Paul Z. Meyers
pharyngula
Posts by this author
May 23, 2006
The Tangled Bank will be appearing at Science and Politics tomorrow. Get your submissions in to Coturnix, me, or host@tangledbank.net now!
May 22, 2006
Just wait—I have an inside scoop on amazing insights into biology that will definitely win me a Nobel prize. I have to thank Eve for leading me to this incredible prophetic knowledge.
Who among you has heard light lately? Many doubt me. Watch for this: Someday your science is going to show that…
May 22, 2006
Chad reports a not-so-subtle message from a science conference:
The annoying thing was the peripheral message-- she took pains to state several times that both Democrats and Republicans in Congress support science, in a tone that basically came across as chiding us for thinking otherwise. That was…
May 22, 2006
I'm going to briefly summarize an interesting new article on cnidarian Hox genes…unfortunately, it requires a bit of background to put it in context, so bear with me for a moment.
First you need to understand what Hox genes are. They are transcription factors that use a particular DNA binding…
May 22, 2006
My schedule for the first 3 weeks of June was looking hectic, so it was actually with some sense of relief that I flipped open the PDA and scribbled in the fact that a comet will smash into the earth on 25 May.
I haven't yet been confident enough to erase all my post-apocalyptic appointments,…
May 21, 2006
Rabbits are the most freaky of all mammals (right, Chris?) They're thriving, though—they're all over my lawn, and if this summer is anything like last year, I'll have to go out about once a week and scrape one off the road running by my house.
I did not know that interesting fact about their…
May 21, 2006
August Berkshire, the other atheist in Minnesota (well, there are a few others), has a fine piece in the Strib on that frothy mix of morality and religion—Rabbi Shafran ought to read it.
The Bible is like a Rorschach inkblot test: you can see just about anything you want in it. That is why…
May 21, 2006
There is no more reverent way to wake to a fine Sunday morning than to discover another religious zealot punching himself in the face. Repeatedly. The Rabbi Avi Shafran is waxing indignant in a syndicated article that is popping up all over the place, in which he tries to denounce Zizek's most…
May 20, 2006
She's brave and honest, and she doesn't hide her full objectives.
I am a Protestant who opposes contraception, not only because some of its forms may cause abortions, but also—moreso—because the thinking behind contraception makes it the forerunner to abortion.
That's a simple, clear, and…
May 20, 2006
I have never had a student this stupid.
I'm not a Democrat! I don't think I should have to listen to this stuff!
May 20, 2006
Uncritical journalists piss me off. Uncritical religious people piss me off, too, but it's their natural state at least. When the two converge, as they typically do on the religion pages, I turn purple and start shredding newsprint (which is why I usually avoid reading the religion pages). Today,…
May 20, 2006
Right-wing crank Mark Steyn plagiarizes his way through another exercise in formulaic hackery. Alas, he will not have died a painful and horrible death by page 2.
I'd flunk him, too, and I'd also report him to the academic integrity committee. He'd probably complain that I'm out to get him, though.
May 20, 2006
Seeing ourselves as others do can be a strange experience. Here's an article in the Humboldt County Times Standard that discusses Morris, Minnesota, and pretty much exclusively praises us.
Recently I was listening to Garrison Keillor's "A Prairie Home Companion." I had to pull my car over to the…
May 19, 2006
Huh. I'd been wondering why I've been getting so much complaining email lately, defending Pensacola Christian College.
Pz Myers,
I'm A Christian. I came across your blog when searching for PCC in Pensacola FL. This web site was the first on the list. I of course disagree with you, but I do know…
May 19, 2006
Ken Cope sent me this link to Pirate Baby's Cabana Battle Street Fight 2006.
He did not tell me to drop acid before watching it, and he could have at least warned me about the epileptic seizures I'd be having near the end (the ending itself, though, is beautiful).
And what's with all the hostility…
May 19, 2006
The new weekly question is:
"If you could shake the public and make them understand one scientific idea, what would it be?"
I'm going to get all fundamentalist on this one. The one thing I wish everyone understood is…
Math.
I know, it's cheating, and it's a whole wide range of concepts rather than…
May 19, 2006
It's easy: less scientific rigor, and get rid of pesky controls.
May 19, 2006
Four of my favorite things are development, evolution, and breasts, and now I have an article that ties them all together in one pretty package. It's a speculative story at this point, but the weight of the evidence marshaled in support of the premise is impressive: the mammalian breast first…
May 19, 2006
Human milk is potent stuff. The Greek for milk was gala, and as you might be able to see if I hadn't had to reduce this Tintoretto so much, the galaxies were created from the spray of milk from Hera's breasts. Modern astronomers might quibble with that explanation of the origins of the extrasolar…
May 19, 2006
Vitrelodonella richardi, the glass octopus
Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman.
May 19, 2006
Looks like I'm going to be sitting on a panel with Wesley Clark—he's on the climate change bandwagon.
May 18, 2006
The hype machine for that drecky novel and movie, The DaVinci Code, is rather appalling: I simply don't see what the appeal is in a poorly written and unbelievable conspiracy theory about Jesus, and the protestations from Catholics are accomplishing nothing other than to fuel further interest in a…
May 18, 2006
We have a few carnivals up today:
Animalcules 1.8
Carnival of Education #67
Note also that the Tangled Bank will be appearing at Science and Politics next Wednesday. It's time to start sending in links to Coturnix, me, or host@tangledbank.net.
May 18, 2006
Clear off a space on the floor near you, because soon you'll be rolling around laughing on it.
You may recall that John A. Davison, infamous advocate of Intelligent Design, started a blog of his own, titled Prescribed Evolution, back in November of 2005. It generated a lot of hilarity because it…
May 18, 2006
Rumor has it that Scalzi is fixing lunch. At least, that's what pLittle implies, although take that with this grain of salt.
May 18, 2006
While we're delving into the right wing fever swamps, take a look at this unintentionally funny post by Indian Cowboy. I was astounded: I thought Lucky Ducky was only a joke found in the comic strips and the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal, yet there the concept lies, taken seriously by…
May 18, 2006
Jer 14:14 Then the LORD said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them: they prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their heart.
Jer 14:14 Then the LORD said unto me,…
May 18, 2006
For all the people saying this massacre couldn't have happened, and that those who expose it are traitors: let me remind you of My Lai. It has been 38 years, so many have forgotten.
Gary has a link there that will lead you deep into the right wing fever swamp. It's creepy how those on that…
May 18, 2006
Johnny Depp sure is cute, but the fellow I'm swooning over in the Pirates of the Caribbean trailer is Davy Jones. He can play the organ with his face! (And that is a provocative sentence…)
I'm also impressed that he can summon up the Kraken. It's like this whole movie is stuffed full of tentacles—…