pharyngula

A family of Minnesotans were involved in a horrific plane crash in the Congo. Barry and Marybeth Mosier were on their way to visit their son Keith, 24, in Kinsangani, Congo, with two younger children when their plane crashed on takeoff Tuesday in Goma. At least 36 people died as the plane plowed…

The 103rd edition of the Tangled Bank is now online at the Nature Network!

Revere is thinking about how to grow meat without the animal. It's a cool idea that's been floating around in science fiction for a while now, but, well, of course it has problems, and Revere notes a couple. The two biggest, as far as I can see from a quick perusal of the burgeoning literature, are…

Look what they've done: Philadelphia declares a whole Year of Evolution, a celebration starting on 19 April. The YEAR OF EVOLUTION kicks off for the public on Saturday, April 19, as the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology opens Surviving: The Body of Evidence, a new…

Plan ahead! It's going to be a fun weekend! This Thursday, 17 April, get a head start on the weekend with Virtually Speaking on Second Life. I'm being interviewed at 6pm Pacific Time, and this could be spectacularly entertaining: I'm a total newbie at SL, so I'm going to be getting lessons in how…

Well, except for the grain silos, that is, but I don't need to go in those. New York is a whole different story, though. This story about elevators is informative, because it tells you all about the construction and safety features, takes a tour of the Otis company, and even talks about the…

(via Brian Flemming)

How stupid can they get? First it's discovered that the makers of the stupid propaganda movie were stealing some of their cell animations from XVIVO, and now it is revealed that other segments were ripped off from PBS. It's as if there isn't a single bit of creativity in the whole movie — they can…

Does everyone here listen to NPR or something? Not only have I been hearing all about the Expelled ads running, which is bad enough, but apparently in their attempts to sidle towards the lunatic side of the political spectrum, this morning they also ran a story about a pretentious 16 year old…

On the non-necessity of evolving large brains: It requires big brains and they in turn demand lots of protein, which, outside modern yuppie societies, generally means meat. As the late evolutionary paleontologist Jack Sepkoski used to say: "I see intelligence as just one of a variety of adaptations…

I like Greg Laden's taxonomy of Horwitzian Academic "Freedom" bills: "Academic Freedom" bills seem to come in two flavors: Those that protect students from the possibility of learning certain things, and those that protect subversive teachers from getting in trouble for being bad teachers.

I'm late to the party again; only because Hilzoy mentioned it did I see this hilariously inane article by Michael Medved. I don't know what Medved's qualifications are; he seems to be the Clever Hans of the Right Wing chattering classes, the guy who doesn't actually have a functioning mind but is…

I don't usually think of Australians as particularly prudish — brash and outspoken are more common stereotypes — so this story about the Anglican Church Grammar School banning gay partners at their dances seems a little out of character. I know we've got some Australian commenters, so I expect they…

Don't just link to the Expelled Exposed web site, read it! A whole bunch of new content has gone live, including this video of Chris Comer. One of the more effective parts is the truth behind Expelled, which goes one by one through the cases of "expelled" creationists, and shows that they weren't…

CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE EVOLUTIONARY APPARATUS DIRECTIVE• OBEY • OBEY • OBEY • OBEY • OBEY • OBEY • OBEY • OBEY • OBEY • OBEY • OBEY • OBEY • We need to get the NCSE's counter-site to the hideous little propaganda film, Expelled, to rank higher in the search engines. The way to do this is for…

A doddering old fool who shouldn't have been driving in the first place cruised into a car dealership in his cheap little Ford Fiesta, and managed to demolish two Porsches outside the showroom. Total damage: £60,000. So what does the senile twit say afterwards? You guessed it: It was a miracle I…

Would you believe that atheists are to blame for the Westboro Baptist Church? They can't be real Christians. They must be part of an atheist cabal. Their goal? To undermine churches. To give religion a black eye. To plant in the minds of the young a twisted and evil view of Christianity. Somebody…

I'm busy preparing my lecture for genetics this morning, in which I'm going to be talking about some chromosomal disorders … and I noticed that this summary of Fragile-X syndrome that was on the old site hadn't made it over here yet. A lot of the science stuff here actually gets used in my…

Jay Hosler has a new book out, Optical Allusions(amzn/b&n/abe/pwll). If you're familiar with his other books, Clan Apis(amzn/b&n/abe/pwll) and The Sandwalk Adventures(amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), you know what to expect: a comic book that takes its science seriously. Hosler has a fabulous knack…

From the Salt Lake Tribune: Every semi-knowledgeable moviegoer and reader of movie criticism knows what the words "not screened for critics" means: The movie is a dog.

We're going to be seeing more humor like this in the next few weeks, I suppose. I like the tag line: Because Ben Stein is just as qualified to make software as he is to talk about evolutionary biology. And if you're confused about what this "evolutionary biology" thing might be, here's a picture…

Some of the politicians in the benighted state of Florida want to sell a new license plate. The Florida Legislature may create a new license plate that features the words ''I Believe'' and the image of a cross in front of a church stained glass window. The measure is moving in both the House and…

Here's the story of a young Yemeni lady filing for divorce from her abusive husband. "My father beat me and told me that I must marry this man, and if I did not, I would be raped and no law and no sheikh in this country would help me. I refused but I couldn't stop the marriage," Nojoud Nasser told…

Note the year, too. Although, to be perfectly correct, we aren't descendants of theirs…we're distant cousins.

Here, let me ruin your morning, just in case you hadn't already heard the story of this raid on the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. A raid was finally triggered April 3, after a family violence shelter received a hushed phone call from a terrified 16-year-old girl saying…

So what are we supposed to make of Maciel Giertych, anti-Darwinist loon and one of the interview subjects in Expelled, who is also an anti-Jewish bigot who characterizes Jews as "those who did not recognise Jesus Christ as the awaited Messiah"?

It's another day for Atheists Talk radio, Sunday at 9am, with yours truly in the first half hour, being interviewed by Kristine Harley about that horrible little movie that I'm getting tired of hearing about. But all right, we'll take another shot at it. Maybe you can liven it up by calling in to…

The newest Tangled Bank will be at rENNISance woman on Wednesday, so send those links in to me or host@tangledbank.net soon. Meanwhile, you could read these other carnivals: Humanist Symposium #17 Circus of the Spineless I and the Bird #72 Skeptics' Circle #84 Friday Ark #186

Everyone was so pleased with getting a thread over 2000 comments, but I'm sorry — it's so huge it's causing server problems on ScienceBlogs. I'm closing comments there; if you really must continue, do it here.