pharyngula

It's Halloween, and I'm on my way to Toronto, where I'll be spending a most unhallowed evening giving a talk. The one thing I regret about this is that I won't be indulging in my favorite guilty pleasure for this time of year: watching an old horror movie or two. I'll just reminisce here for a few…

I'm suspicious. There may be cephalopod imposters lurking about today. Xavia

Loligo pealei embryos Figure from Nikon Small World Gallery.

I really regret ever recommending Kay Hagan. That race has taken a turn from a vivid example of anti-atheist bigotry on Dole's side, to one where all sides are taking turns bashing the godless to wash off the taint of association with us subhumans with no faith. Greg Laden has a couple of examples…

A while back, I posted this video of an enthusiastic young atheist — and would you believe that almost immediately after I put it up, censorious theistic jerks started dunning youtube to remove all of her videos and ban her? It's nice to know that bullying thugs are monitoring Pharyngula to seek…

I wouldn't mind if my corpse found utility in scaring small creationist children.

I'm still experiencing fallout from the cracker incident, like the slow drift of dandruff from the flaking scalp of a gyrating televangelist. The latest is a letter from Mr. E.P. Bruk, who I suspect believes he is making a sarcastic point, but is actually making my point for me…that it is absurd to…

Even when he's making an attack ad, Obama keeps it clean.

The latest edition of the Tangled Bank is at Neural Gourmet.

erv has it. Personally, I found the little vignettes about ordinary Americans a bit off-putting — political sentimentality makes me cynical. I was more interested in hearing Obama simply speak about his policies. I was most impressed with a superficial factor: wouldn't it be cool to have a…

This is a video of Barack Obama pointing out that we can't use the Christian holy book as a guide to secular law — it has bits that advocate slavery and stoning obstreperous children, and that the injunctions to "turn the other cheek" and follow the golden rule in the Sermon on the Mount would, if…

Some Christian fanatics are concerned, quite reasonably, about the economy, and have chosen, quite absurdly, to try and correct the problem with prayer. So far, so typical, but then … well, they picked a peculiarly oblivious way to do it. They prayed before a statue of a golden bull on Wall Street…

I've written a couple of posts decrying the tactics of Elizabeth Dole — who uses the act of talking to atheists as a smear — and favoring her opponent, Kay Hagan. It seems Ms. Hagan doesn't like us very much, though. Democratic Senate candidate Kay Hagan angrily demanded Wednesday that incumbent…

Big news: the editors of Seed have officially endorsed Barack Obama for President. OK, not surprising, I suppose…any organization that relies on or promotes scientific thinking has absolutely no choice in this election, so Obama is going to get the nod. I do like one specific statement in the…

This is going to cause some uncomfortable moments in atheist circles — after Richard Dawkins' death and resurrection, he's now going around performing miracles. This is very awkward. I know! I'll just have to stop believing in him, and instead put my faith in Daniel Dennett, who would never…oh,…

I'm afraid I just can't take this seriously. Army intelligence analysts are concerned that terrorists might tweet each other. Or text each other. Or put Islamic wallpapers on their cell phones. Oooh. Yes, they could. So? We're living in a world where communications technologies are advancing…

Do I detect a note of anxiety in my Minnesota readers? Lately I've been getting lots of email from concerned locals who are worried about Tim Tingelstad, a candidate for the Minnesota Supreme Court, who is a religious wackaloon. "Everyone has an opinion or belief as to where absolute truth is and…

Steven Schafersman of Texas Citizens for Science has put up an investigative report on the swift-boating of Christine Comer, the former Texas Education Agency employee who was forced to resign after she recommended a lecture by Barbara Forrest. The creationists have been trying to claim that Comer…

You never come when I invite you, anyway, but it was still very enlightening. We branched out a bit from nothing but science this time, and Michael Eble, an artist, talked about his connection to Louisiana and recent work on the disappearance of wetlands, in an exhibit titled Endangered Lands. We…

McCain once again whined about studying bear DNA, and it's clear that the decrepit old man doesn't have a clue about the value of biological research. But the other interesting revelation is that while denouncing earmarks for studying bear DNA, overhead projectors, or fruit fly research, the…

I'm going to be in Toronto this weekend, and everyone wants a piece of me. I'll tell you right now that I'm letting Larry Moran referee some of my time. I'm getting into Toronto in the early afternoon, checking into my hotel, and going off with Larry and a few other people for dinner before my talk…

Gordy Slack is going to be doing a reading from his book on the Dover trial today, at 4:00, on the Western Washington University campus. If you want more drama, there will also be a panel discussion tomorrow, Wednesday, at 6pm. Slack, will be there, as will Josh Rosenau of the NCSE and TfK, and for…

Stuff is accumulating in my mailbox far faster than I can put it out here with commentary, so I'm just going to dump the recent pile of links here rather than my usual tactic of simply letting them disappear by neglect. John McCain may not be the biggest jerk in his family. The McCain campaign…

There's some weird video game coming out, called Heaven: the Game. It has a fairly elaborate web site, but it fails to say how you play the silly thing (I suspect you don't get to form an army and assault the throne of heaven…). It does have lots of shots of the scenery, which finally reveals the…

Really low. Here's an anti-Al Franken brochure that's being mailed around here in Minnesota—that's aimed at kids, with childish illustrations, while accusing Franken of some contemptible acts. "Come on in, kids... Senator Franken's going to tell a few jokes!" "We shouldn't have to be ashamed of…

We're having a new Tangled Bank on Wednesday at The Neural Gourmet — so send me links fast!

I'm sure everyone has already heard about the plot to murder Obama and many others: Two white supremacists allegedly plotted to go on a national killing spree, shooting and decapitating black people and ultimately targeting Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, federal authorities said…

Imagine that you are running for the State Board of Education, and you receive a questionnaire from a science organization trying to get a feel for your positions on issues important to them. Here's the first question: 1. As a State Board of Education member, which of the following organizations…

The Anchorage Daily News has just endorsed…Barack Obama for president. Say, wasn't there a favorite daughter of the fine state of Alaska on that ticket? Bora has several videos of some fruit fly researchers defending their work. Of course, if you really want to get into the details, here's the…

The Mesozoic was inhabited by some strange-looking critters, and here's another example: a Jurassic dinosaur called Epidexipteryx, which has spiky teeth, big claws, fluffy feathers all over its body, and four long decorative feathers coming off a stumpy tail. It resembles a particularly ugly bird…