pharyngula

The Republicans have a secret weapon, one that is going to be unstoppable, and probably means they are going to dominate both houses of Congress. Phil has discovered (via Randi, who also has another useful item) the most potent electoral tool in the Republican arsenal—better than fear and hate,…

Our regularly scheduled host has been incommunicado, but fortunately, Josh Rosenau heroically stepped into the breach and has delivered a last-minute Tangled Bank #65 to us.

I'm not usually a fan of country music, but I might have to make an exception for the Dixie Chicks.

For any locals who are curious about that Mike Adams character who gave a talk on campus yesterday, Bartholomew's notes on religion has a good summary of his career as a professional victim. There's also a more complete account of the terrible oppression Adams faced after his response to the 9/11…

Skeptics' Circle #46 I and the Bird #35 Carnival of the Liberals #24 Friday Ark #110 By the way, the mysterious disappearance of this week's Tangled Bank host is still unexplained, but Thoughts from Kansas has stepped forward to fill in the gap (thanks to you others who volunteered, too—I…

Last week, I was told that I have a "god-shaped hole in my heart." My first thought was to reply that no, I have a perfectly intact heart thick with good strong sheets of muscle, but of course, that would have proven his point, that I've willingly replaced the Holy Ghost with actin and myosin, and…

As everyone knows (or should know), October is the month named in honor of the octopus, and we're supposed to celebrate cephalopods every day. It culminates in the great festival of Octoween, when all the good children who keep molluscs in their heart are rewarded with sushi, while all the wicked…

If I were in Philadelphia next week, I'd be at the Mütter Museum on Tuesday, where to celebrate the macabre holiday they are showing Tod Browning's Freaks. One of the most disturbing museums in the world and one of the most disturbing movies of all time…how can you pass up a combination like that…

Indo-Malayan mimic octopus (from National Geographic News)

I did manage to get to Mike S. Adams' talk here at UMM. It was a packed room (not our biggest lecture room here, but it was filled to capacity) and I arrived late, so I had to stand outside the door to listen in. Kudos to our students, who were polite and attentive, and let him blather on without…

The remains of Lucy, the famous fossil australopithecine, are going to be touring the US for the next few years. Start lining up. It's opening in Houston. The six-year tour will also go to Washington, New York, Denver and Chicago. Officials said six other U.S. cities may be on the tour. But they…

As a vanity plate, it's trite; on that particular plate, it's disturbing and subversive. I laughed and laughed.

Of course you do. Would you believe there is now a thousand dollar scholarship for students who blog? And you can nominate yourself?

I got a query about this old article of mine, which stirred up a good bit of discussion back in the day, since it is on a subject truly important to academics…so I thought I'd resurrect it and see if my more recent and larger audience can be driven to equally passionate arguments pro and con.…

The NY Times is reporting that Ohio scientists are nearly unanimous in mobilizing for the school board election there—and they aren't on the side of creationists like Deborah Owens Fink. It's interesting that we're seeing such activism from scientists; the response from the creationists is also…

My daughter had mentioned something a while back about some speaker named Mike Adams coming to UMM, and that she'd get extra credit for attending, but it didn't sink in until I saw the signs around campus. It's this Mike S. Adams, columnist for TownHall, Horowitzian shill, anti-feminist,…

Female Science Professor is polling her readers on what's on their computer desktop. It's not a weird question pulled out of thin air: she noted that male professors may be more comfortable showing pictures of their families than females, who have to be more sensitive to the stereotypes. It's not a…

It's too bad avian faces are so expressionless, because you have to wonder what these two birds were thinking.

Ummm, anyone know anything about this week's host for the Tangled Bank? It's supposed to be at http://metaanalyses.blogspot.com/, but that site immediately bumps me into a redirect to something else. I also haven't heard back from the host—if anyone knows him (or if you are him), drop me a line and…

For those who were as appalled at yesterday's anatomically bizarre comic book squid as I was, G. Tingey sent me a scan of a palate-cleansing, nicely done image from a Dan Dare comic book. You can click on it to see the whole page (about 200K, though). That's a much better drawn squid. It seems to…

Look who's coming to campaign for Michele Bachmann: the home school kids of Patrick Henry College and Generation Joshua. Abram Olmstead- Upperclassman, Patrick Henry College Meredith Schultz- Student, Patrick Henry College Adrienne Cumbus- Upperclassman, Patrick Henry College Ioanna Lily Cornett-…

Remember those silly Chuck Norris Facts? Ever wonder what Chuck Norris thinks of them (well, actually, I didn't…so don't feel bad if you didn't care)? It's sad to see that we had to find out, since all we learn is that Norris is as dumb as a brick. Chuck Norris actually responds to the jokes—in an…

Here.

Warren sent me link from The Indigestible, wondering if I was interested in these kinds of speculative questions about the existence of alien life. Why, yes I am...and even wrote something along the same lines a few years ago, coming to the same conclusions: I think intelligent extraterrestrials…

Perhaps it doesn't fit your stereotypes of what Minnesotans are like, but there are also freaky wild parties with cocaine and huge…huge…well, you know. Watch the video to find out. I think it's shot in Lake Wobegone, actually.

Here's an interesting collection of scans from a defunct comic book called Action. It's rather grisly—most of the action seems to involve people being bloodily devoured by marine organisms—so don't look if you'd rather not see people getting pulped in a shark's jaws. This comic book was apparently…

Did anyone else get this spam from "Extreme Evangelism", or am I just special? What if I told you that you could hold an event for your community and that 90% of the people who attended would be unsaved. What if I then told you that in most communities at least 1000 people would show up. And what…

I've seen an email that cites that crappy Eagleton review of The God Delusion that seems to think this quote is somehow a significant rebuttal of the book, rather than an indictment of the reviewer's ability to comprehend the book without inserting his own biases against atheism into it. Such is…

There is a treasure trove in China: the well-preserved phosphatized embryos of the Doushantuo formation, a sampling of the developmental events in ancient metazoans between 551 and 635 million years ago. These are splendid specimens that give us a peek at some awesomely fragile organisms, and…