Weblogs
pharyngula | November 16, 2009I found this comment, left on the blog of the negligible Bryan Appleyard, to be immensely entertaining. It's the combination of hyperbole, unintentional irony, and oblivious incompetence, all spiced with a germ of truth, that makes it amusing.
Myers, like Dawkins when he's tired and especially the gruesome Dennett, survives entirely on scorn and venom. His response to any challenge is simply to increase the number and volume of schoolyard taunts. These guys are intellectual alchemists who have perfected the art of using invective to turn philistinism into apparent sagacity. The formula goes…
pharyngula | November 1, 2009I'm feeling a bit jealous. A teacher was suspended for assigning a reading from one of those subversive, radical bloggers, and it wasn't me! It was Jonah Lehrer!
The article was about the prevalence of homosexuality among animals. Apparently the thought that homosexuality might occur naturally, rather than being a purely human sin, does not sit well with certain people. I thought the most objectionable part of the article was Roughgarden's blithe panadaptationism ("Given the pervasive presence of homosexuality throughout the animal kingdom, same-sex partnering must be an adaptive trait that's…
pharyngula | October 27, 2009Poe's Law gets invoked a lot here, and of course we all know Godwin's Law, but did you know the other eight laws in this list of internet rules and laws? I understand that if you violate them, the internet police will slap you with internet fines, and if you're a very bad person, you can even be served with time in the internet dungeon.
pharyngula | October 23, 2009David Sloan Wilson certainly got a warm and appropriate welcome here. His first post was titled Science as a Religion that Worships Truth as its God, a phrase that purées together both "religion" and "science" with "truth" as a wickedly wielded whisk, and immediately set a number of people on edge. Eric Michael Johnson jumped on it, as did Henry Gee (I know he irritated many of the regulars here last time he dropped by, but trust me, sometimes he does say smart things). Gee, in particular, succinctly corrected the title to be "Science as a Religion that Worships Doubt as its God", which is…
pharyngula | October 21, 2009Scienceblogs grows a little more, with the addition of two new blogs.
We now have Pamela Ronald talking about food and farm science at Tomorrow's Table. That should fill a gap in the coverage here!
The other entry might be of more interest to readers here, because of the topics covered. We've drawn David Sloan Wilson away from the awful Huffington Post, and he'll be posting on Evolution for Everyone. He's a very big name in evolution, and I've commented on his work before: I think he's provocative and interesting, but disagree strongly with him on some parts of his ideas about religion. I'll…
pharyngula | August 10, 2009
You know, it wasn't just me at the horrible little creationist theme park — there were over 300 of us! In this blog entry, I intend to collect your stories about the zerg in Kentucky. E-mail links to me and I'll add them to this list. Or, if you'd rather, just leave links in the comments here and I'll promote them up top as I find the time.
I want more! Send them in to me soon.
News
We were the top story on the ABC News site for a while.
The Examiner covers the story.
Blogs
Tell us your side of the story!
No Guy in the Sky has some overall thoughts and thinks the Creation "Museum" is KY…
pharyngula | July 24, 2009Saturday is the day of this insane yearly event, the Blogathon, in which bloggers post constantly for 24 hours straight. I am not quite that crazy, but Blag Hag is, and she's looking for people to sponsor her effort. Proceeds will go to the Secular Student Alliance, so it's a worthy cause.
pharyngula | July 21, 2009Ethan Siegel wants you to compel him to go bald. He claims he is going to shear off all of his hair to raise money for charity, but I've seen this act before. It's so familiar.
First, he goes completely bald.
Then, he gets a monocle.
A dueling scar would be a nice touch.
Then, to complete his transformation to the dark side, he gets a cat. Persian. A cat whose cold, expressionless stare reflects the imperious, implacable privilege of his nature.
Next thing you know, he's posing in front of death rays and sending ultimata to world leaders. I hope he's been working on his evil laugh; if he's…
pharyngula | July 7, 2009If Spanish isn't your preferred language, you can also read some of my posts (and lots of others) in Polish.
pharyngula | June 23, 2009I am horribly envious. I am speaking of the Village Dog Project, some current research going on that looks very cool.
Understanding the evolution and domestication in dogs requires genetic analysis of a global and diverse panel of non-breed-affiliated village dogs. With a network of worldwide and Cornell-affiliated collaborators, we plan to gather dog samples from remote villages, establish a genetic archive containing DNA and phenotypic information from these dogs, carry out genetic analyses on these samples, and develop computational methods for analyzing this dataset. In particular, we are…
pharyngula | June 16, 2009A short while ago, the blogosphere was irate over the outing of the identity of a pseudonymous blogger, Publius. The outing followed the usual pattern: pseudonymous blogger annoys right-winger who can't cope, right-winger lashes out by revealing the name behind the pseudonym (as if that somehow addresses the criticisms), then right-winger sits back and starts defending himself: "he deserved it", "he shouldn't expect to be anonymous", "anonymity is bad, anyways". It's so damned stupid.
I have no problem with people using pseudonyms, especially since, as in the case of Publius, there was a…
pharyngula | June 3, 2009As you should know, John Wilkins has left the enveloping (and sometimes stifling) womb of Scienceblogs to strike out on his own, and is also laboring as an underpaid postdoc. He has entered that realm familiar to philosophers everywhere: poverty. It's good for the soul, John! Calorie restriction is also good for longevity!
Unfortunately, spiritual and intellectual rewards do not pay web hosting bills, so Wilkins would appreciate any donations towards the continued solvency of Evolving Thoughts. Help him out if you can. Oh, and when his book becomes available, buy it. I know I will, even if…
pharyngula | May 23, 2009John Wilkins has left Scienceblogs to start anew at Evolving Thoughts Mk. III. I'm pretty sure it's because of a) pure philosophical bloody-mindedness, b) chronic embarrassment at his inability to spell "Mghrz'z" properly, and c) something to do with being Australian, which is a legitimate excuse for all kinds of contrary behavior.
Unfortunately, he's still planning to occasionally chew over my heathenish ways, so I guess I'll have to continue to keep my eyes on him.
pharyngula | May 18, 2009We have a new blog around these parts, and it's by a science librarian. Be quiet and respectful of the other patrons when you visit, and don't get any fines — he will hunt you down.
pharyngula | April 15, 2009I wonder what's behind the somewhat cyclic nature of internet phenomena? I'm getting a lot of messages from people telling me about this discovery that cephalopods have venom—I covered that a few weeks ago. I'm also being told that I'm in an amusing rap video…that one I mentioned over a year ago. I'm not about to discourage anyone from sending me links, I'm simply curious about the strange way I'll suddenly got lots of links to the same thing all at once.
pharyngula | April 6, 2009We have assimilated another one: Starts With a Bang, a blog by a theoretical astrophysicist.
I'm a little concerned about his profile picture, though. Do all astrophysicists have to dress up in red, white, and blue lycra, like a half-naked super-hero? It would be an interesting trend to get started.
pharyngula | April 3, 2009James Hrynyshyn is completely missing the point. He has a post up where he tendentiously explains why twitter is evil, as if it should be a surprise. Why is the Pope Catholic? Why is the darkness dark? Why does Microsoft suck? These aren't interesting questions: the point is that they are.
I have a Twitter account. I do not have a "My Little Pony" account. Think about it. Isn't it quite probable that I would leap into this technology precisely because it has great potential for evil? Be seduced, and embrace the evil. It's fun!
One hundred forty characters is exactly enough room for a "…
pharyngula | March 17, 2009Seed Media has just announced the formation of Scienceblogs Brazil, to meet all of your needs for science in Portuguese. It looks good, and some of the posts have been translated into English, so even those of us with limited language skills can browse part of it.
There is no word yet if the "Most Popular" and "Most German" sidebar lists will soon be accompanied by "Most Brazilian", which would definitely arouse some interesting associations with hot wax fantasies. I shall use all of my immense clout to urge that it be made so, immediately.
pharyngula | March 3, 2009Scienceborg has assimilated a new geology blog, All of My Faults Are Stress Related. With a title like that, you must go over there and rock her world.