Midwest Science of Origins Conference 2012

What a fine gathering of thoughtful, interesting, and engaged people...

Daughter Cassandra and I drove three hours Friday afternoon to join son Erik in Morris, Minnesota, for the MSOC.

Friday evening featured a nice lecture by PZ Myers titled The Evolution of Creationism.  Given his strong feelings on the topic PZ really was very, very nice as he reviewed the development of Young Earth Creationism over the course of the 20th century.

After PZ's talk Cassie, Erik, and I took the Dob to a dark spot just out of town for a look at Mars, Jupiter, Venus, and the moon.  The sky was just a touch hazy, but the kids were impressed with the five-inch Bushnell.  They look forward to enjoying it at their grandparents' lake cabin this summer.

On Saturday came the bulk of the program.

Professor Marco Peloso gave a very engaging lecture on what we know (and how we know it) about the evolution of the universe since the first second after the Big Bang.  Dr. Peloso has a very engaging style and made all attendees comfortable by the grace with which he entertained questions from the audience.

The organizers then led break-out sessions, which they called the World Café, in which attendees were invited to express their reasons for coming to MSOC and their thoughts regarding the role of science in modern society.

In the down time between sessions Cassie enjoyed Craig Ferguson's memoir American on Purpose: The Improbable Adventures of an Unlikely Patriot.  Having left my current read in the motel, I read the first book of the Koran on my iPhone. Yes, there's an app for that.

After lunch we retired to the Morris Area High School auditorium where Neil Shubin PhD gave a fascinating review of his team's discovery of Tiktaalik Roseae in the Canadia Arctic, right where the science told them it should be.  He was signing his book, Your Inner Fish: A Journey in to the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body, but alas, while its on my Goodreads to-read list, I do not yet own a copy for him to inscribe and the campus bookstore was closed Saturday.  Dr. Shubin's presence resulted in positive local media coverage in the  Morris Sun Tribune.

Having been told about our inner fish, Dr. Michael Wilson reminded us of our inner ape.  He reminded us that our nearest cousins share many of our finer qualities as well as our baser instincts.

The presentations ended with a talk by Professor Dan Demetriou and student Miles Taylor in which they discussed an idea they're developing for publication.  They propose adding Honor Ethos to the Jonathan Haidt's six moral foundations.  I look forward to following the evolution of their idea.

The day's talks concluded, many of us rolled over to Old No. 1 for beer, burgers, and spirited follow-on conversations, especially about the Wilson and Demetriou talks, at least at our end of the table, which is where the good doctors were sitting.  Also at our end of the table was Brianne Bilyeu, blogger of Biodork and Minnesota Skeptics fame.

On Sunday Cassie and Erik planned to play a round of disc golf at Pomme de Terre park while I attended the final lecture of the conference by Chris Stedman and participated in a service project.  Unfortunately, my Sunday morning sleep-in was interrupted by a call from the office and we had to drive home earlier than anticipated.

The first annual Midwest Science of Origins Conference was a wonderful achievement for its student organizers, especially considering their minuscule budget.  They should be very proud of what they accomplished.  We're already looking forward to next year.  Well done, Morris Freethinkers, well done!

Photo credit: http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2012/04/01/midwest-science-of-origins-conferenceall-done/

Just Teaching the Controversy

Maintaining a commitment to Young Earth Creationism must be a lot of work...

Refuting their pseudoscience, not so much.

Thanks to Jerry Coyne at WhyEvolutionIsTrue for the links.

Respond to Terrorism

Not with fear but with indomitability...

So reads the conclusion of an excellent post by Bruce Schneier recapitulating his online debate with former TSA administrator Kip Hawley.  The Economist hosted the discussion at their website (interesting format).  It's worth your time.

Refuse the terror.

This Could Be Habit-Forming

I took took my new Dobsonian telescope for a spin around the early night sky...

This month, the last of my 53rd year, I spent some of my holiday gift money on something I've long thought about buying - a telescope.  The Bushnell ARES 5 inch Compact Truss Tube Dobsonian Telescope had many nice reviews for a starter scope and the price was very nice at OpticsPlanet.  Everything cheaper was smaller and had fewer features.  Everything more expensive was a lot more expensive.

I adjusted the collimation of the secondary and primary mirrors with a home made tool this evening and took it outside a little after sunset.  I used the moon as a target to zero the red dot finder scope (I ran out of adjustment; it'll need a shim).  The moon filled the eyepiece and the craters looked like I could reach out and touch them.  By then Venus was shining.  It is almost annoyingly bright and it was only quarter phase.  Then a pinprick of light appeared a fist width below it in the darkening sky.  Yes, it was Jupiter and its four Galilean moons.  I could make out bands of color.  I invited the folks to come have a look and then texted the kids and my sister-in-law, whose gift funded this neat purchase.  As Jupiter descended into the trees to the west Mars was rising above the trees to the east.  I reoriented my little Dobs and had a look at the small orange dot.  Not a bad start for my first night observing the sky in the light polluted suburbs.  This telescope will be a hoot at the cabin this summer.  Fun, fun, fun.

What Did You Learn?

Asks a peer at LinkedIn: "If you mentored a security professional in the last 12 months what did “YOU” learn?"

Among other things, I learned that:

Despite being a blogger and the possessor of an iPhone I'm a technological dinosaur.

Young people are smart in ways that are different from me and my fellow Boomers.

Young professionals are never unplugged, and they don't worry about it as much as I do.

That diversity is a opportunity to be leveraged, not a problem to be solved.

And I learned that, while I will inevitably lose the race to my younger and smarters, the only way I can hope even to remain connected with them is to continue to grow myself.