pharyngula

I'm sorry to say that on our last trip to New York, we missed this museum. Peruse an 1814 sketchbook by the Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai and eventually you'll come across a bashful, wide-eyed octopus. You'd never guess that the innocent creature leads a secret life of debauchery. But a few…

Don't let the first paragraph stop you—it's awful. Once the reporter gets out of the way and lets Shermer get going, though, it's a good interview. Here's the bad part of the opening: Some of Shermer's ivory towerish science pals, like Richard Dawkins and the late Stephen Jay Gould, told him not…

Since several have asked me to post these strange emails prompted by the WingNut Daily article, here's a couple of the cleaner, more coherent ones. Batboy satanistI believe that you are a satanist.Pukehead.W.M. It is a shame that such a learned individual can be so afraid of opposing viewpoints.…

Corruption and wingnut Christianity seem to go hand in hand. Case in point: Vox Day, misogynist Christian freak, is the son of Robert Beale, Minnesota millionaire, founder of both a computer products company and the Minnesota Christian Coalition. The elder Beale is on the lam from The Man for tax…

The Anti-Defamation League has condemned Kennedy and Darwin's Deadly Legacy, and Francis Collins has announced that he is "appalled," calling the program "misguided and inflammatory." Whew. It looks like this bit of propaganda has blown up in their faces. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today…

I'm hearing lots about this CHE story that documents an omitted category in a list of subjects eligible for a class of grants…and the omission conveniently knocks out evolutionary biology. I'm suspicious, and everyone is suspicious, and for good reason—this is an administration that elevates…

Troutnut has put up a beautiful page of Aquatic Insects of American Trout Streams. It's all about using insects to catch fish, but it's still an excellent example of how outdoor sportsmen (and in this case, soon-to-be grad student) can put together scientifically interesting information, too. If…

…here's a beaut: (via Shelley)

Forbes has an article on billionaires who oppose the stem cell ban (free reg required): the subtitle is "Billionaire cash has kept embryonic stem-cell research alive—just barely," which really says it all. It discusses the extremely generous gifts private donors (and also some state funding by…

I've been linked to by WorldNetDaily. Hoo-weee, you should see the sewage in my mailbox now.

Everyone go say hello to Thoughts from Kansas and The Scientific Indian, two new provinces in the vast and expanding Scienceblogs Empire. Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated.

So this is what that phrase means: S. Daniel Morgan tells me that you can get an Albert Einstein action figure, but I haven't been able to find a comparable Charles Darwin action figure. This just isn't right. I did discover that SciAm pointed out this deficiency long ago. I checked Archie McPhee…

People, people, people. There is far too much attention being paid to a pair of obnoxious trolls in the comments. Ignore them. Do not call them out. Do not pester them with questions. Just let 'em rot. I'm going to have to start disemvoweling the stuff from Bres Mac Elatha/Robert O'Brien and Jason…

Please, say it ain't so. We've just put up the pirate flag on our house.

The June/July issue of Creation Matters, the house organ of the Creation Research Society, has an article about…ME. Guess what? They don't like me. Not one bit. I'm so crushed that I'm going to post the entire article below the fold, and I think I may have to have a party tonight. It's always such…

While I'm sure it's personally difficult for Mary Lambert, this is a good sign: a fundamentalist, literalist church is getting fundamentalist and literal on its congregation. The First Baptist Church dismissed Mary Lambert on August 9 with a letter explaining that the church had adopted an…

Orac has another tale of the Hitler Zombie—the unstoppable corpse has met Coulter, Weikert, Kennedy, Behe, Johnson, Strobel, and Taylor and eaten their BRAAAAAAAAINS. Sad to say, that was an awfully thin diet—kinda like getting served California cuisine, a few sprigs of something weedy artfully…

Newsweek has a short article on military atheists and the discrimination they face. "There are no atheists in foxholes," the old saw goes. The line, attributed to a WWII chaplain, has since been uttered countless times by grunts, chaplains and news anchors. But an increasingly vocal group of…

Over at the Raving Atheist's forum, contributors have compiled a list of 50 evolution myths. It's actually at 51 right now—I could have told them there are a lot more than 50—but it's entertaining. Now they just have to get cracking on 51 rebuttals to the myths. A lot of them are in the Index to…

If you were appalled at the cavalier cops, here's another story to make you sneer with disgust. Jaquandor reports on a couple of kids who pulled a stupid prank that nearly killed a couple of teenagers (one had a broken neck and brain damage, and has been through 10 surgeries), and the judge gave…

These things are just sneaking up on me today: the Synapse #5 is out. Are there any more carnivals lurking out there today?

These are policemen who do not understand their obligations as officers of the law. These are policemen who ought to be summarily dismissed from their jobs. They won't be. (via The Lippard Blog)

Thousands of people heard that the sea water at a beach had turned sweet, and they swarmed the shore to bottle it and drink it. One catch: But this is not a healthy place. The sandy beach marks the point at which the Mithi River, an unofficial dump for the untreated sewage and industrial waste of…

David Neiwert took a vacation…and his home movie is worth watching and listening to.

You can get a jump on the class—I've posted a list of the textbooks you'll need on the class website.

A reader wrote to Francis Collins about the use of his name to promote D. James Kennedy's upcoming ahistorical anti-evolution program, and Collins wrote right back. He's doing exactly the right thing. (Oops, no — Collins doesn't want to be quoted on this, so I've removed the email. He's unambiguous…

But when you do shed your speedo, don't throw it in the water—it's bad for dolphins and other living things. Read about the poor dolphin who tried to wear a speedo—it took an emergency depantsing team to rescue him. (via One Good Thing)

The Inoculated Mind twists a Calvin and Hobbes comic to make a point about debates with creationists…I don't know if I should endorse that kind of tinkering with Holy Writ. Oh, and while you're over there, Karl is also hosting Mendel's Garden #4.

Oh, yeah...this Friday, 25 August, at 8ET, I'll be interviewed on the Infidel Guy. Don't let me forget!