Experimental Proto-Blog

Book Review: Is Pluto a Planet?

2008-12-29T22:19:00.011-05:00

When people find out I am an astronomer, the next question I am asked is very often "What do you think about Pluto?" Of all my frustrations with the Great Pluto Debacle of 2006, the greatest is that this was a historic opportunity to communicate to the public how science is done, a "teachable moment" at which legions of people were paying attention to astronomy who usually don't -- in fact, people still care about the issue today -- and we (that is, scientists) completely bungled it. We should have said to the public, "Here's how we can expand our view of the solar system, which has a lot of important things in it besides just the planets, and also better understand Pluto's place in it." Instead, the official message was only semi-coherent, and squabbling among astronomers grabbed most of the headlines.

David Weintraub's book Is Pluto a Planet? (Princeton Univ. Press, 2005) makes some worthwhile contributions to the discussion and is well worth reading. In particular, he spends most of the book telling a lively story of the history of planetary astronomy, and the evolution of the term "planet," which he points out has meant a number of different things to different generations. Wider understanding of this story, and of the fact that this is hardly the first time that the meaning of "planet" has shown itself to be elusive, is an important key to getting a handle on this issue.

However, I have three major criticisms of the book:

1) The first part of Weintraub's story (specifically, from the end of Chapter 2 to the first half of Chapter 4) is marred by the simplistic view, which is sadly popular today, of science and religion as being antagonistic to each other, especially during the Medieval and Renaissance periods.

In order to portray hidebound Catholic scholars refusing to look through Galileo's telescope while triumphantly refuting Galileo with passages from Aristotle, Weintraub must resort to an extended quotation from a 20th-century play; this is because scholarly evidence for this legendary event is non-existent. In fact, Magini (one of the characters in the fictitious dialogue) and his associates did look through a telescope in 1610 in the presence of Galileo himself, but were unable to see Jupiter's moons due to the fact that telescopes at that time were notoriously difficult to use properly.

When quoting 16th-century skeptical responses to Copernicus (for example, from Luther and Calvin), Weintraub fails to mention that not until Tycho and Kepler came along would Copernicus' system give a clearly superior fit to the data that would help to justify a paradigm shift of astounding magnitude. Weintraub also does not mention that, while some individuals criticized Copernicus on theological grounds, opposition to heliocentrism was much more fierce among scientists of the day than among theologians, and that no one in the Catholic Church saw heliocentrism as a threat needing an official response until many decades later, when the politically inept Galileo made his splash in the politically fraught context of the Counter-Reformation and the Thirty Years' War.

Weintraub's promotion of the "warfare hypothesis", which is largely discredited among historians of science and religion, is a blot on his otherwise engaging tale that I found hard to ignore. Fortunately, the middle and later parts of his story are free of such problems. For a more scholarly treatment of some of these issues, I recommend relevant chapters of God and Nature: Historical Essays on the Encounter between Christianity and Science, edited by Lindberg and Numbers (Univ. of California Press, 1986). Incidentally, I am looking forward to Ronald Numbers' new book, Galileo Goes to Jail and Other Myths about Science and Religion, due out from Harvard Univ. Press in the spring.

2) Weintraub occasionally gets bogged down by details and momentarily loses his engaging style of storytelling. This is most obvious in Chapter 11, when instead of a fast-paced narrative of the discovery of Pluto's brothers and sisters in the Kuiper Belt, we have several pages listing the names of various astronomers with the dates and alphanumeric code names of their discoveries. I guess he might have been trying to avoid offending anybody by failing to mention them.

3) While Weintraub's book in general lays an excellent foundation for understanding the issues surrounding the word "planet" and what we mean by it, in the final chapter he drops the ball by drawing (in my opinion) the wrong conclusions from that foundation. At this point it must be mentioned that Weintraub's book was published in 2005, a year before the drama at the IAU, so to some extent Weintraub can be forgiven for not giving better consideration to the the definition the IAU eventually adopted. Weintraub actually proposes a better version of the IAU's clunky conclusion, suggesting that "planets are not part of rings or belts around a star", but he dismisses this idea (p.206) because he cannot distinguish between the Asteroid Belt or the Kuiper Belt (the latter of which contains Pluto) and the swarm of Trojan asteroids that share the orbit of Jupiter. The difference, of course, is that giant Jupiter is many many many times bigger than the tiny rocks that share its orbit, and more importantly that Jupiter's gravity strongly controls the orbits of those Trojans while the latter have a no perceptible effect back on Jupiter. Pluto, on the other hand, is fully a member of the Kuiper Belt, though it is a leading member as it is larger than most of its brothers and sisters.

Weintraub would save Pluto as a planet and, for the sake of consistency, would promote several other asteroids and Kuiper Belt objects to planet-hood as well. To the objection that such an inflated list would be too much for schoolchildren to memorize, Weintraub is unsympathetic. "Simple answers are usually wrong," he says, "It is time to start teaching our youngsters something more complicated, with more depth of meaning." To an extent, I agree with that last sentiment. My second-greatest frustration with the Pluto Debacle is that it has been widely viewed as a "subtraction" from the solar system, as if the number of important things to remember changed from nine to eight. Rather, we ought to promote asteroids, comets, moons, and KBOs to take their place as groups alongside the eight major planets. Certainly the solar system is richer than that list of eight or nine, but still it must be recognized that the eight planets have a unique importance to the dynamical functioning of the whole. And, Weintraub to the contrary, there are straightforward physical ways of showing that that is so.

Weintraub quotes a 2002 suggestion by Alan Stern and Hal Levison that we use the term "planetary body" to denote an object big enough to pull itself into a spherical shape, which means that it is geophysically acting like a planet, regardless of what body it orbits. I think this proposal needs to be given much more attention. I strongly oppose any definition of "planet" that would include Pluto but exclude planetary-class moons like Titan, Enceladus, Europa, and even our own Moon. The fact that we have long known that these moons behave geophysically like planets, yet we have never been tempted to call them "planets" rather than "moons," convinces me that the IAU's definition is fundamentally correct (though it could use some wordsmithing). Yet, alongside it, we need a word that we can use to talk about the intrinsic nature of a "planetary body" regardless of where we find it.

Cue Whitney Houston: "And I...."

2008-11-05T23:34:00.000-05:00

John McCain was the first (and to date the only) politician who has ever truly inspired me.

I mean no offense towards Barack Obama, who is a terrific human being and a historic choice -- and of course I particularly rejoice with our African-American brothers and sisters tonight -- but Obama and I have not fully connected on policy issues in the same way that I did with McCain eight years ago.

The only political rally I have ever attended was at the University of Arizona in the spring of 2000, with McCain giving a speech. I loved that he was pro-life yet not beholden to the Religious Right, that he believed in personal responsibility yet cared about the plight of illegal immigrants, and most of all that he was serious about fighting the corrupting influence of money in our political system. I cheered for him in New Hampshire and Michigan, and had the privilege of voting for him in the Arizona primary at a time when he still had a chance to beat George W. Bush.

I have spent the subsequent eight years believing that McCain would have beaten Al Gore handily had he been nominated, and that all the problems of the Bush Presidency would have played out very differently. As for McCain, as he worked with Bush and sought to be accepted by the Republican Party, people increasingly accused him of going back on his principles, but I never believed it. Sure he made nice with Jerry Falwell, but any effective leader needs to work constructively with a broad segment of the population, especially within his own party; it doesn't mean he shares their policy views. And on the war, I remain convinced that he is the *only* person who has been right all along: If Bush had followed McCain's advice and had enough troops in Iraq from the beginning, rather than starting three years too late, I believe that we would be looking at a much more successful situation there today.

This year, though, it became clear to me that the Republican Party was forcing McCain to change, at least in how he presented himself. He could not escape from the hard-line two-party system that governs our country. Independence of thought is not allowed (on either side). He had to either toe the line or give up on his ambitions. He chose to toe the line. This year there has been nary a word about fixing the immigration situation or campaign finance reform. Overall, he shocked me by running almost as a conventional Republican candidate. In a way, he may have been forced into this because Obama (unlike Gore in 2000) already had the "this guy inspires me" centrist vote locked up, so McCain had no choice but to hew to his partisan base. I continue to believe that he was only downplaying his true beliefs, and that if elected he would have had more freedom to revert to them. But under those circumstances, not to mention a "lame albatross" of historic proportions and a once-in-a-generation charismatic opponent, it's no wonder he lost.

I really am happy for Obama, but I can't escape feeling sad about McCain tonight. I am grateful for how he has inspired me, and sorry about how things have turned out. And I remain honored to be his fellow citizen.

Revival

2008-11-05T23:06:00.000-05:00

After more than two years, I'm feeling some desire to post again every now and then. This will only happen when I have something on my mind that I really need to write down, and not on any regular schedule.

Matt's "Greatest Hits"

2006-08-16T14:54:00.000-04:00

It's been nearly four months now since I last posted to this blog, and I don't feel like that streak is going to be reversed (save for this piece). I had been tapering off for some time, as my growing family and increasingly engrossing job have taken up my time and attention. I'll just say now that everything is well. We moved across town into our new apartment a few weeks ago, and find our new surroundings well worth the trouble of relocation. Isaac and Samuel are growing, and growing more delightful every day. The former picture page is also frozen in time now, but new pictures are being uploaded by Laura to our Shutterfly page, which I invite you to visit.

I think I'll give some closure to this blog by making an index of my personal favorite blog items; out of 188 posts, the ones which I'm most proud of, and/or which give the best snapshots of my life:

19 Mar 2003: The Very First Blog Item
22 Mar 2003: My Opinion of the Iraq War as it was Happening -- I happened to start the blog in the days just before the invasion. Somehow I feel I should get credit for predicting the mistakes Bush would make, but I suppose that doesn't seem useful now.
11 Apr 2003: John Polkinghorne lecture -- Notes from a public talk on science and faith.
18 Apr 2003: Good Friday Prayer
19 May 2003: Mahler's "Resurrection" Symphony -- What the listener/beholder brings to a work of art can have a big effect on how he receives it. Maybe that's not a bad thing?
5 Jun 2003: Book Report on Bruchko -- Written by a missionary to South America, I love this book not just for the story, but for its message that introducing Christ to a culture should perfect it, not obliterate it.
13 Jun 2003: Thoughts on Forgiveness
11 Aug 2003: Review of A Peace to End All Peace -- One of the best books I've read in a while, about World War I and how the Middle East got to be the way it is.
24 Aug and 8 Sep 2003: The Separation of Church and State -- One of my very favorite posts. Part One Reviews the history of the Supreme Court's decisions on the issue, which I argue have been fairly even-handed. Part Two continues the discussion, responding to a video we had watched in church.
1 Nov 2003: The Birth of Samuel
10 Nov 2003: Samuel's Name
17 Nov 2003: Review of the movie Luther -- With some thoughts on the Protestant Reformation.
3 Jan 2004: Selected Tidbits from the Cold War -- Moral absolutes can be hard to come by in the real world.
10 Jan 2004: Visiting "Tricky Dick" -- At the Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace.
9 Feb 2004: The Bloodwashed Pilgrim -- Some thoughts on a hymn.
29 Mar 2004: A couple political book reviews
30 Apr 2004: The Channeled Scabland -- A marvelous place, challenging both "uniformitarianism" and "flood geology".
8 May 2004: Last Post as a Tucson Resident
12 and 26 May 2004: The Moving Odyssey: Driving from Tucson AZ to Ithaca NY in the company of a six-month-old boy, Part One and Part Two.
13 Jul 2004: How we found our church -- We still attend New Life, and are very thankful that God has led us there.
27 Aug 2004: The Fat Lady Arrives by Post -- Reflections upon receiving my diploma in the mail.
2 Oct 2004: Book Report Roundup -- A snapshot of what I was reading at that time.
22 July to 9 Oct 2004: Great Hymnwriters -- A series on my three favorite writers of Christian hymns: Isaac Watts, Charles Wesley, and Fanny Crosby.
23 Feb 2005: Samuel at 16 Months -- One of the blog's more detailed and enjoyable descriptions of his development.
25 Mar 2005: Some comments on the Terri Schiavo case -- I tried to be thoughtful and even-handed, pointing out errors on both sides, in what was a very difficult situation.
9 Mar to 30 Apr 2005: The Trip to Florence -- Laura provided the narration, with pictures at the end. Here is an index:
- Days 1 and 2 (travel and recovery)
- Day 3
- Day 4
- Days 5 and 6
- Days 7 and 8
- Day 9 (return home)
- Pictures
8 Apr 2005: The Name of the Pope -- I speculated, not on the identity of the then-future pope, but on what regnal name he might use. I'd like to flatter myself that I did fairly well.
4 Nov 2005: The Birth of Isaac -- I was already tapering off in my blogging activity by this point, so no conclusions should be drawn from the smaller number of posts about Isaac's infanthood compared to Samuel's.

Facts of Life

2006-04-23T21:54:00.000-04:00

Samuel: "Where Knit Bear come from?"
Mommy: "Our friends Mrs. Jane and Mr. Ari made Knit Bear, and gave him just for you."
(...cycle through all the other stuffed animals who live in his bed...)
Samuel: "Where Satchel come from?" (Satchel being his favorite companion of all)
Daddy: "Our friend Mrs. Julie in Tucson gave Satchel to you."
Samuel: (Pause) "Where Pamel come from?" (That means Samuel)
Daddy: "Oh, Samuel is very different. You were a baby in Mommy's tummy, and then you were born and we were so happy, and since then you have been our little boy."
(Samuel spontaneously gives Daddy a hug)

First of all, it is amazing how much Samuel understands and can say. It is so much fun to talk to him. But I was just thinking about how little he knows of life, and I guess it will be us who have to teach him. He knows who we are, and he knows his grandparents and others close to us, and he's beginning to understand the relationships between us (the above exchange was followed by questions including "Where Daddy come from?"). But when we get to the point of going beyond that, most of Samuel's great-grandparents are still living, but some aren't. At this point, he has no concept whatsoever of what death means, but at some point (likely years in the future, but still) we'll have to explain that to him. How will that work? It just makes me think about what an amazing thing life is.

New pictures, once again long overdue, can be found at this address. I'll fold this into the Samuel and Isaac Picture Page sometime later.

A New Lease, Part 2

2006-03-08T21:43:00.000-05:00

There have been some interesting developments since we signed a lease on a new apartment in Ithaca several months ago. It turns out that the people currently living in our erstwhile new apartment didn't actually want to move. While acknowledging that we had a right to force the issue due to the fact that we'd signed a lease, the property managers asked us to look at another unit in the same house. The outcome is that we met them this morning to happily void the old lease and sign a new one.

The new place is on the first floor, so no dragging toddlers up a potentially icy exterior staircase! It's more compactly laid out, with no interior stairs either, and the boys' room is still nicely removed from the main living spaces. It's slightly smaller than our "old new" place, though still significantly larger than our current home, and much of the difference is in items that were somewhat superfluous for us (like a second bathroom). There won't be a dryer hookup (and in fact, a washer hookup is being put in especially to accomodate us), but we don't yet own a dryer anyway. Our laundry situation will be the same as it was in Tucson, which is fine. Moving day will be 8/1, not 7/1, but that just means we don't have to worry about getting out of the final month of our current lease. And while the "old new" place was only barely affordable for us, the new place fits perfectly into our budget.

There's no way we would have even looked at this apartment during our primary home search, because its lack of laundry hookups would have disqualified it. And the landlords wouldn't be so accomodating to us if we didn't have them in a hard place with the lease we'd signed. In all, it's quite the turn of events, and we are feeling very thankful.

Snowman, Part 2

2006-03-03T19:55:00.000-05:00

You know that thing they say, about how a snowball keeps getting bigger if you roll it? It's not always true!

Samuel has been pining for snowmen ever since we built our first one back in December. But in contrast to last year's deep-freeze foot-of-snow-on-the-ground winter, we've had hardly a snowy day since then! Every now and then, we'll get less than an inch, which pathetically doesn't even cover the grass, and then it's gone again. I'm used to snowless winters, of course, but I feel that if it's going to be freezing, there really ought to be snow to brighten the place up.

Well, yesterday was finally a snowy day, and we still have a good six inches on the ground. So I got out of the house early today to play with Samuel in the snow before work. But wouldn't you know it, the snow wouldn't stick to itself! I gather it has something to do with the humidity as the snow is falling, but some snow is simply better than others. Anyway, we made a little pile of snow, but couldn't put a head on it. Then we got out the sled, but Samuel's still a bit skittish regarding the sled. So, at his request, I put him on my shoulders and walked around the block. I think he still enjoyed the time.

A Good Man Retires -- Rumble in Tucson

2006-02-26T13:01:00.000-05:00

I've been following political news recently from my former hometown of Tucson. The man who represented me in Congress for five years (and other Tucsonans for much longer) is retiring, and the race to replace him is drawing national attention. This article has an interesting overview of the situation. Some of the non-Graf Republications might be all right. I actually met Gabrielle Giffords once, and found her to be a very bright and capable person. But I don't know enough about her views to say whether I'd vote for her.

I'd like to say a bit about Jim Kolbe. My consistent impression of him has been of a man who is not in politics to draw attention to himself or grasp at power. Nor is he an ideological warrior out to do battle for his cause. Rather, he has issues that he is interested in and cares about, notably trade and international relations, and he really strives to do a good job at participating in our system of government. He's been a leader on the illegal immigration issue, which affects southern Arizona deeply -- by no means proposing to open the floodgates, but recognizing that our immigration laws are broken and are part of the problem, and proposing a sensible guest worker program.

Kolbe was "outed" in 1996, and has since been the only openly gay Republican in Congress. In 2000, the Tucson Gospel Rescue Mission (to which we had strong connections through our church) disinvited Kolbe from their Thanksgiving dinner for the homeless on this basis. I remember the distress of a GRM worker we knew well, saying that such an exclusion was inconsistent with the GRM's mission of acceptance and transformation, and had been driven by a few overzealous members of the board. An about-face occurred a few days later. Kolbe, who had long been a frequent volunteer at the GRM's banquet, handled the situation with grace. And I was very pleased to see that he was back serving turkey and mashed potatoes the following year.

In announcing his retirement last November, Kolbe said frankly that being a congressman has become less fun. In this era of increasing polarization, with the hard-right and hard-left accumulating both power and public opinion, the common-sense moderate has little support. But I just want to say (and I would say this about very few politicians) that I am proud to have been represented by him.

Pictures

2006-02-24T01:44:00.000-05:00

Last time I posted pictures, Isaac was one-third of his current age! We're all quite well, and Isaac is growing like gangbusters. We had some great times (and great pictures) while visiting our families last month in California. We even got some portrait-quality pics while spending a morning with my Uncle Craig.

A Pirate's Life for Me

2006-02-24T01:33:00.000-05:00

When Samuel lies on his changing table and looks up and out of the window, he can see a second-floor window of the house next door. Several weeks ago, the guy who lives there decided to hang a Jolly Roger flag in that window. Samuel innocently interpreted the skull as a face, and called it "the man". At diaper time (especially right before bed, when light shining through the flag makes it more visible), he would point out the man, and even ask me to duck and look out the window and note his existence as well ("Daddy see man!").

But sometimes our neighbor was out, and his lights were off, and we couldn't see the man. It was at times like this, as we wondered to each other where the man could be, that I remarked that maybe he was on his pirate ship. And so we started talking about pirates, and things snowballed from there.

And so it is that Samuel's vocabulary now includes such exciting phrases as "Yo ho, yo ho, pirate life me", "Shi-me timmer!", "Walk de plank, ye yand-yubber", and "Arrr". One particularly silly day, we were saying pirate things to each other, and (I forget whose idea it was) we started saying other phrases with a pirate inflection, and some things stuck in his mind. As we had, at the time, recently looked at a picture of his cousins and sung a classic lullaby, Samuel will now also say, "Rachel Dorothy and Luke, me hearties!" and "Rockabye baby in the treetops, me hearties!"

Update 2/24: The above really should have been posted a month and a half ago. I'm sorry I've been too busy to post all this time. Samuel lies on his changing table much less often these days, as we are most of the way towards potty trained. But we still talk like pirates every now and then. Also, now that Samuel has recently seen his cousins, he properly says, "Rachel Dorothy Luke Lois and Mary Ann, me hearties!"

A New Lease On...

2006-01-01T23:02:00.000-05:00

In a twist on the New Year's phrase, we took out a new lease -- literally -- on Friday. We don't move until July 1, but in Ithaca's overheated rental market, the good places seem to go early. Ithaca is a double college town, with very little else to put it on the map, and the housing market is absolutely dominated by students. Whereas some 70% of America's real estate is owner-occupied, with the other 30% rented, Ithaca reverses that with some 70% rentals. And amenities like laundry hookups -- essential for us with two boys in cloth diapers, but quite rare in the student-oriented market -- seem to disqualify 90% of properties from our consideration before we even look at them. Last year we started looking for a new place in January, and never found the right one. This Fall, we really only saw one place that appealed to us enough to overcome the inertia of our current home, and we decided to take it.

Certainly there are a lot of good things about our current home, and we have been happy here. We have wonderful upstairs neighbors, and have become accustomed to the building's quirks and foibles. But the absentee landlords resist any improvement that isn't legally required of them, unless it will make them more money in the short-run, and I worry about the condition of this 19th-century house in another couple of years. By contrast, our new landlords won a community award a few years ago for re-modeling and beautifying a vintage apartment building, and the complex we'll be moving into looks like their bid to win the award again.

The unit is an increase in space for us, has lots of storage (we've never been able to fully unpack in our current home), has tile in the bathrooms, and the boys' bedroom will be removed from both the noisy kitchen and the living room. It shares a backyard that should be a nice sheltered place to play. The only scary feature is a free-standing flight of exterior stairs that initially gave us fits as we imagined toddlers falling between the rails. But the landlords will help us put up safety netting, and I realized that they are well constructed and situated for keeping them ice-free. Overall, we are optomistic that this place will be worth the increased rent and the trouble of moving.

I Just Built My First Snowman!

2005-12-17T15:22:00.000-05:00

That's right, at nearly 30 years of age. We got several inches of snow yesterday morning, and Samuel and I had a good time playing for a bit.

To be honest, there may have been a snowman or two involved on those occasions where my parents would drive us up to the San Bernardino Mountains to play in the snow. But I mostly remember sledding, and I certainly never built a snowman this big and by myself (well, Samuel helped a little, and Laura decorated).

You know that thing they say, about how a snowball keeps getting bigger if you roll it? It's true!

Playing Your Song

2005-12-11T23:13:00.000-05:00

My family has kind of a tradition of special songs that my parents sang to us as babies. Maybe everyone does this. Anyway, I remember "You Are My Sunshine" being specifically associated with my sister Jenny, and we all made up silly alternative words to "Davy Crockett" for my (then) baby brother David.

We had a couple of good songs for Samuel, including replacing every occurrence of the word "neighbor" with "Samuel" to produce "It's a Beautiful Day in the Samuel-wood". This included the memorable line, "It's a Samuel-y day in the beauty-wood," and ended with, "Won't you be my Samuel?" Even better were the words we made up to be sung to the tune of "Five-Foot-Two", which made reference to Samuel's unusually arresting and piercing cry:

Two-foot-two, eyes of blue,
But oh, what those two feet can do!
Has anybody seen my boy?

Turned-up nose, turned-down toes,
Baby? Yes sir, one of those,
Has anybody seen my boy?

Now if you run into a baby who
Doesn't make noise,
Quiet as a little mouse,
Bet your life that's not my boy!

'Cause could he cry! Could he coo!
Koo-tche-koo-tche-koo-tche-koo!
Has anybody seen my boy?

This all came back to my mind the other day, as I thought about re-working "Baby Beluga" to be about "Baby Isaac". All I've got so far is replacing the title phrase, and also ending the verse with, "Baby Isaac, oh we love him so, / He's a sweet little brother on the go." I've thought of dropping the project, but it does have a strange catchiness to it, and Samuel seems to like it too. Today, as he was settling for nap (a process that often involves a half-hour or more of him babbling to himself), Laura overheard him saying in a sing-songy voice, "Baby Bah-yoo-gah... Baby Eye-dzak..."

Then and Now -- and Pictures

2005-12-03T00:19:00.000-05:00

There is a clear difference in the state of my life and mind now, compared to two years ago, which plays out (among other ways) in my blogging patterns. At both times Laura and I had a month-old baby (Samuel's and Isaac's birthdays are four days apart), but of course, now we have a two-year-old as well. Back then I was energetic, enthusiastic, and exuberant. Parenting was new and fun, and my relatively frequent blogging included long and thoughtful posts, as well as silly little things. Today, I want to say right away that parenting is still a whole lot of fun, but I am more busy and tired. Just to have time for the things I need to do, I have had to cut out a lot of my pleasure reading (though I still do a lot of it, and keeping it under control is a constant struggle), and writing in this space has suffered a similar fate. My thoughts don't seem to wander into interesting tidepools as much as they used to -- except for politics, and there my thoughts are mostly cynical. In short (though I'm approaching the point obliquely), Isaac's parents are rather different people than Samuel's parents were at this age. Furthermore, Isaac doesn't get as much attention as Samuel did at his age (I'd say maybe 2/3 or 3/4), for the simple reason that Samuel is also here.

This all reminds me of something our pastor's wife said to me a while ago: "Birth order is not fair -- but, it is part of God's plan for each of those individual children." In my heart, I know that this is right, that while Samuel and Isaac will have rather different lots in life, God has put each of them in the place that is right for them. Isaac does not, and will not, get as much individual time from us as Samuel did. That's just inevitable. But then Samuel didn't have the benefit of a way cool older brother. And there are lots of other differences as well, which I think must even themselves out in the end.

In response to popular demand, there are more pictures of Isaac and Samuel

Isaac Nathaniel Tiscareno

2005-11-04T21:36:00.000-05:00

Isaac was born at 8:22am yesterday morning, 9 pounds 12 ounces, 20-1/2 inches long. Everything went as well as or better than we had hoped, including the successful VBAC. We were so thankful for our doctor and doula (labor support person), who were both wonderful, but it was Laura (of course) who was truly amazing. Laura labored for something like 18 hours, but the final push came so quickly that the doula and I almost missed it, after having been sent to the cafeteria to have breakfast. Isaac came out talking before he cried, and right away took to mommy.

I've been home with Samuel since the birth, with occasional visits to the hospital. Samuel is so verbal these days, and it's no big deal to string together in a complete sentence (albeit in his own language, and missing some connecting words) that "Samuel [and] Daddy [are going to the] hospital [to have] dinner [with] Mommy [and] baby." He's been a really great big brother so far, with gentle touches and tenderness. Samuel's second birthday was Sunday, so in future years we'll be celebrating twice in five days.

The Samuel and Isaac picture page, with a new name, also has new pictures.

One boy's third October, another boy's first (we hope)

2005-10-20T23:17:00.000-04:00

There are still only three of us, but we hope and expect the little one to come before the month is out, hence the title above. Samuel will be two years old at the end of the month, so here are pictures of him during three consecutive Octobers. Also, there are more pictures on the Samuel picture page (which obviously will need to be renamed!). His language abilities have really exploded in the past couple months. He must have hundreds of words now, and has been known to put together five-word sentences, though you still have to "learn the language" to understand much of what he says. He is much better at remembering the past and talking about it, whether it's our trip to the zoo earlier this month, early September's trip to California (especially "Grandma and Grandpa's pool"), or summer berry-picking (2 to 3 months ago!). He has a lot of fun riding around on my shoulders (see pic of us and the tiger), especially if we head towards the "slides and tunnels", and sometimes he'll sit in a rocking chair with me and read a story.

Oh, to be 10 again

2005-10-18T00:16:00.000-04:00

With the baby coming any day now, all Laura wants to do of an evening is sit on her birth ball and watch baseball. So we've been enjoying the playoffs quite a bit the past couple weeks. After the stunning end to tonight's game, I was thinking that this year's tournament now has several aspects in common with that of 1986, which should probably go down as the greatest set of playoff series in history.

Although '86 is usually remembered for the Red Sox's bizarre loss to the Mets in the World Series, perpetuating the so-called curse of the Bambino, that year's semifinals (the League Championship Series) also left some indelible memories on my young mind. The 1986 NLCS saw the Astros eliminated in a heart-breaking 15-inning game. This year's NLDS had the Astros eliminating the Braves in a thrilling 18-inning game, breaking the '86 game's record for the longest in postseason history. 1986 saw epic pitching performances by Mike Scott, Dwight Gooden and Roger Clemens. This year has had similar pitching brilliance, especially from the White Sox and the Astros (including, of course, Roger Clemens). We even saw a ground ball go through a Red Sox infielder's legs in this year's ALDS.

The final piece fell in tonight. On 12 October 1986, the Angels had two outs in the ninth inning and were poised to enter the first World Series in the team's then-26-year history. They even had two strikes on the Red Sox hitter. But closer Donnie Moore threw a home-run ball to Dave Henderson, and the Sox came back to win. Even though that was only Game 5, and the Angels had only to win one of the remaining two games in Boston to advance to the World Series, they were so demoralized by the aborted catharsis that the Red Sox made easy work of them. The Angels would have to wait another 16 years for their first Championship. The saddest part of that story, and a sober reminder of how much more important life is than baseball, is that Moore never forgave himself for throwing that pitch, and was egged on by fans ("fanatics" in the true sense of the word) who also never forgave him. He descended into alcoholism and committed suicide at the age of 35.

Fast-forward now to tonight. The Astros had two outs in the ninth inning, and two strikes on the hitter. The first World Series ever in the history of the state of Texas (that's 43 years of history) was about to become a reality. But the Cardinals hitter let loose a single, and a rattled and pressurized Brad Lidge allowed a walk and a home run to the great Albert Pujols to lose the game. As in 1986, this was only Game 5, and the Astros can still advance if they can only win one of the next two games in St. Louis. Can they get the weight of history off their backs, as the Angels did in 2002? We'll be watching to find out, unless of course we get distracted by other events.

If the baby comes during Wednesday's game, maybe we'll name him after Roy Oswalt. Or how about Bill Buckner?

Boy, That's Expensive

2005-10-02T00:55:00.000-04:00

Back in 2000, I participated in a field trip to Death Valley with my planetary science department. I really love it out there. I love the bigness of the place, the solitude, the interesting geology, the warm dry air (it was October, so not too hot).

Anyway, in the course of the trip we had to get gas at the Furnace Creek visitor's center. Not surprisingly, this was very expensive, as running a gasoline tanker truck out to the middle of the desert is undoubtedly costly. In fact, the gas prices were so high that I was moved to take a picture of the gas station's price sign, as a souvenir of how crazy a place Death Valley really is.

Well, gasoline is somewhat more expensive now than it was five years ago, as the supply of easily-extractable oil in the world decreases and China's demand increases, among other factors. With my updated outlook on what a high price is, I thought it would be interesting to dig up my old Death Valley photo album, to remind myself what was the price that struck me as so ludicrously high that I just had to take a picture of it. The answer: $2.40 per gallon.

The Confession Booth

2005-08-25T01:00:00.000-04:00

I read a very powerful article this evening on the importance of confession, the humble recognition of wrongs committed, in repairing relationships. The author particularly focuses on the relationship between Christians and the rest of the world, which indeed has been marred by many things (present as well as past) that Christians ought to confess. His synthesis of the issue is both challenging and compelling, and I encourage you to read it.

In the early days of this blog (6/13/03), I wrote about Forgiveness, and how it is a difficult and humbling but necessary part of truly healthy relationships. I guess I never wrote about the opposite side of the same coin, which is Confession. Forgiveness is letting go of the right to be angry about a wrong, while Confession is letting go of the need to always be right. It also means letting go of the insistence that the other guy was just as wrong -- my job is only to recognize my own fault and confess it. The opposite of all of this is Self-Righteousness, and I pray for both myself and others that we will be able to represent the teachings of Jesus in a more faithful and humble way.

A few articles

2005-08-23T15:06:00.000-04:00

The NYTimes has a surprisingly excellent article on how Christians can be good scientists, and vice versa. I have quite a number of thoughts on these issues myself, being one of the 40% of scientists who believe in a personal God, but I have not recently had both sufficient clarity and time to write about them.

Another great article regarding scientists is this NYTimes bio piece on Mike Brown, who was my research mentor when I was an undergrad at Caltech. Mike's been in the news recently as the discoverer of a trans-Neptunian object that is larger than Pluto, re-igniting the debate over which solar system bodies deserve to be numbered among Earth and Saturn as "planets." The article nicely captures his down-to-earth and offbeat personality, and has some entertaining bits about his new scientific endeavor regarding the sleep patterns of his six-week-old daughter Lilah.

I will confess that I find writing on Wikipedia to be addicting. But I think I've gotten it out of my system for a while after rewriting the article on the Los Angeles Dodgers. I'd say about 60% of the text is original to me, and most of the rest was reworked by me. Click here to see the state of the article (woefully inadequate, I thought) before I started working on it. Hey, a guy's gotta flick to stay sane.

Blog Chain Letter

2005-07-31T23:41:00.000-04:00

Thanks to Amy for tagging me, and for her nice words. Her comment that I am "fiscally liberal but socially conservative" was initially jarring because I was not raised to be liberal anything, but also because I have become exceedingly disaffected with the politics of the "religious right" over the past ten years. Still, she is probably more correct than the opposite statement would be.

The deal is this: I am supposed to take Amy's list of five blogs, remove the top line and add myself on the bottom line. Like so:
MOT http://motheroftwins.blogspot.com/
Indigo Girl http://indigogirl.typepad.com/linda/
Jamie http://selkie.typepad.com/selkie
Amy http://againstthegrain.typepad.com/
Matt http://tisco.blogspot.com/

As you may perceive, the genre is changing somewhat, now that it has gotten to me. :)

Okay, five blogs that I can recommend to you all:

Shane -- Like me, a Caltech alum, active Christian, who now does scientific research connected with the space program. But Shane's ideas are generally much more keen and provocative than mine.
John -- Also a Caltech friend, I've greatly enjoyed John's thoughtful perspectives as he explores his faith.
Cheryl -- Yet another Caltech friend, Cheryl is very energetic, both in social situations and at work. As with her former roomie, I've found some political synergy here.
Jenn -- Married to a Caltech friend (pattern shows cracks...), Jenn is gifted as an animator and illustrator. Her intense self-examination is a challenge to me, yet always leads to grace.
Josh -- Another artist friend, this one from here in Ithaca. Sadly, as seems to be common in a small college town, he and Mary Jo are moving just as we were getting to know and like them. Josh has a separate blog devoted to their son Harper.

Pictures!!: In other news, there are new pictures available at the Samuel picture page. I hope you enjoy them.

Maps to my heart's content

2005-07-19T11:54:00.000-04:00

Those who know me really well know that I have long had an obsession with maps. When I was a kid, one of my forms of recreation was to lie on the floor with a sheet of notebook paper overlying an atlas, tracing out the map so that I could embellish it with the details I thought interesting at the moment (rivers, highways, college football teams, whatever). I still have the ability to become absorbed simply with an atlas open in front of me, poring over various aspects as they come to my mind (Laura occasionally teases me by calling me "Map-thew").

So you can imagine my delight at discovering NationalAtlas.gov. I found it via a Google search for congressional district maps. I had wanted to see the map of a particular district, so that I could see exactly who it is who persists in electing one particular yahoo congressman who's been in the news. Not only does NationalAtlas have a comprehensive database of congressional district maps, but also the distributions of earthquakes and mining operations, the natural range of any species of bat or butterfly, the outcomes of U.S. presidential elections, not to mention pretty satellite views, to name just a few things. And it all seems to be paid for by the federal government. This is really great.

Baseball Strikes Out

2005-07-09T00:08:00.000-04:00

Apparently, writing out that I won't be posting for a while is just what I needed to motivate me to post again...

It was in the news today that the International Olympic Committee has removed baseball and softball as Olympic sports. Undoubtedly there is an aspect here of a multi-national body sticking it to the United States by kicking out our national pastime, and you might expect me to be upset at such an insult to my favorite sport. But as I was discussing this with Laura, a number of interesting points came out.

Firstly, the Olympics have made a big push in the past 15 years to showcase the best athletes in the world at its events. Even the big team sports like basketball and hockey are now sending top-level all-star teams, but Major League Baseball has steadfastly refused to do this. However justified the concerns may be about disrupting MLB's grueling 162-game schedule, that decision makes continuing Olympic baseball that much less consistent with the Olympic ideal. Secondly, the recent publicity of baseball's drug problems certainly hurt its standing with the Olympics, which are exceedingly vigilant about drugs. Although MLB's new drug policy has made a noticeable difference this season, it still falls far short of Olympic standards.

Baseball is huge in countries that border either the Caribbean Sea or the East China Sea, but elsewhere it is at best in the early stages of growth. Perhaps other Olympic sports are similarly regional in their scope, but I don't think many of them are team sports. Because the Olympics enforce a geographical equality in the teams that qualify, the eight Olympic baseball teams in 2004 included Australia, Netherlands, Greece, and Italy, none of which have placed very many players in the Major Leagues. Meanwhile, baseball-crazy countries including the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, and Mexico, not to mention the U.S., were excluded because of insufficient Olympic slots from their part of the world. Next year's inaugural World Baseball Classic should be a much better forum for international baseball than the Olympics has been, featuring top MLB players and embracing baseball's regional appeal by inviting all nations with a strong baseball tradition.

I feel much more sorry for the women's softball players. With no significant professional league, most softballers have only the Olympics to aspire to once they've graduated college. Furthermore, at least in the U.S., softball has been a primary vehicle for the advancement of women's sports in general, and the Olympic decision can be seen as disrespect for that role. On the other hand, softball's international appeal is even weaker than baseball's, lacking the Latin American following that is a mainstay for baseball. Not a single Latin American team competed in the 2004 Olympics, a fact that staggers me. I can only chalk it up to an indifference to women's sports in that region, or the idea that baseball is a man's game. Distasteful as that is to me, the fact is there. American dominance of softball is so complete that it's embarrassing. We won the first 8 games of the 2004 Olympic tournament by an average score of 5.75 to 0 -- that's right, no one even scored a single run against us. Australia finally achieved that feat in the gold medal game, but the U.S. still won 5-1. Some have complained that U.S. softball is being penalized for its success, but an alternate way to view it is that America is simply the only part of the world where very many people care enough to become good at softball.

Laura also mentioned the interesting point that non-baseball-playing Olympic host countries face considerable expense constructing baseball stadiums. Most stadiums in the world are designed for soccer and track-and-field, and are oval-shaped with a short dimension of 250 feet or so (think L.A. Coliseum). Baseball, however, is best played on a rough square with dimensions around 400 feet. I don't know how many suitable venues for baseball currently exist in England; and if they were to be built, who would use them after the Olympics?

Perhaps I am being too soft in justifying a decision that (some might say) is just baldly anti-American. But I have to honestly say that I have never really watched Olympic baseball myself, mainly because the quality of play is low compared to the Major Leagues. So I can't say I'll miss it too much. I am much more excited by the advent of a "World Cup" than I am upset by the demise of baseball in the Olympics.

RSS Is Kinda Neat

2005-07-07T00:36:00.000-04:00

I'm not the biggest techhead around, and I seem to be rather late to the phenomenon known as RSS. The initials stand for "Really Simple Syndication," and it is basically a format by which you can receive automatic notification whenever new content appears on a website you want to keep track of, rather than having to remember to check the website yourself. I'm sure RSS does more than just that, but this is all that I have figured out at this point.

Since it looks like it might be some time before I start updating this blog regularly again (nothing's wrong, I've just felt like I need to devote my brain cells in other directions for a while), you might find RSS to be a good way to be notified when I finally do post again. I only recently set this up for myself, and here's what I did: Go to Bloglines.com (thanks to Amy for the tip) and set up an account for yourself. When you have an account, go to "My Feeds". Then, for each blog you want to keep track of (known as a "feed"), click on "Add" and follow the directions. Note that some websites you want to keep track of may not be RSS-compatible. Once you have a list of feeds, and have marked which posts you've already read, click on "Download Notifier" to get a small application that can start up in the background whenever you use your computer, and which will notify you when something new appears on Bloglines.

Note that these notifications do not seem to be very prompt, but I usually know within a day or so when new content has appeared on one of my watched sites. Another drawback is that no notification is sent when new comments appear on a blog, so you still have to check periodically for those.

If, like me, you have a Blogspot blog that is more than a year old or so, your blog may be RSS-incompatible by default. This is easy to fix. On the user page, click on "Settings", then on "Site Feed", and change "Publish Site Feed" to "Yes".

I may put up more pictures from time to time, and who knows when the urge to speak out will grab me again.

New Pictures

2005-06-03T23:31:00.000-04:00

After an over-long hiatus, there are new pictures on the Samuel picture page. I hope you enjoy them as much as we enjoy him.

Pro-Life Democrats

2005-05-26T02:19:00.000-04:00

While I'm on the subject of politics, I'd like to mention that I am very interested in the candidacy of Bob Casey Jr. for U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania. If Casey's name sounds familiar to you readers who are pro-life, it should. His late father (then PA's governor) was famously snubbed during the 1992 Democratic National Convention because of his pro-life stance, and no pro-lifer has spoken at a DNC since then. From the little I've read of Casey Sr., he was a Democrat for a reason, a strong advocate for the poor who criticized pro-life Republicans for ceasing to care about babies once they made it to birth. This is in contrast to most so-called moderate or conservative Democrats these days, who tend to be economically conservative and socially liberal, nearly the opposite of what I am interested in.

This commentary has a good discussion of what is at stake for Democrats in Casey's race, both to defeat one of the more pugnacious Senate Republicans and to expand the appeal of their party beyond the militantly pro-choice. I, for one, will be watching to see if Mr. Casey can articulate a coherent political philosophy that might be worth following.

At Last a Deal

2005-05-24T10:27:00.000-04:00

It's hard to know who has been more hypocritical on the judicial filibuster issue. Democrats, who have cheered for years as judges enshrine their own views as part of the Constitution, and continue to do so, have suddenly started using the term "judicial activist" when the shoe is on the other foot. Meanwhile Republicans, who delayed and denied votes for dozens and dozens of President Clinton's nominees, have suddenly discovered that a nominees right to an up-or-down vote is as inalienable as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It just goes to show that most politicians' principles run no deeper than the expediency of the moment.

The shrillness of the interest groups in response is saddening but not surprising. Would they still want to destroy the filibuster if they were the ones in the minority? Do they think that will never be the case in the future? Failure to consider that shows that they are not interested in the welfare and fairness of our system of government, but in themselves and their agenda of today. Additionally, I see here again the effects of a rigid two-party system, in which there is no real need for a politician (or a lobbyist, or a psychologist/author) to get people to like him, as long as he can get them to hate his enemies more.

I am proud of John McCain, Ben Nelson, and the other deal-making senators (okay, maybe I'm not proud of Robert Byrd). They stood up for common respect, and for doing something constructive rather than demonizing one's enemies.

Thoughts on History

2005-05-19T23:23:00.000-04:00

History is one of my favorite subjects, and is often even the subject of my reading for pleasure. In the past year alone, I have read Winston Churchill's account of the history of England, a book on the history of Florence, two books on the Democratic Party, one on Jackie Robinson and the Brooklyn Dodgers (half finished), a brief biography of Queen Victoria, and countless history-oriented articles on Wikipedia. So I was interested to find that Slate is having a "History Week," featuring many articles discussing history's place in today's society, or reviewing current popular history tomes. An index of these articles can be found here.

The most interesting of these is "That Barnes & Noble Dream" by David Greenberg. The author analyzes the divide between professional historians and "popular history," with the one commonly seen as egg-headed and irrelevant, while the other is derided as sloppy and simplistic. He has valid criticisms of authors who write best-sellers by adopting a stance that is uncritical and perhaps over-patriotic, but he also noted several examples of responsible history writing that has had popular success. I enjoyed his discussion of why professional historians often fail to appeal to the public, and how they can do better. One point that I especially appreciated (at the end of part two) is the difference between history and "heritage." He illustrates the latter by noting:

"When we celebrate the Fourth of July, tour a battlefield, or enjoy presidential trivia, we're not trying to probe the problems of the past — to think hard about whether the Constitution betrayed or affirmed the ideas of the Declaration of Independence, or about the origins of the Civil War. We're looking to reaffirm our national or ethnic identity, to venerate our ancestors, to inspire wonder, or to instill patriotism or a sense of group solidarity."

When I first read these articles, I was somewhat abashed by my recent praise for Churchill's books, which would probably fall squarely in the category of "heritage." But after reflection, I realized that there's really nothing wrong with that (and I think this is also Greenberg's point). On the other hand, there is something wrong if we never move beyond that patriotic self-celebration. A clear-eyed view of history should be careful not to dwell inordinately on oppressed minorities or private scandals (a propensity which has been an important factor in popular rejection of modern professional historians), but neither should it ignore those dark underbellies by assuming that any hero was more than human, or that any political cause was truly pure.

Anyway, I have now started yet another book which had popular success in its day, but seems to be a competent critical history as well. It is The History of Germany Since 1789, written by Golo Mann in 1958 (translated 1968). I have so far read only the introduction, but am impressed by Mann's ability to cogently summarize important factors that have made Germany what it is — facilitating its journey through Bismarck's empire to WWI, and from there to Hitler's Reich — while at the same time critically discussing what other historians have said on the matter. I picked this volume up at the book sale two weeks ago. Once again I came away from the sale with several $2 books that I am happy with, but the one that I am really excited to read I got for only ten cents. :)

New Homepage

2005-05-17T12:44:00.000-04:00

I have recently been working on a major revamp of my personal homepage, and I think I am mostly finished now. This was greatly needed since most of the content was originally written seven years ago (though with some revision since then). The links page, especially, has been re-organized and re-edited. I found a piece of free software called TreeMenu that uses Java to create a collapsible menu structure. I've ended up jerry-rigging it slightly, in order to use it a bit differently than how it was intended, but I think I like the results. I really wanted something like this because I have a rather large number of links, but I worry that with them all printed in standard format, people would not scroll down to read the links at the end.

I'd appreciate any feedback you may have, whether on the content or on how the Java module works for you. The links are in the sidebar, at right.

Potpourri

2005-05-15T21:14:00.000-04:00

A month and a half ago, I was bemoaning the lack of objective news coverage on the Internet (or anywhere else) these days. In the aftermath of that exchange, I hit upon a solution that I have been happily using since that time. It is Google News. Google writes no news content itself, but instead draws upon the coverage of news sources all over the world. Articles covering the same story are grouped together and sorted using Google's page-ranking software. Thus, the top story is not determined by the agenda of the NYTimes or FoxNews, but by what people are actually reading. Although individual news sources are still biased, Google at least provides an excellent platform for compensating, since you can read several different takes on the same story until you feel you have a balanced perspective.
I recently read the graphic novel Maus by Art Spiegelman. It powerfully relates the experiences of the author's father, a Polish Jew, during World War II. The device of a cartoon, with Jews depicted as mice and Germans as cats, strips away much that would distract the reader from the sheer horror of what people were doing to each other. Even more powerful to me was the autobiographical framework of the author's often-troubled relationship with his now-elderly father (the WWII story is told as flashback), which led me to contemplate how a human tragedy can reverberate through the decades, "visiting the children's children" as the Bible says. At this point, I have only read the first volume, and hope to obtain the second volume from the library sometime soon.
Another book I recently read is The Dodgers, a comprehensive new history of my favorite baseball team. A very interesting telling, with some more subversive themes than the versions I have heard in the past (much of which has come from the team itself). Although the author seems to be making an effort to be fair-minded (often giving credit where it is due, even to men whom he otherwise subjects to the sharpest criticism), he is a little too ready to blame any and all problems on the greed and/or folly and/or racism of ownership and management. Still, in many cases there is merit to this viewpoint that is worth considering and weighing against other versions. And the book has lots of really great pictures, too.
It is refreshing to read that Billy Wagner, one of the best relief pitchers in baseball right now, considers his three young children to be more important than his continuing career. Wagner is considering retirement after this season, though he is only 34, and could conceivably pitch well for the better part of the next decade. In one way (as a baseball fan), I would love to see a man with Wagner's abilities continue to display them. But in a more important sense, I want to applaud his priorities, and I hope he is able to find a solution that is best for all.
Next spring might bring us the first-ever Baseball World Cup. Never before have the best players in the world competed for their home countries against each other, but it looks like all the competing interests may have finally been worked out. The idea is both to recognize and to promote the growing international scope of baseball. It's pretty exciting to imagine Pedro Martinez of the Dominican Republic pitching to Ichiro Suzuki of Japan, or Eric Gagne of Canada saving a game against Barry Bonds of the U.S.A.
I agree with the judgment of Christianity Today that Count Nikolaus von Zinzendorf is someone that every Christian should know about. Though less well-known than Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, Wesley, Graham, and others who shaped Christianity as we know it today, Zinzendorf is no less significant. The Moravian Brethren, whom he sponsored, were a model of humility, community, selflessness, and the active transforming role of the Holy Spirit in their lives. I would like to learn even more about him sometime.

Don't Panic

2005-05-12T22:42:00.000-04:00

I saw the new movie version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy last week, and I had a really good time. You'll be disappointed if you go in expecting great cinema or mindblowing special effects. But for an hour and a half of entertaining silliness, it's worth the price of admission. Of course, with the witty and original writing of Douglas Adams as the foundation, all you really need are people who can deliver the dialogue reasonably well. For me, highlights included the friendly deadpan of the Guide (with accompanying stick-figure animations), and Mos Def's self-assured yet goofy portrayal of Ford Prefect. The wacky effects of the Infinite Improbability Drive, the Muppet-powered Vogons, and several other aspects of the general atmosphere, were quite well done. I greatly disliked (and even found somewhat revolting) the way Zaphod's second head came out of his neck, though I can understand how a genuine two-headed three-armed alien with a hippie-rockstar personality would not translate well to the screen. Sam Rockwell's portrayal of Zaphod was over the top and rather annoying, but I guess that's kind of the point. Marvin, the terminally depressed robot, could hardly fail to be funny, and he didn't. One interesting concession to Hollywood is that Arthur and Trillian actually have a romantic happy ending, thus taking the edge off the books' biting cynicism.

P.S.: Even if you don't see the movie, take a look at Trailer #1 on the official movie website, in which the Guide lectures on the nature of movie trailers. It is seriously one of the cleverest and funniest trailers I've ever seen.

Florence Travelogue Index

2005-04-30T20:06:00.000-04:00

Days 1 and 2 (travel and recovery)
Day 3
Day 4.
Days 5 and 6
Days 7 and 8
Day 9 (return home)
Pictures

Florentine Photographs

2005-04-30T00:15:00.000-04:00

This picture was taken our very first morning in Florence, standing in front of our hotel and looking south. It is a typical street for the old city of Florence, except for the world-famous building (the Baptistery) at the end of the street.

The church of San Lorenzo was just around the corner from our hotel, and I walked past it several times every day of our trip. A large open-air street market sprawls northward from the square. One afternoon, Samuel and I had a great time clambering over the steps and chasing pigeons.

Florence's cathedral (the Duomo) is an impressive building. The colorful inlaid marble covering the exterior is not actually very old, dating from the 19th century, but both the interior and exterior contain many famous works of Renaissance art. The bell tower (Campanile) was one of my favorite landmarks.

The Campanile (see above) is decorated with twelve statues representing Biblical prophets, including two of Donatello's most famous statues. Donatello (1386-1466) was a pioneer of realism, sculpting "warts and all" rather than idealizations of beauty. This statue of Habakkuk (nicknamed "Zuccone," or pumpkin, for its bald head) portrays a tormented prophet emerging unshaven from the wilderness. Meanwhile, Jeremiah looks on with lamentation mixed with scorn, as judgment befalls a city that rejected his warnings. Directly across from the Duomo is the white octagonal Baptistery. The 1401 competition to design its bronze doors is counted by some as the beginning of the Renaissance. Replicas of Ghiberti's masterpieces now grace the building.

These panoramas of Florence were taken from the rooftop of the building where my conference was located. The right-hand picture shows, from left to right, the Duomo dome, the San Lorenzo dome (with the Duomo's Campanile behind it), and the tower of the Palazzo Vecchio. The dome of Florence's Duomo was the world's first to be built since ancient Roman times. Its construction by Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446), the father of modern architecture, without the use of a scaffold, was a wonder of the world at the time.

Laura and Samuel in front of the Hospital of the Innocents, also designed by Brunelleschi.

The Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge) is another jewel of Florence's medieval architecture. The shops lining the bridge are traditionally occupied by goldsmiths. The final picture is the view downriver from the bridge.

Florence's main square is dominated by the Palazzo Vecchio (Old Palace), which has been the city hall for many hundreds of years. The Uffizi is behind the building with the wire mesh draped over it.

The statues in front of the Palazzo Vecchio are all replicas, but they perpetuate the original purpose of public art. I particularly like Michelangelo's David from the angle shown in the second picture, which captures his "killer instinct" as he sizes up Goliath. The right-hand statue is Cellini's Perseo, holding the head of Medusa.

One evening we were walking through the streets of the old city, and we saw a shop window with this life-sized motorcycle carved entirely out of wood. It made us think of Laura's Uncle Mike. Back in the room, Samuel took some time to brush up on his Italian. On our last day, we got a nice shot of the three of us at the Duomo.

The flight home was much more pleasant than the flight to Italy had been, highlighted by some quality nap time.

All the Way Home

2005-04-21T01:26:00.000-04:00

Final chapter from Laura. Pictures will be forthcoming.

Before dawn on Saturday morning we woke up and dragged our suitcases out to the hotel lobby. To our surprise we found a complete breakfast set up for us even though breakfast wouldn't be served for another few hours. The family that ran the hotel had put out food for all three of us, including 3 hard boiled eggs (as we had each been eating a hard boiled egg for breakfast all week) It was such a kind and thoughtful gesture, we hadn't expected it but we certainly appreciated it. The Lombardi family that runs Hotel Casci were really wonderful.

Our cab ride to the airport was quiet and quick, the city was still mostly asleep. I was feeling pretty confident that we were in for a much easier trip home than the trip out had been. As we were about to check our luggage, the ticket agent told us that we needed a paper ticket for Samuel (something we hadn't needed for the flight from Rome to Florence) and due to a mistake we also lacked the paper for Samuel for the transatlantic flight. It was fairly simple to get the paper ticket for the Florence to Rome leg of our journey but we could not address the lack of the other ticket until we arrived in Rome.

The woman checking us in became fairly hostile and then refused to check our luggage farther than Rome since Samuel didn't have a ticket showing he was leaving Italy. Then she refused to let us take one of our carry on bags on board (even though it wasn't too big) and she tried to make us check our stroller too. This woman was truly the only unpleasant and unhelpful person we dealt with during our whole time in Italy.

We managed to gate check our stroller but in Rome due to a problem at the plane we were waiting for our stroller on the tarmac for over 30 minutes. We then claimed all our luggage and pulled it across the airport.

We found nice people to help us at the US Air counter (it was because of a US Air mistake that we didn't have a ticket for Samuel) The flight home was long but not terribly unpleasant. We even got to visit with Inger, a cheerful lady from PA who had been on our flight out and spent the week in Rome.

The Philadelphia Airport was nothing but hassles, claiming our baggage from customs, checking our baggage, having to clear security and somehow not missing our flight to Ithaca for which we were quite late.

We arrived in Ithaca to find our luggage no longer with us (the only airport all day where we hadn't seen our luggage). We filed our lost luggage claim and headed home and collapsed.

It was a great trip, all in all.

Finally seeing some of what Florence is famous for (other than food)

2005-04-19T01:03:00.000-04:00

The penultimate installment, written by Laura. Continued from days five and six.

We had already secured Friday afternoon reservations to the Uffizi, which would allow us to skip the horrendous looking lines for the museum. But Friday morning was clear, and we decided to see if we could get in without reservations at the Accademia, which houses Michelangelo's David.

We managed to eat breakfast and head out fairly early and then walk the 3 blocks from our hotel to the museum. Arriving at the front of the museum only 15 minutes after it had opened we saw a line with 30 people in it and thought we were doing OK. Then we found out that those 30 people were part of a tour group and we didn't have to wait in line at all. Woo Hoo!

We sailed in and made our way straight toward David. Wow! Standing 14 feet high, the sculpture is very literally "larger than life" and my only two words for it are "beauty" and "perfection". I cannot even imagine the skill and artistry it would take to carve something like that from stone. I had been seeing the copy of David which stands outside the Palazzo Vecchio all week, but the original was much much more impressive somehow. We then headed off to see the other works of Michelangelo's that are housed at the Accademia. His series called "Prisoners" are unfinished sculptures that depict human forms seeming to struggle against the rock that imprisons them (I can't find any pictures on the web that even begin to do them justice). We walked around and looked at some of the paintings, but the definite centerpieces of the museum are the works by Michelangelo.

We were considering leaving (Samuel had begun to get antsy) when we noticed a temporary display dealing with 18th century music. No one was in this display at all, and it was a longish walk from the main exhibits down a rather empty corridor. We didn't spend long ourselves, but it was highly worth the walk. A few Stradivarius violins, a group of early clarinets, and trombones were fun to see. Matt has played both the clarinet and trombone so seeing those was interesting to him.

We got lunch-like food from the Market again, this time finding some tasty tangerines and enjoying some wonderful gorgonzola. We ate back at our room and got Samuel down for a nap, so that he would wake in time for our reservations to the Uffizi.

When Samuel woke up, we set off in the direction of the Uffizi. We had plenty of time, so we decided to get some new toys for Samuel that might help to keep him entertained while we toured the museum. I had read the Uffizi tour in our guidebook to Florence 4 times by now and was really looking forward to seeing the artwork there. But I was apprehensive, somehow Samuel didn't seem quite art museum compatible.

We stopped at large bookstore down the street from our hotel and headed to the children's section. Its pretty amusing to see Garfield and Calvin and Hobbes comic books in Italian. I liked the cover art on the Italian version of Harry Potter. We found some board books with lots of nice photographs for Samuel. One was entitled Animali and the other Colori. We purchased those and a small puzzle (to save for the plane ride home) and set off again.

We fed Samuel lots of snack before entering the museum and then just hoped for the best. Three steps into the first room containing pre-Renaissance artwork, Samuel looked about and started to yell at the top of his lungs. We tried showing him books and toys but nothing helped. We sped through the room and he was still yelling. Out in the hall again, Matt offered to let Samuel roam around while I looked at artwork. So Matt and Samuel staked out a bench in the Hall of Statues and I started to wander through the next series of rooms.

It was a joy to be able to linger among the paintings of Botticelli. My personal interest in Botticelli stems from the fact that my type of curly hair can be described as "Botticelli curls" (looser open curls instead of tight spirals). Botticelli did love to paint curly hair (in this picture Mary and all the angels have curls), and as I looked closely at one of his paintings where he included a self portrait, I saw that he had curly hair himself.

I also enjoyed paintings by Agnolo Bronzino. The portraits by Bronzino drew my attention even thoughtI knew nothing about the artist, the people just looked so real. And it is amazing to be able to gaze at even the lesser paintings of Michelangelo and Leonardo Da Vinci.

I took my turn sitting with Samuel while Matt headed off to enjoy the artwork. Samuel and I read his new books, organized my wallet, played hide and seek behind a trash can, and were entertained by a group of Italian high school kids who were "oh so bored by all this artwork". Samuel never seemed to mind being surrounded by a group of girls who were all patting his head and calling him "bello" -- as long as he could see me, that is. We spent almost 3 hours at the Uffizi, and left rather exhausted.

Dinner was at the tasty little sandwich shop, and then we put Samuel to bed and Matt headed out for more gelato. Yum yum!

Saturday was our last sightseeing day, We spent the morning at San Marco, a monastery filled with beautiful frescos painted by Fra Angelico. We saw most of the artwork solo while the other one of us watched Samuel play in the courtyard. The afternoon was spent walking around, snapping those last pictures we just had to have, and eating gelato. There is a bit of sadness when you realize you are leaving a place and you haven't even begun to see so much of what is there. But I consoled myself with gelato and the knowledge that I had seen so much more than I would have if I had stayed home.

We felt we just had to have a fancier dinner on our last night in Florence (pizza by the etto just wouldn't do). After much wandering around and seeing that most restaurants wouldn't be opening until after Samuel's bedtime we found ourselves back at Za Za's. This time the service was good and the food was even better. We were surrounded by other American tourists who were telling us how brave we were for traveling with Samuel. All of Samuel's favorite waitresses from the last time we were there, were stopping by the table to pinch his cheeks. At the end of the meal Samuel even let one of the waitress hold him. He ate lots of all our food and enjoyed himself hugely.

After our nightly gelato treat, we all settled down to sleep in anticipation of our very early wake-up call and departure the next morning.

More From Florence

2005-04-14T20:39:00.000-04:00

Continuing Laura's account of our trip, now a month and a half ago. Refresh with days one and two, three, and four.

Wednesday morning in Florence was the first time Matt had free. We considered going to the Bargello (a museum devoted to statues) but found that it was closed until noon. We then headed over to Santa Croce, a large and beautiful church containing both Galileo's and Michelangelo's tombs as well as lots of neat artwork and a beautiful chapel designed by Brunelleschi.

We toured the inside of the church for a while, Samuel got antsy in his stroller and then got out and pushed the stroller around for awhile. One of us had to hold onto the stroller at all times to make sure he didn't run down people or crash into famous artwork. I was disappointed to see that Galileo's tomb was shrouded with scaffolding and plastic but most of the other highlights of Santa Croce were accessible. I especially enjoyed Brunelleschi's chapel.

After Santa Croce, we walked along the Arno for awhile, trying to stay in the sun to stay warm. We passed the Pitti Palace but didn't go in and then decided it was lunchtime. Consulting the guidebook we decided to try a place with very high recommendations for lunch. The place was billed as a small family run restaurant with really good food.

Samuel had been napping in his stroller for the last hour but as we headed toward the restaurant he woke up and was unhappy. We were all a bit cold and hungry. We pulled out some bread to feed Samuel as we walked. Counting out the addressees we came to where the restaurant should have been but there was nothing, We looked around in dismay. Definitely no restaurant. I began grumbling about the guidebook and threatening to throw it off a high building when Matt remembered that there was another recommended restaurant close by.

Samuel was close to meltdown when we reached the second restaurant and went in. I'm not sure they were quite officially open but they seemed to sense how desperate we were and seated us immediately. Samuel launched into full out crying and screaming. I felt awful but I was glad that the restaurant was empty except for us and a few employees.

The man who had seated us brought a basket of bread which greatly cheered Samuel while Matt and I hurriedly placed our orders. We took a deep breath and decided to enjoy wherever we had landed for lunch. Actually we were seated in a beautiful sunlit room with less than 20 tables. The one high window looked out onto a courtyard and some trees. Inside the walls were painted a warm brown color. I had noticed that we had passed the kitchen on the way into the restaurant. It in the front next to the street and there were a few small window you could peer into and catch a glimpse of someone cooking and baskets of tasty looking vegetables and fruits.

Our food arrived and it was wonderful, Matt had chosen a tasty risotto and I had a pasta and bean soup. Samuel ate heartily from both our plates and as we finished we decided that we could split another plate of food. Matt ordered a pasta with meat sauce, which was wonderful. Once we had fed Samuel until he said "all done," Matt and I finished off the rest. While we were dining, a few people came in to the restaurant. We seemed to be the only tourists, everyone else was speaking Italian.

Matt's meetings went extra long that night and he didn't return to the hotel until almost 7pm. Samuel had enjoyed the morning with Daddy and seemed very upset that he wasn't there in the afternoon. I was about to try to put Samuel to bed when Matt showed up and whisked us off to a nearby Panini Caldo shop for dinner. The sandwich shop had all different types of sandwiches on flatbreads that could be warmed in a grill once you ordered them. There were also several types of pizzas by the slice and portions of pasta for sale, all waiting to be heated. Everything was delicious.

We had fun chatting with the guy behind the counter who had just found out he would be a daddy in about 7 months. He was cheerful and we had a good conversation despite his limited English and our very limited Italian.

Thursday was Matt's last day of meetings. We celebrated by heading out for a nice dinner in a nearby restaurant. We got brave and ordered two courses despite the fact that we had Samuel along. It turned out to be a good choice, the food there was wonderful, Samuel enjoyed everything we were eating and with a walking around break at "half time" as Matt called it, Samuel made it through the meal quite pleasantly. We cleaned various sauces off of Samuel and then headed back to our hotel.

After Samuel was asleep, Matt went out and bought some gelato and brought it back to the hotel room. We had already been in Italy almost a week and hadn't yet tried gelato. What a shame! If I had it to do over, I would have been eating gelato every single day. As it was, we ate gelato each day afterwards, until we left Florence.

Continue on to days seven and eight.

Caltech Declares War on MIT

2005-04-12T00:51:00.000-04:00

Some of you may have seen this elsewhere, but it looks like Caltech students have not yet lost their legendary sense of mischief. A group of undergrads apparently took time away from class to fly out to Boston and carry out several very stylish pranks on the campus of That Other Institute of Technology, during the latter's Prefrosh Weekend. The highlight was infiltrating the crowd of prospective students and handing out hundreds of T-shirts reading "MIT" on the front, but adding on the back: "...because not everyone can go to Caltech." A full description, with pictures and a manifesto, can be seen at CaltechVsMIT.com. The perpetrators specifically say that they're hoping to spark a war of creativity, and look forward to MIT's retaliation.

I have to admit that these guys (using the term in a gender-neutral way) seem to have outdone the pranks of my time, if perhaps not rising to the level of the Hollywood sign or the Rose Bowl flashcards. My hat is off.

The Name of the Pope

2005-04-08T10:43:00.000-04:00

While there is now much speculation as to the identity of the next pope (some interesting analysis can be found here and here), I have a more abstract curiosity regarding the name by which he will choose to be called. I have an incorrigible interest in the pageantry and historical continuity of monarchical systems of government, and often find myself reading about European history. As the world's longest unbroken series of rulers (by quite a long shot), the Papacy has some high numbers attached to many regnal names, which for some reason I find interesting. There is also a long-standing tradition of the Pope choosing to reign under a "regnal name" that is unrelated to his personal name (for example, JPII's name before 1978 was Karol Wojtyla). Thus the name chosen by an incoming pope inescapably makes a statement regarding the facets of church history with which he desires to identify himself -- that is, it reaches back into the past and grabs something to carry into the future.

Here are some names that the incoming pope might choose from. Note that, for all speculative names of future rulers, I will put the Roman numeral in parenthesis. Also, for those who don't know me, please note that I am not Catholic, and that I am far from a knowledgeable observer of the papacy, apart from having read a bit on the subject.

John Paul (III) -- This seems highly unlikely to me. The late pope was such a monumental figure in modern history that his immediate successor will probably want neither to be in his shadow nor to presumptuously claim his mantle. But of course I could be wrong.
John (XXIV) or Paul (VII) -- These names belonged to the other two (besides JPII) significant popes of the Vatican II era, which basically constitutes modern Catholicism. John XXIII was the great liberal, either bringing the Church into the modern era or betraying its very foundations (depending on your opinion). Paul VI was charged with implementing Vatican II's decisions, and was generally seen as moderating some of its more liberal impulses (both, in my opinion, were admirable men). John Paul I (who survived only 33 days in office) intended to signify unity between liberals and conservatives by taking the first compound name in the papacy's history, and his successor JPII perpetuated the idea. Separating the names again, with a John or a Paul, might be seen as favoring liberals or conservatives, but these names are definite possibilities.
Pius (XIII) -- This is absolutely the name of the Old Guard. Four of the 6 pre-Vatican-II popes bore this name. Pius IX is known for his implacable opposition to 19th-century European democracy. St. Pius X is an icon for ultra-conservatives. Pius XII has been faulted for his allegedly lukewarm response to the Holocaust. And why not throw in the unlucky number to boot? I don't think history will ever see a Pius (XIII).
Benedict (XVI) -- A solid choice, if perhaps John and Paul and combinations thereof have too much political baggage. It's traditional, with an uplifting meaning, and no recent Pope Benedicts have been particularly controversial.
Leo (XIV) -- Also a solid choice, with the main difference being that (unlike Benedict) some quite notable figures have borne the name. Leo XIII ended the 19th century with significant early steps towards modernism. Leo I, in the 5th century, memorably stood up to the barbarian invaders of Rome, but (of particular interest to Protestants) was the first to assert the Bishop of Rome's authority over all other church authorities. Leo X excommunicated Martin Luther in the 1500's (and was a Medici from Florence). The association with figures who have inspired some and offended others could be seen as either a strength or a weakness.
Gregory (XVII) -- I'd say that this was another solid traditional name, like Benedict or Leo, except that it has been appropriated by some modern breakaway groups. There is currently an ultra-conservative antipope who calls himself by this name. Perhaps more significant is a conspiracy theory holding that a conservative cardinal was actually elected pope in 1958, and had already chosen the name Gregory, only to be replaced by John XXIII for fear of angering Communists. I don't know how concerned the Church is over such "traditionalist" groups (whose members include Mel Gibson's father), but this name might be seen as tainted.

Every pope in the last 230 years has borne one of the above names. But there are many other names with papal history to choose from. These include Clement (XV), Innocent (XIV), Stephen (XI), Boniface (X), Alexander (IX), Urban (IX), Adrian (VII), Martin (VI), Nicholas (VI), and dozens of others. Indeed, both John XXIII and Paul VI chose names that had previously been unused for many centuries, perhaps to distance themselves from the controversial period between the Enlightenment and Vatican II. Of course, a forward-looking new pope may even desire to take a name that has never been used by a pope before, like Michael or Matthew or Andrew. How about Tyler or Dylan? Before John Paul I, the last pope to take a previously unused name was Pascal I in 817 (yes, I typed that correctly).

Bonus: Imagining the future heads of European royal houses holds a similar interest for me. For example, if the current Prince of Wales survives his mother, he will reign as King Charles (III) of England; if not, his son would become King William (V). Others currently in line for European thrones include Philip (VI) of Spain, William (IV) of the Netherlands, Philippe (I) of Belgium, Frederick (X) of Denmark, Haakon (VIII) of Norway, and Victoria (I) of Sweden -- history's first heiress-apparent.

Wishing for Objectivity, Remembering the Pope

2005-04-04T14:17:00.000-04:00

I like to think of the world as a place where we can all disagree but still respect each other as human beings with sincere viewpoints. I don't mean by this that Truth is relative or defined by the beholder, but simply that it is known imperfectly. I also want to believe that there are responsible news sources that will at least do their best to report the facts impartially. This past week has been one of those times when I was rudely awakened from that fantasy.

It's one thing to mention the controversies that have attended a person's life when reporting his imminent death, but the NYTimes seemed to have had a consistent policy of disrespect during the pope's grave illness. This article, reporting the insertion of a nasal feeding tube last Wednesday, ventures to question the pope's "ability to lead" in the very first paragraph, runs a deliberately unflattering picture, and even snipes at his painful efforts to acknowledge well-wishers. To top it off, the initial online headline (which has since been changed) included the phrase "the Pope's nose"! Articles speculating on the identity of the next pope are understandable enough at this point, and I'll admit that I've read several of them with interest. But to run such articles while the current pope is still on his deathbed, as NYT did, also appears rather unseemly to me. I myself have some interesting thoughts along a similar line, but I will post them after the pope's funeral.

Of course, thumbing its nose at authority is old hat for the NYT, but even so I'll probably continue reading it for daily news. It seems to me that, If you must read biased news, it's better to read a source that challenges your natural inclinations, rather than reinforcing them. But this past weekend the sneering got a bit much for me, and I switched to Catholic World News for my updates.

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Pope John Paul II was unquestionably a giant of our modern times. He certainly had his admirers and his detractors, and that is fine. He persistently emphasized and insisted on the dignity of human life, whether it be threatened by the tyrrany of communism, the materialism and neglect of the poor brought about by capitalism, or the de-humanization of a culture that seeks to dispose of those people it deems inconvenient. Not being Catholic myself, I haven't followed him on every point, but I greatly respect the consistency and moral clarity of the Catholic position. Many have criticized his style of administration as authoritarian, and I don't know that they're wrong. He took many important progressive actions, denouncing both anti-scientism and anti-Semitism among other things, but also promoted people whom many find uncomfortably conservative. As I considered these things last night, I was reminded of the line from Hamlet: "He was a man, take him for all in all. / I shall not look upon his like again."

I think he will (and should) be remembered most of all for his leadership on human rights and human dignity. Although I was too young to remember, my heart is stirred by descriptions of his first visit to Poland as pope in 1979, when hundreds of thousands gathered to greet him in defiance of the authorities. As Madeline Albright has commented, it was then for the first time that the Poles realized "how many of each other there were." The pope was the key catalyst for democracy in Poland, which in turn was a catalyst for the rest of the Communist world. For my part, I will certainly miss having John Paul among us.

2005-03-25T16:56:00.000-05:00

For those of you who are upset about the removal of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube, I recommend reading this website discussing the legal aspects of the case in light of Florida law. There are some important points here that need to be considered. Like it or not, Florida law does not say that life-ending decisions should err on the side of life in the absence of a living will (though perhaps it should), but neither does it give the next-of-kin freedom to do whatever he wants. Rather, it says that an effort should be made to determine what the patient would have decided for herself were she able. This was done through a full and formal trial back in 2000, with the verdict that Terri would have chosen to be taken off life-support in her current situation. I recommend reading the judge's conclusion to the case, which is fairly short and accessible to the layman. This decision may or may not have been correct, but it was certainly defensible, and I believe there ought to be a place for respecting the integrity of the judicial system. It is important to recognize that all of the legal wrangling since then has not considered the substantial issues of the case. Rather, it has focused on Terri's parents trying to prove that the judge did not do his job correctly. Certainly, no one should support them in this contention without at least having read what the judge has to say for himself. This blog item by the author of the above-mentioned Florida legal site has a good point in bemoaning the abuse this judge has suffered, when all he has done is discharge his duties as best he could.

Also, like it or not, Florida law treats the administration of food and water as no different from life-saving medical treatment. Although many might believe that withholding food and water is an inhumane way to cause death (an argument I find to have some weight), Florida law says differently, and there is no legal way to change that in Terri's case. In fact, the removal of feeding tubes is a somewhat common occurrence in this country -- it's probably happened thousands of times since the Schiavo case began. Will any lasting good come from getting worked up over this one situation? What is the purpose in trying to undo what was effectively decided 5 years ago, by passing narrowly-tailored legislation that applies only to Terri and no one else? If you think something is wrong with the way our society does things, then find ways to work towards meaningful change. Must we reward the politicians whose main purpose is to make you angry at their enemies, so that they can do what they want and take it for granted that you'll vote for them in the next election?

For those of you who are horrified at the prospect of being forced to live a "useless" life like Terri's, I recommend reading this perspective from a sufferer of neuromuscular disease. Also (and I forgot to include this until 3/28), this article by a women who recovered from a coma is very challenging and instructive. There is certainly a place for accepting that one's time has come, and refusing life-saving medical treatment. That is a personal decision which must be preserved, and that should be especially obvious to Christians who profess that "death has lost its sting." On the other hand, taking positive steps to end a life creates problems very quickly, because it inevitably leads to evaluating the value of a human life based on its "usefulness." Does someone who is severely mentally impaired still have value as a human being? I myself am tempted to say no, but I have come to realize that the value I tend to place on the intellect (though it is a good thing) must not take precedence over the Image of God that we all bear. There are thousands of people today with disabilities, with varying degrees of physical and mental ability. Their ability to interact with others in spirit, mind, and body, is not what I'm used to, but I don't think that anyone -- not even someone in a coma -- is devoid of all interaction. I certainly wouldn't want to be in their place, but is it acceptable to proactively choose death in order to avoid that?

This does not mean that we must always keep someone alive at all costs. I think Terri's parents believe it does, and I would disagree with them for (among other things) fighting legitimate requests from Terri's guardian to refuse life-saving antibiotic treatment for infection, on at least one occasion. But it does mean that we cannot end a life whenever it suits us. Life is a terribly solemn thing, and it should be treated with awe, as the gift of God. I am deliberately not saying where a feeding tube stands in this discussion. Is it medical treatment that can be discontinued, or a fundamental staple of life that cannot be humanely withheld? Arguments could be made on both sides, especially when the tube is surgically implanted. But that is what we should be talking about, not trading insults and engaging in political and journalistic theater.

Update 3/28: Motivated by the rights of the disabled, many Democrats are looking to join together with pro-life Republicans on a broader bill to protect the interests of patients in end-of-life decisions. This is exactly the kind of substantial constructive dialogue that I think we need, and I applaud it.

Florence Trip: Day Four

2005-03-16T13:58:00.000-05:00

Still written by Laura.

Tuesday in Florence was much like Monday.

But that night when Matt came home from his meetings we decided to try a self service cafeteria recommended by our guide book. The place was a "no frills" establishment with decent food and cheap prices and we were able to pull Samuel's stroller right up to our booth. We had eggplant parmesan, a plate of veggies, lasagna and some pasta with clams all for about 10 euros. My biggest complaint about the place was that is was so cold inside you had to keep wearing your coat while you ate.

After dinner we walked a bit and decided that we needed to treat ourselves to dessert. I had spent Samuel's naptime reading through our guidebook and felt that we should have hot chocolate. Rivoire opposite the Palazzo Vecchio was recommended for hot chocolate and desserts and their fancy window displays of easter candy had caught my eye. We headed there and once inside ordered 2 cups of hot chocolate and a slice of chocolate cake.

I like chocolate but I've never been terribly fond of hot chocolate. Somehow after a few sips of it, my stomach feels funny and unless I've mixed in lots of whipped cream or melting marshmallows I really never finish a whole mug of that. Come to find out its because I haven't been drinking real hot chocolate. Real hot chocolate is more bitter than sweet, has the consistency of melted chocolate and is served in tiny little cups. The hot chocolate went perfectly with the chocolate cake which was sweeter. Matt and I enjoyed our treat, Samuel enjoyed the bits of chocolate cake we fed him and somehow it wasn't too shocking that we had spent almost twice as much on dessert as we had on dinner.

Continue on to days five and six.

Florence Trip: Day Three

2005-03-09T14:03:00.000-05:00

Written by Laura. First -- if you dare -- read about days one and two.

"So what are you hoping to get out of this trip?"

The question broadsided me as I was sitting in the Rome airport, luxuriating in clean clothes. I stammered for quite awhile and didn't give a good answer. The implications were obvious, "why even go to Europe, if you are going to bring along a toddler?" What's the point when you won't be able to devote your time and attention to walking tours, visiting art galleries and museums, and doing what you want. Everybody knows that having a toddler along means dealing with strollers, diapers, snacks, naps, and early bedtimes.

My heart sank, why had I come? For Matt and I, there were only two choices, either Samuel and I stayed home or Samuel and I went to Florence. Given those two choices it seemed clear that I would get to experience a lot more of Italy by going rather than staying home.

What do any of us expect when we travel somewhere? I usually go with a plan of seeing and doing new things, things I could only experience in the place I'm visiting. In that light, our trip to Florence was a success. Sure it would have been easier to stroll through the Uffizi unencumbered by a small person who didn't even look at the artwork and seemed intent on screaming when other people did. And I probably could have shopped and toured a lot more if I wasn't confined to the hotel room several hours a day with a napping child. But all in all, I'm very satisfied with the trip we had.

Monday morning set the pattern for the rest of the week. We got up, ate a lovely breakfast in the dining room of the hotel and then headed out for a walk before Matt had to leave for his meetings.

A few blocks from our hotel was the Mercato Centrale, a giant indoor food market with permanent stalls. The top floor is devoted to fresh produce but the bottom floor is a fun mixture of a meat market, a fish market, a deli and a dry goods store. You can buy all the fixings for making a superb Italian meal all in one place. Pasta, prosciutto, dried mushrooms, olives, cheese, fresh bread. You can also find lots of options for creating your own picnic lunch. For Monday's lunch we selected some crusty rolls, freshly sliced prosciutto, and some pears.

Matt headed off to his meeting and I headed back to the hotel. I probably would have done more walking than I did (Samuel tolerates the stroller very well still) but many of the days it was bitterly cold and going back to the hotel provided a chance to thaw out.

When we got to our room, the maid had just started to clean it. I collected Samuel's books and we headed out to the lobby to read. Samuel is in a "book phase", I think his vision of the perfect day is me sitting next to him reading whatever book he hands me. With this in mind we packed about 10 board books (most of which I can now recite by heart).

Our hotel was a gem. Good location, extremely friendly and helpful staff who spoke English, reasonably priced, clean and nice with a terrrific breakfast to boot. If you ever stay in Florence, you might need to stay at the Hotel Casci.

After Samuel's nap, we headed out for a walk and found the closest grassy square where he could play if he was inclined. The wind was so cold, though, that he wouldn't get out of the stroller. We just walked around a bit more and then headed back to the hotel to wait for Matt.

Matt arrived a little early and announced we were all invited to a reception in the Palazzo Vecchio. The Palazzo has some amazing artwork including a statue by Michelangelo which we got to see for free since we were with the Cassini reception. Sadly, the "reception" (a type of event that Samuel could have handled) was actually a series of talks, including some remarks by the mayor of Florence. We didn't get to see the mayor since we lasted approximately 2 minutes after they asked everyone to take their seats.

Skipping out on the reception, we decided to go to dinner instead. Matt headed for an area where he had seen some promising restaurants. It was cold, very very cold. We were all bundled up but by the time we got to the area we were all miserable from the cold and Samuel was demanding to be carried. We tried to stop in one restaurant but they didn't open for another hour (it was after 6pm at this point). Grrr! Late european dinners.

We stumbled into the next restaurant with little hope but found that it was open. Once seated, however, our waitress didn't appear for more than 20 minutes. This was incompatible with our usual "eating with Samuel at restaurants" style which demands speed. Seeing that we were desperate, the hostess appeared with some bread which pacified Samuel. Finally the waitress came and we ordered just first courses. Matt picked some fettucini with truffle sauce and I selected a traditional Tuscan bean and barley soup. Both were delicious and well received by Samuel. Samuel pronounced the soup to be stew and then began to loudly call for "stu! stu!"

Our waitress seemed like she was having a bad night but all the other waitresses were very friendly, many of them patting Samuel on the head, pinching him on the cheek, or proclaiming him "bello" every time they walked by. Samuel adored the attention. I had read that the Italians were friendly to children and that night was my first taste of it.

I was also pleasantly surprised by the fact that the restaurant had a high chair. In my pre-trip internet reading, I had found dire warnings from American parents that Italy had no high chairs at all. Toting along a booster seat (the recommendation of all the people giving the no high chair warnings) just didn't seem to make sense to me. I figured that the Italians must take children out to eat and must manage somehow. I was prepared to eat with Samuel on my lap (not the most manageable of options but doable). The reality of the Italian high chair situation was somewhat better than my reading had led me to believe. High chairs were not ubiquitous as they are in American restaurants but in sit down restaurants we were offered one almost every time. Granted these high chairs would probably not have passed muster with the average American parent. They were literally "high chairs", wooden with a woven rush seat and a small rail across the front. They were not something you could strap your child into and walk away. There were no straps, and very vigorous rocking might have tipped one over. But keeping your child within arm's reach (and reminding him occasionally that he needed to stay sitting) the high chairs worked quite well. It reminded me of a simpler time in American history, a time when we had fewer lawyers.

The truffle sauce on Matt's pasta was so good, I'm wishing I could have it again for dinner tonight. In reality, my main goal in visiting Italy was to eat lots of good food.

And that is something I am proud to say I accomplished.

Continue on to day four.

Florence Trip: Days One and Two - Travel and Recovery

2005-03-09T12:41:00.000-05:00

Written by Laura. The squeamish should beware of some graphic details. Later installments (thankfully for us at the time) will have less of a "gross" factor. :)

The reason for our Florence trip was that Matt had a week long conference to attend there. We decided that it would be fun and worthwhile to spend the extra money so that Samuel and I could tag along. None of us had ever been to Italy before so we were very excited.

However as the trip got closer, I stopped being excited and started worrying. All I could think about were all the things that could go wrong and how difficult it would be to be on my own with Samuel in a foreign country. Matt reassured me that we would enjoy ourselves and I started to get excited again in the weeks before the trip.

We were scheduled to leave at 3pm on Friday afternoon from the Ithaca airport. At 2am Friday morning, Samuel woke up crying and wanting to nurse. As I held him, I noticed that he was incredibly warm. Matt and I got up and took his temperature and it was over 102 degrees. We called the airline and found out our options (pay $200 and use my ticket for something else later) and went back to bed. By the morning Samuel seemed better and his fever was barely over 100 degrees, before lunchtime his temperature was normal. Nervously, we made the decision to go.

Everything was going well at the airport until they announced that the flight (from Ithaca to Philadelphia) was delayed due to problems in Philadelphia. Eventually the announcement came that the flight would not be departing until 45 minutes before our scheduled connecting flight was due to take off. Matt got in line to turn in our tickets and we got ready to go home with plans to come back tomorrow and try to fly to Italy then. Matt was just about to hand in his tickets to the airline employee when someone we know from church who works for the airline appeared and said, "What are you doing? They can go today. They may make their connection, and if not there is a back-up flight through London they can take."

To our surprise, we were boarding the plane earlier than expected and taking off for Philadelphia. The flight attendent on the plane talked to us about our connection and told us to run all the way through the airport and we just might make it.

Samuel thought speeding through the airport in his stroller was great fun. By the time we reached the international terminal I didn't think I could run anymore, but we had made it. The flight to Rome had been held for the numerous passengers whose connections had been delayed into Philadelphia. We were by no means the last people on the plane.

The flight went smoothly for the first four hours. Samuel fell asleep, Matt dozed off and I wiggled uncomfortably as I tried to sleep. Samuel, who was sleeping on Matt's lap at this point, started making funny noises and I woke to full conciousness and realized he was throwing up. Matt held him while I found a flight attendent to help us. We mopped up Samuel and Matt and the surrounding area. They both changed into fresh clothes, Samuel nursed and fell back asleep.

Now I really couldn't sleep. High fever, then vomiting . . . I was sure that Samuel and I shouldn't have come. I considered one bad scenario after another. Samuel slept peacefully until it was time for the breakfast service on the plane right before we arrived in Rome. Samuel woke up and nursed some more and then settled down on my lap for landing. He projectile vomited everywhere. He and I were both covered in vomit but the most we could do was to wipe ourselves off as the plane was about to land.

We arrived in Rome to find we had missed our connecting flight to Florence due to the delay in Philadelphia. I was just grateful to have the opportunity to change into clean clothes. Traveling with us were Matt's boss and his wife and Matt's officemate. As we headed off to find a bathroom in the Rome airport, Matt's boss' wife told me that I really didn't look so good. I bit my tongue from replying that few people covered in vomit do.

Fresh clothes for Samuel and I made us feel better, much better. Samuel ate a few saltines, and then fell asleep for a three hour nap in the Rome airport. The flight to Florence was short and I was looking forward to collapsing in the hotel room and regrouping. Samuel nursed on the flight and a few minutes later started throwing up again. This time he got Matt and I both. Matt tried to get him to use the motion sickness bag but that met with limited success. Samuel got good at pushing it away.

Smelly and wet, we arrived in Florence and found to our shock and joy that our luggage had arrived too (otherwise I was out of clean clothes). We took a taxi to our hotel and during the ride, Samuel continued to throw up, by this point I was just getting him to throw up on me so we wouldn't upset the taxi driver. I have a clear memory of arriving on the street in front of our hotel and holding a very limp and dazed Samuel who was almost unresponsive when I spoke to him. My horrified brain was registering that I had dragged my extremely sick baby to a foreign country. I felt guily and awful.

Samuel did perk up by the time we reached our room, I kept nursing him and he just collapsed for a nap, as did I. I was too drained to do the staying-up-to-beat-jetlag thing. Samuel threw up a few more times during the next 12 hours but never seemed as bad as he had on our arrival. I got sick the following morning and made Matt fetch me enough Gatorade to keep me alive through the day while he attended his meeting. Samuel and I hunkered down in the hotel room, him eating only mommy milk, me drinking only Gatorade. By the end of the day, I felt good enough for a walk around the city to see the Duomo and the Ponte Vecchio.

The next morning, Samuel and I felt fine and got to start enjoying beautiful Florence.

Continue on to day three.

Home Again

2005-03-07T15:54:00.000-05:00

We are safely home from Florence. The trip was certainly one to remember. The Cassini meeting (ostensibly the reason we went) was great. We did a lot of walking through the medieval city, ate a lot of delicious Italian food, and saw a few museums. By the end, we felt very happy and satisfied with our visit. Hopefully in the next few days, I'll put up some pictures and perhaps more stories.

More Samuel Pictures

2005-02-23T21:45:00.000-05:00

Our boy continues to grow; next week he will be 16 months old. His vocabulary of words (that at least Laura and I can understand) is growing rapidly, his coordination is also improving, and I've even noticed improvements in his patience. There are new pictures on the Samuel picture page, including shots with Cousin Eddie and other family members from last month's trip to California.

The things he picks up and the things he understands are often surprising. Casually mention a word like "water" or "cheese" in a sentence, and he'll start repeating it and holding up an example (if it's handy) before you even realize you've said a word he knows. The other day I was putting on my coat and boots to go to work, and he found his fleece snowsuit and brought it to me, clamoring. He knew that if I put it on him, that would mean he was coming with me; and if not, he would be left behind. In the past couple weeks he has suddenly become very interested in books; he will pull one out and bring it over, and sit with me while I read it. Sometimes he gets impatient and turns the pages too fast, or even closes the book halfway through and finds another one, but it's a nice change from "Mr. Perpetual Motion" who never used to sit on my lap for more than a few seconds under any circumstances.

His walking is fun to watch. He is not one to pitch headlong in his impatience to run, but rather seems to be taking his time to concentrate on good technique. He takes slow and measured steps, maintaining very good balance. I am convinced that he could walk from one end of the house to the other, but he generally gets tired of this partway through and drops down to crawling, at which he is still much faster. I think that, one day, his balance will improve to the point where he can run, and only then will he stay on two feet as his primary means of locomotion.

We've been having fun learning parts of the body. He loves the song "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes," though he doesn't actually sing it himself. Instead, he puts his hands to his head and says "daaaa" in a sing-song voice, and expects us to take it from there. He also enjoys when we count with him. Just say the word "count," and he will usually respond with an enthusiastic "Two!" He also likes "three" and "six," and gets very excited about "nine," but I've never heard him repeat any other numbers.

Evenings with Winston

2005-02-20T01:12:00.000-05:00

Among my 10-cent purchases at last fall's book sale was a paperback copy of The New World, the second volume (out of four) in Winston Churchill's A History of the English-Speaking Peoples. I eventually got around to reading it early this winter, and enjoyed it so much that I checked out the first volume (The Birth of Britain) from the library and read it as well. I'm currently reading a history of the city of Florence, preparing for our trip which begins at the end of the week, but after our return I look forward to getting back to Winston and beginning his third volume.

Churchill is not a professional historian, and I sometimes suspect that he gives a version of events as they're embedded in English folklore, rather than reflecting the most modern critical scholarship. But modern scholarship may not penetrate the psyche nearly as readily, and there is certainly value in learning the stories that shape how the English think about themselves, if nothing else. Another criticism might be the spottiness of the subject matter. In the first two volumes at least, more than 95% of the text focuses on England, despite the series' inclusive title. Churchill also has a tendency to dwell on the details of battles (though given his personal history I am prepared to indulge him in this) and skims over large swaths of social and economic history. Clement Attlee, a political rival, memorably commented that the book should really have been called "Things in History That Interested Me," but to be honest, I have enough respect for the author to want to know what interested him. Churchill's real strength is in taking the measure of a person and then telling a story about him/her. There are places where the text seems to degenerate into a list of names and battles, and the narrative seems to drag; but then some remarkable figure steps onto the stage of world history, and Winston's talent for storytelling comes alive.

He regales us with tales of Alfred the Great (849-899), who first united the English nation; William the Conqueror (1027-1087), whose army brought efficiency and orderliness but could not supplant the Saxon tradition of local self-government; and the several fascinating characters who took part in the Wars of the Roses (1455-1487). He extols King Henry II (1133-1189), who ruled all of England and more than half of France, who did more than anyone else to establish the rule of law (including trial by jury) as the basis of English society, and the "Lion in Winter" who quarreled with his rebellious sons. Two of those sons became king themselves: the gallant but rash Richard the Lion-Hearted (1157-1199), and the ruthless and calculating John (1166-1216), the inspiration for Prince John in "Robin Hood" stories. King John's main contribution to history was being such a conniving scoundrel that his subjects forced him to sign the Magna Carta in 1215, providing a written guarantee that the King was also subject to the rule of law (in effect, that the legal rights codified by Henry II could not be revoked by royal whim).

Churchill's main purpose is to trace the development of political liberty in England, and to argue that liberty throughout the world ultimately traces back to English common law. (I'm sure other nations might dispute this claim of England's primacy, and perhaps they might be justified, but it certainly is true that the large majority of democracies in the world, especially outside Europe, have been chiefly influenced by English traditions.) In this vein, Churchill describes the origins of an attitude of local rights and responsibilities (going back to Saxons and Danes in the Dark Ages), the creation of Parliament in the 13th century as a council of leading citizens to advise the King, and spends much time on the English Civil War (1642-1651). Churchill sees this War as beginning with a principled struggle for Parliamentary democracy against absolutist monarchy, which soon became hijacked by the religious fanaticism of Oliver Cromwell and his followers. I'm not sure how much I agree with his exceedingly critical view of the Calvinists' behavior in that conflict, though I tend to agree with him that using force to impose particular religious practices is pretty much always wrong. The second volume ends with King James II (1633-1701), a zealous adult convert to Catholicism who (according to Churchill) had plans to subvert both democracy and Protestantism in England, and was soon overthrown in the bloodless revolution of 1688. When I start volume three, we will pick up with the victorious William and Mary and continue into the 1700's.

2005-02-19T20:39:00.000-05:00

Regarding my most recent post, and maybe others as well: Perhaps I ought to refrain from sounding off on controversial subjects when I haven't taken the time to put much subtlety or persuasiveness into the article. A good writer will meet the reader where he is at, and gently bring him to a place where he agrees with the writer. I, on the other hand, have a tendency to bluntly state my non-mainstream opinions and expect people to take it in stride. Generally, my purpose is primarily to provoke discussion and exchange of ideas, upon which I place high importance, and I may even say things I haven't fully thought through, in the hope that it will spur discussion that will help me further refine my thoughts. But I think many people find my forceful delivery to be off-putting and revert to the common feeling that controversial discussions are unpleasant. But be that as it may...

The Gender Gap and the Thought Police

2005-01-22T14:54:00.000-05:00

Slate's Will Saletan writes a very interesting article breaking down the current feminist furor over Larry Summers. Speaking at a conference on women in science and engineering, the Harvard president had suggested that the under-representation of women in these professions may have roots other than chauvinism and discrimination, and (in the really controversial part) that a role might even be played by intrinisic differences in the way men and women tend to think. Despite the fact that Summers was clearly speaking in support of helping more women to succeed in S&E, and that (as the reliably liberal Saletan explains) it's not at all obvious that he was wrong, the usual suspects have been screaming long and loud in the media, with the result that Summers has been forced to issue an apology and may suffer even worse consequences. Does anyone else find this kind of witch-hunt to egregiously conflict with the supposed liberal advocacy of free thought?

I particularly appreciate the point that looking simply at the gender gap (or the race gap, for that matter) in the professional ranks is putting the cart before the horse. We need to look very carefully, and concentrate our efforts, on correcting disparities at the elementary school level, and work up from there. I tend to agree with the classic arguments against broad-based affirmative action, that it's fundamentally unfair and brands the beneficiaries (whether women or other forms of minorities) as not fully qualified, even if they would have succeeded without help. AA at the collegiate and professional levels may have been a fine policy 40 years ago, when overt discrimination was widespread and gender and race gaps were catastrophic at all levels, but it can never be more than a stopgap solution while reforms at the primary levels have time to do their work.

But I may not be a very good conservative on this issue either, as I think the disparities that still exist in primary and secondary education (especially with regard to race, with its ultimate root in economics, though perhaps with gender as well) are practically criminal -- certainly in conflict with the conservative's supposed desire for "equality of opportunity" -- and cry out for energetic changes. Furthermore, I think affirmative action based on a person's economic opportunity (I suppose I've now strayed away from gender issues, as this only really applies to race-based AA) may still be a good and needful idea.

P.S.: Laura just saw someone ski down our street. That's definitely a first. :)

P.P.S.: See further comment, 2/19.

A 91-Degree Swing

2005-01-19T14:43:00.000-05:00

It was 81 F at LAX yesterday afternoon, when my mother-in-law dropped us off. When we arrrived in Ithaca last night, it was 10 degrees below zero. That's a bit too much of a change for one day. Still, it's nice to be home.

Dispatches from Titan

2005-01-14T18:20:00.000-05:00

In this age of information, there are few places remaining that are completely and utterly unknown, and few of us modern people can know the thrill of exploring such a place. But keep your eye on the European Space Agency's Huygens Probe, which has successfully landed on Saturn's moon Titan (our most distant landing from Earth ever) and sent back the first really clear images of the surface of this most interesting place. Titan's atmosphere is primarily nitrogen, just like Earth's, and may have many similarities to what Earth's atmosphere was like before living organisms began pumping oxygen into the air. So far today we have the first concrete indications of river channels and lakeshores, except that the liquid involved is almost certainly not water but some form of hydrocarbon (Titan's surface temperature is about -180 C, or -290 F). More images from the Huygens lander should be arriving over the next hours and days, while the Cassini orbiter will continue mapping Titan with more than 40 flybys over the next several years.

Update 1/20: Upon further review, the identification of lakeshores, while likely, may not be so certain as to be beyond doubt. But the channels are definitely there, implying erosion by some form of flowing liquid. Furthermore, the consistency of the surface material (similar to wet sand) and the eroded, boulder-strewn landscape (more like Mars than the Moon) also indicate the action of a liquid. The most stunning panorama of Titan yet released, taken 8 km above the surface by Huygens, can be found here.

Adventures of a Little Boy

2005-01-13T04:03:00.000-05:00

We're in the middle of our trip to California, and Samuel in particular has been having a blast. He's had some good long chunks of time to bond with his grandparents and other family, and that's been really great for everybody. Then there are the pets. His eyes light up whenever he sees my sister's chihuahua-poodle (he's always loved dogs; his first real communication back at 7 months or so was "doggie"), but after some frantic licking he soon decides that the doggie is better viewed from a distance. My mother-in-law's cat is more sanguine, and after relentless chasing and exclamations of "tee-tee!", she allowed Samuel to catch up and lay his head on her like a pillow.

Samuel took his first tentative steps last week while we were still at home, and already tonight he was taking four or five steps at a time. At 14-and-a-half months, he's a bit late on walking, though certainly within the acceptable range. I've been attributing his lack of interest in upright locomotion to the fact that he crawls so speedily that he just wasn't motivated to try something new, but we now think it's not a coincidence that those first steps were within days of going off a medication that may have been making him dizzy. To see his look of joy as he lets go and takes a step, happy not only at the adventure of trying something new but at the cheers that he receives, is more fun than I've had in quite a long time.

Height: 2'10'', Occupation: Baby

2005-01-05T23:35:00.000-05:00

We have an opportunity to go to Italy at the end of next month for a meeting of Cassini scientists. I'll be in meetings during the weekdays, while Laura and Samuel tool around Florence on their own, and then we'll have some time all together as well. The location simply reflects the considerable European participation in the Cassini mission, but we're sure not complaining. Of course, these plans require us to apply for a passport for Samuel, which we did last week. We had a lot of fun doing our own mug shots; we ended up using the one in the middle.

Here are the new Samuel pictures. We fly out to California on Friday to spend time with the fams and attend Shane's wedding. We look forward to seeing many of you!

P.S.: A new design template for this site was really necessary, because the green-and-orange original was so old that it was not compatible with Blogger's commenting system. I'll be tinkering with it some more, so hopefully it'll look better in the future. In other happy news, Squawkbox had mercy on me and re-activated my account for 7 days so that I can transfer all of the comments from a year and a half of blogging over to Blogger. I've made a start on that already.

...or maybe not

2004-12-31T13:02:00.000-05:00

The blog has seemed a bit moribund to me lately. My personal thoughts about God and politics (and sometimes both at the same time) have been complex and inconclusive these days, not necessarily ready to be written about. And besides that, between work and Samuel, I've had much less leisure time for sitting and typing than I used to. I recently had some grand plans for revamping and revitalization, but I don't think I'll have the time to carry them out. I wasn't even able to get the new template configured the way I like it, so I'm back to the old one for now. And when I do have time to work on Internet things, I think my personal website is much more in need of attention and updating.

I've always thought of this space as a scratchpad for my brain, to keep track of my thoughts, and all the better if others also like to read it. I'm also a bit compulsive when it comes to diaries, I either need to write down everything or I can't do anything at all (the latter has usually been the result). So perhaps I'm more unsatisfied with the blog than anyone else. In any case, I'm going to stop feeling guilty about not having any regularity in my posting, and will write only when I have a real inspiration. You may or may not notice any difference. I will keep up with the pictures (I know I'm way overdue there, and hope to rectify that within a few days), and we'll see what else happens.

Changes

2004-12-25T13:45:00.000-05:00

The commenting service that I've been using decided last week, suddenly and without warning, to lock my account, and now I think it has been deleted altogether despite my protest. Apparently the banner ads were not bringing them enough revenue to justify letting small-fry users like me get by without paying them. I am a bit sad that all of the nice comments that people have left in this space over the past year and a half will never been seen by anyone again, but there's nothing to be done about it now. In any case, I've been meaning to make some big-time updates around here anyway, so this is motivating me to do it.

The new commenting module is provided by Blogger, the same service that hosts the blog itself. Unfortunately, you can't just type in your name when you comment. You have to either have a Blogger account (which takes only a couple minutes) or be identified as "Anonymous." If you choose the latter, please try to remember to put your name into the text of your comment.

2004-12-14T10:19:00.000-05:00

My officemate, a native Minnesotan, has been pining for snow, as has a native Alaskan we know at church. They argue that cold without snow is just gloomy, since snow brightens up the landscape. They also note that snow is less unpleasant than cold or freezing rain, since it doesn't get you wet. I can't really argue with either of these points.

Today, for the first time, I walked to work on sidewalks covered with snow. Kinda pretty. My new sturdy snow boots did great, as did the other warm clothing I've accumulated. I think my next order of business is to get the hang of the scarf, an article of clothing that has always stumped me.

2004-12-09T09:42:00.000-05:00

I can't resist commenting on "A Cup of Christmas Tea". It's a poem that Laura was assigned to recite at the ladies' Christmas tea party last weekend. So time was spent last week helping her to learn and practice it, which is all well and good. But the unintended consequence was that the darn thing got so firmly stuck in my head that I have yet to get it out again. It's like that Backstreet Boys song you heard on the radio the other day, and wish to God you could stop thinking about it, but can't.

I'll only say a little bit about the content of the poem itself (Visiting old relations is a "bitter pill" that's only mitigated in this case because the visitee is an extraordinary person? Does this mean that normal older people who don't bake perfect cookies can't expect their grandnephews to ever enjoy visiting them? And for a Christian poem about Christmas, why no mention of God or the birth of Christ? We're supposed to be inspired because this fictional old lady herself "was a Christmas miracle"? What the heck does that mean?), but the worst part is the meter. It's a strong iambic heptameter, which is identical to some other poems of dubious philosophical import that I know, including "Casey at the Bat" and "The Cremation of Sam McGee". So I'll have this poem involuntarily cycling through my head, and without warning it will transmogrify into a completely different poem:

The triple beat of two feet and a crutch came down the hall,
The rattle of the china in the hutch against the wall,
And now the pitcher holds the ball, and now he lets it go,
And now the air is shattered by the force of Casey's blow ...

Or perhaps even worse:

She poured two cups, she smiled, and then she handed one to me,
And then we settled back and had a cup of Christmas tea.
And I looked at it, and I thought a bit, and I looked at my frozen chum,
Then "Here," said I with a sudden cry, "is my crematoreum!" ...

Somehow the "tear-filled awe" isn't coming to me. Bah! Humbug! :) That was therapeutic. Maybe now my mind can find something else to idle over. Macarena, anybody?

This Blog Item Is Not Actually About Baseball

2004-11-24T22:22:00.000-05:00

It's become mostly-official that a Major League Baseball franchise will be changing cities for the first time in 33 years, as the Montreal Expos move to the nation's capital. There's been an interesting controversy regarding the name of the new team, though. Baseball officials have bestowed the rather bland name Washington Nationals upon the team, in deference to the D.C. mayor's insistence that the historic name of "Washington Senators" is inappropriate for a city that cannot send one of its residents to represent it in the U.S. Senate. Some news stories have tried to soften the change by noting that "Nationals" was the official name of Washington baseball until the 1950's, but the fact is that the team was always popularly known as the Senators (the shortened form "Nats," of course, can apply equally well to either Nationals or Senators). Since I generally like historical continuity, I'm disappointed that the Senators name won't be retained and I'm inclined to see the mayor's position as crass politicking. But then again, it's worthwhile asking the question: Why doesn't Washington D.C. have representation in the Congress?

A partisan but informative history of the issue can be found here. For the Senate at least, the issue is an innocent enough expression of the federal system of government (I can think of no coherent reason why D.C. shouldn't have a vote in the House). The Senate represents the States, which are considered to be the self-contained entities from which the power of federal government flows, while the House represents the People. Nor is the issue unique to D.C. All of the current states, except the 13 originals and Texas (annexed and admitted to the union simultaneously in 1845), were once part of a "territory" that was part of the U.S. but with only non-voting representation in Congress (as D.C. now has). Becoming a state is a serious matter, and I tend to agree with this article that D.C. should not qualify. Allowing D.C. residents to vote for the Senator from Maryland may not be a bad idea, but the character of D.C. is rather different from Maryland as a whole, and I tend to think the Marylanders wouldn't like the idea.

For comparison, I wondered what is done by other countries that designated a Federal District and built a capital from scratch. It turns out that D.C.'s reduced representation in the Senate is not unique, but its exclusion from the House certainly is.

Australia: Canberra elects only two senators, as opposed to twelve for each of the states, but has full representation in the House.
Brazil: Brasilia is treated no differently from the states, with full representation in both houses.
Nigeria: Abuja elects only one senator, other states elect three. Full representation in the House.

Some other countries, like Mexico and Argentina, also have federal districts with full representation in their Congresses, but these are not directly comparable since Mexico City and Buenos Aires were major cities long before they were designated as Federal Districts.

It seems to me that an appropriate compromise would be to give D.C. full representation in the House, but maintain the status quo (or one senator at the most) in the Senate. Interestingly enough, I discovered on DCVote that legislation very much like my idea is being advanced in Congress right now, though it's unlikely to pass. The political gladiators have more to gain from this issue's non-resolution than from its resolution.

2004-11-10T11:06:00.000-05:00

I'm currently in Louisville, Kentucky, attending the annual DPS Conference of planetary scientists. For my trip out here on Sunday, owing to the infinite wisdom of U.S. Airways (which has a monopoly at the Ithaca airport), I flew from Ithaca to Philadelphia to Charlotte, on my way to Louisville. But there was one advantage to my odyssey, which was that I had a tasty Carolina BBQ pork sandwich for my dinner at the Charlotte airport. As I watched them assemble my plate, I was surprised to see a fish stick alongside my sandwich and fries. But knowing little about the Southern style of eating, I took it in stride and went to my table to eat. It was not until biting into it that I discovered that the "fish stick" was in fact a breaded and fried dill pickle. What will they think of next?

2004-11-01T19:29:00.000-05:00

After a campaign that seems like it's lasted four years, Election Day is finally tomorrow. Make sure you vote, even if it's for someone you think is wrong on many points. Sometimes the voter may have to choose which issue is most important in determining his vote. But the right to vote is a precious thing, even if it's abused by cynical politicians, and we must exercise it to preserve it.

If there is one thing we should do to strengthen our democracy, it is to support measures that decrease the ability of political parties to limit our choices. If you live in California (my home state), Proposition 62 is an excellent chance to do that. This is an improvement over 1998's "blanket primary" system that was eventually ruled unconstitutional. Prop 62 would create a system similar to one that has successfully operated in Louisiana for several years now. Party primaries deliver to the general election one candidate who is more liberal than 75% of the population and another more conservative than 75%, contributing to the polarization and acrimony that now plagues our political process. We need something that will force politicians to pay more attention to mainstream Americans and not pander to interest groups, and I believe this is a step in the right direction.

American politics sure is messy and disheartening oftentimes. But the only way to improve it is by participating.

P.S.: For those of you who are Christians, let me encourage you to pray as much as possible today. I don't mean to pray that the election will go one way or the other. What we need is an American people who desire what is just and right, and politicians who will do what is just and right. I don't think we have that now, not by a longshot. But it is the former that will bring about the latter. So it is not the election that will truly bring about the needed change, but a sincere change of the hearts of people, and that is my prayer.

First Birthday

2004-10-31T18:06:00.000-05:00

It's amazing to think that we've had our little Samuel for a whole year. How he has grown and changed! His process of connecting syllables with meanings is progressing. He sits at the table in his high chair and eats dinner with us now. He hasn't shown much motivation to learn walking, but he has no trouble getting wherever he wants to go rather quickly. And his play with toys gets more and more dextrous and sophisticated. There are a fair number of new pictures this time, so enjoy!

Fun Things Around Ithaca

2004-10-21T23:09:00.000-04:00

The countryside of New York State is certainly different from any place I've ever lived before. Our day-to-day lives are almost entirely spent within the city, but you don't have to go far before you're surrounded by forests and watersheds and farms. Recently, we drove about 15 minutes to Baker's Acres and picked apples. I really enjoyed this, although it was kind of chilly. The apples look so pretty on the trees, and they are uncommonly crispy and tasty. And really cheap when you pick them yourself. I tucked Samuel into my sweatshirt, and we had a good time. We picked about a peck (~2 gallons) and have already finished them, so we're thinking of going back on Saturday.

Ithaca is home to one of the largest book sales in the country, with proceeds benefitting the public library. We went to the sale on the first weekend, when all books were $4, and again last weekend when everything was just a dime (prices decrease daily, but of course the quality of the books remaining does also). The venue is just a nondescript warehouse crammed with bookshelves. It was fun to browse and hard not to buy. We ended up taking home a dozen or more books on history, parenting, baseball, and more.

Another neat thing about living here is seeing the fall colors in real time. People transplanted to CA from the East always talk wistfully about fall colors, and now I better understand why. I'd previously seen a forest full of color in pictures or on a day trip to the mountains, but I really enjoy being able to see the actual change occurring. Just a month ago, almost everything was green; now I'd say about 40% of trees are other colors, and every day there are a few more. When I walk home from work, I get a good view across the valley from the top of the Libe Slope, which is where I like to check how much more orange and brown there is since yesterday.

The Cascadilla Gorge Trail follows a creek through a gorge that must be a couple hundred feet deep, over many cascades and falls. It's really fantastic, especially considering that most of it is within the city limits of Ithaca. If I'm walking to work, it's not the fastest way to go, but it is the fastest way from my bus stop to work. So I walked it this morning, after missing my bus by a hair. It was actually the first time I've walked up the hill to work since the semester began and buses started to run earlier, so my lungs were a bit sore towards the end. But I still made it before the next bus would have gotten me there. A couple months ago, Laura made a virtual hike of Cascadilla Gorge, and I had forgotten to put it on the blog until now. The water was muddy and opaque that day, usually it's much more clear; but regardless, it is a beautiful place.

2004-10-12T10:32:00.000-04:00

I'm Worried: People keep laughing at me when I say it's cold outside. My face was slightly numb after walking home from work yesterday (with the sun still up, mind you), but everyone says we haven't seen anything yet. I've lived all my conscious life in California or Arizona (I'm discounting the time before my second birthday here). I have never lived in a place where it snows. Winter is when the nighttime lows get down into the 40's, or the 30's if it's really cold. Right??? The average low temperature in Ithaca in January is 16 degrees, and I think cold snaps can get well below zero. Laura and I spent some of last night going over our (considerable) wardrobe needs, and sketching out a plan to meet them. It'll be an interesting winter, but I'm sure we'll make it all right.

2004-10-09T20:26:00.000-04:00

Great Hymnwriters: Fanny Crosby

Part One: Introduction and Isaac Watts
Part Two: Charles Wesley

Frances Jane Crosby was born in 1820 in Putnam County, NY, some 60 miles north of New York City. At the age of six weeks, she was permanently blinded by a doctor attempting to treat an eye infection. Despite her disability, she was raised to love literature and poetry. At the age of 15, Fanny was sent to the newly founded New York Institute for the Blind. These were the early years of special education for the blind; the Braille system would not become widespread for another decade or two, and students absorbed information simply by hearing books read out loud. Fanny spent 35 years at the Institute (which is now the NYISE, and which has a very informative website devoted to her life) as a student and teacher. Her literary career began to develop, at first as a vehicle to attract public attention to special education and charitable support for the Institute. Her first book of poems was published in 1844, and other works followed.

Although her Christian faith had always been strong, it was not until she was 44 that Crosby first wrote a sacred text, but during the second half of her life she became the most prolific writer of hymns in history. One hymn in particular, All the Way My Savior Leads Me, has become particularly meaningful to Laura and me since Samuel's birth and the various medical issues that we've dealt with concerning him. We are inspired by Fanny's example in the face of physical challenges, and we can truly say with her that "whate'er befall me, Jesus doeth all things well." Many of her hymns take the form of a personal testimony. The classic Blessed Assurance, probably her most widely beloved hymn, is also of this type. If you had asked me before last year for my favorite Crosby hymn, I most likely would have chosen the full-throated chorus To God Be the Glory.

Some of the best hymns by Fanny Crosby (my favorites first):

2004-10-04T20:49:00.000-04:00

As Samuel celebrates the Dodgers' first entry into the playoffs in 8 years, we have a new crop of pictures on the Samuel picture page. Enjoy!

2004-10-02T23:18:00.000-04:00

Book Report Roundup

I thought I'd talk a bit about several books that I've read over the past year. Some of them I read quite some time ago now, but never got around to the blogging I had planned to do about them. So I'll do a bunch of condensed "book reports" now before I forget about them completely.

The Time-Traveler's Wife [2003] by Audrey Niffenegger -- I ran across this book by chance and thought the title was intriguing. I then skimmed the prologue and was immediately hooked. It's the story of a man who is intermittently (and involuntarily) transported through time, yet it never occurred to me to put this book into a "science fiction" genre. I think it's a remarkable accomplishment by the author that the book's focus is not on the time travel or the bizarre circumstances that it brings about, but on relationships and how they respond to the situation. To me, the real star of the story is the undying commitment that Henry and Clare have for each other, and their determination to support each other through their trials; in that way, I found the book to be a tremendous affirmation of a healthy marriage. On the other hand, the mind-bending situations and the musings on the nature of fate are also fun. (Note: As with most novels these days, the reader should be forwarned about language and sexual content.)

Redwall [1986] by Brian Jacques -- As with The Time-Traveler's Wife, my first thought was that this is a terrific idea for a novel, but in this case I ended up feeling that Redwall did not deliver quite so well on its promise. Creating characters is clearly one of Jacques' strong points, and there are certainly a number of memorable and enjoyable characters among the animals who inhabit Redwall Abbey (I particularly like the mole engineers). But the storytelling somehow utterly failed to be suspenseful to me, certain main characters did not seem as likable as they were obviously intended to be, and the violence was occasionally disturbingly graphic for a children's book.

These days, especially with election madness in full swing, we tend to think that there is no such thing as a Democrat who is not liberal, or a Republican who is not conservative. Yet "conservative Democrats" and "liberal Republicans" were plentiful as recently as the 1960's, and a few can still be found even today. As I wrote some time ago, I am interested in finding out more about what made a Democrat a Democrat back in those days when it was not all about being "liberal" or "conservative." Earlier this year, I read two books as part of my attempt to learn the answer to my question.

Several months before he gained notoriety as the only politician ever to give keynote convention speeches for both parties (Dems in 1992, GOP in 2004), I read A National Party No More: The Conscience of a Conservative Democrat [2003] by Senator Zell Miller of Georgia. As someone who has loudly proclaimed both his loyalty to the Democratic Party and his disgust for the liberal special interests who run that show, I thought Miller ought to be the perfect person to articulate an alternative philosophy of being a Democrat. In this I was greatly disappointed, for although Miller repeatedly vows that he "was born a Democrat and will die a Democrat," he gives no coherent reason for this commitment other than family loyalty. Miller does have some points that Republicans would do well to listen to, such as the importance of making equal education available to the poor, but overall I see little in the chapters devoted to issues that is recognizably Democratic, and Miller makes no attempt to correct my impression. Miller's strongest moments are when he excoriates the moneyed lobbyists that have taken over the Democratic party and driven American political discourse into left/right radicalism; but in this I personally see the Republicans as hardly less to blame, while Miller lets them off way too easily.

When Sen. Miller failed to enlighten me as to why a conservative would want to be a Democrat, I turned to a recent popular history, Party of the People: A History of the Democrats [2003] by Jules Witcover. I enjoyed much of this book, as I enjoy just about any lively account of historical events, but here again I was disappointed when I looked for commentary that would help answer my question. Witcover is not a historian but a political journalist, and his book persists in describing the events of Democratic history not in the context of their times but through the revisionist lens of Witcover's own modern liberal sensibilities. To hear him tell it, the Jefferson/Hamilton and Jackson/Clay conflicts were little different from Mondale/Reagan. He tended to gloss over elements of past Democratic platforms that would be out of place in the DNC today, which of course was frustrating to my purpose. I do have a sense, from both Miller and Witcover, that the welfare of the underprivileged is the true historical core Democratic value (as opposed to moral libertarianism, environmentalism, etc.). It seems to me that that struggle has much merit but also much opportunity for abuse; but for now I'll leave off that discussion and move on to other subjects.

I recently read yet another book on political history, but this one dealt with events long preceeding the American Republic itself. The Emergence of Liberty in the Modern World [1992] by Douglas F. Kelly traces the influence of John Calvin (1509-1564), the early Protestant reformer, upon the development of modern democracy. Among the concepts with roots in Calvinism are a separation between the spheres of Church and State (neither of which should control the other), the separation of powers in government (based on Calvin's emphasis upon the depravity of human nature and the danger that "power corrupts"), and a philosophy of struggle for freedom from tyranny. Although Kelly gives little discussion to the persecution perpetrated by Calvinists themselves when in power (e.g. Puritan England and Massachusetts), he is clearly concerned that the modern perception of Calvinism dwells unduly on these aspects. His purpose is to argue that Calvinism bequeathed much more that is good to the modern world than is generally recognized. His lack of self-criticism is a significant flaw, but I think his point is a valid and important one.

At the moment, I am re-reading two books that I have read before and greatly enjoyed. One is Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix [2003] by J.K. Rowling, the fifth and most recent in the HP series. I think Phoenix is one of the best books in the series so far. Its narrative structure is much more unified and coherent than some of Rowling's previous works, and I really appreciated that several characters who were only bit parts in the first 4 books are now greatly matured and fleshed out. I also enjoyed Rowling's portrayal of the mind of a 15-year-old boy (ie., Harry), not only in his actions but in the very tone of the story (which is seen from his perspective): not often thoughtful, reacting rather than thinking, easily angered, confused about a lot of things -- basically, capable enough to be dangerous but still quite immature. I remember being much like that at a similar age.

The book that Laura and I are currently reading out loud to each other is Watership Down [1972] by Richard Adams. I first read WD a couple years ago, but this is Laura's first time. This book is delightful not only for its imaginative rabbit's-eye view of the world (unlike most stories involving animal characters, the rabbits of WD are never anthropomorphized), but also because Adams is simply a fantastic storyteller. Some of my favorite parts are the legends that the rabbits tell about their mythic hero, El-ahrairah.

For more info on those last two books, I've enjoyed looking at MuggleNet (for HP) and The Real Watership Down, both of which I have as yet only begun to explore.

2004-09-19T19:53:00.000-04:00

Back in April I noted that the Dodgers had gotten off to a remarkably good start, but that I was sure the other shoe would drop soon. Well, to my continuing shock, this has failed to happen. The Blue Crew have remained in first place through the majority of the season, and with only two weeks remaining, they appear likely to make the playoffs for the first time in 8 years. Not that important in the cosmic scheme of things, of course, but another reason to smile.

Several exciting young players (younger than me!) have really blossomed this year, showing themselves to be "keepers" who will hopefully be part of the team for a while. Of course, Paul LoDuca was one of these, and he's gone already. But I have good hope that the others will stick around, and that I'll be rooting for them for years to come. I've already talked about Eric Gagne, who did in fact win the Cy Young Award last year. Another is slick-fielding shortstop Cesar Izturis, who has developed a more-than-adequate bat to go with his outstanding glove.

But the biggest surprise has been Adrian Beltre, who is not only currently leading the league in home runs and near the top in most other offensive categories, but is even more valuable because he plays a relatively difficult defensive position, third base. Now, you have to understand that Beltre has been the Dodgers' "third baseman of the future" for something like five years now. All this time I've been hearing about how great a hitter he would be once he reached his prime and wondering when that would happen, and now at long last we're here. As it happens, Beltre's contract runs out this year, and he'll be a free agent this winter. I particularly hope that the Dodgers are able to bring him back. After five years of waiting for this guy to finally break out, I want to have more than one year of good hitting to show for it!

In this age of big money and free agency, baseball players are much less likely to spend their careers with a single team than they used to be. Although it's natural for fans to want to develop a "relationship" with the players they root for, loyalty is much less prized by baseball executives. But if the Dodgers front office will take my advice (and they certainly ought to :) ), they'll do what they can to see that these young stars remain in the Blue for a long time.

2004-09-15T01:12:00.000-04:00

The past month or so has been difficult, with first me and then Laura coming down with a particularly nasty and long-lasting cough, but we seem to be emerging from that now. At the same time, I've been pre-occupied with a deadline at work, with which I expect to be finished before tomorrow is over. So I hope to be less stressed for a bit now, and perhaps will find time to blog about several of the matters that have been rolling around in my head. But not yet. In the meantime, here is another heads-up from Pastor Steve on an opportunity to take advantage of edifying spiritual content in the media:

The C.S. Lewis Foundation sent out a reminder of the 2-part PBS special entitled The Question of God: C.S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud Debate God, Love, Sex, and the Meaning of Life. Part 1 airs tomorrow evening, Wednesday, Sept 15. Part 2 airs next Wednesday, Sept 22.

The program is a documentary based on Dr. Armand Nicholi's work at Harvard.

The documentary's website has many valuable resources for accessing both Lewis' and Freud's views from their own works as well as an online discussion format. It also offers an excellent 16-page Study Guide that has been prepared on this series. You may also request a hard copy version by emailing Jill Fort of the C.S. Lewis Foundation (jillfort@cslewis.org) -- when you email her, please include your mailing address.

Jill Fort comments: "We commend this documentary to you as a fair and balanced presentation of the lives and worldviews of two of the 20th Century's greatest intellectual giants that provides food for thought and discussion for skeptics, seekers, and believers alike."

Consider gathering with some friends to watch this interesting series.

2004-09-05T23:44:00.000-04:00

Samuel Picture Alert: I've put more pictures up on the Samuel picture page. I've also revamped the format of the page, something I've been meaning to do for a while, to accomodate the ever-increasing number of pictures. This should make it easier to browse through the older pictures, and also give an overview of how much Samuel has grown. If you have any comments or feedback or if anything is not clear, please let me know. The old page is here, in case you want to compare.

Speaking of how much Samuel has grown: at 10 months old, he is now 50% taller than he was at birth, and more than twice as heavy! He smiles and laughs a lot, crawls around with great alacrity, drinks from a sippy-cut by himself, eats all kinds of solid food (with help), and has learned that blowing on Daddy's tummy makes him laugh. He has also undergone a crash course in teeth the past few weeks, going from 2 to 6. He gets happy and excited whenever he sees a "doggie," and "gee-gee" is possibly his first real attempt at associating meaning with a word, that is if you don't count the "ma" and "da" syllables that seem to get more frequent when Laura or I (respectively) is around. We have a lot of fun.

P.S.: The Dodgers tanktop that he's wearing in this picture is one that I wore as a baby.

2004-08-27T22:42:00.000-04:00

The Fat Lady Arrives by Post

I received my diploma in the mail yesterday. It has the words "Doctor of Philosophy, Planetary Sciences" on it. I suppose that makes it official.

Ever since the early months of the year, as my defense date began to loom, I've contemplated what I would write in this space once I was really and truly finished. In April, I thought it would be some climactic exultation. As post-defense revisions began to drag on, I fantasized about being done and imagined that I would feel something like the protagonist at the end of a horror movie, tired but immensely relieved, having slain the monster. Then, as paperwork dragged on even longer than the revisions, I began to get sick and tired of the whole affair. By the time I got word that the last "t" was crossed (over a month ago), I was so demoralized that I didn't write anything on the subject for my Blog.

I'm starting to feel better now. The frustration is fading into memory, and the fruits are becoming more tangible. Laura's diploma also arrived yesterday -- "Master of Science, Pharmaceutical Sciences" -- and I'm very proud of her. I think we can both describe our present state of mind as "boy, you mean that whole grad school thing really happened?" We had a pleasant but low-key celebration.

2004-08-20T22:31:00.000-04:00

Olympic Nights

Ever since we moved, back in May, our television has sat in a corner facing the wall. Ithaca's location in a deep valley makes it nearly impossible to get aerial signal, even though Syracuse is only 50 miles away, and we wouldn't watch enough to justify the expense of cable. So we just don't have television. It's actually been kind of nice not to spend time in front of the tube. Samuel takes up a large chunk of our time anyway, and we often read aloud to each other when we want entertainment. We don't really miss any of the produced shows that are on these days, at least not enough to motivate us to do differently. I will admit that I miss watching baseball, though. And the Olympics have brought the issue to a head. The solution has come in the form of some friends from church who have kindly invited us to watch Olympics at their house anytime. We have taken them up on it twice so far, Sunday night and Wednesday night, and had a really great time.

There's just something about swimming and gymnastics. I wouldn't want to watch them on a regular basis, but every four years they're a lot of fun. I've enjoyed Michael Phelps, Ian Thorpe, and a host of other characters. We thrilled to see the American women's 4x200m freestyle relay team break swimming's oldest world record (set in 1987 by souped-up East Germans, as you might expect), and Pieter van den Hoogenband out-touch a rival to win an exciting 100m freestyle by 0.06 seconds. We also got to see Paul Hamm's dramatic comeback to win the men's gymnastics all-around championship. His Korean and Romanian rivals were quite good as well, and a treat to watch their combination of style and strength. I even got to see a bit of volleyball on Sunday, one of my favorite sports ever since I was on the team in high school.

We'll probably go over one or two more times to watch the Olympics with these friends. It's a bit of hard work to get Samuel to sleep away from home, but worth it. And on other days, there's nothing wrong with reading the headlines and cheering for your heroes as you visualize their victories in your imagination.

2004-08-13T00:55:00.000-04:00

What is the difference between a galaxy and the rings of Saturn? I mean besides a factor of a trillion in size. The similarities are such that when Voyager beamed back the first detailed information from Saturn in 1980, much of the theory to explain the ring structure could be directly borrowed from what had already been done by galactic dynamicists. As Frank Shu explains in his classic chapter of the book Planetary Rings:

They are both spatially thin structures supported primarily by centrifugal equilibrium; they are both made of innumerable discrete objects whose random motions are small compared to their circular speeds; they both have considerable internal structure. ... There is, however, a crucial difference in the relative scale of the processes which operate in disk galaxies and in Saturn's rings.

Shu (himself a galactic astronomer who did important work on Saturn's rings) goes on to explain that the distance it takes for a wave to propagate through a galaxy is comparable to the size (radius) of the galaxy, while waves in Saturn's rings are many many times smaller than the rings overall. This makes sense if you think about pictures you've seen; the spiral arms of galaxies do not wind around the galaxy very many times before they reach the edge, in contrast to the exceedingly fine structure in Saturn's rings. What is the cause of this difference in relative scale? It's all because of Saturn, which is a billion times more massive than the rings, much larger (relatively) than the central mass of a galaxy as compared to the galaxy as a whole. And that's why.

2004-08-08T14:33:00.000-04:00

Great Hymnwriters: Charles Wesley

Part One: Introduction and Isaac Watts

Charles Wesley was born in 1707, and as a young man he went to university and became a minister in the Church of England. Yet even as he served in the ministry, he felt a spiritual emptiness and knew that his heart was not right with God. Then, at the age of 30, he had a second conversion experience, becoming truly born again and finding the peace of Christ. It was at this time that he began writing hymns. In my opinion, Charles Wesley has written the greatest of all Christmas hymns (Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, which is both a rousing chorus and a cogent theological exposition of the Incarnation) as well as the greatest of all Easter hymns (Christ the Lord Is Risen Today). Charles also became a tireless evangelist, traveling on horseback and preaching in the open air for many years, not only throughout the British Isles but in Colonial America as well. With his brother John Wesley as the theologian and organizer, and Charles writing the hymns, the Methodists were born as a community that emphasized living a holy life dedicated to Jesus Christ. To me, something about Charles Wesley's hymns have a contagious joyfulness about them, expressing the wonder and gratefulness of someone who has seen God at work in his life.

Some of the best hymns by Charles Wesley (my favorites first):

Part Three: Fanny Crosby

2004-08-05T01:10:00.000-04:00

I had a plan to quote a bunch of lines from John Kerry's acceptance speech at the Democratic convention and comment on them. But rather than make such a big project out of it, I think I'll just make a few general comments. I found myself agreeing with a number of Kerry's lines, and then realized that just about every one of his agreeable points was negative; that is, a criticism or reaction against President Bush rather than a positive agenda of Kerry's own. When Kerry did get around to laying out an agenda, he ran into trouble as far as I'm concerned. Why is criticism so much easier than construction? The sad truth is that an election is not a quest for the right man for the job, but only a relative question, too often coming down to "which of these candidates do you dislike less?".

This article by William Saletan claims that the lines in Kerry's speech that received the most applause from convention delegates were all anti-Bush points, and he identifies 9 examples. Maybe I'll take a shortcut and just comment on these.

"I saw the gratitude of people toward the United States... I am determined now to restore that pride to all who look to America." To be sure, anti-Americanism cannot be laid entirely at President Bush's doorstep; it is neither new nor completely avoidable. However, the job of the unofficial "leader of the free world" should be to reach out to other nations and tell them that we care about them and desire to work together for the sake of all. Our allies need to feel assured that we listen to and respect their opinions, even if we don't always do what they would wish. Bush has basically failed miserably at this. He seems to make a point of saying that he will do what he thinks is best for America, and doesn't much care what anyone else thinks. I think Kerry states a legitimate problem here.
"...and that starts by telling the truth to the American people." I lack the great outrage that so many people feel about the fact that we went to Iraq in the first place, for the simple reason that I thought it was the right thing to do all along. Saddam was an unusually cruel and intolerable despot (a fact conveniently forgotten by most "human rights activists"), and he absolutely posed a serious threat to both America and the world in the long term, if not the short term. The world is much better off without him in power. The Iraqi people are unquestionably better off without him. Despite all the needless mistakes made during the occupation (my biggest personal source of anger with Bush, by the way, though not really touched upon by Kerry), the war in Iraq has advanced the cause of liberty in the world; and is that not what America is supposed to be all about? However, Bush was not content with these arguments, and chose to make his case for war primarily on the basis of a supposed short-term threat to American security. I never bought these arguments (though, as I said, I supported the war anyway), and I said at the time that Bush would come to regret playing fast and loose with the truth. Now the chickens come home to roost.
"I will have a vice president who will not conduct secret meetings with polluters to write our environmental laws... and I will appoint an attorney general who will uphold the Constitution." Well, that last bit is so vague that it can mean whatever the listener wants it to mean (the mark of a truly effective political statement!). But I am very uncomfortable with the chumminess between Republicans and big business. The problem, of course, is that the Democrats are in the hip pocket of various special interests too, just different ones. Pick your poison.
"Next January, Americans will be proud to have a fighter for the middle class to succeed Dick Cheney as vice president." Now we're getting to classic Democratic boilerplate. Actually, it's not just Democrats. Both George Bush and John Edwards have gotten to where they are by telling people that they don't have enough money. Republicans say we should cut taxes because people don't have enough money, Democrats say we should increase services because people don't have enough money. I say, since when do members of the middle class of the wealthiest nation in history not have enough money?

Actually, Saletan's interpretation of Kerry on that last one is that Dick Cheney isn't a fighter for the middle class but for the rich. Maybe something there, but see previous bullet point.
"We will end the backdoor draft of the National Guard and reservists." There are a number of legitimate complaints one could make about the Bush Administration's treatment of military personnel. However, I don't think that referring to a perfectly legal use of reservists as a "draft" is one of them.
"We shouldn't be opening firehouses in Baghdad and closing them down in the United States of America." This is one of several points on which Kerry reveals that, when it comes down to it, he thinks we should do what's best for America and to heck with the rest of the world. The rhetoric about "exporting jobs" is another of these (isn't it good for everybody in the long term when Mexicans and Indians and Chinese have better economic opportunities at home?). But this is the same nationalistic selfishness that we chided President Bush for back in bullet point #1, just expressed in different issues.
"Let's never misuse for political purposes the ... Constitution." We're talking about gay marriage here, and ignoring the fact that liberals started this mess by misusing the Constitution for political purposes. On the other hand, I don't like the idea of an amendment for a number of reasons. The Constitution was not meant for that kind of specific legislation; and besides, it's like slicing a single head off the Hydra. This issue of judicial fiat is one where our system of government is truly broken and I don't know how to fix it. But I digress. Suffice to say that Kerry is not getting himself any closer to my vote with this issue.
"I don't want to claim that God is on our side. As Abraham Lincoln told us, I want to pray humbly that we are on God's side." I think we are often way too glib in appropriating God's name for our own purposes, and I've heard Bush do this kind of thing on multiple occasions. On the other hand, I highly doubt that Kerry really means this line in the same way that our earnestly soul-searching 16th President did.
"That flag doesn't belong to any president. It doesn't belong to any ideology. It doesn't belong to any political party. It belongs to all the American people." That's true enough, but the real problem here is that we have lost the ability of civil debate. The demands of wartime do require some degree of temperance in our criticism, something commonly ignored by modern critics. But criticism is not the same thing as attack, and the epithet of "un-patriotic" has been thrown around way too cavalierly in recent years, by the Bush Administration not the least. The biggest problem with politics today is that people don't really have any interest in critically discussing their ideas, they simply want to identify their enemies.

2004-08-03T08:35:00.000-04:00

Those of you who get CNN really ought to watch the interview with Joni Eareckson Tada tonight. Joni has spent decades ministering to the disabled and speaking to all of us on disability-related issues. A quadriplegic herself, Joni is a beautifully courageous woman with an important message on many prominent issues of our time. She will be featured for the entire hour of Larry King Live tonight (August 3). Unfortunately, I won't be able to watch, but I'd love to hear from anyone who does.

Update: Here is the transcript online.

2004-08-02T11:39:00.000-04:00

An Unnecessary Heart Transplant?

The end of July is traditionally the time for blockbuster mid-season trades in Major League Baseball, and the Dodgers made some dramatic changes this past weekend. When the smoke had cleared, it seemed like half the team was gone. Traded away were two starting outfielders, the second-most-important member of the bullpen (after Eric Gagne), and catcher Paul Lo Duca. It's losing Lo Duca that hurts the most. He was more than just a good catcher, he was a player that you could be proud to root for. He plays the game with passion and a lot of hustle, and was an inspirational leader among his teammates as well as a favorite among the fans. In the news stories that followed, you could tell that many players were almost shell-shocked by Lo Duca's departure. Lo Duca himself cried at the press conference and mentioned that he had hoped to remain a Dodger for his entire career. I would have been happy to see "Paulie" do that, continuing the Dodgers' recent tradition of tough Italian-American catchers (after Mike Scioscia in the 1980's, and Mike Piazza in the 1990's).

To be sure, the Dodgers got some good players in return for the ones they gave up, and you might even argue that they came out ahead, at least on paper. But more intangible factors seem to have been ignored, especially Lo Duca's influence on team chemistry and his appeal to the fans, not to mention the impact on L.A.'s game strategy that had focused on strong relief pitching (on Saturday, the day after pitcher Guillermo Mota was traded along with Lo Duca, the Dodgers suffered their first loss all year of a game in which they led after 7 innings). And as columnist Bill Plaschke points out, the Dodgers were already one of the top teams in baseball, and hardly needed such a drastic overhaul. I'm sure all will be forgiven if the Dodgers end up having success in the playoffs, something which has not happened since that magical autumn when I was 12 years old. But even so, it seems like they have sacrificed some of the human element in their drive for wins. And at the moment, that hurts a bit.

Update 8/3: It's easy to get sentimental about a baseball player, and maybe I feel more level-headed today. In any case, the L.A. Times ran a very interesting blow-by-blow account of how the trades went down, and hearing more of Paul DePodesta's side of the story makes me feel more inclined to cut him some slack.

2004-07-24T07:58:00.000-04:00

I confess that, when the 9-11 Commission was holding its hearings several weeks ago, I consciously tried not to pay attention. My impression of their purpose was to dole out blame for letting the attacks happen, and that is simply not the proper response to a wartime defeat. After all, where would the WWII effort have gone if Eisenhower and Patton got investigated every time they lost a battle? When people have tried in good faith to do their jobs and the enemy still gets past them, the political blame game should not be part of the response. In a war, you win some and you lose some; when you lose, you pick yourself up and keep going.

So I was pleasantly surprised when I read the Executive Summary of the 9-11 Commission's report. I found it to be a fair and frank analysis. Rather than the blaming I had worried about, the report seeks to simply describe exactly what happened that day, assess points where the system failed, and discuss ways to shore up those weaknesses. Perhaps the blaming angle has been unduly played up in the press (wouldn't be surprising), or then again, perhaps the full report is less even-handed than the introduction (less likely, I think, though I've not yet read the full report).

I think that this report is something that every American citizen should read. The summary, at least, is not very long. Our security, and the ways in which it failed that tragic day, is something that intimately concerns all of us, and we should all participate in the response. It should also be non-partisan, though of course Bush and Kerry are already spinning the report for their own advantage. Perhaps just this once, can we put a priority on the best interests of the nation?

2004-07-22T10:06:00.000-04:00

Great Hymnwriters: Isaac Watts

People have been writing hymns of praise to God for at least thousands of years. From the Bible's book of Psalms through the Gregorian chants to the hymns of the past few centuries, a beatiful and rich tradition is now available to us.

In the English language at least, there are three people who immediately come to mind as the "giants" of Christian hymnwriting. These are Isaac Watts, Charles Wesley, and Fanny Crosby. Although there are many people who have written truly great hymns, these three are notable for the quantity of their hymns that are still among the most beloved today. In my hymnal, Watts and Wesley and Crosby each account for 15 or more of the ~600 entries. We often tend to sing hymns as self-contained units, or as part of a service along with other hymns of similar topic, but I think it is also worthwhile to look at the hymns that come from a common author, and to draw from their life story, as well as their words, the ways in which they experienced God in their lives.

Isaac Watts was born in England in 1674. This was a period in history when various rights were denied to "non-conformist" Christians (i.e., those who were not part of the state-sponsored Church of England), and Watts' father was twice imprisoned for his non-conformity. Watts showed great promise while studying for the ministry as a young man, and could have had an easy and prosperous life as a minister in the established church. But he rejected this path, instead following his conscience and serving in Nonconformist churches. He then spent 50 years as a humble pastor, though he was often in ill health.

Of the many hymns that Isaac Watts wrote, the most famous is probably Joy to the World. Laura and I have recently become fond of I Sing the Mighty Power of God, with its affirmation that "everywhere that man can be [even Ithaca!!], thou God art present there." But my favorite of Isaac's hymns, and possibly my favorite of all hymns, is When I Survey the Wondrous Cross, which weaves together a meditation on our Savior's death with an imperative to forsake all boasting in myself and to offer Christ "my soul, my life, my all." To me, many of Isaac's hymns have a keen sense of thoughtfulness, and I feel that if I were ever to meet him, I would find him a quiet but incisively thoughtful man. An important theme of his hymns is the need to examine ourselves and to reaffirm our commitment to live for Christ.

Some of the best hymns by Isaac Watts (my favorites first):

Part Two: Charles Wesley
Part Three: Fanny Crosby

2004-07-19T00:36:00.000-04:00

Samuel Picture Alert: There are new pictures available on the Samuel picture page. Included are pictures from our recent California trip, in which we saw all five living great-grandparents (two of whom are pictured in this most recent batch) and took lots of great pictures with little Cousin Eddie (my sister's baby). Also, as you can see, Samuel has learned to pull himself up to a standing position!

2004-07-18T15:41:00.000-04:00

Whom do you trust? The computers or the experts?

The people in charge of college football have finally retooled their BCS ranking system to greatly increase the human contribution. The BCS (which was invented in 1998 to ensure that college football's top 2 teams would play each other for an "undisputed" national championship) has previously relied primarily on computers and mathematical formulae with a relatively minor role for the two long-established expert polls (one by sportswriters and one by coaches). The idea at the time was that the experts might be biased, and that a computer-ranking system would be more "fair." But, while the bias issue is certainly a legitimate one, the computers have acquitted themselves even more poorly. Twice in the past three years, a clearly superior West Coast team was shut out of the championship game in favor of a midwestern team that had failed in embarassing fashion to even win its own conference. Last year, the victims were the USC Trojans (my parents' alma mater and the team I still root for, since I myself have never attended a school with a decent football team), and in 2001 it was Oregon. Trojans games were quite a lot of fun last year, with a high-powered offense that won its games by an average score of 48-18. The sportswriters even crowned them national champs despite their exclusion from the BCS game, but the coaches are contractually obligated to crown the BCS winner.

The funny thing about this AP article is that everybody's reaction seems to be "well, this might be better, but we'll see." I guess people must want to keep their record non-committal in case they want to make controversy in the future, but I will go ahead and say that this is absolutely the right decision, even if it were somehow to end up going against USC again in the future. Without an actual playoff system, college football will never have a truly undisputed champion every year, but it seems to me that a controversial outcome is easier to swallow when it is at least determined by humans who can take subtle factors into account. Of course, it was that very "imprecision" of human decision-making that led people to pine for the BCS computers in the first place, so I must be experiencing at least some level of grass-is-greener syndrome, but I do think there is a lesson to be learned here about how incredibly complex we human beings really are, and the impossibility of artificially reproducing (much less improving upon!) the human decision-making process.

2004-07-13T22:05:00.000-04:00

Hmmmm, what to blog about? I've had thoughts rolling around in my head on a number of topics recently, and haven't sat down to blog about many of them (contrary to the purpose of having a blog in the first place). And it'll probably get worse, with work getting busier. Most of the topics worth writing about fall into two categories: "God stuff" (which would probably please primarily my Christian and/or conservative friends -- though I hope the rest of you also get something out of it, as my relationship with God is very central to the way I function) and cranky rants about politics (perhaps somewhat more to the liking of my liberal friends; my contempt for "conservative politics" and "liberal politics" is roughly equal these days). Of course, there's also baby stuff, baseball, science, and other things. Well, I promised a while ago to talk about the church we have joined in Ithaca, so the crankiness will have to wait for now. :)

I first came across our current church last October. I had not yet applied for my current job, but I knew about it and was very attracted. On a premonition that I might sometime soon be living in Ithaca, I decided one night to do some Google searching for area churches, and one website that caught my eye was that of New Life Presbyterian Church. Liking what I could gather from the website, I sent off a quick email to the contact address -- on a whim, as it felt at the time. This email was promptly answered by the pastor and we exchanged several more, and the rest is history.

My primary attraction to the church came from the outlook and attitude that I discerned, first from emailing the pastor, and later from attending a service when I visited Ithaca this April. A commitment to following the Bible in spiritual and moral matters is important to me (I'm trying to avoid labels here). But equally important are humility and tolerance (by which I mean respect for others, not universal approval) and an active focus on taking the love of Christ out into the community. The denominational label ("Presbyterian" in this church's case) is unimportant when interacting with fellow Christians or with the community at large, and yet it still has some usefulness in identifying a particular tradition and emphasis. In general, Presbyterians are the spiritual descendants of the Protestant Reformation as it occurred in Scotland. They differ from Baptists, Methodists, Lutherans, etc., mostly in matters of style and in theological details, much of which can be traced to their different histories and the national origins of their organizations. As is sadly true of many denominations today, Presbyterians are currently split along a "liberal/conservative" line, and NLPC belongs to the more conservative Presbyterian Church in America or PCA, rather than the more liberal (and far larger) Presbyterian Church USA or PCUSA.

Although Laura and I have otherwise attended "non-denominational" churches all our lives, we were very happy attending a Presbyterian church for 4 years while we lived in Pasadena. All churches have their strengths and weaknesses, of course, but I appreciate the greater sense of history and intellectual tradition among Presbyterians, as well as slightly less informality in the worship service compared to what we've been used to elsewhere (simply a personal preference). Our church in Pasadena was one of the more conservative in the PCUSA, and I think we are now on a similar track with one of the more moderate churches in the PCA. Will we continue with Presbyterians once we move away from Ithaca in (I expect) a few years? I have no idea. I don't feel attached to the national denomination nearly so much as the individual congregation, and we'll see what we find the next time we move.

2004-07-02T11:53:00.000-04:00

What a thrill the past few days have been. On Wednesday, I attended meetings during the day where we discussed all of the results from Cassini's approach to Saturn, which were exciting enough in their own right. Then Wednesday evening, Laura and I attended the Saturn Orbit Insertion (SOI) event at the PCC auditorium. Laura's mom was babysitting across the street, and we even brought Samuel into the auditorium for a while. There were (happily) no surprises with the SOI maneuver, and it's lots of fun to be in a room with a thousand other people who break into applause each time a radio signal is received indicating the next step has been successfully taken. I was reminded of the night back in 1995 when I took a shuttle from Caltech up to JPL to attend the similar event for Galileo's insertion into Jupiter orbit. I was only a sophomore then, and had not yet decided to make a career in Planetary Science, but the excitement of that evening was hard to forget.

Even more thrilling was the next morning, when we received the images that Cassini had taken as it skimmed over Saturn's rings. The most stunning image to me is the one at upper right, which shows a pronounced wave in the inner edge of the Encke Gap. The scalloped edge, along with the spiral waves coming off each peak and trough, is known as a "wake" -- and the term is appropriate, as the physics are very similar to those of a boat in the water. In this case, the "boat" is Pan, a 20-km moon that orbits within the gap. Pan's wake was seen by Voyager, but the incredible clarity of these new images, agreeing exactly with what the physics predicted, is simply awe-inspiring. Also seen in this image are several classic "spiral density waves," with their successive crests that decrease in amplitude (and brightness) as you go farther from Saturn (Saturn is to the left in this image). Each of these SDW's arises from a different resonance with one of the moons orbiting outside the rings. Also note, in the middle of the gap, the small ringlet that varies in brightness depending on Pan's position.

The flight out here on Saturday went just fine. Samuel slept for the first two hours of the flight out of Philadelphia, and though he started to get fussy by the time we approached L.A., he never cried. We've been having a great time visiting our families here in CA, and will be here for another week before we go back to Ithaca.

P.S.: For more images from Cassini's SOI, and for the latest Cassini results at any time, check the JPL Cassini page or the Cassini Imaging page.

2004-06-24T23:29:00.000-04:00

I'll say some more about what's going on with us. Ithaca is really nice in many ways, though there are also a number of things that take getting used to. The weather has been either sunny and pleasant, or rainy and pleasant. No doubt I'll eventually get tired of the increased (from my point of view) precipitation, but it hasn't happened yet. And all the moisture brings such lush greenery all around us, and creeks and waterfalls, too! Of course, we've left a significant network of friends in Tucson, and it's hard work to start a new one. But we are making progress on that as well.

I absolutely love my job. So far I've mostly been setting up software tools that will be handy for analyzing images of Saturn's rings, and modestly contributing to some software that's still being written, and also starting to download the images that we already have and see what can be done with them. With SOI (Saturn Orbit Insertion) less than a week away, it really is time to start getting excited about Cassini! There's also been a lot of settling in to do, and my office still is nowhere near as neat or organized as I hope it will be eventually.

Samuel has become much more mobile these days. As for strength and dexterity, he can get up not only on his hands and knees, but even on his hands and toes. But if he wants to go anywhere he generally drops down onto his tummy and does some form of the "army crawl". My mom says that I never crawled on my hands and knees, but was pretty fast at the army crawl by the time I finally decided to just get up on my legs and walk. I wonder if the low-friction hardwood floors in our house could be hampering Samuel's crawling, but we can test that hypothesis while we are in well-carpeted California.

We are leaving Saturday. We take a small plane from Ithaca to Philadelphia, and then a jumbo jet non-stop to LAX. This will be Samuel's first airplane flight, and hopefully it will not be too unpleasant. You always hate to be in an airplane with a screaming baby a couple rows down, and now I'm going to be "that guy". Then again, maybe it won't be so bad. Samuel generally does not cry very much in public, but with such a wildly new experience I just don't know what to expect.

Anyway, the purpose of the trip is to be at JPL for SOI. After 7 years of interplanetary travel -- flying by Venus, Earth, and Jupiter along the way -- Cassini is finally reaching its destination, where it will orbit Saturn and investigate its environment for at least several years. We'll be having a business meeting at Caltech as well as a reception in the evening to track the results of the orbit maneuver and celebrate. And since we'll be in California, I'm taking some time off work so that we can visit family over the Fourth of July. I'm looking forward to it.

2004-06-23T15:14:00.000-04:00

After much delay, new Samuel pictures are once again online. Sometime soon, I plan to impart a little more organization to this page, but for now it's just as it has been. Included are: some great mug shots from before we left Tucson; Laura and Samuel in the car somewhere in Oklahoma; Samuel with Nissen relatives in Detroit (sorry, no new Mike and Nancy picture, but if you scroll down there's one from when they visited Tucson); Niagara Falls; and adventures in our new home including lifting ourselves entirely off the floor, eating solid food (ooh, that applesauce is tart!), and visiting the Dryden Dairy Fair. Enjoy!

2004-06-18T10:26:00.000-04:00

There's something about reading the Bible in its proper order that is really indispensible. Topical readings are fine, but they necessarily lose some sense of context, which parts come before or after which other parts and how they are connected. So I thought that, with so many things getting a new start right now, it might be a good time for me to start reading the Bible systematically. Naturally, this requires writing a computer program! Mine was very simple, and merely generated a webpage at which I can conveniently click on the day's reading.

I set it up in a 3-column format to see three different translations of each passage, using the Bible Gateway website. On the left-hand is the New International Version (NIV), which generally strikes an excellent balance of speaking in modern conversational English while accurately adhering to the Hebrew and Greek originals. In the center is the KJ21, which is only slightly updated from the classic King James Version (KJV) and retains the unsurpassed literary beauty of that 1611 translation. And on the left is The Message, which goes out of its way to avoid "pat Christian" language, endeavoring to convey the meaning of the text (as perceived by the paraphraser) in new and sometimes jarring ways. At times The Message can be quite brilliant, but often it goes a bit too far and misses some important themes. Anyway, all 3 of these translations can be quite useful given their particular purpose, but I am generally using the NIV for the bulk of my daily reading.

I took a bit of thought as to how to divide the Bible up into daily reading segments. There are a number of places you can go on the Internet to find the Bible divided into 365 sections, in order to read it in one year. But I was a little wary of that, for one thing that it might be too much reading for one day, and for another that I might get discouraged if I fell behind (just a personal tendency of mine). I ended up using Crosswalk's 365-day plan for the New Testament, but took it upon myself to divide the Old Testament into 730 segments, to read twice as slowly (generally a chapter a day, with few exceptions). I also am not associating dates with the daily portions, so that I can go to the next day whenever I am ready but do not feel pressured. For each day, I have approximately a chapter each from the NT and the OT, as well as a Psalm or other portion of the Wisdom/Poetry books. So far I've been doing this for two weeks and really enjoying it.

My Bible-reading plan is available here, and you are welcome to use it too, if it would be helpful to you.

P.S.: Samuel pictures will be online quite soon. I promise!

2004-06-07T08:59:00.000-04:00

I was only 4 years old when Ronald Reagan was elected President, and I don't remember it. But it wasn't long after that I began to become aware of the world, and by the time he left office when I was nearly 13, he was the only President I had ever known. I heard of his passing, at the age of 93, yesterday afternoon. I was cooking in the kitchen and listening to the radio, and I was brought nearly to tears by a montage of his speeches on NPR. It wasn't just his words that moved me, legendary though his communication skills were, but the totality of his life and accomplishments, not to mention the 10-year twilight of his illness, and the knowledge that they were finished. It was almost fitting that his death was announced on the 60th anniversary of D-Day, which was the 20th anniversary of one of his most memorable speeches, in which he evocatively described the brave struggle of the Allied troops on that day, and meditated on the cause for which they fought. He made that speech standing before the Army Ranger monument at Pointe du Hoc, Normandy (above right), in the company of veterans. So for me, yesterday was a day to remember not just Reagan, but much more the brave men and women to whom he gave homage.

Of course, Reagan's greatness is not primarily in his commemoration of D-Day but in the ending of the Cold War, which occurred after he left office but was brought about largely by his policies. His exhortation to Mikhail Gorbachev before the Berlin Wall is the defining moment for which I will remember him. I would argue that Ronald Reagan is rightfully reckoned, along with Franklin Roosevelt and the 4 men on Mount Rushmore, as one of the greatest Presidents in American history. Like FDR, Reagan was a highly skilled partisan politician who won over a large majority of the nation to a relatively radical agenda (and alienated many others). But much more than that, again like FDR, Reagan rallied and inspired his people to accomplish great things, to defend the institutions of democracy. Like our current President but unlike the previous one, Reagan knew exactly what he stood for and was resolute in defending what he believed in. But like our last President and unlike the current one, Reagan also knew that accomplishment requires more than pure conviction -- it requires humble leadership and the cultivation of friendships, even difficult ones. I must say that I have missed President Reagan quite a bit these past couple years, more than I ever did under Clinton.

The Wall has been torn down, and we have since moved on to other perils, in some ways more threatening but in other ways less. But today I thankfully remember Ronald Reagan for his contribution to our nation, and for the places he led us.

2004-05-26T16:43:00.000-04:00

The Moving Odyssey: Part Two

First read part one.

Wednesday, May 12: We woke up in Fort Wayne IN, which was good because that was where we had gone to sleep. We spent a little bit of time looking for a supermarket (for our customary breakfast yogurt) before we got on our way, but we still expected to be at Aunt Nancy's house in time for lunch. We took I-69 north to I-94, and turned east towards Detroit. By mid-morning we were feeling kind of munchy, so we got off at Jackson MI and found ourselves a Taco Bell where we shared a burrito. Due to some construction and a lot of people with poor driving manners, it took us a bit of time to get back on the highway. And we had only gone about 5 more miles when everything came to a stop. Complete two-lane parking lot as far ahead as we could see. We sat still for some five minutes and read Lord of the Rings (our current read-aloud project), then things started moving slowly again. We exited the Interstate at the next exit and began to travel back roads in single file in a stop-and-go fashion for about 1.5 miles. It eventually became clear that the reason we were going so slow was that everyone had to make an unprotected left turn turn one-by-one onto a larger road. Because there had been some road construction in the area, I thought at first that we were experiencing abysmally poor planning by MDOT in dealing with the results of planned road closures, and the fact that no traffic cop was present to make those left turns go any faster was the latest of many reasons I had to grumble at that time. But at least it was pretty country. Then Samuel started to get rather upset, but we were able to make our left turn and then get off the road at the first opportunity to tend to him. Then we finally made it back onto I-94 and continued on to Aunt Nancy's house in suburban Detroit MI, arriving at about 1pm, a bit later than we had expected. We discovered later that the cause of our delay had not been construction but a terrible accident, a semi rear-ending another semi at full speed. The rear-ending driver, who was the only fatality, had perhaps fallen asleep. The Interstate remained closed at that location all day. We had arrived so soon after the accident that they were only just establishing the detour, which explained our initial standstill followed by slow progress, and the lack of a traffic cop. We found ourselves feeling thankful for our burrito and delay in Jackson, which caused us to be as far behind the accident as we were. In any case, we spent the rest of the day relaxing with Aunt Nancy and Uncle Mike, and also had a very pleasant visit with their daughter and Mike's parents. The rest did us all quite a bit of good.

Thursday, May 13: We ate a delicious breakfast at home with Nancy and Mike, then set off quite refreshed at mid-morning. By this time we were old pros at driving with a baby (or something like that). We headed straight for the bridge across the Detroit River and had no trouble entering Windsor ON in Canada. I had never been to Canada before, but I found it a pleasant place to drive. The full-service rest stops were nice, and we soon pulled off near Tilbury ON for a nursing stop. It was there that I first saw a Tim Horton's restaurant, and noticed the line of some 20 Canadians at the counter while practically no one was patronizing the American fast-food counter right next to it. At lunchtime we were approaching London ON, the largest city in the area, and we decided to get off the highway and find a park to eat in. This we did at a leisurely pace. We found the riverside park that Laura had identified on her map, and I left Laura and Samuel and got some lunch from Tim Horton's (just drive aimlessly around London, and you're bound to find one within 10 minutes!). We enjoyed our sandwiches and donut, and then made our way back to the road. With only about 4 hours driving time to our destination, we knew that we didn't have to rush. Our first sighting of Lake Ontario, in Hamilton ON, was beautiful. At that point we continued onto Canada's oldest freeway, the QEW. It still being mid-afternoon, we decided that we had time to see Niagara Falls and discussed how to do so. Knowing little about the area, we decided to see the Canadian side of the Falls with the reasoning that visiting at a later date would be more convenient on the American side. So we left the highway and found the town of Niagara Falls ON. It turns out that the Canadian side is a much better vantage point to view both of the waterfalls, simply because of the geography of the place. We reveled in the beauty and majesty of the place, and enjoyed the cool mists on a warm day. There is a very nice landscaped walk all along the edge of the gorge, which we took. We were somewhat surprised at the setting, as we had both somehow expected some kind of natural environment, and thought we might have to hike a trail through a forest to get to the Falls. But instead downtown Niagara Falls ON empties right out onto the edge of the gorge, and every foot (sorry, I mean meter -- this is Canada!) is either paved or nicely landscaped. You can walk right up to the edge of Horseshoe Falls (the Canadian side) and see the huge volumes of blue-green water plunging over the precipice right at your feet. Just magnificent. We were less impressed with the main street full of tacky tourist traps (five haunted houses!), but at least you can't see that from the Falls. After a very pleasant hour and a half, we returned to our car and took a narrow bridge over the gorge back into the U.S. We stopped for some supplies in Tonawanda NY but did not find a satisfactory place for dinner there, so we ended up eating at a Popeye's (we had eaten so well on this trip that I was in the mood for some grease!) in one of the full-service rest stops on the New York State Thruway. While there, we checked in with our truck driver again and found to our surprise that he would not be in Ithaca tomorrow but would be delayed an extra day! After all our worry that we wouldn't get there in time, we were going to have a whole day in Ithaca without our furniture. Of course, had we known this earlier we might have made different travel plans, but at this point there was nothing to do but find a hotel and go to Ithaca in the morning anyway. We stayed in a Super 8 south of Rochester NY.

Friday, May 14: We got a good start in the morning and had less than an hour further to go on the Thruway (I-90) before we got off and headed south into the Finger Lakes region. Since we had time to spare, we decided to take state highway 89, which runs right along the western shore of Cayuga Lake. We enjoyed the green countryside and the lake views, and arrived in Ithaca NY before lunch. We spent the rest of the day getting ready for the movers to come tomorrow. We headed up to the Astronomy Department and found my office and arranged for my computer to be moved to the correct place. A fellow postdoc very kindly loaned us some bedding and cleaning supplies. Overall, it was probably a good thing that we arrived so much earlier than the moving truck, because we were able to get a good amount of cleaning done, and we also got some impression of the town so that Moving Day was perhaps less bewildering than it could have been.

Saturday, May 15: Despite my worry that the moving truck might not be able to navigate Ithaca's narrow streets, it duly showed up at our door around 9am. I didn't even have to worry about where he would park, as the cars that had been at the curb the night before were gone when I woke up. The movers were very friendly and did a good job with our things. Laura and Samuel went out with the stroller for a while to see the neighborhood and avoid the commotion. I was running around with a clipboard, checking off every item that came off the truck. We had some visits from the bevy of children that live next door. Finally, in mid-afternoon, every item was accounted for and the movers were gone, and we were left to begin setting ourselves up in our new home.

Of course, we are still unpacking and setting things up, but I won't go into any more detail. The kitchen has been in full service since the middle of last week, and we had a major stocking-up visit to Wegman's Supermarket just last night. We're already getting plugged into our church (more on that later), and have made some friends in other circles as well. I took some pictures on the trip, especially at Niagara Falls, but I haven't looked at them myself much less put them up online. I'll let you know when I get to that.

2004-05-21T13:33:00.000-04:00

News Flash: Shane's engaged!!! Congratulations and my every best wish to Shane and Jessica. I had the pleasure of meeting Jessica when we were in California at Christmastime, and she is quite a neat person. Much happiness to both of you!

2004-05-20T11:45:00.000-04:00

The nation of India, the world's largest democracy, has been in the news lately. The Hindu nationalist government (the BJP), which had been in power since ousting the long-ruling secularists in 1998, lost the general election this month in a stunning upset by the Congress Party. The two main hallmarks of the BJP administration were the open declaration of India's nuclear weapons and an amazing rate of economic growth in technology and other sectors. But the economic expansion continued to leave behind India's legions of poor, who were a major factor in the election. Then, in a second stunning development, the highly popular Congress Party leader Sonia Gandhi declined the post of Prime Minister. Gandhi's husband and mother-in-law were both Prime Ministers of India and were both assasinated by extremists (Rajiv in 1991, Indira in 1984), and it appears that Sonia Gandhi, as a naturalized foreigner who had provoked the ire of nationalists by ousting them from power, had a number of reasons to fear for her safety. I find her story very sad, and I hope that she finds peace.

As my friend Tim notes, the defeat of the "Hindutva" government gives India's Christians much reason to hope for relief from persecution. The BJP has an unsavory history of antagonizing non-Hindus, especially Muslims and Christians. In some cases this antagonism was active, such as the enactment of anti-conversion laws in Indian states (at least one of which was repealed in response to the elections, as Tim also notes). But more often the BJP government simply failed to prosecute the widespread persecution carried out by private citizens, much like the state complicity with the KKK that occurred in the U.S. during the early 20th century. In fact, just this year the U.S. government took the step of placing India on its list of "countries of concern" for violations of religious freedom.

It was with all this in mind last night that I came across this article which asks the question, "Is prejudice in India about religion or social standing?". The author describes her experiences on a recent trip to India in which she tracked down the continuing persecution of the Dalits. Formerly known as "untouchables," the Dalits are those who were literally "outcaste" from Hinduism's caste system. Most have now converted to religions other than Hinduism (which obviously holds nothing for them), mainly Christianity and Islam. The author of this article starts by trying to make the claim that religious persecution in India (as pointed out by the U.S. government and others) is not really persecution of Christians (religion-based) but simply persecution of Dalits (class/caste-based). But she doesn't really get very far with the argument, other than implying her initial claim. She then goes on to write a very clear and moving article about anti-Dalit prejudice, which I highly recommend. But she never really gets around to supporting the claim implied by her title. Yes, there remains much prejudice against Dalits, and that is an issue that India must continue to address. But if she really wanted to prove something about the alleged religious persecution, there are two obvious questions the author could have addressed. The first is whether Christian Dalits experience more (and/or more violent) persecution than non-Christian Dalits. My impression is that they do, although I don't know for certain. The second is whether non-Dalit Christians exist in significant numbers in India, and if they experience persecution as well. I honestly don't know whether they do or not, but the answer would go a long way towards answering the question posed by this article's title.

2004-05-18T10:15:00.000-04:00

Note to Self: Taking a shower immediately before walking up a big hill is not a good idea.

I made the walk yesterday in 20 minutes flat and felt pretty good. Today, I was so relaxed from the shower that I tired early and took more than 25 minutes. I should get in the habit of showering in the evening. A second piece of peanut-butter toast for breakfast might have been a good idea too.

2004-05-17T15:51:00.000-04:00

I will recount the second half of our journey later when I have time. For now, I'll just say that we arrived safely in Ithaca on Friday morning and our furniture arrived on Saturday (after all that worrying about not getting here soon enough!). We went to church on Sunday (I'll write more sometime on how we found our church) and received invitations for both lunch and dinner which pleasantly took up most of the rest of the day. We've made a good start on cleaning and unpacking, and I am now getting settled into my office in the Astronomy Department at Cornell.

2004-05-12T22:47:00.000-04:00

The Moving Odyssey: Part One

Saturday, May 8: The day began with me still awake. I'd like to think that I've gotten much better in the past few years at not procrastinating, but still there is nothing like a looming deadline to really focus the mind on a task. Laura slept for about 3 hours, but she was up around 1:30am, and we both spent the rest of the night/morning packing up the last odds and ends. At 7am or so, we realized that the last items were finally in boxes and we were done. Laura went down the block to Rincon Market and got me some scrambled eggs with bacon and potatoes, and a waffle with strawberries for herself. The movers came at 9am, and I was tremendously glad that we had spent the extra money for people who knew what they were doing (and had slept the night before) to load everything on the truck. Laura and Samuel went over to visit with our neighbor Marilyn while the movers were doing their thing. I supervised the moving for a little bit, then slept on the floor for a little bit, then went back and forth between our place and Marilyn's. When the movers finally drove off it was lunchtime, so we again got food from Rincon, did some cleaning, and went over to stay the night with our friends the Lymans.

Sunday, May 9: After saying goodbye to Carol and Rodger at their hotel, we got on the road at a fairly good early hour. Gas in Benson AZ. Nursing break in Lordsburg NM. As we approached Deming NM (where you get off the Interstate to take a shortcut rather than travel the acute angle made by I-10 and I-25 at Las Cruces NM), we knew that we needed to stop for another nursing break, but as we turned north we didn't realize that the town of Deming was entirely on the south side of the Interstate. So we ended up having a little break at the side of the state highway in the beautiful countryside of southern New Mexico. Lunch at a Sonic in Truth or Consequences NM. Afternoon break at a pleasant city park in Belen NM because all three of us couldn't stand being in the car any longer. Turning right at Albuquerque NM onto I-40, we climbed out of the Rio Grande valley onto the Great Plains. Gas in Santa Rosa NM, where we saw a beautiful sunset over the lakes. Also in Santa Rosa we found a small community market and bought foodstuffs for dinner. Motivated to get a good start on the trip, we pressed on into the night all the way to Amarillo TX, making some 722 miles on the day, not bad for travelling with a 6-month-old. What a way to spend our first Mother's Day as parents. We spent the night at a Motel 6.

Monday, May 10: We didn't get off quite as early, especially considering the 2 hours difference in time zone between AZ and TX. We stopped at a supermarket in Amarillo and got provisions for breakfast and lunch, hoping to avoid eating at restaurants three meals a day. Our first break was at a rest stop just over the state line in OK, where we found two cute dogs that had apparently been abandoned but were very friendly. One of them licked Samuel's face while I was changing him. I'm not generally a fan of toy dogs, preferring dogs that are big enough to be respectable, but I was strangely taken by these two. One was a brindle-colored pug, the other maybe a Jack Russell? I would have considered taking them home if we had lived nearby (there I've shown my kinship with my Grandma Winnie). Also at this rest stop we ate cookies provided by some very nice ladies from the nearby town of Cordell OK, who hoped to convince us to visit or live there. They were pleasant and courteous, a credit to their state, but we decided to stick with Ithaca anyway. Well, Oklahoma went downhill from there. Samuel began to figure out that his stay in the car seat was going to be much longer-term than he was used to, and began to get fussy. We made stops in Weatherford OK and El Reno OK. He was asleep when we got to Oklahoma City OK, and we drove through the center of town and saw the state capital. Then we headed out of town on I-44 ... or so I thought. About 20 miles later Laura remarked that none of the exits we were seeing were on our AAA strip map, and sure enough I had missed a turn and we were headed north on I-35 rather than northeast on I-44 (see, we really tried to go to MN!!). We decided, rather than backtrack, to take a state highway that presented itself going due east. Soon Samuel woke up wailing and in desperation we turned into the next driveway, which happened to be a church parking lot in tiny Coyle OK. We set off again with baby full and clean. Although Highway 33 did not travel quite as fast as I-44 would have, the scenery made up for it. You never see America as it really is if don't get off the Interstate, and we were glad for the opportunity to do so. We especially enjoyed the vintage downtown storefronts of Drumright OK. We re-encountered I-44 at Sapulpa OK, but Samuel was fussy again so we went right past the Interstate into the town and found a grassy spot where we could rest. By this time it was near dinnertime and we needed a break. We spread out a blanket under a tree and relaxed for a bit. Then we treated ourselves to a few Pringles and set off again. We made our way through Tulsa OK and finally out of Oklahoma, but only barely. We spent the night at another Motel 6, in Joplin MO. We made only about 470 miles today, obliterating our headstart from yesterday (but we sure were glad we had made that good start). We were almost exactly halfway to Ithaca, thus keeping our head above water if in fact we needed to be there on Thursday morning.

Tuesday, May 11: We were up and on our way by 8am, but after two miles I realized I had forgotten to return our room key to the office, so we turned around and went back to Joplin. Since we were back in town anyway we also visited the gas station and the supermarket, and were actually on our way sometime after 8:30am. When we had first gotten up I had called the driver of our moving truck, and he said he was still planning to be in Ithaca on Thursday morning (rather to my disappointment). This meant we needed to make as good progress as possible today. And indeed we started off well, passing through Springfield MO and Rolla MO with only a couple of short stops for baby care. The landscape in Missouri is much greener than what we are used to out West, and that plus our good pace put me in pretty high spirits as we approached Saint Louis MO around lunchtime. A sign warned us that the ring road was under construction, so we decided to pass through the middle of the city. I even thought it might be nice to have lunch under the Gateway Arch (having never seen it before), but a sudden rainstorm (visibility down to tens of feet), though brief, convinced us to head into Illinois before stopping. I was content with the view of the Arch from the bridge over the Mississippi River. Late lunch at a rest stop 30 miles into Illinois. Nursing stop on a quiet neighborhood street, just off I-70 in tiny Montrose IL. We approached Terre Haute IN around 5pm, and needed to feed Samuel again as well as check in with our truck driver. I saw a park on the rather vague city map on the back of the AAA strip map, which we found after making a circuitous route through a pleasant neighborhood. The phone call brought the great news that our driver would be in Ithaca to unload our furniture on Friday rather than Thursday! Combined with the day's excellent progress, this meant that we would be able to detour north to Detroit and stay with Aunt Nancy. We had a few more Pringles to celebrate and headed off to Indianapolis IN, where we had dinner at a Quiznos and noticed that every single employee there was white, while every single employee at the KFC next door (a less highly-skilled job) was black. But that is a topic for another time. We made it as far as Fort Wayne IN, where we again spent the night at Motel 6.

I'll leave today's events, and those of the rest of the week, until I have time to write from Ithaca. We are currently at Aunt Nancy's, having arrived here at 1pm, and are greatly enjoying the relaxation of not being in the car. We plan to set off again in the morning, stay somewhere between Rochester and Ithaca tomorrow night, and meet our new house and our furniture on Friday. Update: Here is part two.

2004-05-08T21:23:00.000-04:00

Last Post as a Tucson Resident: It's funny how life often seems so static, and we often take it for granted that things will remain as they are, and then suddenly everything changes. Of course, this can be due to a tragedy, but more often it is simply moving into a new chapter of life. This is hardly the first time I've done such a thing. Going off to college, getting married, and having a baby were three huge watershed events in my life. But this one has its own special poignancy in that Tucson is the only place where I have built a life as an adult with a family of my own. The family itself (i.e. the three of us) will of course remain, but much of the context in which that I've known that mode of life (the people and places I see every day) is changing. Another reason this seems so drastic is that I have been so busy the past several months that I've hardly had time to look up and prepare myself mentally and emotionally for the changes. I feel like this day has come upon me with very little warning, even though I have been logistically preparing for it for quite some time. It was quite jarring to see our condo, where we have been so happy for the past 4 years, completely empty and to realize that I don't live there anymore. It's a time to think about past joys and look forward to the future.

After pulling an all-nighter packing last night, we finally finished a few hours before the movers were due to arrive. This we could have never accomplished without the help of several friends (Thanks!!). The movers did their job this morning; they were very professional and I feel that our things are in good hands. The only bad news is that we happened to be the last load to go onto this particular moving truck, and the driver's route is such that we will be the first to be off-loaded. This means that the detour by way of Minnesota is out, and Detroit is iffy. I'm very disappointed that I won't get to meet Peter Fisher or Grace Farmer this week (and reunite with their parents, of course), but I can see some ways in which this may be for the best despite the disappointment. We will go straight in a east-northeasterly direction, by way of Albuquerque, Oklahoma City, St. Louis, and Indianapolis. At that point we will know (from the progress of our moving van) whether we have time to veer north to Detroit to visit Aunt Nancy, or if we will have to push straight on directly to Ithaca.

2004-05-04T18:38:00.000-04:00

It's hard to believe that we are actually moving away from Tucson. We have been in such a whirlwind with all of the preparations that it hardly seems real yet. Yet we are now 4 days away from Moving Day. We have lived in Tucson for nearly 5 years, and for all of our life together as a married couple. It feels like a great adventure to be moving to a new place, with new challenges and new friends, but also hard to be leaving so many people here that we have come to love.

After much deliberation, we will be traveling separately from our furniture. Our plan (if the movers allow us time) is to drive first to Minneapolis to visit the Farmers and the Fishers, then to Detroit to visit Laura's Aunt Nancy, then through Canada to New York State and Ithaca in particular. At a somewhat leisurely pace, we estimate that this will take at least 6 days, and if the movers give us more time we will spend more time visiting.

2004-04-30T12:25:00.000-04:00

Probably the best field trip I have ever been on is the one I took to Washington State in September 2002. We spent a day at Mount St. Helens and studied the enormous volcanic deposits known as the Columbia River Flood Basalts, but by far the best part of the trip was our study of the Channeled Scablands of eastern Washington. (Here you can find pictures and other info on the particular trip that I took, from some other people at LPL.)

The Scablands are a unique terrain characterized by enormous dry valleys (known as coulees), giant gravel bars, giant current ripples, hanging valleys, "scabland terrain" riddled with potholes, and other features. These were formed by the "Missoula Floods," which took place 13,000 to 18,000 years ago, during the Ice Ages, when a 1/4-mile-high ice dam in western Montana failed. The resulting torrent had a discharge rate as high as 20 million cubic feet per second!! The water reached depths as high as 250 meters, and speeds as high as 30 meters per second (68 mph). "Dry Falls," pictured at right, is 3 times as high as Niagara and 3.5 miles wide!

The Scablands have been an important catalyst in convincing the scientific community that Uniformitarianism (the idea that only gradual processes are important in geology, and that giant "catastrophes" never happen) is not useful when taken as a dogma. A rigorous definition of Catastrophism might be that extraordinary events (generally unusually large events) create more changes in the terrain than the summed-up effects of all gradual processes, even if those gradual processes persist for millions or billions of years. There is now broad acceptance that, although uniformitarian processes are still important in most places on Earth, catastrophes are sometimes the dominant driver of change and cannot be ignored: for example, the impact of a Mars-sized planet with the Earth that is thought to have led to the formation of the Moon, and the extra-terrestrial impact thought to have killed the dinosaurs. The Missoula Floods are a more recent example, but still a spectacular one.

It is just as much of a mistake, however, to assume that only catastrophes are important. The Missoula Floods have no connection with the book of Genesis. If they did, you would expect terrain like the Channeled Scabland to be very common all over the earth, and not the rare and extraordinary feature that it is. Actually, the Channeled Scablands are a powerful argument against those who claim that the Grand Canyon (for example) was formed by catastrophic processes connected with the Biblical Flood. We know what it looks like when canyons are excavated by catastrophic floods, and it looks like the Scablands, not like the Grand Canyon: 1) you see many channels, as the flow is too large to be carried in a single channel; 2) you see evidence of water spilling over ridges from one valley to the next; 3) you see large areas of potholed "scabland terrain," formed by the great turbulence of the water flow; 4) you see giant gravel bars due to the enormous amount of sediment carried by such a flow; 5) you see ripples (think about the bottom of any sandy stream) four stories high and two football fields in wavelength, due to the great speed and depth of the flow; 6) you see hanging valleys and waterfalls, as the main canyon is excavated far deeper than it was when the side valleys were formed; 7) you see boulders many feet across that have been removed miles away from their source; 8) you certainly do not see buttes and peaks in the middle of the canyon, as everything is carried away by the torrent. None of these things are true of the Grand Canyon, leading to the conclusion that it was gradual processes over many millions of years that are responsible there.

The field trip that I took was led by one of the world's authorities on this type of giant flood, who also happens to be a professor in the Planetary Science department here at UA. He edited a book on the region (and also wrote about half of it), which is still the definitive work on the subject. Unfortunately, the book is out of print, and although Dr. Baker loaned me a copy for the trip, he wanted me to give it back. So, using a scanner and the work of someone else who had already scanned much of the book, I made a PDF file of the book which can be printed. So now I have a copy to keep, and any of you who are interested can have one too (Dr. Baker tells me the book was never under a copyright, being an internal NASA publication). Here is the website I have set up for downloading the PDF file.

The Channeled Scablands are an incredible reminder of the power and grandeur of God's creation. As with everything in nature, I believe that studying them (even if we come to conclusions that don't fit comfortably with our pre-conceived notions) helps us to better understand and draw close to God.

2004-04-23T03:57:00.000-04:00

About a year ago I found one of the most fascinating insects I have ever seen. It was brightly colored with a red head and thorax, and yellow and black wing covers. At that time, my digital camera was a new toy to me, so I took the insect home and photographed it to test out the camera's capabilities. I was very happy with the pictures, but I thought I would never figure out the identity of the insect.

Well, the puzzle was unexpectedly solved the other day when Laura pointed out the latest newsletter from the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, complete with pictures of my mystery insect! The two pictures shown here are from the ASDM News. Here is some text from the accompanying article:

Another beautiful insect one might encounter this time of year is the Iron Cross Blister Beetle, Tegrodera aloga. The blister beetle has a red head and thorax and mottled yellow and black clytra (wing covers).

Blister beetles are known for two things. First, when threatened they exude a chemical called cantharidin as a defensive weapon. Pure cantharidin is a caustic substance that can burn sensitive skin. Second, blister beetles have a reputation for killing animals, most notably horses, when ingested. In the Midwest, a species of blister beetle feeds on alfalfa. When the alfalfa is harvested, the insects end up in the bales. If there are large numbers of the blister beetles in the alfalfa when horses eat it, then horses can become ill or even die.

But Arizona's iron cross blister beetle (one of 80 blister beetle species in the state!) does not feed on alfalfa and is not associated with illness or death in horses. Our local species typically feeds on Eriastrum, a small annual plant with tiny blue flowers and a patchy distribution. Sometimes hundreds of blister beetles are seen walking along the desert floor as they disperse and search for food.

Well, I've sure never seen hundreds of these things in one place. In fact, I've never seen a single one except for the one that spent an afternoon with me last May. I didn't even know if it was native to Arizona, and am interested to discover that it is. I like the name of it. The big black cross on its back does resemble the Iron Cross that was an emblem of Imperial Germany. As for the "blister" part, I can only say that I'm glad I never did actually touch the bug with my hands, though he was in such poor health that he may not have been in a mood to defend himself anyway.

The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum is definitely one of the things we'll miss most about Tucson. The name is misleading if it makes you think about stuffy rooms full of taxidermy --- it's really more of a zoo and botanical garden, devoted to every aspect of the Sonoran Desert (in which Tucson is situated). We have been members of the ASDM most of the time we've lived here, and we especially enjoy going early in the morning and visiting the aviaries (one devoted to hummingbirds, another for other birds). In fact, we're thinking of making one last visit this weekend. They also do a great amount of education and public outreach, and they have beautiful and fascinating glossy publications that they send out to members. If you ever spend time in Tucson, especially if you live there, be sure and visit the Desert Museum if you can. You'll never again think of the desert as barren or boring.

2004-04-21T01:38:00.000-04:00

Samuel Picture Alert: I am very sorry that it has been so long since I last updated the Samuel picture page, but you can now find new pictures there.

Samuel has been doing quite well. As you can see, he has learned to stick out his tongue, and he does this with regularity. He is steadily improving his ability to turn himself over from back to tummy and back again, and has begun to be able to sit up without support. He's also starting to discover that if he moves his mouth while talking, interesting sounds come out. He had a grand old time with Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Christi and Uncle Davy last week. He is such a cheerful and sociable baby. Late one night last week he was about as tired as Laura has ever seen him, and yet he still had a big smile for a complete stranger who smiled at him.

2004-04-18T19:37:00.000-04:00

If you want to know how crazy I've been with work the past couple months: It was only in the past 10 minutes that I listened to my very first inning of baseball in 2004. And quite an exciting inning it was, with Eric Gagne (far and away my favorite baseball player these days) striking out the side in the 9th inning to close out a 7-6 win for the Dodgers over the arch-rival Giants. Amazingly, this makes the 5th win in a row for the Dodgers (and the 4th consecutive game saved by Gagne). The Blue Crew now have their best start since 1983, with 9 wins to only 3 losses so far this year.

Could this be the year that the Dodgers win their first playoff game since I was 12 years old? Last year's Dodgers had both the best pitching and the worst offense in all of baseball, and in the end fell just short of the playoffs. This year, I was prepared for more of the same, since the offseason turmoil surrounding the sale of the team had led to no significant acquisitions during the winter. And yet they are hitting! They did get a couple of new hitters, no big names but solid, and some others are just hitting better than last year. Laura says not to worry, the Dodgers are sure to return to their usual frustrating form soon enough; no doubt she's right, but I'll enjoy this while I can. :)

I only realized last year that KCUB 1290 AM in Tucson carries Dodgers games. I'm not quite sure why, as this is very clearly the territory of the Arizona Diamondbacks -- but hey, I don't complain. I'd thought it might have something to do with the fact that KCUB is a Fox Sports station, and that Fox also owned the Dodgers. However, I'm pleased to report that the Dodgers are still on the air in Tucson, even though Fox sold off the team over the winter. Of course, once in Ithaca I will be obliged to subscribe to radio broadcasts over the Internet if I want to listen.

Non-Baseball Update: I spoke to Renu on Friday about my revisions. There is a significant amount to do, but I feel much better now that I have a clearly defined set of tasks that I must accomplish and then I will be completely finished! The lady who has bought our home (we are currently leasing it back) was nice enough to give us a small extension, but the latest she can go is May 9. So that appears to be moving day. I have good hope of finishing my revisions and the packing by that date. I've been basically taking a break since my defense on Thursday, relaxing and enjoying time with Mom, Dad, Christi, and David, who were here until this morning. I will get back to work tomorrow.

2004-04-16T01:53:00.000-04:00

I went through the final defense for my Ph.D. today, and passed. I will find out tomorrow how much revising I need to do before I am really done, but this was the big hurdle. I feel relieved but tired.

2004-04-11T03:14:00.000-04:00

As we prepare to celebrate the resurrection of Christ, it seems that ABC has used the occasion of Holy Week to air a Peter Jennings special on the lives of Jesus and Paul. Jennings previously did a special on Jesus back in 2000 that I had the chance to watch. At that time, although I found it flawed in many ways, the special was an excellent conversation-starter. It brought up several important topics and served to spark some very profitable discussion for me with two of my friends. This time around I was not able to see the special, but I happened to come across this review by Darrell Bock in Christianity Today, which seems to do an excellent job of summarizing and giving critical commentary of what ABC had to say. Bock writes that the special got a number of things right (and some things wrong), and had a decent amount of balance between differing views on the Bible, but also that it neglected certain very important points and was somewhat weak in its conclusions. Most of all, he argues that ABC's attention to this topic is a good thing, signalling an increasing openness in our society to discuss God and other issues that are central to how we live our lives. Without the anger and defensiveness that sometimes seem to characterize discussions of such topics, Bock gives an interesting blow-by-blow analysis of the program, and fills in some gaps that help to illuminate the historical origins of Christianity. I recommend the article if you are interested in the topic.

Happy Easter, everyone. "Christ is risen. Indeed, He is risen."

2004-04-05T21:37:00.000-04:00

We have a house! After a long day yesterday, the best I could say was that I had found at least one place that wasn't terrible. We were even considering subletting a townhouse for the summer only, and starting the house-hunt anew at the end of the summer when they're more plentiful (Ithaca's housing market is extremely skewed towards the academic calendar). As I was talking to Laura last night about balancing distance from campus with cost and livability, I found myself wishing we could just find a nice vintage house in the town of Ithaca proper. I really didn't relish the idea of a commute, especially after last night's snowstorm, and many of the newer structures I'd seen just felt flimsy compared to the solid hardwood floors of the friend's house I'm staying in. But available houses in town have been almost impossible to find in this off-peak season.

Well, this morning I called a rental agency that I had not been able to get in touch with before then, and lo and behold, they had one house that might fit our needs. I think the listing is so new that it's not even on the Cornell housing website yet. Anyway, I then left to keep an early appointment with a rental agent (yet another possibly-livable-but-lackluster apartment block), but at mid-morning found myself driving towards this house with a feeling of anticipation. Well, it sure wasn't the most immaculate or luxurious of places, but I felt really good walking on the hardwood floors. It's probably 100 years old, which of course has pluses (charm, sturdiness) as well as possible minuses. It has only one bathroom, and the two bedrooms are on opposite sides of the house, the yard is maybe 20 square feet, and we will have neighbors upstairs. But the kitchen is spacious and modern with attractive wood paneling, the utilities are up-to-date, there's a small basement for storage, and there's even room in the side yard for a small garden patch. It is in the Fall Creek district, the north end of the town of Ithaca, with block after block of cute vintage houses in every direction. It's only several blocks from impressive Ithaca Falls and maybe a mile or so (up a big hill, but still) to the Astronomy building where I will work. To make a long story short, I have signed a lease, and the house will be ready for us when we move in May. Click here for a few pictures.

I also had a good day on campus today. My talk went well, and I was peppered with questions which I am sure will make me better prepared for my defense (thanks a lot, Bill :P ). I had some good chats with my future employer, and a nice dinner with several people from the Astronomy department. Tomorrow morning I will fly back to Tucson.