Nerds. Nerds EVERYWHERE...

[Hunt]

I'm sorry, I know bashing FtB is the thing around here so what I'm about to say may sound like reflexive naysaying, but really I swear it's true - FtB's new site layout has all the pizazz of a 404 Not Found page.

Are you fucking kidding me? This is the best they could do? Good googly moogly, I had no idea Bjarte Foshaug also designed websites. :bjarte:

In all sincerity and FtB bashing aside, I agree. Let's put it this way, if they went from the upgrade back to the old FtB I would be gushing about the improvement.

[acathode]

She has tried to do astronomy based things too - not that they look any less horrible than the new astrology stuff!

https://www.etsy.com/listing/169873712/ ... rkle-surly

... why the fucking snot on everything that's supposed to be space? I don't get it... or well, I get that it's supposed to be the milky way or nebulae or something like that, but surely even Amy realize that it turned out to look mostly as if Bill Hicks coughed up half a lung worth of phlegm over her stuff?
It's not exactly as if the material costs are staggering, and the profit marginal on her stuff is near astronomical, so why don't she just throw them in the bin and then redo them with just a plain black background, which probably would make them pretty decent looking?

I just don't get it...

[Pagancat]

Looks like the blockbot may have one tiny flaw.

[Dick Strawkins]

Here is another view of the necklaces...
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bt5blRVIIAArdr_.png:large

$48?
Each one is like <$.50 of materials.
There is the firing cost, time to mass produce them, cost of the Swarovski Crystals...
But frankly, the rhinestone chain is the most expensive part of it.

etsy shop
https://www.etsy.com/shop/surly?section_id=12451663

Lurgyramics.

It's almost an anagram.

Surlyramics

Aim slurs cry.

[Gumby]

In all sincerity and FtB bashing aside, I agree. Let's put it this way, if they went from the upgrade back to the old FtB I would be gushing about the improvement.

At this rate, FtB will be appropriating old Geocities layouts for their next redesign.
http://i.imgur.com/GysSZVh.jpg

[Dick Strawkins]

She has tried to do astronomy based things too - not that they look any less horrible than the new astrology stuff!

https://www.etsy.com/listing/169873712/ ... rkle-surly

... why the fucking snot on everything that's supposed to be space? I don't get it... or well, I get that it's supposed to be the milky way or nebulae or something like that, but surely even Amy realize that it turned out to look mostly as if Bill Hicks coughed up half a lung worth of phlegm over her stuff?
It's not exactly as if the material costs are staggering, and the profit marginal on her stuff is near astronomical, so why don't she just throw them in the bin and then redo them with just a plain black background, which probably would make them pretty decent looking?

I just don't get it...

Could it be so that she can avoid charges that she is copying the designs from other Etsy artists?

http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/ ... 4ca828.jpg

[TedDahlberg]

Lurgyramics.

It's almost an anagram.

Surlyramics

Aim slurs cry.

Am cis slurry.

Alternatively...

Cis slur army.

[Gumby]

I Scary Slurm

[TedDahlberg]

I Scary Slurm

Apposite.

http://i.imgur.com/Nx4suJb.png

[Apples]

Also, in news from ~5 weeks ago that I hadn't picked up on, an FTB blogger has left/moved/whatever; I never read her but she seems not to go for drama or epithets:

"Gruntled & Hinged is leaving FtB"
http://freethoughtblogs.com/gruntled/20 ... ink-leads/

Hello, wonderful commenters, readers, and other-people-peering-at-this.

I’m writing with bittersweet news: G&H is moving, this time to a standalone location. I have adored being here. I have gotten to write next to some of my favorite people in the world, and it has been and important and warm and loving community. There aren’t grand reasons I’m moving–it’s just that as time has passed, I’ve been writing to an increasingly different audience, and having my own space seems an inevitable, but sad part of that.

So. With that, I’ll see you over here.

New site is http://gruntledandhinged.com/ - where the subtitle is Be Kind and Cite Your Claims, Please

All right; room now for that great big backlog of new additions to the roster.

That's Kate Donovan - I thought she was a schoolmate of Miri's or something and was her co-blogger for awhile. I think she appears in the iconic photo where the thought-free bloggers hold up signs and Svan misspelled "atheist."

Ah - there it is - the Slymepit version - I believe she's holding the S:

http://freethoughtblogs.com/butterflies ... 00x189.jpg

[AnonymousCowherd]

Here is another view of the necklaces...
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bt5blRVIIAArdr_.png:large

$48?
Each one is like <$.50 of materials.
There is the firing cost, time to mass produce them, cost of the Swarovski Crystals...
But frankly, the rhinestone chain is the most expensive part of it.

etsy shop
https://www.etsy.com/shop/surly?section_id=12451663

Lurgyramics.

It's almost an anagram.

If we're talking "almost", then "ramics" is an anagram of "racism" and "surly" is almost "surely", or "sourly".

[youtube]KM2K7sV-K74[/youtube]

I think I can feel a self-help book coming on.

[Tribble]

She has tried to do astronomy based things too - not that they look any less horrible than the new astrology stuff!

https://www.etsy.com/listing/169873712/ ... rkle-surly

... why the fucking snot on everything that's supposed to be space? I don't get it... or well, I get that it's supposed to be the milky way or nebulae or something like that, but surely even Amy realize that it turned out to look mostly as if Bill Hicks coughed up half a lung worth of phlegm over her stuff?
It's not exactly as if the material costs are staggering, and the profit marginal on her stuff is near astronomical, so why don't she just throw them in the bin and then redo them with just a plain black background, which probably would make them pretty decent looking?

I just don't get it...

Could it be so that she can avoid charges that she is copying the designs from other Etsy artists?

http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/ ... 4ca828.jpg

I don't know which pretend mythological-entity pattern it is, but it's at least well done. I might buy something like that if I knew anyone who cared for that sort of thing. But the fake-puke ones by Surly Amy... I'm sorry, but her work reminds me of the once-a-year stupid crap I did in grade school and middle school...

Right up there with the dog-pencil-holder made out of a frozen orange juice can... In fact, thinking about it, that dog I made in first grade (which my mom still has) is probably better.

[didymos]

The redesign also broke the direct links to individual comments in the sidebar. Their tech people are top fuckin' notch, I tells ya.

[AnonymousCowherd]

The new FTB logo hand also looks vaguely like the hand in one of the international symbols for "no entry":

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

This seems appropriate on so many levels.

Too dynamic. Too...um...Midnight Oil. The FtB one looks like it should have a tongue stuck to the frozen glass next to the hand. "Oh szitht! Izth thiz mean Ith here aw DAY? AYAIN?"

[AnonymousCowherd]

She has tried to do astronomy based things too - not that they look any less horrible than the new astrology stuff!

https://www.etsy.com/listing/169873712/ ... rkle-surly

... why the fucking snot on everything that's supposed to be space? I don't get it... or well, I get that it's supposed to be the milky way or nebulae or something like that, but surely even Amy realize that it turned out to look mostly as if Bill Hicks coughed up half a lung worth of phlegm over her stuff?
It's not exactly as if the material costs are staggering, and the profit marginal on her stuff is near astronomical, so why don't she just throw them in the bin and then redo them with just a plain black background, which probably would make them pretty decent looking?

I just don't get it...

Could it be so that she can avoid charges that she is copying the designs from other Etsy artists?

NO! That's a fake! Make them stop! Boo fuckin' hoo!

http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/ ... 4ca828.jpg

[AnonymousCowherd]

Fucking, fucking fucking fuckedy fuck fuck quote fucking fail.

Ahh. That feels better.

[Hunt]

In all sincerity and FtB bashing aside, I agree. Let's put it this way, if they went from the upgrade back to the old FtB I would be gushing about the improvement.

At this rate, FtB will be appropriating old Geocities layouts for their next redesign.
http://i.imgur.com/GysSZVh.jpg

Let's put away these petty grievances. We have other things to address. Soon it will be the year 2000, and there's this thing called Y2K...

[Tapir]

Here is another view of the necklaces...
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bt5blRVIIAArdr_.png:large

$48?
Each one is like <$.50 of materials.
There is the firing cost, time to mass produce them, cost of the Swarovski Crystals...
But frankly, the rhinestone chain is the most expensive part of it.

etsy shop
https://www.etsy.com/shop/surly?section_id=12451663

Oh dear.

I honestly believed the previous pictures showed a bunch of 'Ramics that had just been topped with glaze (or whatever you call it) and were ready for the oven.

Yep, they're terrible.

[Southern]

Tibo you're fuckin nuts

I tell you what I am. I'm tired. I'm tired of getting earfuls of prejudice disguised as the championining of freedom and justice. It's brute, it's dishonest, it's arrogant. And it bores the shit out of me. Plus, you have no idea how ashamed I am to walk the streets with the same people who do the things I described above. It's 2014, but in these brief surreal moments, it's like a flashback to 1933. This is so fucking embarrassing that I simply can't shut up about it anymore.

Damn, JIDF got to TiBo. Another bright young flower cut down circumcised in his prime.

Anyhooo.... lets throw some more gas on the jingoism fire. Las Malvinas Son Nuestras, cabrones! Discuss.

Argentina was going to finally buy the Malvinas from England and end this dispute forever... but the check bounced.

[Brive1987]

I'm sorry, I know bashing FtB is the thing around here so what I'm about to say may sound like reflexive naysaying, but really I swear it's true - FtB's new site layout has all the pizazz of a 404 Not Found page.

Are you fucking kidding me? This is the best they could do? Good googly moogly, I had no idea Bjarte Foshaug also designed websites. :bjarte:

I agree. The home page is a wall of shit that cannot be browsed. The maroon text gets old very quickly. The post titles wrapping and bleeding into the author and blog name is just confusing. The personalisation and collective feel has been lost in favour of a CMS glee club of the damned. The homepage banner area is a disaster.

This may be the "best" thing to happen to FtB since grenade. It's as bland as it's content.

[Brive1987]

Still it only took 7 months ....

[James Caruthers]

Retry:

Yep, that is pretty much what I expected.

Give them enough (twitter) rope and they'll hang themselves with it.

[Southern]

Looks like the blockbot may have one tiny flaw.

That's what you get with oolon doing the coding.

[James Caruthers]

OK, I got this: just get a cishet whitebro to say this, and then just watch the dominoes of social justice fall.

Maybe if the poor oppressed wocs and pocs said something worth listening to?

:cdc:

News flash: Jay is neither a woc or poc.

[James Caruthers]

Amy is such a hack.

Honestly, it's what I expect. The Mean Girls Club is an incestuous circle-schlick of women with no talent selling whatever they have to offer and exploiting their friends, fans, beliefs and social groups to make a buck.

At the end of the day, at least Peezus has a real fucking job.

[feralandproud]

I've just decided to treat the entire FtB team as poes. I can't imagine anyone actually believing some of the shit they say. The new design seems to be a step down, and I'm disappointed that there's still no "Heinous Dealings"; which was supposedly the reason the skepchicks most vocal WoC blogger wouldn't be posting as much.

[didymos]

OK, I got this: just get a cishet whitebro to say this, and then just watch the dominoes of social justice fall.

Maybe if the poor oppressed wocs and pocs said something worth listening to?

:cdc:

News flash: Jay is neither a woc or poc.

Yes, she is, actually. She's Turkish or something.

[didymos]

It's not really a meme if nobody gives a shit, Alex. Or has no fucking idea what you're even talking about.

[didymos]

Really? You're invoking that whole "Oh, the wisdom of the innocent child" nonsense?

[Cunt of Personality]

I find the new FtB logo to be bang on the money. It represents exactly what I see 5 seconds after I start reading any of their drivel - that split instant just before my palm contacts my face.

[TedDahlberg]

Really? You're invoking that whole "Oh, the wisdom of the innocent child" nonsense?

Come now, children are known for their caring and empathy. Why, have you ever seen any kind of conflict in a playground? Anything breaking the serenity of the schoolyard? If it weren't for those mean old adults, we could strike bullying from the dictionary.

[dogen]

Retry:

Whereas sucking someone's life out of their skull is completely not gross.

Hmm. I must be in reverso-world.

There was an expose written about her organization the other day, showing that it had tackled the case of one of their team (a transgendered woman) who was recently accused or rape, by deleting all reference to that individual on their site and completely ignoring the issue.
In other words Ophelia Benson level hypocrisy in which someone on your own team does exactly what you spend every day railing about, and your prime response is to pretend it never happened.

Ooh, do you have a link?

[feralandproud]

http://thecharnelhouse.org/2014/07/29/d ... e-problem/

[Tribble]

There was an expose written about her organization the other day, showing that it had tackled the case of one of their team (a transgendered woman) who was recently accused or rape, by deleting all reference to that individual on their site and completely ignoring the issue.
In other words Ophelia Benson level hypocrisy in which someone on your own team does exactly what you spend every day railing about, and your prime response is to pretend it never happened.

Ooh, do you have a link?

This is where I read it: http://thecharnelhouse.org/2014/07/29/d ... e-problem/

[Sulman]

http://thecharnelhouse.org/2014/07/29/d ... e-problem/

Holy shit. Colour me not surprised.

[Tribble]

http://thecharnelhouse.org/2014/07/29/d ... e-problem/

Holy shit. Colour me not surprised.

I believe this is the original story. http://tinyurl.com/m4vcqch The rapist (apparently) still has 'the girl cock...'

[Lsuoma]

Why is the FTB shop selling books by Hitchens? (or at least profiting off people following the Amazon link)
I thought they hated him?
Perhaps they haven't divided the section into the final format yet.

A. Books to read
B. Books to burn

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

also, Amazon has "Mortality" for $15, rather less than the $22.99 the 'Tards are gouging.

[Lsuoma]

Apparently it was too hard to test on an iPad.

http://i.imgur.com/uV6ILe6.jpg

You've been Thimbledicked!

[jugheadnaut]

Here is another view of the necklaces...
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bt5blRVIIAArdr_.png:large

$48?
Each one is like <$.50 of materials.
There is the firing cost, time to mass produce them, cost of the Swarovski Crystals...
But frankly, the rhinestone chain is the most expensive part of it.

etsy shop
https://www.etsy.com/shop/surly?section_id=12451663

So much for my soapy water defense. I...I just couldn't believe they were truly that awful.

[Dick Strawkins]

:D :D :D
Peezus is going furious with some UK based scientist who wrote a satirical piece for the journal Genome Biology.
http://genomebiology.com/2014/15/7/424

Can you guess why Peezus is livid?
Have a look at the abstract and you might be able to take a wild guess...

Abstract

In the era of social media there are now many different ways that a scientist can build their public profile; the publication of high-quality scientific papers being just one. While social media is a valuable tool for outreach and the sharing of ideas, there is a danger that this form of communication is gaining too high a value and that we are losing sight of key metrics of scientific value, such as citation indices. To help quantify this, I propose the ‘Kardashian Index’, a measure of discrepancy between a scientist’s social media profile and publication record based on the direct comparison of numbers of citations and Twitter followers.

The author proposes something he called the 'Kardashian Index', which seems to be a way to see whether a celebrity 'scientist' has any research credentials behind them.

K−index=F(a)/F(c)

Where F(a) is the actual number of twitter followers of researcher X and F(c) is the number researcher X should have given their citations. Hence a high K-index is a warning to the community that researcher X may have built their public profile on shaky foundations, while a very low K-index suggests that a scientist is being undervalued. Here, I propose that those people whose K-index is greater than 5 can be considered ‘Science Kardashians’; these individuals are highlighted in Figure 1.

Myers has 153,000 twitter followers.

He has zero research papers published in the last decade.
Due to a technicality (of not being able to divide by zero) it's not even possible for him to GET a Kardashian score.
You'd need to be a real scientist for that to be possible, Peezus.

Sorry about that :lol: :lol: :lol:

[Spike13]

The new FTB layout. I don't like it. Very sterile, almost like a throw back to pages of six to eight years ago.

The old set up was better. The subject mish mash page was particularly bad, almost like one of my longer posts. (A big mess)

[Spike13]

Apparently it was too hard to test on an iPad.

http://i.imgur.com/uV6ILe6.jpg

You've been Thimbledicked!

Isn't a thimbledick merely a testosterone poisoned clitoris?

[jet_lagg]

:D :D :D
Peezus is going furious with some UK based scientist who wrote a satirical piece for the journal Genome Biology.
http://genomebiology.com/2014/15/7/424

Can you guess why Peezus is livid?
Have a look at the abstract and you might be able to take a wild guess...

Abstract

In the era of social media there are now many different ways that a scientist can build their public profile; the publication of high-quality scientific papers being just one. While social media is a valuable tool for outreach and the sharing of ideas, there is a danger that this form of communication is gaining too high a value and that we are losing sight of key metrics of scientific value, such as citation indices. To help quantify this, I propose the ‘Kardashian Index’, a measure of discrepancy between a scientist’s social media profile and publication record based on the direct comparison of numbers of citations and Twitter followers.

That was a great read. It reminds me of the Bad Ad Hoc Hypothesis Festival.

[youtube]TRPKOrTRE0w[/youtube]

[Tribble]

:D :D :D
Peezus is going furious with some UK based scientist who wrote a satirical piece for the journal Genome Biology.
http://genomebiology.com/2014/15/7/424

Can you guess why Peezus is livid?
Have a look at the abstract and you might be able to take a wild guess...

....

Sorry about that :lol: :lol: :lol:

Finally on a serious note

My introduction highlights the fact that women have a history of being ignored by the scientific community. Interestingly, in my analysis, very few women (only one in fact) had a highly inflated Twitter following, while most (11/14) had fewer followers than would be expected. Hence, most Kardashians are men! This ‘study’ does not prove that we, as a community, are continuing to ignore women, or if women are less likely to engage in self-promotion, but it is consistent with either or both of these scenarios.

Makes it even funnier... Because that's what Myers, in a nutshell, does with his pretending to be a scientist, feminist, deep-thinker...

[Old_ones]

Here is another view of the necklaces...
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bt5blRVIIAArdr_.png:large

$48?
Each one is like <$.50 of materials.
There is the firing cost, time to mass produce them, cost of the Swarovski Crystals...
But frankly, the rhinestone chain is the most expensive part of it.

etsy shop
https://www.etsy.com/shop/surly?section_id=12451663

I can't believe she is even selling those. If I were trying to make these I would make a lot of test pendants with one star bead and a bunch of different glaze combinations. Then I would note the ones that looked like blobs of bodily fluid or slime molds and never use them again.

Apparently she isn't the kind of artist who is capable of evaluating her own work. Go figure.

[Dick Strawkins]

Here is another view of the necklaces...
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bt5blRVIIAArdr_.png:large

$48?
Each one is like <$.50 of materials.
There is the firing cost, time to mass produce them, cost of the Swarovski Crystals...
But frankly, the rhinestone chain is the most expensive part of it.

etsy shop
https://www.etsy.com/shop/surly?section_id=12451663

I can't believe she is even selling those. If I were trying to make these I would make a lot of test pendants with one star bead and a bunch of different glaze combinations. Then I would note the ones that looked like blobs of bodily fluid or slime molds and never use them again.

Apparently she isn't the kind of artist who is capable of evaluating her own work. Go figure.

You can't fault her for trying to get some kind of visual effect but the actual result is terrible (I'm presuming she wasn't actually aiming for an oyster, snot, or fake barf aesthetic.)

[sinister]

In other news, I'm currently in the process of preparing for that suckiest of all sucky things... moving. My employer made me an offer I couldn't refuse, so off to another city I go. The view out of my windows at my current residence is that of dingy brick buildings in a shabby, very old neighborhood near a bad part of my current town. But in about two weeks, I shall enjoy this view from my new pad:

Pond.jpg

I know it's not the stunning view that privileged walking radio antenna Phil enjoys from his seaside pad, but hey, for me it's a nice step up. The best part is that my employer is subsidizing the rent to the extent that I will be paying substantially less rent for a great pad than I'm paying for my current rather drab domicile. So that mitigates the sheer pain in the ass aspect of the upcoming move a great deal.

You may now all continue with your Jew'accuse!!! session. :snooty:

Just watch out for the ducks.

[youtube]cFK2Xq2RyiU[/youtube]

Those aren't my ducks! LIES!

[jugheadnaut]

The new FTB layout. I don't like it. Very sterile, almost like a throw back to pages of six to eight years ago.

The old set up was better. The subject mish mash page was particularly bad, almost like one of my longer posts. (A big mess)

It looks like a work in progress, like a deliverable from web developers that has the most basic utilitarian style sheet. The next stage would be for web designers to put together a publication-quality style sheet, but they appear to have decided to screw that.

I agree that that hand logo is really unwelcoming. Is it telling me to stop, or getting ready to slap me? It couldn't have been intentional on their part, but could it be a subliminal indication that they believe their site is by and for their community and outsiders are unwelcome? Probably not, it's just a really bad choice that likely wasn't seriously discussed beyond a small number of their core people (why do I suspect Stephanie Zvan was its main cheerleader?). But it does fit what they are now. They haven't gone full Shakesville, but I do foresee them drifting slowly in that direction.

[Tribble]

The new FTB layout. I don't like it. Very sterile, almost like a throw back to pages of six to eight years ago.

The old set up was better. The subject mish mash page was particularly bad, almost like one of my longer posts. (A big mess)

It looks like a work in progress, like a deliverable from web developers that has the most basic utilitarian style sheet. The next stage would be for web designers to put together a publication-quality style sheet, but they appear to have decided to screw that.

I agree that that hand logo is really unwelcoming. Is it telling me to stop, or getting ready to slap me? It couldn't have been intentional on their part, but could it be a subliminal indication that they believe their site is by and for their community and outsiders are unwelcome? Probably not, it's just a really bad choice that likely wasn't seriously discussed beyond a small number of their core people (why do I suspect Stephanie Zvan was its main cheerleader?). But it does fit what they are now. They haven't gone full Shakesville, but I do foresee them drifting slowly in that direction.

I agree. There's just something that really bugs me about it. Some sort of quasi-authoritarian feel to it.

[Git]

So unsurprisingly Dawkins is now Witch of the Week at the print edition of FTB - the Guardian:

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre ... ned-to-you

In the article by Eleanor Robertson, a ‘feminist and writer' it seems his biggest crime is attacking feminism and of course Islam:

Sure, he wrote some pop science books back in the day, but why do we keep having him on TV and in the newspapers? If it’s a biologist you’re after, or a science communicator, why not pick from the hundreds out there who don’t tweet five or six Islamophobic sentiments before getting off the toilet in the morning? If you need an atheist, there are many philosophers, scholars of religion, and public intellectuals available who don’t refuse to acknowledge the existence of theology.

Damian Thompson (no friend of secularism it must be admitted) has a pithy article in response:

http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/coffeehous ... s-a-bigot/

‘Richard Dawkins, what on earth happened to you?’ asks Eleanor Robertson in the Guardian today. Ms Robertson is a ‘feminist and writer living in Sydney’. She follows to the letter the Guardian’s revised style guide for writing about Prof Dawkins: wring your hands until your fingers are raw, while muttering ‘Oh, what a noble mind is here o’erthrown’. For some time now Dawkins has been saying rude things about Muslims and feminists. This makes him a bigot in the eyes of the Left — and especially the Guardian, which is extraordinarily and mysteriously protective of Islam.

[Aneris]

I found these somewhere...

http://i.imgur.com/Ftrk4yb.png?1

http://i.imgur.com/VMJKHdv.png?1

[some guy]

Off topic a bit (or maybe not): when I use Tapatalk to view this forum, imbedded tweets in other's posts do not display at all. Not even a placeholder. Anyone else have the same issue?

[Old_ones]

Here is another view of the necklaces...
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bt5blRVIIAArdr_.png:large

$48?
Each one is like <$.50 of materials.
There is the firing cost, time to mass produce them, cost of the Swarovski Crystals...
But frankly, the rhinestone chain is the most expensive part of it.

etsy shop
https://www.etsy.com/shop/surly?section_id=12451663

I can't believe she is even selling those. If I were trying to make these I would make a lot of test pendants with one star bead and a bunch of different glaze combinations. Then I would note the ones that looked like blobs of bodily fluid or slime molds and never use them again.

Apparently she isn't the kind of artist who is capable of evaluating her own work. Go figure.

You can't fault her for trying to get some kind of visual effect but the actual result is terrible (I'm presuming she wasn't actually aiming for an oyster, snot, or fake barf aesthetic.)

I'm not blaming her for trying. I'm blaming her for not testing her glaze combinations. Every ceramicist has done things with glazes/oxides/firing combinations that look like shit, but good ceramicists can recognize when that happens and learn from failed experiments. They don't try brand new conditions on things they plan to put their names on and sell. Its easy enough to make test tiles if you aren't sure what a particular combination is going to give you, or you are trying for a new effect and don't know how to get it.

The other possibility is that she actually likes the hideous-blob-with-bubbles-in-it effect that she is getting which would indicate to me that she has the same mentality toward her work that a five year old has toward the crayon scribbles they made on a picture of big bird.

I'm not really sure which it is, and I kind of implied both in my last comment, but I'm going to give her the benefit of the doubt and say she was lazy, and is now trying to recoup on jewelry she knows is ugly.

[Gumby]

Off topic a bit (or maybe not): when I use Tapatalk to view this forum, imbedded tweets in other's posts do not display at all. Not even a placeholder. Anyone else have the same issue?

Yep, same here. It's quite annoying but it's probably a capability that tapatalk just doesn't have yet.

[Tapir]

Perhaps Amy's indistinguishable Astrology 'ramics are a subtle reference to horoscopes being so non-specific as to apply to anyone.

Or maybe they just are plain rubbish.

[James Caruthers]

$48 (plus shipping?) for those abominations is insane. Surly has gone full-blown scammer, imo. Hurlyramics indeed, those don't look at all like constellations and look more like the leavings after a frat party.

[jugheadnaut]

So unsurprisingly Dawkins is now Witch of the Week at the print edition of FTB - the Guardian:

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre ... ned-to-you

In the article by Eleanor Robertson, a ‘feminist and writer' it seems his biggest crime is attacking feminism and of course Islam:

Sure, he wrote some pop science books back in the day, but why do we keep having him on TV and in the newspapers? If it’s a biologist you’re after, or a science communicator, why not pick from the hundreds out there who don’t tweet five or six Islamophobic sentiments before getting off the toilet in the morning? If you need an atheist, there are many philosophers, scholars of religion, and public intellectuals available who don’t refuse to acknowledge the existence of theology.

Damian Thompson (no friend of secularism it must be admitted) has a pithy article in response:

http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/coffeehous ... s-a-bigot/

An apt quote from Thompson:

Note how The Selfish Gene and The Blind Watchmaker — masterpieces of lucid thinking that advanced humanity’s understanding of evolution — have become mere ‘pop science’ now that their author is upsetting the wrong people.

It reminds me of Animal Farm, where the contributions of Snowball as a leader of the revolution were progressively diminished in the official history until eventually they disappeared entirely.

[Scented Nectar]

Apparently it was too hard to test on an iPad.

http://i.imgur.com/uV6ILe6.jpg

I find it funny that a feminist magazine has an ad showing a woman succumbing to the evil, patriarchal, objectifying, sexualizing, stare-rape-cultural, expectation of popular beauty remedies that promise to ward off the fading attractiveness that naturally comes with aging.

[Scented Nectar]

Apparently it was too hard to test on an iPad.

http://i.imgur.com/uV6ILe6.jpg

I find it funny that a feminist magazine has an ad showing a woman succumbing to the evil, patriarchal, objectifying, sexualizing, stare-rape-cultural, expectation of popular beauty remedies that promise to ward off the fading attractiveness that naturally comes with aging.

OOPS, I meant feminist blog, not magazine.

[Tribble]

$48 (plus shipping?) for those abominations is insane. Surly has gone full-blown scammer, imo. Hurlyramics indeed, those don't look at all like constellations and look more like the leavings after a frat party.

From the handcrafted pendant category:

$47US (and what I'm guessing she was going for):

https://img0.etsystatic.com/038/0/82770 ... 6_dj3d.jpg

$45US (or perhaps this):

https://img1.etsystatic.com/019/0/82770 ... 9_c19z.jpg