pharyngula

Lately, we've had a number of threads blow up into furious arguments, which is fine and normal, except that they've also been fueled by contributions from an assortment of new (Yay! We like new people!) noisemakers who don't seem to respond well to argument themselves (Boo!), and there's been a…

For a long time, TruthMachine has been the only person to have both been awarded a Molly and also been threatened with banning. Now he has to share that distinction with Walton, who has won the Molly for September. Now pick one for October by leaving nominations in the comments. Don't get all…

But you can't afford the expensive registration and travel costs? Here's the deal for you: a workshop without walls that you attend and participate in over the internet. The subject of this one is Molecular Paleontology and Resurrection: Rewinding the Tape of Life, a discussion of origins of life…

We seem to be infested with nasty little conservative know-nothings lately, so here's some rodent repellent that the usual denizens of the long-suffering thread will find mostly unobjectionable. George Takei calls out a nobody named McCance. I'm seriously tempted to echo some of the hateful…

Jen McCreight has published a solid response to the clueless anti-atheist article in Ms magazine…and it's in Ms magazine. It's good stuff, too, with a list of all the godless women the original article ought to have consulted.

The New Humanist is handing out an award for the most egregious contributions to irrationalism and superstition, the Bad Faith awards, and you can vote! This is going to be a tough one, because every one of the nominees deserves an acknowledgment of their inanity. It does have a bit of an English…

You've got one more day to vote for Christie Wilcox to win a $10,000 scholarship. Get in there!

You can't blame diverse religious groups for the presence of pedophiles and abusers. Pick any profession, teachers, doctors, scientists, dentists, whatever, and you'll find that there are some low number of criminals and psychopaths in their midst. But religion is somewhat unusual in that this…

That's not the Insane Clown Posse…it's Ray Comfort again, screwing up once more. First, he complains about Richard Feynman (I know! Comfort vs. Feynman sounds a bit like Bambi vs. Godzilla), because he didn't give a simple answer to the question about how magnets repel and attract, but actually…

Suddenly, it resonates with me. I've also been sent these images of spectacular wall art. I want one. Somehow, though, I doubt that I'll be able to convince the TrophyWife™ that it's worth $950.

Lauren Rose went to vote yesterday, wearing a t-shirt that read "liberal anti-theist". Her polling place was in a church (as is mine, as are a great many polling places across the country), and the poll-workers tried to get her to cover up, and when she refused, started loudly praying for her. All…

I've run into this particular phenomenon many times: the True Believer in some musty ancient mythology tells me that his superstition is true, because it accurately described some relatively modern discovery in science long before secular scientists worked it out. It's always some appallingly…

The election last night wasn't as bad as it could have been — the teabaggers who'd received much ridicule, Angle and O'Donnell and probably Miller, were defeated (there's a lesson there, I think) — but sanity did not win out, and the Republicans have taken over the US House, and here in Minnesota,…

By request, this open thread is dedicated exclusively to non-political topics. Let's have a race between this one and the political thread and see which can gather the most comments overnight! The loser thread will be closed tomorrow morning.

We shall be gnashing our teeth soon enough, so I'm opening a new instance of the constant thread dedicated to all your grousing about the elections. I already did my part and voted a straight Democratic slate, growling at every Rethuglican candidate on the ballot. Too bad that I know exactly how…

It's election day here in the US, but far be it for me to tell you how to vote. I'll let HP do it for me. As for the Republicans — how can one regard seriously a frightened, greedy, nostalgic huddle of tradesmen and lucky idlers who shut their eyes to history and science, steel their emotions…

I had no idea. The poor bigot wrote that nasty anti-gay screed that I criticized, and the Examiner decided that his plagiarizing hateful ways were not exactly what they wanted to promote. He has complained on his blog about how Christians are a persecuted minority, starring Daniel Spratlin as…

My developmental class is still plugging away with some new entries. Hannah writes about fetal alcohol syndrome and mosquito speciation. Lisa writes about leopard camouflage and gene mapping. Logan writes about hierarchical development in parasitic wasps and bicoid in flies. Kele is still…

I know Tim Minchin wants to tour the US, maybe this summer, but his agents weren't exactly frantically lining up the gigs for him just yet. Now you can light a fire under their butts and tell Tim Minchin where he should play. Vote for your home town! Vote for the nearest place with a giant arena! I…

The Ms magazine blog has an awful little article on the New Atheists that completely misses the point. It's about the sexes and atheism, of course, but it has little to say except to whine that the New Atheism is just like the old religion, and gosh, look at all those Old White Guys in the fore.…

We have a bit more than a week to go on our fund raising drive for DonorsChoose, which puts money directly into the hands of teachers who need it, and the pace of donations is slowing way down. Are you tapped out? Do I need to go all NPR and beg for money in every other post? I've been so…

When the animal is a squid, of course, which are beautiful even in death. Here's the dance of dying chromatophores: (via Arthropoda)

It's a serious question. You'd think a crude thug who thinks assassination is the way to solve the world's problems would not be gainfully employed as a columnist anywhere, but no—he's still pumping out the stupid schlock. I'd like to ask a simple question: Why isn't Julian Assange dead? So again…

If you haven't voted for Christie Wilcox yet, get on over there and help! She's got the lead, but it's slipping right now. Think of it as practice for tomorrow, when all you Americans will get out and vote for the good guys. Right? Right? Or at least the not-so-evil guys. We're just trying to keep…

This is a sad trend. Mary picks these out, you know, and lately there's been a notable lack of chelicerae, chitin, slime, and compound eyes in this series, and now she's found red pandas to be irresistible. If she doesn't stop, you're going to think this is Jerry Coyne's blog or something. Darn it…

You all know them: those awful loud little men who travel from campus to campus to preach apocalyptic hateful nonsense on the sidewalks, who rant and howl and condemn everyone who passes by as a sinner, damned to hell, and reserving a special hatred for women and gays. One of the virtues of being…

In case my fellow Americans have forgotten where it is, it's nestled down below Belgium, with borders on Germany and France…and there are Luxembourgian atheists!

This is probably the nerdiest thing I've been sent in oh, two or three days.