The Free-Ride offspring have put the wheels in motion to achieve financial independence from their parental units. They intend to make their fortune on T-shirt sales.
Poor deluded kids!
Anyway, they would like you to know that you can score your own copy of this artwork:
on a T-shirt, mug, or totebag, at CafePress.
I would like you to know that we value you as readers whether or not you buy any merchandise.
I have a couple posts brewing, but they will be delayed by my pile of scut work. Meanwhile, I have a new post at WAAGNFNP with my thoughts about why the (unionized) faculty in my university system took such a long time to feel ready to strike. It’s something you can read while you dodge your own stack of scut work.
… especially if you’ve just lost an hour to an unseasonably early Daylight Savings (can I blame the groundhog for this?), here are some attractive time sinks:
My humble haiku,
Clobbered in the poll — Unless
You vote, intervene.
Voting closes February 26, 11:59 PM EST — so act now!
(If you want to be sure you’re voting for mine, I reproduce them below the fold.)
Jim Gibbon has opened voting on his academic haiku contest. I urge you to check out all the 17-syllable distillations of scholarly works, but especially those in the physical sciences category.
Two of those haikus are mine. (Technically, one of them ought to be in the humanities category, but I can see how an exploration of philosophical issues in chemistry might look like it belongs in the physical sciences.) Here’s your chance to make me a winner!
As some of you will have noticed, I’m scheduled to give a talk at the 2007 North Carolina Science Blogging Conference in just under two weeks. This morning, I finished (kind of) working out that talk.
A few things worth noting:
… Page 3.14 shares the transcript. Go read what we said when Ben Cohen and I shot the cyberbreeze about Karl Popper and the allure he holds for scientists.
I can’t promise it will leave you ROTFLYAO, but it might make you 
TTFN.
If you’re ready to admit that we’re almost done with 2006 and that it might be OK to start making plans for 2007, check your calendar and think about coming to the 2007 North Carolina Science Blogging Conference, a “free, open and public event for scientists, educators, students, journalists, bloggers and anyone interested in discussing science communication, education and literacy on the Web.”
(more after the break)
This is going to look like I’m tooting my own horn again, but actually I’m tooting for Concerned Scientist Daniel Rhoads on this one. Meme Therapy has another installment in their “brain parade” series. In this one, they ask:
We’re seeing renewed attacks on evolution, certain branches of scientitic research and conspiracy theories involving climatologists and Global Warming. At the same time supernatural thinking (new age, crystals, ID, deified interpretations of the Gaia hypothesis) are thriving. Should we be concerned by the level of magical thinking in our society? And if so what, if anything can be done about it?
In addition to answers from Daniel and yours truly, you’ll find answers from authors Tim Pratt, Sean Williams and Jason Stoddard.
How is our vision of the world affected by the possibilities we see explored in science fiction? Meme Therapy asked a bunch of science fiction writers (and some philosopher of science), and got some interesting answers about reading and writing, grappling with conflicting messages, questioning authority, and being worried. Go read it.