Carnivalia, and an open thread

The latest in Pharyngula-approved carnivals:

Now, open that thread and sing!

More like this

We need an open thread! Here are a few carnivals to prime the pump. Humanist Symposium #19 I and the Bird #75 The Molecular and Cell Biology Carnival #2 Skeptics' Circle #87 Carnival of the Liberals #65 Friday Ark #192
We have a few carnivals for your Friday afternoon delectation… Skeptics' Circle #63 Friday Ark #144 Carnival of the Liberals #41 Otherwise, talk among yourselves. I'm going to be helping a swarm of new freshmen register for their fall classes for a while.
This week's collection of carnivals: Carnival of the Liberals #11 I and the Bird #22 Skeptics' Circle #33 Carnival of Education #64 Anyone else feel that it's a shame CoE hasn't hit #66 yet? Otherwise, you got your open thread right here.
A reminder: the Darwin Fish Contest closes early next week, and there are lots of good entries right now, so competition will be fierce. Send your entries in soon! Don't let these excellent carnivals distract you too much from expressing yourself artistically…or maybe something here will inspire…

Now, open that thread and sing!

Everybody now! One, two, three...

We are the world
We are the children
We are the one who make a brighter day,
So let's start giving...

I just discovered that my prodegy is in the pharyngeal stage of development!

My wife was moderately less interested in the fact that it now most resembles other vertebrate critters, than the fact that the heart is now pumping. To each her own I guess!

Thanks, PZ. Traffic has been a bit slow at the CotL. I actually find that odd because shorter pieces than usual ought to be more attractive to the attention deficit we call blog-reading.

Yay! Open thread!

First, I'm annoyed because the links I make using the a href tag work fine on the preview but don't work once I actually post the comment. I've noticed other comments with similar dead links. The text shows up blue, but it's not underlined. Is it just my browser, or are other people experiencing similar problems? I guess I just have to paste the URL into the comment box.

Second, under the "Post a Comment" heading, the following sentence appears: "Comments are moderated for spam, your comment may not appear immediately." This comma splice (figuratively) kills me every time I read it. Is there any way to change it? Maybe I'm just being pedantic.

Finally, I know there are quite a few pro-science believers who read Pharyngula. I'd like to know why you are believers. Jason posted about why he is a Christian on his religion blog, to which I will not link (and the link probably wouldn't work anyway). But for those of you who accept evolution and maybe even teach it while maintaining a religious faith, why are you religious? I'm genuinely curious.

Thanks.

Someone just IM'd me this link -- http://jdallen.org/politics/i-never-wanted-to-be-your-stupid-governor-anyway/

From the Arkansas Constitution:

Article 19, section 1 of the Arkansas Constitution: Atheists disqualified from holding office or testifying as witness.

No person who denies the being of a God shall hold any office in the civil departments of this State, nor be competent to testify as a witness in any court.

So not only are atheist the most hated group in America, there are laws banning them from public office or being on a jury.

Yupper No one.

The same is true in Maryland. I wouldn't be allowed in office. It's phrased a bit differently in Maryland. I don't recall the exact phrasing but it says that the governor must confess his belief in the one true god or something along those lines.

I'm currently reading Kim Stanley Robinson's YEARS OF RICE AND SALT (2002), an alternate history of the last 600 years as if the Plague had been 99% fatal in Christendom (=Europe) rather than the paltry 30% or so it actually was. The new history has Islam and Buddhism endure as the prominent religious identities, and Robinson makes provocative broad generalizations about their development and abuse (e.g. fundamentalisms) in the absence of Christianity, such as the broad abuse of women. But Christianity is discussed here only by its absence, appropriately.

Any comparable speculative efforts anywhere, or is this one singular?

Cool. Two more carnivals I never knew existed. (You can tell I'm totally remiss in my blog reading). Thanks!

Without God, mayhem is possible
in which John F. Kippley expresses the tired thought that scaring people with punishment after they die is the only way to get them to behave acceptably.

1 In the beginning Gloria created the heaven and the earth.
2 And the earth was nanti form, and void; and munge was upon the eke of the deep. And the fairy of Gloria trolled upon the eke of the aquas.
3 And Gloria cackled, Let there be sparkle: and there was sparkle.

Stumbled across this late last night: the entire Bible, translated into Polari.

The Polari Bible

The Wikipedia on Polari.

Christian outreach out to an oppressed minority? Or just a travesty of scripture?

Two things I hate with a passion:

1) Semicolons.
2) Firefox browser.

To hell with the both of them.