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Check this out! After an initial rubber stamp by the Texas Higher Education Board in November 2007, the Institute for Creation Research has been denied accreditation and the ability to grant "master of science" degrees in Texas!! As you may recall I mentioned this situation in a recent post highlighting the hilarious comment cards catalogued at the Texas Memorial Museum evolution exhibit.

As you may have gathered, this is a hot button issue with me (us). I take umbrage both as a scientist (who performs evolution in a test tube nearly every single day to attempt to make better drugs to fight cancer), and as a regular person who benefits from vaccines, and drugs discovered using technology and basic research that relies on evolutionary principles. It is certainly not an anti-religion argument; it is an anti-idiot argument. Science vs. religion is a false dichotomy. Science education in America is bad enough without teachers in the classroom that believe that kangaroos and polar bears lived in Israel 4000 years ago (because they needed to be there for Noah to pick them up) or that coral fossils on Mt Everest are from the great flood and not plate tectonics driving the Himalayas up from an ancient sea bed, or that men and dinosaurs lived together (like in the Flintstones)... the list goes on and on...

I read this hilarious, yet ultimately sad story about people in the Congo believing that sorcerers were stealing their penises, and thought (after my initial laughter) how utterly horrible it was that their beliefs and culture combined with ignorance allows them to think that this could actually happen and then actually kill people accused of this crime. In the case of the young earth creationists it is their beliefs combined with ignorance and stubbornness that motivate them (so in a way they are worse than the people in the Congo story). Evidence to the contrary is all around them, and they choose to put their heads in the ground. Well they can do that if they want, but they should not be able to teach that to students in the state of Texas or any state!... pheww...I will get off my stump now....

Texas science and education can rest easy for a day... but just for a day... they are sure to appeal or take this to the courts... great.

Louie!!

OK, for all of you dying for a Lou-dog fix here you go!!

Yesterday I finally purchased Louie his very own clippers. He loves them! (ha ha)

I don't think I did such a bad job after all.

Louie says "woo ooo" to everyone....Roxanne

Withdrawals..

Well, we were pretty bummed to have to get back to work...Jack summed it up well in a recent email to Laurel and Demian.

"We actually crashed from our california high... It was so fun, and then we both came back and were all depressed, but we have found something new to fill the void.... material possessions!!. I think that will work, it always seems to work in the movies. We bought a kick ass desk from Ikea and threw my 8 year old 50 dollar wal-mart desk to the curb!!! We just bought a temperpedic king mattress for a pretty penny... and we are going to get a new bedroom set (also from ikea)!! So that is what is new with us... on friday we are going to play hookey and go on a tour of the shiner brewery!"

So everyone - look forward to pictures from Shiner Brewery! And I will be looking forward to a less painful back after we get the new bed :)

Roxanne

California Trip-Part 3!!

After hanging out at Chris and Olivia's sweet pad, some of us took a brief jaunt to the local crunchy-organic corner store. Our walking there earned us 2 carbon credits! I used my share to by this jerky.
It tasted utterly horrible...It made my mouth sad :(

On the adventure walk, we saw some great views of the city. David attempted a hand stand, his injured wrist only allowed for this much hand standing... We applauded the effort though.

After that we all headed out for some fun winery touring! (I forgot the names of every winery we went to so I will refer to them as winery #1, 2 and 3)

At winery #1 we enjoyed the unseasonably hot weather by sitting outside, drinking wine and eating an assortment of fun snacks we brought along. Below is David munching on an organic smoked turkey leg. David was just about to throw away the skin, when Casey said "gimme that." He does love his poultry skin!

Dipa and I approved the first winery... on to the next one!!!

At Winery #2 we enjoyed watching equestrian gymnastics, and of course more wine! Casey had some great descriptions of these wines: Its wet.... Its purple.... notes of grape... it has alcohol in it.
Winery #3 had great views of the redwood forests! I think they also had the best wine, but it could just be that this was the 3rd one and my normally sharp tastebuds had been dulled by rich tannins and notes of grape.

This was the last winery.. now its off to Santa Cruz!!

Our first surprise (other than how awesome David and Marta's place was) was that D & M had brewed Roxanne and I a special beer. Bo Rox Red!! We were both honored!!!

The 4 labels all have communist propaganda beer slogans such as: The brewers control the means of production; Beer drinkers of the world, unite! ; Beer is the opium of the masses; and each (beer) according to its grains.

Not only was it aesthetically pleasing and funny, it tasted great!!

We took a quick walk to the beach that evening. For me it was my first time setting foot in the pacific!! It was freezing!! Bot that didn't stop Olivia from swimming in it, to all our disbelief.

We then returned to D and M's pad for some side porch hanging out and had Fajitas with a veritable cornucopia of fixins!! It was quite a feast!

We then proceeded to party well into the night!! For more information see the California trip picture links on the right... it takes you to the Kodak Gallery website with all of the pics from the trip uploaded on it with insightful comments by Roxanne and I.

Saying Goodbye is hard to do! The next morning, Casey, Dipa, Olivia, and Chris had to leave, it was sad, but we had a great time with them!!

We stayed with David and Marta and went to a state park with old growth redwoods in it. Let me tell you, these trees were huge and impressive. This was one thing we really wanted to see when we got to Cali and we loved it!

The park rangers told us it wasn't very nice to stand on a tree's crotch, but Roxanne wouldn't listen.

Here is a video of a tree... its not Oscar material, but I think it gives a good perspective.




After tree gazing, we went to the boardwalk. There are lots of games and rides.
Here is one we briefly considered going on, but then thought better of it.

Deep Fried Twinkie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Roxanne taped this seal lion under the boardwalk!! There were a lot of them around just hangin out at the end of the wharf scratching his head.

Below is Marta with her favorite street kitty sassafrass... He is a big snuggly boy!!


We spent one more night at David and Marta's and then David drove us to San Jose the next morning for our flight. Overall it was a great vacation, we are so glad we could share the awesome places we went with awesome friends!! PPPHHHwweeeww.!! I am done blogging for a while...

California Trip Part 2 (Days 1 and 2)

Day One- Arrived late in San Jose and Casey picked us up at the airport. This is the woodsy area on the route to Casey's house in Woodside... actually not his house...he lives in on top of a rich guy's garage in the mountains. This pic of the drive in the mountainy area turned out well.We had a splendid meal of frozen pizza - baked fresh for us by our host - and old fashioneds. MMmm...pizza. mmmmm....booze. He entertained us with guitar serenades much like the native hippies do. Good local flavor.

Day 2: Friday morning we saw Casey off to school..... Roxanne packed his lunch and I gave him his milk money. Before he went in to give his talk, Roxanne wiped the dirt off his face with some spit on a napkin...

We then proceeded on a self guided tour of the Stanford campus... This is where we got coffee. All the buildings on Casey's side of the campus are from the future... whereas the main campus is definitely from the past (a beautiful past I might add).there is a Rodin sculpture garden and a museum adjacent.

this is the "Gates of Hell" sculpture.

We toured the chapel (no pics inside please) and went to the book store for a souvenir....

This is us at a cool fountain by the bookstore

We were relaxin' and maxin' on the beautiful day.....BTW - has anyone seen this water bottle? We seemed to have forgotten it somewhere in Cali....

Then it was off to the big city - San Francisco

jack got some bubble-tea in China Town

Here are some chinese pigs on a blanket.

No visit is complete without a visit to the Golden Gate Bridge

This is the Grace Cathedral..... The Decemberists one of our favorite bands wrote a song about it, Grace Cathedral Hill. Apparently there is a huge labyrinth in this church as well. They must be big on the west coast...

Next Casey took us to a bath house... despite both of our wishes... just kidding... it was the ruins of an ancient bath house on the sea shore... very beautiful!!!

Below is Casey trying to get me to go to the bathhouse and me saying no... with beautiful views in the background...

After the bath ruins... We headed back south into the Mission district to hang out with our friends Olivia and Chris. There we enjoyed hanging out in their new apartment, and soon enough more ex-wisconsinites arrived. David and Marta and Dipa!!!

We all hiked on down to a fancy indian restaurant called Dosa. Here is all 8 of us preparing for our feast.

The food was quite excellent as you can see from Roxanne's plate.
After Dosa, we took cabs back home and partied in Chris and Olivia's apartment for the better part of the night! It was so much fun and only the first full day of the trip.

Later we will blog about our trip to wine country and finally Santa Cruz! Here is a sneak peak though... On a street corner we spotted this dude doing what appeared to be Tai Chi, but upon further inspection we saw he was just slow dancing with himself!?! How odd....only in California... I am so glad we got it on tape!!!

California - knows how to party... part 1

SECOND!!

We went to California to visit our friends this past weekend. We have so many pictures that they will last one year of "a picture a day" blog if we wanted to do that. We wined, dined, hiked and beached....... but most of all we had a LOT of fun with our ex-wisconsin compatriots. Expect more vignettes from the weekend soon...

My pet tiger. -by Jack

Reunited: Release me you beast, for I am your master. Do you not know me?

Reconciled: Aaa Haa!!! You do remember me!!! YAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! Let us fight evil and injustice!!!

Resigned: Slow my trusty steed... you've served me well... our work is done... we shall retire until another day.... until another day...

(I am bored at work....)

Here is a cool story about Texas yogurt though... enjoy!