personal
clock | June 22, 2008
I grew up listening to her songs.
Back in the winter of 1984/1985 she decided to break her long leave away from the concert scene and did an European tour. Nervous about the come-back, how she'll perform, how she'll be received, she decided to start the tour at an unimportant place, somewhere where she can fix the last glitches, warm up her voice, etc. - she started the tour in Belgrade.
The hall in Sava Centar houses about 4000 people in the audience. It was packed every night. She had to extend the visit.
She was supposed to make us cry. Instead, we made her cry. Every song she sang,…
pharyngula | June 22, 2008I'm at the Evolution 2008 conference, but I'm too tired to appreciate it — the only sleep I got was a few fitful hours on the redeye from Las Vegas, so I'm seriously concerned that I may fall asleep in my session this afternoon. Greg Laden has been instructed to use a cattle prod on me if I slow down and start sounding like Ben Stein in my talk. It could happen. I'm having trouble remembering what my talk is supposed to be about right now. The slides will go up and the talk will flow out of my mouth, I hope.
Speaking of Greg, at least he seems to be paying attention. He's got summaries up…
pharyngula | June 21, 2008Sastra, OM is organizing a meetup for all the Pharynguloids here at TAM6, or just in the general area. We're meeting at 6:00 in the buffet restaurant here at the Flamingo — come on by, talk with us all, watch me shuffle out the door to catch a late-night flight to Minneapolis.
pharyngula | June 21, 2008This weekend has been busy — yesterday, I gave my talk at the Amaz!ng Meeting, and I think it went OK. I tried to go against type and gave a talk that was all science and biology*, no debunking, no godless inspiration pep talk, no railing at the state of delusional thinking and ignorance in the US. I saved all that instead for the conversations with people afterwards. I was hanging out with swarms of people all day and all night, talking myself hoarse and listening to all these interesting skeptics. I was up until 3am, at which time I discovered I was drinking something bright blue called an…
sa smith | June 21, 2008One to two times a week, I get an email from a concerned reader about my refusal to use apostrophes.
DEAR ERV--
YOU WRITED GUD BUT YOU HAS NO APOSTRAPHES AND U NEED TEHM. NO APOSTRAPHES IS DISTRACTING. K? THNKXBAI.
So it pleases me greatly to see the death of another form of punctuation documented so thoroughly:
By 1865, grammarian Justin Brenan could boast of "The rejection of the eternal semicolons of our ancestors. ... The semicolon has been gradually disappearing, not only from newspapers, but from books--insomuch that I believe instances could now be produced, of entire pages without…
clock | June 19, 2008Yesterday was Mrs.Coturnix' birthday. Over the weeks I led her on various goose chases regarding what kind of present she was going to get. In the end she had no idea, could not even guess. So, this was quite a surprise - I commissioned the mirror from Tanja (you have met her before here, here and here). Tanja has made a number of similar mirrors with owls and horses and cats, but for Mrs.Coturnix, we decided on butterflies - not just any vague butterfly shapes, but actual species, some quite endangered. So, the mirror came with a Key to species with Latin names, geographical information…
pharyngula | June 19, 2008I'm at this amazing meeting meeting these amazing people right now. I'm going to have an amazing lunch and then I'm going to an amazing reception. Say hello if you see me — I've already put my autograph on one octopus.
sciencewoman | June 19, 2008Katie @ Minor Revisions has decided to take the good job close to her family, rather than the dreamy job many states away. She sounds a little sad about the decision, but I am rejoicing for her.
The lack of a support network in Mystery State is one of the things that has and will continue to make my life harder over the next few years, and it is a big reason for pondering whether to go on the market again eventually. Here in Mystery City, we are 1100 miles from my parents and 1400 miles from Fish's parents. Our closest family of any sort is an aunt and uncle 200 miles away, and we have very…
clock | June 18, 2008Well, I cannot afford to go to Netroots Nation, I cannot fit NEW COMMUNICATION CHANNELS FOR BIOLOGY into my calendar, I do not have money for Science Blogging 2008: London, did not get an invitation to SciFoo 2008 and am unlikely to make it to National Conference on Science & Technology in Out-of-School Time. But after the romp through Europe back in April, and a powerful time at SRBR in May, I need some time at home, catching up with work and family. And I will be at the SciBling meetup in NYC, and at the Science in the 21st Century meeting in September, and at 2008 ConvergeSouth in…
jstemwedel | June 16, 2008
As I emerge from my fever, I ponder the latest "Ask a ScienceBlogger" question:
There are many, many academic bloggers out there feverishly blogging about their areas of interest. Still, there are many, many more academics who don't. So, why do you blog and how does blogging help with your research?
I started this blog as a way to remind my students (and myself) how my subject, the ethical conduct of science, is relevant to lots of things happening in the world right now. Some of those things involve scientists caught misbehaving, or scientific communities trying to figure out what sorts of…
pharyngula | June 15, 2008My father is gone. He died in 1993; I vividly remember how I felt when I got that phone call, the desperate search through my memory of every last moment I'd spent with him, the anguish over the missing details and lost days and years, the despair that there would be no more memories, ever. It's gotten worse over the years, too — it becomes harder and harder to recall the faces and voices of the dead as they recede into the past, no matter how important they were to us once, and while we might regularly resurrect fond remembrances, they aren't so pressing anymore, nor are they as vital as…
clock | June 14, 2008Last night, my daughter and I went to hear the NC Symphony at the Green here in Southern Village. The entire square was packed (a couple of thousand people?). It was very enjoyable and an interesting choice of pieces. What was more interesting, and I am not sure I liked it, is the chosen ORDER of the pieces. The first half was filled with classics, the second half with pop stuff, including some not-well-known pieces. I am not sure that worked very well....
The concert started with Johann Strauss Sr.'s Radetzky March - a very powerful piece of music. But there is a reason why that is…
revere | June 10, 2008It was a sixties-style wedding, only 20 people including the Baptist minister and the bride and groom. I was there with my friend. The guests were all family except for three close friends of the couple and the officiating Minister, chosen because his church was rent-free home for innumerable political groups -- and he had consented not to mention God in the service. He did require the couple to attend some pre-marital counseling sessions, but the only thing the bride and groom could remember about them was that at one point he mentioned the wedding ring's circle was a symbol of endless love…
pharyngula | June 9, 2008I'm home after a 10 day absence, which means … catching up with a backlog of work and mail. I just got back from my office, where a stack of packages was awaiting me — publishing companies keep sending me books to review, and it's getting a little daunting. There was a fine collection of gems in this stack, though, which I'll get to later, after I've read them.
There was also this, though, which I don't know if I can read, since the tears of laughter and dismay keep getting in the way: several books and pamphlets pushing geocentricity. I'm not joking. These books, including He Maketh His Sun…
drorzel | June 8, 2008We got back from my 15th college reunion weekend earlier today, and I've spent the afternoon dozing off in front of European championship soccer and enjoying sweet, sweet central air conditioning. I had a great time, but didn't get a whole lot of sleep. Also, ordering Colonial Pizza at 1am continues to not be as good an idea as it seems at the time.
As a part of the cult festivities, there was a run-down of the various accomplishments of the class (slightly more doctors than lawyers, almost as many children as members of the class), which included the statistic that 97 of the 550-ish members…
pharyngula | June 8, 2008It's nice to know that at least one person liked my talks in Seattle — and I know at least one didn't, the creationist who made the tired accusation that I was a "fundamentalist" in the Q&A — but you can make up your own mind, since a podcast of the NWSA talk is available.
Now, though, I just want to go home and take a nap for a while.
oracknows | June 8, 2008The other day, I received something in the mail that was so horrifying, so disturbing, so utterly disconcerting that I had to go into my office and hide for a while to regain my composure. No, it wasn't a death threat from some wacked-out antivacccinationist. Nor was it a scientific paper that was undeniable evidence that homeopathy works, water has memory, and I've been utterly and completely wrong about alternative medicine lo these last few year.
It was much, much worse. It was this:
Noooooooo!
I'm not 50 yet! I still have a few years to go before AARP, screening colonoscopies, and senior…
terrasig | June 7, 2008Oy vey, am I embarrassed for missing this piece of good news. Last month, Erin Zuiker graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law.
Folks in the local and international science blogging community may recognize that Erin is the better half of Anton Zuiker, science blogger extraordinaire and co-founder with Bora Zivkovic of the former NC Science Blogging Conference (to be known next year as ScienceOnline'09) and leader of the BlogTogether movement.
Conference attendees this past year may not know that Erin Zuiker was solely responsible for securing and…
pharyngula | June 7, 2008Maria Maltseva took a bunch of photos of last night's talk for the Seattle Skeptics facebook group — and look, here's me and my mom!
So now she's on facebook. We'll drag her into the 21st century yet!