pharyngula

Here you go, a few entries in the carnival genre, and your opportunity to say whatever you want. Carnival of the Animalcules Carnival of Education The Tangled Bank is coming up next Wednesday—send links to me or James Hrynyshyn.

I know that Steve Allen was a lifelong skeptic and freethinker, but was he also a squid worshipper? How else to explain this sign? Through the Center for Inquiry in LA, which hosts that Steve Allen Theater, there's also a very useful list of dramatic productions of interest to freethinkers,…

I'm staring at that thing, and all I see is some cracks in a flood-damaged wall. The church was flooded by Hurricane Katrina; causing some drywall in the building to buckle into an image that church members believe is an image of Jesus on the cross. Touching it causes miracles, they say—the blind…

From the comments, here's something bizarre: creationists (at least the ones at Answers in Genesis) have defined life…and it excludes squid! I have yet another reason to reject the Bible, in this case for disrespecting perfectly wonderful invertebrates. Many scientists make the distinction that…

Pharyngula has been nominated for a Cobb Award. No, actually, that's not quite right: you, the readers of Pharyngula, have been nominated for an award for Worst Community. It sounds awful, but don't panic (they almost instituted a 'Most Super-extra Worst Professor EVAR-INFINITY' award, and then I…

Just a reminder that you can still vote for Pharyngula in the Koufaxes (if you haven't already done so) in 6 different categories! You could click on the link and leave a comment that just says "Pharyngula!", or, since their server is rather heavily overloaded, email the name of the category and…

They do seem to have some more sensible leaders. The President of the Oglala Sioux Tribe on the Pine Ridge Reservation, Cecilia Fire Thunder, was incensed. A former nurse and healthcare giver she was very angry that a state body made up mostly of white males, would make such a stupid law against…

Ted Rall, do you know me?

How could she do this to me? I've got lots of work to get done today, but the this busy image is mesmerizing. I think I need to sit here for an hour watching the little blue balls wander around.

Here's a really good question from Katrina Refugee: Due to the unforeseen events of Katrina, my family and I ended up staying with relatives in South Carolina, and my children (for the year) are going to a small Christian school with their cousins (the public schools in this area are quite…

Check out this pre-pterosaur, Sharovipteryx: delta-winged, with a canard.

Let us continue our Ben Domenech bashing. He's got this somewhat high profile gig at the Washington Post, and one has to wonder what his qualifications are. I think we can rule out "intelligence." GWW made an interesting discovery: he's a creationist. I don't understand why the Right is constantly…

Why, oh why, did you have to disillusion me, Ebonmuse? And to slap me upside the face with a study from my own university, no less. From a telephone sampling of more than 2,000 households, university researchers found that Americans rate atheists below Muslims, recent immigrants, gays and lesbians…

Apparently, it's going to cost me my credibility as bona fide liberal left-wing moonbat, but yes, I have seen Red Dawn. You know, the movie that that wacky new Washington Post blog touted as a talisman of righteous manliness. Red Dawn? You must know it—the greatest pro-gun movie ever? I mean, they…

You have a couple of bills working their way through the state house that offer aid and comfort to the Intelligent Design wackos. You don't want that, do you? If you live in Maryland, are a scientist, teacher, or dependent on science research, sign the online petition to oppose these nasty little…

Lots of people have been emailing me the story that the Archbishop of Canterbury backs evolution. I have to confess to mixed feelings. On the one hand, it's good to have a religious authority figure coming down on the side of sense. I applaud the sentiment of his statements, and hope they have some…

As an exercise in futility, The Daily Transcript tries to categorize disciplines of the life sciences. Although there is a general air of truth to what he's saying, the problem is that, unlike the members of the Tree of Life, academic disciplines are free to hybridize and accumulate and change, so…

The EO Wilson interview on Salon is worth watching a commercial for; he's an interesting and smart fellow, even where I disagree with him. I've put a few excerpts below the fold just in case you really detest jumping through those capitalist hoops. I've talked with some atheists who've suggested…

What's going on here? It's another non-judgmental and fairly positive story about an atheist in a Florida newspaper! OK, everyone, let's all join together in a chorus of "We Shall Overcome"… (via Atheist Revolution)

Not all the email I get is from cranks and creationist loons. Sometimes I get sincere questions. In today's edition of "Ask Mr Science Guy!", Hank Fox asks, I was thinking recently about the fact that wax collects in one's ears, and suddenly thought to be amazed that some part of the HUMAN body…

Pharyngula has made it into the finals for several of the Koufax Awards. Just click on a link and leave a comment to vote for your choice…and remember, only vote once per category. Best Blog Best Series Most Humorous Post Best Single Issue Blog Best Expert Blog Best Post You know, if I'm the only…

Kent Hovind has been giving his creation "science" seminars in Dover, and it's a fairly revolting situation. He's glib, he's amusing, he's popular, and he's lying constantly. David Neiwert discusses his roots as a "right-wing extremist with a penchant for promoting anti-Semitic conspiracy theories…

What has always attracted me to developmental biology is the ability to see the unfolding of pattern—simplicity becomes complexity in a process made up of small steps, comprehensible physical and chemical interactions that build a series of states leading to a mostly robust conclusion. It's a bit…

Weirder. This is quite possibly the most stupid thing I have read yet on development from a creationist, from The Quran on Human Embryonic Development. The next stage mentioned in the verse is the mudghah stage. The Arabic word mudghah means "chewed substance." If one were to take a piece of gum…

Weird. Reproduction among unicellular lifeforms under the rocks of Mars.

A certain creationist has been spamming me lately with these same questions over and over. I'll answer them here, and I'll send the link to JASE3217 and see if we can't get him over here to "handle the truth." From: JASE3217 To: pzmyers@pharyngula.org Sent: Fri, 10 Mar 2006 17:23:10 -0500 Subject:…

Can you take a little more godlessness? Sean Carroll has a nice discussion of this remarkable article in the San Antonio Star-Telegram. Atheists…in Texas? A newspaper article that writes sympathetically about the godless? How gratifying! Religion as an addiction—an excellent summary of the real…

I fear I'm too late with this announcement—for some reason, I've been particularly heavily inundated with email lately, and I'm just now getting around to digging through the pile—but those pimpin' frinksters are recruiting for nerve.com. Anyone know any sex-crazed science types?

When I say it, I get a rush of protest proclaiming that not all Christians are like that. I know they aren't, but we ignore the theocratic Right at our peril. Prophetic Christians, Phillips writes, often shape their view of politics and the world around signs that charlatan biblical scholars have…

There are freethinkers frolicking over at Daniel Morgan's place. If you've been wondering where the heck I've been, it's been one of those days. I had to drive #2 Son to Minneapolis to catch his bus back to Madison—it's the end of his spring break—and then I had to wrestle with that ugly bloatware…