pharyngula

I am less than tantalized by the latest trailer for this awful SyFy movie, but I'll probably tune it in anyway. I suspect I'll also tune it out. Cheesy, schlocky giant monster I can understand, but why all the implicit misogyny in these things? It always looks like women's purpose is to wear a…

Last month, I mentioned this sad and inspiring story of Mike Celizic, who had been diagnosed with cancer and given very little time to live. I'm sorry to report that Mike Celizic has died. Here is the last email he sent to me; it's a little embarrassing that he's saying more about me than himself,…

It's one of the oldest, most ridiculous canards creationists use: "Why aren't monkeys still evolving into humans?" And here's Christine O'Donnell thinking it's a valid argument. I think she was also about to claim that Darwin retracted his theory, before she got cut off…and that's another…

Vile calumny! I am offended! That's also the worst caricature of Phil Plait ever! I think I will have to defend my honor as a biologist in a duel at dawn or something. Or something…I suppose I could teach him how much romance there is in a cup of semen, instead…

Here's the video Thunderf00t made of his visit to Morris — that's me slumped down in our very comfy sofa. It's one of the ways we torture visitors, by tossing them onto the very billowy cushions. Uh-oh. It's a four-part series. No way am I watching all that. Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

Elders of the Jehovah's Witnesses are not allowed to have beards, because it makes them look like dirty rotten gay communist hippies. In the 1950s, in the the USA, beards were widely unpopular among the general public and most men who wore one were immediately perceived as beatniks (and later,…

When I visited Australia last year, the media was all gaga over the idea of an Australian saint — the Catholic church was going to canonize Mary MacKillop (the people I hung out with while I was there, though, didn't give a good goddamn for the nonsense). Well, now there's some ironic news going…

The perpetual thread filled up fast when I wasn't looking…and just to keep the mood of the Friday Cephalopod, here's Vampyroteuthis in action. (Current totals: 11,056 entries with 1,132,836 comments.)

Vampyroteuthis infernalis (via ToLWeb)

I don't know how they do it. The Texas BOE has a new 'controversy' to fret over: At a three-day meeting that started Wednesday, the board is scheduled to consider a resolution that would require it to reject textbooks that it determines are tainted with teaching "pro-Islamic, anti-Christian half-…

SciAm has a nice report on a survey of people's trust of authority figures. On a scale of one to five, with five being the most trustworthy, they were asked who would provide accurate information on a range of scientific issues. Look at these results: scientists are highly regarded, while religious…

Those must have been some interesting meetings: the University of Minnesota administration was trying to suppress an environmentalist documentary about abuses of the Mississippi river, but every faculty member I've heard from on this issue was a bit outraged by the censorship…and now, the…

I thought this had to be a political Poe…but then I find it's full of Alex Jones crap, and he takes himself seriously, vile and stupid as he is. So take a swipe at this poll, anyway. Are Blacks Equal to Whites? Yes 67% No 29% Unsure 4%

Believers get another phenomenal reward: if they have student loans, they can all be forgiven by working for a non-profit, which includes most churches. I can approve of the idea of rewarding people with debt forgiveness if they dedicate themselves to charitable works, but most priests are more…

Everyone should watch this video. Dan Savage has started a new project, prompted by the suicide of a bullied gay teenager, Billy Lucas, in Indiana. So they're trying to get the word out: It gets better. Don't despair. And they're collecting other people's stories, too. This particular project is…

How can you simultaneously be such leaders of advancing secularism and pandering cowards to the demands of religion? The police have arrested 6 people who posted a video of a Koran-burning. They did not break into a mosque and steal somebody else's book, they had their own copy and destroyed it ……

This is terrible, wasteful, stupid news from Africa. A measles outbreak has claimed the lives of 70 children in Zimbabwe over the past two weeks, mostly among families from apostolic sects that shun vaccinations, state media said Thursday. I'm still waiting for news of evangelical atheists…

The content of the preternaturally miscellaneous thread is random, so I think I can open them with random weirdness. So this is what they're wearing in London now? (Current totals: 11,046 entries with 1,131,158 comments.)

Zamia furfuracea

I was interviewed for this article about how atheists respond to signs of their own mortality. It's a little unsurprising…atheists don't expect to live forever, after all, so there's no news there. I am very uncomfortable with the comparison between my recent experiences and what Christopher…

Something like, "The probability that a religious leader is a sex offender is directly proportional to the the virulence of his homophobia." It's happened again. Two young men in Georgia said Tuesday that the pastor of a 33,000-person Baptist megachurch, Bishop Eddie L. Long, had repeatedly coerced…

Everyone should read this very good, very clear article in Seed magazine. It stomps on the concept of a soul from the perspective of modern neuroscience. The evidence supports another view: Our brains create an illusion of unity and control where there really isn't any. Within the wide range of…

I sometimes teach a course in scientific writing, in which we instruct students in the basics of writing a paper: citing the literature, the conventions of the standard science paper (introduction, methods, results, discussion), all that sort of thing. We also discuss research topics and coming up…

Then you can read the Belorussian translation of my Expelled post. Hmmm. I wonder if a Belorussian translation of that ghastly movie is in circulation out there right now…

The Institute for Creation Research has a "museum", and they're having an open house on Saturday, 25 September, from 9-5. I think it would be lovely if smart, science-minded people were to crash the event, either to politely protest outside of it, or quietly enter and offer rational commentary on…

California has had zero deaths from whooping cough in the last 55 years. The toll this year: 9 babies dead of whooping cough. So far. There is something about that link above that makes me angry. The source given for the terrible statistic is the Huffington Post — a site which has done far more…

OK Go is always making these catchy videos, but I think playing the adorable dog card is definitely taking unfair advantage. Wait, was that a goat?

I'm back to teaching developmental biology this term, and one of the things I do in my upper level classes is have students write blog entries on the themes of the course. In the past, I've given them space right here to do that, which I've found to be a parlous course of action — the commentariat…

Tristero thinks he has refuted my denial of the existence of souls by citing Otis Redding's soul, but I reject his refutation! He has done it by the sneaky tactic of a strategic redefinition of "soul", away from 'magic essence of personal identity independent of the material substrate of the brain…

Usually, though, people don't brag about it on their album covers.