pharyngula

When I was visiting Iowa, I learned about the UNIFI blog, and the students told me that they have a weekly series called Blasphemy Friday, sort of like the Friday Cephalopod, only with heresy instead of molluscs. I thought that was brilliant, so I decided to steal their idea (it's OK, atheist, you…

Desiree Jennings was a young woman with some peculiar symptoms: after getting a seasonal flu shot, she was diagnosed with dystonia. Her speech was slurred, she couldn't walk without going into painful-looking spams…except that she was fine when she walked backwards or ran. It was very odd, and the…

There's a serious problem with my post-talk sessions at local bars with attendees: I loosen up and start spilling secrets, and you never know when some sneaky blogger listening in might post them to the Intertubalwebs. NO, people, I will not show you my butt-crack.

That last open thread has been closed. I am deeply offended. People were jibber-jabberin' about sidekicks and crime-fighting duos and no one mentioned The Avengers. I will not tolerate such slack and neglect. Let's begin this one with some appreciation for Diana Rigg as Emma Peel, please.

That sad creationist, Professor Dendy, has been banned from this site, but he still rails against us in prolific obsession from his website. His latest diatribe is irresistible — he claims that atheists can't handle the truth, and you'll be surprised to learn that the "truth" is that Charles Darwin…

Tenure reviews are extremely stressful: imagine a job evaluation in which you may be told that you've been doing a fine job, you're doing interesting work, but you aren't quite as dazzling as your employer would like…so you're fired. And then, because academic jobs in your specialty are scattered…

Would you believe that Answers in Genesis has an iPhone app? Yes, they do, and as you might expect, it's really, really bad. Not bad as in poorly programmed, that looks fine; bad as in now you can get the dishonest trash Ken Ham peddles streamed straight to your phone. The only reason to download…

I'm still digging out from under the pile of neglected email that accumulated during my extended travels. I'm also still dealing with my disrupted physiology from all the zipping and the flying and the carousing and the glaven-hey, so cut me some slack, OK? Anyway, here are a few things that popped…

How very useful: if you've got an iPhone, you can download an app with rebuttals to common denialist arguments. Also, if you enjoy that kind of thing, you will certainly enjoy Tim Lambert's demolition of Monckton in a debate.

It's a bit sad looking, but it really is an 8.2 meter long giant squid preserved in a tank at the Darwin Centre in London, with various other bottled specimens in the background…including some that were collected and labeled by Charlie Darwin himself.

There's another billboard in Minnesota, asking if we're missing a recent American president. No. I look forward to the day he dies, so I can plan a trip to Texas to piss on his grave. I much prefer the alternative billboards, but even they fail to my required standard of measured vitriol for this…

We have a couple of unfortunate events happening. One is the Creation Science Fair. I've been thinking for years that I ought to drop in on this event, and every year it rolls around and I find myself completely unable to do it. I can cope with adults who do stupid things — they are independent and…

It's Charles Darwin's birthday today, I hope you all have plans to celebrate. I think I'm going to just stay home and try to get over my bad case of toomuchtravelitis, and also…CRASH A POLL! Go get 'em, everyone. Do you accept Charles Darwin's theory of evolution? Yes (65%) No (35%)

I'm home again from Iowa, but there was a moment where I just about turned around. Coming up into Minnesota, there is a nice big billboard with the following message on it. I did a double-take and thought about going back around to get a photo of it, but decided it wasn't worth it, as there really…

I'm sorry to inflict this on you, and it's OK if you decide not to torture your brain watching it. This is Kary Mullis, Nobel prize winner for the discovery of PCR, giving a talk. It's long and rambling, and at various points he endorses global warming denialism and HIV denialism, but somehow…

The over-sensitive English libel laws have he effect of suppressing valid and important criticism — sign the petition to have them changed!

I do feel a little embarrassed that the most active comment thread on all of scienceblogs is often the endless open thread on Pharyngula, which is about nothing at all but what you crazy people want to say…and that's in spite of the fact that I keep closing the old thread and opening a new one.…

I have to say that my opinion of Iowa has gone up in my short visit here. Not only have Iowa Democrats beaten back an attempt by Republicans to outlaw gay marriage, but the University of Northern Iowa Freethinkers and Inquirers has organized a whole Darwin week of talks — lots of talks, and all…

In an appalling act of bias, Judge Cherie Blair suspended the sentence of a man convicted of assaulting another and breaking his jaw because the assailant was a "religious man". Apparently just being a member of a particular cult is sufficient to get your criminal penalties reduced by a few years…

It looks just like Minnesota, with less snow. Anyway, I made it to Cedar Falls, and I'll remind the locals that I'm babbling tonight at 7 on the UNI campus. See you there!

This is nicely done — clear and comprehensible. I also very much like the statement that doctors have an obligation to state the truth.

For years, whenever someone asks me about the evolution of religion, I explain that there are two broad categories of explanation: that religion has conferred a selective advantage to people who possessed it, or that it was a byproduct of other cognitive processes that were advantageous. I'm a…

Aren't you all looking forward to spring, when all the plants strive to inseminate your nose? (via National Geographic)

Bored and godless? Want something fun to do? Visit the Phillipines! The Filipino Freethinkers are having a film festival on 27 February. It'll be a whole day of classic atheist documentaries and comedy films. Quick, catch a plane to Australia: the Adelaide Atheists are having a youtube party.…

People keep asking me for books on evolution for their kids, and I have to keep telling them that there is a major gap in the library. We have lots of great books for adults, but most of the books for the younger set reduce evolution to stamp collecting: catalogs of dinosaurs, for instance. I just…

It looks like a lot of people love xkcd.

The Times Online has posted a list of science blogs of various sorts, which I was inclined to endorse since they did include me, and also some blogs I hadn't seen before — I am enchanted by 2d goggles, and want to spend the rest of the day reading the archives — but then I got to the end of the…

It's never going to end — Ben Stein's voice still makes me grind my teeth (oh, wait — Stein's voice did that to me even before he made Expelled). Now here's another parody of his horrible little movie, with a little name check of yours truly in there.

Michael Nugent of Atheist Ireland made a few more videos of me babbling before I left, and has posted them to the website. I'm terrible in them — no fault to Michael, I was just worn out and burned out on the last night of my trip. You can poke fun at me if you want. The interesting thing about…

Grassroots action can do wonderful things. Voters in Don McLeroy's district in Texas are organizing an ad campaign and are looking for contributions to help air radio ads opposing McLeroy's candidacy: as they say, "The ads will target moderate republicans who realize that to compete globally in the…