Wednesday, January 06, 2010

PZ does Northern California

Eight one-night stands

The estimable PZ Myers of the University of Minnesota (Morris) is bringing his one-man show to northern California later this month. The (in)famous Pharyngula blogger will be giving a talk on creationism and complexity. If I were to hazard a guess, I suspect Dr. Myers will be giving the lie to the argument beloved by intelligent design creationists: “Oh, my goodness! Look how complicated life is! God must have done it!”

Uh, no.

But it will sound more eloquent when presented by PZ.

I suspect that Dr. Myers made only one mistake in agreeing to his northern California jaunt: It's not a good idea to let a mortal enemy set your itinerary. PZ's schedule is clearly designed to run him ragged and result in UM Morris reclaiming a mere remnant of the robust man he once was.

Do I exaggerate? Check this out:

I've included links (where available) to the particulars of each event, but could not find anything for Chico (and the Sierra link is pretty thin, with details presumably forthcoming). If anyone has better links, please leave them in comments or e-mail me. I'll update the links as more information becomes available.

This post is, of course, an exercise in redundancy, since anyone really interested in PZ's visit to California will have already read about it on Pharyngula. But that's okay. I can't help myself. And making the map was fun. (Does PZ actually know what he's in for?)

I have been on every one of the campuses PZ is visiting (some of them several times) and it will be no problem for me to attend his speech multiple times. If I do that, I'll consider wearing a hat with the brim pulled low so that no one will think I'm a stalker. Good idea!

7 comments:

Miki Z. said...

I had assumed that he would be speaking at the Flint Center at De Anza, but I don't see it listed on the schedule. It's nice to see that PZ is making some stops at community colleges.

llewelly said...

hm. Red stars and black arrows. How could you miss that, Zeno? As anyone who has seen a grade school history text knows, red stars and black arrows clearly map out a war plan. When octopods start "washing up" onto your beaches, and coming down out of your trees, you'll learn your lesson, you naive fools.

Zeno said...

Since I created the map with the red stars and black arrows, Llewelly, perhaps I'm one of his minions plotting the secret attack on northern California. Beware!

Zeno said...

Miki, it turns out that PZ is speaking on the De Anza College campus, not at the Flint Center. The link has been updated to show that PZ is going to appear in Forum 1, which I presume is shown on the campus maps.

Miki Z. said...

Yes, Forum 1 is the largest of the lecture halls on campus. The Flint Center is, so far as I understand, run by different people than FHDA, but they share a parking garage. Of course, it's been a decade since I was there, so things may have changed somewhat.

Casey said...

Zeno, you're amazing. I don't know which school ou teach at, but I'm glad your in my back yard.

Anonymous said...

It kind of looks like a big music note. Clearly, the mad scheduler has left a hint as to his or her identity!