Random Asides
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Save the Date, Nonbelievers! (Plus something for the West Coast)
From April 20th to the 22nd, the Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard is throwing a big fat conference to celebrate 30 years of nonbelief! If you’re anywhere near New England/the East Coast/the United States/Earth, you should make plans to be there (and let me know!). Salman Rushdie, E.O. Wilson, Steven Pinker, Lori Lipman Brown, and lots of other freethinkers will be…
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Top 10 Naked People on Google Earth
As you know, I am a big fan of Google Earth. I was listening to “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me” on NPR last night as I was picking plagioclase crystals, and I heard Peter Sagal talking about a website that lists the Top 10 Naked People on Google Earth. I’m not sure what the makers of this website used for…
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Body Hair and Shaving, Part 2
So, last month I ranted about the requirements for women to purge their bodies of all hair. Now, aparently, it’s the guys’ turn. Guys are practically awash with all sorts of unsightly hair. And I’m not just talking about ears and knuckles. A market niche made to order! Phillips Norelco’s shaveeverywhere is a very entertaining website along the lines of…
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Nocturnal MIT
A nocturnal sugar glider… almost as cute as the average skepchick. The past few days I have been working quite late at MIT. Normally, I am one of those annoying, cheerful morning people. I’m the sort of bubbly person you want to throw your coffee at if you’re not a fellow morning person. Recently, I am becoming somewhat nocturnal. I…
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Stalk Your Friends With Google Earth
There are many ways to stalk your “friends” these days. The Facebook, My Space, and cell phones with GPS devices are a few examples of modern stalking tools. Google Earth is another tool you can use to stalk your “friends.” You can look up where they live, where they work, where they go on vacation, etc. and then tell them…
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Temporal Disconnect: An Underwater Oceanographic Institute?
I was walking along the beach today in Woods Hole here on Cape Cod. I wanted some fresh air and felt like collecting some seashells. You can always find the best seashells in the winter. There’s no one else on the beach, usually, so the biggest, most beautiful seashells will just be waiting for you there on the sand, perhaps…
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I Want an Omegatron
I am reading my new favorite book: “Geochronology and Thermochronology by the 40Ar/39Ar Method,” a book about how to use mass spectrometers to study argon isotopes in order to learn more about rocks. I am learning how argon isotopes can be used to infer the age and thermal history of rocks. In this book I was just reading about “The…
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Skepchick Costumes
Since we’ve been posting cool costume pics from the past, here’s my NASA flight suit pic from last Halloween: Halloween 2006. (This was taken at our work party during the day, which is why everyone, including me, looks so thrilled). I actually had to dig this costume out of the boys section because, unless you’re creative enough to make your own…
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