tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-70837977906815981302024-02-20T18:56:21.997-08:00Houston ScienceHouston.Sciencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04970728835417914969noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7083797790681598130.post-44760836087630203252011-11-14T20:31:00.000-08:002011-11-14T20:50:23.277-08:00More events, plenty of hosting opportunitiesIf you're paying attention, thanks! Drop me a note sometime so that I know you're alive.<br /><br />I've just added several new events to the calendar. There's only one of them I'll be able to host (you'll see a posting about that soon), but I hope you'll still take an interest, and those of you on Meetup consider organizing a group to attend and discuss afterwards.<br /><br />These look particularly good, (see the calendar and click through for details):<br /><br />* November 15 (tomorrow, as I post this!) a talk on environmental justice at Rice (<a href="http://events.rice.edu/index.cfm?EventRecord=16784">Rice's calendar item</a>)<br /><br />* November 22 (2:30 in the afternoon, ugh), Elaine Ecklund talks on "Gender Differences in Elite Academic Science". Let's hope she does a better job than with scientists and religion. <a href="http://events.rice.edu/index.cfm?EventRecord=16821">Rice's calendar entry</a><br /><br />* December 4, "Neuroscience and the Future of Justice" -- actually, I *am* hosting this one, through the Priestley Lecture Task Force. See <a href="http://firstuu.org/science.php">here</a> for more details.Houston.Sciencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04970728835417914969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7083797790681598130.post-46914209407940599112011-10-31T16:53:00.000-07:002011-10-31T16:57:42.757-07:00Two events in November!We have two actual meetups in November:<br /><br />Carl Sagan Day (hosted not by me, but by Emily of Houston Atheists)<br />November 9<br /><br />Phil Plait of Bad Universe speaks on "Death From Above"<br />(heading over to Valhalla for beverages afterwards)<br />November 14<br /><br />That's two opportunities to enjoy science and meet people.<br /><br />(Click through our agenda to the right or calendar at the bottom for more details.)Houston.Sciencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04970728835417914969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7083797790681598130.post-61641644332442749492011-10-03T09:49:00.000-07:002011-10-03T09:51:52.849-07:00This weekend: more than scienceThis weekend's Texas Freethought Convention is not limited to just the facts of science, but has so much good stuff about the relationship between reason and society, including talks by famous scientists and atheists PZ Myers and Richard Dawkins (among many others). See the full schedule at<br /><br />http://www.texasfreethoughtconvention.comHouston.Sciencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04970728835417914969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7083797790681598130.post-39317928048709005822011-08-08T12:32:00.000-07:002011-08-08T12:35:50.875-07:00Meetup GroupI've created a Meetup group for organizing groups to attend events. Still very rudimentary, and I'm not yet sure the best way to make the two calendars work together.
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<br /><div><a href="http://www.meetup.com/HoustonScience">Houston Science Events on Meetup.com</a></div>Houston.Sciencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04970728835417914969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7083797790681598130.post-72747830470474238582011-08-08T10:31:00.000-07:002011-08-08T10:38:40.331-07:00Water focus at HMNS and Houston Garden CenterNote the two events on the calendar in one evening, August 8, around Hermann Park:<div>
<br /></div><div>* <i>Elixir: A History of Water and Humankind</i>, a talk by anthropologist Brian Fagan, Ph.D., of UCSB, at the Houston Museum of Natural Science, 7 p.m.</div><div>
<br /></div><div>* Water Collecting & Water Conservation, a panel discussion at the Houston Garden Club, right next door to HMNS.</div><div>
<br /></div><div>With just a bit more coordination between neighboring organizations, this could have been way more powerful.</div>Houston.Sciencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04970728835417914969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7083797790681598130.post-8338361123751390042011-05-17T05:50:00.000-07:002011-05-17T06:26:48.546-07:00We're back... hoping to ramp upHello local lovers of science,<br /><br />A recent outing with the <a href="http://www.meetup.com/Houston-Secret-Science-Club">Houston Secret Science Club</a> to <a href="http://www.txrxlabs.org/">TX/RX Labs</a> (a.k.a. <a href="http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/TX/RX_Labs_(Houston_Hackerspace)">Houston HackerSpace</a>) prompted both renewed excitement about organizing science outings and optimism about getting collaborators for this site.<br /><br />All we need are volunteers and groupies.<br /><br /><strong>Volunteers</strong> to mine the big shared calendars (universities, convention & visitors' bureau, those links at right) for interesting events suitable for the public. Yes, some of this needs to be done by hand, but there's also a team that will be parsing pre-formatted calendars and publicity e-mails for automatic posting. Either way, contact me via "havlak" on Gmail.<br /><br /><strong>Groupies</strong> to actually attend the events. The more the merrier. Other sites (such as the science club) will be places to organize events, with discussion and support for RSVPs.<br /><br />This posting, by itself, isn't really the beginning of new life here. It's a sign that things aren't as dead as they seem, that the drought may be ending. With rain, and some cultivation on your part, a hundred outings may sprout.<br /><br />More power to you all,<br />PaulHouston.Sciencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04970728835417914969noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7083797790681598130.post-26097182116859524832008-10-25T08:50:00.000-07:002008-10-25T08:56:29.831-07:00Bayou tours!Making a new set of updates to the calendar, I found this:<br /><br />http://www.buffalobayou.org/boattours.html<br /><br />Unfortunately, the every-Friday schedule of bat-colony tours has been cut way back :-(, and the November tour is sold out. But they still have history tours on the first Saturday of every month.<br /><br />Yes, a thread of nature survives even through the middle of downtown Houston. Thin and frayed, but don't miss the perspective of seeing this car-centric burg from the water.Houston.Sciencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04970728835417914969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7083797790681598130.post-18765140762986976922008-09-18T10:41:00.000-07:002008-09-18T11:01:32.586-07:00Ike follow-up and editsCalendar entries for the rest of September, post-hurricane, should be taken with a grain of salt. I haven't been able to check all events, but here are some known issues:<br /><br />* All Houston Zoo educational programs have been canceled or postponed until September 22. The Zoo is open and seems to have fared well, but the extra programs are still too much too handle. Notably, Animal Enrichment Day has been postponed until Saturday, September 27 -- but should still be lots of fun. See http://www.houstonzoo.org/en/cev/180<br /><br />* There have been no updates about exactly where Roy Zimmerman will be playing in Houston :-(. This singer and writer of "Funny Songs About Ignorance, War and Greed" is particularly welcome here on the front lines of teaching science vs. muddying up biology classes with half-baked spooky alternatives. I'll follow up with any news of his possible appearance when I get it (i.e., if his booking agents respond to e-mail).<br /><br />* Museum District Day has been postponed until further notice.<br /><br />For all other events, you should call ahead.<br /><br />The sharpest of you may have noticed that I've removed the Keck Symposia from the calendar. These are still going on (though I'm not sure about this Friday's), but they are so crowded that additional publicity isn't desirable. You can find their details on the Rice University calendar if you have an urgent need to attend.<br /><br />For those of you not in Houston, many thanks for your tax dollars and Red Cross contributions that are providing emergency assistance as millions continue to be without power and food and fuel distribution is still screwed up. There's little threat to life except in the worst areas (e.g. Galveston County, especially the Bolivar Peninsula) where there's no safe water or sewage system. But it will take weeks at the very least for life to return to mostly normal. Thanks for your kind thoughts and support!Houston.Sciencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04970728835417914969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7083797790681598130.post-31315969399475650392008-08-25T11:06:00.000-07:002008-08-25T11:10:35.152-07:00M. D. Anderson eventsI haven't copied all the noteworthy events at MDA to my calendar yet, but it looks like there are some good ones. (I'm not completely sold on the Prostate Health conference, but at least they aren't insisting on examinations.)<br /><br />http://utm-ext01a.mdacc.tmc.edu/dept/pub/mdacalendar.nsf/EventsWeek?OpenView<br /><br />Hat-tip to my friends in the M. D. Anderson publications office.Houston.Sciencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04970728835417914969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7083797790681598130.post-5433613846965335452008-08-09T05:16:00.000-07:002008-08-09T05:25:34.126-07:00Access the calendar more directly.You can always come here and look at the agenda listing to the right ==><div>Or the calendar by month down below...</div><div>Other options:</div><ul><li>Load directly into your own Google Calendar session, as: houston.science@gmail.com</li><br /><li>XML feed: http://www.google.com/calendar/feeds/houston.science%40gmail.com/public/basic</li><br /><li>iCal: http://www.google.com/calendar/ical/houston.science%40gmail.com/public/basic.ics</li><br /><li>Browse directly: http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=houston.science%40gmail.com&ctz=America/Chicago</li></ul>Houston.Sciencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04970728835417914969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7083797790681598130.post-33335791484976678892008-08-05T14:10:00.000-07:002008-08-09T05:32:10.054-07:00Welcome to Houston Science Events (updated 8/9)Compiled by our volunteer staff to bring curious people and cool science together.<div></div>See the calendar below for a set of pre-loaded events. We'll start announcing new events here when initial construction tapers off -- but this blog will aways be supplemental.<div></div>Except that when we or a reader wants to organize a pre- or post-event social gathering (e.g. chatting over delicious beverages at Valhalla or the Gingerman), we'll make a post and y'all can organize in the comments.Houston.Sciencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04970728835417914969noreply@blogger.com0