pharyngula

It's almost time for another episode of Atheists Talk on Air America! Tune in at 9am Central to hear the notorious Greg Laden; he's going to be talking about academic freedom bills…ferociously and profusely. Lois Schadewald will also be on to talk about studies of pseudoscience. Mike Haubrich has…

Sometimes, I am extremely annoyed with the principle of separation of church and state — it leads to absurdities, like this recent court decision that a gay student support group was was using unconstitutional tactics — it was using materials that mentioned that some religions are more tolerant of…

Did you all catch Keith Olbermann's Worst Person in the World segment? Ben Stein almost made the top of the list — he was beaten by Ann Coulter, though, so the competition was fierce. The other "almost"…what prompted the nomination was Stein's claim that listening to me reminded him that science…

Fast political action is needed to stop another anti-science bill in Louisiana. Below is a message from Barbara Forrest, who says it all better than I can. Friends, fellow educators, and concerned citizens, First, please accept my thanks to those of you who helped in the effort to stop SB 561,…

Florida delivers some good news: their nasty little academic "freedom" bill is dead. Now we just have to worry about similar bills in Michigan, Missouri, Alabama, and Louisiana.

What a bizarrely random incident: a fur seal tried to have sex with a penguin. The 100kg seal first subdued the 15kg penguin by lying on it. The penguin flapped its flippers and attempted to stand and escape - but to no avail. The seal may have been frustrated in its attempts to find a partner The…

And it's a classic! It starts off with a little boy getting a lesson in "evolution" from his mother. This version of evolution has nothing to do with what biologists teach, of course — it's bizarrely teleological, with everything striving towards becoming human. After having evolution explained to…

I see you've all met our little troll, David Mabus. "Mabus" (his real name is Dennis Markuze, and he used to sell used computers in Montreal, Canada) has been flooding my mailbox for about the last month — he has a list of about 70 skeptics and atheists, and just about every day he fires off his…

Sepioteuthis sepioidea Since I saw Iron Man last night (short review: AWESOME!!!), I thought I'd try to find a cephalopod with a similar red and gold color scheme…and didn't get very close. But this one does have the sleek look of a rocket-propelled machine, so it will have to do. Figure from…

Oh, no … I mentioned the existence of godtube the other day, and now people are farming it for incredibly stupid videos that they send to me. It's rich soil for stupid over there, and they've got a bumper crop — you would not believe how awful some of their arguments are. I hesitate to mention this…

This is actually somewhat interesting, and I'm not going to reject all of it out of hand. The Fair Use Project of Stanford Law School is going to defend the use of Lennon's song "Imagine" in the movie Expelled. On the one hand, they are using a very short clip — and I am not a fan of the kind of…

I've been neglecting my prayers today — I've got all this writing to get done, and I chose to actually sit before my keyboard and move my hands and think with my brain, rather than calling upon the Lord to do my work for me. I've actually gotten a fair amount done. Now comes the part where one…

I'm confused by the consequences of the Virginia twisters. Brenda Williams, 43, returned Tuesday to the shopping center where she was buried beneath a collapsed ceiling in a manicure shop during the storm. She was pulled to safety by a stranger, she said. "I'm not lucky, I'm blessed," said Williams…

I must urge you to steal buy this book: Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments: All Lab, No Lecture (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll). The description makes it sound perfect. Laboratory work is the essence of chemistry, and measurement is the essence of laboratory work. A hands-on introduction to…

Even after sending out a prayer alert to summon down divine favor for the Florida academic "freedom" bills, the effort to reconcile the two versions and pass something has stalled out in the legislature. They've only got two days to get it together! It could die! It is time to pull out the big guns…

The infamous proposed Christianist license plate for the state of Florida, the one that said "I believe", is dead. The supportive faith rays emanating from the prayerful public were apparently not strong enough to overcome the ass-suing beams radiating from the likes of the ACLU. Boy, so far this…

We have some local scoundrels, who also tend to be entangled in the right-wing Christianist nonsense. One of the notorious kook/thieves in these parts was Robert Beale, a multi-millionaire tax evader who has just been convicted. The story features arcane, desperate legalisms this wacko used to…

That crazy mayor of Birmingham who dressed up in sackcloth and ashes is in a little trouble right now. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday said it has charged the mayor of Birmingham, Alabama, and two of his friends in connection with an undisclosed payment scheme in municipal…

Today is actually the National Day of Prayer. Really. Let that sink in for a moment. We have regional coordinating groups — Minnesota is having events at the Capitol today. Did you know that prayer is "America's strength and shield"? I didn't. Our governor has issued a proclamation asking citizens…

After all the pious nonsense from certain quarters blaming scientists for the Holocaust and other atrocities, it seems appropriate to take note of the Anti-Defamation League's response: The film Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed misappropriates the Holocaust and its imagery as a part of its…

Last December, I mentioned the case of a creationist named Nathaniel Abraham who was fired from his job at Woods Hole — he had the gall to apply for a post-doctoral position in an evolution and development lab, and the PI dismissed him for being incapable of supporting the full range of "…

Why is it that every time a journalist writes about large squid eyes, they've got to compare them to dinner plates? It's so trite. How about hubcaps? Frisbees? How about just giving the dimensions and leaving it at that? Oh, well, I've had to miss most of the live webcasts of the colossal squid…

My last Seed column is online, which reminds me (as if I weren't uncomfortably aware already) that I have to finish up the next one today, which actually isn't the next one, which is already done and submitted, but the one after that. These long leading deadlines force one to live a few months in…

Wheaton has a good academic reputation, but man, it's the little things that make it frightening. I would not want to live in the theocratic world it represents. Hank Fox has a couple of stories about Wheaton. The first is the blog of a recent graduate of Wheaton who determined halfway through his…

Here's an interesting review of the movie that gets Carroll's perspective on it. It mostly gets it right, especially in its argument that this movie is an attempt to swiftboat science. "If you have a losing hand, you're going to use every amount of rhetoric you can to distract people from the fact…

I don't know about this. All this concentrated wit and venom in one place could be dangerous … and three straight hours of Pat Condell? Whew. Get copies for your local ministers, and either they'll die of fuming apoplexy or they'll give extremely animated and entertaining sermons the next Sunday.…

Since I changed my profile photo, the ideas for radical revision of the site have come pouring in. Here's a possible new logo: What do you think? I thought it was keen, until I read all the new speculation about why I was kicked out of a movie theater. Oh, no! In the same freakishly weird spirit…

Prayer doesn't work. Enshrine it in the law — prayer is not a helpful action, but rather a neglectful one. Teach it in the schools — when the health class instructs students in how to make a tourniquet or do CPR, also explain that prayer is not an option. Faith in prayer kills people. The Wisconsin…