personal
sheril | September 19, 2008Chris and I have been working on so many projects lately from our book to ScienceDebate2008 to several more we haven't yet mentioned here. Well, tomorrow is his 31st birthday and all I can say is, Chris, you're an inspiration. As we embarked on our newest endeavor earlier this week in the nation's capitol, I was reminded that amid all the writing, blogging, and collaborating, the best part is that no matter what we're up to, we always have a lot of fun in the process.
As I wrote last year, make sure you party like a rockstar down in New Orleans! I hope readers will join me in wishing a…
pharyngula | September 18, 2008If things get quiet around here for a while, it's not because I've received a letter bomb…it's just not a good week. Lots of teaching piling up; lots of committee meetings; I'm trying to apply for a sabbatical, which in a small department means lots of work to make accommodations on workload; the family is a bit disrupted, with my father-in-law suffering a severe illness (the whole family, except for me, is about to fly back to Washington state for a while); writing deadlines are flying by and I'm scrabbling frantically for time to finish up; and I'm doing all this traveling and speechifying…
terrasig | September 18, 2008Tom Levenson at The Inverse Square blog recently lost his uncle and godfather, Daniel D Levenson.
I've been lucky enough to meet Tom once and yet he still answers my e-mails. Beyond his current position as a prof in the MIT Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies, Tom is a prolific author and award-winning producer of several science documentaries.
This is what you get when a professional writer lovingly remembers a wonderful and influential man whose suffering has finally ended.
Tom asks that Uncle Dan be remembered by a memorial donation to Mazon.
pharyngula | September 12, 2008Last time I was here in Denver, I cruelly taunted the people who came to the pharyngufest with the fact that they all bailed before 10. Honor was at stake this time, so they kept me going way past my bedtime. I concede: Coloradans are doughty and indomitable.
We had a grand time, but I have to apologize for one problem: Wynkoop's was stricter than last time, and our underage but still wise members, such as Splendid Elles, were excluded. No fair! Next time we'll have to pick a more open venue.
Oh…and the party who were sitting with Derek? You neglected to pay your bill and stuck him with it!
pharyngula | September 12, 2008People are asking what I plan to do this evening, now that I'm in lovely downtown Denver, and I don't know yet! I'm giving a talk in the early afternoon, then early this evening, I'm going to dinner with the students, so … sometime mid-evening I'll be free. What I'll do today is talk to a few of the people at the talk and see if we can work something out, and I'll put a notice here when I know, if I can.
Sorry to be so vague, but the organizers get first priority.
I wonder if we could find a bar where these guys are playing…
terrasig | September 11, 2008. . .and I thank you for your support.
I'm not a huge blog traffic addict and, in fact, I mostly keep a SiteMeter counter below because I get to see the geographical distribution of our readers. They have a great map feature where you can look at the locations of the last 100 or 500 hits and I love to see folks from Perth, Australia, Jawa Timur, Indonesia, or Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada.
At 1229 GMT on 10 Sept 2008, we received our 200,000th visitor - a reader from Truro, Nova Scotia - to whom I owe some Alexander Keith IPA (e-mail me to redeem your gift!).
After looking back at my original…
pharyngula | September 11, 2008I shall be departing shortly for the airport, and on to Denver to give a talk. This talk:
Science Education:
Caught in the Middle in the War between Science and Religion
Friday, September 12
12:00 pm - 2:00 pm
Metropolitan State College of Denver
Tivoli Turnhall, 900 Auraria Parkway, Denver, CO
I'm going to gargle some tabasco before giving it, because this one needs to contain some bile and pepper, sorry to say. I'm going to say exactly what's wrong with the state of science education today, and it's all those weasely suck-ups who make excuses for religious idiocy. Anyway, if you can't…
oracknows | September 11, 2008There are some days when I just don't feel like posting the usual stuff, and September 11 is just one of those days. So today there'll be no woo-bashing, no evisceration of postmodernist nonsense, no sarcastic assaults on antivaccinationists. In a more serious vein, there won't be any analyses of scientific papers, clinical studies, or the usual prolonged discourses on medicine, surgery, or science. There won't even be any discussions of Holocaust denial, although a Holocaust denier is mentioned in the post that is to follow.
Instead, I'll do what I've taken to doing every year or two and…
terrasig | September 11, 2008[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 [seven] years ago today.
We lost touch almost twenty years before, but his kindness and…
jstemwedel | September 10, 2008
Since it's been a while, I thought it was time for another update on the plant denizens of our raised garden beds which we planted back in July.
The first thing to note is that, to a first approximation, the automatic drip irrigation system we set up to water the beds works reasonably well. There are a few patches that don't get quite enough water without some hand-watering every couple days, but the important thing is that the seedlings made it through our week-long trip to Wisconsin last month.
The second thing to note is that we've been having rather more hot spells this summer than is (…
pharyngula | September 10, 2008(Click for larger image)
So maybe that's not pretty enough. Here's a corrective: it's also Mary's birthday today, so congratulate her on putting up with me for so long!
jstemwedel | September 9, 2008Sean assesses his familiarity with the Omnivore's Hundred. I thought about playing along, but it's pretty meaty, while my diet is not so much. However, Sean was kind enough to post a link to the Vegetarian's Hundred, a list of one hundred vegetarian food items everyone should try at least once. (Unless you're vegan, at which point maybe you need to propose your own hundred.)
If you want to play along, here's how you do it: copy the list, including my instructions, and bold any items you have eaten and strike out any you would never eat, and then post it to your blog.
I'm going to add the…
pharyngula | September 9, 2008Just a heads up for Calgary — I'm going to be interviewed on "The World Tonight" on AM770 CHQR Radio, at 9:15 eastern time. They say they want to ask me some questions about a cracker…I have no idea how I'll stretch that out for 15 minutes.
jstemwedel | September 9, 2008If you make your way to this blog by way of the ScienceBlogs homepage, you may have noticed the "Comments" ticker clicking ever closer to 1,000,000. Our benevolent overlords at Seed Media Group have decided that crossing the millionth comment mark is cause for celebration, and they would like to offer you ScienceBlogs readers (whether you comment or merely lurk) a piece of the action.
First, you can enter the drawing for a fabulous trip to New York City:
One lucky reader will win an all-out science adventure -- a trip for two to New York City and exclusive science adventures only…
pharyngula | September 7, 2008This was another day when I had to go off to Minneapolis to run an important errand, and as long as I was there, I went on Air America for an hour. There I am, with Mike Haubrich and Lynn Fellman, talking about the Galápagos.
The
recording will be up a little later today.
jstemwedel | September 5, 2008OK, I don't actually believe in earthquake weather, but it was really hot today and the house just shook. (I could see the shaking as well as feel it.)
I'm going to check what others are reporting to the USGS. Be right back.
UPDATE: So far, it seems to be a magnitude 4 or so -- a wee temblor. Here's hoping letting off stress like this keeps the ginormous killer earthquakes at bay.
pharyngula | September 5, 2008We have a time and a place for the big millionth comment party in Minneapolis in less than two weeks. Attendees: get the full scoop from Greg Laden's Blog.
I'll be bringing my big pink furry octopus and Skatje. You don't want to miss it.
oracknows | September 4, 2008
I'm a Detroit guy.
I was born there and raised there for the first ten years of my life. After that, my family moved to the suburbs, but still Detroit's my hometown, even though I spent 20 years away from southeast Michigan. Consequently, I really, really hated what has been happening there since January. That's when text messages revealed that Detroit's lying, philandering mayor Kwame Kilpatrick revealed that he and the woman with whom he had been having an affair, Christine Beatty, had lied under oath about their affair in a whistle-blowing trial.
Now the chickens are finally coming home…