American Atheists Conference

I'll be attending the American Atheists Conference this weekend. Its so conveniently located a hop, skip, and a jump away from my home!

I'm very curious to see the demographic of the peeps attending. I haven't had the best of social experiences at previous atheists events I've attended.

I was surprised to here that only about 500 people are expected to attend the conference. I suspect Minneapolis has one of the highest concentrations of atheists in the US; whenever I say that I'm an atheist I always here "me too" or "so is my [insert close friend/relative here]." Perhaps some insight is offered by my friend who told me she doesn't subscribe to any religion but she won't attend because she isn't into any event regarding religion or the absence there of. Religion seems to be a total non-issue to many Minneapolis folks.

If any other atheist bloggers will be at the conference, and you're not interested in hitting on me or asking me to speak for my demographic, send me an email - I'll let you in on all the underground coolness secrets of Minneapolis.

35 dub

I-35W collapsed today into the Mississippi River. Crazy. Unbelievable.


Photo from the BBC website

Heres a link to some sobering photos from the Star Tribune: (you'll have to log in, but its worth it if you want to see)

I was on the light rail on the way to a Twins game when the crowd in the train started murmuring and staring out the window. I saw smoke but thought it was just a bad accident but then someone said the bridge had collapsed. I thought just a little hunk must have fell into the river; the bridge was under construction. But then I got several frantic calls from friends and family asking if I was OK, they heard the news, they'd been trying for hours to get a hold of me but the lines were down. Then I figured it out: the entire bridge fell into the Mississippi River. Wow.

I guess this changes my weekend plans. I was going to paddle under that bridge in a canoe as part of the Friends of the Mississippi River 22-mile Canoe Challenge.

I guess this changes my whole life actually. My work is dedicated to that section of the Mississippi River, I live just downstream of that stretch of the River, I center my recreational activities around canoeing, biking, running, and hiking along that stretch of the river. That's why I choose to live in the Minneapolis. hmmmm.

They've been saying it will takes years to rebuild, they have no idea why it collapsed (but that we shouldn't suspect terrorism), and that they expect to find lots of dead bodies tomorrow.

It is the top news story on the BBC: Seven Dead as US Bridge Collapses

A schematic from the Star Tribune

The whole Star Trib article

Yoda Says

Today these two articles were posted today on a Minneapolis local news website.

Gang Violence on the Rise
Protest draws both sides to the abortion clinic

As Yoda would say, "Interesting the similarities..."



(Yoda image credit: from art.com through a google image search)