Krystalline Apostate summarizes the event with the customary misspelling of my name, compliments me on my grip, and includes a picture of me looking hunched over in agony — he must have been crushing my hand is all I can say.
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I think that's a big reason for the line "the cell's so complex, so Jebus." By the time you've properly answered, no one's listening any more, least of all the ignorant creationist, whose last interest is in getting a scientific answer.
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/mxaa3p
You appear to be forever doomed to have people put an extra 'e' in your name.
Could be worse, it could be an 'i' or and 'o'. Those letters are way less cool. "Miyers". See? Much worse!
No offense, but you kinda look like Quasimodo in that pic, PZ.
Glen D is referring to this from the linked post:
yeah, 30 seconds is tough. You can barely get the words "rough endoplasmic reticulum" out in 30 seconds.
Hmm...quedos on the good compliments on your speaking style, when are you coming to or near Florida so that I can hear you in person?
(Yes, not exactly a great picture, you look a bit frazzled to say the least.)
As someone who shares your surname, I hate that, and it happens to me all the time, too. Even the paperwork for getting out of the army (what was I thinking, six years ago?) had it wrong. You'd think six years would be plenty of time to get it right, and I even walked around with it on the front of my uniform.
Oh, right, and the actual content's good, too.
Perhaps giving the "complexity" perspective of deep time.
Elevator pitch:
Since the formation of the Earth about 4.5bn years ago, it took about 3bn years before (eukaryote) cells emerged. That's billions of years of inventing and refining. That's how.
(fact check, I think those are close-enough numbers)
Give it up, PZ. Change your name to Meyers. Then maybe the creoidiots will get you mixed up with the creoidiot Meyers and think he switched sides and is now supporting evilution....
The cell is complex because it got that way from simple beginnings. After all, that's what we always see happening around us. We never see complicated things magically poofing into existence all at once. Even things that are built by humans, are built in slow and gradual stages. Always think of complexity in terms of cranes -- not sky-hooks.
Now, I like the photo. Krystalline Apostate is an impressive-looking gent, and looks like he just won the Nobel Prize; he is graciously shaking the hand of the slightly crushed second-runner-up, as a record for posterity.
Join the future! Side with your atheist/skeptic stance! Change it to Myyrs. Then they'll all be wrong.
It was so very nice to get out and see you at De Anza. A question was raised about reading material for pre-teens.
Two books helpful with children, although not children's books:
Parenting Beyond Belief & Raising Free Thinkers
I'm actually in a good spot in my life to think about writing and illustrating books for children... now, am I motivated? I'll send you copies if anything comes of my mulling.
A couple of things from the talk that I wanted to share:
A book for kids addressing evolution and published by the Skeptic magazine: http://tinyurl.com/yl5ku4g
And concerning the information theory canard; I never hear anyone suggest that there is a feedback loop in place that discards bad new information. It is always presented as everything has an equal chance resulting in just noise, and not how I interpret it as "bad rolls of the dice are discarded".
I also recorded the talk resulting in 5gigs of video, which is unmanageable, so I plan to clean it up a bit be fore making it globally available.
My son reminded me about a book that he enjoyed about critical thinking:
Alexander Fox & the Amazing Mind Reader by John Clayton
(4-8yrs)
PZ, you ought make a trip down to north Texas sometime. Bet you would have a pretty good turn out.
This comment is posted in the wrong thread.
How about a trip to Madison? We also have the snow here, so you don't have to feel bad leaving your spouse in Minnesota. Though I have to say meeting Trophy Wife would be equally awesome!
PZ, it looks to me like your fans love so much that they crush you with affection. You could hire Janine and Josh as bodyguards. Janine to back off those that can be backed off with invective, and Josh to take out those who can't.
Really sorry I missed the talk. I had been planning on going, then my intelligently designed body decided that it was time for my gall bladder to try to kill me. Home recovering from the surgery. Hopefully, I'll be able to catch you the next time you get out to Silicon Valley.
PZ, profuse & multiple apologies for the spelling error! Argh! Spelling is 1 of my STRENGTHS, if anyone can believe it. I have since corrected the unforgivable error, & shall throw myself off a building!
(Luckily it's only 1 story, & I'm quite tall).
Sastra, thanks for the pointers, & well, blushin' just a wee bit, as I am unused to being referred to as 'impressive looking'. For the record, PZ (MYERS) suggested we do the grip contest while being photoed, & I'm sadly an alpha male, so hard to not respond in kind. He's still able to type, so no harm done.
Going to a sports bar during the Conference championship games? That would not have been my recommendation for an après speech gathering place.
This comment tells a previous commenter (#15) he owes me a new keyboard.
wanderinweeta: sorry - I just HAD to do that. Every other "good" idea I had got taken minutes before I typed it :-)
To everyone else - sorry - didn't mean to interrupt. Go about your business. There's nothing to see here.
JC
Not that this has anything to do with your post, but my father taught Math at DeAnza College for about 30 years. I remember many a walk around the campus with him. He was one of the crucial reasons why, as I became an adult, I didn't have to fight my way out of a quagmire of religious indoctrination.
Wish I could have been there to see you.
Please return to relevant comments.
My actual mom given name is 'Curt', but everybody likes to morph it into the more symmetrical 'Kirk'.
In doing so they only have one letter correct, the 'r'. That's pretty sprawling error country, that's George Bush territory.
Adding an 'e' is not so bad.
Suck it up, Maiers.
PZ! Are you plum, stark crazy? You challenged a certified Tai-Chi master to a grip contest? You are fortunate that you could still type!
Yes, Krystalline Apostate, your secret is out, OUT I say!! :D
*feints and stays the hell away from KA's seemingly-innocent but actually-deadly maneuvers.
Mad Dugan,
Thanks for the recommendation on the kids book on Evolution, are you the person who came up to me after the talk?
So far there's the book by Daniel Loxton, and the upcoming book by Dawkins for kids.
Anyone else out there have any recommendations for books on Evolution for kids around 10?
It seems this would be a great way to help the lack of science education for kids, address it early!
You appear to be forever doomed to have people put an extra 'e' in your name.
Before I married, I had the misfortune of having both of my names be perfectly normal--and nobody seemed able to spell or speak either correctly. They gave me every name but the one I had. They'd spell and pronounce the au (as in daughter) as o as in or. Every single fucking time. They'd put every extension of the root of my name possible at the end, except the one I had.
I mean, I could understand if my given name had been Soriya or Meadbh and my last name Tarasiak or Brznenski. Sheesh.
Hey, Mr. Spelling Virtuoso, as of now (0119 hrs EST) there's still a Myers misspelling in your write-up...
(Is proofing another of your areas of excellence?)
Kausik @ 26:
That made me laugh out loud. No, I'm merely a student, mastery is another decade away.
I assure you I'm a lamb unless extremely provoked.
Diane:
I hang my head in shame...it's been fixed, but likely I'll not live it down anytime soon.
PS, I'm on PST time, so it's around 11:00 here.
Great talk.
However stuff like
Dinosaur study kit without ages
makes me pessimistic about Science Ed.
via Improbable Research
Oh, my sweet penis. This has got to be the most ludicrous things I've seen all morning. Since when does reality have anything to do with your "personal view"?
Oh man, I love that dinosaur kit without ages. That's reached an epic level of insanity.
"Dinosaurs... every child seems to go through a stage of loving them! We've made our Dinosaurs Learn 'N Folder TM to take advantage of this love. Your child will learn about these creatures, how they ate, where they lived, how we have come to know about them, and much more. There is no reference to dates so you are free to insert your family's personal view of the age of the earth and when dinosaurs roamed it."
Creos also believe that carnivorous dinos ate coconuts before the 'fall.' They're still insulting some irrationalist sect.
Um…
Where do you live? In, say, Britain it's normal to pronounce them exactly the same way. Were you there when the joke "my favourite DJ is Dick Dorekins" was made?
Most North Americans have the cot-caught merger. It seems that you do and that the bureaucrats you've encountered don't.
If you go through that "stage", you're doing it wrong.