pharyngula

Official number of attempts to address my challenge of the science in Coulter's book: 0 I seem to have drawn in one Coulter fan in the comments who can't shut up, but he hasn't got the guts to stand up for anything specific that she has said.

This new strange question is sweeping the scienceblogs: "what kind of scientist is Batman?" The answer is obvious. He's a fictional scientist. He's a member of a long and distinguished lineage, from Tom Swift to Grissom of CSI, of imaginary scientists written by people who don't know any science,…

The Independent Online Edition >Independent makes a tantalizing announcement: The world's scientific community united yesterday to launch one of the strongest attacks yet on creationism, warning that the origins of life were being "concealed, denied or confused". The national science academies…

While I was out playing all day yesterday, a new Tangled Bank appeared at Centrerion. I'm so late in my announcement that you've probably all read it already, but if you haven't, there's much science writing to occupy you for a while.

You may have noticed it was a bit quiet here on Pharyngula yesterday. I took the day off. My daughter Skatje has been away for a few weeks, visiting her sweetie-pie in Kentucky, and we had to make the long drive to the airport and back, so we decided to make a day of it in the big city as long as…

PvM at the Panda's Thumb has already written a bit about this issue in the article "Human Gland Probably Evolved From Gills", but I'm not going to let the fact that I'm late to the party stop me from having fun with it. This is just such a darned pretty story that reveals how deeply vertebrate…

Cephalopods can inflict a nasty bite. On their underside, at the conjunction of their arms, they have a structure called the beak which does look rather like a bird's beak, and which can close with enough force to crush shellfish. Many also dribble toxins into the wound that can cause pain, tissue…

Mike Argento wields a mighty mean power-lifter himself.

Hank Fox reports that a pair of administrators who wasted the school's time and money on Intelligent Design creationism are losing their jobs: The Wilkes-Barre, Penn., Times-Leader reports that the Dover school board has "decided not to guarantee contract renewals for two top administrators who…

DaveScot is one of those genuinely deranged ID supporters, and I don't like giving him any attention…but Richard Hughes just sent me a note mentioning this long defensive thread he has started at UncommonDescent, and he's just done something so darned funny and stupid I can't resist. He's arguing…

A strange thing, after I clarified my Coulter challenge and requested that her fans get specific and tell me what they supported and why in her book…the e-mail from them all dried up. Pffft. Gone. Maybe they just got bored with me, but it's sad that no one has even tried to suggest a single good…

I need some suggestions, so I'm asking for a little tactical brainstorming in the comments. This afternoon, August Berkshire mentioned that there would be an Intelligent Design advocate on KKMS Christian talk radio in the Twin Cities, and that they'd be interviewing a Dr. Don Bierle. I'd never…

I'm feeling a bit peevish about the Democrats right now. I got some email from people promoting Gary Hart, mentioning that he is berating congressional Democrats for failing to stand up against the administration. There is integrity, there is conviction, and there is courage. History's jury will…

The Rude Pundit makes a rude point here: two American soldiers have been captured by the bad guys in Iraq. I can, in good conscience, sit here and hope that they are treated in a civilized fashion by their captors, and are eventually released unharmed; this will, of course, make American treatment…

A reader sent me a link to this highly entertaining debate between Alan Keyes and Alan Dershowitz on religion. You can download the mp3 and have the two Alans shouting at each other on the stereo while you fix your bowl of oatmeal in the morning, like I did. I think Dershowitz kicked butt—if…

According to Boingboing, this is a sign warning people of peril. Why do I feel that this is a sign beckoning me to rush on and jump in the water?

They've elected a new presiding bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori. You have to look at her biography to see why I'm even mentioning a new religious leader: As a scientist and an Episcopalian, I cherish the prayer that follows a baptism, that the newly baptized may receive "the gift of joy and…

I have a DVD of The Horror Express, starring Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, and Telly Savalas. There's a short clip of a conversation I'd like to extract as an mpeg or quicktime movie—even extracting just the audio would be nice. It's a classic. Christopher Lee is explaining his discovery of an…

(click for the full cartoons)

I succumbed to the tempting link Corrente waved around, and clicked through to see Connie Chung's farewell to some cable show I never heard of before. I suffered horribly, so it's only fair that you share my pain.

Responses to my challenge at the end of this article are trickling in, but so far, none of them are filling the bill. Let me explain what is not an appropriate reply: Cackling that Coulter must be right because she's got "liberal panties in a twist" is not cogent. Telling me that the "WHOLE BOOK…

That's what it all boils down to, isn't it? People are afraid of reason, because they know it erodes faith—better to foster ignorance than risk encouraging people to think. Brian Flemming, of The God Who Wasn't There, links to an interesting account of what happened when an 'open-minded' church…

This is the very last time I'll be haranguing you about the scienceblogs fundraiser for schools—I've reached my goal of $2000 and doubled it! Reaching that goal was not enough to fund all of the projects, though, and there are four remaining that could use additional donations. How can you resist…

The very first edition of Mendel's Garden, a genetics carnival, is now up at The force that through…. While I'm at it, let me remind everyone that a new Tangled Bank will be appearing at Centrerion on Wednesday—now is the time to send entries to me or host@tangledbank.net.

One more thing about the odious Coulter…Amanda takes note of the bigotry lurking under her schtick in the way she uses "Jew" like it was a dirty word. But look at her book: her weird attitude is right there in the title, Godless. I really thought nothing of it except, well, she's at least…

There are some great lines in Coulter's Godless—great lines in the sense that you can scarcely believe someone was so stupid that they'd say them. Here's one for the ladies and the life scientists here at scienceblogs. Their grandiose self-conceptions to the contrary, the cult [the "evolution cult…

I've now read all of the science-related (that's applying the term "related" very generously) stuff in Ann Coulter's awful, ghastly, ignorant book, Godless, and it's a bit overwhelming. This far right-wing political pundit with no knowledge of science at all has written a lengthy tract that is wall…

Here's this week's "Ask a scienceblogger" question: How is it that all the PIs (Tara, PZ, Orac et al.), various grad students, post-docs, etc. find time to fulfill their primary objectives (day jobs) and blog so prolifically? I don't know if you can handle the truth, but here it is… Caffeine. Lots…

Here's this week's "Ask a scienceblogger" question: How is it that all the PIs (Tara, PZ, Orac et al.), various grad students, post-docs, etc. find time to fulfill their primary objectives (day jobs) and blog so prolifically? I don't know if you can handle the truth, but here it is… Blogging is…

Here's this week's "Ask a scienceblogger" question: How is it that all the PIs (Tara, PZ, Orac et al.), various grad students, post-docs, etc. find time to fulfill their primary objectives (day jobs) and blog so prolifically? I don't know if you can handle the truth, but here it is… It's easy to…