pharyngula

An Angry professor led me to an article on Inside Higher Ed, which discusses a document by the Wingspread Conference by the Society for Values in Higher Education (pdf). I knew when I saw the word "Values" up there that I was in for some platitudinous academe-speak slathered around a set of bland…

I was not alone in receiving a silly survey from an ID creationist: Tara, Mike, John, and Wesley all got it, and all rejected its premise. I'm joining in the universal dismissal. If you're curious, I've put the "survey" below the fold, but here's my answer. A. Insert thumbs in ears. B. Flap hands…

I guess I'm not the only fan of the weirdness that is Jim Pinkoski—another collection of Pinkoskisms has been unearthed at Ooblog.

The Committee to Protect Journalists lists 61 reporters killed in Iraq, 13 killed by the US. Iraq, the most dangerous place for journalists in 2005, also became the deadliest conflict for the media in CPJ's 24-year history. A total of 60 journalists have been killed on duty in Iraq from the…

As is their habit, the Chronicle of Higher Ed has published another cockeyed article, this time arguing that the problem with the budgets of universities are all those expensive faculty, and suggesting that a solution would be outsourcing the instruction and turning the professorate into a…

This post on the Republican war on science was chilling enough, but did you really have to draw the logical conclusion of it all at the end? I'm trying hard to preserve the tattered shreds of my optimistic state of denial, you know.

Next month: Science & Politics

It's the evening. It's January. This is Minnesota. And it's raining. There is liquid water on the ground. This is simply not right. I am distressed.

Darksyde's "Know your creationists" series on Daily Kos has become a "Know your friends" edition today, with a profile of Wesley Elsberry of the NCSE.

Chris Clarke sent me some unfortunate news about my alma mater, the University of Washington. There's a scandal brewing at the Burke Museum, involving a retired curator of vertebrate paleontology, John M. Rensberger. The Seattle Weekly has published a series on the troubles, with a professional…

…but I guess everyone has their snapping point. Jaquandor doesn't usually snarl at people, but he's done a fine takedown of wingnut stupidity. What tipped him over? Jonah Goldberg. I can't blame him—I studiously avoid NRO's corner because it reminds me too painfully of how idiotic some people can…

Jody Wheeler is at James Randi's The Amazing Meeting, and is blogging the event. If you aren't there, now you can find out what you're missing.

I've already mentioned this interesting set of ideas Cory Doctorow brought up. In particular, this part of the introduction made me think: Cory is an author of science fiction (SF) and is published in the US by Tor books (which happens to share a parent company with Nature). He also gives away…

Until Orac sent me a link, I had no idea there was a Zapatopi weblog—it's going onto the blogroll right now. It's the only weblog out there that I know of that has an octopus as a contributor. Or a Sasquatch.

Sometimes creationists say things like, "Evolution doesn't explain the origins of life!" The common reply is that that's the domain of abiogenesis, not evolution, with the implied suggestion that the creationist should go away and quit bugging us. That's a cop-out. I'm going to be somewhat…

Daniel Dennett has this new book out, Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), and I don't know that I want to read it. It was just reviewed by Michael Shermer in Science, and my general feeling was an uncomfortable vibration, liking some of what they said, but…

Everyone sing their birthday wishes to Red State Rabble, who is also optimistically looking forward to an uprising by the moderates of Kansas in the coming year.

Why not me? My father's side of the family was part Dutch, and my daughter's name, Skatje, is apparently a term of endearment over there, so I am eminently qualified. Oh, well. They'd probably all misspell my name with an extra "j", anyway.

This will blow your mind.

My small town isn't as bad as this, I'm happy to say. "Where would the condoms be?" I asked with total sincerity and seriousness—I am an adult after all. "We don't have condoms." "You're a pharmacy without condoms?" "Well," she scoffs, "that's not exactly the kind of behavior we want to promote now…

I got a couple more requests to drum up interest in up-and-coming carnivals. The Dharma Bums are hosting the next I and the Bird carnival, so if invertebrates aren't your bag, but highly derived tetrapods with elaborate keratinaceous external insulating coats are, send them a link. If even that isn…

A survey of British beliefs about the origin and development of life had the following results: 22% chose creationism 17% opted for intelligent design 48% selected evolution theory the rest did not know. Or how about this result? Here's what the people in the land of David Attenborough would like…

Here's a nifty video (mpg) of an octopus confronting an ROV working off Vancouver Island. The poor thing was just trying to crush and eat an interloper (or perhaps disassemble it for spare parts to use in its high-tech scheme to take over the world), and the ROV operator uses its thrusters to…

This coming week will be a great one for science carnivals. First up is the Circus of the Spineless which will appear on Pharyngula on Sunday—if you've written anything about invertebrates in the past month, send the link to pzmyers@pharyngula.org by Saturday evening. The second big event is the…

Carl Zimmer reviews the new Darwin exhibit at the AMNH. He has a few complaints, but otherwise it sounds wonderful.

If this sell-out goes down, you can call me an utterly disaffected Democrat. I've been a voting Democrat since 1976, but if this current gang of slimy myxomycetes can't even coagulate together enough fiber to fight Alito, they aren't my party anymore. I wrote to Howard Dean, to Mark Dayton (I even…

I saw on Muton, and several readers have mentioned it to me, this article about the world's smallest vertebrate, fish of the genus Paedocypris. It's a gorgeous translucent cyprinid, so is somewhat related to my favorite fish, Danio rerio. They live in cool, slow moving water in peat swamp forests…

A nice surprise in the comments: Oliver Sacks and I have something in common. That's one of my favorite shirts, too.

This just isn't right. First Ezra Klein subs for Wonkette, and now Glenn Reynolds…why not PZ Myers? Am I too pervy for them? Or was it the lack of wonk?

Georgetown.