Weirdness
pharyngula | October 30, 2006Man, I am so jealous of that Stupid Evil Bastard: he's gotten so lovely for Halloween.
pharyngula | October 29, 2006Here's a weird and trivial phenomenon to consider: gum disintegration syndrome.
I'm not much of a gum-chewer, and never have been…but I remember gum from when I was a kid, and you could chew and chew and maintain a flavorless wad for a long time. Recently, I thought I'd try gum as an appetite suppressant, and I got some of the sugarless stuff. To my surprise, I'd chew on it for a few minutes, and shortly I'd feel it losing its texture and getting runny, and then it would dissolve into small fragments that I'd just swallow. I thought it was those dang cheap confectionery companies, that the…
pharyngula | October 29, 2006A reader sent me a link to a site I hesitate to reference, just because I know some people will be aghast at the exposed mammalian flesh and weird exploitation of women…but it's got tentacles everywhere, and molluscs, and even a few arthropods and a giant salamander. The title, Tentacles of Desire, and the list of organisms tells you what it's all about. If you're easily offended or squeamish about slime or freaked out by perverse fetishes, don't go there!
Otherwise, though, just consider it a celebration of biodiversity.
pharyngula | October 27, 2006As everyone knows (or should know), October is the month named in honor of the octopus, and we're supposed to celebrate cephalopods every day. It culminates in the great festival of Octoween, when all the good children who keep molluscs in their heart are rewarded with sushi, while all the wicked children who think eight or ten arms are too many get surprised by tentacles rising up from the ground to snatch them away to a pelagic doom.*
Whoever carved this is going to get a whole bucket of tako.
*Don't you dare criticize my mythology!
pharyngula | October 27, 2006If I were in Philadelphia next week, I'd be at the Mütter Museum on Tuesday, where to celebrate the macabre holiday they are showing Tod Browning's Freaks. One of the most disturbing museums in the world and one of the most disturbing movies of all time…how can you pass up a combination like that?
(via Museum Madness)
pharyngula | October 26, 2006As a vanity plate, it's trite; on that particular plate, it's disturbing and subversive.
I laughed and laughed.
pharyngula | October 24, 2006Perhaps it doesn't fit your stereotypes of what Minnesotans are like, but there are also freaky wild parties with cocaine and huge…huge…well, you know. Watch the video to find out.
I think it's shot in Lake Wobegone, actually.
pharyngula | October 24, 2006Here's an interesting collection of scans from a defunct comic book called Action. It's rather grisly—most of the action seems to involve people being bloodily devoured by marine organisms—so don't look if you'd rather not see people getting pulped in a shark's jaws. This comic book was apparently shut down because of the outcry over the violence, but I see another reason:
Badly drawn squid, completely false information about their eating habits, and poor grammar ("liquidises"? Don't they know that the plural of squid is squid?)—clearly, the book's audience turned away from it in contempt…
pharyngula | October 21, 2006Evil Bobby (with a name like that, he should know) tells me that Darth Vader's little brother Chad Vader is working as a night manager at a grocery store in Madison. I'm going to have to suggest to my son that he look the place up and toss a tangelo down one of the ventilation shafts, just to see what happens.
pharyngula | October 20, 2006
This is probably very immature, but for some reason I really want this toy. I shouldn't argue with my inner child.
I need to know: if I printed out this sign on heavy stock and mounted it just below the stop sign on my street corner, would I be violating some kind of law?
pharyngula | October 19, 2006These things are always a gross oversimplification, but go ahead, take the Worldview Quiz. It uses 23 questions to put you on a two-axis grid with Carl Sagan in one corner, and Pat Robertson in another. Guess which one I call "neighbor"?
Your rating on science vs. non-science: 10
Your rating on progress for humankind: 10
Your position on the worldview spectrum: (10,10)
Here's my score and some definitions.
pharyngula | October 18, 2006I've just been informed by Karl Mogel that we're all doomed. A creature of immense size has been spotted on Google maps—it's an insect longer than a football field, and it is devastating Germay.
Despite all the discussion, no one is talking about the important issue: how to get rid of it. From my knowledge of giant monsters, I can say one thing: don't nuke it. It will only make it stronger.
What we really need to do is to rouse a giant lizard from the Sea of Japan and lure him to Europe.
pharyngula | October 5, 2006Nothing has changed out here, Sandy—people still fight over Vikings in Minnesota. I live just a few miles from the Kensington Runestone Museum, and I know better than to dispute it now. (Nah, not really. If some asks, I'll tell 'em I think the runestone is a hoax.)
pharyngula | October 4, 2006We're working through Carroll's book(amzn/b&n/abe/pwll) in my developmental biology class, and today we discussed a couple of chapters that included an amusing piece of fan mail Sean Carroll received. I thought I'd include it here because something about it sounds awfully familiar.
The context: Sean Carroll has done some beautiful work on the genes involved in regulating pattern formation in the wings of Lepidoptera—trying to answer the question of how butterflies get their spots. He's even gotten some media attention for it, which prompted one person to write this angry letter.
"Who…
pharyngula | October 2, 2006I get a lot of mail from publishers, and this one had me going for a moment…one thing I don't get is much mail from right-wing sources (other than the usual excoriations, of course.) This one looks so much like authentic Republican PR that it took a moment for it to sink in.
Speaking from the heart, not from the brain, this legendary Commander-in-Chief takes us on a journey through his momentous life. The great man we hear here displays his mother's steely resolve and vindictive temper, his father's keen mastery of language, and his own unique gift of deciding.
That's a work of genius……
pharyngula | October 2, 2006…just for an excuse to have this wedding cake.
(Don't worry, Mary—I want the bride to be the same person I married the first time.)
pharyngula | October 1, 2006I was going to encourage you to read this post by Flea that says nice things about my superpowers (it's a vanity thing, you know), but then I saw something there that sent chills down my spine: Jimmy Dean's Pancakes and Sausage on a stick. With chocolate chips.
Excuse me while I run for the bathroom.