pharyngula

Last time I was here in Denver, I cruelly taunted the people who came to the pharyngufest with the fact that they all bailed before 10. Honor was at stake this time, so they kept me going way past my bedtime. I concede: Coloradans are doughty and indomitable. We had a grand time, but I have to…

We are meeting at Wynkoop's at 6pm!

People are asking what I plan to do this evening, now that I'm in lovely downtown Denver, and I don't know yet! I'm giving a talk in the early afternoon, then early this evening, I'm going to dinner with the students, so … sometime mid-evening I'll be free. What I'll do today is talk to a few of…

That last panel cracks me up.

Ocythoe tuberculata (via the TONMO Cephalopod Image Gallery)

Just because I'm doing a lot of traveling this weekend doesn't mean I can't check in on the blog now and then. I notice that a particularly vile misogynistic troll, the cowardly Ostiarius, was emboldened by my absence to start make lots of nasty comments. He has been banned. Trolls, you are on…

I'm heading out the door, off for a long drive to the airport and a slightly shorter flight to Denver, so I'll leave you with an open thread. Go ahead, fill it up, I can always make more.

I shall be departing shortly for the airport, and on to Denver to give a talk. This talk: Science Education: Caught in the Middle in the War between Science and Religion Friday, September 12 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm Metropolitan State College of Denver Tivoli Turnhall, 900 Auraria Parkway, Denver, CO…

We have a little argument going on in one of the pointless poll threads. The question being asked is, "Do you believe in the Big Bang?" Some people are indignant (and correct!) and protesting that their views on scientific matters are not a matter of opinion, but of impartial assessment of the…

I confess to feeling a faint twinge of envy at all the news about the Large Hadron Collider. It's Big Science, it's got lots of shiny fancy gadgets, and it's like NASCAR for nerds — they get to spin things together at high speed and smash them together. We biologists lack anything quite so dramatic…

Scroll down on the linked page to find a very silly poll: Do you believe in the Big Bang?. It's a pretty stupid question, but even worse is the fact that "no" is winning 82%:18%.

I quiver in fear that my number is up, now that Dinesh has caught on. With great trepidation, I read his screed, certain that such a brilliant mind would demolish my godless ways with his deep insight. Well, no. He's indignant, but he's got nothing to say. Oh, well, I'm sure there might be someone…

(Click for larger image) So maybe that's not pretty enough. Here's a corrective: it's also Mary's birthday today, so congratulate her on putting up with me for so long!

Although, I've got to say, the message is somewhat attenuated by the fact that this is a comic strip about a talking cat having an argument with a troll.

I have very mixed feelings about this game, but I've ordered a copy anyway (Skatje told me I had to). I've played with the creature creator, which is actually rather fun…but it's really just the most elaborate version of Mr Potatohead ever designed. What I've seen of the game itself puts me off a…

I thought so. You should know that they have flipped the switch on the Large Hadron Collider, and no disasters yet. Of course, all they've done so far is whirl around in circles at near the speed of light, with no big high-energy collisions yet … the gang at Cosmic Variance have been live-blogging…

I hope the Democrats cultivate some ferocity soon and start running ads based on this:

Just a heads up for Calgary — I'm going to be interviewed on "The World Tonight" on AM770 CHQR Radio, at 9:15 eastern time. They say they want to ask me some questions about a cracker…I have no idea how I'll stretch that out for 15 minutes.

After a pleasant period of my mailbox cooling down a bit, I've recently seen a significant surge of howling mad Catholics shrieking at me. I was wondering what prompted the resurgence, and here it is: apparently I made the cover of the Catholic League's newsletter, The Catalyst, and am even the…

We got one in the comments, a pompous ass named Darin Reisler who popped in to announce of evolution that "When the evidence is looked at beyond the surface level- it fails," and to back this up he offered a string of quotes from "prominent evolutionists". Man, Darin is a contemptible liar, and…

We actually own a television now, installed right in our living room. In the past, I've gotten by with an adapter for my laptop that lets me see the occasional interesting program, but now I can actually tune in to cable stations and flip through what's being broadcast. It has not been a worthy…

Last weekend's bloggingheads was an interesting discussion between John Horgan and Brian Ferguson on the unfortunate misconception many people have about human evolution — the simplistic idea that evolution is always about selection for individuals who are better at killing their competitors. It…

I guess I don't quite see the difference from a pointless poll, but let's bite. A right-wing blogger is asking for bipartisan participation in a "survey" about the expected winner in the presidential election. Results will not be available until after the election, but go ahead and give it a shot.

Looks like it's a tetrapod past a sponge. (via My Confined Space)

That's a quote from Lou Engle in this video — and it's actually kind of true. He thinks it will be a wonderful thing when people see this, and there probably are a lot of Americans who think the events portrayed are perfectly ordinary, and even commendable. I see nothing but madness. By picking…

I was sent the following argument by email. A new breed of ID is in the process of supplanting the former fact-free versions on U.S. university campuses. The new breed looks like this (from recent lectures on several University of California campuses): The following design argument does not require…

I am shocked — people mistook my reference to "Gloria" in the last post for some cheesy 80s dreck, instead of one of the greatest rock songs of all time. So here, for those who are confused, here's an education: Laura Branigan? Girlfriend, please.

One of the quirks of this small town is the music I sometimes hear in the local grocery store. We don't get the usual boring muzak that was screened by some beancounter to maximize inoffensiveness — I was quite charmed the first time I went shopping there, and instead of boring old 1001 Strings…

Then you should sign up for the Steve list. They're trying to get 900 qualified evolution supporters with names that are variants of "Steven" — I think they should aim for a nice round one thousand.

Or, at least, future vacation destinations. How could I resist a place that has a Devil's Brewery, Bryggeriet Djævlebryg, and markets a godless beer? GudeløsType: Imperial stout Data: 8.9% alc/vol, OG app. 1.090, IBU app. 65 What? Bryggeriet Djævlebryg and the Danish Atheist Society have entered…