Preaching to the Choir

1. I am contributing to a colleague's seminar series on "how computers can help you do cool science." Colleague has been disappointed with the turn-out so far. I have discovered that he has advertised it only to people who already work with computers -- in the computer science department. I have taken the opposite approach, and I have used my knowledge of how universities work to become a super-spammer in support of my sessions. I have emailed the secretary of just about every science department on campus and asked them to send my seminar announcement to the faculty and grad students. We'll see how many people I get to show up. Next week I'm even going to put up a poster. In science department buildings.


2. Today the Gideons were on campus in droves giving away free new testaments. I'm not really sure what they were hoping to accomplish. They certainly didn't get a lot of bang for their buck, as I'm pretty sure that everyone on campus is already quite aware of Christianity and already has a very strong opinion about that religion -- and I would hazard the guess that a vast majority of the opinions are favorable. Wouldn't they be better off handing out bibles in places that aren't almost entirely Christian? Or do I misunderstand their goal and they are going for something other than evangelism?