pharyngula

The Danish cartoonists vs. Muslims conflict is flaring up again, with the discovery of a conspiracy by Muslims to kill a cartoonist. There are many levels of irony here; it's simply stupid to try and protest accusations that you are violent by committing acts of violence. I've also noticed an…

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I'm busy, and I don't want to deal with a nause-inducing interview with Casey Luskin, Guillermo Gonzalez, and Mark Mathis. Somebody else yak up over it, and let me link to it. I'm still shying away from listening to this abomination, so get with it and tell me what's on it. First up: Jyunri Kankei.

The Warda and Han paper has been officially retracted, and the editor has made an official statement, as reported in the Chronicle of Higher Ed. The paper has drawn a blizzard of criticism in the blogosphere about the peer-review process at the journal, Proteomics. The editor of the journal,…

You need a website that chronicles instances of giant Jeeebi. These aren't mere graven images, these are graven mega-images of apocalyptic proportions, which really ought to bring down the wrath of the Lord already.

The other big holiday coming up is Valentine's Day … so how about some appropriately silly valentines? Warning: that one is the best one. If it makes you groan, the others will be pure torture. But they do beat out the sappy things we used to hand out in fifth grade.

The old man would be 199 years old today, so biologists and other science-supporting people are celebrating all around the world. Even in Morris. I'm actually giving two lectures today. The first is a fortunate coincidence: I'm teaching an introductory biology course that emphasizes the history…

It's been yet another long, long day — I was one of many invited speakers at a conference on Networks and Neighborhoods in Cyberspace at the Twin Cities branch campus of the University of Minnesota Morris, and I got to make an early morning drive there and a late afternoon drive back. Drive, drive…

Richard Dawkins is retiring from academia, but I'm sure he'll still be involved in the greater culture, so this isn't sad news at all. Now the search at Oxford begins for a new professor to take on the Charles Simonyi Professorship in the Public Understanding of Science, and from that manifesto,…

I'm a big fan of modern Scandinavian folk music, and am often listening to great bands like Sorten Muld and Hedningarna. I don't know the language, though, so I'm usually just grooving on the sound … so it's greatly appreciated when a Swede translates a Hedningarna song for me. And, as it turns out…

Doesn't it make you happy to see people wanting to help other people? "This is a service which is sorely needed," said Jankowski, who holds a doctorate in spiritual theology. "The number of people who need help is intensifying right now." What service is Jankowski providing? That he claims to have…

I've received email from one of the authors of that bafflingly bizarre paper on mitochondria. I'm still confused. Dear Dr. Myers First of all, I am very sorry for that trouble for you. I found the serious mistakes in the paper during the process of edits, which I confused between the early drafts…

I brought that Washington state 'academic freedom' bill to your attention a while back. I've been hearing from lots of readers from the Pacific Northwest that the bill died in committee. Perfect!

So…Muslims want special foot washing stations so they can tidy up in order to pray, but at the same time, Muslim doctors don't want to have to wash their arms before they plunge them into my guts. "No practising Muslim woman — doctor, medical student, nurse or patient — should be forced to bare her…

Carnivals for this week: Carnival of the Godless #84: OK, I'm a week late with this one, and it's cephalopod themed. I'm so ashamed to have missed it earlier. Carnival of the Blue #9: Oceans are good. I and the Bird #68: It's winter themed. It's cold here, so that's appropriate. Linnaeus'…

Apparently, Barack Obama did well in the recent primaries, increasing the chances that he'll be the Democratic candidate for president. Right away, we're seeing an old video of an Obama speech (transcript here) being refloated. This is the same speech that prompted me to say I would never vote for…

The American Atheists conference will be in Minneapolis on 21-23 March, and yes! The registration information is now online! I'll be there, let's see lots of others there, too. If you want more details, besides the info on the web, Ellen Johnson, president of American Atheists, will be the featured…

Pharyngula commenter SteadyEddy has uploaded his audio recording of the Rue-Myers discussion. It's about 22M, so I'm still downloading it…but there it is. Thanks to SteadyEddy!

Another of the virtues of rural living: the coverage of my area by google maps/earth/etc. is pathetic. The rest of you, though, better watch out.

The culture wars are proceeding as expected, and Ben Stein's reputation is following a predictable trajectory. Popular character actor and mendacious old fool Ben Stein has a little movie coming out about how "BIG SCIENCE" doesn't want you to know the truth about evolution. Stein salutes the…

Saudi police arrested and strip-searched an American businesswoman for the crime of visiting a Starbucks with a male colleague. "Some men came up to us with very long beards and white dresses. They asked 'Why are you here together?' I explained about the power being out in our office. They got very…

Greg Laden has provided som lengthy commentary on the Rue-Myers debate. They really didn't have to taser him. Just waving the weapon at him was enough to quiet him down.

At some time, a recording of our 'debate' will be available online, so I won't try to do a play by play now. I will say that I found this one pretty much impossible to prepare for — there was no way this debate could be shoe-horned into a good vs. evil or smartness vs. ignorance conflict, making it…

Fresh from his recent reappearance on KKMS, where he debated me with a new strategy which gave him a slight chance of winning (i.e., one in which I was not present), Geoffrey Simmons is now crowing victory. It's very strange. Why would anyone with any sense think that demanding a 'debate' in which…

Our little grievance with a certain paper in Proteomics has made it to the attention of the Chronicle of Higher Ed. Some of the new info (there isn't a lot) is right here: Michael J. Dunn, the editor of Proteomics and a professor at University College Dublin's Conway Institute of Biomolecular and…

Guillermo Gonzalez's appeal of his tenure denial went before the Iowa State University board of regents this morning. To no one's surprise, his appeal was denied. Seriously, this was a no-brainer; it would have been grounds for suspicion if the board of regents had overruled the opinion of his…

Go read this first rate summary of an ID meeting by one of its unsympathetic attendees. It's genuinely bizarre. The talks by the ID proponents are frankly, complete garbage (not that the account is that blunt), which explains the message everyone got afterwards. A few days after the meeting ended,…

The beautiful state of Washington, my native home and still home to many of my family members, has some people ready to enact some major legislative stupidity. David Horowitz was a right-wing nut who was making noise a few years ago with his witch hunt for evil leftists (Hi, Michael!) and his…