Janet says it is National Delurking Week 2007— if you’ve been reading Pharyngula but haven’t been making comments, this is the thread where you’re supposed to make your existence known and say hello. The rest of you chatterboxes should sit back and let someone else have a turn saying something.
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
Hello from London. I did not realize I was lurking – but I quite fancy the idea. I will use it as an answer to the constant question “What are you up to at the moment?”
Hi folks. Thanks for this great blog PZ, it’s replaced slashdot.org as the first place I visit each time I go on the ‘Net. Says something on my evolving interests. I wouldn’t mind some more science though, in addition to all the great other stuff, and particular molecular biology.
Hi from England (sunny Weston-super-Mare), been lurking here for well over a year, probably 2 actually. Would love to comment but don’t really have the time to be honest. Came here looking for anti-creationist ammo and stayed; learning loads, science, biology, godlessness, even cephalopods!
Keep up the good work PZ, i’m sure there are many lurkers who frequnet the site but don’t feel up to posting comments.
i lurk via rss.. but i comment too, sometimes. great blog.
Hello there. I think I’ve picked a medical nit or two, but not more. I mostly read via RSS.
Hello there. I think I’ve picked a medical nit or two, but not more. I mostly read via RSS.
I’m a Canadian slacker who toils all winter long, so I can retire every summer and spend all my days in a hammock, drinking beer and reading books. As you can guess from that amazing, long term style of thinking, I’m too dumb to actually do science, so I just read things like this to make sure I don’t become too horribly uninformed.
Also, if you go here and search for “I Crush Everything”, it’s a nice song about the sad life of a giant cephalopod. Enjoy.
Hello from the sunny, balmy city of Ottawa!
I posted once to wish you and your family a merry non-religious Christmas, PZ, but otherwise, I’ve been lurking for months. I’m just awful about lurking.. I’m really shy on the internet.
Yikes! You found me.
I confess: longtime lurker, science dabbler, out atheist, socialist, feminist, and, amazingly, employed by military dependents’school.
That’s my story.
Greetings, also from Ottawa. Although I’ve made a few comments lately, I’m more of the lurking, camouflaged type.
No way am I delurking.
Hello from London. If I had the time I’d love to comment but I don’t.
PZ keep up the good work we’re all in this together:
Bigots
Hello from Virginia! PZ rules – I’ve been a reader for over a year now. Keep up the good work!
Bollocks!
I read daily, this is one of my favorite atheist blogs because there are frequent updates and always something interesting to ponder. Also, is it weird that I am fiercely proud of your daughter?
Seem to be a lot on here from the UK.. well I’m another one. Keep up the good work!
Jamie
Hello again, PZ.
I’ve been continuing to read (mainly via RSS) but I’m struggling to find any time to contribute to discussions. As Phunicular (of PhaWRONGula) I’m lucky if I manage a post per month.
I guess I’m effectively now a lurker.
Hi, from Italy.
I read PZ each days and usually love him :P
But I’ve voted for BA at the latest contest becouse my girfriend want absolutely PZ on the next calendar, possibly on a very sunny months :D
Good morning from Fort Lauderdale, PZ is a new hero of mine, this is the first site I check each day.
–TD
Hi from a usually-lurker in beautiful Bethlehem, Pennsylvania! I love the blog and read it daily–and I credit you with my new interest in biology. I’m a neophyte, but slowly learning a little bit.
Hello from Birmingham, UK!
I read every day but I think I’ve only posted two comments. (Three now!) Fantastic blog, keep up the great work.
Greetings from (an altogether too warm) Bavaria! Long time reader, (I think) first time poster. Remember kids, stop and think: What would a pirate do?
Hello from Missouri. I’ve been reading for a long time and make occasional comments, but after PZ speaks, what is left to say?
Sorry for the biblical-ish handle (I just like the sound of it I swear). A liberal atheist from NZ, but based in Dublin, Ireland. Your blog is a great way to start, fill, and end the day. Nice work, keep up the cephalopodly stuff.
In order to de-lurk one needs something to say. This is not difficult.
Having something that is worth saying is more difficult.
I’ve been a regular reader for a few months. Have been sharing the cephalopodic bounty with my daughter.
This is maybe the third time I’ve posted a comment at a blog.
Over the years I’ve done most of my lurking (and non-lurking) on Usenet groups…
Hello from Bexley, OH! Thanks for the great blog, PZ.
Greetings from (thankfully I’ll soon be moving permanently) Florida.
The only area in which we disagree is that, in my opinion, wings, talons, and big, nasty beaks trump tentacles any day . . . but yours is still the first blog I read every day.
Thanks for taking on the creationists, PZ. You provide good insights to their motives and motivations.
Hi from Holland. I wear wooden shoes when I’m gardening, which I rarely do btw ;-).
/delurk
Greetings and salutations from Baton Rouge, LA.
This part of the country rather tests my atheism. It isn’t hell, but I’m pretty sure I can see the gates from here.
Thanks for the site, the intelligent arguments, the laughs and the hope, PZ.
/relurk
Hello again, PZ.
I’ve been continuing to read (mainly via RSS) but I’m struggling to find any time to contribute to discussions. As Phunicular (of PhaWRONGula) I’m lucky if I manage a post per month.
I guess I’m effectively now a lurker.
I’m another (mostly) lurker from FL.
Hi. And thanks for the good blogging.
MikeG
Another hi from the heart of Holland (Utrecht). Pharyngula fills most of my lunch hour. It’s a great way for a humanities person like me to learn some science.
Hello from Stuttgart, Germany! I have been reading you for a little over a year now. Between you, Jason Rosenhouse and Ed Brayton I have started to de-calcify my 47-year old brain and gotten the synapses firing again. Thanks for putting out such a great blog!
Hello from a perennial lurker in Madison, WI. Your blog is on my “daily read” list, PZ.
Long time lurker from Saskatchewan, Canada. I started at the JREF, was led to Orac, and then ended up here over a year ago. I spend a significant percent of my work day reading this blog, but I’ve never commented. And I probably won’t comment ever again… I like lurking. Anyway, thanks for the excellent blog, PZ!
Greetings from Auckland in New Zealand. I enjoy reading Pharyngula and check it most days. As an atheist drowning in a sea of Christians (I’m an engineer) I find it provides a form of sanctuary where people say sensible things and make reasoned arguments. I also like to stock up on ammo for my next encounter with “them.”
If I must.
Hello from sunny (yes, even today!) Athens, Greece. I began reading Pharyngula, Randi, Skeptico and Respectful Insolence long before I started blogging, and I dare say you people have definitely been an influence to the right direction.
We need more active critical thinkers out there…
Hello from France !! Also very sunny, with 16°C, which is completly abnormal…
And to go on with comments of a previous post, Armaggedon was not the worst film, that was ID4 ! At least some parts of Armaggedon were funny, if you were not too demanding (or if you were drunk or something)…
I am an atheist from Cleveland, OH.
Dr.Myers, many thank you for this blog and your work in general. Use the information I get from this blog to bug theists around me. Adds to illusion of purpose in my life :).
But, butt, but, I ain’t dressed just yet. Could I like get into trouble for exposing myself? I mean, like, someone could call the PO-leese or sumpin…
I read daily and I think I’ve dropped a vocal bomb or two just to let you know I’ve been here. Then again, I could be incorrect with that idea.
I’m a bit dangerous until I’ve finished my second cup of coffee < (__)
So far, I’m still working on the first one but good morning to all readers. ~:o)
Hello form St. Louis, MO…
Hello from sunny Bulgaria (which should not be sunny at all at this time of the year). Birds are singing, the bears suffer insomnia and hedgehogs are frolicking around instead of sleeping. But Scienceblogs will tell you that’s far from OK.
Thank you, PZ, for the good reads, the positive thoughts…even for raising my level of tentacle appreciation.
Hello from sunny (won’t last for long) Oxford, UK!
Amazed by the number of fellow Brits that seem to be lurking here. Love the blog, and lurk about two-three times a day. Might try to summon up the courage to comment again another time.
Science Goddess here… Retired university professor, teaching part time at community college (I’ve come to appreciate you more and more, PZ). Started volunteer work in public schools, mostly due to the appalling ignorance of science out there. Hmmm… let’s see: amateur pianist, organic (semi) gardener, good cook, 2 dogs, 1 husband.
Occasionally I post, but mostly am grinning with satisfaction at the erudition I find here.
Thanks, SG
Hola professor
I’m just another liberal heathen.
And another hello, this time from near Edinburgh in Scotland. Been reading you since your “award-battle” with the Bad Astronomer – the pair of you are a true credit to the world of rational thinking! Here’s hoping science becomes the dominant religion…
And back to my RSS-based lurking I go.
Greetings from sunny Durban South Africa. I’ve been a lurker for more than 2 years. Great blog! I’ve learned much. Also, it’s nice to know there are kindred unbelievers out there in the big wide world. I think PZ must be one of several clones. How else to explain how he can find the time for all he does?
PZ, been reading your site for a year now, and it’s always enjoyable. I agree with you far more often than I do not. Between you and Orac, ScienceBlogs has been my favorite site for a while now…keep up the good work!
Hiya!
Another reader from Germany here. I’ve been reading your blog for 3 or 4 months now, but never commented. Given that the only possible comments I could have given are variations of “Yeah! Just what I would have said… If I was smart enough to think of it and not too lazy to blog,” and “Interesting, but way too far outside my field of expertise for me to contribute anything,” and “That’s very… uh… tentacular,” I just thought that wouldn’t really be a good use of your web space and bandwidth.
Hello:
I guess I’m a delurker too! (Add that to the list of words I never heard before). The blog is great, and I’ve been a reader for about a year now and just wanted to say hello.
If we delurk can we still be considered lurkers?
Memphis TN is where I exist for what that is worth.
And from a mountain top in Tennessee, I lift my veil of seclusion to add to the acknowledged numbers of the enlightened.
Hello from a developmental biology institute out here in western japan. whenever i stare down a microscope a can’t help but feel a sense of wonder. you accurately convey this feeling, with a passion that all microscope jockeys share.
Have not commented in a long time.
Now that that is over, I can go back to my normal self.
I’m propably the most big delurker. I have readed this blog two or three months. I like to read it, and that is all. (I like Loom and “Good math” wery much too.)
I think my comments are not “needed” And my english is..not so good(I try allways be polite to myself.)
I am sorry, but I am student (Polytechnic, Agriculture) and locally noisy “negative agnostic” (God is not a scientific question at all, so I “don’t comment”, but if somebody sey “yes or no” *with axe* I say “no”.) from Finland. We “Finns” are quiet and stubborn little bastards. (OK, I am not wery small, and IRL not_so_quitet) :)
I’m propably the most big delurker. I have readed this blog two or three months. I like to read it, and that is all. (I like Loom and “Good math” wery much too.)
I think my comments are not “needed” And my english is..not so good(I try allways be polite to myself.)
I am sorry, but I am student (Polytechnic, Agriculture) and locally noisy “negative agnostic” (God is not a scientific question at all, so I “don’t comment”, but if somebody sey “yes or no” *with axe* I say “no”.) from Finland. We “Finns” are quiet and stubborn little bastards. (OK, I am not wery small, and IRL not_so_quitet) :)
De-lurking mollusc fan from Melbourne, Australia.
Pharyngula kick starts the conversation at morning tea.
Frequent lurker in Milwaukee. Thanks for all the great thought-provoking posts!
Another UK atheist lurker. I come here for optimism that sense will prevail. I learn a lot, too.
I lurk via RSS, and have to say that I love your blog. Im an Atheist, Socialist, and I love Biology. I live in NH.
Freequent lurker from Cincinnati, which is way too close to that damn creationist “museum” Hammy-Boy is building. Anyone up for a pitchforks and torches kind of event?
Roar! LBS Physics and Mathematics dual major at Michigan State with a guilty thirst for evolutionary biology. I also turn towards Dr. Robert Pennock’s shrine (err… office) a few times a day in worship. It’s located inside my dorm, anyway.
hello from Austin, TX live music capatol of the world. i’m an RSS feed user so i don’t usually even see the coments.;-)
greetings from Venice, Italy
Long time lurker, I’d like to thank you for what I’ve learnt and enjoyed so far and blame you for the my loss of productivity at my office…
Hello from Oxford. I found your blog through the article on discrimination against women in the sciences. Indeed, I lifted all your sources for an entry of my own…
De-lurking in Chicago. I love your blog and read it every day, but I don’t have the expertise to comment on most of the posts and would rather not add an idiotic comment that shows my ignorance. Relurking now…
I’m down in Cincinnati, like Tom, and have been “lurking” since I was linked from Slashdot a while back. Never took any “real” biology, but I live for the Friday Cephalopod!
Hi All,
Long time lurker, few time poster, avid fan.
Hello and thanks for the great effort.
I’m a greek lurker, visit your blog daily (almost). You’ve been a great inspiration for us. Keep up the good fight against religious and right-wing metaphysical intolerance!
As an aside “spam” here, in quasi-theocratic Greece, with its well-stated union of Church and State, the greek blogging community has its own share of trouble with our own brand of ultra-nationalists (who are aligned with the eastern orthodox fundamentalists, BTW)…
http://blog.dontkissthefrog.net/2007/01/07/greek-aggregator-shuts-down-service-because-of-legal-threat/
I think I’m the closest delurker to Morris (in the physical sense) since I live in St Paul. I have very infrequently commented, but I read every day and greatly enjoy it. Biology was never my strong science (BA in physics from UMTC) but I find it fascinating and wondrous.
I’m an atheist who has become more comfortable being out through reading this blog.
Thanks PZ.
I’m a daily lurker here. Love the site and get loads of interesting info.
I’m speechless
This is the only blog that has a bookmark on this lurker’s google Personalized Home. I like the anti-god pro-science comments and the random quotes.
Delurking from Brasil
enjoying the lurking. raining and windy in amsterdam.
Hello from Liverpool, UK
Thank you for an excellent blog, PZ. I greatly appreciate and support the way in which you defend science and reason against the forces of irrationality.
Hi from the Netherlands. Visiting your blog is a daily routine for me (and also lurking). Your blog is a great read, although the science is sometimes way over my head.
Just broke the seal with this comment. I’m an avid Dkos reader and posted a Pharyngulan link on Dkos about 50K copies of “An Inconvienent Truth” being rebuffed (it hit the recommended list). An agnostic by age 16, with a gradual build up to being an atheist for sure now at 31. Married last year with a completely secular (no God) ceremony, closest thing was a quote from MLK.
And with my Barnes and Nobles gift certificate that I got for x-mas, went out and bought four books. The first one, which I’m presently immersed in, “Endless Forms Most Beautiful”, “At the Water’s Edge”, “Darwin’s Compedium” and “The God Delusion”.
/back to lurking
Hello. Wasn’t that fun? Time to go back to lurking.
SOMETHING
Wow. Feeling the need to make a second comment. Shouldn’t delurking week coincide with Groundhog Day?
With so many good comments, and a few bad, I usually have nothing to add. Like this thread for instance…
Oh, second thoughts …
If I expose myuself, in public, won’t I get arrested?
Hola. Thanks for all the great blogging. It’s my haven here in religious, conservative Texas.
Hello from Portland, Oregon. I have been lurking for the past few months. I go to this site every day and enjoy the posts. I like reading the posts about godlessness.
I guess it’s safe to stick my head out, way down here near the hundredth comment. I’ve actually commented once before, in the 2 years I’ve been lurking: I’m the one who thinks calling one’s self an atheist concedes too much to the God-people. My home is Texas, my politics is libertarianism, my undergrad education was in classical piano performance and biology, and I make my living now as an otolaryngologist (i.e., ear, nose and throat doctor) in private practice. Clearly, I need to keep a low profile. Carry on, PZ!
*waves* from the UK. Greetings to all you lovely people.
I’m a long time creationism-hater from the time I saw Ken Ham and Henry Morris give a seminar. I was 16 then and 30 now. I read Pharyngula every day I’m on the Internets. Keep up the good work PZ – there are thousands of lurkers like me who appreciate your blog in silence.
I can’t believe so many of you fell for this right-wing trap sure to end only in your phones being tapped and your mail being gone through with eventual arrest and detention for years without being told what you are being charged with and subjected to subtle torture routines thru daily naked humiliation only to be released somewhere in Europe with no chance of ever returning to your home country because alas they have denied your citizenship. Surely you could have seen this coming people! Wait……..Oh crap…..Allah be merciful.
Hi from Gough Island!
There’s not a hell of a lot to do here, so I spend a lot of time on the internet.
I work at the Weather station.
http://home.intekom.com/gough/
Have to go now. Wednesday it’s my turn in the barrel!
99% lurker, 1% commenter from the Bible Belt in Memphis TN.
Thanks for the intelligent thought provoking writing.
(and no, my name isn’t my religion. it is just my name, thankfully)
Hallo, PZ, and PZ’ers. PZites? PZians?
Good blog. I approve. Good enough to keep me coming back to lurk day after day.
Though sometimes I feel guilty about liking calimari so much.
Texas as well here, liberal, more inclined towards mathematics, but with a relatively staunch belief and fascination in science.
Carry on, carry on.
*goes back to lurking*
I’ll add a third hello from Ottawa, Canada (apparently the atheist centre of Canada, must be why we are having such a warm winter!)
But I originally hail from Auckland, New Zealand, so “Hi” to all you Kiwi god-botherer-bashers that are still there!
I found Pharyngula accidentally through a google search, I believe, and it’s been on my first check list for since then.
Someday, I’ll actually make it over to the 331 and buy you a beer for all this fun!
Hi from a law student in Charlottesville, VA!
Generally I just support people in email, but how can I resist National Delurking Week?
Great blog, very edjumacational for this geology student to learn more about the squidgy stuff. And I used the word “squidgy” advisedly, since I love me them cephalopods.
Okay, gotta go get my lurk on.
Thanks for the chance to de-lurk. Long time reader from Wisconsin, living in Decatur, Alabama. Go Badgers!
Hi, I’m a daily lurker from Germany and a material science student. Consider it your fault that I can’t seem to stay out of debates about god and science these days, especially at parties with a high percentage of philosophy students and beer. Funny how that works. ;)
Hi from Alabama. I’m a traffic researcher working on a PhD and I found you through Bitch, Ph.D. Considering the prevailing cultural attitudes towards science and religion in Alabama, reading your blog is a breath of fresh air :) Thanks!
Hello from Denver. I believe we have your snow…
Hello from Savannah, GA.
Long time lurker. Thanks for the great blog PZ. It is one of my first reads each day.
Greetings from germany! I have been lurking quite a long time now, and will do so. I like your blog very much, both for snippets on biology and the mashing of cretins.
I study physics, and I think Kat has a point. I was able to involve people into discussions on religion on parties, too. I think I annoyed some of them ;)
Hi, I’m Brett (aka idragosani), a software engineer & musician living in the DC area. I have commented a couple of times, but read more than I post. I tend to run my mouth more on the IRC channel these days. :-) I’ve been following the creationism/evolution (and the wider dominionism agenda) since I was in high school mumblety-mumble years ago and is about the only thing I am activist about.
Greetings from Seattle. I’m another long-time lurker, originally drawn here by Jim Lippard. I’m an Internet Atheist from way back (check the alt.atheism archives), and about 5% of my blog postings are tagged “Atheism”. Even though I’ve been in the USA for 26 of my 56 years, I still consider myself an expat Brit.
While I agree with most of your positions, I’m actually most interested in the science postings, because I learn more new stuff from them. After all these years, most of the creationist and religious-apologetic stuff just leaves me with a sense of déjà vu…. (But that doesn’t mean I don’t occasionally rise to the bait.)
Lurk every day. Very much enjoy the blog. I’ve posted once or twice, though they were not well recieved.
Hi PZ, greetings from Canada. I’ve been a lurker on your blog for over a year now, and I occasionally even lurk on Skatje’s blog too. I came for the quote file, and stayed for the godlessness, and cephalopods. I am in the fields of religious studies and sociology, although I started out in biology. Your science posts fill my still-present biology cravings, and your atheism posts help with the voices. :) I have actually mentioned your blog at parties, how geeky am I?
Hello from Colbert, Georgia. Just finished _Creationism’s Trojan Horse_ and am currently working my way through _Tower of Babel_ as a way of putting off dissertation research.
Barry
I read Phryngula every weekday, and i get a lot out of it. I only comment very infrequently on blogs that i know even the slightest bit about the subject matter: the defunct Tenderblog, The Endless Frontier, Pipeline, and MotD. My info = medicinal chemist, biotech, Cambridge, MA. Thank you for educating us.
I lurk in central Virginia, where the best calamari I’ve had came with a lime/ginger/soy dipping sauce.
Joe T
Delurker from Annapolis MD who is commenting for the first time ever on any blog. Been a lurker for years! Absolutely love your blog – it’s my fave. My daughter in the UK is an avid fan of yours as well! We enjoy the godlessness and science. Thank you!!
Ey.
Fellow scientist/atheist/polymath here. Your bloggorhea inspires me quite often.
Hello and greetings from Kansas City, MO! Long time lurker, first time poster.
Hello from Silicon Valley!
I’ve been lurking here for about a year now, enjoying the science and snark. My daughter reads it, too. For some reason, though, she is still not enamored of cephalopods.
Another Canadian, not quite delurking as I have posted a couple of comments, but I read Pharyngula pretty much every day and enjoy the discussions. Have been interested in the creationism issue since my daughter’s junior high science teacher inflicted the video of Icons of Evolution on them a few years ago. Luckily she claims they were all so bored with the class that no-one paid any attention to it…
Greetings from Columbia, MO. Been reading and lurking for a year or two. I can now spell “pharyngula” without looking it up.
Yet another London Lurker. Found you originally through Brian Leiter’s website. Came originally for anti-Creationist ammo and stuck around for the squiddly-bits…
Hello from wintry Edmonton, Canada!
I’ve been lurking since just before PZ came to Scienceblogs. He’s a voice of reason (a very strident voice of reason) that gives me some hope for the future.
Aaggghhh! I feel like a slug who’s been exposed to the daylight! De-luring from Portland Oregon for PZ, since he asked. Rather a new-ish reader, hooked since the comic entitled “Preserve traditional marriage: One Robot, One Octopus” appeared. Now the darling of my co-workers since fowarding the spiders on drugs video. Developing an unexpected fondness for cephalopods. Naturally, I’m here here to fight the good fight against godbags and ignoramuses as well as the funny videos. Love the site.
Hello. I’m a daily reader in Massachusetts. Raised Catholic I realized that I didn’t actually believe any of teachings around 13. Blessedly my parents supported me but the church’s deacon kept trying to get me to come back (I’d been enrolled in CCD for many years and always did well because I basically saw it as school). It was then I realized how odious religion can be…why would he want me to return when I’d told him flat out I didn’t actually believe in God?
Anyways…I appreciate reading your science entries as well. Though not in the sciences I quite enjoy expanding my intellectual horizons as much as I can. Thank you so much for keeping up the good fight.
Hi from the sunny(!) south coast of England!
I follow the blog through the rss feed on LiveJournal, don’t remember how I found it, you were probably quoted on one of the atheist or evolution comms on LJ!!
Hello!
I don’t know if I qualify, I sometimes (rarely) comment but I also rather fancy the descriptor “lurker”. Thanks for all the fun stuff!
Cheers,
Ray
Hi. I’ve been reading Pharyngula for about a year; I got linked here from Panda’s Thumb, which I started reading voraciously back during Kitzmiller. I’m an undergrad physics major at a state u. in Indiana. I love PZ’s fight against wingnuttery, and I especially love that he’s not afraid to also take on the woo and scientific ignorance of the left. The recent smackdown of Chopra was delightful.
I think this is my 3rd comment ever on Pharyngula over four months reading. I’m an undergrad in LA.
Hey, PZ.
I think I’ve got gravitybear beat by about five miles – I’m a lurker from Minneapolis. I read you daily, both for the atheist and excellent evo stuff as well as your awesome squidblogging. I, for one, welcome our new cephalopod overlords.
I tend not to comment because I sense that I will be sucked into the grand vortex of arguing on the Internet, thus removing all remaining productivity out of my day and getting me fired…which will cost me my internet access. It’s a painful cycle I’d hope to avoid. Instead, I send out links and bitch to my friends. It’s fun.
Anyway, thanks for all your snark!
Hello PZ,
I am delurking from Newfoundland. I truly enjoy reading the discussions on your website. Good to see that people of reason are making the truth known. i.e. the liberal-biased, reality-based truths. Is there really any other kind? Well, its back to lurking. Keep up the good work.
Another Canadian in the woodwork here. I may have commented once or twice, mostly I just come here to read, learn, nod and smile.
Greetings from Northern California.
I’ve been reading here for a long time, but never commented. I’m an undergraduate studying (gasp) electrical engineering, but I assure you all that some of us can in fact recognize real science.
I am a Christian engineer/guitarist in Austin, Texas. I have been reading Pharyngula daily for several years, lately via RSS feed, so I usually don’t read the comments. I have only commented a few times. I think PZ does a phenomenal job of explaining the latest research in understandable terms, as well as demonstrating how evolution is the thread that ties together all of biology. I was first pulled in by his succinct smack-downs of creationist drivel. My faith starts from agnosticism; our knowledge of God is limited, we cannot deduce our way to God. I believe we make a choice whether to believe or not, and we should respect others’ choices. Keep up the good work.
Another Canadian, this time from Toronto. Read Pharyngula daily. You may want to check out the pinnacle of evolution here: http://www.killsometime.com/Video/Video.asp?ID=367
/delurk
Another lurker chiming in from Milwaukee, WI. Been reading this blog since Kitzmiller started last year. I’ve a whole new appreciation for squids!
/lurk
Hi from yet another English reader!
I read pharyngula most days, I have been a regular lurker for a year or so now. I am pleased to say that I have learned a lot from the science posts and had many a laugh at the expense of the creationist lot out there. Right, enough of this putting myself in the bright lights, back to the lurky shadows again… :)
Hi from Stratford-upon-Avon. Not sure whether I’ve commented before, but I visit daily and enjoy it very much – thanks for all the work you put in!
Hello PZ,
I’ve been reading you from Montreal, QC, Canada, for half a year approximately. I can’t even remember how I discovered your blog, but it’s one of the only two or three that I read regularly (another good one is, of course, Bad Astronomy). I’m a bioinformatician. I was raised as a catholic (like most French-Canadians), but I’m a militant atheist just like you and Dr. Dawkins. I’ve lived in California for four years, and since then I’ve been particularly interested in the intersection between politics and science (I’ve read The Republican War On Science and like most scientists I hate what’s happening with the U.S. and Canadian governments).
Another Canadian “Hi”, from Victoria BC. Long time reader (from the old IIDB days, in fact), first time commenter.
You’re an inspiration in many ways, and a complete kick in the teeth in others. Bravo!
Overcoming extreme shyness to say this:
Hi from Michigan. I’m an atheist Jew who has to put up with scores of low IQ, homophobic, Republican, Bush-worshipping, racist, flag-waving jesus-freaks among my own extended family, my in-laws, neighbors, and my children’s schools, as well as this country in general. Reading your blog is a breath of fresh air for me.
Thanks.
Hola, Hola from sunny and crazy Caracas, Venezuela. It´s good to be a lurker,I mean, the ones from Starcraft
Good morning from Portland, Oregon.
Hi from Mexico. Computer Science. Have like 3 or 4 months reading it. I read it mainly because of the biology stuff, though I enjoy the godless bit. I’m Bright.
Cheers, you have a great blog. And thanks to you, I met scienceblogs.com, GM/BM & Insolence…
Hi from Mexico. Computer Science. Have like 3 or 4 months reading it. I read it mainly because of the biology stuff, though I enjoy the godless bit. I’m Bright.
Cheers, you have a great blog. And thanks to you, I met scienceblogs.com, GM/BM & Insolence…
Good grief.
Long time lurker here! I’m a big fan, PZ, but I don’t much fit in with the egg-heads ’round here – I’m a philosophy student. :D
Love the science, though~!
oops, ignore my last comment not supposed to be in this thread.
Hi, I posted here once or twice, do I still count as a lurker? I visit this site every day, sometimes more than once. Please keep up the good work.
I’m a long-time lurker from Cardiff (UK) and also a fan of Skatje. I’m usually too awed by the general level of knowledge to make a comment.
Hello from Brazil! Found your blog through Good Math, Bad Math.
Long-time lurker, occasional poster from sunny Arizona. Glad to see you were down in Phoenix, PZ. This is one of the first sites I visit to get my daily dose of atheism, humor, and science, all in one shot.
I have commented in the past, but not for a long time. Long-time reader. Enjoy every visit!
Keep the “faith”!
Word!
Love the blog so much that it does its thinking for me. I base all my life’s decisions on something I find at pharyngula (just kidding). But I do love the blog.
I commented once, but mostly lurk. I’ve been reading for a couple of years.
And here I already posted a comment in another thread. Anyway, this is only my third comment here, so hi.
My 3 favorite things about Pharyngula:
1) Cephalopod art (sub-point: Cthulhu references)
2) PZ’s “translations” of papers in the journals
3) Reading about the D.I. and realizing that even I can refute most of their arguments.
The guilt I feel over my incessant lurking on this blog has been nicely assuaged by this barrage of greetings and confessions- I see that I’m not alone! Cheers to you, PZ, for producing a blog that features both the delights of evo-devo (my field of study as a grad student) and a slate of reasoned-out arguments against creationism that we non-believers can trot out to hold up our side of this ceaseless debate.
Hi; I’m a biology student trapped in corporate Chicago for a year before grad school; your blog helps keep my brain alive.
Greetings from sunny Sunnyvale, CA! I make frequent use of ScienceBlogs when my workload at a well known internet company is light. (Pharyngula is my favorite!)
Sometimes, when my cube mates are sucking down their Airbourne and bitching about how flu shots don’t work and make you sick, I bite my lip and call up some ScienceBlogger science to keep me from exploding into a gooey mess.
Thanks for being here!
Most of my comments are OT, so what am I? A lurker-nuisance combo?
Godless NZer in NY, moving to UK soon.
Apparently the de-lurking is working… This is Chad in California. I read this blog daily, and enjoy the science just as much as the creationist thrashing. Well, not quite. :P
Oh, um, hello.
Now please look away so I can get back to lurking ;-)
Greetings from a daily lurker in foggy CA. I’ve been reading for quite a while – I think I came via a link on Feministe.
A day late on responding…
Hello from near Berkeley, CA
I’ve been reading this blog for a year & a half and love it. I feel like I know all you constant commenters, but then I remember I’m invisible to you!
Thanks for all the great info. and food for thought, PZ.
Delurking…
From Philadelphia, I started reading after hearing about the blog from a caller on Penn Radio, perhaps back in November? October? Fantastic stuff, I’ve really enjoyed it.
Cheers.
Delurking to say hi! I love you!
Your blog probably gave me the ultimate impetus do admit to everybody that hey, I’m an atheist, and in fact have been for years (without acknowledging so). So… thanks!
Atheist theatre artist here in Brooklyn, NY, a godless heathen hellhole (actually, in my neighborhood, I am surrounded by Orthodox Jews on one side and Italian Catholics on the other, with a smattering of Korean Presbyterians here and there, so I’m in some kind of “faith pocket”).
I’m primarily interested in issues of religious interference in state business, and found Pharyngula some time ago in my RSS feed sweep of Atheist blogs. I haven’t stayed with all of the blogs I started reading then, but stay here for the fine writing, keen observations, excellent comments (I usually wind up linking out of my blog reader to find out what others are saying), and the science (which I have great difficulty understanding — and ALWAYS have, despite interest; some kind of mental block or something — but continue to work on).
Thanks, PZ.
I think this is my first post. I’ve been reading for years, ever since I was a computer programmer. These days I’m a medical student, and often (as today) read during lecture. It means I don’t get as much out of the serious science as I should (I need my whole brain to understand it, rather than the half I devote to blog-reading during class), but I enjoy it all. Like several other commenters, I’m in St. Louis, MO.
So yes I will delurk long enough to say hello. Pharyngula is one of my favorite blogs. Now back to lurking.
Err… Hi.
Love the site. followed a link from Atrios, i think, about 2 years ago. Been a regular ever since. Not much of a poster though. Sorry.
Hi from upstate New York. A big fan of the biology posts, but I prefer gastropods to cephalopods (except in a nice fra diavolo). One question, though: Does posting here count as delurking for National Delurking Week, or do I have to delurk at all the blogs and newsgroups I surreptitiously read?
¡Hola! I’ve been around awhile and never really thought about the lurking aspect. Maybe a bit is from being an Aspergerian Physicist who’s dyslexic tendicies help in making me loath writing/typing things out due to my high frequency of typos and word disordering. Anywho, I feel kinda better now having come out of the server rack and can now browse openly.
I’m an occasional commenter. (Very occasional.) Nonetheless, I shall bite and delurk for this thread.
So, PZ, how did the trip to NYC go?
PZ’s ability to do the Riverdance in steel-toed boots is why I lurk. Even though he looks funny in a kilt.
Lurker from Vancouver, British Columbia. I actually have commented a few times, notably on my own acknowledgemnet of atheism at the age of twelve. I got here through Panda’s Thumb (mostly ’cause I bought Gould’s first book of essays right when it came out). Bookmarked you instantly.
I come for the cephalopods, and you may take that with as mnay double entendres as you wish.
Tentacles rule! Geeks reign! (Thank you so much for the coverage of the Geek Fest, complete with Spastic Dancing — my specialty — and Geek Nudity, one of my long time favourites. To quote “Revenge of the Nerds” ‘All jocks think about is sports; all nerds think about is sex.’)
My my my, must go now before the rest of my brain falls out through my fingers and onto the keyboard. This is why I don’t comment to over.
(Foghorn Leghorn voice: ALL RIGHT! I’M DONE SHUTTIN’ UP! I MEAN, I’M NOT THE KIND OF PERSON WHO KEEPS YAPPIN’ AWAY—
Hey PZ!
Love the site – I’ve stopped by every now and then for years – I think I first heard about it through talk.orgins or a similar site. The anti-creationist rants are fun, but lately I’ve been spending a lot more time reading back through all your evo-devo reviews – it’s ultimately more satisfying to hear what really smart people are discovering than what really stupid people are blathering about.
Keep up the great work!
RR
New Haven, CT
Long-time lurker from Brazil here, I believe I started reading Pharyngula two or three months before the move to Scienceblogs. I’m a second-year undergratuate in Biology, mainly interested in molecular biology, which is what attracted me to this blog.
I’ll try to be less of a lurker from now on!
Greetings from Muncie, IN.
If you watch “Armed and Famous,” tonight, I’m sure you’ll understand why I keep a low profile.
recloaking…
Hello fellow PZ-luhkuhs f’um Boston.
It’s been nearly a year now since I started following this blog. Excellent blog.
Greetings from up the road at UM Minneapolis. I’ve been reading Pharyngula (and Scienceblogs.com) for a while, it’s so much better than the Star-Tribune … back to lurking now.
Hello from Toronto
Hi from SW Colorado! I can’t remember how long I’ve been lurking here, but I’m here for the godlessness and the tentacular photos every Friday. Probably going to keep on lurking, though.
glad to be the nth lurker.
Hi from U of R, rochester, NY.
Greetings from just outside DC! I’ve been lurking for a year or two, only commenting once every year or so.
Delurking? Delightful!
Bryce here, writing from Kingston, Canada. I’m an astronomer and space scientist who likes Dawkins, Dennett – and Pharyngula.
Thanks for the great blog, PZ. Been lurking now for about 2 years and have learned much about many things – and had a few good laughs too…
BB.
Greetings from Mars orbit…er, New Hampshire.
Glad you finally let some decent folk up the to bar.
I’m a mathematician in Boston, following this blog for about a year. Enjoy all of it. Came to it from PT (which I had gone to out of interest in the Dover trial). I am most impressed that PZ can do the usual teaching-research-service academic gig plus Pharyngula plus have a normal life outside job and blog. My hat’s off. And the commenters are great — thanks to all of you for so many stimulating posts over the past year.
Greetings from Sweden. Have to say I fit the description, never commented on the 1½ month or so I’ve been following Pharyngula via RSS. I first found it thanks to Rebecca Watson of skepchick fame and her endorsement of Phil Plait’s Bad Astronomy over PZ’s Pharyngula in the “Best Science blog” contest and ended up following both (and enjoying them greatly).
Lurking here in Minneapolis. I thank PZ for turning me from a wishy-washy agnostic to a full fledged atheist.
Alright, it’s true! I lurk. There…i said it. Gee i feel so much better now. Thanks for the great blog. I find myself being outed more and more as atheist as the religious nuts get bolder and more stupid. So how could I not find this site? I’m a professional sculptor in downtown Los Angeles and practicing Zen Buddhist (which pretty much guarantees an anti-mythological world view.) So keep up the good work!
and oh…i love all the tenticley porn as well.
Delurk? If I must…
Graduate student in the ocean sciences at UC Santa Cruz, California. Been reading your blog for about three years now (it’s my homepage on my desktop), and I’ve learned a lot about biology (my undergrad was in physics, so there was a rather big void to fill). I enjoy the rants on and dissections of creationism gobbledygook as much, if not slightly more than, the biology, but it’s an extremely close race.
Keep up the great work, PZ! The world needs more scientists like you that are vocal about defending science from irrationality!
*recloaks*
“Got to stay hidden, Mr Poons. Hiding is what being a bogeyman is all about!”
I’ll go back behind my door, now…
Greetings from the (somewhat chilly) north! I’ve been reading pharyngula for about 6 months now (started after the NATURE article highlighted science-blogs…) and only really got involved in 1 or 2 threads…..sometimes I’ve used PBC as a short form for my nickname.
The nickname may be misleading, because the ‘proto’ refers not to my model organism, but my career status. I’m a 2nd year M.Sc. candidate at McMaster in Hamilton (biochemistry). That’s also why I don’t typically get involved in heated discussions….I usually assume the regulars are Ph.D.s or post-docs or defacto primary researchers…a little intimidating to us newbies.
However, it has been incredibly educational reading this site, and seeing the arguments/debates play out. Thanks everyone.
Oh yeah, and ‘hello!”.
PBC.
Hi there from Romania! I love the Blog’s refreshing mixture of atheism, liberalism and squid.
I sneak in from Ottawa every day. I’m trying to learn for free.
Since I slowed down on my caffeine intake, Pharyngula is one of the 4 websites I have to read every morning before I can begin working. Then I check it an hour later. And then five minutes after that. Then five more times before lunch. Then again when I return. Then I reread everything six to ten times before I head home, where I check it another couple times before bed.
But then, I live in Texass, where everything is shit and being a lurker on a science blog is one of the only worthwhile experiences.
Heathen, Lib-Arts, cephalopod lover here.
Another one from the great white north (today -38 with wind chill)guilty of extended lurking on many like sites .
Wow! Look at all my fellow lurkers emerging from the shadows! Maybe I should do it too! Wait…didn’t my mother once warn me about something like this? Something about a bridge and everyone jumping off it? *shug* I don’t remember.
Anyway, here’s another Portland, Oregon lurker cringing in the bright light. Thank you, PZ, for such a wonderful site. I have come to accept and embrace my atheism in part due to you and your regular commenters. Again, thank you!
Greetings from the small town of Beckum, near Dortmund, Germany.
I came here via Bad Astronomy, Talkorigins, Pandas Thumb, RSR and some more blogs.
Keep up your good work.
So,the Heisenberg uncertainty principle rears it’s ugly head once again! First, PZ’s post that may or may not have been on himself, cloaked as a post on “you” reaches an unaccountably large number of comments, and now, this post on … the silent majority, apparently, will reach record levels!
THIS is why people come to the table unable to easily learn the behavioral sciences … Self reflection is is seen in the fogiest of mirrors.
Ex-pat Brit on the beautiful snowy Canadian west coast. Came here from the Nature article, which came a year or so after the completion of my gradual change from agnostic to atheist. I’ve posted a couple of times.
Hi Gregonomic! We miss you out here!
I’m a Brit lurking in Washington DC. Here’s a picture of a fractal cauliflower to celebrate your lunch with Benoit Mandelbrot: http://www.ps.uni-sb.de/~botlan/ChouRomain.jpg. They have them in our local market. One of the loveliest things I’ve ever seen.
Hello from North Wales. Been lurking for about three months and particularly enjoy seeing the IDiots getting the occasional kicking.
Keep up the good work
Found it from a link over at Orac’s page (where I also lurk)
I’ve posted a couple of times here, but visit this blog all the time, whenever I can get a study break. Greetings from a godless microbiology major and her dog, in snowy Colorado!
I’ve been reading for about a year now. I’m a graduate student studying Biology at MIT.
Yes, I do like to lurk.
I appreciate your posts & try to learn a thing or 2.
I read this blog mainly while enjoying an antisocial lunch hour at my desk. So much reading and so little time (for commenting).
But there are other reasons/excuses. I do contribute to some other blogs/forums, but mostly closer to my area of expertise, so I can feel that I am actually making a contribution. Here, not so much.
Plus, there is so much traffic here that, by the time I get here, my comment has usually already been made by others.
And finally, I have a fairly high threshold for commenting. I feel too many people make insubstantial comments just to see their names in print or to make them feel like a member of the club. If it doesn’t actually add substance to the discussion, IMO, lurking is preferable.
Another Austinite feed reading atheist, but I come for the science. (All that reporting of creationist nonsense leaves me too riled up to get anything done for the rest of the day and that can’t possibly be good for my constitution, so I have to skim it.) More sea creatures!
Hi there, I love your blog.
Greetings from Remulak, a small town in France! Very frequent reader; very infrequent commenter. I thank you for the science, the atheism, and the fun stuff. I often pass on info from your site to my kids, because that’s what a responsible parental unit should do.
(Since this is supposed to be a de-lurking, I will confess to actually living in Maryland. Next National De-lurking Day I’ll reveal another truth.)
It’s a fiendish trick so that everyone can be tranquilized and ear-tagged. I’d go so far as to say that – OUCH, that stung like the di…
I’m a new reader, and I just had to chime in and thank you for putting for the effort on this blog. It’s nice to see likeminded viewpoints, from both atheist and geek perspectives.
Thanks again!
/Chris
Hi from palmerston north in new zealand. Been reading this blog for a year or so, probably visit around 20-30 times per day. Posted only once on here prior to this, generally find that what I’ve planned to say has already been repeated a few dozen times anyway.
Greetings to you PZ, as well as to the good ol’gang of PZphalopods out there.
Im a danish biochemistry student. Been lurking ever since your article on the wonderful ‘Mei Long’-fossil on the old page, and I’ll definitely continue to lurk around.
Keep up the good work.
I once posted a comment so I don’t know if I’m still a lurker or not. I’m from Baltimore and I’ve been reading for a couple years now.
Greetings from a Lurker in SLC, UT. I’m a wildlife biologist and perpetual student. I don’t remember when I first came across your blog, but I’ve been following it since. Mostly, I’m here for the science content, but your ID posts have got me to reconsider my passive attitude towards ID proponents.
Enjoy the blog immensely, read it daily and have commented a few times. Keep up the fine work.
Hi, I’m Steve, I’m a grad student at Cal.
Great blog. Thanks.
Umm…can I lurk again now?
I still haven’t figured out if PZ Myers isn’t some sort of new fangled posting robot. How else can you explain the incredible amount of posting he does? ;)
Greetings from Salt Lake City, Utah.
Greetings and salutations from England! I’m normally very professional about my lurking: only making comments when I can be arsed. Plus the actual science posts go whoosh over my head (languages and geography are my knowledge areas). I’m vanishing back into the gloom now. Tara, all.
PZ, may your blog continue to entertain you so you will keep blogging!
Hi from a lurker in Toronto
Delurking from sunny Norway, here. Sign me up for the militant atheist fangrrl section :)
Hi from Vancouver, BC. My lifelong Christian faith dissolved into reason and skepticism about one year ago, and I became quite interested in atheism, science, and all the interesting details of evolutionary biology that my teachers never taught me at Christian schools.
Thanks for helping me to keep learning.
I think I comment rarely enough to be considered a lurker here.
Me: Militant mathematician, fundamentalist Seattleite, and a member of the First United Church of Atheism.
Lurking from Paris. I enjoy your explanations . I like your sense of humour too.
Greetings from Portland, OR (the least-churched state in the union).
Pharyngula is one of my 2-3 must-reads. Apparently the word is getting around; Pharyngula was recently recommended to my wife at a cocktail party! I also used to lurk on talk.origins back when you posted there and I note with pleasure that the signal-to-noise ratio is much better here.
I’ll mention in closing that I’m one engineer who sees no evidence of design in nature.
I used to be very religious of the Crazy Fundie type. Pharyngula was one of the first blogs recommended to me by a man who helped me leave the church behind. About a year and a half now!
Lurking around, as always. I tried being involved before, but it just didn’t work out. I prefer to lurk around here.
Hello from Edmonton, Alberta!
I’m a graduate student studying physics as applied to radiation therapy for cancer.
Definitely a lurker. I read this blog ‘religiously’ and usually don’t comment because so many other comments are so great.
Ahh, screw it … do I count as a lurker?
Hi! from Bixby Oklahoma – lonely atheist in the land of nutters.
A hello from the southern part of the Netherlands, Maastricht (former Roman Mosa Trajectum, home of the Mosasaurs). Pharryngula is on my daily list of blogs, just like the Pandas Thumb and BA. Love them all.
Groetjes,
Marc Geerlings
Love Pharyngula, just not a big poster. Keep up the great work PZ!
Greg
honestly, my cloaking device may’ve slipped once before. still…hello from the ATL!
Hello from southern Georgia. I have maybe commented two or three times; it’s lonely being an atheist here among the swamps!
Wow. I guess I’m not alone out here. I’ve been lurking for a year now. Thanks for pushing the envelope…though my wife would like to have a word with you about the squid porn and the RE:Your Brains song now stuck in her head.
Young French plant biologist post-doctoring at Pittsburgh, PA. Just snowy and cold today.
Steph, Wash DC (but I grew up in MN and appreciate your references). I think I got here from BitchPhD, but I’ve been reading for a while so I don’t quite remember. I like this blog because I learn some biology and feel really supported in my godless opinions.
I don’t comment because I often feel like I don’t have anything to add, except, you know “Right on!” And your posts are usually long, so I don’t often read any comments.
Med student from Maryland here. I read the blog everyday, and I think I may have actually suffered symptoms of withdrawl during our holiday break when I didn’t have consistent internet access. I’ve commented a few times, but quite frankly most of the regular posters have much more interesting things to say than myself, so I prefer to lurk. Why does “lurking” sound like such a devious thing to do? Stalking, perhaps? No, that doesn’t work either. I’ll let you know when I think of a better word….on second thought, that would probably just use precious brain resources and bump some important medical term out (and since I pay a significant amount of money each semester for those important terms to be put in my head, that would probably be a bad idea). Back to lurking!
Another delurker unmasked. A young Indian graduate student who enjoys all the views posted here – including the squid porn.
Hi. I usually just lurk. Occasionally I will help dogpile some idiot or snipe at a troll, but generally I bring nothing to the table and should stick to lurking. My scientific training is ridiculously specialized. I have a BS in Viticulture and Enology. Oh, and like Amy back in the 14th comment I also find it a little strange how proud of Skatje I feel sometimes.
/delurk
Hi from Memphis! Been reading since the Nature article on science blogs.
/relurk
/delurk
Hi from Memphis! Been reading since the Nature article on science blogs.
/relurk
Now you’ve done it. I’m EXPOSING myself in public.
I feel so naked. Oh, wait a minute… OH MY FSM!
(Fantastic blog PZ. I check in several times a day.)
relurk
Engaging delurking device:
In honor or the day I will leave a comment. As a registered nurse I find reading blogs such as this one help validate my hypothesis that the medical field in general is suffering from bad policies, bad management, and bad regulations. Doctors are beginning to see that working to the best of one’s ability is, in fact, a liability. The better performing Doctors, and nurses, are not being adequately compensated for the skill and compassion they bring to the job. Paperwork is way out of control, and the alleged cure for more paperwork is–more paperwork. Patient’s expectations are often unrealistic, and working in any medical setting inexorably leads to life threatening stress due to the intellect of our management, and the pandering of our political leaders, and the current meme of “health care is a right” regardless of a patients ability to pay for the services provided.
But I also find solace in the small heartwarming stories of grateful patients, heroic saves, the solving of medical mysteries, and the exciting advances that are always being discovered or engineered due to the dedication and hard work of the people who continue to work in the face of an increasingly politicized research field. You could call it a love/hate relationship.
Hello, I lurk.
From University of MN TC.
I read it pretty much every day, but very rarely comment.
Healthcare is a right of all people, regardless of their ability to pay. It sucks that rampant capitalism doesn’t provide for the poor, though. Maybe universal healthcare is the answer.
(sorry to derail the lurker’s thread, but I had to respond to that claim. Carry on, faithful readers. So nice to meet all these new people.)
Hello from Oxford, UK.
I’m not sure if I’ve ever posted, so I’ll de-lurk for a bit.
I’m a graduate student studying ion channels from Pennsylvania.
Love the science, and the tentacles.
Tolerate the anti-religious ranting amusedly (with an occasional “hell yeah!” thrown in for good measure).
Annoyed by most education-related posts…oh the homeschooling debacle…why yes, I am a very proud product of unschooling without standards. and a big fan of educations without indoctrination.
Howdy PZ!
What’s the point of lurking if we are to be outed on a regular basis (assuming NDW is an annual event)?
Greetings from a nursing student in Atlanta, Georgia. I’m a long time reader, first time poster. Keep up the good work, PZ.
A regular Lurky McLurkerson.
Well, your current posting activities are way more productive than your old bad habit of arguing about UFOs.
I think I’ve made a few posts here… but they were so long ago they were probably before ScienceBlogs. So I am officially delurking.
Hi. I’ve posted occasionally.
I’m a big geek, although not involved in the field of evolutionary biology. Or in academia (anymore). I drop by not-quite-daily.
Kia ora.
Right, apparently-mandatory delurk over, back to the madding crowd.
(waves hands expressively)
hello from Phoenix, AZ. sorry I couldn’t meet you in person. Used to publish medical books and I miss the science. great posts. read every day.
Hello from Vancouver, BC.
Although I am a software developer but evolution is key in the software development process. BTW, I come here regularly.
Hello from Texas, Pharyngula is one of the top blogs I read. I have to admit that I don’t know much about evolution but it’s all very fascinating, great job!
hi hi from the other side of the planet!
Hi from an Italian lurking in London!
Birds, cephalopods, insects or Rotifera:bdelloidea? That’s the question!
Cheers,
Inno
Hello from Terre Haute, IN! As Dawkins wrote, please keep up your “trenchant good sense!”
I have de-lurked once or twice before, but since this is delurking week I guess I’ll do it again. I’m a graduate student in Cognitive Science. PZ, thank you so much for this blog- I check in several times a day. You’re a hero to me.
ooops, forgot to mention I’m located in (surprisingly religious) San Diego, CA.
Another RSSfeeder delurks.
Bye and thanks for all the
fishcephalopods.De-lurking (at least for this blog) to say that I’ll be at least surfing around your blog and reading some of the other posts which grab my attention.
Delurking as requested.
I’m a Computer Science student and athiest in Missouls, MT. I started reading your blog a little over a year ago when I was an infantryman in Iraq, and have been reading it near-daily ever since.
Thanks.
No back to lurking.
Hello from rural southern Ohio via Google Reader. I admit it–I’m a lurker. Mostly because I have a life and more knowledge of psychology than biology.
Thanks for the great blog!
Darrell R.
Greetings from Germany
Greetings from Albany, NY! I have nothing to add and, from the looks of it, you’ve got enough to read!
I’m not a lurker I’m your brother. Just trying to figure out why so many people care what my dorky big brother has to say and how come you go by PZ now you used to hate it when we called you that as kids….maybe it was the way I said it back then.anyway I enjoy your blog you write some good stuff, some stuff that I am clueless about(allright a lot of stuff I am clueless about)and some stuff that makes me think my big bro is a nut but its all good so I’ll go back to lurking now butt remember I’m keeping an eye on you
Hello from Hebden Bridge, UK. I like lurking here so that’s what I’ll keep on doing.
Uncloaking (delurking)long enough to say hey from the Old Dominion (Virginia). Been reading this blog for several years. Found it while Googling for “Vetulicolians” and been lurking ever since. It has been fascinating to watch the rise in PZs’ well deserved popularity, and now he’s rubbing elbows with Richard Dawkins, Niles Eldridge, and James Watson….hmmm..whats next?
I’ll chime in with a quick and very temporary delurk from Knoxville TN. Gorgeous and sunny but cold today, snow and light hail yesterday. Wall-to-wall Christians all day, every day. Thanks for providing me a refuge.
G’Day from sunny Sydney.
I’ve commented a few times before but usually by the time I read the zillions of comments I forget my point or its already been said.
I’m moving from Sydney to Arizona in 4 days….oh my god! 4 days!!…have I packed enough Vegemite?
Sites like these make me realise the sheer number of freakweasels in the US (and beyond) but also the large numbers of sane people fighting the good fight.
Keep it up, I’ll come and help.
Hi from Levin, New Zealand. I may have commented before (usually I start writing comments and delete them unposted). I was thinking of you only today when trying to explain RSI/carpal tunnel to a garage owner friend who types too fast on his number pad. Having made the point that the carpal tunnel is like a brake cable, I nearly said that short little movements are not what it is *designed* for, but caught myself in time, and felt much better for it. So thanks.
Hi from a cafe in the Duboce Triangle in San Francisco, California.
I like to read as much as I can about evolutionary theory since I wasn’t taught a minute of it in high school or college!
The anti-theism post usually have in hysterics most of the time.
Salutations from Indiana, USA. I’ve been reading for several months now, and commented a couple of times, but mostly I just keep quiet and enjoy the blog and the discussion.
Hi from Conroe, Texas….just north of Houston
studied evolution in college and I love the site!
Present and accounted for!
PZ’s Cephalopods are the real lurkers, here!
Great Blog!!!!
I lurk, therefore I am…
Another Canadian, from Winnipeg, MB. I keep driving by the turnoff to Morris, but haven’t yet turned in to check the place out. Great blog!
I’m an electrical engineer, but the beer is better in this camp.
Gidday PZ – I’m another New Zealander, but living in godless Brisbane, Australia, who has to feed my addiction to Pharyngula every morning. I generally lurk but occasionaly comment.
Greetings and salutations from Lancaster, Pennsylvania!
Hi. Been lurking for a few months. The good Doctor even answered a question for me!
West Aussie linguistics undergrad studying in Sheffield!
I’ve only been reading for a little while, but I’m already hooked of course.
Love the blog PZ.
I wasn’t always a lurker, but I’ve fallen back into it in the last few months, so hello again, from Jeonju, South Korea. I’m an English teacher over here, but the year off and some great science reading, on this blog and many of the books recommended here, are spurring me to return to school in August. Instead of grad school for psych, I’m going for another undergrad degree in biology…
In Minneapolis. Not a scientist, not quite an atheist; but pro-evolution and anti-heaven. I check in regularly for the politics, humor and excellent writing.
Daily lurker from Canberra, Australia. Originally came for the science, stayed for the godlessness :-)
I find the quality of thought and expression at Pharyngula astounding – PZ being one of the best in both his careful and robust dissections of the muck being dealt by our creationist colleagues and his science essays. I know virtually nothing of biology, but I love the stuff on evolution!
So that’s what I am – a lurker. And I thought I was the only one.
Greetings from (excessively sunny) Canberra, which – as all you intelligent well-informed people know – is the capital city of Australia.
I got here via initially reading The Loom, but then widened to Pharyngula, Orac, Ed, grrlscientist, Wilkins etc etc, until it became a dangerous obsession. Marvellous info for the layman who tries to take an intelligent interest in science.
God bless you all – oops, well you know what I mean.
Nearly daily lurker in Los Angeles, CA, USA. Scientist by training though employed as lowly engineer (by choice), cheerful atheist. I come here for a splash of fresh fresh reality in my face.
Consider me de-lurked.
I’m a chemical engineer in Wellington, New Zealand. I visit for the science stuff (and the frequency of new posts) – dealing mainly in pharmaceutical plants I don’t run into many god-botherers day to day :-)
Lurker from Sydney, Australia.
Usually here to read about godlessness; being a research student in theoretical physics, I only read the biology posts occasionally,
Hi from New Zealand. I now consider myself de-lurked! Yes!
Occasional lurker since university days (a couple of years ago). Keep up the good work, don’t let the bastards grind you down, etc.
Hello from Brisbane, Australia
Been a daily reader for awhile now. I love the high standard of godlessness and discussion. Keep up the good work!
Hello from Sacramento, California. I read Pharyngula everyday and enjoy it greatly. Have never made a comment though.
Uh, no, thanks, PZ…
I was just delurked before I left the house.
Love your site, mostly because you seem like a lot of fun and because the blog is – well, interesting.
An atheist in southwestern Ontario, glad to see the plan for world domination is gaining ground.
Thanks for your great work in bringing science out into the open where it belongs.
Yo! Linda, ColinB, and Squidzone from Ottawa (and any other Ottawans I missed). Come downtown tomorrow night and delurk in person!. (Don’t worry about reading the book — I don’t think anyone else has either).
Hey PZ, I’m an atheist high-schooler. I listened to your infidelguy.com interview a few months back, and thought you had some interesting (okay, friggin’ awesome) things to say. So, I checked this site out, and lo’ and behold; humor, information, atheism, and news, all wrapped up in one!
Great stuff PZ, keep it up!
I’m a new lurker. Yea! I enjoy this blog very much. Thank you and goodnight.
Hi from Ohio. I’ve only posted a few times, mostly because the discussions intimidate me. I’m also very shy, and I guess that extends to typing in the privacy of my own home with a made-up name.
Coming from a family of hard working, struggling, very decent, but not-too-bright, people who have been swept up in the whole religion thing (and often times republican as well), I tend not to want to make fun of them for having been born with a lower intellectual capacity. For some of them, I wouldn’t even WANT them to become atheists for fear of the troubles it could bring to them in their social surroundings. Myself, I have always been out about my atheism, or at the very least, my lack of religion.
While I’ve had a lot of math and science in college (and loved it), I’ve never taken a single course in biology (sorry, not my interest), and don’t remember being taught a word of evolution. Anyway, that was a long time ago.
Still, I enjoy reading the conversations here when I have time. I found this place through BuzzFlash.com, following your piece on Plan B. I’ve learned a lot here and appreciate the time you take to make it all happen.
Hi PZ. I’ve been enjoying your blog for about a year. I’m a high school BIO teacher in Michigan (soon to be moving to Georgia and trying out the life of a college prof).
Hi PZ,
Thanks for providing a distraction while I write my doctoral thesis.
Delurking from Hawaii, where the octopus we eat (sorry) is locally called squid, pronounced “squeed”. Since is seems obligatory to comment on the weather, ours is terrible at present: cold and rainy. You wouldn’t like it :).
Hello PZ from St.Paul, MN. I have been reading since learning of you in the City Pages article a year and a half ago. At 53 you would think my inner atheist would be fully formed by now. Not so. Before pharyngula I didn’t realize such things could be discussed in polite company. It has become a daily read for me. Thanks.
Almost didn’t post–299 comments?! what do I have to offer?–but then thought, what the heck: He did ask after all.
Pharyngula is one of ten bookmarked sites I visit every day, and I am NEVER disappointed. It is always interesting, often enlightening, occasionally upsetting, and frequently funny. Nice work!
I almost always lurk, because your regular commenters almost always say everything I would have said, but more eloquently. When I encounter something I don’t understand enough to comment upon, well. . .
I kinda wish there was a comment section reserved simply for questions. (Not a FAQ so much as a WTF)
Anyway, thanks so much for providing intelligent entertainment.
Greetings from the greater Boston, MA area. Delurking after several months of reading without commenting. This sure beats that conservative talk-radio blog out of Columbia, Missouri that I used to haunt. That was an educational experience (in a “seeing how the other half lives” kind of way) but this is a far better experience.
Thanks for the daily dose of rationality, science, and tentacles.
… Lurking quietly in Cambridge, MA …
I know you have gotten a ton of comments already, but… Hello from a high school senior in Alabama! My dad introduced me to your site, and I see that he’s already posted upthread. =)
Thank you so much for your wonderful science-filled blog; sometimes it’s a bit lonely here for a godless liberal type. Plus I like the cephalopods!
Lurking in daily from Newton, IA
And always looking forward to Friday Cephalopods.
HI, from Salt Lake City, Utah. I’ve only posted a couple of times, so I guess I’m mostly a lurker. Found the site a couple months ago (from a wikipedia ‘did you know’ commnent on their main page), and fell in love with it almost immediately. It’s pretty impressive to see where everyone comes from.
Keep up the good work!
I lurk and learn every day in Texas. Don’t have time to comment, and wouldn’t learn anything that way. I learn a lot about evo. biology, a new interest, since I’m an English teacher, a weaver, spinner, most of all, though, a reader. On a blog, that can only mean a lurker. I was surprised to see how many lurkers here are from Texas. I’m surprised I’ve never run in to those other five or six, but Texas is a big place.
*delurks*
*blinks in the light*
I lurk by RSS – part of the Aussie contigent. I too came for the science and stayed for the godlessness.
Hi from a video editor in Philadelphia. Pharyngula is on my daily read list.
Lurker from Florida here. Been with you for years, but just don’t have time to say anything worthwhile usually.
I don’t comment often but enjoy the discussions. Is it strange that I’ve never met you, PZ, but still think of you every time I see a many-tentacled creature? Just the other day I saw an ad for SquidSoap in a magazine and wondered if you have it in your lab for the kiddies to use. (www.squidsoap.com) – sorry, don’t know how to link it.
Hello.
Lurking graphic designer from Detroit. I’ve always been interested in evolution, biology and paleontology since I was a kid. I guess I’m an atheist, but not particularly militant about it. Sometimes you crack me up, sometimes you piss me off, and sometimes you just make me think, but your blog is always worth reading. I check in several times a day to see what you’re up to.
Hello everyone. I’ve been reading for about two months. I really enjoy everything here at Scienceblogs (and Seed magazine), especially Pharyngula. Great stuff.
About to start graduate school in behavioral neuroscience soon, so hopefully I will become a decent commenter and contribute to the great content here.
I commented here once or twice so I can’t really delurk, but I can diminish my still high lurking rate by saying
Hi from Paris (France), and thanks for keeping us heathen Biologists (the most common sort in these parts) up to date with the ID threat and the interesting evo-devo papers!
Hello from Everett Washington, 17 year Navy Chief, 1 year Atheist, former born again evangelical and Republican nut job. Been reading this blog for about 4 months. Saw the light when I read the Da Vinci code and End of faith back to back.
well, I’ve been reading since before the move to scienceblogs, and I may have commented 3 times, so I think I qualify as a lurker. So hello from South Carolina.
Greetings from (sometimes) sunny Portugal!
I’ve been a reader of this blog and many other blogs that link to this one for a long time now, so can’t really remember who referred me to it.
I can’t subscribe to SEED cause it’s a little to much “dinheiro” for me, but I get my fair amount of info from amazing blogs like yours. Keep it up!
I was one of Phil P’s minions, but now I have a hankering for squid.
Lurking from the murky Bay of Fundy. Greetings from N.B. Canada!
De-lurking from Long Beach, California. First round of drinks on me if a conference ever brings you this way.
40ish land use lawyer, agnostic, amateur scientist.
Aloha from Maui, from a curious Apathetic Agnostic, former Catholic, inverterate searcher of beauty and truth. I love this blog and have been lurking daily for about a year. (BTW, it’s warm here every day, all year, every year)
Good to see a late showing from the Aussies.
G’day from beautiful Lismore, north eastern New South Wales. I’ve been lurking for a few years now. Whenever I pare down my RSS feeds, Pharyngula is never in any danger. My fave blog by far. It’s the Friday Cephalopod that really keeps me coming back… Strangely my friends and partner don’t share my enthusiasm for tentacled things, but why should I care? I’m happy, now that I know that there are a whole bunch of people just like me..
Hey, nice site. My bible inspiration: Psalms 137:8-9
Hello –
I’m here in Seattle just north of where PZ grew up. I’m not a Scientist (I majored in Linguistics -which means I spent a lot of time talking about what a scientific theory is – not really doing Science), but am very interested in evolution. I am a non-theist, non-newage, non-spiritual crap, kind of person, but will and do work with and support anyone who believes in Church/State separation no matter what they believe. A secular and rational Constitution is what we have and it’s the only sane way to run a country.
Hello from sunny Saskatchewan, Canada. I’m a ecology and evolution student / atheist, with an interest in all things biological and involving squid. I’ve been reading for about a year and a half now.
Howdy from a philosopher in Fort Worth Texas. I lurk daily looking for inspiration in the never ending struggle with a rising tide of irrationality. I never fail to find something worthwhile on your blog. Don’t stop, don’t slow down, and don’t give up.
Long-time reader, first-time poster.
Love the science, love the athiesm. I participated in the Blasphemy Challenge after seeing it here. It was interesting that my quite lame youtube video (just wanted the DVD :-) got so much commentary.
Thanks for a great blog!
Back to lurking…
~peeks over lurkers’ parapet~
Hi from steamy New South Wales, Australia
Directed here from another science blog I frequent, I was immediately attracted by the erudite comments (I’ve learned so much!), and tenticular pix.
Greetings to all, and I promise: if I ever have a unique thought and have it before fifty people smarter than me have the same unique thought ;-), I’ll post.
I’ve used this line at both Orac’s and Bronze Dog’s now, but I’ll use it here, too. Because I have commented here at times, I don’t really qualify as a lurker. But, as those comments have been few and far between, I definitely count as being “lurkish.” eh? eh?
Never mind.
Hello from Baton Rouge, Louisiana
I’ve been an avid reader of this blog ever since the little fight between PZ and Scott Adams. It’s been almost a year since the last (and only) time I ever commented.
Reading pharyngula is part of my daily morning routine. Please keep up the good work!
Looks like a lot of fellow Canadians commenting here. I’m an elementary teacher in a small First Nations village up in the Yukon. I’ve been a wannabe ScienceBlogger for a while so I finally starting blogging on my own a few months ago.
A long-time lurker from Santa Clarita, CA, which I belatedly discovered is the Bible Belt of this state. As a godless physical anthropologist, this area has been very tough to take, but my daily visits to Pharyngula have kept me sane and strong. It is even inspiring me to consider leaving the “mommy-track” I am on now to start teaching high school science. Time to stop complaining behind the scenes and contribute to a solution. Thanks, PZ.
Yep, I’m here too. OK, now back to lurking…
hi, the 6th declared los angeles lurker. originally from vienna. PZ groupie, therefore lurking. i did not want to let anybody know about my deep love for PZ.
Greetings from the Philippines! Just wanted to thank Professor Myers and all the wonderful people here at Pharyngula. As cliched as it sounds, it does give me hope in humanity’s future that there are this many people engaging in such critical thinking. Hopefully, through this blog and others like it, that number will steadily increase.
Yet another hello from Portland… I have some biology chops in my background, which now mostly appear as rants to my teenagers about how evolution explains everything.
Yet another Canuck from the Ottawa area (it seems there are quite a few of us). I’m a naturalist-photographer who is into invertebrates (mainly insects). I believe, I first arrived here via Circus of the Spineless, and found much of interest. Not sure why I just lurk when I visit. Anyhow, hello and thanks for Pharyngula!
Well, I’ve posted a *few* times here, but just two or three comments all told, so I guess that still counts as ‘lurking’.
Thanks for a wonderful blog, reading Pharyngula is like coffee for my brain in the morning – only less bitter!
Greetings from Portland, Oregon!
Long time lurker…I’ve always loved the pictures, as well as the caustic, furious atheism.
And trashing creationists and ID’ers is always good for a laugh. Keep up the good work PZ.
Great Blog, I’ve been reading for several months, but I’ve never commented before.
Dude. This week I’ve already posted on two blogs I lurk at regularly, and almost did so on a third, and I didn’t even know it was National Delurking Week!
Yeah. I like lurking. I can’t post a comment without spending half an hour revising it. So commenting a lot would be really, really time-consuming. I like to stick with the reading part, which goes much faster, because someone else already decided what order the words should go in.
Hello. I never comment, but I read everyday.
Hello from Nebraska! I’ve been reading Pharyngula daily for a long time (before you came over to Scienceblogs, in fact), but I’ve only commented once or twice because I never seem to have anything intelligent to say.
Greetings from rainy Singapore.
Sorry, creapy lurker here. Im so starved for information, I can’t stop reading long enough to write. Much to my infinate chagrin, I contimplate things to write, but when I find the time, I just continue reading. Thanks for the great bit of info you create here. Cheers to thinking!
Greetings from Eastern Washington! I am an archaeologist for a government agency and I lurk daily after work. I visit a lot of blogs but this is the mainstay of my online reading. Almost always good for a thought and a laugh. I find it a breath of fresh air in a world where tolerance of bullshit has come to be seen as a virtue. Thanks for the insight, the science, and for helping complete my transition from atheist to MILITANT atheist.
Delurking from Austin, TX. Consider the cephalopod board marker on the link below as my tiny contribution to your fine work here.
Delurking from New England. Have read PZ, PT, Tara, Janet, etc., for a little over a year now. This is a great excuse for getting off the behind and contributing to the marketplace, instead of just being a burden to society.
I’m another lurker from Canberra, Oz.
This is my number 1 procrastination site. Thanks for putting in so much time and effort. Much appreciated.
Don’t people go to hell for posting on this blog? Oops.
I’m a software engineer, so I don’t know a lot about biology, but I do enjoy lurking here and cheering on all you damned sinners.
Delurking from Brisbane QLD to say hi to the squiddy one. I may not always agree with what you say but it’s always an interesting read.
Damn — this is, like, the third blog I’ve had to de-lurk at (from?) this week.
I’ve commented here a couple of times, but I never feel like I have anything particularly intelligent to add, so mostly I just read. I would like to thank PZ for re-awakening my interest in science, though. I was a science nerd all the way through junior high, and then ran into one craptastic science teacher in high school, which pretty much killed my interest in science. I stumbled across Pharyngula several months ago, and was pleasantly surprised to discover, via the excellent writing here, that science was still pretty cool. :) Thanks, PZ.
Greetings from a biology student harking from Beirut, Lebanon!
This blog has been at the top of my blog-list for ages, and just now I learn I’ve been lurking. Sheesh.
Well, it’s an amazing read every time! Especially if it’s got cephalopods…
I’ve made a couple of comments, but mostly I’ve been lurking for over a year. I found Pharyngula through the old site’s pirate speak version (can’t remember what I was searching for at the time) and stayedd for the content. I’d wrestled with my own definition of my unbelief (agnostic? atheist?), found a lot of good thoughts on the subject here, and am now comfortable saying I like reading mythology but I don’t believe any of it.
Thanks PZ.
I’ve been reading Pharyngula daily for a very long time, but have never previously wanted to expose my ignorance. I’m an athiest engineer from Nottingham UK. I’ve just read Endless Forms Most Beautiful in a no doubt doomed attempt to catch up!
Keep up the good work.
The name’s Robert. I hail from Florida and don’t have much in the way of formal education (high school drop out, actually) so some of the particulars of your science intensive entries fly over my head, but I appreciate the science nonetheless, even if my grasp on biology is rudimentary at best.
As an atheist/bright/what-have-you, what I can comprehend and appreciate best of what you (and some of your wonderful commenters) contribute is the relentless application of sensible criticism against the legions of irrationality that are arrayed against us.
I’ve only been following your blog for a few weeks now, having discovered your site via links emailed to me by a member of a local organization of secular humanists, whose meetings I recently began attending. Most of the time you (or another commenter) makes the same point or expresses the same opinion that I would, so I save myself some energy and blog away in forums where I’m not so much preaching to the choir and where what I have to say might actually be considered exceptionally lucid and intelligent, instead of merely average and redundant, as my contributions here would probably be judged, if they were noticed at all.
In any event, I enjoy the blog. It’s nice that there’s a “free-thought” blogger who dishes out both a high quality and high quantity of interesting, insightful, relevant commentary.
Hi,
Occasional lurker from pune, India. Recently started visiting this blog. I am a regular at ‘Bad Astronomy’ and the recent Science blog awards first lured me here and have been hooked since then. The squids are reaching for the stars. Way to go.
From a non-lurker: Reading all the positive messages from the lurkers is changing my sense of what Pharyngula is all about. (I’ve been reading and commenting here almost from the blog’s creation.) I was not aware there are so many non-theist (or secular humanist or atheists or pick the lable that fits) people who come here for support/relief or just a good time. Or maybe I haven’t paid attention to just how big the readership has become. Anyway, thanks to all of you for speaking up.
Read your blog for quite a while now (2004?), coming from Panda´s Thumb. Great read!
Hi from sunny Bangor, NW-Wales, UK (70-80mph wind and torrential rain in the forecast for today – and the rest of 2007!).
I’m a geoscientist but still think Pharyngula rocks! Now, back to lurking. Oops, almost forgot: I have a question for everybody out there:
I’d like to call myself an atheist but after a visit to San Francisco some years ago I’m not totally sure. I went on one of those audio-tours onboard the WWII submarine USS Pampanito at Fisherman’s Wharf. On the audio, one of the former crew members talked about the submarine being attacked by a Japanese destroyer with depth charges. He said it was the most horrifying experience you could ever imagine and that under those circumstances nobody were atheists; absolutely everybody was praying for their life.
Until then I had considered myself an atheist but afterwards I started wondering about it. It’s fairly straightforward to claim you don’t believe in God or whatever when there’s nothing at stake. However, if you find yourself in a situation where you are certain you are going to die and don’t want to I’m not so sure anymore. On the other hand, it’s probably highly unwise to define/decide upon your spiritual beliefs based on the worst-case scenario.
To conclude: I still like to consider myself an atheist but I’d like to reserve the right to pray for my life if one day I should find myself on a crashing plane/derailing train etc. – whatever that makes me. (Probably someone who wants to have his cake and eat it too)…
Greetings from another RSS lurker, from the North Coast of New South Wales, Australia. Great Blog! This and Dispatches are at the top of my feed list. Keep it up, and bring on even more of the cephalopods!
Ole, you sound more like a wishy washy agnostic than an atheist.
Hi, I’m from Cologne, Germany.
I’m a definite regular here since I stumbled upon this blog via the recommendation in nature. I did drop a comment here and there and of course I voted for Pharyngula as the best science blog.
I’m a molecular biologist in cancer research, atheist to the core and fervently anti-creationism/ID which I have to admit is encroaching here, too. The fundies here are just not that great in number yet and by far less noisy and influential than in US but fundies as they are they think they possess ultimate truth and therefore the heavenly mandate to hammer it into everyones brain.
Kooks and schnooks!!
Best regards and thanks for many hours work(you)/fun(me)!
But I LIKE to lurk!
Ok, fine. Hello. There, happy?
Great blog!
Another atheist from India, Bangalore. I don’t understand most of the green, gooey, icky stuff you write about but it’s that nice feeling of being back in college where someone is going on about something which you’re supposed to know.
:)
OTOH, the wingnuttery pounding you deliver, that’s more of what I like and enjoy.
Another lurker from Norway, not as cold as Minn, but still waiting for that sun (and the comet too). If would just stop raining.
Keep shining that bright light in all those dark places the Christianists want hidden!
Heya, regular lurker from the UK here. Love the blog!
Hello to PZ and the rest of the people lurking with me that have already commented or will in the future! I do not comment very often, because usually there are many comments already on here before I have a chance, so I don’t restate the already discussed issues. I do love the cephalopods, though, so we have a common wavelength. I will try to comment more, since your blog is wonderful! Much love and godlessness!
Forgive the AR/OCD–but I’m amazed at the global flavor of the lurkers! Missing US states, so far: Maine, Vermont, Rhode Island, Delaware, North Carolina (I think), Kentucky, West Virginia (maybe), Mississippi, New Mexico, both Dakotas, Kansas (?), Nevada (?), Wyoming, Alaska. (FSM! it’s a curse to be so anal…)
Naomi, first assistant to the Martian Anthropologist
Hello. Love the site, if I’ve been an intermittant lurker, but now reading regularly in Wisconsin, USA. Keep up the great posts; love every bit.
Hi PZ,
Bristol, UK here – atheist, freethinker, anti US/UK government stance on just about everything religious or liberty/freedom related.
Oh, and all-round nice guy :-)
Mostly lurking, but have posted once
great blog, saddens me to see so must idiocy and ignorance out there but the fact that you highlight and ridicule/rebuff gives hope.
Hey! I have nothing interesting to say right now [read: ever], so it’s back to lurking…
A greeting from a displaced Canadian living in London heading to Osaka.
Great blog. Great work.
Shin nen akemashite omedetou gozaimasu
Hello.
I,m from the Netherlands, so you Americans would probably be surprised to know I went to school in a bible-belt village…
Yes, we’ve got that too.
Not that they are taken very serious here…
Anyway, I like to read this blog both for the science as for the discussions.
375 comments? And your punishment for acting rashly is the reading of them. I comment rarely but read on a daily basis. Amazing how many of us there are. It must be that atheists are popular. A minority, sure, but an exceptionally influential one,of which I am not a member. Keep up the good work.
Good morning from Pawtucket, RI
I come here almost every day to get a freethinkers’ battery charge. I recovered after 12 years of Catholic education. But, it was a better choice than the local public offering. I haven’t commented because I haven’t had much of consequence to say.
Hmm, OK, I’ll come out from hiding. Hi from an English atheist, feminist, jobbing mathematician come engineer come statistician in Dublin. I hardly ever comment because I’m dyslexic and it just takes too damm long to compose a literate post.
Is it me or does this feel like we should all be standing up one at a time and saying: My name is , and I’m a pharyngula-aholic?
Oh and I’m kinda phobic about squid so the Friday cephalopods are proving to be useful exposure therapy.
Another inhabitant of Bristol, UK here, fancy a pint Nigel?
Discovered here during the recent Blog Wars (BAUT member, just keeping an eye on the opposition).
Actually, as a Biology graduate & Natural History buff I’m a natural cephalopodaphile & enjoy the techie bits.
Hello there! I read through RSS so… I rarely comment. Greetings from Mexico!
Another lurker reporting for duty.
For evolution stuff, I read both Pharyngula and Panda’s Thumb because they complement each other quite nicely since PZ takes on atheistic arguments while PT offers subject diversity. Together the two blogs everything one needs to know about evolution affairs.
Keep up the good work!
Ole,
I’m not much of a lurker, but you have an interesting question, and it may be interesting enough for PZ (or another blogger) to open up a thread to discuss it. (Of course, it has been answered plenty of times in other forums, but never to my satisfaction.)
The old idea that there are no atheists in fox-holes is, from my single experiance in a situation where I was being shot at, bunk. My experiance is not as powerful as others, but I happened at one point during the time I was in the service to be working on equipment behind a shooting range. The range, on a Turkish Air Force base, had just opened and I didn’t know it was there. They also didn’t know I was there.
So there I was working on some of our equipment, and bullets started to land around me. No one was aiming at me, but that really didn’t matter. When you are hearing the snap and crack of bullet hiting the earth on either side of you, the fact that the shooters are not aiming at you is irrelevant.
Prayer did not enter my mind. Even if I was religious, I suspect that prayer wouldn’t have entered my mind. Instead, my reaction was flight. The only thought I had was how to get back to my truck and get the hell out of there.
My experiance suggests to me that people who are surprised and have little time to think did not pray. They struggle. They do what they could to survive. Pray comes during the moments of relative calm before and after deadly situations. Prayer doesn’t occur when a person is using all their available resources to survive.
I’m certain there are others who read Pharyngula who have gone through some close calls. Did anyone stop stuggling to pray when those happened? Or did the prayers happen afterward?
That’s what I mean when I suggest another thread may be interesting. A thread open for people who have experianced dangerous situtations to share their experiances on the matter.
Called to work…. rats.
Hola from sunny Alicante in Spain. Have been lurking in the last few months, never thought that ID was that serious issue in the US, always thought it was no more than an anecdotic one in the bible belt . Developmental biologist working on neural crest with zebrafish. Loved the meeting report from Phoenix. Keep on with the good work!
Greetings from Toronto
Sheesh, I had no idea I was lurking. Sounds so…mysterious. I almost didn’t post because I like the tag.
Great site. I believe I stop here almost daily. Keep up the great, insightful work.
lurker from Maryland here. thanks PZ, i love reading your stuff.
Greetings from San Francisco (where we were recently delighted to have you in our local rag).
i’ll admit to being a thoroughly delighted lurking. I’ve even evangelized among my friends and associates to lurk as i do. i’ve certainly learned a thing or two whilst learning, but mostly i’ve just enjoyed the company of like-minded folk — even the passive company of these many like-minded lurkers.
thanks all.
OK I confess, I’ve been lurking here for ages. I’m another irreligious Briton.
I’ve been lurking for a couple of years. I’m a high school biology and anatomy teacher. I’m particularly interested in the culture wars with a focus on the creation/evolution discussions. Keep up the great work.
I’ve been reading for…who knows how long. A couple of years at least. Always interested in your stuff, but find that by the time I get to a post, there’s always a hundred comments posted.
delurking from sunny Piracicaba, Sao Paulo. technician, atheist, soon to be grad student, and temporary expat.
You’re going to end up with quite a heap of comments to scan, after calling out the lurkers. I’d suppose that we’re the larger percentage of readers than the regular posters, and I’d further suppose that this campaign won’t succeed in prodding the majority of lurkers out of hiding. That’s what we lurkers like to do. Keep up the fantastic work. Hello from Atlanta (again), where I’ll now quietly go back into hiding.
Hello from Orlando (born and raised in India). I am a Neuroscience graduate student. Have been reading your blog for a year. Love it for your repartee to the religious out there. Your development and evolution posts keep me coming for more. Great work.
Hello!
I found my way to Scienceblogs via Cosmic Variance and became addicted. Pharyngula is one of my favorites, between battling Intelligent Design and bringing some much-needed knowledge about biology to this astronomy grad student, it’s always an interesting read. Thanks for a great blog!
Crap, I posted already today! Oh well…I originally came to Pharyngula because I was astonished that PZ spells his last name THE RIGHT WAY! Wheee! Stayed after a few Pratchett references (Yay to Arnaud way up there!) and all the atheism. Greetings from UW Madison!
Hello from Moscow, Idaho!
Delurkification complete.
Hi from a mostly-lurker. I have commented a coupla times but all you edumacated scientists intimidate me.I learn a lot from reading here daily and my atheist arguing positions have been honed to a cutting point. Thanks, PZ.
Suez in SAfrica
Fairly infrequent poster, daily (hourly) reader! I grew up in Texas, went to grad school in South Dakota, and currently live in Indiana. Despite all that (and thanks to bright parents and some great teachers), critical thinking makes me a happy camper, which is part of why I am addicted to this blog. Another part is the occasional ‘spit-out-your-drink’ hilarity that one can run across . . . Such as the below from the pre-Seed blog!
http://pharyngula.org/index/weblog/comments/incredible_new_breakthrough_in_physics/
Hi, I enjoy your blog. Especially when you stray into neurobiology, or counter wacky religionists.
99 44/100% pure lurker here. Found you from a long chain of sites tracing back to talk.origins from before the intertubes had pictures as a regular thing. Proud graduate of Carlson’s Christian College down in Cornfield, MN, from where I can claim a special connection as my freshman roommate was the son of a UMM prof.
Love the site PZ. Read you on a daily basis. And I’m going to be at The Amazing Meeting next week, so the Bad (and naked) Astronomer better sing your praises like he supposed to.
Lurker from Delaware here. Love the site and read it religiously (ha!).
Lurking and loving it. I’ve commented before, but not a lot. But I love reading PZ, GrrrlScientist, John Lynch, Carl Zimmer, Ed Brayton, and UTI, and Panda’s Thumb. Nuff said.
Hi from wonderful Phoenix, Arizona. Thanks for writing about politics, creationists and most especially, science. I don’t know much about biology, but dammit, I’m gonna learn.
Hey hey everyone. Yeah, I’ve been hanging out at this site for the last several months. I love PZ’s take on the world, and I’m developing an unhealthy appreciation for cephlapods.
/wave
410 posts!??
Wow.
I’ve been reading and sometimes commenting on here for 2 years now.
Hello, there! High school math teacher/technology director in northwest Iowa. I read Pharyngula every day to keep informed about wingnut attacks on science and freedom. Makes me feel not so lonely out here teaching public school in the sticks of ultra-conservative-Christian Iowa District 5 (represented in Congress by Steve King).
delurking here. I enjoy your blog. My catfish ate my shark last week. Our new tank rule is to never get another fish capeable of fitting in Alexander’s (the catfish) mouth. I one day dream of having pet cuddle fish.
The Flying Spaghetti monster appeared to me in a tangle of hair in the corner of my tub. I didn’t want to encourage him too much though, so I flushed him. I was naked after all.
that’s all.
My dad was born in Morris so really, we’re practically related. Sorry I didn’t make it to the family gathering over winter break.
Hello from Scottsdale Arizona
[/lurk]Someone said there were donuts?
Ah. Anyway, love the blog, keep up the good work. We may need you in Ohio soon!
Carry on, then.
[lurk]
Have been lurking here since my interest in Evo was re-awakened by Kitzmiller v. Dover. Thanks for providing a greaat source of knowledge, pointers thereto, and a healthy dose of wingnut disassembly.
Hello from a former-and-probably-future Minnesotan lurker-type temporarily stuck in the mountains of southern California. Um. The end.
Hello from Kansas!!
/delurk
Hi from Albuquerque, NM. I lurk at Randi, PZ, Orac, Bad Science, etc., etc. to hang onto the fact that there is some sanity in this crazy, superstitious, anti-science world. Thanks.
/relurk
H
Hi Margaret. It is good to see that I’m not the only Albuquerquean that lurks around here.
I’m from Dallas, TX, and I don’t remember if I’ve commented here or not. I know I did at your old site. So hi! Just in case.
Pharyngula is my all time favorite blog. I read it first thing in the morning and check in throughout the day. I love to read the posts and comments, but must admit I’m a lurker. I especially enjoy the humor and the great community of people. From reading the comments on this delurking thread, I can tell there’s a lot of incredible Pharyngula lurkers. Maybe we should all try to periodically get brave and post some comments!
Finally, a post that has inspired me to comment.
Hey everyone.
(what a lousy first comment that was. oh well, they can only get better.)
Well, I’m a day late, but I’ll de-lurk. Hi. I’ve been reading for quite some time (you’re one of my favorite blogs!), but I don’t believe I’ve ever left a comment (I’m shy). I’m a AI/CogSci/Linguistics grad student in Upstate NY, and have been a godless liberal ever since I can remember (much to the chagrin of my extended family!). Oh, and I knit, too, hence the knitting blog in the URL field. Bet you don’t see those too often in the comments section.
I’ve been semi-lurking for a couple of months now. I say semi-lurking because what I generally do is sit next to my wife abeja and lurk with her.
Great blog.
I think I’ve commented once or twice before, but … hello from Philadelphia.
Just started reading, went back and saw this post, and thought I’d comment.
Hi to all. I found Pharyngula about a year ago, and I’ve been reading PZ, Tara, Janet, PT, etc. pretty much daily ever since. I have been only quietly observing until “Delurking Week” gave me the excuse to speak up. I’m a computer science prof in New England, so I may not have all that much to contribute here, at least not frequently. PZ, et. al., have established themselves as voices of sanity (cranky, funny, snarky, yes, but also with high levels of integrity) and for this past year they collectively have been the refreshing drizzle of cold reality down the back of the neck that helps me wake up in the morning. We should all be so lucky.
Hi, I’m a UMM alum currently in Mpls.
Love the cephalopods :)
I lurk more than comment. I should probably have ended up a biologist, but I’m a technical writer in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, looking for another contract. I read a lot with science as a special interest; and check Pharyngula almost every day.
On the home front, I have cats, a brilliant partner, and practice good home cooking with an emphasis on things that are quick & easy to prepare.
Delurking from Sydney.
The blog’s so good, I even read when I have no reason to avoid work.
Keep annoying the obnoxious.
< ? $blog="http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula"; mysql_delurk($blog) or die ("Aaaah..the light. It burns usss...curse you Myersss!"); ?>
< ? $blog="http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula"; mysql_delurk($blog) or die ("Aaaah..the light. It burns usss...curse you Myersss!"); ?>
{?
$blog=”http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula”;
mysql_delurk($blog) or die (“Aaaah..the light. It burns usss…curse you Myersss!”);
?}
Another Brit. This site is one of my little lunch-time-at-work reading pleasures and always sets me up nicely for that long haul till home time, especially the octopus stuff and the bothering of god botherers. Best wishes for the New Year.
Your blog is part of my current reading whilst drinking my early morning tea after having walked the dog and brushed my teeth. Its more informative than the Beano and funnier than the Financial Times.
I am reading this blog as our local talk show has a “spirit medium” on for another interview. Turns out she’s one of the most requested guests.
I’d say “God help us,” but I don’t believe in one of those either.
Hello from Bucharest. I read Pharyngula almost every day; I am delighted with the exquisite mix of anectodes on human nature and amazing science news.
I’ll fight for cosmological evolution and the 13.7 billion year old Universe.
Hi,
I’ve been lurking for a few years now (except for the one comment I posted a few weeks ago). This is almost without fail the first website I pull up in the morning. Pharyngula & Carl Sagan’s Demon Haunted World have been life-changing reading material for me. Change for the better!
Thanks!
ps.. I’m from the suburbs of Philly. Spring City, in Chester County
Hey! First time commenting, love the site, but I think I’ll remain a lurker.
Occasional commenter and graduate student in molecular ecology at the University of Central Missouri.
Hi from PA!
i’m a year-long lurker from florida. i don’t feel so alone reading your blog. i work everyday with southern christian crackers and i spend lots of time defending science and plain old logical reasoning. thanks for the help!