pharyngula

I've gotten some email asking for a simplified executive summary of this paper, so here it is. A large study of almost a thousand autistic individuals for genetic variations that make them different from control individuals has found that Autism Spectrum Disorder has many different genetic causes…

So, England, how does it feel to have a hereditary moron like Prince Charles fluttering about the country? The Prince of Wales has blamed a lack of belief in the soul for the world's environmental problems, and said that the planet cannot sustain a population expected to reach 9 billion in 40 years…

The Hatfield Marine Science Center Visitor Center has an Octo-Cam trained on a giant Pacific octopus — I just checked and the beast is cruising about. Although…they also have a warning on the site that heavy visitor loads put a strain on the server. I may have just broken it.

It's a calibrated infographic illustrating the highest highs and the lowest lows on the planet. Bring in the kids and have them scroll up and down for hours. It includes the Deepwater Horizon. Boy, that thing was way, way down there.

Guess who has been the recipient of state funds for their superstition scam? Michele Bachmann and her husband! Bachmann and Associates, Inc., a counseling center that receives state funds and is owned by Rep. Michele Bachmann and her husband, Dr. Marcus Bachmann, uses counseling methods steeped in…

Scott Hatfield, a fellow who comments here from time to time, is planning to do coursework in the Galapagos — for the good of the students, of course, he couldn't possibly enjoy spending time on some exotic islands in the Pacific. You'll have to stop by and see what he's up to, and if you can,…

This is a good way to do an interview with Randi: completely cut out the boring interviewer and let the interviewee talk at length. Great fun! If you go to the Big Think page, there's an index to sections of the talk if you don't have time to listen to the whole thing. You can also leave comments…

You may have noticed one thing about our so-called free society: there is one group of professional, well-educated, articulate people who have been de facto forbidden to speak aloud about their views. Those people are our teachers. In particular, if they dare to express liberal, socially conscious…

…but it is a pretty good rant against the climate change deniers. It's just that it is from Bill Maher. I like what he's saying, but it's hard to listen to the man when he says, "Mainstream media, stop pitting the ignorant vs the educated and framing it as a debate" and not think that maybe the…

It's like Bambi vs. Godzilla, except no one would consider Donohue cute and innocent. In an interview, Hawking talked about gods: "What could define God [is thinking of God] as the embodiment of the laws of nature. However, this is not what most people would think of that God," Hawking told Sawyer…

(via National Geographic)

Sven seemed to think it a fine idea to launch everyone into space in the last iteration of the cosmic thread, and who am I to argue? Zoooooom! (Current totals: 10,392 entries with 1,018,300 comments.)

The creation museum in Social Circle, Georgia, complete with all of its contents, is for sale. Like me, I'm sure all of you are going "squeeee!!" right now. You know, Father's Day is just around the corner, and rather than getting me a $5 tie, maybe the kids should chip in and get me this. It…

British Petroleum isn't so awful after all — it turns out that they have an almost 600 page long emergency response plan to deal with blowouts on their offshore oil wells. All the answers are in there, and I'm sure that they'll soon be implemented. You can read those plans yourself and feel the…

Oh, how sweet. Something good is going to come out of the Gulf oil spill. While the ocean is poisoned, sea birds tremble and die, fish and marine invertebrates are suffocated, work crews labor to contain the spreading oil slick, rescue workers struggle to clean animals tarred with sludge, and BP (…

The Tri-City Herald ran a photo showing a drag queen at an event, the Columbia Basin College's Queers & Allies drag show. Here it is, entirely safe for work and not at all risque. It prompted one reader to write in protest. Am I the only reader of this newspaper who would like to know what…

An LA Times story brings up the troubling possibility — nay, near-certainty— that we aren't the global good guys our right wing brethren keep telling us we are. I know, it's hard to believe, since we are so obviously the good guys in all that we do, but sometimes, there are trivial little…

We all know the Catholic Church has a serious public relations problem right now — they're hidebound, they're insensitive to the human needs of their congregations, and, well, sheltering an evil bunch of child-rapers that they shuttle about among unknowing parishes like a buggerymobile or a penis-…

It's called Agora, and it's about Hypatia, who was a kind of non-Christian martyr, murdered by a religious mob. Here's one account of her death: And in those days there appeared in Alexandria a female philosopher, a pagan named Hypatia, and she was devoted at all times to magic, astrolabes and…

I am no longer the Humanist of the Year, but have been officially succeeded by the eminent Bill Nye the Science Guy. Hemant has Nye's acceptance speech — I don't feel sad at all given the distinguished company I'm in. It's a good talk, discussing how we need good stories to communicate science.…

Peter Singer has a lovely idea: The Life You Can Save, a plan to reduce poverty worldwide. I do have one objection. This is basically a plan for wealth redistribution, which I think is a reasonable objective. However, the only people who are going to be helping others are those willing to…

Last week, Glenn Beck was full of praise for a book he had claimed to have read overnight, which he regarded as a valuable source documenting the perfidy of commies. It was titled The Red Network, by Elizabeth Dilling. This morning, he is having a little trouble remembering the title and is…

Deepak Chopra visited Vancouver, BC…and CFI was prepared with flyers and volunteers handing them out to people going to the talk. It's an excellent example of how to effectively and informatively deal with pseudoscientific nonsense. Oh, and they actually had Chopra come out and talk with them,…

Sadly for them, someone told them it meant relations in public. It's hard to believe that no one at the magazine looked at that cover and noticed that it might have some unfortunate associations, especially given recent church history. Either they are extraordinarily naive, rather stupid, or…

I keep telling people there's junk in them thar genomes, and lots of it. ERV has a nice summary of some recent work in which a detailed comparison of the distribution of LINE retrotransposons (selfish DNA that does nothing but insert copies of itself into your DNA; they make up about 20% of your…

We have a Molly winner for the month of April: Caine, Fleur du Mal. So, who do you like for May? Leave a comment, right after you congratulate Caine.

Jonathan Sarfati, a particularly silly creationist, is quite thrilled — he's crowing about how he has caught Richard Dawkins in a fundamental error. The eye did not evolve, says Sarfati, because it is perfectly designed for its function, and Dawkins' suggestion that there might be something…

The folks over at the Urban Dictionary have battened upon the word "atheist", and much hilarity follows. There is one reasonable definition in the bunch, and the rest are mostly indignant complaints by theists. A worshipper of the self or the god of science, often unknowingly religious. An atheist…

At last, you'll learn how to pronounce "Leeuwenhoek"! (via Make)

Panthera pardus pardus Bonus video: you be the judge. A cat showing compassion, or a cat with a new toy?