M.A.S.S. Science Outing

Renowned Paleontologist Paul Sereno will be giving a lecture on Tuesday Evening about dinosaurs, giant crocodiles and ancient humans that inhabited the Sahara Desert.

From his bio on his website...

Discoverer of dinosaurs on five continents and leader of dozens of expeditions, Sereno's field work began in 1988 in the foothills of the Andes in Argentina, where his team discovered the first dinosaurs to roam the Earth - the predators Herrerasaurus and the primitive Eoraptor, the "dawn stealer." These expeditions revealed the most complete picture yet of the dawn of the dinosaur era, some 225 million years ago.

In the early 1990's Sereno's research shifted to the Sahara, and the search for Africa's lost world of dinosaurs. Expeditions to Niger and Morocco resulted in Sereno's team discovering and naming: Afrovenator, a new 27-foot-long meat-eater; skeletons of a 70-foot-long plant-eater he named Jobaria; a bizarre fish-eating dinosaur named Suchomimus, with huge claws and a sail on its back; and the 45-foot-long plant-eater Nigersaurus. Sereno and his team also discovered the most fleet-footed meat-eater, 30-foot-long Deltadromeus, and the skull of a huge, T. rex-sized meat-eater Carcharodontosaurus. Besides new and unusual dinosaurs, Sereno's team stumbled on the world's largest crocodile, the 40-foot-long Sarcosuchus, dubbed SuperCroc.

The lecture starts at 7:30 at the University of Montana North Underground Lecture Hall and is free and open to the public.

If you'd like to attend with other M.A.S.S.ers ... en masse, we'll be meeting at 6:00pm at Food for Thought for a quick dinner, and then heading over to the lecture hall at 7:00. If you don't want to do dinner but want to join us for the lecture, show up right before 7:00. Don't be late.

If you're not sure who to look for, Jon will dust off his "DARWIN 08" campaign t-shirt, and we'll have our Buddy Christ Bobblehead prominently visible on the table as well.

Happy Birthday Zombie Jesus!

The Missoula Area Secular Society cordially invites you to help us celebrate the birth of one of our favorite biblical characters, Zombie Jesus. Drop your basket of eggs, save your chocolate bunny ears for later and join the M.A.S.S. at Food for Thought (across Arthur from the UM Campus) for Sunday brunch.

When: Sunday, April 12th (AKA Easter) @ 10am
Where: Food For Thought, 540 Daly Ave. (Corner of Arthur and Daly by the UM Campus)
Why: Braaaaiiiins

If you're not sure who to look for, Jon will be wearing his "Peekaboo! Zombie Jesus Sees You" T-Shirt. If you have one, this will be a great chance to wear it. We'll also have a Buddy Christ Bobblehead prominently displayed on the table. If you have one, bring it along too. And of course, once we know exactly where we're sitting, we'll tweet the pertinent details, so make sure your twitter account is sending our updates to your phone.

We look forward to seeing you. And until then, here's a little something to tide you over.

Great Brunch! We're all a-twitter!

Excellent turnout for brunch this morning with a nice broad spectrum of age groups represented, including three new people. Yay!

About half the table spent most of the time talking about religion, and the other half about science and stuff. There was even a moment when a calculus textbook was whipped out to settle a debate. Thankfully, it wasn't used to beat anybody over the head.

Let's all give Martha a big virtual high five for organizing this event. There were hints of somebody else possibly organizing a movie night in the near future, but I won't out them until it's official and scheduled.

M.A.S.S. now has a presence on Twitter. If you're on Twitter, start following us. If not, get signed up so you can receive last minute updates right on your phone of where we'll be meeting up. Should be easier to find us in crowded places when we can pinpoint the exact table we're at.

Break for Brunch (Spring only comes once a year!)

Spring is almost here and it's been a while since M.A.S.S. got together, so to celebrate the Spring Equinox, member Martha Thayer has volunteered to get us all to gather downtown at Break Espresso.

Where: 432 N. Higgins
When 10:00 AM, Saturday, March 21st

If you're not sure who to look for, Martha says she'll be wearing a plaid shirt and she says Russ will have a bald head. And just in case that's not enough, we'll be sure to have a Buddy Christ Bobblehead prominently displayed on the table. ( http://jayandsilentbob.com/buchbo.html )

So, don't be shy. Mosey on down and join us.

The Missoula Area Secular Society (M.A.S.S.) is a loose knit group of Missoula, Montana area atheists, secular humanists, agnostics, skeptics, free-thinkers, rationalists, pastafarians, non-theists, teapot agnostics, post-theists, empiricists and other citizens unencumbered by superstition who enjoy socializing with other like minded Missoulians.

M.A.S.S. Discovers "HMS Beagle" (The Drink)

Thanks to those M.A.S.S. members who came out tonight to help celebrate the 200th Birthday of Charles Darwin. The turnout was a little light (probably due, in part, to the late notice), but we had a good time anyway. The excuses given by some for not attending (ranging from children's recitals to studying for an organic chemistry exam) were all good and would have been approved by Charles himself.

We had a fun discussion on whether or not an interbreeding population of non-microscopic organisms could ever diverge into two distinct species. A potential scenario or two were suggested, but since none of the attendees were willing to claim expertise in the subject, the topic went unresolved.

We then migrated to the pool table and were eventually down to just Dan, Nick, and I plugging our quarters into the table playing "Survival of the Fittest" (aka "Cutthroat"). About that time a group of people sat down at a table near us and told the server they wanted to invent a drink named "The Beagle" in honor of Charles Darwin's Birthday. I searched for and quickly found an inopportune moment to butt into their conversation and ask if I heard right (which I did).

We ended up talking a few times and it turns out that one of them is actually a member of the M.A.S.S. Facebook group (Amy, I think?). I suggested their drink should actually be named "The HMS Beagle" which they didn't object to, and we talked more about the drink's evolutionary history.

Apparently, it's original form was part Captain Morgan's Rum, and part Liquid Ice. However, like any good drink honoring the discoverer of Natural Selection, it immedietly began to mutate and evolve. The particular mutation I tried included pinapple juice (very sweet, but good). The final verdict, as I understood, was that the drink's base pair is Captain Morgan's and Liquid Ice, but should then be selectively bred with other concoctions to fit your particular taste.

Maybe on November 24th (the 150th anniversary of the publication of "On The Origin of Species") we'll discover a Blue Footed Booby drink. I hear that it makes the drinker amusingly clumsy yet fills men with an overwhelming desire to do elaborate dances involving stomping their feet, looking at the sky, stretching their arms out, and flaunting their feet to the nearest female. Women who partake of the drink are said to find this behavior highly arousing..., or so I hear.

Happy Birthday Charles Darwin!

Charles Darwin turns 200 years old on Thursday, which seems like as good a reason as any to gather for drinks and dialog.

Who: You!
When: Thursday, Feb 12th, 7:00pm
Where: The Chicken Lounge (122 W. Alder. Go in the front or back door of Double Front Chicken, then go downstairs. If you go in the front door, walk part way through the dining room and the door to the stairs will be on your right. If you go in the back door, you can't miss the stairs.)
Why: To celebrate the birth of one of the most important scientists in history.

If you're new and not sure who to look for, Jon will be wearing his "DARWIN08" Campaign T-Shirt.

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What We Have Here Is A Failure To Communicate

Thanks to one of our newest M.A.S.S. members (Bill) for letting me know that any email sent to me at this domain wasn't getting through (and apparently hasn't been since mid November). It should be fixed now though. So, if anybody has tried sending anything (words of wisdom, well wishes, event ideas, death threats, etc) to jon@that-domain-up-there-in-the-address-bar.org, anytime since mid November, please go hunt it down in your sent mail box and send it again. Thanks.