pharyngula

Once upon a time, we got a request to help The Countess in an online poll. For our participation, she agreed to write an erotic horror story with us in mind. It's done! You can now go read Maneater! All yours, for free! It might still be nice if you left some feedback on the story, though.

Timothy Birdnow is one of those common wingnuts: he worships GW Bush, thinks global warming is a hoax, homosexuality is evil, evolution is a lie, and history is all about the triumphant ascent of Judeo-Christian America. I've laughed at him a few times before; now he's venting his diseased,…

One of my goals for this coming week is to get the book piles sorted and put away. I'm one of those academics: if you visited my house right now, probably the first thing you'd notice is a few dozen piles of books stacked up on the floor of the living room. Some I've read and just need to shelve…

John Wilkins has left Scienceblogs to start anew at Evolving Thoughts Mk. III. I'm pretty sure it's because of a) pure philosophical bloody-mindedness, b) chronic embarrassment at his inability to spell "Mghrz'z" properly, and c) something to do with being Australian, which is a legitimate excuse…

Tune in to Atheists Talk radio on Sunday at 9am Central to hear an interview with John Loftus. He's one of those ex-Christians, a former minister, who has seen the error of his ways and no longer endorses ludicrous tripe. Learn more about deconversion!

Oh, yeah, we did…but now this silly poll has popped up elsewhere, sans previous pharyngulation. I'm sure you can fix that. Do You Believe You Evolved From An Ape-like Creature? No (68.0%, 327 Votes) Yes (32.0%, 153 Votes) I do not know (1.0%, 3 Votes) You know, I'd like to know what kind of…

I have just read the most awesomely insane but calmly stated collection of dangerous medical advice ever. Andreas Moritz claims cancer is not a disease — it's a healthy response to stress. Guess what causes cancer? Guilt, low self-esteem, and insufficient spirituality. Cancer has always been an…

The woman who prayed instead of getting medical help when her daughter was dying of diabetes, Leilani Neumann, has been found guilty. I found the defense argument ludicrous and revealing. Linehan countered, saying Neumann didn't realize her daughter was so ill and did all she could do to help, in…

Oh, man. I'm willing to keep saying that Darwinius masillae was an important discovery, but the PR machine is making it hard to do so without cringing. Carl Zimmer has the History Channel ad for their program on it. Oh. My. Dog. "The most important find in 47 million years"? "A global event: this…

I suppose it's only a surprise that it took them this long, but Liberty University has shut down the college Democrats. They were able to put up with the existence of a few very conservative Democrats for a whole 6 months before pulling the plug. Liberty University has revoked its recognition of…

Apologies, too many Father Ted references lately. Anyway, that's what popped into my head when I saw that it wasn't just the Catholics, but the Orthodox church as well, that seems to have a humanity deficiency. A Serbian Orthodox Christian drug rehab center has some rather unorthodox techniques……

The LA Times offered me a little space to write a reply to Charlotte Allen in their online edition, so I did. You can read it at the LA Times or below the fold. I'm already getting lots of unhappy email from people, so I must have done it right. Charlotte Allen is very, very angry with us atheists…

It is truly an amazing hat. That's the kind of hat that if anyone other than a priest were seen to be wearing it, small children would point and whoop with laughter, adults would purse their lips in concern and cross the street to avoid it, and concerned policemen would pull over to politely ask…

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

I was pleasantly surprised by this Newsweek article on Ray Kurzweil: it's critical of him! Usually, and especially from the technopress magazines, there's this kind of fawning attitude towards him, because he really is a smart guy — they overlook the fact that he is also a bit of a kook. You know…

Bill Donohue must be greatly distressed right now, since a commission has blown open the doors on a long history of child abuse by the Irish Catholic Church. He's scrambling to do damage control and making a pathetic spectacle of himself. He basically belittles the trauma that those kids…

I took one look at the hideous Washington Times website and almost had mercy on you, dear readers — it's that ugly that I had second thoughts about inflicting it on others. But then, as you knew I would, I said "screw it" and decided if you weren't tough enough to cope with bad web design on a mad…

Hah, I knew it had to happen. Phil Plait is now obsolete — he hasn't been keeping up with Creation Astronomy! We live in a Universe of breathtaking size and grandeur-but where did it come from? Secular astronomers tell us it formed without a Creator about 14 billion years ago. The Bible tells us…

Grim tales are emerging from an investigation of the Irish Catholic Church. For years, they've been running reform schools which sound more like hellish work camps, where sadistic priests were given free rein. I found it ironic that some of these workhouses were used to make religious paraphernalia…

They are prepared to use Twitter to alert the public to zombie incursions. I just knew Twitter would be useful for something, someday.

Your greedy, grasping host would really like to snatch an iPod Touch from Eric Hovind, so once again I'm reminding you to click on this link — each click counts as a vote for me. And oh, boy, is Eric Hovind's latest argument a winner: the current level of the Colorado River is several thousand feet…

How are the creationists reacting to the discovery of Darwinius masillae? With denial and outrage, of course, but one thing that is an interesting datum is that they are all responding to the extravagant hype surrounding it. The fossil is important and has a significant place in the evolutionary…

We had hopes that the mad creationist dentist, Don McLeroy, would be booted from the Texas Board of Education. No such luck: I just received this call to action in the mail. Moments ago at a surprise meeting, the Senate Nominations Committee voted to send the nomination of Don McLeroy, R-College…

Would you believe what kind of inane question they're asking now? Do you believe you evolved from an ape-like creature? Yes - 7.10% No - 91.07% Unsure - 1.83% Gaaaah. I am an ape-like creature. My mother and father are ape-like creatures, as are my brothers and sisters and grandparents and…

Colleen Hauser has flown the coop. She has defied a court order to bring her sick son, Daniel Hauser, to a qualified doctor for essential medical care. The boy has Hodgkins lymphoma, a disease with a very good prognosis if treated soon, but is a painful death sentence within a few years if…

This will be a tough one to dent since it already has tens of thousands of votes, but I'm sure you can give it a little bump. The Gideons have been getting aggressive and invading high school cafeterias and leaving bibles scattered about, and AOL addresses this invasion of secular schools with a…

But Ed Yong provides the proper perspective. The universe is not the same as it was before yesterday — I think Darwinius masillae may even have changed the course of several planets.

This is an important new fossil, a 47 million year old primate nicknamed Ida. She's a female juvenile who was probably caught in a toxic gas cloud from a volcanic lake, and her body settled into the soft sediments of the lake, where she was buried undisturbed. What's so cool about it? Age. It's 47…

Oprah asks so sweetly: What Should Jenny Do? You've seen it all over the news...Jenny McCarthy, one of America's funniest and coolest moms and Harpo is giving her, her own show. Here is where YOU come in. What would you like to see featured on Jenny's show? What would you like for her to talk…

The National Organization for Marriage, that ridiculous group that came up with the ad that was so ripe for mockery, has a new one. It features little kids acting all confused that someone could have two daddies, or that god might have created Anna and Eve. And of course, it has a new slogan that…