On seeing Storm 17 Oct 2010 I do not often envy my good friend PZ NamebeginningwithM. Sure, he has the associate professorship, the Trophy Wife™, the millions of readers and most of all the Minions. But I am above all that. I am humble, and devoid of unwarranted certainties. And money. I can even forgive him for getting the speaking gig as American Atheist Pope and being invited to London, Oslo and Seattle on other people’s dime. But this is an insult and point of envy I cannot rise above. He got to go to the premiere of Tim Minchin’s animated film “Storm”. The unmitigated bastard. Just for that, in addition to misspelling his last name, I shall now start to use the wrong initials. Or reveal to the world what PZ stands for. Or something… Humor Religion
Evolution The heat of religion 14 Aug 2008 It’s always a Bad Idea to critique a paper on the basis of summaries, but I just can’t seem to make Proceedings of the Royal Society let me download this article. Randy Thornhill and Corey Fincher have proposed another explanation for religion, based on the correlation between tropics and diseases,… Read More
Ecology and Biodiversity Ten best species for the last year 23 May 2009 It’s fun to read, but what it means I am not sure. A bunch of systematists have devised the Top 10 New Species list for 2008. It’s basically a way to promote the need for more conservation and systematics at the species level, and that can’t be a bad thing:… Read More
Dammit, John – I assumed this was going to be about the revelation that you’re now going out with Halle Berry.
I know what PZ stands for. Leave 20 kazillion quatloos under a rock and I won’t tell. Trophies are overrated. So are minions; they will sell your picture to the tabloids.
Let me rub it in some more, too. Storm is fantastic. Suddenly, skepticism has a world-class hymn. You won’t have to wait too long, though. It’s not quite done, they’re going to add a little more polish and details like subtitles in languages other than English, but then it’s going to be widely available. The crazy starry-eyed producers aren’t interested in money, they’re actually a gang of visionaries who want the message of critical thinking spread far and wide, and apparently the finished short is going to be put on youtube where it will instantly soar to being the top hit for a while.
You don’t think for a second that this display of nobility of purpose and altruism is going to stop me from hating you, do you?
Tsk! Associate professorships and trophy wives are a dime a dozen. How many people have written the definitive work on species that will be read by – oh – lots of people around the world?
Seven. My kid reads… Ok, well he can’t actually read per se, but he looks at the page and dribbles. Which, after all, is what most of us do if we’re honest. Louis