Episode XLV: Is this the fate of the Thread That Wouldn't Die?

It's not my fault if you won't let it die!

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Rev #501...

My heart just topped just looking at that thing...

By Celtic_Evolution (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

@Reb BDC:

That... sandwich (can it be considered a sandwich?) is made of meat.

I find nothing redeeming about that monstrosity even if it does contain what they claim is bacon.

That's what nightmares are made it.

By Rev. BigDumbChimp (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

@Feyn:

America - home of the FATTIES.

Link fail. Go here if you need to see it.

By Feynmaniac (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

@510 - my son would love it.

Link fail. Go here if you need to see it.

I actually grew up in the city that Spawned Krispy Kreme, so it doesn't surprise me.

As a young-ish teenager I used to drop in one of the original KK doughnut shops late night after partaking in some less than legal liquid dropped on tiny pieces of paper.

And I can confirm that it is true that cops really like doughnuts. And they tend to ignore what is going on around them while stuffing sugar coated rings of fried dough in their faces.

Or at least the ones in Winston-Salem do.

By Rev. BigDumbChimp (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

Well, I guess the KFC 'sandwich' could qualify as low-carb. If you get the grilled (not breaded and fried) one. Or you could swallow a couple two-three tablespoons of salt and get the same effect. Without the proteins. Or the bacon.

We have a Krispy Kream about six blocks from where I work. When my daughter was in elementary school (and (((Wife))) and I did the whole PTA/PTO routine), someone suggested a KK fundraiser. We thought it was a stupid idea -- pay five bucks for a dozen glazed doughnuts and the PTA keeps a buck.

We filled the back of our minivan with boxes of Krispy Kreams. Three times. Floor to ceiling. With the seats taken out.

Damn things are popular.

One teacher bought twenty boxes. Yes, a hundred bucks worth of fresh doughnuts. She was morbidly obese (not that I'm much better, but I can still walk), diabetic, and needed a cane to walk. At the age of 35.

I wonder if the doughnuts had anything to do with it?

Naw. In her view, it was 'god's will.'

Body a temple my pasty white ass.

Yeah there was a huge run a few years back where Krispy Kreme shop openings where huge. They were expanding like crazy And the Stock when big.

That's changed, and so has the stock price.

By Rev. BigDumbChimp (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

Rev. BDC:

Some years ago, I was at a forest fire up in Montana. I worked night shift (1600 to 0900 (with two 1/2 hour breaks)) and kept awake by listening to the radio. Once the sun went down, I was reduced to AM stations.

Which really wasn't all that bad. I could, from 2300 to 0400, pick up a San Francisco sports station witch replayed two or three condensed baseball games. I could also pick up a station out of Salt Lake City in the evening and early morning.

The SLC station, the whole two weeks I was at the fire, had one basic subject -- the imminent, then happening, then happened, opening of a Krispy Kreme in downtown SLC. It produced traffic jams far worse than any created by the winter Olympics, with people standing in line for up to four hours to get dougnuts.

Must have been buying enough for all the small Mormon families.

I can't believe that doughnuts created such a ruckus!?

I don't remember when we got krispy kremes in Dallas. I think maybe we bought some doughnuts, but I didn't like it. I don't like doughnuts much unless they're those thick cake ones. I don't think the kispy kremes were that big a deal here but maybe I just wasn't paying attention. Nothing compared to Sprinkles cupcakes. People were really excited about sprinkles cupcakes. They have some tasty cupcakes, but La Rosette and Breadwinners have better baked desserts IMO.

The SLC station, the whole two weeks I was at the fire, had one basic subject -- the imminent, then happening, then happened, opening of a Krispy Kreme in downtown SLC. It produced traffic jams far worse than any created by the winter Olympics, with people standing in line for up to four hours to get dougnuts.

Must have been buying enough for all the small Mormon families.

Yeah I was living in Telluride when the first one in Denver opened and the Co. news was all about it.

I had to chuckle about the whole thing.

By Rev. BigDumbChimp (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

So there's the whole "fake prom" thing.

And there's the "Obama puts out an executive order to kill a citizen because he thinks he's Tom Clancy or some shit" thing.

And there's the "Catholic bishops justify child rape" thing.

And I think you know, what I need in the midst of all this is something mindless to poke fun at, and I haven't been there in awhile, so I'll go see what's happening at the Twins' digs.

And I see that the Unpopular Science piece of tripe article got put into The Best American Science Writing 2010.

Fuck.

Krispy Kreme doughnuts are delicious. Unbelievers must be converted through immersion therapy immediately!

By Pygmy Loris (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

@Pygmy Loris:

Immersion therapy... like being immersed in the glaze?

Cause that would be sticky and probably burn.

Kevin (@500):

I actually almost never watch the Rachel Maddow Show, but I subscribe to the podcast, and listen to the audio daily. Now that the audio is no longer being repackaged as a radio show for the late, lamented Air America, the podcast is the whole show. Whenever there's a story that sounds like it really needs the visuals, I go to msnbc.com for the segment online.

@Krispy Kreme fans:

KK folded up its tent and abandoned the Hartford area a few years ago, but before that I used to love going there and just watching the donut machine work. In fact, we actually used to take visitors there as a sort of outing. My favorite part of the process was when the freshly fried doughnuts pass through the curtain of falling glaze.

The free samples hot off the line didn't hurt anything, either.

By Bill Dauphin, OM (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

I've never been in a Krispy Kreme. Geez, I haven't had a donut for, um, at least 18 years. The big temptation around here is freshly baked Kuchen. Especially the Peach Kuchen. Holeee, it's hard to ignore that stuff.

By Caine, Fleur du mal (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

Immersion therapy: "Dude, like, I'm really really fried."

Ol'Greg: If you can get one still warm from the fryer, before the glaze fully solidifies, it is as close to ambrosia as any of us mere mortals (which is, pretty much, everyone and everything living, right?) can get.

I used to love going there and just watching the donut machine work.

see #510.

By Rev. BigDumbChimp (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

I used to love going there and just watching the donut machine work.

My kids can sit and watch this thing at Wegman's for a surprisingly long time. It pops.

I am a sad and silly person. I stumbles upon Bad Translator!. Now I am entering random statements.

Ol'Greg: If you can get one still warm from the fryer, before the glaze fully solidifies, it is as close to ambrosia as any of us mere mortals (which is, pretty much, everyone and everything living, right?) can get.

After ten translations, it becomes this.

Ol'Greg: If you are still hot pan for fuel, in the vicinity of ragweed, and we ordinary people (that is, a whole lot and around the world, is not it?) Can afford.

After twenty five translations.

Ambrose Ol'Greg your gas stove, ordinary people (ie the world does not?).

And now the maximum.

Gas komprehensive ambrosyo awl 'Greg ordinary people in the world (not).

I am going to save this for out more incoherent trolls.

By Janine, Mistre… (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

Bill #498,

I like Rachel Maddow. I'm generally close to her "opinions" about various subjects, and she's clearly much more intelligent and less intellectually dishonest than Beck or Limbaugh.

But this makes me wonder, why has cable news in America morphed into some kind of big opinion page. So if I'm close to Rachel's opinions, I'll go and listen to the news presented by Rachel and get comforted in my opinions about things. If I'm close to Beck's opinions, I'll go and listen to the news presented by Beck. Where does this lead to? And then on the internet it's of course the same thing. And let's not talk about talk radio.

It might be surprising for an American, but here in most European countries I know of, I'd be quite incapable of telling the opinions of most of the news presenters. I still watch the news everyday on French TV in order to get a non opinionated overview in 30 minutes of what's happening in the world. Then I can still find the opinions on the internet.

I don't know where this more and more extreme opposition between on one hand conservative/libertarian opinion news, on the other liberal/progressive opinion news is going to lead to. My sense is that it plays a big role in isolating the communities, they don't even get the same basic information.

By negentropyeater (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

@Janine:

I must utilize this translator immediately!!

I will go to my post #500:

I totally agree. I was contemplating watching her over the new episode of Lost last night - Lost won out, but I watched the re-run on the internet here at work, so she won out, too.

10

"I totally agree. The first night I saw the new ring, lost last month - the loss of livestock, but I hope to repeat it working here, or even win."

25

"I totally agree with you. The first night I saw a new tire, lost in the past month - a loss of animals, but I repeat this work here, or even hope to win."

Max

"I agree with you. The first day of the month. Still not working, New dash - where the animals will give up and good."

Haha, awesome.

Janine:

I stumbles upon Bad Translator!

My last post (522) translated:

10: "I'm not crunchy cream. Oh, I do not respond, or 18 years. A great temptation here is a fresh bun. Peach, particularly Kuchen. Holeee difficult to ignore these things."

25: "Crispy cream. Oh, I do not answer, 18 years or not. The temptation of fresh bread. Fitz, especially sweets. Holeee difficult to ignore."

Max: ""Cold Crisp am. Year 18 junior as his father was an enemy, as a special sweet bread holeee ..."

LOL. That's great, Janine. Bookmarked, to be used in the future. :D

By Caine, Fleur du mal (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

I am going to save this for out more incoherent trolls.

Wait. What? I thought I was coherent.

Damn. No frickin' lasers coming out of my eyes. I already am incoherent.

I had to try it on my 511:

Yes, I think I say, Kentucky, and carbohydrates to make sandwiches. If net (fried bread), but 1 or 2, you can use 3 teaspoons of salt and get the same results. Without these proteins. Bacon, or not."

I tried running some of Less-Brains-Than-a-Stuffed-Turkey's (Graeme Bird's) ramblings through the Bad Translator, but in every case, it got stuck after translating to Arabic (c.5th translation).

The above becomes:

Try to use a translator for the aid to Turkey because of the first (solo), Graham sick birds, but in any case of Arabic, this morning (translation c.5th) translation.

And that itself becomes:

Try to translate, so that after the first (1) Turkey, Graham sick birds, but in any case of Arabic, this morning (translation c.5th) translation.

I can see this becoming a massive time-sink…

There is a sucker born every second.

becomes

Not every fool's second child.

becomes

Not everyone silly boy.

becomes

Children are not stupid.

I love this thing.

By Janine, Mistre… (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

blf:

I tried translating the blurb at the top of an NPS web page (the one I write and maintain) and it also got skulled up on #5 Arabic.

Does that mean my writing is up there with the Bird? Or that Bird's writing is as sensible as a US government web site?

Either way, I'm disturbed.

Congrats, Janine - you have now reduced my work efficiency some MORE. Pharyngula does it normally, but now I'm going to want to run everything I write through the bad translator - and it's my job to write stuff, hehe.

Original text:

"1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was [a] formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. "

and after 54 translations:

""God is first in the heavens and the earth to 1 [figure 2] independent, black, and the spirit of the different Movements."

This damn thing could be dangerous.

Alright, someone has to do it:

"God kills everyone in Sodom and Gomorrah. This was because, so say the Christian Right, some homosexuals lived there."

10: "Sodom and Gomorrah God, kill everyone. His life, it is because the right of gay Christians, and not."

25: "Sodom and Gomorrah, the God of all murders. Life was good in the non-Christian joy"

Max: "Sodom and gomorrah, and God is alive. Hope life is not Christianity."

By Caine, Fleur du mal (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players: They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts,

becomes

Things in the world, all men and women players: Do not give up work on the role of many people;

becomes

The world of men and women of all concerned, and not many;

becomes

Men and women in the world.

But I loved this.

PORTUGUESE : Homens e mulheres ao redor do mundo, nem tudo é atendido;
Back to ENGLISH : Men and women around the world, not everything is covered;

By Janine, Mistre… (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

Rich Christmas/Wedding/Birthday Cake
18oz currants
8oz sultanas
8oz raisins stoned (exactly how you get a raisin stoned is unclear)
4oz mixed peel, chopped
6oz glace cherries, halved
10oz plain flour
Pinch of salt
Mixed spice
Ground cinnamon
10oz butter
10oz soft brown sugar
Grated lemon rind
6 eggs, beaten
Brandy (I used tequila when I made our wedding cake)

Line a 9” cake tin with greaseproof paper and tie a double layer of brown paper round the outside.
Mix the currents, sultanas, cherries and peel with the flour salt and spices. Cream the butter, sugar and lemon rind. Add eggs slowly, beating well. Fold in the flour and fruit and add the brandy. (beware! At this stage the mixture is almost irresistible to children and may be eaten without cooking).
Put in tin making sure there are no air pockets. Leave the surface slightly concave. Cook at 300F for about 4.5hrs. At 2.5 hours cover with several layers of greaseproof paper. Cool in tin. When cool, prick surface and add extra brandy.
My cake always seem to have more cherries and fruit and brandy for some reason.
For the full Monty, cover with marzipan (using apricot jam as adhesive) and the decorate with Royal icing,

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.

Friends, Romans, fellow, lend me your ears come to bury Caesar, not praise.

Friends, Romans, the man, lent me his ear, do not forget Caesar Awards.

Friends, Romans, friends, and I am sure I heard sesar Awards

Caine, I am not sure which I like more;

Life was good in the non-Christian joy.

or

Hope life is not Christianity.

Kevin and iambilly, I am sorry that I fucked up your day. But I have not laughed this hard in a long time.

By Janine, Mistre… (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me.

I am the Lord your God from the house of bondage in Egypt. I have no other gods before you.

I am the Lord your God, but Egyptian slavery. I really have no other gods before you.

I am the Lord God who, emphasis in Egypt. I am interested in God.

By Janine, Mistre… (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

I still watch the news everyday on French TV in order to get a non opinionated overview in 30 minutes of what's happening in the world.

Have you considered that your idea of a "non opinionated overview" is bullshit?

Damn you Janine... Damn you straight to heck!

This:

"You fell victim to the classic blunder! The most well known being never get involved in a land war in Asia. But only slightly lesser known is this: Never go up against a Sicilian when death is on the line!"

becomes this after 10:

You are the typical victims of mistakes! Ever known to have participated in the war in Asia. However, only very few people know that never in Sicily, like this: If the death benefit from the trip!

and even better, after 25, this:

You represent the victims of mistakes! What is known about the war in Asia. Very few know that one day in Sicily, like this: If you are going to the funeral!

By Celtic_Evolution (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

...10 translations later we get:

He's a devil, slithy Zhimbl soft and light frost as: Misébiles borogoves and rats outgrabe now.

You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My Commandments.

Portrait of the Earth must be based on any image or in heaven above or below the soil surface or the owner, not to serve them. For me, my God, oh your God is a jealous God, to those who hate my parents, the third and evil, there is no sympathy for the fourth generation of kids, me, but my orders, to save the 1000 Number.

Image, or sky or underground, or be completed by the owner of the land is also based. Oh, my God, my God, hates jealous God, parents, and the third and evil, the fourth generation of my children there because there is no mercy, I, but in 1000 the number of orders for my store

Not looking at the sky and earth, being in the house. My God, evil, jealousy, Tuesday you do not want my daughter and fourth generation. However, the library was completed in 1000.

By Janine, Mistre… (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

Idiot's siding with the catholic church, 'cause he thinks it's a freedom of speech issue.

That didn't take long. First round TKO.

By Celtic_Evolution (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.

You can not use the name of the Lord your God will be used for retirement, not the innocent people of God, his name is written in vain.

This may be where the Lord your God, God's name written in retirement, it is not violent and they are innocent.

This is the name of God, and honesty.

By Janine, Mistre… (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

neg (@527):

But this makes me wonder, why has cable news in America morphed into some kind of big opinion page. So if I'm close to Rachel's opinions, I'll go and listen to the news presented by Rachel and get comforted in my opinions about things.

I'm not sure it's really this simple. You say...

...here in most European countries I know of, I'd be quite incapable of telling the opinions of most of the news presenters.

...and I think much the same is true of the primary news broadcasts of the major U.S. networks (i.e., ABC, CBS, and NBC), and of the local news broadcasts of their affiliates (including, BTW, local affiliates of the broadcast Fox network, which is separate from the cable Fox "News" Channel, despite all being part of the Murdoch empire). And, despite the whingeing of the right, I suspect it's true of the straight news broadcasts of CNN and MSNBC, as well (although not, by all reports, FNC). Maddow's show, however, is a different animal: First, it's about politics, and doesn't claim to cover the more catholic range of stories a general news broadcast. Next, yes, the host is a famous liberal (yes, yes, liberal by U.S. standards, which is just barely center-left, if even that, by the exalted standards of The Continent® ;^} ), but the purpose of the show is not simply to flog a liberal agenda. If you watch the show (or listen to it, as I do), you'll notice that virtually all of the actual content is fact-based, and most of the time when you hear an actual opinion expressed, it's that of a guest, rather than Maddow's own.

This is somewhat like the argument I've been having with gbyshenk on one of the iPad threads: There are, IMHO, different orders of subjectivity. One is the pure expression of personal preference: I like green and you prefer blue, and there's nothing more to be said, because its simply a matter of taste, and de gustibus non disputandum. But there's another sort of partial subjectivity, where two people start from different sets of goals or preferences, but within that context work with facts and valid logic to reach positions that are clear, consistent, and useful.

I say what Maddow does is in this latter category: Consistent with her identity as a liberal, she starts with a set of ideas about how the world ought to be (and they're different ideas than those of conservatives). This might affect what stories she chooses to talk about, and it might affect how she reacts to those stories, but it does not (IMHO) affect the facts she presents nor her analytical process. Within her acknowledge framework, she deals honestly with her audience.

By contrast, the Limbaugh/Beck/Hannity crowd simply lie. They lie in two distinct ways: first, by asserting that their ideological frame is objectively correct, and not preferential at all; second, by simply misrepresenting the facts (as witness Maddow's takedown of Fox's reporting on the ACORN fake-scandal).

Maddow and Beck may disagree about whether socialism is good, or (to the extent that socialism can be an analog quantity) how much socialism is good for the U.S. That's a matter of simple opinion. But when Beck says Obama is a dangerous radical socialist, he's simply lying (no, it's not a matter of opinion, unless you think words have no meaning, in which case everything would be a matter of opinion)... and when Maddow says Obama is not a socialist, and demonstrates it by comparing his policies to actual socialists, and then to the (much more similar) policies of previous moderate Republicans, she's telling the truth. Which side of the argument each is on may be a matter of subjective preference, but that doesn't mean the arguments the make aren't objectively either true or false.

Maddow and her ilk may be a reaction to Beck and his ilk... but that does not mean they're "merely" the opposite sides of the same coin.

By Bill Dauphin, OM (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

Take this, all of you, and drink from it:
this is the cup of my blood,
the blood of the new and everlasting covenant.
It will be shed for you and for many
so that sins may be forgiven.
Do this in memory of me.

after 10:

Take this, all drinks my blood of the Alliance, and eternal. This will get rid of you and most people do not forgive sins. It's in my memory.

after 25:

Do not drink blood, and eternal union. To the left, and most people do not forgive sins. In my opinion.

By Celtic_Evolution (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

Celtic_Evolution:

That didn't take long. First round TKO.

Yep, he's been stomped into the ground. Now we'll see if he reappears.

By Caine, Fleur du mal (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

That "sandwich" a way up there, the bacon-between-two-slices-of-chicken one, would deconstruct into a bacon-wrapped chicken filet and some dipping sauce, or even a chicken filet with dipping sauce with bacon bits. It's still not healthy, but calling it a sandwich and making it look like a sandwich is the problem. Not that a white-bread burger bun would make it any less unhealthy.

Damnation. I just know I am going to eat one.

after 25 translations:

Die, fat American pig.

By Menyambal (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

Steve... but how much brandy!?

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

Remember the Sabbath spirit. 6 days of work and work, but last Saturday, the seventh day of the Lord your God. In fact, it can work: you or your son or daughter or an agent, either male or female cattle, servants, you and your home to strangers. For six days the Lord made heaven and earth and sea, all that, but the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath holy.

Remember that the spirit of Shabbat. Work and 6 days, but last Saturday, the seventh day of God. What it really works: You are the son or daughter, or their representatives, male or female, servers, people go home. In six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, but the seventh day. God blessed the Sabbath day holy

Sabbath in the spirit of my 6 days 7, 2009, world Mild grade. Is it true that men and women, Your son or daughter, or their representative Administrators. Father, Lord of heaven and earth, the sea, 6th, 7 God bless Locally.

By Janine, Mistre… (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

Did I mention I just bought my ticket LOL...

You lucky bastard!

Are you planning on attending TAM Australia in November?

Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.

Honor your father and mother, your days are still in the land the Lord your God gives you.

Honor thy father and thy mother, the day the land the Lord your God has given you still have.

Honor your father and your parents will not be in this country with God.

By Janine, Mistre… (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

You shall not murder.

It is not murder.

Not murder.

No Martyr.

By Janine, Mistre… (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

I might go to TAM australia...I talked to a few of the organizers, and they suggested there's a possibility. No promises, though, it's expensive to haul people from this place to the Southern Hemisphere.

You shall not commit adultery.

Do not commit adultery

You shall not commit adultery, but not you.

Brody, but not so.

By Janine, Mistre… (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

You shall not steal.

Do not steal.

You shall not steal.

You can play.

By Janine, Mistre… (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

Janine, are you going to spend the next month feeding the entire Bible through the Acme Translate-O-Matic and posting it here? :-)

======

Speaking of religious texts, the weirdest I've ever seen - weirder even than the Book of Mormon - has got to be Oahspe: A New Bible, written in 1882 by a New York dentist. It has the distinction of being the first sacred text in history to have been written on a typewriter. There is a very small religious sect, called the "Universal Faithists of Kosmon", who follow the teachings of Oahspe.

This seems to be one of the immutable laws of human behaviour. A corollary to Rule 34 - "if it exists, there's porn of it" - has got to be "if it exists, there's a religion based on it."

You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

He said: "Your neighbors do not aixecaràs false testimony.

He added: "Residents aixecaràs perjury.

He sorry aikekaras.

By Janine, Mistre… (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

Bill,

I think you describe very well the difference between a Maddow and a Beck.

btw is there an equivallent to a Maddow on the conservative side? Is there an intellectually honest, analytically rigourous conservative TV or radio news presenter with his/her own show? Or is this just an oxymoron?

And still, I can't think of an equivallent to a Maddow or a Beck over here. We have political pundits who get invited on various shows, but I can't think of a show on TV which is dedicated to the left or the right. It just wouldn't fly. Maybe our market is too small, I don't know. And I don't miss it.

By negentropyeater (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

Janine, MOFMA,

I'm reading this thread bottom up when I come to #545:

Not looking at the sky and earth, being in the house. My God, evil, jealousy, Tuesday you do not want my daughter and fourth generation. However, the library was completed in 1000.

:D *catching breath* That was a good laugh.

By aratina cage (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

I might go to TAM australia...

If you go then I can't go, otherwise my wife will accuse me of being a part of a cult of personality. :P

But seriously speaking, aren't the SGU team getting there with assistance from donations? Given the turn-out you got in Canberra and the reaction to your speech in Melbourne, I'm betting you could probably have a community-funded Sydney trip... and still get free beers the whole time.

You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's.

I do not want my neighbor's house does not want his neighbor's wife or servants, male and female servant, nor his Kaunas, nor his ass, or people.

I do not want that guy's neighbor, spouse, or slave, slave, husband and wife, nor his ass, or Kaunas and people do not want your home.

Child or Spouse does not want to show home of its people.

By Janine, Mistre… (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

Great, one more way to waste time.....

"To be or not to be– that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles
And, by opposing, end them"

...10 translations later we get:

"Whether or not that is the question: If Tess was insulted and wealth, high-frame arrow or problems, and bring in more weapons end"

...25 translations later we get:

"The question is: If the flight is a high-level structure and problems hit the jackpot, and that weapon"

...54 translations later we get:

"Q: Quality award and Armed conflict in the plane."

By Feynmaniac (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

This is for all of you bacon munching Pharyngulites.

Die, fat American pig.

Bacon is a fight for the United States.

Bacon fight against us.

We are in the Armed forces.

For some reason, I am thinking of the Nippon Ham Fighters.

By Janine, Mistre… (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

'Tis, What does an ecomomist do for a casino?

Economics, what else?

My title is Executive Director of Economic Planning and Chief Economist. Sounds impressive, doesn't it?

Ten years ago the folks who own the casino, a Native American tribe, were looking to diversify. They knew that gambling (called "gaming" in casino-speak) would become saturated and they wanted to expand into other profitable fields. I was hired to advise the Tribal Council on these fields.

As it happens the recession plus some poor decisions by the Council* have limited the money available for expansion. However before that happened my boss, the Vice President for Planning, and I started taking on miscellaneous jobs that no one else wanted. My boss and I are senior level utility outfielders. A while ago she and I were discussing what we do and she said, "We're the shitty little job executives." I didn't disagree.

One of my primary functions can be described by a parable. About a thousand years ago a German monastery had a carp hatchery. Everyone knew carp from the hatchery weren't as good as carp from a river. So the monk who ran the hatchery went to the river, caught a pike, and put it in the hatchery. The carp started getting exercise keeping away from the pike. While the quantity went down somewhat the quality of the carp improved dramatically. One thing I do is act as a pike among the carp.

*Two of which I argued strenuously against, which is a major reason I still have a job.

By 'Tis Himself, OM (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

The idiot continues on:

No, I am not a libertarian. I own a gun, Am pro choice, Anti-Government when it is the nanny state, pro-government when it is collectivism. I cheered for passage of Mr. Obama's health care reform and am pissed off that the government wants to outlaw menthol cigarettes. Even though I don't smoke. Oh, and I don't believe in God, thank you very much. But I do certainly appreciate all the mindless stereotyping from you all.

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2010/04/hey_i_missed_a_poll.php#comm…

By Caine, Fleur du mal (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

And still, I can't think of an equivallent to a Maddow or a Beck over here. We have political pundits who get invited on various shows, but I can't think of a show on TV which is dedicated to the left or the right. It just wouldn't fly. Maybe our market is too small, I don't know. And I don't miss it.

neg, perhaps you could conduct an analysis of French media coverage of the kidnapping of Aristide.

Janine, I fucking hate you. there was work that needed to be getting done!

"We all live in the protection of certain cowardices which we call our principles."

10: "We all live in a particular cowardice, to defend our principles.""

25: "We live in a certain shame in order to protect our fundamental principle."

max: ""We believe that the nature of life."

--------

"Never put off till tomorrow what may be done day after tomorrow just as well."

10: "Do not wait until tomorrow, tomorrow you can do."

25: "Do not wait until tomorrow, tomorrow."

max: "Morning, patients"

---------

"It is human nature that even the most conscienceless thieves do not like to be pilloried in the Rogues' Gallery."

10: "It is human nature, even the most shameless thieves do not want to undermine the less fraud. "

25: "It is human nature, even notorious thieves will not compromise on the little betrayals. "

max: "The good people of this kind without knowing it was too painful reading."

By Jadehawk OM, H… (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

Ol'Greg #553

Steve... but how much brandy!?

Now there you have me.
The original recipe calls for '3 tablespoons', but MY recipe has evolved towards ever larger amounts and I now seem to add the stuff as Keith Floyd (of blessed memory)would have done - 'a good glug'---or three. Whatever, the cake must be moist. With plenty of spirit the cake will keep for months and improve with age. However,our Christmas cake never sees the New Year.

Hmmm, maybe we can make a game out the Bad Translator.

Take a well known phrase, and put through the "translator". First reveal the max. translations. If someone gets it, 50 points. If not, reveal the 25 translation version, 25 points. Then if no one gets that, the 10 translatioins version, 10 points. Finally, if all fails, reveal the phrase.

Let's start off with an easy one. For 50 points:

My mother always "no chocolate for you to know that life

By Feynmaniac (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

Feyn:

Momma always said 'life is like a box of chocolates'

Janine, I fucking hate you. there was work that needed to be getting done!

'I like deadlines. I especially like the whooshing sound they make as they go by.'

"I love deadlines. In particular, you do not like Boos, because of their practice."

"I love deadlines, of course, that when the whistle to go."

"I want to fly."

Janine, I fucking hate you. there was work that needed to be getting done!

I hate a couple of other people. It's 1:11 at night, and "today" I've only read from comment 160 to comment 510 at the atrocity thread so far, which is just over 2/3 down the page – or rather was, several hours ago. It's doubtful whether I'll be able to catch up before having to go to bed from exhaustion.

And then I need to catch up with this thread!!!

Before I forget, has Varanus bitatawa been mentioned already? If not, look it up – I bet it has had a Wikipedia article for about 24 hours now. It's an especially awesome 2-m-long monitor lizard from northern Luzón (Philippines) which eats mostly fruit and was unknown to science till right about now (the paper hasn't been published yet, at least not the dead-tree version).

By David Marjanović (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

Alright, let's try something harder. For 50 points:

Because they are not the first time.

By Feynmaniac (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

Might as well try that one, too...

Original quote:

Janine, I fucking hate you. there was work that needed to be getting done!

10 rounds:

Jenny, I hate stupid. Failure to do so!

25 rounds:

Jenny, I hate that stupid. One more thing!

54 rounds:

Jenny, I hate stupid problem.
By aratina cage (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

A fun entry into Feynmaniac's game:

Guide and more! .

Man, this one got weirder than I was expecting.

Feyn/Paul:

Oh.. I don't even know what those could be...

Well, Feyn gave another test, and nobody will ever get mine, so I'll share the whole chain:

MAX: Guide and more!

25: Bookmarks & More!

10: Forward chips!

Original:

It's a fracking cracker!

Paul @ 583, ROTFL. That's great. I love the Forward chips! I can imagine a catholic priest yelling that at mass.

By Caine, Fleur du mal (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

Alright, for 25 points then:

"If that does not go out because it seems difficult that the actual"

By Feynmaniac (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

Janine, I fucking hate you. there was work that needed to be getting done!

"I love work. I can sit and watch it for hours."
"I love to do. I can sit for hours watching."
"I want to. I looked at it for hours."
"When I see"

Forward chips!

I was disappointed in what I got with the 25 and max translations, that one was just filled with win. I submit "Forward chips!" as a new Pharyngula meme!

Here is a scary one, what translates to "My God" after 53 rounds (next to last)?

Highlight for answer→I am an atheist←

Or what becomes, "Most of human history, atheists believe in God, my God." after 16 rounds and then "History of religion, God is God." after 54 rounds?

Highlight for answer→We are all atheists about most of the gods that humanity has ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further.←

By aratina cage (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

LOL.... I was looking for phrases for my new game and

"No man is an island"

After 25 translations the meaning became quite different:

"We are not responsible"

Max:

"T"

(That's not a typo. All that came out was a a capital 't'.)

By Feynmaniac (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

Alright, one last clue. For 10 points:

"If you can not be eliminated, which, because it seems incredible, it must be true"

By Feynmaniac (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

aratina cage:

Here is a scary one, what translates to "My God" after 53 rounds (next to last)?

Highlight for answer→I am an atheist←

Hahahahahahahahahaha.

By Caine, Fleur du mal (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

I got it, Feynmaniac:

when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth-Sherlock Holmes

By aratina cage (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

Here's the Pygmy Loris talked to her advisor report:

I met with my advisor today and we talked about why I want to quit graduate school and my plans for the future. He was very supportive and understanding, so I'm feeling much better about my life. My advisor also promised me a good letter of recommendation if I decide to go to law school next fall or if I apply to teach at community college. So, life is looking better. Knowing that I don't have to spend the next three years working on a dissertation I hate just so I would have a chance at getting one of the few jobs in my field is wonderfully freeing. Being supported by one of the people I look up to the most is just icing on the cake.

Thanks for all the encouragement and advice. I really, really appreciate it.

By Pygmy Loris (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

Pygmy Loris, that is great news!

By Caine, Fleur du mal (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

Thanks, Caine :)

By Pygmy Loris (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

Caine,

I meant to add this to the above, but did your power come back on for good? You said yesterday that it was on and off.

By Pygmy Loris (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

aratina cage, you got it!

It would be really shocking if someone could have gotten if from "Because they are not the first time."

By Feynmaniac (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

Pygmy Loris, yes, we have power again, came back on at 4:30 pm yesterday and stayed on! :D It's really nice to have it again. Considering the damage, 5 days without power wasn't bad at all. I feel sorry for the power crews, those people haven't had a break, and likely won't most of the year. All the patching now is temporary, new towers will have to be built and replaced. I expect we'll be without power a few more times this year.

*Yes, I had a shower!

By Caine, Fleur du mal (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

PL, I am glad that went well for you. It sounds like many quite good possiblities await. Yay! Thanks for the report.

By Menyambal (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

Kel @ 555 and PZ @ 558,

I will definetely go to TAM, although one has to realise(waves to Kylie !!)that this is a sceptics meeting, and people will be nice and non-confrontational when the topic of religion is concerned.

As to Copenhagen, looking forward to it ! If David or jadehawk want to make contact beforehand to set up details etc, mail me to terminate111 at hot.

By Rorschach (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

negentropyeater,

For 30 years Americans have been told that the mainstream media (MSM) have a liberal bias, and therefore cannot be trusted. The belief in an over-all liberal media bias is held even by many progressives and liberals.

Many Americans understand that Fox News has a conservative bias, but they don't see this as a problem. Fox's bias, in their minds, counters the liberal bias in the rest of the media (because ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN are all biased towards the left!).

You see, in the USA, center-right presidents are called socialists and communists, and straight-forward news reflecting reality is full of liberal bias. I think too many people who look at the US simply cannot understand how deeply conservative a large portion of the population is.

When we say 25% of the population is extremely conservative, what we mean is 1 in 4 Americans is bat shit crazy right-wing. There is no sizable left-wing here, only center-left and even that is relatively powerless. Did you see the "health care reform" that managed to pass through Congress? It's what the right-wing proposed 16 years ago, now it's called socialism. These people (American voters, not the politicians) really believe that.

By Pygmy Loris (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

Damn you Janine, damn you to heck! I'm supposed to be grading!

Great news, PL. Glad it went so well!!! I bet you get a good night's sleep tonight. :)

Or, as Shakespeare would say, To sleep, perchance to dream... or, as the translator would say, rest and sleep, no abnormalities. Er...

Caine,

It isn't until we lose electrical power that we realize how much we depend on it.

Yes, I had a shower!

On behalf of the rest of the world, we thank you.

By 'Tis Himself, OM (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

Janine, Mistress Of Foul Mouth Abuse, OM:

I am a sad and silly person. I stumbles upon Bad Translator!.

This is just disappointing. I think the system has been gamed.

Original text:

"My hovercraft is full of eels."

...25 translations later we get:

"My hovercraft is full of eels."

Caine,

Yay for hot showers!

Menyambal and Carlie,

Thanks. I really feel like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders and now I can really pursue something new. Tonight I will actually be able to sleep!

By Pygmy Loris (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

Back when I worked with people who thought that American media had a liberal bias, I tried to come up with good questions to ask them about that. I'd say, "Isn't it interesting that educated people who travel the world meeting all kinds of different folks and looking for facts develop a liberal outlook?" and "Why is it that telling the people of America what they want to hear is a liberal profession?" and "Why would a large industry, very much in the supply-and-demand business, become liberal?" Then I asked myself why I was bothering and went to get my own education.

By Menyambal (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

25 iterations of the blog tagline "Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal"
turns into "Liberal Atheist criticism of internal growth opportunities"

And finally to "Growth opportunities and freedom of Atheists."

I should add that I am finishing out this semester, so that I can complete my open research and leave without unfinished business (well, except for that pesky dissertation). Also, I don't want my leaving back-dated to last semester. I really need the six-month grace period for those student loans...damn.

By Pygmy Loris (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

So, Pygmy Loris, the powers that be turned out not to be so bad after all. I'm glad to hear it.

Now good night, sleep tight, and don't worry too much about the monster under the bed.

By 'Tis Himself, OM (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

David Marjanović #578

I was excited by your news that my beloved perentie had a long-lost cousin in the Phillippines, but only until I realised that it was a frigging fruit eater.

What kind of self-respecting goanna slinks around eating fruit? They should be killing stuff, or at least eating roadkill (not echidnas, obviously). I guess it just goes to show that you can choose your friends but you can't choose your relatives.

BTW, I'm puzzled by the apparent mystery over whether the perentie is venomous or not. How hard could it be to find out?

By ambulocetacean (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

But 'Tis, what if the monster under the bed bites my feet off?! ;P

The powers that be 'round here really do care about students and what will make us happy in the long-term rather than what the department's bottom line is. It's one of the reasons I like my department so much.

By Pygmy Loris (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

It looks like punctuation really matters to the Bad Translator. Try including or removing a period at the end of a sentence or phrase and watch as the translation goes haywire.

By aratina cage (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

Pygmy Loris says, "For 30 years Americans have been told that the mainstream media (MSM) have a liberal bias, and therefore cannot be trusted."

Hell conservatives have even been telling us of late that reality has a liberal bias, and I'm inclined to take them at their word.

By a_ray_in_dilbe… (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

PL - one quickie option, if you haven't thought of it yet - apply for a Census job. 29-question test (with a practice test online), 20-40 hours a week, decent enough money and mileage if you drive your own car. Might help tide you over for a couple of months while you figure out what to do.

PL, that's great news. I remember how traumatizing it was for me when I quit my graduate program, and I was only three semesters into it. How much more difficult to be so far along.

Caine, I'm glad to hear the power is back. That's never any fun. We were without power for two weeks when Hurricane Isabel ran over SE Virginia. The worst part for me was lack of coffee. Hot water came second. Funny, I had one-year-old twins at the time, but coffee - or a lack thereof - is what I remember most.

I will definetely go to TAM, although one has to realise(waves to Kylie !!)that this is a sceptics meeting, and people will be nice and non-confrontational when the topic of religion is concerned.

I find it funny that the "big tent" scepticism means getting as many people to agree to using critical thinking for aliens, bigfoot and whatever nonsense Quackalicious passes off as medical treatment. It's quite baffling that in the interests of getting people onside that there are those who take aversion to applying critical thinking skills to religious claims too... what tactic is it to ask people to withhold scepticsm of any and every idea?

Though on the other hand, I do actually find it annoying when atheism becomes a focal point of a sceptical gathering. I guess I like my scepticism to be more focused on particular issues like creationism or faith healing or conspiracy theories than I do on the broader concepts in general. It's not about tactics to get theists to ally with me on dismissing 9/11 truthers, just that 9/11 truthers should be discussed without needing to consider whether God exists. That God punished america through masterminding the attacks (as some theists like to imply) well that's another matter...

Hahaha!!

Ray Comfort godwinned his blog!!!

I love not having to make an argument because he calls up Hitler.

Thanks 'Tis,
I apperciate your discussing your job, otherwise I would not of known an economist could find work in a casino. My casino working experience has all been on the gaming floor, so had no idea what when on in the exectutive suites.
:)

Epikt @ 604:

"My hovercraft is full of eels."

You didn't go far enough:

Max: "Although luftputebat Eels in full."

Now, if you treat hovercraft as two words, rather than one:

10: "My complete guide to ship eel."

25: "guided my ship."

Max: "I recommend the ship."

By Caine, Fleur du mal (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

Pygmy, my guess is that your supervisor was aware of your feelings long before your meeting today. Don't worry about the monsters under the bed. Keep a golf club on hand for them (I prefer a two iron, as even god can't hit a two iron--old golf joke.) You have a support group here. Keep us informed.

By Nerd of Redhead, OM (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

Katrina:

Caine, I'm glad to hear the power is back. That's never any fun. We were without power for two weeks when Hurricane Isabel ran over SE Virginia. The worst part for me was lack of coffee.

Those little things really count. My husband was going through dammit, no coffee! problem. I'm a tea drinker. I had my kettle, PG tips and teapot. Good thing too, because I'm hostile without my tea. Not having heat for the first day and night was my big problem. At least we finally got a generator, something every rural person really should have.

By Caine, Fleur du mal (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

Thought this might be the place... but I don't contribute much to the never-ending thread.

Many of you no doubt knew about this already, but I was blissfully unaware.

The "Buck Rogers" we've been presented in the latter half of the twentieth century is nothing at all like his ilk from the 1920's. I hate him, I really do. Between his philosophizing about how scientists are morons, his bizarre Libertarian-mixed-with-ultra-racist-hating-of-socialism politics, he is actually a horrifying genocidal terrorist.

Racist, jingoist, nationalist, sexist, intellectual-hating, union-busting commie-killing anti-atheist Buck Rogers. Would that he have remained a corpse in Scranton.

If you don't quite understand what I'm talking about, read http://www.gutenberg.org/files/25438/25438-h/25438-h.htm

Go on, get a steaming eyeful.

By onethird-man (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

So I went for a walk, and noticed a sign for a lost dog on a telephone pole with letters so faded by sun and rain that the faint letter-shapes wavered around, briefly looking like "LOST GOD", until I got closer to it.

This got me thinking about what a sign for a lost god might look like.

================================

LOST GOD

Weight: Immaterial
Color: Invisible
Size: Unknowable
Gender: Neuter
Breed: Inapplicable
Temperament: Unapproachable
Other characteristics: Ineffable
Last seen: Unseen in the absence of the company of apophatic theologians, which was nowhere in particular, and not at any particular time.
If you see a God which any positive characteristics at all, then it cannot possibly be this God.
REWARD: Not being one of those atheists.

Amen.

+1

By Owlmirror (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

Bomb left at Spokane federal building
By Associated Press

Apr 7, 2010 at 6:04 PM PDT
Comments (0)SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) - Authorities are investigating the discovery 10 days ago of an improvised explosive device next to the Thomas S. Foley U.S. Courthouse in downtown Spokane.

Tom Rice, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office, said the device was located in the late evening of Sunday, March 28. He said the public was not notified because they did not want to compromise the investigation.

FBI arrests Calif man for alleged Pelosi threats
AP – 39 mins ago

AP SAN FRANCISCO - A California man angry about health care reform allegedly made threatening and harassing phone calls to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, including at least one call in which he got through and spoke to her directly, law enforcement officials said. Full Story »

Charles Alan Wilson's Death Threats Against Patty Murray
Charles Alan Wilson is the 64-year-old Selah man arrested by the FBI for calling in threats to Senator Patty Murray's voicemail. According to Murray staffers, an anonymous man going by the ...

Anyone see the pattern here? Two arrested for death threats against congresspeople, a bomb found outside a federal building, all in the last few days.

Plus the Hutaree militia. Looks like the teabaggers are getting violent. Terrorists. So far they seem to be spectacularly inept.

It's doubtful whether I'll be able to catch up before having to go to bed from exhaustion.

Predictably, I caught up – after having to go to bed from exhaustion. Now it's past 4 at night, which is rather insane considering the fact that I'm living with my family here. I'll write to Rorschach later, much later...

So, life is looking better.

:-) :-) :-)

student loans

:-(

What kind of self-respecting goanna slinks around eating fruit?

There's a nicely yellow tree-climbing species somewhere in southeast Asia... I don't know how much respect it has for itself... :o)

The south of the same Philippine island houses a close relative of V. bitatawa which is carnivorous.

BTW, I'm puzzled by the apparent mystery over whether the perentie is venomous or not. How hard could it be to find out?

Now that people know what to look for, it's easy. The venom of the Komodo monitor was only discovered a few years ago, even though it should have been rather obvious from several lines of evidence...

By David Marjanović (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

For you cooking experts out there:

I just made some krupuk, which is an Indonesian cracker made from belinjo nuts (spelling varies) from a packet I picked up in the Washington DC area. They are hard disks that have to be cooked lightly in hot oil to puff up and soften (kinda like pork rinds, if you are white-trash enough to know how that is done). I appreciated the directions on the package:

Put sufficient oil in pan.

Heat sufficiently.

Cook crackers until done.

By Menyambal (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

onethird-man, of course the original Buck Rogers was very different. Society and culture were different. It's important to keep context in mind.

By Caine, Fleur du mal (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

Some other awesome Bad Translations:

"Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine." --> "Clear to all the cities in the world."

"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe." --> "Monday possibility: that the world knows what he knows and is not limited."

"May the Force be with you" --> "This can be done."

"What we've got here is failure to communicate." --> "Forget about it."

"A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on" --> "World Magazine"

By Jadehawk OM, H… (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

I remember last month when a Republican memo leaked with their strategy. Basically, scare the lower classes and offer the richer folks access. The only thing that really surprised me was that anyone found this surprising. Honestly, the Republican party basically just works for the rich and powerful (even moreso than the Democrats). They aren't gonna get the votes of the non-rich by telling them that their plans will be really bad for them. So they scare them every two years: you will be forced to marry a gay while a Mexican takes your job and the gov't kills your elderly mother.

I almost feel bad for all those teabaggers who are being used by the wealthy to go to work against their own self-interest. It's almost genius, in a very amoral kind of way.

By Feynmaniac (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

Now that people know what to look for, it's easy

Now I'm no biologist, but I would have started by cutting the head open and looking for venom glands or something...

By ambulocetacean (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

Caine, Fleur du mal:

Epikt @ 604:"My hovercraft is full of eels."

You didn't go far enough:
Max: "Although luftputebat Eels in full."

Aw, darn. Another hypothesis, run aground on the shoals of reality.

Now that people know what to look for, it's easy

Like "watch it bite a prey animal and then stand back and wait for it to die"?

Epikt, I have to admit My hovercraft is full of eels. is pretty stable on the translation front. Perhaps it's really a universal truth.

By Caine, Fleur du mal (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

Those little things really count. My husband was going through dammit, no coffee! problem. I'm a tea drinker. I had my kettle, PG tips and teapot. Good thing too, because I'm hostile without my tea. Not having heat for the first day and night was my big problem. At least we finally got a generator, something every rural person really should have.

When we set up our "disaster preparedness kit" while living in Italy, one of the first things I added was a little two-cup stovetop espresso maker. Something small enough to set on a Sterno, if necessary. My friends teased me about it, but only until they really contemplated having to go without coffee for a couple of weeks and what, exactly, that would mean.

"There be dragons" = "Python".

"I have a cunning plan" = "In Panama".

Must...stop...

SC,

neg, perhaps you could conduct an analysis of French media coverage of the kidnapping of Aristide

Oh that will most probably come out very succinct. But do you think if we had had the equivallent of Fox News and MSNBC that would have changed anything? How was the American media coverage?

By negentropyeater (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

Carlie:

"I have a cunning plan" = "In Panama".

Does it involve a turnip?

10: "It is a monkey?"

25: "It?"

Max: "E - mail?"

By Caine, Fleur du mal (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

still on the subject of political bias in the media:

Murdoch rips competitors for bias even as more Fox critics emerge on the right

Murdoch: "I don't think we should be supporting the Tea Party or any other party. We have both sides in our news shows, our politics or whatever. We have Democrats and Republicans and whatever."

Also:

David Frum: "Republicans originally thought that Fox worked for us, and now we're discovering that we're working for Fox."
"What that means is that Fox, like Limbaugh, has an interest in pushing the Republicans to the margins, making people angry. When people are angry and alienated, they don't vote. They succumb to feelings of helplessness."

By negentropyeater (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

Carlie #633,

Part of the confusion has to do with monitor lizards' general grossness when it comes to dental hygiene.

With the komodo dragon in particular it has long been known that the roiling masses of skanky bacteria in their mouths pretty much guarantee a fatal infection for anything it bites. Komodos will track deer they have bitten for days and only finish them off when they have grown weak and slow from the infection.

Of course, reptile venom usually acts much quicker than that, but the bacteria thing has muddied the waters.

Still, you could always brush a perentie's teeth, rinse its mouth out with Listerine and then get it to bite something. Or maybe try to milk it like a snake. I dunno.

By ambulocetacean (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

Oh that will most probably come out very succinct. But do you think if we had had the equivallent of Fox News and MSNBC that would have changed anything? How was the American media coverage?

how is that relevant? that wasn't a tu quoque, merely a statement that what you seem to consider neutral, isn't.

By Jadehawk OM, H… (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

Someone has arrived to school us:

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2010/04/fulton_mississippi_skeeviest…

ihatebigots:

To all the Constance supporters, here's some interesting information. So...my friend graduated from this school last year and even she knew about the other prom. Here's the facts, just in case people care about those anymore! The prom was cancelled and the parents decided to put on a prom instead. The school, less than a week before the prom scheduled one. Everyone had already bought tickets to the parent prom, hence why they decided to go to that one. Constance knew about it as well, if she didn't she must have been living under a rock.

Dr. Myers,

You are so ignorant for calling students the names you mentioned in your blog. I am extremely disappointed that a professor, someone who is supposed to be smart and educated, is actually so ignorant. You are not from Mississippi and need to get your facts straight before bashing it. It's disappointing to know that someone who is shaping young minds would go out of his way to call minors bad names when he should be reasonably supporting his argument. I am so glad that you are not my professor nor ever will be.

By Caine, Fleur du mal (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

Murdoch rips competitors for bias even as more Fox critics emerge on the right

Best part: said his network employs Democrats and when asked to name one he has a lot of trouble doing so.

http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/201004070051

By Feynmaniac (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

I was looking through Caine's photographs and I have a question: The photos in the album "Elevators", where were they taken at?

By Gyeong Hwa Pak… (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

#574

"It is human nature, even notorious thieves will not compromise on the little betrayals.

This rocks!

"I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice."

10: "I have a dream that one day even the state Mississippi, the key is not fair that the key to the hot desert heat, and will become an oasis of freedom and justice."

25: "I have a dream one day the state of Mississippi, the key is not only important to heat the water in the desert a friend of freedom and equality."

max: "One day, Santa Catalina, Hot Deserts with a dream of Equality and Freedom."

By Jadehawk OM, H… (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

Gyeong:

The photos in the album "Elevators", where were they taken at?

In North Dakota, not far from Almont, where I live. The elevators, unfortunately, don't exist anymore. They were torn down last year. I'm still upset about that. They had been standing for almost 90 years. In fact, they marked "West Almont", which is still on maps, despite there being no such place. When old Highway 10 was built, there were some people in Almont who wanted to relocate the town, so the elevators were built, but the relocation never took place. They were amazing, and I'm sorry now that I didn't spend as much time there as I could.

By Caine, Fleur du mal (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

Oh, and the shots of the Roller Mills elevators, those were in Glen Ullin, also in ND. Those were also torn down last year, yet another piece of history gone.

By Caine, Fleur du mal (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

Nice post over at Good Math, Bad Math: I am a racist. (No math involved, so don't be frightened.)

By Feynmaniac (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

Arghhh, today is not my day.....link.

By Feynmaniac (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

Caine. Thank you. It's sad that they tore it down. Even if they weren't in use, they were still landmarks.

Feynmaniac, I've read that post but your link links back to this blog. lol.

By Gyeong Hwa Pak… (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

Gyeong, yes they were. Thank you for taking a look. :)

By Caine, Fleur du mal (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

'Tis Himself @ the Paul Nelson thread (that thread seems dead or dying, so I'm posting this here):

That's incredibly trivial.

x=0
x(x-1)=0
x-1=0
x=1
0=1

OK, help me out here. Spoon feed me, if necessary (it probably is). I've forgotten more math than I ever actually learned, if that is possible.*

x=0 {gotcha}
x(x-1)=0 {still with ya, but}
x-1=0 {whoa, wait, why does the value of x change?}
x=1 {why? (see above)}
0=1 {????}

My buddy's psychedelic-fueled calculations looked more like a Terence McKenna starfart (.6-.8 Timecubes) and as soon as he came down, he laughed at himself and sheepishly tucked his notebook away. We still chuckle about it whenever it comes up. :)

* I place the blame on a long succession of shitty math teachers (most of whom were hired for their coaching skills, rather than their teaching abilities). The most complex formula I know off the top of my head is: R=((W/2)2+H2)/2H because I use it all the time at work to find the radius of an arc.

By boygenius (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

boygenius, looks like Himself left out a step dividing by x, thus:

x(x-1) = 0

x(x-1) ÷ x = 0 ÷ x

x-1 = 0

It's a classic division by zero error.

By John Morales (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

Oh, and I'm pretty damn good at adding or subtracting fractions, as long as the numerators are odd numbers between 1-15 and the denominators are even numbers between 2-16.

Tape measures FTW.

(I eyeball 32nds and 64ths.)

By boygenius (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

boygenius, I had a mate (RIP) who played darts, and though he had no special mathematical abilities, could in an eyeblink subtract two numbers for scoring purposes, and could provide all peg-out possibilites, including the optimal ones.

The brain is a wonderful neural network.

PS I miswrote above regarding Himself's steps, he didn't miss any, merely left out specifics of each step's operation.

By John Morales (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

John Morales,

Thanks, I think I get it now. Soo.. the proof doesn't work if you're using real numbers.

All that floating-point shit and whatnot is beyond my grasp.
But:

0x1=0
0x2=0
thus
0x1=0x2
therefor
0/0x1=0/0x2
and thus
1=2
is a "smoke and mirrors" fallacy. Got it.

By boygenius (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

@John Morales:

The brain is a wonderful neural network.

Indeed. I've had friends who could cipher complex mathematical equations in seconds, but couldn't string together a comprehensible sentence to save their life. Other friends write beautiful poetry, but can't cipher 2+2=4 without showing their work.

I like to think that I fall somewhere in the middle.

/Delusions of adequacy.

By boygenius (not verified) on 07 Apr 2010 #permalink

boygenius @659, exactly so.

By John Morales (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

So, while ambling through the atheosphere, I found a blog post by Sabio Lantz¹, who found the "Three Minute Philosophy" vids by CollegeBinary.

They're damn funny, IMO.

--

¹ The post is at triangulations, but I've put this as a footnote because Sabio might not appreciate being Pharyngulated. On the other hand, a hat-tip is well-deserved.

By John Morales (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

If you go then I can't go, otherwise my wife will accuse me of being a part of a cult of personality. :P

Well, we are!

Caine, Fleur du mal:

Epikt, I have to admit My hovercraft is full of eels. is pretty stable on the translation front. Perhaps it's really a universal truth.

I don't know about "universal truth," but it is a bit of a standard phrase you feed to automated translation systems. If I were trying to build such a system, I'd make sure it correctly translated that phrase no matter how badly it mangled everything else. Just to mess with people's heads.

Lynna I got both your your emails but some stuff came up last night so i didn't get a chance to read them.

Thanks a ton looks like a bunch of good beta.

I'll get to them tonight and let you know.

VERY much appreciated.

By Rev. BigDumbChimp (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink
Systembolaget

well, this at least isn't an argument for any of the alcohol-averse admirers of Sweden; of which I know two (though, one of them doesn't like winter :p )

Which reminds me... there are almost no fossils in Sweden (it's all granite), but in spite of this there's a lot of paleontology done in Uppsala, more specifically on the origin of limbed vertebrates, the origin of jaw-bearing vertebrates... :-9 Biologists from all around the world now work in Uppsala. Sweden is doing something right.

her quote from the Advocate article was that the one good thing about the "fake" prom was that the learning-disabled students were able to have a great time without being picked on.

:-o

Good point.

If they did, I hope they chose a better name than this sailor did.

Havaria II?

(That's from Mortadelo y Filemón.)

Clean the chicken with baking soda or vinegar.

I imagine the results of these two options are diametrically opposite...?

Norway? Good luck with understanding the locals.

LOL.

Though, it's still better than Danish ...

That's... disturbing. Of course, I don't even get half of the joke, but... X-D

This video demonstrates that Danish now exhibits what linguists call "the dinguist's dilemma", a shift from [d] to [l]. Wow. Soon they'll have performed every kind of sound shift known to science.

Secondly, a suitable sign for many people referred to on this site?

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_z2Nv-pYmknk/SlgHc7RCV6I/AAAAAAAAExA/3Re27hTtF…

ROTFL!

This right here is why 'Merica will die.

And mind you, it's a net benefit, because it doesn't contain high-fructose-corn-syrup American bread...!!!

Glenn Greenwald: "Confirmed: Obama authorizes assassination of U.S. citizen"

I still don't understand what Obama was thinking. He must have been in DC too long, and the stupid is contagious, or something. ~:-|

with people standing in line for up to four hours to get dougnuts.

Remember how we always make fun of cretinists who seem to believe The Flintstones is a documentary?

And there I was thinking The Simpsons is not a documentary. The embarrassment! The pain!!!

Bacon, or not.

This, from comment 531, should become an official motto of something.

Or we could do some meme splicing. BACON, OR NOT. FOR GREAT JUSTICE.

Oahspe: A New Bible

This is probably the first sacred text written after Darwin's books came out (The Descent of Man is 1876, right?). So, what does the second sentence do? It affirms creationism in an explicit, slightly desperate manner. X-)

This seems to be one of the immutable laws of human behaviour. A corollary to Rule 34 - "if it exists, there's porn of it" - has got to be "if it exists, there's a religion based on it."

Uh-oh.

Shit.

25: "It is human nature, even notorious thieves will not compromise on the little betrayals. "

Too cool. Too... cool...

The south of the same Philippine island houses a close relative of V. bitatawa which is carnivorous.

No, V. olivaceus is another frugivore. And the third frugivore, the yellow one (V. mabitang), is also from the Philippines. Sligthly more here (the illustrations show something completely different).

Now that people know what to look for, it's easy

Now I'm no biologist, but I would have started by cutting the head open and looking for venom glands or something...

Well, nobody suspected they could be venomous. Everybody knows only a couple of snakes and the Gila monsters are venomous.

(BTW, lots more snakes than suspected are venomous; they just lack a delivery apparatus.)

Now that people know what to look for, it's easy

Like "watch it bite a prey animal and then stand back and wait for it to die"?

That had been seen for the Komodo monitor – and explained by bacteria in the monitor's mouth causing sepsis, even though the symptoms don't fit sepsis at all and fit venom just fine.

Evolutionary Psychology Bingo

Bookmarked.

David Frum: "Republicans originally thought that Fox worked for us, and now we're discovering that we're working for Fox." "What that means is that Fox, like Limbaugh, has an interest in pushing the Republicans to the margins, making people angry. When people are angry and alienated, they don't vote. They succumb to feelings of helplessness."

<mad-scientist cackling>

Komodos will track deer they have bitten for days and only finish them off when they have grown weak and slow from the infection.

That used to be textbook wisdom. Now people say it's not true.

Best part: said his network employs Democrats and when asked to name one he has a lot of trouble doing so.

LOL!

That's incredibly trivial.

x=0
x(x-1)=0
x-1=0
x=1
0=1

The way I'd explain it is that the third line doesn't necessarily follow from the second. For x(x-1) to be 0, there are two possibilities – each of the factors can be 0. Either x is 0 (sounds familiar), or x-1 is 0. The error is to ignore the first possibility.

LDS growth rate presented as a graph. Easy to read, unmistakable decline, even if one uses their inflated numbers.

B-)

By David Marjanović (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

For over an hour, the undead thread has lain unmoving. I should get it shambling along with some great news.

An anti-choice catholic pharmacy shut it's doors after only a year and a half in operation. Granted, this economy did not help much. But sometimes it is good to just laugh at them instead of being make violently ill by the news.

DMC Pharmacy, a pro-life Catholic pharmacy that opened with much fanfare in Chantilly, Va., in October 2008, closed last month because of lack of funds.

"We could not make it work financially," said Robert Laird, executive director for the pharmacy, whose letters stood for Divine Mercy Care. "We could never get that big push to make it viable and finally the board of directors said enough was enough."

By the time the store closed March 4, it was losing in the tens of thousands of dollars per month. When it opened 18 months ago at a cost of $350,000 just as the national economy was in a free fall, the 1,500-square-foot store on Metrotech Drive did not stock birth control pills, condoms, cigarettes or pornographic magazines.

It did have booklets on natural family planning below a picture of St. John Leonardi, the patron saint of pharmacists.

It was one of seven pharmacies in the country that refused to dispense contraceptives for moral reasons, on the grounds they caused abortions, lead to promiscuity or endangered a woman's health.

Situated next to a Catholic bookstore, the founders hoped to attract clientele from St. Timothy and St. Veronica, two nearby Catholic parishes totaling 20,000 members. Within five miles were four other booming churches with 30,000 Catholics. And it was situated in the fast-growing Diocese of Arlington with 428,417 adherents.

But regular customers never materialized in great numbers.

"You would have thought we could have made it happen," Mr. Laird admitted. "We were a niche. We were set up to cater to those who wanted that type of personal service. Once people came in, it was great. The pharmacist did so much more than dispense drugs."

But most customers only needed occasional medications and DMC never connected, he said, with patients needing the kind of maintenance medications that are the bread and butter for most pharmacies.

Plus, DMC never got into the heavy retail items, such as cosmetics, toys and fast food, that help keep similar pharmacies afloat. It did develop a mail-order business that, by the time the pharmacy closed, comprised almost 50 percent of the practice.

Robert Semler, the pharmacist who with his wife, Pam, kept the store going, is taking a much-needed break, Mr. Laird said, adding DMC still has "some debt" left over.

"It was hard," he said of the closing. "It was like a funeral."

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

By Janine, Mistre… (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink
the 1,500-square-foot store on Metrotech Drive did not stock birth control pills, condoms, cigarettes or pornographic magazines.

What? The bolded stuff is sold in pharmacies in the USA?

By David Marjanović (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

@David:

Some pharmacies in the USA are really big. Rite Aid and CVS both not only sell pharmaceuticals, prescription and non-prescription, but all kinds of other things. The CVS down the street has a kind of convenience store area - with small foods (though no pornography.)

What? The bolded stuff is sold in pharmacies in the USA?

Yep. Tobacco products were once considered healthful, so they have been sold in pharmacies for a long time. Depending on your definition of porn, magazines like Maxim, Playboy, and maybe even Penthouse and/or Hustler can be found at certain pharmacies.

By Nerd of Redhead, OM (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

What? The bolded stuff is sold in pharmacies in the USA?

One stop shopping. You can get your viagra, lube might AND porno magazine all at once! And the pack of cigarettes to smoke afterward.

Actually, the cigarettes I'm pretty sure are true. As for porn magazine, I think it's just softcore stuff like Playboy and only at some places, but I don't know. I get my porn 5 km from I live, in a shady part of town while wearing a disguise. If only there was some sort of tubes going to my house that can deliver it to me at a click of a button......

By Feynmaniac (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

This video demonstrates that Danish now exhibits what linguists call "the dinguist's dilemma", a shift from [d] to [l]. Wow. Soon they'll have performed every kind of sound shift known to science.

Seriously. I don't hear it.

Though, I think I've heard other furriners make the claim ...

But it's never been a "hard d" [d] - at least not in living memory. Always a "soft d" [ð]. My instinct tells me that were English [ð] has the tongue on the upper teeth, the Danish has it on the bottom*.

*bottom teeth, you git.

Lynna, re the Mormon graph, any idea what's behind that peak in what looks like '99?

@Feyn:

I hear there's this newfangled invention called the... lemme see if I got it right... Internet. Supposedly, it can let you transmit pornography through telephone, cable, and fiber optic wires! I dunno how they manage to shove all that paper into these little tiny wires, but I'm not a rocket scientist.

not "pharmacies" in the sense of an actual apothecary. a drug store is a variation on a convenience store/supermarket. they occasionally have food and office supplies, too.

By Jadehawk OM, H… (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

@Jadehawk:

I think I've been to one pharmacy in my life that I can remember. Whenever prescriptions needed to be filled, it was either in a hospital, a clinic, or the drug store.

I just made some krupuk, which is an Indonesian cracker

Enak! Kasih saya sedikit!

Just to bring you up to date on things from Colorado Springs, Colorado and our Gazzelle "newspaper" - this was in the letters to the editor yesterday:
(wish i could do the comic sans thing)

The article didn’t mention, however, that, worldwide, hundreds of ancient man-made petroglyphs and pictographs clearly represent dinosaurs. How do you suppose these ancient humans — who never heard of archaeology or paleontology — learned of those dinosaurs that, according to today’s reputable Darwinian scientists, ceased to exist long before the age of humans?---Jerry Gramckow

Now let me assure you, as a kid I was a huge fan of "In Search of" and if there has been dinosaur pictographs, I am sure that Leonard Nimoy would have told me about it. Or at least there would be a Discovery Channel/History Channel special...something. I mean other than that dodgy pic of PZ actually riding a dinosaur and that 60's -70's documentary "The Fintstones" that would be something...But I am afraid that pictures of the pictographs were not provided, nor named, nor identified in any way. (Wrong thread) But I am hoping that more information will be made available tomorrow.

By kantalope (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

What? The bolded stuff is sold in pharmacies in the USA?

In many areas, they are a very reliable place to buy tobacco products.

I was sent to New Orleans as an SECM(t) after Katrina. I provided (and supervised) security for the IMT supporting the National Guard troops engaged in food distribution north of New Orleans. We were stationed at a shopping mall -- the JCPenny's was out of business, so we filled it with cots, brought in showers and a caterer for the parking lot, and baked.

Luckily, there was a chain pharmacy in the mall which had Macanudos, Antony y Cleopatra, and other really good cigars. I stopped in and bought two or three to last me through the night (I was working 1500 to 0800 (and it was still hot and humid)).

About the fourth time I was in there (I was there for three weeks), the proprietor asked if I liked good and unusual cigars. Is the Pope a sleazebag? Hell, yeah!

He told me about some Italian-style cigars made by a little specialty place up in Pennsylvania. He said they were expensive ($7.00 for a two-pack) and very hard to get, but he had some in stock. He pulled a box of Parodis out from the bottom shelf and asked why I was laughing.

I responded that I lived in the town where they are made and up there we pay $.79 for a two-pack, including taxes. I stuck with the ones I wanted.

There are a few places I've been where pharmacies do not carry tobacco products, but I can't for the life of me remember where (insert agist comment here).

I think I've been to one pharmacy in my life that I can remember. Whenever prescriptions needed to be filled, it was either in a hospital, a clinic, or the drug store.

whereas I didn't encounter the concept of a drug store until moving to the States, because in Germany pharmacies are like a little hospital extensions, that only exist to dispense medication (except they have all kinds of herbal stuff, supplements etc. for sale, too)

By Jadehawk OM, H… (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

Some of those CVS "pharmacies" are huge. I've seen them sell DVD players, perfume, clothing, beach toys, etc. So much there you don't even notice the porn magazines and cigarettes!
_ _ _

I hear there's this newfangled invention called the... lemme see if I got it right... Internet. Supposedly, it can let you transmit pornography through telephone, cable, and fiber optic wires!

Wait, porn on the internet? How long has this been going on for?!

By Feynmaniac (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

I hear there's this newfangled invention called the... lemme see if I got it right... Internet. Supposedly, it can let you transmit pornography through telephone, cable, and fiber optic wires!

Yeah, and people even pay for it. Apparently the free and amateur sites (which put Hustler in the same category as a Vicoria Secret catalogue) don't offer enough for your average fundogelical red-stater.

Oddly, red states have a much higher rate of pay-per-porn than blue states (and no, I cannot come up with a cite on that -- I think that kind of a search on a work computer would ring the old alarm bell).

Billy, those are better than Swisher Sweets?

I heard about that pr0n on the Internet thing too and as far as I can tell it's baseless rumor.

By Sven DiMilo (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

@Feyn, billy, and Sven:

Well, as far as I know, the stuff's out there to find. This little company out of California called 'Google' made a thing called a 'search engine' that if you plug in what you want to find, it'll instantly find hundreds of pages of what you want to look at.

Supposedly you have to be careful, cause some of the results could be bad sites, but free porn, I'm willing to take that chance.

Sven: They are actually very good cigars, though very strong and intense. They are very tightly wrapped (unlike some of us), then soaked (in what? who knows), and dried. They are a very traditional cigar -- the kind of thing you see in Spaghetti westerns, very well respected, and exactly the kind of cigar that goes with a good game of bocci. I usually buy a couple of five packs before going to a fire. They are made in Scranton by a really good guy named Dom Keating.

They are thousands of times better than Swisher Sweets. Picture a very solid, very strong Macanudo Maduro but with a bite.

Mr. Fire:

Enak sekali. Sudah habis. Maaf.

I think that's how it goes. And I wouldn't share anyhow. I live in southern Missouri, and was visiting in DC when I found a listing for a shop that sold Indonesian foods. I had to take the Metro line that recently crashed across the site of the crash, almost to the end of the line, ride up the longest escalator in the western hemisphere, walk through the rain and find the store. The trip to Missouri for the krupuk involved boiling radiators and a carsick cat. The trip here for me turned into a bicycle adventure in more rain.

So I am eating the krupuk all by myself. And growling and snarling and snapping...even more than usual.

By Menyambal (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

Prawn, not pron. Prawn. Geesh!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfpLIj5QWm4

Picture a very solid, very strong Macanudo Maduro but with a bite.

sorry, I thought I had made it clear that my frame of reference here is pretty much Swisher Sweets

By Sven DiMilo (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

It's an odd and occasionally annoying thing that the font used here displays a zero exactly like a lower-case O.

By Sven DiMilo (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

Kevin: I know the free stuff is out there. I was just pointing out that the red-staters are the ones more likely to actually pay for it. A better quality of sleaze?

Me, I don't need the stuff. (((Wife))) is very accomodating.

Sven:

[elitist]A Swisher Sweet is to a cigar as a pinot grigio is to Boone's Farm Tickle Pink.[/elitist]

I've tried a SS once. Once. I would rather gargle a tarantula.

Seriously, though. For tobacco products, it really is to each his own.

I started smoking cigarettes when I was fifteen. I was swiftly hooked. I tried to quit and couldn't. So I took up a pipe (luckily, Western Maryland is already a weird place, so a fifteen year old smoking a pipe wasn't that out there). I still smoke once or twice a week (a cigar or a pipe) except when I'm at an incident -- then I smoke like a freakin' chimney to stay awake (I don't drink coffee and sodas are in very short supply (usually)).

[elitist]A Swisher Sweet is to a cigar as a pinot grigio is to Boone's Farm Tickle Pink.[/elitist]

Well, I got that bassackwards.

This you my find odd, but not in the least annoying.

gargle a tarantula

Hum… putting Teh Internets to its greatest use and searching for the above, we find Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster:

Recipe from "Spiders" Nightclub in Hull,UK
invented in 1981 By george mercer and mark borril, formely known as a firebird special, and is a combination of a harvey wallbanger and a tarantula! named so because anybody who drank one passed out , Very nice and a pint of it is served for the reasonable price of £3.20

Reading that, I rather get the impression it was typed in by someone who had just woken up after passing out due to the tarantula gargling.

YAYYYY!! They've managed to make Scheeline! (Though they insist on calling it Ununseptium.)

Reported in a major Danish newspaper - who described the provisional name as equivalent to calling one's cat "Kitty".

blf:

I had no idea there was an alcoholic drink called a tarantula. Shouldn't surprise me; actually, it doesn't surprise me.

I was talking about the brown furry spiders of the American Southwest with which we terrified visitors at a certain National Park (when I was a kid). We looked forward to tarantula mating season as they were everywhere. Well, the males were everywhere; the females were hiding in their dens, laying around pheromoning.

We captured some of the males, put them on our shoulders, and walked into the Grand Canyon visitor center. And waited for 1) the screams of terrified visitors and 2) the angry shouts of the Park Rangers.

Anyway, that was the tarantula to which I referred when I said I would rather 'gargle a tarantula.'

And the Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster has nothing on Green Goddamn*.

* 1/2 gallon lime sherbert, 1 quart vodka, 1/2 gallon lime ade, 1 quart pure grain, ten diced up apples (supposedly soaked up the alcohol but, from what I saw, only served to make the vomit more polychromatic).

Well, the males were everywhere; the females were hiding in their dens, laying around pheromoning.

It's amazing. A female can live in one burrow for years; decades even (nobody really knows), whereas once a male is mature it will basically walk until it's dead, seldom living for even another year.

By Sven DiMilo (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

Anyway, that was the tarantula to which I referred when I said I would rather 'gargle a tarantula.'

I'm aware of that. I just wondered what I'd find if I took you literally.

p.s. I've never heard of a drink called a tarantula either. (Which doesn't mean much, since I'm not a fan of mixed drinks.)

Well, Oklahoma is having all kinds of dark ages fun.

Bible-education bill advances

By a 10-3 vote, the committee advanced Senate Bill 1338, which permits districts to offer courses teaching the cultural and historical context of the Bible. Supporters say the courses will not be used to advocate religion.

Skeptics said such courses are already permissible and that repeated attempts to pass legislation such as SB 1338 are a waste of time.

"It seems like we spend more time talking about religion than we do academics," said Rep. Doug Cox, R-Grove.

Rep. Samson Buck, D-Ardmore, asked, "Is this as far as you intend to go, or is it your intent to eventually be teaching Christianity in the public schools?"

The bill's House sponsor, Rep. Todd Russ, R-Cordell, insisted that the courses would be purely academic.

"I very strongly feel that the purpose is to teach the history and culture of our country," Russ said. "Thank God we live in America, where we can do that."

Later, after it was mentioned that only one member of the U.S. Supreme Court is Protestant — the remaining members are Catholic and Jewish — Russ said, "If we do not do something, we will not have any Protestants in government."

Oklahoma House approves new laws against abortion

“It is critical that we make sure the common practice in many countries of aborting mostly female babies does not come to our state,” said Sullivan, R-Tulsa.

“Health care professionals should not be forced to participate in the taking of life against their will,” said Peterson, R-Tulsa.

“In recent years, we have seen the value of human life disintegrate, and these bills are an attempt to reverse that trend,” said House Speaker Chris Benge, R-Tulsa. “It is our job as legislators to protect the least among us, the most of which is the life of the unborn.”

By Caine, Fleur du mal (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

Ban a Science Book? School Board Delays Action

Kurt Zimmermann, a Farragut High School parent, filed a complaint in December about the textbook's [Asking About Life] characterization of creationism as a "Biblical myth." (The reference comes in a section of the book that discusses the political and cultural history of the concept of evolution.) A Farragut High School review committee made up of three teachers, a student, and a parent considered Zimmermann's complaint and concluded that the textbook was "appropriate." Zimmerman appealed to the school board, setting the stage for Wednesday's collision of politics, religion, and science.

Speaking to the board Wednesday night, Zimmermann said he had been approached by his son and other Farragut students (who he said are also his Sunday School pupils) who were upset about the implication that Christian beliefs are myths. He used the language of civil rights to make his case, saying, "Educational materials that offend, are intolerant, are racist or biased or one-sided in nature should not be used in our school system."

By Caine, Fleur du mal (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

Barbie joins the priesthood

The new doll, called Episcopal Priest Barbie: High Church Edition, was created by the Rev. Julie Blake Fisher of Kent, Ohio, according to a report by Religion News Services. Barbie comes with full accessories, including various colored chasubles, a black clergy shirt with white collar, a thurible, a prepared sermon and a Bible.

To see what she looks like, click here

By Caine, Fleur du mal (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

One wonders if other creation myths will/should be treated as non-mythical. I could so go for some Thor being treated with respect. Would that make Marvel graphic text books? Because that would be cool. Thor and Isis comix educational -- Spiderman for fun.

and did iczn linkfail or pharyngufail? (new phrase for overload)

By kantalope (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

1.8MYA hominan found, and there's a dispute about whether it should be classified as Australopithecine or Homo.

There are no transitional forms...

Here's the Drosophila--NOT!--news.

By Sven DiMilo (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

Translation time.

“Health care professionals should not be forced to participate in the taking of life against their will,” said Peterson, R-Tulsa.

"We should be compelled to participate in the health care of their lives," said Peterson, the Tulsa Republican.

Tulsa, from Patterson, the Republican "We have to deal with us," he said.

Tools Peterson, R. .. "We want war," he said.

By Janine, Mistre… (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

cicely @675:

Lynna, re the Mormon graph, any idea what's behind that peak in what looks like '99

Good question. Here are a few of the comments from ex-mormons about the figures shown on the graph:

1998 was grossly under-reported and a big chunk of 1999 was actually 1998's late-comers to the records....Someone must have gotten busy and brought back some 8500 people from the dead. How else to explain that positive number in '99??

These numbers are taken from the database right at the end of the year. If someone hasn't input all the baptisms then they ain't gonna be there. So I bet that somehow things got held up, new software, lax reporting oversight, something like that and that's part of the bounce the next year. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle of both of those uppy-downy line

Interesting the variability in numbers is suddenly less from 2004-2009. That's when they finally noticed that exmormons can do math.

1998 is way out of line - not possible to have negative baptisms unless there were cancelled baptisms. The Dead and Removed for 1998 is way out of line - seems like the numbers were reversed.
     1999 is a problem also for the Dead or Removed - cannot be a positive number unless many dead people were resurrected or a lot of people had their resignations cancelled....
     The Converts column includes the total in the Baptisms column.
The calculation is Children + Converts - Dead or removed = Actual Increase.
     The problem is with the Converts, because converts are not members until they have been baptized, yet they are included in total membership. An adjustment must be made to the converts column remove persons not baptized from the total:
Converts (4,829,111) - Baptisms (833,453) = 3,995,658 Converts not baptized and should not be counted as members.
     2009 Members (13,824,854) - Excess Converts (3,995,654) =
9,829,200 Actual Members.
     Unless I am interpreting the numbers incorrectly I think this is right.

I went to the site of the Center for Disease Control.
Deaths and Mortality
Here are some numbers:
(Data are for the U.S.)•Number of deaths: 2,426,264
•Death rate: 810.4 deaths per 100,000 population
•Life expectancy: 77.7years
•Infant Mortality rate: 6.69 deaths per 1,000 live births
     Taking the death rate number from this site and the total membership number of LDS church [13,824,854], that is 111,981 deaths.
     Total number of "dead or removed" isn't even equivalent to the average U.S. death rate.

By Lynna, OM (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

Fun with statistics.

Remember, folks, that 38.194% of all statistics are made up.

By 'Tis Himself, OM (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

Remember, folks, that 38.194% of all statistics are made up.

78% of the time

By Rev. BigDumbChimp (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

Speaking of statistics, since PZ is again in airline hell, lets run the posts up on him again.

Rev. BDC gets the number of the beast award for this thread.

By Nerd of Redhead, OM (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

Here's the Drosophila--NOT!--news.

Kim van der Linde, of Florida State University, who proposed protecting the D. melanogaster name, said: “The similarity with Pluto is that you are talking about habit, sociology and psychology: these are more important to the name than actual science.”

It is stunningly stupid for someone who wants to preserve the name to compare this case to Pluto because a) the Pluto change is done, without any catastrophic consequences for "habit, sociology, and psychology" and b) Pluto was not renamed, it simply is no longer considered a planet because ... it's not a planet. That's not about what's more important, habit or science -- a bizarre dichotomy for a scientist to offer -- it's about what's true.

By truth machine, OM (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

The bill's House sponsor, Rep. Todd Russ, R-Cordell, insisted that the courses [on the Bible] would be purely academic.

"I very strongly feel that the purpose is to teach the history and culture of our country," Russ said. "Thank God we live in America, where we can do that."

*facepalm*

They're not even trying.

By Feynmaniac (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

1.8MYA hominan found,

Heard this on the radio just then.From the article Kel linked:

The first bone was picked up by Professor Berger's nine-year-old son, Matthew, who says he thought he had discovered an animal bone.

"I turned the rock over and I saw the clavicle sticking out - that's the collar bone," he said. "I didn't know what it was at first. I thought it was just an antelope.

"So I called my dad over and about five metres away he started swearing and I was like, 'what did I do wrong?' and he's like, 'nothing, nothing - you found a hominid'."

:D

By Rorschach (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

Speaking of statistics, since PZ is again in airline hell, lets run the posts up on him again.

Well for one the "we have seen evil" thread, which should really be renamed to "we have seen trolling and low level intellectual discourse", has gone over 1000 posts.

By Rorschach (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

has gone over 1000 posts

Aw, jeez. let's hope teh CO has the sense to just shut it down instead of appending it on over here.

hmmm...I don;t think "appending" is quite right.

"Prepending"? What does that mean?

By Sven DiMilo (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

Feynmaniac:

*facepalm*

They're not even trying.

No, they aren't. It was this quote:

Russ said, "If we do not do something, we will not have any Protestants in government."

that got the facepalm from me. This, right after he's insisting it's all academic, and has nothing to do with teaching christianity. I'm surprised this guy can figure out how to put his pants on.

By Caine, Fleur du mal (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

re: "we have seen evil" thread - is that where everybody is? I thought it was awfully quiet here. I looked in there every now and then, but it seemed to me that it was more of a cess pool than I was willing to spend time with.

Becca, too many people are in that thread. It's stuffed with idiots and trolls at this point, but people keep replying. It needs to be shut down. Hopefully, out tentacled overlord will deal with as soon as possible.

By Caine, Fleur du mal (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

Oh, drugstore. Now it makes sense.

Daddy??

http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2010/04/new-australopithecus-fossil…

Why don't you go to Laelaps instead? http://scienceblogs.com/laelaps/2010/04/close_to_homo_-_the_announceme…

Seriously. I don't hear it.

ROTFLMFAO!!!

My instinct tells me that were English [ð] has the tongue on the upper teeth, the Danish has it on the bottom

You can actually see the tongue curling upwards in the video. That's what the text means by saying "I see an 'L'".

Try doing some tongue acrobatics and listen to yourself...

wish i could do the comic sans thing

<blockquote style="font-family:Comic Sans MS"> </blockquote>

Also works with <p>, <span>, and <a>.

It's an odd and occasionally annoying thing that the font used here displays a zero exactly like a lower-case O.

I hate the entire concept of numbers as lowercase.

ICZN says
No, you no can haz Drosophila melanogaster.

<mad-scientist cackling>

Sophophora melanogaster!!! !!! !!!

...Well, I'm just laughing because I like it when it turns out everyone was wrong. From a pragmatic point of view, this is almost certainly a seriously bad decision, as the Proposal already says.

and did iczn linkfail or pharyngufail? (new phrase for overload)

No, your browser failed. The page is programmed rather stupidly. (And I'm surprised the full text doesn't seem to be available.)

Here's the Drosophila--NOT!--news.

It crucially ignores the fact that Drosophila as currently understood is not only huge (containing an insane number of species), but also paraphyletic. While the ICZN says nothing whatsoever on this matter, few people can stand paraphyletic genera anymore (and I'm not one of those few). This, not personal preferences of splitters over those of lumpers, means Drosophila must either be made huger still, or subdivided.

The former option is impractical. If the latter is done instead, the subgenus Drosophila (Sophophora) becomes the new genus Sophophora, and that means that Drosophila (Sophophora) melanogaster becomes Sophophora melanogaster, not Drosophila melanogaster, and that is what many people would rather avoid by fixing the genus name Drosophila to the species D. melanogaster (which would thus become D. (D.) melanogaster... or... hang on a second... hm, that could be why the Proposal was rejected).

Tools Peterson, R. .. "We want war," he said.

Verily, verily, I say unto you: there is a Flying Spaghetti Monster. Rāmen.

Pluto was not renamed, it simply is no longer considered a planet because ... it's not a planet. That's not about what's more important, habit or science -- a bizarre dichotomy for a scientist to offer -- it's about what's true.

No, that's not how it works either.

Nomenclature is not science, it's convention.

The category "planet" doesn't exist in nature, its definition is completely arbitrary. It's like "genus" in this regard. The Astronomical Union made up a definition of "planet" where there hadn't been any (or only a vague one, I don't remember) for purely practical reasons like "it's easy to apply", "it fits current and historical usage best", "it's unambiguous" and the like, and Pluto doesn't fall under it, but instead falls into the newly made up category of "dwarf planet". Definitions aren't true or untrue, they are conventions.

Drosophila is defined as "the name of whichever genus that contains the species Drosophila funebris". The term "genus" is not defined, which means people can – and do! – add and remove species from Drosophila for whatever reasons they like, as long as D. funebris stays in.

There is a certain amount of tradition on which species to consider members of Drosophila.

Together, those species don't form a clade. Most taxonomists want genera to be clades these days (although the ICZN still completely lacks an opinion on this matter). If this requirement is accepted, it requires following one of the two options I mentioned above, and only one of them – splitting – is practical. This means Sophophora melanogaster.

That's bad, because common usage in every single university in the world that does biology, as well as every single biology textbook and so on and so forth, says Drosophila most or all of the time when it means Sophophora melanogaster. So van der Linde et al. proposed changing the definition of Drosophila from "the name of whichever genus that contains the species Drosophila funebris" to "the name of whichever genus that contains the species Drosophila melanogaster".

By convention, only the ICZN has the right to do that. The ICZN refused. Sophophora melanogaster, by convention.

There is no dichotomy between habit or science in there. There is no science in there. It's just nomenclature, just convention, just habit.

By David Marjanović (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

Forgot to write down my congratulations on the creation of element 117!

Becca, too many people are in that thread. It's stuffed with idiots and trolls at this point, but people keep replying.

Oh no, there's a single self-admitted troll in it, and about 5 regulars. Everyone else has left (and Tronzu has been banned).

There is no science in there.

Except for the finding that the species up to now referred to Drosophila form a paraphyletic assemblage.

Also, ICZN means both International Code of Zoological Nomenclature and International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. (I've used both senses in my previous comment.) The latter is the author of the former and has the power to override it (in a small number of specific ways) to preserve stability of usage, a power it has chosen not to exercise in Case 3407.

By David Marjanović (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

David Marjanović,

Absolutely fascinating! I read the original paper on Komodo venom, and I think I understood most of it.

Has this become widely accepted now? I read in one of the news reports on the paper that another biologist said it was rubbish and that the venom proteins probably had some other use.

A couple of things I don't quite get.

If the Komodo venom comes out of the jaws and runs down (and up?) special grooves in the teeth, just like in the the venomous lizards in North America, why didn't the existence of the grooves alert biologists to the possibility of venom? Do non-venomous lizards have similar tooth grooves? Perhaps it was just because they didn't realise that other monitors were venomous too.

Also, if the anticoagulant and vaso-dilator in the venom causes such rapid blood loss and immobility from a relatively weak bite, how did people mistake this (presumably) for simple trauma?

And the stories of Komodos tracking deer they'd bitten for days. Could this be deer they'd failed to envenomate, or could it just be bullshit?

Don't feel obliged to answer if you're busy. Tell me to push off to Tet Zoo or get in touch with the author of the paper :)

By ambulocetacean (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

PZ is probably recovering from his trip to Syracuse... that's why the thread is getting so long. Syracuse...? Can I get there tomorrow?

Quick question. I haven't learned all the idioms yet (is that possible?). When somebody quotes something and then just says "This", what exactly does that mean? I get that it's some way of saying that the second poster agrees with the first, but is there more to it than that?

Thanks.

KOPD, "This" means agreement along with 'I couldn't say it better' and a bit of QFT. (Quoted For Truth)

By Caine, Fleur du mal (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

Ah. Thanks.

Great. Just great. Fruit flies aren't actually fruit flies? What, next you're going to tell me that they're actually second-cousin to lobsters? ¹

How can anybody trust science when it keeps changing????

/gripe
/inevitable confusion in people's heads about scientific epistemology and consensus

________________________________
1: Yes, yes, I know.

By Owlmirror (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

Lynna, thanks for the follow-up.

"I very strongly feel that the purpose is to teach the history and culture of our country,"

Yeah, right. The history and culture of the White, Christian populace of our country. Brief mention of the native peoples (but not their histories and cultures), a nod in the direction of the enslaved descendants of African derivation (carefully not using the "n" word)(but not their histories and cultures), briefer mention of Chinese and other Asian immigrants (but not...ah, you know how this goes!), and as little mention as you can get by with of the current influx of hispanics. These all are, of course, No True Americans. *snort*

My Comics didn't Sans. pout*

David M,

Nice rundown of the ICZN rules. One of the many paraphyletic genera (IMHO) is Paranthropus. There's little evidence that Paranthropus rubustus, which is only found in South Africa, is part of the same clade as P. boisei and P. aethiopicus, which are only found in East Africa. All of the morphological similarities are directly related to the increase in the size of the masticatory apparatus, and may simply be convergent evolution. P. robustus is much more similar to Australopithecus africanus than the two hyper robust species it's currently grouped with. If P/A. robustus weren't grouped with the other two species, we would have to resurrect Zinjanthropus for the clade that includes P. boisei and P. aethiopicus, which would be kinda fun*.

It's strange to me when you talk about paleonotolgy without species names, because paleoanthropologists get into huge debates over which fossils belong in which species and genera. Hell, even the textbooks gave up on what was going on 2 mya and group a whole bunch of stuff of wildly different morphology under the title "Early Homo" instead of trying to teach any of the species schemes proposed. Of course "Early Homo" has no real morphological definition; it means "thar be stone tools with these creatures." :)

*Because I (for no rational reason) like it when old names are resurrected.

By Pygmy Loris (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

Test, test, test; can you Sans me now?

Apparently not.

cicely,

and as little mention as you can get by with of the current influx of hispanics.

And absolutely no mention of the hispanics who lived in the parts of Mexico that were annexed by the USA after the Mexican-American War before annexation.

By Pygmy Loris (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

Do I get a gumby?

Damn. No class in a blockquote. Oh well.

[meta]

Cicely, you're using
ComicSansMS
rather than
Comic Sans MS.

By John Morales (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

@cicely #740

Yes.

Aha! Then this should work.

Many thanks, John!

@cicely

Both of your blockquotes used comic sans for me.

It was odd; the first time, I coulda swore the Preview showed it in Comic Sans, but it didn't show up that way when submitted.

(This is just an opinion, but I think the addition of the Comic Sans HTML command would be a welcome addition to the ones at the bottom of the page. If His Extreme Squidliness pleases, in His mercy. Because post-its are only mortal.)

Weird - I swear my links worked fine when I tested them. And now when I go back to where I saw it in the first place, that original link gives a 404 error as well. It was to the ICZN case number for the decision and original application. Boo.

Went to PZ's talk tonight - it was great. Didn't get to meet him in person; there were a lot of students crowded around and he looked tired, so I didn't want to contribute to extending the moshing. Plus the social awkwardness thing kind of kicked in. But it was well attended, and definitely a good talk.

Meta...

<blockquote style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); background: transparent url(/pharyngula/tiny_gumby_trans.gif) no-repeat scroll 0% 0%; min-height: 64px; padding-left: 52px; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS';">I attribute it to a world wide, mountain covering, "fountains of the deep" breakup, Pacific Ocean Basin displacing, mountain raising, year long catastrophic FLOOD of judgement that Noah's contemporaries failed to predict.</blockquote>

I attribute it to a world wide, mountain covering, "fountains of the deep" breakup, Pacific Ocean Basin displacing, mountain raising, year long catastrophic FLOOD of judgement that Noah's contemporaries failed to predict.

By Owlmirror (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

Question--when showing the meta stuff, is it assumed that the reader knows to follow the /blockquote with all the rest of the stuff? Or does the computer Know?

Original:

I attribute it to a world wide, mountain covering, "fountains of the deep" breakup, Pacific Ocean Basin displacing, mountain raising, year long catastrophic FLOOD of judgement that Noah's contemporaries failed to predict.

10x:

I explained that world hydrocarbon source rocks in the Pacific, a place for strengthening and improving the depth of calculation, the annual parade in November, the national flood forecasting period.

25x:

Interpretation of hydrocarbon resources in the rock in the Pacific Ocean, will promote the depth in November, the annual parade on the national flood forecasting.

Max:

Monday - Pacific, "11 Rock Energy Resources, Flood forekasting annual national survey of similar depth.

Hallelujah, Amen!

By Owlmirror (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

Question--when showing the meta stuff, is it assumed that the reader knows to follow the /blockquote with all the rest of the stuff? Or does the computer Know?

I don't understand the question.

The first blob o' text in #751 is the HTML that is rendered by the browser as the second blob o' text.

Replace the Creobot spew between the blockquote tags with your own silly text.

By Owlmirror (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

Worked my way through the ICZN site another way:

Application:
van der Linde, K, Bächli G, Toda MJ, Zhang W-X, Hu Y-G, Spicer GS 2007 Drosophila Fallén, 1823 (Insecta, Diptera): proposed conservation of usage
Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature 64(4)
The purpose of this application, under Article 70.2 of the Code, is to conserve the current usage of the widely used name Drosophila Fallén, 1823 (a genus of flies widely used in biological research, particularly in genetics and developmental biology) by the designation of Drosophila melanogaster Meigen, 1830 as the type species of Drosophila. Detailed phylogenetic studies show that the genus Drosophila as currently defined is paraphyletic. Splitting the genus requires that the subgenus Sophophora Sturtevant, 1939 must be ranked as a separate genus. The type species of Sophophora is by original designation Drosophila melanogaster Meigen, 1830. Ranking Sophophora as a genus and changing the name of Drosophila melanogaster to Sophophora melanogaster would result in major nomenclatural instability due to the breadth and vast number of publications, using this combination. In addition, many refer to ‘Drosophila’ when ‘Drosophila melanogaster’ is actually meant; the two names are used interchangeably. It is therefore proposed that Drosophila melanogaster Meigen, 1830 is designated as the type species of Drosophila.

Decision rendered:

ICZN 2010 OPINION 2245 (Case 3407) Drosophila Fallén, 1823 (Insecta, Diptera): Drosophila funebris Fabricius, 1787 is maintained as the type species
Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature 67(1)
An application to conserve the current usage of the widely used name Drosophila Fallén, 1823 (a genus of flies widely used in biological research, particularly in genetics and developmental biology) in the face of potential taxonomic revision, by the designation of Drosophila melanogaster Meigen, 1830 (currently the type species of the subgenus Sophophora Sturtevant, 1939) as the type species of Drosophila, was not approved by the Commission. Drosophila funebris is maintained as the type species of the genus Drosophila Fallén, 1823.

Try link again?

Oooh, how about this one....
(Done in three parts, because of the 250 char limit)

Original:

One of the most basic laws in the universe is the Second Law of Thermodynamics. This states that as time goes by, entropy in an environment will increase. Evolution argues differently against a law that is accepted EVERYWHERE BY EVERYONE. Evolution says that we started out simple, and over time became more complex. That just isn't possible: UNLESS there is a giant outside source of energy supplying the Earth with huge amounts of energy. If there were such a source, scientists would certainly know about it.

10x:

The law of the universe most basic of the second law of thermodynamics. It should be noted that the last time the world will increase. The right people, everywhere, development, and have different requirements. Evolution is just the beginning, eventually becoming more complex. It can not happen if they do not exist outside the earth's energy, including many high-energy sources. If you have a source, scientists do not know exactly.

25x:

The second law of thermodynamics means the universe. Please note that the recent growth in international markets. Real people, everywhere and at different development requirements. The development is just beginning, as is more complex. And this can be a power in the world is much more energy. If you have a site that scientists do not know exactly.

Max:

Thermodinamix 2: New global markets to inform the community. Real people are different. But I began to develop the series. Using the open unless For example, we can in the end.

What th'...?

By Owlmirror (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

Carlie, when I use [meta] I'm indicating a comment that is about (but not part of) the thread, other commenters or the situation (similar to using [OT] to indicate an off-topic comment)

I think Owlmirror used it similarly above.

(There are meta tags for HTML, but they're there to inform robots (or, I guess, people) what the HTML refers to and how to classify it; they're not part of of the content and don't get interpreted by browsers.)

By John Morales (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

Of course, a comment about meta-commenting is a meta-meta-comment...

By Owlmirror (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

As I have said before, I have a text file with HTML codes and commands for commenting. It starts with my log-in info, and commands as seen at the bottom of this page, now, and a few other sometimes useful goodies. I copy and paste from it to log in and to structure my comments.

I just added the Comic Sans code info, thank you.

By Menyambal (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

If you don't need/want a gumby (I don't usually bother), then you can strip out most of the style code, which is for the image.

Thus:

<blockquote style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS';"> The creationist theory explains the presence of helium by postulating, “the rocks aren’t that old”, whereas the uniformitarian theory patches itself with additional lengthy theories. </blockquote>

By Owlmirror (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

I just watched a Space Shuttle launch vid. We do that? Us humans, I mean?

Giant roaring fire rising into the sky, and there's people on it.

Science and technology rock.

The woo-sters who claim that scientists have no sense of wonder can just bite it.

By Menyambal (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

Let's see how this Bad Science is Badly Translated...

Original:

The creationist theory explains the presence of helium by postulating, “the rocks aren’t that old”, whereas the uniformitarian theory patches itself with additional lengthy theories.

10x:

Creationism explained by assuming the existence of helium, a very old rocks, and the theory of a unified theory is only a patch for a long time.

25x:

Creation theory is the belief that the presence of Helium in very old rocks, and the theory theory is the only improvement for a long time to explain.

Max:

Helium theory, the theory is not very old stone Buildings isahihishve information theory.

In-deed.

By Owlmirror (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

Caine,

Lovely photos.

By Pygmy Loris (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

I just read an article on the new fossil. Some reporter had to ask if it was the missing link.

I understand that "missing link" is actually a term from the Great Chain of Being "theory" which pretty much was a fruity version of Creationism.

I need to look that up, obviously, but asking evolutionists about a missing link is kind of like asking a Christian about Thor's hammer.

By Menyambal (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

I got very little sleep last night. At the moment I'm trying to find a way to get through the last two hours of my day without acting on the (currently very strong) urge to run around the office screaming incoherently and giggling.

By WowbaggerOM (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

Try screaming coherently then.

And cackling.

By Menyambal (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

Thanks, Pygmy Loris. I felt so sorry for them, they were getting hammered.

By Caine, Fleur du mal (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

Owlmirror, how are the 10x, 25x, and so on supposed to differ?

greeble greeble greeble

By WowbaggerOM (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

Late to the party as always.

A french horn player is driving down the street and he passes a frog driving the other way. What's the difference?

The frog's more likely to be going to a gig.

By FossilFishy (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

I've come to the conclusion I'm having an acid flashback. Minor sleep deprivation for one night shouldn't be causing me to wig out as much as I am.

By WowbaggerOM (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

The frog's more likely to be going to a gig.

Oh, that's awful! -ly funny.

For those of you from civilized areas, a gig is a trident/spear used for hunting frogs. For frog's legs, you know.

By Menyambal (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

So there are now 2 threads which are way past due their axing time, ie with more than 666 comments.

This one with 774 comments
The "We have seen Evil" with more than 1000 comments

Where is the axe-man?

By negentropyeater (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

Wowbagger, are you seeing trails? I never had a flashback without them. Of course, serious sleep deprivation caused trails too.

By Caine, Fleur du mal (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

Why didn't the comic sans apply to the whole blockquote in #776 ?

By negentropyeater (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

Cain, Fleur du mal wrote:

Wowbagger, are you seeing trails?

I am...now. The force power of suggestion is strong in this one.

By WowbaggerOM (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

"I am the golden goddess of virus infection. I got you all to use Bad Translator!"

"I am the golden goddess of virus infection. I use the translation in the bathroom!"

Um, no.

"Gold Collection I - pollution. I use the toilet in the translation!"

Dada scat?

"To fund - pollution in the bathroom too."

I guess the fund is to buy the food so that I may produce pollution.

By Janine, Mistre… (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

I've come to the conclusion I'm having an acid flashback.

Just think of it as a freebie. 8)

By boygenius (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

"I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together. See how they run like pigs from a gun, see how they fly. I'm crying."

"I like you and me, we were all together. Look at your hands as flying pigs. I cried."

"I love you and I together. Be careful with her pig. I was crying."

I like pork Travel Warning"

By Janine, Mistre… (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

Sitting on a cornflake
Waiting for the van to come
Corporation T-shirt, stupid bloody Tuesday
Man you've been a naughty boy
You let your face grow long

"Corn flakes, are expected to attend Tuesday jersey on a player, he's bloody stupid naughty children continue to face growth"

"Mixed grains Tuesday, T-shirt, stupid naughty children for growth for"

"No Tuesday mixed, shirt, silly jokes for parents."

By Janine, Mistre… (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

I am the eggman
They are the eggmen
I am the walrus
Goo goo g' joob

"Egemann who are joob eggs, walruses, and stick § "

"Egemann drinks such as egg, the walruses § "

"Hippokampus egg Consumption, egeman §"

By Janine, Mistre… (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

Mr. City policeman sitting
Pretty little policemen in a row
See how they fly like Lucy in the sky
See how they run, I'm crying

"Municipal police officers will be reduced to a series of police to see if they like Lucy in the sky, know how to drive and crying"

City police, police, perhaps Lucy in the sky, and fly to cry"

"Lucy Blue, the police should be the city's plan."

By Janine, Mistre… (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

Aww, my resistance has eroded to insignificance.

--

Original text:

"Wowbagger, are you seeing trails? I never had a flashback without them. Of course, serious sleep deprivation caused trails too. "

...10 translations later we get:

"Wowbagger, see the monitor? I never mentioned crimes. Of course, the roads, causing severe insomnia."

--

Janine, you're EVIL!!1!

By John Morales (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

Janine, Mistress of Foul Mouth Abuse, OM obviously has a lot of spare time on her hands.

"Ms. Jenny with a dirty mouth, more time to clean hands."

"Jenny is in the hands is usually bad leg."

"Jenny usual foot."

By boygenius (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

Desperate remedies useless gun ships
Drowned rats u-boats German spies
Don't relax until grandma's sober
Damsons ripen under gooseberry skies
Delta rhumba uncle gun sugar!
Delta rhumba uncle gun sugar!

By WowbaggerOM (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

I'm crying, I'm crying, I'm crying

"Do not cry, I"

"Do not cry,"

"Ie."

By Janine, Mistre… (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

Yellow matter custard
Dripping from a dead dog's eye
Crabalocker fishwife
Pornographic priestess
Boy, you've been a naughty girl
You let your knickers down

"Eye drops is a yellow dog sex movie yaelihtaap priestess boy, bad girl who is ready to die, lost underwear"

"Drops yellow dog sex movies priestess yaelihtaap poor children are ready to die, lost his pants"

"The priests, poor children, I am ready to go with the yellow pants dog porn yaelihtaap."

By Janine, Mistre… (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

negentropyeater @777, I've found spans get closed by SB when a blank line (linefeed) is encountered, so I use a break tag to keep lines contiguous (<br>) whilst simulating a blank line.

By John Morales (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

John:

"Wowbagger, see the monitor? I never mentioned crimes. Of course, the roads, causing severe insomnia."

Damn straight I never mentioned crimes. What crimes? Not me, I've never, ever done anything which could be remotely construed as a crime...

*digits crossed

By Caine, Fleur du mal (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

Sitting in an English garden
Waiting for the sun
If the sun don't come you get a tan
From standing in the English rain

"Gardens in England, the sun If the sun does not stand up to the sun waiting for the British rain"

"In England, where there is solar energy in the UK is likely to rain garden"

"British Energy from the sun and rain gardens."

By Janine, Mistre… (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

"There’s a huge difference between Medicare and the socialized medicine [the Democrats*] are trying to force upon us. Namely, Medicare is designed to help people like your mom. Socialized medicine is designed to KILL people like your mom by DENYING them care."

10: "There have also used medical services and medicines, and carry out very different Democratic Party. Treatment aims to help people like her mother. Socialism is to be like her mother, who is a drug, without help"

25: "Also, medical services and medicines, as well as a completely different game. The purpose is to help people like her mother. Socialism is like a mother without the help of drugs"

max: "Health and medicine in different games. Aiming to help people like my mother. Her mother, for jews and public health"

*the original said "Obama and Pelosi", but that just ended up stuck in the chinese translation and just carried the chinese characters through the translation; which is less fun

By Jadehawk OM, H… (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

Expert, texpert choking smokers
Don't you think the joker laughs at you?
See how they smile like pigs in a sty
See how they snide, I'm crying

"Experts texpert and suffocating smoke, I do not think a clown laugh? To see what they like to pig pig laugh, regarded as a thief, I cried"

"Experts tEXPERT choking smoke, I think I can laugh at clowns? To pig pig thief laughed as I cried Ideas"

"Government texpert tuxedo, view, robbery, and פּיגס, I think, laugh and weep ilteoir not Smiling."

By Janine, Mistre… (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

Climbing up the Eiffel tower
Elementary penguin singing Hare Krishna
Man, you should have seen them kicking
Edgar Allan Poe

"Climbing the Eiffel Tower penguin singing Hare Krishna school people, you start to Edgar Allan Poe"

"Eiffel Tower climb Penguin singing Hare Krishna school, people start to Edgar Allan Poe"

"Edgar Allan pinkupenginkurishuna dance school 'may"

By Janine, Mistre… (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

"my silly dog bit me"

"It is interesting that the dog can"
"Interestingly, dogs"

--> "Interesting"

By negentropyeater (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

Socialism is like a mother without the help of drugs

I so want Glenn Beck to say that!

Boygenius, I need to go to sleep. I need to be up in four hours. But I had to see this project through.

By Janine, Mistre… (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

"We don’t need no education
We don’t need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the class room
Teachers leave those kids alone
Hey, teachers! Leave those kids alone!"

10: "We do not need education, we do not want the teacher to control the dark irony Hey, teachers, child! Baby!"

25: "We do not need education, the irony mysterious Hey, teacher, do not blame the kids! Kids!"

max: "Welcome to teacher children narapidana mysterious content? Kids!"

- - - -

"Imagine there's no Heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today "

10: "Do not worry, the sky is very simple, if hell below us, only sky Imagine all the people who live in the now"

25: "Regardless, the sky is very simple and hell below us only sky Imagine all the people who live in"

max: But the sun and sky imagine all the people who live fire."

- - - - -

"Yesterday,
All my troubles seemed so far away,
Now it looks as though they're here to stay,
Oh, I believe in yesterday. "

10: "Yesterday, all my questions, it seems, I believe in yesterday."

25: "Yesterday, my question is, now I think."

max: "I think my question last time."

By Jadehawk OM, H… (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

Good night, Ms. Jenny. Don't forget to wash your hands.

By boygenius (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

The category "planet" doesn't exist in nature, its definition is completely arbitrary.

No category, or word, "exists in nature", but the definition of "planet" is not "completely arbitrary" -- that's a gross misrepresentation or misunderstanding of semantic categorization, especially in science. The problem with Pluto is that, if you define "planet" so as to include it, the definition must be either completely ad hoc, such as [the current IAU definition of 'planet', plus Pluto], or it must include many other bodies other than Pluto. The former is unacceptable, and the latter violates tradition at least as badly as excluding Pluto. IAU defined "planet" in a way that makes astronomical sense, and by that definition, Pluto just ain't one.

By truth machine, OM (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

"No. I have no reason to believe gravity as we know it existed. The forces and balance of forces may have been quite different. Ever wonder how they built the early pyramids? No evidence exists for gravity as we know it, to have existed, why would I need to disprove it?"

10: "No, I have no reason to believe that it is serious, because we know does not exist. Authority and the balance of power is very different. Want to know how to begin to build the pyramids? There is no evidence of the seriousness, we all know, is not it?"

25: "I am not a good reason to believe, as we know. Control of the balance of power is very different. I wonder how to begin to build the pyramids? There is no indication of the seriousness, we all know, is not it?"

max: "We do not know why. National energy. I do not know how how to continue Developing the pyramid. We know the symptoms?"

By Jadehawk OM, H… (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

...we do not want the teacher to control the dark irony...

I demand that PZ uses this as the name of the next segment of the undead thread.

Boygenius, you forgot to say that I am usually a bad leg.

By Janine, Mistre… (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

"Stop persecuting me and my religion!? You have allowed yourself to be deceived by satan's horrible lies! If you don't, you are without excuse, and you'll BURN IN HELL FOREVER! Worship the SON, not the SUN, and not yourself or monkeys!"

10: "Stop the persecution of me and my faith! I want to be fooled, the devil is a terrible lie! If not, no reason, there will always burn in hell! Son of worship, not one, but not for himself or a monkey!"

25: "Stop harassment and believe me! We want to confuse the hell is a terrible lie! If not, there is always a mess due to burn! Sect children, not once, but not in itself or a monkey!"

max: "Put away the evil of violence and believe me, do not deceive us? In the face of Uncertainty, but good! Listening to children, but Monkeys!"

- - - - -

isn't it amazing how fundiespeak makes more sense AFTER translation?

By Jadehawk OM, H… (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink

"@ PZ - If I am bounced off Pharyngula, then you may find yourself losing some friends over at Facebook."

10:"@ Ray - I read Pharyngula, you can find some of my friends have lost their registration."

25: "@ - Ray read Pharyngula, a few friends who have lost its recognition."

Maz: "@ - I Ray, loss of life and good friends."

By Feynmaniac (not verified) on 08 Apr 2010 #permalink