pharyngula

Via Jim Lippard, here's a nice, positive article on the Cafe Scientifique movement, which tries to make science informal and accessible to anyone. We're doing it again tomorrow, in which I get to be the presenter and talk about "Why all the fuss about evolution?" I hope I don't turn anyone off with…

I'm sorry, Josh, but while you introduce the issue well… There's been a minor thing brewing in the last week or so between PZ Myers, Chris Mooney, and originally Michael Ruse and Daniel Dennett (and by now the rest of the blogosphere) about "hiding atheists away" in discussions of evolution, the…

Mr Chicken, the Night Stalker, and now…Henry Morris. There is a kind of cosmic harmony to that trio, in that they all made a living with supernatural silliness to some degree, although Morris…nah, let's not speak ill of the dead.

Bob Larson. Pam has the story—he's an evil evangelist whose scam is to snooker people into coughing up wads of cash for his "exorcism" services. He's a first rate kook, a flaming wicked con artist who may well be so deluded that he actually believes in his own magic powers, but who cares? He's nuts…

Update those blogrolls for Creek Running North, which is now located at http://faultline.org/. While you're fixing that one, remember to also set Pharyngula's new address to http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/—it's been over a month and I see via Technorati that the old address has about ten times…

Garry Trudeau has been on a roll lately—the BD story line has been affecting and sympathetic, and now and then, he comes out and slams unreason. There have been long stretches where it feels like he's phoning it in, but not so much recently.

You Passed 8th Grade Math Congratulations, you got 10/10 correct! Could You Pass 8th Grade Math? I wonder what kind of score Richard Cohen would get? (via Living the Scientific Life)

Just a thought…but you know, my town isn't far from the South Dakota border, and there really isn't that much difference between my neighborhood and that of some small South Dakota town 50 miles away. I think the piggish prigs who are pushing the legislation to criminalize abortion are contemptible…

August Berkshire of Minnesota Atheists gave a talk at Northwestern College, one of our regional evangelical Christian colleges, and the Star Tribune has a story about it. He gave the students a list of very poor religious rationalizations—it's a strange and interesting story, and a little sad,…

Texans for Better Science Education is one of those strident creationist fronts that tries to undermine science teaching in favor of religious nonsense while pretending to be promoting rational thinking—they might as well have called it Sound Science, that sneaky and misleading label conservatives…

For some reason, this has been a draining week, and I'm just slumped in my easy chair with the iTunes entertaining me…so let's toss up a Friday Random Ten. Blade Of Grass Asylum Street Spankers Prayers for Rain The Cure Skåne Hedningarna Whip It Devo My Generation Patti Smith Hallelujah…

What's wrong with this statement? "We're very pleased," said Rick Blake, spokesman in Chicago for Holt, Rinehart and Winston. "Science is a very strong area for Holt." Since it is in response to Holt's decision to water down biology textbooks in Florida, it's wrong. I'm sorry, Mr Blake, but…

This is remarkable: I actually have all of my grading done, and even have Monday and Wednesday's lecture all ready to go. I'm. All. Caught. Up. I think this means the Apocalypse will be coming along shortly. I don't quite have all my responsibilities out of the way yet, though. Next week is time…

For those curious about Dawkins' documentary, "Root of All Evil?", you can find a short excerpt of the segment with Ted Haggard online. Haggard is extraordinarily creepy—keep some Pepto-Bismol handy if you watch it. (via Leiter Reports)

Creationists have been chanting, "Teach the controversy" at us for some time, to which most biologists simply look puzzled and ask "What controversy?" There is no ongoing debate about the ideas peddled by the Discovery Institute within the scientific community, because, well, there have been no…

Moroteuthis robusta Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman.

I've been racking my brains, trying to come up with a completely inoffensive college curriculum in case some tinhorn prissy-pants decides to pass a law allowing students to opt out of being challenged, and I just can't do it. Maybe I just have a dirty mind, but I think I could turn any textbook…

This week's issue of Science contains a very strongly worded statement about the utility of evolutionary biology in medicine, and calls for an increase in education about evolution at all levels of the medical curriculum, from high school to med school. I've put the whole thing below the fold—it's…

Say hello to Castorocauda lutrasimilis, a primitive mammalioform from the middle Jurassic—164 million years ago. Despite its great age, it has evidence of fur and guard hairs still preserved in the fossil, and was rather large for its time. It's estimated to have weighed about 500g (about a pound)…

The inaugural edition of the Carnival of the Animalcules is up. It's almost lunchtime, though, and you might want to wait until after you've eaten…especially before reading the one about fast-food toilet water.

I'm not even on the list of America's Worst Professors, and Minnesota is completely unrepresented (we must be a very conservative state, I guess)…but Michael Bérubé is. So are Juan Cole and Timothy Shortell and Noam Chomsky (of course!). Go vote for your Favorite Worst Professor.

Scale Model of a section of the Ark by Russ McGlenn I blew it off again this year: I just don't have a strong enough stomach for it. Every year, the Twin Cities Creation Science Association sponsors a science fair, and I tell myself I ought to go see it, but I know what to expect, and I just can't…

Maybe I shouldn't bring this up, since the last couple of lectures in my physiology class have been a swift overview of brain organization and function, and my students probably think I have sounded exactly like Pinky and the Brain singing about neuroanatomy. Only less entertaining. And at a…

You may have heard that Michael Ruse has been caught out of school, sharing a private spat between himself and Daniel Dennett with the William Dembski. This isn't too terribly surprising—Ruse's reputation has been spiralling downwards rather rapidly, what with all his sucking up to the Intelligent…

Pharyngula is in the semi-finals for another: Best Single Issue Blog. I wonder what that single issue is?

You wouldn't believe how much hate mail I got from posting a little link to Mel Gibson's Passion with a different soundtrack…but maybe Chris Clarke can take some of the heat now.

Ah, the life of the female giant Australian cuttlefish…males fight for her affections, and during the mating season she will have sex with 2-8 different males each day, with an average total of 17 copulations per day. She can be picky, too, and rejects most of the mating attempts (yet still manages…

A quick carnival update: Keep Tara busy! She's accepting submissions for the Carnival of the Animalcules (due tonight) and the Tangled Bank (due next Tuesday). Send submissions to aetiology AT gmail DOT com. Keep Coturnix busy! Also due next Tuesday are submissions for the Circus of the Spineless…

My daughter is learning about evolution in high school right now, and the problem isn't with the instructor, who is fine, but her peers, who complain that they don't see the connections. She mentioned specifically yesterday that the teacher had shown a cladogram of the relationships between…