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PZ Myers is a biologist and associate professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris.
…and this is a pharyngula stage embryo.
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…your belief in God is merely an escape from your monotonous, stupid and cruel life.

[Krishnamurti]

Other Information

2005 Koufax Award
Best Expert

2006 Weblogs Award

We have a monthly award here on Pharyngula, in which commenters can nominate and vote for one of their own as the best and most interesting and most deserving of acknowledgment. It's called the Order of the Molly, after the late Molly Ivins, who was also one of those people most of us know only from her writings, but with whom we also wish we could have a conversation…and you know they'd be great at it, too.

So here's the list of people we look forward to in the comment threads—people we might all think to emulate.

Date	Winners	Sample comments
February 2007	Kristine Harley	→"Smart, good looking, dancer, what more could you ask for?" →"whose wit, humour and writing skill always makes her an enjoyable and enlightening read"
February 2007	Scott Hatfield	→"the guy consistently shows grace and class" →"a very good writer, has diplomacy and a clear, concise argument style, let alone the best disposition among atheists"

March 2007	Blake Stacey	→He's a smart feller. →whenever I'm reading a comment and thinking "Right on, man" I come to the end and there's his name.
March 2007	Hank Fox	→He's funny and always includes a thought provoking statement with clarity and logic. →Very bright guy who comes up with the greatest metaphors to make his points.

April 2007	Torbjörn Larsson	→I, too, would like to cast a vote for Mr. Diacritical, Torbjorn Larsson, not for any one post but for the overall excellence of his contributions. And his wit. And his cool name. And his hair. I bet he has nice hair. →Having read some of his offerings, I have to say it would not surprise me in the slightest should TL turn out to have access to more than one mind at any given moment. He's, um, really smart.

May 2007	Kseniya	→I'm going to vote for Kseniya based on insightful, relevant posts and reasonably conccluded thoughts. →Kseniya, who is insightful and very, very funny.
May 2007	BronzeDog	→Bronze Dog gets my vote this time, along with Kseniya. They both have insightful things to say (and I REALLY like BD's atavar...) →Bronze Dog has long been deserving of one - I go for him this time.

June 2007	Ichthyic	→I have no great problems with that fishy fellow, Ichthyic. Just as PZ has fed me nuggets of evo-devo which I kinda sorta understand, Ichthyic has graced me with partially understood fish knowledge. →There's something very fishy about this Ichthyic guy, but he gets my vote. I'll get the tarter sauce.

July/August 2007	Brownian	→Brownian, per moi, for frequent displays of erudition and piquant humor, and for... well, just look! →I have decided to pray that Brownian is recognized with a well-deserved Molly.
July/August 2007	Zeno	→I'll cast a vote for Zeno as well, and here's part of why I urge you to cast your vote for him. →Zeno. For a persistent part of the Pharyngula phenomenon, pestering the poor paupers of pseudoscientific phantasies, and paradoxically phun physico-math posts.

September 2007	David Marjanović	→David Marjanović single handedly thwarted an invasion staged by the Moon Commies (they live on the moon, are green, and are actually more like Stalinists than commies), and he laughs at my jokes. →I also vote for David Marjanović. Why? To quote the Simpsons: "no one who speaks German could be an evil man". And in addition he speaks at least two other languages as well! Apart from his language skills he provides some very insightful comments and he also faced John A. Davison and his (Davison's) trusty lackey VMartin in a mammoth thread a few months ago. That's determination, folks.

October 2007	Cuttlefish	→Anyway, my vote this month is for Cuttlefish, because s/he's a lyrical gangsta. →I was going to nominate Cuttlefish even before I saw everyone else voting for Cuttlefish, too. His/her poems are not only funny, but s/he's got a sense of rhythm Pope would envy (that's Mr. Alexander, not Mr. Ratzenberger).

November 2007	Sastra	→Sastra. Everything s/he writes is interesting and insightfull. →It seems like every time I see a comment by Sastra, I say to myself, "Who is this person, who knows so much of science?"

December 2007	Dustin	→Dustin++! He often makes me laugh, which would surely be a qualifying trait. →I vote for Dustin, the current popular boy in the class. For consistent wit, logic and all round grammatical correctness (plus Mr Shrek sometimes makes him sick which means we have something in common).

January 2008	MAJeff	→I think MAJeff has been quite active and fabulous this go-round, and add to the pile of votes in his favor. →I vote for MAJeff. His commentary has been insightful, witty, useful, illustrative, provocative, informative, and challenging. (And at times he pissed me off, until I thought about what he was saying and after thought found myself agreeing.)

February 2008	Truth Machine	→I'm gonna nominate Truth Machine, in particular for his tenacity. I get bored with a thread or something, and weeks later he'll still be going at it. →There are so many names, of course, but there can be no finer sight in the blogosphere than checking a few day old thread, and scrolling down, only to find about 30 posts by this guy - taking names (of literally everyone) with his barbed rhetoric and kick-you-in-the-nuts grandiloquence.
February 2008	Mrs Tilton	→I will go for Mrs Tilton. I may not always agree with her (although quite often I do) but when she does not she does make me think. →Mrs. Tilton always thrusts, cuts, parries, and dissects with ladylike precision. Many good choices out there, but my vote goes to her this month.

March 2008	Glen Davidson	→Glen D, definitely overdue. I bring him up for a Molly almost every month, I think. His frequent posts are informative, thoughtful and intelligent -- except for sudden Tourette-like bursts of scathing vitriol -- and then calm back down to academic discussion. This used to bother me a bit, but I'm now at the point where I see it as a charming quirk. →He deserves one at least for the sheer effort he puts in day in and day out, not only here, but on his own blog as well.

April 2008	brokenSoldier	→For touchning, honest and enlightening posts - not least answering that Quaerar fellow on the papist post: Broken Soldier. →I'd like to second the nomination for BrokenSoldierfor being patient, thoughtful, lucid and perhaps even kind in the face of layered stupidity.

May 2008	Etha Williams	→As always, it's hard to pick one person without implicitly slighting twenty, but though she be new to the 'hood, small in stature and too young to buy a beer, my vote for May has gotta go to our hugely personable, imposingly bright, and unfailingly eloquent little sistah, Etha Williams. →Etha Williams comes out of nowhere and stuns me with erudite comments.

June 2008	windy	→For weeks now, I've thought that windy deserved recognition for a level-headed discussion about the evolution-of-altruism question, and in particular for pointing to the literature which argues that (some of the things called) group selection are mathematically equivalent to (some of the things called) kin selection. (OK, so I think the theoretical ecologists made the point more clearly, but still, I appreciate the references.) So, yes: a Molly for windy! →There's been lots of good comments and commenters, some by newcomers, some by those already of the Order… But windy is overdue for induction, for comments both witty and wise.
June 2008	Bride of Shrek	→Bride of Shrek, definitely. I always catch myself nodding at her posts even when I don't agree! (Not nodding off... just nodding like "Yeah, yeah, I can see that.") And frequently entertaining, too. And intelligent! We should all be so intelligent! →I think Bride of Shrek deserves it for consistently witty and intelligent posts.

July 2008	Owlmirror	→I'll join the chorus and vote for Owlmirror for his/her epic tragicomedy "WAFERGATE OR CEILING CATLOLIC IS WATCHING YOU MASTICATE". Has anyone ever won a Molly for writing a play in the comments before? →I'd really like to see Owlmirror win this months Molly. Almost everytime he/she comments I'm nodding to myself thinking "Yeah, that's a point I hadn't though of". He/she has the intelligent lateral thinking thing down pat and I love that- it challenges you.

A special acknowledgment goes out to our four guest bloggers in August: Danio, LisaJ, MAJeff, and Sastra. They were the blogbearers while I was slacking off somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, and for this they receive my thanks. They are no longer merely Pharyngulites or Pharynguloids, but deserve the honorific of Pharyngulords.
August 2008	Rev. BigDumbChimp	→Who's the sexy chimp who types like a gimp? Rev. Daaaamn right. Who is the man who's fingers type like big ol' hams? Rev! Can ya dig it? I'm talkin' about Chimp, baby! →Rev. BDC for me! He comments on a lot of the blogs I read, and the other day I started wishing there was a Molly for the whole Internet. Thanks Brother BDC for being consistently awesome!

September 2008	Patricia	→This month's Molly should go to Patricia, for generally refreshing snarkiness if nothing else. Keep fighting the good fight, babe. →I'd like to add my vote for Patricia - always fun when she joins in !
September 2008	Nick Gotts	→I vote for Nick Gotts. Anyone who has the patience to deal with Scott from Oregon regularly deserves some sort of award. →Nick Gotts for the molly. His tenacity and persistence in tackling fundamentalist lunacy is extremely admirable and a pleasure to read. Blunt, brutal, yet entertaining.

October 2008	SC	→It's about goddamn time SC had a Molly! →Although I usually end up nominating several people, this time around I am limiting myself to just one; SC. Her consistent reminders, for those of us who need them, that a thoughtless, "innocent" misogyny is unacceptable, are just possibly going to make a few people think. And once a prejudice has been dredged up from the subconscious it can rarely stand too much thought.

November 2008	Emmet Caulfield	→Based on my limited time I've been able to spend here over the past month, I nominate Emmet Caulfield. If nothing else, for his participation in the boobies thread the other day. Hilarious. →Gotta be Emmet Caulfield, he had me a few months ago at "abbatoir for lettuces". That one still cracks me up.

December 2008	Nerd of Redhead	→I say Nerd of Redhead for graciously admitting a mistake and then challenging Pete Rooke to do the same. It was classy and awesome. →I don't get around to posting much these days but I'm always lurking around reading and this month, for all around wittiness, intelligence and logic, I nominate Nerd.

January 2009	Wowbagger	→I'm voting (again!) for Wowbagger. Pretty much anytime I read one of Wowbagger's posts, I think "yeah...". →I have to put in another vote for Wowbagger. He just impresses me with almost every comment.

February 2009	Sven DiMilo	→I'm voting for Sven DiMilo. Partly because I used an incorrect spelling of his name, but mostly due to his excellent poe on the Survivor thread. →I vote for Sven DiMilo as well. He previously begged off, on the grounds that he didn't add much beyond snark to the discussion. On the contrary, a quick search of his comments reveals an impressive collection of informative, science-based contributions, from which I invariably learn something, and this alone should keep him in the running. Moreover, on such a high traffic blog, Sven's ample selection of one-line zingers are no less impressive or important. Some days I just don't have the time or the inclination to slog through hundreds of what I'm sure are very well thought out and compelling 500 word discourses. But I'll skim through the short, sharp comments and get a sense of the conversation before I have to move on. Sven's short, snappy responses help keep me anchored to the Pharyngula community, and I deeply appreciate that.

March 2009	Janine	→My vote this time goes to Janine of many names. Anyone who can repeatedly deal with someone like Barb deserves the nod, and the ability to turn a Survivor thread into a running discussion of oral sex and lesbians only reinforces the talent. →Janine, largely because I keep looking at her name wondering why I'm missing the OM that must be there somewhere, ya know.
March 2009	Josh	→Josh for the Molly. He makes me wish I has not left Geology to marry and move to the wilds of Maine. What a long time ago that was. Not only is he good at the explanations he is so calm with these bozos. They aren't listening but I sure am. →Josh gets my vote for explaining how the noachian flood couldn't possibly have put fossil clams on top of Mt. Everest or laid limestone beds in Indiana.

April 2009	Bill Dauphin	→Bill Dauphin is long overdue. →My vote this month is for Bill Dauphin just because he is long overdue.

May 2009	Kel	→As many others have said, Kel has been a stalwart and a reliable source of good stuff. →Kel has absolutely taken the time and effort to rack up a Molly-worthy body of work.

June 2009	Jadehawk	→This time, I nominate Jadehawk, who's both harsh and understanding, and who takes no prisoners. →Jadehawk doesn't have a molly yet? Preposterous! This must be rectified. I vote for Jadehawk
June 2009	Smoggy Batzrubble	→He's funny and always includes a thought provoking statement with clarity and logic. →Hi, I vote for: Smoggy Batzrubble. His posts are always entertaining and are guaranteed to give the 'liars for jesus™' conniptions.

July 2009	'Tis Himself	→And 'Tis Himself, who is such an assured hard-ass, I assumed he musty already have a Molly. →I'll support SC, OM and put in my vote for 'Tis Himself. There are times when I disagree, but when he's right he's right. What's more, he supports his stand well.

August 2009	Carlie	→Carlie - calm, kind, clear-thinking (and I agree with her virtually all of the time) →Carlie for her calm, reasoned, and gracious comments.
August 2009	strange gods before me	→takes on the tough issues and adds an interesting perspective (and I agree with him virtually all of the time) →manages to pwn Walton repeatedly without ever losing his rag (which I can't), and enhances any thread to which he (? - I've a feeling sgbm has been identified as male, but I'm not sure) contributes.

September 2009	Desert Son	→And Desert Son should be crowned king. Failing that, a Molly will do. →Desert Son, whose substance is solid and style is soothing
September 2009	Feynmaniac	→Speaking of deserving, Feynmaniac is long long long overdue. →I have had very little time to read lately, but once again nominate Feynmaniac. He is among the few commentators I always read