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2010-02-28 0915: The local classical public radio station, WUOL, had a link to an interesting blog on classical music radio, Scanning the Dial, by Marty Ronish and Jack Allen; they wrote about WUOL's success in increasing its listenership. Unlike many classical music stations, which have tried to staunch decreasing audiences by programming light or pops music, WUOL has substantially increased its listenership while playing interesting and challenging music. WUOL has succeeded in increasing its listenership with outreach programs to the public, working with local schools and arts groups to promote (and program) local classical music. I was glad to read about this, because in the last year or two, I have become a devoted listener (and contributing member) to WUOL.

I've been collecting classical music as well. Over winter break in Portland, I made pilgrimage to Classical Millennium, one of the few remaining classical record shops with an outstanding selection and knowledgeable clerks. I picked up a variety of recordings, including a reissue of a classic 1957 recording of the Alan Hovhaness Symphony number 2, "Mysterious Mountain," by Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. This is the piece that made Hovhaness's reputation, and this is said to be the best recording of it. (This was an RCA Victor "Living Stereo" release; now available from BMG Classics as 09026-61957-2.) It proved to be a beautiful recording of this spiritual, magical piece of music. One other CD I saw while looking for that one: "Fred the Cat," a collection of Hovhaness piano compositions. This was a delightful surprise. The title piece was composed in the 1970s on commission for a patron who mourned the loss of his beloved pet; it was playful and spiritual. But much of the rest of the collection was interesting and enjoyable. (These were performed by Marvin Rosen, available as 3-7195-2H1 on Koch International Classics.)

2010-02-15 1830: Another snow storm; campus was closed. It was hard to measure how much I got because it drifted, but the weather service estimated 5 to 7 inches in the northern suburbs of Louisville. The snow was produced by a low pressure system that was rather striking as seen on the animated weather radar; it looked like a rotating tropical storm as it tracked across Kentucky.

2010-02-13 1930: The journal Science (ScienceNOW Daily News, February 10, 2010) has an article about an intriguing research project in Italy, where psychologist Cosimo Urgesi and colleagues asked patients questions before and after surgeries to remove brain tumors. They found that patients with malignant tumors in posterior portions of the brain, such as the temporal or parietal cortex, scored higher on "self transcendence" than patients with tumors in other parts of the brain, and that these scores were even higher after the tumors were removed (which damages the portion of the brain involved). Self transcendence includes feelings of strong spiritual connections to nature or other people. They believe that these tumors affect portions of the brain thought to be involved with a person's awareness of the position and location of their body in space.

This reminds me of something very spooky I saw on a documentary a few years ago. They showed video of a young man who was having a temperol lobe seizure. This kind of seizure can cause intense religious or spiritual experiences. The man in the documentary was trembling with emotion and his face and eyes shined with excitement from the subjective experience his seizure was producing. I seem to recall the documentary saying that this patient had done things such as run down the street naked shouting about God. (I think what I saw was a NOVA episode, "Secrets of the Mind," featuring Dr. Vilayanur Ramachandran, who profiled several remarkable cases including the one I've mentioned here.)

2010-02-13 1500: When the news broke yesterday of shootings at the University of Alabama in Birmingham, and reports said faculty members were slain, I immediately thought that this would involve a tenure case. It soon was reported that the alleged shooter, Dr. Amy Bishop, an assistant professor of biology, was denied tenure. It appears she shot six colleagues, three fatally. Having gone through a negative tenure decision, I can understand feelings of distress, anger, shame or anxiety; that's what I felt. But of course, I cannot understand how someone is capable of doing something like this. It is now reported that Bishop shot her brother in 1986, with a shotgun in what was believed to be an accident. One wonders if that incident was not an accident, or if that incident somehow made Bishop capable of what she is now accused of doing. In any event, prayers for the victims and survivors of the present tragedy.

[Added 2010-02-13 2015: The New York Times has an article to the effect that some Braintree, Massachusetts police believe the 1986 incident was improperly handled. Bishop had an argument with her brother, and police believed the shooting was intentional; but records for the incident are missing and there is suspicion of a cover-up. She was 20 and her brother was 18 at the time.]

The terrible incident in Alabama brought to mind a case from the early 1990s, around the time I did not get tenure at Mississippi State. A professor of mechanical engineering at Concordia University (in Montreal) sent by email a large amount of material to people at various universities; the chair of our department received this. He printed it out—something like 100 pages—and we looked at it. The professor, Valery Fabrikant, tried to document his allegations of improper behavior by certain colleagues in his department. His colleagues already feared him for his aggressive and threatening behavior, and he faced dismissal for intimidating and harrassing his colleagues. (This is according to the Wikipedia article on him.) Finally, he came into the department with three handguns and ammunition, and fatally shot four faculty members. This was in August of 1992. In the ensuing investigations, some of this allegations of improper conduct (financial and academic) by his colleagues were substantiated. This lead to various reforms in the university system. But it turns out (according to the Wikipedia article) that Fabrikant had a history of threatening and disruptive behavior—he had told colleagues he had left the Soviet Union because he was a dissident, but it was learned he had been dismissed from posts there because of threatening and disruptive behavior.

2010-02-09 1415: I got about five and a half inches (14 cm) of snow overnight and this morning. Not as much snow as in the Washington, DC area, but enough to give me a day off as campus is closed today. Here are a couple of pictures taken this morning as the heaviest band of snow came through.

2010-02-06 1200: I am reading a nifty little book, one of the Oxford University Press series of Very Short Introductions; in this case, to Biblical Archaeology, by Eric H. Cline. Cline sketches an interesting history of Near Eastern archaeology, showing what archeology is capable of showing, and has shown, about Near Eastern history and the Bible. It turns out that there is essentially no evidence for anything in the Bible representing events before about 1000 BCE, the time of the kingdoms of David and Solomon. However, the debate between the "minimalists," who argue that David and Solomon were a fabrication written in the 5th century BCE or later, and mainstream scholars (and "maximalists," who regard the Bible as largely historical), came to an abrupt end when the Tel Dan Stele was found—bearing a reference to the House of David.

Later (p. 83), Cline discusses evidence regarding certain familiar figures from the Bible:

We can say with relative confidence that [neo-Assyrian king] Shalmaneser's text [the "Monolith Inscription" dating to 853 BCE] clearly establishes that Ahab was a real, historical person. Moreover, excavations conducted in the 1990s by Israeli archaeologist David Ussishkin and British archaeologist John Woodhead at the site of ancient Jezreel, which was located near Megiddo and and was the home city to Ahab and his wife Jezebel according to the Biblical account, confirms that there was indeed a city in existence at the site during the appropriate time period, i.e., in the ninth century BCE. Unfortunately, thus far even the most ardent of archaeological investigators have been unable to find confirmatory evidence that Jezebel was actually thrown out of a window and eaten by dogs (2 Kings 9:30-37).

2010-02-06 1130: Andrew Sullivan, commenting on the politics of health care reform, has an apt observation: "The Dems lack all conviction and the Republicans are full of passionate intensity." I recognized the reference; it is to the William Butler Yeats Poem The Second Coming:

2010-02-03 2000: The New York Times has an article about the controversy surrounding the National Prayer Breakfast, the annual event traditionally attended by the President and other politicians. An watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Government, has asked President Obama to not attend the Prayer Breakfast, because its sponsors are linked to a Ugandan politician who supported extremely harsh anti-gay legislation in Uganda. Alternative prayer events in certain cities have been organized, called the American Prayer Hour. The organizers call this an "inclusive, justice-oriented time of prayer and action," and a "historic mission to stop persecution of LGBT people in Uganda." These events will happen on February 4.

2010-02-03 1945: After getting rather exercised about the Toyota sudden acceleration problem, it occurred to me to check the floor mats in my Honda Civic. Sure enough, they weren't anchored to the little hooks meant to keep them from sliding forward and possibly interfering with the accelerator pedal. This irritated me because it reminded me of what I went through at the dealer when I bought my Civic last November. They tried to make me buy the "protection package" on the "addendum sticker" for $1400. This included the all-weather floor mats, mud flaps, door edge guards, and a trunk tray. I refused to pay for the mats, and I paid dealer cost for the other three items (I had the Consumer Reports price report for the Civic and its accessories). But they gave me that mats anyway because apparently these items come as a set. They just put the mats in on top of the standard mats without anchoring them properly. So for three months, I've been driving around with a potentially hazardous condition.