Oh, no! I don’t get this journal!

The latest issue of Zebrafish, a specialty journal to which my university does not subscribe, is dedicated entirely to using zebrafish in education. I want it. I want the whole issue. Unfortunately, the publisher wants to charge me $29 per article to get the PDFs, which is not going to happen. Anyone out there with an institutional subscription want to help me out? If you don’t feel like sending me the whole collection, I’m particularly interested in the articles by Bagatto, D’Costa, McKeown, and Schmoldt.

Now watch, my mailbox is going to be flooded, isn’t it? Once upon a time, I could make these kinds of requests and get a moderate response, but nowadays…well, at least you know how badly I want these papers.

I got the papers! Thanks very much all, you can stop sending them to me now. Much appreciated, now I have to go read for a while.

Further evidence that I am a monster

We have two cats, and one of them, Merle, is a shaggy long-haired black beast. And I mean, really shaggy, and shedding constantly. Our first defense against burglary, I think, is the thick clouds of cat fur floating through the atmosphere in our house.

Well, last week, I had enough. I opened the freezer in our kitchen and discovered that all the ice cubes were matted with black hairy clumps. It was disgusting. I’ve told Merle over and over that if she’s going to sneak into the good Scotch behind my back, fine, but she’s going to drink it neat, like a civilized person. So now I’ve taken care of her.

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Booty!

Arrr, ’twas a fine weekend of pillage and carouse, and now we have returned to our lair, where we can gloat over our treasure. Here it be, a small portion of the swag we’ve won.

i-d637410fadfe5f93ff89036fd3d8deb0-booty.jpeg

I would like to thank the producers of Expelled and Bill Donohue for inspiring the American Humanists to toss me that shiny silver bauble, and me maties all around the world for the vast pile of cephalopodic geegaws growin’ in me hold.

Arrr.

I’ll be in Tempe, Arizona this weekend

I’ve been invited to the 68th Annual Conference of the American Humanist Association, along with Barbara Forrest and Neil deGrasse Tyson and a few other luminaries whose presence make me feel overweening, so we’re flying off on Thursday. Now often on these trips, I try to make some time for some informal get together at some point, but this one has a very busy schedule, and I’m not sure when I’m going to be able to escape. About the only time it looks like I’ll be able to get away, assuming the plane isn’t late, is Thursday evening after we arrive.

So here’s the deal: I’m planning to show up at an Irish pub near the hotel, Rúla Búla, around 8ish Thursday evening. This location was suggested by John Lynch (note new digs), of course, so who can turn down an Irish pub recommended by an Irishman? I’m also hoping to drag along the Trophy Wife and the Trophy Daughter, who is coincidentally working in an Arizona lab this summer, so if nobody else can show up, I’ll at least have family and Guinness to keep me company.

Otherwise, maybe I’ll see you at the meetings!

Ben Stein and I have something in common

Oh, Ben Stein, I shake my fist at you in rivalry. The infamous apologist for Republican criminality, idiotic economics, and creationist inanity got to present a commencement address to a famous university.

As it happens, I’m going to be out of town for a few days now — I’m off to deliver a commencement address myself. Yes, it’s another travel day for me, I’m afraid.

Should I be jealous? Stein got to speak at Liberty University. I’m speaking at the Keck School of Medicine at USC. I might be a teensy bit ahead. After all, this is what Richard Dawkins had to say:

“Many of the questioners announced themselves as either students or faculty from Liberty, rather than from Randolph Macon which was my host institution. One by one they tried to trip me up, and one by one their failure to do so was applauded by the audience. Finally, I said that my advice to all Liberty students was to resign immediately and apply to a proper university instead. That received thunderous applause, so that I almost began to feel slightly sorry for the Liberty people. Only almost and only slightly, however.”

That’s a difference between Stein and myself. I’m the one speaking at a proper university.

The Eagleton Delusion

The other day, I read this fawning review by Andrew O’Hehir of Terry Eagleton’s new book, Reason, Faith, and Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate, and was a little surprised. I’ve read a smattering of Eagleton before, and the words “brisk, funny and challenging” or “witty” never came to mind, and the review actually gave no evidence that these adjectives were applicable in this case. I felt like ripping into O’Hehir, but was held up by one awkward lack: I hadn’t read Eagleton’s book. Who knows? Maybe he had found some grain of sense and some literary imperative to write cleanly and plainly.

So I was in New York the other day, and was offered a copy of Eagleton’s book, and took the first step in my imminent doom by accepting it. Then I tried to fly home on Saturday, one of those flights that was plagued with mechanical errors that caused delays and long stretches locked in a tin can, and also flights that were packed tightly with travelers…so crammed with people that they actually took my computer and book bag away from me to pack in the cargo hold, and I had to quickly snatch something to read before the baggage handlers took it away. I grabbed the Eagleton book. Thus was my fate sealed.

I was trapped in a plane for 8 hours with nothing to read but Eagleton and the Sky Mall catalog.

This is an account of my day of misery.

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Ich werde reisen an den Bodensee

Good news for me! I get to spend a week in Germany, attending the Nobel Laureate meetings at Lindau on 28 June-3 July. I get to have all the fun, but at least you’ll benefit indirectly, since I’ll be regularly blogging the talks here. In English. You wouldn’t want to see the butchery I would do to the lovely German language.

I was looking over the schedule, and what jumped out at me right after seeing all those great titles was that they are actually confining Nobel laureates to only half-hour talks. That will be something to see, too.

Looking for me in Ashland?

There will be a few opportunities for informal conversation today. I’ll be on an evolution walk at Briscoe Geology Park at 2:00pm today, and for those of you who can’t bear the thought of seeing me without a beer or four in you, I’ll be popping by the Standing Stone Brewing Company sometime after 9:30…after my talk and after I’ve had some dinner with Jefferson Center folks. If I’m late, don’t panic, just have some good conversation with other godless Pharyngulistas, and I’ll get there eventually.