pharyngula

I got into a brief exchange with a crazy Irish Catholic yesterday, and it actually got reported on broadsheet.ie, which was odd — and also unsatisfying, since they only reported the first half of the discussion. Just for the sense of completion, I append here the last few comments before he turned…

That's the primary lesson I'm taking from this bizarre Anthony Weiner affair: it's personal and private, and whenever it's made public, it simply makes all the participants look silly. It's definitely not an intellectual process, as this reading of his steamy exchanges reveals. I don't endorse…

Jeff Sparrow is very worried about the Global Atheist Convention coming to Melbourne, Australia next April. Why? Because we're all goose-stepping fascists come to destroy liberal and progressive dreams with our "very, very right wing" atheistical fanaticism. Which leaves me baffled and confused.…

Oooh, Evil Science and Evil Technology. You know this clip is nonsense, though, because there is no Evil Biology. (Last edition of TET; Current totals: 12,529 entries with 1,398,134 comments.)

This week, that godless radio program has Greg Laden interviewing Ed Brayton at 9am Sunday morning, which will be 3pm out here in the UK, and I'll be on a train to Heathrow, probably napping. But you can listen to it. Yes, you. If you use the zip code of 56267 you can even pretend to be me for an…

As before, I seek to explore the boundaries of this "caturday" phenomenon, and this time we turn to the rich and evocative world of fungi. Can your mere cat do this? No. It is a failure then. I wash my hands of their dry furriness and plunge them into the feculent, fecund ooze of the ripening…

Could be either, but it's notable that an orangutan can demonstrate them.

Avoid the "I don't want to…but" construction. It always leads to asininities like this: I don't want to trivialize the inhumane horrors that African slaves endured on slave ships destined for the Americas. But after a recent airplane trip, sitting tightly next to my neighbor in steerage seats, I…

Hey, it's on youtube already. There may be a few moments where I look a bit strained — that's because the video projector wasn't working well, and we actually had it sitting on the floor kind of crookedly aimed at the screen, and a helpful fellow was maneuvering it to make sure the part I was…

Last night at the Cheltenham Science Festival, I attended a Q&A between Robin Ince and Alan Moore; Robin had stumbled onto the easiest job in the universe, because all you have to do is tickle Moore a little bit and deep rumbly and heavily accented weirdness comes pouring out. Much of the talk…

I'm at the Cheltenham Science Festival, I have been given a press pass, and I intend to use it fiercely to be entertained for a few days. I think I'll go listen to Alan Moore rumble about snake goddesses in a bit, and I know that tomorrow I intend to be fawning fanboi to Brian Cox, and whatever…

Now you can listen in to the whole discussion via those British Humanist Association podcasters with the lightning-fast response times. Or you can read a review. Aside from the righteously angry but poorly aimed protesters, I guess last night went over reasonably well.

I'm on the Pod Delusion, recorded just last night and already available for listening.

Amina is the young Syrian woman who was threatened with rape by Islamist thugs. She disappeared a few days ago. Earlier today, at approximately 6:00 pm Damascus time, Amina was walking in the area of the Abbasid bus station, near Fares al Khouri Street. She had gone to meet a person involved with…

I don't know. I usually don't care for that kind of explicit gynecological porn that is all leering closeups, with the camera competing with the hectocotyl arm for a place in the mantle cavity, but this is pretty. (via Haole in Hawaii's excellent dive series)

So, tonight I had a civil and fun public conversation with Richard Dawkins, hosted by the British Humanist Association, which went well…but was marred by protests at the beginning. It was very exciting. The cause for the chaos was peculiar to me: they were protesting AC Grayling's proposed new…

There's a new musical production to be put on at Yale. The Profit of Creation, featuring music by Tim Rosser, with book and lyrics by Charlie Sohne, will be directed by Evan Yionoulis, and music directed by Chris Fenwick. The musical concerns a liberal scientist who takes a bribe from a right-wing…

Let's see…Darwin revealed the theory of evolution in 1859, and the United States declared their independence from Britain in 1776 — but our founding fathers were such magical geniuses that they foresaw the whole thing and debated the subject there in Philadelphia and resolved that evolution was a…

I am infested with the fleas of a thousand camels. One unfortunate side-effect of this trip to Ireland and the UK is that I have publicly engaged with Muslim creationists — there's a bit of a dearth of them in Morris, Minnesota, and the few Muslims I have met there are there for the university, and…

The first part of the Magic Sandwich Show from Dublin is now available on youtube. You know you want to watch it.

Can you bear more blithering Muslims? I showed you that partial clip from my encounter the other day, but you missed the first chunk. I had gone outside to get some fresh air and take a look around Dublin, when I got ambushed by a trio of Muslims with a camera, and the crowd just gradually…

I'm going to do it again. You're all about to facepalm once more, just as you did yesterday. By now, you should know this blog and be conscious of the need for deliberation and caution when putting your hand to your face. I was sent this example of science proving atheism wrong. Perhaps you should…

Stop writing to me about Mairson and Grossman. I have no respect for their opinions at all. Grossman is the religion columnist at USA Today; Mairson is some disgruntled ex-employee of National Geographic who has appointed himself guardian of all propriety of anyone associated with NatGeo. Grossman…

A couple of years ago, a student, Matthew LaClair, exposed his teacher, David Paszkiewicz, as an evangelical creationist who was using a public school classroom as a pulpit. He did this by the simple expedient of bringing a hidden voice recorder into the room and catching Paszkiewicz preaching…

I do love taking the train — it's such a civilized way to travel. I did this yesterday: And I get to do it in reverse today! (Last edition of TET; Current totals: 12,508 entries with 1,395,412 comments.)

If you aren't in London, you won't be able to hear my talk for Atheism UK tonight at the South Place Ethical Society, Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL, at 7:00. But you could listen to my interview on Radio Freethinker, anywhere where you have the internet. I don't know why you would…

PZ Myers at Glasgow Sceptics in the Pub, The Crystal Palaceby KG The Crystal Palace, where the Glasgow Sceptics in the Pub hosted PZ, is a bit of a disappointment as far as appearances go, being neither crystalline nor palatial, just an over-sized pub. However, the upstairs meeting room is a good…

And now you know what god does with all his spare time.

Just read it.

It's a fitting end to the movie that got me expelled, and whose PR I rudely interrupted. The company is no more. Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed — the 2008 creationist propaganda movie fronted by Ben Stein — is scheduled to be auctioned, lock, stock, and barrel, pursuant to the bankruptcy…