Early registration for the Frenchman Fm conference approaches

Just a reminder that the deadline for early registration for the Frenchman Formation Terrestrial Ecosystem Conference is March 1, 2009. On or before March 1, the prices for registration are: $100 for students, $125 for non-students. After March 1, the price is $150 for all registrants. For information on registering, go to dinocountry.com and scroll down to the bottom and look for the T.rex Centre - below is the link. Hope to see everyone there!

BTW - does anyone even look at this blog?! Just curious... ; )

Royal Tyrrell Museum 2009 Speaker Series

As this is considered to be the "year of Darwin", the Tyrrell is hosting a plethora of interesting talks regarding the man and his works. Each talk is approximately 1 hour long and admission is free.

Friday Feb. 27 11AM Tai Kubo (Royal Tyrrell Museum) "Evolution of limb posture in archosaurs"

Sat. March 7 2PM Alwynne Beaudoin (Royal Alberta Museum) "Charles Darwin"

Sat. March 14 2PM Don Prothero (Occidental College, California) "Evolution: What the fossils say and why it matters"

Sat. March 21 2PM Dave Eberth (Royal Tyrrell Museum) "Evolution, creationism, and the quixotic nature of 'truth'"

Sat. April 4 2PM Paul Brinkman (North Caroline Museum) "Darwin's use of vertebrate fossil evidence to develop natural selection model"

Wed. April 8 11AM Gerald Smith (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor) "Tectonic causes of fish species diversity patterns"

Sat. April 18 2PM David Weishampel (Johns Hopkins Univ., Maryland) "What about the dinosaurs, Charles Darwin?"

Sat. April 25 2PM Ted Daeschler (Academy of Natural Sciences, Pennsylvania) "Tiktaalik and the fish-tetrapod transition"

Sat. May 16 2PM Judith Scotchmoor (University College of Berkeley, California) "Supporting the teaching of evolution: A multi-faceted approach"

Hope you can attend!

Darwin Day Celebration at Mount Royal College

Darwin, Natural Selection and SEX: 150 years of getting it on. ( Public )

Date and Time: 2009-02-12 19:00:00

Activities:
Jay Ingram, host of Discovery Canada's Daily Planet and author is keynote speaker for:

"Darwin, Natural Selection and SEX: 150 years of getting it on."

Description of talk: Everyone knows that Charles Darwin transformed our sense of what it means to be human by showing that we evolved from non-human ancestors. But most
don't realize how far-reaching his ideas are. Much of modern dating and mating behaviour - from pick-up lines in a singles bar to long-term mate selection - can be shown to be the result of unconscious drives shaped by tens of thousands of years of evolution."

With special musical guests and an introduction from Darwin himself!

Address:
Mount Royal College, 4815 Mount Royal Gate SW
Ross Glenn Hall
Calgary/AB T3E 6K6 CANADA

Sponsor: Mount Royal College

Contact: Dr. Trevor Day
Email: tday@mtroyal.ca
Phone: 403-276-5070

January Science Cafe

The University of Calgary and TELUS World of Science presents the January Science Cafe: Darwin's Origin of Species - "200 Years and Still Evolving?". Dr. Marc Ereshefsky (Dept. of Philosophy) and Dr. Jessica Theodor (Dept. of Biological Sciences) as well as special guest Dr. William Cade of the University of Lethbridge will be discussing the evolution of Darwin's theory over the past 150 years. It's being held on Tuesday, January 27 at The Brickyard (213 10th Ave SW) from 6:30-8:30. Seating is limited, so get there early if you don't want to be standing in the back.

States and Countries visited

My friend Julia over at the Ethical Palaeontologist http://www.ethicalpalaeontologist.com/ posted the map of states she's visited and challenged us to do the same. So here's mine.

I've been to airports in California and Washington, but I don't really think that airports should count, so I've left them out. I was born in Georgia and only lived there for the first 9 months of my life, but that counts, right? : )

My international map is pathetic. Other than North America I've only been to South Korea. I'm looking forward to adding England to it this September while at SVP.

Now it's your turn. http://douweosinga.com/projects/visited?region=usa

Happy Holidays!

I'll be heading into Drumheller soon to spend the holidays with Darren and the kids and wanted to wish everyone happy, healthy, safe holidays. I'll see you all in 2009!

Congratulations!

Congratulations to both Hillary Maddin and Robin Cuthbertson for recently passing their candidacy exams. They are both in the Russell Lab in the Biological Sciences Department of the University of Calgary. Way to go guys!! (Photos shamelessly stolen off of facebook).