Weirdness
pharyngula | August 2, 2008Approximately 563 minutes ago, I noticed this peculiar analysis of language use on Pharyngula that suggested that we use the phrase "N minutes", where N is 5 or 10, with a slightly greater frequency than the web population as a whole. This made me self-conscious for a whole 18 minutes, so I thought I'd better sleep on it for about 480 minutes before taking 4 minutes to make a short post about it. Go on and read the Language Log — it's short and will probably take you only 2 minutes to skim through it.
Now I'm thinking, because I'm an evil and devious sort, that since this is already a low…
pharyngula | July 29, 2008Would you believe the NY Times published an op-ed today…calling for closer monitoring of UFOs? I think it's intended seriously. It begins by suggesting that it — our neglect of will-o'-the-wisps and reflections of Venus — is a security loophole that terrorists might exploit, and then it gives several anecdotal accounts of unlikely events, such as this one:
On Dec. 26, 1980, for instance, several witnesses at two American Air Force bases in England reported seeing a U.F.O. land. An examination of the site turned up indentations in the ground and a level of radiation in the area that was…
pharyngula | July 20, 2008The town of Aberystwyth banned Monty Python's Life of Brian 30 years ago. Now the mayor, Sue Jones-Davies, wants to end the ban.
Those of you familiar with the movie may remember Sue Jones-Davies as Brian's girlfriend, Judith Iscariot.
pharyngula | July 20, 2008I knew it. Bucky Katt is an ID proponent.
In related news, I was sent a photo of this odd billboard.
Be mesmerized by the mysterious Octopult!
pharyngula | July 18, 2008Christianity is like sticking a fork in your face and your rectum and plugging them into a wall socket. Your insides will smoke and sizzle, you'll glow, sparks will shoot out of you, and you'll become a cooked vegetable.
At the end, he says, "don't try to do this at home, because it can be very dangerous". That's the honest part of his example. Kids, don't do religion! It's very, very bad for you!
pharyngula | July 8, 2008…scientists were treated like celebrities?
There's one photo at the link of fashion violations — man, that would be a hotly contested page with no end of possible entries, I would think. Somebody needs to start a Nerd magazine, and just cruise science and engineering conferences for endless material.
pharyngula | July 5, 2008One of the splendid people I met in Denver told me about her attendance at a bizarre lecture a few months ago — and she sent me a link to her summary. If you want to experience a second hand glimmering of Native American woo, with UFOs, magic origins, transparent white people, anti-evolution, and quantum physics, there you go.
pharyngula | July 2, 2008I rather like the growing bans on smoking in bars and restaurants — it makes them much more pleasant places for those of us who'd rather not inhale poisons from acrid, burning weeds involuntarily. But maybe an exception should be made from places where the burning and inhaling of plant matter is the whole intent of visiting, as is being discovered in the Netherlands.
Millions of people flock to Amsterdam's "coffee shops" every year to legally buy cannabis and hashish over the counter and to smoke it without fear of arrest, as long as they are on the premises.
But the new law bans tobacco…
pharyngula | July 1, 2008
That would look good as a bumpersticker on my car, if only I still had any room on the back of my car for bumperstickers.
pharyngula | June 30, 2008What? How could Orac pass this story by?
A monument to the enema, a procedure many people would rather not think about, has been unveiled at a spa in the southern Russian city of Zheleznovodsk.
The bronze syringe bulb, which weighs 800 pounds and is held by three angels, was unveiled at the Mashuk-Akva Term spa, the spa's director said Thursday.
"There is no kitsch or obscenity, it is a successful work of art," Alexander Kharchenko told The Associated Press. "An enema is almost a symbol of our region."
In related news, the head of the Zheleznovodsk Chamber of Commerce and Tourism Bureau…
pharyngula | June 30, 2008So, what does the promotion of jazz have to do with HP Lovecraft? (This isn't a raven and a writing desk non-connection — there really is a link.)
pharyngula | June 24, 2008I guess most of us missed a bizarre poster at the Evolution 2008 meetings tonight. It was basically a paper titled The Evidently Imminent Phyletic Transition of Homo sapiens into Homo militarensis (the military hominid), by Richard H. Lambertsen. It's garbage from the first page, I'm afraid, in which the author tries to demonstrate that there must be direction and intent in the evolution of life, and that "Earth's largest blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus)
swimming at peak velocity most precisely represents the
central tendency of evolution." This is followed by many pages of oddball math in…
pharyngula | June 13, 2008Somebody must have mistaken us for the local insane asylum, because my mailbox this afternoon is full of weird stuff. Could it be…could it be…Friday the 13th?
A suggestion for Vox Day: he should debate Jesus' General!
This one is kind of sad. A loon who thinks 9/11 was an American conspiracy has gone on a hunger strike, for the nebulous goal of getting a meeting with John McCain (The fool! McCain was in on it!) His wife and friends are rather distressed. Kooks aren't just for laughs; there are people behind them who are hurt by their behavior.
Note also: he's a professor of religious…
pharyngula | June 13, 2008Over the years, I've developed a rough classification system for creationist screeds. One of the most common is the 'deluded parrot', in which the writer just repeats the same tiresome old canards we've heard a thousand times before: "If man evolved from monkeys, then why are there still monkeys?" is a common example. Then there are the 'malevolent vermin', which you don't see much of on the web — because they usually write profanity-laced threats to my personal email, and are quick to gloat over my prospective tenure in hell. The 'pious aunties' aren't quite so vicious, but they are shocked…
pharyngula | June 12, 2008Yisrayl Hawkins predicted that the world will end on 12 June. He's in Texas, so I presume he was using Central Time…and since it is now the early hours of 13 June here, I guess we can safely say that we dodged a bullet. Whew. I was getting worried. Hawkins, after all, is an expert prophet, well practiced in predicting the end of the world — he has done it twice before.
Of course, if the world did end, I hope you left some messages for your loved ones, or sent me your power of attorney, or something.
pharyngula | June 5, 2008Several people have written to me expressing their concern over the recent publication of this paper:
Evidence for Intelligent Design in Gastrointestinal Endocrinology: Identification of Novel Cholecystokinin/Gastrin-Like Peptides in the Nematode Caenorhabditis elegans.
Greeley GH Jr, Endocrinology. 2008 Jun;149(6):3184-6.
Oh, no! Have the creationists scored a coup and snuck propaganda into a legitimate science journal? Have no fear. This is a short review paper by an editor describing some work on cholecystokinin phylogeny. Some of you old-school physiology types may recall that a…
pharyngula | June 5, 2008In case you want to prepare your itinerary, you can now plan your eternity in Jesusland with a map of heaven.
I notice that the line to View the Damned is much longer than the line to sit in Jesus' lap.
pharyngula | June 5, 2008OK, this is a little rude, a bit funny, and a lot sacrilegious. I'm all for sacrilege, though, so I can't condemn it too much.
Authorities were alerted after a parishoner heard "rustling and groaning" coming from inside the confession box and pulled back the curtains to reveal a goth-rock couple engaged in oral sex, ANSA said.
The agency said the pair -- a 31-year-old laborer and a 32-year-old teacher -- defended their conduct saying: "We are atheists and for us, having sex in church is like doing it any other place."
Well, yes, but they are also human beings who live within a society which…
pharyngula | May 31, 2008It's amazing how powerfully predictive that little law is. I mentioned some similar activity a while back, but it's still going on: kooks praying for lower gas prices.
For the past several weeks, Twyman has assembled a group at a soup kitchen in the Petworth neighborhood of Northwest Washington where he volunteers. They have driven to a gas station, locked hands, said a prayer, purchased gas and sung the civil rights anthem "We Shall Overcome," with an added verse: "We'll have lower gas prices."
That's ridiculous. Me, I'm humming the overture to Die Fledermaus and praying for dancing panda…
pharyngula | May 29, 2008This game, Christian Versus Atheist, is one of those choose-your-own-adventure type text exercises. The good thing about it is that the atheist is particular fierce and monstrous and … hey, wait a minute…the picture they use resembles someone familiar…
Hmmm. Maybe it's just the blood drooling out of one corner of his mouth. All the atheists I know look like that.