So, I wrote a thing. I've been meaning to write a short piece about what it's like, as a scientist and skeptic, to try to reason with creationists. I also wanted to illustrate the shifting boundaries of reasonable vs. unreasonable beliefs. The more we learn about the world, the smaller the domain of superstition becomes. What we take for granted ( Read more... )

Acted sensibly this year and bought my plane tickets way in advance. I'll be in the New England area from December 24th (5:00 pm) through January 3rd (6:00 am). I intend to ( Read more... )

I figured out which graduate school programs I am applying to for the Fall of 2011.

Arizona State University
School of Sustainability (SoS)
Human and Social Dimensions of Science and Technology (HSD)

UC Berkeley
Energy and Resources Group (ERG)
Environmental Science, Policy and Management (ESPM)

University of DelawareCenter for Energy and ( Read more... )

Another awesome thing that happened recently: we bought a metric shit-ton of peaches. (Note: one metric shit-ton is equivalent to 44 pounds in this example.) Here's what we made:


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I almost found a new place to live. It was a close thing - the apartments are too small, and there is no storage space, but other than that, it's practically the Perfect Apartment. The place was renovated by a local landscape architect, Bill Tonnesen, and I really dig his style. His approach is to sandblast away exterior paint and stucco ( Read more... )

A few pictures from last weekend's WIPE ride.

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The WIPE ride ended up being postponed for a grand total of one day, so we rode out on Saturday night and came back Sunday morning. I didn't take many pictures - it was too dark when we rode out for any decent action shots and the videos I took the following morning were accidentally shot in the wrong format, so they look pretty awful. We rode ( Read more... )

Never mind, the ride is postponed. Instead I bought a bunch of shiny cycling and camping gear! I bought my first pair of cycling shoes and pedals, a pedal wrench, a spoke key, some socks, and a foam mattress pad. This has been my first major purchase in a long time, but I think I'll get a lot of mileage out of everything I picked up today.

I'm off on a WIPE ride (Weekend Intense Picnicking Excursion) to McDowell Mountain State Park. Shall return with photographs and a sore bottom, probably.

I'm coming home for a quick visit. Should be in the NYC area August 15th and 16th, and Boston-ish the 17th through the 23rd.