They’re a terrifying force of nature. They’re so scary that their presence is sufficient pretext to marshal a squad of cops to deal with the threat. The mayor of New York City Eric Adam…

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

08.05.2024

Do you think medical boards protect us from quacks?

She said, the longer you wear a mask, the more unhealthy you get. She thinks vaccines wreck chromosomes. For those of you who say you are Christians, what will your life review look like at the end…

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

08.05.2024

Are you looking for a light guidebook to the most interesting animals on the planet?

Here you go, just released today. It’s not exhaustive, but it’s pocket-sized and has pretty pictures, perfect for the next time you walk in the park or hike in the wilderness or visit y…

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

08.05.2024

Making good things cool

The pressure is enormous. I’m a pretty conventional guy, but all the messaging from the world around me tells me that people like me are terrible, hypocritical, and lack all empathy. I’…

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

08.05.2024

Done.

I have just submitted all of the grades for my Spring 2024 classes. I wish I could say “that is all,” but now I have to start planning for Fall 2024.

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

07.05.2024

Spider gluttony

I was checking out our compost bin, which is swarming with young juvenile spiders, and what jumped out at me was how fat they’re getting. These little spiders are growing fast and are turning…

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

06.05.2024

Bari Weiss created a short, simple label for the worst people in media: “IDW”

It’s been six years since Bari Weiss published that silly New York Times article conjuring the Intellectual Dark Web into existence. I think a lot of us here, at least, instantly recognized t…

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

05.05.2024

I want you to know this was a challenge

A swarm of Parasteatoda have hatched out in my compost bin, and I’ve tried a few times to get decent photos of them, but it’s hard. They’re young and tiny — less than half a…

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

05.05.2024

Wouldn’t you know it?

This is the first day of my summer break. Of course, then, in the middle of the night, the toilet float assembly breaks. The water won’t stop running. My wife is disturbed by this, and gets u…

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

05.05.2024

May the Fourth proven false by a religious twit!

It’s fun to watch religious conservatives grapple with pop culture, because they really don’t get it. Today is the goofy pseudo-holiday called May the Fourth (it’s not a real holi…

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

04.05.2024

Ad agencies should watch Star Trek

If for no other reason than to help them avoid this kind of mistake. Is that how Medicare works? I have another excuse to avoid retirement.

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

04.05.2024

The University of Minnesota stands down

The encampment on campus has been disbanded. It didn’t require the police, or the National Guard, or any tanks — representatives from the administration met with protesters, listened, a…

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

04.05.2024

A frustrating news article

I read this article, “Where seas are rising at alarming speed”, with rising exasperation. Look: the Gulf Coast is slowly drowning at a rate that is now obvious. It’s great at expl…

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

04.05.2024

SCHOOL’S OUT FOR SUMMER!

Last class today; I’m not giving any finals, but I do have some term papers coming in on Monday evening. I’m wrapping this thing up in short order. This week my eco devo course has been…

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

03.05.2024

The Silicon Valley venture capitalists are not all right

There’s a twisted, deformed culture of rich capitalists in California who come up with some of the worst ideas and get lauded for them, and one of the wackiest is a guy named Balaji Srinivasa…

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

03.05.2024

Another demonstration of the relationship of money and intelligence

In my previous post, I suggested that there was an inverse correlation between intelligence and wealth. Look! I got another data point! Speaking as a parent, we basically drained our life savings t…

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

03.05.2024

Nice anti-Abrahamic rant

Brian Cox (not the astronomer) is an actor who often plays brusque, rude, loud characters, and he’s usually, at least superficially, a bad guy. So of course he turns out to be an atheist in r…

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

03.05.2024

Bad books

Here’s a short blurb promoting a podcast, If Books Could Kill. If Books Could Kill focuses mostly on the impact many of these books had on society, and through multiple episodes has broadened…

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

02.05.2024

The truth about spiders

The director of Infested, Sébastien Vaniček, tells the inside story of making a horror movie about spiders. And, yes, they really did use 200 spiders on the set—but not all at once. “They are able …

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

02.05.2024

Protests everywhere

All across the country, students are rising up to protest US support for the genocidal state of Israel. The response is growing! Unfortunately, Columbia University is leading the way in authoritari…

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

02.05.2024

The scene at UW Madison

My daughter works here! I notice the wall of cops with shields lined up against a group of students sitting quietly, watching the spectacle. Who has shown up prepared for violence? Administrators c…

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

02.05.2024

Social media 1, ChatGPT 0

Way back in February, I made a harsh comment about ChatGPT on Mastodon. I teach my writing class today. I’m supposed to talk about ChatGPT. Here’s what I will say. NEVER USE CHATGPT. YO…

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

02.05.2024

Happy International Workers’ Day!

It’s time to go read about the Haymarket Affair and the Great Upheaval. Unfortunately, what I’ll do instead today is go to work…the US hasn’t quite figured out what May Day should…

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

02.05.2024

Credentialed leftist at work

Somehow, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if this accusation is true. In his defense, in this article from 6 years ago, his leftist “credentials” are unimpeachable. OK, man, if you say so. Very…

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

01.05.2024

I am so happy to see students standing proudly on the right side of history

The Morris campus of the University of Minnesota is quiet. We’re small and rural, so I think we lack the critical mass to spark substantial protests, but universities in the Twin Cities are t…

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

01.05.2024

Too bad it’s in Florida

Otherwise, I’d visit this place. I bet it’s better than Disney World!

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

01.05.2024

I never cared much for Nate Silver

Once upon a time, a lot of liberals were gaga for Nate Silver, who always left me cold. He seemed to be more of a numerologist, or a horse race handicapper, and I suspected he was juggling the numb…

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

01.05.2024

Spring is sprunging

It’s been raining off and on for the past week, and we have rain forecast for the next ten days, right up through commencement, and the trees have started vomiting up leaves. You’ll not…

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

30.04.2024

Those darned talking boots

They’re everywhere. In the cities, on the streets, on college campuses. It’s always a one-sided conversation, but they call it free speech.

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

30.04.2024

A professor’s cri de coeur

A tenured college professor explains why they are quitting. I’m done. I’m out. I’m giving up my tenure. I earned that tenure through endless nights and weekends in libraries, in f…

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

30.04.2024

Rich people hate rainbows and grey areas

Villains love dichotomies. I am reminded of the way Answers in Genesis builds up this phony definition of Real Science™ so they can declare that conclusions they don’t like are Fake Sci…

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

28.04.2024

I’m adding Infested to my must-see list of spider movies

On the recommendation of catherwood on Discord, I had to watch this movie last night, Infested. Eight tarsal claws up! Unless you’re arachnophobic, in which case you don’t want to get a…

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

27.04.2024

Republicans hate dogs

Remember this story about Mitt Romney? In June 2007 the Boston Globe reported that in 1983, current Republican presidential hopeful (and former Massachusetts governor) Mitt Romney had placed his Ir…

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

27.04.2024

It’s so good to live in a tolerant state

Aww, a heartwarming story before the weekend (when I’m going to be neck-deep in grading.) A Russian, Erik Beda, fled his country for good reason. Erik Beda’s mere existence is practically a d…

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

27.04.2024

Are all my pets psycho?

I’ve mentioned my crazy evil cat before, but here’s another of my little friends, my greenbottle blue tarantula, Blue. They are just coming down off a massive threat posture, which is a…

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

26.04.2024

Another dishonest website down in flames

I suspect that most people who read this site don’t read the Gateway Pundit blog. I don’t either, but I know of it because that blog was founded a year or two after Pharyngula, and quic…

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

26.04.2024

This. Is. UTAH!

A classic moral panic is growing in Utah. The target: furries. Or, rather, imaginary furries. A few middle school kids wearing headbands has been inflated into wild stories of kids in animal costum…

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

25.04.2024

Wait, what’s weird about them?

Bethany Brookshire is wondering about how to justify writing about weird little animals. Sometimes, I write about weird animals, I post weird anatomy facts, because I need to feel a little bit of w…

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

25.04.2024

They’re trying to wear me down

I get email from creationists all the time, and it is so discouraging: there are a few people who manage to pump out so much noise and garbage, and there are a few people willing to engage their no…

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula

25.04.2024

Arrest those tolerant peaceniks for…something!

Caitlin Flanagan is one of those creepy conservatives who manages to get regularly published in so-called liberal magazines like The New Yorker and The Atlantic, and simultaneously is loved by righ…

home›Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula›Science

Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula - Science

Beware of 60 year old grandmas!

Do you think medical boards protect us from quacks?

Are you looking for a light guidebook to the most interesting animals on the planet?

Making good things cool

Done.

Spider gluttony

Bari Weiss created a short, simple label for the worst people in media: “IDW”

I want you to know this was a challenge

Wouldn’t you know it?

May the Fourth proven false by a religious twit!

Ad agencies should watch Star Trek

The University of Minnesota stands down

A frustrating news article

SCHOOL’S OUT FOR SUMMER!

The Silicon Valley venture capitalists are not all right

Another demonstration of the relationship of money and intelligence

Nice anti-Abrahamic rant

Bad books

The truth about spiders

Protests everywhere

The scene at UW Madison

Social media 1, ChatGPT 0

Happy International Workers’ Day!

Credentialed leftist at work

I am so happy to see students standing proudly on the right side of history

Too bad it’s in Florida

I never cared much for Nate Silver

Spring is sprunging

Those darned talking boots

A professor’s cri de coeur

Rich people hate rainbows and grey areas

I’m adding Infested to my must-see list of spider movies

Republicans hate dogs

It’s so good to live in a tolerant state

Are all my pets psycho?

Another dishonest website down in flames

This. Is. UTAH!

Wait, what’s weird about them?

They’re trying to wear me down

Arrest those tolerant peaceniks for…something!

home
›
Free Thought Blogs Pharyngula
›
Science