Philadelphia!

Everyone wants to know what I'm doing in Philly this week. Me, too! Here's everything I know so far.

  • I'm flying in on Wednesday morning, 19 November. At 5pm, I'm giving a talk on science blogging at the Kelly Writers house on the U Penn campus.

  • Thursday, 20 November, is the big event: Janet Browne will be lecturing at 6pm. I'll be there in the audience, enjoying myself. You should be there, too. You've all read her magnificent two-volume biography of Darwin, right?

  • Sometime after that, the evening of the 20th, I'm going to aim to attend Drinking Skeptically, at Tattooed Mom's, 530 South Street.

  • On Friday, the 21st, I'll be presenting at a symposium between 11 and 5. I don't think this is open to the public, but I could be wrong — I'll let you know. I'll be talking about abuses of embryology by creationists and by some legitimate scientists.

There are many other items on my personal agenda. I might be doing something with the Secular Society of Temple University, if I can wedge it in. I'm certainly going to sneak away to a museum or two sometime: The Academy of Natural Sciences has always been a favorite spot of mine, and they've got a cast of Tiktaalik on display now. The Mütter Museum is also showing an exhibit on evolution and medicine. I'll post something once I get there if my schedule firms up.


We have more details on the Friday symposium, which is open to the public.

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Hooray! I win the prize for longest title!

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BTW, how much do you drink a week? I'm gonna send some vitamin B and black currant juice for your highly evolved immune system so you won't morph into Christopher Hitchens.

Good luck and stay safe dude.

I thought you were there to start the homosexual/atheist indoctrination camps at the behest of Comrade Obama.

They got Tiktaalik at the Field Museum too. But that's in Chicago where Bill Ayers sends text messages from.

Hey PZ,
I might have missed it, but how far to the north-east do you make it? Boston? I'd never expect you to come to Maine, but I'm only 4 hours from Boston...
Maybe Vermont or NH? :)

By kiltedbrick (not verified) on 16 Nov 2008 #permalink

Hope your journey is uneventful, have fun, or a reasonable facsimile.

Sure - I have probably spent 20-25 weeks of the past 80 in Philly, and NOW you decide to speak there while I am home (Raleigh, NC). You need to get with The Great Scheduler in the Sky to work on your timing.

:-P

By Tom Woolf (not verified) on 16 Nov 2008 #permalink

Yay! I'll be at Drinking Skeptically... I only wish it were a few days later, since I turn 21 on Sunday. I guess I'll just have some soda or something. If I'd known you were going to be in the area, I might have tried to drag you down to the University of Delaware, since my SSA group has some fans of yours. :D

I haven't been to the Mutter Museum, but my boyfriend tells me it's fantastic. Enjoy the city of *cough* brotherly love.

By Metatwaddle (not verified) on 16 Nov 2008 #permalink

FYI to anyone planning on attending the Janet Browne lecture:

Please RSVP Michael Weisberg (mcweisberg @ gmail . com) to let him know that you'll be coming so he can get a headcount.

Thanks!

I have a whole stack of chick comics i wanted to give you Thursday but my car decided to die on me... i guess i will have to wait another year until you come back to PA

By Aaron Kralik (not verified) on 16 Nov 2008 #permalink

I'm so excited! I wonder if I should go Wednesday or Thursday.

Dang it PZ. I'm driving through MN (via I-94) this Thursday, and you won't even be there. I had planned to take satisfaction in knowing I was within stalking distance (in case the stalkin' mood ever struck me).

Now the only satisfaction I'll get as I pass through, is in knowing I'm not in North Dakota any longer... ugghh it's going to be a long drive - Seattle to Pittsburgh in 2 nights.

Posted by: PZ Myers | November 16, 2008 11:03 PM

Hitchhike!

Good I dea... I dont suppose anyone will be passing through the Coal Region on the way to phili on Thursday i could catch i ride with.... i will buy gas and drinks for a round trip ride

By Aaron Kralik (not verified) on 16 Nov 2008 #permalink

Hey, PZ

I'll try to catch up with you at Tatooed Mom's and buy you a beer. Thanks for all the nice things you've said about Philly. Of course it's not real America, despite giving birth to the country, but that's just because we're a bunch of evil liberal Darwinists.

Welcome to Philadelphia. I was going to try to get to the Browne lecture, but I am lecturing my intro course at The College of New Jersey (about an hour away from Centre City) until about 4:00 - and this week's topic is biostratigraphy, so I think I need to continue my task to enlighten the uninitiated in the marvelously complete, yet incomplete, fossil record. Sigh!!!! Would love to be there.

Enjoy - the lecures, the company, the beer and the city.

Tom

By Tom G(ologist) (not verified) on 16 Nov 2008 #permalink

And here I thought you were dropping in on the Rational Response Squad. They're based in Philly (I think).

By woodstein312 (not verified) on 16 Nov 2008 #permalink

Paul Lundgren @ 14: Oh, come on people...am I the only one who noticed the irony of a Secular Society of Temple University?

It's not 'Temple', as in Jewish Mormons, it's named for Thaddius Humpen Temple, famed pretzel vendor and inventor of the Cheese Steak.

Oooohhh, you said "wedge".

that flyer says that you're the evolutionary brother of Lunch, PZ. odd.

addendum:
also, you are more closely related to Lunch than you are to Coffee.

You're making me miss Philly, PZ. I used to live spitting distance from Kelly Writer's House in my undergraduate days. Of course, spitting distance is considerably farther when you live on the 16th floor...

Have fun, and drink a Yuengling for me!

By cactusren (not verified) on 16 Nov 2008 #permalink

From the Kelly Writers House page:

5:00 PM in the Arts Cafe: A Discussion with science blogger PZ Meyers. Co-sponsored by the Department of Philosophy.

Meyers?

Are they saying the audience needs coffee after PZ's speech?

I am a little concerned that I can't be distinguished from lunch -- I am made mostly of meat, you know. I could be confused with scrapple if I'm not careful.

That's quite the travel schedule, PZ. Believe in global warming much? You seem to have about the same carbon footprint as a small forest fire.

By David Wiley (not verified) on 17 Nov 2008 #permalink

He uses a solar powered transporter. DUH!.

@Steve_C: "He uses a solar powered transporter."

Would that were possible. PZ routinely uses this blog to decry global warming deniers, and rightly so. But to acknowledge the human beings are causing global warming, and not allow this knowledge to affect your personal choices isn't quite hypocrisy, but it's close.

By Dave Wiley (not verified) on 17 Nov 2008 #permalink

That's a crock. Are you one of those people who denies global warming but then takes Al Gore to task for flying to Cannes for his film's opening?

When we have a national super high speed telepresence network up and running, you MIGHT have a point.

Otherwise you're just being a tool.

Is the symposium also at Penn? There's a Cohen Hall about 30 feet from the door to my building and I'd love to go see you PZ, but Cohen might be a common name for academic halls...

Steve_C: "That's a crock. Are you one of those people who denies global warming but then takes Al Gore to task for flying to Cannes for his film's opening?"

No, I'm one of those people who sold my car and stopped flying about a year before Al Gore's film came out.

At least the global warming deniers, as misguided as they may be, are living according to their beliefs. People who accept the science of global warming and still refuse to significantly change their own behavior bug me more. Further, believing that technology will save us without naming that technology or how it will be applied is not too different from believing in the tooth fairy. It is my firm belief that technology will indeed save us every time... except the last one.

Lest I be misconstrued I am a huge fan of this site and PZ. However no one and no thing is ever perfect and there should be no harm in constructive criticism. For instance as intelligent a man as PZ is he shows a penchant for an adolescent level of name calling. (A penchant that seems to rub off on some of the members, Steve.) I think this undermines the site's effectiveness. If Pharyngula were to adopt a more civil tone it could be a site that stood half a chance of persuading people. As it is anyone not already in the choir is likely repelled by one of the first few entries.

By Dave Wiley (not verified) on 17 Nov 2008 #permalink

Hey, there must be some cladistical error! PZ's talk is more closely related to lunch than it is to coffee. How can that be?

By Arnosium Upinarum (not verified) on 17 Nov 2008 #permalink

...Never mind.

By Arnosium Upinarum (not verified) on 17 Nov 2008 #permalink

Please spend three minutes hugging Mark Liberman and give him a big, wet, two-minute kiss on the lips from me.

My wife just uttered the unlikely phrase, "sure, go have a drink with P.Z. Myers." Just my luck, PZ will probably still be surly about his laptop catastrophe.

Now, must put last-minute plans in motion to attend Janet Browne's lecture and hit Drinking Skeptically on the way home! Need to arrange the afternoon off before I can RSVP Michael Weisberg.

- Betz (Walnutport PA vicinity)