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.

Last Thursday, I attended the Anchorage Science/Skeptics meetup as planned, and it was a ripping success! So much so that we’ve decided to do it again and again, and have set up a Google group for event announcements and member discussions.

Image courtesy the unknown barista who agreed to take the shot with Zach’s camera.

We had 14 people there at the peak, and at least three different conversations going on at any given time. Several people in attendance had heard about it from the announcement on Pharyngula, and a couple each from the announcement on Skepchick and Bad Astronomy.

Zach has already written up a review, so here are my highlights from the event:

• Zach and Scott Elyard told the story of the T. Rex skull cast that they worked on at the Alaska Museum of Natural History. And what an epic it was.
• Two people in the local media attended and determined they knew each other as colleagues.
• Ceci, who had read of PZ Myers’ expulsion from Expelled not long before our event started, was fairly bursting at the seams and made sure to tell us all to go read Pharyngula when we got home.
• Greg, Scott Rhode, Kent, and I discussed the difficulties of experimental design in psychology - a topic I’m barely educated in and yet strangely still opinionated about.
• Harun Yahya’s Atlas of Creation was shown in all its 50-lb, glossy-paged glory, complete with photos of fishing lures represented as living insects.
• Paleoart was not only shown, but produced, right there at the event!

I was down at one end of our long table, so I wasn’t able to track whatever was happening at the other end. We had that many people - we shoved together a bunch of tables into something approximately as long as an aircraft carrier, and then filled all the seats and then some.

We had a discussion of whether or not to do this again, and the consensus was yes, definitely. I was placed in charge of setting up a mailing list for event announcements and discussions amongst members. I unilaterally chose the name Science and Skepticism in Anchorage¹ for the name of our little dis-organization, and as mentioned above I’ve set up a mailing list for us. Check it out and sign up if you’d like.

Based on our discussions, we’re planning to hold an event about every three weeks or so, on different days of the week so that everyone interested gets a chance to attend at least some events. We will also cycle between coffee shops, restaurants, bars, and probably even my living room, so that we don’t get stale staring at the same walls, or bogged down with the same kind of venue each time. There are also plans to conduct an occasional Barcamp type event, a mini-conference with our members giving short presentations on topics of interest.

So, if you want to get involved, head on over to our Google group and sign up!

1. The name is intelligently designed to avoid an unfortunate acronym of the sort that a local used car dealer is saddled with. [↩]

If you are interested in science, the skeptical movement, or rational thinking; if you read and enjoy Pharyngula (see also here), the Bad Astronomy Blog, or Skepchick; and if you want to meet other such people, here’s all you have to do:

Go to the coffee shop at Barnes and Noble, tonight, Thursday, March 20, at 7:00 PM.

This meetup is co-sponsored by Zach Miller of the blog When Pigs Fly Returns, Scott Elyard of Coherent Lighthouse, and by yours truly.

If you don’t know any of us, just look for the MacBook with the JREF sticker on it:

The meeting will be informal and social, but we’ve got a couple activities on deck. According to Zach:

Scott is going to show everybody how to draw Euparkeria and I’m going to teach people how pterosaurs folded their wings. Jeff (the BCS) will be giving the keynote speech, and I’ve heard that…whisper it softly…he’s made of cheese.

Zach must have at least some of his tongue in his cheek, for Scott was last seen complaining about his drawing of Euparkeria, and I do not actually have a speech prepared (although it is possible I am made of cheese - it seems we could somehow experimentally verify this at the meetup). I do look forward to a pterosaur demonstration from Zach and some dinosaur art from both Zach and Scott. I will have a couple videos to play regarding Mythbusters. And if I remember, I’ll bring my Atlas of Creation so we can all see the gorgeous pictures of fishing lures that they used in place of living insects.

We will also be discussing the next meetup - we’ll probably be doing this biweekly or monthly - and soliciting opinions on whether we want to pick a regular venue. But mainly, we’re there to have good conversation and a good time.

The Anchorage Daily News reports that Susan Hepburn is giving a number of presentations across the state to parents and teachers on autism. Hepburn is a child psychologist and has an evidence-based view of autism, as does the Alaska Autism Resource Center, based at the SESA offices in Anchorage.

Hepburn could use some media training, to judge by the answers that the ADN printed. But she does point out the CDC and Danish data that refutes a vaccine-autism link, and correctly calls autism “highly genetic.” The delivery is a tad bungled but the message is there.

Should we expect some backlash from the Mercury Militia DAN folks biomedical people vaccines suck lobby? I don’t know. I’m just raising an FYI in case anyone is going to attend these programs. The schedule is prominent at the Alaska Autism Resource Center site.