Spoiler: it’s not much of a plan. He points out the magnitude of the problem: Trump has the backing of billionaires, who are rushing to fund his every desire; he has the media under his contr…

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

21.02.2025

Courage is what we need

We’re not going to see any bravery from the Republican lickspittles. In private, they’re even admitting that they’re trembling in fear. Senate and House Republicans know Trump wil…

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

20.02.2025

I get email — flu brain edition

I got email from someone calling himself “devoted natural science diletant”, criticizing me for paying attention to Intelligent Design creationism, a fair cop. I think he’s expres…

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

20.02.2025

Flu brain

I’m feeling better today. At least my gut has stopped spasming, and I don’t feel like I have curl into a fetal ball and dream about dying. I haven’t had the flu in about 5 years, …

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

19.02.2025

The only thing you need to know about Paddington in Peru

My wife and I went on a date to this movie last night. It was OK, not as amusing as the previous one, but you knew from the beginning that everything would be fine. I had one moment of concern, and…

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

19.02.2025

I’m not banal enough to be a NYT columnist

But I could try, if the New York Times would give me a sinecure as their atheist columnist, and if I were willing to discard any self-respect I might have. After all, they do employ the most insipi…

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

19.02.2025

Another memo from the UM president

At least we’re getting words of encouragement from the administration. Dear Colleagues, Since our founding in 1851, the University of Minnesota has distinguished itself as a global leader in …

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

19.02.2025

Listen to Alex

I know Twitter was addictive, but dear god, you’ve got to stop. I went cold turkey in November of 2023. You can do it! You’re not on Facebook, are you? Sorry, you need to kick both habi…

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

19.02.2025

More fossilized soft tissue

Ken Ham is excited about another discovery of traces of collagen in dinosaur bones. Me? I’m saying ho-hum, it’s mildly interesting, but it’s not what you think it is. Kenny-boy th…

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

19.02.2025

The Harvest

When I want to hide from the news, I’ve always got bugs to tend. I’ve been neglecting my mealworm colony, so this morning I cleaned it out — it was mostly full of frass, which exp…

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

19.02.2025

Maybe I’ll stay home for a few years

My wife & I have discussed flying out to Washington state, maybe with a side trip down the Oregon coast, but I may have to rethink that. The Trump administration has begun firing several hundre…

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

19.02.2025

Uh-oh. My granddaughter is going to cause trouble

It’s all her fault. Iliana is bringing on Winter Storm Iliana. I hope she doesn’t have to pay for all the damages. She must like her grandparents though, because it looks like it’…

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

19.02.2025

Fridays are not working for me

At the beginning of the semester, I was pleased to see that I had no classes on Friday, and I looked forward to several months of 3 day weekends. Hah. Work expands to fill the time allotted for it.…

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

19.02.2025

A little good news

The Trump administration and his unelected stooge, Elon Musk, had charged in and imposed a blanket reduction of all indirect costs to 15% — indirect costs are the mechanism used to support th…

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

19.02.2025

Back to the Miocene

It’s getting harder and harder to find something optimistic about. Seeing science knee-capped and obnoxious snots under Musk’s employ rifling through the IRS files and plotting to destr…

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

19.02.2025

These people are infantile twits

A bill has been introduced in Washington DC by a congressman from Georgia. It’s real. Buddy Carter has got to be one of the dumbest suck-ups in congress. I am embarrassed to be from this coun…

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

19.02.2025

Heckle government stooges at every opportunity

This drunken sot and serial sexual harasser, Pete Hegseth, was appointed Secretary of Defense by a president who doesn’t give a damn about competence. Hegseth recently banned transgender peop…

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

19.02.2025

A whale puked him up

Of course it did. Baleen whales don’t have teeth to chew him up, and their throats are too narrow to swallow him whole, so this kayaker just had a brief, fun little trip to tell his friends a…

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

19.02.2025

Is your state on this list?

These are the states suing HHS and the NIH over their disastrous policy on indirect costs. COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS, ATTORNEY GENERAL DANA NESSEL ON BEHALF OF THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIG…

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

19.02.2025

I bet you think this day is about him, don’t you?

It’s Darwin Day! And it is sort of about him, sorta. It’s not like a Catholic saint’s feast day, or like a day idolizing a Communist revolutionary, or even like gushing over a pop…

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

19.02.2025

Discovery Institute ♥ Joe Rogan & Bret Weinstein

The Discovery Institute is thrilled by Rogan and Weinstein, entirely because these conspiracy theorists criticize “Darwinism”. It’s laughable. Rogan is an ignorant meathead, and W…

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

19.02.2025

The latest news on creationism in Kentucky

Dan Phelps presents an overview of all of Answers in Genesis’s shenanigans, right up to the recent news of a known pedophile in Ken Ham’s employ. Isn’t it remarkable how much cree…

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

19.02.2025

Microbiologists, hang your head in shame (or fight back!)

Shame on the American Society for Microbiology. A prominent US scientific society altered its website to remove references to diversity and equity ― terms targeted by the administration of US Presi…

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

19.02.2025

It’s the International Day of Women & Girls in Science!

Everywhere in the world, including Canada, although we shouldn’t talk about it here in the United States. We can celebrate the day quietly in our hearts, though.

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

19.02.2025

I get email

This email was long and particularly vapid, so I’m not going into detail on it, but I do include the whole damn thing below the fold for your entertainment. To summarize it briefly, my corres…

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

19.02.2025

I exploded this morning

Gibs went flying out both ends, and from a few places in the middle. I splattered the bathtub, the floor, the walls. It is not pleasant when the flu comes to visit. I am now trying to reassemble my…

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

19.02.2025

How bad is it?

The situation is dire. Here’s a good overview. Zach is not being hysterical. Everything he said is objective fact and an accurate prediction. It’s hitting me personally now. I was benef…

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

19.02.2025

Libraries rule, Amazon drools

I took a break and visited my local coffee shop for the first time in a few weeks, and I sat down with a cup and thought I’d read for a bit. I had my tablet with me, and I figured I could gra…

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

19.02.2025

Cheesiest giant spider monster ever

I know that this was low-budget mid-1960s sci-fi, but this monster is ridiculous.

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

03.02.2025

That is a mighty fragile wrist

We have lubed up our mighty door, and it opens and closes much more easily now. Unfortunately, the damage is done, and my wrist is undergoing some fascinating physiological changes. It is now mottl…

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

01.02.2025

That is a door, a mighty mighty door

This is the main door to my house. It’s massive. What you can’t see is how thick and heavy it is. This is a door that would stand up to an assault by orcs armed with Grond. In the winte…

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

31.01.2025

You can’t blame the spider!

Well, this is a fascinating example of spider toxicity. A heroin addict, looking for a cheap high or a weird story to tell her friends, ground up a black widow spider in a little water and…injected…

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

31.01.2025

If logic were a horserace, this guy would have lapped himself multiple times

I suspect most of you don’t read the Answers Research Journal, the hack pseudoscientific journal published by Answers in Genesis to create the illusion that they do actual research. They don&…

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

31.01.2025

I guess I’m the last psychic scientist left

Rebecca Watson did her yearly roundup of psychic predictions made by her friends, and it seems I’m the only one to make some predictions for 2025. It was easy. I just said a few things that w…

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

30.01.2025

My depressing prophecy

I’ve been getting reassuring emails from my university to let me know that they have assembled a team to respond to the federal government shut down of NIH and NSF funded research. In case yo…

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

30.01.2025

I should tidy up more often

I was cleaning up a pile of stuff, and I found a treasure! That’s me and my son, Alaric, taken in Eugene in about 1984-85, I think. He’d just eaten a sandwich, so his face was a little …

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

30.01.2025

Soup in spaaaaace!

The country may be swirling down the drain, but at least we’ve got some interesting news from outer space…even if Nature chose a really misleading title for their article, Asteroid fragments …

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

29.01.2025

A bad way to defend America

Michael Knowles, the far-right pundit on the Daily Wire, has posted a defense of Trump’s mass deportations that is basically a confession of American atrocities, and excusing them because the…

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

29.01.2025

It will always be the Gulf of Mexico to me

It got the name in the 16th century, it’s internationally accepted, but one clown thinks he has the authority to change it. Unfortunately, Google is happy to cave on this issue. Google said M…

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

28.01.2025

Sex combs!

I mentioned sex combs a while back, so I thought I’d clarify a bit — I hope none of you rushed out to buy one for yourself (I don’t think human sex combs exist, but if they do, I …

home›Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula›Science

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula - Science

Bernie Sanders has a plan

Courage is what we need

I get email — flu brain edition

Flu brain

The only thing you need to know about Paddington in Peru

I’m not banal enough to be a NYT columnist

Another memo from the UM president

Listen to Alex

More fossilized soft tissue

The Harvest

Maybe I’ll stay home for a few years

Uh-oh. My granddaughter is going to cause trouble

Fridays are not working for me

A little good news

Back to the Miocene

These people are infantile twits

Heckle government stooges at every opportunity

A whale puked him up

Is your state on this list?

I bet you think this day is about him, don’t you?

Discovery Institute ♥ Joe Rogan & Bret Weinstein

The latest news on creationism in Kentucky

Microbiologists, hang your head in shame (or fight back!)

It’s the International Day of Women & Girls in Science!

I get email

I exploded this morning

How bad is it?

Libraries rule, Amazon drools

Cheesiest giant spider monster ever

That is a mighty fragile wrist

That is a door, a mighty mighty door

You can’t blame the spider!

If logic were a horserace, this guy would have lapped himself multiple times

I guess I’m the last psychic scientist left

My depressing prophecy

I should tidy up more often

Soup in spaaaaace!

A bad way to defend America

It will always be the Gulf of Mexico to me

Sex combs!

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