Pharyngula::Puttering about in the big city

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Saturday, September 17, 2005

Puttering about in the big city

PZ Myers • 19 Comments

Hey, New York is tough on the feet! We've spent a couple of days tramping about the place, with good long stops at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the AMNH. I was unable to meet many people I had hoped to, but it's just as well; the small group we gathered kept us more than busy enough. We got together with ebullient GrrlScientist (who also instructed us in using the subway system—we were so nonchalantly confident about it that strangers would come up and ask us for directions in the station), flightless Mike Bergin, eponymous Christopher Mason (Aha! Now you must expand that weblog!) and his friend Joan, and blogless Adam Marczyk for pizza and/or beer at John's Pizza and/or a brew pub called Vol De Nuit.

OK, a few semi-random pictures from our day on the town.

Mary and Skatje…Skatje is having fun, but one of the rules of being a teenager is that you aren't allowed to show it.

Really…I was having a good time. I think my daughter may have infected me with a case of Norwegian Blankface. I especially like the happy kid grinning in the background, though—he's got the right idea.

That's Microraptor gui, biplane of the Mesozoic.

There's just something about this woman from the Met that I liked.

Squid. Sperm whale. Who shall emerge victorious?

Uh-oh…in the dinosaur biomechanics exhibit, they sell out and admit that we're just machines: "scientists study animals—including humans—as if they were machines".

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Comments:

#40459: — 09/17 at 07:41 PM
Nice pictures, its been too long since I've been to a good natural history museum though. Seeing those fossils in the background really revives my intrest.

-----
"As with all of ID, the important thing is first to have the concept. Production can then follow as a matter of course.” -Dembski

#40463: — 09/17 at 08:06 PM
"scientists study animals—including humans—as if they were machines"

#40466: Chris Clarke — 09/17 at 08:23 PM

paleontologists can now bring dinosaurs... alive!

That ellipsis is perfect. It's like Dr. Evil wrote the card.

"I do not think we should antagonize the religious when it is not warranted, though I think we should be willing to do so whenever it is.”
-- Glen Davidson

#40467: — 09/17 at 08:31 PM
The last time *I* was in the NY subway system, strangers came up to explain it all to me, in exchange for any spare change I might happen to have about my person..

On a more serious note, your squid vs. sperm whale picture appears to have been censored by the Religious Right, or possibly by the guys who do the chemtrails:

Forbidden
You don't have permission to access /images/spermw_squid.jpg on this server.

Apache/1.3.33 Server at sci2135d1-pm68.morris.umn.edu Port 80

#40471: Chris Clarke — 09/17 at 08:51 PM
mmmmmmmm.... forbidden squid.... aaaahhhhhggggggghhhhh...

"I do not think we should antagonize the religious when it is not warranted, though I think we should be willing to do so whenever it is.”
-- Glen Davidson

#40474: — 09/17 at 09:28 PM
"On a more serious note, your squid vs. sperm whale picture appears to have been censored by the Religious Right..."

Anybody seen Ashcroft lately?

On a more serious note, some of us are a bit curious about the "making great news" comment, will an announcement be made soon?

#40476: — 09/17 at 10:10 PM
Actually, to see that very squid vs. whale picture, just look at the cover art for They Might Be Giants' "Apollo 18" album. I never knew there was an original that it was taken from.

#40479: — 09/17 at 10:40 PM
That little kid's eyes look really spooky.

...mostly harmless.[color=blue]

#40482: ekzept — 09/17 at 10:51 PM
y'know, there's an art to tasteful science museum and aquarium presentations. one of the most meaningful i had as a kid was a visit to the aquaria at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. they had delightfully involving tanks and exhibits, including a trip "behind the scenes" to tanks scientists were doing experiments with and in. i wanted to go out and be an oceanographer or marine biologist on the spot. the latter was reenforced by a coastal tour with a National Park Service marine biologist a few weeks later. (alright, she was blond, lithe, and i had a horrible adolescent crush on her, okay?) but, then, i studied physics in college.

and, when it came time to pick grad school it was artificial intelligence or SETI. i picked the former because it seemed more practical.

hey, i'm just a geek, y'know?

#40484: bill — 09/17 at 11:13 PM
I used to date a squid woman. I think of her every time I have calamari.

#40491: Hank Fox — 09/18 at 02:41 AM
Sh*t, f*ck, g0dd*mit, and d*ng!

I LIVE about 3 hours drive time from New York City, and soooo wanted to meet y'all there, but just couldn't get off work that day.

Worse, I have a brand-new $1,200 digital camera I could have flashed in front of the hungry eyes of the Morlocks on the subways.

Disappointment all around.

#40493: roger — 09/18 at 04:35 AM
But for getting more information about them, Museum and such other places have to be developed for the common person.

#40494: — 09/18 at 04:41 AM
Ah, memories of the AMNH..

#40512: GrrlScientist — 09/18 at 10:30 AM
I see that PZ managed to beat me back onto the blogosphere, although I was occupied by a few chores that I had to tend to last night after they escaped from me. It's good to see that you made it back home in one piece!

Oh, incidentally, I know what PZ's news is, too! NEENER NEENER NEENER! It's great news, the bestest news, just fab news. Aren't all of you jealous that I know what it is and you do not?

#40526: John (catshark) Pieret — 09/18 at 12:58 PM
I'm sorry I didn't get the chance to be there when you visited the AMNH. I hope, given recent events, you visited the endangered bird exhibit . . .

#40546: Mrs Tilton — 09/18 at 06:11 PM
Yeah, the happy grinning kid is good. And the small human in the same picture only adds to the effect.

#40569: Adam Marczyk — 09/18 at 10:01 PM
Though it's true I'm blogless, I do in fact have a website, as those who click on my name can see in all its glory...

#40631: — 09/19 at 11:56 AM
Trivia:
The two legged mermaid (as pictured above) is currently featured in the Starbuck's logo, in case you were wondering what those two random fins were doing at the top of the logo.

#40702: — 09/20 at 06:29 AM
More mermaid trivia.
That mermaid pic reminds of the three-mermaid coat of armour of medieval city Montroy
in François Bourgeon's comic album "Les compagnons du crépuscule ; 3 - Le dernier chant des malaterre" ("The twilight companions / Companions of the Twilight/Dusk ; 3 - ??")

Managed to find a few pics :
<a href=http://complainte.free.fr/Images/Bourgeon/Compagnons_crepuscule_4.jpg>cover with coat of arms</a>
<a href=http://complainte.free.fr/Images/Dessins/Complainte_3c.jpg>pic with coat of arms</a>
<a href=http://complainte.free.fr/Images/Dessins/Complainte_11.jpg>coat of arms as single pic</a>
<a href=http://complainte.free.fr/Images/Dessins/Complainte_34.jpg>similar crest</a>

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Saturday, September 17, 2005

Puttering about in the big city

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