Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
For prospective pre-med students looking for an undergrad institution: the UMM biology discipline just approved a change to our anatomy class. No more cats to dissect, no more mink, no more fetal pigs. Instead, we’re going to have two human cadavers for all anatomy instruction. I know, that sounds strange, but it means we won’t be killing a large number of small mammals to teach the course anymore, and instead will use voluntary donations of individual large mammals that died of natural causes. So it’s actually more ethical, and it means our pre-health profession students will get a more thorough grounding in human anatomy.
I’m mentioning this because I’m predicting it might increase our pre-med enrollment, so I’m trying to influence the outcome. No, I don’t have any money riding on it. I wish we could teach more comparative anatomy, but at least with this approach we won’t be killing any animals in this course.
I have mixed feelings about it — my son Connlann was active in Boy Scouts for years, and I think he had great experiences there. I was on a couple of camping trips with him and the other boys, and I think they benefitted from a good scout leader who was tolerant and undogmatic…but you couldn’t trust that every scout leader was that way, and higher-ups were all conservative jackholes who believed that antiquated rules and judgments were a necessary part of being a boy growing up.
So now the organization is declaring itself financially bankrupt, admitting the reality. I’m not going to shed any tears over it, since they wallowed in religious and paramilitary bullshit for so long and refused to change. Let them die and better organizations rise.
I did! But then last night I didn’t watch the whole debate, just bits and pieces here and there, but I saw enough to feel a primal urge to bow down before the fierce goddess and worship her. Elizabeth Warren was on fire, and that’s what I need from my candidate. I’m not saying I’ll abandon an intellectual commitment to Bernie Sanders on election day, but Warren is what my heart wants.
It was very nice of Michael Bloomberg to volunteer to be the punching bag of the evening, and to spend what, $400 million dollars for the privilege, but man, did he get flensed alive. If Bloomberg was the proxy racist, sexist billionaire on the stage, Trump ought to be terrified at the thought of facing Warren after the primaries are over. I say “ought to be” because he’s probably too squidgy-brained to care. He also got torn up by Clinton in the debates, and it didn’t matter.
I was amused by the post-debate from the Bloomberg camp that he did very well in the debate — that was a definitive trouncing. He went so far as to claim that he delivered the most potent zinger against Bernie, accusing him of owning three houses. That’s right, a billionaire accusing a man of being a little bit rich was the strongest riposte he could think of.
Also notable: Klobuchar did a fine job of torpedoing Buttigieg.
The Minnesota presidential primary is less than two weeks away and I’m going to have to make up my mind: I’m torn between the savage warrior wonk and the dedicated sage. Of course, my wife is going to unlimber a couple of arms, wave a sword and trident and a severed head at me and tell me to vote for Bernie, and I have to respect that ferocity, too.
I have a few fossil molluscs from the Devonian — they’re fairly common orthocerids, these cone-shaped shells that once housed mighty ancient cephalopods. Mine are small, but some of these shells get to be 5 or more meters long. We have to imagine big eyes and swarms of arms writhing out of the broad end of the cone, because those squishy bits don’t fossilize well. Well, not just imagine, because we do have data that lets us reasonably infer what the animal looked like. Here’s an excellent post that describes how this kind of reconstruction of Endoceras was done.
That’s not guesswork. Using trace fossils and phylogenetic bracketing and assembling bits of evidence from multiple specimens, you can make an informed estimation of the main features of the animal.
And it is awesome. Bring ’em back.
I got an odd request in email. Someone named jeffreydavidmorris wants me to take down an old post.
Hello can you please kindly remove despite ‘the law’ and request of removal re: privacy, misc – https://proxy.freethought.online/pharyngula/2017/02/11/i-have-concluded-that-i-am-a-natural-boob-magnet/.
I would appreciate it please, thank you. I’m not trying to be the bad guy here a truce if anything please.
This was 2 or 3 years ago, and I did not remember this fellow — I get so much of this nonsense. Normally, I’d consider this request, but then I looked back at what prompted the original post…and oh yeah, that guy was a major pest. He had to remind me. So…no.
Also, telling me that this was a “truce”, as if we have been battling back and forth, is annoying. I’ve had him blocked for years, haven’t engaged with him since that one post. Apparently he’s been seething over it for some time, but really, all that is doing him harm is publication of his own lunatic words.
Raif Badawi is the Saudi blogger, atheist, and critic of the Saudi theocracy who was jailed and lashed, and who is currently in a horrible Saudi prison. He has been in communication with his family, though, with daily phone calls, until recently — Badawi has suddenly gone silent.
Jailed Saudi blogger Raif Badawi, currently serving a 10 year prison sentence for criticizing the Saudi Arabian regime online, has not been heard from in more than a month, leaving his family fearful for his well-being, and unsure if he is still alive.
The last time Badawi’s family heard from him was on Jan. 14, his family’s spokesperson Elham Manea tells TIME. Since then, his daily phone calls from prison have suddenly and inexplicably stopped. Last week, prison authorities told Badawi’s wife, Ensaf Haidar, that he does not want to speak with her, Manea says.
People are fearing the worst.
This will not change our relationship to an unabashedly evil regime, although it should. The US has too many powerful people who profit off the oil, and no small number of ordinary citizens who are fine with torturing and murdering atheists and people who dare to criticize the government.
Yes, I’ve got so much economic anxiety nowadays that I’m imagining voting for Trump. It’s the irrational solution. Good thing I’m not that irrational, so don’t worry, I’m voting for either Sanders or Warren, probably the former.
The rational solutions:
Don’t worry if you can’t afford anything now — there is no degree of economic anxiety that will convince me to vote for Trump.
Mark your calendars! This Sunday, 23 February, at 6pm Central time, the victorious defendants in that ridiculous SLAPP suit will be gathering on YouTube to serve tea and mock the silly plaintiff and just generally have a good time celebrating getting out from under the legal action (if not the legal debt). We’ll spill the inside dirt on the ugly affair and laugh and maybe get a little bit inebriated and also try to answer people’s questions about the whole mess.
You can join in the chat, too — we’ll post links to the live YouTube event later, here and on The Orbit and maybe on the Skepticon blog, and encourage everyone to chime in with your comments. Even the haters…it’s always nice of you to show up and get giggled over.
It’ll look just like that.
I have a frantically overloaded day ahead of me, so I’ll have to leave you with a picture of a happy granddaughter.
Here’s a less happy photo of our grandson, who was hospitalized for croup.
But the happy news is that he’s all better now!
