Very Funny

Experts Agree Giant, Razor-Clawed Bioengineered Crabs Pose No Threat

Grapes of Wrath

Boy have I been sick. I ate some big juicy sweet black grapes this weekend, ended up needing two IVs, vicoden, and antibiotics as a result. Seriously un-fun food poisoning.

Today is much better (tho' far from great), with the added 'bonus' that I've lost my voice. Apparently a not uncommon side effect of too much stomach acid in the throat. An interesting sensation, tho' the cats seem a bit confused.

Had to cancel classes today...tho' perhaps not my most unpopular decision, given that it's St. Patrick's day (kind of a big deal here at ND). Couldn't speak, and couldn't be away from the bathroom long enough to teach.

My first clue was when I put on sweats, turned up the heat, and was sleeping under two big comforters, yet was still cold. Definitely not me. What soon followed left nothing to the imagination.

Battlestar Let-Down

I hate to say this...but I'm a bit less than enamored with the past two episodes of Battlestar. And as they were 2 of the final 3, I'm disappointed. I hope the final 2 hour installment is awesome, because right now, the greatest show ever is going out with something of a whimper. They'd have been fine episodes somewhere in the middle of any given season, but not as a blockbuster ending to a blockbuster show.

(I made this fun little cylon skeleton action figure. Surprisingly, there aren't many BSG skeleton/skulls out there...)

Monkeys Flossing

Allstate Update

I posted "Allstate Woes" here last night and likewise put a comment on Facebook, and finally heard from my former Allstate agent this morning. Don't know if the two are related, probably not. But a fun coincidence just the same. He simply left a message for me to call him, no details as to why. I haven't...since I'm not a customer anymore.

It is amazing how many people have hit on yesterday's post (I can check via "details" what page people come to this site from). There must be a lot of unhappy Allstate customers out there.

The Rock Obama

Allstate Woes

Many moons ago, I remember reading about the raw deal Allstate dealt to the people of New Orleans, and Mike H's testimony before Congress detailing their dirty deeds.

At that time, I found myself in a moral conundrum. On the one hand, drop the company to protest their treatment of people in Louisiana. An easy choice but for two points: 1) my father worked for Sears for nearly 40 years and I felt company loyalty (Allstate was part of the Sears Financial network). I've had their insurance for almost 25 years. 2) For the past 16 years, I've worked with the same agent. He's an amateur archaeologist, and tho' a bit smarmy, a decent enough guy to work with. In the end, I decided that, like politics, "all [insurance] is local." And I stuck with 'em.

Until today. Today I am a new State Farm customer. Home, car, personal umbrella.

Why the change? 'Cuz my agent (John Davenport) apparently screwed up my homeowner's policy - for the past 8 months I've been without insurance. I found out this surprising detail as I was getting ready to close on my refinancing. When I called Allstate, my agent said I'd canceled my policy because I was upset about the rate increase that occurred as a result of my claim last year.

Trouble is, I have never had a claim on the house. Nor have I ever complained about my rate increases...never actually noticed them. So I had him check, and sure enough, no claims. Then, why no coverage? "You forgot to pay your bill" he explained. Nope, I called in the payment to him and indeed got a 3 dollar reimbursement for overpayment - with a hand written note from him about the matter. He checked, and sure enough, the $3 reimbursement on my HOMEOWNER's policy showed up. When we concluded the conversation last week, he was going to check on it.

Haven't heard from him since. I called on Tuesday, said to get back to me by 4 the next day so I didn't lose my loan. Nothing.

I called State Farm, they had new contracts for me within 30 minutes with more comprehensive coverage on all 3 policies at an almost $500-a-year savings.

The moral(s) of the story -- a) always listen to Mike H.; b) check on your insurance rates regularly, could save you a lot of money; and c) the concept of "company loyalty" is dead (except for Apple ;-)

To fully illustrate my feelings toward Allstate today, I made the logo below. Kills two birds with one stone.

Oh Ooooh

My secret's out...

Bailout Woes

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

CNBC Gives Financial Advice

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Joke of the Day

I've Been Remiss

I've been a bad blogger, and have been duly chastised by my father. So, here's an update on life of late:

1. Matzel is doing great! He's like a new cat. He's perky, purring up a storm, hardly seems to notice the giant incision on his belly. He even looks different when viewed from the side. He had the physique of a cat who'd birthed a couple dozen litters. While there's a pouch of loose skin, he looks like he's lost half his body weight. I am so glad I did this operation - messiness for the next few weeks aside.

2. I've started a 3-hour a day writing schedule. I'd give myself a B- at sticking to it, but it's definitely gotten me back into working on the monks. Kinda fun from that standpoint. And, I've decided that my trip to Mongolia will be my Full Professor gift to myself, so have some inspiration. I've hung up brochures in each place that I write to keep me motivated.

3. Saturday night I went out to dinner at NOMA's and then to the symphony. Heard an awesome classical guitarist. The South Bend Symphony is really quite good, we are lucky have such a quality group in a city of this size. Indeed, I was so inspired by my evening out, that I came home and bought tickets to an upcoming Stomp show in April

4. Today was the memorial service for Michael Signer. It was absolutely packed. A heartwarming service, particularly the eulogy by the chair of Theology. The gathering accomplished what Michael's career was all about - interfaith conversation. He brought together a large group of friends to celebrate his life, and mourn his passing far too early.

They're Comin' Out of the Woodwork

Obama is the Antichrist/Hitler/BiSexual. CNN and Fox actually gave these boobs airtime!!

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Unusual Suspect

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Funny Political News
Joke of the Day

Colon-free Kitty

Matzel is back home, sans a body part. He seems to be doing well, and has attracted the attention of his curious brothers. For a few days, he'll be enclosed in a large dog cage to keep him from moving around too much, because his incision is literally the length of his trunk. I was surprised at the size, until I saw what they took out.

The pictures below are of Matzel in his new abode, and Lemur keeping him company. Wiley was laying on my lap.


As I was paying for his operation, one of the techs came out - a woman who has been working with him for years - and said that she thinks he lost at least 2 pounds (the equivalent of about 30 lbs for humans) just in the size of the colon. Then whispered: "you want to see it??" I had to promise I wouldn't pass out (as if) and lord o' mighty, it was impressive. I guess when you consider the xrays, it's not so surprising. After a initial "holy shit", I said, "this is totally blog-worthy, will I seem really odd if I ask for a picture." She said yes I would, but go for it. So I did.

Sadly, it was hard to photograph. They removed a good 7-8 inches of colon. This thing literally looked like some kind of parasitic alien from a sci-fi movie. Indeed, adding to the geekiness of taking a picture, my first thought was "oh my God, it's a goa'uld!!!" (alien evil doers from Stargate SG-1, for the uniformed ;-) The pictures below don't do it justice.

Here's the original xray, followed by two views of the dead alien/colon:

Happy Fat Tuesday!!

Lemur Antics

Lemur's been keeping me entertained while I work in the study. What a doofus!

He obviously takes after his other two "mothers" (Jaime and Alicia ;-)

Click on the first picture and look at his face up close - sure to get a laugh.

What the Bloody Hell??

This was in the NY Post today. Apparently they haven't gotten the memo that this ain't 1809.

Here is the email address for the editor is you'd like to complain: letters@nypost.com

The Real Facebookers

Why Facebook Is for Old Fogies
Thursday, Feb. 12, 2009

Readers Digest version:

1. Facebook is about finding people you've lost track of.
2. We're no longer bitter about high school.
3. We never get drunk at parties and get photographed holding beer bottles in suggestive positions.
4. Facebook isn't just a social network; it's a business network.
5. We're lazy.
6. We're old enough that pictures from grade school or summer camp look nothing like us.
7. We have children.
8. We're too old to remember e-mail addresses.
9. We don't understand Twitter.
10. We're not cool, and we don't care.

Battlestar

I downloaded the new "Cylon Detector" app for the iPhone and checked myself out. As suspected, I'm a cylon. Explains a lot.

Wiley however, was detected as human. Again, no big surprise ;-)

Yep, too much time on my hands.

Congratulations Jim McKenna!!

Jim was selected as a Fellow of the AAAS. If you want to send him a note of congratulations, here's his email address --

Here is the press announcement (I've only included the Anthropology section):

AAAS Members Elected as Fellows

In November, the AAAS Council elected 486 members as Fellows of AAAS. These individuals will be recognized for their contributions to science and technology at the Fellows Forum to be held on 14 February 2009 during the AAAS Annual Meeting in Chicago. The new Fellows will receive a certificate and a blue and gold rosette as a symbol of their distinguished accomplishments. Presented by section affiliation, they are:


Section on Anthropology

* Susan C. Anton, New York University
* Claude Bouchard, Louisiana State University
* Daniel E. Brown, University of Hawaii
* Marian Dagosto, Northwestern University
* Robert G. Elston, University of Nevada
* Carol R. Ember, Yale University
* Charles F. Hildebolt, Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology
* Stephen A. Kowalewski, University of Georgia
* Steven R. Leigh, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
* Jeffrey K. McKee, Ohio State University
* James J. McKenna, University of Notre Dame
* J. Michael Plavcan, University of Arkansas
* Matthew J. Ravosa, University of Missouri
* Audrey Smedley, Virginia Commonwealth University
* David G. Smith, University of California, Davis

Explains A Lot

My de-evolution fun (previous post) was cut short when my father sent me the following story. A new Gallup poll shows that less than 4 in 10 Americans believe in evolution.

On Darwin’s Birthday, Only 4 in 10 Believe in Evolution: Belief drops to 24% among frequent church attenders
by Frank Newport, Gallup.com
February 11, 2009

I feel I must quibble with the wording of the report tho' -- since I don't think "believe in" applies to a time-tested set of scientific evidence in the same way that 'belief' in creationism does. And to harp further, it is only "belief" (dare I add "blind"...) that works for creationism, because any degree of critical thought shows the innumerable flaws in the idea...beginning with the presence of two Creation stories in the Bible, the lack of agreement between those two stories, the fact that time periods are described as days before there was a Sun, and so on, and so on, and so on. (I know, I know -- my trip to the Creation Museum clearly did not take hold).

As I become older and increasingly intolerant, I'm starting to think that they (the big They, you know, Them) should make everyone of voting age take at least 1 biology course (taught by an actual biologist) and one course on Biblical Exegesis - not for the theological component, but so they learn how to read ancient texts for what they are!! Only after receiving an "A" in each are you allowed to cast a vote.

Harsh, I know, but COME ON?!! Less than 4 in 10??!!!!

D-evolution

In honor of Darwin's birthday, here's a fun little tool that will let you 'devolve' yourself into an Australopithecine, Homo habilis, Homo erectus, and Homo heidlbergensis. My results are below: