pharyngula

In chapter 14 of the Origin of Species, Darwin wondered about the whole process of metamorphosis. Some species undergo radical transformations from embryo to adult, passing through larval stages that are very different from the adult, while others proceed directly to the adult form. This process of…

How dare cartoonists make fun of atheists? We are not to be mocked! You know what this demands, right? Rioting in the streets! That's right — all you True Atheists will get off your butts right now and go set an embassy or a cartoonist, whichever is handiest, on fire. Or not.

It's nothing personal. For much of this morning, they're going to be moving the database to a new server, and they're going to shut off write access to it. That means you won't be able to write comments on any of the articles on scienceblogs for about 3 hours, from 9-12ET today. Don't panic. This…

Time for another edition of "I get email"! Below the fold you'll find a comprehensive example of the kind of exhortation I get all the time—this one is a long list of assertions that god is right, science is wrong, all transmitted in short sentences that aren't in any particular order. No, I didn't…

Worried that global warming will submerge your real estate? Here's the solution the town of Galveston hit upon after they were devastated by a hurricane in 1900: the entire town was hoisted up on stilts, and new fill placed underneath. The photographs are amazing—it was an impressive engineering…

Now it'sEngland. The Rev Jan Ainsworth, who is responsible for more than 4,600 CofE schools, said intelligent design could form part of discussions in science lessons under the heading of history of science.

They're popping up everywhere, and now in New Zealand: A Trust which teaches schoolchildren about evolutionary and creationist views of the universe wants to build a $30 million dinosaur park and museum, probably on the Coromandel Peninsula. The Dinosaurs Aotearoa Museum Trust is working with…

You do want to watch Blake Stacey's Friday Bill Hicks—it's almost as good as a Friday Cephalopod, and 1.7 times as offensive.

The Discovery Institute is so relieved — they finally found a textbook that includes a reworked version of Haeckel's figure. Casey Luskin is very excited. I'm a little disappointed, though: apparently, nobody at the Discovery Institute reads Pharyngula. I posted a quick summary in September of 2003…

Quick, read someone else's blog and then come over to join in the open thread! Grand Rounds 3(36) I and the Bird #50 Friday Ark #141 The Tangled Bank is coming up on Wednesday, 6 June, at the Behavioral Ecology Blog. Send those links in to me or host@tangledbank.net by Tuesday.

Needle cuttlefish, Sepia aculeata, front view at night, Dumaguete, Negros Island, Philippines (via ArteSub, where you can find a whole collection of underwater photography)

Laura Sessions Stepp is wondering what it means to be manly, and of course she has to resort to the cultural phenomenon of the last 30 minutes, Pirates of the Caribbean 3, and has invented an overwrought story that modern men are all confused by this swishy style personified by Captain Jack Sparrow…

I'm curious what people think: which is a poorer example of science? A hypothesis that is tested and proven wrong, or A hypothesis that is so nebulous that it can't even be tested? I ask because Nature has just published a letter describing a very simple experiment to test one of the…

Errm, why haven't we started the impeachment proceedings on George W. Bush yet? Friends of his from Texas were shocked recently to find him nearly wild-eyed, thumping himself on the chest three times while he repeated "I am the president!" He also made it clear he was setting Iraq up so his…

Earlier, I was mildly perturbed that Canada was leading my country in the cheesy science "museum" race; this is, of course, a race to the bottom. Scott Hatfield has come to my rescue, though, and sent in some photos of Carl Baugh's double-wide "Creation Evidence Museum" which is surely one of the…

Ha ha, pathetic Canadians. They've put up their own creation "museum"—just look at it. It's feeble. It's like someone took a cheap suburban ranch-style home and put a sign on it and started charging admission to come take a look at their knick-knack shelf. Ha! We're #1! Our brand new American…

Laura Mallory wants to ban the Harry Potter books from public schools, and she took her case to court. This is a perfect example of a mixed message: At Tuesday's hearing, Mallory argued in part that witchcraft is a religion practiced by some people and, therefore, the books should be banned because…

Suddenly, it makes sense. Schizophrenia is a methodology. Now we also know who is watching.

Sam Brownback has an op-ed in the NY Times today, in which he explains with much straining at gnats why he was one of the Republicans who did not believe in evolution. Short summary: he reveals his own misconceptions about the biology, and mainly pounds the drum on how important Faith and Religion…

Long time readers will know how fond I am of the Index to Creationist Claims, a long list of common creationist arguments linked to short, pithy rebuttals with references. Now the gang at Gristmill have done the same thing for climate change, with a How to Talk to a Climate Skeptic page containing…

If you're concerned about the military appropriation of an important fossil site, here's more information. It's not just some old rocks, it's a historical and ecologically significant site that's about to be overrun by a bloated military. The Picket Wire Canyonlands hold not only the largest…

People keep keep interviewing me for articles on academic blogging. I'm always giving the same answers. I've got to start getting more creative—next time, I'm going to have to say something about cults, groupies, and pie.

I'm not a fanatic about gun control—guns are dangerous tools, but so are chainsaws—but sometimes…man, sometimes I think we ought to put more restrictions on them to keep them out of the hands of dangerously stupid people. Take this story, for instance. A police officer hears a noise in his basement…

Salon has just published their report on Ken Ham's creation "museum", by author Gordy Slack, who has just released a book on the Dover trial. I haven't read the book, although it was on my list to pick up this summer. No more. This was an awful bit of dreck, and I don't think I could stomach…

Arrrr, curse ye, jpf. How dare you reveal this abomination to me? What's this crazy born-again doing reviewing a pirate movie as a justification for his dogma? But back to Jack for a second — sorry, Captain Jack. I was thinking about one of the central themes of this movie which involves the…

Minuscule, even. Flea-sized. How else am I to interpret Dinesh D'Souza's challenge that he should pick on someone his own size, meaning D'Souza? I've heard D'Souza. He's a babbling pipsqueak. But now he thinks he is a worthy opponent to confront Hitchens, because all the pastors that Hitchens…

We're seeing a lot of news about Ken Ham's creationist lie, this so-called "museum" he has built out in Kentucky. What we're not seeing from our media is any scrutiny of the finances behind the construction, or behind the evangelical boiler room called "Answers in Genesis". Has any editor or…

Orac has the latest news on the Tripoli Six, the health care workers who were falsely accused of spreading AIDS in a Libyan hospital and were sentenced to death. The good news is that they aren't dead yet, the Libyan government is still wheedling for reparations, and they're showing some signs of…

Dinosaurs wore polyester leisure suits! This discovery pegs the Cretaceous at about 1970, so we're going to have to readjust the timescale everywhere. (via Zeno)

The Newsweek cover story is on recent efforts to create life in the laboratory, and of course they call this "playing God". Haven't they got the message yet? "Playing God" is where you do absolutely nothing, take credit for other entities' work, and don't even exist — scientists don't aspire to…