I see that Phil and I are going to be in competition: we’ve both been nominated in the new Best Science Blog category of the Weblog Awards. This is one of those awards I don’t quite get: apparently, the organizers will just choose a subset of the nominated blogs in some way or another, and I seem to recall that voting is weird, too—you get to vote once a day in each category. It’s also run by a very conservative group blog that I’ve only interacted with because there is a loud-mouthed putz of a creationist in the group…I will be very surprised if a certain cranky liberal evolutionist gets his name pulled out of that hat.
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
I will crush you! Tentacles be damned!
And it’s not like creationists have a lot of love for me, so we’re even there.
It’s not just the tentacles you have to worry about. It’s the beak, and the neurotoxins. And the affectionately placed spermatophores.
D’oh. Thanks for the visual, PZ.
Ha! Neurotoxins, shmeurotoxins.
They’re proteins, and easily defeated.
Phil, just soak the affected anatomy in EXTREMELY hot water.
Immediatley.
Then the only lingering effect of a cephalopod bite will be the the wound from the beak, and the minor scalding. Minor concerns.
If you let *any* time elapse between bite and treatment, some toxin will escape the treatable (heatable) anatomy into your system, and will wierd you out for a while. If the biter is a small or tropical octopus (or both), “wierd you out” is more unpleasant. If it’s a blue-ring, “wierd” can mean “stop your breathing by paralyzing your chest muscles,” and “dead.”
OK, be careful after all. Or bring scalding hot water wherever you might encounter octopodes.
Gee, that brings to mind as First Aid for Snake Bite: “Apply TASER to affected body part until blood boils.”
Easy for you to say the Koufaxes are more respectable. You won one. Doesn’t that mean they were respectable?
I have finally decided I can’t beat you at your own game, winning. So I will beat you at my game: losing.
Hey, don’t rouse my competitive instincts, or I might just have to lose more better than you.
I will be very surprised if a certain cranky liberal evolutionist gets his name pulled out of that hat
And you think the winner instead will be a cranky liberal Big Bang proponent? I predict Gregg Easterbrook will win it with write-in votes.
Nah. Scott Adams will win it by write-in votes sent by bot… and will then subsequently have 3/4 of his votes stripped for the second year in a row.