pharyngula

Deepak Chopra is incredible. After sticking his foot in his mouth once already with an awful article on genes, he then proceeds to kick himself in the teeth, followed by an attempt to turn himself inside out. No, I'm sorry, I simply can't read the Huffington Post as long as this clown graces its…

It's always good to see foreign governments promoting sensible motions like this: That this House shares the concerns of the British Centre for Science Education that the literature being sent to every school in the United Kingdom by the creationist religious group Truth in Science is full of…

Since John Wilkins also made the pilgrimage to Down House this past July, we had to one-up him and find something he hadn't seen—and here it is. There was a laboratory space behind the greenhouses that he hadn't been able to enter, but we could, and inside was a beehive and…worm pots! The placard…

What the hell? How can the BBC News publish this tripe? But in the nearer future, humans will evolve in 1,000 years into giants between 6ft and 7ft tall, he predicts, while life-spans will have extended to 120 years, Dr Curry claims. Physical appearance, driven by indicators of health, youth and…

I'm back! Well, sorta. I spent 22 hours traveling from London to Morris yesterday, and didn't get home until 1am. I got about 3 hours sleep before the circadian rhythms kicked in, and my suprachiasmatic nucleus started kicking the reticular formation into high alert, trying to convince it I was…

I'm on the way home, so let's get a little religion in the comments.

Party thread!

You want to see a few more of my travel pictures, don't you? Yesterday, we got on the Seven Oaks line leaving Victoria Station, and ended up at Bromley South, where we were met by our faithful native guide, Robin Levett. He drove us through narrow, winding country roads to the tiny town of Downe.…

How could I forget the big lady at the Natural History Museum? We also got to meet Archy. Cute, isn't she? She was also impressive in person—that's one big squid.

Spot Hugh Laurie in the comments.

We had a big crowd yesterday—20 or more people showed up at the Natural History Museum for our London Howlerfest. We spent a few hours strolling through the museum, a few more hours at a nearby pub (I don't recall the name of the pub, but I do remember London Pride, Wildcat, and Wicked Witch), and…

The latest Tangled Bank is online (a little bit late) at Neurophilosophy. My notice is a little bit late, too, but in one of those odd coincidences, it's because I'm in London…as is this week's host, and I met him at the natural history museum yesterday. Better late than never, and just in case…

There was an annoying interview with Richard Dawkins in Salon yesterday, which, unfortunately, I wasn't able to read until today because… …I was getting the story straight from the horse's mouth. The interview is annoying, not because of Dawkins, but because of the interviewer. It leads in with…

Get an eyeful in the comments.

I was out visiting a few people yesterday. Guess who. Remember, I'll be at the Natural History Museum this afternoon at 2:00 for the London Howlerfest!

Take a moment and get caught up in these tangles of links: Friday Ark #108 Carnival of Education #88 Carnival of the Liberals #23 Skeptics' Circle #45 Philosophia Naturalis #2 Otherwise, chat among yourselves (hmmm…seems to be a lot of these open threads around here lately. Don't worry, next…

Amphitretus pelagicus Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman.

Frolic in the comments. Put those hankies down!

She's on YouTube, accusing her opponent of believing in evolution. Wow. That wins me over.

That's the estimated toll in Iraqi lives from our invasion. That's an awful lot of commas.

Yesterday, I toured the Tower of London (among other things) with Larry Moran. For those of you who don't know him, he's one of the more ferocious combatants in the evolution-creation wars—he does not suffer fools, gladly or otherwise. He ended up in a few of my photos, in a disturbingly…

Come in from the cold and say something.

There is a tradition among the regulars of the usenet group talk.origins to have occasional gatherings, usually at some major locus of evolutionary activity, and accompanied by beer. Such an event will be happening this Saturday, in London. We'll be meeting on these steps at 2pm: That's the…

Where else could I go but to the only respectable church in all of Christendom? It was most cool to step out of the Tube station and look up and recognize this rather huge, ornate building. We walked around this elaborate pile, guarded by grim-looking fellows carrying nasty big guns. There was…

Get cosmic in the comments.

I have confirmation from both my son (who was there) and Eva that Patty Wetterling did address the question about whether ID ought to be taught in the schools in a recent debate. Here's what she said: We need to teach the truth about science. Evolution is scientifically accurate. We can't let our…

Steve Sailer, of course. While I'm out of town, my introductory biology students are getting a lecture on species concepts and systematics from one of my colleagues, and it fits in perfectly with that link, too. In my absence even, freshman college students are smarter and better informed than…

I'm wandering off in the UK, and I have no idea how much net accessibility I'll have…so I'll just set up an open thread and let you all chat away. If I can, I'll try to put up travel photos now and then.

Roger Koopman.

Eva sent me a link to a wingnut's account of a debate between some 6th Congressional District candidates: Patty Wetterling (Democrat), John Binkowski (Independent), and Michele Bachmann (Rethuglican). It's not a very good transcription—for one thing, the wingnut's commentary is all tangled up with…