So this is DC…

So I arrived here in Washington D.C. several hours ago, and made the mistake of taking some shuttle service from Dulles…which proceeded to take the passengers direct to their homes, which meant I got a long, long tour of winding narrow suburban roads all over the outlying parts of the city, sitting behind the choked traffic as the wall-to-wall cars parked on both sides meant we were constrained to basically one lane. How do you people live in this chaos? It took me almost as much time to get from Dulles to Capitol Hill as it did to drive all the way across the state of Minnesota this morning! I’m thinking now that I’m going to have to leave awfully early on Monday to make sure I get to the airport in time.

Anyway, I’m going to depressurize here in the hotel for a few hours and then strike out (on foot) for food. There’s some kind of big white marble building near here…there’s probably beer nearby.

Hello, Stan Palmer!

Hi, Stan. You’re new here, like a whole lot of people. You’ve just shown up, and here’s your very first comment.

I noticed that this blog is in the running for a Best Science Blog award.

I’ve looked over the site. Cna someone point out where the science is on it. I have looked but I can’t find any.

Let me introduce myself. My name is PZ Myers. I’m an associate professor of biology at a small liberal arts university in the upper midwest. I make no grand claims for myself, but I have been exceptionally busy lately, with lots of travel and lectures, and it’s all on top of teaching two courses, one of which is both new to me and a new course in our discipline, so I’m writing lectures at a frantic pace and trying to keep up with 80 students. I’m also working on a book and have a magazine column to write, in addition to other irregular writing jobs. I’m stretched very, very thin right now, I’m a bit frustrated myself that I haven’t had much spare time for the blog, and I’m feeling extremely cranky.

Welcome, Stan Palmer, I’m going to unload on you as a proxy for all your fellow denialist idiots!

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Washington DC meetup!

Hey, everyone, I said I was going to be in Washington DC this weekend, with the notorious Phil Plait. We’ve compared notes and figured out our schedules, and are ready to announce a time and place for a general meetup: 9pm, Saturday, 10 November at the Senators Sports Bar at Holiday Inn on the Hill (here’s a map). There may be some other infamous bloggers on hand, too — we’ll invite them, but well, you know, this is going to be a gathering of High Nerddom, and it may be a bit intimidating to normal people.

Now go vote for Bad Astronomy for Best Science Blog. He’s behind that front for denialists blog, and this is the last day…help him out! If he doesn’t win, everyone will have to buy lots of Bubble Me Blue martinis to console him.

Brain has rebooted now

I have been sleeping the sleep of the dead—it turns out that if you don’t bother to sleep for 40 hours you get really tired and when you lie down your brain shuts off. This is very good to know. It means I’ve been completely ignoring Pharyngula for a long, long time, and wow, did the comments pile up. So let me deal with a few things quickly.

  • I am pleased to see that the comments did not descend into total anarchy, but come on, don’t pick on Robert O’Brien because he looks like a dork. I look like a dork. I suspect that if you people had to verify your comments with your passport photos we’d discover that Pharyngula is Dork City.

  • The most amazing stupidity in the comments, though, is coming from a certain dork from Conservapædia. Listen: you know you’re a paranoid kook if post a comment late at night, get a message that it’s being held for approval, and then start repeatedly ranting that you’re being suppressed, and make it an issue for the front page of conservapædia.

    I was asleep, man.

    I think the conservapædia articles on evolution and homosexuality are excellent examples of right-wing stupidity, and I may get around to critiquing them at some point…after I clear the backlog of work I’ve got on my desk. It might be a while. And I’m willing to put off as long as a whining fool from conservapædia is actively demonstrating his inanity for me in the comments.

  • How about happier news? Yes, I’m going to be in Washington DC this weekend (the 10th and 11th), returning on Monday evening. I’m doing some stuff with Americans United for Separation of Church and State, so I’m not totally free, but I’m sure we can work out some time for a meetup.

    Notice I said “we”…another fellow, among others, who will be there is Phil Plait. We’re even rooming together (before you assume too much, you should know that Phil has a man-crush on Wil Wheaton, not me (nor William Riker)).

    I bet with a little negotiation we could arrange to have both Phil Plait and PZ Myers in the same public place for a few hours, and you all could stop by and buy us beer and calamari and make pointed comparisons and tell us how dorky we look.

So there you go. Lots of travel last week, brief recovery from exhaustion this weekend, lots of teaching to do this week, then more travel next week. I’ve got to spend some time at home!

I’m back! I’m exhausted!

My travels are done for a whole week now (according to my calendar, I’m going to have to go to Washington DC next week), and I’m very, very tired. I’ll put up some of my thoughts on the Beyond Belief conference later (short summary: exhilarating!), but for now I’ll acknowledge the wonderful time I had at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography. It was a big audience — much bigger than I expected — and they asked really sharp questions and tossed back a few important ideas on communicating science that I appreciated. Special thanks to my host, Miriam Goldstein.

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I promised to mention the Three Seas Program, which looks like an excellent opportunity for students interested in marine biology—actually, I wish I could do it—and I’m going to be sure too suggest to my students who think marine biology and oceanography are cool (we get a few of these students from the midwestern prairies every year who dream of the distant seas) that they ought to consider the Scripps for grad school.

Thanks also to Hao Ye, official photographer to the PZ Myers Southern California Tour 2007.

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I can’t really thank this guy for showing up, since he missed my entire talk and therefore missed the opportunity to absorb the PZ mojo and have his IQ doubled but some of you may know who he is. If you can’t, here’s a hint.

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PZ Myers at the Scripps

While I’m here in San Diego, I’ll also be giving a talk/hosting a discussion at the Scripps Institute on Friday at 3:00. The title is:

Sharing science: education, activism, and advocacy

I’m planning on telling the attendees the secret to getting a million visits per month to their blogs. No, actually — I’m going to discuss and justify diverse approaches to getting the public engaged in science issues, and I plan to mention both what I consider to be successes (but which may not change the wider conversations) and failures (which even so are of value). And it’s open to the public! Come on down to Vaughn 100 on the Scripps Institution of Oceanograph (map), and join in the conversation.

Northfield!

I have arrived in beautiful Northfield, MN (motto: “Cows, Colleges, and Contentment.” I expect a placid audience for my talk tonight). My first impression, right after passing St Olaf College, was an odd one: what is that strange chocolatey aroma I’m smelling everywhere? Shortly afterwards I came upon a gigantic Malt-O-Meal plant, and all was explained. I guess smelling like Malt-O-Meal isn’t the worst thing that could happen to a college town, although there is one better: the UO campus at Eugene used to occasionally smell intensely of fresh-baked cinnamon rolls, thanks to a bakery down the street from it.

I have to mention one of the unfortunate things about Morris. It used to occasionally reek like yeasty sour beer, from the ethanol plant on the edge of town. They seem to have cleaned up their act in the last few years, and we rarely get that odor anymore. There were a few days this summer, though, where the wind was just right and we got treated to the stink of the local pig farms, which is not at all pleasant.

I think I’ll take the scent of breakfast cereal any day.