Pharyngula
Missouri screws up
Posted by PZ Myers on August 17, 2012 I don’t know whether it’s by design or fortuitous incompetence, but creationists are masters of the fuzzy statement that opens the doors to all kinds of new opportunities for ignorance. Missouri, for instance, just passed a law giving themselves the freedom to pray (a freedom they already had, which is not in peril) and at…
Friday Cephalopod: Octopus pitching a tent
Posted by PZ Myers on August 17, 2012 The phrase has entirely different connotations for cephalopods. Bonus! Spot the female before going to the diagram. (via Giant Cuttlefish)
Live by statistics, die by statistics
Posted by PZ Myers on August 13, 2012 There is a magic and arbitrary line in ordinary statistical testing: the p level of 0.05. What that basically means is that if the p level of a comparison between two distributions is less than 0.05, there is a less than 5% chance that your results can be accounted for by accident. We’ll often say…
Mary’s Monday Metazoan: It’s a good day to fly
Posted by PZ Myers on August 13, 2012 (via Ivar Husa)
Friday Cephalopod: I shall rename him…snugglefish!
Posted by PZ Myers on August 10, 2012 (via Wikipedia)
I’m ready for my close-up
Posted by PZ Myers on August 9, 2012 I’m getting a bit peeved at all this new technology. Why, back in the day when I was doing electron microscopy work, I’d spend days slicing up tiny fragments of zebrafish embedded in epon-araldite with an ultramicrotome, and I’d end up with hundreds of itty-bitty copper grids that I’d put in the EM one by…
Botanical Wednesday: Baseball!
Posted by PZ Myers on August 8, 2012 See? It’s a plant that looks like a baseball! And on Friday, the Minnesota Atheists Regional Conference will be sponsoring a baseball game in St Paul, the Mr Paul Aints vs. the Amarillo Sox. You should come. Here’s the schedule for the meeting: Dave Silverman, Hector Avalos, Ayanna Watson, Robert Price, Teresa McBain, J. Anderson…
Can we send them to Mars?
Posted by PZ Myers on August 6, 2012 As we all know, now that the trivial and relatively uninteresting business of mere engineering has cleared a hurdle, Mars Curiosity can get to work on the important stuff: finding evidence of biology on Mars. This is where it’s also going to get peculiarly controversial, because some creationists are feeling a bit threatened: there is…
Mary’s Monday Metazoan: Makes me proud to be an American
Posted by PZ Myers on August 6, 2012 Even though they are African fish eagles. I think we own the symbolism of all eagles everywhere, don’t we? (via NatGeo)
Friday Cephalopod: Diaphanous
Posted by PZ Myers on August 3, 2012 (via Kidipede)