pharyngula

That Egnor fellow believes that if minds are material, than "all of humanity's notions of moral value and culpability are nonsense"—like most creationists, his arguments collapse into a rather pointless fallacy, the argument from consequences. It's enough for me to just say that if I'm correct,…

Savor a little end-of-the-week reading. Carnival of the Blue Friday Ark #142 Carnival of the Liberals #40 Skeptics' Circle

Wesley has the story, and you can get more details from Toledo TV news story and a Cincinnati Enquirer article — but the silly news is that one of the models for the Creation "Museum's" Adam was a fellow named Eric Linden, who was associated with a site called the Bedroom Acrobat. The "Museum's"…

Answers in Genesis has a new article up whining about their nemesis, the National Center for Science Education. The bad press they've been getting from the science side must be getting to them. The funniest bit is at the end. Did you know that Eugenie Scott was prophesied in the Bible? She must be…

Behe has written a very bad book, so poorly supported that I don't want to waste a lot of time taking apart every sentence, but I did want to say a few words about chapter 9, where he takes on evo-devo. I waited a bit because I knew that Sean Carroll was writing a review of the book for Science,…

The article has nice photos, but is anyone else beginning to feel that the content of the "museum" was thoroughly plumbed on the very first day, and that what's happening now is that we're seeing demonstrations of just how shallow the whole thing is?

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

What if they had a debate about evolution, and didn't bother to invite any scientists? It would be unhinged and divorced from reality, and all the wheels would be spinning wildly, and they could come up with any ol' crazy crap they wanted. This must be why the American Enterprise Institute…

The latest USA Today/Gallup poll probably is valid, unfortunately — it's not far off from my impressions. 44% of Americans think evolution is probably or definitely false, and two thirds think a god created human beings in the last ten thousand years. Those two numbers don't quite fit together well…

I'm rather peeved and disappointed, too. The Discovery Institute Media Complaints Division posts a rebuke of bad bloggers and scientists who are mean to their shills, and there's a link in there to Pharyngula…and I thought for sure it would be whining about something I said. But no. The link is…

No, actually they don't — but they do have some proteins that are essential components of synapses, and it tells us something important about the evolution of the nervous system. A new paper by Sakarya et al. really isn't particularly revolutionary, but it is very interesting, and it does confirm…

How else can I respond to this wretched rant against our beloved cephalopods last night? He claims that "Narrowing the gap between cephalopods and humans can only lead to disaster" and that "Our seafood is training for something big", and he's right—and the only appropriate response is to welcome…

The Panda's Thumb is back online again, in case you've been missing it.

Yuck, I'm reminded that Father's Day is coming up soon, and you are all obligated to find something cheesy to give to Dad (except me, I don't have one anymore, so I'm exempt). Here's a collection of manly suggestions, most of which don't appeal at all to me, but hey, maybe your dad is different.…

Now this is the pinnacle of office domination furnishings. Imagine, a student comes in to complain about his grade, and I push a button: my chair rises up to tower above the trembling supplicant, and stalks across the room bearing the professor, who in a booming voice declares, "You dare? You…

On Edge, Jerry Coyne has a response to Sam Brownback's dissent from evolution. These are excellent questions, and I'd like to see them answered! Senator Brownback, along with his two dissenting colleagues, really should be forced to answer a rather more embarrassing question: who is responsible…

Morgan Smith is six years old and is going to have a birthday party with a pirate theme. His parents hoisted a Jolly Roger up the flagpole, and…boom, some officious titzypritzel goes bustling off to the city council to complain. Down goes the flag. Now there is what a deranged bureaucrat might call…

The various ID blogs are all atwitter over the new textbook the Discovery Institute is going to be peddling, Explore Evolution. I've seen a copy, but I'm not going to give an extensive review just yet. I will say that it's taking a slightly different tack to avoid the court challenges. It does not…

While we're waiting for the Panda's Thumb server to come back up, with some new material on Behe's new book, I'll recommend Blake Stacey's dissection of the malaria mutants. This little fable that Behe summarized about the frequency of chloroquine-resistant mutations in the malaria parasite is the…

This fellow Kaufman sent me a link to this very odd photo. Now my interest is piqued. Does anyone know what this is from?

It's an article titled "I love teaching evolution"…on the Chalcedon foundation page, in column on homeschooling, beneath a quote and a picture of crazy ol' R.J. Rushdooney. Evolution is a topic that repeatedly enters into our curriculum the same way that sin is a topic that gets covered in depth.…

I passed on listening to the Democratic debates, so you can sure as heck bet I skipped the recent Republican debate. Just as well, too; the candidates got pressed on that evolution question again, and wouldn't you know it, it simply triggered an avalanche of idiocy, with Mike Huckabee leading the…

The very freshest, sweetest, neatest Tangled Bank is now online. It's got links! To science! P.S. A few people are worried that the Panda's Thumb seems to be down right now. They're having some server problems, it's nothing to be too concerned about (it is not an external attack), and they're in…

Do you realize that if we could get them to believe this (and you know, they'll believe anything), it would cut the crowding at prime beach recreation sites by half or more?

Octopus vulgaris reacting to a diver (predator). The initial change from camouflaged to conspicuous takes only milliseconds due to direct neural control of the skin. Full expression of the threat display (right) is two seconds. Video frame rate is 30 frames per second. Watch the video clip.…

Do you really have to be a marketing genius to sell sex? This crazy Scot in Australia has hit on a scheme to combine aphrodisiacs: he feeds oysters Viagra. It sounds silly—if you want an erection, take the Viagra directly, without the additional step of having it diluted, filtered, and processed by…

Speaking of unqualified dimwits trying to pass themselves off as competent scientist, take a look at this affidavit Kent Hovind filed in 2005. It's Hovind's history as Hovind himself sees it. In his literature and in his talks, one of the subjects Hovind always brings up as part of his…

Looking for a job? Want to travel, meet people, promote good … uh, "science"? Then here's your chance: the Creation "Museum" is hiring! They really, really want someone with a doctorate in geology to work with them and use their degree to lend them a little credibility (don't worry, it won't help…

Daniel Solove is going to be in big trouble at the next meeting of the secret teacher's cabal: he has revealed our favorite method of grading papers, and documented it with photos, no less.

Jeffrey Shallit explains why. It is rather peculiar, when you get right down to it: isn't it remarkable how just criticizing religion gets people flustered and cowering in a corner? Now look at this otherwise unnoteworthy article by Associate Press religion reporter Rachel Zoll, about the reaction…