) Waging war against religion and its moral principles."

Posted by: 'Tis Himself, OM | June 7, 2009 7:21 AM

The trophy doesn't look heavy enough to be a good doorstop.

Posted by: Kel | June 7, 2009 7:45 AM

an award for telling people that we are ANIMALS with no responsibility...

Just out of curiosity, I would love to see where PZ tells people they have no responsibility... pretty sure this is just some religious fucktard's ad hominem.

Posted by: Louis | June 7, 2009 7:54 AM

Well done PZ.

IMO a justly deserved award. Congratulations.

Now, do you have to chose between flying home with the trophy or the Trophy Wife (TM)? If so, fly with the Trophy Wife (TM), I speak from experience. I'm not making that mistake again. Mind you, it's turned out well. The doctors think they can find the trophy.! ;-)

Louis

Posted by: AdamK | June 7, 2009 8:03 AM

Congrats, and Sniny Monkey to you!

Posted by: Aquaria | June 7, 2009 8:16 AM

Stupid Fuck is so stupid that he didn't see the post where Richard Dawkins (yes, that one--run for your life, Stupid Fuck!) revealed the origin of the tie.

Stupid Fuck, Liar for Jebus and overall stupid git.

And, no, don't try the PeeWee Hermanesque, "I was trying to be teh phunny hahaha I meant to do that!"

You're not smart enough to do funny. Even with a smiley, it wouldn't have been funny, except to the imbecile IQ class that you aspire to.

Posted by: 'Tis Himself, OM | June 7, 2009 8:24 AM

You've got a typo there.. the title should say 'Oooh, sniny'.

I suspect that "sniny" will become one of Pharyngula's catch-phrases, like "happy monkey" and "dwarfs and pygmies."

Posted by: LeeLeeOne | June 7, 2009 8:52 AM

Congratulations PZ! Your name has been added to a very remarkable and outstanding list of Humanist of the Year award winners. Keep up the "good fight." Happy Monkey!

Posted by: Hank Fox | June 7, 2009 9:01 AM

Congrats, PZ! You deserve it! You rock!

Posted by: Emmet, OM | June 7, 2009 9:11 AM

"dwarfs and pygmies."

What about PYGMIES+DWARFS?

Posted by: No BS | June 7, 2009 9:21 AM

JAMSHED MOIDU #37

How is Hanum YiaYia doing these days? Is he out of prison? Has stopped eating those cocaine laced Kebabs? Is he still using images without permission in his "Creation Atlas"? Has he removed the embarrassing fishing lure images? How is his blackmail/extortion business going? Has he done something with his ridiculous beard? The one that looks like my toilet brush?

Posted by: David Marjanović, OM | June 7, 2009 9:23 AM

ROTFLMAO!!! I want that tie!!! :-D :-D :-D

"dwarfs and pygmies."

PYGMIES + DWARFS, you mean.

Posted by: Diego | June 7, 2009 10:11 AM

Congratulations!

The irony of bestowing upon you an award for being "humanist" of the year will not be realized until the nefarious plans of your cephalopod overlords are revealed

Posted by: Lynna | June 7, 2009 10:22 AM

Damnit, PZ. We all loved "sniny" so much. Your face was sniny, your eyes were floating in snininess, and the trophy zapped my eyes. Now you have dimmed the sniny glory with correct spelling. Ah, well.

Congrats. Love it that you are so human (presumably) and humanistic at the same time.

Posted by: Angel Kaida | June 7, 2009 10:30 AM

Happy Monkey, PZ! You and your tie are very sniny indeed!

Posted by: Lynna | June 7, 2009 10:35 AM

OT: See page 54 of the May 25, 2009 issue of The New Yorker for: "But Darwin, it turns out, was wrong."

Article by Elizabeth Kolbert, "The Sixth Extinction?," doesn't do the ID version of "Darwin was wrong" but does intelligently present an overview of the significance of mass extinctions, along with lots of detail about golden frogs and other amphibians. Some yuck-inducing tales of bat death are also dramatically presented. Kolbert gets her timelines and details right. Bloody hell.

Posted by: SC, OM | June 7, 2009 10:45 AM

Snine on you crazy diamond!

(Sundays make me silly.)

Posted by: Rorschach | June 7, 2009 10:55 AM

Shine on you crazy diamond

Posted by: ZK | June 7, 2009 11:00 AM

I dunno, PZ goes away to collect a well deserved sniny award and what happens? His beloved zebrafish make it into the mainstream news:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8078525.stm

Well done, now please hurry back to translate the back story of this news into mere-mortal-speak :-)

Cheers.

ZK

Posted by: Dahan | June 7, 2009 11:59 AM

Gratz, PZ! Very cool.

Posted by: Lynna | June 7, 2009 12:13 PM

chgo_liz @80: First PZ typed "Shiny" in the title, then he typed "sniny" in the description. Later, after much amusement was had at his expense, he fooled with us poor readers (double entendre intended) by claiming to correct the error, when he actually "corrected" only the title so that it now also reads "sniny." So, yeah, correctness be damned, fun is better.

Just to confuse the hoards more, the URL for this thread retains the traditional spelling:
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2009/06/oooh_shiny_1.php#comments

@79: thanks for zebrafish link. Enlightening, that.

Posted by: Sonja | June 7, 2009 1:07 PM

God may be a French Morman, but Satan is a beautiful blonde - congratulations, PZ!

Posted by: Nerd of Redhead, OM | June 7, 2009 1:14 PM

Richard Dawkins comments on blogs!

He does, about once a week here. Always a pleasure.

Posted by: Doo Shabag | June 7, 2009 1:18 PM

Thanks for fixing the typo PZ :)

Posted by: chgo_liz | June 7, 2009 1:24 PM

Thanks, Lynna @ #83! I obviously missed the earlier versions and only saw the final "corrected" wording in all its glory.

Posted by: Lynna | June 7, 2009 1:42 PM

chgo–liz @91: You're welcome.

In my posts re "sniny" and "shiny" I spelled "hordes" as "hoards" incorrectly...twice. Sheesh.

As is tradition here, I blame the plague of spelling errors on the Rev. BigDumbChimp.

Posted by: Jadehawk, OM | June 7, 2009 1:55 PM

Congrats PZ!

This makes us Sniny Happy People Monkeys

Posted by: Patricia, Queen of Sluts OM | June 7, 2009 2:20 PM

It's always the Chimps fault...unless it's spilled beer or burnt bacon. Two sins he would never commit.

Posted by: AdamK | June 7, 2009 3:04 PM

Janine out-sninies Nico any day.

Posted by: Rey Fox | June 7, 2009 3:34 PM

Sniny! Get me a danish!

Posted by: Carlie | June 7, 2009 4:06 PM

In my posts re "sniny" and "shiny" I spelled "hordes" as "hoards"

Don't hoard the sniny!

...The crocoduck wants some, too.

Posted by: Lynna | June 7, 2009 5:38 PM

Janine @94: Yes, we have our very own scapechimp, and he serves us well. Notice that he does not object.

Posted by: ZK | June 7, 2009 7:26 PM

Janine @82
"Kiss the boot of sniny, sniny leather"

Do you have any idea what you've done, you wicked person? Never again shall I be able to appreciate eroticism and sexual charge of Venus in Furs without snickering to myself "sniny, sniny", probably followed by an unhealthy dose of "fnarr, fnarr".

It's a good job whips and chains don't excite me, else I'd be really cross!

Well done ;-)

ZK - unable to get "sniny, sniny" out of his head now

Posted by: David Wiener | June 7, 2009 11:17 PM

Congratulations and God Ble...., um, good job!

In all seriousness, you are a voice of reason that speaks truth to dumbfuckery, and I really admire your courage and intellect. Keep fighting the good fight!

Posted by: Michael Kingsford Gray | June 8, 2009 1:04 AM

Posted by: PZ Myers Aw, it was bugging me, so I decided to fix the typo after all.

Ex-Spelled AGAIN! ;)

Posted by: Samantha Vimes | June 8, 2009 4:09 AM

I took it to mean SNazzy+shINY, a coinage I hadn't heard before but one of the common methods of developing slang words.

Posted by: JAMSHED MOIDU | June 8, 2009 6:47 AM

To all ANIMALIST(humanist).....WHere is your prophet Sir.RICHARD DAWKINS now a days?
Mr.PZ please dont keep that Award in your showcase for long days, it may EVOLVE into some snakes or into some species. So beware of that award and destroy it before it AQUIRES SOME SORT OF LIFE( This is what in overall EVOLUTION THEORY teaches)

Posted by: Rorschach | June 8, 2009 6:59 AM

Better trolls,please.

Posted by: Knockgoats | June 8, 2009 7:31 AM

WHere is your prophet Sir.RICHARD DAWKINS now a days?,/i> - JAMSHED MOIDU

Dawkins does not have a knighthood, cretin - although I would guess he has probably been offered one and turned it down. He does have numerous honorary doctorates, besides being an FRS (Fellow of the Royal Society, awarded to top British scientists) and an FRSL (Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature), awarded to top British writers). Having retired from his professorial chair at Oxford, he is busy running the Richard Dawkins Foundation, and is much in demand as a public speaker.

You, on the other hand, are an ignorant, illiterate idiot.

Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp | June 8, 2009 7:39 AM

Mr.PZ please dont keep that Award in your showcase for long days, it may EVOLVE into some snakes or into some species. So beware of that award and destroy it before it AQUIRES SOME SORT OF LIFE( This is what in overall EVOLUTION THEORY teaches)

Warning: Exposure to JAMSHED MOIDU will cause boredom, annoyance and if left unchecked brain rot.

Posted by: mikeg | June 8, 2009 8:22 AM

zzzzzz... tie! must have z tie

Posted by: MAJeff, OM | June 8, 2009 8:33 AM

Jamshed Moishu:

STOP SHOUTING, FUCKWIT!

Posted by: JAMSHED MOIDU | June 8, 2009 8:37 AM

#Feynmaniac #118
Pff, only a crazy person would believe that inanimate objects could turn into snakes:

AT LAST YOU ADMITTED THAT:

1) life cannot have formed out of CHANCE or RADOMNESS
2) innanimate matter cannot form LIFE by ITSELF
3) the FIRST cell cannot have formed out of INNANIMATE MATTER
4) ANIMATE things are more COMPLEX than INANIMATE
5) the SNAKE is much more COMPLEX than the AWARD
6) you are 'CRAZY' to believe in THEORY OF EVOLUTION
7) THERE IS NO ROLE OF CHANCE OR RANDOMNESS IN the creation of LIVING BEINGS

Posted by: Kel | June 8, 2009 8:40 AM

1) life cannot have formed out of CHANCE or RADOMNESS

Evolution has SELECTION at the core. Simple example, roll 10 dice. See how long it takes you to roll 10 sixes in the same go. Now repeat the exercise but save a six every time you roll one. You'll get to the result a lot quicker. Evolution has selection at the core, to call it chance is to either not understand how evolution works or deliberately misrepresent it. liar for Muhammad?

7) THERE IS NO ROLE OF CHANCE OR RANDOMNESS IN the creation of LIVING BEINGS

No, it is all CAUSE and EFFECT. The way that electromagnetic force bonds molecules, the way that molecules behave and replicate. These aren't chance, these are natural behaviours or atoms. As for evolution, again the word is SELECTION.

But of course you won't care, you're just another liar for Allah.

Posted by: Feynmaniac | June 8, 2009 8:53 AM

JAMSHED MOIDU,

You're once, twice, three times crazy.

AT LAST YOU ADMITTED THAT

At last? Up until about two hours ago you didn't even know who the hell I was.

1) life cannot have formed out of CHANCE or RADOMNESS....blah, blah, blah

Proposition: Under the mapping of: Jesus -> Muhammad and God -> Allah it is clear that Islamic Creationism is isomorphic to Christian Creationism.

Proof: JAMSHED MOIDU

Posted by: Moggie | June 8, 2009 9:22 AM

I'm surprised that so many people are ignorant about "sniny". It's like slithy, but a bit less frumious.

Posted by: JAMSHED MOIDU | June 8, 2009 9:24 AM

#Kel #129

Evolution has SELECTION at the core. Simple example, roll 10 dice. See how long it takes you to roll 10 sixes in the same go. Now repeat the exercise but save a six every time you roll one. You'll get to the result a lot quicker. Evolution has selection at the core, to call it chance is to either not understand how evolution works or deliberately misrepresent it. liar for Muhammad?

1) When i do those 10 dice test YOU SHOULD BE AWARE THAT THERE IS AN AUTHOR one who is doing that test
2) Dice cannot rol themselves
3)there should be INITIATOR behind that
4)it cannot happen by itself

for EXAMPLE the letters you typed in the comment list was not a PRODUCT OF CHANCE but a SELECTION 'BY YOU'
NATURAL SELECTION is nothing BUT INTELLIGENT creation by a SUPREME AUTHOR i.e GOD

Posted by: Kel | June 8, 2009 9:31 AM

1) When i do those 10 dice test YOU SHOULD BE AWARE THAT THERE IS AN AUTHOR one who is doing that test 2) Dice cannot rol themselves 3)there should be INITIATOR behind that

So much for an analogy.

Do you see your mother? You came out of her. Your mother and your father had sex and you were the product. Life CAN replicate itself, the roller of the dice in life is life itself. You'll find a mate, you'll breed and your children will repeat the cycle. If you take this process far enough back, you get to replicating life without sex, and further back the first replicating life.

As for how the process began, we aren't quite sure yet. But it in no way diminishes the evidence for evolution - that is simply overwhelming. If you want to believe that Allah intervened and made the first protocell, that is your business. But keep in mind that research on abiogenesis is continuing and one day we'll have a naturalistic cause that goes from inorganic matter to replicating DNA-based cells (we have many of the steps already, so it is only a matter of time until we find the final few).

But really, if your God is going to be the creator of a protocell, what makes it any different to God being the organiser of bosons that make matter possible in the first place? Why couldn't God have just set up the universe and let it go? Why does God need to intervene, other than to make God a necessity in your argument? An intelligent entity worthy of being called god would not need to be the petty creator that theists pain him to be. Their view of God is a child's view - a satisfaction in not understanding the world and appealing to a magic explanation as if that solves anything. No, if there were a God, such a petty description would ill-befit such a grand entity.

Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp | June 8, 2009 10:19 AM

drip

drip

drip

Posted by: Lynna | June 8, 2009 11:21 AM

Mark @110: As I understand it, the crocoduck tie is a limited edition of two ties, but you can get some biology-related ties here:
http://www.iawareables.com/

Posted by: Moggie | June 8, 2009 4:05 PM

I like jam. And sheds.

Posted by: Michael Kingsford Gray | June 9, 2009 1:55 AM

Jihad does Mum