pharyngula

There is some cause for worry in the current reports on the swine flu outbreak — while the possibility of a global pandemic is being raised, at this point it really is only a possibility. The accounts from Mexico are not reassuring, however. Health officials reported that at least eight students at…

Ah, well. If only I could be in two places at once, and could also afford to fly to Europe on a whim. I'm going to be in Arizona in early June, and the British Humanists are meeting at the same time in London, with what looks like a very interesting schedule bracketed by talks by Dawkins and…

This should be good, but I may have to miss it: Sean Carroll will be speaking at the University of Minnesota on 15 May — he'll also be speaking at the biology commencement the day after. He'll be talking about his new book, Remarkable Creatures, which is very good. I'll be flying back from…

The president spoke to the NAS today, and he made some great promises: increases in funding for science and science education, an investment in training new teachers in science and math, a political commitment to get better advising in science untainted by ideology. He specifically promised 3% of…

ERV has just posted the Oklahoma GOP platform, and she's right — any random amble through any piece of it will have you laughing at the audacity of wingnuttia. ERV singled out a piece endorsing the teaching of creationism in the classroom, but this is my favorite, just because they are two goals…

The Making of Hitler: A Tale of Social Darwinism or Christian Idealism? Michael Lackey, UMM Tuesday, 28 April - Common Cup Coffeehouse - 6:30pm You're all planning to come on out, right? It should be a good one: Michael Lackey will be directly addressing the fallacious claim that Hitler's crimes…

See, this is the problem with the godless liberal media: they can sometimes treat the rise of atheism as something newsworthy, and in a good way, instead of simply slapping us down. The NYT actually has a reassuring story, More Atheists Shout It From the Rooftops, that talks about the sudden surge…

Or from your side of the world, if you're down there in the southern hemisphere and in a very different time zone from us Americans. From Australia, we have news of a powerful program on vaccination. It juxtaposes the story of young Dana McCaffrey, a 4-week-old girl who died of whooping cough, with…

The Telegraph has a lovely article on how The National Federation of Atheist, Humanist and Secular Student Societies is going to brainwash children. Here's the kind of mud they're slinging: Simon Calvert of the Christian Institute said: "Atheists are becoming increasingly militant in their…

This movie of mating octopuses is beautiful…but the narrator speaks in this husky French voice that makes it sound horribly lewd, like a dirty old man. Even better!

Aren't you looking forward to seeing a tortured corpse adorning cars in your neighborhood? That hideous plate is one of the options railroaded through the Florida legislature. Religious specialty plates offered by Sen. Ronda Storms, R-Valrico, and Sen. Gary Siplin, D-Orlando, made it onto a bill…

Remember, I'm trying to win an iPod Touch from Eric Hovind. Click here to help me in my goal.

The NCSE is an excellent organization, and I've frequently urged people at my talks to join it. However, it's also a limited organization, and this post by Richard Hoppe at the Panda's Thumb exposes their flaws. It's blind. It's locked in to one strategy. It's response to people who try to branch…

A delegate to the Republican party in Utah had a marvelous http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_12228215">resolution for his party. Don Larsen, a Springville delegate, offered the resolution, titled "Resolution opposing the Hate America anti-Christian Open Borders cabal," warning delegates that an "…

Sunday morning at 9am Central, tune in to Atheists Talk radio for an interview with Sunsara Taylor of the Revolutionary Communist Party, who will be talking about the book, Away With All Gods!.

This is an excellent talk by Andy Thomson on the biological and psychological origins of religion. It's also precisely my position on the matter. There are many people who argue that religion provides a direct evolutionary advantage — I find them unconvincing. Thomson is explaining how religion's…

But I thought religion helped people live a moral life! We're going to have to really struggle to find an ethical rationale for this pastor's monstrous behavior. A Baltimore pastor who worked with developmentally disabled people was charged Friday with befriending a blind and disabled man in his…

When I heard that Sean Hannity had jauntily offered to allow himself to be waterboarded, I confess to a moment's small, viciously gleeful anticipation. However, archy makes a good case for not doing it. After all, if it really is torture, and torture is wrong, and we argue that we shouldn't even be…

Michele Bachmann gave a science lecture to congress. As you might imagine, this was a grand spectacle of stupidity. Just a few things that jumped out at me (I'm sure you can find more by listening carefully, but I could not bear to pay too much attention). She repeats over and over that CO2 is…

Please, someone, tell the priests to go tend to their rituals and quit pretending to ha have any understanding of reality. A new archbishop has tried to use biology to argue for his archaic moral position, and I just want to slap him. Archbishop Timothy Dolan yesterday said advocates of gay…

There was a rally in LA for a group in favor of animal experimentation, Pro-Test, which also had a counter-rally by animal rights groups. You can guess which side I'm on in this debate: blocking experimentation on animals would kill biological research dead. The tactics of the anti-vivisectionists…

How did we ever let these clowns run the country for so long? John Boehner. No comment from me needed, let his own words speak for him. Appearing on ABC's This Week, the Ohio Republican was asked what to describe the GOP plan to dealing with greenhouse gas emissions, "which every major scientific…

Octopus kaurna Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman.

It's a somewhat odd article in which I apparently attributed evolution to nothing but chance, since the only alternative is Design. This, of course, is not my view, but there's enough other stuff in there to stir up controversy that maybe we'll stir up a contentious audience. There is, apparently…

It's yet another transitional fossil, everyone! Oooh and aaah over it, and laugh when the creationists scramble to pave it over with excuses. What we have is a 23 million year old mammal from the Canadian arctic that would have looked rather like a seal in life…with a prominent exception. No…

There will be a few opportunities for informal conversation today. I'll be on an evolution walk at Briscoe Geology Park at 2:00pm today, and for those of you who can't bear the thought of seeing me without a beer or four in you, I'll be popping by the Standing Stone Brewing Company sometime after 9…

I'm here in Ashland, and you'll be able to catch me on the radio in about 45 minutes, at 9am. It's a call-in show, too, so have fun. The rest of my day is busy, too — you can find out more at the Jefferson Center website.

This is terribly crass of me, I know, but I'd love to win a free iPod Touch or iPod Shuffle. All I have to do is get the most people to click through the link posted below, and if I'm one of the top 3 promoters, I win! I get all these readers here, so I figure I might as well use you for personal…