Paul Z. Meyers
pharyngula
Posts by this author
June 16, 2007
To be honest, I hadn't been following his career in years, but it's still sad to see that Pac Man has died. I am pleased to learn that at least he has left his body to science.
June 16, 2007
E-cards are annoying. Now what if you had e-cards that looked like they'd been drawn by a first-grader, that contain extraordinarily cheesy tinky-boop music that sounds like it came off a first generation Nintendo, and that recited hokey lies at you? You'd have Christian evolution e-cards. These…
June 16, 2007
There's a minor contretemps going on at scienceblogs — a few of our Original Content Providers are a bit peeved at certain abysmally uncreative sites that think they can get rich by collecting rss feeds and putting them on a site with google ads, while adding no original content of their own. I don…
June 16, 2007
Here's a nice story about a woman striking back at identity theft. She was robbed of $9,000 in 3 days (with even more long term grief) by a sleazoid who got financial information by breaking into her mail — and then she spotted the thief (recognized from a security camera photo) and got her…
June 16, 2007
Don't even try to tell me that science and religion are compatible — Phil has just encountered a perfect example of why they aren't. He's irritated that the jury at a trial used prayer to help them come to a decision, and he comes right out and says it: prayer doesn't work. That's an empirical and…
June 16, 2007
Oekologie #6
I and the Bird #18
Friday Ark #143
The next Tangled Bank will be held at Greg Laden's digs on 20 June — send those links in to me or host@tangledbank.net.
June 15, 2007
There isn't enough sacrilege going on here, so I've thrown a few pictures that must offend someone below the fold.
I hate to break the bad news to you all, but if you're reading this you're going to hell. Sorry.
(If you feel you aren't quite damned enough, each of those pictures is a link. Go…
June 15, 2007
A Cincinnati news weekly, the City Beat, has weighed in on the Creation "Museum". They don't seem to like it.
Here are some of the good quotes from the article.
Gene Kritsky, biologist:
it's almost like intellectual molestation.
Not only is it bad science, it is filled with bad religion, and it's…
June 15, 2007
Egnor's at it again, trying to support his idea of dualism. His latest example is much less insane than his last one, so this won't be as entertaining. There's actually a serious question imbedded in it.
He's using an analogy with a cell phone (personally, I think he'd have made much more sense if…
June 15, 2007
Call it a cheap shot, call it easy laughs…but why is it that it's so easy to find crazy preachers on your TV?
June 15, 2007
This is the last day to donate to the "Send Scalzi to the Creation Circus" game. Come on, people: if ever you've read one of his books, you know you want to torment him. Go ahead, get even. (Hmm...appealing to the extremely tiny population that has ever read a Scalzi book may not be the most potent…
June 15, 2007
Normally, I can't be motivated to read economics—no offense, economists, but I think the economics part of my brain got left behind on one of my many moves around the country, and it was locked in to one particular latitude and longitude anyway—but maybe adding a little swashbuckling and really bad…
June 15, 2007
Octopus marginatus, in a coconut shell
And here it is, taking a walk while holding its shell with a few arms (good thing it has spares).
Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman.
June 14, 2007
Most people who are planning to attend YearlyKos in Chicago are planning to do so because of all the politicians and wonks wandering around. Now there's a better reason to go: The Field Museum is going to have an exhibit you won't want to miss — Darwin!
Can you imagine how peeved I am that I can't…
June 14, 2007
This site has its heart in the right place, but it's more for theistic evolutionists than my kind—all the bowing and scraping to a creator god leaves me cold (especially since it seems to substitute hearty encouragement and reconciliation over actually discussing the evidence). But if that doesn't…
June 14, 2007
It's mid-month, and all you regulars know what that means: it's time to poll you guys for the winners of the Molly award for June. It's easy: just leave a comment with the name of the person you most enjoy stumbling across in the comment threads, I count 'em up, the winner gets the grand prize of…
June 14, 2007
Michael Egnor, tiresome little lackey of the DI that he is, is asking his readers to help me find out where altruism is located. I'm not going to link back to him—sorry, but I'm afraid it would only encourage him, and I don't want to be an enabler—but I will try to address his flawed question.
He…
June 14, 2007
Inside Higher Ed is reporting on a new sociological study that shows a greater frequency of rejection of religion by young people who don't attend college. We college professors aren't responsible!
Percent of Young Adults Reporting Religious Declines, by Level of Education
Educational Attainment…
June 14, 2007
In an unfortunate twist of fate for the former home of the Science Museum of Minnesota, the Church of Scientology is moving in.
The Church of Scientology has purchased the former Science Museum of Minnesota building in downtown St. Paul
Eric Rapp, a Welsh Cos. broker who marketed the space, said…
June 14, 2007
Well, you know it's not going to be a good article when it's found on Newsweek's goofy "Beliefwatch" section, and it has this kind of inauspicious beginning:
It may not be fair to call what's happening in the atheist community a backlash, since atheists have always been and continue to be one of…
June 14, 2007
It's true. This is pretty much how I start my day, every day.
What is that little junior assistant Satan's name, anyway? I bet it's nothing as cool as "PHARYNGULA, THE HARVESTER OF STILLBORN SOULS!".
June 14, 2007
(click for larger image)
Uh-oh. My actual identity has been exposed, and one of my true forms has actually been published in a publication of the American popular press. Now people are going to understand why I am so pro-choice: "I AM PHARYNGULA, THE HARVESTER OF STILLBORN SOULS!"
About the English…
June 14, 2007
Now, see, this is why you shouldn't read a gadgets & fashion magazine for information on science. Wired has run an awful little article that breathlessly claims that junk DNA ain't junk—it's all got a purpose, because opossum junk DNA is different from human junk DNA (I know, that makes no…
June 13, 2007
I mentioned before that there has been a peculiar silence on the ID blogs about Michael Behe's new book, The Edge of Evolution. Behe was the one marginally credible biologist on the Discovery Institute team, the guy who got everything rolling with Darwin's Black Box and their old magic mantra of "…
June 13, 2007
If you've ever wondered exactly what the weather is like where I'm at ("why, no, PZ, I never have, but you're going to tell me anyway, right?"), I've just learned that there is a little weather station directly above my head, accessible via the internet. This is good news, since it means I don't…
June 13, 2007
This is Gigantoraptor erlianensis, a newly described oviraptorosaur from late Cretaceous of China. It's a kind of nightmare version of Big Bird — it's estimated to have weighed about 1400kg (1½ tons for non-metric Americans).
Histological examination of the growth structure of the bones suggests…
June 13, 2007
And now Kent Hovind has transcribed one for us.
I don't know. God sounds like a condescending, sanctimonious dick to me. I think I'm rather glad we aren't friends.
June 13, 2007
While once I might have pined for an iPhone, I think right now I might prefer an rPhone. Arrr.
Watch out, Apple.
June 13, 2007
Chuck Colson has a list of the three greatest enemies of Christianity right now. They are:
Islam. It's "evil incarnate."
Atheism. It's "virulent."
Christian coffee shops??!?
OK, that last one is a little strange, but I had an epiphany. I'm sitting in a Christian-run coffee shop right now.…
June 13, 2007
An important change: UCL is reinstating Colquhoun's blog on its servers and has announced that it "continues strongly to support and uphold Professor Colquhoun's expression of uncompromising opinions as to the claims made for the effectiveness of treatments by the health supplements industry or…