pharyngula

I just got back from a busy evening at the Glasgow Skeptics meeting; big crowd, lots of fun, a certain creationist will probably be whining about his savage mistreatment soon, I got to meet Charlie Stross, I had Glenlivet delivered to me for the Q&A, I also drank a bottle of Irn Bru (mmmm,…

I, and a number of other people, were sent a link to this goofy picture of Kirk Cameron. I ignored it. Unfortunately, it was followed a little later by the demand below: To whom it may concern: I am Kirk Cameron's manager. I would suggest you remove this picture from your sight with the false…

Or, bashing our heads against a brick wall. (via Skepchick)

Whatever you do, don't listen to the song.

Sadly, today I leave Ireland…but happily, I land in Scotland. I'll be speaking at the Crystal Palace in Glasgow tonight at 7ish. Remember, this is the event that creationists have put out a call to take me to task, so I'm hoping we'll have a diverse crowd of science-minded people to provide…

I wonder if I can get hair extensions to just leap immediately to "wizard".

Since I'm lazy and occupied, I'll just link to Rorshach's account of the last day of the event. I'll just say…Maryam Namazie was awesome. I am so glad she was the last speaker of the weekend, because if she'd gone first, the rest of us would have had to sit quietly and simply refer everyone to her…

Just a reminder… At 8pm GMT (convert to your local time; it's 2pm to those of you in the band from Minnesota to Texas) here at the O'Callaghan Alexander Hotel, Dublin, in a room yet to be determined (check the YouTube info page for location updates), we'll be putting on a little talk show. We'll…

It's the Holotypic Occlupanid Research Group. "Occlupanid", in case you weren't familiar with the lingo, is the taxonomic term for bread ties, those little plastic clips used to close up plastic bread sacks. There is more than you ever wanted to know about bread ties at that link. It's actually…

There were Muslims lurking about here at the Dublin conference, and I spent a few minutes talking to them and grabbing some of their literature. I can tell you this: don't bother. They were boring and utterly unoriginal — everything they said was the same old crap, patently cribbed from the…

Manal al-Sharif has been arrested for the crime of driving a car in Saudi Arabia while having a vagina. Sign the petition, watch the video, talk about it. (Last edition of TET; Current totals: 12,492 entries with 1,393,155 comments.)

Here's his latest. Also remember, Aron Ra, DPR Jones, Lone Frank, and I will be on the Magic Sandwich Show tomorrow at 8pm GMT, live from Dublin. Tune in!

The Dublin conference, with quotes from yours truly, appears in the Christian Science Monitor. I might appear on BBC1 tomorrow morning. I was interviewed, but I was introduced to the interviewer by Rebecca Watson as the truly most ferocious atheist around, and while I tried to sound terrifying and…

I've been hanging out with AronRa and DPR Jones, and it looks like I might be drafted to appear on The Magic Sandwich Show on Sunday, at 8pm GMT. Tune in! That's the conference venue here in Dublin, appearing briefly in the video.

I've been bad. I've been busy. I'm at this conference, and the combination of bad wifi (I can't get connected in my room at all) and constant distractions means I haven't been keeping you updated here. Fortunately, Rorschach is here and has been blogging away while I can't, so I can just cheat and…

The first panel (DPR Jones, Lone Frank, Richard Dawkins) at the Wotld Atheist Convention has got us off to a roaring good start. Lots of interesting discussion and disagreement within the panel and the audience, good questions, not too many audience manifestos. There is a delegation of Muslims…

They have an official wish list. it's mostly "drill, baby, drill" and other heedless, short-term indulgences and catastrophes, but it also openly advocates ignoring science. In California's dry central valley, ensure that no federal scientific report ... requiring water for endangered fish be…

Greetings! This is MG Myers. PZ is safely landed in Dublin, but he's going to be busy and jet-lagged for a while. Pharyngula is known for its vibrant community of commenters, and April was no exception. The numerous nominations have been tabulated and the winners are <drum roll> Dhorvath…

(via National Geographic)

I write in my sleep. You see, the way it works is that if I have something on my mind when I go to bed, my brain will churn over it all night long, and because of the way my head works, it will spontaneously generate a narrative. I do that in all of my dreams — I float aloof from the events,…

It's nicely done. The difference is that this one is a parable about sausages.

Recently, Rand Paul and Sean Hannity got together to talk seriously about politics. Stop laughing! They said they did, anyway. Paul tossed out a pleasant little comment about how he would run the country. I'm not for profiling people on the color of their skin, or on their religion, but I would…

I was sent a link to Bund Katholischer Ärzte (the Federation of Catholic Doctors), which, if you can get past the goofy name that already promises much hilarity, has an interesting agenda. They are against homosexuality. It causes "suffering" and should be treated. But their treatments are…

Donations are closed. Here are the final numbers: Team Awful: $13,550.06 Lord PZ, Unique and Majestic: $12,996.01 Matched amounts: Team Awful: $1,868.73 Lord PZ, Diabolically Alone: $1,620.00 Total Match: $3,488.73 Team Totals (with matches included): Team Awful: $15,418.79 Lord PZ, Cunning and…

This is a video of Ayn Rand on a talk show in, I think, the 1970s. Don't run away yet! The interesting part isn't Ayn Rand, who merely says the same thing all we atheists say nowadays, but the audience and also the host: they seem horrified that someone has so boldly stated that they don't believe…

The competition between myself and the eleventeen dwarfs to raise money for Camp Quest isn't over yet: somehow, the chipin widget gives us until 2:00 (what time zone? I don't know) this afternoon to get donations in. To complicate matters further, the Todd Stiefel Freethought Foundation has just…

Wait, you mean that's not the message I should take from this product? I'm tempted to get one and hang it outside my office door, just to poke at all the mathematicians with offices on my hallway. But then, I can afford to use it ironically. I haven't spent a lifetime having my abilities dismissed…

Man, what is it with Christians? Another one goes after me in an article titled Why P.Z. Meyer is Afraid, and a fellow just has to wonder how deeply they are capable of reading when they so grossly misspell my name all the time. "Myers": it's only five letters long, and it's the most common…

The World Health Organization had a recent meeting in which the feeble data suggesting a possible link between cell phones was reworked and massaged, and have now come up with a press release in which they announce that maybe possibly cell phones could increase the frequencies of certain kinds of…

I've heard the "waily waily o waily" cries from the mob after the Endless Thread took a brief vacation. Well, too bad, TET had a wonderful time napping on the barren coral sands of Pukasavilivili, but now it's back and is slogging in to work. Don't listen carefully to the lyrics, or you may learn…