pharyngula

What are they thinking? You may have heard that Bill Dembski commissioned and posted to his website for kids a very silly flash animation mocking Judge Jones and the words of his decision—it uses images of various evolution supporters to trigger Jones to recite criticisms of ID in a high-pitched…

Sometimes one does get a little tired of powerpoint presentations, but the subject matter can help overcome the tedium: here's one on The Evolution of Vampires, Homo sapiens whedonum. It's an interesting exercise in free-running BS, but still, there's some surprisingly accurate general information…

This spam mail came into my mailbox, and I made the mistake of opening it. I know the spammers throw in random blocks of text and mangle the porn keywords to throw off our filters, but this juxtaposition was just plain weird. Fundamentalists believe Jesus was God becoming man. I believe that Jesus…

Is this an evil coincidence, or what? The next Carnival of the Godless falls on Christmas Eve, giving us another opportunity to steal back the holiday. Send your links to those blog articles that show Santa Jesus doesn't exist to the crew at God is for Suckers soon!

This Sternberg character, the creationist at the Smithsonian who has made a career out of his pseudo-martyrdom, has been "vindicated" in a Republican report. Well, he would have been vindicated, if the report hadn't been a thin tissue of lies.

We atheists have been caught in our ongoing devious strategem for destroying Christmas. The NY Times first expresses some surprise that fervent atheists celebrate Christmas, but then the writer begins to catch on. "Presumably your reason for asking me is that "The God Delusion" is an atheistic…

This one is a Carl Buell original. Thanks, Carl!

Somehow, I think I got a shave, too. At least Wilkins looks exactly as he does in real life.

Blame Nic for this…but did you know you can put your face on a dancing elf and make a spectacle of yourself? If you have the guts, click here for the show. Or if you'd rather, watch Nic dance. All the faculty out here at the University of Minnesota Morris are elfin, as you can see. Now we just…

Most books that teach the basics of evolutionary biology are fairly genteel in their treatment of creationism—they don't endorse it, of course, but they either ignore it, or more frequently now, they segregate off a chapter to deal with the major claims. There are also whole books dedicated to…

This is the way to decorate for the season. (via UTI)

One of those things we professors have to struggle with every year is textbook decisions. Your standard science textbook is a strange thing: it's a heavily distilled reference work that often boils all of the flavor out of a discipline in order to maximize the presentation of the essentials. What…

Instead of watching the vote swinging back and forth, why not read these fine carnivals? Or perhaps emit random comments? I and the Bird #38 Carnival of Education #97 Friday Ark #117 The next Tangled Bank will be at Salto Sobrius on Wednesday, 20 December—send your links to Martin…

Over on Uncommon Descent, Sal Cordova quotes Lauren Sandler from her book Righteous, in a self-congratulatory attempt to claim the Dover decision as a victory for ID (oh, my, but aren't they desperate). However, if you look at Cordova's quote, there are…ellipses. Seeing an ellipsis in a creationist…

This will be my last plea for your vote, to the relief of many. My next comment on this subject will be a miserable concession speech glorious in-your-face crow of triumph, after all the votes have been counted and validated. We're behind right now, but I'm sure there will be a last-minute rush to…

Can you bear the beauty? It's another week's worth of random cephalopod imagery.

Now here's a difficult question from a reader: Long time reader, but only very occasional poster here. A friend asked me to recommend some books to read to small children (2 -5 years old) to teach the basics of atheism. His son is getting exposed to a lot of religious training from his wife, and…

Several of us here on scienceblogs have recently discussed the stereotypes of women who read science fiction. Syaffolee puts an interesting twist on it: what about men who read romance novels? She's reporting on an article that says almost a quarter of the readers are men. Nobody seems to be…

What could it be?

Trade your soul for a DVD! All you have to do is post a video of yourself to youtube, stating that you deny the holy spirit, and you'll get a copy of The God Who Wasn't There. Why those magic words? Whoever blasphemes against the holy spirit can never be forgiven. Mark 3:29 More details on The…

(From the Olympus Bioscapes International Digital Imaging Competition)

Pharyngula has fallen behind by almost 200 votes. Wouldn't you know that the phylum of the rats would be up to dirty tricks, though? One of their own has confessed to cheating, and tried to spread the information. Phil, to his credit, has suppressed the recipe, but it tells you all you need to…

Wow. That's got to be a record: a creationist frankenquote that contains an ellipsis spanning seven chapters. And that's only one piece of the bad scholarship Lynch demolishes.

Time to go get a beer at Drinking Liberally, 'cause the Fall semester of 2006 is all over but for the final exams and the grading and the tears. The last of the written work was turned in today, and now it's just grading until my eyeballs evulse. Here is a prime bit of end of term suckage, too: it…

We have more internecine warfare going on at scienceblogs: in this case it's a matter of casual sexism. Should someone be surprised at pretty girls reading science fiction, or even being nerdy? As someone who has been immersed in the nerd culture of the university since the mid-1970s and has also…

Didn't I tell you Casey Luskin would weigh in on the DI's take on Judge Jones' "plagiarism" in his own inimitably bumbling way? What do you know, he did, and he has already been shot down. John West has also floundered in trying to address the issue, and he too has felt Sandefur's fists of fury.…

Someone is voting like mad, and it ain't one of my partisans. The naked dude is passing me by and increasing his lead. Vote for Pharyngula (and remember, you can vote every day!). Unless you really want to read my bitter, whiny concession speech. >P.S. Another neck-and-neck race is shaping up…

OK, this fellow in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin saw a strange-looking deer: it had the stubs of extra legs growing out of 3 of its limbs, and it was an intersex. That's strange enough, and is of developmental interest, and would have me wondering what kind of environmental stresses are perturbing…

I got this from John Wilkins, and it is perfect.