pharyngula

Old hands at the usenet group talk.origins will recall Chris Nedin well — and now he has entered the blogosphere with his brand new blog, Ediacaran, a blog about paleontology and all the other things that waft through the mind of a science geek. Go say hello! (via another TO alumnus, Wilkins)

We've got another troll in the comments — she wouldn't necessarily be a troll, except for the dead giveaway of asking the same question a dozen times and running away from any answer any of the non-troll commenters might give. The question is, "Does evolution imply atheism?", and I'm going to have…

I've been asked to publicize another creationist quote mine. Gene Myers, a former vice president at Celera who was one of the leaders in sequencing the human genome, has been quote by Tom Abate in the San Francisco Chronicle as saying, "What really astounds me is the architecture of life…The…

The Edmonton Sun asks, "Should God be left out of the University of Alberta's convocation speech?" I should think so. They should also leave Odin, Zeus, and the Tooth Fairy out of it, unless it's to make a joke. Surprisingly, though, 67% of the respondents disagree with me so far. Will that have…

Some teachers were at a workshop in Atlanta to talk about their experiences teaching evolution, and how to overcome some of the problems. They've had it worse than I have. Some students burst into tears when a high school biology told them they'd be studying evolution. Another teacher said some…

I think we can all already see the defense the right wing is throwing up to rationalize Sarah Palin's inane remarks about "fruit fly research in Paris, France": she wasn't disparaging all research into fruit flies, but only one specific earmark for studying agricultural pests. Baloney. The context…

We're having our very first snowfall of the new winter. It's kind of comforting to see, but a) my wife has an hour long commute each weekday, and b) this usually marks the descent of the region into the deep freeze for the next 4-6 months.

This morning at 9am, Atheists Talk radio will be about the Ghosts of Minnesota and American Atheists. One of those two is entirely unreal. Honolulu Sun 4:00 AM     Sao Paulo Sun 11:00 AM     Addis Ababa Sun 5:00 PM Anchorage Sun 6:00 AM Rio de Janeiro Sun 11:00 AM Baghdad…

I just got this in the mail, and smug elitist that I am, I thought it was worth passing along. Dear friends, In these times, with extremely serious, complicated crisises confronting us both economically and internationally, we need to have intelligent, educated people as president & vice…

California's Proposition 8 is a ballot measure that aims to ban same-sex marriage — it is a regressive proposal that aims to strip equality from a minority population. It is revealing to see who is supporting each side of the contest. The organizations trying to oppose Proposition 8 include Apple…

Steven Novella has an excellent critique of the Discovery Institute's pathetic assault on materialism. But then you all read Neurologica already, right?

If you're partial to humor about demons (and all you atheists — you know you are), check out DEMONS, a webcomic, sort of. It's an interesting way to use YouTube, and I also rather like the mockery of Faithmole.

This is too much. Sarah Palin gave a policy speech today in which she claimed that she wanted more support for children with disabilities, more tools to test for disorders, and while also decrying the expense of scientific research. Where does a lot of that earmark money end up anyway? […] You've…

(via Brain Rage)

There is a wonderful thrill of fear going through the far right right now — it's a marvel to witness. The latest example is a work of fiction from the Dobsonites, written as a document sent back into our present from a future world in 2012, after an Obama presidency. It's a dark time for the…

Oh, the pressure. This somewhat tardy edition of the Carnival of the Liberals happens to be the last one before election day, which makes it important to bring up the issues we ought to be considering as we make our decisions about who we're going to vote for…although, if you're liberal, this is a…

Sepia apama Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman.

That's what Greg Laden says, and he wouldn't lie. If you're wondering what you can get her for her birthday, I'm sure she'd love it if you'd join the National Center for Science Education. It's much better than diamonds, and cheaper, too.

This is the top news story on Fox right now: a McCain volunteer says she was robbed at an ATM, by a black man of course, and then when the thief saw her McCain bumper sticker, he beat her up and carved a "B" for "Barack" in her face. It's getting a bit…shrill. It could have happened, but there are…

She may have deleted her post that called for killing homosexuals, but now she's put up a guest post from some freaky Baptist minister, shrieking about "Sodomites" who are being punished by her loving god, with quotes from the usual suspects — Romans and Leviticus — demanding that they be put to…

See more Ron Howard videos at Funny or Die

Tracking of the HMS Beagle by a manned space station. I don't know why; maybe those pre-Victorian Space Engineers had their steam-powered space-stations all tied up trying to find the source of the Nile or plotting invasion routes into Afghanistan, or something. This time around our 21st century…

"YOU cannot overestimate," thundered psychiatrist Jeffrey Schwartz, "how threatened the scientific establishment is by the fact that it now looks like the materialist paradigm is genuinely breaking down. You're gonna hear a lot in the next calendar year about... how Darwin's explanation of how…

Oooh, this has got to sting. The NRCC has pulled all of its advertising budget from the Michele Bachmann campaign. I'm shocked that even Republicans have limits to what they will support.

We were just talking about Al, and now I learn that he'll be making a campaign stop on my campus on Monday, 27 October, at 10:30am in Oyate Hall in the student center. I don't even have classes at that time, so I'll be able to stop by and join the cheering crowds — if you're somewhere nearby, come…

Greg Lloyd attended the Northern Kentucky University mock trial of evolution/creation, and sent back a report. The scenario was that a teacher tried to advocate creationist theories in a public high school classroom, was fired for it, and is trying to sue for reinstatement. Here's Greg's account of…

Someone has been targeting politician's homes for vandalism: it includes both Democrats and Republicans, including Michele Bachmann and Norm Coleman and John Kline and Amy Klobuchar. Despite their different political affiliations, all of the spray painted messages on the homes have the same message…

Bill Dembski gave a talk at Baylor recently, and we have a rather thorough account of his lecture. Basically, it's the usual creationist rope-a-dope: ask for the impossible (give me every single step in the evolution of a process) and garbled distortion of useful concepts (in this case, of…

And already the War on Christmas nonsense is starting up. Why, I remember they used to wait until after Thanksgiving before they'd put up the Christmas lights and install Santa in the shopping malls and start complaining about how the atheists were out to destroy Christmas, and every year it came…