Nothing for a year, and suddenly I’ve got two meetings at once this week. The big one is the annual meeting of the American Arachnological Society, which begins on Thursday and continues until the following Wednesday. It’s a virtual meeting (I think registration is still open, and it’s cheap at $20) so it’ll be almost a week of nothing but spider talk on a fairly loose and casual schedule. I am so looking forward to it.
And then, on Sunday, I’m going to have to skip an online poster session because — hold on to your hats, this is unbelievable — I’ve been invited to speak to the Atheists of Florida. An atheist meeting? Do they still have those? And they invited me? Don’t they know who I am? Sheesh. A fellow works hard to destroy the whole atheist movement and a few years later they all forget.
Anyway, they probably think they’re safe, since I’ll be talking about science. Little do they know, my topic is the biology of intelligence, and one of the things I’ll be doing is taking apart atheist buzzwords, like “rationality” and “reason” and “logic” and “intelligence” by explaining how spiders, and other animals, are also logical and intelligent, and are probably better atheists than humans, since none of them have any need for that god hypothesis.
Expect schisms, rifts, and recriminations all across Florida after my poisonous spirit touches the state. It’s what I do.
Ray Ceeya says
Does any of it matter is when Florida is sinking into the ocean?
JoeBuddha says
Stick to your strengths, I say.
birgerjohansson says
Bring along Portia to talk about spider intelligence.
wzrd1 says
Well, while there, don’t forget to hold Florida Man’s beer while standing clear.
That should dispatch any surviving remnant of the notion of human intelligence.
Artor says
“Expect schisms, rifts, and recriminations all across Florida after my poisonous spirit touches the state.”
I’m confused PZ. Don’t you mean your venomous spirit, spider-man?
steve1 says
Come for the meeting stay for the spiders. The banana spiders are impressive.
jrkrideau says
Some times peoples memories are short
Publisher retracts 20 of a researcher’s papers — then asks him to peer review
birgerjohansson says
Asdf: “Suddenly, pineapples!”