I prefer PZ Myers' "Planet of the hats", but this was pretty cool

Biologist PZ Meyers

His name is PZ Myers.

And on the video, Jesus F. Christ, let SOMEONE talk, US television is so soundbite-based at this point that they need FOUR people on the same screen interrupting eachother? This is just ridiculous. But Hitchens still won though.

This video is everywhere now. And she is up for reelection. Since Friday, her opponent has received $120,000 in donations, probably as a result of this video--doubling his previous funds (according to PZ Myers). YouTube FTW!
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2008/10/whoathis_is_better_than_crashi.php

I just realized that vids where *humanitarian and civil rights are being violated, whether or not it's *nsfw, probably belong in that channel, eh?

Also, I checked out the full story from the link below.

>> ^EDD:
"Last night at approximately 7:30pm I was arrested <snip> a second protestor who was shot three times by what appeared to be three separate officers with bean-bag guns while KNEELING, motionless, 15 FEET AWAY, hands outstretched as if in prayer, and wearing nothing but a pair of POCKETLESS shorts."
-Nathan Acks' experience. Read full story here.


The cops sound like complete tools for what they did - but so does this PZ Myers guy. Looks like one of his fans agrees.

http://pzmyers.wordpress.com/2008/08/28/pz-myers-is-an-endless-distortion/

PZ failed as a blog writer by combining two disparate topics into one post. Way to undermine messages through conflation.

>> ^rembar:
Food for thought from PZ Myers, with a healthy dose of criticism and contextual information.
Specifically, the interesting point to be made is that Darwin didn't simply predict that the length of the insect tongues would MATCH the orchid tubes, but rather that the orchids would be selected for longer tubes each generation (because the insects, now with slightly shorter tubes, would be forced to press up against the flower to get the nectar and thus would receive pollen all over their bodies that would then be spread by the insects), and the insects would be selected for longer tongues in order to reach across the ever-increasing distance.
It's somewhat of an arms race, in that the orchids benefit by the insects having to struggle to reach the nectar, and the insects benefit by having longer proboscises to not have to struggle to reach the nectar, leading to the development of very long tubes and tongues.


This arms race is termed the Red Queen effect after the race the eponymous character in Through the Looking Glass holds in which "it takes all the running you can do to keep in the same place." God, I love evolutionary science/scientists (you see what I did there, with the God and the evolution? funny stuff, huh?)

Food for thought from PZ Myers, with a healthy dose of criticism and contextual information.

Specifically, the interesting point to be made is that Darwin didn't simply predict that the length of the insect tongues would MATCH the orchid tubes, but rather that the orchids would be selected for longer tubes each generation (because the insects, now with slightly shorter tubes, would be forced to press up against the flower to get the nectar and thus would receive pollen all over their bodies that would then be spread by the insects), and the insects would be selected for longer tongues in order to reach across the ever-increasing distance.

It's somewhat of an arms race, in that the orchids benefit by the insects having to struggle to reach the nectar, and the insects benefit by having longer proboscises to not have to struggle to reach the nectar, leading to the development of very long tubes and tongues.

I didnt see it as pro-creationist, I think I'd put it in the "neutral" section, if anything.. With creationism, its almost as if the quality alone excludes them it pokes fun at the science side, sure, but it also parodies how the creationist see the evilutionists as some sort of mythical monsters.

Speaking of the creationism/evolution debate, PZ Myers has gone ahead and done it again! The producers of "Expelled" set up a press-conference call, but in their usual manner, they restricted the journalists, and had a restricted call and journalists were forced to email in their questions. conveniently they asked questions like "To Ben Stein: what makes so intelligent people like yourself question Darwinism"

Anyway, PZ had listened in on them and got their password, so he was listening in WITH speaking privileges, and decided to crash their little party of lies, by calling them out in front of all the press... Hilarious..
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2008/03/i_always_aim_to_misbehave.php

Someone in the comments section at PZ Myers wondered if that's how they got the idea for the movie Gremlins. Good point.

Found via PZ Myers at Phraryngula: http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2006/06/slug_love.php

The advantage of being a hermaphrodite is that you and your partner can get pregnant at the same time, I guess.