Weirdness
pharyngula | December 2, 2006
Why would the state of Maine ban such a classy beer label? Do they hate Christmas?
By the way, Dave Puskala has told me he has a homebrew he calls "Angry Evolutionist"—that's a label I'd like to see.
(via The Science Pundit)
pharyngula | December 1, 2006Something is odd about this comment:
…to help make his point that the bible was the word of god, he introduced the Dead Sea scrolls. He said that they were 3,000 years old and that scholars had found that they were identical to the modern day bible. In fact, he said, "Every dot over every 'i', every cross of the 't', every comma, and every period is in the exact same place as in the bible in your hand" (quote paraphrased).
And to this day in Hebrew school, the children receive careful instruction in dotting i's and crossing t's.
pharyngula | December 1, 2006This is just not right. Orac finds some wacky spiritualist 'healer' who claims to have the cause for diabetes: a demon, the great spirit squid of doom. What? A squid demon? How kooky. Everyone knows no self-respecting squid demon would confined itself to screwing up one subset of cells in your pancreas.
You'll have to read the original page to find a list of other demons. There is, apparently, also a Demon of Excessive Foot Odor which you can cast out, and you can also have Demons in your Blood Sugar.
pharyngula | December 1, 2006It's looking a lot like Cephalopodmas…whoa, but I got a lot of cephalopod art and weirdness sent in to me this week. You'll have to look below the fold for all of them, and do notice that most of the images are links to the source.
pharyngula | November 30, 2006There are three people who need to burn in hell for this photo. Don't they know I've been trying to forget the Disco Years?
pharyngula | November 28, 2006
As we sober academics are fond of saying, "Squeeee!"
Now I can get my own Cephalopodmas tentacle loaded with chthonic Cephalopodmas carols. I'm definitely putting this on my Cephalopodmas list.
pharyngula | November 27, 2006It has been officially determined that you are not allowed to have sex with animals, even if they are dead.
I'm now getting a weird vibe off of these natural lamb condoms…are they illegal in Wisconsin now? I also think this device has acquired a new level of perversion.
pharyngula | November 27, 2006Jesus' General is poking fun at Mitt Romney's weird religious doctrines (he's a Mormon). This isn't right. I demand that he give equal time to pointing out the silliness of Hillary Clinton's (Methodist), John Kerry's (Catholic), Russ Feingold's (Jewish), and John McCain's (whatever will get him the nomination) religion. There's goofiness galore in all of those, too, and it's unfair to leave them out.
pharyngula | November 26, 2006This fellow, Bob Averill, is a Portland atheist who was attending the Art Institute there. You won't believe what happened to him recently.
In the classroom that day, Averill says one young woman was talking about her belief in energy layers and astral beings.
"I jokingly asked her if she believed in leprechauns. It turns out, she does. They live on another energy layer," Averill wrote in notes to himself later that day. "In the interest of bringing my own view to the discussion, I began to ask her how she knew these things. Again I know all too well that people can be sensitive about their…
pharyngula | November 25, 2006First, I have to assure you that Duluth is nowhere near Morris. It's 240 miles away, on the other side of the state. Besides, the guy is from Wisconsin.
Second, to answer the question raised, I don't think it should be illegal to have sex with a dead animal. It's sick and disgusting, but no one is being harmed. Just please, I'd rather not spend any time with the pathetic little slug.
pharyngula | November 24, 2006I just got this email, addressed to "Dear Blog Author". This must be the internet equivalent of evangelical door-knocking.
Invitation to Join Christian Bloggers
A small group of us have started a new site called Christian Bloggers. Our prayer and intent is to bring Christians closer together, and make a positive contribution to the Internet community. While many of us have different "theologies", we all share one true saviour.
Would you be interested in joining Christian Bloggers? Please take a few minutes to have a look at what we are trying to do, and if you are interested, there is a sign…
pharyngula | November 24, 2006You know how we great clumsy gallumphing unsophisticated atheists are always comparing belief in gods to belief in fairies at the bottom of the garden or tooth fairies or whatever? We may have to revise those arguments.
Now we really have to worry. If some space probe snaps a picture of an orbiting teapot, we'll have nothin'.
Crap. Sean knocks the props out from under my godlessness. Now I'm going to have to convert to something…what does everyone recommend? Catholicism, LDS, Scientology, etc., or should I just go all the way primitive, erect a phallus-shaped rock in my backyard, and start…
pharyngula | November 21, 2006By way of Feministing, here's a rather irritating tool to rank your site for it's "bloglebrity". It's pink and it's illustrated with a photo of Paris Hilton.
I hate it. Here, I've fixed it.
You can add your own photo of Barbara McClintock or Rosalind Franklin to the background.
pharyngula | November 20, 2006Oh! Respectful Insolence uncovers more woo-woo nonsense, a scheme called Global Orgasm that urges everyone to get it on on one particular day.
The intent is that the participants concentrate any thoughts during and after orgasm on peace. The combination of high-energy orgasmic energy combined with mindful intention may have a much greater effect than previous mass meditations and prayers.
The goal is to add so much concentrated and high-energy positive input into the energy field of the Earth that it will reduce the current dangerous levels of aggression and violence throughout the world.…
pharyngula | November 20, 2006Thinking about getting a pet? You should read Animal Reviews first, to see if it will fulfill your needs. For example, the review of the octopus suggests that I need one, right now.
Next, Octopi are what are known as Cephalopods, a science word meaning that they are constructed entirely out of squish, with no bones whatsoever. Sensational! Yet, unlike their clearly unmotivated cousins the clam and the spinach, they have managed to get themselves hold of tentacles. And not just two or three 'bitty' tentacles either, but eight great big ones sticking out of their drippy bodies, whipping out to…
pharyngula | November 19, 2006It's all very nice that Elayne Riggs refers to me as an A-list blogger, but it's not true. We weird scienceblog types have to be placed on a completely different alphabet, and I have decided that I want to be on the ζ-list. Mainly because I like the squiggle.
Update your blogrolls appropriately, please.
Also via Elayne, I had to try this site that lets you figure out where you'd end up if you dug a hole through the center of the earth. I have discovered that there is a place more remote, empty, and isolated than Morris, Minnesota: it's the center of the Indian Ocean. Although it probably…
pharyngula | November 18, 2006What if Stan Lee worked for Chick Publications? You'd get apocalyptic tracts with giant planet-eating space men.
(via Pen-Elayne)
This is all you're getting from me for a while. I just finished a 9 hour long meeting (freaking uncivilized, if you ask me), and next I have to go attend some god-awful Christian propaganda — my daughter is the stage manager for the high school production of "Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat", so I have to go — and I suspect my day is going to continue its trend of ongoing frustration and exasperation. It is in my best interests to avoid further posting to…
pharyngula | November 18, 2006This has got to be a devious plot. My wife has been known to tell me to dress more formally (it's a polite way of pointing out that I'm a slob), and in particular, that I should wear…a tie… more often. Now a reader sends me a link to ties with cephalopods and brains on them, and it's the month before Cephalopodmas. This is horrible. I don't want to even be tempted by a tie.