My head is explodey.
I have been busy since TAM 6, really stupid crazy busy. On the phone, sending email, writing stuff, and thinking thinking thinking.
Thinking? About what?
Good question. For now, my answers are few and cryptic. However, stay tuned. I have Big Blog News coming very soon. Maybe even early next week. Maybe Monday.
OK, definitely Monday.
But I am heading to Toronto to attend the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada’s General Assembly meeting, where I’ll be giving a couple of talks. I expect I will also see a moose, eat back bacon, and learn how to say "I left my toque at my hoose agane".
I might — might — be able to do a live video chat on Sunday. I’ll be in a place where teh intertoobs may be good, and if I can squeeze it into the schedule I’ll set up the chat. Check back here Sunday to see.
June 27th, 2008 at 6:38 pm
Right as I get back from a trip to Niagara and Toronto, something cool happens there. Story of my life, ladies and gentlemen.
June 27th, 2008 at 6:50 pm
“I’ll be in a place where teh intertoobs may be good”
Hey! We have the tubes now, we’re not that far behind the times.
eh.
June 27th, 2008 at 6:54 pm
I also never saw a moose when I was in Canada.
June 27th, 2008 at 7:07 pm
“It seems unthinkable, but for the first time in human history, ice is on course to disappear entirely from the North Pole this year”
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/exclusive-no-ice-at-the-north-pole-855406.html
June 27th, 2008 at 7:18 pm
Now you’ve got me all curious. And we have to wait until Monday?!? That’s cruel. lol. Oh well. Have fun in Canada.
June 27th, 2008 at 7:25 pm
I’ve never seen a moose in Canada either. I used to live in Alaska though, and even in the city they’d wander right into our yard. Be careful with moose if you see them. They’re extremely dangerous, especially the females. You’re better off meeting a ticked off grizzly than you are a moose.
June 27th, 2008 at 7:46 pm
You’re so quick to debunk myths like astrology and moon hoaxes, but when it comes to Canada, sure, spread the awful ‘moose in the hoose’ meme. Did I talk like that when I met you at TAM? No! Am I bitter? You bet I am! Do I realize you were joking? Yes! Will some people not realize that and get implanted with a myth? Yes!
June 27th, 2008 at 8:02 pm
Now we know why he is called the bad astronomer, he is cruel to his supporters.
June 27th, 2008 at 8:02 pm
I live in Canada, and I have seen moose, once in my garden.
June 27th, 2008 at 8:17 pm
Plasmafrag you said
Oh yeah? A moose once bit my sister. No, really! She was carving her initials in the moose…..
June 27th, 2008 at 8:35 pm
Oooh! oooh! I get to meet Phil finally! Well at least see him from an amiable distance with binocs. Good enough for me though you’d have to come camping with us in Algon
June 27th, 2008 at 8:36 pm
I used to hunt moose up here but it was just too damned hard on my car.
BTW BA You have far better chances of seeing ( colliding with ) a moose up here in Ft.McMurray than in Toronto.
Hope you’re coming back for science week this year. I think you even ( almost ) promised. Just give us some advance notice this time.
Hell, given a week or two I bet we could organize a skeptics get together to coincide with your visit.
Shaun
June 27th, 2008 at 8:36 pm
Bleah Toronto. You gotta get up to Ottawa / Montreal
@david
Moose in swimming pools is an occasional problem around here at certain times of the year.
June 27th, 2008 at 8:36 pm
…quin park to see a real moose. There are fake ones in parts of the city but I’m happy you’re going to see our fair city.
June 27th, 2008 at 8:41 pm
Mynd you, møøse bites Kan be pretty nasti…
June 27th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
@firemancarl and @Robert
Thank You! I was wondering when the Python’s would show up.
June 27th, 2008 at 8:56 pm
In the interest of exposing myths, I have to say that being from northern Alberta I always thought that we were the moose capital of Canada. We’re not.
Having just survived my first cross country drive, I have lived to tell the tale of Hwy 17 across northern Ontario. They dont have moose there they have Meese. I guess thats the term ’cause its the first time I have ever seen more than two in one spot.
I saw eight within 130Km stretch and three of ‘em would have gotten Chevrolet Enema’s if not for an alert co-pilot.
June 27th, 2008 at 9:00 pm
Well, what do you know, a good reason to visit Toronto! Sorry I won’t be able to come down to hear your talk, Phil. Of course, the only moose you are likely to run into in the Big Smoke is the liquid type, known as “Moosehead”, available in fine licensed establishments.
Still, it’s pretty warm these days, eh? Don’t think you’ll need a touque, but maybe you can get a maple leaf tattoo to celebrate your visit here so close to Canada Day, eh?
June 27th, 2008 at 9:33 pm
Don’t forget your coat!
June 27th, 2008 at 9:45 pm
Forget Ottawa / Montreal! Get to Quebec City!!!
…I’d like that!
June 27th, 2008 at 9:52 pm
Hi Phil,
You should enjoy Toronto. As a westerner I know that you will be visiting the centre of the universe.
If you ever have an excuse to come to the wet coast I would love to attend any function you were at.
June 27th, 2008 at 9:56 pm
Hey, I am a moose in Canada!
June 27th, 2008 at 9:57 pm
So, no BAtoronto meetup?
rats
June 27th, 2008 at 9:58 pm
ok, i’ve seen lots of Moose in B.C. and Alberta, however the only place I actually walked into one was in Alaska on the Kenai Penninsula. I thought it was a log across the trail until the branches moved around to look at me. Luckly it liked Canadians and knew I was harmless.
June 27th, 2008 at 10:03 pm
I can even prove I am a moose: watch me pull this rabbit out of my hat…nothing up my sleeve…presto!
Needs a little work.
Seriously, a BA meet up would be cool.
June 27th, 2008 at 10:11 pm
I’ll make the arrangements….all I need is the say-so!
June 27th, 2008 at 10:57 pm
Yer
Such
A
Tease!
Tease, tease, tease, tease, tease, tease, tease, tease, tease, tease, tease, tease, tease, tease, tease, tease, tease, tease, tease, tease, tease, tease, tease, tease, tease, tease, tease, tease, tease, tease, tease, tease, tease, tease, tease, tease, tease, tease, tease, tease, tease, tease, tease, tease, tease, tease, tease, tease, tease, tease, tease, tease, tease, tease, tease, tease, tease, tease, tease, tease, tease, tease, tease, tease, tease, tease, tease, tease, tease, tease, tease, tease!
Rich in Charlottesville
June 28th, 2008 at 12:50 am
Can you say “Hi” to my mum while you’re there? She’s visiting my sister for a few weeks.
Ta
June 28th, 2008 at 1:12 am
yeah – BA meetup would be great. How often do you get to have a hang in the centre of the universe?
June 28th, 2008 at 1:18 am
I suggest the Ein-Stein bar. The music is not abrasive, and kept at a dull-enough roar so as to allow conversation.
Phil, I think we’ll all understand if you’re too busy/tired, but those of us way up in Central/South Ontario that can’t get to all the super-awesome-fun-time skeptical events would GREATLY appreciate it.
http://www.ein-stein.ca/
(I really hope I’m not sounding like one of my naggy ex’s, or a needy other one of my ex’s)
June 28th, 2008 at 2:17 am
Job offer? New book deal? Your own show on Discovery?
June 28th, 2008 at 2:46 am
As an RASC Toronto member…sadly gonna hafta miss it. Hope you enjoy. Cheers, Phil. From Phil.
June 28th, 2008 at 8:48 am
Not to be an agitator, but up until maybe this year, weren’t they still advertising dialup internet in the US?
I haven’t seen anyone use dialup here (in parts of Canada where I have lived) in over five years… nine years for me. We’re pretty much mostly broadband users now.
MAYBE in the rural areas, like farming communities. Even still, a lot of them are turning to satellite internet.
Ah well, not everyone can be on the up and up about Canada.. lol.
June 28th, 2008 at 9:08 am
“Job offer? New book deal? Your own show on Discovery?”
Methinks maybe if you knocked off that “y”?
June 28th, 2008 at 9:41 am
A job offer! That’s it! No more blogging in yer BVDs!
Rich
June 28th, 2008 at 10:45 am
Hmmmm…. Maybe The Skeptologists got picked up. That would rock! Whatever the news, you can bet we’re all going to continue to speculate until we hear what it is.
June 28th, 2008 at 11:28 am
I know you were kidding with your comments BUT as a Canadian and knowing how ignorant and uneducated the vast majority of Americans are in regard to Canada, even those who live within 100 miles of the border, I have to ask you not to encourage such mistaken impressions of Canada.
June 28th, 2008 at 1:30 pm
Hi Dwight, You wouldn’t want to take away all of Rick Mercer’s material now would you. Maybe we should send BA a DVD of “Talking to Americans”.
June 28th, 2008 at 6:41 pm
Go here and listen to Radio Free Vestibule’s “I Don’t Want To Go To Toronto.” You’ll be glad you did.
ps.: neither does the Stanley Cup. It rest in the HHOF only to taunt Maple Leaf fans.
June 28th, 2008 at 9:10 pm
You can come and see the National Igloo. You can ask Mike Huckabee about it.
June 29th, 2008 at 6:24 am
Hey Phil -
Along with your toque, don’t forget your parka and mukluks. After all you will be in the “Great White North” (although maybe not white for long! :-0
As far as high tech communications goes – when all else fails, we just use smoke signals.
(any Americans who are really dumb enough to fall for this deserve everything they get… I’m sure present company is excepted…)
June 29th, 2008 at 2:13 pm
Um, no – it’s the front leg kicks you would want to look out for, as in many plant eaters. (Well, technically in birds and some marsupials it is the back legs, up front.) They can disable or even kill you, if you are unlucky.
It isn’t so fun to take cover behind pine shrubs on account of a horny elk that wants you off his chosen breeding ground – which for an inexperienced elk could be right over a community running tracks. (True story; but the local hunters took care of it, before it hurt anyone. Revenge was mine!
‘Nuther time, I was out cutting trees, so that time I could fend off a nervous elk mother with my chain saw while her calf passed a work area. Did you know you can actually hear the hackles move on agitated elks?