pharyngula

He's an up-and-comer, that one.

Where's your god now, Moses? Nyah.

It's true, he always makes me laugh. It's the bow tie, the strangled delivery (he always looks like he's careful not to open his mouth too much, lest something fly in…or out), and his oh-so-prim-and-proper prudery. But early in the American epidemic, political values impeded public health…

Do cephalopods confound the search for essential truths, or do they enhance it?

This new book by Ann Coulter is going to be full of delectable idiocy, isn't it? Coulter devotes the last 80 pages to her full-scale attack on the theory of evolution and the utter dishonesty of what she calls the "Darwiniacs" and their refusal to face the fact that evolution is a patent absurdity…

Lehigh University is becoming quite active in asserting their opposition to ID. Wonder why?

The new Seed science bloggers continue to trickle in, and the latest is Evolving Thoughts. Go on over and say howdy.

Last night, I had to read this book RPM mentioned. It's not very long—about 100 pages, counting a preface, an epilogue, and an afterward, and it has lots of pictures—but be warned: it's very inside baseball. The book is Won for All: How the Drosophila Genome Was Sequenced(amzn/b&n/abe/pwll) by…

Today is 6/6/06, that ominous numerological signifier of the fundies, much beloved by conspiracy theorists, and full of interesting numerical properties (but is there ever such a thing as an uninteresting number?). It's also the date that Ann Coulter's new book, Godless, is being released.…

Or rather, don't. Here's this week's "ask a science blogger" question: Do you think there is a brain drain going on (i.e. foreign scientists not coming to work and study in the U.S. like they used to, because of new immigration rules and the general unpopularity of the U.S.) If so, what are its…

This silly noise about tomorrow being 06/06/06 and therefore tying in to Christian End Times malarkey is all numerological nonsense. There's not going to be anything particularly memorably evil about tomorrow, I suspect. Except perhaps one little thing. I'll mention it at 06:06:06am on 06/06/06.

Let's test the proposition. "The man shouted 'God will save me, if he exists', lowered himself by a rope into the enclosure, took his shoes off and went up to the lions," the official said. The answer? No.

Hey, this sounds familiar…so I thought I'd send some favorable referrals back Jinwicked's way.

I guess it was almost ten years ago that I first saw this astonishing gem of creationist dishonesty on talk.origins: now Good Math, Bad Math has put it on a weblog. Read all about John Woodmorappe's median/mean mangling in defense of Noah's Ark.

There were some interesting responses to my post on the god worm. There were some that were just annoying. I'm not impressed with the ones that make excuses for religion by calling me "naive" and lacking an impression of the diversity of religious belief out there; one bothersome strategy that I…

Isn't this so symptomatic of Republican stupidity? …the FDA released an internal memo showing that one high-ranking FDA official was sincerely worried about adolescents forming "sex-based cults centered around the use of Plan B." Seriously. The evidence, which may not be relevant to the Bush…

Well, sorta. I arrived back home around midnight last night, and to be honest, I feel like I need another six hours of sleep right now. I also feel like I need to reply to some of the comments on that last godless post. And I also know I need to go take care of my fish for a while. I'll be back in…

We cripples have to watch ourselves, so while I'd originally planned to spend my last day in NY at the big ol' Bronx Zoo, we've scaled back a lot: I'm going to be at the Central Park zoo around noon. Short walks, no strain, that's my policy right now. Last night I did get to accomplish at least…

Barbara O'Brien is doing a guest post for Glenn Greenwald, and she's chosen to talk about religion—you can guess what her position is from the opening paragraph. …sometimes I find myself defending Christians from the religion haters among us lefties. I confess. That's me, religion hater. Go ahead…

Let me tell you about this Achilles tendinitis I've got. My first couple of steps in the morning are flaming agony. After working it and gingerly stretching for a while, it subsides to a dull ache, and I'm good for about a half hour of cautious hobbling. After that, though, the pain builds and…

I'm gimping about NY today, and I should have read Bizarro before I left to get some fashion tips.

Here's another sad story of hysteria used to water down science teaching. David Lapp does a simple and dramatic exercise, the ballistic pendulum experiment: fire a bullet into a block of wood, and from the masses of the two objects and the movement of wood, calculate the velocity of the bullet.…

Since Evolgen recognizes the importance of evo-devo, I'll return the favor: bioinformatics is going to be critical to the evo-devo research program, which to date has emphasized the "devo" part with much work on model systems, but is going to put increasing demands on comparative molecular…

We were supposed to arrive in NYC at 2, this afternoon. The plane was diverted because La Guardia was socked in with storms. We spent the afternoon sitting on a runway in Allentown, Pennsylvania. An hour passed. Another, and another, and another. We got vague promises over the intercom, always…

The Art of Science exhibition has many lovely pictures in the galleries, but I think my favorite is this image of Nodal expression in zebrafish.

You may be thinking that Pharyngula is going to be awfully quiet this weekend, what with the proprietor gallivanting off to that liberal hotbed of iniquity, New York City. Well, yeah, I probably am going to be rather busy, but I think I'll be able to squeeze in a few things, especially since this…

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

Do I believe that George W. Bush stole the last election and that the Republican party is run by criminals and traitors? You betcha. With his record of sloppy analysis, though, I just wish someone more trustworthy than Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. had authored that report. I also don't see much in the…

Will I sign th' Pirate's Compact? Arrr. It be like askin' Blackbeard if he wants a tot o' rum before plunderin' yon fat merchanter. Which reminds me…on me mission to New York tomorrow, I need to be askin' about Pirate Mode. Maybe a little proddin' with the cutlass will help.

I'm glad Sean has cleared that up.