personal
terrasig | September 11, 2009[Here is why I will always remember. This was posted here originally on 11 September 2006.]
Let me tell you about John Michael Griffin, Jr.
Griff, as he was known in high school, was a friend of mine.
Late in the first half of our lives, he stood up for me physically and philosophically, for being a science geek. John's endorsement was the first time I was ever deemed cool for wanting to be a scientist.
Griff died an engineer and hero in the collapse of one of the World Trade Center towers five [eight] years ago today.
We lost touch almost twenty years before, but his kindness and…
drorzel | September 10, 2009SteelyKid is cutting a couple of molars at the moment, and Cathy at day care mentioned that she was getting some relief by using a pretzel rod as a sort of edible teether that could reach all the way to the back of her mouth. So we picked some up, and they've been a big hit. Here we see SteelyKid offering to share her pretzel with Appa:
Cathy did also mention that the eating of a pretzel was a long and messy process. And really, you have to see it to understand. Still, it makes her happy, and we don't argue with a happy baby...
jstemwedel | September 10, 2009Over at Uncertain Principles, Chad ponders faculty "service" in higher education. For those outside the ivy-covered bubble of academe, "service" usually means "committee work" or something like it.
The usual concern is that, although committees are necessary to accomplish significant bits of the work of a college or university, no one likes serving on them and every faculty member has some task that would be a better use of his or her time than being on a committee. And, because "service" is frequently a piece of the faculty member's job performance that is regularly evaluated (for…
pharyngula | September 10, 2009Today is 10 September, which happens to be the birthday of the Trophy Wife (I won't tell you the birth year because she will give me the evil eye, but I will say that she is much, much younger than I am, as a Trophy Wife must be). It would be very nice if she got home from work tonight and, as she usually does, sits down and checks out the blog to see what horrors and outrages I have perpetrated today, and discovers that a few of you had written her birthday best wishes, instead.
laelaps | September 8, 2009
The skull of a brown bear (Ursus arctos), photographed at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History.
The next time someone watches my apartment I will have to post a warning about the skulls. A few are in plain sight, like a badger skull on the bookshelf and a comparative set of small animal crania on the desk, but there are a few more hidden away in drawers and closets. The present disorganization of my osteological collection was very unsettling to the young woman who was taking care of the place while my wife and I were out west. She opened a drawer looking for a pen or some…
laelaps | September 7, 2009Science blogging is hard work. Everyone has their own style and motivations, but in general it can be said that it takes a lot of effort to write about science with the frequency and skill that many bloggers do. With this in mind, and given the positive response these two posts have received, I thought it would be fitting to take a moment to express my thanks to one of my favorite science bloggers.
I admire the work of many science bloggers, but if I tried to list them all I would no doubt leave someone out. Fortunately for me there is one that really stands out from the rest. Scicurious, who…
drorzel | September 6, 2009"Dude, we need to talk."
"About what?"
"Your priorities are all out of whack. I mean, everything is about your puppy these days-- puppy blogging, taking the puppy on trips, buying the puppy toys. You need to get back to basics."
"Meaning what, exactly?"
"Well, more me, obviously. Don't get me wrong, I like the puppy and all, especially when she feeds me Cheerios. But ask yourself, who pays the bills around here, hmm? Me or the puppy?"
"So, you're saying you'd like to be more in the foreground?"
"In a manner of speaking."
"OK."
"That's maybe a little more literal than I was talking about. But…
clock | September 5, 2009
Oh, did I tell you that Leonard Cohen will be in Durham in November? Yes, that Leonard Cohen whose music I grew up with?
Yes, I bought the tickets as soon as it was possible and will go to DPAC on November 3rd to hear him live. Finally!!!
I heard that his concert in Belgrade was magical and amazing. I hope it will be the same in Durham.
drorzel | September 5, 2009We're headed out for a last road trip before the start of classes, taking SteelyKid to visit her great-grandmother and great-great-aunts. Why? Because she's this cute:
If you had a baby that cute, wouldn't you take her on the road? I thought so.
Normal-ish blogging will resume Tuesday. I'm scheduling a few other pictures to pass the time, though, just so you won't have to suffer an entire three-day weekend without this blog. Because I care.
jstemwedel | September 4, 2009
(From here.)
Not that we won't make plenty of other mistakes, but they'll run more to Nietzsche than Rand.
Come to think of it, the eternal recurrence test is probably just right for bedtime stories, isn't it?
pharyngula | September 3, 2009I'm going to be on the radio tonight, at 10pm Central time, on a program radiating out of Missouri State University called the All-American Gun Show. The host is JT Eberhard, a dangerous rascal, and I think he's planning to harrass me fiercely. Here's the blurb for the show:
PZ Myers, biology professor at the University of Minnesota Morris and the author of the science blog Pharyngula. Myers is known for his criticism of creationism and religion, including an appearance at Skepticon I on the Missouri State campus last October and a return to the campus this November for Skepticon II.
  …
drorzel | September 3, 2009I thought we'd go with a change of scene for this week's baby blogging, so we took Appa out into the back yard. Trouble is, it's a little hard to get a good Baby Blogging photo there because there are so many other things to catch SteelyKid's attention:
We haven't been outside much this summer, thanks to all the rain. The moss on the patio is an excellent indicator of what kind of summer it's been. Of course, we're getting nice summer-y weather now, when I have to be inside prepping classes all day...
jstemwedel | September 3, 2009To whom it may concern,
I can deal with the third story classrooms, really I can. Running up and down stairs to get to and from class helps give me the exercise I wouldn't get otherwise because I'm grading papers instead of hitting the gym.
And, I can live with the back-to-back class meetings in third story classrooms located in different buildings across campus from each other. That's just more physical exercise, plus a chance to live by my resolution not to view other people primarily as obstacles. I appreciate the opportunity for personal growth.
I even understand the wisdom of filling…
jstemwedel | September 1, 2009I guess I suspected that this might be a problem, but it really sank in when a close colleague told me the other day that he was freaked out by it. And I'd hate to have you hear it from anyone else but me.
I'm a decaf drinker.
Yeah, I know. Nowadays you can't count on a philosopher to smoke like a chimney, or to be drunk off her ass at work, or even to wear a beret.
But just as we can count on gravity to keep pulling matter toward the center of the earth, you'd think you could count on a philosopher to be hopped up on caffeine, preferably delivered via strong coffee in a café where…
pharyngula | September 1, 2009I'm captured on yet another podcast: Chariots of Iron, the one thing god's armies cannot defeat.
laelaps | August 31, 2009
The larger of the two dogs in the campground in Wyoming's Wind River Range mountains.
After more than an hour of navigating the pothole-pocked dirt road leading up to the park Tracey and I finally made it to our campsite in the Big Sandy Opening in Wyoming's Wind River Range. It was cold despite the sunshine, especially considering that we had spent the previous day (the 17th) splitting Eocene-age shale in a heat-baked rock quarry. It wasn't long after we began to unpack that the dog appeared.
We thought she belonged to someone else. She was an adult Pyrenean Mountain Dog, and was happily…
drorzel | August 31, 2009One of the nice things about being a parent is getting to introduce SteelyKid to my own obsessions. Like, for example, the great game of basketball:
"You want me to throw this how high?"
Maybe we'll stick with something a little smaller for now:
(Hey to Todd Clark, who gave us the toy hoop...)
laelaps | August 31, 2009
A black bear, photographed at Grand Teton National Park.
I'm back! I have a lot of cleaning up to do (both around the apartment and on this blog, especially the latter because of all the spam that has accumulated during my absence), but I thought I would post something to let you all know that I made it home safely. It was a wonderful trip. I have lots of photos and stories to share, so watch this blog and Dinosaur Tracking during the next few weeks for all the details.
drorzel | August 30, 2009Here's some cute to get your Sunday off to a good start: the first 55 weeks of Thursday Baby Blogging pictures strung together into a movie showing the growth of SteelyKid:
(Thursday of week 20 was Christmas Day, and there are limits to even my geekery. I don't know what happened to Week 41.)
It's really pretty amazing to watch them all together like that...
drorzel | August 29, 2009SteelyKid shows off the latest in clothes for geeky toddlers:
It's not really the official Twitter logo bird, but it's pretty close.
After this was taken, we spent a good half hour playing a rousing game of "Clueless Mail Carrier":
She picked up the padded shipping envelope that the memory card for my camera came in, and walked around and around the house with it, setting it down, picking it back up, and occasionally stopping to squint at the label like she was trying to read the address. It was great fun.
(Whatever works, man...)