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It’s all cringe

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/11/13/its-all-cringe/

Published: November 13, 2025 12:51

I occasionally look in on our local racist cult — but not very often, because dear god, they are boring. We have an Asatru chapter near us, in Murdock, Minnesota, which was initially controversial when they bought an old church and announced that they were…

Aurora tonight!

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/11/12/aurora-tonight/

Published: November 13, 2025 02:53

Lots of red and green shimmering in the sky tonight. This was a handheld shot, ISO 6400, f4, 1 sec exposure. Maybe I should drag a tripod out next time I want to shoot the aurora. I think maybe my iPhone did a better job.

Does anyone object to invading Hitler’s privacy?

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/11/12/does-anyone-object-to-invading-hitlers-privacy/

Published: November 12, 2025 19:11

I don’t. When Hitler blew his brains out in the bunker, he splattered the upholstery with blood. An American soldier cut out a swatch of bloody cloth and kept it as a morbid souvenir, eventually donating it to a museum, and recently, geneticists sequenced…

Exotic berries

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/11/12/77935/

Published: November 12, 2025 18:36

After a long morning cleaning up after so many spiders, I had to pick up a few things from the grocery store, and fixed a light lunch of rice cakes with strawberry yogurt and berries on top, which is simple and quick and good for me and my wife. This…

She was asking for it

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/11/12/she-was-asking-for-it/

Published: November 12, 2025 12:29

A professor in Indiana has been removed from her class after a student complained. A lecturer in the Indiana University School of Social Work has been removed from teaching one of her classes — “Diversity, Human Rights, and Social Justice” — while the…

What’s up with 3I/ATLAS now?

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/11/11/whats-up-with-3i-atlas-now/

Published: November 11, 2025 15:38

There’s nothing new. It’s a big space rock passing through empty space, not even coming close to us or interacting in any significant way with anything in the solar system. That’s all the 3I/ATLAS news. Bye! Oh, but wait, we can rely on Avi Loeb to invent…

I love a good NYT takedown

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/11/10/i-love-a-good-nyt-takedown/

Published: November 10, 2025 15:04

Zohran Mamdani graduated from a small (but wealthy) liberal arts school, Bowdoin College, with a degree in Africana Studies. It’s a good and reputable degree from a reputable college, so that’s nothing to complain about, but the NY Times sent a reporter to…

And nothing was accomplished

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/11/10/and-nothing-was-accomplished/

Published: November 10, 2025 14:01

We’ve been dealing with this ridiculous government shutdown, which was initiated because the Republican budget was promoting major cuts in health care support, among other billionaire favorites. If done properly, the purpose of such a shutdown would be to…

Midwest chic

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/11/09/midwest-chic/

Published: November 9, 2025 17:51

I nearly went blind stepping into that store.

Please improve the biology of “Predator” movies

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/11/09/please-improve-the-biology-of-predator-movies/

Published: November 9, 2025 14:09

My favorite alien organism in Predator Badlands was the brachiating carnivore with trilateral symmetry. That was neat. I also like the novel communal (?) branch like thing that would strike like an army of snakes. Cool. There was a grazer with a weird set…

Go ahead, make me feel old

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/11/09/go-ahead-make-me-feel-old/

Published: November 9, 2025 13:20

The spam is rising. I’m going to have to go through and block a lot of unwanted email sources. This one isn’t too bad, but it set me back for a moment: Phone numbers used to start with letters. Oh yeah? That’s news? The first phone number I learned was…

James Watson is dead at 97

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/11/07/james-watson-is-dead-at-97/

Published: November 7, 2025 20:22

That’s a good long life, so there’s that at least. But otherwise, let this be an object lesson to everyone: you can make marvelous discoveries and launch science in bold new directions, but if you treat people badly, that’s what you’re going to be…

Inspector Clouseau is still employed, I see

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/11/07/inspector-clouseau-is-still-employed-i-see/

Published: November 7, 2025 19:06

Computer security is not an issue Clouseau has thought about much, I guess. At the time of the brazen heist of $102 million in jewels from the Louvre last month, the password to the world-famous museum’s video surveillance system was simply “Louvre,”…

A neglected (or hidden) history

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/11/07/a-neglected-or-hidden-history/

Published: November 7, 2025 16:54

Juan Cole makes an interesting point in light of Mamdani campaigning partly in Arabic. Because so many Arabic speakers have immigrated to the United States since the end of the old Nazi-like immigration quotas in 1965, many Americans may think of Arabic as…

I got my sticker!

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/11/07/i-got-my-sticker/

Published: November 7, 2025 16:30

Yesterday, I took advantage of the university health clinic to get both my flu shot and my COVID shot. The important part is that I got my sticker. Today, my right arm (flu shot) is fine, but my left (COVID) hurts like heck, and I’m feeling a general…

Support a scientist!

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/11/07/support-a-scientist/

Published: November 7, 2025 13:48

I’m surprised that Siouxsie Wiles has had to fight with her own university — after she’d been fighting the good fight for science for so many years and striving against the ignorance of anti-vaxxer. The University of Auckland failed in it’s obligation to…

Untangled!

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/11/06/untangled/

Published: November 6, 2025 18:37

In case you were worried about yesterday’s spider who was tangled in their molt, worry no more. They are free!

Kim Kardashian news

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/11/06/kim-kardashian-news/

Published: November 6, 2025 18:20

I’m sure you’ve all been waiting to hear what Kim Kardashian has been up to. Apparently, she has landed a leading role on a new television series (honestly, I didn’t need to read the review to know I have no interest in watching it), but I did learn…

Deer hunting season opens this weekend

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/11/06/deer-hunting-season-opens-this-weekend/

Published: November 6, 2025 13:43

Minnesotans will be prowling the farmlands with rifles this weekend through 23 November. I think I’ll stay home, not just because of all the people with guns, but because who knows when the deer will have had enough?

I get email…from the Daily Wire

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/11/06/i-get-emailfrom-the-daily-wire/

Published: November 6, 2025 13:04

Usually, I just ignore anything from Ben Shapiro and Co., but this time I was tempted by the headline, Mamdani’s Party: NYC’s New Mayor Celebrates Win By Channeling America’s Marxist Icon. Who would that be, I wondered. I had to read the rest. Moments…