personal
pharyngula | March 28, 2011Good news, everyone — Our Glorious Seed Overlords have resolved those nagging financial issues and have caught up on their backlog of payments. I got a very satisfying check in the mail today. so everyone should say hooray for ScienceBlogs!
Six+ months of blogging income in one lump is rather nice, except for the dilemma. Should I spend it on the Orbital Death Ray Platform, or the Nuclear Submarine?
drorzel | March 24, 2011SteelyKid would like to remind everybody that sometimes you just need to kick back on the couch, eat some snacks, and watch tv:
In her case, that means watching the same episode of Good Eats over and over and over...
Other times, of course, you need to get out and feel the wind in your hair:
Even if you're just saying "BA BA BA BA" into an oscillating fan.
And that's as profound as we're capable of tonight.
pharyngula | March 24, 2011I'll be in Portland, Oregon this weekend for the Northwest Freethought Conference, which I'm sad to say, is completely sold out. You procrastinated, didn't you? You dawdled over making the decision, and now it's too late — you're going to have to stay home and weep sadly over lost opportunities, and you'll try to drown your regrets in a bottle or two of cheap wine. Then you'll wake up Sunday morning feeling nauseous and wishing you could take it all back and fly straight and focused, and you'll resolve to make your life better and more purposeful. So there is that.
If it'll make you feel…
sa smith | March 19, 2011Im not really a 'charity' kind of person.
I feel I do my part to help society with my time and knowledge, and I quite frankly dont trust most organizations with cash. Even the ones run by us can have problems.
There is a way to 'get me', though. The charity wanting funds must meet two requirements:
1-- Must be local. I can go talk to the people on the receiving end of my $$, and they can tell me what they did with the cash.
2-- That local charity is helping a) kids, b) animals.
Of course I was upset about the recent events in Japan-- like most people my thoughts were with the victims, and…
drorzel | March 17, 2011SteelyKid is actually at Grandma and Grandpa's this week, having a ball, and freeing Kate from having to do solo toddler duty for the days that I'm traveling. As a result, you get some week-old pics (though if Grandma and Grandpa send us a picture from this week, I'll post it). Here we have an action shot of one of her current favorite games, which is riding on Kate's back like a backpack, while Kate runs around the house:
This is a big hit, but as you may well imagine, it's exhausting for everyone:
It's been a productive day here-- I wrote almost 4000 words on the book today, which mostly…
pharyngula | March 16, 2011Today is my wedding anniversary. I've been married to the same woman for 31 years, without ever straying. Newt Gingrich has been married 3 times, divorced one wife while she was recovering from surgery, and has had extra-marital affairs.
Guess who is considered the defender of traditional sexual morality?
It's a strange situation where the political party with more ex-wives than candidates, that houses and defends a disturbingly amoral network of fundamentalist operators is regarded as the protector of the sanctity of the family. They're anything but.
I think I understand, though — it doesn't…
drorzel | March 10, 2011"I do not, for one, believe that the problem was that the band was down. I believe the problem may have been that there was a sky bison on the stage that was in danger of being crushed by a toddler.
"Alright? That tended to understate the hugeness of the animal."
(A tiny bit of context. And no, we're not going to play "Stonehenge" tomorrow.)
pharyngula | March 8, 2011Strangely, I just got two requests for participation in discussions: one from an Intelligent Design creationist apologist, Jason Rennie, and another to join in a debate this weekend from Dinesh D'Souza. I just thought I'd test whether these guys actually pay attention to what I write by putting the answer here.
NO.
pharyngula | March 8, 2011Greg gets it completely wrong: my birthday is so trivial, even I forgot that it's coming up. The most notable thing about it is that it's the last day I have to give a lecture before spring break, and if I want to, I can just shut my mouth after 9am on Wednesday and not say anything for a whole week and a half. It's going to feel so good. All I'm going to do is focus on this book thingamajig for a solid block of time (yes, there is significant progress: my editor has fixed a bunch of things and also bounced back into my lap a million other things for me to fix up. So we're at the stage where…
pharyngula | March 7, 2011Dang. Now I'm quoted on the Fox News website, as the guy who called the bacteria from outer space "garbage". Yay, me.
Unfortunately, most of the story there is an acceptance of the excuses from the crackpot Journal of Cosmology, with "more measured" responses from a collection of sources apparently vetted by the journal. It's "he said, she said" journalism again, with me on one side and Frank Tipler on the other.
Sorry, people. Brace yourself for Murdoch's minions to show up in the comments.
drorzel | March 3, 2011When I told her it was Thursday, and thus time for a picture with Appa, SteelyKid sprang into action with a very definite idea of what she wanted. As a result, there's a lot going on in this week's Toddler Blogging photos:
This is my favorite, which was an intermediate step on the way to her final vision. To unpack it a little for you, though, we have:
First and foremost, we have a big collection of stuffed toys being carefully arranged. This is all SteelyKid-- when I said I wanted a picture with Appa, she said "No, all my friends!" Then she started arranging them.
You can also see a remnant…
pharyngula | March 3, 2011Just a reminder that I'm making the long drive into Minneapolis after class today just so I can say I occasionally exercise my responsibilities as the faculty advisor to CASH. I'll be one of several sitting on a panel to answer your random questions, which could be loads of fun. Stop in and say howdy or get rude with me or something. Pester those godless UM students, too.
Unfortunately, this will be a bit of a blitz for me. I'm giving an exam to my physiology students tomorrow morning at 8a.in the f'.m., so I'll have to hop in my jalopy and hurtle back home immediately afterwards.
Oh, and…
drorzel | February 25, 2011We're having our umpteenth winter storm here, which means everybody has to work at clearning snow away. And I do mean everybody:
OK, I did most of the work of clearing a path to the door, but SteelyKid insisted on helping sweep some snow up with her little broom afterwards. The color's a little wonky because it was getting dark, and this was taken with my cell phone. Had I had time to go in and get the good camera, it would've been a million times cuter, but you get the general idea.
Between making a snowman, clearing the door of her house, making snow angels, stage-falling into the snow…
pharyngula | February 25, 2011This week, the University of Minnesota Campus Atheists, Skeptics, and Humanists will be hosting an Ask an Atheist panel discussion on Thursday, March 3, from 7:00pm - 9:00pm. This will take place on the UMTC campus, at:
Amundson Hall B75
421 Washington Avenue SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455
Here's how it is described:
This week we are welcoming everyone from all theological backgrounds to come and learn more about atheists. We want to hear your questions and be able to answer them, candidly, to clear up any misconceptions about atheists that you may have. We will have a panel of an undergraduate…
jdupuis | February 25, 2011In the spirit of openness and transparency and "does anybody really care except me" I've included some blog hit statistics below for 2010. These stats are from the Google Analytics application that ScienceBlogs has installed.
For 2010, this blog got 77,630 visits and 91,022 pageviews. To put it all into perspective, to say that this is a fairly insignificant portion of the total traffic for ScienceBlogs is a bit of an understatement. There are defunct blogs that still generate more traffic.
Here are the numbers in graphical format (click to see full year):
And by month (click to see full…
drorzel | February 25, 2011Since people have asked about the lack of Thursday Toddler Blogging to this point, here's an update: We had a bit of a meltdown last night at dinner, which ended with SteelyKid asking to go to bed an hour earlier than usual. This morning, she slept in, and we got a bunch more snow overnight, so there wasn't time to get any pictures. We'll get something later tonight, I hope.
If you're desperate for a cute toddler fix, here's a rerun:
That was at a Union basketball game a few weeks ago. Sadly, the season is over, so we'll have to find another venue to drill SteelyKid on her ball-handling…
pharyngula | February 21, 2011I finally made it through the snow and long detours (I94 was closed!) and have arrived at home, having missed an entire day of broken appointments. Now I better get to work and prepare for tomorrow morning's class.
pharyngula | February 21, 2011I apologize in advance for ruining your Monday morning; you might want to skip over this video of halal methods of slaughter. It's bloody, explicit, and distressing.
Of course, if you can't bear to watch it (which is entirely reasonable — I don't get into it, either), and yet you do eat meat, maybe you should try thinking a little more deeply about what you are implicitly supporting. I'm not a vegetarian myself, but I'm finding myself avoiding meat more and more often…I should probably just make the break and at least cut all red meat out of the diet. Videos like the one above do make that…
pharyngula | February 20, 2011As I was making my slow, anxious way thorugh the blizzard, creeping along through the whiteness on my way home, I saw a sign. It was a big sign by the side of the freeway advertising the Cremation Society of Minnesota…and then moments after that, my car nearly ate a big red van in front of me that was ambling along with its lights off. I decided then that this was probably not the best time to be one of the idiots on the road. So I have stashed myself in the very first hotel I could find.
I won't be making it to class in the morning. My human physiology students can snooze away the morning…
drorzel | February 17, 2011Look, sir, look, sir, Mr. Knox sir!
Let's do tricks with bricks and blocks, sir!
-- Dr. Seuss
Sadly, the only trick SteelyKid has really mastered with bricks and blocks is piling them into a gigantic obstacle in the middle of the floor. Well, that, and building tall narrow towers then knocking them down. And, I suppose, you don't need much more that that when you're two and a half...