Weirdness
pharyngula | April 10, 2011Poor Phantom. He looks like he just took a skull ring to the jaw, himself.
Via Roger Ebert, who as a salve to his ego, suggests that the Phantom is the only sexually active superhero, which is not true! I vividly recall a scene in a Spiderman comic with a blissed out Mary Jane, who definitely looked post-orgasmic, in bed with Peter Parker…and the bedroom was strung with all kinds of webbing all over the place, like the activities had been a bit acrobatic for a while. And at that moment, I realized that Spidey's mopey ol' woe-is-me act was all fake, and that there were definitely some side…
pharyngula | April 9, 2011As some of you already know, the universe was revolted by the recent spectacle of Rebecca Black's hideously insipid autotuned song, Friday. I felt a bit of sympathy for her, however — she's very young, and her name is always going to be attached that monstrosity. And then there was the fact that there were the parodies, such as Stephen Colbert's, which although none of them were great, at least always improved on the source material.
Until now.
What could possibly make "Friday" worse than the original? How about changing it to "Sunday" and make it all about going to church?
WARNING: If ever…
pharyngula | April 7, 2011I don't know if I should encourage these things — they are of the devil. At least the intent in this contest to create anti-creationist LOLcats is good. Your goal is to make a funny picture with peculiar grammar that mocks creationist ideas, and win fabulous prizes. Go for it!
pharyngula | April 7, 2011There is a church in Romsey, Australia which is getting lots of attention because they offer a "Sci-Fi and Fantasy Friendly Church Service," where people dress up as fantasy characters and wave light-sabers around while quoting Buffy and Bilbo. It's a weird story, because every church service offered everywhere is fantasy friendly, so what's the big deal? Obi-Wan and Gandalf are both Jesus-figures, anyway.
Predictably, though, some stuffed shirts are outraged, which just fills me with more appreciation of irony. Says the Baptist minister who hears voices in his head and promises escape to an…
pharyngula | March 29, 2011Carole Smith is a Wiccan who worked for the TSA at the Albany airport. Her coworkers didn't much care for working alongside a witch, so they complained.
…her former mentor in on-the-job training, officer Mary Bagnoli, reported that she was afraid of Smith because she was a witch who practiced witchcraft. She accused Smith of following her on the highway one snowy evening after work and casting a spell on the heater of her car, causing it not to work.
Well, now. If I were her supervisor and Mary Bagnoli told me that story, I'd be checking her locker for a bottle of hooch. What else, did…
pharyngula | March 27, 2011I find it very disturbing that some artist managed to penetrate the layers of security and multiple deadly traps to produce illustrations of my inner sanctum. The alert level has been increased and security enhanced, so other interlopers should beware. Further breaches will not be tolerated.
pharyngula | March 26, 2011Uh-oh. This is a frightening art project in which children were asked to draw figures from the Cthulhu mythos. Didn't they know that contemplating elder gods always ends in insanity, a mysterious disappearance, and haunted rooms spattered with slime?
They produced some fascinating pictures, too. Scary stuff. There's a kid or two that might need psychotherapy.
pharyngula | March 25, 2011How can our news media get the story so completely backwards? MSNBC is reporting a correlation between religiosity and obesity, which simply can't be true. Aside from the difficulties of going from a correlation between two complex phenemona to an assumption of causality, we have it from an unimpeachable, objective source that the opposite is true.
That paragon of scienciness, Conservapædia, has been arguing that atheism leads to obesity, and for proof, they have photos of grossly pig-like PZ Myers contrasted with slim, muscular Christian Chuck Norris. This is, of course, also evidence for…
pharyngula | March 23, 2011If I were, I would say ian murphy can has congress.
I endorse Ian Murphy, because he is pissed off about the right things.
pharyngula | March 21, 2011I think I read this in a Dungeons & Dragons manual. It's a magic spell called Agnihotra that puts a shell around you to resist nuclear fallout when an atom bomb goes off, only in this case, it's real…well, as real as the delusions of a freaky Hindu mystic can make it, which isn't very. But at least it's illustrated and explained!
When a nuclear device is detonated, it gives rise to raja-tama predominant vibrations of the Absolute Cosmic Fire element. Discordant subtle sounds accompany these frequencies. These subtle sounds have a subtle harmful effect on the mind and intellect of the…
pharyngula | March 16, 2011I do get strange complaints sometimes.
Dear Mr Myers,
My fathers name was Helmut Max Karl Ritter.
However, in Australia, due to people's inability to pronounce his name correctly, he suggested that they call him Tom, Dick or Harry. Henceforth, they decided to call him 'Tom Ritter'.
I take sincere umbrage at your rants against a Thomas Ritter, and the fact that you call him Tom Ritter and therefore everyone else that responds to your comments, calls him Tom Ritter.
If I do a search for the name Tom Ritter I do not expect or appreciate finding such vitriol as yours (http://…
pharyngula | March 11, 2011There's a science fiction convention going on in San Francisco this weekend, and I wish I could attend for this one reading:
Fritz Leiber will be reading from his recently completed work, as well as answering audience questions.
Leiber is one of my all-time favorite authors, which is one reason to attend, but another is this little fact.
Yes, the rest of the con looks good, too.
pharyngula | March 9, 2011There is a virtue to Christian prudes. They make me aware of ideas I might otherwise have missed. Conservative evangelical groups in the UK are whining about sex ed books that are too 'explicit' for their taste.
Children as young as five are being shown "explicit" images to teach them about sex, an evangelical Christian pressure group has claimed.
The Christian Institute has complained that at least 10 books or teaching packs used in English primary schools for lessons on sex and relationships, contain images or descriptions that are "obviously unsuitable".
Its report, Too Much, Too Young…
pharyngula | March 9, 2011I have just learned that hagfish can absorb nutrients directly through their skin and gills simply by wallowing in the rotting flesh of a carcass. Somehow, that just makes the whole world look beautiful again.
pharyngula | March 7, 2011Some poor embryo acquired a pair of embryonic axes, and look what resulted. It's 7 weeks old, so all the internals seem to be functioning all right, so maybe it has hope for a long life.
pharyngula | March 7, 2011I'm sitting here in Minnesota, anticipating another midweek snowstorm that's on the way, and what do I learn? If I were in Rio de Janeiro I could be watching Carnaval. Heck, I could be dancing in the streets with a big fruity drink in my hand, blowing kisses to the lovely girls in exotic costumes.
Maybe I could even write it off. Look at this: one of the clubs is celebrating Darwin's voyage of the Beagle with an hour-long parade. Here's the announcement from the club.
Science still commemorates 150 years of the first publication of THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES, the book that caused a true world…
pharyngula | March 7, 2011Since the World Atheist Conference is in Dublin this June, you should go just to test this scientific conclusion: the Guinness does taste better in Ireland. I think so, too. So here's the experiment: buy a glass of Guinness in your airport bar, fly to Ireland, drink some more there. Attend the atheist conference to cleanse the palate, as it were. Drink more Guinness, get on the plane and fly home, and have another one.
Compare.
So now you have another reason to go. It's an Experiment!
pharyngula | March 6, 2011There's a certain evilutionist infatuated with cats — but has he ever considered what could happen if cats evolved in a new direction?
It can't be that far-fetched! I think cats are just snakes with fur and legs, so adding thumbs is a relatively minor increment. We just have to hope that we get tool-using cephalopods in terrestrial battle-armor in time to defeat them.