Weirdness
pharyngula | September 27, 2006I have to draw the line somewhere.
The dish in front of me is grey and shiny.
"Russian dog," says my waitress Nancy.
"Big dog," I reply.
"Yes," she says. "Big dog's penis..."
We are in a cosy restaurant in a dark street in Beijing but my appetite seems to have gone for a stroll outside.
Nancy has brought out a whole selection of delicacies.
They are draped awkwardly across a huge platter, with a crocodile carved out of a carrot as the centrepiece.
Nestling beside the dog's penis are its clammy testicles, and beside that a giant salami-shaped object.
"Donkey," says Nancy. "Good for…
pharyngula | September 22, 2006Oh, boy…Boingboing mentions something squid-related and everyone sends me email. Should I mention that I brought up Squid Soap back in August? (Hah! That Doctorow fellow thinks he's so cutting edge. Poseur.) However, Craig Clarke just sent me some information on a holy cruciform-shaped scrub brush, and it seems to me that we have to get these two products together.
+
If you're going to wash away the sins of the world, you ought to do it with squid soap, I think.
pharyngula | September 22, 2006It's time for another edition of that popular game where I browse through the mailbag and see what peculiar images people have sent to me, prompted by my peculiar reputation. It's not all flabby, slimy squid this week!
Click on the images to go to the source.
Why would the plaintiff have brought suit in the first place?
Hubba hubba. Am I perverse for really wanting to see what's under that dress?
Giant cephalopod! Fighting zombies! in Dutch!
Much, much too young for me. But cute.
Martian seagulls? That's different and cool.
pharyngula | September 19, 2006Arrrrr. Let us begin a rude day with a rude picture.
I do protest, though, that Cap'n Blackbeard looked nothin' like that (he had two hands and a snaky tangle of a beard), and there is a great missed opportunity here. Blackbeard knotted lit matchcords in his hair and beard so they'd glow and hiss and smoke in battle—why not render the brute with the product tied into his flowin' locks?
(Alas, Pharyngula does not yet have a pirate mode restored, so don't be expectin' an excess of piratical nonsense today.)
(Some of you will be greatly relieved.)
pharyngula | September 18, 2006Now we've got unconfirmed rumors that Steve Irwin was born again shortly before he died. You may recall that Charles Darwin was also tarred with claims of a deathbed conversion, too.
The message is clear. Don't convert, or you'll die.
The only question is whether it's Jesus that does the execution, or whether wandering evangelicals are actually serial killers. And since I don't believe in Jesus…
pharyngula | September 18, 2006I didn't even place in the Nerd-Off final tally!
I guess I'm just too suave and ept.
jlynch | September 15, 2006Over at the Panda's Thumb, Nick highlights the following quote from Wiker and Witt's, A Meaningful World: How the Arts and Sciences Reveal the Genius of Nature:
Strange though it may seem to neo-Darwinists, Darwin's assumption that the terms species and variety are merely given for convenience's sake is part of a larger materialist and reductionist program that undercuts the natural foundation of counting and distorts the natural origin of mathematics. To put it more bluntly, in assuming that "species" are not real, Darwinism and the larger reductionist program burn away the original ties…
pharyngula | September 15, 2006We just had one of these!
Mendel's Garden #6
Friday Ark #104
Well, just to flesh it out a little more with some random links, here are some photos. I was told the second one made someone think of me (warning: body modification!). And, jebus help me, for some reason I thought this photo was very sexy. Or appetizing. I don't know, something in the midbrain flickered.
Oh, and several of us sciencebloggers were interviewed for an article by Eva Amsen on "Who benefits from science blogging?" It doesn't mention the benefit of people sending you pictures that tickle the cingulate.
pharyngula | September 15, 2006This has been a bountiful week at Chez Pharyngula, and I have received generous gifts from several readers. A full accounting lies below the fold.
Why, yes. Yes, I do.
Readers from Winnipeg visited the Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre and reported on what they found there…and they sent me a t-shirt! The sentiment is perfect, and I know you're all jealous now. Hmmm. Winnipeg isn't that far from Morris, and I know lots of the faculty here make trips up that way (especially for the folk festival). Now I've got a few more reasons to pay a visit, even if it is the Bible Belt of Canada. Has anyone…
pharyngula | September 15, 2006More information is always good, so I have to endorse this brand new initiative from our government.
It doesn't go quite far enough, though. Evolution has screwed mankind over by making women's fertility cryptic—many primates express overt signals as they become receptive, such as swelling and reddening of the vulva, and we don't get any visible signs at all. Let's use technology to return to those halcyon days, and imbed women with LH monitors that change color: from gray on infertile days, to pink as hormone levels rise, to flashing red to announce, "She's ovulating, boys!" I wouldn't…
pharyngula | September 14, 2006The dwarf planet formerly known as Xena has been renamed Eris, and it's companion has been named Dysnomia, and Phil finds something funny: a guy who thinks renaming planets after discord and strife is a moonbat plot to mock the Bush administration. Seriously.
He's nuts. War and chaos don't come to anyone's mind when they hear the name GW Bush. We all know the real devious reasons for juggling the names around.
It's an anti-feminist plot to deprive that famous female historical figure and butt-kicking lesbian, Xena the Warrior-Princess, of her due honor.
It's a feminist plot to punish Xena…
pharyngula | September 10, 2006Both Proper Study of Mankind and Thoughts in a Haystack have summaries of this bizarre paper that was published in Science last week, showing a connection between a sense of cleanliness and ethical thought. I guess it's not surprising that physical sensations impinge on unconscious decisions, but it is interesting in that it hooks into some cultural rituals. I'm not at all clear on what it means, though: should I skip out on taking a shower so I'll feel more compelled to do good in thought and deed to compensate, or should I do pre-emptive washing so I won't be hindered from skullduggery?
pharyngula | September 10, 2006Shouldn't this be a subject for the biologists? Why should breast physics be such an important issue in video games?
Don't worry, the link is work safe. Just weird.
pharyngula | September 10, 2006This is quite possibly the most offensive video ever: Christian pirate puppets rapping. Seriously, don't watch it if your stomach is at all unsettled.
pharyngula | September 8, 2006Every week, someone finds something that reminds them of me, and they send it off in an email. I think that every day someone strolls through a fish market and the PZ-spot in their brain lights up like a Tesla coil, triggering odd associations that can only be relieved by grounding them out in an email message. Some examples are below the fold.
A reader got a nice 60s vibe off this image, and thought it was perfect for me. Or maybe it was the octopus…
This is a jigsaw puzzle spotted at COSI:
Phil saw an episode of Cthulhu's Clues on his hotel TV, and of course he thought of me.
Hillary…
pharyngula | September 8, 2006The latest issue of Science has a fascinating article on Exotic Earths—it contains the results of simulations of planet formation in systems like those that have been observed with giant planets close to their stars. The nifty observation is that such simulations spawn lots of planets that are in a habitable zone and that are very water-rich.
(click for larger image)Final configuration of our four simulations, with the solar system shown for scale. Each simulation is plotted on a horizontal line, and the size of each body represents its relative physical size (except for the giant planets,…
pharyngula | September 7, 2006I've been asked if this is a common occurrence at scientific conferences: at an Australian conference on climate change, the entertainment at a social dinner was a burlesque show. And the answer is…no. Every meeting dinner I've attended has had some white-maned elder statesperson of the discipline do the 'entertainment', which is usually thin on the bare flesh and the humor, thick with jargon and historical detail. It can be fun—I recall one talk by JZ Young that was full of squid and voltages that I really enjoyed—but I don't think it would have been improved if he'd been up on the podium…
pharyngula | September 6, 2006…but next time you get on a plane, you are allowed to bring along "personal lubricants". Yes, what it sounds like.
National security will not be allowed to deter new recruits to the Mile-High Club.
pharyngula | September 6, 2006That's all I want to know. Thomas Kinkade's house is for sale, and at $359,000 for a smallish 3 bedroom home, it darn well better glow. Glow like a muthafricken' fairy castle.
pharyngula | September 6, 2006This is an octopus sculpted out of butter.
In the interests of fairness, I'd now like to see a cow made of fried calamari rings.