Weirdness
pharyngula | October 12, 2009Out of a whole collection of steampunk-themed cakes, this one has to be my favorite:
It looks like something out of Girl Genius — it must have been made by a spark.
It's also interesting to see that there is a whole wide freaky cake-decorating sub-culture out there. Very cool.
pharyngula | October 9, 2009The news that Obama has won a Nobel peace prize was weird — and don't get me wrong, I don't think he has done badly at promoting peace, I just don't think he's made the kind of exceptional effort that something with the prestige of the Nobel ought to reward — but here's something much, much crazier: WhirledNutDaily has begun a campaign to impeach Obama. You might be wondering on what grounds they would commit this act…but they don't seem to have anything specific. I just got email from WND begging for donations for their little crusade, and here's the best reason they offer, from some wingnut…
pharyngula | October 9, 2009I know this award is heavily politicized, but this is ridiculous: Barack Obama has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009. I don't think Obama's efforts for peace have been particularly notable — the wars still drag on with no end or even promise of an end in sight, and there has been some sabre-rattling over Iran from his administration lately — but I guess all you have to do is follow after Bush and not blow anything up for a year, and presto, you look like Gandhi.
Oh, well. It's definitely more appropriate than the award to Kissinger, but that isn't saying much.
pharyngula | October 7, 2009It's not that funny. Anyway, here is this utterly hideous 'infographic' ('infographic' is the term they use when they torture information with a useless pile of graphic clutter) which tries to illustrate the changes in the numbers and percentages of various religious beliefs with a photo of a group of representatives of each faith in a bar, with a graph superimposed on each. The bar photo is busy, distracting, and adds nothing but visual noise to the data. However, one thing stands out.
The members of the different faiths are sitting around on bar stools. Guess who represents the godless? A…
pharyngula | October 6, 2009Ouch. What a painful piece of right-wing kitsch.
I had no idea that Jesus personally delivered the Constitution, or that it was a religious document.
If you go to the site hosting this…thing, you can mouse around and it will spell out the symbology behind all those figures. I rather like the professor; he's the one on the far right, near the shadowy figure, Satan.
He tightly holds his "Origin of Species" book by Charles Darwin. This represents the liberal lefts control of our educational system. His smug expression describes the attitude of many of the educational elite. There is no room…
pharyngula | October 5, 2009Liberty University has this new program to adopt a liberal…and then pray really hard for them. It's a good idea, since if nothing else, it keeps the rapscallions off the street doing something entirely unproductive. Unfortunately, looking at their list of liberals, most of 'em ain't. Olympia Snowe? Arnold Schwarzenegger? Hilary Clinton? Barack Obama? They're moderate to conservative. I'll give them Barney Frank and Barry Lynn, but even there, they aren't exactly bomb-throwing radicals out to overthrow the government and replace it with communism, free love, and LSD in the water supply.
And…
pharyngula | October 2, 2009This was definitely the weirdest talk of the meeting so far.
Bisheff was discussing Tom Paine, that fascinating patriot and rabble-rouser of the American Revolution. Atheists love the guy; he wasn't one of us, since he was a deist, but he was a real firebrand in his opposition to organized religion. I think a historical analysis of this important figure in American history is the kind of thing we ought to encourage in freethought meetings; we aren't all about finding contradictions in the Bible and going rah-rah for science, you know.
Unfortunately, this was a very academic talk, following…
pharyngula | October 1, 2009J-pop culture is creeping in everywhere. How else to explain the Manga Guide to Molecular Biology?
pharyngula | October 1, 2009If you've ever read William Dembski, you know he has an infuriating ego and is aggravatingly pompous. If you've ever read Dan Brown, you know that he simply can't write, churning out canned syntax and ridiculous plots. What would you get if someone made an unholy fusion of the two?
I'm pretty sure that this is one of those chimerae the religious right gets so incensed about, and for once, I agree with them. Kill it. Kill it now. Kill it with fire.
pharyngula | September 29, 2009Since the mere majesty and grandeur of the natural world are insufficient to provide entertainment, perhaps science coverage in the media should become something like the Weekly World News. Arthur David Horn could be a major media star.
He now advocates the theory that modern man is not the result of a natural process of evolution, but that evolution was artificially aided by reptilian extraterrestrials. The reptilians bred mankind as servants and continue to rule the planet today, Horn said.
Reptilians have manipulated perceptions of world history and hold power over humankind through…
pharyngula | September 29, 2009The book of Genesis as told by Robert Crumb, that is, who is as respectable a prophet as any of the cabal that wrote the original. Crumb at least starts with a reasonable perspective.
"The idea of millions of people taking this so seriously is totally nuts," he added. "The Bible doesn't need to be satirised. It's already so crazy."
pharyngula | September 26, 2009For some reason, this geeky little saga tickled me.
David: Taunt dude! You're supposed to be the tank!
Zach: Just back up, you're drawing agro.
David: I can't, I'm-
Cheryl: *opening the door* David...?
David: Oh sh*t!
Cheryl: Discarded pizza rolls, empty Mountain Dew bottles...What's going on here?
David: We were...I was...fixing Zach's computer!
Cheryl: Liar! *starts bawling* You're having a LAN party aren't you!?
David: You weren't supposed to see this! You aren't supposed to be home for another three hours!
Zach: I should leave.
David: No, you know what? I'm done hiding.
Cheryl: *crying*…
pharyngula | September 25, 2009It's a homo's Devil Machine!
Oh, wait. We like that stuff. Never mind, carry on.
(via Mark Allen)
pharyngula | September 23, 2009There can be too much of a good thing. If you actually eat Turbaconucken, you've got a bacon addiction. Seek help.
And if you ever drink Jones Dungeons & Dragons Spellcasting Soda during your weekly D&D game, you are suffering from hypernerdosis. In fact, you are probably even too nerdy for this blog.
I don't even want to imagine someone who serves turbaconucken and spellcasting soda as a snack during their regular FRP sessions.
pharyngula | September 23, 2009I had no idea that our regular commenter SC had become a "d00d", but there is a fury of discussion about it going on. I think it's an unfortunate exercise in chromosomal elitism to be sneering at our transgendered brothers and sisters, or at people who we think are transgendered, or even at homogametic individuals who are peculiarly accused of male privilege.
OK, the last one is kind of funny.
(I know, this post is rather oblique…you'll have to go digging to trace back the web drama. Or not, if that doesn't interest you.)
pharyngula | September 22, 2009An eccentric Norwegian musician named Varg Vikernes has been updating (a polite word for "making up") a Norse origins story. It's nuts, but no crazier than the stuff Ken Ham and Ray Comfort want you to believe (and they, too, have been "updating" a very short metaphor from the Bible to make for a very elaborate story). Here's Vikernes' version of the creation:
Our world was created in co-operation between these three proto-forces. Between Múspellheimr (the stars) and Niflheimr (the frozen matter in space) there was Gínungagap (the void). The universe was resting. It was inactive. It was in a…
pharyngula | September 22, 2009Uh-oh. This morning, Sydney may have gotten a sign of the Apocalypse: the skies turned red as blood. I don't know what else it could be, other than the wrath of heaven.
Well, and airborne dust particles.
Which is the more likely, rational, reasonable explanation is left as an exercise for the reader.
pharyngula | September 22, 2009It's hardly news, though: people have been using pages for this purpose since I was a young'un, at least.