Last night, LL and I went to the Greater Worcester Humanists holiday pot luck and yankee swap. There was a big announcement to start things off. Our chapter's president, David Niose, has been named president of the American Humanist Association. He'll begin serving his two-year term in January, moving up from his current position as treasurer of the organization.
It was also reported that due to the ongoing growth and success of we Greater Worcester Humanists, Cambridge-based Humanist Association of Massachusetts will be changing its name to Greater Boston Humanists to better convey their geographic extent. Big news; GWH is on the map all over the country.
The present I brought was an assortment of three books: Gould's The Panda's Thumb, Michael Shermer's Why People Believe Weird Things, and The Good Spell Book: Love Charms, Magical Cures, and Other Practical Sorcery. What good is Shermer's book without some weird beliefs as a companion volume, after all? As luck would have it, the person who wound up with the books was a woman whom I think was at least in her early 80's. I told her that I hoped the love spells would work for her. If she shows up at the next meeting with a 20 year-old boy toy, we'll all know why.
Since the Evolving Darwin Play Set seems to be the hot Humanist toy this year, I thought it would be only fair to "teach the controversy." I've thus intelligently designed an analogous toy for Creationists, the Creationist Darwin Play Set. Here's my prototype:
Will the stunning revelations never cease? When pressed during an interview with Tom Brokaw, Barack Obama waffled a bit before admitting that he hasn't been entirely successful in kicking his nicotine addiction. He still lights up from time to time, but he's promised that he won't do it in the White House.
During his interview with NBC News' Tom Brokaw over the weekend, President-elect Barack Obama acknowledged that he has had some trouble kicking his smoking habit but promised that the White House would remain a smoke-free zone.
"There are times where I've fallen off the wagon," Mr. Obama said when asked if he had stopped smoking...
Let's get the obvious out of the way. Smoking is bad. Kids, don't try this at home. Everybody tells you this stuff, so why should I repeat it? In most ways, this item is a non-story. The last eight years of radical misgovernment have left many aspects of our nation's well-being in smoking ruins. A smoking Executive? If he can pull America out of its historical nosedive and make repairs to our economy, infrastructure, international relations and commitment to education, I don't care if Obama likes to pound nails up his nose while singing the theme song from Bonanza at 3:00 in the morning in drag. Really, really bad drag. Get over yourselves, snap snap.
So while I'll readily admit that a smoking president might not be the greatest thing in the world, it's far from the worst. I say this as a smoker myself, and one who, like Obama, has made repeated and unsuccessful attempts to kick the habit. In light of that, my first bit of advice to the President-Elect, were he listening, would be to stay away from Chantix. It did weird things to me when I tried it, and I got my hands on a prescription the week after it went on the market. Chantix impaired my memory and caused me to have multiple episodes of sleep paralysis that left me an utter wreck after about two months on the stuff. We can't risk having that in a president. All things considered, he's better off sneaking out to the Rose Garden for the occasional smokebreak... and so are we if he stays away from varenicline.
So, even though I am painfully aware of how addictive cigarettes are and have a pretty thorough understanding of how and why they're so bad for you, I'm going to play the optimist here and speak about the upside of this nasty habit. Yes, there is one and no, it's not worth the health consequences and no, this isn't an endorsement of inhaling particulate matter. Still, the guy already smokes. Let's think about the lung being half-full for a moment.
In one way, I've benefited from being a smoker. Because we smokers are banned from indulging our habit indoors in the workplace (and rightfully so), we have to step away from whatever else we're doing every so often in order to pump a little sweet, sweet nicocrackatein into our bodies in order to be able to maintain our concentration and evenness of mood. It's boring to do that by ourselves, so smokers naturally form little cliques that take breaks together. From experience, I can say that these little sessions have allowed me the opportunity to learn about all sorts of things — useful things — from other smoking colleagues. This is as true now that I am studying biology as it was when I was a headhunter. It's hard to get time from people to simply learn from them what they know; everyone's days are pretty full. Those smokebreaks make it happen. I've learned about everything from inside information regarding the executive teams at high-tech startups to the problems with designing primers for insect mitochondrial genes from fellow junkies.
Might Obama reap the same sort of benefit from amongst the negative consequences of his unhealthful indulgence? He might. You know, he might not be the only world leader, or staffer employed by a world leader, who smokes. He might not be alone out there on the White House steps puffing away in the dead of winter. Who knows what breakthroughs might come when he's joined out there by some government official from another country? What inside knowledge might he gain from sharing a few tar-tawnied moments with a staffer traveling with the Prime Minister of Brunei? Scorn if you must, but these smoke session are intimate in a way that the inside of an office or conference room can never hope to be. You're removed from that environment. You're outside. Maybe you're cold and feeling a little alienated. It's natural that such a situation breeds candor amongst those involved. Obama's health might suffer just a little, but we as a nation might just come out ahead because of it.
I have another common trait I share with Obama, or at least I like to think so. Both he and I are highly educated and possessed of a level of intelligence markedly higher than the outgoing president. The latter is, in and of itself, not saying very much, I know. Still, from my own experience I can state that my own awareness of both the costs of smoking and my inability (so far) to quit is a rather humbling thing. It reminds me of my own frailties and it probably does the same for Obama. Such weaknesses are intrinsically humiliating things to anyone with even a modicum of self-awareness, and Obama's waffling in the interview likely demonstrates that he has experienced a similar awareness and its consequent humbling effect. I've long maintained that anyone narcissistic enough to think they ought to be president probably shouldn't be elected, so it's a hopeful sign that Obama gets this periodic thump upside his head with the two-by-four of an unresolved character flaw. He's aware that he's not perfect, that he can do wrong by himself. He's not likely to wave that silly banner of divine right and council like some Chief Executives we know. I'm aware that plenty of people will disagree with this notion that I prefer my humans both flawed and aware of their flaws. Lots of folks think that a president should be a spiritual leader of some sort, a shining paragon of white knight rectitude. Me, I like to see that the guy knows there are some chinks in the armor. It's hard to be humble when one thinks of themselves as perfected. Besides, as embarrassing a habit as smoking is, is it really any more humiliating than
I think not.
Now, look, the fact that Obama is going to sneak off for a cigarette when the pressure is on every so often is not something to be celebrated. Still, presidents have done a lot worse in recent memory. I'll take smoke-n-choke over shock-n-awe any day of the week.
So, Mr. President-Elect, smoke 'em if you got 'em until you don't need to get 'em anymore. From one smokin' schmuck to another, you have my sympathy on this. It must hurt to have the press and the naysayers jabbing their fingers into this bullet wound in your self-image. I'm sure Michelle gives you as much grief over the habit as LL gives me; I also can't smoke in my home or in my office and I'm quite acquainted with the winter winds of New England as one result. Still, maybe you can leverage this for our benefit somehow. Whatever it takes. If I'm ever in DC and see you out having a dose of the bad stuff, I'd love to come and join in your act of enlightened self-destruction. I've got a few thoughts on research funding, and so do you. We can talk about it while we die just a little.
Today is the last day that I will be here in Florida. The field work has been productive for both myself and my colleague. Each day has begun with our getting up no later than 6 AM, eating breakfast and getting out to the field before 8 AM in hopes of escaping the heat for a little while. That last part hasn't really worked, of course, because this is North Florida in early September we're talking about. A bank sign that gave the temperature in Tallahassee read 100° by the time we came in from the field yesterday.
I've collected numerous specimens of Tenebrionidae, Tetratomidae and Erotylidae. Already winging their way back to Massachusetts are such critters as Platydema ellipticus, Megalodacne heros, Neomida bicornis (the Florida morph, which has an orange prothorax — and which I suspect isn't actually the same species as the Northeastern N. bicornis), and Penthe obliquata. All in all, I've collected at least seven species for which I previously had no specimens and possibly more. I'll be able to better sort this out once I've gotten back to the lab in Worcester. I suspect the final total will be closer to ten. The specimens should be getting back there on Wednesday, and I'll be getting back on Thursday.
As for today, we're going to take care of some housekeeping. My field companion needs to get some water from within a pitcher plant back to her lab in order to culture the yeasts therein. Then we're going to do laundry; sweaty clothes accumulate quickly in this part of the world. After that, we'll play tourist for a bit and see the Florida Caverns in Marianna.
Don't get the impression that this trip has been all work. We've had time in the evenings to hang around with our gracious hosts, toss back a few beers and consume more than our fair share of oysters. It's been quite nice to see a few friends here in Tallahassee for the first time in over a year and also quite remarkable how well my mycological compatriot has fit in with them. She's generally an agreeable sort, of course, as long as one doesn't get between her and her oysters. The woman is a whirlwind of cocktail sauce and spent shells when the things are set before her; one could easily lose an intrusive hand!
I've been studiously avoiding mention of all things non-biological this week and no doubt have a ton of catching up to do on the latest in religious lunacies and electoral nincompooperies, and I could try to write a more detailed entry about this trip. I may still do that over the next few days as time permits. There will soon be photos as well. For now, though, I have to admit that as much as I've enjoyed the company of fellow science geeks and friends here in Florida, I'm feeling just a little bit lazy today. I'll neither be catching up with news nor editing photos today.
I'm also ready to get back home to LL. She's one of the very few things in this world I find even more interesting than a beetle-infested polyporoid fungus, truth be told. Yes, that's actually a compliment, and she's probably the only woman who knows me well enough to understand just how big of one it is.
For now, I'm going to step outside and get my first few breaths of the muggy morning air.
Today was my last day at the MSA conference. There's still one more day left, but for a variety of reasons I have to get up early tomorrow and make the long drive back to Worcester. Not the least of these is the fact that a petty, bureaucratic,politically-motivated dean at Florida State University has taken it upon himself to put up a massive and ridiculous roadblock in the way of LL's quest for a PhD. I won't get into the details; she'll write about it when and if she's ready. All I'll say is that I've never heard of such a moronic, pig-headed thing being done to someone who has been one of the few bright lights for a department that is now being dissolved largely because of the incompetence of another pig-headed bureaucrat in academic clothing. With people like these deans at the helm, I would have to advise anyone considering a PhD program at Florida State to put it as low on their list of possibilities as they can possibly can. If it were a boat, it would have the word "Titanic" painted at the prow.
Other than learning of LL being screwed over yet again, though, today was the kind of day that makes me regret having to leave a day early. Two lablings gave excellent presentations on their research as did my advisor. I take a good deal of pride in being part of this group even if I haven't begun contributing as much as I hope to... soon.
I had lunch today with Joey Spatafora and my advisor and so had the chance to listen in and/or talk about everything from plans for AFTOL2 to Wall-E and The Fantastic Planet. I learned that Joey reads this blog when he recognized me upon our introduction as Mike O'Risal. So did one of the postdocs from his lab. In fact, no fewer than four people I met today already knew me by my nom d'blog. I had best be careful not to mention my rampant crack addiction and penchant for devouring live kittens here. Someone might be looking.
Today was also the day of the Karling Lecture, delivered by Nick Talbot of the University of Exeter. The topic was "Investigating the biology of plant infection by the rice blast fungus Magnaporthe grisea using functional genomics." The rice blast fungus is a problem right up there with the potential of Puccinia graminis Ug99, wiping out up to 30% of the world's rice crops in any given year. Dr. Talbot's work on the mechanisms by which the fungus initiates and spreads infection seems to hold tremendous promise in addressing the problem. Some of the proteomics involved are well beyond the scope of my understanding; I'm not a proteins person by any stretch. Still, even I can grasp that if one can come to an understanding of how the subcellular mechanics of infection work, there's real hope of coming up with a solution.
After the Karling lecture, I met up with Meredith Blackwell and handed her three dead beetles. That might be perceived as an insult in some circles, but not in this one. I'll be sending some live specimens her way in the near future, too, and hopefully we'll be able to exchange some data and materials. I'm particularly looking forward to continued contact with the people I've met from her lab. Even though I don't think I'll be part of the next round of AFTOL research, others in my lab will be and her lab will also be involved, and we're all working on bugs and fungus in one way or another.
I had dinner at a little Indian place called Kaarma just around the corner from my hotel. I was joined by labling RiGa, Dan Durall from the University of British Columbia Okanagan, and Kentaro Hosaka from the National Museum of Nature and Science of Japan. It was a very nice cap to what has been an inspiring few days for me. If you should find yourself in State College, PA, I recommend checking out Kaarma.
I have indeed come away from this conference feeling inspired. I've got some new ideas and am itching to try them out, particularly when I get back from Florida laden with new specimens. Stephanie Gross and I talked today about there being a coleoptera/fungi symbiosis session at next year's MSA meeting. There are a bunch of us out there, and all we need to do is be in the same place at the same time with material to present. The place next year will be Snowbird in Utah and the time will be July 25-30, 2009. Now all I need is the material.
I'll get back to work on that on Thursday.
For now, my priorities are sleep and then the long drive back to Worcester. Sequences await.
Yesterday's foray yielded lots of interesting specimens, some of which I've photographed. I don't have time to post the photos yet, but I'll get to it later today. My schedule is very, very full and the day's sessions start at 8:00 AM today. There's some good stuff early on that I really don't want to miss.
Having the opportunity to meet and talk with some of these people has been both enlightening and a great deal of fun. I finally got the chance to meet Tom Volk in person yesterday after having spoken to him quite a bit when I was trying to decide on a graduate program. My companions on much of yesterday's foray were Brandon Matheny (whose nose, despite having been moved recently to Tennessee, is as sharp as ever), Martin Ryberg and Elisabet Sjökvist. Elisabet is both a fellow polypore researcher and affable conversationalist; it was particularly enjoyable getting to know her as we oohed and aahed over everything from Gomphus to Paxillus.
I also spent a good deal of time with some current and former members of Meredith Blackwell's lab at LSU. While I'm researching beetles that live inside of fungi, Dr. Blackwell's lab working on fungi that live inside of beetles. Stephanie Gross, Maritza Abril, Sung-Oui Suh and I shot the breeze a bit at the foray and reception. I must say that Dr. Suh was remarkably dry for a man who had just driven all the way from South Korea. I may well take Stephanie up on her offer to collect tenebrionidae in her neck of the Gulf Coast so long as she's not wearing the belt made from passalid guts that's he's threatening to create. Insect innards may seem amusing for awhile, Stephanie, but wearing one's guts on the outside is a fashion faux pas of tremendous magnitude.
I also got to spend a good deal of time at the reception with Heather Hallen-Adams and Rod Tulloss talking about Amanita. Well, they talked and I mostly listened. I learned more about the genus while sitting at the table and picking at popcorn than I have a in all my time to date. One should always say nice things about Amanita specialists; they know things. Dangerous things. Luckily for those of us studying the benignly non-lethal polypores, that's an easy thing to do. Heather has particularly good taste in pets, by the way, being the caretaker of a very handsome panther chameleon (one should say nice things about Amanita experts' pets as well, you know).
More later. It's time for me to get ready to go to the AFTOL session.
I'll be hitting the road and Pennsylvania-bound in just a few hours for the Mycological Society of America conference at Penn State. My companion for the trip is a postdoc from the Pfister Lab at Harvard. Don Pfister is himself receiving an award from the MSA for excellence in teaching. Considering that the hapless postdoc will be trapped on the road with me for about seven hours, I fully expect some of that excellent knowledge to diffuse into my brainpan. In any case, I have to be careful around Harvard people. These ivy leaguers are a rowdy bunch.
The conference program looks excellent, with lots of interesting talks and posters. David Geiser is writing an unofficial conference blog. I'll be updating from the conference as well.
It's a rare day that LL and I get to spend entirely together, and today was just such a day. We didn't do anything too unusual; that we did a lot of not much together was the important bit.
Much to my surprise, LL decided that she did want to go out for dinner after all. Seafood was the cuisine of choice, so we went to Coral Seafood Restaurant on Shrewsbury in Worcester. I had the shrimp and scallops with tortellini and she had baked scallops. All of it was terrific. Since her surgery, LL can only eat about 2 to 4 ounces of food every two hours or so. Most of her order came home with us; mine did not. She really does eat like a bird these days, but because she has to chew each mouthful very carefully it takes as long for her to eat a small amount as it does for me to eat... well... probably a little too much. The tortellini really was excellent, like a book I couldn't put down. We talked over dinner about things we hadn't talked about in a long time, from back when we first met, the little apartment she lived in while an intern in Forest Knoll and the Two Birds Restaurant and the first road trip we took together. We talked about how the people who knew us then didn't think we'd last three months, and here we are twelve years later about as happy together as any two people could be.
Because we went to dinner, it was too late by the time we were done to catch the beginning of the ballgame, so we decided to just see a movie instead. LL has a thing about clowns, so The Dark Knight was out. I find Abba about as enjoyable as a honey-dipped roll on a fire ant nest, so Mamma Mia wasn't going to happen. We've both enjoyed Guillermo del Toro's previous work, though (The Devil's Spine and Pan's Labyrinth are high on both of our lists), so we decided to see Hellboy II: The Golden Army.
It was alright for what it was. There wasn't much to it; a typical superhero action flick augmented by visuals similar to those in Pan's Labyrinth. Aside from the imagery, though, there was nothing particularly memorable about Hellboy. Being close in a darkened theater for two hours was the best part of the flick. What was on the screen was largely inconsequential.
It was a splendid day. One must grab those while one can; they don't come around nearly often enough.
Thanks to Jeff, Claudia, Steve and anyone who took the time to wish us a happy anniversary, whether they wrote that wish down or not. It was a happy anniversary, indeed.
LL tells me I'll be seeing certain local bloggers soon, too. I look forward to meeting you in person if we haven't already.
Greater Worcester Humanists held its third annual summer outing at the UU Church on Holden Street yesterday. The weather was fine, the food was good, and the conversation was jocular and illuminating.
The main event on the afternoon's agenda was a presentation by young humanist activist Matthew LaClair of Kearney, NJ. Readers may recall that LaClair was a junior in high school when he crossed paths with American History teacher and Baptist minister David Paszkiewicz, a popular teacher and full-time preacher who used the classroom as his pulpit. LaClair played excerpts from the recordings he made of Paszkiewicz's lessons as well as his statements during a meeting between LaClair, Paszkiewicz, principal Alfred Somma and superintendent Robert Mooney. His story is quite compelling, particularly in light of the maneuverings that took place by religious elements in both the academic administration and the news media after the story broke. It was too windy yesterday to record LaClair's presentation, but a similar one is available for viewing at C. Moran's Blog on the GWH website. Some of the audio recorded by LaClair can also be heard by playing the following MP3. The beginning of it is a bit muffled, so be patient. The quality improves.
Matt spoke for nearly two hours, ultimately fielding every question that came from the audience of about 50 people. I remember when I was 18 and had that kind of stamina! Well, vaguely, anyhow. It was the first time I've heard LaClair speak and I was impressed by what I heard. He was articulate and thoughtful well beyond what I'm used to experiencing from people his age. Matthew will be starting college at The New School in New York this fall and plans to major in journalism.
The Worcester Telegram and Gazette covered LaClair's talk; there's an article in this morning's edition by Bronislaus Kush in this morning's edition. It's a bit strange, though. For example, the photo that accompanies the article is not from the presentation given yesterday; it appears to be a very bad job of photoshopping that was composited from several different photographs). Most of the quotes in the article aren't real quotes but a paraphrasing of what LaClair said. The first paragraph is inaccurate as far as I recall; LaClair never said that he took the class hoping to learn about "how the founding fathers, among other things, framed the U.S. Constitution to guarantee that the government would be free of religious influences." Nor did he ever say that he "...should have guessed that he might find Mr. Paszkiewicz's course objectionable." Ironically, it seems that the article in the T&G is another example of the same sort of media bias that LaClair talked about during his presentation. Where the bit about LaClair reporting that the history teacher claimed that there were dinosaurs aboard Noah's Ark came from is beyond me; LaClair never mentioned it and it wasn't in any of the audio or video that he used in his presentation. It's worth noting that Kush has written some biased and inaccurate article in the T&G before on the subject of religion; it's not the first time his byline has appeared in this blog (see Catholic Men's Conference in Worcester Gets an Earful of Anthropic Fine-Tuning for a previous instance of Kush's reporting).
I spoke with facilitator David Niose about the possibility of having Michael Dowd give a presentation to our group next spring. David hadn't had time to go over the material I'd sent him — understandable, considering the schedule he keeps — but the outcome of our talk was positive in terms of the possibility becoming a reality. The next step in that will be to run the information by the GWH steering committee, which I'll get to over the course of the coming week.
Interestingly, one of the topics of conversation that came up at our table was that of the now-infamous Magic Cracker Kidnapping Incident. I promise that I wasn't the one who introduced it; the subject was broached by a woman whose name tag read Anne if I'm recalling correctly (and I apologize if I'm getting that wrong). This led into a broader talk about religious ritual in general, particularly as it pertains to Catholicism and Judaism and how complicated it all is. As all of the discussion of the incident in which I've been involved over the past couple of days has been in the nebulous blogosphere, I found it interesting to hear the discussion that took place in meatspace where at least half of those involved were not bloggers. It doesn't seem to make a difference, though. Everyone was agreed that Bill Donohue is a distemperate buffoon as far as I could discern. Those who knew of the fellow held that opinion of him before this latest incident, though, so this isn't exactly a surprise.
Tycho came along to the outing as well and got on well with the Humanists despite his not being human himself. He got to sample some of the fruit salad that someone brought and seemed to enjoy all the attention he got. There was one little boy there who was particularly enthused about Tycho's presence, so after a couple of hours, when Tycho had tired of riding on my shoulder and wanted to go exploring, I let him run around on the grass. The little boy followed him around and was quite focused on his behavior. At least a dozen people were brave enough to make physical contact with Tycho and everyone wanted to know to where he was native, what he ate, etc. It was a big day for Tycho and by the time the outing ended at 4:00 PM, Tycho was exhausted. He fell asleep in the car on the way home and didn't wake up when I put him back in his cage. This morning, he woke up hyper and, I think, ready to go out and explore the world some more.
It was a quite enjoyable day overall, despite the announcement that the membership fee is being increased for next year. If I can scrape the money together, though, I'll become a paid member. There's no meeting for GWH in August; the next one is on September 9, which I'll have to miss as I won't be back from fieldwork in Florida until the day after. I guess I'll see the GWH people next in October, then, when there is going to be a special surprise speaker. Who? I don't know. If I did, it wouldn't be much of a surprise. At some point next year, though, we're going to have Michael Newdow address the group.
After yesterday's foray, during which I generated a noteworthy amount of sweat and also slipped and fell into a bog, I came home to take a quick shower and grab a change of clothes. I figured that I'd be polite to the others working in the bio center and not subject them to the combined scent of DEET, perspiration and decayed vegetable matter that accompanied me everywhere I went.
As I prepared to leave, Tycho made it known that he wanted to be let out of his cage with a display of desperate jumping and scratching. I needed to get back to the lab, though, and didn't want to leave Tycho unattended and loose, so I decided to take him with me. Tycho was quite happy with this solution. As soon as we got to the car he settled down, content to climb up to his favorite spot and look out the window as we drove down Main Street.
Arriving back at the dirty lab (the one where we work on culturing and morphology, as opposed to the clean lab used for molecular work), Tycho found a spot from which he could both look out the window and keep an eye on me as I worked. He was perfectly content and relaxed, even comfortable as he laid his head upon the warm transformer of my laptop's power supply.
When fellow grad student CaKh came in and suggested that we have a smoke together, I brought Tycho along. I didn't want to return to a drunken lizard who had eaten my Coleoptera specimens preserved in 200-proof ethanol and thought he'd like to be out in the sunshine. He did; he even managed to catch a large fly, much to the amusement of CaKh who expressed surprise that Tycho's vision is accurate enough for him to have stalked the hapless insect from four feet away. Once he'd eaten, Tycho even gave us a display of his scaly superiority, vigorously and triumphantly bopping his head up and down.
We thereafter returned to the lab and soon labling Andy showed up. Tycho had since fallen asleep, having lodged himself comfortably between my dissection microscope and the wall. I let him sleep there until I was finished with my work and then it was time to go. I couldn't put my equipment away with Tycho in his spot, so I asked Andy if he'd like to see what happens when one startles a bearded dragon (hint: think reflexive erection of many sharp spines), and Andy came in and worked at a bolete he collected. I moved Tycho near to where he was working and Andy began pulling beetle larvae out of the bolete. Tycho got to eat those, too, which made both Andy and Tycho happy, it seemed.
After I'd stowed my stuff, it was time to head home. Tycho rode on my shoulder in the car and on the way we stopped off at the Main and Mill Mobil station. I don't like the idea of leaving Tycho alone in the car, especially since the theft of my MP3 player last April. Gadgets can be replaced; Tycho is unique. He remained on my shoulder as I went inside.
There's nothing quite like large exotic reptile to cause a stir when it shows up in an unexpected place. Everyone wanted to get a closer look. The first question, of course, was whether Tycho would bite. Well, perhaps he'd bite a cupcake, but a human? Humans aren't food. Tycho, I assured everyone, has never bitten anyone in his long life. Before long, a mother and her two young children were petting him. The female clerk, who told me that she's not only scared of reptiles but of dogs and cats as well, wanted me to stay until her sister came into the store to greet the bearded dragon with a scream. The real reaction was more of a gasp, but before I was permitted to leave the store that same clerk was having her picture taken by another clerk, Tycho perched calmly on her extended arm. So much for her fear of reptiles. Tycho wins another convert!
It was 7:00 PM by the time we got home, well past Tycho's usual bedtime. He'd had a big day — a ride in the car, exploring a new place, stalking and eating bugs he'd never tried before, and meeting a number of new humans. He didn't even want to watch television. As soon as he was back in his cage, Tycho wedged his head under his perching stick and passed out.
It's hard work being the goodwill ambassador from Squamata to the humans, but Tycho is again revved up and ready to go this morning. As soon as he awoke, he wanted out again. I'm going to bring him with me this afternoon when I attend the Greater Worcester Humanists summer outing. It's entirely possible that Tycho will get to meet Matthew LaClair. It's going to be a big day for the lizard that everyone loves.
It's the little things in life sometimes that bring the greatest pleasures... at least when one revels in being a geek.
The first thing I need to do today is to clean up some DNA I have waiting in the freezer. Among them are the rDNA sequences from Diaperis maculata. Once I've cleaned the DNA I'll be able to load it onto a plate and will get the sequences back and be able to add them to my alignments. I'll know a tiny bit more about the evolution of fungus-associated Coleoptera. This is enough to make me look forward to a Monday. It's the little things... and D. maculata is only 5-6 mm long. That qualifies as "little."
I also have to start work on securing permits for the collecting expedition in September. Two months should be enough lead time, hypothetically, but one never knows with bureaucracies. We just need a couple of good sites to work at, though. I'll probably put feelers out on more than we'll actually use. That way if the process gets too long and we get turned down for a couple of sites at the last minute, we'll still have a couple of back-ups. Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.
Speaking of science-related travel, it's only a month until I hit the road for Penn State and the annual Mycological Society of America meeting. It's the largest gathering of professional and amateur mycologists in the nation and promises to be a great time. I'm looking forward to the whole program, but I have to admit that I'm particularly tickled by the opportunity to collect in Pennsylvania, a state in which I've never forayed before. I'm even hauling my industrial-strength dehydrator on the trip so that folks can preserve specimens. The abstracts look like there will be some very interesting talks on fungal evolution and informatics tools. Folks from my lab are doing four of the presentations, I think. I'm not one of them yet (I've just started gathering data!) There are also a couple of talks by David Maddison that look like they'll be particularly interesting stuff. Days of full immersion... I can hardly wait.
Are any readers planning to attend MSA this year? If so, I'd love to meet up for a drink or two.
If you're new to this stuff and this is the first you're hearing about it and you'd like to attend, you can still register for the meeting. Even if you're a novice, you couldn't ask for a better opportunity to learn about fungi. Please consider joining us! If you're a newbie and can make it in time for the foray on August 10, I'd be more than happy to hang out with you in the field and help you get better acquainted with the various chitinous life-forms you'll encounter. I'd consider it a privilege to do so, in fact.
Today, and the next couple of months, are going to be great. Wonder-Geek Powers Activate!
A colleague from Harvard and I will be in North Florida to sample fungi and beetles from the area between September 3 and 10. The magnanimous Diego/James F/todabrilla has consented to put us up at his place for the week, insuring us of good company as well as saving two itinerant and impoverished graduate students the cost of a hotel. With our flight from Boston to Tampa now confirmed and lodging assured, I'll next be turning to securing the permits required to do our collecting legally. Flying into Tampa means that we'll have to make a three hour drive to Tallahassee, but it also saved us a ton of money on the cost of travel.
While our days will be filled with collecting, identifying and preserving specimens, I'm looking forward to seeing some old acquaintances in the evenings as well. I'll need to check into whether I can get access to some resources at Florida State (like a couple of microscopes), and in any case I expect to visit the campus and see a couple of my professors as well as attending a meeting of the Union of Freethinking Students. I'm certain I'll also pass at least one evening at Aladdin's Sheesha Café.
North Florida is one of the country's hottest biodiversity hotspots, renowned for its unique ecosystems and endemic species. Even though I spent five years investigating them on my own, it will be a whole new experience seeing them through eyes that have learned a great deal more about fungi and Coleoptera over the course of the past year. I must admit that it will be good to see the many venomous snakes that make field work in the area that much more exciting, too.
I could do without the Confederate flags, of course, but one doesn't see too many in the swamps and forests, anyhow.
Last night's celebration of LL's newly-minted American citizenship at Nick's was great fun. The rumors of Nick's serving absinthe are true; it's not on the menu yet, but they have Kübler. It's a Swiss brand and not too bad, though perhaps a bit on the sweet side as it was served. Nevertheless, this was the first time LL and I (and probably everyone else at our table) has drunk absinthe legally in the USA. And so, at long last, one of the burning questions of our times can be answered. What happens when biologists and anthropologists get together and drink a bunch of absinthe? Well, it looks something like this:
Around the table, from left to right, are Karen, Margit, Manfred, LL, myself, Andy and Ingo. A motlier crew of scientists and academics has never gathered at a Worcester tavern, I'm sure.
There's a joke in here somewhere that starts out with "Three Germans, an Arab, a Pakistani, a Californian and a Jew walk into a bar..." I haven't come up with the punchline yet, but it will have to include something about sauerbraten.
Here, Ingo is making an important point about... something... as Andy ponders the meaning of... something. Who knows what. Probably something about alignments and laccase genes and gastromycetization (yeah, right).
Nick's is a great hang-out. Last night, live music was provided by local musician Dan Burke. The wait staff is friendly and Nick himself is a nice guy who tends a mean bar. Three thumbs up (have I mentioned that mutation yet?)
If you're a reader of this blog in Worcester and looking for something to do at 8:00 PM tonight, LL and I and assorted friends and colleagues will be at Nick's Bar and Restaurant (124 Millbury Street) celebrating LL's new American citizenship. Come join us for absinthe, German food, beer, and conversation that will range from the profane to the truly geeky.
Why we're celebrating a Lebanese-born new American citizen by going out for German food I don't know. It doesn't have to make sense. Let's oompa and ululate in Wormtown tonight!
LL met up with a woman who "might have some web development gigs" yesterday. She told me that the woman's name was Claudia, but it didn't occur to me that this might be Claudia Snell of I'm from Worcester whom, in fact, she turned out to be.
Worcester may be the second largest city in this state, but sometimes it seems like it might still be a small town. How small? Small enough that I now know that someone in this town skips over my mushroom-related entries!
It's a funny thing. Hyphoid Logic doesn't have a huge readership; there are about 50 people subscribed to it through various syndications and the like, and on a good day it might get 200 hits. Nonetheless, its not unusual for me to go to some meeting in Worcester and have someone recognize me from that funny-looking picture over in the right-hand column of the screen and tell me that they read this thing. That happened most recently at the last Greater Worcester Humanists meeting I attended, for instance.
Tomorrow at 7:00 PM, the Greater Worcester Humanists will be meeting at the Unitarian Universalist Church at 90 Holden Street to discuss Religion and Politics in an Election Year. There will be a panel discussion and QA session. Panelists for the meeting are:
Rev. Richard Simpson, Rector of St. Francis Episcopal Church in Holden
Fr. Frank Scollen, Priest at St. Peters Catholic Church in Worcester
Rev. Aaron Payson, Minister of the UU Church in Worcester
Mr. Tahir Ali, Public Affairs Rep. of the Worcester Islamic Mosque
Mr. David Niose, President of the Greater Worcester Humanists.
Moderator: Rev. David Miller, Minister Emeritus of the UUC
GWH has also made available video from the last meeting on April 8. The speaker, zoologist Abigail Hafer of Curry College, gave a talk entitled "Unintelligent Design." The video is in three parts:
On Monday, May 26, it's time for another meeting of Boston Skeptics in the Pub. The meeting this time will be at Tommy Doyle's in Harvard Square, which is at 96 Winthrop Street, Cambridge. The speaker will be Patty Pieniadz former director of Narconon Connecticut, who left the Cult of Scientology after 27 years of membership.
Both of these events are free of charge, so if you're within range of Worcester and Cambridge, c'mon out and get rational and/or skeptical and/or drunk (at least at the Boston Skeptics meeting; leave the brewskis at home for GWH).
Last night's talk at the meeting of the Greater Worcester Humanists by Curry College professor of zoology Abigail Hafer was rather funny. I do mean "ha ha" funny by this. Officially entitled "Unintelligent Design," Hafer revealed at the outset that the alternative title was "Unintelligent Design and Men's Testicles," and she used the latter organs as a jumping-off point to explain five selected examples of what would be poorly designed systems in the human body if they had actually been designed. These included testicles, the eye, the epiglottis, the birth canal and the appendix. Hafer gave her audience an understanding of how these systems are only "good enough" in humans and how other living organisms in the world today have better ones (e.g., cephalopods have better eyes, kangaroos have a better solution for the trade-offs needed between bipedalism and birth canal size, whales a better separation of air and food passages that prevents choking). None of it was new information for me personally, but it was clear that most members of the audience considered all of this new information.
From a personal POV, what was most interesting to me was the long Q&A period after the talk. One of Hafer's main points was that the Intelligent Design movement is fundamentally political and not at all scientific. A good number of those in attendance wanted to know why; what is the political end here? This being Massachusetts, a place where in much of the state one can't swing a stick without hitting some sort of scientist or another, people around here really don't have much experience with Neocreationism, I suppose. Hafer seemed to think that money and power were a major motivation, that it was largely about political influence and the ability to pay oneself a handsome salary without actually having to produce anything, such as is done at the Discovery Institute. I added, when the opportunity arose, that people who wanted to find the motivation for Neocreationist politics need look no further than The Wedge Document.
When I had the opportunity to ask a question, I asked Dr. Hafer about what she thought would be an appropriate response to the propaganda embodied in Stein and Mathis' hit piece, Expelled. Interestingly, Hafer had never heard of it and neither had all but one other person in the audience of about 50. While that bit of celluloid trash may be creating buzz in the blogosphere, I don't think it has emerged much into popular consciousness and will ultimately be something that has little impact out in the real world. True-believers may go see the thing because some religious figure in their already anti-science madrass tells them that they should and perhaps a small sampling of scientists and pro-science people will also see it to keep tabs upon how far into the pits of sleazy lunacy the other side has managed to sink, but in the end it won't change things anymore than the Left Behind movies did. It will come and go and ultimately be relegated to the basements of fundamentalist churches, I think.
Another audience member brought up the Dover trial, and he was followed up by a woman who had heard of Michael Behe and essentially wondered what was wrong with the guy. She wasn't a scientist by any stretch; it was amusing to me to hear that she could see through Behe without a science degree.
One funny thing that I noticed is that a lot of the questions were about things far outside of the domain of biology. Hafer fielded questions about everything from artificial intelligence to attempts at getting her to predict the far evolutionary future of Homo sapiens. The inference I draw from such questions is that there are people who think that being a scientist entails some all-consuming knowledge of anything that sounds science-y. Without specific knowledge of a discipline, all this stuff seems to run together. Scientists aren't supposed to say "I don't know," even though that's largely what they do — just like everyone else on the planet, if they're honest. Hafer admitted to that, but clearly she was still having a good time speculating on such things as she answered the questions. That's also a commonality; we all like to speculate about the more interesting aspects of the future. It's fun to toss around some science fiction, even when there's more fiction than science.
So while the talk itself was good, the audience reaction and speculation was more informative for me. Future events are in the works, of course, and I'm sure I'll be attending them as time permits.
Before Saturday night's Laurie Anderson concert, LL and I met up with DaHi and MaHi for dinner at Lala Rokh on Beacon Hill. We were there a bit early, so we had a couple of drinks at the small bar and got a tour of some of the copious prints and paintings that decorate the restaurant. The staff was very friendly and professional and the decor of Lala Rokh was simultaneously intimately homey and stylish. The restaurant was celebrating the Persian New Year and a Sofreh-e Haft Seen was set up in one hallway; we got an explanation if its meaning.
When everyone had arrived, we were seated and given an appetizer of some bread and baba ghanouj that was different from the Arab version I'm used to but still very good. The restaurant was offering a special menu for the New Year celebration and, since we were reluctant to leave off our conversation to read the menu, we decided to take the easy way out and just order that. It was so convenient that it even came with appropriate wine pairings, with a white wine to go with the appetizer and a merlot to go with the main course.
I started off with ash rehsteh, a lentil and beef soup garnished with a bit of yogurt and absolutely delicious. My main course was lamb in a sauce with plums and tomatoes and, while I can't remember its name now (Ghurmi sabzi, maybe?) it was so good that I wanted to lick the plate when I was done with it. I refrained, but it wasn't easy. For dessert, I had a custard with shredded bits of sweet squash that elicited a similar desire. Including the suggested wine, the tab for the New Year's dinners came to $33 per person.
Everything at Lala Rokh was perfect. The food was flawless and the service combined just the right amounts of friendly professionalism and invisibility to be thorough and helpful without being intrusive. The atmosphere of the place was conducive to lively conversation and despite the place being full to capacity we never felt crowded and the noise level was surprisingly low. We probably would have spent another hour here if we hadn't had a concert to attend.
I'd have no compunction about going back to Lala Rokh again and again. It's hard to imagine that there are any better Persian restaurants in Boston, even if there were twenty other Persian restaurants in the city.
Lala Rokh is at 97 Mount Vernon Street, near the corner of Charles. It's a couple of blocks from the nearest train station and parking in the neighborhood looks to be hard to find; the restaurant offers valet parking for $16 or you can do what LL and I did and just take a cab over. Reservations are a must here; they can be made online or by calling 617-720-5511. If you're going to visit Boston, don't miss this place!
I was hoping to go on my first officially-sanctioned collecting trip to Wachusett today. The weather is not cooperating, however. Rain and sleet and ice pellets falling from the sky do not make for good conditions to clamber about in forests on the sides of mountains. It will have to wait.
On the other hand, I'm preparing for a productive season in the field. With the remainder of my research fund for the year, I've purchased two new geek-toys. First, there's a new dehydrator capable of accommodating large polypores. It's a beauty; by removing trays, I'll be able to dry even a large Fomitopsis in one piece. The dehydrator I've been using up until now is good for small fungi, but I'd need a band saw to slice up some of the woody polypores for them to fit. This way, I can preserve not only the fungi but the beetle galleries within them intact. Such things make me happy.
Second, I'm finally getting a new handheld GPS unit. I will always love my little Magellan, but I need something more accurate and reliable under heavy tree cover plus it needs to have basemaps of South America as well as North. I should be getting a shiny new Garmin GPSMap 76Cx delivered on Monday. It'll be useful to me not only for field collections in the US but also in Trinidad should I happen to find myself there this summer.
In the meanwhile, this weekend is looking to be a good one (aside from having to grade student assignments, which I'm going to try to get through today). Tomorrow, LL and I are heading to Boston where we'll meet up with my adviser and his wife for dinner at Lala Rokh after which we'll be going to see Laurie Anderson at the Boston Opera House on her Homeland tour.
Rather than attempting to drive, LL and I are going to take the train and check in at a hotel before dinner. We're going to spend the night in Boston and then come home on Sunday morning. That way, we won't have to worry about how long the show is going to run and whether we can make the last train back to Worcester at 11:00 PM. Besides, I hate driving in Boston.
It's going to be a great weekend, and I'll have new technological toys to play with when we get back. Who could ask for more?
I have just now walked into my apartment after the drive home from Cambridge. The first lesson I learned, even before arriving at the get together is this: don't drive to Cambridge. It is a crazy place in which to drive and an even crazier one in which to park.
The meeting itself was quite well attended and Skepchick Rebecca was an affable, even ebullient, hostess. For those who haven't met her in person, she actually does look quite like her cartoon avatar. Thanks to her for organizing the meeting as well as for giving me the occasion to use the word "ebullient" today.
Mike the Mad Biologist spoke about communicating about evolution to those who can't or won't wrap their heads around the concept, citing examples from his own study of bacterial genomics and the useful applications that arise therefrom in treating and preventing disease. Even most Creationists should be able to understand, he reasons, the connection between evolutionary theory and disease and so come around to understanding why disregarding good biology in favor of poor theology is an undesirable goal. The tactics he suggests using sounded very much to me like what I do anyhow — at least most of the time — so I don't plan on changing much based on his talk. I did get to lob a question his way about how to talk to people to whom the language of heredity might as well be Aramaic. His suggestion about how to talk to such people is, again, something I've tried. Unfortunately, I generally find that people who haven't the first clue about genes and the mechanisms by which they change and the ramifications of all this that we know about are frequently in such condition because they don't care enough to learn about it in the first place. They just want to put forth an opinion, which wouldn't be so bad if there weren't so many of them and they didn't bother electing equally ignorant representation at various levels of government. Nonetheless, he gave a well-reasoned answer that was the best he could muster. Perhaps he'll someday find himself in Baker County, Florida or thereabouts and get a better feel for the sorts of people whose attitudes toward these things are rather hard for me to describe in a 30-second question.
I met a few other people as well while enjoying a bit of Erdlinger Hefe-Weisen and shepherd's pie. I'm not sure if any of them have blogs, though I believe they know where to find me now and let me know if they do. There was a Josh, a Brian, an Elvin (who is working on computer modeling of human vision; neat stuff) and a British fellow whose name I didn't catch but with whom I happily conversed about probability and John Allen Paulos' Irreligion and other fun and skeptical, rationalist things. I also met a fellow whose name was Kerry or something close; my hearing problems make it hard for me to pick out words sometimes and one can only ask another to repeat his name so many times before it becomes a little embarassing and, I'm sure, annoying. However, this fellow also spoke of an interest in mushrooms, particularly chanterelles. It may have been CarrieP, author of Garlic is Love.
There is, I'm told, another meeting in the works for next month and I hope to attend once again. The Asgard is a fine place and has rather good shepherd's pie. I parked in the wrong garage tonight, though, being unfamiliar with the area. I pulled into the Lansdowne Street garage which, I noticed after I parked, is only intended for tenants and visitors of University Park. There is supposedly a $30 fine for parking there without getting one's ticket validated by University Park. Luckily for me there was no attendant on duty and the machine that takes payments didn't know I had no such validation, so I got away with shelling out only $7 for my spot. Next time, though, I still think I'd be better off taking the train. As Rebecca kindly pointed out, I could have drunk quite a bit more if it weren't for having to schlep the 60+ miles back to Worcester under my own power.
Tonight I'll be headed over to Cambridge for the meeting of the Boston Skeptics in the Pub. I'm sure it will be worth missing the showing of Undead or Alive by fellow grad students here at my university.
The gathering is being hosted or spoken to or what have you by Mike the Mad Biologist. This may get confusing, as I'm Mike the Mad Mycologist. Nonetheless, I'll be distinguishable by both my Florida State Biology garnet-and-gold t-shirt and my somewhat shinier dome.
I'm looking forward to meeting some of my fellow Massachusetts skeptics and science blogger types.
This blog is about whatever I'm pondering at the moment that I write in it. That may include anything at all. Mundane bits from my personal life, politics, science, fungi, genetics, media, dirty jokes, you name it. You're looking at the inside of my head when you're looking at this blog. Please don't litter and wipe your feet before entering. Thank you.
