I really was considering going to the Nuttings’ creationist seminar in Minneapolis this week, but I decided not to. I’m sure it will be totally pants, but then I discovered that a student, Elliott Jungers, will be presenting his senior seminar in Science 1020 at 5pm today on “Pax6 mutation in the model organism Astyanax mexicanus“, and a colleague in geology, Keith Brugger, will be presenting a faculty seminar in HFA at 5pm Thursday, titled “Small Science to Global Climate Models: or Why Anyone Would be Interested in Colorado’s Weather 20,000 Years Ago”. All are open to the public.
Why should I drive 3 hours to hear garbage people lie and talk garbage science when I can stay right here and listen to good stuff? In fact, I bet there are better talks going on at the Twin Cities campus all of the days that the Nuttings are babbling.
I guess teachers know the latest slang. But I’m an old fart. “totally pants”?
pants
I’ll be going tonight, providing I get this grant finished. I’m also going to the Friday talk, yes I am that self-hating. I’ll comment on Facebook and twitter (@angrybychoice1) during the talks. Probably beers after the Friday talk if people want to meet up. Enjoy the actual science PZ.
Hmm. I could make it to the Friday talk, especially if there are beers & conviviality afterwards.
“Pants” is a much better British contribution to language than “the Brits use the c-word all the time so it’s okay!”
So you’re going to stay in your little bubble, clinging to your beakers and science? ;)
This seems a much better choice. We can all relax now. Better put a care package together for Lorax.
When I am in the right mood to be amused buy it, I kind of enjoy listening to creationists present their “evidence.” I think of it as an ethnographic exercise in trying to understand the worldview of another culture, but it probably helps to have both a background in anthropology and slight tendency toward masochism. I am not sure, however, that it is completely accurate to accuse the Nuttings of lying. I sat in on one of their presentations back in 2005, and while they said a lot of stuff that wasn’t true, they really did seem to believe it. I was taking a graduate seminar on creationism at the time, so I sat in on several such presentations that fall. At least I found it easier to be amused by the Nuttings than by Michael Behe, who came across as much more of a pretentious git. My moment of maximum amusement with the Nuttings (though it was also my moment of maximum horror) came at the conclusion, when Dave Nutting said, with an air of sadness and resignation, that despite all the evidence, some people would never be convinced because they would simply go on believing what they wanted to believe. All around me, people nodded and murmured agreement, as I surreptitiously gave myself the Heimlich maneuver to avoid choking to death on the unintentional irony.
Well, it looks like I’m going to the Friday talk after all — I’m taking my wife out for a day in the big city, strolling around downtown, so in the evening I’ll pop in on the Nuttings.
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