I’m a Lanthanide! (What’s a Lanthanide?) June 27, 2011

I’m a Lanthanide! (What’s a Lanthanide?)

By Guest Contributor
June 27, 2011

There are lots of games to play with this Periodic Table of Atheists and Antitheists by Ungodly News:

Who was left off the list?

What do the letters stand for if not the person’s initials?

And why are the bloggers relegated to the part of the Periodic Table no one ever cares about? *Sniff* I see how it is…

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  • Aimee

    Where’s Cult of Dusty (Dusty Smith)? Am I overlooking him?

  • johannsone

    The Friendly Atheist! You know we all love you!

  • Hazor

    It didn’t occur to me that “Fa” was for “Friendly Atheist” until after I thought of “Fraking Awesome.”

    Take that as you will.

  • Seems like the letters that aren’t directly from your names are from the titles of your blogs. You for example are Fa = Friendly Atheist. Jen McCreight, Bh = Blag Hag. Rebecca Watson, Sc = SkepChick. Brian Keith Dalton, Md = Mr Deity. etc

  • Matto the Hun

    What about Terry Pratchett?

    I didn’t see AronRa either?

    Oh and we can’t count George carlin anymore, the Mormons grabbed him up after he kicked off.

    What can you do, they’re clever fuckers that way.

  • Ashley Moltzan

    Hey we do too care about Wicked of the Web like you!

  • NotYou007

    I was just happy to see you were there. I was kind of pissed off till I saw your name.

  • Here are some others that I know of:

    Atheist Experience – Ae – Matt Dillahunty
    Common sense Atheism – Cs – Luke Muelhauser
    Daylight Atheism – Da – Adam Lee

  • Joe_No_Halo

    I think Robert Ingersoll should have been included.

  • I’m element 97 Dt (DangerousTalk)
    -Staks
    http://www.DangerousTalk.net

  • Surgoshan

    Hey now, we chemists may not give a hoot about the lanthanides and actinides, but physicists are all over that.

  • Sesoron

    Ag for “silver”man — as in the Latin “argentum” for “silver”.
    Gf for “Gandalf” would have to be my favorite.

  • Heidi

    There is so much awesome on that one chart…

  • James

    Hey, now, some of us care plenty about the lanthanide and actinide series! Though I was sad to see Socrates had missed the list- he is the ur-atheist, after (before?) all!

  • Ha! There I am, kicking off the Actinide series! (Why I’m on this chart is anyone’s guess…)

  • Andi

    The bloggers are the most numerous and the largest section is the one represented by the spots in the bottom section, so that’s why you are in the bottom green part. I think this is a great chart. I want one for my wall.

  • I want this as a poster.

  • Erp

    I think Robert Ingersoll should have been included.

    And Charles Bradlaugh.

    So Hemant is element 59, Praseodymium.

  • Jason

    I’d like to point out that some of the elements in “the part of the Periodic Table no one ever cares about” have made possible some of the most devastating weapons known to mankind.

  • Some of the elements names are references to the person’s work:

    So Douglas Adams gets Hg for the HitchHiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (and cleverly gets atomic number 42!), Gene Roddenberry gets ST for Star Trek and Mark Zuckerberg gets Fb for obvious reasons.
    Bill Gates should then get Ms, isn’t it?

    Anyway, this is a total win, I love it.
    I wonder what my atomic number and name would be if I was worthy of being there? Do starving writers count? And being a happy hippo would my name be Hp?
    Cheers

  • Toubrouk

    Looks like Ayn Rand din’t make the cut. The old battle-axe was all about Atheism. If the blowtard Chomski can be on the list, why not her?

  • anomalie

    Some of these have been pointed out above, but I’ll take a stab at a list of the non-name-related letters:

    7 – Mb – MythBuster
    13 – St – Star Trek
    30 – Ag – Silver?
    32 – Gf – Gandalf
    33 – Pj – Pearl Jam
    42 – Hg – Hitchhiker’s Guide
    51 – Fb – Facebook

    Green: Blog names

    Unknown: 21, 27, 29, 47, 77, 78, 105, 107, 113 (backwards?)

    Anyone know the others? I’ll admit my knowledge here seems limited to pop culture (holy reinforcing-gender-stereotypes Batman!)

  • James

    My favorite is probably the use of Ag for David SILVERman.

    I’m sad that they left of Evid3nc3 (Chris Redford), but I’m glad they included guys like thunderf00t and Edward Current so youtube didn’t completely get the shaft.

    Also, for non-name symbols. #105 – Darrel Ray has Gv for his book the God Virus!

  • James

    And for #107 – Samuel Clemens as Mt is for Mark Twain.

    Also for Penn Jillette, they shouldn’t have made him Pn, they should have made him BS!

  • Drakk

    Why the “four horsemen” are in the place of the noble (unreactive and inert) gases is beyond me…

  • Jon

    No place for Ophelia Benson of Butterflies and Wheels?

  • elentir

    I was hoping to find Richard Feynman on the list – no go. 🙁

  • jarppu

    I think Peter Atkins should have been added there as well.

  • Alex

    I think Robert Ingersoll should have been included.

    Unbelievable, you can’t leave off Ingersoll! How many writers today are just paraphrasing him?

    Also maybe there needs to be a way of including the Carvaka Philosophy.

  • ungodlynews

    Thanks for the post! I started this knowing it wasn’t going to end up perfect. There are some great suggestions being posted, some deserve a facepalm for missing and others I just haven’t come across in my reading. Two years ago I couldn’t have named ten atheists, so I’m quite proud of what I have discovered thus far. I fixed Michel Onfray, my bad.

  • I thought it was well done. With only 118 spaces and a much larger pool of worthy people, not everybody could be included. With this limitation, they did a pretty good job.

  • I want to know who you’re planning on combining with?

  • Ubi Dubium

    I like “Br” for Richard Haynes (Brother Richard) and “Sm” for Bobby Henderson (although that really should be “fSm”).

    Now I have a goal to shoot for! When the trans-uranics are added to the list someday, to be well-known enough to be added as element Ud!

  • qwertyuiop

    Number 42, Hitchhiker’s guide. They nailed that one!

  • Darwin’s Dagger

    They should add Helen Sotiriadis as element 102 Tt = TooManyTribbles

  • Ubi Dubium

    It took me a little searching to be sure but “Jm” Mohammed Jones – that’s for “Jesus and Mo”.

  • Claudia

    I love it, though I think Pat Condell should be in movers and shakers, not comical critics. Pats initial videos were hilarious, but he stopped being funny a long time ago. Also unless I missed him Warren Buffett is missing. Awesome chart though, someone should make it poster-sized.

  • Hal in Howell MI

    2nd @ Jon Ophelia Benson among the missing. Also Paula Kirby and John W. Loftus (unless I’m missing them in the list.)

  • Steve

    no Bill Nye 🙁

  • Ben

    What about Kurt Vonnegut!

  • Michael

    Someone above asked:
    21 – Phil Plait’s blog is Bad Astronomer (Ba)
    27 – Michael Shermer is editor of Skeptic Magazine (Sk)
    77 – Bobby Henderson created the Church of the FSM (Sm)
    107 – Samuel Clemens is the real name of the author who published as Mark Twain (Mt)

  • tinker

    I love that Isaac Asimov was put in with the science guys to remember him for what he was, not what he did.

    And I was not aware that Adam Savage belonged on this list, cool!

  • Darwin’s Dagger

    And I was not aware that Adam Savage belonged on this list, cool!

    Yet his friend and co-host Jamie Hyneman was left out, as was Penn’s better half Teller. I guess you have to be the outspoken one to get any attention.

  • Inver Stone

    Hemant, congrats on making the atheist periodic table…very well deserved.

    Inver

  • Jon

    No Paton Oswalt, no Thomas Jefferson, no Percy Bysshe Shelley, no Colette, no Salman Rushdie, no Bill Hicks. Still a great list, though!

  • Sinfanti

    This whole thing is pretty brilliant. But (as hipopotamo already pointed out) seeing Douglas Adams on there as number 42 made my morning.

  • Richard Wade

    This is great fun. Clearly there are more luminaries in free thinking than there are known elements, so there are unfortunate omissions. The only solution is we just have to discover more elements. Get those particle accelerators humming!

  • Peter Tibbles

    Where’s Kari Byron?

  • Tom Bourque

    “And why are the bloggers relegated to the part of the Periodic Table no one ever cares about? *Sniff* I see how it is…”

    Don’t be sad. That section contains the cool elements like Uranium and Plutonium! 😀

  • pianodwarf

    How the heck could a chart like this not include Daniel C. Dennett?