Carnivalia and an open thread

Those silly Expelled! goons keep taking pratfalls.

Cthulhu and Christ

There's another installment in the ongoing display of Egnorance, and this time it involves your interview on Expelled.

It's a lot of content-free whinging, most of which consists of quotations as they appeared in Expelled, so it's barely worth working up a response.

Restroom symbols

Anti-itch remedy

The Power of Books

Dawkins and the D-word.

What to wear to your next Expelled! screening

Priest Off! Order today!

http://www.canicula.com/wp/?p=467

:-)

What to wear to your next Expelled! screening

Posted by: Reginald Selkirk

Reginald, you magnificent bastard! That is perhaps the second most beautiful thing I've ever seen.

WANT!

I dedicated a track to Cuttlefish on last week's show, in thanks for the lovely poem regarding the PZ-expelled fracas... Believe it or not, I had a song titled "Eohippus."

Read the commentary (and download the show if you want!) here: http://startlingmoniker.wordpress.com/2008/03/22/liveblogging-commentar…

Reginald, you magnificent bastard! That is perhaps the second most beautiful thing I've ever seen.
WANT!

You'll have to keep wanting. It appears all four sizes are sold out. And you'll note that price is in Euros.

I dedicated a track to Cuttlefish on last week's show, in thanks for the lovely poem regarding the PZ-expelled fracas... Believe it or not, I had a song titled "Eohippus."

One of my favourite contemporary composers, Charles Wuorinen, wrote a chamber piece titled Archaeopteryx.

News of the weird (& religious):

http://www.whiotv.com/news/15733670/detail.html

I just discovered this program about imagining what evolution will produce in millions of years in the future, "The Future is Wild". Here is a clip which includes squid. It is at 1:50.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye-S77hxE20

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tqK5zQlCDQ

Grand jury indicts Ore. couple in girl's death

Last Update: 3/28 10:18 pm

The sheriff's office says Carl and Raylene Worthington surrendered late Friday to face charges of manslaughter and criminal mistreatment. Their first court appearance is scheduled for Monday.

Ava Worthington died at home from bacterial bronchial pneumonia and infection. A medical examiner said both conditions could have been prevented or treated with antibiotics.

The Worthingtons belong to Oregon City's Followers of Christ Church. According to church tradition, when members become ill, fellow worshippers pray and anoint them with oil.

Interesting to see what happens. Whatever happened to "Thou Shalt Not Kill"?

Wilderness

THERE is a wolf in me ...
fangs pointed for tearing gashes ...
a red tongue for raw meat ...
and the hot lapping of blood--
I keep this wolf because the wilderness gave it to me and the wilderness will not let it go.

There is a fox in me ...
a silver-gray fox ...
I sniff and guess ...
I pick things out of the wind and air ...
I nose in the dark night and take sleepers and eat them and hide the feathers ...
I circle and loop and double-cross.

There is a hog in me ...
a snout and a belly ...
a machinery for eating and grunting ...
a machinery for sleeping satisfied in the sun--I got this too from the wilderness and the wilderness will not let it go.

There is a fish in me ...
I know I came from saltblue water-gates ...
I scurried with shoals of herring ...
I blew waterspouts with porpoises ...
before land was ...
before the water went down ...
before Noah ...
before the first chapter of Genesis.

There is a baboon in me ...
clambering-clawed ...
dog-faced ...
yawping a galoot's hunger ...
hairy under the armpits ...
here are the hawk-eyed hankering men ...
here are the blond and blue-eyed women ...
here they hide curled asleep waiting ...
ready to snarl and kill ...
ready to sing and give milk ...
waiting--I keep the baboon because the wilderness says so.

There is an eagle in me and a mockingbird ...
and the eagle flies among the Rocky Mountains of my dreams and fights among the Sierra crags of what I want ...
and the mockingbird warbles in the early forenoon before the dew is gone, warbles in the underbrush of my Chattanoogas of hope, gushes over the blue Ozark foothills of my wishes--And I got the eagle and the mockingbird from the wilderness.

O, I got a zoo, I got a menagerie, inside my ribs, under my bony head, under my red-valve heart--and I got something else: it is a man-child heart, a woman-child heart: it is a father and mother and lover: it came from God-Knows-Where: it is going to God-Knows-Where--For I am the keeper of the zoo: I say yes and no: I sing and kill and work: I am a pal of the world: I came from the wilderness.

Carl Sandburg

Thanks for linking!

The Economist is carrying an article about the science of religion and a wide ranging inquiry into the biological bases of religious belief. Does anyone here know anything about the proposed 3 year study highlighted in the article?

Explaining Religion - Where Angels No Longer Fear to Tread

Anyone here ever heard of Budd Dwyer? Seems we have a precedent for how the current Republican regime should atone for all the scandals of the last 8 years. it would certainly keep them out of jail, if only there was someone in office with the cojones to prosecute these SOBs for their high crimes and misdemeanors.

You know how PZ frequently posts some of the wackier emails he gets? As an adult, if someone was sending me these, I could always add them to my spam filter, and that'd be it.

But what if you're 13, and your friends are sending them to you?

I have a great example of this right now. I cut and pasted it into Word, just to get an idea of how long it is, and unlike a small number of PZ's other posters, I will not post an 80,000 word item here without permission. This isn't quite 80,000 words, but it IS 37 pages. I'm not kidding.

(I draw the line somewhere...)

Any advice on how to get my daughter to approach this? She did ask for my help. And if anyone asks, I'll include one of the dorkier parts of the email (a story about a minister with a rusty birdcage). I'm a guest here, and including the entire email would be like rebuilding a motorcycle in PZ's dining room; I doubt I'll ever do something like that, but I'd at least ASK first.

My inclination is to tell this other girl to knock it off, but she's very into religion, so I doubt she'll stop. To make matters worse, they're pretty close.

So, all you Dear Abbies out there, any advice?

Thanks.

Tell the other girl in the most polite and frank manner that she is clogging your daughter's e-mail inbox, and could she please send future installments psychically instead?

@ MikeM (#21): I don't have any good advice, but if they're fairly close friends, I'd suggest that your daughter should just tell her that she really doesn't have time to read through such long letters. "I think you've got some interesting ideas, but why don't we talk more about X." Where X can be whatever topic they actually share an interest in that your daughter wouldn't mind talking about. I imagine the friend will pick up on the hint that your daughter doesn't want to hear psycho-rants, but perhaps it'll be a gentle hint that their relationship can weather.

Hey - what happened to the thread on SCM's latest?