humor
pharyngula | March 2, 2009Our local school boards tend to be institutions of endless tedium punctuated by madness. One bold innovator seeks to change this situation by increasing the insanity.
"Our schools are orderly, sanitary places where students dwell in blissful ignorance of the chaos that awaits," West said. "Should our facilities be repaired? No, they must be razed to the ground and rebuilt in the image of the Cyclopean dwellings of the Elder Gods, the very geometry of which will drive them to be possessed by visions of the realms beyond."
I like it! It definitely beats the usual creationist lunacy.
pharyngula | March 2, 2009It's hard, you try it: it's the Religion 101 final exam. I sure hope they post the answer key sometime.
Although…if it's evaluated in the same way religion is, maybe any answer will do, and I've actually aced it.
Oh, wait — I answered it the atheist way, which is to leave it blank. That's probably the one way you're guaranteed to get stern angry looks from the teacher and expulsion from the whole school.
evolvingthoughts | March 1, 2009Actually, this one is better called "Darwin was a racist", but as the text concerned is from the same source as those claims, I thought it might be easier to evaluate a single claim and generalise from that.
Our gospel for today is chapters V and VI of The Descent of Man, published in 1871.
If you read Darwin sloppily, or to find evidence that he really was a Very Bad Man for rhetorical - usually religious - purposes, you soon come across this statement. In fact, you can find paraphrases of it in literally hundreds of creationist documents and sites. Here is the offending passage, from…
oracknows | March 1, 2009I can't argue with that:
I'd mention that the same thing applies to nerd boys. I know, given that I used to be one and now, thirty years on, remain arguably a nerd man.
(Via Stupid Evil Bastard)
(Yeah, I know I basically took the weekend off, posting only a couple of videos. Don't worry, the usual insolence will return tomorrow. I was just a bit tired after all the brouhaha we had here last week with certain antivaccinationists.)
pharyngula | February 28, 2009Who knew that all you had to do is change the definition of "atheist"? Put on your sunglasses and visit this site—the color scheme is classic fluorescent kook—and you will discover that atheists are people who deny the divinity of Jesus Christ. Period. Which means…
James van Praagh, loopy psychic medium and newager, is an atheist!
All Jews…atheists!
Muslims…atheists!
Martin Luther King…atheist! (Wait, what?)
I like this game. Atheists also deny the divinity of Thor, which means…Christians are atheists!
There. Now that we've taken over the world, I think I deserve to go have some ice cream.
clock | February 28, 2009Because they are more realistic than the MSM - this clip is even more relevant today than it was when first released:
pharyngula | February 27, 2009An analysis of the consumption of internet pornography found that there are only small differences between states, but that there are some patterns. The patterns will not surprise anyone.
The biggest consumer, Utah, averaged 5.47 adult content subscriptions per 1000 home broadband users; Montana bought the least with 1.92 per 1000. "The differences here are not so stark," Edelman says.
…
Eight of the top 10 pornography consuming states gave their electoral votes to John McCain in last year's presidential election - Florida and Hawaii were the exceptions. While six out of the lowest 10…
grrlscientist | February 25, 2009tags: breakdancing fingers, humor, silliness, streaming video
There are lots of breakdancers in NYC. Recently, one group, who breakdances on subway trains while they are running, were documented on the news. But this amusing video documents another unusual technique: breakdancing fingers [1:02]
oracknows | February 24, 2009I realize that PZ seems to have all the fun when it comes to entertaining e-mails from cranks, but that doesn't mean I don't sometimes get my share of such amusement. For example, yesterday, waiting for me in the morning in my e-mail in box was this delightful gem:
From: jockdoubleday@hotmail.com
Subject: the dark force behind the global crisis
Date: February 23, 2009 12:29:07 AM GMT-05:00
To: jockdoubleday@hotmail.com
To friends of life on Earth,
There is a dark force working to undermine all ecosystems on Earth.
This force is a trans-century cult that calls itself the Illuminati -- because…
amillikan | February 24, 2009
When considering the virality of internet memes—that is, the likelihood that a given item of web goodness will be passed from one person to another as fast as you can press Control+C, Control+V and send—there are many theories as to what causes these explosions of web transference. But examining pieces of Internet phenomena from the early days of the dancing baby to the more modern use of Rick-rolling, it's clear the logic of virality has yet to be uncovered through the scientific method.
Here at Seed, we couldn't help but notice the abundance of cute-themed videos showing up on the…
pharyngula | February 24, 2009We atheists are immoral.
Your morality is 0% in line with that of the bible.
Damn you heathen! Your book learnin' has done warped your mind. You shall not be invited next time I sacrifice a goat.Do You Have Biblical Morals?Take More Quizzes
evolvingthoughts | February 22, 2009I can't not do this, because I want to display to the world how nerdish and little of a life I have...
Later note: The link above is crap. Instead I'm replacing it with the actual BBC Book list.
Instructions:
1) Look at the list and put an 'x' after those you have read.
2) Add a '+' to the ones you LOVE.
3) Star (*) those you plan on reading.
4) Tally your total.
1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien x+
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen x
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman x
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams x+
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling x
6…
terrasig | February 22, 2009
You can see all the stars as you walk down Hollywood Boulevard,
Some that you recognise, some that you've hardly even heard of,
People who worked and suffered and struggled for fame,
Some who succeeded and some who suffered in vain.
Celluloid Heroes, The Kinks, 1972
Star-generator hat tip: Pharmagossip
With gratitude to Johnny G. for taking me and T.P. to our first big concert, The Kinks at Nassau Coliseum, 1979-ish.
oracknows | February 22, 2009From Canada, via Phil Plait, because in my current state I need a good laugh right about now. I'm also working on a rather large post for tomorrow about Andrew Wakefield and the Autism Omnibus, after which I hope to move on to other topics for a while. Nothing like getting back into the swing of things!
clock | February 21, 2009Taken on the corner of 14th Street and Avenue C in Manhattan on February 21st, 2009:
moar funny pictures
mikethemadbiologist | February 21, 2009That's actually true, and pretty funny. Here are some other things liked more than Republicans:
--Opposing stricter gun control laws (40%)
--Congress (26-40%)
--The war in Iraq (39%)
--Decreasing immigration levels (39%)
--Privatizing Social Security (36%)
--Opposing investigating the Bush administration (34%)
--Opposing national, government run health insurance (32%)
--Vetoing stem cell research (31%)
--The Republican Party (31%)
--Dick Cheney (30%)
--George W. Bush (24-34%)
--Decreasing business regulations (28%)
--Rush Limbaugh (28%)
--Mitch McConnell (22%)
--Preventing the openly gay…
oracknows | February 21, 2009I don't know what "scuzz-wo" means, but I agree that Andrew Wakefield is one. My only nit to pick is that the puppet flirts a little too close to conflating the thimerosal scare with the MMR scare. There never was any thimerosal in the MMR vaccine. But that's just a nit, and as a blogger it's my job to pick it.
First Stephen Colbert takes on Jenny McCarthy. Now, a puppet eviscerates Andrew Wakefield. He is nothing but a joke now.
You know, though, the puppet Stephen Colbert's description of Jenny McCarthy reminds me of her son's doctor, if you know what I mean:
"Now sure, she's not the kind…