Sometimes, they just want to help me out.
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
Normally, I leave the boring clouds of gas and emptiness to Phil, but this Hubble photo of the Carina Nebula actually has something cool.
Now I don’t want to hear anything from any of you about pareidolia. If the loons get their Virgin Mary in burnt pancakes, I want my Cosmic Cephalopod in distant smears of hydrogen.
Diagramming sentences — I remember that, and not at all fondly. I’m sure there’s a sensible purpose to it, but the English language is such a tangle that it was easy to say something trivial that would take ages for me to dissect and diagram. Don’t ask me to do it now, I’ve forgotten every bit of it.
It’s still amusing, though, to see these articles that diagram sentences spoken by a couple of well known people. Examine one of Obama’s sentences, and compare it to Sarah Palin’s words. Obama is “professorial”, always a good thing in my book, while Palin defies analysis.
I have to take their word for it, though. I see those diagrams and want to run back to my math class, which was much more comfortable.
I have been informed that I have survived a rather dreadful deadline. How is this for a prediction?
…Pharyngula, Panda’s Thumb, EvC, RichardDawkins.net and Uncommon Descent will all have so completely degenerated as to become nothing but embarrassing footnotes in the history of internet communication. I also predict that P.Z. Myers and Richard Dawkins will have so embarrassed their home institutions that overt attempts will have been initiated to have their tenures revoked on the grounds of moral turpitude and seeking to overthrow the government… Fortunately for them, by that date, February 9, 2009, the physical destruction of our civilization will have proceeded to such a degree that thinking people will no longer be concerned about intellectual trash like Richard Dawkins and P.Z. Myers.
It’s been over a week. No one has yet uncovered the loathsome pit of perversity I keep in the basement, nor has anyone even tried to stop Operation Whirling Squid, which will end with myself sitting in the throne of the World Emperor. I also don’t quite detect any panicking mobs fleeing the chaos of a collapsing culture.
I think someone was drinking a little too heavily there.
John Holbo has uncovered an old argument against atheists, one that might have oozed languidly from the fermenting brain of Ray Comfort. But no! This is from a 19th century book of poetry! I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Ray steals it soon, though.
Basically, it’s an invented disagreement. An imaginary atheist argues that in a well-designed universe, large oak trees ought to bear pumpkin-sized fruit, while little ground-hugging shrubberies out to have acorn-sized fruit. This is easily dismissed by the poet by having an acorn fall on the atheist’s head.
Fool! had that bough a pumpkin bore,
Thy whimseys would have work’d no more,
Nor skull have kept them in.
It even has an illustration of a weeping atheist, which John thinks might look like me, back in my youth in 1792, when I hadn’t grown the beard yet and was fond of tricorn hats, and was always being pelted with acorns by puritans.
One of our colleagues here at Pharyngula, Cuttlefish, OM, is apparently somewhat upset at the injustices against certain cephalopods. Be of good cheer! Our plans are coming to fruition, soon, and all the world will be under the tentacle, thanks to global warming and…Science!
Enjoy a little happy music.
And I don’t want to hear you complaining that everything makes me cranky! I get especially grumpy about armchair futurists making pronouncements about biology when they don’t know a thing about it.
Chairman and CEO of Biotechonomy, Enriquez says that humanity is on the verge of becoming a new and utterly unique species, which he dubs Homo Evolutis. What makes this species so unique is that it “takes direct and deliberate control over the evolution of the species.” Calling it the “ultimate reboot,” he points to the conflux of DNA manipulation and therapy, tissue generation, and robotics as making this great leap possible.
…
The day may come when we are able to take the best biology of the known animal kingdom and make it part of our own. This isn’t just about being a bit stronger, or having perfect eyesight our whole lives. All of our organs and limbs have weaknesses that can be addressed, and there are also opportunities to go beyond basic fixes and perform more elaborate enhancements. At a private lunch on Thursday, Enriquez spoke of a young girl who, after suffering a knee injury, received tendon replacement therapy centered around tendons grown in a lab. It not only fixed her knee, but made it stronger than normal. Later in life as she pursued life as a professional skier, he coach actually asked that she have the same surgery on her other knee to increase her abilities.
Every species is new and unique. Humans have some unusual specializations, but it doesn’t warrant his misplaced enthusiasm. Every species also takes control over its own evolution, in a sense; individuals make choices of all sorts that influence what will happen in the next generation. You could rightly argue that they don’t do it with planning and intent, but I have seen nothing that suggests that our attempts to modify our species, low tech and high tech together, are any wiser or better informed about the long-term consequences than those of any rat fighting for an opportunity to mate. We do what we do; don’t pretend it’s part of a long term plan that is actually prepared for all of the unexpected eventualities.
And then, of course, what does he talk about? Phenotypic patchwork! That isn’t evolution at all. That girl’s children will have whatever tendons her genetics grant them, without regard for the surgeon’s tinkering. Then he has the gall to claim that this warrants the designation of a new species? Hah. I wear eyeglasses. I declare that I am a member of Homo oculis! I read and communicate with text, so I’m now a member of Homo literatus! I’ve had my appendix removed, therefore I am part of the bold vanguard of Homo sanscecum!
And don’t get me started on Ray Kurzweil. That guy is bonkers.
I was just sent this slightly retouched photo of Titanoboa, and it bothers me. There’s something missing.
No, not a caption, although that might help. What it really needs is…a second panel! What will happen in this scene just a few minutes later? I can picture it in my mind’s eye, no problem.
Except, perhaps, when the pet is an 18-foot long, 300 pound snake which thinks a 3 year old looks tender and tasty. The kid is alright, although he was bitten and almost crushed, but sadly the snake succumbed to 17 stab wounds inflicted by the mother.
I do have to wonder, though, about parents who keep a carnivore twice the size of an adult human being in the house with a small child. It seems rather irresponsible and cruel to me.
