Paul Z. Meyers
pharyngula
Posts by this author
January 28, 2010
It is Thursday, right?My brain is melting a bit, so I'm not really sure any more. I know I'm getting on the train again this afternoon and heading up to Sacramento, at least. I'm giving one more talk in California, at 7pm in Weaver 110 at Sierra. They are charging $5 admission; I was surprised to…
January 28, 2010
The interview in which I answered the top 10 questions submitted by Reddit readers is now online, and it's right here.
I haven't watched it. I can never bear to see myself in these things. You'll have to tell me if I said something stupid.
January 27, 2010
Our state science standards are being patched up right now, and while they're mostly just fine, one sneaky provision is still on the books.
"The student will be able to explain how scientific and technological innovations as well as new evidence can challenge portions of or entire accepted theories…
January 27, 2010
Oy, that Myers guy is babbling in California again. Tonight at 7pm, I'll be in Main Quad Building 420 (Jordan Hall), room 041, at Stanford. Two more days. I'll make it.
Many people have asked where I'll be tomorrow. Again at 7pm, look for me in Weaver 110 on the Sierra College campus.
Don't look…
January 26, 2010
Yeesh. This is not how we want our university to be known. One of our former students, Joe Basel, is accused of being an accomplice in a break-in to wiretap a senator's office. I knew him slightly, but he never took a course from me. He claims he was "pushed" into conservative activism by our…
January 26, 2010
I seem to be leaving a trail of noisy wreckage behind me as I cruise through California. You can read one account of my talk at Davis in their local paper — I sound very ferocious in the description — and my evening in Chico was recorded. That one was a little different; we just gathered for beer…
January 26, 2010
There was another poll out there that I studiously ignored, because I was on it: Which miracle do you think Americans would most support? One of the possible answers was "PZ Myers publicly converts from atheism to follow the One True God."
I think it was a very poor choice, because one of the ways…
January 26, 2010
Because prisons ban Dungeons & Dragons.
Prison officials instigated the Dungeons & Dragons ban among concerns that playing the game promoted gang-related activity and was a threat to security.
Yeah, it might inspire them to carve a magic wand out of a bar of soap, and pew-pew prison guards…
January 26, 2010
Those cunning rascals Jesus and Mo also link to a poll…but it's not the one in the comic, but a poll asking what the best webcomic is. I guess you can go crash that one, then.
January 26, 2010
Hey, California, you could learn something from Virginia's bad example. Let's all hope the California Supreme Court can do something right.
People of West Central Minnesota who might be reading this: I've heard from Roy Zimmerman that we could get him to swing by Morris 'round about 3 April. I'm…
January 26, 2010
For everyone writing to me concerned about the status of the stranded Trophy Wife™: she's fine. She was going to be stuck in a gas station in Hancock, Minnesota for a night, and a local minister stepped up and offered her a place to stay…and when the weather cleared a bit, helped her get back home…
January 26, 2010
I'll be speaking tonight at 7 in the Student Union of Sacramento City College.
Holy crap, they're charging admission. Maybe no one will show up now…unless I add extra value to my performance. Strip tease? Singing the Narwhal song? My imitations of celebrity creationists (warning: they all involve…
January 26, 2010
As a member of the global liberal conspiracy, it is my obligation to occasionally toss out something disgustingly prurient to lead you all into the path of corruption. Here is my contribution today.
That's it; a rather dry entry from the New Oxford American Dictionary. Are you aroused yet? Are you…
January 25, 2010
Krystalline Apostate summarizes the event with the customary misspelling of my name, compliments me on my grip, and includes a picture of me looking hunched over in agony — he must have been crushing my hand is all I can say.
January 25, 2010
That's what I must conclude from his recent post which is the outline for my entire damned blog. I may have to mockingly and provocatively respond, followed by promises of escalation of further actions of an obnoxious nature, culminating in outrageous climax that will trigger denunciations and many…
January 25, 2010
The perils of posting from a cell phone — I actually wrote something here as I was being driven to Chico, and my phone apparently ate it, making it a blank post. Which didn't stop anyone since it gathered 66 comments.
Anyway, I'm feeling guilty. I was in the pleasant warmth (and moistness) of…
January 25, 2010
Who would have thought something so trivial would generate so much amusement? I told you all to vote on Twitter for DrRachie, because there was a bunch of quacks in the lead. The kook formerly in the #1 position, the "Health Ranger", has flamed out hysterically. Now the #2 quack, some guy named…
January 25, 2010
This one seems to be a bit buried, but apparently I'll be speaking at The Graduate (400 W 1st Street) at 4 pm in Chico. All I know is my ride arrives soon — apparently this is one of the awkward legs of the tour where I've imposed a long drive on my hosts.
Here are the details, straight from my…
January 25, 2010
Why do so many of our political leaders support creationism? Here's a disturbing glimpse of the way the neo-conservative elite thinks, discussing specifically Irving Kristol:
Kristol has acknowledged his intellectual debt to Strauss in a recent autobiographical essay. "What made him so…
January 25, 2010
Behold the magnificent geoduck:
Oh, I know why! Because, after mentioning the mascot of UCSC, she remembered that Evergreen State College also has a molluscan mascot:
Go, Geoducks go,
Through the mud and the sand,
let's go.
Siphon high, squirt it out,
swivel all about,
let it all hang out.
Go,…
January 24, 2010
Zeno has a write-up of the Q&A of my talk at Davis. It's weird — I should just give up on the formal talk business and just have questions. They're fun and they're all over the place, and don't often have much to do with the content of what I'd said.
And that's OK.
January 24, 2010
OK, dudes, you keep filling up these open threads and I have to keep opening new ones…but that's cool. Groovy even. I'm in California, and I feel fine.
Keep on truckin', let it all hang out, and talk about whatever.
January 24, 2010
I put out a call for twitter users to vote for DrRachie, a skeptic physician, in a silly little contest for a twitter award — and I pointed out at the time that the top nominees in the health category were crazy anti-vax fruit loops in altie 'medicine'. Number one at that time (DrRachie leads now)…
January 24, 2010
Please, please, National Geographic — get a more serious narrator and some non-cheesy commentary. Otherwise, though, this movie about romantic arthropods is very nice.
January 24, 2010
I am beginning to lose track of where and when I am — I woke up this morning and it took a while to puzzle out exactly why I was in this hotel room. We did have a fun time with the UC Santa Cruz Secular Student Alliance and the Secular Humanists of Santa Cruz County with a packed room and another…
January 24, 2010
Camp Quest is growing fast and is increasingly popular — they're expecting at least 48 campers to show up at the Minnesota Camp Quest. They need more assistants! If you think you'd enjoy a week at a campground with a group of smart, secular kids, write and get more information and volunteer.
January 23, 2010
I especially like the snark at the end. This stuff isn't hard. It ought to be part of the basic toolkit for critical thinking that kids get out of sixth grade.
January 23, 2010
Last night was another lively and fun meeting, hosted by the only SANE people at Berkeley—as is typical, the questions were the most entertaining part of the event, and they just kept coming. Maybe I should be brave and just skip the whole lecture part and stand up there and let 'em keep me dancing…
January 22, 2010
It was a particularly silly poll that asked if the bible was the divinely inspired word of god, and we very quickly ran the answer up to a definitive "NO", so the poll owners did something predictable: they closed it.
Survey suspended temporarily.
We appear to have been the victims of a hacking…