Paul Z. Meyers
pharyngula
Posts by this author
February 23, 2009
The Science Museum of Minnesota has a regular feature where they pick some local scientist and put them on the spot to answer questions — it's like the dunk tank at the carnival, I think, where someone becomes the target and everyone else gets the fun of flinging things at him. This time, it's my…
February 23, 2009
No, my work is not yet done, and my deadlines haven't yet been met, but I'm confident that I'll reach my goals by this afternoon. Bear with me with patience, please. Until this afternoon, when I slap these puppies and ship them off to their destinations, I'll leave you with something to discuss…
February 22, 2009
It's been quiet here today for a good reason: I'm facing a bunch of deadlines, and I told myself I'd stay offline until I'd met them. I haven't met them quite yet, but I hate leaving the blog dead for a day…so I'm just offering this note of explanation, and setting this up as an open thread.
Now I'…
February 21, 2009
9am Central. Sunday morning. The evil atheists of the upper midwest will continue their nefarious plan to disseminate propaganda internationally by means of the radio waves, which will vibrate even within the walls of Minneapolis's churches, synagogues, and temples, and also via the godless…
February 21, 2009
They're finally getting organized. Minnesota has had our citizens for science group together for years now, and only now is Wisconsin catching up. Better go sign up now, Wisconsinites, lest your membership look pathetic next to ours.
I'm looking at you, UW Madison. Get in there and participate and…
February 21, 2009
Just go and gape in awe at the obliviousness of our national media. This is a poll on US News & World Report, and it asks, "If you had a choice of four daycare centers run separately by Michelle Obama, Sarah Palin, Hillary Clinton, and Nancy Pelosi, which would you choose for your kids?"…
February 21, 2009
We'll have to see how long this video remains available. Thunderf00t, the well-known godless anti-creationist creator of fine youtube videos, is routinely targeted by Christian/creationist scriptbots to downgrade his videos and even get them banned, and he's had enough — this clip takes the youtube…
February 21, 2009
It's an interesting edition of Bloggingheads: the always pleasant Carl Zimmer in a dialog with hyper-enthusiastic Phil Plait. If I ever do one of these things with Phil, I'm going to have to send him a horse tranquilizer to swallow first, just so I can keep up.
February 21, 2009
Have you ever gotten sucked into one of those endless "Teach the controversy!" or "You're afraid to look at both sides" kinds of arguments? You know, the ones people backing the most ridiculous positions always make? I need to make a copy of this cartoon to carry with me. It's a point I've often…
February 21, 2009
It's been a while since we had a pointless poll…so here's a light snack to nibble on. We are asked, "The best evidence for an afterlife is from…", and the answer so far is:
Mediums
3% (20 votes)
Near-death experiences
26% (147 votes)
Reincarnation memories
15% (86 votes)
Ghosts
5% (29 votes)
EVP…
February 21, 2009
I had no idea they were so progressive! If my local churches had religious services like this I'd be going three times a week. Scandinavian languages are all so pretty to listen to, anyway (don't worry, the link has English subtitles).
February 20, 2009
The Texas legislature is generally the butt of jokes, and it's not hard to see why: it's an awesome body of distilled stupidity. However, that doesn't mean there aren't some good ones among the chaff, and State Senator Rodney Ellis and State Representative Patrick Rose should be counted among them…
February 20, 2009
ERV is apparently attending a talk by John West and Casey Luskin right now. Would you believe that West actually cited the New Scientist "Darwin was wrong" cover? That's going to have to be one of the new hallmarks of creationist idiocy: West couldn't have read anything between the covers.
We'll…
February 20, 2009
The other day, I briefly mentioned this ridiculous "Faith of Britain" site that was full of woo-woo nonsense. Well, unsurprisingly, it turns out they're also cheap and unoriginal. Alongside a section that says this:
Faith of Britain Day will help us all overcome whatever obstacles and difficulties…
February 20, 2009
If you open your latest issue of New Scientist (unless, of course, you threw away your subscription), you'll find a nice little letter from three luminaries — Dennett, Coyne, and Dawkins — and one other guy explaining that Darwin was actually mostly right, contrary to a certain recent cover. Here's…
February 20, 2009
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February 20, 2009
There are several other versions online, and plans to sell them as full sized posters.
February 20, 2009
Carl Zimmer is a little bit peeved at the ever flexible standards of the media. If you're a science writer like he is, your articles get fact-checked until they bleed. If you're George Will, conservative pedant and pundit, not so much. The Washington Post seems to basically accept whatever he says…
February 20, 2009
Octopus cyanea
Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman.
February 19, 2009
I don't recommend reading Comfort's book, but I can whole-heartedly recommend the reviews of You Can Lead an Atheist to Evidence, But You Can't Make Him Think: Answers to Questions from Angry Skeptics as worthy and entertaining. As you might guess, they aren't kind.
The best review, though, gives…
February 19, 2009
This is a real letter from Muskegon, Michigan.
On the Feb. 8 "60 Minutes" program, we were captivated while viewing the Katie Couric interview of the crew and passengers of Flight 1549.
However, we were struck there was not one mention of God, who directs pilots of planes and secures the safety…
February 19, 2009
Diagramming sentences — I remember that, and not at all fondly. I'm sure there's a sensible purpose to it, but the English language is such a tangle that it was easy to say something trivial that would take ages for me to dissect and diagram. Don't ask me to do it now, I've forgotten every bit of…
February 19, 2009
I speculated that the Washington state ballot proposal was motivated by the recent noise over atheist displays in the state capitol, and I was wrong. An interview with the woman behind the proposal reveals several things: 1) she really is something of an incoherent dingleberry, and 2) the primary…
February 19, 2009
While Arkansas takes a small step forward, a few people in my home state of Washington want to take a great leap backwards. Some crank named Kimberlie Struiksma, who is apparently associated with education, has proposed to put a remarkably clueless measure onto the ballot. Behold Initiative Measure…
February 18, 2009
Christopher Hitchens is visiting Lebanon, where he was his bold bad self and defaced a poster for the Syrian Social Nationalist Party, and was beaten up for the act. I don't often agree with his politics, but the guy has massive brass.
February 18, 2009
There's going to be magic in Britain on 6 March.
It is a proven scientific fact that thinking about something often causes it to happen. Some call this quantum physics. Others simply call it "faith."
…and still others recognize it as the babbling of bilge-belching bliss-ninnies.
February 18, 2009
It's an ugly little open secret that Arkansas, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas have constitutions that explicitly forbid atheists from holding state office. These laws are archaic and unenforceable in principle — they were all ruled unconstitutional in…
February 18, 2009
A professor at the University of Vermont, Nicholas Gotelli, got an invitation to debate one of the clowns at the Discovery Institute. Here's what they wrote.
Dear Professor Gotelli,
I saw your op-ed in the Burlington Free Press and appreciated your support
of free speech at UVM. In light of that, I…
February 18, 2009
You may have heard that there is a new movie about Darwin in the works, Creation, starring Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly. We have a synopsis now, and it isn't good news.
The Darwin we meet in CREATION is a young, vibrant father, husband and friend whose mental and physical health gradually…