Hey, how about that Sean Faircloth and his plan for a secular America?
(Episode CCLXXIII: An anthem.)
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
Hey, how about that Sean Faircloth and his plan for a secular America?
(Episode CCLXXIII: An anthem.)
speaking of comics, my favorite is reaching a climax.
CALv.1n–who doesn’t know yet that Snoopy killed HOBS–was about to kill Little Orphan Annie but Charlie “Weapon” Brown just showed up in the nick of time…
it’s episode 273 so you might have some catching up to do…
So I had a piece of equipment in at Big Blue Box Electronics store for a warranty replacement. Got the email that it was in this morning, and the headline of it was “Your product is ready, willing, and able… (to be picked up at our location today)!”
I guess I should be glad that I have enthusiastic consent from my equipment?*
*ew?
Chas # 500 “look at the name on the building” was a hint. You know, hints? A nudge towards looking at the final frame and maybe noticing what else there was to see in it?
I can’t help it if mm didn’t get it.
sigh
A hint; of course.
Sorry.
back to shutting up
Good point. Personally I found On Walden Pond so tedious I couldn’t finish it.
Why do you keep bringing this up? It seems that you don’t really understand what descriptivism means in linguistics…
@ Chas
{fixed}:
“Language evolves. Deal with it,
descriptivistsprescriptivists.”/pedant
Chas likes to grouse about the decay of language and he’s upset that he’s been called a prescriptivist.
In anger he’s adopted the strawman position that prescriptivism means nothing is wrong and everything is allowed.
Apparently of all the sciences linguistics is the only one that doesn’t need to deal with empiricism.
Last time Chas brought it up, I tried to explain it to him, but it seems it didn’t stick. Any long-term reader of Language Log should know that descriptivism does not equal Anything goes…
*sigh*
A Dutch (SCP- social cultural planning office)
http://www.scp.nl/content.jsp?objectid=28842 – Article in Dutch- study has found that trust (trustworthy, not necessarily believed to be true) in the established churches has declined from 50 % to 35% in Holland since the last poll (decade?- PDF corrupted, and in Dutch) Below politicians, the justice system. Probable reasons are thought to be the child abuse cases in the Catholic church, but this does not account for the loss of trust in the protestant churches. The growth of evangelical ‘hallelujah’ churches is almost entirely fed by disillusioned conservative protestants, as is most of the new muslim converts (YES, In Holland most muslim coverts originate from conservative christians, or from marriages (like my sister)). The ‘new age’ religions from the 80’s remain almost contained in a slowly aging group. Only 14 % identifies as atheist. The article then becomes more speculative, stating that humans intuitively sense ‘something’ which ought to give their life meaning…
What if the universe is a highly advanced computer simulation, where sentient life consists of embodied sub-routines.
Making things worse, the whole thing was set up and is being run by eighth graders.
BoB
Might be thinking of their childhoods.
Because it can be imagined, it should be seriously considered.
*eyeroll*
Just yankin’ chains.
It amuses me.
(does it really come off as ‘angry’?)
As to what I really think: who cares?
Argh. Apropos of the conversation about different kinds of anarchism, individualism versus collectivism and so on, I discovered that there is an “Anarcho-Monarchism” page on Facebook. Unfortunately, it seems that its authors are dogmatic Randian or Rothbardian wingnuts…
Well, that’s the last time I ever refer to myself as an “anarcho-monarchist”. What a pile of simplistic, historically-illiterate tripe. Gah.
(Isn’t it possible to be an anti-capitalist anarcho-monarchist? If it is, it doesn’t seem like anyone actually espouses that position.)
Actually, I notice that they included “Libertarian Socialists” and “Anarcho-Communalists” on their list. But the rest of the text seems very much geared towards Randians, Rothbardian anarcho-capitalists, and similar types.
@ pelamun
Surely a statement like: “Language evolves. Deal with it…”, would be made by a descriptivist against a prescriptivist? ie Chas’s original comment at #500 is the wrong way round (though I do appreciate the humour intended).
Theophontes,
I’m not familiar with the incident(s) Sili seems to be referring to.
the problem is that every time someone brings up the “ad hominem” thing, Chas does this. Prescriptivism is not necessarily a bad thing, it just becomes an object of derision by linguists when prescriptivists come up with rules that do not adequately reflect actual language use, like the split infinitive rule or stranded preposition etc.
I suppose everyone heard that some guy from Idaho took a potshot or two at the White House, using a cheap rifle. This guy says outright that he is Jesus. He’s the modern Jesus we’ve all been waiting for. A TV station in Boise aired one of the dude’s “I am Jesus” videos, a video in which he also knelt down and begged Oprah to put him on TV.
Dude does look like Jesus, but not the blond surfer version.
Modern Jesus repeats the idiotic line I first read in emails mormons were sending me in one of their unofficial email campaigns with something like 80 recipients for each email. That line is “Obama is the Anti-Christ.”
So, how does Fox News choose to identify this shooter? They are calling him the “Occupy Shooter.”
Rachel Maddow covered this: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#45364217
Fox should be banned from using the word “news” in any way. Fox is the Anti-News force field.
BTW, I received a more direct “Obama is the Anti-Christ” message from one of my brother’s ex-girlfriends. She is a true believing mormon. Part of her proof for the anti-christ designation is a description of Obama’s hand gestures.
The Up With Chris Hayes show aired an exclusive story in which Hayes documented a strategy that lobbyists have devised to target Occupy Wall Street, and to target any politicians who express empathy with Occupy Wall Street.
The lobbyist’s memo outlining their strategy includes the phrase “provide cover for political figures who defend the industry.” In other words, these lobbyists are asking bankers and other Wall Street types for money to fund an a campaign to discredit Occupy, but said campaign is promising to hide the source of the money.
http://upwithchrishayes.msnbc.msn.com/
Look for the video labeled “Story of the Week (Exclusive)…
Wanna bet that Fox News is in on that discredit-Occupy strategy?
Let’s call every crazed shooter, including the pseudo-jesuses, an “Occupy Shooter.”
Wow, this thread is funny, yet sad. It also makes me angry, confused, and so much more. I thank you again, TET.
——
Assuming mythusmage’s “reincarnation” is a true story, that still isn’t evidence of a god. The argument’s missing a piece or two, or else I’m just not following. (Is mythy supposed to be the god, because he reincarnated? It’s a flaw in the matrix or something?)
I’m just going to pretend the argument is: bigfoot exists, therefore “Jesus Christ this is fucking ridiculous.” That makes more sense to me.
Ah, I thought you were greeting us in Tralfamadorian.
Gah.
That was rather special.
I really dislike running into Aspies as self-absorbed and offensively clueless as mythusmage, as it makes me wonder if that’s how I come across.
In other news, I made cheesecake! *offers slices*
mythusmage, when did you begin to remember your previous life? Do you remember more than you’ve described here? Did you remember it all at once, or in bits and pieces (if so, over how long? do you still occasionally remember new things)? Did the first instance of remembering coincide with a significant event in your current life?
Rev BDC @107:
Rev, my son is going to start a new job in December as one of two IT persons for Woot!
I am a proud mother, as my son will be providing IT for some of the internet’s more entertaining presentations of junk, as well as some good stuff, like the Jesus-riding-a-dino shirt.
This morning the back of my hand is an odd purple colour.
I haven’t looked under the dressing yet.
—-
It’s -20°C so we are staying inside and making sausages.
Mythusmage, look at the context in which you did it: immediately after you’d been quite justifiably taken to task for sexist comments. Yes, I know you’ll say you never intended to put anyone down, you support equality of opportunity, yada, yada, yada. As has been said repeatedly here, intent is not magic. The fact that you think you’re not a sexist does not mean you’re not one. Even if you’re not (and judging by this thread, you most certainly are), that doesn’t mean you can’t say or do something sexist. Living in a sexist society, we breathe sexism in all the time.
I left a comment on the Nature thread, anticipating the upcoming story demonstrating that black people have a marvellous sense of rhythm. Tell me, mythusmage, if such a story actually appeared (it won’t of course), would you be able to recognise it as racist?
Hello TET
I just finished reading the MM versus anyone who disagrees edition.
He blames it on Aspergers? Um, thats a lame excuse but whatevs.
Oh I understand now. MM thinks he is Robocop.
——
Late birthday happy wishes to Theophontes and Squidgit(?).
First snowfall is currently happening here. I think I will cook something that requires long slow baking. I have chicken, potatoes, and onions. Anybody have some recipes they care to share?
Some mormons are starting to do what Catholics already do, ignore their Bishops.
So the Church’s handbook says that mormons should consult their Bishop before they have a tubal ligation or vasectomy?
This is so mormon. “Control over everything” being the general principle. It’s odd that most of these mormons are also living on the rabid edge of Republican politics, where all government is bad. They want a theocracy that tells men not to have vasectomies, but they also see “Obama Care” as the Ebil. What an odd, disjointed mix of attitudes.
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/blogsfaithblog/52924468-180/bishop-consult-church-having.html.csp
From an obviously mormon commenter:
From an ex-mormon commenter (mormon version of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell story):
I think they must have a received a little blowback from the no-oral-sex letter.
More cracked input from a mormon:
teehee
Mythusmage,
I could go on, but it seems you have spoiled your welcome with some stupid shit. I can appreciate being obtuse, I miss a lot sometimes, but your insistence on your interpretation of your words is farcical. Damage happens regardless of where you aim, it’s where you hit that matters. Give it a rest, maybe some other day you will see this better and on that day, I would likely play our game again.
___
TLC,
That sounds very scary, my wife has been through three, but I don’t know as she ever had one that large.
___
Chigau,
Ouch, do you know what it hit? Should you be worried about infection? Purple doesn’t sound normal, I hope it’s just an accompanying bruise.
___
Sili,
I should think bacon comes with enough lube on it. Or is this just for the really crispy bits?
Dhorvath
Yes, the purple is bruising.
No worries.
Okay, that’s good then. I have never shown bruising on my hands and it just rang alarms for me.
something about cold air makes my knuckles and fingers extremely sensitive to bumps and scrapes. There’s a reason I prefer my winter hoodies to be at least a size too big for me. My sympathies.
Bigfoot: A forest dwelling, upright-walking primate with very long hair. Bigfoot exists. It’s me.
So did mythusmage just describe a literal reincarnation?
http://garfieldminusgarfield.net/day/2010/01/20
my new favorite garfield minus garfield.
TLC,
What size do you wear? Shoes that is.
I too pull hoody pretty nearly year round, I like to keep my traps well insulated and I get confused without a kangaroo pocket.
Literal? He literally believes it.
I’ve heard this before. Maybe having surface capillaries contract (minimizing both blood flow and heat loss) inhibits healing of the skin?
I just had an attack of ORGANIZE ALL THE THINGS, which is how my Aspiness manifests.
So I sorted my yarn basket. By color, fiber, and weight. It was relaxing.
For some unknown reason, when I shed hair from my head, it aggregates in my yarn basket. Odd.
Dhorvath: Size 8, I think, last time I went shoe shopping. But you know, weather conditions tend to make them look bigger.
For me, it’s the kidneys. I hate the feeling of cold wind going up my lower back.
Eight? I dunno if you quite hit Bigfoot territory then, isn’t that thing supposed to, you know, have big feet?
I’ve loved the Garfield comic strips, and the animated TV series Garfield and Friends, since I was a child.
But I really don’t like Garfield Minus Garfield. It’s so bleak and depressing. :-(
I liked garfield as a kid, until I started noticing the repetitiveness of it.
Give me Calvin and Hobbes any day.
Dhorvath: I’ve always been small compared to my fellow sasquatch.
Thanks for reminding me. :(
Why is it that every single time I find a day planner I like, it gets discontinued the next year? I HATE that.
A couple of weeks ago in lab the students didn’t need much help, so I went to the colored pencil drawer and first sharpened them all, then separated by color, then built little dividers and taped them in the drawer and then arranged the pencils in order of the color spectrum. It felt good.
See, I actually like repetitiveness.
(You may have noticed that from my conversations here. I can quite happily continue debating the same topic intermittently for months on end.)
Walton – try the Garfield as Garfield. A bit more amusing.
I liked bucky about a decade ago, don’t know how it holds up now. Garfield didn’t cut it for me.
I’m offended they’re offended.
MM’s outburst has reminded me that I’ve said some innocuously-funny-in-my-head stuff that, in context, could have been offensive or at the very least obtusely repetetive.
So, erm, sorry. I’m trying not to do it again.
—
ahs @#525, I think I think I see where you’re going but I’m not sure that I think it’s the right engagement model (FWIW).
Yay the shoes I ordered have been delivered! They are sniny and pretty.
I order most of my shoes, as finding a women’s 6, double-wide, that can accommodate high-arch supports is near-impossible in most stores.
I have decent luck in the children’s section (a women’s 6 is a girl’s 4). Since my footgear is usually a mix of ballet flats and sneakers, I do okay. As children’s feet are proportionally wider, I’m only a single-wide in the children’s section, which also adds to the available selection.
But when I want grownup shoes to go with my suit, I can go to 50 stores and leave all of them frustrated, or shop online.
It is very annoying being a grown adult having feet the size of the average 10-year-old.
It didn’t take me long to start finding axe commercials offensive, even before I started enlightening myself.
I’m just glad they’re insulting christians this time as opposed to women (and men, really).
Fun fact:
We have that same commercial for Axe. However, Christians haven’t been offended by angels falling from the sky. There has been a greater cause for offense – the commercial was shot in Split, but it was made to look like the setting was in Italy (people talking Italian). National pride trumps God, it seems.
Re the curry colleges, this comment made me laugh:
The story, however, has been spun so hard you could use it as a gyroscope.
Ha! It appears “Womanspace” author Ed Rybicki wasn’t expecting his personal gravatar to appear with his comment.
I have finally looked up “Womanspace”. The only thing about it that makes me chuckle is the thorough taking down the author is getting in the comment section.
Which if I’m not mistaken is odd since he also claimed to “understand people”. It’s odd to use a condition that has as it’s symptoms “difficulty understanding people” as a defense after that
If it helps to mention, I don’t even know who those people are because no discernible difference has been made manifest to me. Walton as a monarchist comes up more often.
Word.
For reference I called you a bigot because your whole Herman Cain conspiracy revealed that you have a mindset that is prone to bigotry. You don’t know what motivates certain groups but then respond by asserting motivations and characteristics upon them that are irrational and moronic. I correctly guessed that this pattern would not be limited to just liberals and that you do indeed apply the same malicious hallucinations towards other demographics. The fact that you felt that your imaginations of motivation and liberal thought process were superior to any actual claims or testimony from that demographic shows that you simply do not respect certain groups of people. Actually it’s not just that you lack respect, you openly denigrate them and either don’t realize it or don’t care because hey, it’s no one important.
I doubt it. He displays the Crank Magnetism
Formal Concern trolling is to pose as group Y when you are opposed to Y and tell them why Y should do what you say for the good of group Y.
A broader definition is informal concern trolling which is where someone complains about tone because of an honest concern about the message being lost in the presentation. This one I think CAN be justified but more often here we see it manifest as just petulant hand wringing.
That’s where the humor comes from! it’s re-contextualizing humor; taking something that has a reputation for zaniness or humor and turning it depressing by changing the context thus causing mental dissonance that is interpreted as lulz! It’s the same sort of humor of the Downfall parody videos. Taking something that the viewer instantly identifies as it should be dramatic and adding humor subtitles.
Is Womanspace analogous to Hammerspace?
Can I store absurdly large things there?
Is it a portable, invisible TARDIS?
Oh Salty, isn’t that just. . .just? So completely predictable and true to type.
Oh, and the unsuccessful sockpuppeting. That was worth more than just a chuckle. I almost felt sorry for him. Rereading the article cured me of that particular affliction.
I’m not too crazy about the alternative, either.
====
Is that why you got out of your previous line of work? That sure must suck. I have a slight tinnitus (not diagnosed, it’s just that my ears ring a bit when it’s very quiet); I wouldn’t want to experience the full blown version — I’ve heard of people driven to suicide by it.
SC,
I mistakenly addressed a reply to Janine above which was in response to your question about Brian Greene. I just finished the program and it’s a fair approximation in the second half as well. My thanks for linking it, I quite enjoyed it.
Esteleth says:
I’m pretty sure we usually refer to that as a “womb”.
Sili,
The uterus has a finite capacity. It can barely hold more than 20 lbs.
Oh, and the exit is awkwardly placed.
Hardly TARDIS-like.
A utardis. Now that would make Doctor Who a whole different show.
SQB: might even get me watching it.
That sounds like the wet dream of many a Quiverfuller.
But that would make Dr. Who a different show. But of course the question must be asked: would the utardis be a thing that the Doctor has and carries around but is not of him, or is it a body part? Profound implications of the latter…
Debbie Who does Dallas?
SC:
Hahahahahahahahaha. Poor Disappointed. Now he’ll be even more disappointed.
Sili,
A utardis would be pretty useless there. A vtardis would be just the ticket.
“Oh, are you The Doctor? I’m bigger on the inside.”
Craig Ferguson with Matt Smith and the dude who’s dating the girl who plays Amy Pond. Bit is around 11:30.
And, because it needs to be mentioned every time Dr. Who is mentioned: the lost cold open from that night’s show. Unforgettable.
The triumph of intellect and romance over brute force and cynicism!
Dammit, Sally, you made me squirt beer out of my nose!
D: D:
It was Rare Vos. Tragic waste of beer.
*scuttles off to get damp paper towel*
Esteleth:
Now I’m reminded of Into the Wild Green Yonder…vagenius! vagyroscope!
As a means of debunking, maybe not, but I’m trying to do a case study here. I suspect he’s beyond hope of debunking anyway. I really just want the answers to those questions, and maybe a few more, depending on his reply.
Wow. It’s a long time since I’ve watched Doctor Who. I used to like it, but it was never my favourite TV show. (I’m more of a Star Trek type.)
Apropos of nothing… is it just me, or does the early darkness at this time of year accentuate the “OMG I’ve just wasted most of the day doing nothing when I should have been working!!!” feeling? (Though perhaps I suffer from said feeling more chronically than most.)
I loved Into the Wild Green Yonder. And not just as comedy either, I really really enjoyed it on a serious level.
Life and diversity are pretty much the only true beauty I comprehend.
ChasCPeterson says:
The smaller the stakes, the stronger the rhetoric.
(More like sour grapes, actually.)
Yeah… I understand the point. It’s just not my thing. I love the innocence and escapism of the real Garfield comics.
Boy, the groupthink is THICK in here today!
@Esteleth – dammit, gimme some of that beer. Else I will make you squirt it out your nose again.
Walton: it’s not just you.
SQB, it didn’t develop until the last few years and I’ve been out of the music bidnez for about 15 years. It’s not constant, and at least it’s musical tinnitus.
Having a loud pure tone constantly echoing thru my head would drive me nuts.
Au contraire. I take strong exception to that claim. In fact, even thinking such a thing makes you a jackbooted thug in the service of the Freethoughtblogs Stalinist Overlords.
I contend that glarble warble boo boo quaaaaack. SQUEAK.
Also, penguins.
Thank you. I’ll be here all week. Please address complaints, suggestions and prayers by first-class post as follows:
The Right Hon’ble the Viscount Walton of Whatsuppedock, B.A. Hons. (Oxon.), O.M., K.W.I.M., W.T.F., &c.
c/o The Very Reverend and Mrs Archangel Gabriel, D.D.
The Foot of the Celestial Throne in the Gardens of Paradise
111A Weatherby Crescent
Basingstoke
Hampshire
United Kingdom
[postcode omitted, since it might help the Illuminati track my movements]
Yes. It’s not even 5 yet, and outside it looks like about 8pm. Argh.
(Sorry. Not sure where that came from. I haven’t even consumed any intoxicating substances, except Diet Mountain Dew.
Perhaps I’ve been watching too many Monty Python sketches of late.)
Whatsuppedock? Kind of whiny place you live, eh?
Walton: Replace “Garfield” with “Calvin and Hobbes” and I’d be inclined to agree with you.
Fact is I just find Garfield boring. John leaves some food out on a table with a stern warning not to touch it. Garfield says something sarcastic. And then he eats the food. High-lairious.
Au contraire. A peer’s title need not reflect his actual place of residence. In the instant case, the village and estate of Whatsuppedock in rural Herefordshire, once the property of the Marquess of Llanfairwhatinhellisthatsheepdoinginhere*, were abandoned in 1882 after the Rain of Frog.**
(*A Welsh nobleman.)
(**It was only one frog.)
Don’t apologize, Walton. That was indeed Pythonesque, and mighty entertaining to boot.
Next time you feel the urge to write something about monarchism, you could just do something like that instead. ;)
(My apologies. I appear to have momentarily lost my grip on reality.)
What was innocent or escapist about Garfield? It’s a comic about a cynical cat who lives with a lonely annoying guy who can’t get a date and talks to his cat.
It’s so… boring!
Disclaimer: I hated comics, funnies, and many cartoons as a child. The ones I hated the most actually though were the family ones: family circus, that one with the two kids who always say smarmy things to each other. The thing I hate about them now is all the memories of me reading a comic strip and then thinking “uh… so… ” only to have it explained to me. Yeah, I get it. I mean I get the gist. To me it’s like some one told me a story such as “I waited for the bus at the bus stop and then after 15 minutes the bus came at 2:15. I started waiting at 2. And fifteen minutes later… I got on the bus.”
“That’s nice. So…”
“So nothing! I got on the bus!”
Some times I think people honestly like to read things where they already know the end. The way people like to listen to a piece of music they could have written themselves from memory if they’d bothered.
Eh, I say let Walton have and hold his innocent and whimsical Garfield. Comics, an area where each to their own seriously holds.
Indeed. I dare you to find someone not bickering.
I agree Caine. However, I still like Calvin and Hobbes better.
One of my favorite things about it was how Bill Watterson threw himself into those awesome dinosaur illustrations for Calvin’s fantasies as soon as he learned about the new science about how dinosaurs probably looked. It’s not just that he knew kids loved dinosaurs, it’s that he knew kids would love his dinosaurs MORE if he made them as realistic as possible.
Whatever it is, keep it up!
In
dismayhonor of the snow and the darkness.Jingle Bells – Slaying version”
Well, a youth spent watching educational documentary series, like this hard-hitting exposé of palace life and the relationship between royalty and the media, encouraged my pro-monarchist leanings from a young age. Of course, the naysayers and sceptics may accuse the filmmakers of taking a little dramatic licence with history; but as the great philosopher Andrew Sullivan has highlighted, what is real is not necessarily what is true, and we should value narratives that convey a higher and more profound truth about the human condition.
Reality was overrated anyway.
When I was a kid I liked watching that show where they film people’s surgery. Really fascinating, but the facelift (of all things) kind of squicked me for life and I’ll probably never have one.
(I seem to be in the process of turning into a parody of myself.
Hey, scientists! Isolation and caffeine go in; incomprehensible streams of consciousness come out. You can’t explain that.)
Walton, I like the whimsical, keep it up! (I just get SAD about the day length. I have an OTT Lite which I think helps, if only thru placebo effect.
+++++++++++++
I’m currently watching Last Play At Shea, basically the Billy Joel story. It’s really well done.
I will always miss being a live sound engineer. It was, to borrow a phrase from our Xians, a calling. There is nothing like having work that can make the hair on your arms and neck stand up thru sheer awesomeness … and knowing you are a part of it.
My current work is very gratifying, especially the health care and retirement, but it’s just a job.
Can i play?
Christmas lights – Slayer version
For those who may be bored on a Saturday afternoon and in need of fresh meat: You are cordially invited to play with a sock puppet in the comments on my piece about a pathetic and sexist piece of fiction. Enjoy!
Walton:
Said feeling? You mean SAD feeling. :)
consciousness razor,@522
You’ve got a point, there could be reincarnation and no God. The two don’t have to go together.
Dana Hunter: Thank you, this is incredibly fun.
Eddie’s malicious enough to not feel sorry for, and stupid enough to mock with ease.
Just my kinda guy. ;)
(sigh)
The Sailor made the joke earlier (and better) and I missed it.
ahs, #525
I guess I’ve always remembered, as far back as I can remember.
Except for when I was about 10 months old, when I was pretty much in the now. (Yes, I’m one of those rare people who can remember incidents that far back. And that largely because my mother reminded me. :) )
Wow, my new antidepressant must be working better than I thought. I was able to take photos like this one and this one and only want to stab people just a little bit.
The new trailer is out for the Doctor Who Christmas special!
Tethys, #529
You know better. You have a firm grasp of English composition and a working brain, you’re just being snarky and obfuscating
mythusmage, go fuck yourself and stop polluting this thread. I showed restraint in not piling on earlier, but you have crossed the line so many times and so egregiously that I just hate your stupid shit. Get OUT!
Coyote, #535
Seems that way to me.
Benjamin, those are, IMHO, excellent photos. The joy you seem to have captured in that moment, and the quality of the pics? Most excellent.
Venting: Every time I try to save money on household needs, some other necessary service gets jacked up to cancel it. Over the years, I have insulated the ducts, put plastic on the windows, installed honeycomb shades. More recently I stopped using the clothes dryer and buying paper towels and not using the dry cycle on the dishwasher. The upstairs rooms are closed off in the winter and there are draft thingies at all their bottoms. Also installed a door to husbeast’s study, so that could be closed off in winter, too, and the heat wouldn’t be sucked upstairs. My utility bills dropped from $415 a month to $282. Patted myself on the back. Success at last. Yesterday got a notice that husbeast’s COBRA was going up from $729.68 to $771.55 a month. A great wanking $500 increase per year. They also sent along a separate form with very clear instructions on how to terminate if you wished. Are they kidding? That coverage is the only thing standing between us and bankruptcy. so we have to pay for it no matter what. Without that coverage, one drug alone (Rilutek) would be $1000 a month, so yes, we are an expensive consumer and I’m sure they would love to get rid of us as husbeast’s total drug costs are close to $20,000 a year. I can’t win. Monday, a company that leases solar panels is coming to explain how their program works. I don’t care if they get the Federal and state subsidies; I don’t care if they get the SRECS, I just want to see if my electric bill will go down. I’d be happy with $30 a month. And no, I would never consider getting rid of the cat.
MM
I did make a snarky joke at your expense. Not sure what I’m trying to obfuscate? I don’t really care to engage with your whining on TET so I try to provide some laughs for everyone else.
Careful Tethys, remember that disliking MythusMage is a form of bigotry. Especially if you’re a woman.
Sailor, #613
You don’t have the right to not be offended.
Lee, I’m so sorry, that sucks beyond belief. I hope the solar panels work out really, really well!
Hmm, I’d thought I’d already lost my goodwill towards MythusMage, but apparently I was wrong, there was more goodwill to lose.
Have you absolutely no self awareness at all?
@ahs, #576, I understand, but I worry about the potential to do harm.
Tethys:
Which is just fine, as mm is a joke. I killfiled him, as all he’s interested in doing is wanking in public. Too close to hogglin’, ya know?
Ah shit Lee, that is terrible. Healthcare for profit is an abomination.
My sympathies, Lee. There’s something sick about people’s health being bought and sold like a ‘product’.
@ Lee
You should never have to consider getting ride of your cat just so you can pay for the necessities. I’m sorry you have to go through that. I wish we could actually have a healthcare system that works for everyone in this country.
I was raised on Your Life In Their Hands. Hence my fascination with the workings of the body, which still gets me into trouble now and then.
Pop quiz: What’s poo made of?
How does food become poo?
Darn you to heck. Yet another time suck.
What the hell? I take a staycation and Walton cracks up! Now I’ll never be able to take a staycation again!
(No, don’t try to tell me it is not related. Everything is interlinked. I have 2.5 cats. Garfield is a cat. Remove the cat and Walton has a psychotic break because I was on staycation. It all fits. Really.)
Not to worry. All the world loves a parody.
Well, not really. Some people don’t like strong Italian cigars like Parodi’s.
Am I babbling?
Fantastic.
Just out of curiousity, did you give any to Walton?
==============
Hi, all.
Poo is, as far as I know, a mixture of digested food remains, dead white blood cells, and intestinal bacteria.
Somewhere I remember hearing it was something called ‘Bilirubin’ that makes poop brown.
But can anyone tell me why turds are tapered at the end?
Benjamin – “How does food become poo?”
It’s alimentary, my dear Watson.
Will those with a shit fetish please take it elsewhere?
DW, Bill Bailey, and the whole Narnia thing? Ooooooohkaaaaayyyy.
@Benjamin, it’s a little more complicated, and interesting, than that. ;)
On the radio now: The Cure. Not linking. Take from that what you will.
Hey, Ogvorbis. How ya doin’? Was the staycation good?
Because we have sphincters? Aerodynamic stability? To achieve that coveted dirigible-like quality? So we can tell them apart from GOP teabaggers?
Been fun. I’ve baked bread, made homemade General Tso’s Chicken, went to our local high school’s district championship game (they won) and announced for the band, took a day trip to the Catskills and discovered that half the roads I wanted to take were still closed, and right now, I’m watching Criminal Mimes, playing CivIII, and relaxing.
A: Mostly bacteria.
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/2011/03/31/the-human-lake/
I find this incredibly fascinating.
And I am using MSWord to compose my comments. And Spell Check is evil. I am watching Criminal Minds, not criminal mimes.
Ogvorbis:
Oooh, sounds yummy.
:falls over laughing: Now that’s a good offering. If that was the actual show, I might watch it. Well, I’d watch if the mimes were dealt with a la Vetinari.
mythusmage?
Oh, sorry. That’s the answer to “What’s made of poo?”
Changeable Moniker: That is fascinating.
Ah, an old A&P joke. So your external anal sphincter doesn’t slam shut.
Oggie, I ate at a Chinese buffet today and had General Tso’s Chicken. And salad, and soup, and desert.
I assume it’s authentic because everyone else in the place was Asian. (We have a large Asian population in my Uni town.)
I could have chosen to eat at Indian, Ethiopian, Mexican, Italian, ‘Merican and others to numerous to mention restaurants.
I really need to go grocery shopping.
The Sailor:
Save for some of the banquet dishes, there is amazing variability in Chinese dishes — even those with the same ingredients and names. Add to that regional (and even town-to-town) availability of ingredients, spices, even the way soy sauce is brewed, can create wild differences in the ‘same’ dish.
Mine is based, loosely, on the recipe from our local take-out joint. The secret is white pepper.
Well O)g, a mime is a terrible thing to waste.
mythusmage:
Okay. I’d like to rephrase my questions, then. Please substitute some form of “when did you notice these memories becoming important and meaningful to your life now?” wherever potentially applicable.
You can reply at my wiki talk page if you want.
+++++
changeable moniker:
To his reputation? That’s all the potential harm I can see here. He already believes this stuff. He knows I don’t believe it. However he acquired them, these are now long-seated false memories, not the product of an immediate psychotic state.
+++++
So, mythusmage, do keep your reputation in mind.
What’s everyone reading these days? I’ve recently read:
Science Ink, Carl Zimmer
The Complaints, Ian Rankin
The Poisoner’s Handbook, Deborah Blum
Horrifyingly Mad: more than 50 years of classic strips to scare you silly!, The Usual Gang of Idiots
and I’m starting the Portable Atheist, Christopher Hitchens.
@ahs, to his mental health.
Jurrasic West: The Dinosaurs of the Morrison Formation by Foster
1632 by Eric Flint
Snuff by Terry Pratchett
Death and Restoration by Iain Pears
The World at the End of Time by Frederick Pohl
And those are just the ones I’m reading now.
Just got done with Snuff. Really liked it. It retreads a few major themes, but after 40 books or so that’s bound to happen.
That’s progress.
After the whole Bigfoot and reincarnated Korean war veteran, does he have any reputation left? :P
Benjamin, those photos are gorgeous. Glad to hear the medicine seems to be helping.
Cameron over on the genocide thread is really tweaking my tits. How does anyone even think it’s ok to eradicate the children of a society for their crime of abusing those very children in a genocide? It’s absolutely disgusting how these people think it’s ok to basically slaughter everyone in sight because of supernatural taint.
Caine, I’m a big fan of Ian Rankin.
He’s a might dark. But I’ll still recommend Tim Dorsey. I need some lightness in my life.
I’m currently re-reading a Dudley Pope novel about 18th Century British naval sailing ships. I loves me some nautical fiction.
I have 3 books by Tim Dorsey on my wait list.
(Have I mentioned that I admire book stores but I have a heart on for my public library?)
I recently read Snuff too. I enjoyed it, but really missed the vibe of the other Watch books. It couldn’t even begin to hold a candle to Night Watch. The goblin focus of the last two books has been okay, but I’d rather see more on established (even if minor) characters. I was intrigued to see Mightily Oats back in Snuff, even if it was a mere mention.
Moab is my Washpot by Stephen Fry
Planet Word by J.P. Davidson
rereading my Larry Nivens from the ’70s and ’80s.
Just Started The Miles Davis Reader
Getting ready to read The Beekeepers’ Lament
“The World at the End of Time by Frederick Pohl”
Did Frederick Pohl ever write anything that wasn’t excellent? Thanks, another writer I need to re-read.
Walton: Please consider linking next time to a different article about Sonia Burgess. While the Guardian reporter is obviously sympathetic to Burgess and trying to pick her words carefully, she doesn’t seem to me to be very educated on transgender issues.
Sonia Burgess may still have portrayed herself as “David” in her professional life, but she was a woman. Being “in the closet,” as it were, didn’t make her a man any more than being in the closet makes a cisgender lesbian straight. The phrase “double life” implies she was doing something sketchy, rather than trying to survive. And, even though the reporter mentions that media coverage using male pronouns to refer to Sonia upset her friends, the reporter then goes right ahead and does the same thing, calling her “David” and writing, “he had chosen to live as a woman.”
Then there’s the speculation that Sonia’s gender identity situation arose from having an absent father. WTH, is this the 1970s? And the use of “homosexual” rather than “gay,” not to mention the “friend” who called his college friends “an effete crowd.” (And he’s confusing effete, meaning played out, with effeminate, for that matter.) And the word “transvestism,” when there was more going on than the simple desire of a man to wear women’s clothing.
Beatrice, re “ladies” – no, you’re entirely right. It’s a red flag. The terms “lady” and “gentlemen” are bound up with all sorts of nasty assumptions about gender and class. I’m not surprised to see that MucusMage likes them. Nor am I surprised that he lards his comments with pretentious terms like “old chap,” references to Zen koans, and oblique and approving references to Jeebus.
“Aspers”Asperger’s doesn’t explain that. It’s just douchery.KG and ahs: I appreciate the non-worshipful discussion of Thoreau. Vastly overrated man. Every pretentious, privileged knob in the Boston area has a hard-on for him. The one to whom I link, Wen Stephenson, is also a fan of the odious Wendell Berry.
Ing: Humor’s so idiosyncratic. The Untergang parody videos are hilarious to me, but I find Gw/oG sad and creepy. Then again, I have no idea what Walton means by “the innocence” of the real Garfield comics (sorry, Caine, I feel a SIWOTI attack coming on). The jokes were getting stale 30 years ago. Dumb jokes can be funny, mean jokes can be funny, but jokes that are mean and dumb are pathetic. Davis should have taken a cue from Bill Watterson.
For everyone else with seasonal affective disorder: A full-spectrum lamp is very helpful.
Changeable Moniker: “Pop quiz: What’s poo made of?” MythusMage. What do I win?
I’m currently reading Why People Believe Weird Things by Michael Shermer
I recently finished On a Pale Horse by Piers Anthony (for the second time) and before that I read Timequake by Kurt Vonnegut.
The Sailor:
I like dark. That said, The Complaints is the start of a new set of books, and the characters are considerably different from those of his previous works. This book was much quieter, but still an engrossing read.
Rev. BDC:
Oh, that went straight onto the B&N wishlist for Mister. He and his brew partner want to start keeping bees next year. Thanks!
Carlie,
Not funny to wombats.
Oh, I also read Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill. For a ghost story, it wasn’t bad.
Caine, if those Ian Rankin books come to my library I’ll read them. He’s a fucking incredible writer.
He got me entranced with his Inspector Rebus series and I don’t care for cops or Scotland.
YW. Hope they have better luck than I did their first year. Charleston County Mosquito Abatement decided I wouldn’t have good luck.
Trick or Treatment by Simon Singh and Edzard Ernst
The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson (finally!)
In Evil Hour by G.G. Márquez
Caine,
Oh, I just re-read Night Watch, as it happens. (One of the few books I was able to bring with me from England.) Along with Thud!, it’s probably the best of the Vimes series.
Oh yes… the Quite Reverend Mightily Oats. I enjoyed pTerry’s dig at the pretentiousness of Anglican and Catholic church titles here in Roundworld.*
(*In real life, an Anglican archbishop is styled “The Most Reverend” and addressed as “Your Grace”, a bishop is “The Right Reverend”, the dean of a cathedral chapter is “The Very Reverend”, an archdeacon is “The Venerable”, a canon is “The Reverend Canon”, and so on. And the Catholic hierarchy is even more complex, what with cardinals, vicars apostolic, honorary prelates, transitional deacons and so on. I remember Rorschach once found the title of Primate of All Ireland to be particularly amusing.)
I haven’t read Snuff yet, though I’m looking forward to it very much; waiting to see whether any of my relatives have bought it for me for Christmas. I guess I’ll find out next week when I go home for my graduation.*
(*Yes, my graduation ceremony for my bachelor’s degree. Which I finished a year-and-a-half ago. Oxford has a very strange and arcane system of organizing degree ceremonies.**)
(**The university’s attitude to most administrative matters seems to be “We’ve been doing it this way for several centuries; why would we want to change it just because of silly modern ideas like efficiency and time-saving?”)
Ms. Daisy Cutter
2nd place ;)
see #640
Oh my! Ed Rybicki’s sister has shown up on Dana’s blog to tell us that we’re bitter, full of hatred, that it saddens her, that her brother has accomplished more in his life than any of us, that she can’t understand why we we’re hating so hard on Someone Published In Nature, and that we should direct or anger to fighting Wall Street.
Have fun here:
https://proxy.freethought.online/entequilaesverdad/2011/11/18/dear-nature-there-is-a-crucial-difference-between-being-contentious-and-being-a-misogynistic-asshole/#comment-31417
The Sailor:
I take it that he writes unbelievable stuff.
Just finished this : The Extravagant Universe it was more compelling than I had expected.
I understand what you mean, and I apologize if it was insensitive. (I did find the shifting pronouns jarring; I thought about adding a comment to that effect when posting the link, but I wasn’t sure what to say.)
I agree with you entirely that the writer, while clearly well-intentioned and sympathetic, was a bit clueless. I haven’t come across a better article thus far, though; although her death did receive some coverage elsewhere (including on pro-LGBT blogs), I haven’t found anywhere else that went into anything like the level of detail about Burgess’ biography and legal career. And I felt it was important to celebrate her life and achievements as well as talking about her death; she was an inspirational person, and a groundbreaking human rights lawyer, who should not be forgotten.
Again, I’m sorry if it was insensitive or caused any offence. It wasn’t my intention at all.
chigau, I saw #640. ;) Your blockquote’s borked, though, I think.
Walton:
Rorschach isn’t alone in that. Makes me giggle. :D
I’m reading through the Dark Tower series again.
I very much can’t wait for the movie. I just hope it doesn’t turn out like other Stephen King movies.
Morales, yep, you got me there. Ian Rankin is a credible writer.
Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States (this has been the year to read this)
Jeremy Paxman, The English, a Portrait of a People
Roberts & Kynaston, City State, a contemporary history of the City of London and how money triumphed
And some stuff strange gods linked about Melanesians.
Sorry, no Pratchett. I haven’t read Pratchett since Good Omens, which was great.
Josh:
I just replied to ‘Meg’. It’s amazing that Ed, Meg and Disappointed Too all write the same stuff in the same way. Amazing, I tells ya.
Oh lord, Caine – I hadn’t even stopped to consider that (naive, I know). It’s just such a psychologically foreign concept to me that anyone would be inclined to sockpuppet, let alone in such obvious ways that will only end in ignominy, that I can barely make myself believe it. Srsly.
Interestingly, the title has its origins in a rather petty intra-church power struggle. Usually, in the Catholic Church, a Primate is the highest-ranking archbishop in a country. But in medieval Ireland, there was a longstanding rivalry between the Archbishops of Armagh (whose see was believed to have been founded by Saint Patrick) and the Archbishops of Dublin, both of whom claimed to be the rightful Primate of Ireland. After centuries of dispute, the Pope eventually settled it in 1353 by giving the title of Primate to both of them, but ordering that the Archbishop of Armagh should be styled “Primate of All Ireland” while that of Dublin would be just “Primate of Ireland”. These titles continue to be used today.
For similar reasons, the same situation exists in the Church of England (having been inherited from the Catholic Church in the pre-Reformation era): the Archbishop of Canterbury is “Primate of All England”, while the Archbishop of York is just “Primate of England”.
Josh:
Oh, it’s ridiculous. Some of the sentences are exactly the same, the content in general is the same and the whole not an ellipsis ellipsis (……….) crap. Oy.
I did just about fall over laughing when it came to the one original bit, about being honoured to have popped out of the same mum as dear old Ed. :eyeroll:
Walton:
Still making me giggle, Walton. :D
Josh: I know, I feel the same way. I don’t WANT to believe the obvious, I want to assume they can’t be that thick, but the fact remains that Eddie, Disappointed Too, and ‘Meg’ have all been singing the exact same tune.
“y’all are just jealous” ironically sounded way less stupid when I heard it on the Maury Povich show.
The Sailor, sorry, I was just riffing on the vagaries of language, not trying to chide you.
(You didn’t misuse the term, and I wasn’t actually calling you out)
Oh, and Coyote, you’ve been cracking my shit up over on that thread!
That is just hilarious. “Meg”, yah sure. Every sister’s dream is to defend her brother’s sexist dreck–which he admits himself is badly written, he just thinks people suck for taking it too seriously. In other words, yeah it was terrible, but SHUT UP about it being terrible because you’re losers who take things too seriously!
Unbelievable that assholes get paid to spout such nonsense.
Rev. BDC:
What happened?
Hey Josh – check your text messages!
Thanks Josh. I’m truly enjoying myself.
Sally:
That’s the thing though, if it weren’t for Henry Gee, that piece of crap would have hit the circular file.
Morning all. I love this new joking Walton. I hope you’re getting better, Caine.
I’ve been reading Connie Willis’ Blackout. I’m a bit disappointed in it. It’s like she’s a parody of her former funny self, and is now only mildly amusing. The whacky misunderstandings and failed connections are too predictable. And it’s incomplete, with book 2 to come. I don’t yet have All Clear, but I expect I’ll read it to see how the characters get out of the scrapes that they’re in.
If you haven’t read any Connie Willis, don’t let this put you off. Read “To Say Nothing of the Dog” which is hilarious. “Doomsday” is good, too, though much blacker – it’s about the black death, and features some good mediaeval history and language. (As far as I can tell: IANAH.) They’re both time travel novels, featuring historians rather than scientists.
Next fiction plan: rereading some Octavia Butler.
Also, I’m part way through Cordelia Fine’s Delusions of Gender.
And I’m not sure you can call this reading, but I’m dipping into the awesomest coffee table book ever: Periodic Table of the Elements. Go look, much of it’s online. It’s based on this periodic table table. (Not a typing error, it is a “table table”. Go look. You’ll be glad you did.)
Well, I’ve had a lovely evening tonight. I had friends over for dinner.
Then I rather foolishly way he’d a show about compulsive hoarding and scrubbed my kitchen.
Now, tea.
The tea cart’s over there. I got some muffins and leftover cheesecake as well.
Total, sudden, hive death.
Alethea:
Awesomeness.
Rev. BDC:
Because they were spreading poison around?
Boy, threaded commenting is annoying.
I’m glad we whined it down here.
Oh, Sally, for sure! Just remind me as it gets closer. . .I forget dates a lot:)
Here’s the hypothesis that a few beekepeers and myself have com up with.
Mosquito abatement sprays the area my hive was in. This is known
My hive was not strong due to queen issues early in the season.
The spraying weakens the hive more.
I had just fed the hive preparing them for winter, so there was a lot of sugar water and bee stimulant.
Another hive robbed my hive (this is very common) of the sugar water killing / weakening bees in the process.
The weakened hive could not defend
The combo of no food, pesticide, weak hive, possible queen death as a result of any of the above caused a quick and massive hive kill.
It sucks, but it was an enjoyable season learning.
I’m ordering bees for two hives this year soon.
Tonight’s bread triumph: sourdough no-knead rosemary and olive boule. Mmm, mm!
John, I keep reading your Coco goddist as Croco goddist.
I am so easily amused.
Chimpie – I’m irrationally terrified of bees (yes, even honeybees). I must know; do they really *not* sting you when go to collect the honey? By what means is that accomplished?
Just wanted to stop here to clear something up. My nym is spelled d-j-f-a-v, not d-i-f-a-v! It’s happened in three different threads now. Damn italics.
And just to drive home the dj part, here is a set dedicated to the horde. Please don’t bring my site to it’s knees. :p
I had a bee adventure recently. They were lovely bees, I could stand right next to their hive and they would just fly around me. Bees usually only sting if there’s a threat. The beekeeper who came to take them away did it after dark when they were sleepy, and then added smoke as a sedative. She also told me that bees do not like you if you are wearing black or brown – some instinct about defending the hive from bears. So the white outfits are traditional for a reason.
They really do breed bees for their temper. I could open my hive with no gloves and not get stung. Very docile.
They just don’t seem to give a shit.
This does not apply to wild bees. Though honey bees really are only defensive around their hive. When they swarm it’s the safest time to be around them. You can scoop them up with your hands and not get stung.
I’m afraid of wasps.
Honeybees and bumblebees are pretty cool though. No honeybee has ever got in my face, tried to land on my food, invited itself to a barbecue, or stung me.
Bumblebees like to buzz and divebomb me, but it’s just an act and they can be reasonable once you demonstrate you aren’t a threat.
There’s just no reasoning with wasps.
Rev. BDC:
Shit, that sucks. I hope it goes better for you the second time around.
It’s not so easy for abatement programs to spray around here. If people don’t want that shit near their property, they have to stay away and make sure any spray is a specific distance and all that. There’s been no spraying in Almont for years, since the last time it was done there was a major fuck up and the local turtle population was killed off.
Mister and his partner will set up on his partner’s property, which is very large and outside New Salem, so they have no worries on the pesticide front. Here, you can also apply for use of PLOTS land, many of which are planted with a couple different types of clover. A lot of beekeepers utilize PLOTS Spring to Fall. It’s protected and extremely rural.
Rev.
Sorry to hear about the bees. I like bees. Especially the big fuzzy bees (I can do without wasps, hornets and yellowjackets, though). Wife even pets wild bees.
No, there is no reasoning with wasps!
Interesting, Rev., about them being bred for temperament. I hadn’t even considered that kind of selection was possible. What’s the swarming behavior about? I know Google is my friend, but it’s more entertaining to hear it from you.
Chigau, #670: Damn. I do tend to skim TET somewhat due to eyestrain….
Walton, #674: Thanks. I agree that at least the reporter did try to honor Burgess’ life and accomplishments. Perhaps, though, there might be a post of remembrance on a specifically transgender blog or other website that is better about the language…?
Josh, #681: Some people still haven’t figured out this whole series of tubes thing. Reading various links about the Nature drama led me to this old Isis post about Henry Gee. She mentions that people on the Nature Network have no idea how Web 2.0 social networking works; they confuse Twitter hashtagging with “talking in some type of private backchannel.”
Sally, #688: Of course, “Meg” is yet another sockpuppet. That said, there is no shortage of women who will step up to defend “their Nigels” against accusations of sexism.
Coco is a wasp?
The most aggressive insect I have ever experienced were some Bald Faced Hornets in Eastern Oregon. And their sting is excrutiating.
I’m reading The Disappearing Spoon. Pretty entertaining, so far.
When a hive feels threatened, “claustrophobic” (anthropomorphising) and some other reasons the hive will swarm.
The queen will start to release pheromones that lets the hive know she is planning on swarming. The workers will start creating “swarm cells” that are basically new queen cells.
At some point the queen will leave taking half the hive with her to find a new home for the hive.
The half that stays behind will raise the larvae in the swarm cells into a queen.
The swarm will then fly off to find a new home. They’ll often land on any surface as a huge bee ball while “scouts” look for a sufficient home.
You’ve probably heard of large dense clouds of bees flying around, that’s a swarm that’s looking for a new home.
The queen is in the middle of that ball of bees.
Meanwhile the old hive is raising new queens, one of which will be victorious and will then fly off to mate with drones in the area and start producing her brood.
that might be a bit disjointed as I’ve been working for almost 40 ours straight with a 5 hour break, and now I’m drinking heavily.
Josh, I have good reason to be terrified of bees, I have an anaphylactic reaction to being stung. On top of that, bees have always been attracted to me and I’ve never figured out why. I don’t wear perfume, I wear neutral colours outside, all that jazz and still, they won’t leave me alone.
Mister spent decades trying to get me to calm down around bees, telling me what Alethea said, that if you aren’t threatening them, they don’t sting.
What finally got me over my fear was photography. Yep. I wanted the photos bad enough that it didn’t matter. Bombus Ternarius* are my faves to shoot and they are surprisingly mellow.
*Pics 2, 7 & 8 here.
Ms. Daisy Cutter – Oh yes, I was around for the last round of Gee’s asshattery. I was one of the participants in his ridiculous “ubermensch” temper tantrum here. My, it is funny how goddamned tubez-illiterate they are. Reminds me of men of a certain age I have occasion to have to work with who claim they can’t figure out how to attach a file to email, so I get notes from their secretaries. Jeezis.
Chimpie – See, that was fascinating. Thank you!
Caine – Oh, you do have much to worry about with bees, legitimately. I don’t have a reaction, just a psychological fear induced by having been stung in the ear and on the eyelid.
Caine:
I strongly suspect some of us release olfactory chemicals that are attractive to certain kinds of insects. I’m a huge target for mosquitoes, bees. . even houseflies like to dive for my head while other people in the room are noticeably not targeted. No, I have no way of verifying this is true, but it strikes me as at least plausible.
Ogvorbis: If there is a literal satan, verily he taketh the form of a Bald Faced Hornet.
Rev. BigDumbChimp: I’m gonna assume there is no good answer to this question, but how do the bees decide who stays at the old hive and who follows the swarm?
I wish i knew. Bee “society” is fascinating. Really. It is so complex. The more I learn the more amazing it is to me.
Hmm…A lot of people consider mimes criminals…Still haven’t seen Wednesday’s episode…Time to…
Condolences on your Hive Rev. BDC. Hope things go better next year.
Dang, misspelled strike as “strikes” for #720. Mimes was supposed to be striked. *Mumbles to self while walking away.*
I never used to be fascinated with bees or insects in general, but the more I find out the more interesting they become.
I remember learning that ants are just a group of wingless wasp species. Never would have come to that conclusion on my own, but once I learned it I was like “Oh duh, of course!”
Much as I hate wasps, they are part of the ecosystem and part of ‘life’. Maybe next summer, I will try to make some sort of peace with the little horrors. After all, if I attempt winemaking again, I’m gonna be seeing a lot of them.
Josh:
If that’s the case, I wish I’d knock it the fuck off. When Mister and I first met, he was firmly convinced I was exaggerating about the bee business. He was, until we were walking to the grocery store one time and a bee flew up and kept buzzing around my head and face. He batted at it, gently, just to get it away from me. No go. It came back, he batted, it came back, lather rinse repeat. We had to duck into a store and hang out for half an hour (tried going back out after 15 minutes, barely started walking and there’s the bee again.)
I also get this with wasps and wasps scare the bejeezus outta me, but so far, staying calm has worked and they eventually leave me alone (of course if Mister is around, I walk very quickly to him for help). Photography helped with the terror of wasps, too. I think they are stunning creatures and love photographing them.
Mosquitoes don’t bother me near as much as they do Mister, they go for him like he’s a blood bank. When it comes to ticks, however, they go for me much more than him.
Well same suborder.
Coyote:
All wasps are not the same. The ones we have around the house aren’t nest builders and are downright mellow for wasps.
A while back, one of our neighbours ended up with paper wasps building a nest in his yard and they had no choice but to kill the hive. It was sad, but the hive was huge, territorial and aggressive. These were the wasps and this was their nest, which was an amazing structure and *huge*.
i think
Rev: I suppose that’s more accurate.
Caine: I usually hit them out of the air with a bat when they come at me. But I’m trying to find a better way.
As much as I may hate wasps, killing something just because it might give me an owie doesn’t really jibe with my philosophy about living things. And you are right, they are quite beautiful up close. Even the horrible Baldface.
I’ll point out too that I’m talking about individual wasps, not nests. I don’t think we’ve had to remove a wasp nest from this property yet.
Caine: The wasps in your photos are the dreaded Baldfaced hornet. I think. They seem a tad yellower than the ones here, but the nest structure and size is definitely indicative.
Baldfaced hornets are big, and they KNOW they’re big, and I KNOW they know they can freak us stupid mammals out if they try.
This is the most terrifying hornet on earth
I’ve heard the sting of the japanese hornet described as ‘like a hot nail being driven into your flesh’.
YAAAAY for ART! :)
RE: wasps. I don’t know if its a PNW thing or maybe others have had this experience, but more than once I’ve removed small wasps nests from my cars. None of the nest seemed to have gotten very big, I think the biggest was about 30-50 cells or so. Anybody else come across this phenomenon?
Coyote:
Hmmm. They seem to fit as far as being Baldfaced hornets, especially as they like lilac bark for nest building, and lilacs grow wild all over here (two on my property), except they seem to prefer building nests free hanging in trees (per What’s that bug) and these aren’t big wasps. They were fairly small for wasps, there are quite a few different kinds here that are much bigger.
The the cinematographer of that scene got stung and his description was awful.
Christ, if I saw one of those Japanese hornets coming my way, I’d run. And then I’d come back with a flamethrower. The video got me feeling sorry for the poor honey bees – they didn’t stand a chance.
Sally:
Oh yeah. Fuck fear when I can get a shot like this.
Introduced non-native species for the win… er slaughter.
@ KG 523
Hehehe. To read the long and contentious comment I made there, hold down “Ctrl” on your keyboard and press “+” repeatedly… ;)
@ Tethys 529
Thank you. (And spelling is “Squigit”.)
@ Beatrice 668
You will really enjoy Zakes Mda. (Linky to Pfft, with list of his books.) He is probably best known for “The Heart of Redness”, but I also enjoyed “Ways of Dying” and “She plays with darkness.”
Was it just me or was FtB down?
AAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHH
I just got shut out of FTB for the past hour or so! Seriously, what the fuck was the point of the server upgrade? If anything, it seems MORE buggy now than it was before.
Happened to me too. Complete blank.
I thought it was the shitty internet service. Telus sucks. Seriously. The customer service is shit straight from a dog’s ass.
But apparently, this time it wasn’t them.
FtB service is up and down like a yo-yo.
Well, I got a good amount of crocheting done while it was down.
I cooked some tasty spaghetti sauce with cauliflower and sausage.
Yep, FtB was inaccessible here, too.
I still don’t get the trouble others are experiencing. It’s either off entirely, or it’s on and fine – no slow painful loads or anything.
I always get bouts of slow painful loads here, but I don’t know how much of that is FTB and how much of that is telus *spits*.
But this is the first time it’s ever conked out completely on me.
I give up,
good night.
@ Alethea
I have had very little trouble here (one non-posting comment yesterday). It seems that things are smoother on our side of the big puddle.
Disregard my above comment. I started to have troubles as soon as I posted the above. As the page refreshed itself I noticed it get hung on the following:
pubads.g.doubleclick.net , stats.wordpress.com & statcounter
Interweb boffins may have ideas.
Where are you, theophontes? I thought we had the Indian Ocean between us?
NoScript and/or RequestPolicy
Human Ape, I hope you don’t give up your blog. You could populate it with new material by just reposting some of your longer comments from Pharyngula and make it easier to find some of your words of wisdom.
Meanwhile, I’ve been neglecting my blog to post on Facebook, which might reach more people.
Occasions of my jealousy: how SallyStrange manages to write whole new screen-length comments in the time it takes me to cut & paste.
Now I want to see a high-speed argument between Sally and Giliell. :)
+++++
I was looking for a well-formatted copy of Omelas and I found this one:
http://adam.shand.net/library/the_ones_who_walk_away_from_omelas/
Possibly easier to read than the usual copies? (The others I found were plain text.)
This thing is still borked and not working, bloody hell !
And our poopyhead is having way too much fun at the moment, methinks, what with TET flowing over and all…:-)
It looks like Rebecca Watson got the Pharyngula present.
@ Alethea
No, no… The South China Sea is between us (I am living in Hong Kong now.)
………………..
@ [grammarians] I have a quick question for the grammarians amongst you. When a person addresses another in writing, on behalf of a company, the correct form of referring to oneself (as representative) is “we” or “[company name]”? This seems logical to me, but I cannot seem to find a good website about this. Addressing of other people is easy as per LINKY. (Walton will like this site.)
@ ahs
I shall have to look into this. Last time I tried, I bungled it. Any suggestions welcome.
Request Policy is cool. Like a bowtie. Or a fez. It’s cool. I’m very taken with it.
You get a little red flag in the bottom right of your browser. Click on it to enable requests from the site you’re at, one by one for each site. You can allow it always, or just from the site you’re on. To start with, there will be a lot, but as you build your whitelist it gets less intrusive.
What the hell, FtB, why is this in moderation? I’ll whack some random invisible separators in and try again.
—
Request Policy is cool. Like a bowtie. Or a fez. It’s cool. I’m very taken with it.
You get a little red flag in the bottom right of your browser. Click on it to enable requests from the site you’re at, one by one for each site. You can allow it always, or just from the site you’re on. To start with, there will be a lot, but as you build your whitelist it gets less intrusive.
Alethea, if you’re using FF, would you please see if it works in full-screen mode (F11)?
(Pretty please)
Thanks Alethea.
@ John
I cannot see it on fullscreen mode (FF on Ubuntu)
John, could you help me with my question on #755?
I finished my first scarf! It’s awesome!
John, I’m on a mac lappie & my F11 is volume control :)
If I use the mac’s own full screen mode, it’s fine. If I use FF’s own, then it’s no good. *All* the menu bars go away, including the bottom bar. (Now, how do I change back again? Oops.)
I’m using firefox9.0, fresh new upgrade. Request policy, adblock, noscript.
I don’t think many people are on now, but I’m pretty damn excited about my scarf… so, here’s a picture of it.
Thank you, Alethea!
Um, sorry to say, I’ve never run a Mac, so I’m not sure what you are seeing. Under Windows, moving the mouse pointer to the top shows the menu bar (from where you should be able to restore the window), hopefully that will also work on your box.
As for it not working with FF’s full-screen mode, I feared as much.
(Ah well)
nice, Starstuff. I wish my first attempts at things looked so good.
@ Starstuff
Way kewl scarf. (Sorta here … working and Pharyngulating at the same time.)
theophontes, ah, just saw your comment.
I’m an autodidact in that regard, having no formal education in grammar or experience in representing a company, so I am loath to advise.
All I can tell you is that, should I have to essay it, I would use the usual first-person singular pronouns when speaking as myself on behalf of the company, and either first-person plural pronouns or ‘[company name – short form]’ when speaking impersonally on behalf of the company.
(Hopefully someone more knowledgeable or experienced can give you a definitive answer)
I’m surprised he hasn’t yet claimed to be a reincarnation of Bigfoot.
@theophontes
What are you pharyngulating? A poll? I got iMarcos if you want help.
Thanks John. I can easily find how to address others, in all manner of situations, but my google foo has let me down on refering to myself in this particular regard. Why I thought of “we” is that one is representing several people. It is especially important to speak “on behalf of” and not as a private individual.
@ djfav
I meant to say “lurking around Teh Saloon”.
Some kind of intertubes trebuchet?… sounds useful.
Meh, I killed it and restarted. No biggie.
Starstuff: nice one. Will you keep it, or give it to a friend? One of the things that stops me from wanting to make non-consumable stuff is that I have Too Much Stuff already. Dozens of scarves, for instance.
Rev, sorry about your bees, that sucks.
Althea to get out of full screen view try escape or shift splat F
@ Alethea
My boyfriend wants it but I kind of like it, so I told him we’d share it.
Sorry, I meant iMacros. You’ll also want Cookie Monster. Good for voting multiple times in most polls.
If you don’t buy this magazine we’ll kill this dog
As I recall, the next issue opened up with an editorial about how not enough people bought the magazine so they had to kill the dog.
+++++++++++++++++++++
I’m sensitized to hornet stings. I stepped on a Yellow Jacket nest 20 years ago and those fuckers are vindictive and can sting multiple times. I set the world’s record for hop, skip and jump on my way to the car. They chased me the whole 100 yards. I was wearing nothing but a pair of shorts.
I drove to a friend’s apt and it soon became obvious I needed medical attention. As my eyes were swelling shut (never mind about the band around my chest tightening and my throat closing)
I asked my friend to drive me to the ER. He didn’t have a car so we took mine. But he couldn’t drive a stick so I had to drive myself. I was rapidly getting worse so I started blowing off stop signs and red lights.
The ER admitting nurse didn’t look up at first until she asked me where I was stung and I said “oh, about 8 miles west of town” and then she looked up and saw my bloated face and I was rushed into a bed, a Dr left a cardiac patient next to me and had an IV of Benadryl with a Vin Cristine (sp?) push started within 5 minutes.
Ever since then a single sting starts an anaphylactic reaction and you can see it travel on my skin from the sting site.
I retried; turns out cmd-shift-F is indeed the mac trick. Esc didn’t work, nor did mousing up to the top, nor shifting to another desktop & back. I don’t generally like to full-screen my apps on any system (except the ipad, obvs). Even with games, I only full-screen if the windowed version is too small.
Here we go : Legal action taken against Egypt blogger
And hey, journos and bloggers, she’s not a fucking “nude activist”.
Accusers keep talking about the “sentence they deserve”.
It seems death penalty could be considered a fit punishment as well. Horrible.
Ah shit, we have to get 310 runs now to win the Test match. The good news is, we might have 140 overs to do it. We wouldn’t even be here if we hadn’t had an 18yo take 6 wickets.
Well, even under the old Mubarak regime, the sharia was one of the legal foundations of Egyptian law. According to the Pfft, this was used to persecute religious minorities such as the Copts.
The blasphemy law had a maximum imprisonment of five years, so nothing about the death penalty here. (of course I’m not an expert in Egyptian law, but I think we would have heard about revisions that major).
The problem is that sharia law means a lot of things, varying from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. (I’m not justify anything the heroic blogger is going through right now, but let’s not lump everything together here). So don’t assume that if a country declares sharia law to be the inspiration of its legal system (which I would still find deplorable), that doesn’t mean they implement entire gamut of sentences like they’d do in Saudi-Arabia or Iran.
For instance, the only province where sharia has been declared the main source of law in Indonesia is Aceh, after the peace agreement. And yet, the parliament needed to enact laws to implement the shariah punishments. So this became national and international news when they were about to institute punishment by stoning for adulterers, and some other horrible punishments for homosexual acts. But after the bill was passed it fell into legal limbo because the governor refused to sign it (and I haven’t heard anything new yet). Or in Malaysia, where they also use punishments selectively, like lashes for beer drinking, but not stoning for adulterers. And in Malaysia these barbaric sentences tend to get thrown out in the revision process.
But there has been an unfortunate trend in several countries with a considerable or predominant Muslim population:
Lee Picton,
Whatever they tell you about, check that it’s actually still available before signing up. In my area, there’s been a decrease in funding for renewable initiatives.
—
Books,
Halfway through REAMDE (talk about a Tpyos offering), the opening felt really slow but it got better. Can’t really say much at this point that wouldn’t leak clues.
I was going only by the last sentence in the article,
So yes, that’s pretty vague. Sorry for jumping to conclusions.
Either way, any kind of punishment for this is too much.
Apparently, in many sharia traditions, the punishment for unmarried men and women was lashes, while for married men and women was stoning.
Ever see that documentary about the Saudi princess which was executed for having a boyfriend? I don’t know how accurate that documentary was, but at one point, the journalist spoke to a lawyer/judge who said that according to the interpretation of Islamic law in Saudi-Arabia, you would need a number of witnesses actually seeing the sexual act, something which happened very rarely. But the princess in question admitted to the relationship, and even when asked by the judge not to, insisted on telling the truth, leaving the judge no choice but to condemn her.
I came across a mind-boggling view on human physiology. Whether pregnancy is admissible as evidence for sexual relations, also differs across legal schools, and in some legal traditions divorced women could use the “latent pregnancy” defence:
My heard hurts…
(Source)
“the Saudi princess, who was executed…”
Because I think it’s funny is why.
It’s a subject that some people take very very seriously, though, and so I yank chains. (For example, it’s really pretty funny that Sili is projecting anger onto me when he’s shouted FUCK YOU at me for prescriptive-y pedantic comments in the past.)(I don’t get the ‘sour grapes’ claim either–I can’t get what I want so I claim I don’t want it? No.)(And I am not “upset that [I’ve] been called a prescriptivist”–when I’ve been called that it’s been for good reason, i.e. I was prescribing. Wait, is it an insult?)
Look, I am a reasonably over-educated adult and of course I know that “descriptivism is not just anything goes.” However, here’s a formulation that I think is harder to argue with: “descriptivism means that if enough people make a linguistic error often enough for long enough then it’s no longer to be considered an error.”
Like, I imagine, most pedants, I see it as a matter of defending language against decay caused by the ignorant or thoughtless.
You’re mistaken. There are plenty of zealous internet descriptivists (I consider Sili one) who will come down like a ton of bricks on nearly any claim that some example of usage is ‘wrong’.
But, hey, “actual language usage”, you mean, such as the extremely common use of the Latin term ‘ad hominem to mean insult or personal attack instead of the logical fallacy known by that name?
Seriously, now, I’m not kidding at all: How many more years of such ‘incorrect’ but common usage will be necessary before it’s considered standard? Do you guys have criteria for shit like that, or is it all subjective whim and personal preference and informal backroom convention?
[nb: I got into all this mess when, early in my internet life, I was wont to sally forth against the usage of ‘data’ as a singular. This is apparently a cause celebre for internet descriptivists, who fought back hard. At the end I retreated to the position that although I will never use the word in anything but a plural sense, I would also stop accusing people of being ‘wrong’ for using it in that other way (which I secretly still think is wrong)(oops).]
Thanks, Dhorvath. It was that second part – about spacetime as a loaf of bread* and “now slices”* and time travel – that I was amazed by. I’m excited to watch the other segments.
***
American Science in an Age of Anxiety: Scientists, Anticommunism, and the Cold War by Jessica Wang
*Yes, I know this sounds silly, and it was a bit, but it worked.
@ Chas
I don’t think anyone could say you lack a sense of humour. I snorfled (*) at your comment at #500 (even though I thought you got it the wrong way round … my: #507 & 518). Much in the vein of Swift’s Big and Small Endianism. (I suspect Sili also got the joke.)
(*) Without getting too descriptivist, that really, really, really is a word. *stomps foot*
StarStuff:
Nice scarf. Conga rats.
Wife has just become enamoured with crocheting octopus hats. Started with a commision from Girl, and now half her friends are commisioning them.
I’m kind of between books, because I’ve just decided two I was reading are going to the charity shop. Marc Hauser’s Moral Minds I started some time ago, and found hard going – not very clearly written. Now that he’s been exposed as a cheat – but his university has refused to provide details – I don’t feel I can trust anything he says anyway. My fiction was Carlos Ruiz Zafon’s The Shadow of the Wind, which is magical realism set in 1940s Barcelona, but I’m finding it tedious and rather hackneyed – maybe I’ve lost the taste for MR. I picked it up after reading Winter in Madrid by C.J. Sansom, which is historical fiction also set in Spain just after the Civil War – very well written and gripping but rather grim. I’ve also been re-reading parts of David Stevenson’s history of WWI, particularly the bits covering its outbreak, end and aftermath.
I have a number of books lined up: Drew Magary’s The End Specialist, near-term SF about a cure for ageing; Steven Mithen’s After The Ice: A Global Human History 20,000-5,000 BC; Roger Penrose’s The Road to Reality, which is an introduction to mathematical physics (Penrose is a crank on consciousness and AI, but certainly knows his physics); and Timothy Taylor’s The Artificial Ape: How Technology Changed the course of Human Evolution. I’m not sure which two to start first (I like to have two books going, at least one being narrative.)
Oh, and I’m reading Lytton Strachey’s Eminent Victorians to Mrs. KG. His portraits of Cardinal Manning and Florence Nightingale in particular are wonderfully waspish.
Last night, I had a sad, so decided to watch a movie to cheer myself up. So, I went for No Country for Old Men, which somehow I had succeeded in not knowing anything about until now, other than that it’s a Coen brothers movie with Tommy Lee Jones, and therefore pretty much guaranteed to be worth watching. Oh boy. Let’s just say that watching this is not a smart move if you’re feeling down.
New cookbook want.
I searched for Zakes Mda in web catalog the city library. No luck. I guess he goes on my list of things I’ll order from Amazon when I’ll be able to afford it.
I’m still waiting for my first paycheck, and I only want to spend it on necessities so that I won’t have to ask my parents for money for as long as possible.
@ Rev
No,no … mine would be this: (Linky). (Or have I been living in China too long?)
No, your statement again demonstrates your lack of understanding of linguistics. Right and wrong are never absolutes, they differ according to speaker (and by extension, broader groups of speakers), and register. There is a room for standardisation of language in certain situations, especially formal situations (also called High register). Standardisation is one of the areas where linguistic prescription can be useful.
I don’t know what dispute you’ve had with Sili in the past, but I know that he is a long-time reader of Language Log.
There is nothing wrong with coming down like a ton of bricks on someone who tries to impose their own language use on others.
Well, first of all give me some figures for the “extremely common use” for that. Often our intuitions are misguided by confirmation bias. If you believe it is extremely common to misuse the term chances are you’ll notice the misuse more than the “correct use”.
Also, “ad hominem” is a term of extreme low frequency in most genres of English. last time we had this discussion I looked up some figures from the BNC showing that “insult” is much more common than “ad hominem” in general usage.
Also you need to look up the concept of polysemy. A word can develop several connected meanings. Many technical terms have a specific meaning pertaining to a specific discipline (or even several), and a general meaning in colloquial usage. “Murder” would be another term that has become subject to discussion on this site in the past.
“Ad hominem” is a term from rhetorics, and it is not out of place to expect its specific use in a discussion about discussions.
A standard is something arbitrary, a community agrees on, either implicitly, or explicitly. It can be argued that “ad hominem” in its specific meaning relating to rhetorics is part of the Pharyngula community standard, as can be evidenced by the Pharyngulawiki entry on the term.
It is actually also a regional difference, I believe. But an argument from etymology is never a valid argument for synchronic usage. No-one disputes that in your idiolect singular-use of data is wrong. As long as you don’t impose it on other speakers, no-one will care.
Rev:
That cookbook sounds really, really, really. I intentionally add fats (olive oil, bacon grease, etc) to soups for flavour. And I love the fat rind on a good ribeye when it is fully rendered and slightly crunchy.
@ Beatrice
Zakes Mda is to South Africa what Gabriel Garcia Marques is to South America (of course I am not biased!). I have thoroughly enjoyed everything I have read of his so far. He writes in beautiful dreamscapes. If anyone is interested, here is a link.
Speaking for myself, I like, where possible, to obey most of the traditional prescriptive rules of English grammar. (I always treat “data” as a plural, I use the subjunctive “If I were” instead of “If I was”, I endeavour not to put prepositions at the end of sentences, and so forth.) But I don’t think that deviation from these rules is “wrong” in any objective sense; if a sentence is comprehensible, and accords with the ordinary usage of most native speakers, I’m not entitled to call it “wrong” simply because it doesn’t conform to some pedantic rule. Rather, I simply happen to find it aesthetically pleasing to go with the traditional approach.
(And I do violate the conventional rules from time to time… for instance, my love of starting sentences with “And”.)
Apparently the British government is planning to introduce tough new temporary police powers in order to ban Occupy-style protests during the 2012 London Olympics. Shit. This is a chilling level of authoritarianism (and would be, quite rightly, unconstitutional in the US).
Anne Feeney’s Have You Been To Jail For Justice? seems remarkably appropriate here.
(Annoyingly, I also only have a few seconds to read the article before the Independent website demands that I pay them a £6.99 subscription fee if I want to keep reading. If this story has been covered in other papers, please point me to it.)
Damn. That’s on the list now too.
Rib-eyes are my favorite steaks and the fat cap is my favorite part. There is zero left on the plate when I eat a rib-eye.
I see FTB is still wholly fucked.
Walton,
the problem with the stranded prepositions is that it is rule someone just pulled out of their arse, and a rule that many of the most famous writers of English have ignored for centuries. There are also cases, in which the most natural construction can only be a stranded preposition. See this on stranded prepositions:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000743.html
English is one of the few major languages without a standardisation body, the standard is usually defined by the usage in High situations, from literature to technical writing. Nowadays this is done by a linguistic description of English usage
The “data” singular-plural thing of “data” is different, because this is a case of linguistic variation. A case can be made for both usages, and an organisation can set a standard for consistency.
Bleh. This FTB fail is sucking hard.
I wasn’t able to get on at all last night, and I see that it is still buggy.
Irritated Esteleth is irritated.
Finished Snuff. Liked it, but it suffers in comparison to the much better Night Watch (which remains one of my favorite books) and Thud. Still, excellent.
Read Guns, Germs, and Steel. While problematic in some ways, it was certainly food for thought.
Reread for the upteenth time The Birthday of the World, which remains an utterly amazing collection of short stores.
Reread The Bone Doll’s Twin, which (for all the flaws of other works by that author) I still love for being an intelligently written and internally consistent high fantasy novel with female characters that are people and not plot devices and one of the most accurate and sympathetic descriptions of being transgendered I’ve ever read.
Experimented in the kitchen last night. Have made improvements to the Swedish meatballs in red sweet-and-sour sauce recipe. Now more savory!
NEW THREAD!