Friday Random Ten: Bored silly in the Cities

My schedule is knocked all to heck today—there was some mess of an accident on I94 that cost me an extra hour and a half coming into the cities, and the cops in the U district sent me wondering all over the place in order to maximize congestion and protect some sporting event—so I’m not sure what I’ll be doing this evening now. I’m killing time in a coffeeshop, waiting for #1 Son to complete this interview thing, and then I’ll do something. I guess.

Oh, well. Here’s the weekly noise.

Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner Warren Zevon
Working for the Man PJ Harvey
The View Modest Mouse
Haiti The Arcade Fire
Suvetar (Goddess Of Spring) Gjallarhorn
Miss Kate Rusby Battlefield Band
Rouge Sang Saian Supa Crew
Forever Young Chris Isaak
Wanna get next to you Rose Royce
Sacred Darling Gogol Bordello

Department of not getting it

Be amused. The malevolent clown at Billy Dembski’s blog has joined the blithering clown at Telic Thoughts in calling for my head, because I’ve admitted that I will vote on matters of substance and scientific validity in tenure decisions. This will not do! Why, if college professors hinder the advancement of fools in academia, creationists will have more difficulty pretending to be credentialed scientists! What can they do?

My thoughts are that the University of Minnesota needs to censure Associate Professor Paul Myers and assure the public that he will not be allowed to participate in tenure decisions.

He also wonders if anyone wants to sue my university.

One does have to wonder how we’re supposed to make tenure decisions if the clown team has their way, and judging our science colleagues on the basis of their ideas about science isn’t allowed?

P.S. Sorry, I’m not linking to them, either. Don’t give ’em tenure, don’t give ’em links…it’s like I’m strangling the poor sad fellows.

Travelin’ man

My life isn’t easing up just yet as we wend our way to the imminent end of the term. I’m going to be flitting about over the next few days.

I’m chauffeuring #1 son to a job interview in Minneapolis today, and then returning him home to St Cloud again sometime this evening. I’m planning to be in St Cloud in time for a painful event: Kent Hovind is speaking there.

Date : April 28, 2006
Time : 7:00 pm – 10:00 pm
Title: Dr. Kent Hovind (Dr. Dino) — Creation v. Evolu.
Description: Dr. Kent Hovind or the more popularly known Dr. Dino, is one of the most requested speakers on the Creation and Evolution topic in churches and Universities all over the world. Dr. Hovind served as an educator for many years teaching Biology, Anatomy, Physical Science, Mathematics, Earth Science, and many other sciences. Dr. Hovind has debated the Creation and Evolution controversy over 100 times all over the world, in many large Universities, and on thousands of radio talk shows. Come and hear what Dr. Dino says on all sorts of scientific topics as well as taking questions from the audience. Again Dr. Hovind will be at Ritsche Auditorium @ 7pm on Friday, April 28.

Truth be told, I’m hoping something keeps me pleasantly occupied in the Twin Cities so I miss it.

Saturday is a day of rest. Actually, it’ll be a day of grading and lecture preparation, but at least I get to spend it at home.

On Sunday, 30 April, I’m traveling to the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point to give a talk in their Evolution Sunday lecture series. Look for me in Collins Classroom Center, Room 101, at 6:00 that evening.

Monday, I’ll be driving back home. My students are very sad that I’ll miss a day of lecture in my physiology course, but there’s no way I can be back in time for an 8AM class. They’ll get to sleep in, I’ll be on the road, slugging back coffee.

Tuesday is Drinking Liberally at the 331 Club in Minneapolis. You don’t want to miss this one: in addition to the usual suspects, like the Power Liberal and the Wege and many others, Jerome Armstrong and Markos Zúniga will be there, which is impressive enough…but also Bitch, Ph.D. will be dropping by. It’s like an evening of blogging royalty.

Wednesday I’ll be exhausted, but back to normal. I’ll be wrapping up the last few classes of the semester and giving a couple of final exams the week after. Sometime shortly after that I’ll be making another trip to Wisconsin, this time to Madison, to pick up #2 Son and his mountain of stuff and returning him to lovely Morris for his summer break.

I’ve got a few other summer travels planned, like a talk in Vegas and another in Minneapolis in July, but they’re too exhausting to contemplate right now.