What is the world coming to…now we’ve got video games that trivialize cephalopods and turn them into goofy cutesie-pie characters. I must protest!
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
What is the world coming to…now we’ve got video games that trivialize cephalopods and turn them into goofy cutesie-pie characters. I must protest!
This Strauss-Kahn development has my gorge rising.
That is pretty cute
Thank you Coyote.
I do truly hope that I’m totally misinterpreting the DSK thing, but come on. DSK is on trial for physically and sexually assaulting the maid, and yet it’s her who it comes across as the bad guy.
Sick and wrong.
The portcullis hit me across the keyboard! Ouch!
I’m not using g+ for both reasons, that they don’t allow pseudonyms unless you’re sufficiently famous for them (Lady Gaga) and because if you run afoul of their policies, they nuke everything you have associated with Google. My employer now uses Google as the work email platform, so if somehow I did something “wrong” and they figured out that’s one of my accounts, I’d be entirely, completely screwed.
starstuff91, I think the vehemence against your opinion is that you were assuming incompetence or a simple misstep in something that is actively very harmful and that they are actively defending. If it was a simple mistake, they would have retracted it quickly (the way Buzz was changed after less than a week). They are actively, strongly defending this policy in the face of being told how harmful it was. Google and all of its services are free to the user; therefore their customers are actually advertisers, and so they have a vested interest in providing their actual customers with as much useful information as possible. Hence the desire for real information from the users regardless of the impact that would have on the user.
BTW, Facebook also has a policy that you “have to” not lie about all of your real information. They just don’t enforce it at all.
Classical Cipher, I feel for you – most of my friends from college are in the ministry (not exaggerating). Good luck if you go to the party – keep everything light and superficial and you should be fine.
Patricia, it just occurred to me, but isn’t “shunning” supposed to mean that they pretend you don’t exist? They’re sort of anti-shunning. Maybe you should make up “Shunning, ur doin it wrong” stickers and slap on on them whenever they show up.
Katherine – the prosecution was kind of doing that, but in a pre-emptive way. They said that given that she lied about other things, there was probably no way that the jury would ever believe her even with all the evidence, so there was no use in even trying. They gave up before they got started. Apparently there are other women coming forward with stories about how DSK assaulted them, though, so it might be that if they sit tight awhile there will be enough raised to frame her story as part of a long string of behaviors and therefore be more “believable”.
Hope prevails? What a disgusting place to find a shred of hope… in the fact that he might still get in shit because he apparently did this kind of thing to many people.
Fuck.
starstuff91 at #693, last thread:
Story of my life. Sigh.
Hello Quodlibet. My friends know that I’ll speak my mind. They just roll their eyes and sigh at me now. I find their reactions kind of funny.
Well, Nafissatou Diallo still has a civil suit going, but I’m not very hopeful about it.
Anyone else seen this? http://thedailywh.at/2011/08/23/lights-out-145/
noooo really?! Mind you, I don’t necessarily find such silly hyperbole funny, but I got that that’s what you were doing just fine.
and with this blockquote fail, I shall go offline
@ Jadehawk
Don’t call me an idiot just because you disagree and because I made a bad joke. The argument is over, man. Calm down and move on.
@starstuff1:
Meh. Not that scary.
@ Katherine
Maybe. But it scared the shit out of me. I was really not expecting it.
Sadly, as much as I’d like you to be wrong here, you’re not.
It’s a fucking disgusting shame.
And it’s one of the reasons why I think that the jury-system is crap.
I know, a panel of judges wouldn’t have guaranteed anything*, but not even starting a trial because the prosecution thinks that they won’t be able to convince a jury, irrespectible of whether they believe the crime has happened or not is fucking sick.
So DSK will go back to France where, IRRC, there’s another case waiting for him. He’s still the most probably candidte for the socialist party for presidency. If I were French I would have to stop voting and probably campaign actively against DSK.
*There was a rather famous and high publicity rape case in Germany where a very well-known TV-meteorologist was accused of having raped his ex-partner. He walked free (there’s revision on the way), but out of lack of evidence. So no, he can’t claim he’s been innocently prosecuted.
From the OP:
Now I know what to play when I get tired of Civ IV.
Strauss-Kahn has a very unsavory reputation among economists and financial types as a sexual harasser and probable rapist. When I heard the initial story I wasn’t surprised in the least.
Re: DSK
In the very same bulletin that announced the dropping of all charges against DSK, the BBC were speculating on whether he would be a French prez candidate next year, and others who are likely to run are already extending offers of a government job.
I don’t like attitude of no smoke without fire but I would have preferred the current case to have at least gone before a jury.
Set 2 mins 13 secs (though this is without any performance enhancing scripts ;P)
Re: Dyslexia
BBC R4’s Word of Mouth on Monday had some interesting coverage of the topic. It concerned voice recognition and research from MIT shows that those with dyslexia have a harder time recognising new voices, showing that the dysfunction is deep down in the processing chain.
Apologies if the link isn’t playable outside the UK (I can never remember if iPlayer is available elsewhere.)
Talking about cephalods:
Did I mention I brought a souvenir from the holidays?
With the lack of ocean around here he’s currently practicing to become a tree-climbing octopus
Radio programs are normally available, TV programs are not.
Tis, did you hear this debate from the LSE? Nothing resolved in 45 minutes of course but some high quality poisoned darts flying about. (Recorded last week.)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b012wxyg
Way cute, but I’m too busy devouring Deus Ex to pick up yet another game.
Patricia, OM last thread #654
That’s almost as good as another Molly!
—–
CC
congratulations on your OM
They suspended my account, even though my name is there in the ‘also known as’ field. It probably try to talk to them, but I just can’t be bothered.
And she knits in her spare time.
No but I will.
Good morning!
—
Re: the bacon and avocado sandwiches – I was not able to start with a baseline test last night (using only bacon and avocado and bread) because Mr Q was hungrier than that (he had just come in from cycling 50+ miles) and I didn’t feel like dealing with bacon. So we had this: homemade oatmeal-wheat bread, sliced thick, spread with mayonnaise, topped with smoked ham or turkey, then sliced red tomato. I heated this under the broiler so it got good and hot and the tomato started to blacken a little bit…then added lots of slices of avocado, put that under the broiler for a minute, then added glorious extra sharp cheddar and broiled it till it was all melty and golden. The bread was all toasty on the edges and soft in the inside. That was delicious.
I realize that it had nothing to do with the original test. But it was worth it.
—
Set 1:33 after only two cups of strong tea
‘Tis @27,
It was on this morning at 09:00 so I listened while driving to the office, definitely worth catching just for the veiled vitriol.
Thanks Matt. I should of course have said radio, I know that TV programmes aren’t, except for what they make available through the (assumed to be live now) pay service.
The world’s first female TV news anchor -Gun Hägglund- has died. She started reading the TV news in Sweden 1958, 3 years after she started reading the radio news.
(Swedish-language article) “Tv-profilen Gun Hägglund är död” http://www.dn.se/kultur-noje/tv-profilen-gun-hagglund-ar-dod
I’ll bet PZ doesn’t like Fruity Oaty Bars: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doWOdB1d0mg
Hi Thread.
I can’t find the complaints department anymore. Has the “jump to end” button issue been covered already? I would so like to have one (although can live without perfectly well)… There was one in the old Pharyngula, just before the first comment. You know, the one with the text “jump to end”? =)
I’m not trying to snark (heavens, I wouldn’t know how to even if I tried). I’m just rather concerned with Shifty at the moment – he’s been throwing up the past few hours (gagging & panting occasionally too) and most definitely isn’t his old self. Sleeping quite peacefully now, though. I don’t know if I should sit back, relax and wait for him to produce The Biggest Hairball in the Universe, or should I be rushing him to the local vet in a catambulance… I just realized that even though I have had various cats over the years, they’ve all been very healthy ones, with no emergencies ever (well, apart from Bruce once falling off the balcony and ripping his pants, but a gash on his leg was quite easy to self-diagnose…).
And I’ve lost all google fu, there are a gazillion pages about vomiting cats in the cyberspace…
Tiny Giant Monsters http://satwcomic.com/tiny-giant-monsters
Was the story about female flight attendants refusing to work anywhere near him true?
Neither is it surprising how the maid’s case turned out. He’s rich, powerful, white and male. So clearly, he’s totally innocent or at least above the law. She’s all sorts of terrible things – female, an immigrant, a maid, – and worst of all, she’s poor (at least in comparision with the rapist). She clearly, she’s just a money-grubbing liar.
starstruck to Jadehawk above,
Revealing (if flawed) assumption on your part there, matey…
As to Google+, I was banned for using a pseudonym, until I put my full name back, which I did mainly out of necessity, but I’m not happy with this, and I really hope they come to their senses yet.
There is a “jump to end”, with a different label! Look at the bottom of each article, where it says “You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.” The “leave a response” link jumps you down to the text box for comment entry.
No way! I wondered where you went, but I thought maybe you just didn’t like me. :p
I stand corrected.
I doubt it – as I noted above, his approval ratings are down to about 25%, and that’s recent – certainly since it became fairly obvious the attempted rape* case would be dropped. If you’re right, though, you could end up with a second round choice of DSK or Marine Le Pen. Shit – do you vote for the rapist or the fascist**?
*I think forced oral sex is not rape in the relevant US law.
**When Chirac faced Jean-Marie Le Pen in the run-off, there was a slogan “Vote for the crook, not the fascist.”
PZ: now I’m embarrassed. Thanks for taking the time to point out the obvious to the oblivious =)
What about just hitting the “End” button? You’ll have to hit “up” a few times to get to the comment box, but…come to think of it, I don’t think I like the idea of encouraging people to comment without reading the comment thread. Maybe there’s something I don’t understand.
When I first heard the latest reporting on the DSK rape case, I confess I yelled at my radio. Things like “well, it sure is lucky he chose a woman who’s unrapeable in the current system, or else there would be actual consequences.”
@DerelictHat, I’m also chewing my way through Deus Ex 2. It’s a bit unforgiving, but I like it so far; moreover, there are minorities represented in the company. I loved that the plant manager was a middle-aged African American woman; it definitely feels like it could be Detroit in the future.
Although it’s a distinctly retro future. I pointed out to spouse that there really wouldn’t be optical media still in use, even though it’s lying around next to computers, and the phone booths on the street? No. It feels a lot like the future envisioned by classic cyberpunk, which makes sense in trying to built continuity to the first game.
PZ, in the “little annoyances” category, could you please make ‘Submit Comment’ jump to the end of the thread instead of the submitted comment? It makes reloading a small PitA, as the page keeps jumping to that anchor.
Forget (part of) what I said, it should not jump to an anchor within the page at all.
Rey Fox:
I only use it for the Endless, when I’m late catching up and it’s 300+ comments gone, then track back from the end to see what everyone’s talking about. Yeah, funny, I know, but then, I’m a Southpaw, too, and proud of my ass upwards ways.
Topical threads, yeah, reading them first would be preferred.
Hi, thread.
This is a week old and I haven’t kept up with TET, so maybe it’s been covered, but is Lisa Miller a known Liar for Jesus?
Now there’s a hurricane headed this direction. Followed by a plague of locusts and Cthuloid monster no doubt.
I don’t understand:
Religious college golf team suspended for racy photo.
“Jon Daniels suspended every player on the Fighting Swedes for three tournaments because of the photo he called, “a case of young people who just don’t think beyond the moment and don’t realize who they’re hurting.”
“Until someone sat them down and explained that they did something wrong, they didn’t have any idea,” Daniels said. “But I think they understand now.””
What now? I can see them arguing that it violated school morality codes, etc., but they “don’t realize who they’re hurting”??? I guess I don’t understand who they’re hurting either.
@38: When David Duke was running for gov of Louisiana, his opponent’s slogan was “Vote for the crook: it’s important.” (Probably not the official slogan, but it’s the one that won him the election.)
I read the article so that I could find out who exactly they were hurting, but, oh wonder, the coach never said.
Last Thread:
Ya know, Lone Coyote…a lot of us that hang out here are considered “weird” in what passes for RL, possibly doing their best in RL to “pass”, or else just keeping their heads down and not engaging. You may not be quite as geographically alone as you think…if only you can make First Contact. In fact, since (according to Wikipedia) Chilliwack has an estimated pop. of 80,000, I’d say the odds are pretty good.
Just a thought to (hopefully) cheer you up. ;)
–
“Should” and “do” aren’t even cousins.
–
Silly people, does it have to be spelled out for you? IT HURTS BABY JAYZUS!
Ethics question for the Horde: I live in EpiRen’s state. I am seriously disturbed by the state’s actions in gagging his blog. Would it be ethical to contact my state senator and/or our local ACLU bout the impropriety of free speech restrictions on government employees, without discussing the EpiRen situation in particular?
I was planning to do this anyway, after being told by my government park authority employer (I make $11 an hour for a freaking part time job) that I am not permitted to discuss anything that would be inappropriate for the workplace on any social media at any time. I specifically asked if this meant that I could not on my own time advocate for, say, legalization of marijuana or discuss the merits of various types of single malt scotch. The answer was “yes, those are all forbidden by this policy.”
(Yeah, right. So fire me.)
Mattir–
I wonder how they’d react to people talking about religion on social media. Probably the usual double standard where “I went to church” is fine and so is “God loves you” or “so-and-so preached a great sermon,” but “there is no God” or “so-and-so preached harmful nonsense again” could get you in trouble.
Mattir: IMHO, you should contact your state senator, the ACLU and possibly others about your own case. Epiren can follow your example or not as he pleases.
Is there a convenient way to look at the previous iteration of TET, now that the portcullis is down, for context? (Over at Scienceblogs I could page through lists of older posts, but FTB doesn’t have that functionality, at least not yet.)
Right below the video is a link to the last edition.
white coat fever
I have it.
++++++++++++++++
sparky, if you want to discuss OCT, shoot me an email thesailor2376 at that ‘sounds like wahoo’ place.
Vicki: every TET thread has a link to the last version in it, just under the video.
I think I’ve mentioned before that Daisy, our Mountain Poodle (miniature: 14 pounds) was anemic and having seizures. Vitamins, steroids, phenobarbitol, thyroxin, and iron pills had kept her stabilized for about a year and a half, but she stopped running with W.U., stopped flying off the deck at the hint of a squirrel, pretty much stopped everything but sleeping all day.
Except when W.U. or I would leave the house (she got treats for that), or came back from work or whatever (she got treats for that too). Or especially except when her best friends came over for dinner or any other reason. We could tell she was happy by the way she would prance (to the extent her limping playfulness and tail wagging could be called prancing) when they came around.
Non-sequitur: We just finished waterproofing our deck, and as is our custom, we had a deck party to celebrate. Nature cooperated, and the deck was covered with beads of water, just like in the advertisements. Guests included some of Daisy’s best friends, and she was very happy during the moments she was awake. We had roasted everything: big thick pork chops, mushrooms, peppers, onions, Trader Joe’s all-beef franks with no preservatives or filler. The only thing not grill-roasted was the potatoes, as there simply wasn’t enough grill room. As usual, and by design, I made way more food than people would eat, so I could make leftovers.
Daisy had three more seizures that night, and by morning could just stand there and move her head around, deaf and blind as she had gotten to be, there was simply nothing there. We had to put her down.
But now I have several days of leftovers where every bite will be a reminder of how happy she was at our party. Such a smart and happy friend she was.
DC LOCALS:
Trip to the Smithsonian Udvar-Hazy Air & Space Museum
First off, I need work on my reading comprehension because bastionofsass was right–the Planetarium is at the Smithsonian on the Mall. So, in light of that, here’s the schedule:
Saturday, August 27th
Noon: Meet at the entrance to the Udvar-Hazy Museum at Dulles
4:30: Dinner @ Otani (I think that has the most variety for everyone)
6:30: Harry Potter in Imax at the museum (two hours should be plenty for dinner, the restaurant is within minutes of the museum
Cost:
Museum: free
Parking: $15
Harry Potter: $15 (parking is free for the movie)
So far I have two confirmed for the movie; three for the museum & dinner. Please let me know ASAP if you’re planning to attend the movie so I can buy our tickets. I’ll be buying the tickets for Harry Potter tomorrow evening.
RSVP or questions to: oniongirlsays at google mail dot com.
I did. The level of snark and erudite insults was high. Those people would fit in quite nicely here. I think Skidelsky and Weldon won the debate but then, as a New Keynesian, I’d almost have to.
Carbon Based Life Form #31
I watched that and now I have a strange urge to get into a bar fight.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/08/23/woman-allegedly-raped-in-iraq-sued-by-defense-contractor-kbr/
@oniongirl:
I will need a ride to the museum.
cannabinaceae, that’s terrible, so sorry man.
Instead of a museum trip, I expect to be at home, either bailing out my basement or, depending on Irene’s actual track, collecting the scattered shards of my house. W.U. will be living it up in southern Illinois at her Dad’s family reunion, drinking weak coffee and eating heartland comfort food (if I was there I’d be having half a bottle of weak beer before giving up and going with the
lardfood only.).Plus, if I went to that museum without W.U., I can think of only three words that approach describing the aftermath: “Nutted”, “Dull”, and “Spoon”.
The Sailor, thank you for the kind words. She made it almost 14 years and was truly exceptional. We’ve been warned that (not using these words) regression to the mean suggests that our next one won’t be as exceptional.
@The Sailor, every time I hear about the contractor rape (plus kidnapping, etc.) story, I want to beat someone involved senseless until they understand how evil their past and ongoing handling has been. I hate them with the rage of a thousand suns.
Unrelated to prior recent messages, I just want to comment on my avatar:
That is one suave Duck!.
I award half an internet to the first Pharyngulite who names the cultural reference!
Sorry to hear about Daisy, cannabinaceae. We’ve been dreading that inevitable moment ourselves with our old pup.
Just keep remembering the happy bits.
Dogs and kids seem to do Happy much better than human adults, don’t they?
Hugs, cannabinaceae. It’s always incredibly hard when you lose them.
Interesting. Melissa Harris-Perry is a nukular-speaker.
Can we please stop making fun of Bush now, and focus on why he was an incompetent arsehole?
myeck waters, you can’t avoid the dread, but as our vet said, “you will know” when the proper time is. He was surprised that she made it those 1 1/2 extra years, and we made as many happy moments with her as we could. She left many happy memories.
When I say “Mountain Poodle”, I mean that people out in the woods with their Big Dogs would clearly be surprised by such a tiny character five miles in and a thousands of feet up, raring to go fetching sticks in the lake. I believe she would have willingly fetched sticks in water until it killed her – we usually (before she got sick) had to physically restrain her from doing that even when she was clearly exhausted.
cannabinaceae, I am very sorry about Daisy. She sounds like a wonderful dog and an important part of your life. She was lucky to have such a loving family.
I still miss my Sophie, a most unusual cat – she died in 1992 and I still have that little ache inside me whenever I think of her.
@Chigau –
By gawd you’re right. From now on I’ll look at it in that light. ;)
Carlie – re:shunning. You are exactly right, and the older folks in the church will cross the street if they see me. I think it’s the grandkids. I’m a safe scapegoat for their hate energy.
Cicely:
Cannabinaceae: I’m very sorry to hear about your dog. Nothing in the world can possibly replace A Good Dog. They are to be celebrated, IMO.
We’ve got a very elderly golden retriever here, around 13-14 (I suck at keeping track of time). We’re very lucky. The only sign of age she’s showing is a white face and a slower walk. We’ve been incredibly lucky with her. No major health issues to contend with, ever, at all.
But it kinda makes me wonder when I’m gonna have to ‘pay up,’ so to speak. Nothing can live forever.
Fuck, I totally forgot to address Cicely’s point. What I meant to say was Thank You, and I’ll get right on that.
I just read something wonderful about speaking out against misogyny and deconstructing male privilege from a trans man’s perspective.
cannabinaceae – So sorry to hear about your doggie. I haven’t been able to buy another Bulldog simply because their lifespan is very short, and loosing a best pal is so hard. :(
“Nucular” sounds funny to me too, but way back when people were criticizing Jimmy Carter for pronouncing it that way, it occurred to me: he’s a nuclear engineer, and I have a liberal arts degree. Which of us would you want dealing with nuclear hardware?
This is for cannabinaceae (and everyone else of course)
Off to see Conan.
Patricia: Bring a barf bag.
Joining the crowd to say I’m sorry for your loss to cannabinaceae.
cannabinaceae: *hugs* and *snuffle*.
–
I present the following without comment, because I don’t think I have words for it right now.
I think I want to go quit the people for the rest of the day. Go home, drink scotch and play games in the dark.
cannabinaceae, it sounds as if Daisy had an excellent send off. My condolences on your loss.
cannabinaceae: I’m very sorry for the loss of Daisy. :( My condolences.
Oniongirl: Aww, I’m sad. I missed the last DC get together because I didn’t start reading TET until the day after and I”m going to miss this one because I’m moving Sunday (and soon-to-be-ex has cut me off financially).
I took Son to the Udvar-Hazy museum last summer and he really enjoyed it. More so than the one on the Mall. Have fun everyone!
Dog question: As I mentioned a while back, we got a new dog. Very gentle, very playful. However, Dog has become extremely attached to me; attached to the point where if I leave here without him he gets into the trash and does his business on the floor (and he’s a large dog, so it’s a pain in the ass). Anyways, I started putting the trash can in the bathroom with the door shut so he can’t get to it and started waiting until after I got back from taking Son to school to feed him (so there’s wouldn’t be anything in him to leave on the floor).
However, as mentioned above, I’m moving on Sunday. Son loves Dog too much for me to take him with me. I’m worried about how Dog will cope and how to prepare him–if that’s even possible!
Squigit: I dunno if you can ‘prepare’ him for it. As for coping, lots of distractions and walks for the first while might help.
I’ve never had to deal with separation anxiety in either of my dogs, but I’m told it’s often created by making too much of a fuss just before you go somewhere.
Just saying hi. Last weekend, while working on the cars, I also “mothballed” the generator we got during one of the outages. The Redhead questioned this and mentioned hurricane season.
Checked maps again, and the nearest big bodies of water are the Great Lakes, not known for generating hurricanes. She sometimes doesn’t think things through. She had a point with tornadoes, but I’m good even if it doesn’t happen until next summer. Just add gas (stabilized) to the tank, turn some switches, set the choke, and pull the starter cord. POWER!
That can be true, but isn’t always the case. My mom’s dog is a rescue who’s been through multiple homes and will probably always have separation anxiety, although with her, they found that crating her made the problem worse.
With my dog, also a rescue, her anxieties were fairly mild, so we tried making our departure something to look forward to. We would give her a treat as she sat on her bed when we left, so eventually when we were getting dressed, she’d hover around us impatiently waiting.
Some people have found luck in minimizing leaving rituals (and my mom has done some of this) but it really varies from dog to dog.
Protest PZ?
Surely this is cause for great joy! Now squishy tentacled molluscs will be brought to public attention oncemore!
@Nerd
You’re in the Chiwaukee area? Hurricanes and earthquakes and tidal waves* are phenomena you don’t have to worry about.
*barring large meteors crashing into Lake Michigan of course.
cannabinaceae, I’m so sorry. At least it was one good happy day.
To be fair, Tethys, a large enough meteor crashing -anywhere- could cause an earthquake or a tidal wave in that area. However, chances are Nerd won’t be worried about the generator at that point.
ok, so I’ve given up arguing with the MRA troll at Atheist Nexus (mostly because unlike here, there’s no one watching who might learn from my posts; the troll apparently has successfully shut down that group *sad*), but I needed to share the stupid with someone, so you lot get stuck with it.
My last response to the troll (who claimed feminists are anti-male and never deal with issues that concern men), I linked to three men’s studies sociology journals (all of which generally feature a number of papers written from within the feminist paradigm), as well as a list of authors of great essays about men and men’s issues from a feminist perspective. And the troll’s response?
yep. The fact that the authors I listed (presumably) had penises means they could not possibly be feminists, even when they write articles titled “Masculinity as Homophobia” or write about the “Chivalric Phallacy” of white male patriarchy.
biggest gotcha-fail since Ray Comfort’s banana
We actually had an earthquake last winter/spring. A chunk of the Madrid Fault moved. I didn’t feel it, but the Redhead claimed she did.
I’m about 60 feet above lake level, so I’m not too worried about tidal waves.
1)I didn’t.
2)rinse and repeat
– – – – – – –
anyway, the current solution to the g+ problem is an account with an alternate e-mail. so, everyone who wants me in their circles will have to re-add me (profile should be linked through gravatar). If you’ve already done so, disregard this message.
Ah, Cannibinaceae, that is tough. So sorry, but a good run is something to be celebrated as well. Take care.
cannabinaceae, so sorry on the loss of your doggy. it hurts but they sure leave good memories. and it’s so nice she was happy that last day. my old family dog died the day after she had seen many of her friends as well, and it was a comfort to us. hugs to you and yours.
Cannibinaceae, I’m sorry you won’t be able to join us at the museum, and even sorrier for the reason why. We’d love to see you at some other event if you’re up for it.
Squigit, also sorry you won’t be joining us! The next get-together is at the Renn Faire on 9/17 (and there may be a B-more gathering before that one), so keep it in mind!
PZ, I have to say I love, love, love, the subscription feature–I can’t access FTB at work (or at least not for more than a few seconds), but at least I can keep up with everyone via email! :)
@Richard (and anyone else who thinks geology and meteors are cool)
Yes, I’m sure the fireball, earthquakes exceeding 10 on the Richter scale, rain of semi-molten ejecta, and the air blast with wind speeds up to 1400 mph, would render the generator question fairly moot.
Sudbury meteor impact
Above link is an excellent pdf from the MN geological service with pictures of impact breccia and accretionary lapilli created by the Sudbury impact.
This rock formation is 480 miles west of the impact site.
I concede such an impact in Lake Michigan, or even Lake Ontario, would catastrophically effect us here. But, IIRC, that is even bigger than the Chicxulub meteor which allegedly took out the dinosaurs.
Caught up with subthread 246! And with subthread 247 till comment 200!
I’ve watched more enterprise. Malcolm Reed turns out to be more and more similar to Sili. Their sense of humor is similar… Sili, what do you think of pineapple? :-)
Has Rove ever been some kind of wild-eyed theocrat? My impression was he simply wants power for his puppets. He’s evil, but not necessarily stupid.
ROTFLMAO! The similarity is incredible!
So much for men not being made fun of for what they look like. ;-)
Seconded.
If he’s a believer, he’s probably an autotheist…
Not surprising given the shape and the complex geologic history of that island.
*clenched-tentacle salute*
Ah yeah. America, the land of the free.
*sigh*
*hug*
Heeee’ll be baaaack.
And he’ll still believe he’s a Republican.
It is even for a black hole – it’s just above c and therefore completely theoretical.
Well, first of all, they’re not circumcised…
:-o
It’s not normal. I forgot – are you coming to Rhinebeck in October, or perhaps to Las Vegas or LA in November?
QFT!
Oh yeah. I sympathize. *HULK SMASH*
It is pronounced that way, at least by the people who occasionally have to deal with it.
The things I’ve learned on John Wells’s Phonetic Blog… :-)
*biodegradable confetti*
*twirling in
minidressoversized T-shirt*Seconded. It also immediately reminded me of The Ethics of Belief.
Over here, allergy tests consist of a skin-prick test and a blood test.
I have extremely sensitive skin. I’m almost allergic to the prick itself; almost every one of the tested substances gave me a reaction earlier this year. The blood test then confirmed far fewer allergies.
My mom has extremely insensitive skin. IIRC, none of the tested substances gave her a reaction. The subsequent blood test found her well-known hayfever and all the rest.
Seconded.
Well, that’s a good place to break off and go to bed.
There’s a tornado warning upwind of us (where the weather comes from) and a thunderstorm warning where I live. I got all the cats in by waving treats. Now I’m going out to tidy away loose objects that might be blown over or away. Not that I expect a tornado here but we will get wind gusts and we could get downbursts of wind later.
Nerd:
Is she not a reliable witness for this kind of thing? Bit of a dreamer?! I have also slept through many a little earth shuffle myself.
The Subury meteorite strike was about 1.9 billion years ago. The crater was initially round, which is what you get with almost any angle of impact; but the intervening years have stretched the bedrock until the crater is oval. You can still find large shatter cones in the granite, and there’s a widespread layer of breccia from the fallback.
Congratulations on your shiny new OM, Classical Cipher!
slignot, fascinating article. i have a question for the horde at large, being somewhat inexperienced in people-reading (though getting better). how does an outgroup person (namely me as a woman) figure out just who these seemingly nice but really super assholey (heck, even vaguely sexist) types are? I know plenty of people who seem nice but I keep getting surprised. I guess it just takes time and a bit of trusting one’s intuition instead of succumbing to popular opinion of so-and-so as a nice person?
I have noticed that some people are generally spoke of by others as lovely but are assholes in a major and fairly obvious way (that one always baffles but at the moment i chalk it up to them trying to be super-polite and non-gossipy).
I guess i’m worried I won’t notice in time that people who seem otherwise nice really do view me as less-than. I have noticed that even when 1-2 women are present, some guys do seem to just ramp up the raunchy comments about ooh, shoulda slept with her, her, her, and her. then they turn right around and make nasty remarks about “sluts and whores”. and even the other women think it’s funny, or like me just don’t want to comment. i suspect these people even consider themselves sex-positive feminist types. ANGRY. if they do that when women are present, i’m pretty horrified to consider what they are saying when we’re not around. i mean really, do they not consider any woman they meet NOT in the context of how hot she was? what are people I currently like as friends saying about ME behind my back? I think at this point I’d best not think about it. Hmmm, this is less of a question than a rant.
Actually it was felt up this way, with reports from DuPage county in the Trib. But bedrock shapes can make the shaking intensify in certain areas, but not others. I was at work, and the second story where I work is a bit shaky even without an earthquake, as the floor flexes a bit a I walk across it.
And your feathered ankylosaurs are normal? What about the nodosaurs? It may be my dream, but your the one insisting that ankylosaurs had feathers.
No, no, and no.
In October, that is a very busy weekend and we have an all-day excursion (pulled by EMD F3s (built for the Bangor & Arroostook Railroad up in Maine, currently pained in Delaware, Lackawanna & Western freight colours, and built way back in 1948). And Las Vegas and LA are too far away. Sorry. But Wife and I will try to make it to DC in February or March (whenever it is).
=============
I just spent the last three hours working on my computer. No, not actually doing some useful stuff while using the computer, I was working on the computer. The video drivers got corrupted.
==============
Walton:
You do realize that, as soon as you showed up in Boston, a huge hurricane starts heading that way.
Coincidence? I think not.
Sorry Nerd (108), I meant your funny use of she word “claimed she felt it”. Like you didn’t quite believe her.I live in the Memphis area, so a constant topic of discussion is “we’re well overdue for The Big One, ya know?”.
Any quakeologists here able to put my mind at rest/freak me out even more?
So if Google+ doesn’t like me, my Gmail account and Flickr photos and Google Calendar all disappear? That’s harsh. It’s bad enough that they bought Blogger and suddenly my old, pseudonymous blogs were associated with my Gmail identity; I had to make them private.
We don’t have a tornado warning but we have a tornado watch (the next level down) and a thunderstorm watch. We’re starting to get thunder, lightning, and rain. The reports from the west talk about golfball-sized and gumball-sized hail. Oh, and my basement still has a puddle from the last storm, the one where we lost power for over four hours.
For you craftsfolk and artists, a new resource: the Conservation and Art Material Encyclopedia Online, or CAMEO from the Boston Museum f Fine Arts.
and don’t forget about the earthquake.
Clearly God does not want The Walton to be in the USA
But god(s)’ aim sucks. Walton is in Boston, so he smites Virginia? Does this mean the hurricane is going to pound the snot out of Norfolk and Suffolk?
slignot @85:
:( :( :( :( :(
I’m guessing it’s this one, based on the “common wisdom” that prostitutes can’t be raped, and husbands can’t rape their wives. Turds of a feather….
–
Nerd, surely the Great Lakes area presents the potential for ice-storm-induced power outages? Two years running, we had highly productive ice storms hereabouts, and some people in town were still without power a month later; out of town, it was worse.
–
The Dick to the Dawk: Governor Moron, evolution is a fact you dummy.
Off to pick up Girl at work. Then off to bde.
And Boy has all his financial aid figured out and even has his books and gas for transportation paid for.
Aladegorrion,
If you (not you specifically, but in general) are trying to figure out who is nice, I can only assume that the group dynamic is broken. Be careful, I hope you can sort through the dross without getting hurt in the process.
Yep, growing up there were ice-storms cutting off power for days in the lower peninsula, actually about half the state away from Lake Michigan in eastern Michigan (we had rain in western Michigan). Particularly toward the spring. They weren’t a problem in the YooPee as the weather tended to be colder for a far longer period of time, ice time was brief. Ice storms aren’t much of problem here on the west side of the lake where I am now, as the prevailing winds are from the west.
Magical thinking: Gaddafi the croc eyes new name
Heh.
1. Cannabinaceae, I’m so sorry to hear about doggy. It’s wrenching to lose a cherished pet.
2. Thank you, PZ, for making the log-in link more prominent, and for getting it to dump us back here, rather than at WordPress’ “admin” page.
3. Francine is a great road-trip car; more comfortable than I expected. And she gets 20 mpg on the highway, which isn’t bad for a big old boat from 1966.
4. My little three-year-old nephew is slightly on the autistic spectrum (very, very slightly) and is having trouble articulating words in a way that’s understandable. This has exceedingly cute consequences: I am “Uncle Gosh,” and I am to “No go to your house! Stay Uncle Gosh!!!”
love it
Perhaps the best way to explain this is this example. Her father taught her to listen to cars for something wrong. So, she often comes to me with a complaint about something with the car she normally drives. Then I check it out, and nothing is wrong, as the car either decide to start acting right, or she unconsciously imagined something to get me to do her bidding. While I take her complaints seriously enough to check them out, she is actually right about something being wrong on an infrequent basis, maybe one out of ten times she complains. So I take her observation of feeling the earthquake with a grain of salt. I can’t check it out, as our local rag reported some folks feeling tremors here in Lake County, but I can be reasonable skeptical that she imagined feeling it as a possible explanation.
If the Madrid fault does cut loose you have a ring-side seat. Will it eventually? Yes. In our lifetime, not likely, but possible.
Also, it is very nice to be taken out to dinner for one’s birthday, especially when friends buy one a meal of fresh-butchered ribeye and copious cocktails at one of the most expensive restaurants in the state. Mmm. .vodka and beef.
Yes, yes it is. Went here for my recent 40th. Awesome.
tethys, markita, nerd, and other big-things-falling-from-the-sky geeks:
My only complaint about not really feeling comfortable going back to Cancun at the moment is that I never got to visit the (recognizeable parts of) Chixulub. However, I did visit Ek Balam when they were actively digging it out, and got a tour from an archeologist.
Oh, and had my toes nibbled on by fish swimming in a cenote. But it’s not the same as fireballs.
Holy shit, Chimpie, but that menu looks good. Too many restaurants try to do “fusion” cooking with regional cuisine and end up with a mess, but it looks like this one does Southern stuff right.
Congrats on your 40. I got three years to go.
Yay!
–
“Uncle Gosh”.
:) :) :)
–
To go where?
Flees
Dawkins was great in that WaPo editorial, but boy are some of the commenters jaw droppingly stupid.
Well, some people have reported this, but it didn’t happen when they blocked me. I could even still access the G+ site, just not do anything there, like post or add friends.
Off to another 10-hour evening shift, and then finally, finally, 5 days off ! I can’t even remember what a day off feels like ! The blog is hanging on for dear life too. (Than’s why I wouldn’t be any good at FTB, I just don’t have the time to produce enough decent content)
Rain? Thunder? What are these things of which you speak? I hear tell of them in stories..legends, but they do not happen here.
Seriously though, I wish this string of 100+ degree days with no rain would end. There were people dancing in parking lots in Tulsa when it rained there a few weeks ago. Now Oklahoma will get some rain and it all stays north of the Red River, dammit.
Re: Google+, I have my real name set to private and my ‘nym as my visible. What are my chances of them throwing a hissy-ban fit over that? I’ve already closed my FB.
Fucking blockquote fail:
To Ghey Old Age, you little shit, as you well know.
Flee if you want, but the years will catch up to you, too, my pretty.
You’re excused, Rorschach. You’re a (seriously) overworked doctor, and it’s important stuff you do.
My personal method is deep, bitter cynicism.
Beats the alternative. As the old saying goes, any day you see the grass from above is a good day.
Silly Josh, you can still pass off as early thirties at forty.
Ain’t gonna happen. /youthful hubris
Bamboo is a grass. (Or more accurately a true grass of the family Poaceae).
It all went south when Cthulhu became a plushie.
Gilliel, that’s a very cute tomato-climbing octopus!
Ctrl-End gets you to the bottom of the page. Shift-Spacebar brings you up one screen, which is just about commenting range.
We had a provincial politician like DSK in one of the Atlantic provinces, where the word was, “Never get into an elevator with him.” I didn’t know about his reputation until he was outed by someone giving him a clout and complaining.
hehe…
Apparently even the P in Penis has to be capitalized when its God’s.
Cannabinaceae, sorry, so sorry, abut your dog. I’m losing my old girl (14 year old border collie) at the moment. Days, maybe weeks? It’s a big, big deal.
Sailor, very nice vid.
For your singing and dancing pleasure: calimari
I’m home.
I hope everyone is happy.
I’ll catch-up tomorrow.
Well, it is the holy dong, after all.
Also, why does god have a penis? What would he even use it for?
starstuff91:
well, I heard there was this girl called Mary, and god definitely did a job on her – she got pregnant and all.
Only, god has dissociative identity disorder, so he claims it wasn’t him but someone called the Holy Ghost.
(my sincere apologies to any real person suffering from DID)
So, Gosh*, when exactly did you turn 37? I did a little over a week ago, on the day the
musicKing died.* Gays’ Official Spokes Human
Happy birthday, Josh. :)
And of course, happy (belated? — it
soundedread as if it was something in the past) birthday!A Progress supply ship on the way to the ISS crashed and burned.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2391789,00.asp
As they use the same launch system as Soyuz, that means no launches manned or unmanned until the problem is isolated. And there’s no shuttle program for backup.
The station is OK for supplies for several months according to spokesperson, and Soyuz modules already docked provide an escape route if needed.
Random winemaking question: I’m making homemade blueberry wine the old fashioned way…. the REALLY old fashioned way…. I got some blueberry must fermenting in an old 2l, in other words. It’s starting to smell pretty damn good, but I’m wondering how I can tell when it’s ‘ready’.
Any simple tricks? Should I be going by taste or smell or what? do I wait until it stops putting off Co2?
Oh and also Happy Birthday, Josh.
Is it Josh’s birthday? I’ll have to run to the store to get cake ingredients. Let’s see: 1 lb ready-mix concrete, 2 cups potassium cyanide, and ethylene glycol as a sweetener. Ol’ Josh will love this cake.
Happy Birthday Josh!!!
Set: 1 min, 46
Went to bed at 10. Woke up at 1.
Didn’t fall back asleep until 4:30. Up at 7.
Ugh.
@Carlie:
:( Sorry to hear that. It sucks when you can’t fall asleep. My kitten decided that 3.30 is my wake up time so he’s jumping all over me about this time.
Happy Birthday, Josh/Gosh! =^_^=
And belated Happy Birthday to Rev. BigDumbChimp! =^_^=
When I think of forty-year-olds, I think of people much more grown-up and mature than me; something that I hope I’ll be when I’m 40. Then I wonder why I think like that. I’m nearly 54!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
‘Tis, I think I’ll pass on a piece of that cake, thank you.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So sorry for your loss of Daisy, cannabinaceae. Losing a dog is always hard; losing one of the extra-special ones even more so. I’m so glad she had a lovely time at the party to add to all the wonderful memories you built together. I count myself lucky to have had several extra-special dogs among the many (all rescues) we have shared our lives with.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I had a really good day yesterday; physiotherapy followed by a visit to my friend, who is currently laid up with a torn knee ligament, poor thing. Then hubby picked me up on his way home from work and we did the food shopping. Today, however, I can’t stay awake. Must I always pay for a good day out with a day in bed?! I hope I’m livelier tomorrow, as we are supposed to be helping a friend move house.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
First Approximation and starstuff91:
Thank you for the giggles! =^_^=
54 secs.
OMG huge breakfast sandwich it’s like an omelette on toast – with sausage.
Did anyone read that as some sort of innuendo or is it just my dirty mind at work?
This is going to sound like a compilation error, but there’s a missing else in there.
@SQB:
It could be taken as an innuendo I suppose. Except that “huge” would have to precede “sausage” for it to be better ~_^
Nope, I read it as “Why do the skinny ones always get to eat the big breakfast”
I’m trying to lose a bit of weight, so I’m highly sensitive to food allusions. ;)
cannabinaceae:
Sorry for your loss. Pets always become anthropomorphed family members :(
Happy Birthday, Josh!
@Gillel:
I didn’t eat all of my breakfast, you can have a bite of my huge sausage.
(ROFL XD Sorry sorry, I’ll go sit in the corner)
Josh- Happy Birthday!
Carlie – I had a similar night. And I am dragging now.
The 12 year old in me is still laughing at this.
I love this thread.
Happy birthday,
JoshGosh!Thanks to everybody for all the kind words about Daisy. The Sailor, I had to watch that video twice since at the first word my eyes were filled with tears and I couldn’t see anything. She had an excellent run and a good sendoff.
Another way in which she was exceptional: she inspired our (formerly) dog-hating friends to get a miniature poodle themselves. We’ll be visiting them in a week to get a poodle fix.
Crossposted in response to DLC’s comment 107 in the thread “No weirder than any other religious story”.
Please feel free to develop an even more complex explanation involving aliens and/or Old Ones, Chthonians or the subterranean evil spirits of Scientology :)
— — — — — — — — — — — —
DLC: “Nonsense! I know full well that Jesus of Nazareth, aka Yeshua Ben Joseph was in reality none other than Longfang 12378B of the Ophidian Snake Hybrids!”
Actually it is a bit more complicated than that, with all the clones, and the horizontal information transfer* between them making all an interlinked meta-individual.
When one unit was crucified, he was easily replaced but he was not in a strict sense resurrected (even though the telepathic data transfer guarantees a continuity of memory up to the time of death surviving among the other clones).
*= For large data volumes, memories are transferred chemically by “direct conference” (See the novel by Robert Heinlein, poorly filmed in the nineties)
Also, the “snake hybrids” are merely the latest favourite host species of the group mind, the clones that form the collective can physically constitute GM versions of any of several sentient species.
— — — — — — — —
It would have been even more complicated if Jesus had been a subset of the Modhri, from Timothy Zahn’s “Quadrail” series, where tiny symbionts/parasites build sentient structures in the brain and “nudge” the host to follow a particular course of action while remaining convinced he is acting on his own accord.
If the individual Mohdri mind fragment want to take hands-on control, it can override the host for a minute and do stuff, counting on the human ability to retroactively justify an action to create a narrative where a sudden inexplicable action actually makes sensse and is preceived as unremarkable.
Since the Mohdri is telepathic over short distances, several individuals can form a mind fragment. And if one mind fragment must be sacrificed (even humans cannot retroactively justify murder or sabotage) the knowledge is simply passed on to another, while the compromised host is put to death.
However, since the Mohdri organism was GE as a subversion weapon I doubt Jesus served as a mind fragment -the growth of the church needed centuries to sequester the Roman Empire for its purposes, while the Modhri were designed to overrun a galactic civilisation in 1-2 generations.
@Katherine
Thanx for the laugh and the saussage
I went for choclate instead (boo-hoo*), but news here are getting from bad to worse to what the hell are they doing and could my mum please stop being an idiot.
*Yep, that’s me
Eat when you’Re under stress, eat when you’re bored, eat when you’re sad.
That’s the reason the only time I really managed to lose weight and keep it was when I was high in love.
Happy Birthday, Josh!!
And now for a *happy dance*
I just got tickets to go see Tim Minchin! Now I just have to talk Mr. Rawnaeris into going with me or getting one of my friends to attend.
Giliell – I am a stress non-eater. It really isn’t healthy, either. Sadness does make me very hungry, though. For sweets, at least.
@Psych-Oh:
Me too. When I get stressed, I don’t eat dinner. Which sucks cause I’m skinny.
Warning: 12 year old humor ahead
best Golf Team Captain name ever. Even better it’s with this story.
That’s Holy Dong.
====
Happy Birthday, Gosh, Official Spokesjay. You young whippersnapper.
And happy belated birthday to the Reverend.
Moar barefaced Christian lies :
God is better than Beer
Preposterous !
Well, depends on the beer. If you are talking about Coors Light, Budweiser, Schlitz, or other tasteless alcohol conveyance liquids, then I would argue that god(s) is equal to beer — no substance but can cause stupid behaviour in moderate to large doses.
Now, if you are referring to, say, Saranac Pumpkin Ale, or Long Trail IPA, or Harpoon’s Summer Beer, I would vociferously disagree.
How come when I click on Katherine’s Gravatar, I get taken to a page with a larger version of the picture, while Rorschach’s leads to ‘no such user’?
Beatrice’ Gravatar works, while Starstuff’s leads me to a page with just a big Gravatar logo.
Ogvorbis leads to no such user, while Rev BDC’s and Psych-oh’s links work.
Yeah.
What SQB @179 asked.
I have convinced outside-averse husband to go camping this weekend, which is great. I’ve wanted to go all this summer, but you know, can’t go outside, bears will eat him.
As a bonus, I get out of bad air in the valley for a bit on top of pretty nature stuff and sketching; today is another red air quality day.
I still have my Top Secret clearance from when I was in Army Intel. My Gravatar is the only part of me you are allowed to see.
Really.
Honest.
You can trust me.
Stop smirking! and trust me!
@Psych-Oh
Well, I need the “right amount of stress”.
Have too little on the agenda and I don’t get anything done, since I can do it tomorrow. And I clear the fridge. Too much to do and instead of getting a sensible lunch and dinner, I’ll have a bazillion of snacks which means 5 quadrillion of calories and I’m still hungry.
It was covered already above, yet without the hint to the funny name.
Why now did I misspell “blockquote” as “blokequote”?
Oh, and nothing tops Murphy’s Irish Stout.
I have no idea ! Maybe my internet obfuscation measures are working for a change !
Here folks, have some culture, Manca Izmajlova performing Those Were The Days
And he did such a memorable job that she didn’t notice the “job” he did on her at the time, and had to be tipped off after the fact. “Uh, yeah, about that baby bump; hail Mary full of…um…grace….”
–
Happy birthday, Gosh. :)
–
Sastra! Sastra! Sastra!
–o–
I’ve just spent more than half an hour watching my new vacuumcleaner …
–o–
J’adore d’ananas.
Does it do the job all by itself?
I hate vacuumcleaners….
Ha, just signed up to invest money in our local energy-provider.
Got everything I ask for:
-solid company that treats its workers propperly
-partly owned by the town, so the profits they make end up in this town again
-investment into solar panels
-solid interest paid
-better they pay me a smaller interest than a huge one at the bank. Fuck the banks
Happy Birthday Josh! :D
Why did only Sodom get a sin named after it?
What were they doing in Gomorrah?
And who even remembers Admah and Zeboyim?
Josh has a birthday! Have a happy.
Just a song for Gomorrah
Wonder what they did there
Must have been a bad thing
To get shot down for…
Garcia
Folk etymology to the rescue!
–o–
It’s supposed to, yes, but it’s kinda adorable to watch. And I can’t help but feel sorry for it, when it had trouble finding it’s way back to the charging station.
It even sorta has a face! (I’ll end up having named it within a week …)
@SQB:
No idea. But I’m sure the picture of me looks good ~_^
Rock Perry’s Army of God
Happy birthday Josh b’Gosh.
In preparation for Hurricane Irene, the boat is out of the water and in a storage shed. So you’ll be stuck with me all weekend, or until the power goes out.
Happy birthday Josh, birthday twin to Mr Kristin!
Happy Birthday to Mr. Kristin, too!!
that of course should be Rick Perry’s Army of God
Happy birthday, Josh!
====
I have no intention of using Google+. In fact, I wish I could stop using Gmail, though there don’t seem to be any equally-good alternatives (Hotmail is useless). Not because Google are an unusually bad outfit – they’re not, by megacorporation standards, and they haven’t engaged in nearly as many exploitative practices as one might expect given their market position – but because any outfit becomes potentially dangerous when it monopolises so much of our day-to-day communication and access to information.
Plus, I’m basically satisfied with Facebook (though it was actually better a couple of years ago than it is now; I wish they’d stop changing things).
arghhhhhhhh. My woo-laden friends are at it again. This time it’s “paleo eating”.
A couple weeks ago one of them was extolling the virtues of “juice feasting”. If you think that’s a typo, it’s not: it’s not juice fasting, you see, it’s juice feasting *eyeballs rolling out of my head*
Trying to point out that this is bullshit is useless. It just makes me the mean one. Holy lard does it drive me crazy. And these are intelligent women, too.
@kristinc:
Paleo… eating?
Juice… feasting?
Somehow these terms don’t seem to go together?
Oh, my, teeth. Paleo diet, doesn’t that mean all your food is really old? Fossilized even?
I just had to leave a message on a machine for a callback. The prompt for the message: “Hi. You’ve reached NAME. Please leave a message at the beep. And remember, God loves you and Jesus died that you may be free of your sins. God bless you, God bless America, and God bless Senator Toomey.”
Bleah.
You know you love it. They’re so cute!
Brother Ogvorbis
I hope your message included gales of laughter.
David, #103: That’s a hilarious pic. No wonder one of Rove’s monikers is “Satan’s porcine handmaiden.”
Just for fun, ask them how many neolithicians had regular
enemascolonic irrigations.Chigau:
No. very professional.
Brother, #109: Walton’s in Boston?! With goof-around time of the non-hurrican-wrecked variety?
Brother Ogvorbis:
Did you include that “unlike Jesus, I’d like to actually speak to me, so please call”
Oh damn, I think I’m starting to hate my mother. I know she’s ill, I know it’s normal for somebody in her situation to spread misery and accusations and general unfairness and nastyness, but I really, really can’t put up with this much longer, but I’m firmly stuck in this shit because of gran.
And with all that insecurity and bitterness I’m afraid I’m in for another “hubby’s evil twin” nightmare, which is by far the worst one I ever had and which is a reocurring one :(
For those interested: some damn good news in the EllenBeth Wachs saga.
I just learned a new word in ‘The Strength of Dawkins’ thread:
recreancy
Interestingly, the dictionary’s own transcription doesn’t fit their own taped pronounciation (it fits the one in my dictionary with the initial stress)
Oh, and since I feel I’m whining a lot, here’s something funny:
Today my daughter examined whether there were by chance any mice living under my breast. :)
I swear that kid has an imagination that would make a lot of so-called fantasy authors weep
Cambridge, strictly speaking. But yes.
Well, I wouldn’t claim to have a surfeit of goof-around time, since I’m starting a masters program in law and currently have a full orientation schedule. But I’m available to meet up with Pharyngulites in the Boston area at a mutually-convenient time.
Arthur C. Clarke disproves everything http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kl8SRrlbbN0
Arthur C. Clarke’s Rama http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=NshkyZOgYJc
Walton,
Harvard Lore School, perhaps? I once had to go over to the Law Review building to pick up a copy of the Blue Book, a.k.a A Uniform System of Citation. Not that I’m a lawyer; I was a copyeditor in the law division of Little, Brown & Co.
Whether Harvard Lore or some other, best of luck. I’m moving from Brighton to Waltham pretty soon, but I’ll be around.
–Until Recently Ava, Oporornis maledetta, who can’t figure out how youse guys got to bring names with capitals over here from Pharyngula when FtB told her lowercase names only, making the old name not work
Ava:
Set your “nickname” to the full name you want displayed, then set “Display Name As” to that.
Grubs, turtles, and tubers.
Mmmmm-mm!
You can change the display-name in the dashboard.
Your one, true, utterly secret username is only allowed lower case, but you can have an uppercase letter in your display-name if you can provide a legitimate certificate of your Divinity
;)
Happy Birthday Josh and Happy Belated Birthday to Rev. BDC!
Hi Caine!
Hows your guts?
No oysters?
–o–
Happy B’day, B’Josh.
Walton made it to southern New England just in time to be a victim of Hurricane Irene.
Anyway, welcome Walton. We’ll have to arrange a get together sometime soon.
Giliell, well don’t keep us in suspense, were there?
The Sailor:
To her total disappointment, no.
If you ask me, they would have to be very, very flat mice :)
Ben, that’s not great news. She had to pay them to (illegally IMO) search her house and all they have to do is trump something else up in the next 2 years and it all comes back.
+++++++++++++
Happy b’day to Josh B’Gosh (I think that may stick;-) and the love of his life, Francine. (6 jugs and a single inlet, wow, we are a diverse bunch.)
Best New Cuttlefish In The World Today.
(Is it just me, or did TRMS update late?)
Heck, Walton gets to the East Coast and they get an earthquake!
So, I’m watching msnbc and some political pundit said, “Perry is a plausible Bachmann.” I’ve heard similar sentiments before. Why do people think Rick Perry is somehow a more reasonable and believable candidate than Michele Bachmann? They’re both equally crazy and they both have a record of saying insane things. They’re pretty much the same candidate.
Perry has that good-old-fashion “good guy” look. This may, unfortunately, sway uninformed moderates who doesn’t know of all his crazy shit.
You’re probably right. He’s leading in the polls now, too. This is going to be a long election season.
kristinc | 25 August 2011 at 2:11 pm:
… can’t recommend it. Paleoanthropologists are generally tough and stringy, due to all that fieldwork.
Stuff other animals killed?
@ Gyeong
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleolithic_diet
That’s the wiki page for “paleo eating”.
I would hope all the shit the Republicans pulled in the last two years would sway people away from that party, but yeah. We need to just keep informing them that people like Perry are not good for us.
But they haz teh hawts becaust it.
Great, now I’m going to have to spend the next year telling my parents and grandparents how awful Perry and Bachmann are.
The wiki page for that Paleo Diet thing says that they don’t eat salt. First of all, their food must taste like crap because of that. Second of all, you need salt to live. I imagine that the people following this diet are mostly health conscious, which probably means they work out and drink a lot of water. If you sweat a lot, drink lots of water, and don’t eat enough salt, you will have problems.
I know what it is. I was merely making a joke by pointing out that there are theories where some paleolithic hominids scavaged the left-overs of ther predators (and used stone tools to cut thems).
Also their diets varried and some were even specialized, as theorized for Paranthropus (said to eat nuts and fruits). The paleolithic diet only make since if you’re relying on pop-cult interpreation of the Paleolithic.
OKAY FTB let me try that again with the words I spellchecked:
I know what it is. I was merely making a joke by pointing out that there are theories where some Paleolithic hominids scavenged the left-overs of other predators (and used stone tools to cut them).
Also their diets varied and some were even specialized, as theorized for Paranthropus (said to eat nuts and fruits). The paleolithic diet only make since if you’re relying on pop-cult interpretation of the Paleolithic.
“Plausible” = male
I was hoping that wasn’t the case and I was just being pessimistic.
Dammit.
Unresolved SIWOTI syndrome. Jason Rosenhouse closed the thread, and I had all this composed already.
OK, ignore this (targeted at one “Temi”):
God is a failed hypothesis.
Is there any evidence for an invisible person with magical superpowers?
No.
===
Natural selection.
Why would we call the world a creation of a God unless we are religious fanatics like you?
And obviously, if the world can and does change over time, we would not expect the world to be static.
Why was it “silly”? What made the conclusion dumb, besides the fact that creationists are dumb?
Of course it is. Because life is indeed made of multiple cells. Are you really so ignorant that you don’t even know that?
Do humans in close proximity adhere to one another, exuding proteins that act like glue? No? Then why would you assume that they would, moron?
“A land animal” didn’t. A species of land animal eventually had distant descendant species that did.
When an organism has traits that almost certainly did not arise from vertical genetic descent, and which has horizontal genetic components that are only to be found in very distantly related organisms, yet are functional in the organism under discussion.
Case in point: vertebrates that express green fluorescent protein.
When an organism exists in large quantities, but is utterly incapable of reproducing on its own.
Case in point: plants that are genetically modifed to have sterile seeds.
Of course, the only designers that can be inferred in these cases are human geneticists, since none of these organisms exist outside of the context of human geneticists experimenting on organisms.
You ask because you’re an ignorant moron, and you think that everyone is as ignorant and stupid as yourself.
Except that you seem to have a “worldview” that requires a “someone” to have made something for which you have no evidence of it having ever been made.
Except that you’re a liar, because you refuse to be led away from religious dogma.
You seem to have an aversion to anything that might lead away from religious dogma, just like so many other creationists.
Religious people never make sense about religion. And religious fanatics like you certainly make no sense about anything to do with science, so everything you have written is properly thrown out as being utter nonsense.
ID is not a scientific hypothesis.
Not caught up. Just dropping in to mention that Darren Naish has posted so little toothy goodness recently that I almost didn’t notice when he did, bigtime. I apologize for my dereliction of duty.
Sometimes you work with artists that are so talented it inspires you. Occasionally you work with artists that are so fucking great they make you just want to lay down the instrument because you will never add or approach anything as good.
David Marjanović is one of those people.
Between him, Owlmirro/CJO, and Sastra, we have people for almost every eventuality.
Dang, preview is my friend, Owlmirror in # 247.
*walks off muttering fifty “hail ramens” for penance*
Hello endless threaders!
I’m looking for advice on a school/religion issue, and I can’t think of a better group to ask than the commenters here at Pharyngula.
When my son came home from high school football practice today, he told me that a preacher addressed the group for half an hour or so at the beginning of practice. According to my son, the preacher asked the kids if they were living as god would want them to, and told them a bible story. He also told them he has been coming to practices at this school for the last three years, and that they could expect to see him every Thursday.
I’m very angry about this. I’m considering calling the head coach, but I don’t know where I stand as far as my rights go. Football practice happens after school, and my son plays voluntarily, so I’m not sure that I have much of a leg to stand on. Plus, I’m concerned that my son may be ostracized if it was his dad that complained, and father what’s his name is prevented from coming back (assuming the other kids find out it was me).
Does anyone have any advice on what my rights are, and how I might pursue this?
Thanks.
@ DavidH
I’m not sure if what they’re doing is technically against the law or policy. You could ask them to stop and see what happens, I guess. Good luck and keep fighting the good fight.
Public school?
Aaaagh.
We’re going over the Stable Matching Problem in Algorithms class, and the example is marriages. And, of course, we have the men doing the proposing (in order of preference), and the women “trading up”. Patriarchy much? (The single-group version is the Stable Roommate Problem, which smacks of homophobia, too.)
Nerd of Redhead, you know I wasn’t meaning to downplay anyone else, right? We haz the bestes and the brightests.
… the point I wanted to make, but failed, is that in the algorithm in question, the women automatically accept the first proposal they receive.
(Yeah, I know, it’s needed for the algorithm, but you can come up with a better example!)
Bester and brighter than me…
*goes back to training the Pulletette Patrol™ to take out eternal trolls on sight*
For the forseeable future, my treatment of vegetables is going to be some variant of roasting. Either at 400° in the oven (plus or minus), or on the hot side of the Weber. But, at least for a while, no boiling, no sautéing, no steaming.
***BURRRP***
(Ahhhh, that sautéed flounder was nice, too. I love my non-stick Calphalon pan. Butter is for flavor!)
*peeks in… notes Dhorvath’s helpful advice (thanks!)… notes lots of birthday-days…*
Happy birthday, birthday people!!
*runs off to do work again*
Benjamin, I prefer the algorithms that involve Cookie Monsters.
Read up on the Borden case, wherein the Coach wanted “his” kids to share “his” religion so they all could be unified as “a team” together with him their “leader”.
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1208256435883&slreturn=1&hbxlogin=1
Also lots and lots at the ACLU including here:
http://www.aclu-nj.org/legaldocket/bordenveastbrunswickhighsc.htm
I’d suggest as a first step sounding out some of the other parents to see if they know about and have bought into this, or perhaps talking to the school administration to see if they are aware this is going on and approve. Depending on what they all had to say, I might possibly call the ACLU.
The experience as I understand it of those who took Borden on and defeated him was that it totally ruined their children’s participation not just in the sport but in the rest of the school experience and in the community generally.
Personally, if it were my kid, I would inform the coach I didn’t realize being on the team was considered permission for him to convert my kid to his religion and I was withdrawing permission to play. Then I would tell my son that I wasn’t willing to adopt him out to the football coach to raise and wanted to continue being his parent myself and that he couldn’t be on the team. Then I would keep my mouth shut and ignore the school sponsored sport going ahead and inflicting religion on all the other kids unconstitutionally, because I am just not gutsy enough to risk having my kids become the target of a bunch of religious fanatics.
You have my sincere sympathy. It’s a really crappy position to be put in, and no matter what you do, your kid is going to be hurt at least a little bit, either by having to quit doing something he would otherwise enjoy or by remaining on the team and being considered not a real part of it because it’s a team just for Christian athletes. That’s the whole point of their doing this, to put you over a barrel in hopes you won’t want to be the bad guy and they can steal your kid.
If I wish to continue to watch my free out-of-the-air TV after August 31 (ie last week) I MUST BUY a “digital converter box”.
I am not happy.
Don’t tell me to get cable.
Kind of thinking I should have strapped the Hive down…
What does one call a long line of lagomorphs, shoulder-to-shoulder, walking backwards?
Rev, have you evacuated and can’t get back?
No, no evac. We’re going to basically get missed by the brunt of it. But the hive is 50 mins north and I have to work tomorrow. Winds supposed to pick up tomorrow but only to 35 mph maybe 40 mph.
So, did PZ just enable some sort of “email people when there is an update” feature, or did I accidentally click something?
I only ask because I just now had to Manipulate The Internet in hopes of Making It Stop, and as usual, suspected that I myself was to blame.
Ogvorbis, my only answer is “six ants walking abreast*”, but I already know that it is wrong.
*tecnically, “a breast”, but let’s not quibble.
okay so I have asked elsewhere but any extra avenue of advice is good:
*
Who knows how to get label glue off plastic prescription bottles cleanly?
*
I’m trying to recycle these things as sorting containers for my coin horde (20 lbs!) Actual advice and links welcome. Anybody?
I take most decal glue off with Isopropyl Alcohol. I haven’t met many glues used for labels that didn’t respond to that.
cannabinaceae:
What does one call a long line of lagomorphs, shoulder-to-shoulder, walking backwards?
A receding hare line, of course.
@cannabinaceae
I think you may have run afoul of the Notify me of followup comments via e-mail. check box below.
Sorry for the joke (er, well, almost joke). I figgered to lighten the mood a little. Irene is shaping up as scary.
WHA? Isn’t that a little extreme? I mean, DavidH hasn’t indicated that his kid is anything less than a perfectly nice and well-adjusted –
Oh. That Borden case.
*clears throat*
…Carry on.
Try rubbing alcohol, fingernail polish remover or a small bottle of this nifty stuff called Goo-Gone which is also superb at getting crayon off walls and cleaning up all kinds of other stuff. Have found it in both the painting section near the graffiti cleaners and in the household cleaning section.
I’m afraid Lizzie’s solution for her father ignoring her rights is a little extreme — although applied to the preacher it would definitely solve the problem!
Ogvorbis, Rev, from the projected tracks we in Multibore will either get 40mph winds with gusts of 70mph (Isabel, several years ago, was 70mph winds with higher gusts), or higher or lower.
I believe I will be sleeping on the basement couch this weekend, while W.U. is “living lard*” in southern Illinois.
*I just made that up: the heartland version of living large! Note: she will be taking her own ground coffee! There are some boundaries that One Does Not Cross!
sandiseattle, you may be right. My internet manipulations seem to have been successful.
Blow torch.
happy birthdays!
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Ah, roasted vegetables. Cut to even size if needed, drizzle with olive oil, grind on some black pepper and sea salt, roast at 400F until they start to caramelize…. Asparagus. Yams. Leeks. Tomatoes. Quartered small eggplants. Onions for those who likes ’em. Oh, potatoes: Big ones, quartered, or small new ones, left whole, tossed with quartered red onions; tuck some fresh rosemary in between the pieces. Oh, oh, oh.
Dinner tonight was a nice risotto made with leeks, with peas and bits of prosciutto stirred in at the end with the parmeggiano. With carrots on the side. And wine. And a crossword. (We did not eat the crossword.)
—
Can you tell I love food?
—
Last week we were talking about bats, and birds, and bees, and the lack thereof. I speculated on the effects of “lawn culture” (lawnoculture?) on our insect populations, and observed that when I had been in France in July, I had been astounded at the sheer numbers of house martins and swifts in the air everywhere we went, from downtown Paris to the smallest village. Today I was looking at photos from our trip, and was puzling over the dark specks and dashes that were in so many photos. Then I realized – they were martins and swifts – so many they showed up in the photos, even at a distance. Wow. The swifts were the “sound track” for our stay in Paris.
Any French natives here? The French people we met were charming and most helpful. We loved being in France. The only really nasty person we encountered on the trip was… an American. And the selfish person who stole Mr Q’s bicycle in Bayeux. GRRRRRR.
—
Oh! I finally saw two bats last night — the first I’ve seen since last summer. Little browns, I guess. When I was a kid they were as common as sparrows.
<When my son came home from high school football practice today, he told me that a preacher addressed the group for half an hour or so at the beginning of practice.
Humm, the usual captive audience thing that preachers so enjoy. This is dispicable. I am correct in assuming this is a public high school?
If so, the creepy preacher guy and his creepy football couch buddy are so far outside of correct behavior that getting in their faces is entirely appropriate. No need to make a scene, just speak to the coach privately and tell him to keep his free religion lessons to himself.
Speak directly to preacher guy as well. Tell him to shut up and go away, or a lawsuit is forthcoming.
Half an hour of preachin’, ugh, this maggot needs to be put in his place.
@starstuff91
Thanks, I’ll definitely do what I think is best for my son.
@Rev and @Kamaka
Yes, it’s a public school.
@crowepps
Thanks for the information, I really appreciate it.
On weather.com this evening:
Reasonable cautions and prudence, yes. But “unlike any other storm [we] have ever seen”?
Nothing like a little hyperbole to keep everyone on their toes.
One could simmer the leeks in a bit of wine before roasting them. But essentially, Quodlibet’s recipe* is my own. On this particular day I roasted thin little asparagus and some Yukon Golds. Several days ago it was Some Other Medium Starch Potato, onion steaks**, criminis, and red bell peppers. A couple days ago it was cauliflower.
I will take an extra paragraph to extoll the virtues of roasted cauliflower. Let me never boil or steam cauliflower ever again! Roast until there is a significant amount of brown. If there were gods, they would have invented humanity just so their enjoyment of roasted cauliflower could enrich the universe.
*so to speak, technically: technique
**Vidalia
Well, goodnight internet!
cannabinaceae
When you roast your cauliflower do you do the whole head or cut it into pieces?
cannabinaceae, I’m going to have to try roasting cauliflower as you describe. I love vegetables, but I admit that cauliflower is not near the top of my list. Perhaps I’ve had too much mushy, tasteless, boiled cauliflower. I love broccoli and cabbage and Brussels sprouts, so there’s a good chance I would also enjoy properly prepared cauliflower. Thanks for the inspiration!
I didn’t used to like Brussels sprouts until a friend served me a Magical Recipe. Cut up some BACON, saute it until crisp, set it aside. In the YUMMY BACON FAT, saute the Brussels sprouts, which have been washed and trimmed and cut in half if they are large. As soon as they begin to get a little tender, add just enough stock to cover them about halfway, cover, and braise gently JUST until they are cooked. Ten minutes or so. They should still be bright green. Fresh pepper, and salt if needed. Really delicious.
Roasted yams are yummy cut into bits, spread inside a flour tortilla with black beans*, caramelized onions, bits of tomato, and cheeses (cheddar, monterey jack) and cooked as a quesadilla. It’s scrumptious and easy to prepare quickly with leftover cooked yams.
* canned black or red beans, drained and rinsed, and heated through with some oil, a little stock, garlic, cumin, etc.
——–
What are people’s favored websites for good weather info, both national and local? I used to like weather.com well enough, but their site is so ad- and video-heavy that it’s slow and visually very unappealing.
I like cauliflower, but if it’s mushy something went wrong.
chigau, I am not quite in the Arms of Morpheus; thus: I cut the cauliflower into pieces. 1″ to 1.5″ florets, and any stem material cut to a similar size. It doesn’t have to be exact. Indeed, a variety of different sizes gives you some bites that are more, and some that are less, caramelized.
Toss with olive oil. Maybe grease up the pan in case your tossing doesn’t evenly coat (mine usually doesn’t, probably because I am impatient). Salt and pepper can do no harm unless used profligately.
400°, check at 20 minutes and every 10 minutes thereafter. I just use a cookie sheet.
Note: with the Very Sharp Knife, reducing a head of cauliflower to small pieces translates to basically touching the stems Here and There with the tip of the knife, applying a little bit of pressure if needed, in a sort of fractal spiral geometry.
However, I am now tempted to try roasting an intact head, simply because of the question.
The best thing about roasted cauliflower is that it is Not Mushy, even if “overcooked”. It would have to be actually burnt to be overcooked, and even then, I doubt it would be mushy.
Benjamin, thanks for the update on the Wachs case.
–
Now, let’s see if my ‘nym-change attempt was a success….
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Yessssss!!!
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OK, now goodnight, for reals.
cannabinaceae
Thanks. That is now my plan for the next cauli that comes my way.
Probably broccoli, too.
Re roasted cauliflower:
An interesting variation of the above roasting recipe. It’s a bit more work, but worth it IMHO.
Add a few garlic cloves for the last few minutes of roasting. Let the veggies cool a bit, then put in a food processor with butter and milk or cream. It’s a wonderful substitute for mashed potatoes.
“What are people’s favored websites for good weather info, both national and local?”
Here are the ones I’m familiar with:
http://www.accuweather.com/
http://www.intellicast.com/
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/
http://www.wunderground.com/
sandiseattle, I use alcohol (the un-fun, non-potable kind); I’ve also used some sort of Grease Relief-like cleaner for left-over adhesive that has set up for years, but I don’t remember the actual brand name.
eHow has instructions on this very subject.
–
Thanks all for the advice. I may use some of it.
@cicely: you remind me of a story from senior yr health. Two kids thinking they were being cleaver, bought two bottles of isopropyl alcohol and mixed it with OJ and drank it. They thot, why are the adults paying so much for this stuff, we got it for 99 cents a bottle! Well one died and the other went blind as the story goes. Now I don’t know if this is a real story (wouldn’t surprise me however if it was) or just a horror tale told by our teetotaler of a health teacher, but its what came to mind with the mention of “non-potable”.
Nite folks
Somebody has never heard of the Great Hurricane of 1938.
Roast beets (beetroots?) are delicious.
Reporters are notorious for “best/worst/first ever” even when the disproof is within living memory.
Speaking of bacon-avocado sandwiches, here’s a chicken and brie sandwich.
Sorry! I know there are still people around vintage 1938!
You could try
weather.gov— National Weather Service site. which I’m pretty sure all weather site use anyway.Or/(And), use Adblock plus.
So.
All those people evacuating from the path of the hurricane.
Where are they going?
Go west, life is peaceful there…. ~\o
Actually, I’d really assume westward, since it’s on the eastern edge.
Well, I came up with quince jam for the Q in GLBTQI, but the I has me stuck … eye fillet maybe?
@ [microbiologists]
I am very keen to try my hand at sourdough bread, but lack a starter. Is there a safe way to get the right culture going either spontaneously or by design? (Something like mixing in some live yogurt with regular yeast … or am I being naive?)
Surely I don’t have to get my hands on Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis? This would be a bit difficult in China as there is a large ocean between.
/foodie
Gooed morning
@sandi
If the labels are still on, make sure the whole thing is rather very warm, either by placing the bottles in the sun or by using a hairdryer. The glue often becomes “soft” in the heat and you can peel the labels off easily. Much better than attacking the glue afterwards.
I wouldn’t do that (at least not for a first step.)
It essentially punishes the kid for having been honest. It’s he who loses his football. Unless he’s the next *insert famous football-player here*, I doubt that the coach wil give much, especially not if the first approach is also the last one.
I’d try to talk to other parents (no idea how religious your area is), talk to the coach, and probably announce that my kid will come to practice half an hour later because he can do useful things in his time.
I can totally understand the anger and frustration, but we’Re doing it wrong if we punish our kids for the society they live in.
Hi, it would help to know what country you live in. This is an international audience…
I’d heartily endorse that suggestion, too!
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slignot, many thanks for your link at #77 to the blog and comments by the transman in the UK, Jamie. That more than made up for the horrifying story at #85, which is completely appalling.
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The latest entrant jumping on the “the Elevatorhate” bandwagon is a WP blog called (quelle surprise) elevatorgate. The author (going on twitter by the same entirely novel moniker of @elevatorgate, or “Critical Thinker”) has as a subtitle for his blog, “Rebecca Watson Must Be Sacked from SGU”. Apparently the latest SGU podcast has gotten right up his nose, and the hate is spewing out on Twitter, and distilled quantities of it being slathered on the blog.
On Twitter, the same subtitle for the account is “So long, SGU. The panels must break free from Groupthink and hold Rebecca Watson accountable for her disgusting behaviour”. Here’s a nice tweet attacking the 16-year-old Welsh skeptic Rhys Morgan (the tweet itself will probably jog your memory):
@rhysmorgan Your just some fucked up kid with Crohn’s disease who was smart enough not to drink bleach. Dawkins wrote the Selfish Gene
With the various bits of hating going on in the Twitterverse, I imagine it’s just a matter of time before he discovers the inhabitants of the slime pool.
Rorschach, you might want to check your trackbacks. ;-)
I’ve managed to commandeer Youngest Brothers laptop. This keyboard is impossibly small.
Mr. Walton comes to America!! Wonderful!
Welcome, Dear Walton. May you find yourself beset by fascination and consternation and then tell us all about it. You’ll teach us something of ourselves, I wager. Welcome.
I’ve only scanned the last weeks worth of TET so I am woefully behind with little hope of catching up. I can only wave and grin and trust that the Heart of the Horde beats strongly.
Last Saturday my family gathered in Kittery, Maine, to lay Helen’s ashes to rest. It was the most remarkable and the closest to a perfect funeral that I could have imagined. Let me tell you.
We arrived at the cemetery to find a shallow square hole between Ma’s mother and father. The spoil was covered with a green cloth and Ma’s brass urn sat on the ground beside the hole. A brightly colored silk scarf wrapped around the urn; Ma had slept with the scarf over her comforter. She just loved the colors.
There had been discussion beforehand about how to actually bury Ma. She had said that she wanted her ashes “to be slipped under the sod”. None in attendance (he says with poorly disguised pride)felt any need for platitudes or talk of worlds to come. Out of nowhere, it seems, Eldest Sister had a notion that proved to be not only perfectly suitable for our company but, I feel, much more widely applicable.
Sister suggested that we each, singly and alone, spend what time we needed with her at her final threshold. From oldest to youngest, each in turn, starting with me.
While the others kept distance and talked of Helen and all the stories that they knew, I walked down a short slope to her grave. Sister had taken the lid from the urn and place a lovely silver spoon beside it. I took two scoops! One went into the hole followed by some water from my eye. The second went into the air and drifted softly on a mild breeze. I said my last goodbye and after five minutes walked over to Eldest Brother and handed him the spoon.
There were about twenty of us. I’m sixty and little Laurel is ten. Each one enjoyed a final moment in private, free to weep or laugh or pray or just watch the clean white ash fall into the dark earth. Helen made a final splash against the rich New England soil that she loved so much and from which she had coaxed so much nourishment for us all as we grew up.
To add a final flourish, and one that I certainly appreciated, the cemetery caretaker arrived to fill the grave just as we lowered the urn, covered and wrapped in a silken rainbow again, into it. Joyce has been at her job for over twenty years and her skill with a spade had Ma all tucked away within moments. She lifted the square of sod she had previously removed and placed it on top. To high. She placed it aside, removed a half-spade of soil, then replaced it. She tromped it down and it fit just right. Joyce made short work of the leftover spoil, spreading it thinly in a close by flower bed.
And just like that, the ground was whole again and Ma was part of it. I cannot bear to even attempt to tell you how beautiful I found that to be except to say that it was just how Ma would have done it herself
Then we all repaired to Warren’s Lobster House for a splendid repast shared by many of Ma’s friends including some lovely ladies that she went to high school with. One dear heart had photos from graduation day. Ma was drop-dead gorgeous, let me tell ya!
And, guess what? I ate dinner sitting at the side of my high school science teacher and prime intellectual motivator, Elenor Milliken! After forty five years she remembered me. I barely remember eating my lobster stuffed haddock I was so elated.
In a week or so I’ll be heading south to North Carolina and new chapter in life. After these things (and much more goodness that has happened here now) I am much encouraged and I dare any puny hurricane to try and stop me!
More later but right now I’ve got to quit typing on this Lilliputian keyboard before I suffer acute editisis.
Now, each one of you. Call your Mothers tomorrow and tell her thank you. Really. And to each of you, fare well. It’s nice to know you.
Hi Philip, why, and check them for what ??
Crudely Wrott, even more than usual, that was lovely. Thank you so much for sharing it with us. I’m glad you were able to lay her to rest in such a fitting and beautiful way, and it’s good to see that you’re feeling heartened. Hope you’ll keep us updated on the new chapter in your life!
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I do not have to go to the party. I did, however, have to very suddenly pack up my things and go see the friend who was throwing the party. Planning so quickly put me on edge, the resultant screaming headache/sudden stomachache was discouraging, and before we left I curled up on the floor and wouldn’t move for a while. After an initial period during which my voice was too loud and sharp and I had hives and shook uncontrollably, I seem to have done okay. We were fairly quiet and there weren’t too many people, except for this brief surreal attempt at going to a bar for trivia night. (There were a few bad moments there, but in the end we had to leave anyhow because there were no chairs for us.) It was different – it felt different – and while this meant I didn’t feel very close to my friend, overall I think it’s a good sign. I didn’t fall back into a past persona. There were no flashbacks, and only a couple of the sinking-stomach moments I associate with starting to have them. The only real bad-memory intrusions came in the form of dreams, and those weren’t even as bad as they have been at other times. So in all a qualified but encouraging victory, I think.
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Also, my sweet little brother has broken his wrist. Apparently he was very brave. When I talked to him on the phone today, he was positively chipper – proud, in fact, of being the first one in the immediate family to actually break a bone. I love that kid.
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Infuriatingly, I’ve got some kind of a block in front of writing anything for my blog. Frustrated in my attempt to write that post I mentioned earlier, I was reading skeptifem’s blog and thought of this whole post about the aftermath of my mascot phase, but then I tried to write it, and it was like I’d never seen words before in my life. Gah.
—-
With that, off to bed.
@Classical Cipher —
Thanks for your kind remarks; you make my heart grow a little bit more. I can use it.
Say, how does that OM feel? It sure looks good on you.
Chigau:
Hi Chigau. :) Uh, they’re fine, as far as I know. I’m assuming incompetence has struck again, as I’ve heard nothing in regard to my cat scan or the so-called anemia situation. I’ll give them until the end of the month, then attempt to get answers.
The best reporting of that kind I have ever heard was when, after a storm, reporter ended interviews on people on the street with a comment from a little kid (5-6 year old) who in all seriousness confirmed that “It was the biggest storm I have seen in my whole life”. So cute.
Crudely Wrott, that was beautiful.
I don’t care if you’re going to see it or not, I don’t care if you already have one, but I’m going to nominate you for the OM of August.
Hello, Caine!
[quote]I’m assuming incompetence has struck again[/quote]
We must fight endlessly against the Peter Principle!
I would not like to ever be incompetent around you and I pity the poor fool who is. If a health care professional, more’s the pity.
I suspect you’ll heal in spite of them. You are like me, older, wiser, and way too tough and stringy to yield to mere bumblers.
*tangentially: last evening, prowling with my camera, I discovered where bumble bees sleep. gotta get a flicker page, eh?*
Hello. Got nothing to say, really, but I am having King Island aged porterhouse steak for dinner.
Crudely, that’s a beautiful sendoff but I won’t be taking your advice.
Commiserations, Cannabinaceae.
Happy birthday, Josh, b’Gosh!
Rorschach, the most recent pingback on this thread is another one intent on the hatin’.
Philip, oh thanks, I’m not really paying attention to these. With that particular pingback, it’s just a link to the silly Rose video, I had a look. Much ado about nothing.
Oh, Cath. I should have said that those who can, please call their mothers.
For those who cannot, memory and reflection must do. I am among the fortunate. Not all are. My apologies and here, please accept a virtual hug. Failing that, then courage to you. I have seen that you are courageous.
SQB, you are more than kind. You provide another example of the nature of this blog. We really do care about one another, don’t we?
For no other reason than that we want to, is my take. Unless there is something that compels us to care. Must be our humanity showing, or sumpin’.
*this keyboard was meant to be used by very small people with tiny fingers. oh, for my full sized keyboard*
My father is dead, but I could actually call my mother if I wanted. There’s just no point. We’re not close, and never will be since she is an incredible narcissist. We’re not fully estranged either, but that’s mainly because I got older and wiser and gave up on trying to change her. Or communicate with her, beyond saying uh-huh to her 837th repeat of some story about nothing. (Me, bitter?)
Memories of my mother are troublesome at best. OTOH, I’m looking forward to doing something with/for my Dad for Father’s Day (which is 4th September here). He’s just completed his first round of chemo – six treatments, spread out over twelve weeks, for what was found-too-late prostate cancer and has since metastatized into his bones. The prognosis is good – it looks as though it has stabilized for the time being :)
cannabinacea – so sorry about your pup :/
Classical Cypher – well done! And stress ye not about the writer’s block – it’s unsurprising with everything else you’ve been through. Give yourself a few days to settle at least.
Crudely Wrott – thankyou for sharing that tale. Beautiful, and beautifully told :)
Cath:
High five! :/
Damn. Ok, what do I need to put in the quotes after “cite” to make Mr. Gumby appear? I have installed no added whatsits (call me the control group) but I saw Gumby and comic sans appear in one of Guerry’s comments elsethread.
Dr Bunsen, umm, yeah. I got a very interesitn gbook from my counsellor a while back called “Children of the Self-Absorbed”. My partner went through some of it going check, check, yup, that’s you, check… (Don’t mention it on facebook though.) Either these clinical psychologists are hella smart or we’ve both got confirmation bias here.
Hoookay, back from shopping
Sister came for breakfast, which meant we could both vent and talk and do a bit of general planning on what (not) to do next.
Two sad and angry women.
@Crudely Wrott
That sounds beautiful. It’s annoying that funeral restrictions in Germany are stupid (or we would have scatterdad grandpa’s ashes in his own garden. It was his soil, he’d worked on it for decades, he loved it and it would have just felt right to give him back to that soil).
I’ve come to like the traditional meal after a funeral after I found it shocking as a kid.
Apart from religion, so much has changed in our mourning culture. People are no longer allowed to cry, shout, wail, cut off their hair and tear their clothes. They must be quiet or else they get drugged up. The traditional feast is a final ponit, that usually starts out with people being sad first and then remembering the good times.
I’ll see my mum today, but I’m really, really not in the mood to cuddle her and say “thank you mum”.
@CC
Did I already congratulate you?
That sounds, well, you say OK.
I really don’t know what to say, since your experiences are so intense and traumatic. Take care just seems shallow.
I’m allergic against the phrase “of all times”.
It’s the best detergent of all times, the largest exhibition of all times, the highest building of all times.
What, is the world going to end tomorrow? Did they burn the paintings afterwards? Will they stop doing research and engineering?
I mention toothy goodness, and Darren posts more! :-)
Spoiler: the “killer pigs” are actually more like killer hippos or land killer whales. And they were exceptionally good runners.
Of course, in a movie, especially those ‘touching’, made-for-TV movies, that would be what made her stop, think and realise what she’s doing, break down and cry.
In real life, well, I guess it’d confuse the hell out of her. Which would be at least funny.
Seriously though, good luck with the whole situation. I don’t really have any advice to offer.
DavidH, if there are any religious kids (sorry, prof Dawkins) or kids with religious parents on that team, of a sufficiently different denomination than that preacher, you may just have to alert those parents to the situation.
Strange bedfellows and stuff like that.
But that really works, for as long as the movie plays. It works in real life, too, for about a week. After that you get the “if you really loved me I wouldn’t be in this situation”.
It’s the same reason love movies stop when the couple is passionately kissing on the beach.
Because nobody wants to know that just as he manages to open her bra, they hear an elderly couple approaching. Or one of them complaining about having a wet bum because of the sand, or the trouble they had the next day to get the sand out of places it should never have been in the first place.
That’s why I prefer sci-fi and fantasy: At least nobody pretends that this is real.
Coooool.
Why am I suddenly thinking of Tolkien’s Wargs?
GLBTQI – guacamole, lettuce, bacon, tomato and quinoa on Italian bread?
1938 hurricane – PBS has a good hour-long documentary . I think you can watch the whole thing online here http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/image/hurricane-path/
Don’t want this to post twice – if so, sorry – I’ve refreshed a few times and everyone else’s new comments are showing up except mine :(
PBS link can’t be the problem, can it ?
Huh, that comment went through – because it has the link wrong. That link is to the map. But you can get to the online video player from there, on the lefthand side or the page where the button says “watch online”:
Or paste in /films/hurricane/player/ instead of /features/image/hurricane-path.
I don’t know why the video link is a problem (if it is the problem).
Well, the sky just got light. Damn. First all-nighter in a long while. And I wasn’t even trying.
Time to upend the last bottle of Smuttynose Shoals Pale Ale and dive into a cup of coffee. Thence to bed methinks.
Good morning, dear Horde.
Set: 1 min, 15.
Woke up kinda depressed again :\ Sorry if I’m not all happy joy today.
Katherine, *hugs*. :(
Also, I think it’s wise to cancel/postpone the Smithsonian trip to the Udvar-Hazy on Saturday, since weather conditions may be…adventurous. :) (I’ve driven through one hurricane, but I quite understand others being a little hesitant.)
Maybe we can try for the museum in September.
@onion girl:
Yea… sounds like that might be a good plan.
Goodnight Irene
Heh. So much for bed. Coffee good.
Four books bought yesterday and after reading a few pages of each I thought I’d just call them out to you.
1)How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu. Sample page:
That is the entire page.
2)Hitch 22. Nuff said. About time I gave it a read.
3)Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day, by Ben Loory. Loory says he took a course in writing horror He certainly paid attention. Sparse prose, tightly focused with a nebula of wistfulness. Small sample:
That last sentence catapulted me forward and backward in time.
4)When You Were a Tadpole and I Was a Fish, by Martin Gardner. I first met Martin through his book Relativity For the Million about a million years ago. After the third reading I began to understand. Martin and I have been good friends ever since.
I love book stores so much that I’ve had to impose a four book limit on myself. But, I tell myself, those four were bought yesterday and there is another book store in town, just down the street, within walking distance . . .
I think that the US gov’t. had some assistance programs for people who can’t afford to buy a box, but I don’t know if it’s still active or what the criteria were.
Never mind, I guess it’s not. There’s always ebay, I guess.
DavidH – I’m a passive-aggressive snot, so I’d probably go to the coach and say “Oh gosh, Coach, Junior told me about the pastor coming to the team meeting. Did you know that schools all over the US get sued for that kind of thing and they always lose? I couldn’t stand it if the school lost money, or if you got into any trouble over this. I think it might really be a bad idea to have him come directly to the practices, because it scares me to think of the school getting dragged through national press and a huge lawsuit over this!!!”
It helps to cultivate a wide-eyed innocent look while doing so.
http://www.wunderground.com
Crudely Wrott, you always write beautifully about your mother.
You are a wonderful example of forging life from grief.
Katherine, big hugs. :)
Crudely Wrott, thank you so much for sharing your beautiful laying-to-rest story. What a loving start to my day! I am going to ask my daughter to read that…
Quodlibet:
The Bacon and Sweet Corn Pasta was a hit. I made it with squash from the garden. It accompanied grilled chicken with salsa made from tomatos and onions from the garden.
I haven’t gardened in my entire adult life. This year, my wife and I decided to give it a try.
It’s fun eating food you grew yourself.
And the pasta? Wonderful. Thanks for the recipe.
Kat: hugs from both me and A.
Katherine:
:(
*hugs*
Mr Darkheart is going camping this weekend. The entire state of NY is under a state of emergency and there’s flood warnings for the eastern half of the state thanks to Irene. Sooooo… yeah.
@Katherine
Wait, does taht mean no sausages for me today? ;)
*hugs if you want them*
You’re also invited to my pity party, if you want to come.
I notice a massive blockquote-fail above.
Just magically insert [/blockquote] behind “walking distance”, please.
Caught up till comment 521 of the previous subthread. Gotta run. Sili, e-mail me about flights; I haven’t looked yet, but there really should be somewhat cheaper ones.
There are tunnels under Tripoli, alleged to total 30 km in length. They’re now looking for Gaddafi there. On the surface, almost all of Tripoli has been conquered.
I think the radio just said that ending hunger in Somalia would apparently cost as much as one day of war in Iraq.
Marginally hottest day of the year. 37 °C. Fortunately it’s not very damp. Sister 2 went out to eat something expensive with her filthy-rich friends right now, at high noon. *headdesk*
Awesome problem indeed. :-)
Awesome.
No, just ignore which direction the turn signal is in.
I’ve seen quail eggs. They’re tiny: half the size of the yolk of a chicken egg.
Belatedly seconded :-)
Oh, they weren’t just nasty. They were painfully obviously false.
You just have to cook them long enough.
I recently did that experiment with powdered mushroom soup that had chunks in it. It was successful. Just a matter of minutes.
Good point ^_^It’s, uh, a disease of the vocal cords. That’s logical.Subthread won.
Hard to avoid, don’t you think?
Apparently:
^_^
:-o
Have all the hugs you need. I’ll try to gather relevant information about Yellowstone. And I’ll bring a chocolate-containing specialty to Rhinebeck. And hugs.
I don’t randomly tickle people without warning either.
Thanks, Benjamin #219 and Giliell #221!
Friday dawns fair and fine in Boston. Just a little rain last night. Irene either lies in wait or has passed to the west.
I have had a quail egg exactly once: broken raw over the top of a piece of sushi roll. So if that’s a good visual gauge for you, that’s about the size of them.
Apparently one should only eat cheap meals on hot days.
Okay, that’s awesome. I got graded on my last report and received an overall 11 – where a 7.5 is an average score. That brightened my day a bit. Plus coffee, delicious coffee.
And thanks for the *hugs* everyone, I would return them in person if we were closer.
Katherine Lorraine (I LOVE THAT NAME), though you woke up feeling depressed, you had a great Set time! (I managed 1:37.) I hope your day gets better. I send home-made oatmeal bread, toasted, with butter.
—
opposablethumbs:
love it!
—
nigelTheBold, Porcupine Trainer, glad to hear about the success with the pasta salad! I loved it at my friend’s house – I am going to make it for the first time tonight, when my only sane* sibling and her good family come for an overnight stay. How far in advance of serving did you mix it up? Did you chill it or serve it at room temperature? I’m serving it with roast chicken and whatever vegetables look good at the farm stand today.
* atheist, progressive, kind to all, self-sufficient, totally badass. Unlike my other siblings, she doesn’t damn me to hell, doesn’t push tea party crap on me, doesn’t say ‘god’ in every sentence, doesn’t bash feminism, doesn’t spew hateful bigotry toward “perverts” (read: LGBT), non-Christians and people of color, doesn’t ask about my income or sex life, doesn’t offer to pray with me, doesn’t talk about end times, doesn’t see god’s hand in every earthquake, doesn’t question Obama’s citizenship or intelligence… blah blah blah
Most recent conversation I had with Crazy Sister #1:
Me: It’s a beautiful day!
Her: God made this day for you.
—
Bookstores are dangerous places.
Ava, Oporornis maledetta #349
You won’t be saying that on Sunday. You might want to check The Weather Channel or even download TWC desktop app.
You mushroomophobes needs to wake up and join the 21st century.
You’ve obviously never had my crispy pork belly, wild mushroom, and asparagus risotto.
@Quodlibet:
Ramen to that. I go into the store to look for a book and come out forty minutes later and eighty dollars poorer.
“What just happened?” Literature happened, baby.
Thank you for all the recommendations for weather info sites! I love weather. We were supposed to have a good thunderstorm last night, but it veered off to our north so all we got was a bit of rain. But in the long run, that’s probably a good thing, since we’ll probably get a lot of rain from the hurricane.
I’m already anticipating being without power and possibly no internet for a day or more … [breaks out in an anxious perspiration]
@Rev BDC:
That sounds delicious. Would it be okay to drop the pork belly? I feel guilty over huge sausage…
Want.
Yes, it linked to Rose St Clair’s vlog, but look at the rest of the rubbish there. (And PZ, please moderate this post.)
Quodlibet:
I served it vaguely warm. I cooked it up just before I put the chicken on the grill. I served the pasta + cream separately from the vegetables, as my niece (who is living with us) doesn’t do bacon. (Yes, there’s something wrong with her.) I cooked up two batches of vegetables, two-thirds in the bacon fat, and one-third in butter and olive oil.
I’m going to have it chilled for lunch, though. I tasted a forkful this morning, and it’s quite good cold.
I can’t even walk by a bookstore without being sucked into it and having money sucked out of my wallet.
Syrian Cartoonist Has Hands Broken
Kat:
:D
That’s why the Borders going out of business sale was so dangerous for me– it was all, “yay, everything’s 30% off!” and BAM! there goes a hundred bucks.
On the plus side, I now have enough spy novels to last me well into next year.
@ Quodlibet, sounds like a pretty staggering contrast between you and Sane Sibling, on the one hand, and Crazy Sister (I take it from the #1 that there are several others like her?). How did that happen!?! I guess that you and Sane Sibling are the escapees? (I’m one of the lucky ones whose family is practically All Atheist All the Time)
(glad you like the sandwich, btw. Thinking of those ingredients kind of makes me feel like eating one … :)
While it isn’t the kind of morning fare that most would prefer, it must be noted and logged:
. . . guess what?
In the name of the Lord.
Indeed.
Crudely Wrott:
Yes, but those are 250 isolated incidents. And all those priests were liberals. And voted for Democrats. And were all disciplinary problems from the moment they were frocked. And these are just 250 bad apples out of the literally hundreds who were actually investigated. So there is nothing to see here. Move along.
Fuck you, Gomer.
And I will never have it, not in this lifetime.
Why don’t you take your nasty fungi back to Mt. Pilot and shove ’em someplace Southern?
Hey kids: is the weather in Seattle really as bad as “they” say? “They” always say buffalo has terrible weather too, when really, its not half as bad as “they” think.
Is the same true for Seattle? Got a job offer I’m seriously considering, but it would require – as you just might have guessed – a move to the Pacific Northwest.
I’d prefer San Francisco, but I’m not a millionaire.
On bookstores/bookbuying:
My yearly trip to Cascadia always involves a trip to Powell’s. Last April, in the technical bookstore at least, I first went around and identified all the books I would have bought individually, and made a list on my Touch. Then I went through the list and deleted down to six books. At the register I forced myself to abandon one further book. The deleting decisions were made irrespective of price.
I got out at just under $200.
At the City of Books, I showed no such restraint, but five non-technical books came in at about a quarter of the price.
illuminata:
Every time I have been to Seattle it was hot and sunny.*
* Of course, the only times I’ve actually been to Seattle was going through the airport on my way to (or from) a forest fire. And if the Pacific Northwest is on fire, it is most likely hot and sunny everywhere up there or else the trees would not be bursting into flames.
Well my friends, hatred, bigotry, self righteousness, and cold ignorance strikes yet another blow.
My ex girlfriend called me last night, clearly upset. Why was she upset? Her ‘best friend’ since Grade 1 decided she ‘can’t be friends with her anymore.’ Apparently, my Ex Girlfriend is being very manipulative and demanding by expecting her to accept her for who she is. Apparently, it’s immature and childish for her to call this narrow-minded, naive little churchmouse ‘judgemental’, because of course good christians are SUPPOSED to look at this sinful world with an eye for judgement.
Gay people are so selfish and immature, expecting their friends to be OK with their sexual orientation. They should just accept that they’re messed up, broken freaks and be thankful we don’t still stone them to death in the streets. Oh why can’t they just understand this?
Sorry. I’m just so furious. Me, I can stand being judged. I’m used to it, I’m used to people I thought cared about me turning against me, I’m used to being betrayed. I’m ‘tough enough’ to handle it. I’m a survivor type, after all. “Coyote” and all that.
But my ex girlfriend… she’s sensitive. This kind of thing ACTUALLY hurts her. She’s the type to internalize this kind of crap…. and there’s absolutely nothing I can do about it except ‘be there’ for her. I wish I was better at providing comfort and being comforting… right now the best I can think of to say to her is “Good riddance, at least you know now what a horrible, disgusting, shrivelled little blackhearted soul she is…” But, and this is the kicker, I know if I said that my ex girlfriend would STILL STAND UP FOR THE LITTLE SHIT.
Someone sounds jealous
Crudely,
Ugh. I can’t say that I’m surprised, but still, ugh.
I glanced at the comments and there’s the usual “God loves you” crap– I couldn’t handle it. Thank goodness my phone will only load the first dozen or so.
Lol, good point. Poor trees!
There’s a lot I need to consider. Public transportation? Cost of living? Can I get my beer there?! Are there single men there?!
Its a big move, but I hate the damn city I’m in now so anything outside the bigot triangle is looking good right about now.
Crudely Wrott:
Qui venit in nomine Domini, …
Oh shit, now I’ve got the Lloyd Webber Requiem started as an earworm. It’s not even a good piece of liturgical music/canon fodder…
Only 250 such creeps in Boston? Hmm.
Yikes, Coyote, that really sucks. Amazing how shitty people can be in the name of goodness.
opposablethumbs @ #365:
[warning: rant]
I don’t know. I do wonder about it. The best answer I ever can come up with is that Sane Sister and I have more life experience outside our immediate families and communities. Only three of nine siblings (I am #8) attended college, and only two of those completed degrees; I am the only one who has a graduate degree and a “professional” career. Their choices were not influenced by money – we all had NOTHING from childhood – but by interest and inclination. And I would say that the average IQ in this group is somewhere above 120, so it’s not for lack of intelligence. Some stayed in the farming community, some had their own small businesses, some did not work at all outside the home. (Not to denigrate stay-at-home parents, but if you go straight from HS to domestic life, you miss out on seeing how others live.) None of them feels comfortable working for other people. Their religious beliefs vary from conservative to fundagelical, and for many of them, their religious practices are wholly integrated with their political beliefs. They are among the whackos we mock and despair of here at Pharyngula.
Perhaps my family is a microcosm of U.S. society (especially rural people) – increasingly conservative, angry, religious. They hate atheists (me, Mr Q, daughter), progressives (ditto), feminists (ditto), any one who is not straight/white/christan (many of our friends and colleagues). They would choke if they ever came to a dinner party at our house. It just so happens that our closest social circles is about 75% gay men – these are our closest friends and their families and friends — and we have some AWESOME PARTIES. I can just picture my family standing in the corner scowling. If my family rejects my friends simply because they are LGBT or other-than-white, then they reject me, too.
What was the name of that crazy bigot who ran for governor of NY a few years ago? My sister volunteered for that campaign.
These people think Palin and Bachmann, and the Tea Party, are good for the country. They believe what David Barton spews forth. They think Obama is a Muslim, etc etc etc.
Needless to say, all this has divided us – I no longer see any of them. My dad died this spring – at his memorial service we hardly had a word to say to each other. So be it.
OK, sorry about that rant. Do I sound bitter? Mostly just sad, and regretful that they have wasted their lives and their brains on limited thinking and hate. They can have their little narrow lives and wait for the hereafter – I just don’t care. Frankly, I think they’re a little jealous of my mental and social freedom.
I have to run some errands, which will give me a chance to think about this more, for my own interest if not to answer your question more cogently. And I’ll ask Sane Sister, when I see her tonight, what she thinks. (She’s four years older, might have a different perspective.)
It depends on your definition of “bad”. We have no hurricanes, tornadoes, or blizzards. In fact snowfall is minimal, and more than two weeks of subzero weather would be record-setting.
On the other hand, we’ve had less than a dozen days this summer that surpassed 80°F. And most of the year is overcast and either raining, misting, or threatening precipitation.
The result is that we stay green when all the rest of the U.S. is turning brown from heat and lack of water.
Here’s a good resource for the technical data.
The new normal in Seattle may be cooler and wetter than the prior average.
I lived there from 1981 to 2000. Summers were usually nice – warm and of course sometimes wet, with several stretches of days or even weeks of sunshine. Late fall through late spring was basically constant cloud cover except with occasional one or two day stretches of clearing. It often “rains” by being endlessly misty for days or weeks at a time.
However, the last few years summers have been short and cooler, and it has felt gloomier and wetter.
It may even be climate change: while the rest of the US is getting hotter and drier, Willamette/Puget is getting colder/wetter; thus, the new normal.
To me this was all worth it because of the accessibility of Puget Sound, the Cascades and the Olympic Peninsula. Easy drives to Vancouver and Portland don’t hurt either.
You should have no problem finding any of the three major recreational drugs, at exceptional quality.
illuminata: Here are a few more websites that might answer some of your questions
http://www.visitseattle.org/Home.aspx
http://http://www.seattle.gov/
http://raincityguide.com/2006/03/07/10-things-you-should-know-before-moving-to-seattle/
Seattle questions I didn’t answer:
Public transportation is reasonable. When W.U. and I visit, whichever one of us doesn’t have the rental at the time can get around easily, although fortunately our friends pitch in as well!
Single men: I know some 55+ year old single techie dudes who are quite odd.
Q:
Carl Paladino?
Some good news to share: Last weekend my dad lost control of his Mini Cooper S while on the race track and hit a guard rail at somewhere above 80 mph. He and his instructor are both fine (just some bumps and bruises) and he finally heard back from his insurance company today– not only are they covering his claim, but their offer is $2k more than what he was expecting (and it’s enough to pay off what he still owes on the car and put a down payment on a new Mini).
So, anyway, I’m just happy that everything has worked out in the end. :)
This is essentially the story with my family as well. Over time it means I talk to them less and less. Now, they say “where have ya been!” when we do see each other.
I think you’re right in that it’s really about a lack of life experience outside their immediate comfort zone coupled with fear of the unfamiliar.
Now that I’m old enough to have lived a little, its clear it’s both healthier and smarter to just avoid them. Holidays are the only time I do see them and I’m always there less than 3 hours.
++
Re: Seattle
I was kinda kidding about “bad” weather. Being from Buffalo, NY means I know what real bad weather is like.
It’s the lack of sun that gives me pause. I love bright, sunny weather. Then again, all the lush greenery is intensely appealing.
Like I mentioned, there are other concerns needing to be addressed, too. I’m just trying to get my arms around whether this is something I want to go for.
It’s not just the lack of sun, Illuminata… I find what bugs me more are the wet winters. Brief snowfalls rapidly turning to slush which in turn rapidly becomes mud. (British Columbian here).
myeck waters: In the name of goodness? Or in the name of pleasing their pathetic childish ‘god’? Fucking hell, I keep deleting sentences, I keep wanting to call this girl things that aren’t exactly appreciated in this crowd. I suppose instead of being angry I should be focusing on trying to comfort my ex, but the anger isn’t gonna go away. The things this girl said…. there’s no word foul enough for someone who’d dump their friend like that just as she’s starting to learn to love and be OK with herself.
#369 illuminata
Nope, although it helps that my idea of perfect is 60°F and cloudy.
#375
I hear traffic is bad, but there’s a lot of cycling if you find a place near your work.
Not sure about this, technically I live four hours south of there, but the whole PNW is usually seen as one spot to those outside it. (To those that live here, Portland definitely beats Seattle. Definitely.)
And then some.
I’m not in the market for these, but I can say with certainty that I see at least one every day.
I’ve got family in various other major cities around the country, and this is where I prefer living.
Illuminata,
As a PNW living person and a former Toronto, (that little Canadian city just to your north) inhabitant, I can tell you that we get more summer sun now than in the Great Lakes area. January was rough in either area, but at least I don’t spend so much time shoveling and scraping out here.
TLC,
Where in BC? I am on the Island in Victoria.
First bands of Irene are hitting us in Charleston now. Not too windy, but a lot of rain.
Hope the girls are ok.
Compare that to where I am now – where it starts snowing in October and doesn’t stop until April or May and mud sounds like heavenly bliss. Not too hot, not too cold – sounds almost just right to me!
I wonder how Portland, OR compare in terms of sun. . . . .. google powers, activate!
Dhorvath: I’m in chilliwack.
Crudely Wrott, Helen’s send-off sounds so much nicer, and more individually-appropriate, than the traditional, mass-produced funeral. Lovely.
*hug*
–
Classical Cipher, I’m glad to hear that you were able to meet up with your friend after all, in a less-stressful circumstance than you dreaded. *hug*
–
Katherine Lorraine: *hug* At least it’s Friday (except where/for whom it’s not). Tomorrow I plan to sleep out this persistent sleep-deprivation headache I’ve been dealing with all…frickin’…week…long. Makes me feel stupid, clumsy and slow. And coffee can only do so much. And I hate my sinuses. (Do those things serve any useful (I suppose I really mean, user-useful; advantage to makers of sinus remedies doesn’t count) purpose?)
:(
–
So beautiful, and so dangerous….
The Husband and I used to walk the mall five days a week. Two bookstores, two passes. If only they didn’t put carts of books out into the “sidewalk”.
The only thing that has saved me from bookstore going-out-of-business sales and the yearly library book sales is the fact that my knees can no longer handle ’em.
–
By nine pm the moonlight must appear..
Illuminata,
Your snow experience would make you a super hero anywhere I have lived since moving west. I swear our city shuts down for anything over an inch of snowfall.
Rev,
Sorry if this has been touched on already, but how bad is your area supposed to be hit? We’re bracing for flooding and some of the counties a little further down state are under tropical storm warnings.
What do you do for your bees in bad weather? I’m picturing the workers buzzing around in little yellow rainslickers, but I doubt that’s right. ;)
Actually, fire is very healthy for forests. Reproduction, fire management, and tree health are all positively affected by fire.
Some plants (big and small) need fire to reproduce. Redwood (Northern California) pine cones only open when exposed to the moderately high temperatures of a ground litter fire. For many years, the NPS persued (along with the rest of the federal government, as well as state governments) a zero-tolerance policy towards wildland fires. At Redwood National nad State Parks, natural resource specialists began to notice that, in 1970, the youngest trees were about 60 years old. In 1940, the youngest trees were about 30 years old. There were no young trees.
After a small forest fire (mostly in the litter, shrubs and grasses), the natural resource specialists saw hundreds of Redwood seedlings poking up through the ashes in the burned area. The federal government and the state government forest managers had discovered why there were no young trees — this was the first fire in that area in 60 years. Now, in the Redwood groves, small fires are lit whenever and wherever possible (based on weather, fuel loads, number of seedlings already in the area, how long since the last burn) with an eye towards a five to seven year fire cycle.
Other forests require frequent burns in order to prevent catastrophic wild fires. Fire suppression has completely changed the character of forests throughout the United States by encouraging the growth of underbrush and too many trees.
There are frequent historical accounts of European settlers driving wagons through the forests of Massachussetts, Pennsylvania and Virginia. The diarists refer to the open park-like atmosphere of the woods. In the 1840s through the 1870s, wagon trains heading for Oregon or California rarely had difficulty negotiating the open forested grasslands of the flatter areas of the coniferous forests of the American West. What changed?
In the East, Native American nations used fire to keep meadows open, as well as remove the younger trees and shrubs from wide swathes of the deciduous forests. This gave more room to the large, mature trees, especially the ones which provided food (oaks, chestnuts, maples, and others). It also meant more grass for that delicious ruminant, the Eastern Whitetail Deer (and provided longer sight-lines for bow hunting). Fire was also used to increase the yeild of fruiting bushes such as blueberry.
In the West, there is some evidence that Native American Nations also used fire to manage the game in the forests. Additionally, frequent burns meant a few really big trees with open grassy areas under and between the behemoths. The elimination of mid-level shrubbery through frequent grass fires not only provided fertilizer for the larger trees, it also kept the ladder fuels under control.
A grass fire in a forested area, though it may move quickly, will only have flame heights of 2 to 3 feet with an advance rate of 2-3 chains per hour (a chain is 66 feet) — not not enough to create its own weather and not high enough to jump to the big trees. With lots of underbrush and younger trees, flame heights hit 5 to 15 feet and advance rates can hit 10 cph. If the flames make the jump to the large trees (which is likely with the higher flame heights), advance rates can hit 20 to 30 cph and, in rare cases, advance rates can be measured in miles-per-hour — sometimes double digit mph. Removal of ladder fuels through frequent small burns means fewer larger trees, usually healthier trees, and less chance of catastrophic fire.
Wildland fire also keeps a forest healthy by providing a discontinuous growth pattern within a biome. Even the most catastrophic fire does not burn evenly. One area may have skeleton trees and sterilized soil while 100 yards away there may be and area wherein the small trees, grasses and shrubs burn but only the bottom branches of the large trees suffer any damage. Other areas are skipped. This mosaic burn pattern creates a forest with multiple maturity levels (each maturity level hosts a different vertebrate and invertebrate fauna) in a fairly small area.
Catastrophic fire, like clear-cutting, will also create an unhealthy forest. After an area is cleared, it is repopulated with first generation growth — usually fast-growing trees with a high tolerance for crowding. If this is not thinned (naturally through fire, or artificially through selective cutting), a forest grove referred to as dog-hair is created. I have seen dog-hair groves so thick with trees that I cannot walk in the forest (when a fire hits one of those areas, we just get everyone as far away as possible and watch the smoke column).
In wilderness areas, a natural fire progression is reestablishing itself with very positive effects on the health of the forest. In areas with an urban-forest interface, or in areas in which resource use or protection takes precedence, controlled burns help reduce the chance of massive conflagrations. Fire creates healthier forests which can be utilized recreationally or commercially, helps some plants to reproduce, and reduces the likelyhood of firestorms.
Sorry for the long comment. It really is an occupational hazard.
Dhorvath – a city that shuts down for an inch of snow sounds like home to me! Around here, if its not currently blizzarding, or more than 10 degress below zero, nothing closes down.
What about neighborhoods? If I’m looking for an apartment in Seattle, where should I be looking? Or, more importantly, where should I avoid?
Anyone know Portland well enough to answer that?
(Google is, so far, remarkably unhelpful)
Dhorvath,
We have city-wide panic the first time flakes of snow appear in the sky, and all the schools close. Then they decide that was silly, and the next time when the snow piles up and the roads ice over, many ditches fill with cars.
While I can’t watch it at work this episode (hopefully, blind link) expresses how – with a lot of money – I would probably shop for books :3
Audley, that’s exceptional. Of course, first of all surviving a crash at that speed (was it a new Mini or an original?).
But also, I assume he has some kind of special racing insurance since most companies I know of (in The Netherlands, YMMVW (W for Wildly)) have specific rules about that.
Please don’t apologize. I found that post fascinating – I know nothing about this sort of stuff. Growing up strictly suburban does that too you.
Are you looking at Portland as well? It’s kind of far to commute if the job is in Seattle.
@Ogvorbis:
Thanks for that post. Fascinating stuff.
Yes, but not too commute. What’s happening is – a friend of mine is moving to the PNW to open his own firm and wants me (and a few other friends) to go. Seattle and Portland (and San Francisco) are the cities he’s exploring. He hasn’t made a decision yet, so I’m trying to do some on my own to decide if I’d want to go and where.
Mmm…. hidden cashews*. Omnom.
*I hid a tin of cashews behind my monitor so no one will steal them :3
Rev,
Sorry if this has been touched on already, but how bad is your area supposed to be hit? We’re bracing for flooding and some of the counties a little further down state are under tropical storm warnings.
Not bad. TS strength winds, maybe. 35-40 mph. Lots of rain. Right now not getting much of either.
Well they’ll stay in the hive the whole time once it starts getting too windy and / or rainy. I had thoughts of strapping the hive down the stand, but If I was going to do that I should have taken care of it already. I’ve got a few large rocks on the top cover and the hive isn’t light weight, especially with the wax and honey stores, and I’m fairly confident it will weather 40 mph gusts.
At least I’m telling myself I’m confident.
Irene blew my blockquote right off that first paragraph
Woke up around 4:30 this morning, couldn’t get back to sleep for more than an hour, checked in here briefly. I read a fantastic profile on OKCUpid last night, fantastic, that is, until the part where she mentioned she was in a monogamous relationship. I think I took that kinda hard.
So hugs to Crudely Wrott. I flipped through your funeral post in an emotionally dead haze, but it sounded lovely. All the funerals I’ve been to have been the standard Catholic affair, lately more mass than funeral. Glad you could return your mother to the Earth in such a nice way.
Also, commiserations to Coyote (he doesn’t strike me as a hug person, and I can’t say I’m big on them either). Just be there for her.
And applause to Chas for bravely standing up against edible fungi.
50 to 70% off this weekennnnnd! I did my first Border’s haul on a trip to STL for business, my second smaller one when I was in Boise (and they had the book I was really looking for, Mannahatta, joy-dance!), my next one is this weekend when I hit the bike trail in St. Charles. If they get down to 90%, then I might just have to put a boot on my car.
I pretty much always have my darkest thoughts in the morning. Good thing I’m not a coffee addict, I fear that would just make it worse.
What exactly does “marginally hottest” mean? We got 42° earlier this summer. The humidity was 30% earlier, which I considered merciful. Later, when Dad was driving me to the airport in Boise, he was complaining that the humidity was 30% and he could feel it. Har har, said I. There was something oddly comforting about getting back to St. Louis and feeling the summer air around me like a blanket again.
I was in Alabama recently, and I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how they could stand their butter-heavy Southern cuisine in August. Of course, I spent much of that weekend in a mostly un-air-conditioned trailer.
Would it be considered bragging to mention that my older brother used to work there?
(I can reveal that now that he no longer works there and is motoring his way to Boston as we speak. One of my younger brother’s co-workers heard about it and apparently found him at work and said hi. It was…awkward.)
I think all these new students are putting a strain on the whole internet here. I can’t connect to the wireless on campus and my home network is slower than molasses even at 10:30 in the morning. Bah.
Well, there’s also the target market to consider depending on what it is the firm will be doing.
I would point out that we (Portland) have Powell’s.
Portland is divided west/east by the Willamette River. I’ve grown up on the west side, and would qualify as suburban-raised as well. Public transit is pretty good, and it’s supported/subsidized by a payroll tax.
There’s a lot of development around the edges of the suburbs, you could probably find a good office space and housing nearby cheap if you don’t mind being further from downtown. Eg. I live near here, all the stuff to the south and west is new (within the last 10 years).
Hm, looks like the mark moved a bit.
SQB:
New. It was an ’07.
I saw the car after it had been towed to the body shop– the front end is basically gone. Turns out that the impact was so hard that the engine was pushed into the firewall and cracked in half.
Two people walked away from that crash with superficial injuries. Modern car safety standards FTW!
In this case, no. What he has been doing is considered “driver training” and was covered by his existing policy (there was some confusion on the part of the claims adjuster, who initially thought he was racing). If he did not have an instructor with him, he would have needed an expanded policy (which I don’t think his insurance company offers) for the claim to be accepted. As far as I know, legally you don’t actually need any extra insurance for the track because it’s private property.
Sorry.
Therrin – thx!! that gives me more to zero in on.
With a lot of money, I would shop for books with a U-Haul truck. :)
–
Brother Ogvorbis
re forest fires
I said something similar to some folks in the Forestry Industry™ once.
The thought of burning marketable timber made them go pale and weak.
Then there is Mountain Pine Beetle.
Just think how much safer the car would be if the Republican/Teabaggers/Randian Libertarians had their way. The free market would create a car which, sans government safety regulations, would be the safest car ever built, right?
“SUCCESS is found in the HEARTS and MINDS of CHAMPIONS.”
That was one of pieces of corporate wisdom cycling through one of the many telescreens at my workplace today.
Could anybody explain what they intended me to learn from that statement?
Obviously, they’ve never been through forestry school. Or if they have, then it was a shitty forestry school.
Quodlibet, it really makes me think that you and Sane Sibling must have some pretty amazing qualities. It’s always been so normal for me to pretty much ignore religion, even after reading around here on Pharyngula quite a lot lately I have a hard time getting my head round what it must be like to have this all around you let alone driving a schism right through your family. To have come out sane (and really cool too, it sounds like) shows real strength of character.
I have to admit, it also sounds as if you’re a hell of a lot better off with the family and friends you have built up around you than with the family you happened to find yourself in at birth.
Oggie,
Oh, of course! If by safe you mean “death trap”.
Find champion.
Eat them.
Become successful.
Why, that you’re a CHAMPION of course! And The Company values CHAMPIONS, much like a race track manager values his fastest horses!
At least that’s the meaning I took from it.
@Mr Fire:
I’ll go with what Therrin said.
Find a Champion, kill them, cook their hearts and their brains, make a good meal, and become successful.
Of course that in turn will make you a Champion, so you’ll have to be on the lookout for those who’ll do the same.
Of course that in turn will make you a Champion,
Or possibly a victim of kuru. Whichever.
I have personally (well, in my dreams, ’cause the champions I have known are assholes) killed (well, in my dreams, ’cause the champions I have known are assholes), dismembered (well, in my dreams, ’cause the champions I have known are assholes), and disected (well, in my dreams, ’cause the champions I have known are assholes) more than one champion (well, in my dreams, ’cause the champions I have known are assholes) and have not found ‘success’ either in their hearts or minds (well, in my dreams, ’cause the champions I have known are assholes).
Hah!
So basically my workplace is this!
Memory of Seattle, 1970:
I emerged from a side street onto a wide avenue and turned right. The sidewalks were crowded with people all looking at me and smiling. I was taken aback (I had taken a recreational substance an hour earlier)that I was the recipient of such good will and kindness.
After a moment I began to suspect that the people’s attention wasn’t directed at me but rather something behind me.
I turned to follow their gazes and beheld five elephants trundling up the street behind me. The circus had come to town!
It was a bit of a let-down to say the least but for a moment I was feeling the warmth and love of all mankind wrapping around me. Then, for a shorter moment it was like I was leading the parade.
In the end I know that no one really saw me at all. Still, that initial feeling will always stay with me.
Oh, it was in August and the day was bright and clear.
I’d go back in a heartbeat. Nice town.
Find a Champion, kill them, cook their hearts and their brains, make a good meal, and become successful.
I don’t know…what if success is heat labile? Maybe you’re supposed to eat their hearts and brains raw and bloody. After cutting them out with obsidian knives. Much more traditional that way.
Apparently, if you dissect a CHAMPION you will find that hir SUCCESS is to be found in the HEART. Assuming a bit of anatomical confusion on the part of the author (dropping educational standards have been covered so many times, and the mind/brain equation is almost laughably common), you’ll find a secondary SUCCESS deposit lodged in the brain.
Let the Harvesting begin! Get out there and grab some SUCCESS with both hands! FOR GRATE PROFFIT!!!
–
@Dianne:
Oh gross! Who would want raw, bloody success?
Skimming the thread as I try to get out of programmer mode.
Re: weather on the left coast.
I was in Portland in late April, and it was mostly sunny but still coldish/wetish (from a SoCal perspective). Not horribly, mind you. I was much more put out about how small the main part of town was, but again, SoCal (and particularly Los Angeles) perspective.
However, even down here in LA-LA land, it’s been abnormally cooler and wetter the past 18 months or so. This is apparently the expected result of climate change: as everywhere else warms up, we get more of the currents and moisture coming down from the northwest. The irony being that while everywhere else in the country gets to be worse to live in, the west coast is getting more ideal.
But then, we get the 100-degress-for-5-days heatwave. But that seems to really only be in September and January nowadays.
Kinda puts the Olympic Games into a new and different light.
–
@cicely:
Well, the modern day Olympics are actually a much tamer representation of the ancient Greek Olympics. Those were actually that brutal. The Champions from the previous years would come back and try to survive, maintaining their success – if a new, younger person came to the games, it was only certain they would lose to them and then be eaten.
Inevitably, the old Champions would lose as they got too old to participate.
And obviously the frantic competition between cities and countries to host the Olympics is really a means of determining who gets the monopoly on that cycle’s SUCCESS harvest.
Four years must be the minimum time required for a potential CHAMPION to accumulate a profitable amount of SUCCESS.
At least it’s sustainable.
–
Hail and well met, Threadizens.
I’m back from an expedition in the White Cloud Peaks and in the Pioneer Mountains of Idaho. (More on that later.)
For now, let’s indulges in a round of Moments of Mormon Madness.
To start us off, advice to aging men on how to live longer, remain sprightly, etc.
And for an up-to-date Moment of Mormon Madness, we see yet again that official LDS Church policy regarding reporting sexual abuse is at odds with unofficial, yet widely prevailing, policy with mormon communities. Another in a long line of Mormon Bishops counseled an abused female, and the counsel was NOT to report the incident to the police.
Church officials always trot out the “zero tolerance” boilerplate statement, and yet they are never “proactive” enough to convince their own Bishops to report abuse. There are many cases of abuse that do not get reported to police because Bishops counsel the abuser within church confines, and they encourage the victim to go along with the sweep-it-under-the-rug tactic.
Occasionally, entire priesthood quorums are caught conspiring to hide sexual abuse of children (as happened recently in an Idaho Ward of the LDS Church). Those priesthood asshats were caught quite by accident. They almost got away with hiding the abuse and the abuser.
David H,
No, no, and Hell NO. That’s sickening. I like the recommendation that your child go half an hour later when the salesperson visits.
___
Crudely,
Sounds lovely. My mom sits on the mantle, my dad hasn’t really decided what to do with her so she just hangs out for now. It’s nice to able to approach these things from the family rather than having some blanket observance draped by culture on your grief.
Take care.
___
CC,
So glad that your meeting with your leaving friend resulted in a victory. Take heart in your success.
___
Katherine,
Happy is something to be enjoyed, not commanded. Hope it makes an appearance for you nonetheless.
___
Quodlibet,
My reply to sister: “And you just ruined it.”
People who feel the need to spread religion over everything like that are a blight on human discourse.
___
Rev,
I will thank you to save the risotto too.
___
The Lone Coyote,
Rage, rage hard, rage long. People like that don’t deserve understanding.
As for your ex, you do good there just by accepting her as she wants and not trying to impose yourself and your thoughts on her. I could wish that everyone had a friend like you.
___
Brother Og,
I had that argument with an environmental studies student in university and she wouldn’t listen to any of those points. It was all, forest fires are bad and you should listen to me because I am in environmental studies. Your breakdown is saved in case I find myself in need again in the future. It is a bravo, maybe two.
___
illuminata,
Portland is the number one cycling city in the US. I don’t know if that matters, it would to me.
___
Rev,
Typos works in mysterious ways.
___
Rey Fox,
First thing to check on any dating site is relationship status, second thing is what they are seeking. It’s kind of reflex now.
A Fresh Air podcast about evangelicals engaged in spiritual warfare really covers the subject of the “Apostolic Reformation” and “dominionism.” The strong connections of this movement to presidential candidate Rick Perry are fleshed out.
Excerpt from the summary:
Some people call it success tartare, and pay a lot of money for it.
The trouble is that the second thing is omitted in Quickmatch, which rather annoys me because that’s a pretty vital component in how highly I’ll consider someone.
Glad to hear it. Us residents call that a feature. =)
Crudely Wrott, that was beautiful about your Mother. We scattered my Dad’s ashes under the same tree he had buried his favorite dog.
Rey Fox,
Oh, that’s not really very helpful then is it? Can you change your quickmatch filters to only show people who meet your needs? All of the sites I use allow that level of control, but they aren’t quite a perfect analog for OKCupid.
Illuminata – I was once a Buffalonian. I think that is why I am allergic to snow.
Katherine Lorraine – Congrats on the good work! I am currently in stress mode, which means I am not eating and my clothes are falling off. I really need to relax.
This month has been not so great. I feel like I haven’t even had that much time to keep up on TET. The hubby has been on the road 5-6 days every week, and between my job and the kidlets, I am kind of near the end of my rope. I don’t think I’ve slept more than 4 hours a night, and my nutrition stinks (I did have a bowl of rice and beans for lunch today, at least). I am hoping for a reprieve, as the hubby gets back into town late tonight and is actually home for a little more than a week before travel starts again.
I thought Quickmatch did a kind of high percentage thing? Like, “this person’s 85% of what you want.” I remember that a lot – often getting young men and women who were Christian or older women and men who were already in committed relationships.
Of course I dunno how OKCupid would handle me now since I’m transgendered and I didn’t see an option for that last I was there (over a year ago since I started dating Beau!)
Rey Fox
Not forestry school, Forestry Industry™.
They talk nice about sustainability but what they want is to cut everything.
Keep the fibre flowing!
Dhorvath:
Thank you. This girl is the picture of privilege. A little sheltered churchie who knows nothing of the wider world around her, casting judgement on people she doesn’t even begin to attempt to understand.
The way my ex told it, she just came out of nowhere with that crap when they last hung out. I can only imagine what a slap in the face it was.
Before I educated myself about privilege, I would have thought society was beyond crap like that. I can’t say I’m surprised now, but I’m not happy about it either.
Psych-Oh,
I hope you can garner some you time after that hectic month. We must take care of ourselves sometimes too.
___
Katherine,
A year? That’s delightful.
Different sites run differently. Our most used site has Cupid settings where you can filter out people who are grossly not compatible. It surprises me that a site like OKCupid, which is far more mainstream in scope wouldn’t have similar functionality.
@Dhorvath:
This Monday was our 1st anniversary. We were too tired on Sunday to do much, and on Monday I had work, so it wasn’t spent doing much special.
You are aware of it. Life doesn’t require big deals in order to celebrate, in fact, if you feel it necessary I think it’s a little unhealthy. I was just pleased to hear that things have gone well for a notable period.
TLC, hopefully your ex can figure out she’s better without assholes in her life, but I can understand the feelings of betrayal.
I’m exhausted today because after I finally managed to get to sleep, my cell started ringing around midnight. This mystery caller (identified as not a phone number/unavailable but as “9”) dialed every five minutes. I switched on airplane mode after the fourth call, but the damage was done and I struggled to sleep for the rest of the night.
No, she didn’t. She did not report the abuse to a responsible adult. She reported it to a member of the clergy. When your livelihood, your income, your success, depend upon teaching children and adults to accept the unacceptable, believe the unbelievable, to live by faith and not reality, and to lie, lie, lie, lie, you are not, by any definition of which I am aware, a responsible adult. You are a predator, a scammer and a con artist.
CW:
Hi CW! I’m healing up fine, however, if I do have pancreatic cancer, I’d like to have a fighting chance, so the little things, like knowing if I have it or not, they matter.
Cath:
I empathize. Most of the regulars here know about Alice (my mother) and my pointed lack of contact with her. Nothing in the universe could possibly cause me to find out where she is these days and get in touch with her. Nothing. The damage she did was tremendous and will never completely go away. I have no love for her and I am certainly not kindly disposed towards her in any way.
For those who have wonderful moms, that’s great and keeping in close touch is a good thing. There are, however, people who should never, ever have bred in the first place.
Why would she put herself on a dating site if she’s in a monogamous relationship (and willing to state such)????????
Did she get confused and think it was facebook?
Not everyone on dating sites are there looking for new hookups.
Some use them much like FB, just somewhere to hang out.
Caine,
Hugs
That’s understandable.
Well, I’ve gotten Chas & Alfie’s salad mix made up for the week, the dogs & cats fed, now I have to work*, I’m waaaaay behind. I’ll have to catch up later.
*See here, here and here. Click to enlarge. Standard disclaimer: my art work, my photos. Do not use.
Wow Caine. How long does something like that take? It seems very impressive.
Dhorvath:
Thanks. :) I’m giving myself 1 year, which is rapidly sliding away. It has to be finished by May, at the extreme latest. The beginning of April would be much better, in terms of getting it entered in a June show with no hassle.
I not only have to get the stitching done, but the background (a mix of silks and ink) and the framing (which I don’t know can be done the way I want yet, it involves rawhide strips). Yeesh, gotta work.
Hello endless thread, I normally don’t post here, but something needs to be brought up.
A musician and pedal-engineer named Devi Ever kind of got screwed over by Billy Corgan, and was annoyed about it. Then Billy Corgan buddied up with a Mormon fan who is an anti-marriage equality asshole (“but it’s not because I hate gays!”) and she made this comment on a Smashing Pumpkins fan-site that few read: (http://bit.ly/oGZTs4)
“I mean… I know I’ve thrown up my hands in frustration in the past… but having a guy whose religions’ ENEMY #1 is queer folk be the basis of his connection to his fans + Billy deciding that it’s worth it to remix a song like Starla… no… fuck it. I don’t want to know anymore about new pumpkins bull shit. Not even Oceania. He’s treading on sacred ground by remixing old material… and he’s just shitting all over any ideal of morals I thought Billy might even REMOTELY have in regards to human rights and the like by supporting a devout follower of LDS.
Then again I didn’t have a lot of hope in the long run for a guy whose main passion outside of music is Women’s Wrestling, dates shitty pop stars and reality whores, then goes on and on about conspiracy theories, more often than not quoting shit sources from tabloid magazines.
Yeah, and I’m pretty pissed he obviously didn’t even give any of my pedals a proper once over before dismissing them as whatever…..”
Reasonable stuff, but here’s how Corgan reacted to the claims of unfairness to a small business owner and of coziness with anti-LGBT activists (http://www.celebritytweet.com/billy/):
“Devi Ever is a fucking asshole. His/her pedals suck. He/she sucks. Never associate my name and his/hers ever again. Pig. Ugly pig.
Asking someone to build you a pedal in emulation of another pedal you like, and them sending you a piece a shit back is not creativity.
And in fact he/she STOLE his/her pedal idea from another Portalnd pedal maker, which is far superior. Ugliness masking as blind ambition”
This to a trans woman to 100K+ followers.
And it got even worse from there, details linked to below. The thing is, this is being largely ignored. An optimist might think that we’ve stopped giving a shit about what celebrities say, but that doesn’t hold up. Imagine if he had called a gay man a “faggot” or made anything close to racist remarks. This would be all over Gawker, he’d be a trending topic on Twitter. Trans people aren’t there yet, and the vast “meh” in response to Corgan’s hateful language is sending a message that we just don’t care about people like Devi Ever.
So, if you have a blog, twitter account, anything public, please help shame Billy Corgan into the uncomfortable hole he belongs in.
AV Club post:
http://avc.lu/pNU8ME
Bloody Disgusting:
http://bit.ly/pI5HjW
My Blog:
http://bit.ly/r0n34o
Sorry about the lack of HTML, but every time I try to mark up an FTB post, it comes out wrong.
After 2 hours in line at Lowes, I have a 5500 watt generator. Then I stocked up on 6 pounds of gummibears (and some real food, fwiw). Tomorrow morning we decamp for our neighbors’, to spend 24 hours in their basement trying to avoid getting whomped by large trees.
To everyone who is going to be hit by Irene, good luck!
I just caught the news that parts of New York are going to be evacuated. Where are all those people going to go?
Came home early to do this month’s computer safety training on a real computer instead of an antiquated PoS. Same shit from the previous few years. HazCom is required yearly training, but boring now. The grog helps.
Mattir (and all others getting Irened):
Best of luck to you and yours. I think I’m far enough inland that, other than being prepared for a basement full of water and possibly no power for quite a while, I think we’ll be okay.
Girl starts school on Monday (Wilkes University — majoring in History and Psychology, with a secondary education certification (and possibly a special education certification added in)). Her school sits on a floodplain. Which is protected by a dike. But if we get as much water as 1972 (Agnes), it would top the dike. Which could get very interesting.
Boy starts school on Tuesday. His school is in a steep valley on the edge of Bloomsburg. Of course, his commute is either via I-81 and I-80 (both being rebuilt) or US11 which is a beautiful drive down the Susquehanna River floodplain.
Wife starts working her streetcorner on Wednesday. Hopefully.
Nothing compared to those in the direct path, of course.
Anyway. Good luck. Enjoy the gummibears. Not a bad idea for energy.
Caught up with the previous subthread. That means I’m still 2 days behind – and tomorrow morning we’re off to Ravenna to do 2 days of Internet-less tourism. And then I’ll have flights to book and a manuscript to review, among other things. :-/ I’ll look in on Sunday evening, but I won’t be able to catch up then, I bet!
Sister 1 is determined to marry* an Andorian and have a light blue baby. ^_^
* Her word.
:-) :-) :-) :-) :-)
*hug* You do get a few Pharyngulites. Just a bit later.
I must say it’s not bad at all. It’s almost 7 screens :-)
I knew Billy Corgan was a bit of a blow hard, but wow, that’s just shitty and unnecessary.
SQB,
That is an excellent question. Upstate is going to avoid the worst of the nastiness, but we’re all under flood/wind advisories, with the expectation for widespread power outages.
That being said, if any NYC Pharyngulite needs a place to evac to, I’ve got a couch they can crash on.
And ps: Billy Corrigan is also a climate change denier, FWIW.
That manuscript is about organisms which lie quite far from the ones I’ve worked on yet. Flattering to learn what kinds of people read my papers :-)
(The methods used in the manuscript are well within my field of experience.)
Oh, and, there’s a mind-blowing postdoc position out there. More work for Monday morning…
See you Sunday evening, then.
‘Tis, #355:
“You won’t be saying that on Sunday. ”
You got that right. I checked the Weather Channel and the Boston Globe graphic. Sunday sounds like the pits, though the worst of it is charted to pass thru central MA. We’ll probably get high winds here.
Marginally hotter than the rest of the last two weeks. It’s been 35 ° all the time. First thing I do when I come home? I take my shorts off, change my T-shirt, and sit in front of the computer in “minidress” and underpants, first part optional. When it finally gets cooler outdoors than indoors (well after sunset), I open all windows and turn the light off, so the computer screen is the only light source.
1) Are the mushrooms well done?
2) Why mix mushrooms with rice!?! All textures mushrooms can have don’t go well with the texture of rice.
3) Asparagus isn’t a feature. It’s a bug. Why ruin perfectly nice rice + pork by such an addition? You didn’t need to add anything, it was good as it is!
My $.02 about Seattle:
in Summer, the weather is actually nice (except this year apparently, but maybe it’s not a trend); it’s the winters that are bad, in the sense that susceptible people are almost guaranteed to suffer from SAD due to lack of sunlight. The first year I was there, It rained for a month without interruption, and for three months if you ignore the odd dry day in winter.
public transportation is good within the city (when I lived there, the underground bus routes were closed so the buses regularly got stuck in traffic; I think they fixed that now), and IIRC you can ride the bus for free in downtown Seattle. It’s tolerable to the suburbs, but too much of that is commuter traffic; it goes to the city in the morning, and to the suburbs in the afternoon, with virtually no service otherwise (and on that note, do any Seattleites know if they’ve finally finished building that lightrail route to Burien?). Be aware that the entire city shuts down during ice-and-snow episodes.
Anyway, living costs are difficult to compare; it was too expensive for me, which is why I now live in North Dakota, but as liberal cities go, I think it’s comparatively affordable.
The beer is good, if you can find someone to show you the good varieties, or if you want to spend some time on trial-and-error.
The food is very good.
I used to share your distaste for asparagus. Then I moved. It’s amazing the regional variations in some vegetables.
illuminata, there’s a lot of variation as far as transportation goes. As a point of reference, we live on the Kitsap Peninsula, which is across Puget Sound from the city of Seattle. Downtown is a 30 – 60 minute ferry ride away (depending on the port). On this side, there is a bus service and an airport shuttle, but most people drive or bike. As neighborhoods go, the Peninsula is about 30 – 40 years behind Seattle. Seriously. When we were looking at houses a couple of years ago, we were seeing a lot of Hunter gold, avocado green and dark wood trim.
As far as the housing market goes here, the Seattle area was pretty well cushioned when the bubble burst. With Boeing, the U.S. Navy, Microsoft, etc., AND being a major port, housing costs just didn’t drop off as much as you’d expect. We had quite a bit of sticker shock when we first started looking.
Living in the suburbs of either Portland, Vancouver or Seattle is pretty easy to do, if you don’t mind commuting. The commute to the world outside downtown isn’t that bad.
If you like living close to nature, there is nothing comparable to the West Coast (and I include most of the states inland from the immediate coast in that sweeping generalization). The mountains are snow-capped year-round, there is hiking, camping, fishing, boating (oftentimes in the rain). The winters are gray, Spring and Fall can be, too. Right now, it’s absolutely perfect: sunny and high 70s (F). Later this week, we’ll cool off back into the 60s.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lone Coyote, my grandfather’s family lived in Chilliwack. I still have relatives in that area. I’ve never been up there, though my parents have visited a few times. It’s on my “to do” list.
and on a different note, I notice Democracy Now for Monday has the following tagline:
I’m a week behind on my news, but that seems to warrant a “yay” even before watching the segment for details.
If I had a job offer in Seattle, I’d move there tonight. Seriously.
There’s good public transportation, great beer. Sorry, can’t speak to the presence or absence of single men but it’s an outdoor recreation paradise -which usually draws compatible guys.
Best wishes to you!
stay safe, those of you on Irene watch.
Mattir- 6 lbs of Gummy Bears? Can they be used to reinforce windows or something?
dunno what it says about the availability of single men in Seattle, but I spent the 2 years I lived there single, and got a boyfriend the moment I so much as started looking for a place to live in the Midwest :-p
ACk! HELLO! I missed Pharyngula. I had a perfectly lovely week playing with my nieces and now suddenly StrangeBoyfriend is musing about having children. A new and welcome development, if only we can weather this period apart and I can get my shit together and my career on track. We spent time out in the woods of central NYS, at my parents’ camp. I’ll post pics later, it’s really lovely. I also have a nice photo of niece #1 playing with crocheted cephalopod! I just got back, then changed and went right to a job interview, and now I’m finally home and it’s time to RELAX. Which means, in part, reading and reading and reading. Pharyngula among other things.
Oh yeah my truck’s brakes seem to suddenly be acting up. Bleah.
How are you guys? Any exciting episodes this week? I saw a bit of that story about Dawkins’ Post article. Looked like fun.
@Katrina
I don’t think it needs to be the coast, but I agree that there’s much more wilderness close at hand all over the west parts of the U.S. What I love about the part of the Intermountain West I live in is it’s varied. Today I’m driving a little over an hour (South and East) to an 8,000 foot alpine wilderness, but I could drive south and see incredible redrock or drive west and see salt flats. It’s not as lush and green necessarily, but it’s my kind of nature.
illuminata, if you were on FB I could show you some photo albums. Otherwise, I have to link one at a time.
I grew up SE of Portland. We were about 30 minutes from the city, an hour from the ocean, and 90 minutes from ski country.
Jadehawk, there are two light rail routes now: One from Westlake to Sea-Tac, and one from the Tacoma Dome to the Theater district via Union Station. Here are the projects that are still “in the works”.
SallyStrange,
Hooray for good weeks spent well.
slignot: yes, I agree. I loved living in Tucson, and Boise and Flagstaff have always been on our list of “potentially ideal places to live.” I’ve been camping in the Sawtooth mountains and, except for the hummingbird-size mosquitoes, absolutely loved it.
After I joined the Navy and married, it took me over 20 years to make it back here. I cried as we flew over the Cascade range, and it was at that point I realized just how much I’d missed it.
Hey, where do I get a killfile script from?
dexitroboper: Here.
Do not diss my native land. Seattle is paradise…well, except maybe it could use a little more rain. The winters are unremittingly gray, cloudy, and drizzly, but that’s what winters should be like — cool, with sheets of moisture constantly kissing your face and soft lighting that is gentle on the eyes. Clamming in the rain at Penrose Point; hunting ‘shrooms along old logging roads in the Cascades; picnickng in the mossy bowers of the Olympic peninsula. It’s glorious.
Waaaaaah. I wanna go home now.
The thing I love about the Pacific Northwest is the giant slugs.
Some seriously funny here: http://www.happyplace.com/4286/brilliantly-sarcastic-responses-to-completely-well-meaning-signs
+++++++++++++++++++++++
IRT The Weather Channel; they were bought by NBC in 2008 and their coverage has become more dramatic ever since. They also fired competent people and replaced them with ‘personalities’. (sidebar: why is Al Roker on my morning wx update?)
They love storms like CNN loves wars. Chicken Little has nothing on them.
All that said, my good wishes go out to all in Irene’s path.
+++++++++++++++++++++++
Caine, that needlework (?) is beautiful!
Gack, finished the safety training. I always feel like I need to take a hammer to my head after this training. Questions that shouldn’t have ever been asked tend to predominate, and make me feel like using a hammer on something. I would never ask such negative questions during my teaching days.
The Sailor:
Yes, it’s needlework and thank you!
Kitty, you can’t see it but I’m doing a Snoopy Dancetm over your anniversary with Beau. May you have many more.
+++++++++++++++++
Ogvorbis – “Wife starts working her streetcorner on Wednesday. Hopefully.”
Uhh, hmm, uh … OK.*
* (that’s payback for the truly rotten receding hare line pun. which I loved.)
The Sailor:
So THAT’S what happened to The Weather Channel! It used to be the perfect TV channel to nap to: a little pleasant talking, then some mellow Jazzelator music, repeat until refreshed. Suddenly it was all STORM STORIES promos and other equally unrestful crap.
We’re about 10 miles west of the mandatory evacuation zone, so we’ll probably just get no power and a wet basement out of Irene. But I just made cookies, so I think we’re all set.
A poll that David Marjanović, and other biologists, might want to crash, perhaps. Or not.
(someone in the comments does link to a write-up by Darren Naish on evolutionwiki on the topic, FWIW)
Ohh, damn sup tag failure! I needs my sups and subs. Especially the subs;-)
Dang it, I don’t know if I have enough books to last me in case we lose power here. Maybe I need to make an early-morning trip tomorrow and see if I can stock up before the rain starts. I also wish I’d thought to invest in a hand-ranked emergency radio.
————————————-
Happy belated birthday, Josh!
————————————
Condolences to all who have lost a loved one, and also to those who are facing the possibility of that in the future.
And Caine, STILL no word? I suppose they think it’s funny to keep people sweating nervously for a while.
———————————–
I also wish I’d thought to look into a small generator. At least then I could read those books I downloaded from Wowio and keep myself occupied for a bit.
————————————-
Also not looking forward to not having running water at all. Three days I could do, any longer and I might start chewing furniture apart.
————————————
On the upside, maybe school will start a bit late this year. I can’t imagine having classes if there’s a lot of damage and loss of power to deal with.
I was catching up when I read this:
We grow asparagus.
For a (very) few weeks each year we eat fresh asparagus.
It is ambrosia.
The gods would beg to eat it.
——
(“fresh” asparagus shipped to Edmonton from Mexico is not food)
(tinned asparagus is an abomination)
(™) == (™)
myeck waters, yep that’s what happened. The promise of 500 channels of small niche stations turned into giant corps buying them out and turning them into pablum for the masses (see History Channel, The Learning Channel, et al.
The FCC can’t have much input into cable, but the SEC should have put a stop to it. And satellite TV, well I personally think that’s ‘broadcast’ and a real FCC would regulate the shit out of it.
[first stanza goes here]
Isn’t it Irene-ic .. don’t you think
It’s like rain, and wind in your face
It’s leaving town, in a rush and a race,
It’s the howling wind, at hurricane pace
Who would have thought … It figures.
/I apologize for nothing
& n e ;
(drop the spaces)
yields
≠
OT question, but I guess this is the place for it now: When are Assassin, Blue Collar, and Camels gonna get a link on the front page? Also, are there any other gems hidden in the bowels of FTB I haven’t found yet?
Caine – Still no results? I’m starting to wonder which of us has the worst doctor.
My doctor left the country for vacation, after leaving a message that I need to come in Sept. 8th for further treatments , it’s like what the hell does that even mean?
Nice needle work by the way!