…one should spend some time with one’s spiders. I know it is numerically the 10th month, but it should be the 8th month by name, if not for some silly Romans who tried to squeeze a couple more emperors into the calendar. It was feeding day anyway, so I spent a little time giving them treats in celebration.| Planet Skeptic
I suspect most of my readers are not manly, masculine “he-men,” according to this declaration by Edward K. Strong. Although…how can you trust Dr Strong? He was neither an engineer or fa…| Pharyngula
Elle Cordova does a rendition of a Halloween classic.| Planet Skeptic
Trump is a gangster. Now he’s committing extortion against American universities. President Donald Trump’s war on academia continued this week with letters pressuring the leaders of top unive…| Pharyngula
Trump is a gangster. Now he’s committing extortion against American universities.| freethoughtblogs.com
Arachnologists poking around in Thailand discovered a new species of mygalomorph, Damarchus inazuma. One individual was particularly unusual: it’s a gynandromorph! | Planet Skeptic
The Oregon GOP posted this image on Twitter. Oh my goodness. I had no idea the anarchy was so bad. On all three platforms, the statement was illustrated with an image that seemed designed to suppor…| Pharyngula
Chopping it all down| Planet Skeptic
And then I realize…they probably are pretty damned comfortable with their role as thugs who hurt people.| Pharyngula
This ‘person,’ David Love, is definitely a spider. Female spiders possess structures in their reproductive tracts called spermathecae that are used to store sperm. Humans lack them, and…| Pharyngula
It is not bringing glory to the fascists. In the pre-dawn hours of September 30, federal agencies coordinated a large-scale immigration enforcement action targeting a five-story apartment building …| Pharyngula
MAHA is cannibalizing its own! This one dumb ‘influencer’ went viral with a tiktok in which she got outraged that Lucky Charms contains sodium phosphate, and she went to Home Depot to s…| Pharyngula
Yes, you are! President Trump (or more perhaps more accurately, Stephen Miller) has issued an Executive Memorandum on National Security for Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Vio…| Pharyngula
‘Deciphering the Gospels’, by R. G. Price, argues the case for Jesus mythicism, which is the view that Jesus never existed on earth in any real form but was an entirely mythical figure in the same way as Hercules or Dionysus. (The author is not the same person as Robert Price, also a Jesus mythicist author.) I’m […]| Freethought Blogs
There are 59 wild geese in this picture; they flew over my domicile due south this morning. I only snapped the picture with my phone; they move fast, and there wasn’t enough time to get my proper camera. As far as I can tell, they really were heading dead southwards, not just approximately. I have […]| Freethought Blogs
Just in time for Halloween, I refreshed all the covers for my Urban Fantasy series, The Bolingbrook Babble Stories: The first three book are available in eBook and paperback editions. Pathways and A Fire in the Shadows are also available in audiobook editions. The eBook for Revenge of the Phantom Press is available to preorder. […]| Freethought Blogs
A guy who works for OpenAI makes an observation. I agree with the opening paragraphs. AI is not like past technologies, and its humanlike character is already shaping our mental health. Millions now regularly confide in “AI companions”, and there are more and more extreme cases of “psychosis” and self-harm following heavy use. This year, […]| Freethought Blogs
Here’s the same thing I said the other day, only far more amusingly. Where is the Democratic leadership? We’ve got a couple of do-nothings like Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries doing their best to dodge responsibility, rather than standing up and fighting back. The Democrats have no coherent policy on health care to oppose the […]| Freethought Blogs
Watch this video. Are you fooled? Does this look at all convincing to you? Trump tonight appears to have pushed the false "medbed" conspiracy theory, which has spread in the far-right internet over the years. https://t.co/L1MBPIU4ON pic.twitter.com/wWBQPDFbnb — Alex Kaplan (@AlKapDC) September 28, 2025 It’s not even a good AI video. On technical merits alone, […]| Freethought Blogs
While having masked federal agents on the streets of Chicago wasn’t funny, there was one moment that’s going viral. In downtown Chicago, A man taunted ICE officers by saying he wasn’t a US citizen. When they went after him, he barely managed to escape.| Freethought Blogs
Professional sports in the US is dominated by male teams whose players get the big contracts and media focus and thus are able to build up a big fan base. Soccer is one instance where the womenR…| Mano Singham
Spotted, growing on a tree about a block from my house: Laetipous, AKA Chicken of the Woods.| Planet Skeptic
There was a terrible mass shooting in Michigan — the killer drove a truck into a Mormon church, set it on fire, and killed four. What I mainly heard in the aftermath of the tragedy was that the killer hated Mormons, thought they were an anti-Christian cult, etc., etc., etc., and Fox News was practically drooling at being able to pin this event on a leftist god-hating atheist fanatic. That’s what we do, after all.| Planet Skeptic
I don’t have any flags flying from my house, which makes me an exceptional American. OK, maybe not too exceptional — most houses don’t have flagpoles and aren’t waving their…| Pharyngula
Man, they must select Fox News commentators for racism as well as stupidity. Here’s a video of Megyn Kelly indignantly arguing on an important issue: Santa Claus must be white. She’s of…| Pharyngula
Remember when Megyn Kelly was deeply offended at the suggestion that Santa Claus wasn’t white? It’s an imaginary figure, yet she insisted he was white. Now she’s doing it again. J…| Pharyngula
I ignored my doctor’s advice yesterday — I’m so fed up with being trapped in my house that I decided I was going to put my knees to work and go for a careful, slow, easy walk. I d…| Pharyngula
I want one of these right now. This is especially urgent because our current, temporary evil cat knocked my camera down in the night and utterly destroyed a lens, and is now persona non grata, and …| Pharyngula
It was easy. Their wings weren’t fully inflated and dried, so they couldn’t escape. Another one also emerged a few feet away, and there are three more chrysalides around my door.| Pharyngula
Trump gave an embarrassing speech at the UN, full of whininess and petulance and egotism, and on social media all you’ll find is conspiracy theorists inventing conspiracies about an escalator…| Pharyngula
RFK jr claimed over a month ago that this month they were going to find and announce the cause of autism. We all knew he was full of shit — he’s permanently full to the eyebrows with sh…| Pharyngula
Republicans are insane. Republican lawmakers in Oklahoma introduced legislation this week that would require every public university in the state to construct “a Charlie Kirk Memorial Plaza”, with …| Pharyngula
This is a review of both the TV series, and the webcomic. The reader should be aware that I greatly favor the critical review, so it should come as no shock that that’s what this is. Howeve…| A Trivial Knot
Every year I write an article sharing a list of music. Last year, the theme was “outsider” music, defined as music coming from outside the musical establishment. I remarked that the outsider genre seems to come from an earlier era, when such music was difficult to find. Today, anyone can self-publish their own music–and I speak from personal experience.| freethoughtblogs.com
Walt Disney and Werner von Braun teamed up to tell us how we were going to get to the moon…in 1955. There’s a certain familiar esthetic to the exercise — shiny, long pointy spaceships w…| Pharyngula
I recently posted — and made a video about — a story about how de novo genes are made. I guess I was more timely than I expected, because The Scientist just posted on article on the sam…| Pharyngula
I guess we aren’t done with Charlie Kirk. The talk show host, Jimmy Kimmel, made a few entirely accurate remarks that were mainly critical of Trump and the Right’s efforts to capitalize…| Pharyngula
I’m relieved to not have any teaching obligations this term. I’ve been doing weekly homework problems/quizzes using the university standard Canvas tool, and I’ve always been prett…| Pharyngula
My lower limbs have been making this sabbatical half-year hellish. First, there was an unexpected meniscus tear in my right knee; that pain is still there, a sharp needle in that one joint. Then my…| Pharyngula
This video is about to go live on YouTube. And now I add the script, below the fold!| Pharyngula
People are having a grand time digging through Charlie Kirk’s own words to show that he deserved being dragged. It’s tempting to sit down and just compile a list of all the hateful thin…| Pharyngula
I posted it to Patreon, but if you aren’t a subscriber, you’ll have to wait until 5pm Monday to watch it on YouTube. . I’ll post a transcript here for those of you who hat videos.| Pharyngula
Based on my personal experience, there seems to a correlation between skeptical thinking and science fiction. I attend functions of a group of skeptics, sometimes physically at local venues, and at other times online with people around the world and I find that a large number of them are aficionados of science fiction and are knowledgeable about the minutiae of those stories.| freethoughtblogs.com
The US Federal Reserve has two missions: keep inflation under control and have full employment. What should be the desired rate of inflation? If it gets too low, that might be due to the economy st…| Mano Singham
This conversation, initially scheduled for last Saturday, was postponed. It will happen today, I promise!| Pharyngula
I’ve been disturbed for the last day by all the unfounded speculation that Charlie Kirk’s killer was a far left fanatic, gay or trans, and that this was a hate crime against conservativ…| Pharyngula
Our garden is full of monarchs — here are three at once chomping through the foliage. The caterpillars are doing great, but look at those poor leaves. They’re a wreck. Also, the eaves o…| Pharyngula
Somebody is compiling a public list of people who “support political violence online,” which seems to mean only people who are insufficiently upset about the assassination of Charlie Ki…| Pharyngula
Did you know that Melissa Hortman’s murderer has still not been charged with domestic terrorism, despite the fact that he specifically targeted Democrats in Minnesota? Also, we still have no …| Pharyngula
A single shot was fired at Kirk during one of his rants at Utah Valley University, striking him in the neck. Apparently, he’s still alive. No automatic or semi-automatic fire? No bump stock? …| Pharyngula
I would never want to teach in Texas…I wouldn’t even want to live in such a place. As an example, here’s a case of a dogmatic student objecting to the instruction in a class that mentio…| Pharyngula
Trump went to court again, to claim that he should not have to pay the large sum he was expected to pay to E. Jean Carroll for sexual assault. He lost. A federal appeals court on Monday upheld a ci…| Pharyngula
The Epstein birthday book has been released, and you can read it all for yourself. The content is not very interesting, to be honest–lots of heavily redacted photos of Child Epstein, Epstein …| Pharyngula
There’s a new book out to defend science, titled uncreatively The War on Science, by Lawrence Krauss. The theme is nothing new: I’d recommend instead The War on Science by Shawn Otto, o…| Pharyngula
None of the above! These are actual posters from the US Department of Labor. To be honest, the Soviet propaganda had a lot more style and sincerity. The modern American stuff just looks like AI slo…| Pharyngula
Wait, no, that’s not true — the Republicans are gunning for everyone who is tolerant of other people’s sexual orientation. The gays are just next in line. This is reminding me of …| Pharyngula
So much of the nonsense about the gender binary is projection, and imposition of cultural biases on top of biology. Case in point: this very silly post that claims that putting feathers on dinosaur…| Pharyngula
Nathan Robinson explains why the pundits and far-right apologists are not funny — they’re horrifying. The breaking point for him was how these horrible people, like Bret Stephens and Ba…| Pharyngula
Quakers are just one step removed from humanists, but with an even greater commitment to social justice. I like that, although I could never join a group with any vestige of god-belief. Still, I ap…| Pharyngula
Within a month, we’ll know definitively what causes some forms of autism. RFK jr says so. We’re finding certain interventions now that are clearly, almost certainly causing autism, Kennedy sa…| Pharyngula
My favourite aunt in law married a card carrying conservative guy. He is, like many of them, a wonderfully nice person when you’re a member of the in group and I actually do like him as a person.But his politics… Now, I have decided that I will not discuss politics with him until he’s back in the workforce. You see, the current conservative motto here is that people unjustifiably have a life and don’t work enough. There are plans to abolish the 8 hour work day for more “flexibility...| freethoughtblogs.com
My favourite aunt in law married a card carrying conservative guy. He is, like many of them, a wonderfully nice person when you’re a member of the in group and I actually do like him as a per…| Affinity
Another mass killing, this time at the Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis. It was horrifying: the killer opened fire at a group of kids in the school, killing two and injuring 17 before th…| Pharyngula
Dietrich Bonhoeffer saw the problem clearly in the 1940s. It’s the stupidity, stupid, and stupidity is more subtle and complex than you might think. Keep the MAGA movement in mind while readi…| Pharyngula
On an episode of “CNN NewsNight with Abby Philip,” the topic being discussed was a serious one: the Trump administration’s current program to purge the Smithsonian, and other museums, of exhi…| Pharyngula
Tragic. Avi Loeb lost the annual soccer match at his institution! Last night, we held the annual soccer cup match between the faculty and the students at Harvard’s Institute for Theory & Comput…| Pharyngula
I’m stewing in my own juices here — crippled, homebound, going stir crazy — and one of the things driving me nuts is the state of American media, since I’m stuck watching so…| Pharyngula
I told you that Brian Lauer is an ignorant buffoon, but you shouldn’t trust my opinion alone. Last night, Mark Reid and Dr. Dan worked over the same presentation and came to the same conclusi…| Pharyngula
Just so know, my wife gave me a present: a wheelchair. It turns out that I was capable of hobbling about with one non-functional knee, but us bipeds are SOL with two blown out knees. I’ve see…| Pharyngula
Yesterday, I was looking forward to visiting a local airshow. I made it. I was disappointed. It was not the fault of the airshow organizers, or the collection of planes they had on view. The proble…| Pharyngula
I am relieved that I am not a gay or trans person, since this country is getting worse and worse at dealing with its raging homophobia/transphobia. Even in Minnesota we’ve got self-righteous …| Pharyngula
Has anyone staged an intervention for Tracie Harris? [12:29] THEO: Uh, yeah. Let’s talk about it. First off, for your listeners, hi, I’m Theo. I’m not a persona. This isn’t …| Reprobate Spreadsheet
My impression of the ex-CNN news announcer, Jim Acosta, was that he at least had some principles. He quit cable news, after all, and that’s a positive mark in my estimation. Unfortunately, he…| Pharyngula
If you follow RetractionWatch, you know that there a lot of bad papers published in the scientific literature. But there you just see the steady drip, drip, drip of bad research getting exposed, a …| Pharyngula
I’d begun to forget that Jordan Peterson exists — does anyone still find him credible? — when potholer54 comes out with a new video demonstrating that he’s a pretentious foo…| Pharyngula
I ran across this ridiculous comment, and it struck me that the interesting thing isn’t that Joseph Martin is outright wrong, but that he presents his stupid ideas with such absolute confiden…| Pharyngula
Don’t you know? RFK jr is not anti-vax. He supports safe vaccines. News reports have claimed that I am anti-vaccine or anti-industry. I am neither. I am pro-safety, Kennedy said in his openin…| Pharyngula
Agustín Fuentes has published a new book, Sex is a Spectrum: The Biological Limits of the Binary. I just started reading it last night — and it’s very good so far — so don’t…| Pharyngula
By luck, my mother and my aunts gave birth to three boys of roughly the same age: me and my cousins, Kelly and Don. Furthermore, they had second children who were all boys, my brother Jim to run wi…| Pharyngula
Everybody and their mother has been sending me links to this story, Spider divination. In Cameroon, they have a practice of cluttering up a spider’s burrow with leaves and sticks and stones, …| Pharyngula
Perfect! Arachno-communist, that’s me!| Pharyngula
The Department of Homeland Security is now trying to brighten our mornings by posting their vision of America: small towns full of white people, with a church across the street from a little one ro…| Pharyngula
Growing up, did any of you hear some variation of the line, “You have to eat all your [broccoli][peas][lutefisk], there are children starving in [China][India][Africa]!” We were suppose…| Pharyngula
We’ve got another chittering weasel of a creationist raving in the comments, a fellow going by the name YesYouNeedJesus. He’s also sending me email. PZ, I first heard about you on Bob E…| Pharyngula
A while back, I mentioned that the Twin Cities Creation Science Association was doing an online creation/evolution debate on the 26th and that maybe I’d tune in and see what they had to say. …| Pharyngula
Gregory Paul makes an interesting point — atheist perspectives are underrepresented in the media. If there’s a disaster, they immediately go to someone who will babble some reassuring p…| Pharyngula
OK, that settles it. If I can’t get my relatively minor health problems fixed soon, my backup plan is a lots of alcohol and all kinds of drugs. It worked for Ozzy! I’m drawing the line …| Pharyngula
I just learned that Jimmy Swaggart died earlier this month. He was a terrible human being, a televangelist, an occupation that is an automatic red flag for a sleazy parasite, without question. I da…| Pharyngula
I’m going mad here. I’ve got limited mobility — I’m supposed to take it easy, but I can limp around, and I’m able to drive, but I have limited access to a car (my wife…| Pharyngula
In a world with so much cause for doom and gloom, one of the persistent bright spots is the steady growth of the nonreligious, atheists and agnostics. Year by year and decade by decade, organized religion keeps losing strength, while nonbelievers are gaining. Where white Christians once commanded an absolute majority of the U.S. population, with political power to match, they’re now an aging, shrinking minority hanging on by their fingernails. It’s only America’s undemocratic system tha...| Daylight Atheism
Here’s some news to give you the heebie-jeebies. There is a vulnerability in trains where someone can remotely lock the brakes with a radio link. The railroad companies have known about this …| Pharyngula
One of the landmark legal decisions in the history of American science education is Edwards v. Aguillard, a 1987 Supreme Court decision that ruled that creationism could not be taught in the classr…| Pharyngula
I said I was burned out on superhero movies and wasn’t going to watch them anymore. But then I saw that Fox News declared that Superman was superwoke and Kellyanne Conway came out against it …| Pharyngula