This week I’ve been rather swamped with co-organising the Natural Science Collections Association conference, so I haven’t had much time to think of a good mystery object from the Horniman’s collections. However, here is a nice (if somewhat distinctive) specimen from the excellent Grant Museum of Zoology for you to identify:
Any idea what it is?
You can put your comments below and I’ll do my best to respond, as the opportunity arises. Best of luck!
Following new government plans for gay marriage, Catholic commentators have crawled out of the woodwork to bitch and moan to anyone who’ll listen, despite the fact that marriage has been around for far longer than the Catholic Church and it has only taken on a strongly religious context after the Church spotted the money-making opportunities in the 12th Century.
Cardinal Keith O’Brien called the plans a “grotesque subversion of a universally accepted human right” and went on to say that “It would create a society which deliberately chooses to deprive a child of either a mother or a father“. (N.B. O’Brien’s claims about gay marriage breaching human rights stem from a misinterpretation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)
O’Brien’s comments were described as “a bit rich” by Paolo Viscardi, who went on to say “The need for both a father and mother is a biological one that ends with conception. Further, a human right is only meaningful when enforceable, yet the loss of a parent or parents is impossible to prevent in many instances, thereby making the ‘right’ for a child to have both a mother and father meaningless”.
Viscardi went on to say “There is no reason to suppose that a loving same-sex couple would fail in their care of children – indeed I believe they would do a far better job than, for example, a Catholic orphanage. O’Brien should check John 8:7. Members of the Catholic clergy have committed a host of human rights abuses against children and such abuse has been endemic in parts of the Catholic Church. O’Brien may have apologised for such abuses in the past, but to claim that the loving union of a same-sex couple is an abuse of human rights twists the meaning of that section of the Declaration of Human Rights and it throws the self-deluded sense of sexual morality held by the Catholic clergy into stark relief.”
Cardinal Jack Hackett
*Notably, more priests have stepped up to condemn gay marriage than have gone on record condemning child abuse by members of the Catholic clergy. The Irish Cardinal Jack Hackett, suggested that this was because many priests believe that “Sex is a sin unless it is intended to bring forth new life in the agonies of the woman as God intended. By abusing children the Catholic clergy are teaching them that sex is a dirty business that causes great suffering.”
Cardinal Jack Hackett finished by saying “Gays have too much fun to get married. Marriage is not about having fun, it’s about having babies and being miserable for the glory of God“.
*N.B. This last section may not be entirely true, but it paraphrases the jist of several arguments I’ve heard in the past.
If you disagree with the Catholic Church’s stance on gay marriage, and if you live in the UK, perhaps you would like to sign the Coalition For Equal Marriage’s petition to show your support.
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 48,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 18 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.
The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:
The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.
About 3 million people visit the Taj Mahal every year. This blog was viewed about 29,000 times in 2010. If it were the Taj Mahal, it would take about 4 days for that many people to see it.
In 2010, there were 121 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 192 posts. There were 137 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 118mb. That’s about 3 pictures per week.
The busiest day of the year was March 26th with 2,158 views. The most popular post that day was Friday mystery object #36.
The top referring sites in 2010 were twitter.com, facebook.com, Google Reader, iconfactory.com, and mail.live.com.
Some visitors came searching, mostly for zygoma, king kong, zygoma paolo, classical conditioning cartoon, and conclusions.
These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.
Friday mystery object #36 March 2010
47 comments
Back from extinction March 2010
3 comments and 1 Like on WordPress.com,
Friday mystery object #53 July 2010
74 comments
Friday mystery object #52 July 2010
50 comments
What is science? September 2009
3 comments
Going through a small private collection that we recently acquired I came across this incredible specimen:
It looks like a pachypleurosaur with a difference – it appears to have had wings. This is probably a preservational artifact, but having seen the original specimen with my own eyes it really doesn’t look like the fossil or the matrix around it has been faked.
There have been (and still are) lots of unusual gliding lizards out there, from Sharovipteryx to Draco volans, but this one is different in seeming to have specialised structures for the wings that are not adaptations of existing body parts. I will describe this in more detail, but for now I tentatively propose the name Aprilpleurosaurus primus.
Just a quick post to let everyone know that being run over by a motorbike is an unpleasant experience and I strongly recommend avoiding it. However, as always I try to make the best of these things, after all I now have a smiley face imprinted on my leg and comedy tyre-marks on my shirt – so there is an element of win there.
The wry grin of a wound inflicted by motorbike
The Pope has a funny idea of just what constitutes evidence for something rather than just lack of evidence against something… Continue reading
Sad news. Mary passed away at 7pm today. It seems she waited for my arrival from the UK – lasting just 3 minutes after my I ran into the hospital – long enough for me to say goodbye. She will be sorely missed by a huge number of people who’s lives she has enriched.
More to follow – for now I’m too numb to say more.
In case I don’t get the chance tomorrow, I wanted to let you all know that things look even worse than we thought. Mary is not showing signs of brain activity and there is a strong chance that the life support might be switched off soon. I will update as opportunity allows – I fly to Ireland tomorrow afternoon to be with Melissa and the rest of the family. We appreciate the messages of support that people have sent and I will pass on the goodwill to Melissa – and Mary – when I see them tomorrow.
For anyone who’s reading this and who knows Mary I wanted to let you know that things aren’t going well. Although she’s stable she has been taken off most of her medication, but has not come out of the induced coma. Her organs are not showing signs of recovery and she has internal bleeding in various organs – including the brain. Things look pretty bleak. We’ll find out more tomorrow.
Zygoma 