pharyngula

This is a familiar creationist argument, stated in this case by a non-creationist: Consider the replacement processes needed in order to change each of the resident genes at L loci in a more primitive genome into those of a more favorable, or advanced, gene. Suppose that at each such gene locus,…

Last week, the CNN Belief blog published some transparently inane pseudoscience from Oprah.com; this week, it's publishing some awesomely trivial tripe about where your dog goes after death (how does the author know they go to heaven? He dug up some Bible verses, of course.) This is amazingly bad…

You've probably been wondering. Who in their right mind would declare war on a family holiday? Who would be crazy enough to think such a thing was actually happening? You might have the impression that it's all a delusion erupting from the fevered brain of blowhard Bill O'Reilly, but it goes deeper…

This is really well done: Darryl Cunningham explains global warming with simple, clear illustrations and explanations. I want to steal it all, put it in a pdf, and print out a few hundred copies to hand out to the deniers.

I find myself wrestling with the meaning in this story of an epic struggle of worldviews. A dispute over the existence of God between four Russians drunk on a litre of pure alcohol resulted in the death of two of the drinking buddies, news agencies reported on Monday. The disagreement began at…

Yarr, ye scurvy dogs sailin' on the Flying Dutchman thread — it's the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie, On Stranger Tides. Hang on there, though : On Stranger Tides is a fantastic novel by Tim Powers, my favoritest pirate/zombie story of all time. What abominations will Disney be performing to…

Gaskell is an astronomer who applied for a job at the University of Kentucky, and didn't get it. This is not news. The great majority of the people who apply for jobs in the sciences don't get them, even if they are well qualified — the rejected candidates know just to pick up and move on to the…

And look at this holiday cake: What makes it look even more delicious is the thought that Bill Donohue would find it sacrilegious and in violation of his traditional American Christian iconography.

At least the Mafia doesn't tolerate baby-rapers in its ranks. Otherwise, though, they're both shady organizations with very tightly closed ranks and a sense of privilege. It seems the Vatican is also suspected of criminal enterprises — it has its very own private, secretive bank that is accused of…

You just can't shut this crank up. You may recall that he earlier published a paper in an Elsevier journal claiming that all of genetics is wrong, oh, and by the way, the Quran and Bible are right because chromosomes look like ribs. He has a new paper out (only it's actually the same old word salad…

Mexican Maned Wolf, from the Endangered Wolf Center

A few years ago, it was the I-35 bridge that collapsed (during rush hour!); this year, we get the spectacle of the domed athletic stadium in Minneapolis, the Metrodome, collapsing under the weight of our recent snowstorm. Maybe we need to start building stuff stronger.

Blasphemy laws have some novel consequences. Take the case of this devout fellow who uses his name as a legal weapon. Pakistani authorities have arrested a doctor on suspicion of violating the country's contentious blasphemy law by throwing away a business card of a man who shared the name of Islam…

It's escalating. Now it's not just defending Jesus, it's about…well, you'd be surprised. The West Village YMCA in NY is replacing Santa Claus with Frosty the Snowman. Guess who's mad about that now? Bill Donohue: "Christmas is not about Jack Frost; it's not about snowmen," fumed Bill Donohue of the…

This is awesome news. Biologists have figured out how to enable two male mice to have babies together, with no genetic contribution from a female mouse. I, for one, look forward to our future gay rodent overlords. It was a clever piece of work. Getting progeny from two male parents has a couple of…

You're all writing, writing, writing in the very long thread… but can you rap while you write? (Current totals: 11,497 entries with 1,210,370 comments.)

This time, it's the Vatican. Wikileaks has released documents related to the Irish priest scandals. Pope Benedict refused to allow Vatican officials to testify in an investigation by an Irish commission into alleged child sex abuse by priests, according to U.S. diplomatic cables released by…

His father, John Dawkins, has died at the age of 95. He led an interesting life! There's a better link here, with pictures.

Funny business, this. Professor John McLachlan corresponded with the organizers of an international conference on integrative medicine, proposing some very peculiar ideas that he wanted to present. They were…intrigued. They asked him to flesh out his concepts in a formal abstract so that they could…

Magnapinna atlantica

The fellow who leaked all those classified documents to Wikileaks, Bradley Manning, is getting badmouthed by the residents of his hometown, who are now recollecting all the signals of his future perfidy. Apparently, he was godless, refused to recite the pledge of allegiance, and used big words. Uh-…

Time for another stream-of-consciousness response to yet another slimy Christian. Interesting blog But I beg for just a few moments of your time. You are obviously an intelligent individual, considering you're a prof and all [Flattery alert: diverting warp power to shields. I can guess how this…

OK, I bow to popular opinion: almost 100 people have sent me a link to this story about a prosthetic tentacle. It's a brilliant idea, but I don't know anyone who has lost a limb who would suggest that their prosthesis is even an adequate alternative. It's a little insensitive to swoon over one,…

It's got to be rough. On the one hand, you've got monsters like Tucker Max or Joe Francis (the Girls Gone Wild guy) hitting on you hard, expecting you to respond with instinctive lordosis so they can grapple you in amplexus; and on the other hand you've got the Nice Guys, who think that buttering…

I'm really liking these CreatureCast videos Casey Dunn's students put together — and there are two new ones, on moray eels and stomatopods. That's communicating science! Also, Dunn has a new book, Practical Computing for Biologists, also available on Amazon right now. I'm going to have to get a…

So you filled up another bucket in the endless thread…I really should get that leak fixed someday. Meanwhile, here's a little something from the Institute on the Environment at the UM. (Current totals: 11,487 entries with 1,207,883 comments.)

I can't understand a word that's written in this article, but I like the cartoon. Somebody should make a similar one for moderate Christians…they can tut-tut over murdered abortion doctors, they can make excuses for pedophile priests, they can go in a voting booth and pull the lever against gay…

I used to always give my spare change to the Salvation Army at this time of year — there they were, ringing their bell outside the grocery store, so sure, I'd give a little. That changed when I learned about their anti-gay policies, though…and now there's another reason to spurn the Salvation Army…

You want an atheist Christmas carol? Here it is. I still remember the shock when I heard the news on 8 December 1980.