Periodic Table of Swearing

[rayshul]

Regarding the MRA-and-the-depressed-wife, I find it fascinating that PZ automatically assumed the woman would be staying home and looking after the kid. That's really what I took away from all that.

Some of our whitest knights are closeted sexist pigs, go figure....

I assume all white knights are sexist pigs.

[KiwiInOz]

Regarding the MRA-and-the-depressed-wife, I find it fascinating that PZ automatically assumed the woman would be staying home and looking after the kid. That's really what I took away from all that.

Some of our whitest knights are closeted sexist pigs, go figure....

I assume all white knights are sexist pigs.

Whereas Black Knights:

[youtube]mjEcj8KpuJw[/youtube]

[Phil_Giordana_FCD]

Re the chances of being badly or fatally hurt - http://www.smh.com.au/national/bad-thin ... 26q0m.html

Great article. Feel a bit justified now in the fact I really don't think about this kind of stuff.

This phenomenon happens a lot in my part of the world. Say, a newspaper decides to run a story about a little girl being attacked by a dog, and you can be sure that for the next couple of weeks, most news outlets will be reporting other similar incidents, as if there was a sudden epidemics of dog attacks. Needless to say, the general populace will be very weary of big dogs during the media fuckfest, but the situation comes back to normal as soon as the stories are let go and the medias turn to something else.

It sounds a bit like what has been happening WRT harrassement at skeptic events, doesn't it?

Kiwi: it's just a fleshwound!

[Steersman]

When I mentioned genetic heritable traits, it is the same reason why I suspect that any given population will always have 2-4% people who are gay, even if the current crop never reproduce themselves, and why if they do have children, almost none of them will turn out gay either.

But you are conflating two very different animals here:
Homosexuality, psychopathy, sociopathy all can be modeled in the abstract to an evolutionary stable strategy.
The delusion of religion cannot.

Maybe it’s just my “shallow logic” speaking, but my impression from reading about topics such as the cognitive science of religion that there is a fair amount about religion that is genetically determined. If that is the case then one might find it somewhat difficult to dispute that it also partakes of various “evolutionarily stable strategies”. Unless you want to then in effect join the gender feminists in asserting gender is also entirely a social construct ....

Oh Andrew. Hast thine IQ been so damaged by reading Steersman's shallow logic?

You have any evidence to back-up that claim about “shallow logic”? Or are you just blowing smoke?

[Philip of Tealand]

Coffee? Ted, don't do that

Tea, maybe, if you are lucky!

Now I'm wondering… if coffee is sex, what is tea?

anal

Pouring Tea into your arse isn't something I'd recommend - everyone to their own of course, I'd be the last person to comment on what floats your sexual boat - I'd just be worried about the scalding!

I was referring to my addiction to tea...

I have a Tea addiction too.

I also have a terribly filthy mind

I blame The Patriarchy

[Phil_Giordana_FCD]

Is Hemant really that naïve?

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyat ... calendars/

[Philip of Tealand]

If you're american, make sure you actually wait until the kettle fucking boils.

I think Hitch got this stereotype of Americans not boiling water for tea started. I think he frequented restaurants where they give you that little pot of warm water and a cup with a tea bag. I've been in restaurants in Europe that do the same thing. This isn't how we make tea at home. I've never been to anyone's house where they don't boil water for tea. As for tea choices PG tips is very good, if you have to use Twinings, Prince of Wales is not bad with milk.

Twinnings is far superior to PG Tips!

I have on my work desk Earl Grey (Aka The Captain's Choice) Assam, English Breakfast, Chai, Keemun, Lapsang Souchong, Yunnan and some Whitards of Chelsea Spice Imperial loose leaf for when I really feel like a good cup of Tea.

Russian Caravan is also delicious, I really should get some here

I'd be terribly upset if Tea ever vanished from this planet, I'd probably riot. A Lot.

[Phil_Giordana_FCD]

I've got Chinese Dinner Green Tea with jasmin, Russian Earl Grey, Chinese Gunpowder, and Lipton Green Tea with Mint. Lipton is the only one in bags (which, incidently, happened by accident after a tea seller decided to ship samples of his products in small silk bags and people started using them the way we do today. True story).

First appearing commercially around 1904, tea bags were successfully marketed by the tea and coffee shop merchant Thomas Sullivan from New York, who shipped his tea bags around the world. The loose tea was intended to be removed from the bags by customers, but they found it easier to prepare tea with the tea enclosed in the bags.

From the cesspit of lies, of course:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_bag

(I feel like I'm rehashing common knowledge, arent I? Well, in France it's a little known fact)

[Steersman]

I've got Chinese Dinner Green Tea with jasmin, Russian Earl Grey, Chinese Gunpowder, and Lipton Green Tea with Mint. Lipton is the only one in bags (which, incidently, happened by accident after a tea seller decided to ship samples of his products in small silk bags and people started using them the way we do today. True story).
....
From the cesspit of lies, of course:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_bag

(I feel like I'm rehashing common knowledge, arent I? Well, in France it's a little known fact)

That info hadn’t filtered down to the colonies either, at least this backwater in one ....

[Phil_Giordana_FCD]

I've got Chinese Dinner Green Tea with jasmin, Russian Earl Grey, Chinese Gunpowder, and Lipton Green Tea with Mint. Lipton is the only one in bags (which, incidently, happened by accident after a tea seller decided to ship samples of his products in small silk bags and people started using them the way we do today. True story).
....
From the cesspit of lies, of course:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_bag

(I feel like I'm rehashing common knowledge, arent I? Well, in France it's a little known fact)

That info hadn’t filtered down to the colonies either, at least this backwater in one ....

Don't feel too bad, I've only learned about this a year or so ago, through Listverse.

[TedDahlberg]

Now I'm wondering… if coffee is sex, what is tea?

anal

Pouring Tea into your arse isn't something I'd recommend - everyone to their own of course, I'd be the last person to comment on what floats your sexual boat - I'd just be worried about the scalding!

I was referring to my addiction to tea...

I have a Tea addiction too.

I also have a terribly filthy mind

I blame The Patriarchy

I'll say this, it's difficult to keep a straight face during coffee/tea breaks at work these days.

[Michael K Gray]

I'll say this, it's difficult to keep a straight face during coffee/tea breaks at work these days.

I'm not surprised with that somewhat public cyborg-penguin-beak.
Unless one parades in a bulky-beak-burying-burka.

[rayshul]

Is Hemant really that naïve?

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyat ... calendars/

Fucking stupid shit. Particularly after the Nude Revolutionary Calendar, which was actually pretty fucking amazing and I thought it made quite an important point.

Although for my money the best calendar is a clothed one.

http://calendarioromano.org/

[Michael K Gray]

Fucking stupid shit. Particularly after the Nude Revolutionary Calendar, which was actually pretty fucking amazing and I thought it made quite an important point.

I quite agree.
Greta needs props for that effort.

Although for my money the best calendar is a clothed one.

I'd rather my calendar 'comes' with dates.
(Or is that white raisins?)

[SPACKlick]

Regarding the MRA-and-the-depressed-wife, I find it fascinating that PZ automatically assumed the woman would be staying home and looking after the kid. That's really what I took away from all that.

Absolutely, and nobody int he first 80-90 comments called him on it... What a gyp.

[rayshul]

Fucking stupid shit. Particularly after the Nude Revolutionary Calendar, which was actually pretty fucking amazing and I thought it made quite an important point.

I quite agree.
Greta needs props for that effort.

I really dislike a lot of her politics and opinions, particularly on feminism, but agree, I have to give kudos to her involvement.

[Dick Strawkins]

Is Hemant really that naïve?

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyat ... calendars/

Hemant has been burned before when he failed to stick up for RW in the initial elevatorgate furore. He was attacked by that champion of justice and carefully considered opinion, Amanda Marcotte, for being blinded by privilege (rich, old, white man privilege?) and quickly fell back in line.
He's tended to stay quiet on these issues ever since.

As for his support of RW on this calender matter?

It's probably important to get the obvious charge of hypocrisy on Watsons part out of the way.
She did make these type of calenders herself and she is now saying they are sexist.
Is she a hypocrite?
Well not if she has had some sort of road to Damascus change of heart and I would not rule that out of the question.

In fact I think that change of heart, the fact that she has come out as a born-again feminist and the tension of that conviction with the memories (and multiple online evidences) of her past behavior underlies a lot of her and her cohorts current actions.

The primary example of this is the vicious reaction to anyone deemed to be a 'chill girl' - a female who does things just to impress influential male skeptics who reward such behavior by giving conference invites and speaker positions.

I don't know what the rest of you think but my thoughts on of the first four or five years of Skepchicks (the TAM parties, the body shots from strippers, the skeptics in the pub parties, the naked calenders etc) is that it's about as close a definition of 'chill girls' as you can imagine.
In other words they are projecting their anger towards other women over what they remember themselves doing and now consider shameful.
Whether the other woman in question is doing things in such a blatant attention whoring manner as the earlier Skepchicks is not the question. They percieve every action as being to garner attention - because that is the only way they see things.

So back to Hemant and the calenders.
Yes. He has a point and yes even Rebecca has a point here.

The calenders were tacky. I've never had an interest in buying such a calender for the simple reason that I've always seen them as fanboy/girl items. They are tacky in the same way that a calender with Lady Gaga or Justin Bieber as the subject is tacky - except the famous faces/bodies on the calender are those of wannabe celebrities like Rebecca Watson.
Is it demeaning to women (and women skeptics) to have half naked pictures of these virtually unknown women in suggestive poses as representing all women skeptics?
Well of course it is and that was blatantly obvious from the start.
The original naked non celebrity calenders were made as ironic jokes (the famous Womens Institute - a group of middle aged women or retirees - calender in England I think was the first.)
Other people have copied this idea over the years and so long as you maintain the joke (that you are poking fun of the sexism inherent in many traditional swimwear type calenders) then it is fine. The joke is, however, getting old.

The skepchick calender didn't, as far as I can recall, maintain the joke. It tried to portray the skepchicks as 'sexy' and not to be too crude or anything, if you want to buy a calender as a collection of pictures sexy individuals I'm not sure that the skepchicks are the ideal candidates (although, to be fair, tastes vary!)

So there is a real argument that such a calender is inappropriate, especially for an organization with a wide reach, and including many members who hate the idea of women being portrayed as 'sexy'.

As for her other points? - here's the full list:

In an atmosphere where there’s a lot of talk about sexual harassment and making women feel comfortable, pin-up calendars aren’t helping.

Having calendars featuring men didn’t “balance out” the ones with women. No one’s ever leveled a complaint at me for posing in one or suggested I have no right to talk about harassment because I was Mr. July, 2009. But people have said that (and more) against the women who have posed in them.

Does sending women to skeptic conferences (often the intent of these calendars) really benefit them? Or is it just a fun weekend with no long-term payoff? It’s looking more and more like the latter.

Who uses calendars, anyway?

Pin-up/nude calendars are just not very novel anymore (if they ever were, that is).

I think the other points are more debatable.

Primarily, I think the problem with these calenders are that they are about CELEBRITY, not sex.

As for sending women to skeptic conferences - is she really suggesting this is a bad idea. I realize that for her is is about fun and parties. Probably for many other people also. And that is not a bad thing. We are not going to build a community by simply preaching from the books of Randi or Sagan. We need to have personal interactions and yes, even fun (and no, I don't want to grope you!)

As for the nude calender produced by Maryam Namazie, I think that is completely different and it is of great disservice that people who describe themselves as feminists (yes, you Watson!) don't give the brave participants (yes, good on Greta for this) the praise they deserve for this and instead liken it to cheap attention seeking efforts like that produced by Rebecca Watson ver1.0

[rayshul]

Regarding the MRA-and-the-depressed-wife, I find it fascinating that PZ automatically assumed the woman would be staying home and looking after the kid. That's really what I took away from all that.

Absolutely, and nobody int he first 80-90 comments called him on it... What a gyp.

I went to a talk by a prominent person (role model type) in my particular career path who had control of an organisation that looked after the needs of women. (And I hope that's vague enough so it's not as if I'm naming names, heh.) Anyway. During part of her talk about her career she decided to tell the women in the crowd not to worry about having children, because you could study while you were raising your children, and then when you went back to work after your children were in school (part time, obviously!!!) you would still be up to date on your qualifications.

That remains the most sexist thing I've ever heard anyone say in my field. Blew my fucking brain.

[rayshul]

I suspect RW just wants attention now for not doing a calendar the same as she did when she was doing a calendar.

Way to shit on the work of others though.

[Phil_Giordana_FCD]

Dick: at the start of Egate last year, I used to use a lot of profanity and slurs while commenting. Since then I've learned better and am not using these as much, or at all. But I don't ask others to stop doing it, so although I had an "epiphany", it pertains only to myself. Anyone else can do whatever they want.

This doesn't seem to be Watson's message. And if it is, she should clarify it in such.

[DownThunder]

I don't know what the rest of you think but my thoughts on of the first four or five years of Skepchicks (the TAM parties, the body shots from strippers, the skeptics in the pub parties, the naked calenders etc) is that it's about as close a definition of 'chill girls' as you can imagine.
In other words they are projecting their anger towards other women over what they remember themselves doing and now consider shameful.

Wonder how much simple ageing is factoring into the change of heart. They get past age 30, their diet of alcohol and other shit starts to catch up with them, the cottage cheese starts amassing, embitterment towards men who dont turn their heads anymore....

[SPACKlick]

During part of her talk about her career she decided to tell the women in the crowd not to worry about having children, because you could study while you were raising your children, and then when you went back to work after your children were in school (part time, obviously!!!) you would still be up to date on your qualifications.

That remains the most sexist thing I've ever heard anyone say in my field. Blew my fucking brain.

Edit before post - the below is what I was going to write, then I re-read your post and realised I was being an idiot, corrections below the italics.

Ok, time for me to look like a prviledged, partriarchal, misogynist idiot but, why is that sexist?

I know plenty of women who really worry about this. My partner wants to work in scientific fields and the number of female scientists who have kids and then drop off into another career because they're behind the times and have a publishing gap is ludicrous. If there are strategy's for minimising that damage why shouldn't women be informed about them by business leaders?

We will never change the fact that a woman needs at least some time off from her work life if she chooses to have children, men will never be the ones giving birth. Given that time off in a career is damaging to future earnings and employment I'm all for women being told this kind of thing

Ah, spotted he kinda expected women would drop out of work for 5 or so years having had a child rather than for several months to, y'know, have a healthy pregnancy, give birth, begin breast feeding etc. And that women would onyl work part time while they had growing children, and the rest.

Ok, sounds like a sexist prick.

[Dick Strawkins]

I don't know what the rest of you think but my thoughts on of the first four or five years of Skepchicks (the TAM parties, the body shots from strippers, the skeptics in the pub parties, the naked calenders etc) is that it's about as close a definition of 'chill girls' as you can imagine.
In other words they are projecting their anger towards other women over what they remember themselves doing and now consider shameful.

Wonder how much simple ageing is factoring into the change of heart. They get past age 30, their diet of alcohol and other shit starts to catch up with them, the cottage cheese starts amassing, embitterment towards men who dont turn their heads anymore....

I have my suspicious that there is more than an element of truth there.
Remember the real internet flareup over Elevatorgate started, not with Rebecca's "Guys, don't do that" video, but with her attack on Stef McGraw a young student who was equated, by Watson, with those who threaten rape.
McGraw's criticism of the "Guys, don't do that" video is hardly a masterclass of rhetoric in itself but in no way close to endorsing rape attacks. On the other hand it is certainly a call for people to be allowed to behave in a liberal way at skeptical get-togethers and as such it does sound rather similar to something Watson (ver1.0) would have being saying just a few years earlier (in her parteee! phase)
There was certainly a whiff of generation (rather than gender) clash in that particular argument.
In my experience there is something that happens to almost everyone when you move from your mid twenties to your early thirties.
In your mid twenties you still consider yourself young - you party with other youngsters (late teens and early twenties) and they treat you as one of them. At some point, however, things change. You get to your late twenties, early thirties and try to mix with late teens and early twenties people and they start to ask you what it was like in your day! It can be a horrible realization that you are no longer regarded as young - by those who are still young - the real party people.
By my standards Watson is still young. But I'm in my forties and not a celebrity partier. My opinion means nothing,
But to university students - the natural habitat of the skeptic, Watson would be considered the same generation as me!
She is middle aged too! No longer part of the young cool set - which is why for the past year we've been fed the news that the new officially cool folk are people like Greta, Steffi, Ophelia, PZ and Laden.
Middle aged is the new young!

[BarnOwl]

That idiotic rant about the iPhone5 and womynz-friendly design goes way beyond the "first world problem" meme. Curse the patriarchy ... always kicking us womynz with its capacious-pocketed-trousers-clad legs! Just like the United Patriarchy Service company to force us to be dependent on them for immediate delivery of our iPhones, too.

Poor PZ, forced to fly around the globe and be wined and dined at conferences, when all he really wants to do is stay home, commune with nature, read books, and think great thoughts ....

http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/ ... n-recluse/

[cunt]

That idiotic rant about the iPhone5 and womynz-friendly design goes way beyond the "first world problem" meme. Curse the patriarchy ... always kicking us womynz with its capacious-pocketed-trousers-clad legs! Just like the United Patriarchy Service company to force us to be dependent on them for immediate delivery of our iPhones, too.

Poor PZ, forced to fly around the globe and be wined and dined at conferences, when all he really wants to do is stay home, commune with nature, read books, and think great thoughts ....

http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/ ... n-recluse/

He's been lurking the A+ forums too then... You know they have 22 moderators now.

[cunt]

:lol:

http://i.imgur.com/MHDTi.jpg

[BarnOwl]

22 moderators?? :lol:

Glancing at the list, I thought one of the screen names was "Onanism".

[sacha]

One of the moms I know is convinced that I don't like kids. (One time I was driving past a school bus stop with a bunch of kids, and there were some vultures picking through garbage bags on the other side of the road, and I asked her "Wouldn't it be hilarious if one of those vultures snatched a kid away?" Hahaha.) She might be right...

That is something I would say in front of the mothers of the children.

A vulture flying off with a wailing child would be hilarious, especially if the child was wailing because they demanded a toy and someone said no. I'd like my own air force of giant vultures that I could summon at will. They would eat very well... very well indeed.

I do like vultures quite a bit. My choice for my remains, (after they use the bits they can for others who need them) is sky burial. I can't think of a better way to dispose of my dead body. I posted an long essay as to why I am so enamoured by the idea, a complete explanation of what it entails, and the "spiritual" reasons it is done in certain cultures (I reject that part of it). I included a series of documentary photographs of a sky burial. Nothing at all graphic in comparison to what is shown in Hollywood films that have violent scenes. Not a single image depicted violence at all.

The man was already dead, and the photographs were simply a documentation of the event, which is common practice in Tibet. I found the images fascinating. The photographer did not attempt to skew the perception of the event, or even betray his opinion on the practice. Only one showed the body being prepared, one could only see his back, and there was no blood. One showed his skull and part of his spine in skeleton form, and one showed a person breaking a part which could not be identified into smaller pieces. All the rest were the birds, and bits of unidentifiable flesh. If you did not know they were eating a human, it would not have crossed your mind. It just looked like vultures, doing what vultures do. Feeding on carrion. There were two ravens who joined the feast, all the rest were vultures.

Without warning the entire post was deleted, not just the images, but all of the text as well. This was years ago, before I made it a point to keep important things stored elsewhere in case they disappear. I originally posted it on AN. Apparently the host company has a rule against photographs of dead bodies. Of course I don't see the war images being deleted. A pile of concentration camp victims skeletal bodies in a giant pile - just fine to post. All sorts of war images depicting violent death, even videos with limbs being blown off, and people suffering in agony before death. There are numerous images of innocent people lynched with crowds of white US southerners laughing and cheering in the 1950's. What about the well known image of Emmet Till's tortured and mutilated face and body in his coffin? If the reason for the rule is to protect people from seeing things that may upset them, certainly these images should be at the top of the list.

But a series of photographs of someone who died accidentally (the body looked too healthy for serious illness) and requested in advance that his remains be disposed of in this way, probably because of his beliefs, by an experienced "sky burial preparer" and is embraced by a large culture of people, is simply not permitted to be seen. If they had issued a warning, I would have taken down the images myself, and left the rest of the post.

I was so cross that a rule which is ridiculous to begin with, (unless it is extremely specific about what sort of image of a dead person is not permitted) was enforced with my post which gave well researched and detailed information on a practice embraced by a culture, which does not cause harm, violence, or suffering to any living thing, along with my detailed positive perspective of the practice, and why I find it to be the most beneficial to other creatures, and the environment, and the most appropriate way to leave no trace, that I have ever heard of.

It took me a very long time, but I finally posted a similar, although condensed version on another networking site. It took me quite a while to find the images again. (I had them saved on a computer that had since died) I even looked to see if that host company had the same rule before posting. I could not find anything in their code of conduct relating to that.

All of a sudden a few months later, that post was removed as well. The entire post, not just the photographs. I know it was not the person running the site, and there are not a lot of members, most of us know one another. The site isn't well known enough to get complaints from the sort of people who would go out of their way to get it removed.

The last time I looked, a few months ago, I could not longer find the series of images I used. There are others, but they are not the same quality, and most of them were taken by photographers who took the images with the intent to shock, not document without an agenda...

I despise the easily offended, puritan, cultural contempt, anti-intellectual, jingoistic, xenophobic, illusory superiority, and those who demand to be protected from words and images.
I have little doubt that this rule was written by Merkins.


Many species of vulture are going extinct, by the way. They are poisoned by the poison which is used to kill what they eat, There is a lack of sufficient food, as larger carrion is often not left for the vultures, but picked up and discarded in human populated areas.

Also lead poisoning (from the gun shot which killed what they are eating), direct poisoning, electrocution (by powerlines), collisions with wind turbines, reduced food availability, lack of suitable nesting areas, and habitat change.
http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/specie ... hp?id=3371

They are also poisoned by the use of an anti-inflammatory given to cattle, which is still being used even though there is a substitute that works just as well, which is not lethal to the vultures:

The Indian Vulture and the Indian White-rumped Vulture, G. bengalensis species have suffered a 99%–97% population decrease in Pakistan and India and between 2000-2007 annual decline rates of this species and the Slender-billed Vulture averaged over 16%. The cause of this has been identified as poisoning caused by the veterinary drug diclofenac. Diclofenac is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) and when given to working animals it can reduce joint pain and so keep them working for longer. The drug is believed to be swallowed by vultures with the flesh of dead cattle which were given diclofenac in the last days of life. Diclofenac causes kidney failure in several species of Vultures.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Vulture


went off on a rant there...

Vultures abducting petulant children... yes. I'd love to see that... save the vultures, sacrifice the children

[cunt]

22 moderators?? :lol:

Glancing at the list, I thought one of the screen names was "Onanism".

Reminds me of last.fm groups. Everyone gets to be a mod what could possibly go wrong?

[sacha]

No worries JR :)

Grats to J"F"V! :D

Tea Drinkers: what tea is the best? There is a large array of fruity and herbal and black teas. I have yet to find a black tea that wakes me up the way soda does.

Tetley tea or PG Tips, in tea-bags. With a bit of milk and no sugar. If you're american, make sure you actually wait until the kettle fucking boils. That means until it switches itself off.

NOT MERKIN TETLEY! Completely different.

"switches itself off" is for electric kettles only.

Soda wakes you up because of the sugar, carbonation (gets to your blood stream faster) and caffeine. The thing is, then you crash. Same with coffee.

Tea (English) is smooth and consistent, you may not get that rush, like one does from a chocolate bar or a cola, but it does help waking up, and staying awake without crashing. Tea has more caffeine than coffee, but does not give one that jittery feeling, plus it tastes so much better. A nice cup of tea is one of my favourite things. It's incentive to get out of bed.

Not only boiling water, but you bring the tea cup to the kettle, not the kettle over to the tea cup. Bloody Merkins.
Most of them think of iced tea with a glass full of ice when one says tea. sacrilege!
I have to find this fantastic essay from Hitch explaining the proper way to make a cup of tea to the Merkins.

I'm a PG Tips girl. Nothing fancy. Typhoo when PG Tips is unavailable, and if I need a rush, I just snort some crystal meth.

[sacha]

Here's Hitchens on how to make a decent cup tea...

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_ ... f_tea.html

cheers! that's the one

[cunt]

He's even right about the milk. Use semi-skimmed idiots.

*sigh* I miss hitchens.

[Scented Nectar]

@ Scented Nectar,

That video on your blog about the "Grand Island Preschooler Asked to Change the Sign for His Name in School" was funny.

That school board is a contender with the TDSB in my opinion.

The video was by Desertphile, who doesn't make vids often, but when he does, they're quite funny. A commenter on the YouTube Mix says that the school board has changed its mind. Is TDSB the Toronto District one?

[Philip of Tealand]

No worries JR :)

Grats to J"F"V! :D

Tea Drinkers: what tea is the best? There is a large array of fruity and herbal and black teas. I have yet to find a black tea that wakes me up the way soda does.

Tetley tea or PG Tips, in tea-bags. With a bit of milk and no sugar. If you're american, make sure you actually wait until the kettle fucking boils. That means until it switches itself off.

NOT MERKIN TETLEY! Completely different.

"switches itself off" is for electric kettles only.

Soda wakes you up because of the sugar, carbonation (gets to your blood stream faster) and caffeine. The thing is, then you crash. Same with coffee.

Tea (English) is smooth and consistent, you may not get that rush, like one does from a chocolate bar or a cola, but it does help waking up, and staying awake without crashing. Tea has more caffeine than coffee, but does not give one that jittery feeling, plus it tastes so much better. A nice cup of tea is one of my favourite things. It's incentive to get out of bed.

Not only boiling water, but you bring the tea cup to the kettle, not the kettle over to the tea cup. Bloody Merkins.
Most of them think of iced tea with a glass full of ice when one says tea. sacrilege!
I have to find this fantastic essay from Hitch explaining the proper way to make a cup of tea to the Merkins.

I'm a PG Tips girl. Nothing fancy. Typhoo when PG Tips is unavailable, and if I need a rush, I just snort some crystal meth.

https://twitter.com/i/#!/AssamTii/media ... 2FC7UJfpOZ

There is one of the reasons I drink Tea.

[Scented Nectar]

I don't know what the rest of you think but my thoughts on of the first four or five years of Skepchicks (the TAM parties, the body shots from strippers, the skeptics in the pub parties, the naked calenders etc) is that it's about as close a definition of 'chill girls' as you can imagine.
In other words they are projecting their anger towards other women over what they remember themselves doing and now consider shameful.

Wonder how much simple ageing is factoring into the change of heart. They get past age 30, their diet of alcohol and other shit starts to catch up with them, the cottage cheese starts amassing, embitterment towards men who dont turn their heads anymore....

Bingo! You've hit the nail on the head. It's to the point where they try to convince themselves and others that they are still sexually attractive by making up come-on stories. And the fewer real come-ons they get these days are "creeps" because the man is not considered sexually attractive enough, by these no longer youthful, and sexually attractive enough, women.

Aging is a fact of life. The older you get, the less sexually attractive you are in general (yeah, I know there's exceptions). My goal in life has always been to get to a happy but very old age. That means seeing my sexual attractiveness lessen until at some wrinkley point it will just be gone for good. People who fight aging are fighting a battle you can't win unless you die early.

[Scented Nectar]

During part of her talk about her career she decided to tell the women in the crowd not to worry about having children, because you could study while you were raising your children, and then when you went back to work after your children were in school (part time, obviously!!!) you would still be up to date on your qualifications.

That remains the most sexist thing I've ever heard anyone say in my field. Blew my fucking brain.

Why didn't the role model suggest that the kids' fathers could stay home with them, and do the cooking/cleaning, while the mother works the long hours necessary for higher positioned careers? People always leave that option out even though there are men out there who would prefer to be at-home househusbands. The time she'd be off work would be minimal, certainly not years. And as far as women who want the best of both worlds, that is to stay home with their kids for their early years AND a long-houred career, well, they have to choose, since stepping off of the career path for 5 years might mean they have to start all over even if they have kept up to date in the field they're in.

There have been studies showing that the pay gap in the STEM fields are because the women are choosing to hold the second job of motherhood at the same time as their day jobs. These women end up working far less hours and applying for the lesser houred (and lesser paid) positions.

[BarnOwl]

We have both Black Vultures and Turkey Vultures here, and the Crested Caracaras eat carrion much of the time as well. Several years ago, an opossum was killed by a car in the street in front of my house - she had four hairless pouch babies, which were also killed by the collision. The vultures arrived immediately, and quickly dragged the carcass off the street and up onto my front lawn. There was a hierarchy of feeding between the different vulture species, and it was fascinating to watch them. At times there were a dozen or so vultures on the roof of my house, waiting their turns.

My neighbors, however, were not amused. One old fart told me to "pick up that dead possum and put it in the trash!" I told him that it was illegal to put animal carcasses in the trash (moron). The vultures made quick work of the possum, and all that was left was the skull, so I stuck that in a fire ant mound until it was clean enough to put on a shelf in the garage with my other skulls.

<--- Comparative vertebrate anatomy background and current gross anatomy instructor.

<--- Introvert who doesn't travel to conferences and stays home reading and communing with nature

[Scented Nectar]

NOT MERKIN TETLEY! Completely different.

"switches itself off" is for electric kettles only.

Soda wakes you up because of the sugar, carbonation (gets to your blood stream faster) and caffeine. The thing is, then you crash. Same with coffee.

Tea (English) is smooth and consistent, you may not get that rush, like one does from a chocolate bar or a cola, but it does help waking up, and staying awake without crashing. Tea has more caffeine than coffee, but does not give one that jittery feeling, plus it tastes so much better. A nice cup of tea is one of my favourite things. It's incentive to get out of bed.

Not only boiling water, but you bring the tea cup to the kettle, not the kettle over to the tea cup. Bloody Merkins.
Most of them think of iced tea with a glass full of ice when one says tea. sacrilege!
I have to find this fantastic essay from Hitch explaining the proper way to make a cup of tea to the Merkins.

I'm a PG Tips girl. Nothing fancy. Typhoo when PG Tips is unavailable, and if I need a rush, I just snort some crystal meth.

People in the US do not make good sweet iced tea as a rule, if their restaurants are anything to go by. There should never be actual ice cubes in iced tea, since they just dilute it more and more as you get towards the bottom.

Here's the best sweetened iced tea recipe ever. Serve it cold right from the refrigerator. No ice cubes necessary, but if you must, make them out of iced tea itself, so that the drink doesn't dilute with water. It's a drink, not a homeopathy dose!

[BarnOwl]

I drink iced tea with dinner for about 6-8 months out of the year, and I use one or two ice cubes at most. My iced tea "recipes" are probably heretical, because I mix green and black tea with herbal tea, or rooibos with chai tea, etc. I'm happy with the results, and I had a pretty intense diet soda habit that needed breaking. The sweetener I typically use for iced tea is agave nectar.

There were sandwiches and iced tea provided for a meeting at work yesterday, and I grabbed the "sweet tea" jug by mistake. Blech! :mrgreen:

[Lsuoma]

She is middle aged too! No longer part of the young cool set - which is why for the past year we've been fed the news that the new officially cool folk are people like Greta, Steffi, Ophelia, PZ and Laden.
Middle aged is the new young!

Ophelia Prune is NOT middle-aged...

[Za-zen]

That forum is going to meltdown when the ultimate domino mod wars commence.

That's tangential to what i wanted to say anyway. Which is:
I am God.

[Scented Nectar]

I drink iced tea with dinner for about 6-8 months out of the year, and I use one or two ice cubes at most. My iced tea "recipes" are probably heretical, because I mix green and black tea with herbal tea, or rooibos with chai tea, etc. I'm happy with the results, and I had a pretty intense diet soda habit that needed breaking. The sweetener I typically use for iced tea is agave nectar.

There were sandwiches and iced tea provided for a meeting at work yesterday, and I grabbed the "sweet tea" jug by mistake. Blech! :mrgreen:

I must admit that I sometimes like hot sweet tea, but no milk. Now, thanks to Hitchen's article, I realize that the with-milk ones I've tried must have been full or high fat, since the taste/smell changed to something I can only describe as vomit-like, making it undrinkable. In his article, Hitchens describes this as a "sickly" taste. I think he's referring to the same disgusting smell that I've noticed. I've never tried skim milk in tea, so at least now I'll know that that one won't produce the awful smell.

[The Pelagic Argosy]

Speaking of tea, greasy spoon caffs and whatnot. The Ultimate Bacon Sarnie Poll. A poll! Fly my pretties you cunts! Some of these are on the poncy side, but not to the extent that I wouldn't eat every one of them.

[CommanderTuvok]

Reminds me of last.fm groups. Everyone gets to be a mod what could possibly go wrong?

Why am I thinking "Radial Tire"?

:D

[Tigzy]

Speaking of tea, greasy spoon caffs and whatnot. The Ultimate Bacon Sarnie Poll. A poll! Fly my pretties you cunts! Some of these are on the poncy side, but not to the extent that I wouldn't eat every one of them.

Fuckin hell, that's pure porn!

Bacon sandwiches: whatever bacon I can get (thin cut, thick cut, smoked, streaky, back - I'm not fussy), preferably fried, but shit, I can settle for grilled, toasted bread (very important) and lashings of brown sauce (I prefer Daddies to HP, and I find the fruitier version goes a bit better with bacon - counterpoints the saltiness. But again, I'm not too fussy, as long as it has brown sauce in there somewhere).

BLT sandwiches - bleh. Remove the veg, bung the slices in a toaster and get the sauce out!

[AndrewV69]

I don't know where to start with this uncharacteristic abortion of reasoning.
I want you to answer each one of my carefully selected queries, as an earnest of good faith.

...I would rather my kids believe in God than in PeeZuss.

Which God? Why the singular?
I understand that the cult of PZ is vaguely toxic in a Western privileged scheme, but "way to go" for extreme hyperbole!

*shrug* Pick whichever God is your fave. Any one will do actually. You also have my consent to react in any way you choose to react my hyperbole.

It is a fatal assumption for "natural" and "intellectual" non-believers in my opinion, to believe that not teaching religion is all that is necessary. You have to substitute something, or inculcate tolerance if you do not.

Utter, utter bollocks!
On every count!
The Pirahã people are but one counter-example to your preposterous hyposthesis. And just one counter-example is all it requires to demolish a bogus proposition.

Aha! The exception that proves the rule! Actually, if you know of more exceptions, or a source that lists peoples like the Pirahã I would very much appreciate it.

The key here (quite apart from the weasel words I employed such as "strongly suspect") is that "according to anthropologist Lionel Tiger, as quoted by Hoff-Sommers, “Biology is not destiny, but it is a good statistical probability.”"

So, you can bring up examples of exceptions and all I have to do is chant "biology is not destiny" whilst waggling my ears and watch you get all purple in the face. I can also cite papers such as this one as the basis for my assertion:
http://www.plosgenetics.org/article/inf ... 20041.t001

If you do not understand "heritability" well you have company, most of us do not either apparently:
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/ ... itability/

Unleashing the religious without net-benefit societal beliefs is going to have negative impacts because they will latch on to a substitute. At best, you wind up with the baboons and PeeZuss.

Outrageous Bullshit.
There are thousands of counter examples, look at Dawkins' conversion corner for the more public of them.
Again, a single counter-example is all that is required to negate your bollocks.

Whoops! Not enough weasily words clearly. I hereby retroactively implement a "what I should have said" with the more appropriate "in my estimation probably will have non-trivial impacts deemed detrimental", and that should cover it nicely, but if not I can wave a hand and intone "Biology is probability" if you wish, and offer an olive branch by way of noting that it is not necessarily destiny.

Also a link thingy to the Dawkins conversion corner would be nice.

When I mentioned genetic heritable traits, it is the same reason why I suspect that any given population will always have 2-4% people who are gay, even if the current crop never reproduce themselves, and why if they do have children, almost none of them will turn out gay either.

But you are conflating two very different animals here:
Homosexuality, psychopathy, sociopathy all can be modeled in the abstract to an evolutionary stable strategy.
The delusion of religion cannot.

Actually you can ascribe all manner of things to bio-heritable traits, including politics:
http://www.cell.com/trends/genetics/abs ... %2900111-4

Do not get your knickers into a twist, some clarification may be found here:
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/ ... the-genes/

Notice the disjunction between heritability of political ideology and political party. What the results here mean is that if you adopt children they are likely to follow your own political party orientation, but not necessarily your political ideology.

Bottom line, the religious and the gay are here to stay, they are not going away any time soon because they are an expression of a part of the genome intrinsic to humans.

Mmm... not quite true, but close enough to let by the keeper.
But that observation has ZERO to do with the CLEARLY ACQUIRED delusion that is faith.

An ideal society therefore, will accommodate, tolerate and harness in a productive manner these segments of the population in a manner that will benefit everyone.

Bullshit!
Again!
Now you are insouciantly confusing, (not conflating), behaviour with belief! (And vice versa)

I can see why you could come to that conclusion. However, if you read the above links closely you will see that I do have some basis for all of my suppositions.

Oh Andrew. Hast thine IQ been so damaged by reading Steersman's shallow logic?

Actually, I usually hear that I was dropped on the head at birth, and this probably will not be the last time either.

[bhoytony]

I'm a PG Tips girl. Nothing fancy. Typhoo when PG Tips is unavailable, and if I need a rush, I just snort some crystal meth.

Ah, PG Tips. I immediately thought of this. Not sure if it should go in the Music thread.

[youtube]OwyEg3JxwyU[/youtube]

[Scented Nectar]

Secret footage showing Atheism+ choosing a new 'witch of the week'.

[youtube]0skXxqg39ug[/youtube]

[Git]

I'm a PG Tips girl. Nothing fancy. Typhoo when PG Tips is unavailable, and if I need a rush, I just snort some crystal meth.

*swoon*.

You can step into my elevator and make me a cup of tea any time, my dear.

[youtube]ZWMFDskdpNM[/youtube]

[astrokid.nj]

...and here's the big announcement I have been waiting to release... I am the co-chair of the Pennsylvania state chapter of the Secular Coalition for America alongside Brian Fields:
http://secular.org/news/secular-coaliti ... nch-sunday

Tsk Tsk.. passive-aggressive Talking Prune sets up the table for others, and Stefunny is in

Stephanie Zvan says:
September 28, 2012 at 10:59 am
Were there really no other people in Pennsylvania willing to step up that the SCA had to accept someone so unprofessional for this job? They want to be represented by someone who harasses people on Twitter to the point where they have to block him to end conversations? They want to be represented by someone who will represent his positions as dishonestly as Vacula did with:
1. Ophelia’s bizarre emails before TAM. Sure they sound fine–if you read only the parts that sound fine.
2. The slur on Jason as being “homophobic”. Yes, what he said can sound bad–if you ignore the fact that Jason retracted it because it could be interpreted in ways he didn’t mean.
3. The fact that I and others have been cyberstalked for months by the slimepitters. What do you mean I can’t be stalked if I’m a public figure? Who do you think stalking laws in, say, California were created to protect?
4. His use of copyrighted images to harass Surly Amy. No, you don’t get to use someone’s photos unless you’re critiquing them as a photographer.

And then there’s the fact that he’s willing to team up with, as far as I can tell, literally anyone who will promote him. Does the SCA really want to say that one of their state co-chairs has participated in two sites that serve no other purpose than opposition to feminism and harassment of vocal feminists? Who else is Vacula going to buddy up to while representing the SCA?
I was really heartened after talking to Herb Silverman on the radio a few weeks ago, but this…this makes me wonder what else the SCA overlooked in its hurry to get state chapters in place

[Phil_Giordana_FCD]

Oh, jealousy, what a harsh mistress you are!

Also, Zvan, go fuck yourself! And congrats to Justin, I hope he'll do well.

[AndrewV69]

Cannibalism might well have a “heritable genetic basis” too. The question, I think, is whether any particular behaviour pattern, with or without a genetic basis, leads to an accurate and truthful handle on what is real. And unless you can prove that religion does that then I think you’re going to have a tough sale.

The Catholics still openly practise ritual cannibalism, albeit in symbolic form and I have never noticed anyone objecting. Possibly because they have subsumed it into a socially acceptable manner. My viewpoint is merely that the expression of that trait has been subsumed into a ritual unremarked by all and sundry in the main.

In any event, my attitude is such that generally I do not sell. What I do is present my case (and this is the peculiar part) with relative indifference as to the outcome. My attitude is generally you have made an informed decision, and it is your problem not mine if you reject my findings.

The bottom line is that it is up to you to make the sale. All I will do is make the offer.

Ipse dixit? I don’t know much about whatever genetic basis there might be for homosexuality, but I ran across something the other day from some biologist or other scientist who argued that a crucial element of religion is essentially gullibility and whatever genetic factors that undergird it. They argued that during our evolution the ability to accept what one’s elders has told one tends to be conducive to the survival of that “gene” and the species of which it is a fundamental part. Provided, of course, that what is told is in fact the truth.

The theory about homosexuality is my own supposition and my view about the heritability of religion I consider a "no-brainier". Feel free to disagree though.

(So far I have been proven correct in so many of things recently, I have become alarming smug because this contradicts my normal indifference to being correct, and notably the recent hoo-ha about Neanderthal introgression and ancient hominid populations (Denisovans, so far) ).

YMMV

[Git]

Oh, jealousy, what a harsh mistress you are!

Also, Zvan, go fuck yourself! And congrats to Justin, I hope he'll do well.

Congrats Justin.

Also, most of what Zvan says is outright libellous, is it not?

[Scented Nectar]

Steffy is just a jealous, hateful bitch. And she doesn't even see how transparent that is. She thinks it's passing as social justice.

[Johann the Cabbie]

Is Hemant really that naïve?

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyat ... calendars/

Hemant has been burned before when he failed to stick up for RW in the initial elevatorgate furore. He was attacked by that champion of justice and carefully considered opinion, Amanda Marcotte, for being blinded by privilege (rich, old, white man privilege?) and quickly fell back in line.

Blaghag also attacked Hemant a while back, I think before elevatorgate. He did a post on celebrity atheists. One was a picture of a shirtless Ricky Gervais with the word atheist written on his chest. Hemant wrote that everyone knew Gervais was an atheist, but he just wanted to post the picture.

The rest of his post was about Kari Bryon of Mythbusters. He wrote a full bio of her and ended with a photo of her (not shirtless, very tame) and wrote that he just wanted to post her photo.

Jen went batshit and wrote her own post criticizing Hemant, basically saying that he was sexualizing Bryon.

If anyone requests it, I can attempt to find the relevant links.

[sacha]

I'm a PG Tips girl. Nothing fancy. Typhoo when PG Tips is unavailable, and if I need a rush, I just snort some crystal meth.

*swoon*.

You can step into my elevator and make me a cup of tea any time, my dear.

It would be my pleasure to accept your polite invitation.

[Scented Nectar]

Nurdy Dancing, at for A Voice For Men, wrote an article on how the word "misogynist" is The New Nigger

Crommunist, at FfTB, wrote this in response: “Misogynist” is NOT “the new nigger”

Paul Elam, at A Voice For Men, wrote this in response: FTB and the UncleTomosphere

Also, Nurdy Dancing made a video in response too. She's playing dumb during the first 3 minutes due to people telling her that she couldn't have written her article herself, and that the MRAs did it for her, and that they are paying her to be their mouthpiece. After the 3 minute point, she talks more seriously about it all.

[youtube]L7_9J1Ufjvs[/youtube]

[AndrewV69]

Coffee? Ted, don't do that

Tea, maybe, if you are lucky!

Now I'm wondering… if coffee is sex, what is tea?

anal

Pouring Tea into your arse isn't something I'd recommend - everyone to their own of course, I'd be the last person to comment on what floats your sexual boat - I'd just be worried about the scalding!

I was not going to do this, but you folks made me, tis all your fault. Oh and blame Aoefe for this, I got it from her blog:
Sex, Lies and Attempts for Truth - Aoefe's Search : http://sexliestruth.blogspot.ca/2012/06 ... ts-at.html

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ymtknBn6NDE/T ... poster.jpg

[Tigzy]

...and here's the big announcement I have been waiting to release... I am the co-chair of the Pennsylvania state chapter of the Secular Coalition for America alongside Brian Fields:
http://secular.org/news/secular-coaliti ... nch-sunday

Tsk Tsk.. passive-aggressive Talking Prune sets up the table for others, and Stefunny is in

Stephanie Zvan says:
September 28, 2012 at 10:59 am
Were there really no other people in Pennsylvania willing to step up that the SCA had to accept someone so unprofessional for this job? They want to be represented by someone who harasses people on Twitter to the point where they have to block him to end conversations? They want to be represented by someone who will represent his positions as dishonestly as Vacula did with:
1. Ophelia’s bizarre emails before TAM. Sure they sound fine–if you read only the parts that sound fine.
2. The slur on Jason as being “homophobic”. Yes, what he said can sound bad–if you ignore the fact that Jason retracted it because it could be interpreted in ways he didn’t mean.
3. The fact that I and others have been cyberstalked for months by the slimepitters. What do you mean I can’t be stalked if I’m a public figure? Who do you think stalking laws in, say, California were created to protect?
4. His use of copyrighted images to harass Surly Amy. No, you don’t get to use someone’s photos unless you’re critiquing them as a photographer.

And then there’s the fact that he’s willing to team up with, as far as I can tell, literally anyone who will promote him. Does the SCA really want to say that one of their state co-chairs has participated in two sites that serve no other purpose than opposition to feminism and harassment of vocal feminists? Who else is Vacula going to buddy up to while representing the SCA?
I was really heartened after talking to Herb Silverman on the radio a few weeks ago, but this…this makes me wonder what else the SCA overlooked in its hurry to get state chapters in place

:lol: Steffy Doughgirl is spitting razors over that. I bet she was all aquiver writing out those posts, like a lump of otherwise flaccid porridge getting tasered.

Justin is one of those few people who doesn't need a smartphone to play Angry Birds. He just does something - it could be pretty much anything - then just waits for the righteous fury it incurs in the Prune, Steffy, the winsome, willowy Thibbeedoodoo, and so forth.

[AKAHorace]

From Steve Sailer,

http://isteve.blogspot.ca/


September 27, 2012
Justice is served
From the New York Times' breaking news section:

California Man Linked to Anti-Islam Film Ordered Held Without Bond

5 minutes ago

California Man Linked to Anti-Islam Film in Custody-Court Spokesman

5 minutes ago

California Man Behind Anti-Muslim Film Jailed Over Probation

5 minutes ago


You can never have enough headlines about this guy getting what's coming to him.

After all, he profaned YouTube. YouTube. Is nothing sacred anymore?

Besides, this blasphemer could have screwed up Obama's re-election.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled nonstop Free Pussy Riot coverage.