It's all about the journey ...right? 'Reason' seems to be a noun, a place to which I am attempting to journey. 'Reason' more accurately represents my reality as a verb - my journey is something that I am relentlessly trying to reason in a world confounded by human emotion and ruled by illogical judgments. Through documenting my thoughts on science, philosophy, religion, politics, and day-to-day life I can infer some meaning from this journey and find like-minded humans with which to share it.
News-wise, living on the west coast is difficult. All the TV shows, news programs, and political punditry is geared for an east coast time zone, so I feel like I'm learning about news after everyone else; unless of course something happens later at night. Unfortunately that has happened tonight, and just about an hour ago I found out that Christopher Hitchens has died from complications related to his esophageal cancer. He was only 62.
While in many places and to many people he is known for his literary and political writing and polemic, I have always loved him for his vigorous fight against superstitious believers. For some years now, it's been my dream to meet Christopher Hitchens - he fought tirelessly for human rights and for freedom from the tyranny of religion. He was a superb debater and had a wit matched by no one. It is sad to know that he is no longer with us to fight the good fight, but he lives on in his writing and in those of us who choose to carry the banner of science, skepticism, and critical thinking.
Almost every time I've seen a video of Hitchens he was smoking or having a stiff drink of whiskey. So tonight, this drink is for you. We'll miss you, Christopher.
I'm finally on my way! Well, sort of. I'm currently on a seven hour layover in Washington-Dulles airport ... yeah, SEVEN hours. Of course this is better than yesterday, when I was supposed to leave but couldn't because my flight got canceled - stupid United airlines. I got rescheduled for today and am excited to be on my way to Vienna, Austria.
Members from four choirs in Durham (Duke Chapel Choir, Duke Student Chorale, Choral Society of Durham, and the NC Vocal Arts Ensemble) under the conduction of Dr. Rodney Wynkoop are traveling together to Vienna to participate in the International Haydn Festival. We're performing Joseph Haydn's tenth setting of the mass, Missa in tempore belli (Mass in time of war), and Ralph Vaughan Williams' Dona Nobis Pacem. These are both very impressive works of musical genius, though the RVW is incredibly moving and apropos for the current worldwide involvement in Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan.
We'll be performing in the Konzerthaus of downtown Vienna. It is simply a beautiful venue and I'm thrilled to be singing baritone in this monolithic event where we'll be accompanied by the Vienna festival symphony. The RVW music is quite powerful and the texts are taken from the mass, three poems by Walt Whitman, a political speech, and sections of the bible. The most striking of the texts are the poem settings by Whitman. Here is one of them entitled 'Reconciliation':
Word over all, beautiful as the sky, Beautiful that war and all its deeds of carnage must in time be utterly lost, That the hands of the sisters Death and Night incessantly softly wash again, and ever again, this solid world; For my enemy is dead, a man divine as myself is dead, I look where he lies white-faced and still in the coffin--I draw near, Bend down and touch lightly with my lips the white face in the coffin.
It captures the tormented mind forced to deal with the realization of its own mortality through that of his fellow man.
My favorite movement of the RVW uses the text from Whitman's 'Dirge for Two Veterans'. A tribute to my grandfather and any other man or woman who died serving their country, fellow citizens, or free people of the world.
The last sunbeam Lightly falls from the finish'd Sabbath, On the pavement here, and there beyond it is looking, Down a new-made double grave.
Lo, the moon ascending, Up from the east the silvery round moon, Beautiful over the house-tops, ghastly, phantom moon, Immense and silent moon.
I see a sad procession, And I hear the sound of coming full-key'd bugles, All the channels of the city streets they're flooding, As with voices and with tears.
I hear the great drums pounding, And the small drums steady whirring, And every blow of the great convulsive drums, Strikes me through and through.
For the son is brought with the father, (In the foremost ranks of the fierce assault they fell, Two veterans son and father dropt together, And the double grave awaits them.)
Now nearer blow the bugles, And the drums strike more convulsive, And the daylight o'er the pavement quite has faded, And the strong dead-march enwraps me.
In the eastern sky up-buoying, The sorrowful vast phantom moves illumin'd, ('Tis some mother's large transparent face, In heaven brighter growing.)
O strong dead-march you please me! O moon immense with your silvery face you soothe me! O my soldiers twain! O my veterans passing to burial! What I have I also give you.
The moon gives you light, And the bugles and the drums give you music, And my heart, O my soldiers, my veterans, My heart gives you love.
To hear these words set to the music composed by RVW simply tears at the heart.
The last movement pulls from multiple texts and more than hints at the great Handel's Messiah. I wish all of you could come hear this concert in Vienna when we perform. If you want a sample of how moving this concert will be, here's a clip of the last six minutes of the RVW conducted by Robert Shaw with the Atlanta Symphony and Chorus. Now, just imagine you're sitting in the audience of the Konzerthaus of Vienna:
Soon I hope to share with you some of my fun experiences in Europe!
My sister happens to share a birthday with one of my favorite composers of all time ... Igor Stravinsky! Can't you see the resemblance?
In celebration of both birthdays, here's a clip from 1965 when Stravinsky was 82 and conducting Lullaby and Final Hymn from the Firebird Ballet Suite (1945). Hope you enjoy it as much as I do! (thanks for sending, Andy)
Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, happy birth-day to me-e, happy birthday to me!
At approximately 11:29AM I will have completed 25 trips around the sun and will begin my 26th. I'm at home for the day celebrating with the family.
To commemorate the event I would like to share with you 'The Great Sperm Race'. After all, if one sperm in particular from my dad hadn't made it to my mom's egg, then I wouldn't be here! Check it out, you have to go through 4 different levels, navigating your special spermatocyte from an original population of 250,000,000 through the vagina, cervix, uterus, and fallopian tubes to the egg. I'm guessing it's a female programmer who originally made the game since they keep referring to the egg as 'the holy grail'.
Tim Minchin is a comedian/musician from Australia who knows how to rock out to the skeptical perspective. The following clip is from a live show in London just last year. It was taken down for a while, but he recently put a better quality copy back up for all of us to enjoy. This is an original, fictional beat poem, but as you'll hear, all stories are pulled from things we've heard kooks talk about every day. In this case, all the woo you can think of is rolled up into one paranoid hippy named Storm. As the woo gets thick, just listen to Mr. Minchin whittle it back down.
I'd like to throw a dinner party and invite Tim Minchin. I'll find a hippy for him to debate too.
There seems to be lots of good stuff inside. I can't wait to read the commentary on science and the new Obama administration. And there seems to be a fun one about the capacity of Enceladus (one of the moons of Saturn) to support some form of life as we know it here on earth.
But I'm sure that the most enjoyable article will be about science and antiscience in America: how lack of science informing the decisions we make leads to consequences where people suffer.
This is one of the best-late xmas presents I've gotten so far! (My awesome mom got a year's subscription for me)
'Baby got back' is the quintessential adolescent song from my middle school years. Who would have thought someone could put this in the style of Gilbert and Sullivan?
The first author came today. THE first author (even if it is listed just aplhabetically). The man whose name comes first on the book Molecular Biology of THE CELL (the holy grail for undergrad and grad biology students) came to visit Duke today! Bruce Alberts is every grad student's hero (and enemy for making such a big book). He's also now the editor in chief of science magazine and on a bajillion (his word) committees.I went to a luncheon and spoke up about science education with him before his lecture this afternoon about how to better teach science in our country. One of the most interesting points he made is that, after a focus group study with college educated adults, the participants saw little difference between knowledge revealed in the bible and knowledge revealed in a science textbook. Crazy, huh? These college educated people accepted the knowledge in science books as coming from an authority just like 'knowledge' from the bible comes from an authority. Except that nothing could be further from the truth.
Science is about observing the world around, asking questions, forming hypotheses to answer those questions, figuring out the predictions those answers would make, and testing whether those predictions come true. Religion and faith don't test hypotheses or make predictions (well, only the really loony ones make predictions, and then not based on evidence). The problem is that even college educated adults are not taught to fully appreciate what science is, how it works, or where knowledge really comes from - empirical reasoning and experimentation. Inquiry based learning is the only way knowledge is acquired - and it is solely dependent on evidence, something religion seems to scorn.
After he spoke at lunch I quickly jumped up and got him to sign my very own copy of the book - 4th edition.
Now when I read it I'll absorb the information so much better ... or just get the newer edition online and read about all the mistakes.
I know what you're going to say. How could he post something that could be viewed as so inappropriate?
But how could I not share this with the world? There's so much hate and violence out there, anything that might promote a little more lovin' - and safe lovin' at that - seems like something worth spreading around.
And you might even laugh a little bit. It's a new ad in a series by Durex to sell their condoms. Though this series is not appropriate for cable television but daily fodder for a site like YouTube.
So, in a spirit of friskiness, I bring you "Durex - Get it On!"
Today our nation celebrates the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. and in tandem we will celebrate the inauguration of our new president, Barack Obama, tomorrow at noon.
In lab today we were chatting about the preparations for the main event, and our attention had been caught by an article from slate.com mentioning that FOUR different pastors/preachers would be giving sermons/homilies during the festivities.
Is all of that really necessary? The religious figures run the political spectrum from right (Rick Warren) to left (Joseph Lowery) to far left (V. Gene Robinson and Sharon Watkins). But they all still include their magical superstitions, regardless of political affiliation. Where's the atheist who represents reason and sensibility?
I thought our nation had a separation of church and state based on the establishment clause of the constitution. I respect those who have morally sound life philosophies, but to constantly credit a magic man for the motivation seems incredibly childish. Why won't these people just grow up?
And lest we forget the long-term damage true believers can do - Jerry Falwell for example. If only there were a hell for him to burn in. So much hate and bigotry came from that one person, who claimed faith in a paternalistic, ego-maniacal, narcissistic god. My lab mates and I agreed that Christopher Hitchens put it best with his *very* last comment in this riled up interview on FoxNews that took place right after Falwell's death and which is shown below: "If you gave Falwell an enema, you could bury him in a matchbox."
Well, it's taken practically no time for me to break my new green laser pointer.
:-(
My copy of "The Cell" - you know, the one by Alberts which is like the bible for molecular bio grad students - simply jumped out of my hands and on to my desk (or fell out of my hands). Unfortunately my new laser pointer was the poor victim to the weight of the massive 'Cell'.
We'll try sending it off, since it's under warranty, and hopefully it can be fixed.
I was really excited to use it for the first time at my departmental seminar this Thursday, but alas, my excitement wanes. I'll have to wait a little longer.
In the meantime, this commercial by the Discovery channel really cheered me up - I love the whole world too!
PZ Myers posted this on his blog today and I wanted to share it here as well. Watch it by yourself where you will not be interrupted. I think we can all relate.
