Weirdness
pharyngula | March 27, 2008This is kind of sad, actually. It's a slick website from a guy in Utah who claims to have discovered pre-Cambrian dragons. Browse around his gallery, and it's clear that what he's got are pictures of random rocks, and that he's seeing shapes in them like one sees shapes in the clouds. He reminds me of Ed Conrad.
His name is Mike Hallett, so of course this period of gigantic dragons is called the Hallettstoneion. He has also written a book, which has to be seen to be believed. I swear, I think it's actually written in crayon. Here's a sample, in case you'd really rather not download a 40MB…
pharyngula | March 26, 2008I am feeling a growing sense of incredulity as I read the latest babble from Susan Mazur. She was the one who reported on this upcoming meeting at Altenberg with an excess of hyperbole and a truly misleading inflation of the importance of that event. It sounds interesting in that a small group of respectable, credible scientists are gathering (along with a few who would most charitably be called crackpots), but it's not that unusual — meetings happen all the time, the people participating in this event go to meetings all the time, and it's simply different but routine.
I get the impression…
pharyngula | March 26, 2008People patent the strangest things … like this Jesus doll.
The doll is provided with electrically conductive nails which when inserted through apertures in the hands of the doll, mount the doll to a provided cross and close an electrical circuit which illuminates the cross.
Cool. I'll go one better. Let's add another circuit in the side of the doll, with a little spear…and when you pierce his side, his eyes blink and his head spins around and pops off. It would be only slightly more tacky.
pharyngula | March 25, 2008What is it with this anti-beard sentiment? Here's an article that wonders why so many scientists have beards, with several amusing stories.
But anti-beard arguments also ran rife in pre-Victorian times: Beards trapped food and the stuff you spewed out when you sneezed. At a stretch, they could even go as far as to catch fire and trap vermin, some argued. This all came to a head in 1907, with a rather remarkable experiment. A French scientist took one bearded and one clean shaven man from the streets of Paris and asked each of them to kiss a woman, whose lips were previously swabbed with…
pharyngula | March 24, 2008
The laughing fellow on the left is Sanal Edamaruku, president of Rationalist International and atheist. The cranky old man in the robes on the right is Pandit Surinder Sharma, a self-described Tantrik Magician. The scene is in a studio on Indian television, where the magician is trying to kill the atheist with sorcery. Sharma had said he could kill anyone with sympathetic magic inflicted on a doll made of dough, and that he could accomplish this in a mere three minutes … so Edamaruku confidently offered himself as a victim. The old fake went on for hours and failed.
After nearly two hours,…
pharyngula | March 15, 2008Somebody please restore my faith in humanity and reassure me that Christvertising is satire.
pharyngula | March 5, 2008A Catholic bishop (of a weird breakaway sect, admittedly) has endorsed the
Protocols of the Elders of Zion and declared that Jews are conspiring to rule the world.
Obviously, the man must be an evolutionist. Only through Darwin can one become a hateful racist.*
*Necessary disclaimer: obviously, I'm saying this with a sarcastic sneer.
pharyngula | March 4, 2008For those of you who don't follow the comments…you might want to try and read this one. I don't quite know what it's about, my eyes glazed over.
Just so you know what kind of evil person I am, I actually contemplated disemvoweling that magnum opus before mentioning it. Just the thought of hundreds of people struggling to interpolate the vowels in a long gibbering screed brought a wicked smirk to my face.
pharyngula | March 4, 2008There's going to be a meeting this summer in Altenberg of a small subset of evolutionary biologists to discuss the next step in the evolution of evolutionary biology, which this article describes as a "Woodstock of evolution", populated with scientific "rock stars". All I can say is "bleh." This meeting sounds like it will be wonderfully entertaining, but get real: it will not settle or even define much of anything. These are interesting times in biology, with a lot of argument at a high level about levels of selection and evo-devo and modes of speciation and self-organisation and etc., etc…
pharyngula | March 2, 2008Hackers have replaced the Irish Catholic page with a cute video and a link to the Irish Atheists page. I really should scold such deplorable virtual vandalism, but, well, instead I grabbed a quick screen capture before it gets taken down.
I thought the video was pretty funny, too, mocking the silly costumery of the Catholic hierarchy. Alright, hackers, you were naughty, don't do it again … but you did make me laugh.
Good news — it's not a hack at all. Those clever Irish atheists merely beat the Irish Catholics to their domain name…so it should be up indefinitely.
pharyngula | March 1, 2008As you all know, the position of President of the World is traditionally determined by a vote on facebook. In the last millennium, the title was awarded to the Papacy, and we are all aware of what an awful cock-up that was — it was also a rigged vote, since the only computer with facebook access was kept in the Vatican. This millennium, it's a race between Facebook PZ and Facebook Phil, and of course Phil has already mobilized his evil hordes. Being a much nicer guy — the kind of beneficent tyrant you would want to dominate you — I haven't been pushing for this one, but think that perhaps the…
pharyngula | February 26, 2008In a story about large snakes thriving in California, Hank Fox noticed an interesting warning.
As for other potential prey, human beings - like rodents, beavers and deer - are mammals, government scientists confirmed.
This is obviously why we pay the government scientists the big bucks: to keep hairy bipedal animals with mammary glands informed about their taxonomic status. I'm imagining some blase Californian reading the article which tells them that these pythons eat small mammals, completely unconcerned, until, like a howling siren of alarm, the paper informs them that they happen to be…
pharyngula | February 26, 2008Usually I'm complaining about some fresh inanity from the religious side, but I have to be fair: this is an example of secular child abuse. It's the Baby Loves Disco franchise, that is driving parents to bring the little kiddies to a club, where they are forced to relive the horrors of the 70s, with Travolta-esque dancers and the shrill falsettos of the Bee Gees ringing in their ears.
I lived through the 70s. I was on the dating scene in the 70s. I have been to a KC and the Sunshine Boys concert; I have seen the glitter and the flash, and heard the maddening, endless beats. I would never…
pharyngula | February 22, 2008What do you know … I write about Ken Ham's behavior, and Darren Naish follows suit with a fascinating post with all the details. There's even a paper about it.
pharyngula | February 21, 2008Abel Pharmboy had an awesome idea: he liveblogged his vasectomy. Now that is a true blogger.
pharyngula | February 21, 2008Look at this: I'm dispensable. MAJeff is organizing a gathering of Pharyngula readers without me. Go ahead, go, and send me pictures and make me jealous.
pharyngula | February 19, 2008This gallery of science fair projects is partly funny, partly cringe-worthy, and partly petty and annoying. Some of the projects are weird, but some of the entries are simply mocking the appearance of the kids … and as a former high school nerd myself, I rather resent that.
But yeah, "Crystal Meth: Friend or Foe" is amusing — I just wish we know something about their experimental protocol.
pharyngula | February 15, 2008Hemant thinks he has a shot of winning an online poll to determine the sexiest atheist blogger. No way! I'm going to send you, my minions, over there to … uh … wait. You people are probably still in shock from that time I exposed my chest, aren't you? Dang. I need to wait at least 20 or 30 years before those memories fade if I'm to stand a chance.
I voted for Greta Christina, anyway, and my second choice was C.L. Hanson.
People, what are you doing voting for me? That's insane. Unless, of course, you're one of those people who likes a bad boy with a hint of danger, even if he does look like…
pharyngula | February 15, 2008Approximately 1.4 million people have emailed me with a link to this article on body modification (I'm not complaining, do feel free to send me stuff). It includes this picture.
I'm sorry, but no thanks. That's a wanna-be kluge. It's pathetic. The guy has just had some kind of silicone rings stuck under his skin, and I am unimpressed.
Here's what I want.
Give me a call when we've got gene modification and some method of reiterating ontogenesis in my arms. I want neural control of a sophisticated muscular structure, not some inert faux lump. Adding sharp-edged teeth to the structure is…