Catching up with old news

I have been very, very bad. I have been neglecting my obligations as a member of the blogosphere to share links to interesting stuff, all because I’ve been busy with travel and work. I missed the Carnival of the Liberals, the Accretionary Wedge, I and the Bird, the Carnival of Space, and even the Carnival of the Godless. I am wicked, the worthless scum of the earth, a footling twallop who deserves your scorn and needs to be demoted.

But I’m trying to catch up! I promise I’ll do better!

I also overlooked Revere’s Sunday Sermonette, which I usually catch: the latest is a tribute to George Carlin, but even worse, I missed the one from the week before, which was about one of my comments. At least Revere understands what I meant when I compared religion to knitting.

I haven’t had an open thread in a while, either. Go ahead, excoriate me.

An Iron Man open thread

By now, many of you have probably seen the latest super-hero summer blockbuster, so the time is right for opening up a discussion.

I thought it was excellent and loads of fun, although the irony did not escape me that it was about a conscienceless weapons merchant who has an epiphany about the tragic consequences of his industry, and decides to end his contribution to the bloodshed…so he goes home to build a new, super-powerful personal weapons system that allows him to beat up bad guys. Whatever you do, don’t think deeply about this movie! It’s just some good acting, excellent special effects, and a fast-paced series of events wrapped around an unbelievable fantasy premise.

Anyway, beware: I’m not saying anything that isn’t well-known here, but our amoral godless commenters might reveal a few spoilers.

Carnivalia and an open thread

Let’s catch up with the carnivals:

The Tangled Bank

We’ve got a new Tangled Bank at Dammit Jim! next Wednesday — send those links in to me or host@tangledbank.net.

Libra: There’s a choice to be made. You can live fast and hard in the hands of the coke dealer, or you can have the sedate life with regular maintenance, dealing with nothing harder than the occasional phosphate salt. The difference is as simple as a chain with a lock.

Carnivalia and an open thread

The Tangled Bank

The next Tangled Bank will be at Further Thoughts on 2 April — it’s time to send those links in to me or host@tangledbank.net.

Meanwhile, get inspired to write some Tangled Bank-worthy posts by reading these fine carnivals.

I’m off at this conference, so my time is a little tight right now. But I will mention that I had a nice panel discussion yesterday with Aaron Barlow and Barbara Fister, organized by the great minds at Free Exchange.

Carnivalia and an open thread

Well, I’m facing the consequences of my little fall yesterday — all day and night yesterday I could feel every little muscle in my back slowly knotting up in protest at the unkind treatment they have received. On top of that, I really have to finish my Seed column today (And I will! I am determined! It Shall Be Done!), and I have to spend some time working with the humane society this afternoon, which means I am tired, cranky, and under pressure … so go read these carnivals for a while, or talk about something else. I’m either going to stew for a while and explode in an ornery rant about something, or I’m going to soothe myself with some cool science (I’ve been reading up on an interesting phylum I knew nothing about before, and I’m also itching to write that up), or maybe both. Until I erupt again, entertain yourself with these:

The Tangled Bank

Also the Tangled Bank is coming to Tangled Up in Blue Guy on Wednesday, 19 March. Send those links in to me or host@tangledbank.net soon!

What a strange phenomenon…

MAJeff started it all. Here I go and set up this blog just so I can lord it over a readership, and the readers starthaving a good time talking to each other, and they seem to have noticed that they are of like minds and find each other to be interesting — perhaps more interesting than the blog owner — and there is a growing awareness that they don’t need me. So MAJeff is organizing a Boston Pharyngulite get-together, a group with no masters, not even me, but of similar free-thinking, scientifically-inclined minds.

Now I’m getting more requests in email to help people gather local pharyngulites for social meetings. This is rather cool, even if it means I’m going to have to kiss my cunning plans to become the Atheist Pope-Tyrant goodbye in the face of this rising democratization of freethought. Oh, well.

I can still be a central clearinghouse for information about these events (from overlord to bookkeeper…oh, I have fallen). Use this open thread to talk about organizing your own meetup, or joining someone else’s. I suppose once you’ve got something arranged, if you send me the city, date, time, and location, with a link to an article on one of your blogs that is taking RSVPs or discussing plans, I can put it up on the sidebar somewhere.

And I insist that you at least send me a link to your after-event photos and discussion.

Oh, and one little suggestion…I’ve been at these kinds of events before, and one problem is that you are all internet nerds who have never met each other before, so people show up at the restaurant or bar and wander about, not knowing who among the milling horde are the actual fellow weirdos they’re supposed to meet. I suggest that you have a recognizable symbol somewhere on the table or on the attendees — as early Christians used the fish, I recommend that you have something with a cephalopod on it.

By the way, I set up this Frappr Map several years ago, and have neglected it ever since. Would this be a useful tool for finding locals?