More images of prehistoric animals with a human to scale I made for Wikipedia. These three are ichthyosaurs. Click the pictures for more information on the animals they represent.

I was visiting my shrink at some point in the recent past, and at some point in the session I mentioned that, in addition to all those paleontology pages, I had been contributing to Wikipedia’s article on alien abduction. The response I received was somewhat interesting.

My therapist knows of my interest in science, and since I wanted to maintain whatever credibility I had in that department, I tagged my admission with a “not that I necesarily believe in it” disclaimer. Turns out that the disclaimer wasn’t really necessary.

Truth be told, she seemed very much open to the idea alien abduction. She didn’t seem to hold the position that I strongly expected a mental health professional to take “there’s probably a psychological explanation,” or even the old reliable, “they’re all just making it up.” Just plain openmindedness. Weird.

I asked her if she knew of anyone making an abduction claim, like through her practice. None, she said. According to her, most people with really “out there” mental health conditions tend to have religious-inspired delusions or hallucinations “in this area” (we do live in West Virginia though). Things like “thinking they’re talking to Jesus when really they’re talking to a tree.”

But not aliens. She’s never encountered an alleged abductee directly through her job as a mental health practitioner, nor has she known of any encountered by her colleagues. Now I’m not saying that just because my own personal shrink hasn’t encountered any abduction claimants through her work that abduction reporters aren’t crazy. But, it just seemed like… an interesting tidbit to share.

I’ve made a bunch of images depicting prehistoric animals and their size compared to a modern human for Wikipedia. Although I intended on posting them here, I was never blessed with the opportunity.

Actually, I just completely forgot to. Funny how the human mind works sometimes, eh? Well, I created three more “to scale” images today, and since I had the good sense enough to think of it, I decided to post them. I’ll get around to posting the old ones once I find them, I promise.

Click the picture for more information on the plesiosaur depicted.

I’ve had this loose concept of what my primary intellectual interests were since I was a kid: weird, ancient or speculative organisms.

I never bothered to articulate a definition for this loose association of tangentially connected subjects, but recently a term that seemed fitting presented itself to me. And so, here is…

Allobiology
Allobiology is an informal umbrella term for the study of ancient, strange, extraterrestrial, or fictional organisms. So basically, paleontology, astrobiology, weird biological trivia and the animals, aliens, and monsters from works of fiction.

The etymology is just a combination of the Greek prefix “Allos,” meaning “different” or “other” and “biology,” the study of living things.

I think “allobiology” does the idea justice.

“Gloating to the apathetic isn’t as much fun as you thought it would be, is it?”

Answers in Genesis
A site full to the brim with Young Earth propaganda and scientific blunders. Check your brain on the way in. That being said, AiG is of pretty good “quality” compared to most creationist websites. It really “sets the bar.” There’s too much content to sum up in a paragraph

Institute for Creation Research
Would an AIG by any other name smell as rank? Yes, the Institute for Creation Research is proof that it would. ICR has the same basic premise as AIG, large amounts of YEC content with a fancy layout to give it a thin veneer of professionalism. Nothing worthwhile to be found, though.

Woohoo! Thanks everyone!

Abyssal’s First Law of Sex
If a fetish can be conceived of, somebody has it.

Abyssal’s Second Law of Sex
People will fuck. If they can’t find a willing, compatible mate, they will find an unwilling or incompatible one (e.g. rape victim, family member, same sex individual, child, animal, etc.). If they cannot find an unwilling or incompatible mate they will create one by finding creative uses for inanimate objects.

Abyssal’s Third Law of Sex
Every image on the internet has been masturbated to at least once. Rare exceptions exist, including images online for only an extremely brief period, but since some individual images have been masturbated to so many times, the ratio of masturbation sessions per image still remains extremely high.