Friendship Update
I’ve been storing up a lot of small update-ish sort of things, waiting to post them all at once to save you all from adding to the avalanche of posts we’ve had recently here on Skepchick. So!
First of all, those of you who are fans of Mike the Mad Biologist but were unable to see his talk at Boston Skeptics in the Pub can now head over to Google Video for the full audio and slideshow!
Second of all, New York City Skeptics have finally started selling the Darwin 2008 t-shirts you’ve all been bugging me about. See me model it below the fold!
Third of all, speaking of the New York City Skeptics, they’re hosting Massimo Pigliucci this Saturday. Be there!
Fourth of all, a message to those who know me personally: I have not dropped off the edge of the Earth, I merely retracted into hermit mode. This happens every now and again and I apologize and I will call eventually. To my dad and brother: sorry I didn’t call on your birthday.
I’m really jealous of all these meetups. Are there any skeptics in Florida? You would think there would be with JREF in Ft. Lauderdale and all…
I especially wish I could see Massimo Pigliucci – I love his articles in Skeptic.
It looks like I might be moving to NY in a year, since that’s how long it takes to get through all the read tape to work as a nurse in the U.S!
Really looking forward to attending some skeptic meetups. I found a video of a skeptic gathering that was held recently here in Sweden. What can I say, these guys really seem to know how to throw a party:
You missed my bris . . . Again!
Stacey, depending on where you are in FL, there are indeed some skeptical activities going on..there is the Tampa Bay Skeptics..and the last Wed of every month the JREF has a gathering in the evenings. I believe that CFI also has a Ft. Lauderdale branch.
Starting a South Florida skeptics organization is something I’ve always meant to do. Of course, then I moved to NYC and got a bit sidetracked! Perhaps in the future…
Michael,
Thank you for responding. Tampa Bay is a little far for me, but Ft. Lauderdale is just an hour. It might be worth investigating any interest in a Ft. Lauderdale version of Skeptics in the Pub.
Or Drinking Skeptically… ;-)
Oooh…why say “or” when you could possibly say “and”. ;)
Exactly! :-)
So this T-shirt brings up an issue I’ve been thinking about lately. Do these kind of proclamations of Darwin’s name just play into the hands of the folks who try to tar us with the epithet Darwinists? I think especially of Darwin Day and how that could totally become a target for the folks who claim Darwinism is little more than a religion of its own, with an idolatrous devotion to the man Darwin himself, rather than the scientific process which helps us know that evolution is correct.
Thoughts?
It’s just fun. And Darwin was a pretty cool guy, really. As in, the kind of guy who ate absolutely every animal he could get his hands on just to see how they tasted and also rode giant tortoises. No, seriously. He actually did that.
There never seems to be any meetups in Alberta. I might have to take things into my own hands and set something up, cause I get so jealous when I read about all the fun meetups.
I suppose it’s a legitimate concern, although I wonder if we should have the same concerns about using about the phrase “Newtonian physics” or about all of those Einstein posters hanging on dorm room walls. :-)
I’ve been wearing my Darwin ’08 shirt for weeks now and the reactions I’ve gotten have been uniformly positive. Every once in awhile I’ll have to explain to someone exactly who this Darwin guy is and what he’s running for.
IMO the opportunity to educate the public about evolution and have a bit of fun in the process far outweighs the possibility that creationists and their ilk will use the shirt to make false claims about the skeptical/scientific position. They’re going to do that anyway, and I’d just as soon wear a cool shirt.
Hope you feel better Rebecca!