So that’s why I avoid mirrors


I’m going to be speaking in Köln, Germany on the 22nd of May, at the International Atheist conference. They just posted some videos from previous events — I was last there in 2012. I listened to the first bit of this talk (really, I can’t bear to watch videos of myself) just to remind myself of what I talked about then, and to make sure my planned talk doesn’t overlap (it doesn’t). But I did learn something important from my brief glimpse.

My gosh, my beard has gotten even grayer than it was three years ago, and I hadn’t even noticed. What is it with this aging stuff? Is there a way to stop it?

Comments

  1. Saad says

    What is it with this aging stuff? Is there a way to stop it?

    Find out next week on the Dr. Oz Show!

  2. numerobis says

    You can stop the graying beard pretty easily — either with a razor blade or with dye.

  3. blf says

    This is quite amusing. About a half hour ago I happened to take a look at the ID photo for my local bus pass, which was taken at least four years ago. That’s me? But the beard is mostly black… Who’s been playing games with my bus pass? (And why?)

    I blame the peas. It’s always the peas. Except when it’s the horses.

  4. says

    The photo on my faculty ID was taken in 2000. It’s a bad photo, but I don’t think that’s the only reason I’m unrecognizable in it.

  5. marcus says

    PZ @ 11 I had a mustache for about 6 months 16 years ago. I have been looking at those pictures (and getting grief from customs agents) for the mistake of having both of my pictures taken at that one moment in history ever since.

  6. says

    PZ asks: “What is it with this aging stuff? Is there a way to stop it?”

    Isn’t that the question that everyone in biology is researching to solve? I figured all this zebrafish embryology was just a stepping stone!

  7. saganite says

    You’re coming to Germany? Huh. I’m often a bit peeved that most of these conferences happen in the USA, but I guess I don’t really have an excuse not to go now. Oh well, I’ll probably forget about it, but watch videos of it afterwards. That’s kind of my standard operating procedure, it feels like.

  8. David Marjanović says

    …Oh. So I sort of find out in time that that conference will happen (again). Good to know :-)

  9. rq says

    Wait, Koln, mid-May? This requires some scheduling. But might be made possible somehow.

  10. ambassadorfromverdammt says

    Aging, is there a way to stop it?

    Sure, send me $10 bucks/month and I will send you my secret formula anti-aging Stuffinacan. Satisfaction guaranteed.

  11. numerobis says

    @davidnangle: oops! I love double-entendre in general, but I’d have avoided that one if I had noticed it ahead of time.

  12. Sili says

    At least you’re only greying on the outside.

    I, for my sins, decided to extend my holidays on a lark (nearly £500 worth of lark by now) and attend a professional meeting for the first time in a decade.

    And I feel old, insignificant and utterly useless. Damn but the field has moved on in those ten years.

  13. Rob Grigjanis says

    ambassadorfromverdammt @19:

    I will send you my secret formula anti-aging Stuffinacan

    And for those days when you need a little something to get your aging bones to the workplace, there is my new formula; Dragmyacin.

  14. Lofty says

    The oldest more-or-less upright person in my cycling group is 91 this year. He would be glad to have some grey hair, what little he has is white. Stop yer whinging and accept that grey beard hair is hot.

  15. Georgia Sam says

    Hey, you look OK to me. I’m proud of my grey hair (or, as I refer to it, my silver mane) & beard. I’ve earned them. Now, if I could only afford to get a little plastic surgery done…

  16. dianne says

    Aging is a cancer protection strategy. Seriously. Nature’s own chemotherapy and just as nasty in its side effects as the most primitive of real chemotherapies. Also you look great! Stop worrying about the color of your beard, you are totally the sexy distinguished professor in this video.

  17. rietpluim says

    What’s wrong with aging? I like aging. My life is getting better every minute.

  18. anym says

    #25, dianne

    Aging is a cancer protection strategy

    I note that naked mole rats are not only extremely resistant to cancer, but also very long lived for a rodent of their size.

  19. felidae says

    I don’t care about the grey beard–its the consequences of a spine used as a column instead of an arch that wears me down every day. On another note, it gets worse–much worse and incredibly fast too

  20. says

    If you have some time to sightsee, the cathedral recently installed some pretty neat Gerhard Richter stained glass windows.

    For the aging, have you tried putting a self-portrait in the attic?