Paul Z. Meyers
pharyngula
Posts by this author
April 18, 2006
What is this phenomenon called "Science Blogging"? And when are you going to start?
April 18, 2006
Zenoferox has dug up a review of Crichton's Andromeda Strain from 1969—Alexei Panshin tore into him for his bad science even then. I remember seeing the movie in junior high school myself, and feeling ripped off by the incredibly flaccid ending.
April 18, 2006
See this map of religiosity? I'm stuck there in the brick red swath of traditional dumbassery running down the middle of the country.
I grew up in those lovely areas of Light out on the west coast.
May the benighted darkness someday fade from my current home.
(via Res Ipsa Loquitur)
April 18, 2006
The relative length of bat forelimb digits has not changed in 50
million years. (a) Icaronycteris index, which is a 50-million-year-old bat fossil. (b) Extant adult
bat skeleton. The metacarpals (red arrows) of the first fossil bats are already
elongated and closely resemble modern bats. This…
April 18, 2006
It always gives a fellow a warm feeling to see an old comrade-in-arms publish a good paper. Chris Cretekos was a graduate student working on the molecular genetics of zebrafish at the University of Utah when I was a post-doc there, and he's a good guy I remember well…so I was glad to see his paper…
April 18, 2006
I can't do it anymore. I can't possibly keep up with the competition, who are willing to sink to sick, perverse depths to which the real porn kings and queens willingly immerse themselves. And they're so close to me—just a few miles to the west, across that state line.
I'm talking about South…
April 18, 2006
As an example of understatement, I could say that I'm no fan of Mark Steyn—he's another of those deeply confused and stupid far right pundits who is convinced that vigorous support for violent action by others will compensate for his intellectual deficiencies—so I'm not really surprised to learn of…
April 17, 2006
No, really, it's hard to believe, but it's true. See Richard Feynman interviewed, for example.
April 17, 2006
Once again, I bravely plunge into the fascinating world of kinky sex research in humans. This time, we learn something incredibly useful. Gentleman, would you like to know how to improve the potency of your semen? Do you need a good excuse to give your significant other when she catches you…
April 17, 2006
I don't quite understand this etiquette thing. So Maryscott O'Connor is angry about war and corruption and our incompetent administration, and that's bad. Naughty leftist, she should be better mannered and respectful to our president, no matter how badly he screws up.
Meanwhile, Michelle Malkin…
April 17, 2006
By way of Over My Med Body, I found this article that finds new virtues for seafood: it reduces anti-social behavior. This is great news! I plan to announce when I'm feeling cranky here at the Myers household, which will prompt an immediate serving of tasty salmon. I'm going to be eating fish every…
April 17, 2006
I try to avoid censoring people here, and it takes some persistent nuisance value to get evicted. There are a few people, though, who really don't add any value to the site, even though they haven't done anything (yet) to warrant banning them. A reader sent me this script many of you might find…
April 17, 2006
Modern digital technology allows us to see the unimaginable. George Bush sings Imagine.
(via Badgerings)
April 17, 2006
It's Pride Week at UMM, so it's timely to mention the dissection of Paul Cameron's latest mangling of science and statistics. Cameron, if you've never heard of him, is an anti-gay bigot who publishes sloppy analyses to 'prove' that homosexuals are bad people, and has recently published yet another…
April 17, 2006
You may have heard the disturbing news story about the Oklahoma murderer/pedophile/cannibal—just to make it a little creepier, he had a blog. (I don't expect it will stay up for too long, so read The Insomnia Report for excerpts.)
He says things like this:
I mean it, I really need a girlfriend. It'…
April 17, 2006
Here's an interactive timeline that has it all: animated critters go strolling across the screen, there is a graph of oxygen concentration, and you can watch the continents slip and slide around the globe as you drag an arrow around the timeline. You'll want a big monitor to display this on—it gets…
April 16, 2006
Take, for instance, Richard Harries:
This Easter, as usual, the Christian church will proclaim its central theme that, in Jesus, God shares our human anguish to the full and, through the resurrection, gives us hope that in the end all evil, including death, will be left behind. This God calls us to…
April 16, 2006
Everyone is writing about this WaPo story about angry liberal bloggers that focused on a site I rather like, My Left Wing. Hilzoy writes about the media laziness behind the story, and Norwegianity punctures the myth that anger is a property of the Left
I'm baffled by it all. Shouldn't we be angry…
April 16, 2006
People all around the world are celebrating Easter today. I am not. Easter is a vile little holiday wrapped up in a façade of pretty dresses and chocolate eggs and happy children playing games on the lawn, but at its putrescent core lies 20 centuries of exploitation and dishonesty. Here is a hard-…
April 15, 2006
Forgive me, for I am guilty of the sin of false pride. I'm wont to judge Christians by the worst of them, and in contrast, to regard atheism as the refuge of the more worthy. I am chastised by the existence of The Raving Atheist, however, who shows me that godlessness is not necessarily correlated…
April 15, 2006
Word is just in from a fellow doing some interesting work that the Royal Society lecture by Steve Jones, "Why Creationism is wrong and Evolution is right" is available for your viewing pleasure.
April 15, 2006
Exxon CEO Lee Raymond's salary is $190,915.
Per day.
April 15, 2006
Pope Ratzi was in charge of a parade yesterday, where everyone pretends to know every footfall of poorly documented Jewish rabbi's execution, so they can re-enact it and make portentous comments at every step. The whole thing is online, if you want to read it. The Seventh Station is the interesting…
April 15, 2006
Here's another account from the "War on Christians" conference. These people are scary and weird.
Perhaps the most explicit call to arms came from Ron Luce, the president and founder of Teen Mania, a Christian revivalist youth ministry, and the author of Battle Cry for a Generation, a multimedia…
April 14, 2006
Hey, does anybody know what's happened with The Inoculated Mind? They're scheduled to be the next host for the Tangled Bank, and the site seems to be down.
If that's your weblog, get in touch with me soon.
April 14, 2006
If I had one, that is. A reader cruelly sent me a ghastly link to the Christian song stylings of Lil' Markie.
Cthulhu, take me now. My psyche is scarred.
April 14, 2006
I haven't watched South Park in a long time, but I understand the latest controversy is that they blanked out an innocuous, brief portrayal of Mohammed, and everyone is saying the network caved under pressure. Michelle Malkin and her fellow right-wing nutjobs are embarrassingly hysterical over it.…
April 14, 2006
You tell me…should I be flattered at all the email coming in from people saying that the phrase "flailing around like a lubed-up squid" brought me immediately to their mind?
Maybe it was the erotic resonance of the image that elicits that prompts the association…
Please don't tell me I'm the only…