personal
pharyngula | January 28, 2010There is an account of my Stanford visit in the Stanford Daily. I've definitely gotta work on my rabidity.
pharyngula | January 28, 2010It is Thursday, right?My brain is melting a bit, so I'm not really sure any more. I know I'm getting on the train again this afternoon and heading up to Sacramento, at least. I'm giving one more talk in California, at 7pm in Weaver 110 at Sierra. They are charging $5 admission; I was surprised to discover at the last place that charged that it seemed to have no affect on the group's ability to fill a room. Next tour: Ticketmaster.
I've been talking every day for 8 days straight. I've got a break in that routine for a couple of days, at least, even those days are all going to be consumed with…
pharyngula | January 28, 2010The interview in which I answered the top 10 questions submitted by Reddit readers is now online, and it's right here.
I haven't watched it. I can never bear to see myself in these things. You'll have to tell me if I said something stupid.
jstemwedel | January 27, 2010It's true that I recently returned from a fairly geeky conference, but I just found out about one happening practically in my backyard. And, given that I don't yet have any papers to grade, I figured I should check it out.
(Today is the last day to register without paying the late registration fee, in case that helps you make up your mind.)
From the web page:
She's Geeky's 5th unconference, the third in the Bay Area, is coming up the last weekend in January at the Computer History Museum [Map] in Mountain View. Register now to receive regular pricing.
Who is invited?
Are you a woman? Are…
laelaps | January 27, 2010
A few weeks ago the first packet of edits for Written in Stone was slipped under my door. I did not know exactly what to expect. As I opened the mailing sleeve I started having flashbacks of returned elementary school writing assignments, the pages cut and bleeding from the merciless slashes of the teacher's terrible red pen. Had my editor also cut my prose to ribbons?
I took the sheaf of papers, covering the first two chapters of my book, and sat down with my laptop to start making corrections. Nothing on page one. So far, so good. A typo on page two, marked in black (thank god) ink. Not…
pharyngula | January 27, 2010Oy, that Myers guy is babbling in California again. Tonight at 7pm, I'll be in Main Quad Building 420 (Jordan Hall), room 041, at Stanford. Two more days. I'll make it.
Many people have asked where I'll be tomorrow. Again at 7pm, look for me in Weaver 110 on the Sierra College campus.
Don't look for me on the day after, though. I'll be slumped in a plane, on my way back to spending a delightful 12 hours or so in Minneapolis.
pharyngula | January 26, 2010I seem to be leaving a trail of noisy wreckage behind me as I cruise through California. You can read one account of my talk at Davis in their local paper — I sound very ferocious in the description — and my evening in Chico was recorded. That one was a little different; we just gathered for beer and pizza, and then we sat around and people asked questions, so it was more of a casual Q&A.
I'll be heading out shortly to talk some more. I think my voice is getting a little huskier after all this…it must hold out for another week and a half!
pharyngula | January 26, 2010For everyone writing to me concerned about the status of the stranded Trophy Wife™: she's fine. She was going to be stuck in a gas station in Hancock, Minnesota for a night, and a local minister stepped up and offered her a place to stay…and when the weather cleared a bit, helped her get back home to Morris. So she has survived the storm, is doing fine, and is even going to work today.
pharyngula | January 26, 2010I'll be speaking tonight at 7 in the Student Union of Sacramento City College.
Holy crap, they're charging admission. Maybe no one will show up now…unless I add extra value to my performance. Strip tease? Singing the Narwhal song? My imitations of celebrity creationists (warning: they all involve drooling)? Oh, man, where can I get a puppet, some KY, and a rabid wolverine at such short notice?
jstemwedel | January 25, 2010(As before, I'm still not sure whether, in the metaphor, the factory is building monkeys or staffed by monkeys. Perhaps, really, we're in the business of making educated monkeys, and the problem is that our administration views this as akin to making widgets. Anyway, the point is: Explosions! Chaos! Shrieking! Brachiating along the pieces of wreckage!)
We had our beginning-of-the-semester faculty meeting today, and I have to conclude that our department is in an abusive relationship with the university (and system) administration.
Why I'm convinced of this is the simple fact that we have…
pharyngula | January 25, 2010Krystalline Apostate summarizes the event with the customary misspelling of my name, compliments me on my grip, and includes a picture of me looking hunched over in agony — he must have been crushing my hand is all I can say.
pharyngula | January 25, 2010The perils of posting from a cell phone — I actually wrote something here as I was being driven to Chico, and my phone apparently ate it, making it a blank post. Which didn't stop anyone since it gathered 66 comments.
Anyway, I'm feeling guilty. I was in the pleasant warmth (and moistness) of California, feeling no stress, and my wife called to report that she was stranded. She'd been on her way to work when she was slammed by a blizzard and white-out conditions, conditions which make driving literally impossible, and she'd pulled over into a gas station in a tiny town in rural Minnesota. And…
pharyngula | January 25, 2010This one seems to be a bit buried, but apparently I'll be speaking at The Graduate (400 W 1st Street) at 4 pm in Chico. All I know is my ride arrives soon — apparently this is one of the awkward legs of the tour where I've imposed a long drive on my hosts.
Here are the details, straight from my hosts.
pharyngula | January 24, 2010Zeno has a write-up of the Q&A of my talk at Davis. It's weird — I should just give up on the formal talk business and just have questions. They're fun and they're all over the place, and don't often have much to do with the content of what I'd said.
And that's OK.
clock | January 24, 2010This is what the Bride Of Coturnix fixed this week - so delicious, it disappeared within a day or two, but I managed to save the picture for posterity before everyone dug in:
pharyngula | January 24, 2010I am beginning to lose track of where and when I am — I woke up this morning and it took a while to puzzle out exactly why I was in this hotel room. We did have a fun time with the UC Santa Cruz Secular Student Alliance and the Secular Humanists of Santa Cruz County with a packed room and another long night of discussion. Besides, the sun has finally come out, I got to see redwoods and surfers, and it actually looks like California for a change, instead of Seattle.
Today I'm heading off to Cupertino and De Anza College, speaking in De Anza College Forum 1 at 2pm. Note the earlier time; I…
laelaps | January 24, 2010
I got a nice little surprise this week. It turns out that my twitter feed (@Laelaps) was recommended by Scientific American in their latest issue. The scan I have (kindly sent to me by Anne-Marie Hodge) makes the endorsement a little difficult to see, but it simply reads;
Brian Switek, science writer with a focus on evolution (@Laelaps)
With any luck my name will someday appear in the magazine as an author of an article, but this is not a bad start. And congrats to Karen James (@kejames), too, who was also recommended by the folks over at SciAm.
drorzel | January 24, 2010I'm currently a bit less than halfway through Sean Carroll's From Eternity to Here, which has leaped to the top of the literary inbox because I'll be hosting a Book Salon at firedoglake next Saturday evening. If you want to see how my limited typing skills work in a live chat setting, be sure to stop by. (I plan to type out a bunch of questions in advance, and then cut-and-paste them as needed.)
A little while back, somebody on Twitter referred to this as "Sean's arrow of time fetish book," which is a little unkind, but also funny and memorable. Sort of. My subconscious, trained by spending…
pharyngula | January 23, 2010Last night was another lively and fun meeting, hosted by the only SANE people at Berkeley—as is typical, the questions were the most entertaining part of the event, and they just kept coming. Maybe I should be brave and just skip the whole lecture part and stand up there and let 'em keep me dancing with weird questions, for two or three hours.
Today, though, I'll probably open my mouth some more first. I'll be heading up to Santa Cruz, a rare place with a deep appreciation of our molluscan cousins, and will be speaking at 7pm in the Bay Tree Building, Third Floor, Cervantez and Velasquez Room…
pharyngula | January 22, 2010I'm holding up just fine so far, despite having to keep up with slightly younger college students who can stay up late and drink. Last night it was the students of UC Davis's Agnostic and Atheist Student Association, and I also met the ferocious Truth Machine and the professorial Zeno. Oh, and Jonathan Eisen twittered bits of the lecture. I should probably suggest people use a #pz hashtag or something to make that easier to find.
Today I'm off to talk at Berkeley, 7:00 at 2050 Valley Life Science Building, UC Berkeley. There are rumors that I'm a firebrand, but really, I'm just a guy with…