Time to consider the bad habits of the habitual thread.
(Current totals: 11,388 entries with 1,192,580 comments.)
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
Time to consider the bad habits of the habitual thread.
(Current totals: 11,388 entries with 1,192,580 comments.)
Here’s a fine collection of photos from Skepticon, including several of us in a lovely leather top hat. I think I need to get one for myself.
I’d like to see hats come back into style anyway. It seems like only Texans and their Stetsons that have kept up the practice.
For all you Symphony of Science fans — here’s a fresh entry.
And for all of you who hate autotuning—don’t click play!
You all want to know what is going on in the minds of my students, right? Here you go.
Hannah writes about mitochondria, autism, and pain.
Lisa writes about autism, the dog genome, and sea urchins.
Logan writes about giant insects.
Kele has survived his senior seminar and is now writing about the genetics of Mario.
Rev. Frost is falling behind.
So is Anthony.
Gonza275 writes about treefrogs, the T allele, and developmental mathematics.
At last, I am safely home after an excessively long and annoying trip back from Skepticon. One of the pleasures of these trips, at least, is meeting ferocious Pharyngulistas who are otherwise just fierce pseudonyms on a page, and who usually turn out to be fun and interesting human beings. Here’s one nice photo of some familiar people:
From left to right, that’s:
Mattir, Tone of Death
cicely, Death’s Imaginary Friend
Reality Enforcer, Spawn of Death
The Floating Cheerful Head of PZ
Blake Stacey
KOPD, Death’s Chia Pet supplier
Jules, Bride of Death
Rey Fox, He who has nothing to do with Death
Now it’s almost noon here, and I’ve got a frantic quantity of work to catch up on, and a whole long evening of administrative duties.
It was a rough night—roads in Minneapolis were clear, so I managed to drive halfway home, but then they turned into glassy sheets of frozen slickness, so I stopped for the late night at a cheap motel. Now the journey resumes by daylight, at least. It’s still icy, but at least I’ll be able to see.
I’m relieved that there will be no more travel this semester.
The current silly Skepticon controversy is easily resolved: just vote on it.
How much of a so-called skeptic convention can be about religion?
None 0% (0 votes)
No more than 25% 0% (0 votes)
No more than 50% 0% (0 votes)
Just so long as it isn’t all of it 25% (3 votes)
All of it, why not? 75% (9 votes)
Nicely done. There’s only one choice that isn’t arbitrary and incoherent and unjustifiable; I’d like to see the complainers confront the specific details of their position.
Oh, and by the way, I haven’t escaped Missouri yet — I’m stuck in an airport, waiting to fly out, and facing the prospect of some fierce, nasty, icy weather in Minnesota. I might be holing up in a hotel waiting for the snow and ice to clear tonight.
Let’s see…where am I? Oh, yeah. Springfield. Skepticon. My talk went OK, it was an all-science talk, and maybe disappointed those who expected me to lasso a god out of the sky, set him on fire, and stomp on his smoldering carcass. Afterwards, the party went on for quite a while. I was supposed to referee a drinking contest between Rebecca Watson and Richard Carrier, but they both faded pathetically early, forcing me to continue on for both of them.
No sleep for me. I ended up shooting the breeze all night long with DJ Grothe and Amanda Marcotte and Bug Girl and a few others.
Now I’ve got a long day of travel ahead. I expect to simply sleep through it all.
Forgive the neglect lately, but I’m a) distracted by the chaos that is Skepticon, and b) mildly enfreakened out by the fact that my talk is still not ready for prime time, and I have to give it in a few hours. So now I see that the thread of perpetual growth is getting overlong, despite the fact several of the participants ought to be similarly distracted because they’re also here at the meeting (Hello, Mattir & Spawn).
Oh, well. I babble at 7, ending the agony, and then it’s some kind of party time all night long.
(Current totals: 11,379 entries with 1,191,005 comments.)
