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Brazilian Event in Laramie March 26-27

March 10th, 2010

I’ve got my own party going on March 26, but might well try to hit some of the events on the 27th.  If you’ve never partied with Brazilians, you’ve never partied…And Gisele Dias is a fun dance instructor.

BRASILEIRINHO - a Weekend of Brazilian Dance and Music

Friday March 26

Music and Social Change Forum, with Marcus Santos
3-5 pm at Washakie Center Rendezvous Room (free of charge)

Bossa Nova Show featuring Sergio Augusto and Tony Moreira
at Alice Hardie Stevens Center
7pm - Social Hour with Brazilian Refreshments and Biojewlery Exhibit/Sale
8pm - Show
Admission:  Student $15, General Public $20.00, includes a buffet of delicious Brazilian appetizers and a select beverage

Saturday March 27

An afternoon of free worshops at Washakie Center Rendezvous Room
12:30 - 2:30pm - Biojewelry Beading for a Cause
2:30 - 3:30pm - Samba and Afro-Brazilan Dance with Gisele Dias
3:30 - 4:30pm - Beginning Afro-Brazilian Percussion with Marcus Santos
4:30 - 6:30pm - Advanced Afro-Brazilian Percussion with Marcus Santos

Brazilian Dance and Percussion Party
at Alice Hardie Stevens Center
8pm-12am - Featuring Brazilian dance lessons with Gisele Dias and live Afro-Brazilian percussion with Marcus Santos and Bloco em FoCo.

Admission: Students $15, General Public $20, does not include food and drinks available for purchase

Tickets available at: Wyoming Union Ticket Office, The Bead Shop, Big Hollow Food Coop and Brown & Gold

Sponsored by WY-Partners of the Americas, Luso-Brazilian Club, ASUW and The Good Mule

All proceeds support the WY-POA Breast Cancer Project

Speaking in Rock Springs, WY on Wednesday

March 9th, 2010

This will be a version of my “Science in Movies” or “Science and Science Fiction” talks I’ve given a few times over the years.  If you’re not doing anything Wednesday night and you happen to be in Rock Springs (hundreds of you at least, I’m sure!), then come check me out at Western Wyoming Community College:

Only at Western

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Michael BrothertonAstronomer and author Michael S. Brotherton will be giving a lecture called “Science and Science Fiction,” an entertaining look at how science is portrayed in popular media. This event will take place at WWCC on Wednesday, March 10 at 7 p.m. in Room 1005 at the Rock Springs Campus. It is free and open to the public, and is sponsored by the WWCC Cultural Affairs Committee. The presentation will be fun and educational for anyone interested in science.

Michael Brotherton is an astronomer at the University of Wyoming, specializing in the study of quasars and other types of active galaxies thought to be powered by super-massive black holes. He is also a science fiction writer. He has sold a variety of short fiction to magazines and anthologies, and his two novels “Star Dragon” and “Spider Star” were published by Tor Books in 2003 and 2008. “Star Dragon” is about an expedition to a distant binary star system, and was a finalist for the John H. Campbell Award for best science fiction novel of the year. During the summer he runs a NASA-funded astronomy workshop for writers called Launch Pad.

Brotherton received a PhD from the University of Texas at Austin and has worked at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Kitt Peak National Observatory.  His research includes work with the Very Large Array (the “VLA”, a radio telescope in New Mexico featured in the movie Contact), the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, the Wyoming Infrared Observatory (WIRO) and many other facilities around and above the world.

Brotherton’s lecture will include a look at how science is portrayed in movies. He says, “Sometimes movies get the science just right, but not often.  While the biggest scientific blunders in movies may misinform audiences, they also lead to teachable moments.”

Monday Starlinks

March 8th, 2010

I wound up ranting about the 1-2 links related to the anti-science stuff yesterday rather than clearing all the links out of the queue.  Here they are.

Another article about the politicization of global warming science and some of the evil tricks deniers are using.

On the issue of scientific retractions, specifically on the subject of the non-existent autism-vaccine connection.

Warp Speed Will Kill You.  Seriously.  A scientist speaks…

Woman’s Day gives you tricks about how to look smart!  Some of them are actually kind of clever… These would be the kind of things I’d have characters in books do to show that they’re smart without me having to tell the reader that (show don’t tell is the rule).

Oh, I love this. Every time that creationists or anti-science types make me lose faith in people, I find something like this. Will a lava lamp work on Jupiter? God, I must find out!

Are strong female characters bad for women?  Strong characters are good for writers and readers, I know, and Lara Croft makes me feel as inadequate as Judge Dredd…

Apparently in the UK there’s a law that’s going to bring equality for non-drinkers, atheists, and vegans.

Before it passes, let me slam the non-drinkers, metaphorically, with the finding that wine helps women stay slimmer.

And the world is apparently going to end in Pennsylvania where they’re going to let supermarkets sell beer.  Seriously.  Luddites.

Check out the 1980s Cartoons on sale now on DVD.  Thundarr the Barbarian is all I have to say.  I’m going to show the intro of that show to my astronomy students I think…

Very NSFW video, essentially science fiction porn on a porn site, shot with a thermal infrared camera.  It’s called The Operation Jacob Pander 1995

Fette’s Vette music video:

And finally, the new Iron Man 2 trailer is out.  Watch it at youtube.

If You Homeschool, Don’t Use Religious Textbooks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

March 8th, 2010

I’m fucking serious about this.  A lot of people homeschool because they are religious idiots, fundamentalists of the worst sort, who don’t dare show their children what the world of science thinks about the origin of species on Earth, or pretty much anything that has even the most minor conflict with their handed-down lies.

As an educator, a smart and educated person, with intellectual integrity, who cares about our society’s children and the future, I am totally serious.

Personally, I think homeschooling can be a great thing.  A dedicated parent with a clue can do a better job than the public system in most places.  But I don’t believe that most do.  Which is a damn shame.

What set me off tonight?  Well, it’s stories about homeschooling textbooks excluding evolution (published by pro-Christian forces).  These people are fucking liars and IDiots (at best), brainwashers and cultists, honestly.  Moreover, folks like these reject all findings of science for the slightest of reasons, and are now lumping together for no reasonable reason things like evolution, climate change, etc.

Look, these folks are not rational.  Being tolerant doesn’t mean I don’t get to call them out for being irrational.  It means the government can’t squash them and I won’t either.  Except I will say what I think of them.  That’s freedom of speech.

If I had kids and the resources to homeschool, I would seriously consider it.  I don’t want smart dedicated kids with smart, dedicated families, to be tarnished by religious nimwits.

Internet Shopping Trick

March 5th, 2010

OK, I’m not that big of a commercial guy and I also don’t shop that much locally, given how I live in a small town and its hard or impossible to find some things.  So, I shop online a lot and deal with shipping costs and the trouble to return things that don’t work out (e.g., poorly fitting clothes or even furniture that isn’t right).

Here’s the trick now.

A lot of online vendors have promotions for new or repeat customers.  Coupons, if you will.  Anytime you see a place in the ordering process with a box for a “coupon code” or something like that, take a minute to google for “Vendorname coupon code.”  Chances are good you’ll find one that will work for you, too, and I think the vendors are still happy to get the sale.  I just did this today for Petco scratching posts — the only kind my cat will use (she’s rejected three other brands so far, finicky girl), and of course we have no Petcos in Laramie.  I saved $3.39.

Lots of sellers offer these, and there are websites that collect and list them.

Not my normal blog post, but something useful I wanted to share.

Ten Actors Who Look Like Aliens

March 3rd, 2010

Maybe this is in bad taste.  I don’t know.  I don’t care too much.  There are some weird looking actors out there who have gotten a lot of work over the years.  They’re not ugly.  They’re “Hollywood Ugly” which means you don’t scream when you see them and there’s something about the way they look that makes you keep looking.  Not sure what I mean?

Let’s start with Ron Perlman, who has done a lot of great work.  Quest for Fire, Hellboy, and on TV Beauty and the Beast.  Notice a pattern?  He’s playing cavemen, monsters, and demons, with minimal makeup.  Here he is being honored for his work portraying a beast:

Then there’s Steve Buscemi, who in the movie Fargo keeps being described as “funny looking.” Yeah. How about in other movies:

Reminds me of Marty Feldman (EYE-Gor in Young Frankenstein):

Then there’s Vincent Schiavelli who played alien John O’Conner in The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai and the crazy ghost in Ghost:

Willem Dafoe, oh yes, a natural for vampires and green goblins:

Oh, one of my faves! Michael Berryman…

Richard Kiel, Jaws from the old James Bond movies:

Rowan Atkinson, of Black Adder and Mr. Bean fame:

How about women? How about alien Shelly Duvall? Or maybe she’s from the future, or an elf, or something in the eyes, like Buscemi and Feldman…see her in a kafkaesque moment:

And finally, Tilda Swinton, that androgynous angel in Constantine:

Who did I forget? Who is more deserving???

Updated Video of the Stars in the Galactic Core

March 2nd, 2010

Courtesy Andrea Ghez via Cosmic Variance:

That’s the culmination of 15 years of hard work at Keck Observatory.  Stars orbiting the supermassive (several million solar masses) black hole at the center of our galaxy.  Totally cool.

Launch Pad 2010 Now Accepting Applications

February 28th, 2010

The site revision is done and we’re open for applications for this summer at www.launchpadworkshop.org.  Please spread the word!  Thanks.

Prometheus and Bob

February 28th, 2010

I can’t believe I’d never seen any of these before today, let alone heard of them.  Prometheus and Bob is a series of short cartoons about an alien trying to educate a caveman about various things 900,000 years ago.  They’re funny and clever.  Not always a tremendous about of science content, but good science fiction fun.  Thanks, America!

Here are some I watched and liked.  A lot more on youtube.

I actually think Bob looks more like E.T. than the alien…

Avatar: “The most demonic, satanic film I have ever seen.”

February 27th, 2010

People like this piss me off…luckily Avatar is the most popular movie ever and those preaching against it are in the minority here.  Jesus, this guy pisses me off.  The dude can’t even see he’s criticizing an alien ecosystem that literally works the way it does…

I really do believe that there are a lot of hateful evil things in the the message of mainstream Christianity, and it should be held out for examination and ridicule.  I just ridiculed an eastern religion (via Bill Maher), so let’s point out how silly the west is, too…this guy claims that Avatar is Eastern (but also from the devil).  Let him hang himself:

For more, check out Geeks of Doom’s article. (Thanks Angus!)

Bill Maher on the Dalai Lama

February 27th, 2010

…or most of it, from the end of his most recent New Rules part of his HBO show.  As sympathetic as I am to any region of the world under control of invaders (and we count among those invaders, unfortunately, too often), I am not in favor of reinstating any form of screwed up theocracy.  To wit… (the end part is the Dalai Lama rant).

Is the system picking the Dalai Lama really any different or more sensible from that of ancient England that was eventually overthrown?

Hubble Space Telescope Starlinks

February 26th, 2010

HST proposals are due today.  I meant to write a couple of serious original posts this week, and will fall short.  Had a lot of interesting links, however — maybe it’s clearer to me now why I work to deadline rather than getting things done early!

First, the SOHO satellite is tracking a giant magnetic filament on the sun.  Check it out in a time series of solar images.  A movie of it snapping.  A movie of some coronal mass ejections from it (see below).  I think there’s a chance of corresponding northern lights this weekend.  I’ll have to check on that (both online and out the window).

http://spaceweather.com/swpod2010/25feb10/c2_cme_anim.gif?PHPSESSID=63dckt61ftqpt9m0gl57lobgm7

A couple of different places covering the story about how liberals and atheists have higher IQs on average (see also here), and some other findings from a study of young adults.  I saw this spun a lot of different ways this past week.  Hard to say what to think about it without digging deeply into the study (e.g. exactly what the distributions look like rather than comparing only averages).  I think all the interpretations I saw are pretty biased.  Well, chew on it, for what it’s worth.

Here’s another, older article about the psychology of liberals vs. conservatives.  It’s been previously noted that liberals are less religious than conservatives (see article).  I also liked this bit:

“All people are born alike—except Republicans and Democrats,”quipped Groucho Marx, and in fact it turns out that personality differences between liberals and conservatives are evident in early childhood. In 1969, Berkeley professors Jack and Jeanne Block embarked on a study of childhood personality, asking nursery school teachers to rate children’s temperaments. They weren’t even thinking about political orientation.

Twenty years later, they decided to compare the subjects’ childhood personalities with their political preferences as adults. They found arresting patterns. As kids, liberals had developed close relationships with peers and were rated by their teachers as self-reliant, energetic, impulsive, and resilient. People who were conservative at age 23 had been described by their teachers as easily victimized, easily offended, indecisive, fearful, rigid, inhibited, and vulnerable at age 3. The reason for the difference, the Blocks hypothesized, was that insecure kids most needed the reassurance of tradition and authority, and they found it in conservative politics.

Apparently women secretly lust after less-than-ripped, gray-haired and hairy, geeks who cry at movies.  Hmm.  I can get behind this!  Let these women come out of the closet!

Jesus was a vampire.  That would explain the rising from the dead thing, I guess.

And if your computer isn’t a vampire, on managing your digital remains.

Ten geekiest ways to hide your age.  I have a birthday coming up in a month, and I’m embracing 42.  It’ll be a Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy themed party.  I’m inviting guests to bring a towel and telling them “don’t panic!”

One of Douglas Adams’s buddies, Richard Dawkins, has apparently had some sort of episode over his website and forums.  The internet is leading to a lot of weird social problems among folks who should get along better (and exacerbating relations among those who shouldn’t and don’t).

New element 112 is Copernucium.

The particle zoo website of subatomic plush toys.  I love this!  (Thanks Travis!)  I may have to get these, or at least some of them.

A BBC article interviewing physicist Sidney Perkowitz about three films with horrible science.  Only three???  Well, The Core is there so that’s one big stinker!  Perkowitz recommends allowing one fantastic thing per movie but trying to get everything else right.  This is very similar to a rule that writers use concerning one coincidence per story but not more.

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