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pharyngula | January 22, 2007Yes! We made it home! The plane was a few hours late, the weather was awful, and we didn't pull into our driveway until 3AM (my brain is not exactly humming along right now, I tell you what…), but it was a great weekend at ConFusion.
Skatje, me, John Scalzi, and Matt Arnold
I have to thank a few of the people who made this a most excellent event.
The con organizers, who made the whole experience completely painless for me. I'm very impressed with the amazing art of con organization.
Matt Arnold, who was my GoH Liaison, and was most pleasingly obsequious and servile. I scarcely had to lift…
pharyngula | January 20, 2007I have been sent official confirmation that Phil Plait has carried through on his promise, and has testifed to the teeming hordes at The Amazing Meeting to the glory that is Pharyngula.
Hooray!
jstemwedel | January 20, 2007I promised the folks who were listening to my talk at the Science Blogging Conference that I'd post the links to the various blog posts whose screenshots I used to illustrate my points. Here they are:
Results of "tone deafness" test published.
Reversal of Progress on Folate Supplementation
First take on a Philosophy of Science elective
Republicans made science for-profit only
ToI on reforming India's R&D
RNA Export Diagram
Gene Expression Differences between Populations
Hawaii, the New York Times, and triggered seismicity
The human factor.
Does circadian clock regulate clutch-size in…
pharyngula | January 20, 2007I had sushi with John Scalzi (some guy), Skatje (some girl), and Matt Arnold (a Pensacola Christian College graduate) last night, talked with people for a long time, hung out with noisy nerds, and stayed up later than I usually do. Today is my big day of scheduled panels: alternate patterns of evolution at 11, an evidence for evolution Q&A at 2, Squidblogging at 3, and we'll attempt to answer the question of where the aliens are at 4. Then it's partying all night long.
Who knew skiffy geeks could be such wild and crazy party animals?
pharyngula | January 19, 2007The squid-blogging confab with Bruce Schneier has been tentatively scheduled for 3:00 Saturday in the con suite on the 15th floor.
jstemwedel | January 19, 2007Bora just said, "There are twenty bloggers here. Who's live blogging the dinner?!"
I guess the answer is: Me.
Although really, it's not like I can give a comprehensive account of the dinner, since I've mostly been sitting here conspiring with Bill Hooker and Zuska about ways to change the culture of science for the better. Given the importance of that task, I think it's almost worth missing the conversations at the other end of our table, and at the other table. (As Bill notes: The problem with these conference dinners is that there are approximately 400 conversations going on, and you…
clock | January 18, 2007We (Anton, Brian and I) packed hundreds of beautiful bags full of goodies for the conference-goers.
Then, when we were done, we celebrated with a brand new bottle of Croatian slivovitz, tasting just like home, courtesy of Anton's Cleveland friend. Thanks, Anton, the bottle safely made it home and is not empty yet!
Technorati Tag: sciencebloggingconference
cmooney | January 18, 2007One of the great things about having a blog is that you can be completely whimsical, writing about European weather one minute and then family the next. So with that transition, allow me to note that my brother has his first video up on YouTube. It's a fairly short clip of him playing a show at the club Syndikat in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The picture quality isn't that great, but I'm glad that he's getting this out there. I hope some of you will enjoy it.
For more info about my brother Davy Mooney and to listen to some of his other music see here.
jstemwedel | January 18, 2007I've decided that the "intersession" we have between semesters is a cruel hoax. Though it promises a few weeks in which one might actually get some writing done, what it delivers is an endless list of tasks (many spawned by bureaucracy) that one must scurry to accomplish before the next semester starts. Feh!
As I've been scurrying, I've accumulated some items I'd like to share:
1. The Science Blogging Anthology is unleashed on an unsuspecting public!
Owing in no small part to Bora's vision and energy, you can now scoot over to Lulu.com to purchase (as a download or on dead trees) The Open…
pharyngula | January 18, 2007¡Hola, amigos! I'm posting this from sunny, tropical…Michigan??!? Wait a minute, I thought January trips were supposed to be to some place with warm beaches and drinks with umbrellas and bikinis, not Detroit. This is more of a lateral shift, a change in longitude, rather than latitude.
There must have been some terrible ConFusion in my travel plans…
pharyngula | January 17, 2007I've hinted before that I've been puttering away at a book, and the latest hint is that there is a possibility of some very serious interest in it—no promises yet, merely the whisper of potential, but still…this could be a big step. At the same time, that potential comes with things like serious pressure and deadlines of some urgency and a great deal of work thumping down on my head abruptly. I'm also, of course, plunging into a new term, and the first few weeks (and the last few weeks!) are always the most work, so I'm facing a traumatic time-crunch. And there's a new Seed column due in a…
pharyngula | January 16, 2007Darren Naish doesn't like Darwin's beard. Why? Because it perpetuates stereotypes of scientists as old men.
Maybe someone needs to tell babyface over there that men can grow beards in their 20s, and having a beard doesn't necessarily mean you're a wizened old fuddy-duddy.
pharyngula | January 15, 2007You may recall a ferociously hardfought battle between myself and the Bad Astronomer over the Weblog Awards a while back—a battle I won easily, of course, by the overwhelming majority of approximately 1%—and that we had bet each other various horrendous penalties if the other was the victor. Phil has begun to pay up with a new article on astrobiology, and this coming weekend he'll be singing my praises at The Amazing Meeting (anyone else here planning to attend? Make sure he does a good paean, and report back to me).
What is it with this weekend? I'm attending ConFusion, Phil will be at The…
pharyngula | January 14, 2007Just a reminder that I'll be at MoonBase ConFusion at the Detroit-Troy Marriott in Troy, Michigan this coming weekend. I don't think it's too late to get a room, and you can definitely still sign up to attend! I'm committed to do a reading Friday evening, panels on "Remaking Humanity" and "Singularity or Rapture?" on Saturday, an Evolution Q&A on Saturday, and a discussion of evolution with kids on Sunday. Oh, and there's a casual coffee hour with me on Sunday morning. From the schedule it sounds like there will be parties going on at all hours, too, so I'm hoping no one shows up for that…
clock | January 12, 2007Tagged by Josh:
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Compared to my brother and to my lab-buddy Chris who have travelled to, like, every continent, I have been pretty…
terrasig | January 12, 2007...for supporting ScienceBlogs.
I normally don't pay much attention to the adverts Seed posts around this joint (and I joined Sb just after the "volcano episode"). However, checking the "Last 24 Hours" channel, I was pleased to see that the Colorado Tourism office has bought some ad space.
Karmen (Chaotic Utopia) and the recently-departed Kevin Vranes (NoSeNada) are both holding down the fort out West while I'm an expat. (Oops, Karmen reminded me below that new Sber, Chris Chatham, at Developing Intelligence is also a CU-Boulder grad student - sorry Chris.)
Not to hump the ad too much,…
jstemwedel | January 11, 2007Hey, for those of you coming to the 2007 North Carolina Science Blogging Conference, don't forget to sign up for the dinners! There's one big group dinner on Friday, January 19, from 7 to 10 PM, and a bunch of group dinners on Saturday, January 20, right after the official conclusion of the conference.
You know you'll have fun sharing a meal with other conference attendees, some of whom you may only know through the screen. Make a date to meet them in the three-dimensional world.
For those of you who really like planning your trips, many of the restaurants in question have their menus…
jstemwedel | January 11, 2007As John Lynch points out, today marks the first anniversary of the launch of ScienceBlogs, an experiment in gathering conversations about science in a dedicated corner of the blogosphere. (Yes, I know that spheres don't have corners. Let me enjoy my mixed metaphor.)
You'd never know to look at it today, but in the beginning we were a group of 14 blogs, some of which were already heavy hitters in the blogosphere, but others of which (like mine) you'd probably never heard of. Indeed, the recruitment and the weeks before the launch were a little mysterious. ("Psst! Hey kid! You wanna join…
pharyngula | January 10, 2007I'm back home! I'm tired! I have to go take care of flies and fish! If you want to read some science, though, my cavefish article for Seed is online, so you can do that while I try to recover from all the traveling. But of course, you all already subscribe, so you probably read it last week.
I just plowed through all the comments on the delurking thread—you know you can all keep talking, don't you? I only bite the heads off creationists, so you're safe.
clock | January 10, 2007For a blogger - by definition on the cutting edge of technology - I am quite a Luddite. Perhaps that is too strong a term and I should rather call myself a "patient techno-skeptic".
I watch the development of new technologies with interest, but I almost never get any kind of visceral excitement "I Have To Have This! Now!"
There is always a lot of experimenting going on and the Darwinian forces of the market ruthlessly destroy almost every new gizmo and gadget within a year or two. After a while, the dust settles, and one particular system or gadget becomes the universal standard - it…