By Reporter X In front of a packed audience of humans and aliens, Petter Hörnfeldt, known as Mentour Pilot on…
From: The Bolingbrook Babbler
Once again we have a story about an adult at a sporting event snatching a souvenir out of the hands…
From: Mano Singham
I had a dream that started with people talking about a young lady who just had an abortion. There was…
From: Life's a Gas
In a comment to my blog post reviewing the film The Penguin Lessons, commenter jimf wrote: I understand it was…
From: Mano Singham
(Disclaimer: to the extent that this article was inspired by a specific creator, it's not a creator you've heard of,…
From: A Trivial Knot
The Probability Broach, chapter 8 Speaking as a policeman, Win Bear is still incredulous that the anarcho-capitalist North American Confederacy…
From: Daylight Atheism
One of the aphorisms guiding tech companies is to 'move fast and break things'. Rewards accrue to those companies that…
From: Mano Singham
Moon Garden Optimizer is now listed on Steam. You can still play the game in browser for free on Itch.io,…
From: A Trivial Knot
i was chris pine with more scars, in a 1980s-ish tv miniseries about ghetto seattle under futuristic fascists. i was…
From: Life's a Gas
Because I do not watch TV much, there are huge swathes of popular culture that I am oblivious to. Well,…
From: Mano Singham
Tragic. Avi Loeb lost the annual soccer match at his institution! Last night, we held the annual soccer cup match…
From: Pharyngula
I told you that Brian Lauer is an ignorant buffoon, but you shouldn't trust my opinion alone. Last night, Mark…
From: Pharyngula
I've been pretty blithe in my attempts to make people feel less doomy, and PZ did call me out on…
From: Life's a Gas
Brian Lauer of the Twin Cities Creation Science Association debated Mark Reid on the topic of creation vs. evolution and…
From: Pharyngula
And they're no better than creationists elsewhere. I felt compelled to critique a bad creationist debate sponsored by the Twin…
From: Pharyngula
I ran across this ridiculous comment, and it struck me that the interesting thing isn't that Joseph Martin is outright…
From: Pharyngula
This is a photo of the gravitational lensing caused by a supermassive black hole in a distant galaxy. The cosmic…
From: Pharyngula
Don't you know? RFK jr is not anti-vax. He supports safe vaccines. News reports have claimed that I am anti-vaccine…
From: Pharyngula
Sad news: we've lost an important scientist and atheist, Abby Hafer, professor and American Humanist board member. Also, the Discovery…
From: Pharyngula
When I look inside myself I see nothing there. I don't do it often. Even as I compose this, I'm…
From: Life's a Gas
I had a dream that started with people talking about a young lady who just had an abortion. There was…
From: Life's a Gas
Quakers are just one step removed from humanists, but with an even greater commitment to social justice. I like that,…
From: Pharyngula
"A teenage dream's so hard to beat, every time she walks down the street. Another girl in the neighborhood, wish…
From: Life's a Gas
I run an annual survey, and we're always asking about sexual identity. We include some options that are more obscure…
From: A Trivial Knot
I am relieved that I am not a gay or trans person, since this country is getting worse and worse…
From: Pharyngula
I have a new column this week on OnlySky. It's about the declining birth rate, not just in the U.S.,…
From: Daylight Atheism
I didn't know or even know of Transtifa -- I'm not a Twin Cities person -- but I have to…
From: Pharyngula
Earlier I wrote about Itch.io delisting NSFW content. Here’s some followup discussion. I’ve been impressed by how quickly gamers mobilized…
From: A Trivial Knot
Agustín Fuentes has published a new book, Sex is a Spectrum: The Biological Limits of the Binary. I just started…
From: Pharyngula
Recently, Steam purged a bunch of NSFW games from its storefront. This occurred as the result of efforts from Australia-based…
From: A Trivial Knot
Welcome to Minnesota, where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above…
From: Pharyngula
Tomatoes in the greenhouse are slowly but surely ripening, with several blushing every day. I keep harvesting them at a…
From: Affinity
I took the PragerU teacher qualification test. I passed! I can just flash this certificate when the fascists take over…
From: Pharyngula
Once again we have a story about an adult at a sporting event snatching a souvenir out of the hands…
From: Mano Singham
I just found a photo of my maternal grandfather, Paul Clarence Westad. The patch on his arm says he was…
From: Pharyngula
Compared to last year, the tomato harvest is both delayed and pitiful. Last year, I harvested 25 kg overall. This…
From: Affinity
life too hard for daily blogging. did not manage a year of it. sure was an interesting ride, at least…
From: Life's a Gas
It turns out humans don't need AI to say incredibly stupid, ignorant things. [caption id="attachment_77282" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Dufus asks: "How's…
From: Pharyngula
I'm the executor for my late mother's estate. Last week I thought I had completed all of my duties. I…
From: Pharyngula
Because I do not watch TV much, there are huge swathes of popular culture that I am oblivious to. Well,…
From: Mano Singham
I've been pretty blithe in my attempts to make people feel less doomy, and PZ did call me out on…
From: Life's a Gas
I was in the parking lot of home despot, when I saw this sign at a distance. Initially I thought…
From: Life's a Gas
To me the answer is 'no' but the title of this post was suggested by this essay by Philip Goff,…
From: Mano Singham
I just learned that Jimmy Swaggart died earlier this month. He was a terrible human being, a televangelist, an occupation…
From: Pharyngula
As I emphasized in my posts during the past week, the Scopes trial did not resolve any of the major…
From: Mano Singham
As discussed in the last three posts, as a purely legal matter, the Scopes trial was inconsequential, setting no legal…
From: Mano Singham
As I discussed in my two previous posts, in strictly legal terms, the 1925 Scopes trial had little impact. But…
From: Mano Singham
As I said in my previous post, the Scopes defense team wanted their client to be found guilty of violating…
From: Mano Singham
This week I will review some aspects of the famous 1925 Scopes trial that lasted from July 10 through Tuesday,…
From: Mano Singham
I found this interesting short clip of the versatile physician, writer, director, documentarian, comedian, and public intellectual Jonathan Miller, who…
From: Mano Singham
When capitalism trumps science…this is Donald Morisky. He developed a useful tool called the Morisky Medication Adherence Scale, a questionnaire…
From: Pharyngula
They're all over my yard.
From: Pharyngula
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I am locked into the Apple ecosystem. The latest addition was the Apple…
From: Mano Singham
This afternoon, I tried to sort out the newly emerged Bold Jumper spiderlings, with limited success. Unfortunately, they were faster…
From: Pharyngula
It's Friday, feeding day in the lab, and I went in this morning to throw wingless flies and mealworms at…
From: Pharyngula
Mary found this lovely lady hiding in the shrubbery -- it's the shamrock orbweaver, Araneus trifolium, and it was sheltered…
From: Pharyngula
One of the aphorisms guiding tech companies is to 'move fast and break things'. Rewards accrue to those companies that…
From: Mano Singham
I was feeling a bit robust this morning, and managed to hobble all the way out to the backyard, where…
From: Pharyngula
The Tesla company is very secretive about the cars it produces. In particular, it is very reluctant to release information…
From: Mano Singham
Finally, the black widow egg sacs have released their hordes! Here's a close-up of one of the spiderlings. Black widows…
From: Pharyngula
A shooter killed two people and injured 17 others while they were at church on the opening day of a…
From: Mano Singham
I just watched this charming film starring Steve Coogan and Jonathan Pryce. I don't know what made me pick it…
From: Mano Singham
Reports of abuses by the government's thugs in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) keep growing. This is hardly surprising since…
From: Mano Singham
Given that we now live in what is effectively a racist police state in which people of color can be…
From: Mano Singham
The US economy is huge and like anything huge, it has a lot of inertia which makes it slow to…
From: Mano Singham
The Probability Broach, chapter 7 Win and Ed Bear, twin selves from different parallel realities, are comparing biographies. They're trying…
From: Daylight Atheism
I recently had an injudicious rant about racism, chiefly that against latinx immigrants in the united snakes, and the very…
From: Life's a Gas
Do you like waking up? Yeah, me neither. I prefer that all my waking be done strictly in the past…
From: A Trivial Knot
It's easy when an issue is outside your direct experience to see it more broadly, to feel its impact less…
From: Life's a Gas
In her Saturday newsletter sent out to Guardian subscribers that has the above heading, editor-in-chief Katherine Viner lays out a…
From: Mano Singham
The answer seems to be there is no bottom. For the longest time, the US has been behaving like a…
From: Mano Singham
Now you too can take the Oklahoma teacher test without giving your name to PragerU. The list of 34 questions…
From: Pharyngula
Nathan Robinson explains why the pundits and far-right apologists are not funny -- they're horrifying. The breaking point for him…
From: Pharyngula
The Republicans are great at counterfactual naming. They recently gave us the "Big Beautiful Bill," which was anything but --…
From: Pharyngula
[caption id="attachment_77336" align="alignright" width="150"] The Onion is becoming the only reliable source for news[/caption] I can relate to this story:…
From: Pharyngula
Andrea Pitzer examines our prospects -- what is likely to happen when Trump drops dead (the sooner the better), and…
From: Pharyngula
Donald Trump is clearly not healthy -- the rapid cognitive decline, his terrible appearance, I can believe he's going to…
From: Pharyngula
Within a month, we'll know definitively what causes some forms of autism. RFK jr says so. We’re finding certain interventions…
From: Pharyngula
Another mass killing, this time at the Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis. It was horrifying: the killer opened fire at…
From: Pharyngula
A shooter killed two people and injured 17 others while they were at church on the opening day of a…
From: Mano Singham