Weirdness
pharyngula | January 19, 2008Today is the day of the North Carolina Science Blogging Conference, and I was pretty sure I wasn't going. This is also the weekend before the start of spring semester classes, and I'm going to be going mildly insane for a while.
But then, someone has photographic evidence that I am there. This is truly weird; maybe the insanity is kicking in a little harder than I expected.
If you're at the conference, don't expect to see much of me at the sessions. Looking at that picture, I realize I'm going to have to spend the whole meeting alone, in my hotel room, with my shirt off, marveling.
pharyngula | January 18, 2008I want. Look at this nifty Tentacle Arm:
And they're cheap! $15! At one for each appendage, that would be $75.
jlynch | January 13, 2008
In the comments to a previous post, "rebel scientist" Louis Savain made the following statements:
I have made a falsifiable prediction about the human cerebellum based on my interpretation of certain Biblical metaphors. If you can falsify it, do so. Otherwise, your lame attempt at ridiculing my person is just that, lame. You wanted falsifiability, you’re gonna get it. Lots of it.
I commented:
Excellent. I expect to enjoy reading your research papers in neurobiological journals.
and he retorted with:
Forget it. I believe in going directly to the customer, i.e., the public whom you despise,…
pharyngula | December 30, 2007One of my Christmas presents was something just for fun: Superman: The Dailies 1939-1942(amzn/b&n/abe/pwll). It's a collection of the newspaper strips by Schuster and Siegel that were published in the earliest years of the superhero, and they're both funny and disturbing now.
First off, Superman was always a jerk. It's actually a bit off-putting: while he has this profound moral goal of helping the little guy, he's also constantly treating Lois Lane like dirt — he uses his superpowers to get the big scoops at the newspaper, and Lois is always getting demoted to the "advice for the…
pharyngula | December 27, 2007A 2 year old girl picks up a screwdriver, runs around, falls, and…
She's fine now, fortunately — it somehow missed her brain. The father calls this event a "Christmas miracle."
That God fella. He's such a card, poking little girls in the head with screwdrivers.
pharyngula | December 24, 2007A mysterious person going by the name Red Mage sent me the following poem. If your kiddies are still awake and having trouble sleeping, you might want to read it aloud to them. Then they'll really have trouble sleeping.
'Twas the night before Squidmas, and all through the house
Not a cultist was stirring, not even a Dagon.
The sacrifices were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that Cthulu would not pass past there.
The cultists were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of things man was not supposed to know writhed in their heads.
And mamma in her 'kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had…
pharyngula | December 22, 2007I sought reassurance in an internet quiz, and did reasonably well.
I received 92 credits on The Sci Fi Sounds QuizHow much of a Sci-Fi geek are you?
Take the Sci-Fi Movie Quizdigital camera ratings
I think I missed the one where the voice says something like "The captain is not on the bridge" — it sounded vaguely trekish, but it was completely unfamiliar.
pharyngula | December 22, 2007I admit I'm a a geek, so I'm disappointed in this cartoon that describes 56 categories of geeks, and I don't fit any of them.
Maybe you're in there, though…
pharyngula | December 21, 2007Initially, I was horrified at what was being done to the hapless cephalopod, but then I saw the stereotype on the right, and realized the real crime was against the kids reading this tripe. (No, my name isn't Fredric Wertham.)
pharyngula | December 20, 2007Hey, now New Scientists is cashing in on the LOL_you_name_it craze. The web is being overrun with bad grammar and cutesie pictures!
(I think this is also the first I've seen of the New Scientist blogs — I knew they were planning them a while back. They need to let more people know about these things!)
pharyngula | December 20, 2007There's a cathedral for sale in Los Angeles. Makes a great squidmas present for any atheist.
pharyngula | December 20, 2007Uh-oh. Those liberal artsie literature types at Crooked Timber, led by the wicked John Holbo, have revealed the breadth of the alliance. Oh, yeah, you're used to the god-hating shenanigans of the evilutionists, but now Holbo has gone and engaged in the War on Christmas™ and disclosed himself as a lackey to one of the Icons of Evolution™, all at once. How has he done this?
He has made Christmas cards.
Using the artwork of Ernst Haeckel.
And he even photoshopped in extra tentacles.
And he's planning to sell thong underwear with some particularly tentacly images.
He has outdone me. I might as…
pharyngula | December 17, 2007…people send you their weird and suggestively shaped fruit and vegetables. This reminds me of something:
Thanks, Ema! It even smells nice and lemony.
jlynch | December 15, 2007An English backpacker who stabbed a Scottish traveller to death during a row about creationism and evolution was sent to jail for five years by a judge in Australia.
Alexander York, 33, from Essex, had become involved in a bitter argument over the origins of mankind and later, in the caravan park where they were staying, the row turned to violence.
Scottish backpacker Rudi Boa, 28, from Inverness, fell dying into his girlfriend’s arms after being stabbed in the chest by York in January last year.
Guess which one was the creationist?
The Scottish couple, who were staying in Tumut in the…
pharyngula | December 12, 2007One of the small disadvantages of academia is that we get hopelessly busy just before Christmas, which makes squeezing in the gift shopping difficult. I'm probably not even going to step into a store until sometime around the end of next week. That's why you have to appreciate these online gift suggestions. I'm leaning towards the Televangelists' Rapture Early-Warning System as a universally useful gift for my family members of all faiths. Even the atheists should like the half-hour warning before the Rapture so they can rapidly convert!