Bleeding from the Bunghole

[Joseph Porter, KCB]

Who defines what is "extremist"? Oh, I see....

[Southern]

James Cameron is such a cunt. Wink, wink.

[Southern]

Hahaha! James David Cameron. I mean, I hated Avatar, but I have nothing against good ol' James Cameron.

[windy]

Meyers stops Becky from jumping to safety from that bus she jumped in front of:

http://i.imgur.com/y6UG78A.png

I guess that's evidence that PZ isn't one of her "awkward" video supporters, since he didn't rush to condemn the FDA ;)

BTW, Daily Mail made a bollocks of that story (shocking, I know). The FDA's concern is not the scientific research behind the test, it's false positives/negatives and interpretation.

For instance, if the BRCA-related risk assessment for breast or ovarian cancer reports a false positive, it could lead a patient to undergo prophylactic surgery, chemoprevention, intensive screening, or other morbidity-inducing actions, while a false negative could result in a failure to recognize an actual risk that may exist. Assessments for drug responses carry the risks that patients relying on such tests may begin to self-manage their treatments through dose changes or even abandon certain therapies depending on the outcome of the assessment.

I'm not sure if their complaint actually makes sense: the chance of "false positives" would be very low, and any competent physician would do additional testing to confirm the results before any drastic actions, like lopping the patient's tits off. But let's see what PZ has previously said about the validity of such genetic health recommendations:

http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/ ... ng-person/

Wow. Jolie is a beautiful woman who makes a living as an actress, where looks can be important, and she discovered that she carried an allele of BRCA1 that puts her at a very high risk of coming down with breast cancer sometime in her life. She looked at her situation rationally — she is an atheist after all — and made the decision to get a preventive double mastectomy. She chose to maximize her chances of living a long life over preserving a secondary sexual characteristics.

That’s strong and smart. She hasn’t lost anything of any importance.

Jolie also took an important next step and came forward with the news to encourage other women to make good choices.

I choose not to keep my story private because there are many women who do not know that they might be living under the shadow of cancer. It is my hope that they, too, will be able to get gene tested, and that if they have a high risk they, too, will know that they have strong options.

Life comes with many challenges. The ones that should not scare us are the ones we can take on and take control of.

The only glitch in this story is that this is America: if you’re not a mega-millionaire movie star, you’re not likely to be able to afford the expensive genetic testing, or the extensive surgeries. But maybe Jolie’s openness will encourage politicians to correct that, too.

He was for "billiard-ball biology", before he was against it? What an ass.

[Mykeru]

He was for "billiard-ball biology", before he was against it? What an ass.

Jesus, cut poor P.Z. Meyers some slack. He's just a community college bio teacher in Morris, Minn. And a fat prick. He probably doesn't know any better.

[jet_lagg]

I'm not sure if their complaint actually makes sense: the chance of "false positives" would be very low, and any competent physician would do additional testing to confirm the results before any drastic actions, like lopping the patient's tits off.

Even a low chance of false positives can yield results were the overwhelming majority of positives are false, given a sufficient number of tests and a sufficiently low chance of a true positive. See Yudkowsky's intuitive explanation of bayes and the wikipedia entry on breast cancer screening

[justinvacula]

I'm sure the bat signal has already been sent out to uncover the dirt on Nugent.

http://i.imgur.com/muGUGH3.jpg

The rhetorical assassins a la Francisco Bacopa must be on the way...

Anyway, I really enjoyed meeting Michael Nugent in Dublin. He was an excellent conference host. He gets my seal of approval despite giving a stage to or facilitating giving stage to PZ, Ophelia, and Rebecca (who cancelled).

[windy]

I'm not sure if their complaint actually makes sense: the chance of "false positives" would be very low, and any competent physician would do additional testing to confirm the results before any drastic actions, like lopping the patient's tits off.

Even a low chance of false positives can yield results were the overwhelming majority of positives are false, given a sufficient number of tests and a sufficiently low chance of a true positive. See Yudkowsky's intuitive explanation of bayes and the wikipedia entry on breast cancer screening

Thanks for your input Richard ;) but that's not very relevant here. Any test has a risk of a false positive, but it would be especially low for sequencing. And as I said, the results from a personal genetic test would be confirmed by additional testing before undergoing "prophylactic surgery, chemoprevention, intensive screening, or other morbidity-inducing actions" (and if not, that's not the fault of the test).

[feralandproud]

http://skepchick.org/2013/11/the-beasti ... oldieblox/

Did I sleep through this? Tagged under feminism, "well known" female skeptic cites a TUMBLR blog:

http://www.itsokaytobesmart.com/post/67 ... astie-boys
TL;DR: "Beastie Boys, let it go, cause FEEEEEELS"

Quoth the Watson:

reporting that the Beastie Boys went after GoldieBlox for copyright infringement

I don't get paid to google(or drink for that matter), but it took me like a minute yesterday to find out that the BB had NOT filed...

[jet_lagg]

Thanks for your input Richard ;) but that's not very relevant here. Any test has a risk of a false positive, but it would be especially low for sequencing. And as I said, the results from a personal genetic test would be confirmed by additional testing before undergoing "prophylactic surgery, chemoprevention, intensive screening, or other morbidity-inducing actions" (and if not, that's not the fault of the test).

Wouldn't intensive screening be how the results of the personal genetic test are confirmed? Again, the FDA's concern here strikes me as similar to the concern over breast cancer screening.

[Tribble]

Hey, isn't this the company Becky Whatnot promoted a few days ago?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... ience.html

23andMe-ordered-halt-sales-flimsy-science

I posted on her video that it was bullshit (without even being rude or using swear words). The usual unthinking supporters jumped on me.

[Tribble]

There's some lovely rage over here!

PZ posted a photo of an advice-columnists response to a "My son it totes gay, halp plx" letter, and I think the response was very reasonable. On the other hand, some people are pointing out that the original letter seems fake (and I agree), and is just being used as a way to broach the subject and offer a specific stance on it.

Cue Caine taking the time to remind everyone how terrible her life has been, with Nerd on backup vocals.

If you were playing the "hyper-skepticism" drinking game, I'm so sorry, you're probably dead now.

Crap. Now I feel kinda dirty having something in common with Caine - bisexuality. Where's the eye soap?

Look, we all have hemoglobin, so we all have something in common. The more important question is do you share common, controllable personal interests, like digging up your dead pets? If you're not out there digging up your dead rats with your nasty, dirty fingernails, I should think you really wouldn't need any eyeball soap as you're not chosing to 'live the lifestyle' of Caine, Potential Serial Killer.

And that's got to count as a BIG PLUS in the ledger of life.

[Aristocat]

http://skepchick.org/2013/11/the-beasti ... oldieblox/

Did I sleep through this? Tagged under feminism, "well known" female skeptic cites a TUMBLR blog:

http://www.itsokaytobesmart.com/post/67 ... astie-boys
TL;DR: "Beastie Boys, let it go, cause FEEEEEELS"

Quoth the Watson:

reporting that the Beastie Boys went after GoldieBlox for copyright infringement

I don't get paid to google(or drink for that matter), but it took me like a minute yesterday to find out that the BB had NOT filed...

You are a douche. Obviously she has an inside source. MCA...

[Tribble]

Knowing little about Greg Laden, why is he so notably obsessed with telling people what to do?

I'm guessing it's because he's a tin-pot tyrant running with an over-abundance of self-respect that nobody listens to now that he can't coat-tail on Myers. So he figures if he's just louder and more obnoxious, someday he'll be relevant and all those wonderful things he thinks about himself will actually come true.

[windy]

Thanks for your input Richard ;) but that's not very relevant here. Any test has a risk of a false positive, but it would be especially low for sequencing. And as I said, the results from a personal genetic test would be confirmed by additional testing before undergoing "prophylactic surgery, chemoprevention, intensive screening, or other morbidity-inducing actions" (and if not, that's not the fault of the test).

Wouldn't intensive screening be how the results of the personal genetic test are confirmed? Again, the FDA's concern here strikes me as similar to the concern over breast cancer screening.

No, I mean confirming the presence of a breast cancer risk allele (for example by taking one of the clinically approved, but more expensive, genetic tests). Maybe one of the doctors here can confirm how it works in the US, but it seems unlikely that a doctor would recommend invasive treatments based merely on a result from 23andme.

[Tribble]

Get ready for the fireworks!
...
http://stream1.gifsoup.com/view2/147422 ... bomb-o.gif

Reads more like a damp squib, frankly. He's too vague and pulls too many punches in the name of being fair and balanced.

I wouldn't expect him to go all in but he did the one thing that nobody on the FTB/Skepchick side (and I'd certainly put him in that category) has done in recent years - criticize Watson.
You know how she responds to criticism! I have a feeling her face-amnesia will temporary dissipate, just long enough to recall a pudgy middle aged Irish guy with greying hair who appeared in a certain Dublin elevator.

[youtube]TRTkCHE1sS4[/youtube]

About that 'face-amnesia,' earlier in the video she identifies him as a man who had been asking questions about her talk during her talk and later followed up in the bar. It seemed quite clear she recognized him when she half-potted in the bar. It's only later when she's called on to call-out the attempted rapist, I mean idiot who asked up for coffee, does she suddenly get 'face amnesia.'

And I think Justicar did a good job of attacking her claim: http://integralmath.blogspot.com/2011/1 ... tical.html

[Sulman]

Well well well.

I would like to know what has happened here. If the statement is correct, somebody is lying.

[Joseph Porter, KCB]

http://skepchick.org/2013/11/the-beasti ... oldieblox/

Did I sleep through this? Tagged under feminism, "well known" female skeptic cites a TUMBLR blog:

http://www.itsokaytobesmart.com/post/67 ... astie-boys
TL;DR: "Beastie Boys, let it go, cause FEEEEEELS"

So Joe hanson, in penance for offending the Orthodox Church of Feminism with his "Einstein bobblehead molests Curie bobblehead", is now telling the Beastie Boys to rollover?

Of course you can't prove it, but to me, this looks like pretty obviou spandering by a guy in fear of losing his job.

That said, i agree the bobblehead video was offensive: it paints Einstein as a molester, Tesla as an fool, and Galilieo as a stereotypical comic "wop" complete with organ-grinder accent and tarantella music. And it's without any real redeeming value: it's not instructive, just tediously unfunny.

Now I'm a little biased. To me, anything entitled "It's Okay to be Smart" is already pandering to the lowest common denominator, to a culture of ignorance. No one ever needed to tell me "it's okay to be smart" because it never occurred to me that smart people had anything to be ashamed of.

"It's Okay to be Smart"? How about "The only reason you're not dying of exposure is that smart people have for the last ten thousand years worked hard to build civilization for you!"

That said, I've never seen anything other than the bobblehead video that was no doubt designed to bring the show notoriety, so maybe it contains gems. But more likely it's another one of those PBS shows that awkwardly tries to explicitly promote learning, while implicitly denigrating intelligence by suggesting that every dewy-eyed babe has it in equal measure.

(Mr. Rodgers saying "I like you just the way you are" is the right way to do it; telling little Charlie that he's a genius because he's learned to turn on the TV is not.)

So Joe Hansen, having badly fumbled at making sex and-a "wop"-a accent-as sell science (science is sexy by itself, as Dawkins and Sagan and Neil deGrasse Tyson have managed to get across, sans bobbleheads and degrading accents) is now, like the Vicar of Bray, going to turn cat in pan and attack the Beastie Boys as a white knight for GoldieBlox and "feminism" in hopes it saves his job.

Perhaps it's my age showing, but I can't help but despise all of them: the artless PBS "science artist" scrambling and pandering to keep his job, the "woman engineer" whose resume contains only marketing jobs trying to profit off of "feminism" and suburban tiger mothers, and the Beastie Boys, well off suburban kids who latched onto and make a quick buck by appropriating urban black culture to produce listenable "music".

It's like a Human Centipede of fakers, fakirs, and snake oil salespeople, engorging themselves on each others' excreta and then shitting their own "culture" to in turn be eaten.

[Pitchguest]

I notice that it is almost three weeks since Rebecca Watson's 'Unpopular Science' blog got updated, despite her initial promise:

" I'll be posting here once a week, exposing the Popular Science crowd to the lesser known, much less rigorous, but equally entertaining world of Unpopular Science."

I'll take a wild guess and say that the Patreon gig is working out better than she expected (over 300 dollars for each two minute video!) and so the unpopular science blog had been canned - or, at least, allowed to slowly disappear.
What were those idiots at Popular Science thinking by giving her a job as a science writer?

The only shock in the whole situation is that she turned out to be less annoying in the job than their other new recruit, Hannah Waters, (she of the "Bora nearly raped me! - sort of, I think..." kerfuffle) the writer of their SJW blog, Ladybits, - who seems to think that the quality of an article is directly related to the number of incidences of the word "privilege".

http://www.popsci.com/blog-network/lady ... munication

Wait wait wait, I think I've been out of the loop for this Patreon thing. She gets paid 300 dollars for every video she makes?

[Joseph Porter, KCB]

Er, sorry, that should be "unlistenable "music".

[Joseph Porter, KCB]

Wait wait wait, I think I've been out of the loop for this Patreon thing. She gets paid 300 dollars for every video she makes?

That elevator? Yeah, it's goes all the way to the 300th floor.

[Sulman]

Here's the strategy, and I claim my five pounds:

• Yet another middle aged white man from a position of privelege and power is attacking a woman.
• It is another example of somebody protecting the public image of Dawkins above all else, and throwing her (and by extension all women) and Peezus under the bus.

Going after both Myers and Watson simultaneously is going to result in some utterly magical rage blogging.

[Dave]

Thanks for your input Richard ;) but that's not very relevant here. Any test has a risk of a false positive, but it would be especially low for sequencing. And as I said, the results from a personal genetic test would be confirmed by additional testing before undergoing "prophylactic surgery, chemoprevention, intensive screening, or other morbidity-inducing actions" (and if not, that's not the fault of the test).

Wouldn't intensive screening be how the results of the personal genetic test are confirmed? Again, the FDA's concern here strikes me as similar to the concern over breast cancer screening.

No, I mean confirming the presence of a breast cancer risk allele (for example by taking one of the clinically approved, but more expensive, genetic tests). Maybe one of the doctors here can confirm how it works in the US, but it seems unlikely that a doctor would recommend invasive treatments based merely on a result from 23andme.

The key quote in the FDA letter is here:

You have not worked with us toward de novo classification, did not provide the additional information we requested necessary to complete review of your 510(k)s, and FDA has not received any communication from 23andMe since May. Instead, we have become aware that you have initiated new marketing campaigns, including television commercials that, together with an increasing list of indications, show that you plan to expand the PGS’s uses and consumer base without obtaining marketing authorization from FDA.

If there is one thing regulatory agencies HATE, its being ignored.

[Pitchguest]

Wait wait wait, I think I've been out of the loop for this Patreon thing. She gets paid 300 dollars for every video she makes?

That elevator? Yeah, it's goes all the way to the 300th floor.

Shit. That's a lot of Fluevogs. :dance:

[Dick Strawkins]

I notice that it is almost three weeks since Rebecca Watson's 'Unpopular Science' blog got updated, despite her initial promise:

" I'll be posting here once a week, exposing the Popular Science crowd to the lesser known, much less rigorous, but equally entertaining world of Unpopular Science."

I'll take a wild guess and say that the Patreon gig is working out better than she expected (over 300 dollars for each two minute video!) and so the unpopular science blog had been canned - or, at least, allowed to slowly disappear.
What were those idiots at Popular Science thinking by giving her a job as a science writer?

The only shock in the whole situation is that she turned out to be less annoying in the job than their other new recruit, Hannah Waters, (she of the "Bora nearly raped me! - sort of, I think..." kerfuffle) the writer of their SJW blog, Ladybits, - who seems to think that the quality of an article is directly related to the number of incidences of the word "privilege".

http://www.popsci.com/blog-network/lady ... munication

Wait wait wait, I think I've been out of the loop for this Patreon thing. She gets paid 300 dollars for every video she makes?

I just checked.
http://www.patreon.com/rebecca
No, it's actually 371 dollars per video at the moment, and she has promised that if she reaches 500 per video (which will just require a few more of her sycophants to sign on) she will reward everyone by making TWO videos per week.
Which means she will make 1000 dollars per week for a couple of two minute monologues to the camera that contain as much information as an average comment on a skeptic/atheist blog.
No wonder she's stopped doing that 'Unpopular Science' blog - there's no way she'd be making anything close to that amount of money for four minutes of science (ahem!) writing.

[Liesmith]

I actually tried the 23andMe thing a while back, and they've got disclaimers all over the place for every little thing telling you that it's not a diagnostic, and if you have any concerns you should see a doctor. Before you even *view* those markers, you have to read and acknowledge a disclaimer reiterating this.

Aside from Dave's point about how The Powers That Be hate to be ignored, I don't really see what the point of the FDA's complaint is. If someone sees that they have a marker for increased risk of breast cancer, then they run out and get a mastectomy without a second opinion, they're a stupid. They're exactly completely one exact stupid.

[German LurkBoatsman]

For some reason I'm wondering if PZ and Watson will actually restrain themselves this time. Surely it must happen once?

I don't know why. It doesn't seem likely!

Here's my channeling of the ghost of Sylvia Browne:

- PZ will shoot a short post with some nitpicking but will otherwise try to ignore the whole thing. There's just nothing he could win by making this into another big fight and, even while criticising him, Nugent is one of the more influential people left who still talks to him.
- Becky will limit herself to some passive-aggressive tweets ("rape threats", privilege, whole world against her) and a skepchick post. Many hugs will be given and swearwords be uttered. But the thing will be over next week.
- Another week later, lazy Becky won't be able to resist to milk this for video time/money and will produce some video along the line "why I'm martyring myself for the good fight" with some additional passive-aggressiveness towards Nugent but mainly some money begging because she's just not sure she can withstand the hostility of people not worshipping her.
- Nugent is booked as a traitor to the cause. Revenge will be postponed until after Army Group Wenck has reinstated Myers and his left hand Watson as the leaders of the movement.

For me, that shall be the Baseline of Batshit Behaviour to judge them against. I fully expect them to surprise me. I just don't see how they'll do it.

[welch]

Knowing little about Greg Laden, why is he so notably obsessed with telling people what to do?

I'm guessing it's because he's a tin-pot tyrant running with an over-abundance of self-respect that nobody listens to now that he can't coat-tail on Myers. So he figures if he's just louder and more obnoxious, someday he'll be relevant and all those wonderful things he thinks about himself will actually come true.

He's too stupid and too desperate for attention to realize that getting kicked off of FTB may have been the best thing that's happened to him. He wants that spotlight so fucking badly.

[welch]

For some reason I'm wondering if PZ and Watson will actually restrain themselves this time. Surely it must happen once?

I don't know why. It doesn't seem likely!

Here's my channeling of the ghost of Sylvia Browne:

- PZ will shoot a short post with some nitpicking but will otherwise try to ignore the whole thing. There's just nothing he could win by making this into another big fight and, even while criticising him, Nugent is one of the more influential people left who still talks to him.
- Becky will limit herself to some passive-aggressive tweets ("rape threats", privilege, whole world against her) and a skepchick post. Many hugs will be given and swearwords be uttered. But the thing will be over next week.
- Another week later, lazy Becky won't be able to resist to milk this for video time/money and will produce some video along the line "why I'm martyring myself for the good fight" with some additional passive-aggressiveness towards Nugent but mainly some money begging because she's just not sure she can withstand the hostility of people not worshipping her.
- Nugent is booked as a traitor to the cause. Revenge will be postponed until after Army Group Wenck has reinstated Myers and his left hand Watson as the leaders of the movement.

For me, that shall be the Baseline of Batshit Behaviour to judge them against. I fully expect them to surprise me. I just don't see how they'll do it.

Joy! One of the DAWKINSMUSTDIE tits tried to play the usual game and the other commenters aren't having it. It's kind of fun to watch them politely tear his idiocy apart without posting 33 pages of text per post.

[Tribble]

Well well well.

I would like to know what has happened here. If the statement is correct, somebody is lying.

Hard evidence from independent sources is always, in this kind of investigation, given the best weight. Seeing the hard-matches, I'm going with one of two scenarios:

1. The server lied. This would be easiest and requires no additional actions.

2. Someone in the CC processing chain lied to the waitress and pocketed the tip. This does happen with unscrupulous co-employees at times.

[Dick Strawkins]

Just on a point of order on this Patreon business, I'm wondering what kind of person could possibly be comfortable with promising 100 dollars per video. Rebecca has at least one person who is doing this as one of her patrons.
I can think of some hypothetical videos that might be worth supporting in this way - for example if, Malala Yousafzai, that Pakistani girl who was shot by the taliban, was making a series of videos that promoted science education in her country.
But Rebecca Watson talking skepchick stuff?
I am honestly surprised that she has any fans deluded enough to sign up for that amount of money.
Remember, we are talking a potential amount of 800 dollars per month = 9,600 per year.
Trophy wife is gonna be pissed :x

[Tribble]

I actually tried the 23andMe thing a while back, and they've got disclaimers all over the place for every little thing telling you that it's not a diagnostic, and if you have any concerns you should see a doctor. Before you even *view* those markers, you have to read and acknowledge a disclaimer reiterating this.

Aside from Dave's point about how The Powers That Be hate to be ignored, I don't really see what the point of the FDA's complaint is. If someone sees that they have a marker for increased risk of breast cancer, then they run out and get a mastectomy without a second opinion, they're a stupid. They're exactly completely one exact stupid.

I think you fail to account for the issue of false negatives. Those tests are WORTHLESS seeing as the same samples give wildly divergent results. Which would, naturally, include a lot of 'missed' information, like actually having a dangerous condition they said you didn't have causing you to neglect a real screening that could save your life.

[Dick Strawkins]

I actually tried the 23andMe thing a while back, and they've got disclaimers all over the place for every little thing telling you that it's not a diagnostic, and if you have any concerns you should see a doctor. Before you even *view* those markers, you have to read and acknowledge a disclaimer reiterating this.

Aside from Dave's point about how The Powers That Be hate to be ignored, I don't really see what the point of the FDA's complaint is. If someone sees that they have a marker for increased risk of breast cancer, then they run out and get a mastectomy without a second opinion, they're a stupid. They're exactly completely one exact stupid.

I haven't tried it but I suspect they stepped on a few medic toes with the language they used.
Physicians hate the idea of people self diagnosing with these kind of tests and I have seen them call for the test to be banned for rather spurious reasons (mostly, I suspect, to do with protecting their territory.)

[Southern]

Well well well.

I would like to know what has happened here. If the statement is correct, somebody is lying.

I like how the article describes the note as "hateful". C'mon, it may be a douche thing to say "I'm sorry but I cannot tip because I do not agree with your lifestyle", but it's in no way a "hateful" statement. Keep things in perspective, NBC.

You want a hateful note? "I'm no tipping a damn dyke. I'm also not getting back while damn fags and dykes are allowed to work here". There. Offensive, hurtful, to the point, and also asking for the waitress's head. That's a hateful statement.

[Ape+lust]

Just on a point of order on this Patreon business, I'm wondering what kind of person could possibly be comfortable with promising 100 dollars per video. Rebecca has at least one person who is doing this as one of her patrons.
I can think of some hypothetical videos that might be worth supporting in this way - for example if, Malala Yousafzai, that Pakistani girl who was shot by the taliban, was making a series of videos that promoted science education in her country.
But Rebecca Watson talking skepchick stuff?
I am honestly surprised that she has any fans deluded enough to sign up for that amount of money.
Remember, we are talking a potential amount of 800 dollars per month = 9,600 per year.
Trophy wife is gonna be pissed :x

There's also the guy who likes to do bling poses with $120 worth of Surlies on his neck.

She'll never date you B-man, you're too much of a dullard.

Rebecca should quick fucking with her hair or she'll be sporting the Greta see-through look one day.

[Southern]

(Mr. Rodgers saying "I like you just the way you are" is the right way to do it; telling little Charlie that he's a genius because he's learned to turn on the TV is not.)

Wasn't that Billy Joel?

[Mykeru]

I notice that it is almost three weeks since Rebecca Watson's 'Unpopular Science' blog got updated, despite her initial promise:

" I'll be posting here once a week, exposing the Popular Science crowd to the lesser known, much less rigorous, but equally entertaining world of Unpopular Science."

I'll take a wild guess and say that the Patreon gig is working out better than she expected (over 300 dollars for each two minute video!) and so the unpopular science blog had been canned - or, at least, allowed to slowly disappear.
What were those idiots at Popular Science thinking by giving her a job as a science writer?

The only shock in the whole situation is that she turned out to be less annoying in the job than their other new recruit, Hannah Waters, (she of the "Bora nearly raped me! - sort of, I think..." kerfuffle) the writer of their SJW blog, Ladybits, - who seems to think that the quality of an article is directly related to the number of incidences of the word "privilege".

http://www.popsci.com/blog-network/lady ... munication

Wait wait wait, I think I've been out of the loop for this Patreon thing. She gets paid 300 dollars for every video she makes?

Wow, how can I get in on that action?

Oh, wait...

Meanwhile...

It's a sign, must be.

[welch]

(Mr. Rodgers saying "I like you just the way you are" is the right way to do it; telling little Charlie that he's a genius because he's learned to turn on the TV is not.)

Wasn't that Billy Joel?

yes. who then dumped his wife for a supermodel.

[ReneeHendricks]

There's some lovely rage over here!

PZ posted a photo of an advice-columnists response to a "My son it totes gay, halp plx" letter, and I think the response was very reasonable. On the other hand, some people are pointing out that the original letter seems fake (and I agree), and is just being used as a way to broach the subject and offer a specific stance on it.

Cue Caine taking the time to remind everyone how terrible her life has been, with Nerd on backup vocals.

If you were playing the "hyper-skepticism" drinking game, I'm so sorry, you're probably dead now.

Crap. Now I feel kinda dirty having something in common with Caine - bisexuality. Where's the eye soap?

Look, we all have hemoglobin, so we all have something in common. The more important question is do you share common, controllable personal interests, like digging up your dead pets? If you're not out there digging up your dead rats with your nasty, dirty fingernails, I should think you really wouldn't need any eyeball soap as you're not chosing to 'live the lifestyle' of Caine, Potential Serial Killer.

And that's got to count as a BIG PLUS in the ledger of life.

Point taken. Now where's my shovel?

[feralandproud]

Well well well.

I would like to know what has happened here. If the statement is correct, somebody is lying.

I like how the article describes the note as "hateful". C'mon, it may be a douche thing to say "I'm sorry but I cannot tip because I do not agree with your lifestyle", but it's in no way a "hateful" statement. Keep things in perspective, NBC.

You want a hateful note? "I'm no tipping a damn dyke. I'm also not getting back while damn fags and dykes are allowed to work here". There. Offensive, hurtful, to the point, and also asking for the waitress's head. That's a hateful statement.

This sounds familiar...
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nationa ... -1.1490962

[Liesmith]

I actually tried the 23andMe thing a while back, and they've got disclaimers all over the place for every little thing telling you that it's not a diagnostic, and if you have any concerns you should see a doctor. Before you even *view* those markers, you have to read and acknowledge a disclaimer reiterating this.

Aside from Dave's point about how The Powers That Be hate to be ignored, I don't really see what the point of the FDA's complaint is. If someone sees that they have a marker for increased risk of breast cancer, then they run out and get a mastectomy without a second opinion, they're a stupid. They're exactly completely one exact stupid.

I think you fail to account for the issue of false negatives. Those tests are WORTHLESS seeing as the same samples give wildly divergent results. Which would, naturally, include a lot of 'missed' information, like actually having a dangerous condition they said you didn't have causing you to neglect a real screening that could save your life.

I suppose you could be right, I guess I just see it differently since I didn't care about any of the medical aspects of the tests. I was just mildly curious about the ancestry portion of the results. It turns out I'm 102% African, with a 2% margin of error.

[windy]

I actually tried the 23andMe thing a while back, and they've got disclaimers all over the place for every little thing telling you that it's not a diagnostic, and if you have any concerns you should see a doctor. Before you even *view* those markers, you have to read and acknowledge a disclaimer reiterating this.

Aside from Dave's point about how The Powers That Be hate to be ignored, I don't really see what the point of the FDA's complaint is. If someone sees that they have a marker for increased risk of breast cancer, then they run out and get a mastectomy without a second opinion, they're a stupid. They're exactly completely one exact stupid.

I think you fail to account for the issue of false negatives. Those tests are WORTHLESS seeing as the same samples give wildly divergent results.

Where do you see that?

[Matt Cavanaugh]

Knowing little about Greg Laden, why is he so notably obsessed with telling people what to do?

For the same reason he raised his truck.

[Jonathan]

Ugh. Now Oolon has arrived on the Nugent thread.

[ERV]

Good lord.

You read all the papers that come out in your field, and closely related fields. "All the papers?" you might ask. Yes. ALL THE FUCKING PAPERS.

WHY IS SHE ASKING RANDOM INTERNET PEOPLE FOR PAPERS IN HER OWN FIELD?

:doh: :doh: :doh: :doh: :doh:

[Tony Parsehole]

I'm going to get some speedweight dumbells and use the perfunctory gym in my apartment, so that should free up time.

Dude these are on sale at Amazon today!



I cant find a good gym around here, so I am ordering a set :) Use the Slymepit linky!

They look epic for doing pyramid sets.

[Mykeru]

Good lord.

You read all the papers that come out in your field, and closely related fields. "All the papers?" you might ask. Yes. ALL THE FUCKING PAPERS.

WHY IS SHE ASKING RANDOM INTERNET PEOPLE FOR PAPERS IN HER OWN FIELD?

:doh: :doh: :doh: :doh: :doh:

Hey, can we write a paper and send it to her?

Surreptitiously slipping "I made a doody" into the text is, of course, obligatory.

[ReneeHendricks]

Ugh. Now Oolon has arrived on the Nugent thread.

Ooboy: "I may even buy the book you are reviewing here!"

He *might* even buy Dawkins' book. Wow. I'm sure Richard will not give one flying fuck.

[Tony Parsehole]

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

It's the expressions of both Amanda "Tom Cruise" Marcotte and Oprah "Simon Weston" Winfrey, that make this funny as fuck.

[Jonathan]

Ed Brayton inadvertently stomps on the self-righteous bleatings of the SJW keyboard warriors:

http://freethoughtblogs.com/dispatches/ ... yone-else/

[Matt Cavanaugh]

Perhaps it's my age showing, but I can't help but despise ... Beastie Boys, well off suburban kids who latched onto and make a quick buck by appropriating urban black culture to produce listenable "music".

Please share with the rest of us your formula for determining which music genres may be performed only by members of a particular race.

[Southern]

Wasn't that Billy Joel?

yes. who then dumped his wife for a supermodel.

Ah, c'est l'amour. "Don't be immortal, since it's flame/ But let it be inifite while it lasts". Or something.

[Matt Cavanaugh]

Just on a point of order on this Patreon business, I'm wondering what kind of person could possibly be comfortable with promising 100 dollars per video. Rebecca has at least one person who is doing this as one of her patrons.

Or not. She could just be saying it to grease the wheels for smaller donations.

[Southern]

Ugh. Now Oolon has arrived on the Nugent thread.

Ooboy: "I may even buy the book you are reviewing here!"

He *might* even buy Dawkins' book. Wow. I'm sure Richard will not give one flying fuck.

How naive of you. You're talking about the famous Block Bot programmer, who appeared on television for his work that... uh? The Block Bot was blocked, you say? Nevermind, then.

[Matt Cavanaugh]

I don't read much by Marcotte. Is she really *that* stupid?

About on par with her twin brother.

[Tony Parsehole]

Ugh. Now Oolon has arrived on the Nugent thread.

I'm surprised it took him so long actually. Comment no.21? He must be slipping.
God,I don't now how anybody reads his whiny, tl;dr, dog-wank comments. He used to be marginally funny (funny in the sense of laughing at him rather than with him) and sometimes provocative but lately he's about as thought-provoking as the active ingredients list on a tube of sea-salt.

[QuiteSo]

Good lord.

You read all the papers that come out in your field, and closely related fields. "All the papers?" you might ask. Yes. ALL THE FUCKING PAPERS.

WHY IS SHE ASKING RANDOM INTERNET PEOPLE FOR PAPERS IN HER OWN FIELD?

:doh: :doh: :doh: :doh: :doh:

Hey, can we write a paper and send it to her?

Surreptitiously slipping "I made a doody" into the text is, of course, obligatory.

Just the text? How about adding an actual doody?

[Joseph Porter, KCB]

Perhaps it's my age showing, but I can't help but despise ... Beastie Boys, well off suburban kids who latched onto and make a quick buck by appropriating urban black culture to produce listenable "music".

Please share with the rest of us your formula for determining which music genres may be performed only by members of a particular race.

I wasn't implying that. I was suggesting the Beastie Boys were derivative and inauthentic, singing as if they were streetwise toughguys despite an affluent and sheltered upbringing. (One can argue that they were "doing it ironically", I know; let's not turn over that rock.)

I love Paul Robeson's rendition of "Moorsoldaten" ("Peat Bog Soldiers", in the English translation), Paul Robeson could sing anything tremendously well (indeed, an exception to my "rule", I probably like his "Ode to Joy" better than anyone's, even if occasionally his pronunciation of German is questionable).

And "Moorsoldaten" can be enjoyed in the native German or in many translations. But given it was written by inmates and first performed by them in the earliest Nazi concentration camps, sometimes it's just a bit more evocative when sung by, say Hannes Wader, an actual German.

Similarly with operas: opera singers are trained to sing amazingly well in many different languages, but there's something a little more special when it's the Deutsche Oper Berlin singing the Ring Cycle, or the D'Oyly Carte singing Pinafore.

I don't think it's a stretch to say the same of rap music, that it (often, not always) has more impact when it grows from native ground. I guess I'm arguing that while I agree with you that music transcends culture, I see it as also rooted in the particular culture(s) it originated in.

As to the Beastie Boys, if they had appropriate the music and transformed it, had added their own articular genius to it, that would be one thing. And maybe you would argue they did just that -- i am not an expert on their music. But I see them as hacks, and worse, presenting ("fronting") an inauthentic, borrowed experience.

It's not so much a matter of race, it's a matter of authenticity.

[Jarhead]

Dayna Morales, the former Marine waitress who claims she was discriminated against because she's a lesbian, made up the whole thing.

Yeah, there's a shocker of the century, you mean an SJW would spin a false threat narrative just to make some quick sympathy cash? Say it ain't so!!!

http://cdn2-b.examiner.com/sites/defaul ... k=9C760qcL

^^^ LIAR!!!

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/11 ... story?lite

[Mykeru]

Ugh. Now Oolon has arrived on the Nugent thread.

Ooboy: "I may even buy the book you are reviewing here!"

He *might* even buy Dawkins' book. Wow. I'm sure Richard will not give one flying fuck.

How naive of you. You're talking about the famous Block Bot programmer, who appeared on television for his work that... uh? The Block Bot was blocked, you say? Nevermind, then.

Was it now?