pharyngula

Twelve year old Motl Brody has died. A tumor destroyed his brain, and the consequences are unambiguous. Unlike Terri Schiavo or Karen Ann Quinlan, who became the subjects of right-to-die battles when they suffered brain damage and became unconscious, Motl's condition has deteriorated beyond a…

No way am I going to get sucked into this little physics-based game, Assembler. I know a black hole of time when I see one.

Darksyde has an interesting post up about the future of NASA. We've got a new president coming who has promised change — let's see if one of the changes he will make is to kick the space program out of its rut. I don't know if he can promise more money to every science program we've got, but he…

It's tomorrow! Send those links to me pronto, so they can appear on A Candid World on Wednesday!

How can I resist when they name it THE GOD POLL? There are several questions there: Does god exist (currently tied between yes and no)? Is there life after death (roughly tied, with yes in a slight lead)? Do humans have souls (yes is leading, 50%:34%)? Can an atheist be ethical (Yes is way ahead,…

Don't do this. Don't steal crackers. During mass at around 9 AM, Ricci accepted a wafer on the Communion line, but "walked away without taking the communion into his mouth." After refusing a priest's requests to "accept" the wafer, If he'd just stopped there, all would be well, but then he did…

One of the oldest canards in the creationists' book is the claim that evolution must be false because it violates the second law of thermodynamics, or the principle that, as they put it, everything must go from order to disorder. One of the more persistent perpetrators of this kind of sloppy…

It's another example of weird fundie obsessions. In this case, it's all about an angry god who sends hurricanes and is appeased by prayer, and just what do you think he's angry about? We haven't been hardline enough about Israel.

Here's a fun account of a four-way debate on Intelligent Design in Fort Worth, Texas. Actually, it sounds like it was more of a two-way, with Lawrence Krauss, who is very, very good, speaking on the side of science, against David Berlinski, who is very, very supercilious (that word always comes up…

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as they insist on being called, has earned another reason to be regarded with a sneer of contempt: they sent a letter to all of their churches in California urging their adherents to vote for Proposition 8. It's bizarre that a religion known for…

Dinochick says that one of our own is up for a blogging scholarship: Brian Switek of Laelaps. All you need to do to pick a winner is … vote in an online poll. Ironic, I know.

This morning at 9am Central, tune in to Atheists Talk radio for a discussion of atheists in the military — it turns out there are atheists in foxholes.

Alright, I'm juggling way too many things here, but I've got to make a promise about where I'll be tonight. After the talk at GMU, I'm going to try and get into the AU event at the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill and spend some time with the good people there, and then I'm going to tear myself away…

She'll be back: watch this mob of blinkered Republicans gush over Sarah Palin, especially Pat Buchanan, who makes up 'facts' as he goes along. The Republicans are accused of being a party that celebrates ignorance, Buchanan is asked if he accepts evolution, and he blithely confirms the accusation…

I'm here at the Hyatt Regency in Washington DC, and I've received a lot of questions about my plans and availability. Here's the deal: I'm here for an AU meeting, and that's my first priority; then I'm giving a talk at GMU Saturday evening. I may have to depart from the traditional post-seminar…

I just got some email that surprised me. It was from Kate Fisher, the marketing director of KKMS radio, a Christian talk radio station I've dealt with before. They had a request. I am with AM980 KKMS, a Christian Teaching & Talk radio station in the Twin Cities. We would like to do a creation…

It's cute: this exercise in molecular visualization has been all dolled up with anthropomorphized atoms to sneak it into kids' attention spans. I can't be entirely dismissive, though. There's some cool stuff lurking in the backgrounds of these scenes, it's just unfortunate that the goofy cartoon…

So far, rumors of the first two appointments by Obama leave me worried. Rahm? No, please — after campaigning on a slogan of "change", buying into one of the most deeply imbedded beltway insiders is not encouraging. Maybe there's some virtue in working with the Democratic establishment, so I can…

Slate has an article by Paul Bloom on why religious people are nice and atheists are mean. As you might guess, I have some difficulty with the premise of the article — in my experience, atheists have been far friendlier, while the religious have been downright vicious — but it does make some…

I was interviewed by humanistischer pressedienst about the New Atheism and American politics and religion. I am amazingly erudite auf Deutsch, so much so that I can only read what I said with considerable effort. OK, I confess—the interview was in English, and it's the fluency of the interviewer…

Here's a graphic illustration of how the presidential election turned out. These are the results by county, with color reflecting the percentage that voted Republican (red) and Democrat (blue). Here's what it looks like when the counties are scaled by population size; the smear of reds is greatly…

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

Yikes, this is an image to spark nightmares. Remember the little fly squeaking, "help me, help me" at the end of the horror movie, The Fly (the original, not the remake)? And it's Palin! I just have to reassure myself…this time, the flies wrested the swatter out of her hands, and shooed her back…

PBS has an article on poll crashing, which interviews yours truly and Greg Laden about our curious penchant for sending mobs out to vote on silly online polls. They also interview some of the recipients of the floods…and no one seems to mind.

I just looked up all bleary-eyed from staring at papers all day to notice that we suddenly have an inch or so of snow piled up on the ground. I was wondering why my wife was so late getting home from work — she's probably creeping along on slushy roads trying to make it home safely. And—oh, no—I…

All violence in this video is intended entirely metaphorically.

Imagine yourself in this situation. A young girl is accused of a heinous crime — use your imagination here, too, and think of the most horrible thing a person can do — and she is trapped in front of you, helpless. You have a rock in your hands. People around you are urging you to kill her; they say…

It isn't at all unusual for the authors of scientific papers to leave a comment at a blog discussing their work — it's happened here quite a few times, and it's a good thing. It's a plus when they confirm what you've said or add more information to the discussion, and it's also wonderful when they…

Besides spending some time with the good people of Americans United, I'll be giving a talk at George Mason University at 7pm on Saturday night. Here's the flyer: If you can't quite read that tiny print, the information is also online at the Beltway Atheists Meetup Group and on Facebook. Say, does…

I don't know that I should be encouraging the troop at Dr. Joan Bushwell's Chimpanzee Refuge to compete with me, but OK, it's a poll, anyone can join in. This one asks, Do you agree with the gay marriage bans?. It does have an interesting twist, in that the poll also displays the states of…