Off my ASS for the SSA – Week 3

Starting weight: 186.4 lbs
Last week’s weight: 182.8 lbs
Current weight: 179.8 lbs
Weight loss this week: 3.0 lbs

Under 180 pounds, wooo!!!

Though when I look back, I weighed about 175 pounds before my senior year at Purdue. That’s what applying, interviewing at, and actually starting grad school will do to you – stress eating until you gain 10 pounds. Hurray.

Other than that, I don’t have any major weight loss revelations this week. I learned I don’t have to completely deprive myself of stuff like pizza and chocolate – I can just eat them in moderation. Amazing how that works.

Oh, and if you’re doing your own New Years resolution, maybe you’d be interested in the Secular Student Alliance’s Carrot and Stick Project. Executive Director August Brunsman found effective motivation to get healthy – he wrote two checks, one to the SSA, and the other to Campus Crusade for Christ. If he made his goal, he’d tear up the check to CRU. If not, well… you see why he lost the weight. Eek, CRU.

THIS is how feminists should critique science

By actually investigating the merit of its claims. And we have two wonderful examples of that over at Slate. Amanda Schaffer takes down the evolutionary psychology study that claimed ovulating women become more racist to avoid rape, and Emily Yoffe points out the pitfalls of a study claiming women walk unsexily when ovulating to reduce rape.

Notice how they don’t resort to building up straw-men, using emotional arguments, automatically disregarding something because it doesn’t fit with their ideology, asserting that scientific findings make moral judgments, claiming the whole field of evolutionary biology is bunk, or slinging around nonsensical pejoratives like “Dude Science” or “Bro Scientists.”

Other bloggers, take note at these great examples.

Please. If I hear someone seriously use the phrase “Dude Science” again, I’m going to lose my mind.

Are you an undergrad doing research in ecology or evolution?

Are you thinking about attending grad school? Then you should consider applying for the Undergraduate Diversity program for the Evolution 2011 conference. I was part of this program in 2009, and it was amazing for a number of reasons:

  • Evolution is a huge conference, with over a thousand people attending. It’s a great place to learn about cutting edge research, scope out potential graduate schools, and network with other scientists.
  • Presenting your research at a conference as an undergrad is an amazing experience. Not only is it great practice, but it’s excellent resume fodder. Not many undergrads get the opportunity, and it’ll definitely make you stand out on grad school applications.
  • The Undergrad Diversity program will pay all of your expenses (plane, housing, food) to attend the conference. If you have lab mates going, you get the bonus of rubbing it in.

You don’t have to be a minority to reply, but don’t be afraid to mention that you’re an atheist if you do – I did on my application. I know that in the past they haven’t had enough people applying for this, so you have a pretty good chance of getting in. Doesn’t hurt to try! The application is here.

And if you get in, say hello to me! Well, assuming I can convince my advisor (whoever that’ll be) to let me go this year, even though I probably won’t have any research to present. I wouldn’t be motivated to go to any old conference in Norman, Oklahoma, so you know it has to be awesome. That and I want to see my former labmates and meet ERV.

So, go apply!

Goal Unlocked: Attract Audience So Large It Violates Fire Code

Okay, I’m not sure if we were technically breaking any laws at my talk last night…but it was pretty damn close. Most of the Seattle Skeptics meetups in the pub have around 15 people attending, at least the ones I’ve gone to. When I arrived 15 minutes early, there were already 35 people there, and I got the last seat at one of the tables. 20 to 30 more people came after that, and some just could not physically fit into our side room of the pub. We were even making the restaurant run out of clean glasses.

To those of you we had to turn away, I’m sorry! We never thought the talk would be that popular. If you couldn’t hear or see anything, I’m sure I’ll give the talk again in Seattle at some point.

Thanks to everyone who came!

A horoscope I can get behind

Ha:

Scorpio Saturn rising in your sign will subject you to the powerful force of Fate, which everybody knows is stronger by far than electromagnetism, gravity, or the nuclear strong and weak forces.

Indeed! My other favorites include:

Capricorn Faith is the evidence of things not seen, which any well-rounded human being must admit is better than only trusting good hard provable evidence.

And

Aquarius This is a good week to spend with family, which is the kind of advice stupid old Ophiuchus would never have given you.

You can check out the rest here.

Another reason I’m glad I moved

Remember how Arizona wanted to instate horribly racist anti-immigration laws, and there was national uproar, from protests to boycotts? Well, apparently Indiana didn’t want to be left out of all the fun (emphasis mine):

A state lawmaker thinks it’s time Indiana followed Arizona’s lead in cracking down on illegal immigration — and wants to go even further by barring the use of any language but English in most government transactions.[…]

Like Arizona, the bill requires a state or local law enforcement officer who stops anyone for a violation of a law or ordinance to ask for proof that the person is here legally if the officer has “reasonable suspicion” the person is not either a citizen or a legal visitor. […]

Most government transactions, documents and meetings must be in English. That means the state would have to end the Spanish-language portal on its website, and stop issuing forms, such as voter registration or absentee ballots, in other languages. Exceptions are made for law enforcement and court proceedings; public health needs; tourism and international trade needs.[…]

The former home of the KKK just can’t be outdone in the battle for most racist state, can they? Come on, it’s a serious problem for Indiana – just look how close it is to the Mexican border. And those illegal immigrants are practically taking over. A whopping 5.5% of “Hoosiers” are Hispanic! They’re doomed!!! Better make sure even the legal immigrants can’t vote by making everything in English, or they’ll surely let all of their buddies in! And THEN where will we be?!

Though the Senator assures us it has nothing to do with race. I’m sure he’s very concerned about all the French speaking Canadians that have been dying to hide out in our corn fields.

Thanks, Indiana. This is why so many people in Seattle look at me with a mixture of horror and pity when I say where I’m from. You’re doing a great job living up to that image.

Ladies: How difficult was it leaving organized religion?

At my talk for the Seattle Atheists on Saturday (which went fabulously, thanks to those who showed up!), an audience member posed a very interesting question. Why are women more likely to be religious if the vast majority of religions are so sexist? It’s a question that’s been posed before, with some of the less satisfactory answers saying women are simply hard-wired to be superstitious (with no real evidence backs that up). I have my own hypothesis::

When you’re part of a sexist, patriarchal religion, often the only source of power you have is in raising a family or helping with social events (cooking, event planning, making sure the Church pot luck runs smoothly). You aren’t supposed to be the bread winner or waste time on other hobbies when you have children to raise. Because of this, leaving your religion makes you lose the only source of power you ever had. You no longer have the social structure of the church, and often times you are alienated from your family.

I don’t claim to be the first person to come up with this idea, but it’s very important that we talk about this. If this is correct, it illustrates the importance of having friendly godless social networks as safety nets for women leaving their religion. Groups based on debates, speakers, and intellectual sparring are awesome, but sometimes what you really just need is a friend.* And while I personally approve of pub nights, they’re not somewhere a women with children can easily visit.

But I’m basically a life long atheist, so I don’t even have personal experience to back up my claims. So I leave it to my readers:

Ladies, how difficult was it for you to leave organized religion? What helped you come out as an atheist? Or if you haven’t come out, attended meetings, etc, what would encourage you to do so? Do you think this hypothesis is the main reason why so many more women are religious, or is it something else?

*Obviously not saying that women are inherently uninterested in intellectual discourse about atheism. The women who don’t need the comfort of a social group are already leaving religion and participating in atheism – this is a step to get the other women more involved.

Off my ASS for the SSA – Week 2

Starting weight: 186.4 lbs
Last week’s weight: 181.8 lbs
Current weight: 182.8 lbs
Weight loss this week: -1.0 lbs

Whoopsie!

But I’m not worried – so many things cause minor fluctuations in weight, and I was down to 180.2 earlier this week. Since then I started EA Sports Active (less evil now that I’m on Easy mode, but still effective) . From the level of soreness that’s producing, I’m probably gaining muscle weight, which is good!

…And I totally gorged myself on Indian food for dinner last night, so I blame that too.

So, I’m not disappointed. I’m still on a good trajectory. I’ve been eating a lot better and actually doing more than sitting in front of my computer (though I still do that a lot).

Though JT pointed out that Lyz has added a Final Weigh-In to the SSA SoCal conference schedule. What is this nonsense, Lyz?! Not all scales are calibrated the same! And people weigh more in the afternoon! And I’ll be wearing significantly more clothing than when I usually weigh myself! AND YOU PUT IT AFTER LUNCH! That’s just cruel.

Don’t make me play the “I’m technically your boss’s boss” card ;P

…Time to go eat a salad and play DDR.