pharyngula

So it really does cause earthquakes! "Many women who do not dress modestly … lead young men astray, corrupt their chastity and spread adultery in society, which (consequently) increases earthquakes," Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi was quoted as saying by Iranian media. Sedighi is Tehran's acting Friday…

The Ask a Biologist site has been relaunched and revamped, and it's the perfect place for teachers and parents to send kids with difficult questions about biology. It's really easy: just go to the site, click on the "ask" button, and type in a question…and with a little patience, eventually a…

I've been married for 30 years, and there's no end in sight, fortunately. But just imagine that, in my imminent old age, I were to seriously injure myself and be hospitalized for a long period…and my wife wasn't allowed to see me. And then it was decided that we were both so feeble and in need of…

Bleh. I hate this poll. I suspect any pharyngulation is going to be diluted because there isn't going to be much unanimity of response to it, either. And answers 1 & 3, and answers 2 & 4, are pretty much equivalent, so they're already splitting the votes no matter what your position. Should…

I'm feeling a bit light-headed, and wondering if I'm still asleep. Or if it's April Fools' Day. Ruse actually concedes some ground to Dawkins in the religion wars. Of course, it's in the HuffPo, so it could be some perverse nonsense, anyway. Recently, the New Atheists' most prominent representative…

This is very bad news: I don't mind at all that Apple's Mac/iPhone/iPad technology is closed and proprietary, but when they use that to censor delivered content, I get very, very unhappy. Mark Fiore is a fabulous web political cartoonist, and he came out with an iPhone app to provide access to his…

Basiliscus basiliscus, AKA the Jesus Christ lizard Just in case you're wondering where the name came from…

I have been reminded that I neglected the last round of nominations for the Molly. Forgive me! I have gone back and quickly tallied the last set of votes, and the Molly for the month of February goes to…AJ Milne. Belated fireworks and applause and hugs and kisses! Now it's time to leave your…

I have to join with my colleague Revere in saying that I am pro-abortion. Furthermore, I find the willingness of the devout anti-choice mob to distort the evidence so appalling that I would not join with them in anything. When I gave a talk at UW Stevens Point last week, there were a few protesters…

There is a whole collection of Skeptic Trump cards available on the web, and what do you know, I'm in there: A bit chipmunky, but look: I have no worthy adversaries, and no arch nemesis! I guess I'll be scampering to the goal line unopposed, then. (I notice, though, that Dawkins' nemesis is…

That's how low The Thread has gone. What can I do but…feed the beast. Oh, sure, now try to talk about something other than "squeee!" and "how cute!" and "mmmm, now I'm hungry" after that. (Latest tally: 10,034 entries swamped by 965,742 total comments.)

A lot of people sent me links to that really dope Insane Clown Posse video where they expressed wonder at how magnets work and cussed out the scientists for lying to them, but I ignored you all, because when I said "dope", I meant it literally. It was a pair of poseurs exposing their ignorance. Don…

And it is!

I showed you that video of an octopus stealing a camera, now here's one of an octopus trying to snatch a crescent wrench. Unfortunately, he is punished horribly. Man, cuttlefish are brutal. (embed code is buggy — here's a link if it doesn't load)

It's a month gone, but now ABC has a summary (and you can go straight to the MP3 here).

The Huffington Post now has a post up from some guy named Rory Fitzgerald reacting to the suggestion that the Pope be arrested for crimes and conspiracies of his organization by urging that Richard Dawkins be arrested for "atheist crimes"…such as those committed by the Nazis and Stalinists. I had…

We had a fun evening on Friday—a crowd of a few hundred people sat down to consider the problem of a morality at the University of Chicago. At the front of the room we had Bob Bossie (a very liberal Catholic), Sunsara Taylor (a very articulate Communist) and me to make a few opening remarks and…

Let's pile on Phil Plait! He's arguing against the whole "let's bring the Pope to justice" idea. I will summarize his objections very briefly: This is not necessarily a skeptical cause, unless they bring a supernatural defense to bear. Need more tact: "We don't always need warriors. Sometimes…

Can't get enough ripping into the nonsense De Dora and Pigliucci are peddling? Then go read Ophelia Benson (always good advice) and Jerry Coyne. Coyne points out that if De Dora's way of thinking were correct, than Darwin's Origin would be banned from the science classroom. He also brings up this…

I'm in trouble now — I have drawn the ire of Massimo Pigliucci. I'd be chagrined if it weren't such an ineffectual criticism that is mainly Pigliucci doing a little foot-shooting. I've also annoyed Ronald Lindsay of the CFI (as well as several other people associated with CFI), but his criticism is…

This video focuses mostly on some bipedal chordate, but he's happy enough about cephalopods that it makes it all OK.

Over on stuff.co.nz, there is a spectacular video of an octopus that grabs a diver's video camera and swims off with it. Much of the video is a surreal blur, because the octopus is all wrapped around the camera, but that just adds to the charm…and there are also plenty of shots of the beautiful…

The Freedom From Religion Foundation has won a significant court case: the National Day of Prayer has been declared unconstitutional. The judge made a cautious and conservative judgment, but you know the right-wing is going to freak out. Crabb wrote that her ruling was not a judgment on the value…

A church in Oklahoma is actually losing members over a crucifix on display. The problem is the artist has painted Jesus with a 'distended abdomen', or perhaps a six-pack (actually a four-pack in this case), that is making all the filthy-minded Catholics think of something else. I'm looking at the…

The Hobby Lobby craft store apparently flogs Christianity fairly heavily during the Easter season — not just because it's a crafty time of year, but because by their own admission, they are using the stores to proselytize. A customer named Sarah complained that it was "exclusive and insensitive".…

The British Chiropractic Association has dropped its lawsuit against Simon Singh. This is very, very good news…and to make it even better, Singh is going to go after the BCA for court costs. Drive the fools into the ground! Make them pay!

Now I just have to figure out how to turn all your output into sweet, sweet nectar. I will refrain from making a big issue of the fact that the busy little bugs are secreting it out their asses. (Latest tally: 10,018 entries, 962,538 total comments. Keep on adding to them!)

When anyone other than a particle physicist talks about "quantum", it is almost always a magic word used to project a pseudoscientific aura onto sheer raving lunacy. "Quantum" as a prefix is almost universally used to signify that the noun it modifies is about to be made crazy stupid. So you know…

Here's what we're used to: crazy poll choices that make the right answer obvious. Do you support attempts by atheists Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens to have Pope Benedict XVI arrested over his handling of child sex abuse claims? Yes, what happened to these children is horrific and the…

The idea that he could have been half-human/half-alien is even more ridiculous than the idea that he could have been half-human/half-mollusc. Although…the concept is intriguing.