A new religious type of RNA discovered?

The backstory, from reader Arctic Ape, a Finnish graduate student:

Adjacent pic is from a whiteboard in a student clubroom at the University of Helsinki, Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry (or, as we call it, “Wood & Weed Science”). Someone had drawn a crude chart of plant floral induction pathway and another(?) person had made some additions, including labeling “mRNA” as “missionary RNA”. I thought your readers might want to explain in comments what exactly is “missionary RNA” :)

Missionary RNA…I wonder what it does? Maybe this is the mechanism behind gene conversion *ba dum ching* (For the non-biologists, the correct label is “messenger RNA”)


I loved Arctic Ape’s PS:

(By the way, almost all our student clubs are curriculum-related, but we’re still mostly not huge nerds. For example, the rest of the whiteboard featured a poop joke in Finnish.)

Poop jokes: A universal staple in graduate student humor.

This is post 21 of 49 of Blogathon. Pledge a donation to the Secular Student Alliance here.

Translating apartment hunting lingo

I’ve spent the last month trawling craigslist for a 2 bedroom apartment in Capitol Hill. Yes, my escape from the Apartment From Hell is nigh! While I haven’t found a replacement yet, I’ve learned a lot about what the various lingo on apartment ads really mean:

  • “Cozy” = Tiny
  • “Old world charm” = Ancient and falling apart
  • “Homey” = Ugly, probably wood paneling
  • “Basement” = I hope you’re under 6 foot tall and don’t have seasonal depression
  • “Near the bustling…” = Noisy
  • “Parking available on street” = Parking never available
  • “Unbeatable prices” = First floor apartment that will get broken into / Next to a fire station / Someone was murdered here
  • “Great location” = If you don’t leave the two block radius around your place
  • “Near Capitol Hill” = A 20 minute bus ride from Capitol Hill
  • “Beautiful” = Not in your price range

And if it seems perfect in every way…the landlord is probably crazy.

This is post 16 of 49 of Blogathon. Pledge a donation to the Secular Student Alliance here.

Austrian atheist wins right to wear Pastafarian headgear in driver’s license

Austria allows driver’s license photos to include headgear only for confessional – aka religious – reasons. That’s when Niko Alm got the clever idea to petition for headgear from his religion, the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, by wearing a pasta strainer on his head. And he won!

Come on, this is totally ridiculous. Everyone knows the official headwear of Pastafarians is a pirate hat!This story seems pretty silly and lighthearted, but one part really stuck out to me:

The Austrian authorities required him to obtain a doctor’s certificate that he was “psychologically fit” to drive.

That’s funny! I don’t remember religious people having their mental fitness checked based on their arbitrary supernaturally imposed clothing.

SSAcon’s new sticker code

Joe Foley, Chair of the Secular Student Alliance Board of Directors*, was inspired by my post on Mensa’s sticker system for hugging. Here’s the proposal he just sent me for the SSA conference in July:

I know we already use stickers to keep track of conferencegoers who decline to appear in photos (since students might not be “out” to their families), but I wonder if we could expand that system to a more comprehensive set of boundaries and expectations. Here is a proposal:

Black circle: Please don’t take my picture
Red circle: Please don’t hug me
Red octagon: Please don’t take the elevator with me
Orange circle: Please don’t talk to me about “interfaith” activities
Blue circle: My group is a member of our local interfaith alliance
Light blue circle: My group is recognized by my school as a religion
Yellow circle: I disapprove of Humanist chaplaincies
Purple circle: I am a Humanist chaplain
Green circle: Please don’t call me an atheist
Light green circle: Please don’t call me a Humanist
Jade circle: Please don’t call me an Atheist
Chartreuse circle: Please don’t call me any specific term except the full paragraph I use to describe myself… especially not atheist
Red and white concentric circles: I’m actually religious

JWF

I’m sure JT is out buying stickers as we speak.
Seriously though, I hope you’re coming to the conference. We have great speakers like usual – Dan Barker, Greta Christina, PZ Myers, David Silverman, Jamila Bey, Debbie Goddard, Hemant Mehta, and yours truly. Everyone is welcome, though students especially should come. I always have a blast – you get tons of practical skills for running a group, and it’s great networking with other student leaders. And usually we don’t even need a sticker system to interact with each other!

*And epic troll

Our Flying Spaghetti Monster parade float

Today was the Fremont Solstice Parade, and the Seattle Atheists walked with their Flying Spaghetti Monster float. And I was one of the pirates operating his noodley appendage! Here are some fun photos from the event.

Photo by LeeLeFever

Photo by Philaros

Photo by decidedlyodd

And the cutest pirate of the day was:
Other than marching, the best part of the event was the naked bikeride, with all the people riding by in creative body paint. The two people painted up like Mormon missionaries (NSFW) were my favorite.

I’m a sucker for terrible Christian movies

I want to see this so badly:

From the video description:

“The Waiting Game is about a guy who saves himself for marriage only to have his fiance leave him on their wedding day. He must now decide if it’s worth it to wait again.”

What the movie is really about: only getting married because you want to bang someone. Lovely Christian ethics at work!

Horrible morals aside, this film looks unintentionally hilarious – almost like an atheist parody of waiting for marriage. I’m not going to lie – I lol’d at the Ted Haggard cameo and “You need Jesus! With Jesus comes the wisdom of how to drive!” But it’s real, and they’re looking for people to fund the movie.

I’m torn. Is it okay to want 2 million dollars to go to a pro-abstinence movie if it will inspire ironic godless viewing parties?

(Via Friendly Atheist)