pharyngula

Don't panic, don't go into withdrawal, progress is looking good. Adam Bly sounds enthusiastic about meeting my demands (which is easy, since they don't hurt Seed at all), got in contact with us quickly, and we're going to be having a conference call in the next day or so, whenever a reasonable…

ON STRIKE! It's come to this. We've been facing a steady erosion of talent here at Scienceblogs, with the loss of good people like Carl Zimmer and Ed Yong a while back, and with the very abrupt departure of 15 bloggers after the recent PepsiCo debacle — an event that damaged the reputation of this…

John Dixon is a councillor in Wales who, a year ago, and one day he wrote this on twitter: I didn't know the Scientologists had a church on Tottenham Court Road. Just hurried past in case the stupid rubs off. Oh, deary me. What a blistering attack, what an in-your-face, vicious, horrible, bloody,…

You might want to skip this video. It's Glenn Beck performing in Salt Lake City, when he claims to have macular dystrophy and might go blind — and it's revoltingly mawkish, maudlin, and self-pitying. People are actually swayed by this bathetic BS? Amazing. Next time I give a talk, I'll have to…

There's a devious web site called "I write like…" that is making the rounds — you paste in some of your text, and it claims to analyze it and tell you what famous writer you resemble. I, for instance, am a combination of Margaret Atwood, James Joyce, and HP Lovecraft. How flattering! Unfortunately…

If you're going to Dragon*Con this year, you might want to look into this other event: a Star Party at the Emory University observatory. You'll get to hang out with cool people and learn stuff about the sky, and proceeds will also benefit the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

I've been getting slapped upside the head with this "dick" meme that's roaring through the skeptic community lately, largely because it seems that any time someone makes a generic criticism of rude, abrasive, confrontational critics of foolishness, the audience all thinks of the life-size poster of…

Now Bora has left ScienceBlogs. And all is still quiet from Seed Media Group. A lot of the bloggers here are talking behind the scenes, and I can tell you what it feels like. Bora compares it to Bion's Effect, where the departure of a few people at a party triggers a sudden end to the event. He's…

Christopher Hitchens addresses the latest media meltdown by Mel Gibson. It's great stuff; people are making all these excuses for him, that he's not really a racist, he's not really violent, he's not really a misogynist, he's not really a loathsome wackjob…but Hitchens cuts through it all. This is…

Everyone should read the Washington Post's recent effort in investigative reporting, Top Secret America. It's distressing. Since George W. Bush, we've had this reckless, ridiculous, uncoordinated expansion of intelligence agencies, all sucking up tremendous sums of money, all with little oversight…

Yes. Yes, I must. Phil is bragging about his Bacon number of 3. Well, well, well. My Bacon number is… 2. Everyone, please do the courteous, polite thing and overlook the fact that my connection is via the odious Ben Stein.

Jebus, I hope not. You may continue your previous perpetual parley. (Current totals: 10,663 entries with 1,061,738 comments.)

I posted the Copenhagen Declaration here a while back. Atheist Ireland has done the right thing by taking it as a starting point and producing a simpler, and they hope clearer version. This is exactly what the motley hordes of the godless need to do: don't expect one document to encompass…

I'm sure it was a moment of epiphany. Person in charge of an MRI takes avantage of an idle moment in the parade of patients to have lunch. Pulls a banana out of a brown paper bag. Looks at banana. Looks at MRI. Looks at banana. Looks at MRI. And the rest is history. Give it time to load, and if you…

Maybe somebody from Kansas can say whether this crazy woman has a chance. Joan Farr Heffington is running for governor, and she has a few priorities. Require that a Biblical and Constitutional reason exist for the passage of any new laws Allow teaching of Christianity vs. evolution in schools…

Is anyone going to Comic-Con? You've probably heard that the Phelps gang will be picketing it (IMPORTANT: you know Phelps is a litigious con-man who baits people so he can sue them, right?), so you may have to pick a god to annoy them. Here's a list of appropriate comic book gods and goddesses.…

Once again, the Huffington Post features front page quackery. In this case, it's a ridiculous article that accuses dermatology of being a conspiracy to make doctors rich; you know that stuff about UV damage to the skin inducing melanoma? It's all made up by doctors who are in the pocket of the vast…

I'm on Godless Business with a gang of Australians.

Here is a list, with photos, of 15 sexy scientists. It has a little excuse for some obvious bias in the choices: (Why no men? Because I unavoidably find women more sexy, of course!) Which is forthright and honest and all that…but then I got a look at #15. I'm very disturbed now. I had no idea that…

The most disturbing thing about this video is that, even though it's made by The Thinking Atheist, I can imagine it being shown in a church to the approval of the congregation.

The idea that the Bible should be interpreted as a metaphor is a good one — because it melts the superstition away. The metaphor is a powerful tool: it allows a new idea to be expressed in old and familiar terms as an aid to comprehension, and it also allows the lumbering in of a freight of emotion…

The Metro State Atheists are gearing up for a charity drive, one that couples feeding the poor with promoting freethought. Food for Freethought is a food drive that also encourages freethought, freedom of expression, and free inquiry. We plan to accomplish this by giving "Banned" and Freethought…

I really don't know who this Mabey fellow is — apparently, he's a well-regarded nature writer in the UK — but he's recently enthusiastically mentioned his summer reading plans, and they're freaky. I'll need a long summer break just to finish Jerry Fodor and Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini's dense but…

Last month, I posted about that devastating critique of Monckton and global warming denial from John Abraham. Abraham teaches at St Thomas University, here in lovely Minnesota. Monckton replied in a foaming, frothing lather of noise and evasion. It didn't help his cause. The "response" is "…

Never, ever emulate the stories from Disney cartoons. (via Evolving Thoughts)

I just mentioned that Brother Sam Singleton was going to be at Skepticon 3, and now I learn that his tour manager and enabler Cari has had a serious accident just as they were about to go on tour. If you weren't aware of Brother Sam before, here's a sample: Apparently, atheist evangelist is not a…

Jason Rosenhouse has a short, clear post in which which he briefly exams the polling data to see if New Atheists have harmed the cause of science education, an accusation frequently made. He shows that no, there is absolutely no evidence of such a thing; there may be a trend in the other way, in an…

If you do nothing else. Please take a moment and sign the Petition.http://www.thepetitionsite.com/2/stop...http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/s...Contact information for e-mailing the White house.http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/And the President of Iranhttp://cp.president.ir/en/His e-mail (…

The lineup for SkeptiCon 3 just keeps getting better and better — James Randi and Sam Singleton are going to be there now, too. One other important feature of this meeting: every time I mention one of these posh meetings with the fancy-pants speakers, someone looks at the registration fees and…