I looked out my window this morning in Melbourne--after sleeping off jet lag--and saw seven hot air balloons in the sky. You would never see something like that over a U.S. city. It was a pretty good introduction to the awesome country that I have the fortune of visiting for the next 10 days. I'll have many more posts about Australia, I hope, but first, here's a comprehensive listing of the public events I'll be doing while down here. Originally there was one, then there were two...now there are four! My speaking schedule is kind of like exposing Gremlins to water. Anyway, here they are, after the jump: Tuesday, April 17 9:00 AM-10:15 AM Plenary Session on "Biasing Scientific Information" (PDF) World Conference of Science Journalists Grand Hyatt Hotel Melbourne, Australia * I'm giving the opening plenary talk of the conference at this session; the talk will be about 25 mins in length. The panel will be opened by Victoria's Minister of Innovation, John Brumby, and chaired by Robyn Williams, who hosts The Science Show on ABC Radio. I'll be sharing the panel with Jia Hepeng of SciDev.net, a Chinese journalist who has done great work on SARS, bird flu, and other issues. Wednesday, April 18 9:00 AM-10:15 AM Plenary Session on "Reporting Climate Change" (PDF) World Conference of Science Journalists Grand Hyatt Hotel Melbourne, Australia * I'm on this panel with Simon Torok (chair), CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research, Kevin Hennessy, a lead author of the Australian and New Zealand chapter of IPCC Working Group II; Geoff Love, director of the Bureau of Meteorology, and Ian Lowe, president of the Australian Conservation Foundation. I'm not sure how long I'm presenting, but I may show some data (courtesy of Matt Nisbet) on patterns in media coverage of climate change in the U.S. This stuff is pretty eye-opening. And here let me just stop and also say that with both of these panels, I'm extremely honored to be sharing the stage with such distinguished folks. Friday, April 20 4:30 PM-5:30 PM Melbourne Centre, Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society Bureau of Meteorology 700 Collins St 9th Floor East Seminar Room Melbourne, Australia This is a talk that I alone will be giving, as opposed to a panel. It will be focused on the framing of science and particularly climate science, as well as the hurricane-climate issue, which of course will be of particular interest to this science-heavy audience. See here for more details. Tuesday, April 24 6:30 PM-8:00 PM Berkelouw Books--Leichhardt 70 Norton Street Sydney, Australia NSW 2040 * This is a cozy little bookstore talk, my only event in Sydney. I'm also planning to run into Tim Lambert and John Wilkins while I'm over there! That's it for now....
P.S.: I am still blogging in East Coast time, but it's Sunday evening over here, not early Monday am. Weird feeling....
