Paul Z. Meyers
pharyngula
Posts by this author
October 12, 2007
Watasenia scintellans
Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman.
October 11, 2007
I was sitting down this evening to write up this nifty new paper from the Carroll lab, when I noticed that Carl Zimmer beat me to it. Dang. There are all these other bloggers around here, and it's hard to keep on top of all of them, all at once.
Go read it anyway. It's good stuff, all about the…
October 11, 2007
We've got a question going around: it's been a good year for Europe in the Nobel Prizes, so what does it mean for American science? Are we slipping? Is there a European bias?
I'm going to go way out here on a limb and say the obvious: it means nothing at all. Winning a Nobel does have a political…
October 11, 2007
I must be the last one to hop on this bandwagon — only because I had to give everyone else a chance first, you know, I wouldn't want to drain all the donors* — but now it's about time I joined in. Scienceblogs is working to raise money for teachers, and we need you all to chip in and donate to…
October 11, 2007
John is right. This is in the running for the dumbest theist argument ever.
The atheist might say, "Well, I can reason just fine, and I don't believe in God." But this is no different than the critic of air saying, "Well, I can breathe just fine, and I don't believe in air." This isn't a rational…
October 11, 2007
Here's a nice collection of anti-creationism cartoons, all in one place. Very handy!
(via Greg Laden)
October 11, 2007
Who knew I'd ever be grateful to Fox? They ran a pathetic scare story about Air America waging a war against god (they seem to spend the most time reassuring themselves that those atheists are small in numbers), but the useful thing about it is that it did manage to let me know that there is…
October 11, 2007
If you'd like a less intemperate and bloodcurdling review of The Spiritual Brain than mine, here's one from a professor of religion.
He doesn't seem to like it much, either.
October 11, 2007
Since we have a few people who seem to like poetry here, I thought you might be amused by some Christian poems. Actually, if you like and respect poetry, you might not want to click through that link—this is poetry like throwing a cat in a woodchipper is music. I've included a few small fragments…
October 10, 2007
November 13, on PBS's Nova: "Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial."
I think I'll try to catch that one.
October 10, 2007
David Horowitz (you all remember him, right? Deranged anti-intellectual wanker?) He has declared 22-26 October to be Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week, to be represented with talks by such towering intellects as Rick Santorum, Ann Coulter, and Sean Hannity.
Brian Leiter has a complementary suggestion:…
October 10, 2007
Prison doesn't seem to be helping Kent Hovind face the facts. He has these blog entries where he writes down these little imaginary conversations with god, who tells poor Kent how wonderful he is and how important his suffering is; in the latest, Hovind insists that he's innocent — of course God…
October 10, 2007
I wouldn't normally just publish a press release here, but in this case, 1) it's an important issue, the Republican squashing of the SCHIP bill to reauthorize a health insurance program for poor children, 2) it's about Michele Bachmann, a truly contemptible creature of the far right wing, and 3) my…
October 10, 2007
This is a nicely done periodic table on the web — I particularly liked the little slider that would let me change the temperature and see which ones would melt and boil.
October 10, 2007
I think we're going to have to name Cuttlefish the Pharyngula Poet Laureate. Since so many people liked the sweet little poem about Gary Aldridge left in the comments, here it is for more to admire. (If you have no idea who Gary Aldridge is, here's a reminder).
We gather here to eulogize
The…
October 10, 2007
Speaking of bad teaching and schools that screw up under community pressure, it looks like we have an ugly story here in Morris. Last week, the student at the Morris Area High School were released from classes (you know, those sessions where they are supposed to learn something) to listen to some…
October 10, 2007
The creationists don't have to win their court cases to have an effect: all they have to do is threaten and badger teachers, and they effectively intimidate many into avoiding evolution, or work to make sure qualified science teachers don't get hired at all. It happens here, and now it's happening…
October 10, 2007
When you think of Uncommon Descent (something I'm sure we all avoid as much as possible), the weblog of Bill Dembski and friends, what is the first thing that comes to mind? Maybe Intelligent Design advocacy is near the top, but their pyrrhic censorship policies have also got to be up there. At…
October 10, 2007
That conservative Christian who offed himself in an autoerotic embarrassment? That's simply sad, and reflects poorly on a repressive culture. This story, of a Catholic priest who collaborated in kidnappings and torture, is just plain evil, and is something completely different.
Christian Von…
October 9, 2007
Early Cambrian shrimp! I just had to share this pretty little fellow, a newly described eucrustacean from the lower Cambrian, about 525 million years ago. It's small — the larva here is about 1.8mm long, and the adults are thought to have been 3mm long — but it was probably numerous, and I like to…
October 9, 2007
You know, when a conservative Christian minister, graduate of Liberty University, and friend of Jerry Falwell is found dead under these circumstances…
Clothing: The decedent was received wearing two (2) wet suits, one scuba diving mask, one pair of diving gloves, one pair of slippers, one pair of…
October 9, 2007
My students are getting their first take-home exam in neurobiology tomorrow, and I'm using this entry to give them a convenient link to a paper they're expected to analyze. The rest of you people can just ignore this.
1. We've discussed the ionic basis of the action potential and had an overview of…
October 9, 2007
This is an excellent brief overview of the crucial problems in American education by Ed Lazowska, a computer scientist and engineer at the University of Washington who also served on an advisory committee under GW Bush. From his first hand view, he does not seem kindly disposed towards Republican…
October 9, 2007
We're seeing an ugly form of intolerance creeping into the western states, carried with slavic evangelicals who hate homosexuals.
A growing and ferocious anti-gay movement in the Sacramento Valley is centered among Russian- and Ukrainian-speaking immigrants. Many of them are members of an…
October 9, 2007
Happy news for Stevens County: Senate Candidate Al Franken will be speaking in Morris this Thursday (Oct. 11) at 7:00 in the Science Auditorium on the UMM campus, in a talk is sponsored by the UMM College Democrats. No charge, open to the public, everyone should come.
I'll be there!
October 9, 2007
The latest round of indignant lawsuits by those irked at negative reviews: Left Behind Games isn't too happy with their game's reception in the blogosphere, so they've started sending out threats of lawsuits to silence the critics. One of the letters is online, another target is Daily Kos, and…
October 9, 2007
As I mentioned earlier, I'm going to be in Madison this weekend for the Freedom from Religion Foundation convention. A bunch of IIDBers are also attending, and they've suggested a meetup over lunch (12-2) on Saturday, the 13th, at an Irish pub called Brocach. That sounds good to me — a meeting of…
October 9, 2007
Another Republican has been caught playing footsie in a bathroom stall. And he's got such a perfect Republican name — Joey DiFatta — and such a perfect Republican look — pale and plump — that I hate to see him go.
There's only one thing we can do. We have to make toe-tapping illegal. It's obviously…
October 9, 2007
I have to hammer on one more thing from Sam Harris's reply. He objects to the label "atheism" because it will chase away people who do not want to … well, read what he says.
They have read the writings of the "new atheists," sent us letters and emails of support, are quite fond of criticizing…