personal
pharyngula | February 3, 2007While it's nice to have the Dilbonians* still whimpering and howling in frustration and fury, here's an even better testimonial to my talents:
PZ, I'm sorry I slighted you. I now have seen the light. You lull your victims into a false sense of security by manifesting as a mild-mannered biology prof, but in reality you are an unspeakably hideous hybrid of Cthulhu and the Flying Spaghetti Monster, living in a shadow lair beyond time and space, called Minnesota. You suck your victims' brains out through their eye sockets and gorge until sated. You are the very embodiment of evil.
I am well…
pharyngula | February 2, 2007How embarrassing.
You know the Bible 90%!
Wow! You are awesome! You are a true Biblical scholar, not just a hearer but a personal reader! The books, the characters, the events, the verses - you know it all! You are fantastic! Ultimate Bible QuizCreate MySpace Quizzes
Oh, well…Zeno did much worse.
clock | February 2, 2007When good things happen, I am the first to cheer. If it is your birthday or blogiversary, you got married or your child is born, if you got a promotion on a job or published a paper - you know I am the first one to post a comment on your blog, perhaps post about it here...
But when the news are bad, I just clam up. I dont' know what to say. I have no idea how many times over the past few days (and months, really) I wanted to post a comment on Chris Clarke's blog, to say something about Zeke. A couple of times I started writing, just to hate what I wrote (too sad, too cheerful, too…
jstemwedel | February 1, 2007The faculty where I teach is at a bargaining impasse with the administration of our university system over our contracts. We are hoping that the administration will come back to the table for a real negotiation*, but in the event that that doesn't happen, there are plans for a system-wide "rolling strike", with staggered two-day walkouts at each of the 23 universities in the system.
This prompted some opinion pieces in the school newspaper, including this one. There's a lot I could say about the claims in this piece (the university is going to hire replacement teachers or drop courses from…
pharyngula | February 1, 2007I only mention this because it infuriates the wingnuts and religious ravers, but if you go to my university's main web page you might see an article about me (I say "might" because only 4 are shown at a time, and which 4 is random). It's awfully hard to get across to the critics, but the university supports me despite not necessarily endorsing my every opinion, and despite individuals in the administration feeling a little uncomfortable with some of my views, because there is this principle of academic freedom—it's part of the job of an academic to make people uncomfortable. If you want…
jstemwedel | January 31, 2007I simply cannot accept the final judgment in Bravo's Top Chef (season 2). Marcel should have won.
Sure, I didn't actually taste the two meals. But simply on the basis of innovation (especially given that the panel of judges seemed to have really good things to say about the flavors of both meals), Marcel should have had the edge. And that's before we even get into which of the two finalists showed himself to be more ethical and mature (a category Marcel also won on the merits).
I am now officially interested as heck in learning all about molecular gastronomy. It's chemistry that non-…
j7uy5 | January 31, 2007We've lost one of the great journalists of our time: Molly Ivins.
She died after her third round of treatment for breast cancer.
The photo above is from The Nation, one of our premier
progressive publications.
href="http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070219/molly_ivins">I
Remember Molly
John Nichols pays tribute to the warmest-hearted populist ever to pick
up a pen: Molly Ivins, who died Wednesday at the age of sixty-two. If
anyone picked a fight with the powerful, she was there, writing with
passion, humor and unbridled joy...
The photo above is from the Houston Chronicle…
clock | January 30, 2007Parenting is hard. Are you ready (re-posted from October 20, 2005)
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Earlier today Mrs.Coturnix and I took Coturnix Jr. and Coturnietta to the pediatrician (and the dentist - they are in the same building). While sitting in the waiting room we saw a strange scene. A father and a son (about 14-years old, I'd say) walked out of the office, the boy vigorously rocking a little baby, the father saying "It's great we have a car. Cars are good things".
I guess I made such a face that the receptionist started laughing: "It's a doll". A girl waiting in…
pharyngula | January 29, 2007So it's snowing, and my rather worn shoes got wet, and everywhere I walk I now hear this faint, hissy, squeaky noise.
Does it improve my image as a tough guy if I tell you that I'm imaging that I'm crushing baby mice between my toes as I walk? Discuss.
jstemwedel | January 29, 2007Since classes for our Spring semester started just last Wednesday, my approach to the university this morning (from freeway exit to parking garage) involved a huge line of cars, creeping very slowly. It also involved campus police directing the movement of long lines of cars at what is, in normal circumstances, a four-way stop. It has been this way since last Wednesday, and it will continue to be this week for probably another week.
In about a week, as if by magic, campus police will no longer be needed to move the traffic, and the lines of cars at any given moment will be reduced by at…
clock | January 29, 2007Lots of food blogging around here lately, so why not re-post this one (from October 27, 2005):
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A few years back my brother went to Japan to do some fieldwork for several months. Although he had been taking Japanese for several years, the classroom language skills and real-life language skills are different kinds of skills.
Early on in his endeavour, trying to immerse himself in the local culture, he went to a restaurant. He picked up the menu and had no idea what any of the names of dishes meant. Well, he thought, if the Japanese can eat something…
clock | January 29, 2007You may remember last week I gave a radio interview. It is airing in Asheville area tonight but you can already listen to it on the Brainshrub blog.
clock | January 28, 2007Since I think that Fiddler on the Roof is the best musical ever, of course I totally loved this:
(Found here by Joolya)
I blogged somewhere before (I cannot find it now - darned Google and Technorati are imperfect!) that I think that, upon arriving in America, the fourth daughter married a black guy and the fifth daughter married a woman. I never expected one to marry a puppet!
terrasig | January 28, 2007
It was a very cold morning in North Florida (in the teens/low 20s Fahrenheit) as I walked in to class during my second semester of graduate school. I vaguely recall some concerns about the launch of Challenger that morning because of the cold and I believe it was scrapped once before, this highly-touted launch of America's first schoolteacher in space.
1986...This was before the ubiquity of the internet and I didn't have a radio in our small lab. The first I heard of the disaster was while standing on the med center cafeteria lunch line when a visually-impaired gentleman asked me what I…
jstemwedel | January 27, 2007I took the quiz to find out which science fiction writer I am, and this is the result:
I am:
John Brunner
His best known works are dystopias -- vivid realizations of the futures we want to avoid.
Which science fiction writer are you?
Is this a good thing? Is this something that seems consistent with the content and tone of my postings here? I don't usually think of myself as dystopian, but maybe I'm just the last to realize it.
pharyngula | January 27, 2007I recently got a short email interview on the subject of science and spirituality. Now I should warn you: "spirituality" is one of those words that sets my teeth on edge and triggers a reflexive reach for my kukri. It's an empty buzzword that some people use as a placeholder for "deep feelings of connectedness to the universe", but that I read as "mindless blithering; brains on the fritz", so I respond to questions like that with an immediate rejection of the premise. The writer seemed like a nice person, though, and the questions are well-intentioned, so after barking out my answers I…
pharyngula | January 27, 2007I've been telling everyone she's better than Mozart, Darwin, Shakespeare, Franklin, and Aristotle. Trust me.
pharyngula | January 26, 2007You can now download the interview by Karl Mogel of Ken Miller and me. You'll want to listen to it first of all for 1) Ken Miller, 2) the music I suggested, and lastly and leastly, 3) me. Unfortunately, I wasn't impressed with Miller's explanation of his comments in Kansas against atheists—it would help if he could make a defense without relying on straw-man mischaracterizations of prominent atheists. The sound track is Roger Waters' music for "The Body", which has a nice biological theme, but also makes a sneaky dig at Intelligent Design creationism—it's got fart sounds in it.
Now there is…
pharyngula | January 25, 2007I'm going to be interviewed tonight by Karl Mogel for his Mindcast podcast. I'm not sure how this is going to work; I think it'll just be made available at some later date. Maybe he'll pop in and explain how you can listen to it. I do know you can find past episodes in the iTunes store.
He promised me he'd ask some hard questions, and also some hard questions of his other guest, the illustrious Ken Miller. We won't be on the same segment, sorry…there could be some vigorous argument if we were, and poor Karl might not be able to get in a word edgewise. It is an interesting combination, though…
clock | January 24, 2007Mormon Missionaries knocked on a wrong door earlier today. I think their heads are still spinning...