A few hours later…
Earlier this morning, Mary spotted a dark chrysalis near our back door. This is what it looks like now. In a few hours, it’ll flutter off to join the wild population here in Morris.
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
Latest posts
James O’Keefe still likes to play dress-up
If you thought James O Keefe was washed up and would vanish in the sewage outlet of history after his exposure and disgrace, guess again. He attempted to meddle in the Minnesota primary by dressing up as a muslim , putting on a poor muslim accent, and attempting to vote illegally, to show that Minnesota election laws [ ]
Kids these days…
When I was in college, many years ago, one of the hobbies sweeping through the youth (and older) was the Society for Creative Anachronism putting on padding, taking a sword made of rattan wrapped in foam, and pounding on each other in fake medieval battles. I thought it was fun to watch, but was [ ]
What that movie should have been
I didn t care much for Spider-Man: Brand New Day, so today I made the movie I wanted. It didn t require hundreds of millions of dollars, either. I bought some new black widows, and today is the day they got moved into brand new shiny containers. See, Marvel? That s how it is done.
I was lucky my family wasn’t god-soaked
I did not like this video. It s titled Meet the Evangelical Science Teacher Who Raised an Evolutionist . It meanders. It s slow. It s from the perspective of a rational, evolution accepting person who has a father who is both a science teacher and a committed young earth creationist, and the problem is that it s trying to [ ]
We’ve got epic losers in this state
I told you who won the Minnesota primaries, but I should probably mention the wacky and unloveable losers of that race. First and foremost is Mike Lindell, the MyPillow guy. Despite the fact that Donald Trump endorsed him, he lost by 11 points to Lisa Demuth. Before the election night, he was saying that win [ ]
Behold, my replacement!
I ve only been teaching for over 40 years, so what do I know. I have to work with a team of professional biologists to hammer out a good curriculum, and I m aware that there are a range of topics I m not knowledgeable enough to teach we have to work together to cover all the [ ]
Struck down mid-paragraph
Yesterday, my goal was to whip my cell biology syllabus into shape, and then to reorganize my first lecture. I did not get either done, because I instead was slammed with some wicked gut disruption that struck suddenly. I had to flee home, abandoning my laptop, with my syllabus open and one paragraph in the [ ]
To those people, ALL of your reproductive choices are to be questioned
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has announced that she s freezing her eggs, basically planning ahead to defer reproduction. Some people have feelings about this. As predicted, a cohort of conservative critics emerged on social media to bemoan AOC’s personal choice, which challenges their prescriptive vision for American mothers: young, married and uninterested in pursuing a career. Allie Beth [ ]
What a strange feeling…
I m not used to this. I m accustomed to deep disappointment the day after an election, but this year, the results all rolled my way. Amy Klobuchar won the DFL nomination for governor. I told you, she s a machine, she got about 90% of the votes. She ll be competing with Republican Lisa Demuth, not Mike Lindell. [ ]
Who is Adam Bly?
I just did an interview with a journalist who is trying to answer that question. I was not very helpful. I knew Adam Bly as a publisher and promoter of science popularizers he s the guy who created Seed Magazine and Scienceblogs, once upon a time, and I met him several times, and he paid [ ]
Would an AI lie to you?
I don t recall ever seeing services that offered to do all your research for you, and to write the paper for you, so now I m feeling old. Such services exist, though. One is called Research Gold you just tell them your thesis, they dig into the library, and they return a complete, fully written [ ]
This is what happens when you let a senile fool run the country
The next distraction: We re at war with Iran, but that s not enough to hide Trump s crimes. How about going to war with a NATO ally? The invasion of Greenland has begun. An American oil company connected to Donald Trump is preparing to sink wells in remote Greenland despite not having received permission from the local [ ]
It’s Minnesota Primary Day!
I m getting out to vote this afternoon, and generally my choices are straightforward. I m voting for Peggy Flanagan for the US Senate; she s vying with Angie Craig, who has made some bad decisions, for instance, pandering to the crypto boys. Flanagan will be a good progressive. For my local state representative, I will vote for [ ]
Fecundity
Is it possible to have too many baby spiders? No, it is not. Just ask their mother.
What did I live on in the years from 0 to 30?
It s lunch hour, on my first day back at full-time work, and I m thinking about food. I m in transition; all summer I ve been mostly at home, in part because I ve been laid up by knee surgeries and some surgeries, but that excuse doesn t work any more because I m mostly recovered. My wife has been working [ ]
It’s that time
Time to go to…work. I have to go into my lab/office and get my class in order for the start of Fall term in two weeks. Oh well. Next year at this time I ll be retired, and nobody can tell me to go to work ever again. (Also, my work is enjoyable stuff anyway.) As [ ]
In case you were wondering, Mel Gibson is still a colossal asshole
The fundamental feature of Christianity is that its believers are all committed to the idea they are especially beloved by a super-being, which makes them particularly insufferable. Mel Gibson is the pinnacle of this brand of intrinsic narcissism. Betty Bowers called it: Is there a more potent brand of blasphemy than a shitty narcissist claiming [ ]
Build more guillotines
They are a demonstrably effective repellent of bad ideas. You don t even need to use them! Just wheel them into an area and watch the parasites scamper away.
We are kidnappers!
Mary and I thought our yard Argiope was looking lonely, so we visited a local breeding ground and snatched up a couple more. This is a new female, already adapting to life in our yard. We also grabbed a couple of smaller Argiope, which might be males, or are simply too young to have the [ ]
A little body horror
We ve got a few monarch chrysalides around the house, but we ve also noticed a lot of mortality among the caterpillars, which is normal. This morning we spotted this caterpillar, motionless and dying, clinging to the side of the house. There s something horrible stuck to its side. I don t know what it is, so I present [ ]
God’s explosive diarrhea
Did you know that God explicitly bestowed the ability to generate explosive diarrhea on Cyclospora, and that this is true science? I just threw this together outside, never mind the screeching squirrels. They re more pleasant to listen to than Georgia Purdom. She s trying to claim that pathogenic microorganisms are the product of sin . My answer: [ ]
Did you know…
That you can use your home computer as a spider incubator? I keep several containers of Parasteatoda on top of my Mac Mini, where they thrive in the warmth and provide endless hours of entertainment while I m working. All four of these contain egg sacs, and three of the four have hatched out this morning!
I’ve been enrolled in The Shadow League
How exciting! I d like to say thank you for the honor, I appreciate the efforts of all the little people who have lofted me to join this distinguished company, and is there a stipend, an honorarium, some token that would help me buy groceries? Of course there isn t. The Shadow League is an imaginary organization [ ]
The step-children have arrived!
Time to party! That isn t the only clutch to emerge today. Here s another: These little guys are popping out everywhere we re surrounded by a cloud of little baby Parasteatoda.
He just lies non-stop
You may ask which member of the Trump administration I m talking about, because they are all compulsive liars. I m referring to the guy with the brainworm, the barely literate incompetent who has fundamentally shut down science research in this country, the fraud who has been vomiting up medical misinformation, the one, the only, RFK jr, [ ]