David Almandsmith

Stand Up for the SciSchmooze

Submitted by David Almandsmith Mon, 03-03-2025 : 02:09

Hello again, fans of science,
“nuqneH, QeD parmaq,” (I found no data on how many Klingons are in the Bay Area.)

A “

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SciSchmoozing a Rock of Ages

Submitted by David Almandsmith Mon, 03-02-2025 : 02:15

2 February 2025

The Nucleotide Bases of DNA and RNA found on Bennu - Courtesy earth.com

Hello again science fans!
科学ファンの皆さん、こんにちは！
(The first Japanese immigrants arrived in the Bay Area in 1869. Today about 20,000 Bay Area residents spe

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Walking into the SciSchmooze

Submitted by David Almandsmith Mon, 06-01-2025 : 04:25

Footprints in Oxfordshire. Credit: Emma Nicholls/Oxford University Museum of Natural History

Hello again Science Fans!
Salut encore les amateurs de science ! (Canadian French)
Bonjour à nouveau, fans de science ! (France French)
Bonjou ankò Fanatik Syans! (Haitian Creole)

I guess we coul

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SciSchmoozing 2024

Submitted by David Almandsmith Mon, 30-12-2024 : 21:19

Hello again Science Fans!
ሰላም በድጋሚ የሳይንስ ደጋፊዎች!
(Many of the Bay Area’s 20,000 Ethiopians live in Oakland.)

The weekly SciSchmooze reliably delivers the latest in science, especially for the San Francisco Bay Area. Give friends and fa

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Something Old, Something New, SciSchmooze

Submitted by David Almandsmith Mon, 02-12-2024 : 04:42

Dave Almandsmith
1 December 2024

A small section of Valeriana - 1st Century Mayan City

Hello again fans of science,
Dumelang hape barati ba mahlale, (Lesotho Peace Corps memories)

I trust you had an enjoyable Thanksgiving, avoided coming to bl

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Vote SciSchmooze!

Submitted by David Almandsmith Mon, 04-11-2024 : 05:06

Dave Almandsmith
4 November 2024

Hello again, friends of science,

When the United States Constitution was adopted in 1788, the only women allowed to vote were property owners i

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The Incredible Lightness of SciSchmoozing

Submitted by David Almandsmith Mon, 07-10-2024 : 04:47

October 7, 2024

Dave Almandsmith

Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS (Photo Jean Cursino, Brazil)

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SciSchmoozing over the Storm

Submitted by David Almandsmith Mon, 30-09-2024 : 00:11

‘Florida’s under there somewhere.’ Helene from the ISS. (Credit NASA)

SciSchmoozing Up & Down, Side to Side

Submitted by David Almandsmith Mon, 16-09-2024 : 06:22

September 16, 2024

Hello again, science fans.
Hallo nochmal, Wissenschaftsfans.
(Over 40,000 Bay Area residents speak German at home.)

SPACE

He emerged and then retreated back to the interior. He was not a groundhog, and his retreat does not suggest we will have 6 more weeks of winter. Jared Isaacson and fellow Pola

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Labor Day SciSchmooze

Submitted by David Almandsmith Mon, 02-09-2024 : 04:15

Green Water 01: A fully-electric 10,000 tonne container ship
Image: China Ocean Shipping Company

Hello again science fans.
Bonjour à tous les fans de science.
(Over 45,000 Bay Area residents speak French at home.)

CLIMATE

Above is the world’s second all-electric cargo ship. It’s 120m long, 24m wide, and has the battery capacity of a thousand Model Y Teslas (50,000,000 Wh). Like the other and smaller electric cargo ship - the Yara Birkeland - it is plying inland rivers instead of the open oceans. Ocean shipping ac

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26 March – Skeptics in the Pub
3 April – Skeptical Inquirer Presents
10 April – SkepTalk
3-4 May – We Can Reason Conference

Skeptics in the Pub

WHAT: Virtual Skeptics in the Pub

This is a casual night of socializing with fellow skeptics and with others inhabiting our oblate spherical planet.

Please join us! This is a free event brought to you by Bay Area Skeptics. All are welcome.

WHEN: Wednesday March 26, 7-9pm Pacific (GMT-8)

HOW: Online HERE. Passcode: 1023

Skeptical Inquirer Presents

Michael Mann

WHAT: Science under Siege

From pandemics to the climate crisis, humanity faces tougher challenges than ever before. But our efforts to effectively address these existential crises are frequently hampered by a common threat: politically and ideologically motivated opposition to science.
Michael Mann and public health scientist Peter Hotez will discuss their collaboration that examines the five main forces behind the modern-day anti-science movement: plutocrats, pros, petrostates, phonies, and the press. This presentation is both a call to arms and a roadmap for dismantling the forces of anti-science, empowering ourselves to promote scientific truth and, ultimately, averting disaster.

WHO:
Dr. Michael Mann is Presidential Distinguished Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science at the University of Pennsylvania with a secondary appointment in the Annenberg School for Communication. He is director of the Penn Center for Science, Sustainability, and the Media (PCSSM).
Dr. Peter Jay Hotez is an American scientist, pediatrician, and advocate in the fields of global health, vaccinology, and neglected tropical disease control. He serves as founding dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine, and Professor of Pediatrics and Molecular Virology & Microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine.

WHEN: Thursday, April 3 at 4:00 PM PT

HOW: Free. Register HERE

SkepTalk

Paul A. Lombardo

Apes, Men, and Morons: Eugenics, Evolution, and the Scopes Centennial

The “Monkey Trial” Centennial provides an opportunity to examine the widespread misunderstanding about how ideas of evolution and eugenics were implicated in the famous Scopes controversy. George William Hunter’s textbook Civic Biology was the focus of the case. It endorsed evolution, a theory “that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible” —content prohibited by a 1925 Tennessee law.

The Hunter text also contained a brief discussion of eugenics. In recent years an elaborate mythology has arisen suggesting that the case, and William Jennings Bryan’s advocacy at trial, represented a challenge to eugenics. That claim is not accurate. The teaching of eugenics in its many forms was supported not only by educators, but also by members of the clergy and politicians all across the United States. That support was evident before the Scopes case and continued for decades afterwards, persisting even in full awareness of the Nazi government program that sterilized almost ½ million Germans.

This talk will explain that while William Jennings Bryan rejected the monkey- to-man account of evolution and the cruelties he associated with Darwinian “natural selection,” he made no blanket condemnation of eugenics. To the contrary, Bryan and his wife readily allied themselves with several famous eugenicists and supported eugenic ideology when it coincided with the social policies they favored.

PRESENTER: Paul A. Lombardo is an American legal historian known for his work on the legacy of eugenics and sterilization in the United States. Lombardo’s foundational research corrected the historical record of the 1927 U.S. Supreme Court case of Buck v. Bell. He found Carrie Buck’s school grades^[1] and the grades of her child Vivian.^[2] He was the last person to interview her, and he discovered the pictures of all three generations of the Buck family.^[3] In 2002, he sponsored and paid for a memorial plaque that was installed in Buck’s hometown of Charlottesville, Virginia.

WHEN: Thursday 10 April 6:30 PM Pacific (GMT-8)

HOW: Click HERE

Western Canadian Reason Conference

Partial Speaker List

Seth Andrews
The Thinking Atheist

Forrest Valkai
Renegade Science Teacher on YouTube

Dr. Eugenie Scott
Asteroid ‘249540 Eugeniescott’ was named for her

Susan Gerbic
Head of The Gorilla Skeptics

Dr Rodney Schmaltz
Associate Professor and Author

Adrienne Hill – Host and Emcee

WHEN: May 2, 3, & 4

WHERE: Sandman Hotel, Calgary, Alberta

HOW:Tickets available HERE