Blue Collar Scientist

Some of the members of the brand-new Science and Skepticism in Anchorage group descended upon a local restaurant for food, drink, and talk last Friday, and we had a great time. The discussion was stimulating and wide-ranging - at my end of the long table, we talked about

• asymmetrically-drawn pterosaurs;
• dinosaur skulls;
• Apple Newton vs. Apple iPhone (and yes, this did involve the sighting of a Newton in the wild!);
• the validity of Homo floresiensis as a taxon (consensus: we think it is valid);
• how a Mac with a drawing tablet would be really cool for some of us (it isn’t clear to me, but then, I lack imagination);

and a bunch of other stuff. Someone there, who hadn’t read it, asked me about my blog post about the supposed Sumerian observation of an asteroid impact. I gave a description of the problems with the impact hypothesis, as well as an explanation of why I felt several of the details were implausible in the extreme, and then was asked to sum up my views in one sentence or less. I replied by saying “I doubt it very much.”

So I got a big laugh today when I saw that The Greenbelt linked here drawing attention to that post, saying:

…Blue Collar Scientist’s look at a new book claiming that Sumerians observed an asteroid impact on Earth (hint: he doubts it very much).

Yes, that is exactly how I talk….

SSA has also embarked on a modest project. Scott and Zach, the two dinosaur experts in the group, have agreed to cook up a reading list on dinosaurs that will allow the interested layperson to get a good understanding of the subject. I’ve been picking up books on dinosaurs for a few years now, looking for a good title, and never quite sure whether I’ve got one, because I don’t have enough knowledge to evaluate my sources. So this will surely help me, at least. We’re going to set it up as a static webpage or PDF or something and host it for the world to use.

Next, I’m going to try to figure out how to get our entomologist to make a similarly-spirited contribution. :-)

Our next formal event will be in a few weeks, unless one of our members sets up something before then - which I encourage.

Tags: anchorage, meeting, science, skepticism

This entry was posted on Monday, April 14th, 2008 at 5:31 am and is filed under activism, public appearance, skepticism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.