Sunday, November 11, 2007

Two-step dancing in... Massachusetts?

We went to a country bar/saloon/dance place in Worcester, MA, about 50 min west of Boston.
People were wearing cowboy hats! I was rather surprised.

We also did a lot of electric-slide like group dances, which were fun, but they are very complicated! And there are many many varieties of them too.

Connected Health conference 2007



This was a huge industry show, but there was a bit of academic piece to it, through IEEE.

Microsoft, Intel, Cisco, Verizon, ATT, Sprint are all trying to get into healthcare. These companies do mostly data flow and IT-related things.

There were also lots of people with ideas trying to figure out how to get their ideas funded. They had sessions on obtaining venture capital.

I also learned about the issue of rising health care costs in the US. There is no one party to blame: insurance profits, malpractice, new technology, etc. all contribute to the rising costs, and a single law will not fix the problem. People want the latest, and the greatest procedures, machines, medicines.

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Looking for a career? Consider Geriatrics?

I learned today that there will be critical shortage of physicians trained in geriatrics in the next 20 years. ADGAP = asso. of directors of geriatric academic programs= has a report: we will need ~36,000 geriatricians in 2030, but at the current rate, we will only have 9000. Unfortunately, many physicians are not being trained. There are 468 spots/year for physicans to get additional training. Only 253 are filled in 2006-2007, of which 184 are foreign students.

Currently, 48% of primary care physician's patient load consists of those of age 65+. That will only increase..

Makes me wonder if I should have been a clinician? hmm. no. I think I am still cut out for academia rather than clinical work. Plus it is a bit late for me.. As I have now turned 29..

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Contributing to Wikipedia

So I decided to contribute to Wikipedia. I have written up translations of Theology of the Body notes by Christopher West - almost 4 years ago, and they have been sitting on my computer. Finally they will be useful to someone. They are in Korean, but please feel free to contribute! I wonder if Wikipedia is the best venue to release the work, since I don't think it has a lot of Korean viewers. But I don't really know of other venues.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Clinical Depression and Statistical Physics

http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9861412

According to this paper published on Physical Review Letters, the wrist acceleration patterns over several days in healthy people vs. depressed people are different.

Nakamura et al. "Universal Scaling Law in Human Behavioral Organization" PRL 99, 138103 (2007) link here

Without doing the fancy math in the paper, you can tell who have depressive and non-dpressive patterns, because the healthy people sleep consistently, while the depressed people do not. I guess this was an unexpected finding, regardless of the scaling law.

The cumulative distributio of wating times of the activity bursts (that's a mouthful) follows a gamma distribution , and depressed people show a smaller gamma.

They claim that the smaller gamma could be a useful diagnostic tool, but the sleep pattern is good enough of a tool for me!

Friday, October 12, 2007

Boston Choral Ensemble

So I joined this choir that rehearses in the Back Bay area of Boston. I thought I could regularly take the T into the city, but I decided it is waaaaay too complicated and takes waaaay too long. So when I drive, I can get in and out in 20-30 minutes each way from Roslindale.

We rehearse at a Unitarian church, and as part of "rent," we have to sing a few services. Afterwards, we had a little party in Beacon Hill on top of one of the member's building. The View was amazing!

Some pix:

Little Q hot pot


after Theology on Tap, I decided to eat somewhere else because I knew that the kitchen at the bar we were at was backed up in orders.

I found this Taiwainese(?) place, that serves hot pots - big thing of broth of your choice, plus vegetables and meats to order. You dump it into the pot, which is heated by induction, and you pick out stuff and eat it.

I ordered the black chicken broth, which came with lots of chinese herbs, some of them I weren't sure what they were. Since I had a cold, this huge chicken soup was ideal! I ordered for one, but it could have fed a lot of people. I also ordered lotus roots and seaweed which I haven't had in a long while - something i only get to eat at my parent's place.

Cardinal Sean O'Malley at Theology on Tap


This event was in Quincy, a neighborhood of Boston about 30 minutes away from Roslindale, where I currently reside. The venue was "Bad Abbot's" one of the numerous "Irish" pubs.

The venue was packed, as expected. When Bishop Gregory Aymond of Austin spoke at ToT, same thing happened. Of courses, i had forgotten this fact, and decided to arrive right on time, resulting in me having to stand the whole time.

The talk addressed the fact that we as christians need mentors and need to be mentors to others. Be an example of courage, service, giving, etc. And that we should not settle for warm fuzzies that many modern religious movements seem to promote. Jesus did not die on the cross for the warm fuzzies, as he said.

He has a blog, http://www.cardinalseansblog.org/





This is me being a paparazzo, as he is getting into is ride:


The video of the event is posted on Google, so you can watch it anytime:



Sean Cardinal O'Malley at TOT


http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=-2718382783437944078&hl=en

Cell-phone - Computer Woes follow up

Well, somehow I managed to get the software I bought for the phone to update itself without crashing repeatedly.

Also using advice on a web site http://mark.cdmaforums.com/MaxxVe.htm
I learned that Verizon disabled the mass storage function on the phone. Fortunately, I can access the phone through computer in a slightly devious way, so I put on the ending from "little tree" by Eric Whitacre as my ringtone yet again, after ~11 months of not being able to.

I also got pictures off my phone, so I will actually post them here.

Saturday, September 29, 2007

Cell phone - computer connection woes

I got a new Motorola Ve Maxx Razr phone, which is the 1.5 generation of the Razr series. They are selling the V9 phones, which are too expensive!

I bought a memory card for it, but then I can't figure out how to make the phone talk to the computer. Alas. I bought the software, but it doesn't seem to support my phone. The computer won't recognize the phone+memory card as a USB mass storage device, as it used to in Windows XP along with my motorola V360. I can back up the phone book at least.

Suggestions?

Doctoral Defense Saga

I am happy to announce that my PhD defense went well -

I decided to wear a suit, but after walking outside for about 3 minutes, I realized why people just don't wear suits in September in Texas.

Questions were difficult, but I managed to answer them pretty well.

Too bad that I ordered a lot of food, but no one from UGAP came to the defense.. Oh well.
We ended up eating lunch afterwards in the hallway sitting area in ACES. I left out the food for anyone to take, but there are two group of people who picked up food:
1) those who hesitate before taking something
2) others who show no hesitation whatsoever


We went to eat dinner at Korea House on Anderson Ln. Food was good, but they didn't bring any nice, which was rather odd. I was surprised that people were full with not that much food.

Colin got a Wii, so we stayed up too late playing it with Joseph and Sherwin.

Thanks everyone for your support and prayers!

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

CIMIT orientation

www.harvard.edu/cimit

Today at work, I went to a CIMIT new investigators meeting. CIMIT is funded by DoD, and funds technology development. We are looking at discovering technologies that can be used for continuous monitoring of patients.

The meeting itself was rather boring: they just listed all the people who newly received this grant. What surprised me was that there were so many smart people in Boston. Certainly, Boston has a lot of universities, but it seems to be so rich in academic collaborations, opportunities, etc.

The challenge for me is to find my own way and create my own niche. Coming here opens many doors as I had hoped, but there is just so much to sort through as to decide what I want to do with my education and career.

Saturday, September 15, 2007

Doctoral Defense blues

It is very much looming over my head, as it seems to be the most important event in my life. Is it? Is it really the most important event in my life? It sure seems to be trumping everything else - it feels like I have put so many things on hold to get ready for it.

Failure is certainly not an option, but it is also not likely.
From what I can tell, the final oral examination has 3 typical outcomes, although the scale is really continuous:

Grade A: pass with minor revisions
Grade B: pass pending major revisions, including extra analyses, etc.
Grade C: don't pass, after doing more work, need to re-defend.

My mom's friend's daugher got a C on her defense. She proposed to do A, B, and C, but the adviser said "You don't need to do A and B. just do C". The committee disagreed, so alas, she needs to catch up on parts A and B.

If I get a C, then this will cause major hassle, especially with my post-doc job! If I get B, I wonder if the professors will sign the paperwork I have to submit to NIH to officially become a post-doc. Unfortunately I can't devote the resources into doing new analyses, etc., unless I do this during work hours, which is not feasible. oy.

Right now I am trying to write 3 papers all at once, and i don't feel like I can keep all of them straight in my head.

Well, I have a week. As my mom said for my 2nd attempt at Comprehensive Exams, if you don't pass, it must mean it wasn't meant to be, so don't worry about it. Well, at this point, I'd rather than do that.

I hope I experience that joy after it is all over. It seems so distant and unreal, partly because my degree won't be conferred until December.



I guess I am sure I will do well, but getting there is still very painful!!! There is still so much to do.. At the same time, I can't complain, since I don't have family/kids/etc. obligations.

In Memoriam: Kil Won Kang

Dr. Kil-Won Kang, my grandfather's brother, passed away after battling gallbladder/bile duct cancer for ~6 months. For some reason, both of my grandparents also died from the exact same disease.

Dr. Kang was the first one in my family to attend college, as well as get a doctorate at U of Illinois (go Illini!) way back when. He has been a surrogate grandfather to me and my father especially after my grandfather died. He won't be making it to my graduation now, I guess, at least not in his earthly body.

He is survived by his wife, 3 sons and 4? grandchildren (my 2nd cousins).

Only in the last ~5-10 years, has he developed a relationship with God (of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob), but I guess such things never come too late in life. As he was in the hospital, my aunt (dad's youngest sister, who was just received into the church in ~04 after 20 years of trying) and dad prayed the Angelus regularly with their uncle on his deathbed.

This leaves my dad as the eldest male in the family, which probably is rather stressful for him. Not because of reponsibilities, but maybe because he will be the next to die, most likely. oy. not a happy thought.

I was hoping to visit to see Dr. Kang before he died, maybe in August, especially since I didn't really have to start the postdoc until 9/1. But then, there are things like dissertations that get in the way.

Requiem aeternam, dona eis Domine. et lux perpetua luceat eis.
I don't know how to conjugate dona* to a singular form. oh well.
and God shall wipe away all our tears. For the former things are passed away.

Well, at least my dad will come back home after having been in Korea for over a month now. So he will actually be home next time I go home!

Dialoging with Jehovah's witnesses

So every Saturday, these two JW missionaries come by. In spirit of charity, I talk to them, although I wish it could be more intellectually stimulating. The two missionaries are usually African Amerian, or Francophone African-Caribbean-Americans, the more populous of the two black group of the two in Boston.

Anyway, they give me an opportunity to study scripture, albeit in a slightly warped way. We discussed (or butted heads on) our diverging views on eschatology. Recently, they keep hammering at "Why is there suffering in the world?" Due to this quick scripture study I had, I can now tell you that (1) it is ok to ask God why , as stated in Habakkuk, and (2) God has his own ways as stated in Isaiah 55:8-9. They have influenced me! oh no! ;) I wish we could talk about more deeper issues, but they are not very responsive.

I try to point out that sola scriptura approach, especially if the bible was translated to fit a particular theology, is dangerous. But I end up sounding like I don't regard the study of the scriptures as crucial in our faith formation, and too my horror, realizing I am guilty of that very issue of not studying the scriptures as well as I could. I do have a tendency to simply own volumes of apologetic material by people like Steven Kellmeyer, and looking up stuff only when necessary.

So I see this opportunity to dialog, to learn about the scriptures albeit in an odd way, and also flex some intellectual/scriptural/theology muscle I have acquired over the years. I am good at learning all these things, but I don't know what good this does to the church. I haven't really been given chance to teach the faith or witness verbally, so perhaps this is a chance. It means that I have to prepare my own discourse as well. Certainly, this is a chance to share the fullness of truth with these missionaries. The Francophone African-Caribbean guy is a non-practicing Catholic, so the mission is even more important in that sense!

Any tips, comments on talking with JW folks? My dad once managed to scare them away by teaching them things about the faith, which is one likely outcome for me as well.

Young adult group at BC, church choir, surprise visit

9/12/Wed. I made the cut for BCE, so I decided to join this group, because it is small (~30), and it does more unique repertoire. I decided to go check out the young adult group at St. Ignatius on Boston College campus. Again, I had to drive through Chestnut hill, (ewww!). By a miracle, I found the meeting location. I forgot to check the exact building that the meeting was in, so when I arrived, I managed to go into the church, find a bulletin, call the receptionist, who was actually there until 8pm, who told me to go to the rectory. Praise God! For a moment I thought this wasn't meant to be, but apparently it was!

The YAG meeting had ~10 people, from various parts of the city. We studied the previous Sunday's reading, (similar to UGAP). Sunday reading study is the normal activity for this group. Since BC is Jesuit, we talked about Jesuit spirituality a bit.

9/13/Thr. We sent off 3 abstracts to GSA conference in November in San Francisco
This is an aging conference, so I am curious to see what stuff is there. I hope the abstracts get accepted! Getting them out in time was quite stressful, but I left work early to get my car/license registered in Massachusettes.

The registry of motor vehicles is located in Chinatown area. It is open late on Thursdays, and I tried sooo hard to make sure I got there before 5pm to beat the evening influx, but alas, no. Surprisingly, the process was rather painless, as their system to handle different needs were pretty efficient. I met another soul from Texas (Dallas area), who is an opthamologist at one of the hospitals in town (don't remember which).

Then I went to Holy Name of Jesus Parish in my neighborhood. It takes me ~3 minutes to get there by car, but I had to park far away, so it defeated the purpose of driving. The church is cruciform, and it is gorgeous inside. This is also the seemlingly the only parish that has a music director and a separate organist. The director is ~55 yo baritone, who sings really well, and negotiates the tenor parts rather well. There are 2 other men in the choir who sing bass, so I sang tenor as well. I thought I recovered from the cold, but apparently I didn't, as repeated E4's were too much to sing at the time. The director and I chatted about the music at the Cathedral, and apparently he sings there for archdiocesan events.

9/14/F. I decided to relax, then get a call from a family friend from Chicago. Her daugher goes to Harvard, so she came to drop her off, and wanted to get together with me. After all, I haven't seen them in many years. She got a hotel room in Dedham, MA for some reason, not realizing how far it is from Harvard (~20 miles via highway). After receiving the call ~5:45pm, we don't meet until ~7:30 pm in Dedham, and then drove back to Harvard (which is actually in Cambridge, MA, not in Boston, as I found out). We had dinner at a Korean restaurant, which wasn't all that good. I was rather surprised, but there aren't really too many choices. In Roslindale area, other than the Sushi place, there is no Korean food within 10 miles, as far as I know. Then we drove back to Dedham, and I drove home. Whew!

9.15. Sat. So I decided to relax at home, and recover. I was feeling really un-well during work on Friday, .. So here I am. The Jehovah's witnesses who come by every Saturday morning came by again. I specifially told them that I won't be around next week.

That's all for now!

Furniture shopping, Auditions, trying to have a "life"


So, last weekend, I managed to do some shopping. The area had lots of garage/yard/rummage sales, so I stocked up. I don't have much cash, so I didn't get to splurge too much.

I got this Ethan Allen chair for $50 at Boomerangs, which is a thrift store in Jamaica Plain (adjoining neighborhood, in the direction of Boston city center). (all pictures approximate)
And a $20 sphere chair from a garage sale

Then I went to a farmer's market in my neighborhood. Farmer's market produce is really expensive, but they are much better tasting! They had an heirloom variety of tomatoes that look like cherries, but very different from cherry tomatoes. They taste more like cherries than cherry tomatoes. Yum.

Past week has been a whirlwind of activity as I have been attempting to have a "life."
9/8/Sat - decided that after all that shopping, I should rest, but then decided that I shouldn't spend Sat. night alone, so I went to a house/coffeehouse music event called JP unplugged
Got to hear some singer-songwriters. The opening act was good, but I didn't care much for the main act.

9/9/Sun - decided to sing at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross. Driving there only took ~22 minutes, to my surprise. We celebrated the titular solemnity of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, rather than the regular 23rd OT. We sang at the front, behind the ambo. It was very difficult to hear anything. As typical of many churches around the Northeast, there are lots of big beautiful churches with a very few people, and not a lot of singing. The 9/2 Sunday mass I attended at St. John Chrystostom was unique in that people actively sang!

I realized that morning I had a cold of some sort, which made me tired on Saturday.
In the afternoon, I dragged myself to drive to Needham, MA (20 min away) for an Alexander Technique lesson with a teacher who teaches voice at Wellesley. We worked on some voice things, which was very informative.

That evening, I went to audition for Boston Cecilia, one of the oldest choirs in the US, apparently. I got in, but wanted to shop around some more. The rehearsals are in Brookline, which forces me to drive through Chestnut Hill, which is really, really confusing.

9/10/monday. I discover that the vending machines at work are emptied at 3pm on MWF, giving me free food!!! All the food at Hebrew Rehab. Ctr (HRC) are Kosher, but there are pancakes, sandwiches, soups, etc. available at the vending machine.

Monday night was an open rehearsal for Boston Choral Ensemble, a very young, new group, that meets in downtown Boston. Driving into downtown was SCARY.. at first, since I didin't really know where I was going. Fortunately I found parking not too far away.

the upcoming concert is madrigals of different sorts. Including Les Chanson des Oiseaux, which we sang at Texas Early Music Project last year. Good readers, definitely a young, hip, etc. type group.

9/11/Tuesday. Somehow I ended up with a 9:30-10pm audition slot for BCE, but driving up there wasn't so bad. found parking at the exact same place as Monday night.



Thursday, September 06, 2007

Greetings from Boston!

Sorry I have been away from UGAP presence for a while, but I had to finish writing my dissertation up though Labor Day. But it is now out of my hands, Thank God, and I pray that my committee likes it! I will be back in Austin to defend in 2 weeks!!

And then, I went to California for 5 days, etc., so I actually haven't really been around Boston enough to say much about the city. Boston is definitely cooler in temperature, and in the morning or evenings, it is a light jacket weather.

Work environment is good so far, and I live really close, so I can ride my bicycle (which I got for free-more on this later). I live next to the commuter rail station Roslindale Village.

I live just outside of the subway ("T") range, which is a bit annoying. So I drive to many places, which is something unusual for someone who lives in Boston. Parking is difficult, but if I drive away from the city center, then it is fine.

As I haven't been out much, I haven't connected with a young adult community here, so that will have to wait until next week. Likewise, I have been floating between neighborhood churches, of which there are several within 5 minutes of driving. I think I may join the young adult group at St. Ignatius, a parish sort of inside Boston College. http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/prs/stign/index.html
I was really hoping to join a group not affiliated with a university, but my schedule doesn't seem to allow much else. Boston College (BC) is Jesuit, so the group could be interesting or irritating.

Today, I decided to go to the Cathedral to join their choir. Of 10 people in the choir, 4 of them are hired section leaders. The distinction between the volunteers and professionals are a bit abrupt - after 1 hour of rehearsal, the "professionals" continued to work on some nicer/harder/ repertoire that I don't get to sing. Other repertoire is nice, though. Most importantly, it takes 45 minutes each way to go back and forth from my apartment! That is just way too much! So I don't think I want to go back. I should have gone to another young adult group meeting instead, on retrospect. The South End neighborhood (where the cathedral is) is nice, though, but probably very expensive. Anyway, I am rather moody because I am tired, and that may be coloring my perception too.

I am thinking that I am going to Holy Name parish instead (3 minutes away). They sing contemporary stuff, but it is still good. I guess I will have to get musical fix somewhere else. It may be that I am too fixated on what I want out of church choir rather than how I should give to the Body of Christ.

Not having had time to do much else also meant that I don't have furniture. I don't have a couch, which is just really really annoying. I also don't have decent chairs. Fortunately, there is a rummage sale at a neighborhood church on Saturday, so I will definitely make use of it! But if I want nice stuff, I should go to rummage sales in rich neighborhoods.. oh well.

I got my first real paycheck - except they took out almost 25% in taxes from the paycheck. Ouch. We pay state income tax in MA.

Post-doc life is very different. I work in a large clinical research center, so there are groups of people who do different things: some people only do data collection; others only do stats; others only do analyses. Different from being a graduate student, where I had to all of the above.
I am also not doing much biomechanics or engineering, but learning to do epidemiology, which is a very big shift in thinking and learning. I don't really interact with other scientists/professors, etc., so it is not as congenial as I'd like it to be. Then again, I've only been there 2 months.

If you have questions or comments, please leave a comment!

Friday, April 27, 2007

"Masculine" Genius

http://www.zenit.org/english/visualizza.phtml?sid=106436
click here

Zenit has an interview of Anthony Esolen, who is a frequent contributor to Crisis magazine

The title parallels the term "feminine genius" used by the late John Paul II's 1988 apostolic letter on the Dignity and Vocation of Women, Mulieris Dignitatem, A good commentary on this document can be found here.

Briefly, feminine genius (genius here means unique qualities) refers to things such as women's ability to bear children, their relational nature, their nurturing nature, the reflection of humanity in general in front of God, their model of openness to God, emotions. Modern feminism has corrupted this by telling women that their dignity is based on power, money and control - the things that are reflective of men's (males) fallen nature.

So what are unique qualities of men that are natural to them? According to Esolen, these could include their affinity for organization, leadership, complex structures, etc.

On reading that, I thought "That's so me! This really speaks to who I am!" Then I realized that having these affinities no longer make me that special. Alas. But it certainly explains my affinity for complex structures such as the economy, airline industry, logistics, operations research, optimizing TV/Video settings, teaching, data reduction, etc.

And it also helps me realize that women in general are not so attuned to these things (I am sure there are women who are very good at these things) in the way men are. Therefore it is unreasonable to expect women around me to like these things like the way I do.

However, I need to become aware of their feminine genius and help them bring it out in them - although women probably can help each other much better than I ever can.

Thursday, April 26, 2007

The Economist on "Evolution and Religion" -In the Beginning

Article available here:

http://www.economist.com/world/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9036706

I am rather surprised how well they covered this issue.

They bring three Catholic thinkers into the picture:
1. Father George Coyne, past head of the Vatican Observatory
2. His holiness Pope Benedict XVI (I recently learned that I simply can't read Roman numerals)
3. Fr. Joseph Fessio, Provost of Ave Maria University

What distinguishes these three?
Fr. Coyne has worked to preserve a Chinese Wall between physics and metaphysics, which allows him to side with agnostics in issues of science and the scientific method. He is among secular scientists who agree that agreeing on physics doesn't mean you have to agree to metaphysics or religion.

Fr. Fessio is of the opinion that while the Chinese wall is fine, but Darwinists (here I define them as those who hold Darwinism as a religion, even though they won't admit to it) and secularists are trying to tear it down. These are those who believe that scientific observations leave no room for religion or God (including those who say that religion itself is a phenomenon of man's evolutionary needs).

Benedict, brilliant as he is, can be more picky in what he means: scientific descriptions are valid as far as they go, but they are incomplete at the end. And the theory of evolution cannot be proven conclusively. He is anti-Darwinism, for sure, but he also does not support "God of the gaps" idea: gaps in the evolutionary science can only be filled by the supernatural.

All three men's critical insight is rather well portrayed in this article, and it does not do these men disservice.

Of course, there is nothing in natural sciences that derive from empirical data that can be "proved." Only mathematical theorems can be proved, because we have defined the language of mathematics. Observations can only support a certain idea, not "prove" it.

The current North American formulation of "intelligent design" suffers from some critical flaws:
1. most of it is a knee-jerk reaction to secularism, and hiding in the Biblical metaphysics for cover, when the issue of un-reason must be dealt in the realm of reason. This probably comes from the inadequate education we received in how to think.
2. By shunning science, it shuns reason, one of the critical element of the human intellect created by God. It downgrades the role of reason in scientific discourse, and does disservice to those of us who do science.
3. Secularism should be fought on metaphysical grounds, not on the turf of natural science.


Meanwhile, if anyone can read French and or German, please translate these for us Americans who can't:

"Atlas of Creation" by Harun Yahya (Adnan Oktar) - making waves in French, Arabic, Urdu and Bahasa-speaking places in the world. It is a criticism of Darwinism

Benedict et al published on Wednesday April 11th in Germany "Schöpfung
und Evolution" (Creation and Evolution). More on this book here
This is the book referred to in the article, along with "Jesus von Nazareth." which was also recently published.

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Munich airport chapel





If you are ever traveling and find yourself needing to attend mass at the Munich International Aiport, here is some information.

The chapel is located in terminal 1, 2nd floor. It is called Christophorus Kapelle.

In August 2006, the mass times were 6pm Saturday (vigil), 9:30am and 10:30 am, as far as I can tell.







The chapel is ultra-modern looking, like many of the newly built churches in the area. But it has a real (albeit small) pipe organ and an organist. Trying to follow along was rather difficult, especially because they skipped the Credo.

[I can't figure out how to make the pictures show up correctly..

Monday, January 01, 2007

Brian Sykes

A genetist from Oxford has many books out on human evolution, and unfortunately tries to tread in sociology without much success. I recently read "Adam's Curse" and "Seven Daughters of Eve", stories of tracking down our maternal and paternal ancestry using mitochondrial DNA and the Y-chromosome. Couple questions arise in my mind:
1. Humans have 46 chromosomes - did we already lose a pair (compared to our ape brethren who have 48), because we exhausted and destroyed the function of one sex chromosome already?
2. Sykes' hypothesis based on genetics on homosexuality is that at least homosexual males are more helpful with raising his sisters... I don't see how...
3. If a man has an older brother, this person is more likely to have homosexual orientation. The biochemical argument sounds plausible, but can we really separate the effects of the environment?
4. If these theories are true, how do we see them in the light of the Theology of the Body? Did Adam not have to deal with the decaying Y-chromosome before the fall? Where the Y-chromosome and the mitochondrial DNA at peace?

Contemplating...

Walt Whitman - Prayer of Columbus

So I bought a Thomas Hampson album of the poetry of Walt Whitman. Being an international opera star, his voice is quite range-y, and there was one song set by Robert Strassburg called "Prayer of Columbus" which is enscribed in marble in a DC metro station according to Wikipedia
It has A4 in it, which is quite high, but then again, I would not expect any less from Mr. Hampson. One day I'd like to be able to sing it, because musically it is very strong. But then today, I read the text more carefully. Wow, it is some powerful text, all the more I want to learn to sing it. (maybe in a lower key..). The text is of lifelong struggles, but the "urge, the ardor, the unconquerable will" all come from "Thee, O God." Obviously Christopher Columbus was no ordinary man, but this text is so very inspiring for me, who read it while sitting on the couch and relaxing. I guess that Walt Whitman understood the boiling energy, the inspiration, the heart following the lead of the Holy Spirit, but not just in Columbus, but in all persons. Ah, my words fail to describe the energy these words stir up in my heart.

I would like to get this song sung at my funeral, although I don't know if I can really live up to the text - it is a song of living that "urge, the ardor, the unconquerable will" that come from "Thee, O God" but I don't know if I have done so ..

Wow.

Mad Mel Gibson - Signs and Contradictions

My response to the article:

http://www.godspy.com/culture/Mel-Gibson-Signs-and-Contradictions-by-Debra-Murphy.cfm

Debra Murphy is very astute: she notes the "under-the-radar" critique of current culture of death in the movie Apocalypto, which is something I did not pick up until she mentioned it. Even if the movie showed the sacrifice of children, I don't think I would have noticed. The word of God seem to have the effect of overtaking cultures that have human sacrifice - in Canaan, when the Israelites arrived - and in central America, as the movie shows; hopefully, it will do so in modern societies. As for Mel Gibson's inner demons, Mel is the one who must deal with them - with our prayers. But most of all, let us pray that he does not drink and drive. The world/Hollywood's reaction to Mel may arise from the fact that they (Hollywood) does not like someone who fights their inner demons - they probably don't like virtue, because truth hurts.