Administrative
pharyngula | October 20, 2006So I got some email a while back about this free and easy to use web-based chat room service…and heck, it's so simple I thought I'd give it a whirl. Here's a link to a Pharyngula chat room—try it out and let me know how it goes. I'll plan on checking in myself now and then, but don't wait up for me, talk among yourselves.
I will definitely plan on popping in at 8pm Central time tonight (Friday), if you really want to yell at me online. We'll see how it goes; I don't know how well it will hold up if ten people are trying to converse at once, and I also notice that there doesn't seem to be any…
evolvingthoughts | October 13, 2006Those of you who live near San Francisco might be interested in this talk I'm giving at the Pizza Munch gathering at UC Berkeley in November.
For November we've made arrangements to meet jointly with the Bay Area Biosystematists in Berkeley on Thursday, November 9. John Wilkins (Queensland) will give a talk entitled "The Unseasonable Lateness of Being, Or, Essentialism Comes After Darwin, Not Before."
Abstract: The received view of the history of the species concept is that before Darwin, naturalists held to a view of essentialism, according to which species were constituted by necessary and…
evolvingthoughts | October 11, 2006I need some old files converted to RTF. You get a Special Award...
evolvingthoughts | October 11, 2006There's a reason why I haven't posted much lately. No, not the drinking, work. That stuff that gets me paid and occasionally moves forward, but alas, not this week.
I just found out that I didn't get my grant. It took me the better part of a month and a half to prepare. All gone. Wasted. (Well, not exactly wasted - they say you can recycle these things indefinitely until you succeed). And of course the end of my postdoc is creeping closer rather more rapidly than I'd like. So papers, papers, papers, and job applications, job applications, job applications! Presently I'm working on revising…
evolvingthoughts | September 27, 2006I keep seeing all these carnivals that I don't find myself on. So here's a note for all those hardworking carnival coordinators looking for stuff. If you or a reader thinks something of mine is worthwhile (email me for a list of suggestions), just link to it. I don't do administrative stuff all that well. And anyway, I'm covered by a Creative Commons license that permits this without further effort.
Go on, make me famous. I know you want to...
pharyngula | September 20, 2006You may have noticed that the site has been down for a while. We were hit with a combination of problems.
First, we have been plagued by this idiot script-kiddie, the registrant for usuc.us:
(Information erased: a call to the person to which the domain is registered reveals he has no idea what is going on. Does anybody know how to inform the domain name registry that it is registered under a false name and get it deleted?)
He has been running a bot that injects some javascript into a search string that redirects the scienceblogs main page to google, since the main page rather foolishly embeds…
evolvingthoughts | September 13, 2006
So's you know, I will be finishing the Darwin and the Holocaust series, but the reference I need seems to have evaporated in my desk mess. Have I mentioned that I hold to the Bomb Crater Theory of paperwork? The idea is that you treat paperwork as a flow of information and materielle, and when it comes to you (either because you've photocopied it, or some Evil Administrator sent it to you), either deal with it immediately because you want to, or put in on the centre of your desk. As new stuff comes in, the older stuff moves to the periphery. When it drops on the floor, either file it or bin…
evolvingthoughts | September 9, 2006In the last half hour, we reached 70k hits. I came to Scienceblogs with around 32k hits, after a year and a half of blogging, so my read rate has tripled. Thanks guys. I'll be sure to post something meaty in the next week for your ruminating pleasure...
jrosenhouse | August 15, 2006Things have settled down a bit here in Harrisonburg. The JMU Math Department has now nestled in to its new digs in the appallingly named, but otherwise attractive, Roop Hall. Sadly, my office currently has no shelves on the walls, a state affairs I expect to persist for several more weeks. So much of my stuff is still in boxes. Sigh.
Meanwhile, Operation: American Dream proceeds apace. Contracts have been signed, mortgage applications completed, title companies notified. Tomorrow morning comes the building inspector. Hopefully he will have only nice things to say.
Back to blogging!
jrosenhouse | August 3, 2006Sorry for the lack of blogging lately. I'm in the process of buying my first house, which means most of my time lately has been spent either dealing with that, or sitting around worrying that I'm making some terrible mistake. Making matters worse, the math department here at JMU is about to move in to a new building, which means I'm going to be without a computer for a while during the transition.
So as satisfying as it would be to gloat about Mel Gibson's recent travails, or to thank the sane people in Kansas for producing an impressive election victory, I think I will have to take some…
evolvingthoughts | August 1, 2006
In which our hero rediscovers history and sociology and damned hot weather...
My travels continued with the usual boring flight to Heathrow, thence to Chicago, and a train trip to visit David Hull, as I said. As I flew into American airspace, I was struck looking out the window by the haze of pollution that covers the entire continent. I saw this also last year and in previous trips. Looking down from 11km, one wonders if the sun can even be seen on the ground, for the ground cannot be easily seen from the air. On the ground, though, the heat indicates that enough energy reaches the ground…
evolvingthoughts | July 26, 2006
In which our hero discovers the joys of walking...
Next on my trip, I visited David Williams, a paleobiologist at the Museum of Natural History in London. We talked at length about the nature of systematics (which is something I am increasingly less certain about) and of the history of species concepts. Then he showed me some of the marvellous architecture that Richard Owen commissioned when he built the place. It really is made to look like a Cathedral of Science, with mock Gothic architecture and vaulting ceilings, all decorated with biological themes, I am pleased to say. Despite his…
jrosenhouse | July 22, 2006Well, it's amazing what a link from Kos can do. EvolutionBlog has received over 7000 hits today. And the day is young! Greetings to all the new readers.
pharyngula | July 22, 2006Since I was asked to do something about that empty "About" tab at the top of this page that used to take you to a really boring page that said "Lorem ipsum," I've put a little useful information up there. It now tells you what Pharyngula means and how to pronounce it, has a few biographical details, and by popular request, includes links to the complete random quote file, the complete "Taste of Pharyngula" file, and the complete blogroll. The layout needs a little work, but the information is there, at least.
evolvingthoughts | July 17, 2006So, some of you are wondering what's happened. Well, maybe one of you is. Hi mum.
I went to the Philosophy of Microbiology conference at Exeter - somebody forgot to tell the English that it's supposed to be cold here. I got sunburned! An Australian getting sunburned in England! How embarrassment. I delivered my microbial species concept talk, and it generated a lot of discussion. Some thought it entirely unnecessary, while others (including many scientists) thought it had good points. We'll see. As it happens, I visited David Williams and the Natural History Museum in London today, and he…
evolvingthoughts | July 10, 2006I am spatiotemporally challenged (it goes with my inability to remember names, even those of my kids. Birthdays are often a disappointment for them). However, I am fairly sure I will be overseas for the next three weeks. Overseas being defined as where Australia is not. I will blog when I can (and take notes and write stuff for when I get back), but don't expect much from me for a bit.
Hey! That's not a straightline! Don't make any rude comments, OK? I'm back on 1 August, and I will straighten out any naughty commenters.
evolvingthoughts | July 5, 2006Well, despite major PowerPoint problems (I am so going to put Keynote on this Mac!) I survived my talk. It was, indeed, a very long suicide note, as I feared, but I gather the execution of said note is deferred for the time being.
Other than that I'm having a wonderful time - too many interesting (and some just plain strange) papers at the AAP this year, and too many beers, but it's a shitty job someone has to do.
Jason Grossman suggested the best thing I've heard so far - swap the back cover blurbs on our books as we publish them, so that they are not only misleading (as all backcover blurbs…
jrosenhouse | June 29, 2006The annual chess extravaganza known as The World Open will be taking place in Philadelphia this weekend. I will be participating, of course. That means I will be out of town for the next week or so. Regular blogging will resume upon my return.
jrosenhouse | June 29, 2006A few people have sent me e-mail to tell me that certain comments, rather than being posted immediately as they should be, are getting placed in a queue waiting for my approval. I now make it part of my daily routine to clear out such comments, so there is no need to write to tell me about them. The bigger issue is that I'm not sure why these comments are not being posted immediately. Most people do not seem to be having this problem. I will be travelling for the next ten days or so, but when I return I will try to determine what is going on.
evolvingthoughts | June 25, 2006I suppose the regulars have noticed that I've dropped off a bit lately. I can explain...
The next few weeks are mad for me. I have two papers to write, and deliver, one in Canberra at the Australasian Association of Philosophy Conference in Canberra (on information in genes, or the lack of it) next week, and one in Exeter, UK, at Egenis, on microbial species (which my readers have had a summary version of already). And this week we have a philosophy of ecology conference here at the UQ, which involves skin diving with the visitors (what we have to do in philosophy, really!).
While I'm…