I saw the St. Olaf Choir last night in concert at Duke. They are quite simply the most amazing choral group I've ever seen. A lot of it is their obvious love for the music, their conductor, Anton Armstrong, and each other. My favorite part was the "Music of the Night" pieces: Sid Robinovith’s setting of the Hebrew Prayer Before Sleep, a setting of the Octavio Paz poem "Water Night" by Eric Whitacre, and Ralph Vaughan Williams' setting of Shakespeare's Serenade to Music. Very modern and shocking and amazing. But they also did some great classical works, and the things they are best known for: Lutheran hymns and African-American spirituals. There was a quote in the program from a local paper when they toured Norway about how only Americans could hold hands and sway while singing Bach and make it glorious.
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08:58:51 AM,
Friday 2 February 2007
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"Why were you elected? If you want a safe job, go sell shoes."
- Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), crticizing Republicans on the Foreign Relations Committee who oppose the president's war plan, but aren't willing to vote against it.
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08:43:48 AM,
Friday 2 February 2007
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Joe Biden is running for president. Because really what the Democrat need is another racist, sexist old white man.
Mr. Biden is equally skeptical—albeit in a slightly more backhanded way—about Mr. Obama. “I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy,” he said. “I mean, that’s a storybook, man.”
“They may be politically right, and I may be politically wrong,” he said. “But I believe I am substantively right, and their substantive approaches are not very deep and will not get us where I want to go.”
Translation: Dude, I'm not all politically correct and stuff, but I'm smarter than them.
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(7)
08:16:21 AM,
Thursday 1 February 2007
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Losing Ann Richards and Molly Ivins so close together is quite a blow. We need more loud women who refuse to sit down and shut up.
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08:10:30 AM,
Thursday 1 February 2007
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Amanda Marcotte, formerly of Pandagon, formerly of Mousewords, is moving to Chapel Hill to work for John Edwards' campaign. Although I am lukewarm about Edwards, I am crazy about Amanda and now she's moving to the ole Triangle.
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(9)
08:57:10 AM,
Wednesday 31 January 2007
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This sounds like a good idea
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12:15:29 PM,
Tuesday 30 January 2007
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Montreat Presbyterian Church has voted to leave the PCUSA and join the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. This is interesting for several reasons. First, the town of Montreat was founded by and for Presbyterians from the PCUS "old southern church" and became part of the PCUSA in the 1980's when the southern and northern churches reunited. Most of the town is focused on the PCUSA college and conference center located there. Many of the year round residents who do not work for one of those entities are retired PCUS/PCUSA clergy.
However, many of the folks who work for the college, conference center, and the retirees do not worship at Montreat Presbyterian, an evangelical congregation with contemporary-style worship services (ie praise music and powerpoint). They drive to Black Mountain or all the way to Warren Wilson College in Swannanoa to worship with a more mainline or liberal (respectively) congregation. In the summers, the conference center offers its own worship services, which most of the "summer people" and many of the year round residents attend.
For the two summers I worked at there, I went to the conference center's worship services. But I had several good friends on summer staff who were more conservative than I and felt more at home at Montreat Presbyterian's services. I became friends with several town residents who volunteered actively with the conference center's summer programs who attended that church. In addition, the church's pastor regularly invited summer staff to his house for dinner, and I always enjoyed those evenings. Just because we have different politics and different worship styles, doesn't mean we have to hate each other.
So I am sad that they have chosen to leave, sad for the divisions it will cause in a town that I love among people I have gotten to know over the years. I hope that they can find a place to worship in a non-PCUSA building, which may mean leaving the town. I hope that this will be a step towards healing and not another painful wound in our poor, battered denomination.
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(2)
09:14:06 AM,
Tuesday 30 January 2007
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Feminism Brings Benefits to All -- Men Included: Why Nancy Pelosi's achievement is a victory not only for our daughters and granddaughters but also for our sons and grandsons.
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(3)
04:43:49 PM,
Monday 29 January 2007
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Senator Kennedy to Republicans: "What is it about working men and women that you find so offensive?"
"We have now had amendments that have been worth over 200 billion dollars… Amendments that have been offered. We've had amendments on education of 35 billion dollars. We've had health-savings amendments that will benefit people with average incomes of $112,000… We've had those kinds of amendments and we're looking at the Kyl amendment at 3 billion dollars. But we still cannot get two dollars and fifteen cents -- over two years. Over two years!
"What is the price, we ask the other side? What is the price that you want from these working men and women? What cost? How much more do we have to give to the private sector and to business? How many billion dollars more, are you asking, are you requiring?
"When does the greed stop, we ask the other side? That's the question and that's the issue."
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08:27:24 AM,
Monday 29 January 2007
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This year the IRS has a list of companies which offer free online processing and/or filing of tax returns. Qualification varies between companies as far as income and state residency requirements, but the IRS even has a little engine that asks you some questions then gives you a list of the companies you can use for free.
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(1)
07:45:11 AM,
Saturday 27 January 2007
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Putting the Iraq War in perspective, what $200 billion (per year) could have bought.
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(1)
11:55:48 AM,
Friday 26 January 2007
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My officemate just walked in wearing this t-shirt. It's not fair...she studies nitrogen, I'm the one who studies carbon.
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(4)
08:44:12 AM,
Friday 26 January 2007
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If you like Oregon Trail and value human beings who are thinking and living and breathing on their own, you might enjoy playing the UNICEF game Ayiti and trying to survive as a 5-member family in present-day Haiti.
While there are a few strategies that work better than others (I'll put them in the comments for those who want to play on their own first), ultimately, survival depends on being incredibly lucky both in avoiding bad things (hurricanes, crime, sickness) and experiencing good things (good harvest, aid money comes through, somebody helps you start a business).
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(14)
08:36:10 AM,
Friday 26 January 2007
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Check out what the President said:
"In all we do, we must remember that the best health care decisions are made not by government and insurance companies, but by patients and their doctors."
Why do he think he didn't intend the meaning that I take from that?
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01:47:29 PM,
Thursday 25 January 2007
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A really cool article by the first openly gay president of an American college about the merits of being open and honest in all aspects of leadership and life.
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12:48:08 PM,
Thursday 25 January 2007
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Thiobacillus ferrooxidans is a bacteria that makes its living by oxidizing iron or sulfur. Under anaerobic (no oxygen) conditions, such as are frequently found in stream sediments, it uses either oxygen or oxidized iron to oxidize sulfur, acquiring energy for itself and leaving sulfuric acid as a byproduct. This is one of those great survival strategies that allows it to live in places where few other organisms are able.
The problem is that in a stream containing large amounts of pyrite (FeS2) from the remains of old mines, T. ferrooxidans goes through this process at a really high rate. Natural, abiotic (non-bacterial) chemical reactions would break down the pyrite more slowly, but T. ferrooxidans breaks it down quickly and therefore becomes one of the main culprits (after the mining companies) of a problem commonly known as acid mine drainage (AMD) which has left many streams in both the Rockies and the Appalachians devoid of life. That's the bad news.
The good news is twofold. First, if T. ferrooxidans is used in treatment wetlands that are not connected to the stream it can break down the pyrite at the same rate, preventing the mine waste from ending up in the stream in the first place, and actually be used to clean up the mess rather than making it worse. Secondly, useful metals such as uranium and copper can be found in low concentrations in pyrite that would otherwise be considered waste. T. ferrooxidans is now being used to break down the ore and ease the extraction of these metals.
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(9)
04:53:40 PM,
Wednesday 24 January 2007
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St. Casserole points out that the Gulf Coast Katrina recovery was not mentioned in the State of the Union address when it clearly is still a huge blot on the state of our union. Perhaps no one told the President that recovery is still ongoing?
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11:40:14 AM,
Wednesday 24 January 2007
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The State of the World's Children
The Health and Well-Being of Children in the US
The Global HIV/AIDS Pandemic
About half of all deaths in children under five are caused by five preventable and treatable communicable diseases (pneumonia, diarrhoea, measles, malaria and HIV/AIDS).
Over 8 million of the 13 million under-five deaths in the world each year can be put down to diarrhoea, pneumonia, malaria, and vaccine-preventable diseases. But this simple way of classifying hides the fact that death is not usually an event with one cause but a process with many causes. In particular, it is the conspiracy between malnutrition and infection which pulls many children into the downward spiral of poor growth and early death.
According to the International Labour Organization, an estimated 246 million children are engaged in exploitative child labour, with almost three quarters of them working in hazardous environments, such as mines or factories, or with dangerous substances like chemicals and agricultural pesticides.
906,000 children in the United States were confirmed by child protective service agencies as being maltreated. Among children confirmed by child protective service agencies as being maltreated, 61% experienced neglect; 19% were physically abused; 10% were sexually abused; and 5% were emotionally or psychologically abused. An estimated 1,500 children were confirmed to have died from maltreatment; 36% of these deaths were from neglect, 28% from physical abuse, and 29% from multiple maltreatment types.
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09:05:01 AM,
Wednesday 24 January 2007
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Just when I thought the world couldn't get uglier... Somebody pointed me to this blog written by a professor at some university in NY who for whatever reason appears to devote all of his attention to the Duke Lacrosse case. He's pretty bad, and his obsession is just a little bizarre, but his commenters are worse. I couldn't believe the racism, somehow easily transitioning from ridiculing the anger of the Durham African-American community last spring to Hurricane Katrina to "why can't those people fix their community" to "the NAACP is racist just look at their name." How embarrassing for this guy to have such people on his side.
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03:52:15 PM,
Monday 22 January 2007
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Today is the 34th anniversary of Roe vs Wade and has been declared Blog for Choice Day. The appointed question is: Why are you pro-choice?
I don't have one single personal experience that alone lead me to be pro-choice. I have never been and don't expect to ever be pregnant. I am pro-choice because I don't think it should be the business of our government to make medical decisions for anybody. I support the right of every human being to determine if and when they want to have children. I value the lives of fully-formed adults who I know and love over potential humans not yet formed. Finally, I am pro-choice because these debates never occur when it's men's lives, health, or happiness on the line.
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(4)
07:33:43 AM,
Monday 22 January 2007
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The story of my life, in cartoon form.
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(2)
08:54:14 PM,
Sunday 21 January 2007
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If you read one thing today, it should be this story of refugee children playing soccer in suburban Georgia.
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(3)
01:59:35 PM,
Sunday 21 January 2007
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Tuxedo and Artemis agree on two things: food and sunshine.
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(2)
12:49:16 PM,
Saturday 20 January 2007
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John Lewis for President. I'm not the first person to suggest it, obviously.
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01:19:20 PM,
Friday 19 January 2007
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In the midst of stress and frustration, Girlyman comes on the little iPod Shuffle and gives me marching band nostalgia:
September's still Summer, but the nights are like Fall.
Tell me your Fall Stories,
Every time you broke your heart.
Your love comes out your hands.
It all comes out of your hands.
Make me remember who I am.
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11:07:19 AM,
Friday 19 January 2007
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Now it's snowing here. Not in any substantial, life affecting way, but it's pretty. Tuxedo likes to think of it as "the white stuff that sticks to cats."
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(4)
07:57:08 AM,
Thursday 18 January 2007
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First US uterus transplant planned. This weirds me out. I don't understand the craving some people have to raise only a child that is genetically their own, so I really don't understand the craving to raise only a child who one has carried in her own body. I guess I'm just too far removed to understand. I like other people's kids a lot, but I don't have the physical need so many other people seem to have to have kids of my own.
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(3)
12:25:42 PM,
Wednesday 17 January 2007
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Viagra may soon be available over the counter.
Surely, there will be a great hue and cry over this from Christian groups outraged that a drug that promotes promiscuity will be available to anyone who asks? Surely, OTC approval will be slowed by moralists in the FDA who want more time to study the issue, out of concern that teenagers might be taking it and getting the idea that having sex is okay? Surely, even if the application is approved after years of footdragging by the FDA and only because certain members of Congress play hardball with nominations surely, it will be available only to men over 18? Surely, even if it is approved for use by men over 18, they will have to prove to the satisfaction of the pharmacist that they are married because in the pharmacist's personal belief system, sex outside marriage is sinful and the pharmacist cannot participate in another's sin? Surely, there will be endless handwringing and breastbeating about the loose morals of boys today?
Surely you jest.
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(1)
12:34:51 PM,
Friday 12 January 2007
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Based on this article at Inside Higher Ed I found out about Wagner College which sounds like another great school to add to my list.
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(1)
11:47:55 AM,
Thursday 11 January 2007
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So I am blogging from my new office in our new lab in the new building. The building is very nice, but reminds me way too much of Greenfield Library. I am half tempted to research the possibility that they had the same architect. I anticipate some of the same problems with noise.
Our lab is very, very nice. We have windows. I have my own bench. We have a separate room for our analytic chemistry equipment so it doesn't get screwed up from dirt and stuff in the main lab.
The grad student offices were designed by someone who had no idea what a grad student was. We have: cubicle desks, no bookshelves, no filing cabinets, windows into the hallway and the lab, and sliding pocket doors between our offices that are hard to operate so they are currently staying open all the time. Lovely.
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(5)
09:47:31 AM,
Wednesday 10 January 2007
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There's now an open access journal for environmental science. PLOS Biology has been ridiculously successful, but has mostly focused on biomedical stuff. As a fan of the dissemination of knowledge, I think this is very exciting.
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(1)
09:19:17 AM,
Wednesday 10 January 2007
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Remi and I are not known for blogging much about our daily lives, but we had a very pleasant evening last night, so I will describe it for your amusement. We went to Kroger's and acquired fresh fruit, fancy chocolate, frozen potato skins, and Woodchuck Pear Cider. Then we came home and had potato skin appetizers followed by a chocolate fondue main course while watching Season 2 of Veronica Mars. Tuxedo slept in the computer room. Artemis alternated between lap sleeping, finger chewing, and standing in the bath tub meowing to herself (we think she likes echos).
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(5)
07:42:45 AM,
Saturday 6 January 2007
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On Sept 11, 2005, by order of the governor, a boat was dispatched to St. Bernard Parish to "rescue" frozen embryos created by wealthy, infertile people. Meanwhile, in the Ninth Ward and even in St. Bernard Parish, houses were not searched for living or dead fully formed human beings until days or even weeks later (most of the dates I saw on houses were from in the end of September). Today is one of those days I officially hate the rich and powerful.
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(2)
07:30:09 AM,
Saturday 6 January 2007
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Friday Random Ten: "The Machine's All Broke But At Least We Have Speaker Pelosi"
1) Indigo Girls--Least Complicated
2) Jim Jesse and the Virginia Boys--Airmail Special
3) Bela Fleck--Overgrown Waltz
4) John Prine with Fiona Prine--'Til a Tear Becomes a Rose
5) Ramones--Do You Remember Rock 'n' Roll Radio?
6) Nancy Griffith--Tecumseh Valley
7) Alison Brown--The Magnificent Seven
8) Los Angeles Master Chorale--Les Chansons des Roses - 5. Dirait-on
9) Robyn Hitchcock--Welcome to Earth
10) Nick Drake--Which Will
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(1)
12:06:20 PM,
Friday 5 January 2007
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Finally.
This is an historic moment - for the Congress, and for the women of this country. It is a moment for which we have waited more than 200 years. Never losing faith, we waited through the many years of struggle to achieve our rights. But women weren't just waiting; women were working. Never losing faith, we worked to redeem the promise of America, that all men and women are created equal. For our daughters and granddaughters, today we have broken the marble ceiling.
-Nancy Pelosi
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(1)
09:04:14 AM,
Friday 5 January 2007
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I've just found out that a friend and mentor in the stream restoration community died a couple of days ago in a car accident. His wife and two daughters are still in the hospital. I had gotten an email from him in December which I hadn't responded to--it was on my to do list for today.
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(5)
10:53:01 AM,
Thursday 4 January 2007
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