pharyngula

We already know how unethical and sleazy Murdoch-owned media are — and now, if you're in the UK, you should be aware that he's making a grab to take control of an even larger slice of the media pie. Murdoch already controls more of our media than is legal in many countries - and is notorious for…

I think we've reached the saturation point, so comments are closed on this article. However, I do think I need to link to Rebecca Watson's summary of her recent absurdist travails. Or if you'd rather, try reading Schrödinger's Rapist and be enlightened. This time, though, really, go over there if…

If you're really interested, that Cretinist Jerry Bergman is going to be on some weird "Ask the Expert" show at Creation Conversations, a site I'm going to have to browse more often because it is one of the lamest creationist web sites I've seen yet — it's all young earth creationism presented with…

The date for the Reason Rally in Washington DC has been set: 24 March 2012. I'll be there! So will everyone else, I hope. Also, the Center for Inquiry in DC will be hosting the first ever Women in Secularism conference on May 18-20, 2012. That's another good one to attend! There. I've taken care of…

If you have delicate ears, you might want to skip this video: Billy Connolly will blister them with either the sacrilegious content or that ferocious Scottish accent. I liked 'em both. (Last edition of TET; Current totals: 12,678 entries with 1,424,817 comments.)

It's a truism in our culture that Jesus, even if he wasn't a deity, was a wonderful teacher and moral being. Maybe we should consider that he was a Madman or Something Worse, though: it's not just that his teachings were abused and mangled by those who followed, but that the ethical heart of…

OK, this is no fair. This is an illustration for an alternative history novel, a book about World War I as fought between biotechnology (Darwinists) vs. industrialists (Clankers). Now I really want to read Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld. I'm unfamiliar with the author, I have only the vaguest…

Now Amanda Marcotte speaks out on an issue that greatly engaged the community here over the weekend. How about if you take your arguments over there this time; we're kinda full up. Also, I just know I'm going to regret this, but this cartoon made me laugh, even though the expression is all wrong —…

I hate to say it, but there's no avoiding the stinking corpse on the living room rug: Scienceblogs.com is dead. It might be twitching still, but that's just the biota working beneath the skin, and soon they'll erupt and start looking for new hosts. Many already have. Scientopia was one of the early…

Andrew Brown does it again, and writes another clueless screed against one of those damned atheist scientists, in this case Harry Kroto. It's a common sort of objection, that these scientists are all mere logical positivists (or as Brown prefers to label them, "illogical positivists"), and as we…

I think they're celebrating Patricia's birthday.

Hey, gang! You may have seen a few hints that there will be some changes around here, semi-imminently. Any interruptions in service should be brief to non-existent, but I have some concerns that if the blog goes a-wandering or falls under new management, there will be some drop-off in traffic…and…

Sadly, an Indian health minister has gone on record calling homosexuality a "disease". For the Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, men having sex with men (MSMs) is not only "unnatural" but also a "disease." According to Azad, "this disease has come to India from foreign shores", and Indian…

American Atheists is sponsoring banners to fly over select areas in 26 states to celebrate the Fourth of July. The banners read: God-LESS America -- Atheists.org and Atheism is Patriotic - Atheists.org These are perfectly pleasant, inoffensive messages — that Silverman guy is such a timid,…

Richard Wiseman, the fabulously funny and enlightening skeptical psychologist, has written a book called Paranormality which is a fabulously funny and enlightening dissection of paranormal claims; I got an advance copy because I'm special and I recommend it highly, and so do Skepchicks. However,…

Good news! Several people have been working hard to get the most awesome YouTuber Christina Rad to visit the US, and she has just been issued a visa to allow her to come to TAM this year! So the legal hurdles have been cleared, and now the next step is a fundraiser to cover her travel costs. If…

This is your last gasp on the topic of the proper way to make a sexual advance. I'm just going to wrap up a few dangling bits. Jen has slammed Richard Dawkins for some comments here. I can confirm that those comments were actually from Richard Dawkins. I also have to say that I agree with Jen and…

There are so many clueless comments in this thread that Old Man PZ, grizzled veteran of the sex wars, successful lothario who has managed to reproduce three times, and champion who successfully landed a Trophy Partner in an extremely long and happy relationship, feels like he needs to step in and…

I said I would replicate this photo with my daughter, and we tried. Unfortunately, I've gotten older and hairier, and she doesn't wear frilly pink dresses anymore, but otherwise, she's exactly the same as she was 18 or 19 years ago.

There is an odd attitude in our culture that it's acceptable for men to proposition women in curious ways — Rebecca Watson recently experienced this in an elevator in Dublin, and I think this encounter Ophelia Benson had reflects the same attitude: women are lower status persons, and we men, as…

Greta Christina has written some alternative lyrics for Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" to remove all the bad religion references and update it to something more scientifically sound. It's called "Evolve This Way", and now it just needs somebody to actually sing it. In a perfect world, Lady Gaga…

New and digitally remastered with enhanced sound! Here's the Bergman/Myers debate again, all in one single file for your convenience in being driven insane by the futility of arguing with that loon.

I've been neglectful because these rascals at Convergence have been keeping me occupied, but here's another podcast to tide you over while I'm distracted.

Weird ideas can flourish if enough people share a false preconception, and here's a marvelous article on the history and philosophy of widely held certainty that other planets were inhabited by people. Not just any people, either: good Christian people. By the 1700s, there could no longer be any…

Found twitching off the coast of Florida, thrown onto a big blue tarp, and viewed by a parade of spectators tromping by and saying "Eww, ick" at my naked dying/dead flesh. Give the mighty beast a bit of dignity, please!

I'm off to Convergence, which has a steampunk theme: I've got lots of leather for a sorta costume, just to blend in, and my wife looks very hot in a bit of jungle explorer garb. The place will be swarming with Skepchicks, too! Also, you may recall, there was a little bet involving my daughter, so…

Now here's a criminal abuse of my youth: the Archie comics were written for a time by a demented fundamentalist. How crazy, you might ask? Read his comic book explanation of the Rapture. That is some insane stuff.

Y'all remember Michael Voris, the Catholic Dominionist who wants America to make the Pope King of the United States? He's nuts, obviously, but now we get to see him make his sad face. He visited Ireland, at the invitation of some diocese to babble about "the sacred heart of Jesus", and while he was…

I got a letter from a creationist today, claiming that "Darwinism is falsified," based on an article in Nature. It's kind of amazing; this article was just published today, and the metaphorical digital ink on it is barely metaphorically dry, and creationists are already busily mangling it. It's a…

And a baobab tree! Oh, no, pretty soon I'm going to be gushing over pictures of cute little kittens, aren't I? (via National Geographic)