Trip summary: I can’t wait to move to the Pacific Northwest.
Though we did notice how green Portland was. I’d say environmentally friendly, but at times they didn’t seem too friendly about it. Some of the anti-littering signs seems border line threatening. There was part of the highway where we saw angry sign after angry sign, and being from Indiana, we all were expecting them to end in some angry Christian “You’re Going to Hell” sign – but it ended in a “Don’t Litter” sign. We did get a kick at how the fine for littering on the high way was orders of magnitude higher than the fine for not wearing a seat belt. But as biologists, we oddly approved of caring about the environment more than reckless humans. Oh, and I was very amused by the toilets that you could flush in two different ways depending on your…contribution. And apparently the toilets at the convention center used collected rain water to flush – neat!
We discovered we were within driving distance of Mount St. Helens, and being a bunch of geeky biologists, of course we decided to go the next day.
Lucky shot of Mount St. Helens with a mini rainbow!
It was amazing seeing the difference between the area affected by the blast zone and the untouched area. Even after thirty years much of the blast zone looked completely destroyed, void of any growth more than some grasses or shrubs. Parts of the trail were full of eerie dead tree stumps, made all the more ominous with the still-active volcano looming in the background.
But you know what was super eerie? The hill-sized chunks of mountain that were scattered across the landscape. Can you imagine hill-sized chunks of mountain being exploded out at you? I guess you wouldn’t have too long to contemplate it.
I learned a very cool fact while there, though. About 11% of the mountain has been recovered since the eruption in 1980. You can see it in my photo – it’s the little bump in the middle of the crater, the lava dome. This was super cool to me. I mean, I know geological structures form over time, but the idea of a mountain growing before our eyes was just so bizarrely cool.
We quickly started coming up with out disaster movie scenario. Nick would play the part of “Dude, there’s nothing wrong” comic relief. We imagined his demise would come while obliviously looking at some bird through his binoculars while the rest of us ran away from the ash and lava. I’d be the next to go due to me being the least in shape (Seriously, do not do a 5 mile 1,000 ft increase in elevation hike when you’re out of shape and have a sinus infection, ugh). The final scene would be Ben sacrificing himself to help Anna over some ledge, since that’s just how nice he is. And then Anna would have gone to the Evolution conference and nonchalantly informed our professor that two thirds of the lab had perished, with our advisor lamenting the fact that our research papers weren’t finished yet.
Yeah, we’re a little weird.
On the way out we stopped at this little restaurant on the side of the road called 19 Mile House, mainly because they claimed to have the best cobbler ever, and we wanted to test their claims. Their fries were insanely good, and their had a delightfully quirky owner:
Ben: So, what cobbler do you recommend?
Owner: Oh, they’re all horrible.
Ben: Well, which is less horrible?
Owner: The marionberry. It has cocaine in it.
Ben: *laughs* Oh yeah?
Owner: Yeah, the other ones only have methamphetamines.
Me: And then tomorrow morning [our Professor] reads a story in the newspaper about four Purdue students stranded on Mount St. Helens high and naked…
Needless to say, the cobbler was delicious. I went with apple blueberry, mmmmm.
Haystack Rock.
It was overcast, but still beautiful. All the little shops in the town were cute, too. We at at this place that had the most delicious clam chowder – if I ever go back, I’m definitely stopping there again (On Hemlock St next to the library, can’t remember the name). We left early in the afternoon, and of course it proceeded to clear up and become a beautiful blue-sky day after that. Ah well. On the way back to Portland we stopped at the Tillamook Cheese Factory, mainly because we all thought free cheese was a good idea. We ended up getting ice cream which was delicious (do you see a theme yet? We’re all bad food influences on each other).
Then we all remembered we were actually in Portland to go to an academic conference, not bum around, so we all started frantically practicing our talks for the conference.
Piano bar win
Last night I went to the piano bar at the Neon Cactus, our local popular drinking/dancing venue for college students. If you’re from Purdue, you know this is probably the most popular Thursday night tradition. It was my last night since I’m moving in a week, so a ton of my friends were there.
Bruce (the piano man) quickly pointed out that the Jesus camp people were here – namely two tables full of counselors from Camp Tecumseh. The first hour was filled with many lighthearted Christian/Jesus jokes, including Bruce feigning guilt whenever he swore or said something sexual and apologizing to the “Jesus table.”
Being a group of atheists, we couldn’t resist. We pooled our money and bought “Don’t Stop Believing” with the note “From the atheist table to the Jesus table.” The best part? They laughed and sang along with us.
Kudos to religious people with a sense of humor!
Society of Non-Theists wins Best Service Project!
Every year the Secular Student Alliance gives awards to affiliate groups that have gone above and beyond in categories like Community, Activism, and Education. I’m happy to share the news that the Society of Non-Theists at Purdue, the student organization that I founded and was president of, has won Best Service Project!
The Secular Student Alliance awarded its Best Service Project Award to the Society of Non-Theists at Purdue. The group partook in a number of community service efforts, including supporting a local food bank, cleaning up trash, and raising money to send an atheist to church. For the food bank, the Society of Non-Theists collected nearly 100 pounds of food as part of the university’s fall food drive. Then, the group cleaned up roughly 20 bags of trash as part of beautifying the grounds around campus.
In addition, the Society of Non-Theists at Purdue raised $360 to send an atheist to church. Inspired by Hemant Mehta’s “selling his soul on eBay,” the club collected money to send its members to a worship service. The group provided a number of collection jars, and each was filled with money to vote for a particular denomination. The church with the most in its jar would be the place where club members would visit, and all the proceeds were donated to a local food bank. Purdue’s efforts not only led to the raising of $360 and visiting of twelve churches; they also received local media coverage. We are pleased to present our 2010 Best Service Project Award to the Purdue Non-Theists!
I’m so proud of our club and excited that my last year as president ended on such a high note. And I’m sure current members of SNT will be happy about the $300 award prize – that more than doubles our treasury, so they’ll be able to do a lot of fun events in the future!
Nevada Tea Party candidate opposes abortion because rape is part of God’s plan
Sharron Angle is the Tea Party candidate running as a Republican in the Nevada senate race. Oh, and she’s a misogynistic godwalloping asshole:
MANDERS: I too am pro-life, but I’m also pro-choice. Do you understand what I say when I mean that?
ANGLE: Well, I’m pro responsible choice. There’s choice to abstain, choice to use contraceptives … there’s all kinds of good choice…
MANDERS: Is there any reason at all for an abortion?
ANGLE: Not in my book.
MANDERS: So, in other words, rape and incest would not be something?
ANGLE: You know, I’m a Christian, and I believe that God has a plan and a purpose for each one of our lives and that he can intercede in all kinds of situations and we need to have a little faith in many things.
I really don’t understand why Christians would want to promote the idea that God is a sadistic dick who’s making you get raped for your own good, but hey, feel free to continue your bad PR. What I do have a problem with is when you illogical fairy tales are going to hurt people and become public policy. The fact that people support this woman is terrifying.
The egg, the chicken, and evolution
A question from formspring.me:
“Who came first, the egg or the chicken?!”
The egg, of course! Reptiles were laying eggs before the first bird was even around. Now, if you’re specifically talking about a chicken egg, it gets a little more complicated. I was going to create my own explanation, but I think Wikipedia already does quite a nice job:
Since DNA can be modified only before birth, a mutation must have taken place at conception or within an egg such that an animal similar to a chicken, but not a chicken, laid the first chicken egg.[8][9] In this light, both the egg and the chicken evolved simultaneously from birds that were not chickens and did not lay chicken eggs but gradually became more and more like chickens over time.
However, a mutation in one individual is not normally considered a new species. A speciation event involves the separation of one population from its parent population, so that interbreeding ceases; this is the process whereby domesticated animals are genetically separated from their wild forebears. The whole separated group can then be recognized as a new species.
The modern chicken was believed to have descended from another closely related species of birds, the red junglefowl, but recently discovered genetic evidence suggests that the modern domestic chicken is a hybrid descendant of both the red junglefowl and the grey junglefowl.[10] Assuming the evidence bears out, a hybrid is a compelling scenario that the chicken egg, based on the second definition, came before the chicken.
There you go – a scientific answer to an age-old question! Of course, the Biblical viewpoint is that the chicken came first, since God created birds on the fourth day and made no mention of eggs. Guess proving the Bible wrong again is the cherry on top.
Geeky quickfire!
Questions from formspring.me:
Which Ninja turtle do you prefer?
Donatello, of course! How could the scientist not be my favorite? I’d always choose him in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turles video game for NES. I still remember how accomplished my friend and I felt if we made it to the skateboard level (we were in 1st grade, cut us some slack).
And just to prove my TMNT/art geekiness, I own this shirt:
So I hear we shall see Harry Potter nude in the next movie…could be wrong. The perv in me so wants to tho ;D
Hm, I’m torn. On one hand, I was never a fan of Harry in the books. He annoyed the living crap out of me. Pretty much all of his characteristics were the antithesis of traits I look for in a guy, so I never understood the Harry fangirling. On the other hand, I’m always for gratuitous male nudity, especially within my geeky fandoms. That and I like Daniel Radcliffe – he seems intelligent, witty, and humble. You know, traits that actually are attractive to me.
Now if someone invents a time machine and we get a Younger Alan Rickman nude scene, then I’ll join you in flailing.
WILL YOU SHOW ME YOUR POKEYMANZ!?
I’ll show you something even better:
Ah, the bad decisions we made at age 17. As a funny side note, we had no idea who that person in the Pikachu suit was.
Kangaroo rats!
Right now I’m about to give my talk at Evolution 2010. Don’t worry, I’m not blogging instead of practicing – I made this post a while ago. But I figured it would be appropriate to share some love for my study organism, the kangaroo rat! And what better way to do that than a David Attenborough clip:
That’s a different species than my particular k-rat: I study banner-tails, which are totally cuter with their fancy tails. For more information and photos, check out one of my previous posts about my research! Or just look at this cute little baby:
Religious accommodationism at Evolution 2010
Amongst evolutionary biologists, there are differing opinions on how to communicate science to the public and increase acceptance of evolution. One of these opinions is religious accommodationism, which attracts much ire from more outspoken activists such as PZ Myers and Jerry Coyne. While I happen to agree with them, I do understand not everyone does. There are those who believe science and religion are totally compatible, that theistic evolution is good enough, and that we need to mince our words lest we offend liberal theists who could be on our side.
However, I was surprised to find a whole 2 hour symposium at the Evolution 2010 conference devoted to accommodationism. It was the Communicating Science Symposium, which started with a talk by Robert T. Pennock on Communication Evolution, focusing on audience and message. You all know my love for evolution and communicating it to others, so I was initially very excited for this talk. It definitely had good parts, especially about carefully choosing our wording as to not confuse others (Don’t say you “believe” in evolution, don’t call it “Darwinism,” don’t say you have “faith” in science, etc).
But it quickly went downhill. Much of the talk was about distancing support of evolution with atheistic views – that we need to stress that religion and science is compatible so people in the “middle” can still accept theistic evolution. That people are more willing to accept evolution if they hear it from their pastor. He lauded Francis Collins and the BioLogos foundation for being pro-evolution…even though BioLogos just had a piece trying to reconcile Biblical Adam and Eve with evolution.
That’s why there’s a problem with accommodationism. It’s more about winning numbers for your cause than truly communicating and educating people about evolution. Are people truly supporters of evolution if they’re not accepting it as a natural process? Do people really understand natural selection if they think God is zapping in mutations or had a plan for humans to eventually evolve? Why is it that our tactic involves people preserving their religious beliefs (which are based on faith), but molding science (which is based on facts) to fit their world view? If anything, it should be the other way around. Religion should have to accommodate science.
The reason why people feel compelled to do this is because religion holds a special status in our society where it can’t be criticized, even when it’s blatantly wrong. This really came out in the second part of the symposium, which was by a woman from AAAS (I unfortunately missed her name). She said there’s no use in including creationists or atheists in the discussion because we’re extremists who won’t change our minds.
Yep – we don’t want to potentially alienate theistic allies, but it’s totally okay to ignore those atheist extremists. Why is theism worth accommodation, but secular opinions are not? I commented on this in the Q&A, saying if they’re accommodating religion they should also accommodate secular opinions, but all I received was an awkward “Okay” and the Q&A ended – where every other question got a long reply.
I guess it’s just disappointing seeing such a one sided representation of “communication” at a large conference. Should have spent my morning going to the research based talks.
The Secular Student Alliance conference is approaching!
This is a friendly reminder that the Secular Student Alliance conference is quickly approaching! It’s July 23-25 at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. If you’re involved in high school or college secular groups (or thinking about starting one), this is a wonderful opportunity. I wish I had attended when I was first starting the Society of Non-Theists – I learned so many useful group-running skills that would have made my life a lot easier. If you’re hard up for cash (aka a student), the SSA also awards travel grants to help you make the journey!
But the conference is not just for students. There will be a lot of great speakers talking about various non-theist issues, including (photos and descriptions shamelessly stolen from the SSA’s last newsletter):
Keynote Presentation by Greta Christina, atheist/LGBT activist and blogger: “What the Atheist Movement Can Learn from the LGBT Movement”
Hemant Mehta, chair of the SSA Board of Directors, author of “I Sold My Soul on eBay,” and blogger at the Friendly Atheist: “How the Religious Right Went After Me… and Lost”
Meeeeeeeeee, founder of the Society of Non-Theists at Purdue University, blogger at Blag Hag, and the founder of “Boobquake” presents “Edgy Yet Friendly”
Julia Galef, co-host and blogger at Rationally Speaking: “Moderating Discussion”
So even if you’re not a student, you should consider attending! The atmosphere alone is work it – it’s pretty awesome hanging out with a large group of godless heathens for a couple days. Plus, there’s a field trip to the zoo with a guided tour by a professor of human evolution, and there’s almost assuredly going to be at least one night out at a bar. And if you’re more motivated by charitable things, your registration fees help support the SSA, which could always use more money to help secular groups across the country. I had a blast last year, and I’m sure you will too.
Registration rates go up on July 1, so don’t wait!
Scientists discover bike riding is incredibly hard
To all the people who’ve made fun of me for never learning how to ride a bike*: Suck it.
Hmmm, why do I have a feeling this will just bring me more mockery?
*Yes, really. Yes, I tried. I have no sense of balance and was never interested enough to put forth the extra effort. My family gave up trying to teach me when I outgrew my bike. My dad would taunt me that I would be the first person to get their driver’s license before learning to ride a bike, in hopes that it would guilt me into learning. I thought this was amusing, so that’s what I did.
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