pharyngula

Deepak Chopra is at it again, babbling about evolutionary biology. It's obvious at this point that he's an idiot who has found a niche in making a fool of himself on this topic; I'm disgusted with the Huffington Post for continuing to give this fraud a platform. I'm not going to dissect it. I'll…

He's trying to get a rise out of me, and the best he can do is mention that squid are tasty? Pathetic. Of course they are, and I know it. How else can one fully grok the beauty? I must demand higher standards from people trolling for links.

Ah, I'm back home again, and just in time…the snow started falling just as I crossed the Morris city limits. I was at the Minneapolis screening of Flock of Dodos, and they had a big crowd at the Bell Museum auditorium, including many of the usual suspects in the struggle against creationism in our…

I must possess this T-shirt.

Stuff to read: Carnival of Education #106 Skeptics' Circle #54 History Carnival #48 Friday Ark #126 So…what else is happening out there?

Warren Chisum, the Texas legislator who peddled an anti-evolution memo, has, well, ummm, finally read what he was trying to legislate. On Tuesday, the Pampa Republican distributed a memo written by Georgia GOP Rep. Ben Bridges to Texas House members' mailboxes. The memo advocated that schools stop…

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

(This is a rather long response to a chapter in Jonathan Wells' dreadful and most unscholarly book, Icons of Evolution) The story of Haeckel's embryos is different in an important way from that of the other chapters in Jonathan Wells' book. As the other authors show, Wells has distorted ideas that…

This is meta, if you'd rather skip it. I think we've got a good community of commenters here, and in order to encourage a more perfect expression of interactivity, I'm going to implement a few new things. First, the stick. I'm posting the Pharyngula filter file contents in that Dungeon tab at the…

If you had a lonely Valentine's Day, it's my fault. I should have passed along these infallible Darwinian pick-up lines to you. It's not too late, though…there's a weekend coming up, try them out and let us all know how it works out.

We evolutionists had our big day on 12 February, when we celebrated the birthday of Charles Darwin. It seems only fair, then, that the Intelligent Design creationists should also have a special day, when we contemplate their special style of 'science'. I think today, the 15th of February, is an…

At least that's the case according to some bad movie geology. This is what happens when movies get made with no dogs involved—all the common sense is stripped right out of them.

The Atheist Experience has Kent Hovind's phone calls from jail online. Hovind is such a pretentious fraud; he compares himself to George Washington and the IRS to the Mafia and Hitler's minions, and insists through it all that he's completely innocent. He also makes the claim that the people…

Read House Bill H0224, the appointment of a state poet laureate, and you'll see what I mean.

Since somebody asked, I will confirm that I will be at the showing of Flock of Dodos tomorrow. That's going to be at 7:00pm in the Bell Museum auditorium ($7 admission). Randy Olson won't be there (rumor has it he's busy flitting from showing to showing, but Minneapolis just isn't good enough for…

Sad to say, I'm discovering that some people got the wrong message from my talk last night. Something went awry, I'm not sure what, because they took home exactly the opposite idea from what I intended. I'll try summarize what I meant to say here. I was supposed to talk about creationist…

I may have to find an excuse to use this in my genetics class—I'll definitely be showing it in my intro biology course in the fall. Very groovy.

Seriously, John, you shouldn't watch this video.

I earlier accused Vox Day of arguing that "murdering toddlers in the name of Jesus is defensible." He has since informed me that I have misinterpreted him. Vox answers that offing two-year olds at the direct and 100-percent confirmed command of the Almighty is the moral act. Jesus never entered…

We may have to move (Skatje would approve). The new Dutch cabinet has just been announced, and look at the Minister for Education, Culture & Science: Ronald Plasterk (PvdA), 50, molecular geneticist, staunch athiest and opponent of intelligent design. Can you imagine the meltdown if such a…

Can any Texan reading this explain how these lunatic yahoos get elected? I've read Molly Ivins, but she hasn't explained how normal, ordinary folk can walk into a voting booth and pull a lever for some macho pseudo-cowboy with slicked back hair and a belief that the earth doesn't rotate, and that…

Whether you think the current holiday is Valentine's Day, a belated Darwin Day, or Quirky Alone day, the latest edition of the Tangled Bank is for you.

This large squid, Taningia danae, has been caught on film, and it's amazing stuff. It swoops in on its prey, arms splayed wide, using its luminescence to disorient the target. It's beautiful!

Greg Laden was there, and has a nice blurry picture of me picking my nose.

Cafe Scientifique was great fun last night, although I admit that I'm feeling it this morning: I didn't get home until after 1am, and I still had to get up at 6. It was a huge crowd, we got lots of questions and discussion. There were a few criticisms, too: we got one comment that there wasn't…

Our biology club has a fundraiser tradition: for Valentine's Day, they'll take your picture with our resident snake and print it out as a card (what is it about big snakes and romance, anyway?) Of course I have to participate, so here I am, fondling a big reptile with an even bigger dead reptile in…

I'm going to be driving to the Varsity Theater in Dinkytown this afternoon. It's time for a Café Scientifique on the subject of "Understanding Evolution" at 6:00 this evening. We have a 3 person panel, with Mark Borello of UMTC talking about the history of evolutionary thought, Scott Lanyon of the…

I sure hope time straightens out the race for the presidency, since I find myself unimpressed by the entire field. John Edwards has just moved to the bottom of my list of acceptable Democratic candidates, after Hillary Clinton (after Hillary! That's pretty low) since he has just allowed Amanda…

An atheist goes for a walk and is accosted by a couple of Christians, and he defends himself…no, more than that, he goes on the offensive. It's great to watch. This is what we all have to do: no more appeasement, no more making excuses for the foolishness of others, just smack down their yapping…