Paul Z. Meyers
pharyngula
Posts by this author
May 30, 2007
I can almost understand plagiarizing Glenn Greenwald, but what is beyond comprehension is building a blog that seems to be entirely a mass of unattributed, plagiarized content. He's got sections in the sidebar for "Recent Posts" and "The Latest from Mark Mitchell", and I thought for a moment that…
May 30, 2007
Especially poems that talk about origami thoracotomies—they're like a shortcut to my heart.
May 30, 2007
There is a must-read article at Edge by Paul Bloom and Deena Skolnick Weisberg—it's an attempt to explain why people resist scientific knowledge that takes a psychological view of the phenomenon. The premise is that our brains have in-built simplifications and assumptions about how the world works…
May 29, 2007
A good way to recover from the fra…fra…frammmm… that topic is to go watch the freaky frogs. If it's late at night and dark where you are, though, don't watch them. The first one will creep you out, and the second one will deliver the coup de grace; you won't be able to get to sleep for fear of the…
May 29, 2007
When ever I try to read about "framing" anymore, I start to twitch and suffer from hysterical blindness, which makes it really hard to blog. Fortunately, Greg Laden has a stronger constitution than I do (either that, or anthropologists have access to exotic drugs that help them overcome), so I'll…
May 29, 2007
Let's encourage this trend of scientific societies coming out with unambiguous statements of support for good science. The latest addition is the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada-Ottawa Centre statement on evolution: it's short and to the point.
The RASC Ottawa Centre supports high standards of…
May 29, 2007
Here's a cute cartoon: Moral Orel learns about the book of Geniusis. I hadn't seen this series before, but it's much, much better than the preachy Davey and Goliath shows I remember seeing all the time as a kid (which I have just learned was of Lutheran origin. Figures. It was so darned bland.)
May 29, 2007
Stephen Jossler has made a dazzling breakthrough in reconciling science and religion. He believes evolution occurred by natural mechanisms during the whole of the history of the earth (science!), except during the Triassic period, when a creator god intervened to create the diversity of life during…
May 29, 2007
If you've recently had lunch, don't go to this opinion piece from a fanatical sports fan at Iowa State University. It will turn your stomach. It's a tirade against Hector Avalos, of course, who is apparently the man who runs ISU (it's amazing how holding an opinion contrary to the majority suddenly…
May 29, 2007
Seed and Honeywell are sponsoring a great opportunity for aspiring science writers: the Seed 2007 Science Writing Contest. All you have to do is write a 1200 word essay that answers these questions:
What does it mean to be scientifically literate in the 21st century?
How do we measure the…
May 29, 2007
Falwell may be dead, but his legacy continues. In fact, if I believed in demonic possession, I'd say his fiendish soul has popped into the body of a Polish woman (Kinky! Perhaps he had sublimated desires which he now indulges), Ewa Sowinska. Sowinska is a "chilren's rights watchdog", and she is…
May 29, 2007
Wilkins reveals that our good ol' US military is planning to use a major fossil site as a bombing range. This is a brilliant move by the evangelicals who are exercising greater and greater dominance of the armed forces. The obvious result is that rare, one-of-a-kind fossils will be pulverized and…
May 29, 2007
I knew the internet would come through with just the right clip and the relevant extracted words, so I wouldn't have to sit through the wretched miasma of the whole O'Reilly Factor to see Krauss vs. Ham, and here it is.
Jason has a transcript, if you'd prefer to read text rather than watch some…
May 29, 2007
You've probably all read Glenn Greenwald's withering dissection of a mock scandal ginned up by right-wing bloggers. If you haven't, you should—the short story is that the fact of a war falling into ignominious failure is driving the apologists to desperate acts of rationalization, and the latest…
May 28, 2007
That was a sigh of contentment. I went off to see the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie with very low expectations—like the last one, I expected an extremely muddled plot, lots of random noise that didn't carry the story forward, and many places where the movie could have been edited down a bit…
May 28, 2007
Dr Joan Bushwell makes a find: Mitch Benn's rock anthem to Richard Dawkins. It is most excellent party music.
May 28, 2007
The DefCon Blog has announced a horrific event tonight: Lawrence Krauss — he's the good guy — is going to be on Fox, with Ken Ham and Bill O'Reilly.
Sweet jebus.
The only reason I'd be curious to see that spectacle is to find out which side O'Reilly chooses to suck up to; my bet would be that he'…
May 28, 2007
I seem to have sort of accidentally won the Third Annual Satin Pajama Awards, in the category of Best Non-European Weblog. I really have got to be more careful when I sling my readership around—next time, I might put someone's eye out. It's gratifying to know the Europeans think I'm not bad for a…
May 28, 2007
The delusional creationists are everywhere, and the funny thing is how many of them consider themselves brilliant, well-informed, and objective, when what you discover on examining their claims is that they are foolish, ignorant, and blinded by religious bias — and obviously, they don't even know…
May 28, 2007
A couple of Los Angelenos visited Canada and found themselves feeling strangely relaxed…and they have an explanation.
Lovely Wife developed an excellent theory. The coffee at Tim Horton's, Canada's ubiquitous coffee chain, is heavily drugged. Canada would be a non-stop raging 28 Days Later…
May 28, 2007
By "we", I mean me and Richard Dawkins. I can't even imagine the volume of tripe that has to be flowing into his mailbox, but sometimes people send their important missives to both Dawkins and me (of course, I'm just an afterthought; the body of the letter is usually addressed to you-know-who). I'…
May 28, 2007
I have no idea what that crazy left-wing nutcase Tom Tomorrow is talking about in this week's comic—it's got these unrealistic aliens babbling unbelievable nonsense that just doesn't belong in the real world. Someone explain it to me.
May 28, 2007
Did you know that nature is a nice place, a kind of untamed Cute Overload where nobody ever gets an owie, there are no diseases or parasites, and everyone eats tofu? That seems to be what one school administrator in Florida believes, anyway.
A class was studying reptiles and a student brought in…
May 27, 2007
DefCon Blog has their own "Creation Museum" page, and amusingly, they hired a pilot to buzz the opening ceremonies with a banner that read "DefCon says thou shalt not lie". You can also download a short 4-page pdf by Lawrence Krauss that debunks the whole young earth nonsense — very handy!
May 27, 2007
No, don't hate me…but it's more carnivals. I'm catching up on all this stuff that was sent to me.
Besides, it's a holiday weekend, right? You're going to be out there on the deck, tending the BBQ, with your laptop at hand for wireless browsing between the burger flipping, anyway, just like me. So…
May 27, 2007
If the Creation Museum carnival hasn't got you completely carnivaled out yet, it's also time for the Carnival of the Godless #67. Maybe if we started serving Hurricanes in a 44 oz. cup and tossing bead necklaces around, we could get through it all. And where's the marching atheist jazz band when…
May 27, 2007
Not mine—the weirder and more peculiar the food, the more likely I am to snarf it down—but those of certain other members of the Myers clan whose identities I will abstain from mentioning, lest they decide to add some really interesting ingredients to my next meal. Anyway, it's an interesting study…
May 27, 2007
This is an ugly story, and it's ugly on both sides. First, rude students make a nasty, mocking video of one of their teachers and post it to YouTube, which is bad enough; these are kids who definitely need some discipline. But then the school district suspends the students for 40 days in punishment…
May 27, 2007
This week, the creationist Ken Ham and his organization, Answers in Genesis, are practicing the Big Lie. They have spent tens of millions of dollars to create a glossy simulacrum of a museum, a slick imitation of a scientific enterprise veneered over long disproved religious fables, and they are…