Paul Z. Meyers
pharyngula
Posts by this author
March 27, 2006
See it while you can: a good parody of a Jack Chick comic. Unfortunately, Chick Publications is a notoriously litigious outfit, and I expect cease and desist letters from lawyers will be arriving any time now.
(via Respectful Insolence)
March 27, 2006
I am put to shame—the flying spaghetti monster gets far more entertaining hate mail than I do.
I learned this from an account in USA Today about the FSM, which also has this beautiful jewel of a quote:
"It's too bad that they'll get attention for this sort of drivel when we have a robust scientific…
March 27, 2006
So…I went to that Bruce Willis movie I mentioned earlier. It was OK, a rather predictable cop thriller in which he does his usual schtick of getting beat up and bloodied and shot, while still defeating the bad guys at nearly every turn—but at the same time he doesn't do the hokey super-cop stuff we…
March 27, 2006
Oh, my. It's a movie of Scolopendra killing and eating a mouse. It's not for the faint of heart: first there's the squeaking, the terrible squeaking, and then there's the chewing, and it goes on and on and on and on…
There is no god.
Or, as is noted in the comments, god is a righteously evil being…
March 27, 2006
There is a most excellent online seminar on Mooney's Republican War on Science going on over at Crooked Timber. The usual gang is reviewing it, with the addition of the inestimable Tim Lambert and Steve Fuller. Wait a minute…Steve Fuller? That Steve Fuller? Steve Fuller. Steve Fuller!
Jebus.
I saw…
March 27, 2006
Kung Fu Monkey has an excellent rant about the theater experience, and how it is ruined by loudmouths and cell phones.
I just have to say that since I moved to Morris, I love going to the movies. I'll even go to bad movies. And it's all because the ambience has completely changed. Rogers recommends…
March 27, 2006
Way back in the dim and distant past, like two years ago, there was a bit of a disturbance in the blogosphere, a minor contretemps after a certain Harvard law student, Lawrence VanDyke, published a "book note" in the Harvard Law Review. It was rank creationist nonsense, a work of pathetic…
March 27, 2006
Oh, no—the Frinksters (<--dead link) have been kicked out of the scienceblogs stable. This is somewhat disturbing, since I think they were a real plus for the group—science is supposed to be fun and profane and weird, after all—but I am assured that they were not evicted for content, but solely…
March 27, 2006
Why would a pro-science op-ed give credence to the words of William Dembski?
William Dembski (one of the leading lights of the US intelligent-design lobby) put it like this in an email to Dawkins: "I know that you personally don't believe in God, but I want to thank you for being such a wonderful…
March 27, 2006
Here's an excellent case: applying evolutionary principles to cancer improves diagnosis. You are a collection of (mostly) dividing cells, a population moving forward in time, and understanding that explains a great deal about how changes, like cancer, can occur.
March 26, 2006
Clearly, everyone on the team is required to answer this one.
6.25 %
My weblog owns 6.25 % of me.Does your weblog own you?
March 26, 2006
I seem to have become Art—I've been rendered by Nemo Ramjet at a fascinating site that contains much strange and alien art, and (warning!) some of a rather sexual nature. Somehow, it does seem fitting, with this nice picture of yours truly bearing a corona of larvae and in the embrace of a…
March 26, 2006
The Koufax voting closes at midnight tonight, so this is your last chance: click through the links below and vote. Or, you can just copy and paste the list below and mail it to wampum @ nic-naa.net, with the subject "Koufax".
(Voting is now closed.)
Best Blog: Pharyngula
Best Series: Pharyngula…
March 26, 2006
Here's another bunch who don't understand science: an article on research on prayer. You know, the creationists are always complaining that all those scientists out there (waves hand vaguely towards the nearest university) are biased and reject supernatural phenomena out of hand, and that their…
March 26, 2006
Sometimes, I feel very sorry for Paul Nelson. He's one of the few creationists who actually tries to engage his critics, and I think there's a very good reason for that: when creationists try to emerge from the hothouse environment of their "think-tanks" and institutions of ignorance, when they…
March 25, 2006
I've been at my local DFL convention all morning, and I think I need some caffeine to scour my brain out a little bit. I don't think I'm temperamentally suited to politics—too much nitpicking and finagling. But I'm very glad to see we've got people here who are willing to do the hard work.
March 25, 2006
If somebody were to open a Swashbucks near me, I'd be there every day.
March 24, 2006
Jesus. Everyone is sending me their local manifestations of Jesus…here's another one, imbedded in a plank in a deck. And it's for sale!
It's a real bargain, too—this Jesus is not your ordinary dime-a-dozen clumsily scrawled Jesus, but is clearly rendered by the ghost of Picasso.
March 24, 2006
Really…I was only joking about the war on Easter. The wingnuts didn't have to take it seriously.
What's worse is that Minnesota may be Ground Zero: this is a real fake sign, so I'm a little concerned that someone is going to find a reason to blame me. While a little plagiarism gets one fired, I'm…
March 24, 2006
Ben Domenech has imploded.
That didn't take long.
Domenech has posted his excuses. Basically, he's claiming that the plagiarism didn't count because it happened when he was younger, that the WaPo editors "are convinced by my arguments on many of these issues", and that he's only resigning because…
March 24, 2006
Hey, who thinks torture is never justified?
Catholics
26%
White Protestant
31%
White evangelical
31%
Secular
41%
Total
32%
I won't chew out all the Christians this time (because I take it for granted that religion, especially a death cult, is not a moralizing influence). Instead, I want to know…
March 24, 2006
Darksyde interviews one of those people who convinced me that philosophy actually has something to contribute to our understanding of science (you know, it's sadly true, but science education often belittles the value of trying to puzzle out how we know what we know)—that guy with extremely poor…
March 24, 2006
Childbirth is a beautiful thing, I know…but a statue of Britney Spears giving birth on a bearskin rug is just weird, and this one combines a couple of other strange conceptions.
The monument also acknowledges the pop-diva's pin-up past by showing Spears seductively posed on all fours atop a…
March 24, 2006
There was a "debate" between Michael Shermer and William Dembski at the University of Kentucky. I'm not a fan of these pseudo-debates—they're really just a pair of presentations, where the creationist can leech off the other guy's reputation—and I don't think Shermer is the best guy to defend…
March 24, 2006
Metasepia pfefferi, Pfeffer's Flamboyant Cuttlefish
Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman.
March 23, 2006
In principle, squid-flavored chips sounds like a fine idea…but when the review uses words like "chum", "cheap styrofoam", and "rotting dead fish", even I have second thoughts.
March 23, 2006
Next time the religious demand respect for their beliefs, remind yourself what they're really thinking. It's implicit in their dogma.
(via Kill the Afterlife)
March 23, 2006
Echidne has a great suggestion: a War on Easter! After all, our godless War on Christmas almost gave Bill O'Reilly a stroke, so maybe if we take a shot at him twice a year we'll finally see his head explode on television. Echidne is taking a hard line against little yellow chicks, which is a fine…
March 23, 2006
The Arkansas Times has an excellent article on the difficulties of science teaching in that state (an article that was originally published in the Reports of the NCSE, too). It's darned depressing: the creationists don't need to get their laws passed in order to kneecap science teaching. Here's a…
March 23, 2006
John Stone sent along another example of pareidolia. He says it's Christ on a crotch, and that he's going to clean up on the t-shirts and licensing…but I'm pretty sure he's completely wrong, and he's targeting the wrong market. Look closely.
It's definitely a Wookie with a blaster.