Paul Z. Meyers
pharyngula
Posts by this author
August 30, 2010
When I critized Mary Midgley the other day for her sloppy critique of Nicholas Humphrey, I also pointed out that Humphrey had apparently indulged in some unfortunate hyperbole himself, saying "So successful has it been that many scientists would now say, and even fear, that there will soon be…
August 30, 2010
Barry Arrington is a fellow most of you have probably never heard of, and those of us who have aren't particularly dazzled by him: he's an Intelligent Design creationist and moderator of Bill Dembski's wacky little blog. However, there are some amusing revelations: he made a failed stab at a run…
August 30, 2010
The New Yorker has a very well written article on Francis Collins and the recent upset in stem cell research, but it feels terribly premature. It's a stage-setting piece to an act that hasn't been resolved yet.
The part about Collins is familiar ground for those of us who were peeved at his…
August 30, 2010
It's a whole new world I'm not in the least bit interested in exploring: it turns out that healthcare information technology people have professional blogs about their field, which is cool and useful, but the jargon is impenetrable, the acronyms prolific, and the subjects tend to be far from my…
August 29, 2010
I just saw the premier of his new show, Bad Universe, and it was lots of fun…and he's a very entertaining host. I do have a few questions, though.
Why does he hate Sydney so much?
He was blowing things up right and left, and he was just talking about little rocks. What's he going to do when he…
August 29, 2010
Maybe I am a bit spacey lately, but I noticed those commenters who were trying to pharyngulate a poll without me. I'm feeling dis-authoritated now!
Here's my belated contribution. Crush it, please.
Do you think immunizations are safe?
Yes
53%
No
46%
August 29, 2010
Huh? What? I stir from my haze (the drugs have really been diddling my brain this weekend) to see that someone in the thread of doom wants me to do something with porcupines? Why? Nasty, wicked, vicious beasts, they are. Will harpoon you with their quills and yank your liver out, they will. See…
August 29, 2010
What dreadful price must we pay to be an atheist?
It seems that Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr., the president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, is feuding with Michael Dowd, the author of Thank God for Evolution, who endorses a kind of fuzzy spirituality that is mostly pro-science. I can't…
August 29, 2010
Can a guy get some privacy? I just learned that some snoop crashed my hospital room to get a picture of me in distress.
There may be worse to come. I've lost some weight lately (low fat diets and all that, don't you know), and because of the uncomfortable soreness of the area where doctors popped…
August 29, 2010
The premiere of Phil Plait's Bad Universe is tonight, at 9pm Central Time, on the Discovery Channel.
I think he's going to blow stuff up.
August 29, 2010
In case you've been wondering what was going to come after Intelligent Design, here's a similar hypothesis I stumbled across, Intelligent Gestation Theory.
Hello fellow Christians and Atheists,
My name is Erik Lumberjack. I'm founder and chief scientist of the
recently formed Intelligent Gestation…
August 28, 2010
At least we can dismiss her latest fluff in the first sentence:
Is physical science - as some people say - omnicompetent? Can it (that is) answer all possible questions?
"As some people say" is one of the more perniciously lazy phrases in the English language. And setting up a straw man as the…
August 28, 2010
It's feminist, atheist, science-loving Nina Hartley.
I haven't actually seen any of her movies, and I wouldn't recognize her if I passed her in the street, but I can still actually call her my favorite porn star, right?
Don't bother recommending any of her movies; my lust is entirely superficial…
August 28, 2010
Isn't this sweet? It's a polite invitation from Pastor Dale in Ohio, which was also sent to a lot of other skeptics/atheists. It's so polite and open-minded!
Greetings. I want to let you know about an upcoming project, and I invite any of you or your consumers to participate. I realize your…
August 27, 2010
Time to reset the perpetual conversation, and I was also sent this lovely message for Hitchens…so let's all say something nice about the man
I wish I could be half as aggressive, assertive, obnoxious, and eloquent as he is.
(Current totals: 10,898 entries with 1,104,462 comments.)
August 27, 2010
The Chronicle of Higher Ed interviewed me a while back, and asked me about my daily read. It's a bit strange, though…lately my reading has dried up and been replaced by typing. Gotta fix that.
One really troubling thing, though, is the portrait they included — I presume it was made from some photo…
August 27, 2010
I see that the don't-be-a-dick tone debate is still going on — I've been totally unimpressed with the arguments from the side of nice, not because I disagree with the idea that positive approaches work, but because they ignore the complexity of the problem and don't offer any solutions but only…
August 26, 2010
The ol' innocuous bus ads weren't enough for New Zealand, I guess — an advertising company has fired up a wonderfully rude and outrageous anti-religion campaign, with some rather unsubtle posters that are being plastered all around Auckland.
Very rude. I approve.
August 26, 2010
Not that I've become morbid lately — I feel lucky that I got a potential problem taken care of before it became a crisis — but this story by Mike Celizic is inspiring and terrifying at the same time. He's a journalist who has been diagnosed with terminal cancer, knows his life expectancy is now…
August 26, 2010
I'm home convalescing, but the unstoppable thread waits for no one. So here's a reset and a little thank you:
(Current totals: 10,892 entries with 1,103,068 comments.)
August 25, 2010
Jebus, but I despise that fluffy, superficial, Newagey site run by the flibbertigibbet Ariana. I will not be linking to it, but if you must, you can just search for this recent article: "Darwin May Have Been WRONG, New Study Argues". I don't recommend it. It sucks. Read the title, and you've…
August 25, 2010
Here's my status right now, for those who have been wondering.
First of all, I'm not dead yet. Let's get that out of the way.
Yesterday morning was the big event here in hospital-land: I was to get an angiogram, this procedure where they thread wires up your femoral artery to you heart and start…
August 24, 2010
This fascinating clip featuring Sir David Attenborough captures an enchanting courtship between two incredibly graceful sea creatures.
August 24, 2010
This may be the last update of the non-terminal thread for a while — I'm going to get beat up by some doctors today, and there are too many steps involved in thread closure and new thread creation and template updating to hand this job off to Mary. So the ol' portcullis may stay up for a while.
A…
August 24, 2010
I'm in big trouble. My wife is sending me pictures of cute puppy dogs to make me feel better.
Where's the slime? The chitin? The tentacles? How is this supposed to cheer me up?
Anyway, I've been trapped in the hospital overnight, and this morning they promise to finally give me the really good…
August 23, 2010
My day began well enough. I'd gotten up early, got some writing done, and was headed into the office to do some prep work for classes, which start this week. My phone rang just as I had my key in the office door — which was cutting it close. My office is an AT&T dead zone, and a few more…
August 23, 2010
A few years ago, a group of people dressed up as zombies for a protest march and got arrested for it.
When arrested at the intersection of Hennepin Avenue and 6th Street N., most of them had thick white powder and fake blood on their faces and dark makeup around their eyes. They were walking in a…