It was a big quake, 8.3 on the Richter scale. Epicenter: in the Pacific Northwest, Andreanof Island, Aleutian chain. The date was March 9, 1957. Until now, it's actual cause was unknown. Today we reveal the shocking details.
A rock on the bottom of the ocean near Andreanof Island randomly rearranged its molecules to become an octopus:
This was no ordinary cephalopod. This one had a name: PZ Myers.
The world into which PZ so suddenly evolved was not friendly. He was surrounded by "ignorant, deluded, wicked, foolish, or oppressed victims of obsolete mythologies". He fought back:
But the ocean was not big enough for PZ. Evolving bipedalism, he was ready to crawl onto land:
Rearranging his molecules once more (randomly but luckily), PZ settled into a new niche at a university. Here he is in academic camouflage:
So March 9 -- today -- is PZ's birthday. But how old is he really? If you count in base 10 it comes out to be 51. But here is the shocking truth:
Fascinated, the whole world followed after the beast.
We, his poor Sciblings, Know the Bitter Truth of This.
Revelations 13:3! And what is 51 in base 133?
5 times 133 plus 1 = 666
A coincidence?
Happy Birthday, PZ. Long may you Blaspheme.
The Reveres, March 9, 2008
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I can't make sense of this post
anon: Here's a key:
PZ Myers is the blogger at Pharyngula. It is the largest science blog on the internet and one of the best. Pharyngula is also here on Scienceblogs, hence he is a Scienceblogs Sibling (a "Scibling"). He is a developmental biologist at Univ. of Minnesota-Morris and his specialty is cephalopods (an octopus is a cephalopod). He writes a great deal about the evolution/creationism debate and is a noted freethinker of the atheist variety. He is often the target of religious whack jobs who consider him a blasphemer.
Today is his birthday (51 in decimal numbers, which if it were in base 133 would come out to decimal number 666). This is part of a birthday tribute from many bloggers to a fellow blogger who is an acknowledged master of the form.
Yesterday 2 jehovah's witnesses knocked on my door, the first time ever at this house in 20 years, and i was unprepared. i politely said "no thanks" and they politely left but afterwards i thought about all the things i should have said to them: "get a life", "why don't you go to college instead of annoying people?", "i am an atheist and i feel sorry for you" or something like that. so how about a post asking everyone "what do you say to a jehovah's witness when they come knocking at your door?". maybe i should have an atheist brochure to give to them.
I can't make sense of this MATH.
When converting from a lower base to a higher base you divide not multiply.
51 base 10 is 33 base 16 and a lower case z in base 16
So 51 base 10 would be a single character in base 133
51 base 10 is also a lowercase z in base 133!
Here is a link to a quick look at doing math in base 10
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXx2VVSWDMo&feature=related
Here is a longer version of the same song but the last part does it in base 8.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tx5KDyvlG3Q&feature=related
DARWIN
Darwin: Here's the explanation as per my comment above: 666 is the decimal equivalent of 51 to base 133:
1 is 133 to the zero-th power. The next term in the expansion is 133 to the first power times 5, or 665. Thus the decimal equivalent of 51 (base 133) is their sum, 666. This is like saying that 2 is the decimal equivalent of binary 10: zero times 2^0 plus 1 times 2^1.
Shelly - if you dont have too much snow on your front walk, you draw a chalk human outline, like the police do around murder victims, then scatter a couple of copies of the Watchtower on it!!
Shelly, what you did was perfect. Any attempt at conversation gives them a way to converse back with you. A polite but firm "No thank you" to ANY solicitor (religious or otherwise) is all that is called for. There's enough hideousness in the world without making more of it.
I am not sure if Tony Blair has knocked the gate, but Yale opened it. So he is going to hold a teaching post, his subject is R. Top secret?
Revere: I followed your signal and took a quick visit to Pharyngula. Come on, here is more graceful; perhaps here has your colleague Lewis balances a bit.
Nowadays, many evolutionary biologists in the United States only do part time in research and teaching, full time are teaching philosophy and theology. As a stakeholder (next generation are studying in US colleges), I better check the quality, the students after graduation could be enrolled in Yale, Harvard, Princeton?
I don't make any judgement now, as a parent is keen to find out for sure.