Sunday Elf Feb

Sorry, I'm late,[tsk!] His Lazyarsedness overslept, and the sheep need feeding before The Blob's readers. Now hear this: tomorrow is Darwinday when evolutionary biologists like me and a raggle-taggle army of unbelievers celebrate the birthday of Charles Darwin (dob: 12 Feb 1809). In the old days I'd celebrate by bringing brightly coloured donuts to work. Oftenyears I felt I was a voice crying in the wilderness. Now there is a website to the concept with a global map flagging the locations of all the Events they know about. But that website is all bark and no trousers because it featured No events in UK or Ireland when I looked on Friday. I registered [borrrrring] to announce the Dublin happening. But when I checked just now darwinday.org was unavailable. So I'll have to plug the Dublin gig again here:

My old pal Dan Bradley [prev] is addressing the Irish Humanist Association on Where do the Irish Come From? In the Arts Block of Trinity College Dublin at 1930hrs Monday 12 Feb 2018. I have classes until 5pm, but I think I'll pile into my little red Yaris and drive to The Smoke to catch this. Bradley is always good copy and has ranged widely and interestingly over the field of DNA analysis both ancient and modern: maybe I'll make 2018 the Year of Dan Bradley posting once a month . . .there would be plenty enough material. Look at him there: ignoring St Charles's stern glare and looking penetratingly at his next big idea. aNNyway: tomorrowbe sure to check out the local universities and colleges; there is sure to be something similar in Омск, Томск or Петропа́вловск-Камча́тский

What else is happenin'? Lots and lots but it's mostly in the past [borrrring]

• Paranoia
• Rives riffs on 4 in the morning
• John Hodgman asks above love and aliens
• Save paper towels: save the planet a tutorial on how to dry your hands
• My solution at work is bring a hand-towel like at UCSC
• Note: Towelday isn't until 25th May
• Interesting long-form talk [1 hour] at Oxford Union by Jon Smith the first soccer super-agent
• TimmmmmBER:
• Posch Packfix firewood storage system
• Driving rail-road ties down river in Wyoming.
• Framing a wooden building in France using only medieval techniques
• Heck-and-jiminy building a whole medieval castle: The Vault - Guédelon. Building 13th-century Medieval Castle In France
• In the last century, as a Navy Brat, we used to go up to London to see the Royal Tournament. The highlight was the Naval Field Gun Race which showed that you didn't need a backhoe to move a heavy object from A to Z.
• A Young wan shares her wisdom about long distance treks: it's not about the shoes!
• <wince alert> [not for the faint of heart] Last fall I mentioned my searches through the medical literature for things peculiar. Here's an update: the [annually published] list of material abstracted from human rectums in ERs across the US [we don't do/have  aNNything like this in Ireland!] via MeFi. 
• Hilariously appropriate joke: Middle class parent receives bill for school fees with typo "€5,000 per anum" and says "Thanks but I'd rather pay through the nose as usual".