high bed in the low chapel

The semester ended last week and boy, am I glad. Sixteen weeks is quite a haul and now I am certain I much prefer the quarter system.

A large number of family members arrive next week and that should be very interesting. I hope to try a number of vegan recipes on those that are unsuspecting.

My favorite website Arts & Letters Daily posted a link to an interview with Richard Dawkins who is [ahem] quite the confident guy. He's an Oxford zoologist and according to him therefore, an atheist who says that if his daughter became religious he would accept it as her adult choice however she's much too intelligent to become religious. How funny.

What I find most peculiar about the evolution pseduo-debate is how for some scientists it confirms their aethistic stance. But, after reading in the New York Times that something like 75% of Americans haven't heard that the universe is expanding (I suppose if I were apart of that survey I'd respond something like this, "Um, yeah that's what 'they' say but I can't measurably experience it and it apparently has no great relevance in the next five millions years and besides, the ice glaciers melting will drown us first and we'll all be living like Kevin Costner in Waterworld... oh, yeah, I've heard that the universe is expanding. Make me apart of the 1/4, baby!") I'd say our problems in America are much worse than the educated, "smart" people expected and it has nothing to do with silly blog entries about ID.

All this notwithstanding, Richard Dawkins is pleasantly annoying and his interview makes for a good read. Here's the rebuttal article, as well.

Personal aside: I had dinner last night at A Votre Sante in Brentwood and had a delicious vegetable paella. The syrah was quite good as well. Jim and I then moved on to see the gay cowboy movie. The movie was oddly not subtle but that made other story elements really subtle. I'd say that makes it a good movie.

Posted by at 8:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

One of my New Year's Resolutions is going to be "don't give a speech unless it's vitally important." I say this because I was volunteered to speak at the college tomorrow in the intramural speech contest. Given that my famous humor speech given at Toastmasters would not translate to a collegiate audience and in addition there is not humor category, I will be giving my "factory farms suck" speech. I believe so passionately in the subject that researching it and then speaking about it makes me feel ill. I know to spread the gospel it takes perseverance but it still makes my stomach queasy. I give the speech tomorrow three times and if I'm lucky I'll win $100. Can't beat that.

I was given priority registration for next semester however, it was not early enough. Anatomy class is already filled. It makes me nervous that crashing might be somewhat difficult however I need to let it go for at least a few days. I am excited about Anatomy however, not excited, indeed fighting against the requirement to dissect cats. For some reason, I believe, back in the 50's a medical organization suggested the use of cats in anatomy classes all across the US. This practice continues to this day. I can't understand why. It's cheaper and more efficient to use computer modeling and certainly this is more life affirming.

I called the dean of the department to inquire about opting out of the dissection. He told me that the cats are purchased from Fisher Scientific and the boxes say "Prepared in Mexico". This is not what I wanted to hear because a for-profit trade creates problems that would not arise if the animals were taken from local shelters for free. Cats in Mexico are drowned or gassed and then injected with formaldehyde. I've seen video of cats still alive struggling against the injection. It's as painful to watch as anything I've seen relating to animal abuse.

I'm curious to see where my fight can go. For students of health, I see a contradiction in respecting and affirming life when we are party to sickening death in the name of science.

Posted by at 11:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)