Happy news for Stevens County: Senate Candidate Al Franken will be speaking in Morris this Thursday (Oct. 11) at 7:00 in the Science Auditorium on the UMM campus, in a talk is sponsored by the UMM College Democrats. No charge, open to the public, everyone should come.
I’ll be there!
Well, lookee here … an announcement in the local Morris paper.
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 7
TOM DEROSA will be at Morris Evangelical Free Church at 6:30 p.m., to present a creationist’s perspective about evolution. DeRosa’s presentation is free and open to the public.
I don’t think I have any plans for Sunday night. Wouldn’t an evening with an old pal of D. James Kennedy and the founder of the Creation Studies Institute be buckets of fun?
You should listen to his testimonial. He claims to be an atheist who was teaching evolution in the public schools (he was teaching physics and chemistry, though — what was he doing teaching biology?), and got upset because they cut back the science curriculum from a year to half a year. So he’s talking to someone at D. James Kennedy’s private Christian school (why?), and offers to apply for a position opening up there (what?), and his wife organizes a prayer chain so that the interview will go well (what? what?), and at the interview he learns that salvation is not a consequence of works as he previously thought (what? what? what?) but faith, and takes the job and becomes a Christian. Why, He sounds just like a real atheist.
Oh, and they have a “museum”, too.
If you’d rather not come out to Morris, DeRosa is going to be scuttling about this part of the state for a whole week, so you might find him closer to home, poisoning your community’s children’s minds. Of course, the Morris event will have the advantage of a more interesting audience. Heh.
All right, homies, I hope some of you are planning to show for the big rumble at the Bell Museum tonight. I’ve arrived, and I’m flexing and stretching on the home turf, getting ready … in other words, I’m hanging out at the Espresso Royale stoking up on caffeine. Here’s the deal:
Speaking Science 2.0: New Directions in Science Communications
Friday, September 28, 2007
7:30 p.m.
Bell Museum Auditorium
$5 Suggested Donation
I just noticed the unfortunate typo up there in the announcement: they misspelled “wrong” as N-E-W.
We’ll hash that out this evening, I think.
It’s Talk Like a Pirate Day, so let’s all heave a hearrrty “Arrr” and down a ration of grog.
Also, more significantly, today is the day of the
Freshman Biology Major Mixer!
In case any of our new biology majors at UMM didn’t get the word, but do read the blog, here’s the deal: party at my house, 300 College Avenue, 7pm tonight. Here’s a map, but you hardly need it — we’re right next door to the U.
The biology faculty will be providing the refreshments, we just want you to stop by and meet us all and your fellow budding biologists. It will be fun.
I doubt that I’ll be up to growling like a pirate in the evening, but I’ll have my Jolly Roger flying, and I’ll be sure to have some of my collection of pirate books out on the coffee table if anyone else wants to join in.
But sorry, no grog for you. You’re all under 21! Fizzy drinks and chips and cake instead!
It’s official. The big event is on. At the end of this month, it may be the end in more ways than one: four will enter, but only two will leave. It’s the Pretty Boys vs. the Godless Savages in a brutal debate at the Bell Museum.
SPECIAL EVENT:
Speaking Science 2.0: New Directions in Science Communication
Friday, September 28, 2007
7:30 p.m.
Bell Museum Auditorium
$5 Suggested DonationSeed magazine writers and influential science bloggers gather to discuss new directions in science communication. This lively panel discussion will cover a range of topics, including science and culture, public engagement with science, the role of scientists in the public discussion of science, and communication via the Internet, film, museums and other media. Author and journalist Chris Mooney, American University communications professor Matthew Nisbet, University of Minnesota anthropologist Greg Laden and University of Minnesota Morris biology professor PZ Myers will join moderator Jessica Marshall, a U of M science journalism lecturer. A reception in Dinkytown will follow the event.
Co-sponsored by the Bell Museum of Natural History; Seed Magazine/ScienceBlogs; The Humphrey Institute’s Center for Science, Technology and Public Policy; and the Minnesota Journalism Center.
For more information about ScienceBlogs visit: http://scienceblogs.com/
For more information about the Bell Museum visit: http://www.bellmuseum.org/
It’s gonna be intense, man.
If you can’t make it, rumor has it that it will also be taped for the Point of Inquiry podcast. A recording won’t fully capture the smell of fear or the texture of coagulating blood, though…SO BE THERE.
The Minnesota Family Council is a spawn of Dobson (it’s got “family” in the title, so you know it’s got to be evil), and it’s usually one of those organizations that lobbies to get legislative support for their hatred of women and gays. They are not nice people. If you’re ever in this state and want to see some splendid examples of calcified brains, this is the group you want to track down.
Anyway, they’re starting a new training program: the Minnesota Worldview Leadership Project. It’s the weirdest thing. Apparently, it’s a seminar and discussion series that is supposed to turn you into an even more fervent theocrat, ready to shape the United States into a more Christian nation. And, as you might guess, they don’t like evolution. They’re reading Nancy Pearcey, and John West is flying in to give a seminar…wait a minute, I thought Intelligent Design was a secular theory? Nah, never mind.
Friends for a Non-Violent World (FNVW)
Presents:
Leaving Iraq Now
Why it’s the best chance for peace & security and why September is our best
chance to make it happen.
Phil Steger
In Morris on
Saturday, September 8
11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Morris Public Library
America needs an “end the war” push in
the last months of 2007 to equal the “no
to war” push of 2003. Bring friends, neigh-
bors, family members. Learn why leaving
is the best, most just, most secure choice
for Iraqis and Americans. Learn why Sep-
tember is a must-act month for ending the
war and what YOU can do.
Phil Steger is a three-time traveler to Iraq and has
been one of Minnesota’s most prominent, widely
seen and best received voices explaining, opposing,
and proposing solutions to the U.S. war in Iraq. He
was executive director of FNVW from 2002 to 2007.
It’s been a regular gay social whirl here at Chez Myers; we’re having a party tonight, and last night, we had visitors from the Great White North, or “Ottawa” as they quaintly called it: Eamon Knight and Theo Bromine, familiar names to old hands at talk.origins. And they brought Canadian beer! I encourage all Canadians to feel free to swing south and stop by, as long as they follow suit. (It’s a beer called Maudite, appropriately enough, and I just got a close look at the label: 8% alcohol! Hide the lampshades, I’m going to be dancing tonight!)
Unfortunately, while they were gawking at the Big City of Morris — impressed, I’m sure, by the absence of large trees, polar bears, and glaciers — Canada got a little crazier. Or revealed some long-hidden lunacy.
John Vanasselt, with the Ontario Alliance of Christian Schools, said there is no reason why Ontario shouldn’t join other provinces that make room for religious beliefs within the public education system.
The alliance’s 78 schools already teach evolution in science class, but it is taught on par with creationism, he said.
It sounds to me like Mr Vanasselt has just made a case for removing state support from Canadian religious schools.
Don’t let this stop you all from visiting me, though: really, there’s no causal relationship between saying hello to that evil atheist in Minnesota and having your home transported back into the Middle Ages!
We had our very first meeting of UMM Campus Atheists, Skeptics, and Humanists tonight. About two dozen people had expressed interest before, so we expected, optimistically, about 20 people to show up. We got there a little early, and people were waiting for us … and then our 20 were there, and then more, and then more, and then more. I had to keep going up to the counter to tell them we were going to have to order a few more pizzas.
Final tally: 60 students showed up. We basically took over the whole restaurant.
She really hasn’t changed a bit.
Well, maybe a little. Skatje (since everyone asks how it’s pronounced, I’ll spell it out: scot-ya) is turning 17 today, and guess how she’s going to celebrate?
She’s hosting the first ever meeting of the UMM Campus Atheists, Skeptics, and Humanists, with free pizza, free discussion, and free thought at the Morris Pizza Hut, at 7:00. She’s a regular little godless debutante, I guess.
