Carnivalia, and an open thread

To anyone in the St. Petersburg/Tampa Bay area: Free screening of Flock of Dodos!
Hosted at my very own University of South Florida, St. Petersburg!
Tuesday, Feb 13, 7 pm at the campus activities center.
for more information, click here

I'll be across the street at the tavern before the show, look for the guy with the red carnation pale blue t-shirt with the ape -> man ring graphic.

MikeG

http://tinyurl.com/2cxy7z
(NYTimes.com)

But at the end of the month, the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research laboratory, or PEAR, will close, not because of controversy but because, its founder says, it is time.

Thanks for the link, khan. It is always pleasant to read good news.

There's also the first Carnival of Mathematics...

An animation showing the change in plant hardiness zones from 1990-2006

I attended a Darwin birthday party last night at a local natural history museum and won a door prize: a Charles Darwin bobblehead figurine! Eat your hearts out.

Joel Achenbach:

The new rule is: Everyone can be a hero, and if you're just sitting on the curb, clapping, you might as well be a paramecium. An intestinal parasite. A virus buried in a bacterium. If you have a shred of self-respect, you must be a star, a beacon of glory, a supernova shining from the cosmic firmament, particularly during the November and May sweeps.

America has become a land where modesty is considered slightly pathological, and potentially curable with medication.

Alister McGrath spews more bilge against Dawkins at TimeOnline: The questions science cannot answer

Dawkins responds:
My critics are wrong to call me dogmatic, says Dawkins