Pharyngula

I seem to be leaving a trail of noisy wreckage behind me as I cruise through California. You can read one account of my talk at Davis in their local paper — I sound very ferocious in the description — and my evening in Chico was recorded. That one was a little different; we just gathered for beer and pizza, and then we sat around and people asked questions, so it was more of a casual Q&A.

I’ll be heading out shortly to talk some more. I think my voice is getting a little huskier after all this…it must hold out for another week and a half!

Comments

#1 Sven DiMilo
January 26, 2010

interesting…the Davis account was written by one of Professor Dude Dendy’s colleagues at American River College.

I do hope that security–you didn’t hire the Angels, did you?–is keeping the Zedheads at bay. Travel on!
#2 faultline
January 26, 2010

This may be an indication of how much California has changed since you were, Sven, but my first thought was “Why would PZ hire a baseball team as security?”
#3 Glen Davidson
January 26, 2010

Speaking of getting pissed off at those consummate liars, the creationists, this is relatively new at the DI’s blog (by Jay Richards):

if you?re allowed to consider ID, then many arguments for (universal) common ancestry are ambiguous, and seem to count equally in favor of common design and common descent.

http://www.evolutionnews.org/2010/01/getting_id_right_more_response.html

Oh, right, if you’re “allowed to consider ID” as something that produces something with no demonstrable purpose, rational design, or forethought, a process that yields what evolution predicts, my God, the arguments for common ancestry are ambiguous.

Then again, if you quit lying, the arguments aren’t the slightest bit ambiguous.

What these liars are doing, of course, is trying not to find actual purpose or other marks of intelligence, but to be able to force God into life, then God’s unknown purposes rule over everything. Explaining anything other than through what is not evidently purposeful, but which is purposeful by definition and decree, is what ID is about.

Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/mxaa3p
#4 Free Lunch
January 26, 2010

Ah, the Angels. The Rolling Stone coverage of the problems at Altamont was the first long article I had read in that magazine. Back then it was considered counter-culture.
#5 PZ Myers
January 26, 2010

Hmmm. I haven’t seen “Professor” Dendy at my talks, and he hasn’t risen to challenge me. Odd. He seems to be obsessed otherwise.
#6 MadScientist
January 26, 2010

Huskier voice? Obviously not enough beer.
#7 'Tis Himself, OM
January 26, 2010

Da perfesser is probably too busy at his blog, spouting lies about people he doesn’t know.
#8 Nerd of Redhead, OM
January 26, 2010

Hopefully the Dandy realizes the limitations of his meager intelligence.

Get your rest, especially your voice.
#9 somerville61
January 26, 2010

Anyone else see this?

Four young men arrested after trying to hack into Sen Landrieu’s office phone system.
ACORN ‘gotcha’ man arrested

Alleging a plot to tamper with phones in Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu’s office in the Hale Boggs Federal Building in downtown New Orleans, the FBI arrested four people Monday, including James O’Keefe, 25, a conservative filmmaker whose undercover videos at ACORN field offices severely damaged the advocacy group’s credibility.

Also arrested were Joseph Basel, Stan Dai and Robert Flanagan, all 24.

O’Keefe’s three alleged accomplices

Joseph Basel

College conservative. According to The Centurion, a conservative Rutgers publication founded by O’Keefe, “frustrated conservative student Joe Basel started The Counterweight at the University of Minnesota-Morris. Both papers were started with assistance from the Leadership Institute ‘Balance in Media’ grant, which is still available for students starting conservative and libertarian campus publications today.”

Basel states of the origin of his conservative activism: “Once I got to that liberal of a university they basically pushed me to it. It was more in response to their hegemony on campus.” Basel also describes his style of journalism:

Basel: I guess I wouldn’t call it activist journalism either. I think the only real agenda with what I did at the University of Minnesota was to pursue truth and to hold the administrators and hold the professors’ feet to the fire. To hold them accountable for what they were getting away with, what they were doing in the classroom and out of the classroom, in the community.

So, I think if you just make your agenda the truth or a fair chance at the truth on campus, you’d be surprised what falls in your lap if you work hard and keep doing it.

Oh PZ, what have your done? Speaking science and atheism you have created a monster!
#10 Deiloh
January 26, 2010

I told my friend that I have a sore throat. She has an excellent remedy: ten drops of echinacea on the tongue for five minutes…. then she described how incredibly disgusting it tastes and how I’ll probably feel sick for the rest of the day and…. well, honestly I kinda tuned out after that.

Hope the voice holds out.
#11 somerville61
January 26, 2010

I hate typos!

“Oh PZ, what have you done? Speaking science and atheism you have created a monster!”
#12 kg6mso
January 26, 2010

Looking forward to tomorrow night!
#13 GregGorey
January 26, 2010

PZ, you need to come to the South. It is easy to talk big in a super liberal state. We really have a much harder time down here and could use the morality booster generated from a cool guy such as yourself.
#14 Ichthyic
January 26, 2010

It is easy to talk big in a super liberal state.

wait, you’re talking about the state that launched the career of Ronald Reagan.

the state where Nixon retired.

the home of Howard Ahmanson

the place where proposition 8 was ratified.

liberaldom in CA is in very isolated pockets, really.
#15 GregGorey
January 26, 2010

Ichthyic, I did not mean it as an insult. I <3 this blog.
#16 Naked Bunny with a Whip
January 26, 2010

If you lose your voice, PZ, you can just live-blog the whole time, and let the audience see your posts on the giant screen you keep in your luggage. It’s a foolproof plan!
#17 chuckgoecke
January 26, 2010

I really enjoyed the recordings of PZ and his bar cohorts just discussing and chatting. This is so nice of a way to sort of “get to know” PZ, and I think is charming for its background noise and everything. Maybe its just that the audio quality was exceptional, IMHO. I hope others at some of his upcoming after-talk whistle wettings will record him also. (Even if you have to do it clandestinely!)
#18 rwhouchin
January 26, 2010

I’m the guy who asked PZ about the Cambrian I showed up without knowing the Secular Student Alliance existed on campus. I met one student member named Emily who was quite nice, but I was afraid to strike up conversations with anyone else lest I miss any part of PZ’s conversation.

I’m glad that the audio was recorded. It was a nice relaxed meeting, but it was hard to hear what PZ said and more difficult to hear what other people were saying.

The burgers and nacho cheese at the Grad was fantastic. I’d like to see PZ lured back to Chico to give a lecture, maybe in the Laxson Auditorium!
#19 Emmet, OM
January 27, 2010

See ya’ tomorrow, PZ )
#20 Rorschach
January 27, 2010

Is PZ slurring his speech after a while ? And I like the taking a swig parts in between talking…:D
#21 PZ Myers
January 27, 2010

Oh, yeah. Joe Basel. I remember him: thuggish and stupid, and an exceedingly poor writer. I believe he’s the one I predicted “will go far in the Republican party”. Getting arrested for a break-in fits in perfectly.

I can’t be blamed for him. He didn’t take any classes from me at all, and no, he wasn’t pushed into his position. He came here with an agenda.
#22 https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawmkaNcGJarMyPZOaqwcWBrmZz2m9L9vGLI
January 27, 2010

PZ – IF you getting worn out by all this – just wait until you have to fly to Aus for the convention….you gotta love that 14 hour flight from LA to Sydney.

Oh and ot – Dr Rachie is no longer in front for that twitter contest – not that it really matters but do we really want someone like Mercola to take it?
#23 https://me.yahoo.com/a/MH0qis0ew.ZP67SZ9QtGlbq42p5wjWE-#2b0ec
January 27, 2010

For the record, Dendy is an adjunct professor. That means he is hired on a part-time, temporary basis (if not the actual definition, that’s a good working one here). Maybe he was hired because a warm body was needed in the classroom? It happens. I somehow doubt his department knows/knew of his public blitherings.
#24 DanPinto
January 27, 2010

I, for one, am offended by comparing masturbation to religion. One is a deep spiritual activity that I engage in regularly and gives me great comfort.
The other is religion.
#25 PPVideo
January 27, 2010

I’m glad to hear some of you are enjoying listening to PZ’s recorded bar conversation. I was the one that recorded PZ and do audio/video production for a living and so was a little wary bringing in my bulky pro gear and spoiling such a cool intimate setting (plus I generally don’t like mixing beer and expensive equipment). Fortunately, PZ was very cool about it as were the other lucky folks around the table. The bar was incredibly noisy, so I’m particularly glad to hear this wasn’t too distracting. The down side of rejecting the noise is it also suppressed the questions…sorry about that part.

BTW, as soon as PZ put the link to the clip on his site, my bandwidth usage jumped by nearly a hundred fold in one day. Good thing it is unlimited!
#26 heathen_woman23#6dda3
January 27, 2010

You were in Chico? Bastard! I would have come had I known.

My one and only chance….(sob)

The one bright note is that there were only 20 attendees. Which makes me feel much better about our lousy attendance at heathen events up here in Redding.

Really, dude, sorry I missed the opportunity to bend an elbow and be awed.
#27 bigZLiLk
January 28, 2010

Many thanks for recording and posting the talk, PPV’. I’m hopeful of joining PZ in a beer here in Melbourne.