Mary’s Monday Metazoan: The candle that burns twice as bright, burns half as long, and you burned very, very brightly, Roy » « Mary’s Monday Metazoan: The candle that burns twice as bright, burns half as long, and you burned very, very brightly, Roy

Episode CCXLV: Darwin sings!

The World Humanist Congress is over. The closing ceremony involved a few speeches, the Norwegian Humanist Choir, and this video played on the big screen.

(Last edition of TET.)

Mary’s Monday Metazoan: The candle that burns twice as bright, burns half as long, and you burned very, very brightly, Roy » « Mary’s Monday Metazoan: The candle that burns twice as bright, burns half as long, and you burned very, very brightly, Roy

Comments

  3. theophontes , flambeau du communisme says

    @ Patricia, OM

    TM

    Try this : open bracket ( then tm then close bracket )

    I discovered this by accident. You can experiment in “Preview” before posting.

  4. says

    According to Obama,

    The biggest concern we have right now is not the launching of a major terrorist operation, although that risk is always there, the risk that we’re especially concerned over right now is the lone wolf terrorist, somebody with a single weapon being able to carry out wide-scale massacres of the sort that we saw in Norway recently. You know, when you’ve got one person who is deranged or driven by a hateful ideology, they can do a lot of damage, and it’s a lot harder to trace those lone wolf operators.

    Has he been briefed on a certain Canadian?

  5. Janine, The Little Top Of Venom, OM says

    Patricia, I would have to suffer from a sever brain trauma in order to be able to believe a thing Bachmann says.

    Last song of my night.

    Dear Old Man Of Mine-Linda Thompson

    Yes, it is about her ex husband.

    Thinking about it, so it Telling Me Lies. The song was co-written by Linda Thompson.

  6. theophontes , flambeau du communisme says

    @ Benjamin & Janine

    I can’t log onto the comments in the link you posted (twitter is blocked) or the youtube songs (also blocked). Pharyngulating is hard in China… :'(

  7. says

    Say, has anyone seen google? They put up Fermat’s Last Theorem on their logo! And if you roll your mouse over it, a box with Fermat’s famous margin note regarding the theorem appears.

  9. Patricia, OM says

    OK, here we go –

    The Pullet Patrol TM does not give one half a dozen eggs, or a flying fuck about Osama Ben Layin.

  10. Patricia, OM says

    Nope. OK –
    TM

    TM

    TM

    That’s three for the guys in the big boy pants. Let’s see if any of the above work.

    And oh yeah, PZ we wants the comic sans, and the pissed off creationist. Thanks.

  11. theophontes , flambeau du communisme says

    @ Patricia

    Pour vous: … ™

    You can cut and paste my ™ and it should work. I kid you not.

  13. Patricia, OM says

    theophontes – Alas I have no cut and paste skills. That could be seen as a handicap – but on the other hand, when we get 15 paragraphs of the Book of Mormon quoted to us, at least everyone knows it ISN’T me that posted it.
    *smirk*

  14. The Lone Coyote says

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3T5Pm7qLH50

    I just discovered this video. (Yeah, still a pharyngula n00b here.) Mr. Myers, how the fuck did you last 37 minutes? Jesus Fucking Christ. I can’t stand 30 seconds of talking to people who interrupt and talk over the person they’re ‘debating’ like that.

    They remind me of those assholes that used to gather at five corners downtown in a huge mob every friday night, and harass everyone who walked by with EXTREMELY high-pressure and obnoxious evangelizing. Not a chance to get a word in edgewise. People like that make me want to chimp out on their faces in the worst way.

  15. consciousness razor says

    Patricia, hope this helps. :) Just type whatever’s after the colons to get what comes before.

    ™ :: ™
    © :: ©
    ® :: ®

    Now I’m just playing…
    ——
    x^2:: $latex x^2$
    x^{2^y} :: $latex x^{2^y}$
    x_2 :: $latex x_2$
    x_{2_y} :: $latex x_{2_y}$
    script^{superscript}_{subscript}+y^2+c_i=\infty+1 ::
    $latex script^{superscript}_{subscript}+y^2+c_i=\infty+1$
    ——
    \frac{2x}{3}=y :: $latex \frac{2x}{3}=y$
    \frac{2}{3x}=y :: $latex \frac{2}{3x}=y$
    \frac{2}{3}x=y :: $latex \frac{2}{3}x=y$

  16. SteveV says

    Patrica:
    Copy/paste from Windowz Character Map works fine.
    (I’d make a joke about grandmothers & egg sucking were it not for fear of the Pullet Patrol’s reaction) ™ © ®

    !ƧƉƩȻʥѮѪڞᴥ

  18. Audley Z. Darkheart OM (OS), purveyor of candy and lies says

    SteveV,
    I eat your doughnuts. I eat them up!

    Matt Penfold*,
    Game Set Match has finally arrived! Yay!

    Well, by “arrived”, I mean it’s in post office limbo, but Mr Darkheart is going to pick it up for me today. :)

    *Looking at your name, I can’t remember if there’s one n or two. I’m gonna go with one.

  20. serendipitydawg (one headed, mutant spawn of Echidna) says

    Good day TET,

    Set: a shocking 2mins 36 secs, I think I need different shapes and colours ;P

    I wish everyone who says being gay is a lifestyle choice would read this:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/14479670

    The findings indicate that, even in birds, the drive to find a mate is far more complicated than simply the need to reproduce.

    Nuff said.

  22. Quodlibet says

    serendipitydawg (one headed, mutant spawn of Echidna):

    The findings indicate that, even in birds, the drive to find a mate is far more complicated than simply the need to reproduce.

    Thanks for posting that! I’ve shared this anecdote once before (perhaps months ago), but it’s very relevant here: When I go birding in my neighborhood, I often stop at a certain small lake, where for the past 2-3 years I have observed a bonded pair of male Mallard ducks. I have photos and video of these two – they behave exactly like a male-female pair, sticking close together all the time, and engaging in ritualized mating displays and occasional copulation. They are part of a typical male-female flock of Mallards (about 20); there are plenty of female ducks, including some unattached females, so the two males are clearly choosing each other. These two homosexual males, like most pairs of ducks, geese, and swans, seem to have mated for life. Thes same-sex pair is clearly part of the flock and not at all “separate.” There is one major difference between their experience and their human counterparts: the rest of their community doesn’t seem the least concerned or “threatened” by this pair. They just carry on.

    I wish that people could understand that nature has many variations, including sexual variations, and that humans’ imposition of myth-based moralities on nature’s variety will not change it. To my thinking, the variety we observe in nature is part of its robustness and beauty.

  24. Psych-Oh says

    Someone stole my “Science Fish” off of my car! Dammit. My car was in the shop for over a week and it was still on when I picked it up. Then today I drove my son to school and noticed that it was gone. Must have happened when I was grocery shopping yesterday afternoon.

    C.C. – I have to backtrack and read what happened to you. Obviously, it is more serious than a stolen car emblem.

  26. says

    Well. I don’t have a lot of time, but I thought I’d drop in, brag, and leave.

    Last night I was fortunate enough to dine with the quite entertaining Katherine Lorraine. Yay! All I can say is, if Kat stops by your town and asks to meet up, do so. She appreciates good food and good beer (even if she’s not too fond of IPAs).

    Now I hafta go back to work. I can’t wait ’til I’m independently wealthy and can slack off on Pharyngula all day. Sadly, I have far too much work to accomplish this week. sigh

  27. Quodlibet says

    Classical Cipher, I’m so sorry about the lost cash. About 25 years ago I lost an envelope with $100 cash that I had set aside to pay for new eyeglasses…I had to go without the new glasses for awhile. I have never forgotten the shock and dismay and mortification when I finally discovered that I had probably thrown it away by accident. It’s amazing how many times have recalled it over the years. I share your anguish over this.*

    .

    *[([small hug since you don’t really know me and I am shy about hugs])]

  28. broboxley OT says

    todays chutzpah award goes to the Iranians

    TEHRAN – Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ramin Mehmanparast on Tuesday advised the British government to exercise self-restraint and refrain from using violence against protesters.

  31. Bill Dauphin, avec fromage says

    Arrrgh!!

    Note the photo caption…

    Kristian Bush and Jennifer Nettles of Sugarland were about to go on stage at the Indiana State Fair when their stage manager looked at the sky and held them backstage to hold a prayer circle, possibly saving their lives.

    …and this from the body of the article:

    She added that while others backstage felt it was fine for the band to begin their set, it was Rollens’ instincts that made the difference between life and possible death.

    My question is this: If the stage manager thought conditions were unsafe onstage, why didn’t he fucking evacuate the area around the stage instead of wasting time praying?

    <headdesk>:

  32. serendipitydawg (one headed, mutant spawn of Echidna) says

    The response by the Chinese government to the announcement that the our dear government were seriously considering disabling Twitter, FB, et al during times of civil unrest gave me the biggest laugh of the week.
    __________________________________________________
    With regard to chutzpah, the definition I always liked was:

    Murdering both your parents and asking for leniency in court owing to being an orphan.

    I always though that it encapsulated the true meaning of the word XD
    __________________________________________________
    @Quodlibet,

    And thank you for your anecdote, interesting that you have encountered the very same thing.

    Shame it isn’t possible to canvass avian opinions on gender identity, I suspect that it would silence some of the nay sayers on that subject.

    Note to Kat: neighbour’s TG son while legally having to remain female at present had a party at the weekend and has a healthy group of friends who are evidently at ease with a gender shift. Good to see in a young group.

  33. broboxley OT says

    Bill Dauphin #531
    Kristian Bush and Jennifer Nettles of Sugarland were about to go on stage at the Indiana State Fair when their stage manager looked at the sky and held them backstage to do a righteous line of grade A columbian marching powder, possibly saving their lives.

    would have worked just as well. An “Evacuate the stage!” would have gotten dumb looks.

  34. Quodlibet says

    Hello Bill Dauphin, avec fromage

    Your comment @ #531

    My question is this: If the stage manager thought conditions were unsafe onstage, why didn’t he fucking evacuate the area around the stage instead of wasting time praying?

    Maybe only xians are worth saving…?

    /snark and digust

  35. Antiochus Epiphanes says

    butts in…

    I registered for the Texas Freethought Convention. Yeehaw!

    Now I have to go because I spent money.

  36. Mr. Fire says

    Isn’t that a bit like John Boehner advising people not to get fake tans?

    Yes We Tan!

  37. Bill Dauphin, avec fromage says

    Benjamin:

    Today, a proto-friend … suggested I sign up for both, and attend the first class of each [of the two courses I’m considering] before deciding.

    I see that fatethe randomness of the universe[1] has taken this decision out of your hands, but the procedure you describe above is standard at Yale (at least for undergrads): They have a “Shopping Period” for the first 2 weeks of each semester, and no student’s schedule is finalized until the end of that period. Students are encouraged to attend classes for all the courses they’re interested in, then finalize their schedules based on what they learn about professors, syllabi, book lists, classmates, etc. It’s not an open house period — attendance and assigments count, and no instructional time is lost — but it does allow for more informed student decision making.

    [1] JOOC, has anyone figured out how to do underlines yet?

  38. serendipitydawg (one headed, mutant spawn of Echidna) says

    1] JOOC, has anyone figured out how to do underlines yet?

    I think the closest is to use <abbr>.

  39. SallyStrange, Spawn of Cthulhu says

    Check it out, Horde. This has got to be the tackiest dress ever. Seriously. I mean, it’s got little star-flowers announcing, “here are my sexual organs, primary and secondary! take note!” Amazing. I had to share.

    /we now return you to your regularly scheduled program

  41. Bill Dauphin, avec fromage says

    OK, I’m on record here as a fan of certain kinds of “reality” TV, but this story is horrific. I don’t know, of course, that having his marital difficulties turned into mass entertainment had anything to do with this man’s suicide, but it’a a not-unreasonable hypothesis, isn’t it? It’s bad enough to present your own bad behavior as fodder for others’ entertainment; subjecting your (presumably) loved ones to that spotlight is heinous. I’m sure there’s some sort of consent process, and no doubt the husbands (even estranged ones) benefit financially from their wives’ participation, but still… the show isn’t The Real Husbands of Beverly Hills, yet clearly it’s a burden on at least some of those husbands[1].

    Since I don’t watch even tiny fragments of any of the Real Housewives shows, I have no idea whether there are children involve; the mind boggles at that possibility.

    [1] Note that this is not a plea to “think of teh menz”; it’s sympathy for the less-involved third parties. It just happens that in this case, they’re men.

  42. Bill Dauphin, avec fromage says

    SallyStrange (@539):

    Haven’t you noticed that men typically pay no attention to women’s sexual anatomy unless it’s explicitly pointed out to them? </snark>

  44. Bill Dauphin, avec fromage says

    Interesting: A few moments ago, I had a comment poofed on me. It had just one link, no trade names of psychoactive drugs, no names of banned trolls, and no other obvious moderation traps. It previewed successfully, but when I hit Submit Comment, it just vanished into the aether.

    Also, I notice that the pace of commenting here at TET seems a bit slower than expected over the last couple hours.

    I wonder if there’s any link between these two things?

  45. says

    And now for something completely different:

    Hopefully somebody can tell me what’s going on. Using Chrome, I have to clear browsing data before coming here, or I don’t get the up to date page. It just goes to the last time I visited.

    Is this something that ftb needs to fix?

  47. Katrina, radicales féministes athées says

    Obviously, I chose the wrong profession. I didn’t realize that if I had become a climate scientist I could have “money rolling in” because of climate change.

  49. Owlmirror says

    A few moments ago, I had a comment poofed on me. It had just one link, no trade names of psychoactive drugs, no names of banned trolls, and no other obvious moderation traps. It previewed successfully, but when I hit Submit Comment, it just vanished into the aether.

    The same thing happened to me over at Cosmic Variance. I finally figured out that the problem word was “naked”, which I had used in the phrase “naked eye”.

    Let me see if it happens here…

    ====

    Yes, it did!
    Results replicated!

    Workaround: na<i></i>ked.

  50. Bill Dauphin, avec fromage says

    Owlmirror (@549):

    WTF?? “Naked” is moderation-bait?? I thought it was precisely that sort of prissiness that we fled NatGeo/SciBlogs to avoid!

    Also, the comment I was complaining about has unpoofed, and now appears as #541… which I swear was not in evidence when I posted the comments now numbered 542 and 544.

    Curiouser and curiouser….

  53. Owlmirror says

    Also, the comment I was complaining about has unpoofed, and now appears as #541… which I swear was not in evidence when I posted the comments now numbered 542 and 544.

    Well, I can confirm that I didn’t see that comment (originally) myself.

    I have a suspicion as to what the problem word might have been there…

  56. Birger Johansson says

    BTW aren’r naked mole rats extremely long-lived, for their size? The parrots of Rodentia. A Nobel is waiting for any molecular biologist who works out the mechanism!
    — — — — — — — — — — — —

    Serendipity at work (proving that blue-sky, non-applied research really pays off!)

    “Microbiologist discovers new super-preservative” … … … … http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-08-microbiologist-super-preservative.html
    It does not work on vegetable matter (fruit, vegetables) since a different decay mechanism is involved, but it would save enormous amounts of food from being thrown away if it works as well as the study claims.
    I see a future for this in third world countries where food preservation is a big issue.

  57. says

    Janine, The Little Top Of Venom, OM says:17 August 2011 at 1:12 am

    Can’t Win-Richard Thompson

    Recorded in 1988. Some guy by the name of Kenny Aronoff is on drums.

    I’ve worked with Thompson twice, nice guy, good show. I’ve worked with Kenny a fuckton of times in the studio and live and consider him a close acquaintance. We measured the sound of his snare drum @ 115dB one time in the studio. Great guy.
    xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
    Bill, the stage manager doesn’t have any control over what happens off stage, He was probably more concerned about the storm and not the wind preceding it. and apparently the safest place to be was the stage because the lighting grid toppled into the crowd.

    I call BS on the ‘saving their lives’ bit and would like to point out what an asshole jebus was to kill innocent crowd members.

  58. Bill Dauphin, avec fromage says

    Well, Matt’s and Owlmirror’s tests have me somewhat less exercised about censorship… but even more puzzled about the apparently random, unrepeatable behavior of comments here.

    If relatively common words like naked or suicide were banned or moderated, we should at least get some sort of notification… because who would’ve guessed that?

    And if they’re not, I’m puzzled about the will-it-or-won’t-it posting of comments, and about the fact that different testers get different results.

    Enquiring minds want to know!

  59. Quodlibet says

    Bill Dauphin, avec fromage (quel type de fromage?), I had a similar experience on Sb-Pharyngula earlier; my comments would disappear after preview mode. Took four tries to post something, which I finally was able to do after abandoning the preview attempt.

  60. cicely says

    Amen brother. Makes ya wonder, if there ever had been a holy fuck, why do we have bot flies, tsunamis, earth quakes and child molesting priests?

    Because bot flies, tsunamis and earthquakes have free will…same as the child molesting priests.
    –
    $latex Test^{Does.this.work?}_{We.can soon.find.out.}

    Seems okay on Preview. A bit make-shifty, but I guess I can deal.

    WTF? On second Preview, the Latexy bits went away. Let’s see what happens on Submit….
    –

  61. Bill Dauphin, avec fromage says

    The Sailor:

    Bill, the stage manager doesn’t have any control over what happens off stage,

    Yah, and I really have no way of knowing what was going through Rollens’ mind… but I would’ve thought a stage manager who thought conditions were unsafe would at least talk to the venue manager about getting the crowd to safety. I don’t mean to be demonizing this one person; just demonizing the notion that prayer is a constructive response to a crisis.

  63. IndyM says

    @Randide: So glad things are going well…I would love to hear a positive story about online dating for once!

    @Nigel & @Katherine: Envious of your get-together. Do Pharyngulans ever do meet-ups? Do any Pharyngulans get together in NYC?

    @Sally: That dress is SO strange. I can’t believe it’s at Macys either. SURELY people are noticing those strategically placed flowers…?!

    @Commentariat: I’m still a noob, so forgive the dumb question, but do y’all pronounce “Pharyngula” with a hard “g” or soft one? (I looked it up in the dictionary, and it listed the hard “g” variant first; I just wanted to find out what the preference was here.)

  66. says

    I’m poking around in the controls for this site, and I’m not finding anything that bans “naked” — if I could find it, I’d stop it.

    We’ve got something called akismet for spam control…could that be where the problem lies?

  67. serendipitydawg (one headed, mutant spawn of Echidna) says

    Test^{Does.this.work?}_{We.can soon.find.out.}

    You forgot the closing dollar:
    $latex Test^{Does.this.work?}_{We.can soon.find.out.} $

  68. serendipitydawg (one headed, mutant spawn of Echidna) says

    Owlmirror @564,

    Doh! That’s what I get for being flashy.

  70. broboxley OT says

    the answer to the math question explained slowly for the math impaired (like me).
    thanks DRL!

    First, we can use symmetry to eliminate most of the problem. Since each mass it the same, and nothing else is around, and the gravitational force on one is solely responsible for the motion of the other, and is always attractive and proportional to the inverse square of the distance between them, we conclude that each will move toward the other along the line joining them, and they will eventually meet, if anywhere, at the point halfway between their original positions. Thus we can forget about one mass and write the force equation on the other, then use mirror symmetry to get the motion of each.

    Now according to Newton, the force on an object is equal to its mass times its acceleration. Let’s put one particle at x > 0, and the other at -x < 0, and they will move along the x-axis, eventually to meet at x=0. Let's concentrate on the particle at x (positive). Newton's law says

    F = m d2x/dt2

    that is, the mass times the second derivative with respect to time of the position x. But we know the force – Newton's gravitation law says that the force between two masses m1 and m2 that are a distance r apart is

    F = G m1 m2 / r^2

    where G is a universal constant. Now the force on the particle at x is directed toward the other particle, that is, in the negative direction, so the force on it is

    F = – G m^2 / (2x)^2

    because the masses are equal, and the distance of one to the other is 2x. Now we have a differential equation for x:

    F = – G m^2 / 4 x(t)^2 = m d2x(t)/dt^2

    where we have explicitly indicated that x is a function of t. It's a second-order differential equation, meaning that its solution will depend on two arbitrary constants – the initial speed and position. Since we know both of these (initial speed = 0 and initial position = 1/2 D where D is the initial separation of the masses), the constants can be determined and the solution will be definite. So let's solve this equation!

    Let's write it as (canceling one m on either side)

    d2x/dt2 = – (G m / 4 x^2)

    Now the dimensions of G are in meters^3 / (kilogram * seconds^2). So G m has dimensions meters^3 / seconds^2, and G m / x^2 has dimensions meters / seconds^2, an acceleration, so the dimensions of the two terms match.

    Introduce a new variable v = dx/dt. Then we have a system

    dv/dt = -Gm / 4x^2

    dx/dt = v

    Dividing both sides,

    dv/dx = -Gm / 4 v x^2

    so

    v dv = -Gm dx / 4 x^2

    1/2 d (v^2) = Gm/4 d (1/x)

    d (v^2) = Gm/2 d (1/x)

    and now we can integrate both sides to get

    v^2 = Gm/2x + constant

    We know that when x = D/2, the initial position, that v=0, so

    constant = -Gm/D

    so

    v^2 = Gm ( 1/2x – 1/D )

    v = sqrt (Gm ( 1/2x – 1/D ))

    Replacing now v by dx/dt, we have a first order differential equation

    dx/dt = sqrt ( Gm ( 1/2x – 1/D ) )

    or

    dx / sqrt ( Gm (1/2x – 1/D) ) = dt

    The integral on the left side is rather complicated and I'll just write it down

    -(sqrt(D/Gm) / 2 ) [ D arctan sqrt((D-2x)/2x) + sqrt(2x(D-2x) ] = t – t0 = t

    because t0, the initial time, = 0. This gives t as a function of x, which in principle can be inverted to give x as a function of t. Putting x = 0 gives the time required for the particles to meet – the arctan goes over to arctan infinity = pi/2, so

    t = pi D sqrt (D/Gm)

    Let's check the dimensions – G is meter^3/(kg *sec^2), do D/Gm is sec^2 / meter^2, and sqrt(D/Gm) is sec/meter, and finally D sqrt(D/Gm) is seconds, as expected.

  71. Owlmirror says

    Well, it definitely happened again when I posted with multiple occurrences of the word “naked”.

  73. Richard Austin says

    Car’s in the shop. Two bad catalytic converters (yes, I have two) and brakes, plus an oil flush since it seems to be low and I haven’t noticed any leaks. $2600. Yay for sports cars!

    —

    Maybe OCE can contact the techies-that-be and figure out what, if any, the moderation rules are here. I know he bumped the link count up to 6 for DDMFM.

  74. theophontes says

    @ CR #515

    Wow,… thanks for the HTML info. But now the others will have to endure my experimen ………………. …………… …………… ……………. ……………. ……………… ………………. ………………. …………… ……………TATION!

    ™ Mmmmh….

    and : ^tm
    ^{tm}
    ^{tm^t^m}

    Uh Oh… “formula does not parse”? :( Ma sandboks is brokended.

  79. serendipitydawg (one headed, mutant spawn of Echidna) says

    @Katrina,

    Matt, FF6 is still in beta.

    If this is true, I can’t see why FF5 is prompting for an update.

    It asked me this morning but I decided to declined for the time being.

  80. serendipitydawg (one headed, mutant spawn of Echidna) says

    … decided to declined…

    No wonder my code isn’t working well today: I can’t type what I am thinking.

  81. hotshoe says

    Horde Music

    Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, Americana music three day festival in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco.

    Returns this year Sept 30-Oct 2.

    Will be a zoo, hundreds of thousands attending over the course of the three days, because it’s great: world class headliners on five stages – and, gee, free. Weather: average daytime temps 75, cooling to 45 at sunset. By 4PM on Saturday it will be impossible to move between stages because of the crowds so pick one and stay there. There is VERY limited accommodation for physical disabilities with unpaved park paths on some slopes. But if you can stand the crowds and navigate the park terrain, it’s amazing.

    I’ll be there for sure on Friday, regardless of who’s playing, because Friday is less crowded and therefore more fun for me. I may try to make Sat/Sun depending on who’s playing.

    See ya there!

  82. Katrina, radicales féministes athées says

    On my machine both FF5 and FF6 become unstable after viewing Adobe files. I’m not sure why they’re beta-testing 6 when 5 just came out of beta and still doesn’t work right.

    I’m not really even seeing any difference between the two.

  83. Mr. Fire says

    ^{THE} {\Huge MRA}_{-TEAM}

    …

    Huh, yeah, still need to work on top/bottom-aligning either side of MRA to make it look like this.

    (never mind the font)

  84. says

    Bill, as I understand it, the fair grounds officials were heading to the stage as it happened. From my experience you are concerned about lightning and not this freak microburst that was ahead of the storm.

    The folks in charge also have to weigh the fact that you really can’t evacuate a venue this size (the stage area & the fair grounds) w/o incurring injuries. It was a freak occurrence that people would have been just as likely to be running into danger as away from it.

    And I have never, ever, seen a pro lighting grid get blown over. I have thousands of hours with outside shows of this size, in CA, FL and the Midwest. Usually you just cover the amps & speakers and wait for it to blow over.

    You advise people to take cover away from tall metal objects. A freak gust of wind was not even considered.

  85. broboxley OT says

    Katrina
    climate scientists dont get rich on climate science, climate evangelists do. Gore and Moncton make personal money, Mann does not
    s/scientist/evagelist/g
    substitute scientist with evangelist go

  86. Nerd of Redhead, Dancer on Trolls says

    Matt, FF6 is still in beta.

    The Mac version was officially released a couple of days ago, and I installed it last night. Behaves like FF5 as far as I can tell. Right now, I’m blaming all problems on Lion.

  87. says

    @broboxley
    Oh wow. I fail. I thought of directly solving the differential equation instead of coming up with the workaround using \frac{dx}{dt}=v

  88. Sili says

    Is it correct to subscript the (s), (l) and (g), Nerd?

    –o–

    Could anyone remind of the name of the login page? I seem to have been kicked off.

  89. says

    This is why I want to be an astronomer, which is the more observation oriented physics. Theoretical physics, while it is something I love to do, is not something I am creative at.

  90. broboxley OT says

    #587 no worries, after John Morales politely pointed out I was wrong I asked an astrophysicist friend to explain it slow for me. I reposted his answer for others who are math/gravity impaired as well

  91. Carlie says

    A few moments ago, I had a comment poofed on me. It had just one link, no trade names of psychoactive drugs, no names of banned trolls, and no other obvious moderation traps. It previewed successfully, but when I hit Submit Comment, it just vanished into the aether.

    This has happened to me many times when commenting here, but then a hard refresh on the page shows that it is there after all. I think it’s related to the page refresh problems.

  93. Nerd of Redhead, Dancer on Trolls says

    Is it correct to subscript the (s), (l) and (g), Nerd?

    Hmm…Not according to the textbook I taught General Chemistry out of years ago.
    *mutters ten “hail ramens for penance*

  94. Sili says

    Thanks. I was afraid I was misremembering again.

    Don’t worry, Nerd. Plenty of people do it.

  97. says

    Hhmm… Let’s see, let me do an aromatic electrophilic substitution:
    C_6H_6 \longrightarrow_{\Delta}^{Br_2,FeBr_3} C_6H_5Br

    Say, anyone know how to add stuff directly on and below the arrow?

  98. Katrina, radicales féministes athées says

    Katrina
    climate scientists dont get rich on climate science, climate evangelists do. Gore and Moncton make personal money, Mann does not
    s/scientist/evagelist/g
    substitute scientist with evangelist go

    Obviously my [sarcasm] tag didn’t show up.

  104. says

    I find myself irritated with today’s SMBC, and it’s solely because I find parrots amazing creatures who are sometimes too smart for their own damned good. I get the joke he was trying to make, but since it isn’t borne out by the reality of the way that large hookbills learn and speak, it bugs the hell out of me.

    “Parroting” to mean repetition without understanding may be an established concept, but evidence has shown that to be a mistaken and outdated idea of the way they learn. After people learned about the research with Alex that showed not only the capacity to understand but articulate abstract concepts, (as well as mountains of personal anecdotal experiences of people who own companion parrots) I had hoped that people changed this idea.

    My parrot is smallish, will only live to be ~35, and has a very limited word vocabulary, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t use it with a great understanding of context and communication. I’m frankly relieved that he’s not as smart or verbally demanding as an African grey; I don’t think I could handle it.

  106. Richard Austin says

    TET is confusing today.

    … “today”?? If I don’t find myself lost at least once per thread, I’m disappointed. I have to admit, it often seems to be about knitting (my getting lost, not TET itself).

  111. RemembersABeach says

    Broboxley – If that’s the answer for the math impaired, I need to re-enroll in kindergarten.

  112. Beatrice, anormalement indécente says

    I lost a 6 somewhere in copy pasting.

    latex C_6H_6\xrightarrow[\Delta]{Br_2,FeBr_3}C_6H_5Br

  115. Bill Dauphin, avec fromage says

    The Sailor (@584):

    I bow to your expertise; the story I read, as presented, just bounced off my head a little bit.

  116. says

    Dianne:

    Not to worry (or at least, not to worry about having been banned): Several of us have been having trouble with our posts going (at least temporarily) missing today. Per Carlie, it appears to be related to page refresh problems.

  117. says

    Bill, there’s a whole thread devoted to it now, (as I see you’ve realized;-), I don’t know all the facts, I’m just going by news accounts (which are always wrong), and the photos available.

    As far as I can tell, it was a freak accident. Nothing like that happened 1/4 mile in each direction.

  119. Tethys says

    In my world, latex is the substance from which rubber is made.

    Latex and differential equations simply does not compute.

    Though I do wish I could code like all the cool kids.

  121. Vicki says

    Firefox 6 is in beta? Feh. A couple of hours ago, my work machine said I should download it as a “security update” from FF 5. It hasn’t crashed yet, but it’s only been a couple of hours, and while I’ve got a bunch of Acrobat files open on my machine, it’s not via FF, they’re local and I have Acrobat on this machine.

    As for things vanishing, PZ posted over on the SciBlogs version of Pharyngula that there are caching problems here, which they’re looking into. This may be related; if so, clearing your cache might help (<ctrl> F5 is clear cache and reload on Firefox).

  126. says

    The LaTeX stuff looks fine on my home computer (MacOS X.4.latest; Firefox 3.6.latest), but FAILs here at work (Win XP Pro; IE 7.whatever_IT_has_installed). I don’t know LaTeX myself, and don’t expect to have much need to post equations here, but I’d love to know how to represent one of my favorite terms for absolutely nothing — “the cubed root of fuck-all,” as in “I know the cubed root of fuck-all about Russian linguistics.” — in proper mathematical notation.

  131. says

    That’s not going to help him! Here’s the code:

    latex \sqrt[3]{fuck all}

    Stick a $ before and another after to make it work.

  132. Mr. Fire says

    That’s not going to help him!

    I had no intention of helping him. Only taunting him.

  133. Beatrice, anormalement indécente says

    Heh, Mozilla is strongly recommending, for the second time today, to update to Firefox 6 as soon as possible. Someone is in a hurry. Makes me wonder why and not want to update.

    I have to type about three pages in latex now (might turn out to be more) and go over the rest for the hundredth time to find all the mistakes I overlooked the last 99 times. I don’t want toooo. I type Alt Gr with my thumb turned strangely sideways and that makes my nail break after a while. (I know, serious problems)

  135. KG says

    broboxley OT@523,

    There’ve been a lot of OTT sentences following the riots – someone got 6 months for stealing £3.50 worth of water from a store someone else had broken into, a woman who never went near the riots got the same, IIRC, for accepting a pair of stolen shorts as a gift. It’s been reported that magistrates (the lowest tier of judges, mostly part-time and unpaid) have been told to ignore sentencing guidelines. I’m all for stiff sentences for anyone committing arson or serious violence, but sentences like these and the ones you commented on are clearly politically inspired. The Court of Appeal is going to be busy over the next few months. Some of the politicians calling for tough sentences, notably Michael Gove, the Minister for Education, got away with fiddling their Parliamentary expenses recently. Gove charged several £K for expensive furniture including a Ching era cabinet, and when he was found out, was allowed to pay back the money and continue with his career.

  136. The Lone Coyote says

    Slignot:

    My parrot is smallish, will only live to be ~35, and has a very limited word vocabulary, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t use it with a great understanding of context and communication. I’m frankly relieved that he’s not as smart or verbally demanding as an African grey; I don’t think I could handle it.

    Heee, I love this stuff. What species do you have?

    I have a talking bird, but he isn’t anything so charming and cuddly as a parrot. He can be seen talking to me here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzQYQYzLdmU

    Sturnus Vulgaris isn’t generally sold in pet stores or bred in captivity at all, so if you want one, you better be willing to climb. And then spend a long time feeding it constantly.

    As for anecdata, whenever he sees me roll a joint or pull a cigarette out of a pack, he starts making the sound of a lighter clicking. He doesn’t exactly ‘use his words’ in context, but that’s only if you ignore all the other sounds he makes. Whenever he does his ‘angry scream’, it’s very easy to see that he’s a theropod dinosaur.

    As for problem-solving skill, the bill of a starling is a very handy tool and they know how to use it very effectively- there’s a reason I have to wire all the doors on his cage shut.

  139. says

    My parrot is smallish, will only live to be ~35, and has a very limited word vocabulary, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t use it with a great understanding of context and communication. I’m frankly relieved that he’s not as smart or verbally demanding as an African grey; I don’t think I could handle it.

    have you read the article about how parrots give their chicks individualized names? clever little fuckers.

  141. says

    Lone Coyote, Beaky is a Nanday conure. To my fuzzy recollection, he’s over 7 now (I’d have to pull out my files to be sure) and is about a foot long, half of it tail.

    It’s funny that you should mention non-verbal learned vocabulary because that’s very common with birds of many species. Noises cued by things I do are much of what Beaks does: if I’m eating something, he often grinds his beak to emulate a crunching/chewing noise; he makes a chirpy kissing sound; when sleepy or cuddly he makes lots of hissy sorts of whispers; and has a specific noise to cue me in that he’s thirsty if I’m drinking something.

    His voice when speaking is very gravely and sounds fairly different than videos of Nandays speaking I’ve seen before (those often remind me of the typical voices of other hookbills they’ve likely been exposed to actually). His absolute favorite/most common word is “yummy,” which doesn’t surprise me in the least (greedy, picky little creature that he is). His voice isn’t especially clear, so “bath” and “kiss” sound a lot alike.

    The various parrot warks (main vocalization is always “wark”), squawks, mutters and outright screams I’ve learned to understand pretty well. The full panic scream is thankfully a rare occurrence, but it never fails to amaze the sheer volume he can produce with his tiny little lungs. Little theropod dinosaur indeed (also watching him run on the ground is fascinating).

    One of my favorite strange things is watching him when he’s interested in something. Because inevitably he will stop testing it with his beak, bend over and look at his feet for a moment, eyes pinpointing delightedly.

    Our biggest concern is keeping him intellectually stimulated and happy. We’ve gotten to a set of relatively durable toys that we swap out regularly along with a fairly steady supply of destructible goodies. His favorite toy of all time is wonderful because it’s easy to supply and free: a rinsed out paper fast food cup with lid and straw.

    Learned behavior is amazing as well. We got him around 3 months, just as he’d been weaned, so we were able to take advantage of the lovey-dovey baby stage to reinforce behaviors and bonds. I’ve learned to read his body language (and recognize similar behaviors in wild birds) just as he’s learned from us. Beaky can be meltingly cute when he decides to show love and affection. Since he learned what petting is for, he does it to us: puff his cheek feathers and stroke hands, chests and chins with his beak and head.

    I’ll have to look up the video you posted later; aside from the very spotty cell data at the house, my internet access is limited to highly filtered work-provided at the moment. Is your starling flighted or do you keep him trimmed? I’ve only ever had experiences with either parrots or ducks/chickens, but I’ve always liked birds in general. With a hand raised bird like yours, are they fairly adaptable and comfortable with handing/allopreening?

  144. Sili says

    Well, Turdblossom is an atheist. A selfloathing atheist, but an atheist nonetheless.

    And to be fair. If I were Karl Rowe, I’m pretty sure I’d loathe myself, too.

  145. Algernon says

    Man I love parrots. I really would love one as a pet but I couldn’t take good enough care of it (I’m not emotionally or physically available enough to keep it happy) and I have conflated feelings about my stance on how ethical it is to keep birds like that anyway (I don’t mean to criticize anyone for the pets *they* keep FWIW).

    I find them really fascinating and beautiful though. I love watching birds, actually.

  146. says

    have you read the article about how parrots give their chicks individualized names? clever little fuckers.

    I’m with you on that one: CLEVER LITTLE FUCKERS. (I don’t think I’m up for a bird that can demand in words a different type of fruit if I don’t give the one it wanted.) Although I must have missed that article. Source?

    I read stuff written by a behaviorist/trainer/falconer, and the antics with her African Grey Ty and Senegal Loki always make me laugh, although I’m also relieve not to have birds quite that clever.

  147. KG says

    I kept a mynah when I was a child – unfortunately I think we got it (never knew the sex) too late, and it never became really tame, and would try to peck anyone but me (and sometimes me as well) within range. Nor did it say much, but it copied my mother’s sigh, and when the next door neighbour looked after it for a couple of weeks while we were on holiday, it got her laugh perfectly. Whenever it heard her voice after that, it would laugh, she would laugh back, it would laugh again…

    I’d love to keep parrots – preferably African greys, but I guess I’m really too old, as they would probably outlive me if they were healthy.

  150. JPS, FCD says

    See Jadehawk’s #640 as a prime example of how full justification just makes things look screwy.

  151. Sili says

    Is Rick Perry a sucker or is he just lying?

    Yes.

    This has been this evenings episode of Simple Answers To Simple Questions™. Thank you for playing.

    Stay tuned for our brand new serious Capt. Obvious Sez “Duh!”, right after these messages from our sponsor.

  156. says

    Algernon,

    I understand what you mean about ethical considerations in keeping birds; I would go so far as to say that until fairly recently (decades wise), the way that birds were kept was highly unacceptable. People treated parrots and other caged birds as an entertainment or novelty who were kept in too small cages without proper diet, interaction or mental stimulation/play. These birds were more prone to health problems, shortened life spans, and behavior problems like screaming or feather plucking.

    Once the tendency for birds available for purchase was more hand-raised rather than imported (and then after importation was banned), a shift happened where people started to understand that to properly keep them, you had to treat them as companion animals, not entertaining pets. Bird experts who recommended handling with gloves were replaced by people who understood building a lasting relationship based on positive reinforcement. (While I’m comfortable calling dogs and cats pets, I tend to refer hookbills in captivity as companion parrots because it’s a more accurate description of a healthy relationship.)

    Parrots are much smarter than you’d think and their psychological and physical needs take some forethought. You really need to be able to commit a certain amount of time each day to handling and stimulation outside their cages. Diet is getting better, actually, although you can’t get good nutrition at the grocery store. Commercial diets are no longer as seed-based (at least not the moderate or good ones) and parrot books encourage people to provide healthy supplementation of diet based on what they’re eating. Beaky generally prefers fruit to veggies (so opposite my dog) and absolutely loves chicken almost more than anything.

    Toys are sometimes hard for medium sized birds, since a lot of what is in stores is either inappropriately large or too flimsy to hold up. Substituting toys meant for other species is surprisingly good for some birds; I’ve had a lot of luck with cat and ferret toys, balls with bells, crinkly foil balls. You want to make sure a parrot has at least four or five toys to choose from as a general rule.

    To properly keep a parrot is decently expensive, increasingly so as the size of the bird increases. A cage needs to provide enough foraging/climbing space as well as room to flap wings for healthy circulation. People often err on buying a cage that is too small or poorly constructed, rather than looking for a durable powder coated metal cage that will last.

    The smaller (and therefore cheaper) the parrot the more likely that 1. they will be purchased by people not willing or prepared for the time and money involved and 2. that they will pass from home to home and have poor outcomes. I have a huge problem with the little budgies sold in petstores, because these animals are priced cheaply enough that they can be treated as an impulse purchase. I’m highly uncomfortable with the way these animals are brought to market.

    When I decided to get Beaky, I went through a local place that works with local breeders only and hand raises the birds on site a few at a time. These animals have lots of opportunities for positive interactions with people, and are NOT cheap.

    But birds are a more unique animal to bring into your life than most pets (which are dominated by fuzzy mammals). They are absolutely a wild animal and you can’t ever really forget that. They just happen to be a hyper-social wild animal, and so they find ways to fit into a social structure that are surprising. My parents’ birds laugh just like her. Beaky fawns over men (he likes to groom facial hair, I think). It’s a lot of work, but in some ways I find that Beaky challenges and interacts with us in a more intelligent/conversational way than my lovey-dovey dog.

  158. Patricia, OM says

    Consciousness Razor @515 – Thanks for the tags, I’ll give them a try.

    Gyeong Hwa – from the article, the Spanish government is refusing to release the cost of the popes visit. Typical, the pope gets a free ride TM::&trade once again.

    Broboxley – The best part of your linked article came towards the end – He is a very pious man ::&copy isn’t that sweet?

  159. The Lone Coyote says

    Slignot: My starling is fully flighted. I can’t even imagine how I’d trim his wings safely. As far as I know, Starlings are definitely not cuddly like parrots. He likes being with people, perching on shoulders and hands and stuff, but if you try to actually touch or grab him, it makes him very angry. Same goes for pointing. For some reason, pointing seems to be a HUGE faux-pas in his mind.

    That isn’t to say Jack’s a bad pet or anything… he just requires understanding of his personality. He does enjoy people, if they let him just perch on them instead of trying to pet or touch him. He’s curious about absolutely everything he comes across, and is an unrepentant thief of anything he likes. He’s the ideal pirate’s companion, because he IS a friggin pirate.

    For intellectual stimulation, his cage is right by my computer, where I spend most of my time. He loves music and movies, and when I was watching that video of a bunch of Muslims ambushing P.Z. Myers to ‘debate’ with him at 3 am, he woke up and did his angry scream. I guess he hates people who interrupt and jabber over others too.

    Over the years I’ve had him (or her… there’s no way short of a DNA test to really sex a starling, and I just end up calling it ‘him’ by default) I’ve been able to observe some interesting behaviors. First of all that beak, with its specialized opening ligaments, which he puts to use on absolutely everything he conceivably can, and some things he definitely can’t. If I make a fist he’s quite capable of prying my fingers apart with it. He also swiftly learned to open his own cage with it any time he wants, so I had to wire the doors shut with twist ties (unsupervised freeflight time is not exactly safe now is it?)

    Secondly is his sunbathing behavior. I guess all songbirds do it…. but when he was a little fledgeling, he used to do it to the lamp in my room. He’d stand on top and spread his wings around the opening of the lampshade (like Rodan atop a volcano!)with obvious enjoyment.

    Starlings are obsessed with bathing. Completely obsessed. This means I have to constantly refill his water dish. If his dish runs too low, he’ll start squawking at me, jumping around, rattling his cage, and acting as annoying as possible until I refill it for him. It’s quite convenient actually, having him ‘tell me’ when he needs fresh water.

    One day, he escaped from his cage outside. I was devastated, escape into the outdoors is like a death sentence for a handraised bird. He flew into a tree with a flock of wild starlings (easy to pick him out, because being kept in captivity, he wears his summer plumage in winter and vice-versa) and I was whistling to call him back, when I was treated to quite a show. All the starlings in the tree started ‘doing impressions’. One of them did a car alarm noise at me, while another one started doing perfect coyote howls, and the others were all imitating any bird calls they could think of. Why they did this, I’ll never know. I was too depressed to think too hard about it at the time.

    But two days later, Jack came back, dying of dehydration, feathers torn, and gasping for air. I had to dribble water down his beak to rehydrate him. But he made it, and lucky for both of us.

    Would I recommend the starling as a pet? Yes. But the only way to get one, at this point in time, is to ‘kidnap’ a baby and handraise it yourself. If you have a job, lots of social obligations, lots of friends, or a life at all, you won’t have the time to properly handraise it. Luckily, I’m just enough of a shut in loser to pull it off. ;)

  160. says

    @KG

    I’d love to keep parrots – preferably African greys, but I guess I’m really too old, as they would probably outlive me if they were healthy.

    Only if you got them as very young birds. Because they do live so long, it’s not unheard of that the larger birds have multiple homes throughout their lives. If you’re seriously interested, I’d recommend looking into rescue organizations. If people have to move, or die or have illnesses, they have to give up well socialized sweet birds that have a many years left.

    Both of my parents’ birds were picked up through the classifieds here, actually. (They missed Beaky so much after I moved away that my dad started checking every day and they wound up with two slightly runty Aratinga conures: sun and jenday.) With a larger bird, I would be careful in making sure that you are able to take care of it, and aggression has bigger consequences with a more powerful beak, so a reputable rescue is probably a better route than the one my parents took. But adult birds need homes too, so it’s worth thinking about if you’re interested.

  161. Algernon says

    They are absolutely a wild animal and you can’t ever really forget that. They just happen to be a hyper-social wild animal, and so they find ways to fit into a social structure that are surprising.

    This is what I find amazing about them. They are still wild. I think it’s possible, as you illustrate, to take good care of parrots.

    Unfortunately, I’m not even fit to keep a dog. I can barely manage cats.

  163. Patricia, OM says

    OK, third try – maybe if I get 666 it’ll be lucky and work.

    Work this time you fokker TM !

    Shit! What the heck am I doing ™ TM (/tm) wrong?

    ROWR ™TM!

    *facepalm*

  164. says

    Patricia,
    You need to close the tag with a semicolon.

    Yeah, fuck, why should the Pope get a free ride to anything? He lives in a God damn (or blessed depending on your flavor of Christianity) gold-filled mansion, for Christ’s sake (literally).

  165. says

    He likes being with people, perching on shoulders and hands and stuff, but if you try to actually touch or grab him, it makes him very angry. Same goes for pointing. For some reason, pointing seems to be a HUGE faux-pas in his mind.

    This made me laugh aloud. Beaky has certain things that frighten him/he hates that elicit a similar reaction. Plastic seems to be a common factor with many of these things (hand vacuum, step stool, etc.) but he also despises scissors (they cut off his flight feathers when he’s restrained in a towel). Drying dishes is also dangerous if he’s in reach.

    He was trimmed when we first got him, and for most of his life we’ve maintained a wing trim. He’s a decent flier without if he gets frightened, but he never got to a point where he readily chose to fly anywhere. We’ve been letting his flight feathers grow in for the last several months, so he could fly much better now, but it’s not natural for him. I’m rather glad, actually; he’s problems enough as it is.

    Not being able to pet Jack seems trickier to me; I’m so used to a mostly snuggly creature that it’s no big deal for me to help with those pinfeathers around his head and neck he can’t reach. I always feel bad for aggressive or shy bird that are afraid of letting you preen their feathers.

    One day, he escaped from his cage outside. I was devastated, escape into the outdoors is like a death sentence for a handraised bird. He flew into a tree with a flock of wild starlings

    This is so scary! I’ve never had to face anything quite so dangerous, but I can imagine how frightening it would be. I’m glad you were able to save him.

    Starlings are obsessed with bathing. Completely obsessed.

    Now this I totally relate to. Since he’s much happier being handled, I tend to bathe Beaks in showers with us. Sometimes he wants to run around in the bottom of the tub with a little water, but other times he runs back and forth across my arms, wings outstretched and flapping as he turns into a bedraggled rat creature. I love that once he’s wet you can see bits that are normally hidden. You can see his ear holes, the long tracks on the wings that hold the base of flight feathers. If he’s especially excited about bathing, he doesn’t quite understand the indication that he’s done and I’d like to shower, so he has to sit on his shower perch.

    The sunbathing thing is definitely not a parrot thing, but I can picture what you describe and it’s really cute.

    Beaky likes the peek-a-boo game. He’ll climb behind towels on the rack and climb around where I can’t see, making mumbling squirky-warks the entire time. Then he’ll poke his head out, eyes flashing wildly.

  166. Patricia, OM says

    OK – The Pullet Patrol :
    No
    The pope is a moron ™:
    No
    Patricia is a moron(tm:)
    No
    I suck at Set ™

    Oh, for fucks sake ™, why was that so hard to understand?

    *head/desk*

  169. says

    First of all that beak, with its specialized opening ligaments, which he puts to use on absolutely everything he conceivably can, and some things he definitely can’t. If I make a fist he’s quite capable of prying my fingers apart with it. He also swiftly learned to open his own cage with it any time he wants, so I had to wire the doors shut with twist ties (unsupervised freeflight time is not exactly safe now is it?)

    I meant to say something about this as well. Holy crap, beaks are strong! I like to think that Beaky has his own set of pliers attached to his face. Obviously the beak shape is different, but I’m always amazed by what I’ve found him getting into.

  170. Patricia, OM says

    If this is the same intertubes as the old place (sorta) how come the tags aren’t the same? The typhos moved with us. *sniff*

  173. The Lone Coyote says

    Caine and Slignot: his thieving has given me a few scares too. One time he stole a cigarette butt and swallowed it before I could take it away from him. He was immediately violently sick and stayed that way for about fifteen minutes. Luckily he recovered, and I’m way more careful about my ashtrays now. I still feel bad that it even happened in the first place.

    Eventually I figured out that I can indulge this behavior safely by letting him ‘steal’ useless little items that can’t hurt him. I have to pretend like I really don’t want him to steal them though, otherwise he gets bored of it.

  174. Audley Z. Darkheart OM (OS), purveyor of candy and lies says

    What the fuck, Firefox? You want me to update to 6.0 already?

    Gah!

  175. says

    Eventually I figured out that I can indulge this behavior safely by letting him ‘steal’ useless little items that can’t hurt him. I have to pretend like I really don’t want him to steal them though, otherwise he gets bored of it.

    This is adorable! I’m squeeing in my head.

    Beaky is really not a thief, unless you count food. However, he has some very cute play behaviors I never expected from a parrot. He loves to play on his back with toys held overhead in his feet. Cat and ferret balls (plastic with bells or crinkly foil are favorites) are waved above him and bitten, then he’ll flip over like a flash, throw the toy, and charge across the cage to pounce. I never knew parrots would do that.

  176. The Lone Coyote says

    Slignot, I love how parrots get around the problem of lacking opposable thumbs by combining beaks with feet. It’s a nice demonstration that the human form isn’t the only form an intelligent animal capable of manipulating its environment might take.

    The fact that these are living dinosaurs we’re talking about never ceases to wow me. This is why I love evolution and reject creation….. Evolution brought back the dinosaurs for me….. let’s see Gawd do that.

  178. says

    @The Lone Coyote
    I’m not sure I’d say parrots lack opposable thumbs exactly; their feet are weirdly shaped and highly dexterous. Unlike many other birds, their feet have two opposed to two, so grasping is very natural.

    But I agree that that birds are amazing and resourceful.

  180. says

    TLC, there’s very little a rat won’t steal, or try to steal. They can easily move and transport objects much heavier and larger than they are. In my time of being kept by rats, they have left me in awe of just how intelligent and resourceful they are.

    It’s one thing when they steal the rings off my fingers, another when I have to go hunting for my chucks or various books…

  181. Audley Z. Darkheart OM (OS), purveyor of candy and lies says

    The Lone Coyote:

    The fact that these are living dinosaurs we’re talking about never ceases to wow me.

    I’m not a bird person*, but one of my neighbors had a parrot that he kept in his screened in porch during the summer months. The damned thing sounded like a raptor from Jurassic Park (even when it was singing “Happy Birthday”). It was so loud that I could hear it in my kitchen from across the alley with my windows closed.

    I haven’t heard that bird at all this year.

    *Birds are perfectly lovely where they belong– outside and not crapping in my house.

  182. says

    Caine, that’s very cute, but I’m relieved that I don’t have my own house thieves. My animals are enough of a handful without stealing my books.

    @Audley A neighbor keeps a big umbrella cockatoo; I’m rather amazed at how far away I can hear it from. They are not pets for lovers of quiet and calm.

  185. strange gods before me says

    The LaTeX stuff looks fine on my home computer (MacOS X.4.latest; Firefox 3.6.latest), but FAILs here at work (Win XP Pro; IE

    Bill, it’s not the browser, it’s your workplace’s filtering. The LaTeX stuff is a dynamically generated PNG image served from wp.com, which is run by wordpress.com, so these domains are presumably being blocked as personal blogs.

  188. Patricia, OM says

    OK then Owlmirror and Strange Gods how about turning on the Comic Sans for the win?

    *pleeze*

  189. says

    Slignot:

    Caine, that’s very cute, but I’m relieved that I don’t have my own house thieves. My animals are enough of a handful without stealing my books.

    I’m addicted to rats now. Couldn’t give ’em up if I tried. :D (Photos of Chas & Alfie here, for those who haven’t seen*)

    About the 4th or 5th time I let Chas & Alfie loose in house, I found Chas (who had managed to find an interesting way to climb up on the kitchen counter and open the bread box) hauling off with a loaf of rye bread, then later found Alfie tugging a very large bone (one a dog left downstairs) up the stairs. They were both heading for my studio, which is where their digs are at. Goofy boys.

    *Photos are not to be used without express permission. Thanks.

  190. The Lone Coyote says

    Caine: Ahhhh, rats. The first rat I ever owned was old and decrepit when I got him…. elderly, shakey, going bald, just a little four legged senior citizen. I only had him a few months, but in that time… wow. He was just great. I don’t think the people I got him from gave him much attention. He was so incredibly affectionate, and when he died I buried him under a boulder I loved sitting on. I was pretty sad, but grateful for having known him. After that I’ve had a few, and every last one of them was great in their own way.

    Most people I know assume rats are dumb and just kinda ‘there’ like hamsters, but nothing could be further from the truth. If you ask me, it should be hamsters being sold as ‘feeder animals’.

    I don’t keep rats anymore. I always get too sad when they die. None of them live as long as they deserve to. But at the same time… sometimes I think if I didn’t already have so many animals I’d get back into them.

    Slignot: A foot works for a parrot much like an opposable thumb, except they can’t engage both feet at the same time like a primate can with its hands. The way they use their beaks at the same time strikes me as just an incredibly ‘creative’ solution, though it’s really just a demonstration that natural selection and adaptation work with what they already have.

  192. The Lone Coyote says

    Actually come to think of it, I do have rats still. There’s a sizable population living in my back yard. I simply do not have the heart to attempt to kill them.

    Once, on a farm I worked on, I happened to capture a half grown male rat. The guy I was working with told me I had to kill it now that I caught it. I told him “OK, I’ll just take it around back so there’s no mess.” As soon as I was out of his eyesight, I screamed “OW! FUCKER BIT ME!” and let it go into the blackberry bushes. ;)

  193. says

    @Caine & @The Lone Coyote, the rat antics are so charming. I weighed getting a rat when I was deciding about Beaky (overruled by my mother) because I knew they were affectionate, clever and bonded to people. I find little rodent faces SO charming. But as TLC says, having pets that don’t live especially long is very sad. I have enough trouble with the idea of my dog’s lifespan. At least I know that (barring injury or illness) I will have Beaky for a long time.

    @Owlmirror Some of those pictures of fingers and bills make me a little anxious just looking at them. There is a reason that I offer knuckles to parrots to taste when I’m feeling them out, first meeting them. Beaky very much treats me as his mama, so I don’t have any scars from frightened/angry bites, but I shudder to think what even his small/medium parrot beak could do to the flesh on my finger bones. As for a bigger bird like a cockatoo, you’re talking about fingers gone at that point. In one of my behavior books the author relates a story about a macaw owned by a local petstore owner that was awoken by a burglar breaking into the shop. After angrily shredding and driving off the attacker (found by police nearby bleeding furiously), it paced the aisles of the store, cursing.

  194. says

    TLC:

    I only had him a few months, but in that time… wow. He was just great.

    I’m so glad he had that time with you. My first, Ash, was a rescue, from a bad home. He changed things for us forever. He was incredibly affectionate, and he was a star.

    Chas & Alfie sleep with me now, I always wake up with them curled up with each other at my side. Sweethearts.

  195. Owlmirror says

    @Patricia: I cannae do it! The blog engine willna take it!

    When the poopyhead permits font tags or style/class attribues, it will work. But I have no access to change that.

    ======

    Note for \LaTeX users: you can make some glyphs larger and prettier by prefixing latex code with \displaystyle .

    x = \frac{-b \pm \sqrt{b^{2} - 4ac}}{2a}

    vs

    \displaystyle x = \frac{-b \pm \sqrt{b^{2} - 4ac}}{2a}

    </things I learned today>

  196. strange gods before me says

    The SMBC in discussion.

    (A parrot says: “Raahhhk! My trained use of words and phrases in appropriate context is not fundamentally different from human communication which is ascribed to consciousness! Raahhhk!”

    The caption: “The philosophy department is no longer allowed to keep pets.”)

    It’s hard to know quite what the author is going for here. It might be intended to say humans aren’t as special as they think, rather than any slight against parrots.

    I say it’s hard to know, because I’m not sure how that bit about consciousness is supposed to be relevant. Surely the evidence suggests that birds are conscious whether they talk or not, and philosophers ought to question the assumption that even the most sophisticated human language requires consciousness. Or perhaps the joke pertains to this latter assumption. What do I know, anyway?

  197. says

    TLC:

    There’s a sizable population living in my back yard. I simply do not have the heart to attempt to kill them.

    Good for you. :) There’s a children’s book you’d enjoy, if you haven’t already read it, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH.

    It’s about rats who escaped from a science lab and who are now determined to move to an isolated spot so they can be completely independent and no longer have to steal, as they’ve figured out how to be agricultural. Nice story.

  199. The Lone Coyote says

    Caine: I’d be worried about accidentally rolling over on them. Though I do remember one time I was hanging out at a friend’s place with ‘Sadie’, a female hooded rat I used to have. She was pretty awesome, she loved travelling with me and my circle of friends at the time and ‘seeing the world’. I spent the night at a friend’s house once, and not knowing what to do with Sadie, I just slept in a bare room with the door shut and let her just chose a spot. She decided to sleep on top of me, and every time I moved a bit she’d get up and reposition herself.

  200. The Lone Coyote says

    Huge (early era) Don Bluth fanboy here Caine, though I’m told the book is slightly different.

    The rats in my yard haven’t caused any problems yet. No shredding or destruction, no harm to my chickens, and most importantly, no expeditions into the house (that we’re aware of). I wish people were so easy to live with.

  202. First Approximation says

    Wait?!

    Rick Perry is vasectomised?!!

    Are Fundies allowed to do that?!!!!

    I find it much more strange that his father-in-law performed it.

    /xkcd 55

    It must be a good sign that I had the same idea as Owlmirror. Or a bad sign for Owlmirror.

    _ _ _

    My subconscious found a better solution to yesterday’s integral (or, at least, that’s what I think happened since it immediately came out of me after I woke up today).

    The integral:
    \displaystyle \int\limits_{0}^{d/2} \frac{dx}{(\frac{1}{2x} - \frac{1}{d})^{1/2}}

    Make the substitution

    x = \frac{d}{2}\cos^2 (\theta)

    and

    - d^{3/2} \int\limits_{\pi/2}^0 \frac{1}{ (\sec^2(\theta) - 1)^{1/2}} \cos(\theta) \sin (\theta) d\theta = d^{3/2} \int\limits_{0}^{\pi/2} \frac{ \cos(\theta) \sin (\theta) d\theta }{\tan(\theta)}

    d^{3/2} \int\limits_{0}^{\pi/2} \cos^2(\theta)d\theta = \displaystyle \frac{d^{3/2}\pi}{4}

    No messy inverse of a 4th order polynomial. Now I’ll stop before I ruin the thread.

  203. Audley Z. Darkheart OM (OS), purveyor of candy and lies says

    I’m gonna interrupt this wonderful pet discussion* to whine about a wedding!

    My sister is getting married on Sept. 10. I’m a bride’s maid and I found out today that she changed her mind about the color scheme– her bride’s maids aren’t wearing metallic green anymore, we’re wearing brown.

    Thanks goodness I’m lazy and hadn’t yet bought the $300 green dress from J. Crew, otherwise I’d be pissed.

    *I miss my rat. :(

  204. says

    TLC:

    The rats in my yard haven’t caused any problems yet.

    Ah, good. Rats are far from stupid. They’re considerably brighter than a fair amount of people I happen to know.

    Whenever the cats are annoying the fuck out of me, I let Chas & Alfie out to chase them. The boys freak them out something fierce. :D

  205. strange gods before me says

    Hm. I might be able to make a Secret Gumby that would only be visible to others using the same greasemonkey script, but I’m pretty sure that’s not good enough.

    how

    to

    signify

    it?

  207. says

    @strange gods before me

    “My trained use of words and phrases in appropriate context…”

    It might be intended to say humans aren’t as special as they think, rather than any slight against parrots.

    While I would hope that part of the idea would be citing that parrots are capable of not just learning words but also abstracts,but given that it was pets kept by the philosophy department, rather than anthropology or neuroscientists, etc. it doesn’t seem likely. The word choice of “trained use” certainly makes it seem that the idea being expressed is that rather than true comprehension, words and phrases are memorized just like a song’s lyrics.

    Especially since the alternate button text includes:

    Also I deserve tenure. Raahhk!

    This looks a great deal like “Polly want a cracker” to me. Given the skepticism with which her research had been seen, I’m not certain that any larger point about language implying consciousness was being made. Dr. Pepperberg was frequently criticized by peers insisting that what she demonstrated was not actual understanding, but in fact was operant conditioning, with subtle signals being given to Alex unintentionally.

  209. 'Tis Himself, pour encourager les autres says

    Thanks goodness I’m lazy and hadn’t yet bought the $300 green dress from J. Crew, otherwise I’d be pissed.

    $300 for a dress you’d wear once? That’s…that’s…that’s ludicrous.

  210. says

    I think my wedding dress was less than $300, actually. I can’t imagine paying that much money for a bridesmaid dress.

  213. Patricia, OM says

    Owlmirror – Aww, dang. I’ll just accept that.
    After watching me try to figger out the ™ you’ll see why asking you to explain would cause your brain to melt. *grin*

  214. strange gods before me says

    Also I deserve tenure. Raahhk!

    This looks a great deal like “Polly want a cracker” to me.

    Ah, I didn’t see that. I agree. Except, I thought people generally understood that to mean the bird really does want a cracker.

    I’m pretty confused now.

    +++++

    So, in <blockquote cite=”something”>, the “cite” doesn’t do anything here, does it? It appears to be a perfect hook.

  215. Audley Z. Darkheart OM (OS), purveyor of candy and lies says

    Caine:

    Oh, ick. My sympathies.

    It’s better than the first color choice. Metallic green is 1) damned near impossible to find (we’re picking out our own dress styles) and 2) not flattering– being a larger size means that I’d end up looking like a piñata. At least with brown I’ll be able to find something that looks good cut-wise that I could spend less on, I guess.

    But, come on, who changes their wedding’s color scheme less than a month before the date?

  217. Audley Z. Darkheart OM (OS), purveyor of candy and lies says

    ‘Tis and Slignot:
    Remember, the $300 doesn’t account for cost have it fitted or however much it would have cost to ship to me. I know, it’s totes ridiculous, but welcome to modern weddings. Spend as much money as you (don’t) have, make people travel* for no apparent reason, and make sure your wedding party lands in the poor-house, too.

    I’m aiming to spend ~$100 on a brown dress that I can wear more than once. We’ll see what happens.

    *Okay, my sister isn’t doing this one.

  218. chigau (my feet hurt) says

    I’m back.
    We have Internets!
    I’m a whole TET-day and a half behind.
    and I haven’t even looked at the other threads.
    This place very noisy.
    Very few citters to be seen but lots of scat so we know they are hiding behind the trees.
    Yes. Trees. ick.

  219. Audley Z. Darkheart OM (OS), purveyor of candy and lies says

    Caine:
    A tux would be awesome (and I would drop the dough if I had an excuse to buy one), but I’ll do what my younger sister asks. The things we do for the people we love, huh?

    This is last of the weddings that I must attend– my two older sisters are already married, as well as Mr Darkheart’s brothers. Everyone else can jump off a fucking cliff for all I care.

    Me? Bitter about shitty wedding experiences? Why would you ever think that? :P

  220. broboxley OT says

    it appears I will have rats for a while, sigh, what is the lifespan of these critters. They have tamed the boston terrier scourge of possums. All of the grub suggestions were good. They do like their watermelon

  221. says

    This is last of the weddings that I must attend– my two older sisters are already married, as well as Mr Darkheart’s brothers. Everyone else can jump off a fucking cliff for all I care.

    that’s what you get for living in the same country as your family. I’ve effectively missed every wedding of every relative in my generation because of their habit of announcing said weddings after I’ve already planned my yearly trip to Europe(I also missed the boyfriend’s brother’s wedding, but no force in the world was going to make me attend and be nice to that guy)

  222. says

    I had a friend who had a parrot, full pirate size parrot (no idea of the breed). It had the run of the house and would freak me out.

    A bird with a 20″ wingspan flying across the room and grabbing on to my shoulder freaks me out. (In my defense, it grabbed very tightly.)

    I’ve seen the PBS show where parrots seemed as smart as primates in comparative/spatial tasks. It seems amazing considering the difference in cranial capacity.

  223. says

    Broboxley:

    what is the lifespan of these critters.

    2 to 3 years.

    Jadehawk:

    I also missed the boyfriend’s brother’s wedding, but no force in the world was going to make me attend and be nice to that guy

    :snort: If I ever meet him, it will take a great deal of restraint to not slap him.

  224. says

    My brother wore a baseball cap with a fishhook on the bill during his wedding.

    His bride wore a hand-me-down wedding gown.

    I was the best man and photographer. (I didn’t own an SLR at the time. I took photos with a 3MP point-and-shoot.)

    The ceremony was held in the backyard of the house of a friend of a friend.

    And the reception was potluck.

    I think we know how to do a wedding on the cheap.

    Granted, there is a reason we had to do things quickly and cheaply: My sister-in-law had been diagnosed with stage IV round-cell sarcoma, and she was only expected to live a month or two. (The ceremony was in May, and she lived until the following January.)

  225. Audley Z. Darkheart OM (OS), purveyor of candy and lies says

    Jadehawk:

    that’s what you get for living in the same country as your family.

    Fuck, I live in the same state.

    Thank goodness the weddings will be over and done with next month. I can’t handle any more!

  226. Patricia, OM says

    Audley – Tell your sister you’ll be there in your shift, and whatever she brings for you to wear will be fine.

    I paid less for the whole she-bang in 1975 than you were expected to pay for the one dress!

  227. says

    This isn’t totally on topic, but related to pets and birds, we found the first eggs from our own pullet patrol. we fried them up and served ’em with home made jagerwurst. Life is good at the G homestead.

  229. says

    Speaking of weddings on the cheap, we did OK, but my outfit was more than the bridesmaids dress for Audley. But I can (and already have) wear the kilt again.

    (how do you fix temporal parentheticals? Wear/worn?)

  231. crudelywrott says

    I was invited to a friend’s house years ago. In the kitchen was a cockatoo. As my friend excused himself for several minutes he suggested that the bird liked to be scratched on the back of its head.

    I addressed the bird and held up a hand and it leaned forward, head down, presenting the back of its head to me. So I scratched it gingerly. The bird showed signs of pleasure (bit of relaxing and stretching out its neck) so I scratched more vigorously. After a moment I began to withdraw my hand.

    Nope. That damned bird turned and gripped my scratching finger in a gentle but unmistakably purposeful grip. I could not pull away so I stopped pulling. Bird lets go as I move to resume scratching. I try to withdraw again. No dice. The head turns too fast and the beak easily seizes me.

    This back and forth went on for several rounds until, finally, my host reentered the room, smug grin on his face. He asked something like, “See how much he likes to be scratched?”

    I’d been cleverly set up. Don’t know who got the biggest laugh, my friend, the bird or I, but I’ll never tickle a cockatoo again.