The Science of Watchmen thread has bloated up abominably, and the topics have wandered far afield. It is now closed, but you can talk about whatever right here, instead.
There was a good suggestion in the comments that I have a thread dedicated to suggestions for a new car. I do have criteria: it should be amphibious, it must have tentacles, and the ability to fire a cloud of ink is desirable; it must also at least have mounts in place for a bank of lasers. I need a squidmobile.
Unfortunately, any new vehicle is not for me, but for my wife, Mary (I get to inherit her decrepit Honda Civic). She has different requirements. This would be a commuter car to get her to and from work every day; our first need is for safety, then good gas mileage and efficiency, and of course, price and availability. We’ve heard about Smart Cars, but we are automotive ignoramuses. I call upon the collective wisdom of the Pharyngula hordes to give us car shopping advice!
(Oh, and if it does have squidlike properties…well, maybe she’d let me drive it on weekends.)
I’ve received a few queries about the end of the Battlestar Galactica series, and I can’t offer an opinion — I didn’t watch it. Since there seems to be enough fans here, though, I’ll turn you loose on it. Great? Sucked? Eh?
I didn’t watch it because I haven’t watched much of the series at all. There are a couple of reasons: 1) I’m old enough to remember the original BSG, and was not at all interested (I know, it’s radically different, but I didn’t know that at the beginning); 2) it’s on the Sci-Fi Channel, which has become the label of instant recognition for cheesy formulaic crap; 3) I did see a few episodes early in the run, and was turned off by the god-happy nonsense in those few shows — again, I heard that they went off in some interesting directions after that, but the damage was done to my impression, and 4) it’s the kind of series that demands long investment in the full story, and I’ve never had the time to catch up with it all. I may grab the DVD of the whole series at some point, just to give it the attention so many people tell me it deserves.
I have a horrendous series of connections to get home — Bloomington → Atlanta → Detroit → Minneapolis — and I’m getting these annoying email alerts from the airline every 20 minutes warning me of problems and delays in my various connections. Apparently, there’s some storm in Atlanta that is messing up schedules all over the place. So maybe I won’t get home. Maybe I’ll be trapped in airports for days on end. The best result at this point is that I drag my tired frame home late, late tonight.
So…Open Thread! Fill the void caused by my absence with interesting conversation about whatever you want! I’m sure a creationist or two will show up to hammered at, so have fun.
(On a related note, we do have a surfeit of fools arguing futilely and ignorantly for creationism right now, and maybe it’s time to cull the herd a bit. One suggestion is to play Survivor: Pharyngula for a while and vote off a few. Can you come up with challenges our contestants must meet in order to be permitted to preserve their posting privileges?)
It’s been quiet here today for a good reason: I’m facing a bunch of deadlines, and I told myself I’d stay offline until I’d met them. I haven’t met them quite yet, but I hate leaving the blog dead for a day…so I’m just offering this note of explanation, and setting this up as an open thread.
Now I’m gone again, back to my labors.
People are requesting an open thread to just talk about whatever they want, and I’m willing to oblige. Here you go. Let it all hang out.
However, since I’m a tyrant who must meddle to some degree, I impose one restriction: no libertarianism. It’s a cancer that is taking over way too many threads, and I’m contemplating making it grounds for banning, as it’s the same thing as the godbotting evangelical stuff. I’ll delete anything that goes down that tiresome road in this thread.
And if you mention Ayn Rand, you will be taken out and shot. <Wait, guards, not me! Any mention of she-who-will-not-be-named after this!>
For some reason, the holidays turns many people’s thoughts to the contemplation of food. So, as requested elsewhere, here’s an open thread to share recipes, salivate over great meals, or just chat about what’s on the stove right now.
It’s been a long day for me, and now I get to cap it off with another presidential debate. This could be awful. I’m just hoping that McCain is feeling desperate and will do something that’s bug-eyed crazy to change the status of the election. Go ahead, say what you think in the comments.
McCain brought up the “overhead projector” again! He really is an anti-science loon.
After claiming that Obama was running a negative campaign, McCain than tried to defend the ugly attempt to tar Obama by association with Ayers. Hypocrite alert!
My final opinion: McCain didn’t blow up as I hoped, making it a somewhat boring debate. Instead, McCain spent the whole hour and a half being creepy — I don’t want another president who makes me want to gag every time his face appears on TV.
McCain also seemed to lie incessantly. The claim that Obama has been negatively campaigning coming out of 100%-negative-McCain was a low point for him. I don’t trust him a bit.
We have another debate coming up shortly, so here’s an open thread for you all to chatter on…if the software lets you.
There will be no drinking games allowed that encourage alcohol consumption every time POW is mentioned.
<sigh> If ever I hear the words “my friends” again, I shall gag.
Defining moment for me was when McCain insisted that Obama was dangerous because he would speak too loudly (while later castigating him for advocating diplomacy), and Obama came back to point out that McCain was the one singing “bomb bomb bomb, bomb Iran”. In other words, McCain was a desperate fraud while Obama was calm and well-spoken.
Although I also felt Obama was thin on specifics and rich in politician-speak. He didn’t thrill me, but he was solidly better than his opponent.
Oh, yeah…and when McCain called Obama “that one”. That was condescending and creepy.
All the fun is over now, and it’s time for me to get on I94 and drive back across Wisconsin and Minnesota, and to get back to work. At least you can read about the excellent party, which was excellent, and share in one of the pleasant memories. You’ll have to wait to hear about last night’s AHA-sponsored talk, which was well-attended by an enthusiastic audience, and which was taped by both Karl Mogel and 3D Science News (the scene where I suddenly jump forward through the screen and bite the head off a creationist in the audience will be spectacular, I’m sure).
Since this is going to be a travel-and-writing day for me, you’re going to have to settle for this open thread for a little while. Be sure to make it entertaining: go ahead, break into a knife fight, I know I’ll have some mess to clean up when I get back home.
