Chatter
goodmath | April 1, 2008
I know better than to attempt to write an april fools day post that really
tries to fool anyone. I'm not a good enough writer to carry that kind of thing off
in a genuinely amusing way. On the other hand, I love april fools day pranks, and
I generally like the silly mood of the day. So I thought I'd write some posts in
the spirit of silliness.
As someone working in engineering, one of my favorite rules is Murphy's Law. The thing about Murphy's law is that odds are, what you just thought when I said "Murphy's Law" is not, in fact, Murphy's Law. Odds are, you think that Murphy's law says "…
tfk | March 28, 2008It's been a long Friday, so it's time to kick back with some tunes:
"Viva Las Vegas" by Elvis Presley from the album Viva Las Vegas / Roustabout (1997, 2:22).
"Bad, Wicked World" by Frank Black from the album Teenager of the Year (1994, 1:58).
"Dead Horse" by Guns N' Roses from the album Use Your Illusion I (1991, 4:17).
"Dixie Cannonball" by Hank Williams from the album The Complete Hank Williams (1998, 2:25).
"It Is Obvious" by Syd Barrett from the album Barrett (1970, 2:59).
"Sabotage" by Beastie Boys from the album Ill Communication (1994, 2:58).
"Love" by Monopoli from the album Monopoli…
tfk | March 21, 2008Congratulations to Dakota Abbot, this year's champion muskrat skinner, and the new Miss Outdoors:
"Oh my God!" a boy in the audience yelled, at the sight of a woman in perfect makeup with her hand inside a muskrat.
Then, from another part of the crowd: an older woman's voice: "She's good."
I wish Ms. Abbott the very best of luck in her pursuit of a marine biology degree. She's clearly well-qualified. While you're at it, check out the video of the event.
Hat tip to: Digital Cuttlefish.
tfk | March 14, 2008
Mmmmmm pi. Inexplicably, this is not a paid holiday at NCSE, but we do consume copious volumes of pie (including pizza), so it all works out.
My contribution is strawberry-rhubarb. King of pies. Discuss your favorite pie, pi, or pie-blogging in the comments.
tfk | March 12, 2008Our Seed overlords have created a way to reward the loyal Scienceblogs readers. If you'd like to be part of this elite squad, shoot me an email today (Thursday).
Basically, you'll be asked to read Scienceblogs (as you do already), and bookmark a few posts a week to a special account at del.icio.us. Those bookmarked posts will be put in a feed on the Scienceblogs homepage.
tfk | March 7, 2008Because it's that sort of day.
"Prairie Fire That Wanders About" by Sufjan Stevens from the album Illinoise (2005, 2:11).
"License to Kill" by Bob Dylan from the album Infidels (1983, 3:34).
"Spirit in the Night" by Bruce Springsteen from the album Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. (1973, 5:00).
"Remedy" by The Black Crowes from the album The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion (1998, 5:23).
"Break On Through" by The Doors from the album The Doors (1967, 4:44).
"The Trumpet" by George Atkins and Hank Levine from the album Sing along with JFK (1961, 1:56).
"I Don't Wanna Grow Up" by Tom…
tfk | March 5, 2008Today was crazy. No time for thinking. Enjoy some nice music.
"Somedays I See The Point" by Billy Bragg from the album Must I Paint You A Picture?: The Essential Billy Bragg (2003, 4:57).
"Stupid's Song" by Ani Difranco & Utah Phillips from the album Fellow Workers (1999, 2:43).
"Water May Walk" by Devendra Banhart from the album Niño Rojo (2004, 3:14).
"Holly Going Lightly" by Destroyer from the album This Night (2002, 5:08).
"I Am An Excellent Steel Horse" by Rock Plaza Central from the album Are We Not Horses (2006, 3:12).
"John The Revelator" by Son House from the album Son House…
tfk | March 3, 2008
Via the Columbia Stats blog, we learn that there is a strong negative relationship between the number of Starbucks per capita and the number of Walmarts per capita. This isn't surprising, but it is informative. It also means that people who don't like expensive coffee or cheap Chinese crap should all move to Vermont.
Failing that, New Jersey or Rhode Island look to be islands of sanity. It is worth noting that Rhode Island is also one of the few states in which NCSE has not tracked any creationist activity over the last few years, suggesting that it has a very strong claim to sanity.
I…
j7uy5 | March 2, 2008Generally, no. But some can. Some are rather good
at it. A contest was reported in Science Magazine:
The rules were simple: Using no words or images,
interpret your Ph.D. thesis in dance form. Entrants were divided into
three categories—graduate student, postdoc, and
professor—and the prize for each was a year's subscription to
Science.
The winning videos are
href="http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/319/5865/905b#dancegallery">here.
Want more? Wait until next year:
2009 Dance Your PhD contest:
Want to dance your own thesis? Stay tuned to
href="http://www.johnbohannon.org/…
tfk | February 27, 2008While Matt Selman's rules of book shelving are clearly insane, Ezra Klein's response is clearly not quite right either. The basic rule, from which all the others follow like a pack of hallucinating baboons, is:
It is unacceptable to display any book in a public space of your home if you have not read it. Therefore, to be placed on Matt Selman's living room bookshelves, a book must have been read cover to cover, every word, by Matt Selman. If you are in the home of Matt Selman and see a book on the living room shelves, you know FOR SURE it has been read by Matt Selman.
No, no, no. Some…
tfk | February 20, 2008This excellent XKCD would go great with this excellent t-shirt. Suggestion: Wear the DS shirt to creationist events! I do.
tfk | February 12, 2008
199 years ago, in a log cabin in Kentucky, a boy was born to a pair of farmers on the American frontier. His parents named him Abraham, after the father prepared to sacrifice his own divinely promised son when called to do so by his God, and who, the Apostle Paul said, "against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations."
Abraham's first son, Isaac, is said to be the direct ancestor of all Jewish peoples, while his son Ishmael claimed as the scion of the Arabs, including Muhammad the founder of Islam. These lines of descent are woven through centuries of…
tfk | February 7, 2008How will you celebrate the 199th birthday of Chuckie D?
Glenn Branch has some suggestions.
I shall be addressing the Community for Humanistic Judaism, giving a talk entitled "May they grow like an onion: Yiddish curses on the history of creationism." The talk is Feb. 17 at 10 am at the Albany Community Center. I'm told that the onion bagels are not to be missed.
laelaps | January 19, 2008The 2nd Annual Science Blogging Conference is now over, but the festivities sure aren't; I'll soon be hitting the bar with some of my fellow Sciblings and other wonderful people I've met over the past few days. I really wish I had brought a working laptop to blog this event as it has been unfolding (the one I have is a decade-old monster that doesn't like me), but plenty of other people have been updating things throughout the day (check out some of Ginny's entries on Page 3.14, including a picture of all the Sciblings at the conference and a sighting of PZ). I'll do a more detailed post on…
tfk | January 19, 2008One session I attended at the Science Blogging Conference related to making your blog more interactive.
In that spirit, I invite your response to the following proposed truth:
Kansas City Barbecue is superior to North Carolina barbecue.
Extra points for the most creative gustatory or geographical epithet.
tfk | January 19, 2008At the North Carolina Science Blogging Conference today, I ran into Professor Steve Steve. Panda's Thumb denizens Tara Smith and Reed Cartwright accompanied various of Prof. Steve's avatars. As you can imagine, the presence of so much dogmatic (pandamatic?) Darwinism in one location unleashed pandamonium, and Prof. Steve Steve's dreaded nemesis, Department Chair Cthulu, burst through the resulting rift in the structure of space and time itself.
As proof that the universe had lost its bearing after this cataclysm (pandaclysm?), a session on framing science, headed by Jennifer Jacquet and…
laelaps | January 19, 2008Today's the big day for the Science Blogging Conference, and it looks like we're probably going to get a reprieve from the winter weather that was threatening to mess everything up (although I shouldn't speak too soon). Last night I got to meet a few of my fellow Sciblings, other bloggers, and folks from various other groups, experiencing the joy of getting lost again (twice) with some wonderful people. I'm sure I'll meet even more today. The group dinner last night was a lot of fun, too, and the food was great; definitely check out the Town Hall Grill if you're in the Durham, NC area. Anyway…
laelaps | January 18, 2008
I just made it to NC and am all set at the hotel, although now I'm off again to see the lemurs over at Duke. Unfortunately I forgot my camera cable, but there'll be plenty of pictures to post when I get back. I was also surprised to find out that I've been linked by Andrew Sullivan over at The Atlantic, so welcome to all you new readers!
[Update: My visit to the Duke Lemur Center was a lot of fun, and I got to meet some cool people like Reed and Josh there, too. As promised, photos will be uploaded when I get back home to my trusty USB cable.]
laelaps | January 17, 2008At about 2 AM tomorrow morning I'll be hopping in the car to head down to North Carolina for the 2nd Annual Science Blogging Conference (and I'll even be speaking with some other wonderful student bloggers), but never fear, dear reader; I'll be bringing my clunky old laptop with me to write about things whenever I can. My old rust-bucket of a car is fixed up, I've downloaded some new tunes for the 7 hour drive, and I'm all booked at the hotel, and I'm definitely excited for the events this weekend. I hope to make some time to head over to the natural history museum in Raleigh while I'm there…
tfk | January 16, 2008I'll be traveling tomorrow, heading east to the Scienceblogging conference in North Carolina.
On Friday, I'll be at NESCent, addressing the challenges of "Talking to the Media about Evolution and Creationism." TfK fans are welcome to swing by, or leave comments suggesting other times to meet up.