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Andrade Keynote Address Press Release: IBE 2017 conference:

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Press Release  — for immediate release

Institute for Biological Engineering 2017 Annual Conference

Salt Palace and Downtown Marriott, Salt Lake City, Utah 

Mar. 30 – April 1, 2017

Biological Engineers Urged to confront Ignorance, BS, and Lies

Biological engineers are being urged to combat ignorance, BS, and outright lies at their annual meeting this week in Salt Lake City. The 17th annual conference is at the downtown Marriott Hotel and Salt Palace Convention Center Thursday through Saturday, April 1.

One of the keynote speakers is Joseph Andrade, a University of Utah Distinguished Professor of Engineering, and a 2012 candidate for Utah’s District 2 US Congress seat. He lost that election to Representative Chris Stewart.

Andrade, retired from biological engineering research and teaching, is now a novelist. He self-published and released State Change – a chemical and political fantasy last year, well before the 2016 elections.

“A group of aging activists selects well known political ideologues and subjects them to clandestine (and illegal) revelation engineering,” he explains, ‘including Utah’s Congressional delegation.” He smiles.

His keynote talk builds upon the novel and upon his earlier Congressional run – to empower biological engineers to get more involved in science education, in politics, and in running for public office. He suggests his colleagues use social media to confront ignorance, BS, and lies.

The talk is in Ballroom A, Salt Palace Convention Center, 11:15 am this Saturday, April 1. Here are the slides from the talk:

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Trump 2016 Election: State Change now even more important

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The harmless team was at The Roasting Company – doing our 2016 election mourning over good coffee.

“Jesus, I’m depressed,” Bill said.

“There’s no question I am,” Jay said. “I even considered fully losing it early this morning.”

“Remember those last pages of State Change,” I cautioned. “Those who are old and ready, and those who are considering checking out, can have an especially important set of opportunities. They can go way beyond distributing Ananda’s Chocolates to our entire hit list – our 29 ideologues. Most were reelected.”

“You mean really take them out, don’t you?” Jay asked. “Or at least make them undesirable for further service.”

“Why not? All they’ll do in Congress is do more damage. They’ll make many others suffer for their distorted ideologies.”

“We could just plant some illegal drugs on them,” Bill suggested.

“That might do it. Or do – or get done – some serious investigative reporting exposing their financial connections and other shenanigans.”

“Most of them – especially Gowdy and Chaffetz – love conspiracy theories and witch hunts. We could give them a taste of their own tactics – develop some paranoid fantasies in them.”

“I thought State Change would be somewhat obsolete after this election, because Hillary would make it, we’d likely take the Senate, the Supreme Court would be modernized, and the state would begin to change,” I said.

“So much for wishful thinking,” Jay said. “There was a piece in The Guardian this morning, by Thomas Frank, …”

“The guy who wrote ‘What’s the Matter with Kansas‘, right?” Bill asked.

“Yep, and he has a new one Listen Liberal; the piece in the paper is like Liberals put Trump in the White House.”

“Ouch.”

“Anyway, State Change is even more important and valuable now that Trump will soon be thrashing around in the White House,” I said.

“My Australian and Canadian friends are incredulous,” Bill said.

“I’ve started to add overseas audiences to my Tweet destinations now, because Europe is so concerned. A major Madrid paper, El Paix, had columns today titled The Crazy is in Charge of the Asylum – and another The Suicide of Democracy.”

“It’s time to up the action,” Bill said.

“I think so,” said Jay. “I’m ready for some serious activism.”

“Let’s think this through and meet again right after Thanksgiving.”