Geologic Timescale
Here is one of the best illustrations of Geologic Time I’ve seen in a while, and certainly the best I’ve seen online. Most of them, inadvertently or not, end up magnifying our time at least a little, so that it is somehow disproportionate to the rest. This one seems much better about that. Check it out, and have fun scrolling along!
(Saw this on Pharyngula)
Leadership
I meant to blog about this in March, and never got around to it. Now I’m all nervous after my last post! Anyway.. A couple of months ago I was trucking along as usual, when I came a cross a link on one of my favorite blogs to a story about this. The link goes to a current story, but I only heard one kernel of it back in March..It’s about the South Dakota abortion ban that’s coming through the works now. The chief of the Oglala Sioux Tribe in South Dakota said that if the abortion ban goes into effect, she will have an abortion clinic opened on tribal land. In the state boundaries, but outside state jurisdiction. I was in awe..here, finally, was a leader taking a strong and brave stand on something important! She was in a unique position, and used it to stand up for women’s reproductive rights while thumbing her nose at the state government. This was no photo-op-based maverick macho posturing, but the real thing..
Now, there are movements fighting the abortion ban every step of the way, and maybe the challenges will work, and/or maybe a court will strike the ban down… But I remember what it felt like to read her words..and to see someone with the power and the capability to stand up to the anti-choice movement actually doing so, straightforward and unabashedly saying NO. And I think I had a taste of what an actual leader does.
Frightening about my hometown
So it turns out that the Chtorr really are attacking. This mystery disease eerily reminds me of parts from that sci fi saga about aliens invading the earth first with their ecology… slowly turning the planet hospitable to them and in the process giving us horrible plagues and true ecological warfare. Yikes.
And Austin is a city with one of the highest rates of infection. Double yikes.
*Update*
So my mother took it upon herself to fact check this fantastical little story, and it seems, indeed, too out there to be true. Sorry y’all..I just wasn’t skeptical enough… Most likely delusions on the part of people involved, with maybe a little hoax mixed in on someone’s part. She sent a link to this discussion board with some relevant comments..scroll through..halfway down or so some medical research folk pop in.. As an added bonus, we now know that I have a crack fact checking team backing this website up- my mom and, um, whoever else helps out!
Garfield, Made Good Again
When I was ten I thought Garfield was a great comic strip. Then, over the years, I watched it slowly degenerate around the same two jokes it always told.. (Or maybe as I grew older I simply noticed this. Exept I remember old Garfield strips that carried a storyline over a series of days..strips that actually involved changes of setting, pace, and activity.) Well I recently came across this forum where someone had taken old Garfield strips and removed all of the cat’s dialogue, creating a series of strips about a rather sad man talking to his cat.. It even becomes almost poignant at times! Well, apparently this has been done before with Garfield, and was taken down after some litiginous correspondence from PAWS inc. So check these out before they disappear..the manage to add quality to an otherwise soulless strip…
Amazing Decorations
Check out this video of some amazing Christmas decorations. (Make sure you have sound). Again, I wish my life were more like this. Meanwhile, we have a nice little snowstorm in Chicago tonight..supposed to be getting seven inches of snow.. It was very pretty as I left work, although just windy enough to really get into your face too.
Erica and I saw Murderball last night. I really really enjoyed it. A movie that manages to be inspirational without being sappy.. For anyone unfamiliar with it..it’s about quadriplegic rugby. These guys in custom armored wheelchairs tearing around a basketball court, crashing into each other and knocking each other over, talking trash and all that other contact sport stuff…it’s amazing. These folks are tough, not delicate, and it was really interesting noting my own reactions as I saw that in the movie.
Why I Hate Archeology, and moving beyond it
Don’t get me wrong..I’m sure archeologists are, on the whole, wonderful and intelligent people, doing some fantastic science. I didn’t always hate archeology either. When I was quite young, I simply didn’t care about it. Sure, we occasionally spent an inordinate amount of time on ancient Egypt in my elementary school, but this was simply a mild annoyance, learning about something for which I truly felt not the slightest spark of interest.
Things began to change once my interest in dinosaurs turned into an interest in paleontology. Or, perhaps, once I learned/decided that paleontology is what people who love dinosaurs do. Regardless, archeology began to intrude into my life and conversations with disturbing frequency. Whenever I told anyone of my interest in paleontology, they somehow must have heard ‘archeology’ because they would immediately talk about it: “Oh, I like archeology too!” or “So you like dinosaurs and stuff? Yeah, well I think those pyramids in Egypt are great.” or “Did you hear about that recent archeological find in _____?” The last one was far and away the most common, putting me in the awkward position of either pretending to care about ancient human history or trying to find a polite way of explaining that, no, I really do not care about that particular find in the least, and it’s nothing against that discovery, just that I find the whole enterprise entirely devoid of interest. As these conversations repeated over and over, every time I tried to tell someone new about my passion for dinosaurs and other long-dead animals, I became increasingly frustrated, and resentful of archeology. It came to symbolize for me humanity’s obsession with itself, our focus on studying ouselves instead of the world around us. I mean, how could anyone interested in ancient life not be primarily interested in ancient human civilizations??
In college I met an archeology major at a party once.. She went to a different school, and I’ve never seen her since. It was an eye-opening experience for me because she had the same problem! Whenever she told anyone about her archeology studies, they would immediately begin talking to her about dinosaurs! I began to feel sympathy for the archeologists, always being forced to talk about the spotlight-stealing, movie-grubbing dinosaurs instead of their true passion.
I just recently finished reading the Best American Science and Nature Writing for 2004. An archeology piece stood out for me. Written by Garrett G. Fagan, it was about pseudoscience and television. He lamented the preponderance of pseudoscience showing up in archeology shows, even on channels like Discovery or The Learning Channel. He delved a little bit into some reasons behind this… TV shows have to sell a story, and even documentary ones must do this. A common and successful formula is that of what I will call the vindicated visionary, (called The Vindicated Thinker in Fagan’s piece, but I like alliteration), a scientist with the courage to go against the mainstream and follow the evidence, who faces ridicule at first, but is, of course, eventually proven right as the evidence mounts and the mainstream comes around. The problem arises because this format is particularly easy to fit to pseudoscientists. Pseudoscientists almost always see themselves in this light. Indeed, someone comparing him or her self to Galileo or Newton as a misunderstood or suppressed scientific revolutionary is a dead giveaway that they are really off their rocker. The Baez Crackpot Index might be useful here. Check it out, particularly the later ones. Then, if you haven’t already, go read some pseudoscience and see how well the Index works. Anyhow, with pseudoscientists already telling their own, autobiographical, vindicated visionary stories, TV producers have an easy time buying into it, or at least, making a show out of it. And tadaa! we get pseudoscience in some prominent TV spots. Fagan goes on to suggest some ways to make exciting, but still accurate, archeology television.
After reading that piece, I found myself suddenly feeling some kinship with the archeologists. They’re facing the same attacks on good science that the paleontologists, geologists, and especially biologists are facing. That’s plenty reason for me to get over my own personal feelings about archeology.
Science, Autographs, and numbers
Last night ruled. Right out of the gate I knew it was gonna be good, since I have today off of work. I was planning on going to a talk and book signing by Chris Mooney, part of his tour supporting his brand new book, The Republican War on Science. First I went to Wow Bao, this fantastic steamed bun place that my roommate Katy recommended.. It was in the Water Tower Place, directly across the street from the Barnes and Noble where Chris Mooney was going to talk. In line at Wow Bao, I noticed someone familiar behind me: Maribeth! She’s a juggler who has worked backstage at the Blue Man Group for several years, and now she’s also helping to run CircEsteem, a Chicago youth circus I taught at a couple of years ago. She also collects and preserves dead things. We ordered some bao stuff together and while we were eating Katy caught up to us.. Wow Bao has some fantastic bao..I’ve been looking for a place like that for years..
I could not convince Maribeth to come to the talk or to juggling afterwards, so after the meal it was just Katy and me heading into Barnes and Noble. I bought a copy of the book, snagged a very front-and-center seat, and enjoyed a nice event. Chris Mooney was a pretty good speaker, although, and this is the same impression I got when watching him on The Daily Show, he seems to be cautious about his points, when I think a little more emphasis would help. He speaks very precisely, but often qualifies what he’s saying, almost correcting his own words…and when he’s talking about a huge crisis in terms of political intrusion into, and even corruption of, science, I think he could do well to really punch home some of his ideas. After some slightly plain questions (there were no strong right winger or religious right folks in the crowd to really get something started) he started signing books. On mine, in spite of the little post-it note with my name on it, he misspelled my name, giving it two t’s. I thought it was pretty funny, but he was very apologetic. After a bit we agreed that he could just scratch out one t….
I went straight to juggling at our new location after that.. By the time I got there it was just beginning to rain. Worked on numbers club passing with Michael, and on numbers ball passing with Bruce. Bruce and I had a couple of good runs with eleven balls, and even gave thirteen a try. It will be a while before we get very far with thirteen, I think…but that’s still way up there. Never been excited about ball passing before….
We juggled until midnight, and Michael kindly gave me a ride home. Now I get to enjoy a three day weekend, with the added bonus that Erica is getting back into town on Sunday after a week away in the northeast seeing family and friends..
Practice and Progress
So I’m hoping that starting this fall I can get back to practicing some really intense juggling. I think I haven’t really been practicing the amount that I want to ini the last year or two.. Events like the WJF and attending the IJA have kind of pointed that out to me. I’ve learned some cool stuff, but I could be doing amazing stuff if I manage to practice every day… Perhaps this sounds odd since the vast majority of this blog’s content is juggling…but really, I haven’t been practicing like I used to..I swear..
I’ve almost learned the five ball siteswap, (6x,4)…really cool looking, I think. Yesterday I decided to learn full on behind the back juggling. A bit loftier goal, but I was pleasantly surprised with the progress I made on it.
The secret plan is to start using our new juggling practice space as soon as I’m fully approved for it. This fancy athletic club is almost definitely hiring a couple of us to teach juggling classes, aiming to start this month. Once I’m officially an employee, I get an automatic membership there. It’s directly on my way home from work, so I plan to stop there as many nights as I can manage. Well lit, air conditioned rooms with high ceilings….it’s gonna be great…
Luis, our contact there, has a neato digital camera. He took a couple of videos of Bruce and myself working on passing stuff. I think I’ll try to get some more videos up on here…
Games
The new IJA website at last has the results from the Davenport championships and games… Here are the games results..scroll down to the 8 Club Passing endurance to see Michael’s and my names at second place.
Meanwhile.. I had jury duty on Tuesday, starting 9:30 in the morning. Lots of waiting. My panel was finally called at around 2:00 in the afternoon. We went to a courtroom, met a judge, and all kinds of entertaining stuff. I was not selected. By luck, I wasn’t even called to be a real candidate.. Whew. I would like to do that one day, but not with the kind of case they’re gonna have, and not when my work is so very busy…
We are remodelling our offices.. Or at least moving around a bunch and redoing the carpet, paint, and wall stuff in one. Some newly hired bigwig is gonna move in there. It’s been a little stressful, but it’s almost done.
Some neat juggling happenings in the possible near future for me…I’ll post more as they get confirmed.
IJA Video
Alan Plotkin has a trailer up for his 2005 IJA Highlights dvd..Check it out. (On a side note..Alan lives in Austin?? Should I recognize him..is he a Texas Juggling Society regular?? Odd…) Anyhow, the video has lots of neat things..gives a decent flavor of the variety of juggling going on at the fest.. And has clips from some of the assorted shows. Check it out if you have lots of bandwidth to play with.
George had some questions about festivals vs my regular practice and stuff like that… The festivals are my main chance to learn and do difficult group passing patterns. Club passing with guys who are better than I am and can teach me insane patterns…that’s usually the highlight for me. In my home I usually practice ball juggling, seeing as there’s not so much room for clubs. At juggling club here, for the past year or two, I’ve worked almost exclusively on club juggling…solo and passing. Michael and I have been working on our numbers passing and are slowly conquering nine clubs. I’ve been working on three club tricks like reverse backcrosses, (where I throw the club in front of me and then reach around my back to catch it), juggling over my head, and other things like that. So I work on club juggling throughout the year, but yeah, the festivals are my main chance to do complicated patterns with larger groups of jugglers involved.
