Pharyngula

Travel season begins again for me. I’ve already mentioned that I’m off to Winnipeg this weekend; the weekend after that is the Science Online conference. And then the whirlwind begins: I’m invading California, singlehandedly. Here’s my schedule:

W, 1/20: UC Santa Barbara
Th, 1/21: UC Davis
F, 1/22: Berkeley
Sa, 1/23: UC Santa Cruz
Su, 1/24: De Anza College (Cupertino)
M: 1/25: CSU Chico
T: 1/26 Sacramento City College
W: 1/27: Stanford
Th: 1/28: Sierra College

That’s insane. I may regret this when I stagger away from that grueling series. At least I’m giving the same talk at all of them, on creationism and complexity, so I won’t have to struggle to keep the topics straight.

And that’s not all! I’m coming home from California to hop on a plane to Ireland! I’m still working out a few details, but I can tell you that I’ll be speaking at University College Dublin on 2 February, and Galway on 4 February. I’ve got pending invitations from Cork and Belfast that I’m still trying to squeeze into the schedule; I may do both if I can work out transportation, but I’ll do at least one of them. It would be nice to visit all four so I can say I’ve done Ireland east, west, north and south.

And then I come home in time for the Darwin Day madness! I’ll be going to the University of Northern Iowa and South Carolina. More about those later.

Comments

#1 Bad Albert
January 6, 2010

Have you factored in jail time in Ireland?
#2 ansham
January 6, 2010

When the hell are you coming to Norway?
#3 prostock69
January 6, 2010

Holy Toldeo, Batman! You are a busy guy. Any chance in the future that you can come to Ohio?
#4 Rev. BigDumbChimp
January 6, 2010

Are you coming to see me in Charleston?
#5 ellipticcurve
January 6, 2010

UC Davis! My own alma mater!

It’s times like this that I wish I were still in school.
#6 formosus
January 6, 2010

Of course you go and visit California as soon as I’m off of break and back in Colorado. Well, have fun. It was 82* and clear on the 2nd.
#7 Nerd of Redhead, OM
January 6, 2010

You’re a glutton for punishment PZ. You better use your frequent flyer miles to take the Trophy Wife^TM someplace nice…
#8 RKelleher
January 6, 2010

Please, please, please come to Cork!
#9 Sven DiMilo
January 6, 2010

WTF?
Do you have an agent?

Roadies?

Be sure to visit the Sierra Nevada brewery in Chico (and if you meet a striking woman named Justine there, remember me to her *nostalgic sigh*)
#10 Treppenwitz
January 6, 2010

Schedule permitting, I’ll see you at USC (the South Carolina one). The SSA affiliate there is doing a great job this year.

BigDumbChimp: glad to see another godless Charlestonian on here.
#11 sarahb
January 6, 2010

PZ I live in the bay area and would be happy to have a drink with you again. There are a couple of places I can think of. What do you think? With a schedule like that I would need a beer. Just sayin’.
#12 redmjoel
January 6, 2010

Glad to see we get that first test case of the new Irish law.
#13 Rev. BigDumbChimp
January 6, 2010

Schedule permitting, I’ll see you at USC (the South Carolina one). The SSA affiliate there is doing a great job this year.

Is there a date on that?

BigDumbChimp: glad to see another godless Charlestonian on here.

I think there are a few Charlestonians on here. JeffryD being one of them

But yes, cheers!
#14 Larry
January 6, 2010

Wow, multiple opportunities to attend one of your lectures here in the heart-of-hedonism bay area. I’m looking forward to it.
#15 Rev. BigDumbChimp
January 6, 2010

Schedule permitting, I’ll see you at USC (the South Carolina one). The SSA affiliate there is doing a great job this year.

Nevermind, I’m suffering from acute reading comprehension failure.

I’ll be going to the University of Northern Iowa and South Carolina

That would be the U of both. Not just some place in SC.

faily mcfailerson.
#16 Kaptain Karnage
January 6, 2010

Is there somewhere I can get details on the Stanford talk – location and time? I’m flying from LHR to SFO on the 27th and my hotel is just across the road from Stanford: would be awesome to catch the talk.
#17 GermyJ
January 6, 2010

I heard about you coming to Sacramento City College at my atheist group meeting and actually gasped awkwardly loud. I can’t wait! Very looking forward to it!
#18 MadScientist
January 6, 2010

I hope you plan to be blasphemous while in the Republic. Being blasphemous may not be such a good thing in Belfast though unless you want to be a martyr; at least those folks in the North don’t seem to be killing eachother so much these days – that or roadside bombs and insurgent “checkpoints” aren’t considered news anymore.
#19 Sven DiMilo
January 6, 2010

wait let me ask it this way:

Do you need a roadie? Please?
#20 SEF
January 6, 2010

I may do both if I can work out transportation

You need a santa sleigh to zip around in less than no time at all. Although that might be inextricably bound up with having to enter via a chimney and hence not work for some venues (unless you drop in unexpectedly on people in a neighbouring house and exit via their front door to reach the actual venue).
#21 JBlilie
January 6, 2010

Winnipeg in January? Are you sure you’re OK? I’m thinking Winnipeg in … May? Or September?
#22 PZ Myers
January 6, 2010

Sure, Sven, you can carry my bags and do the sound check.
#23 CJO
January 6, 2010

Beers in Berkeley after the talk? Jupiter again? I missed you last time you were through town, so I hope you can carve out a couple of hours on a Friday night to greet the godless horde.
#24 CTC
January 6, 2010

Hoorah! See you in February, or some other post-January time, then.
#25 Zeno
January 6, 2010

Cool. With all of those northern California one-nighters, I should be able to see PZ in person. (And vice versa, too, but I’m sure that’s not why he’s coming to my neck of the woods.)

Watch out, PZ, for a math geek in the audience at the Berkeley, Cupertino, Davis, Sacramento, or Roseville appearance. (Oh, yeah, I’m sure to stand out with a description like that.)
#26 Islander
January 6, 2010

PZ, I think we need you in Texas way more than California needs you. Swing by San Antonio or Austin before you return to work! The one good thing about a state full of drunken rednecks is the many, many bars.
#27 kausik.datta
January 6, 2010

I guess your travels do not bring you to the East Coast ever. Sigh.
#28 BrianC
January 6, 2010

Please visit Cork! Technically, UCC has the first and oldest Atheist student society in Ireland. (Okay, it’s a year old but still!)
#29 5ive
January 6, 2010

I don’t see anything up on Sierra College’s site about you, can you give some more specifics about which building/time?
Here is the Davis info;
http://www.meetup.com/sacskeptics/calendar/12094192/
#30 Antiochus Epiphanes
January 6, 2010

What’s the blood-price for a talk in E. Texas? Malty beverages and barbeque on me.
#31 Koldito
January 6, 2010

As several people will confirm, a must-do in Santa Cruz is breakfast at Cafe Brasil, 1410 Mission St. (see cafebrasil.us). Then you can conveniently walk one block to the corner of Mission and Bay to catch either bus 15 or 16 to campus.
#32 maskedmuffin.wordpress.com
January 6, 2010

Oh goodie, the South Bay area is going to get Pharyngulated. Anyone know what time the 1/24 talk at De Anza College will be? Berkeley is kinda a loong BART away for me.
#33 Pradeep
January 6, 2010

Looking forward to you coming to the South again. I’ll make sure to meet up with you when you come to SC. As always, your food and drinks are on me!
#34 kalox
January 6, 2010

I second RKelleher… Pleeeese come to Cork!!
#35 beth.cimini
January 6, 2010

So now the dilemma begins… will Stanford or Berkeley be more annoying to get to on public transit from SF?
#36 jams.n.tones
January 6, 2010

If one wanted to invite you to speak at their University, and offered free flights and free beers, would you reply to their emails, PZ? Just wonderin’
#37 ShockedISaid
January 6, 2010

PZ, I also just checked the Sierra College website calendar and you’re not listed.

Do you have any info on the time and which campus you’ll be at?

I look forward to your presentation.
#38 CJO
January 6, 2010

beth,
Stanford, I would think. Downtown Berkeley BART is just a short walk to campus.
#39 https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawncr0FDc8gdl7yJBz0SJ15D0etcTIOtL0s
January 6, 2010

Jupiter’s too damned noisy but I haven’t come up with a better idea since last time, myself. At least it has the virtue of being within waddling distance from our house. Beer’s just as good a couple blocks away at Triple Rock but it’s also just as noisy.

Maybe you’ll get lucky and your handlers/retinue/entourage will drag you down to Quince on San Pablo Avenue for breakfast or lunch before or after. I second the motion for the Brazilian place in Santa Cruz, btw, though I somehow don’t see you waiting for a bus on Mission Ave. More like being carried about town on the shoulders of a riotous throng.

Looking forward! (My eyes are on the front of my head: more evidence for Divine Intelligent Creation Design!)

Ron Sullivan
http://toad.faultline.org
#40 Sven DiMilo
January 6, 2010

Sure, Sven, you can carry my bags and do the sound check.

Pay my expenses and I’m there.
Wait, I think my duties would also include groupie liason and procurer of supplies.
#41 nejishiki
January 6, 2010

What? You’re going to California, but not speaking anywhere south of Santa Barbara? weak…….
#42 Count Orlok
January 6, 2010

Long time lurker in Berkeley. Hope I can attend!
#43 Azkyroth
January 6, 2010

Oh, good, it worked this fucking time around.

What are the details of your visit to SCC? I could probably make that.
#44 Shane McKee
January 6, 2010

PZ, please do come to Belfast! If you need any help with the logistics, let me know.
#45 KillJoy
January 6, 2010

Dude!
I’m gonna be in San Francisco on the 22nd!
Which, coincidentally, is close to berkeley. Is there gonna be beer and pizza somewhere, later, that i might be able to be involved with?
#46 cat1082
January 6, 2010

My friends and I at Queen’s University are all a-flutter at the prospect of your possible visit! It would mean a huge amount to us if we got a visit since Cork tend to be the darlings of the international visitors.

We recently endured a seminar from an ‘intelligent design’ exponent so we think it’s only fair that we get a rebuttal. Just think! You could pave the way for a secular utopia in Northern Ireland! Bringing both communities together! How could you contemplate visiting Cork when there’s such opportunity here?

And if none of that worked: please, please, please, please, please!!
#47 PZ Myers
January 6, 2010

Oh yes, one of my goals on this trip is the complete reconciliation of North and South. I figure all I have to do is convert everyone to atheism, and that protestant/catholic distinction disappears.

I also have to erase a few centuries of history, but that’ll be trivial, right? The Irish don’t pay attention to history.

And then I have to drive the English into the sea.

I’ve got a week, no problem!
#48 Louis
January 6, 2010

And what, precisely, have you got against the English, might I enquire? Hmmmmmm?

Oh, and no snarky comments. Most of you here are Americans, the only group of people who have managed to make themselves more hated worldwide than even we English managed. And we tried very, very hard. We did imperialism the old way, with guns, flags and lots of dead members of the proletariat/indigenous population.

We’ve improved the food*, employed orthodontists**, even stopped refering to sex as “conjugal unpleasantness”***, and despite an established church we STILL manage to be a vastly more secular nation than the US.

And our beer and bacon are objectively superior.

(Who bets the last one is the really controversial one?)

Louis

* Really!

** No, really!

*** Ok this one is only on high days and holidays
#49 gololo
January 6, 2010

I wonder if it would be possible for anyone to tape one of these talks and post it to Youtube/others, for those of us who cannot attend the venues, specially for those of us for whom it’s more difficult to attend because we live somewhere else in the world other than the US

If anyone is thinking about taping any, please put your efforts in sound quality. Too many good talks on Youtube with crappy sound quality It’s a pitty most of them cannot be properly understood.

Cheers!
#50 Shane McKee
January 6, 2010

Ha, PZ, as if THAT will work – remember, we have Protestant Atheists and Catholic Atheists over here! Indeed, even Jews and Muslims need to decide whether they are going to be Protestant ones or Catholic ones.

And we don’t pay any attention to history? Oh the calumny! We adorn it, embellish it and tart it up all the time – it’s what we’re best at.

Trust me, you’ll love Belfast
#51 tiskel
January 6, 2010

It’s about damn time that you visit Chico. I’ve been visiting your blog for what seems like 12 years now, commenting a little, but mostly just viewing…

I second the demand that you visit the Sierra Nevada brewery. Yum.

I’m buying a house right now, so I might not be able to buy you a beer, but it’s the thought that counts, right?

I’m going to be very sad if I can’t finally meet you and introduce you to my wife – so I can refer to you as something other than ‘you know, that biology guy I always talk about’…
#52 erpease
January 6, 2010

The Stanford talk is 7pm on Jan 27, Main Quad, bldg. 420, room 041 (aka the big psych lecture hall).
#53 Palmtreez101
January 6, 2010

Come to Florida, please.
#54 SaintStephen
January 7, 2010

W, 1/20: UC Santa Barbara – Too far South.
Th, 1/21: UC Davis – Ka-CHING!
F, 1/22: Berkeley – Ka-CHING!
Sa, 1/23: UC Santa Cruz – Hmmm… maybe.
Su, 1/24: De Anza College (Cupertino) – Ka-CHING!
M: 1/25: CSU Chico – Too smokey…
T: 1/26 Sacramento City College – Hmmm… maybe.
W: 1/27: Stanford – YES! Cardinal Ka-CHING!
Th: 1/28: Sierra College – Too far East.

I’ll catch His Cephalopod-ness somewhere on the Left Coast. Maybe after one of the shows he’ll go out to dinner with his loyal subjects. Hmmm… I wonder if PZ likes Mexican food. I’ve heard they serve a great Tako Salad in Berkeley…

What’s that you say? Tako, not Taco? Tako means OCTOPUS MEAT?
OH THE HUMANITY!!!
#55 Jens Hillebrand
January 7, 2010

Cool so you coming to Dublin now as well, brilliant, looking forward to it!
And just to let you now PZ, by sheer good fortune there is a small beer festival (http://deveneysbeer.blogspot.com/2009/11/deveneys-of-dundrum-beer-festival.html) on the 2. of February in a pub in the city center. You would need to get a ticket, but maybe you can ask your hosts to organize something for you….
Good luck with your trips!
#56 Good Dr. Laura
January 7, 2010

Where is the Berkeley talk going to be?

I am going to do my best to show … although I will probably just lurk there like I do here.
#57 libraryatheist
January 7, 2010

I started the *DAMN club at De Anza College, and I’m glad to see people asking about the event there specifically.

P.Z.’s talk at De Anza College will start around 2:00pm and it will be held in Forum 1.

*
Doubters,
Agnostics,
Mythbusters &
Nontheists
#58 roccklobster
January 7, 2010

Looking forward to seeing you in Northern California; I’m in the Monterey area and can make either the UC Santa Cruz, DeAnza College, or Stanford event. Do you have any more information yet on the schedules for the events? I can’t find anything yet on UC Santa Cruz’s web site and their Events office doesn’t have any information yet either….

Thanks!
#59 JJ
January 8, 2010

Sa, 1/23: UC Santa Cruz
Hell yeah, comming to UCSC! Hopefully they’ll place you in Classroom unit 2, media theater, or the music center. I’ll see ya there! Are these open to the public? I still have my old ID card, but it isn’t valid…
#60 wlrube
January 8, 2010

Well this makes me quite glad I decided to do my Oberlin winter term project off campus and won’t be leaving the Bay Area until February. You’ll probably see me at Cal, I’ll be a blond kid carrying a trumpet case. Be sure to stop by the Mission and get some real Mexican food while you’re here, what passes for Mexican in the midwest is pathetic.
#61 Gavin McBride
January 9, 2010

Well if there is anything we at atheist Ireland can do to make your visit better do not hesitate to contact PZ! Whats ours is yours.

Also AI runs a group blog at blog.atheist.ie and we have had guest entries from people like James Randi and Kenneth Miller. If you want to write a guest entry on the subject of Blasphemy or on the subject of your trip to Ireland and what you did, saw and took away from there, it would be great to post it.
#62 viciousvitality
January 11, 2010

I called Sierra College and am trying to find out exactly what time and where on the campus you will be speaking. So far, no one has called me back!! I was hoping that I could get the information here, as I would love to have a chance to see you in person.
#63 geetha
January 13, 2010

Are u planning to visit India sometime?
#64 Rich Wilson
January 20, 2010

Here’s Santa Barbara Info: http://independent.com/events/2010/jan/20/14511/

But please, somebody, Sierra College info!