pharyngula

I thought Canadians were supposed to be nice. It's rather strange — I'm used to getting one or two death threats in my mailbox a week, but lately I've been getting several a day…and it's not as if I've done anything particularly dramatic lately. Or have I? Are my horns showing? From: thanatos_4u@…

Billy Graham has a column in which he answers letters — he's a kind of evangelical agony aunt, I guess. A recent letter will make you laugh. DEAR BILLY GRAHAM: Why do people get involved in cults? My cousin has gotten involved in one, and no matter what we say to him, he refuses to listen. He says…

Waaaaa. First I get a pile of porn in my mailbox (wait, that's not so bad…except that none of it matched my particular interests), and then I get sent a free DVD: Expelled. This is shaping up to be the suckiest birthday ever. Alright, I confess, the DVD was a good present, so I could have a copy in…

The inaugural meeting of Wisconsin Citizens for Science will be on 18 April at 2pm, in the Monona Public Library. You want to go. They are providing free cookies. Oh, yeah, and sciency information.

Mr James M. Baker is really lashing out, cluelessly. He has sent me a few other emails (which I just trashed on sight), and now someone at the IP address 67.177.100.132 (which traces back to Shelbyville…Hi, Jim!) has attempted to subscribe me to a large body of gay and fetish porn. Who knew there…

This may shock you, but the Trophy Wife is not perfect. She doesn't quite get the cephalopod fetish, and thinks I'm a bit…weird. I know! It's unbelievable that there's only one person on the planet who thinks that, and I'm married to her! So, anyway, just to appease the spouse, I'll try to…

A new poll gives me cheerful results: A wide-ranging study on American religious life found that the Roman Catholic population has been shifting out of the Northeast to the Southwest, the percentage of Christians in the nation has declined and more people say they have no religion at all. Fifteen…

I was born at 7:07 am on 9 March 1957, so today I'm supposed to celebrate the fact that the earth has circled about the sun an integral number of times. I think I'll, oh, go to work all day. It should be fun!

If you fit that description, please report to Greg Laden. The NCSE has a little job for you.

So Ray Comfort is now complaining on the revered pages of the respected publication, World Net Daily about me. The article is full of dishonest misquotes, but let's zip right to Ray's scientific misunderstandings. They are deep and painful. He has this bizarre idée fixe that the necessity of every…

I was wondering why I was getting the sudden upsurge in hate mail, and one kind messenger was generous enough to tell me his source. In an ironic way, with naughty words. You might not want to look below the fold if you're 3 years old or younger. Received: from QMTA01.emeryville.ca.mail.comcast.…

Do you want 50 reasons you shouldn't believe in evolution? I think the list pretty well covers all the real reasons people are creationists.

I've counted the nominations for the Molly Award, and the winner for January 2009 is…Wowbagger! I don't know why, he just wanders around insulting everybody, and of course there was no hurry, since he is immortal. I think you all just fell for the ploy of favoring the guy riding Douglas Adam's…

NEEERRRRRRRDDDS! They're turning over the radio show to seriously geeky humanists: Scott Lohman, Minnesota's King Trek Fan, will be interviewed on Atheists Talk radio on Sunday, at 9am Central time (keep in mind that tonight is the night we jigger our clocks forward an hour, just to make everything…

We made the 45 mile drive to distant Alexandria to see Watchmen this afternoon. On the way there, I learned that neither Skatje nor Collin had ever even tried to read the graphic novel, so I almost slammed on the brakes and turned around to make them sit down and read it before I'd take them — but…

It's true…it's a webcomic that jests at the expense of Pharyngula and you readers. We must be offended! Are there any legislatures we can fire up to condemn webcomics?

With humor, of course. Here's the opening of his talk at the University of Oklahoma last night. He also responded by donating funds from the RDF to Oklahomans for Excellence in Science Education…which brings up an important point. There are lots of smart Oklahomans who are really angry at the…

One of the mysteries of my email is that there are noticeable waves of like content that come through. Right now I'm getting a lot of hate mail that rants and raves about how clever I must think I am … which is definitely not a theme that I've been pushing, so all I can assume is that somewhere out…

As I mentioned the other day, the Oklahoma legislature was contemplating a resolution to condemn Richard Dawkins. It turns out that that was a moderate compromise — the original version of the resolution attacked the University of Oklahoma department of zoology. Look closely at the language in this…

(via Deep Sea News)

After all the gasps of outrage at the Catholicchurch's response to that tragic story of a 9-year old rape victim's abortion, the church has seen the light of reason and…actually, no. They just made it worse. The Roman Catholic Church of Brazil has excommunicated everyone involved in the abortion,…

If you ever wanted to peer deeply into the decayed and shriveled eyes of Otzi, the 5,000 year old iceman, now you can. High resolution images of Otzi are available on the web, and you can pan and zoom all over his body. You can also find 3D images, and special closeups of his tattoos.

That question has an answer: they crouched like birds. A 198 million year old fossil trackway from Utah has preserved a print of a theropod dinosaur taking a break, resting with hands curled inward and knuckle down, and legs bent. Except for the forelimbs, of course, it's very birdlike.…

A plexiglass box full of blinking circuitry might be your image of the future of artificial intelligence, but I'll have you know the real deal will be the achievement of maximum cephalopod density in a convenient cubical container. The tentacles snaking out the sides will just be a bonus.

I am hoping to go see Watchmen this weekend, but I have been informed that there is something seriously wrong with it. Spoiler below the fold. The ending has been changed! If you've read the graphic novel, you know there is supposed to be a titanic space squid. There is no squid! Zack Snyder, you…

Does only Orac get to give you a Friday dose of woo? Because I have to show you this amazing and all-too-common bit of criminal quackery. God's Answer To Cancer: Just kill it by using this health machine to flood your cells with "Chi" Energy! You should read the long, rambling testimonial on that…

He's on his way to Oklahoma (no, that's not what rouses my envy), and an Oklahoma legislator has proposed a resolution to condemn him. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE 1ST SESSION OF THE 52ND OKLAHOMA LEGISLATURE: THAT the Oklahoma House of Representative…

Uh-oh. She opened her mouth again. BACHMANN: If you want to look at economic history over the last 100 years. I call it punctuated equilibrium. If you look at FDR, LBJ, and Barack Obama, this is really the final leap to socialism. ... But we all know that we could turn this around and we can turn…

This is a tragedy, amplifed by the idiocy in the subhead: Brazil girl, alleged rape victim, aborts twinsThe procedure on the 9-year-old girl draws complaints from Catholic church You don't really need to say more than that.

Ray Comfort is sure that his new book is selling poorly because of a conspiracy among atheists to give it bad reviews on Amazon. But he said he's sure his book sales have been affected because of the negative reviews, "because people purchase upon other people's opinions." Has he considered that…