In late February and early March came periods of devastation for Chile. Those periods came in the form of ” . . . the most severe earthquake experienced by the oldest inhabitant . . . ” as stated in an account of the events. The account continues, “A bad earthquake […]
Life
481 posts
Of late, I’ve written some things in my blog that, upon reflection, make me a science jerk. For instance, in my recent discussion of media coverage of the climate science mistakes uncovered in the last four months, I pretty much made it sound like anybody who doubts climate science is […]
Athletics at SMU can raised quite heated responses from members of the SMU academic community. This response is rooted in many things, but primarily a perception that student athletes are expected, or themselves expect, to achieve less in the academic realm than their non-athlete peers. Setting aside the reality for […]
While attending my nephews’ birthday party this weekend, I was told a horrific anecdote by one of my family members. Their employer recently bought a larger retail space not far from their original building. The employer relocated to the larger building and merged departments and personnel. In the process, they’ve […]
I’m told this doesn’t happen very often, and when it does it isn’t usually this bad. Today, it snowed several inches in Dallas and the surrounding areas. This caused the expected knot of traffic, accidents, people doing generally stupid things that work great on dry pavement and terribly under low-friction […]
In a lifetime, your chance of dying from heart disease is 1 in 5. Your chance of dying in a car accident is 1 in 272. Your chance of dying while walking is 1 in 623. Your chance of dying due to drowning or accidental submersion is 1 in 1073. […]
It was Christmas, and from many lands far away The family convened to mark Christmas Day. A year or more since the last time we had been a family together, united as kin. “Where is Sister?” asked Brother upon his arrival. “She is busy at church; it’s her organ recital. […]
In the movie, “The Time Traveler’s Wife,” author Audrey Niffenegger explores the relationship between a husband, who unpredictably travels through time, and his wife, who must deal with his disappearances and harrowing experiences. But what if it was the wife whose life had become unpredictable, and the husband who had […]
The past week has been spent in restraint. As Thanksgiving approached, a few brave souls jumped the gun and started putting up Christmas decorations. Jodi and I started driving around the neighborhoods and then changed to walking. Every time we returned home, Jodi would race for the garage, storehouse of […]
The sermon that followed the baptism of my God-daughter was a let down, a reminder of the reason I originally abandoned a religious life in favor of a spiritual one. I don’t know if these let-down sermons are at all common; I just know that I run into them a […]
We landed in SFO over an hour later than scheduled. The woman sitting next to me was ill-prepared for actually leaving the plane. When the herd thinned ahead of our row, she seemed to suddenly realize that getting her bags together was a good idea. The two mini-bottles of wine […]
The past two days have been full of discussions about the B-Factories Legacy Book. This book, targeted for publication in 2012, will contain a coherent record of the work of the two B-factories: Belle and BaBar. As a member of the BaBar collaboration, I am keenly interested in seeing a […]