personal
drorzel | June 24, 2010I'm seriously lacking in bloggy inspiration at the moment. So we'll fall back on something that has worked a couple of times in the past:
Everyone has things they blog about.
Everyone has things they don't blog about.
Challenge me out of my comfort zone by telling me something I don't blog about, but you'd like to hear about, and I'll write a post about it.
The usual disclaimers apply: questions that are pointlessly obnoxious or whose answers would get me in trouble of some sort ("What are three things you hate about the Deans to whom you report?") will be ignored or get blow-off answers. I'…
pharyngula | June 21, 2010We're back in Morris after our week in Oslo and Copenhagen. Now…sleep. But first, here are a few people who appear now and then in the comments:
mmckenna | June 21, 2010In case anyone's in the general vicinity of the Twin Cities this week:
On Tuesday night, I'll be discussing antibiotic use in US agriculture at Fair Food Fight Night (a regular event sponsored by the food-policy blog Fair Food Fight) with Thom Petersen of the Minnesota Farmers Union and Fair Food Fight's proprietor, novelist and food-policy writer Barth Anderson. 7 p.m. at the Cheeky Monkey Deli, 525 Selby, St. Paul.
On Wednesday, I get the chair at the head of the table for Brown Bag Lunch with a Journalist, noon at the East Lake Public Library, 2727 E. Lake St., Minneapolis, sponsored by…
drorzel | June 20, 2010I've made a few oblique references to home improvement projects over the last week or so. These weren't for our house, but for SteelyKid's-- Kate's mom got her a playhouse for Christmas, which we finally got around to installing in the back yard. SteelyKid has taken right to home ownership:
Don't let her studied cool in that picture fool you, though. Getting the house was the highlight of the whole day:
(My parents were visiting for Father's Day/ my birthday, so they get a cameo in the video.)
Most of the rest of the afternoon was passed going in and out of the house, ringing the doorbell…
j7uy5 | June 20, 2010(From five years ago!)
There is a restaurant called Pelagos. The name means "from
the sea," in Greek. It is underground, but has a patio open
to the sky. A staircase leads from the sidewalk to the
subterranean patio. The is a metal fence along the sidewalk.
On the patio, there are tables with umbrellas.
Large windows provide a view of the patio, from inside the
restaurant. Looking out, a person might be fascinated by the
geometrical shapes formed by the window frames, the the tables, the
steps, and the fence; that person might also be happy to glimpse a bit
of sky.
Except now it…
pharyngula | June 19, 2010It's almost 2am in Copenhagen. Pharyngulites closed out another bar. Gotta collapse somewhere.
I shall rise again tomorrow!
drorzel | June 19, 2010Friday was the last day of the school year hereabouts, so SteelyKid's day care had an end-of-year ceremony for all the preschool classes, which included her group ("Waddlers," which are between "Infants" and "Toddlers"). They gave certificates to all the kids, for a variety of different things. Here's a picture of SteelyKid's certificate:
I have no idea where she gets that from. No idea at all.
pharyngula | June 18, 2010Oh no…the day needed a few more hours. I've been at the Atheist Alliance International 2010 Copenhagen Convention listening to Roy Brown, Gregory Paul, Dan Barker, AC Grayling, and doing a little yammering of my own, and the Trophy Wife™ and I were supposed to go to the evening of Godless Entertainment featuring the always splendid Robin Ince, when we were waylaid, ambushed, and pounced upon by The Amazing Randi and invited to join him for dinner. I've mentioned before that Randi is one of those phenomenal conversationalists one must spend time with, so we got distracted over an excellent…
drorzel | June 18, 2010Today is my birthday-- my age in dog years is now equal to the freezing point of water in Kelvin (to three significant figures). I'm celebrating by not reading anything that might piss me off, and by spending the day at home watching soccer (about which more later) and getting some stuff done around the house. I'm working on a nice surprise for SteelyKid, which should be finished this weekend, if the weather cooperates.
I do want to remind those of you within striking distance of Schenectady, though, that I will be signing How to Teach Physics to Your Dog tomorrow, Saturday the 19th, from 1-2…
laelaps | June 18, 2010
I can't help it - every time I pass a bookstore, I wonder whether they are going to carry my book when it comes out this autumn. November is still a long way away - summer does not even officially begin until next week - but I can't help but wonder where my book will pop up and how it will be received. It is both exciting and anxiety-inducing.
I try not to speculate too much about what will happen when Written in Stone comes out. It is not even entirely finished yet. Right now the original text and scribbled margin notes from the last copyedited version are being transformed into page proofs…
jstemwedel | June 17, 2010From time to time I have a look at the search strings that have brought readers to this blog. Looking at some of the recent queries, I can't help but wonder what kind of blog this would be if these described my main focus:
sarcastic jokes i do not get it is it a gender thing
percentage of academic job applicants are women
SJSU layoffs
is it bad to email your professor alot
I hate academia
san diego zoo ethics
make a fake diploma of brooklyn college
describe the harpy eagle symbiosis
objectifying women for a good cause
Why are some communities more desirous of control more than other…
drorzel | June 17, 2010No elaborate pose this week, just simple, classic Baby Blogging:
A few months back, her weight had failed to increase as quickly as expected, so she had a couple of weight-check appointments scheduled. The latest was this week, when it was discovered that she had gained about three pounds since the last check-up (the proportional equivalent of me gaining 25-30 pounds) two months ago. She's now right back on track at the weight expected for a Great Big Baby.
And she's still the cutest thing in the world. She has recently become fascinated with cars and trucks, pointing them out all the time,…
pharyngula | June 17, 2010We'll be at Ørsted Ølbar in a few hours, at 8pm. I shall try to cope for a little while, but I've got to tell you, those savage Vikings in Norway held me hostage last night until the pubs all closed and we were thrown out onto the street, and I shall need gentle nursing back to health. No berserkergang from me tonight, unless you serve me a horn of bear's blood.
pharyngula | June 16, 2010We had a lovely day in Oslo. Where were you?
This was taken at a park with a great many statues of naked people. I was horrified to discover that one of them was of me.
pharyngula | June 15, 2010Aww, it's too sweet. Karl Giberson is apologizing for the way evangelicals dishonestly propagandize, and he mentions me.
I have to confess that the temptation to ridicule one's debating opponents is all but unbearable, especially when playing street hockey on the Internet, where one must shout to be heard. In the past few months I have tried hard to come up with clever rhetorical attacks on Jerry Coyne, Sam Harris, PZ Myers and countless others whose ideas I was supposedly challenging. PZ once wrote the following about me, which I thought was pretty clever: "I will have no truck with the…
jstemwedel | June 15, 2010In the midst of the ongoing conversation about managing career and housework and who knows what else (happening here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and likely some places I've missed), ScientistMother wondered about one of the blogospheric voices that wasn't taking an active role in the discussion. She mused in a comment at Isis's blog:
Do we ever get a post from DrugMonkey about how he does it? He has kids and a wife (who I think is a scientist) but he rarely talks about balance issues. I'm sure its been an issue. Until the MEN start talking about its not going to change.
When…
pharyngula | June 15, 2010I have had no sleep in two days, and I think I'll sleep well tonight — especially after tonight's meal at Mares in Oslo. Oh my — just perfect food at every bite, and good company with a few smart people from the university here.
There will be more tomorrow. I'll be speaking at the Litteraturhuset at 3:30, and at 5:00 we'll be having an informal Norwegian picnic at Vigelandsparken. Come on by, it will be lots of fun.
pharyngula | June 14, 2010The Trophy Wife™ and I are on our way to Oslo and Copenhagen.
It's not exactly a holiday for me — I'm voyaging to exotic locales so I can sit in hotel rooms hunched over my laptop. Expect the blog to be a bit light and fluffy this week.
jstemwedel | June 14, 2010
That all said, as a woman in science, it is sometimes disheartening to almost never hear an article suggest that a woman in science discuss household duties with her partner and split them evenly. The author of your article makes the statement that women bear the burden of household labor, but until scientists begin to tell other scientists that this isn't right, women are going to continue to leave academic science for fear of not being able to "balance" work and family.
You can be right and be practical at the same time. These need not be mutually exclusive. I also think that you need not…
drorzel | June 14, 2010I've already read three of this year's six Hugo-nominated novels, and am highly unlikely to read two of the remaining three, but since I have voting rights, and want to be as responsible as I can about this, I started on Palimpsest by Cat Valente last night. The language is very rich, and I'm not far enough in yet to tell if it will eventually develop a plot, but I was jarred very badly by one early section, in which a Japanese character visits a Kyoto landmark, the Silver Pavilion:
The temple grounds were deserted. She settled onto the grass a ways off from the great silver temple. She…