Weirdness
pharyngula | April 3, 2006In the rural fastness of Western Minnesota, a legend grows. A man so nerdly that his infamy spreads far and wide; when people see shell-less molluscs, his name leaps to their lips; when geeks and nerds gather, they all whisper the same thing: "Pee-Zee" (or, as the Canadians and Dr Who fans would say, "Pee-Zed.")
Yes, in yet another of a string of geek honors, I have been invited to the GeekProm, to be held in the Science Museum of Minnesota on 22 April. There will be spaz-dancing, cow-eye dissections, and a talent show, and some couple will be crowned King and Queen Geek.
Obviously, I deserve…
pharyngula | April 2, 2006
I'm linking to this picture just because I liked it, although I'd rather see less anthropomorphically derived tools in the tentacles of my cephalopods.
pharyngula | March 29, 2006They all seem to be demonic, or tentacled, or both. I am always flattered to get the email from people saying, "I found this stinking pile of slime covered with maggots, and I thought immediately of you!" (really, I am flattered—it's nice to be associated with the weird and unusual.) However, I have to assure you that I don't actually look anything like this handsome hunk of tentacles, although you'll have to take my word on it—you won't find any photos of me sans clothing to confirm that.
Also, my wife doesn't look anything like this sexy spawn of Cthulhu*. She's much hotter, even if she…
pharyngula | March 24, 2006
Jesus. Everyone is sending me their local manifestations of Jesus…here's another one, imbedded in a plank in a deck. And it's for sale!
It's a real bargain, too—this Jesus is not your ordinary dime-a-dozen clumsily scrawled Jesus, but is clearly rendered by the ghost of Picasso.
pharyngula | March 24, 2006Childbirth is a beautiful thing, I know…but a statue of Britney Spears giving birth on a bearskin rug is just weird, and this one combines a couple of other strange conceptions.
The monument also acknowledges the pop-diva's pin-up past by showing Spears seductively posed on all fours atop a bearskin rug with back arched, pelvis thrust upward, as she clutches the bear's ears with "water-retentive" hands.
Labor is not seductive. Putting a "pop-diva" in a rather sexual pose is not a celebration of birth and motherhood, I don't think. Furthermore, it's supposed to be a monument: a monument to…
pharyngula | March 23, 2006
In principle, squid-flavored chips sounds like a fine idea…but when the review uses words like "chum", "cheap styrofoam", and "rotting dead fish", even I have second thoughts.
pharyngula | March 23, 2006
John Stone sent along another example of pareidolia. He says it's Christ on a crotch, and that he's going to clean up on the t-shirts and licensing…but I'm pretty sure he's completely wrong, and he's targeting the wrong market. Look closely.
It's definitely a Wookie with a blaster.
pharyngula | March 22, 2006From the comments, here's something bizarre: creationists (at least the ones at Answers in Genesis) have defined life…and it excludes squid! I have yet another reason to reject the Bible, in this case for disrespecting perfectly wonderful invertebrates.
Many scientists make the distinction that vertebrates have hemoglobin,
hence red blood, and invertebrates contain other oxygen transporting
proteins, like hemocyanins, and do not have red blood. As far as
we've researched at this time, all vertebrates have hemoglobin and
invertebrates do not, though there may be exceptions we are not aware
of…
pharyngula | March 22, 2006How could she do this to me? I've got lots of work to get done today, but thethis busy image is mesmerizing. I think I need to sit here for an hour watching the little blue balls wander around.
pharyngula | March 20, 2006
Not all the email I get is from cranks and creationist loons. Sometimes I get sincere questions. In today's edition of "Ask Mr Science Guy!", Hank Fox asks,
I was thinking recently about the fact that wax collects in one's ears, and suddenly thought to be amazed that some part of the HUMAN body produces actual WAX. Weird. Like having something like honeybee cells in your ear.
And then I started to think about what sorts of other ... exudates the human exterior produces. Mucus, possibly several different types (does the nose itself produce more than one type?). Oils, possibly several…
pharyngula | March 20, 2006Weirder. This is quite possibly the most stupid thing I have read yet on development from a creationist, from The Quran on Human Embryonic Development.
The next stage mentioned in the verse is the mudghah stage. The Arabic word mudghah means "chewed substance." If one were to take a piece of gum and chew it in his or her mouth and then compare it with an embryo at the mudghah stage, we would conclude that the embryo at the mudghah stage acquires the appearance of a chewed substance. This is because of the somites at the back of the embryo that "somewhat resemble teethmarks in a chewed…
pharyngula | March 16, 2006Nah, I thought this has got to be a joke:
The Pentagon's defence scientists want to create an army of cyber-insects that can be remotely controlled to check out explosives and send transmissions.
But no…there is actually a DARPA call for proposals.
DARPA seeks innovative proposals to develop technology to create insect-cyborgs, possibly enabled by intimately integrating microsystems within insects, during their early stages of metamorphoses. The healing processes from one metamorphic stage to the next stage are expected to yield more reliable bio-electromechanical interface to insects, as…
pharyngula | March 14, 2006Via Leiter Reports, it's Google Mars!
Hey, just an odd thought…the distance to Mars is such that communications have a lag of tens of minutes. When I move to the new colony after I retire, am I not going to have a hard time browsing the weblogs any more? I'd send a request to go to a page via http, a half hour later the html would arrive at my computer, and if I click on a link, it'll be another half hour wait for anything to happen. This doesn't sound very practical. Actually, it reminds me of the Earth people in Sterling's Schismatrix (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll) Swanwick's Vacuum Flowers (amzn…
pharyngula | March 14, 2006In my hands I have a remarkable artifact sent to me by the mysterious Finback:
I don't know quite what to call it: a bobble-tentacle? I should get some adhesive and attach it to the dashboard of my car, I think. And thank you, Mr Finback!
pharyngula | March 12, 2006Chinese food can be such an adventure. The "Big bowl flavor vegetables pig livings bowel" sure sounds appetizing, but all the items with cowboy meat are worrisome. And that last duck chin item has me wondering whether this is a restaurant, or just a very exotic bordello.
(via Helminthlog)
pharyngula | March 12, 2006You all know what I think of the "Painter of Light"…well, he seems to have improved lately.
And there is more!
pharyngula | March 10, 2006Another Friday, another Random Ten.
Captain Hook
John Cale
Friend Of The Devil
Grateful Dead
El Prado
Tom Griesgraber
Lord, Fix Me
Madison Prayer Band
Yo No Soy Tu Marido (Bachata Mix)
Nicky Jam
Bergfäst (Mountain Haunted)
Gjallarhorn
Cabo Verde N'ot Era
Maria de BarrosNha Mundo
Pixel Pirates
Tangerine Dream
Vasectomy
Roy Zimmerman
Octopus
Syd Barrett
pharyngula | March 10, 2006
The birthday was yesterday. Now I'm going to have to wait 364 days before I can ask for this t-shirt as a present!