Saved comments during March 2022

[neonvincent]

My comment on Magic Monday for March 7, 2022.

A Southern Baptist minister who knew I was (and still am) a scientist once approached me about his interpretation of a Bible verse about God being infinitely massive and outside of time, so He was moving faster than the speed of light. My response was that He could be, but he could also be at the center of a black hole. He never asked me about the idea again.

The irony is that Einstein himself blundered into the idea of dark energy with his cosmological constant to keep the universe from collapsing under its own weight, which he later abandoned when the universe was found to be expanding. He thought it was a mistake, but the advocates of dark energy now think he was right in the first place.

My comment on TULSI: SHE'S RUNNING! (OR AT LEAST THAT WAS PROBABLY THE IDEA.)

You were wondering what she was doing for money. This looks like part of the answer.

My comment on YOU LACK DISCIPLINE.

He also violated Reagan's Eleventh Commandment: "Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican." While The Former Guy has made that a dead letter, as he spoke ill of many, if not most, Republicans, Callow Cawthorn is finding out the hard way what kind of ill speech is still considered a violation by his fellow GOPers and deserves a dressing down from Kevin "Pickled Tongue" McCarthy. Speaking of which, the title of this essay reminds me of what Darth Vader said to the Imperial Officer who mocked The Force: "I find your lack of faith disturbing."

My comment(s) on Slack! An Irreverent Proposal.

You wrote about Discordianism on TAR six years ago and I mentioned The Church of the Subgenius in the comments, writing "I absorbed their attitude, which is more misanthropic than the Discordians, but not much else of their beliefs." I preserved our conversation, which also included your creation of Souther and Norther as companion holidays of Wester, which at least one Discordian has claimed for Eris. I still observe all three on my blog, thanks to you. May you enjoy ice cream with the Souther Wombat, hide your goodies from the Wester Squirrel before he hides them from you, and play pranks on Grizzy the Bear with the Norther Lemming!

By the way, would it surprise you to read that Twitter suspended the Babylon Bee for calling a transgender woman in the Biden Administration "Man of the Year"? I guess Twitter and many of its users decided that joke wasn't funny.

My comments on Monster Birds of South America.

I feel more than a twinge of nostalgia seeing that photograph of the Teratornis merriami skeleton and its painted reconstruction. I used to walk past it when I was a researcher at the George C. Page Museum 35 years ago. I found walking under the other skeleton hanging from the ceiling even more impressive. It lacked the features for the full wingspan and was still imposing!

Speaking of feelings, it felt a bit odd to read you use Eemian for a New World fossil. I'm not used to that on this side of the Atlantic, where I would use Sangamonian to describe the interglacial between the penultimate (Illinoian) and most recent (Wisconsin) glaciations. However, I don't know if either really applies to South America, as I couldn't find names for South American glacial and interglacial stages. The best I could do was the Lujanian South American Land Mammal Age, which includes the time in question.

Any way, thank you for covering these magnificent extinct birds the week of April 1st, no fooling!

Feathers, not features! Oops!