Finally, Texas A&M beats t.u. at two things this year... football and campus honors. One blog lists Texas A&M University as one of the 20 ugliest colleges in the USA:

18. Texas A&M- There’s not much wrong this campus except for the lack of color. One poster said it’s essentially “BEIGE BEIGE everywhere…” I couldn’t agree more. And, um, “Aggieland”??? Not exactly an appealing phrase, is it? And on their website, they have an extremely strange lack of pictures of their buildings. Just keep adding fuel to my fire, Texas A&M. Knock yourselves out.

My favorite part? The Biochemistry & Biophysics building (affectionately and uncreatively known as Bio/Bio 'round those parts) is featured on the site. IN PARTICULAR, the lab I worked in as an undergrad is pictured. Sweet!

For those who take offense, no worries, for I don't particularly agree with many of the blog's top 20 list of beautiful American campuses. Pepperdine? Good gawd, are we really so swept away by a campus simply because it has a ocean view? Its' buildings are hideous!

Filed under architecture · texas

Posted by H. C. Hodges at 1:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

This makes me sick to my stomach:

After 27 years as a science teacher and 9 years as the Texas Education Agency’s director of science, Christine Castillo Comer said she did not think she had to remain “neutral” about teaching the theory of evolution.

“It’s not just a good idea; it’s the law,” said Ms. Comer, citing the state’s science curriculum. But now Ms. Comer, 56, of Austin, is out of a job, after forwarding an e-mail message on a talk about evolution and creationism [...]

Her departure, which has stirred dismay among science professionals since it became public last week, is a prelude to an expected battle early next year over rewriting the state’s science education standards, which include the teaching of evolution [...]

The chairman of the panel, Dr. Don McLeroy, a dentist and Sunday School teacher at Grace Bible Church in College Station, has lectured favorably in the past about intelligent design.

Having gone to school in College Station, I am familiar with Grace Bible Church. It's a very, very family-friendly evangelical church. I knew a lot of kids who went there, and they were definitely the classic evangelical type. I suppose that's beside the point; the real question is: how the hell is a dentist and Sunday school teacher heading up the panel for the TEA's standardized science curriculum? Is there really no better qualified person in the entire state of Texas? A trained scientist perhaps?

From the article, it isn't clear the text of the email that Comer sent out. Was it like "FYI -- attached message" or was it like "FYI -- let's get these creationist nutjobs!" (the difference is huge; while the former would be lawsuit worthy, the latter would obviously be grounds for disciplinary action).

In any case, I'm nervous that Texas will retreat from the required teaching of modern biology in school. Words cannot express how angry it makes me that we still have to debate the single unifying core tenet of modern biology. It's like "debating" GR. Ugh.

Filed under biology · evolution · intelligent design · science · texas · textbooks

Posted by H. C. Hodges at 11:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Because of all the recent sailing, I've been practicing knots and generally thinking a lot about topology. It uses a long-neglected part of my brain, so it's a much needed break from thinking about molecular biology and mechanochemistry.

There are many considerations for choosing a given knot on a boat. For example, you generally want a strong knot, but you sometimes want knots you can release against a load, or sometimes want knots that tighten under load for security. You also want knots that don't tangle upon untying. For this reason, having a solid repertoire of knots can be useful, both for sailing, and for moving mattresses on top of cars.

When you want a new pair of womens shoes, stilettos, or Vans shoes, the Internet is where you should go to. If you want to buy steve madden shoes, head onto the Internet!

But anyway, oh right, the familiar knot we use for tying our shoes is a variation of the square (or reef) knot. It's amazing at how automatic this knot becomes, even though it's actually pretty non-trivial. For example, when we tie our shoes, one side goes over the other for the first hitch, then we switch for the second round (most people do left-over-right for the first round, then right-over-left for the second round). If we did the same side on top twice in a row, we get a much less sound knot (I encourage you to try it, left-over twice in a row feels super wrong, but you could practice the mirror image: right-over-left, then left-over-right). Ach! How did I ever learn this as a kid? It's pretty sophisticated!

Finally, I leave you with the observation that we use a dainty little bow for all of our shoe tying. Even the manliest man has two small little bows at his feet...

Filed under knots · sailing

Posted by H. C. Hodges at 10:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Recently, a group of student-organized protesters picketed on-campus and outside the Helen Wills 10th anniversary symposium. The Helen Wills Institute is a neuroscience institute with affiliated labs on the Berkeley campus. Most of the animal protesters wore bandanas over their faces and carried signs like "vivisection kills" and wrote on the sidewalks phrases like "animals die while demons rejoice." I have come to the conclusion that protesting like this is an unhelpful contribution to on-campus activism as well as a distraction from a fruitful animal-research debate.

Continue reading "Vivisection at Berkeley: Protest all life sciences!" »

Filed under animal studies · berkeley · biology · cancer · hiv · mammals · science · stem cells

Posted by H. C. Hodges at 2:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

The lady and I (along with about a million other people in the East Bay) were awakened at 4:42 this morning by an earthquake. Although we've experienced one other magnitude 4.2 temblor before, this one seemed especially jarring.

For one, the way this one shook made it feel especially powerful. At our place, there were little rumbles before and after, but most of the energy was in one high-amplitude wave that hit all at once. The best part was riding the house, because it felt like an underdamped spring that kept "ringing" as the wave decayed down. It rattled the liquor bottles (they were safe though, phew!), and torqued the whole house. It was the first time I've experience the house being torqued; luckily 1908 all-wood construction is strong but giving, making it great for absorbing a lot of the energy of the quake.

It's comforting to know that it was the Hayward fault that slipped. It runs about 100 yards from where I work... awesome!

Also, our local Safeway (about which I've written before) had two of its windows broken. Luckily, the Chronicle is there with the photos.

UPDATE: The Chronicle has more on the quake, including why it felt so strong in Berkeley.

Filed under berkeley · california

Posted by H. C. Hodges at 4:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Saw David Gergen tonight, eating dinner at the table next to us. I didn't notice him, but Carlos recognized him from NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.

Weird.

Filed under berkeley · culture · food

Posted by H. C. Hodges at 9:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dear Verizon Wireless,

I cannot express to you how much I hate your universal phone software. All of your phones have the same ugly dysfunctional user interface, and it makes me want to barf and leave you for a company with better phones. You'll excuse me if I say that it's NOT "all about the network" if every day you have to use a phone with a crappy interface.

Get rid of the ugly red menus! I will never own a phone with them. I appreciate good design, and that, sir or madame, is not good design. Incidentally, my contract ends in August. I have been up for your "new every two" promotion since June, but I have yet to find a phone that I could live with. Don't get me wrong, Motorola and others make many good phones, but you break them all! This makes me sad, because your network is so good and I do want to stay with you, but if I have to go through the red-screen monster, I will reluctantly pass.

Furthermore, what's up with the crippling of the phones? I use Bluetooth OBEX for transferring photos I take. Why would you take that away from me? I will never use your half-baked PixPlace service, and I resent you breaking my phone to prevent full use of it.

By the way, the overly-confident executive who thought that the red interface and removing functionality from user phones were good ideas deserves to lose his post. Perhaps your CEO Dennis Strigl lacks this hubris, I don't know, but given that he's had over six months to turn this misdirected ship around, I sadly don't have much hope.

I hope you decide to improve your phone offerings (stat!) or you will soon miss out on my monthly autopayment.

Thanks, and God Bless America.

Filed under technology

Posted by H. C. Hodges at 12:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)