Ach, AYE!

Kentucky Scottish Weekend, May 11-13 ~ with musical guests 7 Nations and Alex Beaton ~ !!!

OMGIAMSOGOINGTOTHIS!!! Who's with me???


All hail durgablue for letting me know!

Renaissance Festival too

Kentucky Highland Renaissance Festival
June 2 - July 22, 2007

I'm still feeling the Pull of the Festival (which is not at all unlike the Pull of the Weasel, oddly enough). Oh what fun to go and play and sing and sweat and get filthy dirty and sunburned and mildly dizzy from heat stroke, just like the olde days. ;)

I wish it wasn't too late to get involved.


And pardon me whilst I whine: folkchick3, come visit meeeeeeee!

Music

I've been listening to a LOT more music lately. I find new artists via the Irish & Celtic Music Podcast or the Renaissance Festival Music Podcast (both the work of marcgunn) or the Cleveland Celtic Podcast or the Celtic Folk Podcast (out of Georgetown, Kentucky! woot!). See the theme, yet? Anyhow, when I find somebody I like I trot over to eMusic.com and, if they're there, I download their albums. If they're not, I trot over to CDBaby.com and make a note to buy later. :)

I've also been listening to more internet radio. Not just FolkAlley, my old favorite, but also Highlander Radio and RenRadio. FYI, these kinds of precious, independent music outlets are STILL IN DANGER, so check SaveNetRadio.org for action plans. I've already contacted my representative and gotten the polite brush-off, of course. Stinking lousy politicians.

But I digress. I'm really getting into music again, and it feels good.

I wanna share. Back on my last visit to Florida, durgablue and I went on a little jaunt over to Skipper's Smoke House (the best musical venue in the Bay Area!) to see a band called Coyote Run. I was hella impressed. They've been getting play on the I&CM podcast and are going to be in the area (well, Columbus, but maybe Louisville???) this September. They seem like very cool guys and their music is great - Celtic folk-rock, pagan themes, lots of djembe and a thick bass line. You can check out two videos from a live show on their website - please do!

OK, back to my far less entertaining musings about school and finals next week...

Oh the places I've been and the memes I've seen!

XKCD's Map of Online Communities

The Republican War on (Social) Science

The American Anthropological Association reports that the National Science Foundation's authorization bill for FY2008 is imminently scheduled to come up for debate on the House floor. Two proposed amendments – introduced by Reps. John Campbell (R-CA) and Scott Garrett (R-NJ) – would prohibit further funding of nine currently funded NSF grants in the Social, Behavioral and Economics Science Division, based on their quote "silly titles" unquote. Not surprisingly, five of the nine grants targeted fall under the research realms of anthropology or archaeology (the others appear to be behavioral psych and primatology).

AMENDMENTS to H.R. 1867

Offered by Mr. Garrett of New Jersey
At the end of section 3, add the following new subsection;
(h) LIMITATION.-None of the funds authorized under this section may be used for research related to

(1) The reproductive aging and symptom experience at midlife among Bangladeshi Immigrants, Sedentees, and White London Neighbors

(2) The diet and social stratification in ancient Puerto Rico


Offered by Mr. Campbell of California
At the end of section 3, add the following new subsection;
(h) LIMITATION.-None of the funds authorized under this section may be used for research related to

(1) archives of Andean Knotted-String Records

(2) the accuracy in the cross-cultural understanding of others’ emotions;

(3) bison hunting on the late prehistoric Great Plains;

(4) team versus individual play;

(5) sexual politics of waste in Dakar, Senegal;

(6) social relationships and reproductive strategies of Phayre’s Leaf Monkeys; and

(7) cognitive model of superstitious belief. [!!!!!!!!!]

==============================================

W.T.F.

Whatever anyone may or may not think of knotted-string records, since when is it the job of a couple asshat politicians to decide what is worthy of scientific research and what is not? I think the National SCIENCE Foundation should keep making that call. SCIENCE. That's their JOB.

What I'd really like to do is take a hardcopy of these republicans' cognitive model of superstitious belief and stick it up their asses. Sideways.

A shining beacon of sanity

In GOOD news (for a change), I just got an email from the Center For Inquiry announcing the opening of the Indianapolis branch of CFI!!!

Center for Inquiry Indiana has opened an office/meeting space on the downtown canal at 350 Canal Walk, Suite A. Center for Inquiry Indiana is a local branch of Center for Inquiry Transnational which is a nonprofit 501 ©(3) organization that encourages evidence based inquiry into science, pseudoscience, medicine and health, religion, ethics, and society. Through education, research, publishing, and social services, it seeks to present affirmative alternatives based on scientific naturalism.

SQUEEEEEEE!!!

They're going to host a film series on world religions, Sunday morning coffees, book groups, coordinated events with the Indiana Historical Society, and Secular Family Outings - their first one will be a picnic and a trip to the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indian & Western Art. Come visit meeeeeee, altamaha!!!

They're also starting a lecture series and the first one is going to be...

Food, Organic-Natural-Exotic-Domesticated-Wild (What does it all mean and why should I care?) It will include information about prehistoric and modern nutrition. How hunting/gathering humans fared, compared to those who first domesticated plants and animals, compared to modern concepts of nutrition. Also information about the evolution of the digestive system and how it enabled humans to survive in so many diverse habitats. Craig Gosling is the discussion leader for this group. Wednesday, May 9, at 6:30 at Center for Inquiry Indiana, 350 Canal Walk, Suite A, Indianapolis.

I don't think I can SQUEEE any louder than I already have. Indy, here I come!!!

I CAN HAS TRIBBLEZ

Snaggled from filkertom who snaggled from elsewhere...

LOL Trek