pharyngula

I did not even know that Julia Sweeney had a blog, and it looks like a good one, too (she also knows Ben Stein personally, and does not have a high opinion of him). I have to plug her CD, Letting Go of God — it's hilarious and insightful. I've got a lot of driving to do today…maybe that's what I'…

In spite of all of the work piled up around me, I'm taking off today to attend the NEA/AFT Higher Education Joint Conference in Washington DC. I'm in the middle of this busy month where I spend just about every weekend flying off somewhere, in between weeks that still have the same teaching load…

Scientist and Engineers for America is running a workshop to encourage more scientists to be politically active. The focus is on telling you how to run for office, which seems like an excellent idea to me. Get out there and acquire some power, people!

Blanch, you delicate souls, blanch. Somebody else finally gets it. I'd like to suggest a very simple strategy for American liberals: Get mean. Stop policing the language and start using it to hurt our enemies. American liberals are so busy purging their speech of any words that might offend anyone…

Florida did it: their ridiculous "academic freedom" bill that promoted creationism has been approved by their senate committee. Here's the cast of characters: Chair: Senator Don Gaetz (R) Vice Chair: Senator Frederica S. Wilson (D) Senator Larcenia J. Bullard (D) Senator…

I am feeling a growing sense of incredulity as I read the latest babble from Susan Mazur. She was the one who reported on this upcoming meeting at Altenberg with an excess of hyperbole and a truly misleading inflation of the importance of that event. It sounds interesting in that a small group of…

People patent the strangest things … like this Jesus doll. The doll is provided with electrically conductive nails which when inserted through apertures in the hands of the doll, mount the doll to a provided cross and close an electrical circuit which illuminates the cross. Cool. I'll go one…

This is a tragic story of the malign effects of religious ignorance. An 11-year-old girl died after her parents prayed for healing rather than seek medical help for a treatable form of diabetes, police said Tuesday. Everest Metro Police Chief Dan Vergin said Madeline Neumann died Sunday. "She got…

Look! He's been plastinated and hung in a Paris museum! OK, that's not so bad — if anyone wants to plastinate me after I'm dead and string me up from the rafters, I won't mind. This next bit, though, is going too far: people are laughing at the giant squid's embarrassing little sexual accidents.…

Here are some quick, simple things you can do right now. The Florida Senate Education committee is meeting this afternoon to consider their bogus "academic freedom" bill. Florida Citizens for Science has a link to a very good analysis of the bill; it basically declares the bill pointless, vague…

Mike the Mad Biologist wins a gold star for this quote that I'll be stealing: The other thing we evolutionary biologists don't do enough of, and this stems from the previous point, is make an emotional and moral case for the study of evolution. Last night, I concluded my talk with a quote from…

The producers of Expelled have spent a couple of days sweating over damage control, I guess. They've shut down or delayed all the pending screenings of their movie, and now they've issued a remarkably dishonest press release. The mendacity is astonishing in its scope; somebody tell me, is this "…

What is it with this anti-beard sentiment? Here's an article that wonders why so many scientists have beards, with several amusing stories. But anti-beard arguments also ran rife in pre-Victorian times: Beards trapped food and the stuff you spewed out when you sneezed. At a stretch, they could even…

What an honor: Jeff Medkeff, an astronomer and discoverer of asteroids, has been generous to name a recently discovered set of distant rocks after Michael Stackpole, Rebecca Watson, Phil Plait, and me. That's right, there is now a few billion tons of rock and metal spinning overhead with my name on…

Last night, I attended a talk by Sherman Alexie, who was hilarious and at times, biting. One of the curious things he noted, though, was that he had said something about the disastrous conduct of the wasteful war in Iraq, and despite this being an audience of collegiate liberals, no one applauded.…

The volume of email coming into my mailbox is a bit overwhelming right now — that silly story about getting expelled from Expelled was funny enough that it got picked up all over the world, an opportunity that you'd think some communications experts would use advantageously … but that's another…

I'm glad somebody remembered to document the recent looney events photographically. Although I don't remember Genie being there…

I just got word that that pompous pimple, David Berlinski, is going to be at the Maclaurin Institute on the University of Minnesota campus on 17 April. Fortunately for me, I just this morning agreed to do an interview on Second Life on that date, so I have an excuse to avoid the supercilious snot.…

Matt Nisbet is currently running a photo of Dawkins and myself with this legend: Dawkins and Myers: It's Time to Let Others Be the Spokespeople for Science. Never mind the personal criticism, doesn't he even realize how wrong that statement is? No, it's worse than that; it's so bad it's not even…

Watch this appalling video of homeschoolers misusing the Denver museum to promote creationism. Aside from the general pattern of lies from the tour guides, two things jumped out at me. The really awful pedagogy. Over and over again, the creationist says some stock phrase and then pauses, waiting…

Britain is experiencing some dissent over research on human-animal hybrid embryos. One the one hand, you've got researchers and charities arguing that this is a technique to probe deeper into the genetic and molecular properties of developing organisms, and is key to developing treatments for…

One of the many virtues of my university is that, because of our history and policies, we get better than average contact with Native American cultures. Tonight, at 7:30 in Edson Auditorium, we get to hear from Sherman Alexie. Sherman Alexie (b. October 7, 1966 Spokane, WA) is a prolific artist who…

My account of the affair at the Mall of America has been confirmed by none other than the movie producer, who wrote to Denyse O'Leary: You should know that I invited Michael shermer to a screening at NRB in Nashville. He came and is writing a review for scientific American. I banned pz because I…

The laughing fellow on the left is Sanal Edamaruku, president of Rationalist International and atheist. The cranky old man in the robes on the right is Pandit Surinder Sharma, a self-described Tantrik Magician. The scene is in a studio on Indian television, where the magician is trying to kill the…

When Surinam Toads mate, the male fertilizes the eggs and rubs them onto the female's back, where they adhere…and the female's skin responds by swelling and enveloping the eggs. Then, a few months later, we get this lovely scene:

There's going to be a meeting of Skeptics in the Pub tomorrow, 7:00, at the Asgard on 350 Massachusetts Ave in Cambridge, starring Mike the Mad Biologist. You don't want to miss it. He's mad, you know.

I was wrong — it's not the Harvard multimedia video. It's an independently generated copy. I grabbed a few images from the DVD I got at my truncated visit to the Expelled screening, and here, for instance, is the segment that shows that striking kinesin motor protein towing a vesicle down a…

Hmmm. I should have thought the powerful voices of communications experts shrieking at Richard Dawkins to hide under his bed would have had some effect, but no…he's gone ahead and written his review of Expelled. And lo, in the camp of the Framers, there was much wailing and weeping and grinding of…

You just knew Matt Nisbet was itching to voice his opinion, and we all knew exactly what he'd say. As long as Dawkins and PZ continue to be the representative voices from the pro-science side in this debate, it is really bad for those of us who care about promoting public trust in science and…

I just got back from the American Atheists conference, so here's my summary of the weekend. Best talk of the conference: Lawrence Krauss wins hands-down. It was a meaty, informative, and lively lecture that summarized what we know about dark matter and dark energy so that even a non-physicist…