I don’t want you to play this video, it’s that bad. It’s a song lauding rape.
Perhaps instead of listening to it, you’re better off reading the Manboobz thread about it.
Now talk about something else. Anything.
(Episode CCLIII: Losing my edge.)
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
@ Therrin
Better than last week?
Better, but same ballpark.
I’m about to make some bacon. But, to make things interesting, I’m going to bake it.
I’ve already got my bacon laid out and the oven is preheating.
Since this is “thick cut” bacon, I intend to bake it for 10 minutes, flip it, and bake again for 10-15 or so. Sound like a plan to everyone?
Only if I can have some.
(OT) “Archaeologists in Maryland say they have found long-sought Zekiah Fort” http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-09-archaeologists-maryland-long-sought-zekiah-fort.html
Considering the very recent arrival of Europeans in what is today USA, I assume this is one of the oldest remains of the early colonial era.
The Amish and the Mennonites overlap. Maybe it’s a whole spectrum of sects, I dunno. I do know that some Mennonite women do wear little white caps.
–
Benjamin, you don’t need to fool around with flipping it; just bake it till it’s done. In my experience flipping it just encourages it to curl. And 25 minutes may well be overkill, so use your nose while it cooks or check it midway or something.
Cicely:
An there are multiple sects of both, and they all have differing traditions.
It been years since I’ve cooked bacon anywhere but in the oven.
Check it frequently. It may be necessary to flip it.
I usually do a basket-weave.
Skreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. Why didn’t I ever get around to making my stupid blog post about “cunt”?
—
Well, I got a room – a bedroom in a private home with an older woman who doesn’t have any remaining family around. It’s really inexpensive for here and I will probably be mostly left to myself. I hope so.
But what if pretentious* is what I was aiming for?
(Sorry. That should be, “But what if pretentious is that for which I am aiming?”)
* my most recent commment on the latest Rebecca Watson/MRAsshole thread.
Now we’re aiming poop?
Speaking of poop, the smell produced by an incinerating toilet must be experienced to be believed.
(neat segue, eh?)
This weeks episode of Doctor Who was much better than last weeks. I liked it.
Growing old is the pits, but it beats the alternative. One manifestation for me these last few months has been waking up at 3:30-4:30 am instead of 6:00 am, and not being able to get back to sleep. An isolated night I can handle. But, last Thursday was 4:00 am, and this morning it was 3:30 am. A little loss in concentration at the moment, and I’m seeing double.
Nerd of Redhead,
Maybe you should kittensit for Katherine Lorraine.
No, we’re (or I’re) aiming at pretentious.
Now, I’m aiming for bed.
G’night.
What’s the difference between a pretentious poop and an unpretentious poop? :-/
(That was a rhetorical question. I’m not sure I want to know.)
=====
On an entirely unrelated note, I ate a Hershey bar for the first time today. It was nothing to write home about.*
(*Metaphorically speaking.)
(I say “metaphorically speaking” because of course I did write home about it, in the form of posting a Facebook status. Some metaphors need updating for the Internet age.)
Doctor Who: Pretty good for a ‘monster’ episode. Quite a lot better than last week’s.
Classical Cipher, conga rats on the new living quarters, sounds like a good place.
++++++++++++++++++
Christian sects!? If I’d know it was spelled that way I’d have become an atheist sooner;-)
++++++++++++++++++
Nerd, welcome to my life. By Thursday I’m a wreck, Friday is the day I save all the stupid little non-thinking jobs that accumulate, and meetings if I have any say about the scheduling.
Satyrday (it’s a typo, but I’m liking it) I sleep off and on until around 10 or 11, Sunday I do the same. Sunday night I double up on my sleep meds, (which I don’t take over the weekend), to try to regulate me back to the 5 o’clock world.
driveby:
Why is the Beeb so pro-religion (especially catholic)?
A Point of View: Can religion tell us more than science?
More apologetics. My question would again be: Which god?
(You can also leave comments online in response.)
/driveby
— Louie Anderson, Goodbye Jumbo… Hello Cruel World
I have had a wonderful day. A pedicure, a trip to the hardware store, an hour and a half of weedwacking (carefully disguised aerobic exercise!), a bunch of spinning and knitting, and listening to The Essential Leonard Cohen on shuffle the whole time. And because we’ve discussed his wonderfulness on TET at some point, I was often reminded of a variety of Hordelings* and that added a bit of glow. This is a wonderful group of people, and as Bill D said, this TET or last, it’s the place I feel most at home.
*Yes, I’m talking about you, Caine.
[tardive]
chigau @498, ‘rather’ in that sense is meiotic (i.e. an intensifier).
Who can say? ;)
(I use it rather a lot, but not pretentiously)
Benjamin, Louie Anderson exaggerates, IMO.
Apropos, how’s your regime going?
(Gimme good news, please!)
[Contumacious]
Dedicated* to Josh, OM, OSG: Need You Tonight
—
(* I love you, man — just not physically)
Reminds me; I recently read a good book (SF) by Richard Morgan, so I borrowed another (“The Steel Remains”) (fantasy, this time), and was amused by a snippet of dialogue:
(Sums it up)
Yeah, Benjamin, I think the Anderson take on obesity is a bit extreme, really simplistic, and unkind, frankly.
John M:
Speaking as a fat guy (fatter than Louie Anderson was when he started writing the book), I beg to differ.
I ate a pound of bacon in one sitting. What does that tell you?
Because Gawd knows, fat people can never have lives. It’s unpossible.
Nope, Benjamin. Sorry to interrupt your wallowing, but Louie Anderson seems to be full of hateful garbage.
I agree, how is beating yourself up going to boost your self esteem?
Benjamin,
Literally, that you just ate 2420 calories.
The subtext is that you’re down on yourself.
(I’m not gonna judge you.
You’re, I think, doing that for both of us, and not too kindly, either)
And to expand on myself: the reason you struggle with feelings of worthlessness is not because of your fat, Benjamin. Fat merely makes a handy scapegoat. But it’s a lie, a cruel one, for Louie Anderson to be telling people that shedding pounds will make them love themselves, have the lives they want to have, be the people they want to be. It’s the same cruel lie every weight loss program tells.
You want to lose weight because you think it will improve your personal health situation or make it cheaper to buy clothes or easier to get around or whatever? I don’t have a word to say about that. It’s not my fucking business. But weight loss is not magic. Adding another metric to loathe yourself for failing by is not going to be productive.
I struggle with untreated depression, including suicidal episodes. I have social anxieties. I’m desperately lonely a lot of the time. I know what self-loathing is. I went on thyroid meds last year and dropped a truly substantial chunk of weight. It just evaporated off me. Suddenly I could wear straight sizes, something I had tried with every ounce of my chubby little fat-accepting heart not to dream about. And that meant I was going to trade in my uniform of black jeans and a tee for a closet full of beautiful clothes! I was going to stop hiding! I was going to go out and make friends! I was going to take risks and really experience life! I was going to be the person I always wished I would be!
Except that somehow when I shed all that fat I didn’t shed my neuroses or my fears or scars or wounds or weaknesses or incompetences. Strangely enough, when you drop fat you don’t also drop illnesses and personal flaws.
FWIW, Benjamin, between my two previous responses, I (most reluctantly) did some resistance training here at home.
This because I’m becoming an old fart, and my decrepitude is accelerating, and however little I do to ameliorate this is better than nothing.
5 minutes knee-bends (no more than right-angled, don’t want to strain my ageing knee ligaments)
5 minutes various torso stretches and good-mornings (using a broomstick)
repeating interleaved 12-rep sets (using strict form) of
* dumbbell bicep curls (2.5kg, 5kg, 10kg)
* dumbbell upright shoulder presses (ditto)
* bench bar tricep presses (5, 10, 15kg)
* seated bench presses (10, 20, 30, 40 kg)
* lat pull-downs (20, 30, 40, 50kg) [squatting because my home bench doesn’t allow for full extension otherwise]
finishing with 20 supine knee-raises, 20 back extensions and 20 stomach curls (all with just body-weight)
—
Hot and sweaty now, but I feel mildly virtuous, and it really helps my self-respect.
(Each time, I tell myself next week I might do two sessions. Each time, I only seem to find time for one)
And I hate this, and it ain’t easy at all.
Kristinc – that sounds damn difficult – hugs.
Benjamin, what Kristinc says has QFT plastered all over it.
I mentioned a book in another thread, Fat is a Feminist Issue by Suzie Orbach. It’s years old now, but it explains these issues simply, and practically. I highly recommend it.
kristinc:
You have his point precisely backwards.
He’s not saying “you hate yourself because you’re fat”. He’s saying “you’re fat because you hate yourself”. (Or rather, he’s extrapolating from his own experience: “I was (am?) fat because I hated (hate?) myself.”)
And you’re not going to stop hating yourself by becoming unfat. Especially if your effort to become unfat becomes one more way to prove to yourself that you can’t succeed.
Also, whether or not Louie Anderson’s fat was a manifestation of his self-hatred, there are approximately a zillion and one reasons to be fat. And roughly a zillion of those reasons are not “because I hate myself”.
Benjamin, you’re either not listening to or dismissing kristinc’s claim.
Here it is again:
FWIW, I consider anorexia a far worse condition than obesity.
(One can abstractly admire the iron will and control over their bodies they exhibit, whilst cringing at the damage they do themselves. It cannot be easy to starve yourself to death in a sea of plenty)
Kristinc’s right.
And how, for the love of reason,is focusing on 1/ I hate myself therefore I’m fat, or 2/ I’m fat therefore I hate myself, of any practical use? Even if it were the one reason out of a zillion?
It’s just such a nihilistic, circular reasoning.
Ah, fuckit. Gotta write the following:
I’m now feeling like Benjamin might be thinking I’m picking on him, or have a poor opinion about him.
I want to make it clear: I am not intending to do that.
(Some friend I am, eh? :| )
Hi all, a summary of the second session of today’s Think Inc conference in Melbourne, with Michael Shermer and Neil deGrasse Tyson (introduced myself this morning, first task of the day), in case anyone is interested !
Walton@518,
“Nothing to tweet about” would presumably indicate something of truly underwhelming insignificance.
Holy fuck, my summary of Think Inc got linked by @DailyHitchens apparently, and I kid you not, 1500 blog hits in the last 20 minutes. 3 days worth of readers. In 20 minutes.
I’m getting the Jameson out.
And easier to spell that floccinaucinihilipilificatory.
Ack. From Furious Purpose (cf #542):
:(
See, this is just useless traffic once more. 3000 or so hits in the last half hour, but one single fucking comment, and that by Franklin Percival. I’d much rather have a meaningful conversation with a couple of people in a pub, than a gazillion drones blindly clicking on links, who don’t care who you are and never come back anyway.
*sigh*
Rorschach, what’s to say?
“Good post there, thanks mate”? :)
—
I remind you of when you first started blogging; I reckon you’d have been over the moon with that sort of traffic.
Man, I’m so getting drunk (on numbers, sheesh), 100 blog hits a minute at this point….*whistles with feet up while taking a swig*
Reading trough the Sexism is a problem.. thread and I’m only on comment #287. I have a hard time reading Rinus’ comments without just replacing everything with I mean blah blah blah I think blah blah blah my experience blah …… in my head.
Bedtime. I leave you with some music : Amy Winehouse – Love Is A Losing Game (Live)
Sorry, I was making that up, not leaving yet. Moar music : Amy Winehouse – You Know I’m No Good
Man, she was good, I’m just realising that now : Amy Winehouse – Back To Black Live
Beatrice:
Yep, that’s pretty much Rinus’ stance. I just don’t have the time or the energy to deal with that shit right now.
Anyway, hello everyone! I feel bad that I haven’t caught up– work and family have been totes hectic. Hugs, love, and chocolate to all!
Rosh Hashanah is coming up and I’ve been asked to bring a side dish to the big family shindig. Difficulty: no dairy, wheat or nuts, low salt, and it’s gotta be “seasonal”. I think I’m going to make a rutabaga and carrot mash spiced with ground ginger.
Matt Penfold:
I just started the Game Set Match trilogy. So far it’s pretty good, even though Bernard Sampson is a bit of a douche. :D
Hi. Happy Friday.
Benjamin, be safe with yourself. I can’t say I understand, but I can sympathize/empathize. For me, it is Cherry Coke (the real stuff) and tobacco, so I do, sort of, understand. Maybe.
=========
And a hearty DAMN YOU!!11!! to those who suggested Terry Pratchett’s DiscWorld books. I picked up A Thief of Time at the library and started reading it last night at 11:00pm. I am halfway through and plan on another low-sleep night. Great writing. Great ideas. Great throw-away lines.
Pratchett comes up with throw away ideas the way Mozart came up with throw away melodies. Some of Mozarts one bar melodies could have been expanded into complete symphonies, and he had five or ten in one piece. Same for Pratchett. Some of the concepts thrown around in this one book would keep a lesser writer going for five books.
Anyway, damn you to the nether regions of the library for opening my little mind to these time sinks.
And thank you.
Beatrice and Audley:
Amazingly, Rinus is back. And he appears to back in a positive manner. No, I am not kidding.
Really.
No, not kidding.
I’m really not kidding.
Oggie,
Happy Friday!
I knew Rinus seemed familiar, but I couldn’t be assed to search for him. He has been around before, yes?
The ptarmigan flock outside my tent say:
prrrr poot poot poot
waaackk qwaakk waak wak wk
bloorb
wakwakwakwak
kwerrk
etc.
It gives me great vicarious enjoyment to think of all the Pratchett pleasure that awaits you, Brother Ogvorbis!
I am currently working on a poster for an upcoming event. I just spent 15 minutes trying to remove a blotch on the photo.
Er, turns out it was on the screen.
There’s 15 minutes of my life I’ll never get back.
Sorry, Bruce, doesn’t ring a bell, but then, I’m notoriously clueless when it comes to remembering names.
Not to mention sleepless nights.
Ogvorbis: Yes, Pratchett is brilliant. In my view, he ranks up there with Oscar Wilde, P.G. Wodehouse and Douglas Adams in the pantheon of funny English writers. And (unlike, say, Wodehouse) he also works a fair amount of philosophy and provocative political satire into his books.
Not really comparable to Amy Winehouse, but I find her pretty good, Zaz : Je Veux.
Also, this rendition of Edith Piaf’s Dans Ma Rue.
—
Still reading Sexism is a problem... If you people keep from posting for half an hour, I might even finish it soon (#441 now). Not that I’m really complaining. I always learn something new and if nothing else, reading the take down of bad arguments is always fun.
Brother Ogvorbis,
I find sudden changes of heart a bit suspicious, but if Rinus sticks to it – great.
Off to read what he has to say now.
I just had a conversation with one of my coworker conservatives. He is upset about the two accidents at airshows and wants the government to step in with regulations and restrictions. I, the wild-eyed liberal, said that the insurance companies will tighten up their requirements for coverage (moving viewing areas further away from the action, better record keeping for airframe and pilot certifications, possibly requiring additional inspections for aerobatic aircraft). In this case, I actually argued for a market solution. Of course, if the insurance companies decide that they will not, under any circumstances, write a policy, then the market has failed and the government would have to step in.
Pragmatism. How the fuck does that work?
Well, strike me dead. Still 30 blog hits a minute. A minute ! Take that, Myers ! By the way, I saw you on BlogTV with DPR and Aron Ra yesterday, and that new haircut did not convince me at all !
Now that the lifting of the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy is officially underway, gay members of the military are coming out. Some of them are, anyway.
This is still difficult for LBGT military personnel in Utah. The Salt Lake Tribune covered the story, and posted some very nice photos of a lesbian couple, plus one gay guy who is a marine.
Naturally, some dunderheaded Utahans have commented below the article, asking why some lesbians feel they have to dress like men, etc. The usual combination of bigotry, ignorance, and religiously-inflected blather.
However, there are some exceptionally thoughtful posts as well. Like this one:
Oh, I do too. But, when I read something encouraging, I want to give a little praise where possible. If it encourages him, and he really does start to grok, maybe I helped a little. If he backtracks to yesterday’s nonsense, I’ve lost bupkis.
Why am I not surprised that Walton likes both Oscar Wilde and P.G. Wodehouse?
*waltzes in happily after an internet hiatus for a few days*
*sees sexism thread and number of comments–hesitates briefly and starts reading*
*SOBS*
WHAT IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE?!
Reminds me of the time I had a Facebook debate with one of my conservative friends… in which he was arguing for taxpayer funding of IVF and other fertility treatments through the NHS, and I was arguing against it. Some people thought we’d conspired to swap positions in order to play a practical joke. :-/
The University of Utah Utes beat the BYU football team 54-10. Where was the mormon god?
The Salt Lake Tribune posted 78 photos from the game, including close-ups of the fumbles and turnovers. Utah fans posted about 1000 comments below the article …. more than 98 pages of comments.
I wonder what’s important in Utah, could it be football?
link
Where by “English” I take it you refer to their country of origin rather than the language in which they work. Even so, you forgot Kingsley Amis, whose Lord Jim made me laugh out loud, a lot (LOLAL).
***
In other news, bad evolutionary psychologist* apologizes.
*no, the phrase is not redundant [tongue-out smiley]
I’m going to embed this one on purpose, because it is so great :
Unbelievable. That she is dead, I mean. What a terrible loss. Terrible, shocking loss.
Yep, I should have specified that. If I’d been including North Americans, it would, of course, have been an unforgivable oversight to forget Mark Twain. (Beyond that, I don’t know much about American literature, so I won’t presume to pontificate further.)
Oh look, my embed thingy went completely poof ! Thats impressive ! I was trying to link to this.
Miscellaneous food for thought:
Breaching the blood-brain barrier: Researchers may have solved 100-year-old puzzle
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-breaching-blood-brain-barrier-year-old-puzzle.html
Cancer ‘smart bomb’ created from a crocus
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-cancer-smart-crocus.html
Subversive apps help citizens fight state silencing
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21128305.800-subversive-apps-help-citizens-fight-state-silencing.html
Brainy molluscs evolved nervous systems four times
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20925-brainy-molluscs-evolved-nervous-systems-four-times.html
Dawn surveys Vesta’s dramatic terrain
http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2011/09/dawn-surveys-vestas-dramatic-t.html
You want to make this world a better place ? Well, tell me then for a start, why is the unbelievably marvellous, extraordinarily talented and completely unique Amy Winehouse fucking dead ?
Or maybe that was the question 40 years ago when Janis Joplin died already. I’m just now catching up with Winehouse’s work. And it’s blowing me away to be honest.
Well, they tried to make her go to rehab, but she said “no, no no”.
I’m sorry.
Honestly, I don’t know. To me, her most impressive song is “You Know I’m No Good”, in which she sings she can’t help it. Strong, weak and vulnerable at the same time.
The tragedy is that she seems to have died not just as she was cleaning up her act, but quite possibly because of it. The latest news I read on it was that her ‘binary’ way of drinking (either heavily or not at all) was too much for her heart to take. The likely cause of death is a heart attack. She was sober at the time. Of course, you can probably explain this much better to me than I to you.
Such a small, promising repertoire she leaves.
SQB:
“If they try to make you go to rehab, maybe you should go, go, go.”
If there’s a hell, I’m going there for that one.
She was really talented. It makes me sad. Especially because I always wanted to do what she does, and never could find the courage to. I know I’m not as talented, I’m not even the same kind of singer (totally different ranges and sounds) but what makes me the most sad is that she really did love singing.
I wish I had the guts, but it makes me realize how hard it is on people to put themselves out there all the time for what they love. So, from my little cloister, I’m sad that she’s gone for a lot of reasons.
There are tons of talented singers out there, to be honest. Just like there are tons of beautiful women out there. But people who really love their craft are much more rare. I think she did. In her own fucked up way.
She also brought back a lot of really amazing music to people who might not have listened to it otherwise.
Ben, I’m going to post later today a list (from the George Washington University Weight Management Program) of reasons why people are fat. (Hint: self-hate is fairly low down on the list.) Obesity is astonishingly complicated, and includes factors completely or mostly outside of individual control. The physician who started the GW program 30 years ago says that our understanding of obesity is where our understanding of diabetes was 80 years ago.
I quit drinking in my 20s after several years of very heavy daily drinking. It was a total piece of cake compared to trying to lose 100 pounds. I hung out with sober people, didn’t go to bars, didn’t keep scotch in my apartment. I didn’t have to learn to drink just a little bit because I literally wouldn’t be able to stay alive without it, I didn’t have to go to places with alcohol if I didn’t want to (I can’t even buy rats for our snake without going into a store that sells human junk food!), I didn’t have to learn a boatload of nutrition stuff or find some sort of exercise that I could tolerate, or… (Also, 100 years ago, let alone in the Pleistocene, a pound of bacon was not an easily available, affordable snack food. That should give you some information right there.)
For anyone who’s interested, one of the psychologists at the GW program has a website with a lot of peer reviewed articles about obesity and weight treatment issues.
When you repeat simplistic solutions for obesity, you’re not just disrespecting yourself, your disrespecting everyone else trying to deal with this serious and complicated issue. So if you can’t show yourself some compassion, show anonymous internet strangers some compassion (and perhaps lump yourself in there with us).
Now off to teach spinning. I already had a 90 minute dance with Leonard Cohen and the weedwacker – DaughterSpawn has suggested that for purposes of fitocracy, such activities should be categorized as low impact aerobic dance, moderate intensity, with upper body hand weights.
Algernon, sing in the shower and imagine all of Pharyngula applauding.
One thing I wish, is that while she were alive, people had been more interested in writing about her talent the way they are now that she’s dead. Instead, it seems people were more interested in watching her be crazy and destructive and then laughing about it.
Also (Carthago delenda est) try stand up in the shower, Ben, and imagine all of Pharyngula laughing (at the jokes, not at you).
/ducks in for a moment/
I successfully made my first loaf of Pumpkin Spice bread last night! I didn’t burn it, and it came out nice and moist and pumpkin-y.
And now back to this episode of TET.
Sorry, I was going to scamper off already, but I thought Algernon might like this :
Back to Black Acoustic
Nite.
The problem being that her self-destructiveness obscured her talent and made her output dry up, unfortunately.
— Louie Anderson, Goodbye Jumbo… Hello Cruel World
I prefer “You Know I’m No Good” from that same session.
There are some a capella performances floating out there. Even more impressive.
We once measured then cooked 455g (1 pound) of bacon.
After water evaporation and fat pour-off we ate 188g (6.6oz) of bacon.
Rorschach @542, first off, thanks for the link and for the summary. Much appreciated.
As for Hitchens, I noticed that Slate recently recycled an old post of his for the “Fighting Words” segment. This one was from 2008: http://www.slate.com/id/2191912/
Hitchens did write a good piece for their September 5th issue: http://www.slate.com/id/2303013/
Which is one reason why, if given a choice, I will choose bacon over sausage every time. Bacon is actually the lower fat food. Sausage retains more of the fat.
=======
And I really hate my teeth.
The abscessed tooth (which the dentist removed nine days ago (and it is helling nicely, by the way)) was right next to a tooth with a twenty-year-old crown. Which just came off today. Luckily, the dentist (just talked to him) will cement it back on for free, but I actually thought that I was going to go for a week without going in there.
In regards to the dish I’m going to bring to the in-laws Rosh Hashanah seder: I just found out that a rutabaga and carrot mash is actually a traditional Norwegian dish. My MIL is going to love that.
All Hail Tpyos! All Hail Tpyos!
That should, of course, be ‘healing nicely’, not ‘helling nicely.’
I’m seeing an ad that seems to be a man feeding a screaming child to a sandworm.
It’s really about how eating Snickers™ is Healthy™.
As I’m playing some Bad Religion (“American Jesus”, to be exact), I realise that this music is older to my son than Woodstock or even Made in Japan is to me.
I feel old.
(Also, recently, a cousin of my wife wearing a Guns n’ Roses T-shirt. She wasn’t even born when I was listening to that.)
Good evening
So the Pirate Queen went to the fair on Friday, which was after all better suited for the weather, the tricorn held the little drizzle off well.
It was a wonderful afternoon/evening/night, except for the idiot who tried to push me off the autobahn on the way home.
Ben Geiger
Well, I met the love of my life when I was fat. I became slim afterwards. I didn’t become a more happy or better person.
Fun fact: The “pirates party” just made it into the Berlin parliament. The libertarials got kicked out.
I had a similar revelation a few months ago. The Dead Kennedy’s and Devo are older to my children than the Beatles were to me. Wow.
How old are you, brother Ogvorbis? (I’m 37, about a week older than Josh — I share my birthday (but not the year) with Madonna).
My cut-off for “Boy, are you young!” used to be being born after the Beatles broke up.
Now that applies to their parents.
Ha! I’ve actually been following that.
And? Are you taking a seat?
Some things I forgot:
-Saw a very, very stupid T-shirt at the fair: “God, doesn’t play a role in my life, he’s the director”
Poor person, to have 0 own life.
I was a bit surprised. Usually you see the opposite sentiment expressed at the “medieval fairs” in Germany.
-A friend who was with us (actually the son in law of my best friend) is a cook in a youth hostel (in Germany youth hostels cater for full and mainly for school classes on school trips). By now he’s versatile in cooking for vegetarians, people with allergies and muslims (apart from being a great cook for “normal” food, too). But what he found hard was Ramadan. It was hard for him to see the kids not eat and drink all day, in summer, in the heat, tried to make them drink at least some water and made sure that they had a fridge full of stuff for once the sun had settled.
It’s the idiocity of religion in a nutshell.
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA LOVE IT
…er, excuse me.
My cat chews on things and plays fetch. I might as well have just gotten a dog, because he acts like one.
My cat fetched and did tricks when she was a kitten.
Now she sleeps. and sometimes rolls over.
When the square of sunshine in which she is sleeping moves, she yells at me.
I’ve tried to explain Earth’s rotation to her but I don’t think she buys it.
chigau, I too find that cats don’t quite grasp astronomy. My cat doesn’t even understand that he shouldn’t run head-first into walls.
Damn little kids. Whippersnappers.
My age is rather easy to figure. I turned one year old just after the first Super Bowl (which wasn’t actually the Super Bowl, yet). So I just find out what the number was for the last Super Bowl and that’s how old I am (I need to figure it this way as it seems like it changes every year or so, so having a National Event with the same number helps me.). All of which means that I am XLV years old.
Congratulations. You are the proud owner of a feline sundial, with audible hour alerts.
Here’s to hoping they’ll never skip or double up!
Is this your cat?
Beatrice @550: Actally Rins makes WAY more sense if yo read him like that.
Benjamin @558: Yup. Hateful garbage it is.
@ Benjamin
Haha, no. But mine is very vocal. He’ll meow angrily at me if he wants something. And if anyone picks him up, he screams.
Wow, is it just me, or is season 6 part 2 of Doctor Who in a roll? The God Complex was another great episode. And this season keep deconstructing the poor Doctor, which I think is great.
Benjamin @558: Yup. Hateful garbage it is.
Hateful – himself and everyone else, dumb, no practical use.
I was hoping Mattir would come in – looking forward to the info.
Well, that was a fail on my first attempt at trying to put something as a quote.
I’m going to buy pea-vine mulch and tend to my new ferns. That, I can do.
Rubik’s cube == Bad Wolf.
And since more people have watched it now, The God Complex got really good at the end (<3 Amelia). It's about damn time the Doctor moved on with companions, although I doubt he'll stick the flounce.
I managed to find a flight under DKK 5000,-.
And then while I was contemplating, it sold.
:(
Therrin,
Are you spoiling Doctor Who?! (there was a Rubik’s cube in that episode with scary dolls, but I don’t remember one in The girl who waited and I haven’t watched the latest episode yet)
Benjamin:
I knew there was a reason I never liked Louis Anderson. And FWIW, the reason I’m fat isn’t because I hate myself. It’s because I love food. And wine. And I’m lazy.
Rorschach:
I’m sorry you’re not getting any comments. I noticed that the FB Hitchens page was getting a lot of comments about your post. (62 as I type this.)
I didn’t think the previous two episodes were all that great. This was good though. From the preview, next week’s looks interesting *spoiler warning* where we see Craig, from The Lodger of last season, again *end spoiler alert*.
Also, who do guys think was in the Doctor’s room? (I have my suspicions, but I want hear others first.)
I thought it might have been the Doctor himself.
Here’s an interesting site: Obama Foodorama
The Blog Of Record About White House Food Initiatives, From Policy To Pie
The post I linked to is about the WH home brews. Linked from the RH sidebar are WH recipes, I’m not much of a foodie, but they looked pretty good.
Most Mormon churches leaders lobby against sponsoring Girl Scouts, while they strongly support Boy Scouts. (And somewhat oddly support Boy Scouts, turning the mormon priesthood into one of the pillars of learning, and assigning leaders who turn out to be a danger to Scouts.)
One of the journalists at Slate, Amanda Marcotte, has put together an article that tells us why and how conservative, religious organizations have demonized the Girl Scouts.
Here’s World Nut Daily’s “Girl Scouts exposed: Lessons in lesbianism. Communists, radical feminists cited as role models for troops.” http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=97977#ixzz1YKheCVv8
World Nut Daily and other regressive organizations are urging parents to enroll their daughters in American Heritage Girls instead: “”Girls in AHG learn about their God-given gifts, their identity in Christ and the importance of seeking His will for their life.”
More from Slate:
My partner had a different idea who it might have been.
(Don’t roll your mouse over that bit of text if you don’t want to know – pro tip: using the <abbr title=""> code in the “Allowed Tags” is generally a good way to hide text from general view.)
In case any East-Sweedish Pharyngulistas are around:
I’ll be in Stockholm 5-8 October. I’m tied up for a little work, but some of the evenings will be free. I may just have signed up for dinner at the Beer and Whisky Festival, though.
Any recommendations? Some people are trying to arrange jazz and/or Dramaten, but I’m more partial to classical, myself.
One of my suspicions, but it would seem too much like the Pandorica thing.
Thanks for the tip.
I thought this too. And another one.
Did I do something wrong? Because I can’t see anything when I put my cursor over that text.
Nevermind, it’s working now. Good theories.
Beatrice,
The Rubik’s cube is just a hypothesis, but showing up in more than one episode is usually a sign. I’m not going off anything beyond the episodes themselves. That he actually interacts with it shows the evolution of the series. Bad Wolf was so wonderfully subtle, when it flashed back through it’s appearances, I saw that I’d missed at least half of them.
River Song. That or every companion he’s ever had (since he fears for their wellbeing while traveling with him).
(I think she’s well enough known not to be a spoiler at this point, however a note to First Approximation.)
I just noticed a Donate button on the right, under the quick link to the endless thread. Did I miss something or was PZ just being subtle about this?
It was requested, but I’m not going to make a big deal about it.
Therrin,
Yes, things like Bad Wolf make watching reruns even more entertaining. I know it really wasn’t much of a spoiler, I’ll just watch out for the Rubik’s cube when I watch the episode tomorrow… er, today actually.
Mattir:
Leonard Cohen makes everything better. Glad you had such a wonderful time.
Sorry Beatrice, I missed the last bit on #620 where you said you hadn’t seen this ep yet. I don’t think I said anything too revealing, but I’ll be more careful in the future.
I promise I’ll catch up sometime. The sooner the bug that slows down writing in the comment window is fixed, the earlier I’ll be able to…
Keep trying!!!
And don’t forget about your passport! First thing in the morning today!!!1!
I’ll bring a chocolate-containing specialty…
Your compositions are actually done IN the comment box? Talk about living dangerously.
Therrin,
No problem. I’ve been rather careless with spoilers on past occasions, so it wouldn’t be fair of me to complain when others discuss previous episodes. And you didn’t really reveal anything. Honestly, after yours and others’ comments I’m even more intrigued, but I’m trying to convince myself that I shouldn’t watch it now because I’ll go to bed soon. Any moment now.
The problem with current series spoilers is really only confined to time-shifters watching on delay, or Aussie/NZ viewers who aren’t torrenting and thus obliged to wait a week. It does mean that I’ve been reticent to lurk reading TET on Sundays until I’ve gotten hold of the download!
I did have another reason for hiding stuff in my earlier post (#626) – again, selective disclosure.
Here’s a general template people can cut and paste for doing spoilers – the one I included earlier “broke” as soon as starstuff91 copied it (#629), because it lacked content and a closing tag.
Code for cut and paste:
<abbr title="Hidden text goes here!">Visible text goes here!</abbr>
Result:
Visible text goes here!
Looking for advice on a new phone. My current Samsung clamshell is over six years old, and a loose connection is forcing me to upgrade. I know basically nothing about the differences between the models various companies make nowadays. I do like the idea of being able to read websites, so I’m leaning toward an android of some sort, but then there are like 98237648932 service providers to choose from after that. Experiences/advice appreciated.
@ Therrin
This is a topic that I know things about! Woo!
First things first, what service providers are available to you? I’m assuming you want a smart phone, and if that assumption is correct, your best bet will be an Android phone.
<farnsworth>Good news, everyone!</farnsworth>
You all know I finished my book a while back, and it has vanished into the bowels fo Knopf. I have recently heard from both my agent and my editor who are enthusiastic and happy with how it turned out. My agent is going to be peddling it at the Frankfurt Book Fair in a few weeks, so maybe it’ll soon be available out there in the non-Yankee world.
Publication date will be sometime this spring. I expect you all to buy a copy. No, many copies! And burn them in an orgy of contempt to inspire the Christians to grab every copy in their local bookstores for their bonfires!
Saving my pennies already. Looking forward to the orgy of contempt, LOL! Thanks PZ!
What’s the title of the book? Or is that classified information?
Aww, you can’t sneak it into Borders before they close so I can get a 90% discount on it?
@1st approximation
So it’s just me. :)Personally, I feel like part 1 was a bit weak (the pirate and flesh episodes weren’t very good), but part 2 is so far really awesome. Part 2, if it can keep it up, could be my favorite run of this show.
According to that post from a week or so ago, it’s The Blank Atheist. Or perhaps The Underscore Atheist. Bit idiosyncratic, but hey, I’m not a writey type.
Momentarily breaking my boycott to say congratulations and good work, PZ.
Conga rats, PZ!
I had no idea you were writing a book. You should have let us know.
@Therrin
Personally, I didn’t think the Bad Wolf thing was very subtle at all. And not only that, when it was revealed what it was, I felt very underwhelmed, especially because I didn’t think its intended purpose made any sense. Plus, it wasn’t much of a clue at all. I wonder if you could explain to me why it did make sense.
For me, the Mr. Saxon plot was the best out of all RTD plots. I really liked that one.
PZ,
Woo hoo! *dance dance dance!*
(I’m going to be very disappointed if it doesn’t turn out to be a compilation of squid porn.)
PZ, I’ll only buy it if one of my words got picked for the title. -.-
starstuff91, my lame answer to your question on would be, “Most of them?” I’m in the Portland, Oregon, area. Yes, I’m starting out with looking at the Android smartphones.
Morning ! Just down from my Amy Winehouse trip from last night, I switch on the TV, and on CNN there is Amy’s dad talking to Piers Morgan. Here we go again !
[…] on *providers* would […]
Wowsers, PZ!
Maybe I’ll be able to get your tentacle-print on a copy in Melbourne next year.
Yay, good on you PZ, at long last ! I will buy a copy for sure…
Ok, so do you know what provider you would prefer? I would suggest you pick on of the big three because they have better networks and better phones. I’m with sprint and I’m pretty happy, but I know that a lot of people really like Verizon. I personally don’t like AT&T at all (I left them a year and a half ago to go with sprint.).
ibyea,
Not sure that I can explain why she chose Bad Wolf of all things. Maybe it was a means of creating a subtle thread that wouldn’t overtly change parts of their timeline (which would have caused other issues). Since it wasn’t possible for them to be followed into each TARDIS landing spot, it had to have originated from the other direction (ie. personal-time-line future). Each instance was a warning, that something bad was happening there (or in the case of the park bench, where she’d just come from, if she didn’t return, hence the much more blatant messaging).
And then it showed up again in Turn Left.
No disagreement on the Saxon thread. “Don’t you think she looks tired?” Awesome blowback.
Woohoo! Book book book book book!!!!!
Meanwhile, in my end of the world, Triumph, Honda or Aprilia? Hmmm. Decisions, decisions.
No real preference on providers. I’ve been happy with the Verizon FiOS service I get, but that’s another department. There’s something about updates that concerned me, so if that’s tied to provider I’d prefer one that stayed current. Don’t really know anything about the different skins. I’m competent enough that I’d probably do the root hack thing if it improved the interface.
Roeshach:
err…congrats. On getting a few hits for your blog from gossip about whether or not a cancer patient has died.
Kudos.
@ Therrin
AT&T doesn’t seem to stay up to date very well. If you’re going to be using a very large amount of data, you might want to go with Sprint, because they’re the only ones out of the big three that have unlimited plans left.
As for skins: I find that HTC is pretty decent (I have an Evo 4G). I hear that the new HTC skin is pretty great. A lot of people like Motorolla and some people like Samsung (but their phones are very hit or miss, hardware wise). Rooting your phone wouldn’t be too much of a problem (although difficulty can differ slightly from phone to phone).
What are you looking for from a phone, hardware wise? Would you want 4G capability (which you might want to check on first, to see what providers offer 4G in your area). Do you care if it’s duel core? Do you want a really good camera? etc…
I followed Lynna’s link to the worldnutdaily story about Girl Scouts, and as a Girl Scout leader, I have just one question – if I’m expected to turn these girls into man-hating lesbian feminists, shouldn’t there be training materials for the leaders? My knowledge of how to be a man-hating lesbian is a bit sketchy and entirely theoretical.
Therrin:
I’ve got a Droid 2 with Verizon. The OS just updated a couple of weeks ago– I’m pissed about it*– and I’ve heard that the other providers (T Mobile and Sprint) didn’t force the update.
So, there’s that, I guess.
*The changes that were made don’t make much sense from a user stand-point and now everything runs really slowly.
Whatever you do, don’t get the HTC Bliss. Although HTC did back track on this, and renamed the phone the Rhyme
PaulG:
Wow. What a douchey thing to say.
So, Rorschach shouldn’t be amazed at his blog traffic? He shouldn’t care? What?
Online gamers crack AIDS enzyme puzzle
Online gamers have achieved a feat beyond the realm of Second Life or Dungeons and Dragons: they have deciphered the structure of an enzyme of an AIDS-like virus that had thwarted scientists for a decade.
The exploit is published on Sunday in the journal Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, where — exceptionally in scientific publishing — both gamers and researchers are honoured as co-authors.
[…]
This is where Foldit comes in.
Developed in 2008 by the University of Washington, it is a fun-for-purpose video game in which gamers, divided into competing groups, compete to unfold chains of amino acids — the building blocks of proteins — using a set of online tools.
To the astonishment of the scientists, the gamers produced an accurate model of the enzyme in just three weeks.
The part of the update that slowed your phone down might have been the new version of Motorolla Blur, rather than the updated Android OS. Sometimes the overlays conflict with Android system and cause problems. Either way, that really sucks that they force the update on you. You could root your phone if you really don’t like it.
Does any other android user here have the most recent version of the Android Market? I got it recently and it seems really, really slow. It’s not my connection either because I can use any other app that requires network connection or the internet and they run just fine.
Dr Audley Z Darkheart:
I can cut and paste unrepresentative bits of comments, too!
Yay us!
Dr. Audley Z. Darkheart OM, purveyor of candy and lies says:
:/ (<—– this is my 'in total agreement' face)
PaulG wins the asshat of the day medal for that one.
See that’s where I’m not sure, especially on things like processor. No idea how much I’d use the network, probably not a lot besides text-heavy website reading. I don’t care that much about photo quality, if I want a good picture I’ll use a SLR.
starstuff:
Jesus, I don’t even know what the hell Motorola Blur is. *shakes fist!*
Everyone I know who updated* has dealt with a whole host of problems since then. I’ve been lucky to get away with very minor complaints (my phone locks up frequently, runs slowly, and I don’t like the changes to the web browser).
I really liked my Droid at first, but now, I’m not so sure I’d get another one. Here’s hoping that in another couple of years there will be another smart phone choice out there.
*The older models didn’t force the update.
PaulG:
Except her one-word quote and subesquent commentary was quite representative of the douchebaggery of your entire comment, so your complaint rings hollow.
Paul G:
The quote wasn’t representative of what you had to say? No matter that someone could just fucking scroll up and take a gander at your full doucheyness. But never mind, I’ll quote your full text:
And I stand by what I said. That was mean-spirited for no fucking reason.
Brokensoldier is right: you deserve The Asshat of the Day Award.
Kudos!
@ Therrin:
Well, I guess it comes down to if you want the most up to date phone or not. If you don’t mind being a little behind the times, you might be able to save some money. If you don’t care about unlimited data, I’d suggest Verizon. Sprint is still a good choice though. I can’t bring myself to recommend AT&T, though. They have pretty bad coverage (lots of dropped calls) and their selection of smart phones has never been very good.
If you do come to a decision on service provider soon, you might want to wait a bit to buy a phone and sign a contract. A new batch of phones is coming out in a few months. There are so pretty good improvements, if you’re willing to wait.
@ Dr. Audley:
If it’s only a problem with Droid/Motorolla owners, it might be a problem with Blur. I’ve had both Android 2.2 and 2.3, and they both worked great for me. If you don’t like your Droid, you could get a different smart phone. There are lots of great phones that aren’t by Motorolla. HTC, Samsung, and LG are all pretty good smart phone makers (but be careful with Samsung, and LG is just starting to really get into the smart phone market).
That’s what I thought, first. My second thought was that …., largely because of what he did at the episode’s end.
–
Book!
*confetti*
–
Sorry about my smart phone ranting. I’m really interested in smart phones. Reading up on the latest information about smart phones is a hobby of mine. I was really excited when Therrin brought it up.
I stand by my original comment. To me, Rorshach’s comments read as gloating about his increased traffic gained off the back of a post about Hitchens’s health status.
Therrin: Do you want a physical keyboard?
Starstuff:
Don’t be sorry! It’s useful information.
At this point, I’m not sure if my problem is a hardware or software type of problem. I’m quick to blame the OS ‘cos my problems occurred after the update.
The issues that I’m having don’t appear to be linked to Motorola Blur, since it seems that my phone doesn’t support it (at least according to Motorola’s website). *sigh*
PaulG says:
Petty (and pointless) envy is the only possible reason that you would mistake Rorshach’s obvious surprised elation for “gloating.” So you may very well be standing by your original comment – that still doesn’t change the fact that the massive shadow being thrown off by its towering asshattery is still blocking you out.
Gloating? Really, Paul? Have you ever actually read one of Rorschach’s comments before that one?
I’m more than willing to give Rorschach the benefit of the doubt*– he’s never struck me as someone who would gloat over something as terrible as Hitchen’s death.
So, kudos to you for assuming the worst about everyone, even in pretty tame comments.
*The way I read it was in a tone of amazement (which is totes acceptable), but maybe that’s just me.
@ Dr. Audley
You could take your phone to the Verizon store. They’ll usually take a look at it for free and they might be able to figure it out. If it’s just a software problem, they’ll fix it and it shouldn’t cost anything.
If anyone’s bored of arguing with MRAs, and misses the opportunity to argue about libertarianism instead, I’m currently engaged in a philosophical debate with a libertarian on my blog, after I wrote a (somewhat tl;dr) blog post explaining my own move away from libertarianism and towards liberalism.
starstuff:
Visiting the Verizon store is next on my to-do list. ;)
Hopefully I can get this all sorted out. I really really liked my phone.
Nope. But even if I had, argument from authority isn’t something I subscribe to. “You’re only as good as your most recent action” is more my kind of thing.
A long time ago I thought I wouldn’t care for touch screens, but now I’d be most interested in display space (for viewing webpages), so if a keyboard would take room from that, I’d prefer without.
I don’t need the cutting edge whatever, remember my current phone is 6.5 years old. That’s like older than PZ in tech years.
PaulG doesn’t get it, won’t get, and doesn’t care about the truth, just his own impression he is right.
Rorschach does admire Hitchens. He just started a blog a few months ago, and was amazed at a sudden increase in traffic today. Nothing but a comment or two, so I would hardly call it gloating.
@ Therrin
A physical keyboard wouldn’t take space away from the screen because most of them are sliding keyboards. However, most keyboards on good smart phones aren’t very good (although I’ve heard rumors that the Droid 3 on Verizon will have a good one). Most people with phones with physical keyboards find that they don’t use the physical keyboard and prefer the virtual keyboard. The benefit of virtual keyboards is customizability. You can change the kind of keyboard easily, just by downloading an app. My favorite keyboard available is SwiftKey x, because it has great error correction and can learn from you as you type so it can predict what words you want to use.
Paul G:
*eyeroll* Of course not.
Let me tell you how much I looooooooove n00bs that roll up in here and make unfounded assumptions.
LOL, wut?
You don’t know what “argument from authority” actually means, do you?
Maybe you should learn to read for comprehension before you follow through with this particular personal philosophy.
Also, this doesn’t ever allow for regular human screw ups*. Clearly, you’re not perfect all the time (you’ve been douchey without cause on at least one other thread that I’ve seen today), so why would you even expect that of other people?
Oh right, you’re an ass.
Anyway, I’ve decided that “You’re only as good as your most recent action” applies perfectly to my interaction with you so far, so I’m writing you off as someone who is incapable of comprehending what normal conversation entails.
Kudos!
*Once again, I don’t think Rorschach has anything to apologize for.
PaulG: You were banned under your multiple aliases at the old site, which puts you in a precarious position here. Keep acting like an asshole, you will be gone.
NEW THREAD!
Oooooooooh, snap!