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Blog archive for 2009

2009-12:
  • Christmas crossword puzzles.
  • Cascades Volcano Observatory visit.
  • Christmas eve Senate vote on health care reform.
  • James Hansen, Storms of Our Grandchildren: The Truth About the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity
2009-11:
  • New York Times crossword puzzle theme: odd puns based on inserted letters QU.
  • Thanksgiving road trip: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies; seeing my colleague Kyle at the Smithsonian.
  • Anniversary of Darwin's Origin of Species; public television NOVA three-part series on human evolution; NOVA on dreams.
  • New York Times crossword puzzle theme: the Beatles.
  • The Great American Smokeout.
  • New York Times columnist Gail Collins on endtimes prophecies; the Fatima prophecies and kaleidoscopic suns.
  • Science article on the evolution of religion.
  • The Maine vote against same-sex marriage; the winning strategy against same-sex marriage; putting minority housing rights to a vote in Seattle in 1964.
  • The IU Southeast Theatre Department production of Godspell.
2009-10:
  • Medicare fraud on 60 Minutes.
  • New York Times crossword puzzle: Peter King gets his wish.
  • The Roman Catholic Church's move to "poach" disaffected Anglicans.
  • A weekend of enjoyable classical music.
  • New York Times crossword puzzle on the Guggenheim art museum.
  • NOVA on Charles Darwin's darkest hour, as he and his wife Emma wrestled with his decision to publish Origin of Species and his doubts of religion.
  • My 50th birthday; Rocky Horror Show performed by Pandora Productions.
2009-09:
  • Flavored cigarette ban and my experiences with a clove cigarette and marijuana.
  • Jerry A. Coyne, Why Evolution is True; the failed Scott expedition to the south pole; the Vaughan Williams symphony Sinfonia Antartica.
  • New York Times crossword puzzle with a musical scale.
  • Running the Lanesville Heritage Festival 8-mile race.
  • New York Times article on organic light-emitting diode lighting; Philip's "Lumiblade" OLED panels.
  • Louisville Orchestra season-opening "Fanfara" concert.
  • New York Times crossword puzzle theme: "Argonne" (phrases with an R removed).
  • Unexplained Google UFO logo.
2009-08:
  • Time article on Ted Kennedy's quiet Catholic faith.
  • Michael Dobb, One Minute To Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War.
  • Missouri bans wrong kind of plastic.
  • Stubbed toe and New York Times crossword puzzle clue.
  • New York Times health blog entry on cancer and vigorous exercise.
  • Conservatives shopping at Whole Foods.
  • New York Times article about research showing long-distance running is good for the knees.
  • A book on the year I was born, 1959, by Fred Kaplan; a New York Times slide show on "Tail Fins of 1959".
  • 40th anniversary of Abbey Road album cover photo shoot.
  • Flash-flooding in Louisville.
  • Greek letters in a New York Times crossword puzzle.
2009-07:
  • 1950s optimism and humor (Charles Addams and Tom Lehrer).
  • Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum, Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our Future.
  • Documentary Food, Inc.
  • Passing of Heinz Edelman, Yellow Submarine art designer.
  • New York Times puzzle: "You Are There" (phrases with UR inserted).
  • Robert Wright, The Evolution of God.
  • Harry Potter movie Half-Blood Prince.
2009-06:
  • My sprinkler system, rain storms, robin's eggs.
  • California's role in the Oregon slump.
  • Reed College's decision to factor ability to pay tuition in admissions decisions.
  • Rabbi David N. Young eulogy for slain abortion provider.
  • David Cahill: The Desire of the Ever-Lasting Hills: The World Before and After Jesus and Sailing the Wine-Dark Seas: Why the Greeks Matter.
  • Pentecost at St. Gabriel's Episcopal Church.
2009-05:
  • Rhododendron Garden (Portland, Oregon) pictures.
  • Jesus Was a Liberal: Reclaiming Christianity for All by Rev. Scotty McLennan.
  • The documentary Helvetica.
  • The documentary Wordplay and crossword puzzles.
  • NY Times article on Brookhaven National Laboratory.
  • Cold fusion according to physicist Bob Park.
2009-04:
  • NY Times obituary on ghost hunter Hanz Holzer.
  • The documentary The Life and Times of Harvey Milk.
  • The (alleged) merits of barefoot running.
  • Baby rabbits in my lawn.
  • The passing of J. G. Ballard.
  • Cold fusion according to CBS 60 Minutes.
  • The movie Milk.
  • Easter, and two books by Diana Butler Ross: Christianity for the Rest of Us and A People's History of Christianity.
  • Papa John's 10 Miler race.
  • Bart Ehrman, Jesus, Interrupted.

2009-03:
  • Rodes City Run (10K race).
  • Bernheim Arboretum race.
  • David Halberstam, The Coldest Winter: American and the Korean War.
  • Storm damage (loose shingles).
  • Christian Fellowship showing of Expelled, and my frustration with organized opposition to science.
  • Reed alumni magazine articles: the battle for the humanities at Reed; the legend of the half-time crucifixion.
2009-02:
  • Milk at the Oscars; a sermon by Very Reverend Mark Bourlakas on leprosy and acceptance of gay people.
  • Writing in support of a stringent state-wide smoking ban.
  • The 200th birthday of Charles Darwin: an adorable cloth Darwin doll, and NOVA's fine episode on the Kitzmiller v. Dover case on intelligent design.
  • More severe weather: high winds.

2009-01:
  • The severe ice storm of late January; pictures.
  • The inauguration of President Obama.
  • Digital television broadcast stations.
  • John Adams The Grand Pianola Music performed by the Louisville Orchestra.
  • The passing of Andrew Wyeth.
  • A cold snap.
  • The nomination of William V. Corr as Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services.
  • The NY Times on three-dimensional imaging of virus particles and on the statistical programming language R.
  • Reader comments on the Douglas Murray essay "Why Studying Islam Made Me an Atheist."
  • Alex Ross, The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century.
  • More snow and then flooding in the Northwest.
  • Travis Bradford, Solar Revolution: The Economic Transformation of the Global Energy Industry; the SolarWorld manufacturing plant in Hillsboro, Oregon.