The Week in Review, and an open thread

Flitting about as I have lately means I’ve been missing this, that and the other thing. So here’s a quick summary.

  • Tuesday night I was at the Café Scientifique in Minneapolis, where UMM’s Timna Wyckoff gave a talk on antibiotic resistance. It was terrific! Lots of good questions throughout, and a mob of conversation afterwards. This is exactly how these events are supposed to go.
  • I missed Michael Ruse’s talk at the UM on Wednesday—I was somewhere in Wisconsin, with a dorm room packed into a car—but I have one email report that he was entertaining but extremely aggravating. Anyone else care to say more?
  • Paul Nelson gave a talk at UCI. It sounds like the usual thing we get from Nelson.
  • A new Skeptics’ Circle has crystallized.
  • There’s an I and the Bird sighting!
  • The liberals are having a carnival!

Now I’ve got a couple of finals to give, and man, I’m exhausted. Driving to Madison and back again in one day is too much for this tired old guy—we got back about midnight last night, and then I had to drag myself out of bed at 6 to finish writing one of my exams. And then tonight…more grading.

Carnivalia, and an open thread

A few carnival announcements:

The next Tangled Bank will be held next Wednesday at The Inoculated Mind (yes, it’s back up!). Send your submissions to karl AT inoculatedmind DOT com with “Tangled Bank Submission” in the subject line, or send it to me or host@tangledbank.net.

As always, carnival barking threads are also open threads—talk about what you will.

Open Thread: are we having fun yet edition

While I am intensely distracted—I’m freaking out a little bit over this Cafe Scientifique presentation I have to do in a couple of hours, and since I’m also the organizer I’ve also got to set up all the AV gear in a new venue and miscellaneous other mundane tasks—I’ll let everyone talk among themselves for a while.

(My problem with this talk right now is that I put together all kinds of stuff and had 130 slides to show…I’ve had to be ruthless and rip at it savagely, since I really want this to be an easy going 30-40 minute presentation. But there’s so much I could say!)

Hey, an important reminder: send those Tangled Bank entries soon: go here for the address. This is your last chance!