Paul Z. Meyers
pharyngula
Posts by this author
November 29, 2006
The neurophilosopher writes on the virtues of being ugly—there's actually a good reason why bat faces are decorated with odd protrusions and lumps and folds. Maybe "Yo momma echolocates" would be a good insult to remember.
November 29, 2006
Since Nick Matzke has become a fanboy, and Larry Moran has never heard of him, I thought I'd mention that I've liked Neil deGrasse Tyson's column (titled "Universe") in Natural History for a long time. It is generally on astronomy/astrophysics/cosmology, so it's far afield from my usual comfort…
November 29, 2006
Sean notes without comment a piece on how Muslims should find Mecca when traveling in space. I am in awe of the mind that could write this.
A user-friendly, portable Muslims in Space calculator , could determine the direction of the Qiblah and prayer times on the ISS. Its essential feature would be…
November 29, 2006
Microsoft has added everything to a search engine that you've missed in Google: long load times, half of the screen space dedicated to flash animation and another quarter just empty charcoal grey, results that are shown 3 at a time and displayed in a light gray font on a distracting pale graphic,…
November 29, 2006
The Onion reports on the latest anti-evolution tactic.
In response to a Nov. 7 referendum, Kansas lawmakers passed emergency legislation outlawing evolution, the highly controversial process responsible for the development and diversity of species and the continued survival of all life.
"From now…
November 28, 2006
Ah, Aplysia. Also known as the sea hare, Aplysia is a common preparation used in neurobiology labs; it's a good sized beastie with the interesting defense mechanism of spewing out clouds of mucusy slime and purple ink when agitated. I well remember coming into the physiology lab in the morning to…
November 28, 2006
A miracle has occurred in Florida!
The Ten Commandments have appeared at the Dixie County Courthouse.
A six-ton block of granite bearing the Ten Commandments had been installed atop the courthouse steps. Inscribed at the base was the admonition to "Love God and keep his commandments."
The concept…
November 28, 2006
I'm not a big fan of Steven Pinker's work, but I have to agree with just about everything he says in this letter arguing against the planned "Reason and Faith" requirement at Harvard.
First, the word "faith" in this and many other contexts, is a euphemism for "religion." An egregious example is the…
November 28, 2006
As we sober academics are fond of saying, "Squeeee!"
Now I can get my own Cephalopodmas tentacle loaded with chthonic Cephalopodmas carols. I'm definitely putting this on my Cephalopodmas list.
November 28, 2006
Acephalous is trying to measure the rate of propagation of links across the net. He's asking everyone to link to his post (so this may just be shameless blog-whoring under the guise of doing science), exhort our readers to do likewise, and he's going to be monitoring its movement through Technorati…
November 28, 2006
My eyes have been opened. All this time, I've simply been taking for granted a common biological theory, and now that I've been alerted to the controversy, I've had to rethink the evidence. I've merely assumed that sexual reproductionism is valid. This fellow has completely ripped the idea apart.…
November 27, 2006
It has been officially determined that you are not allowed to have sex with animals, even if they are dead.
I'm now getting a weird vibe off of these natural lamb condoms…are they illegal in Wisconsin now? I also think this device has acquired a new level of perversion.
November 27, 2006
There is this woman in Colorado who's being sued for displaying a peace symbol on her home—it's very weird.
A homeowners association in southwestern Colorado has threatened to fine a resident $25 a day until she removes a Christmas wreath with a peace sign that some say is an anti-Iraq war protest…
November 27, 2006
Deepak Chopra continues his weird riff on Dawkins The God Delusion with an eruption of New Age babble. This time he says he's going to do a "thought experiment" to disprove materialism. It doesn't.
Think of a yellow flower. Can you see it? Are you sure of the color and the fact that it's a flower…
November 27, 2006
Lots of you have been alerting me to this op-ed in the NY Times, but I have to confess that I read it, and Richard A. Schweder makes no sense at all in his "Atheists Agonistes" article. His conclusion seems to be that we should stop "waging intellectual battles over the existence of god(s)", but…
November 27, 2006
Jesus' General is poking fun at Mitt Romney's weird religious doctrines (he's a Mormon). This isn't right. I demand that he give equal time to pointing out the silliness of Hillary Clinton's (Methodist), John Kerry's (Catholic), Russ Feingold's (Jewish), and John McCain's (whatever will get him the…
November 27, 2006
They're befuddled over there in the UK—I know that when I visited, I seemed to down a couple of pints of that potent stuff every day, so I'm assuming the natives must also be living in a constant state of alcohol saturation. Right? It's the only explanation I can think of for the latest burst of…
November 27, 2006
This is a troubling development, and perhaps some members of the National Science Teachers Association in the readership here know something about it. They seem to be in the pocket of the oil industry.
In tomorrow’s Washington Post, global warming activist Laurie David writes about her effort to…
November 26, 2006
Just to squeeze in a couple of the Sunday carnivals here…
The Synapse #12
Carnival of the Godless #54
November 26, 2006
I've just started reading Wilson's The Creation(amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), and I'm enjoying it—my wife read it first and recommends it, too—and I wish it would help. I'm a bit cynical, though, especially since I just mentioned the sad affair of Joel Hunter (certain evangelical Christians refuse to…
November 26, 2006
The first sentence of a conservative blog post:
The November 15 edition of "The Colbert Report" on Comedy Central offered more proof of comedian Stephen Colbert's ineffective charade at pretending to be a conservative.
It's been on the air for 13 months, and now with shock and dismay they suddenly…
November 26, 2006
This fellow, Daniel J. Lewis, from Answers in Genesis has come along and requested a space to defend creationism.
Then if the blog administrator allows it, I'm available to publicly discuss creation vs. evolution if we can do so on level, intelligent grounds without childish attacks. You can start…
November 26, 2006
Amanda has an interesting article on cities trying to maintain and attract their educated class—and it includes a nice map of the frequency of college graduates by US counties. I just had to point out that it's easy to spot Stevens County, where I live—it's the orange square in a sea of paleness.…
November 26, 2006
What's really important to the Christian Coalition?
The Rev. Joel Hunter, of Northland, A Church Distributed, in Longwood, Fla., said he quit as president-elect of the group founded by evangelist Pat Robertson because he realized he would be unable to broaden the organization's agenda beyond…
November 26, 2006
This fellow, Bob Averill, is a Portland atheist who was attending the Art Institute there. You won't believe what happened to him recently.
In the classroom that day, Averill says one young woman was talking about her belief in energy layers and astral beings.
"I jokingly asked her if she believed…
November 25, 2006
First, I have to assure you that Duluth is nowhere near Morris. It's 240 miles away, on the other side of the state. Besides, the guy is from Wisconsin.
Second, to answer the question raised, I don't think it should be illegal to have sex with a dead animal. It's sick and disgusting, but no one is…
November 25, 2006
This tasering stuff is getting a little out of hand:
ABC News report that Oakland police tasered a man having an epileptic seizure because he became agitated when restrained. They subsequently prosecuted him for assault and disorderly conduct. You couldn't make it up if you tried.
Oh, I don't know…
November 25, 2006
Stop him before he assaults his readers' minds again: Chopra babbles about consciousness and the brain. Supposedly, this is a response to something in The God Delusion, but Dawkins really doesn't discuss mechanisms of consciousness much at all (the book is a little bit excessively broad as it is,…
November 25, 2006
If you looked like that, you'd be very sad, too. Especially if you'd just been trawled up from your nice home a thousand meters beneath the sea and made to pose for a photographer.
(via Jeffrey Shallit)
November 25, 2006
For instance, you can say, "And I say evolution is only a theory," and the only consequences you might face are the risks of being elected to high political position as a Republican.