pharyngula

What happened last night? Did someone spike the entire North American water supply with hallucinogens? Because for some reason all the kooks went nuts in a short span of time. Many of you probably noticed that David Mabus/Markuze, the Canadian lunatic with the obsession with Nostradamus and James…

There's a new entry in the Urban Dictionary: pz envy. The jealousy expressed by an atheist who's not quite as famous, popular, or controversial as PZ Myers. " Unknown Atheist Blogger felt some serious pz envy when she realized she didn't have enough followers to crash a poll." Bob: Man, I only…

It's a grim subject this week: Atheists Talk radio will be discussing assisted suicide at 9am Sunday morning.

Uh-oh. There is evidence that the damning email might have been faked. The "from" field of the message looks to have been crudely pasted in, and this whole story may be a product of a slighted student's imagination. This is an astonishing example of homophobic bigotry in a nursing college. A…

(via JREF)

First Iowa, and now North Dakota — North Dakota has rejected a bill that would have given "personhood" to every fertilized egg. The senate voted by a large majority, but not unanimity, to squash that very silly bill. OK, Wisconsin and South Dakota — your turn. Do something to impress me tomorrow.

The Vatican is champing at the bit to turn Pope John Paul II into a saint, and central to their case is the story of Jory Aebly. Aebly was a young man who was mugged, shot in the head, and expected to die…but he recovered, fortunately. What's the connection to a dead pope? Well, there isn't much of…

Yesterday, King's stupid poll was all about 'curing' autism. Today, he asks, Do you pray? Yes 54% No 46% Why, no, Larry, I don't…and I think people who do are rather ridiculous, except when they're desperate, in which case they're just sad.

Barack Obama's chief economic advisor, the guy we're all going to have to rely on to pull the economy out of the mess it is in, is Larry Summers. We cannot trust Larry Summers. He's in the pocket of the people responsible for our problems. Among the firms that paid Summers large amounts in speaking…

Youtube has restored the JREF account. I'm going to have to disagree with Randi, though. Responding to a violation by automatically yanking the whole account is not appropriate and civilized behavior, especially when it can be resolved by an amicable communication. How about communicating first,…

James Hrynyshyn is completely missing the point. He has a post up where he tendentiously explains why twitter is evil, as if it should be a surprise. Why is the Pope Catholic? Why is the darkness dark? Why does Microsoft suck? These aren't interesting questions: the point is that they are. I have a…

Television once again throws away its potential with a program featuring a triumvirate of inanity: Larry King lobbing sloppy wet kisses at Jim Carrey and Jenny McCarthy. I might tune in, even — it seems a shame to miss what must be a rare collision of extreme stupidity. They also have a poll. Of…

Discover Magazine is running a contest: make a video that explains evolution in two minutes or less. Can you communicate the most important idea in biology, and one of the most controversial ideas in our society, in a mere 120 seconds? Think you can convince even the most hard-headed creationist…

This recent xkcd should have you all reaching for your calculators. I had to look up the population density in my area…it's 18. Not 18 thousand, just 18. When I plug that number into the formula, I got a value of 4,500 meters, almost 3 miles. The parents of our students will find that a reassuring…

That Iowa. The state south of us: rural farm country, relatively conservative (well, maybe more moderate than conservative), and yet their supreme court has surprisingly made a strong and progressive decision. The Iowa Supreme Court has struck down laws prohibiting gay marriage as unconstitutional…

I mean, really, giant steam-powered robotic octopods rising from the deep to take over the world? How many people fantasize about that? Although, if it were me, I wouldn't be focusing so much on the wicked biped with the gun trying to frustrate the steam-o-pod.

I confess, we residents of the USA sometimes have a bit of an inferiority complex when we compare our citizenry to those of other nations of the world — we look like such a collection of idiots next to places like Iceland and Australia and New Zealand and Germany and England and Canada and etc. (at…

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

An aquarium was having a problem with their coral reef and fish disappearing overnight. It wasn't the cephalopod! They dismantled the reef rock and discovered a 4-foot long polychaete worm. They've given the beast its own tank now. Good thing — I'd pay to go see that.

The James Randi Educational Foundation givew out the Pigasus awards every year, and every single winner for 2008 deserves the high dishonor. Expelled won; so did Jenny McCarthy. It was a great year for woo, I think. Speaking of Jenny McCarthy, she has another honor: the Jenny McCarthy Body Count…

He apparently has a new and stupid habit, and US News and World Report wants to know what we think of it. Well, let 'em know. President Obama is opening many of his public events with prayers from local community leaders. Do you support this new White House tradition? 52.57% Yes 47.43% No (via The…

It's Cthulhu Day today! There's a list of activities you should do today, but I've got my own ideas, and prefer not to tell you what they are, instead leaving you with a sense of inchoate unfolding dread.

A recent court decision went against the Bush administration, and also reveals some of the contemptible influence peddling that went on in that gathering of scoundrels. The subject was birth control, in particular Plan B and other forms of emergency contraception, and as many of you know, the…

Another blog entry tops the 1K mark: I'm closing the God, abortionist thread and opening this one up for any spillover. Clearly, we need faster, more powerful servers to keep up with the chatter going on here. Again, I've lost track of whatever the subject was, so I guess you can talk about…

The history of venoms is a wonderful example of an evolutionary process. We're all familiar with the idea of venomous snakes, but the cool thing is that when we examine exactly what it is they're injecting into their prey, it's a collection of proteins that show a nested hierarchy of descent.…

A retraction: I've talked with Lanny Boswell, and he is most definitely NOT a creationist. I've edited the post below. Candidates are busy running for election to the Lincoln school board in Nebraska right now, and guess what's been found? Creationists! Running for election! A newspaper story…

The Science of Watchmen thread has bloated up abominably, and the topics have wandered far afield. It is now closed, but you can talk about whatever right here, instead.

I may have to think about retiring in 15 years or so, and I may just have to move to New Zealand. The trends are all going in the right direction. There has been a sharp rise in the number of New Zealanders with no religious affiliation, new research shows. In a study by the University, 40 per…

I just have to say that if you're worshipping a scrap of skin from an 800-year-old corpse, there is something wrong with you. Something sick, perverse, and warped.

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops has issued a stern warning (definitely including fingerwagging, with possibility of ruler rapping) against the heathen practice of Reiki. To use Reiki is to operate "in the realm of superstition, the no-man's-land that is neither faith nor science," the bishops…