D.C., What a Sight to See

I have been terribly busy the past two months, and am now just getting my feet under me. This, just in time to leave for North Dakota this Friday for Christmas travels.

Mid-Novemeber I headed to Washington D.C. for a HUGE annual conference for a science society that I am a member of. Now by HUGE, I mean 31,000 members attending. When we broke for lunch, the police literally had to come in a stop traffic. We took up all floors of the Washington Convention Center. The area where we set up our posters was the equivalent of SIX FOOTBALL FIELDS. On top of this, the posters changed every 4 hours...if a person just wanted to WALK past every poster put up s/he would have to walk 27 miles during the 6 day event (3 miles of tight zigzags times 9 poster sessions). I didn't even try to walk it all, but still had huge blisters on my feet by Day 3.

I checked out the sites around the D.C. area, not expecting or wanting to see them all. One day I headed up to Arlington Cemetary. WOW! I couldn't help but sincere honor and respect for all the soldiers who died. America truly is an amazing country, despite all the negative things said by the citizens protected by these fallen soldiers. But I won't get into that now, for I will just get too angry.


It was amazing the beauty and life at Arlington which contrasted the white marble headstones. Watching the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was so soboring. The respect and honor displayed was soboring.


The Dali Lama was the guest speaker at this conference. "Huh?" most of my friends and family responded. Well, the Dali Lama loves science and is actually very well read. He gave a 2 hour talk, including questions and answers. I wasn't in a big rush to see him, especially since it would require a two hour wait in line to get through the metal detectors. The room where he gave his talk was 1 1/2 football fields in size. So I went and did something else. However, I came back an hour later, and the security gates were gone!! I walked in and walked up the side aisle to the very front. I stod with a half-dozen other people up there and was never told to move. When the Dali Lama was done, he walked right in front of where I was standing, not fifteen feet from me. If only I was a Dali Lama fan.


And of course, I gotta visit the White House. I was in D.C. 12 years ago, but somehow we neglected to visit "the house." So here I am.








While in D.C. I stayed with my mom's first cousin (so that would make me... mmm... first cousin once removed). He is the Chief of the Forest Service. Great guy and so humble. He says that many assume that he is Republican since Bush appointed him, but in fact he is Independent. We had some great conversations about his perspective of it all. Much different than what is reported in the news. Anyway, visited his office, which is the closest building to the Washington Monument. He has an incredible view of the monument, of course, and also of the Pentagon. He had some interesting stories about 9/11, since he was in his office when it happened.


View of Reagan National airport from my cousin's apartment. What a view. We would sit there and just watch the planes land. And it wasn't noisy AT ALL!





View of D.C. from the inside of his apartment. I took this from the inside to give a reference point. To the left is Washington Monument, with a sliver of the White House showing. To the very right is the Capitol. In between is the Jefferson Memorial, but the window pane is in the way.


Long-exposure of the Washington Monument. Love this picture.











And the good-'ol Metro. D.C. had a very well planned subway system. It is very clean too. I had a great time just doing the trips.








I had many more pictures and stories. But there always are. There was my impression of the Capitol (very desolate and locked down, all because of security), private tours of some of the sites, visiting the Holocaust museum (gut-wrenching), and the view of D.C. while landing and taking off in the plane (was on the best side of the plane both times). And then there were the early-morning runs with "the Chief," and all the fun chats we had.

Lies, with compound interest

Have you ever told a lie, and ended up telling even more lies to cover the original? It is common enough of an experience that people use it as an example of how much easier it is just to tell the truth from the beginning. Well, the other day I was thinking about that same concept with regards to that pet controversial subject of mine: EVOLUTION.

Now, I am not going to get into the topic of "who lied as the theory of evolution unfolded." That is crazy...I don't think anyone intensionally lied in the process. What I am getting at is that once the theory of evolution was accepted and became mainstream, new discoveries HAD to agree with the theory. And when they did not, elaborate rationals and justifications and exceptions to the rule had to be developed so that the theory of evolution was not disturbed. I am speaking this out of personal experience, because I have heard some really crazy reasoning in my science classes, trying to tie new findings back to evolution.

If we were comparing the probabilities involved in creating life through evolutionary means with the odds that there really is a higher power that created life as we know it, the god option would seriously win. Look into it. Ask you neighborhood math-nerd. And he/she doesn't even have to be a Christian to figure that one out.

Why is it that we humans think we are at the top of the metaphorical food-chain? I mean really! How arrogant are we that we can say there is no God? And so many don't stop there. They ridicule and look down on those that believe in a god or higher power. They restrict learning about the different possibilities in the public school system.

Mull over this one:
Yesterday I was listening to a seminar on how "epinephrine interacts with the G-protein coupled receptor beta-2" click for more. Very fascinating, but I won't go into any depth here for sanities sake. But basically this complex protein could sense EVERY SINGLE ATOM in epinephrine's small structure. One atom out of place, and signalling was dramatically reduced. Hmmmm, how interesting. Protein machines in one part of the body craft this molecule called "epinephrine" so that another protein can sense its exact shape. Sounds like design to me! One atom out of place, and a whole lot of proteins are out of a job...the ones that make epinephrine, the ones that package it, transport it, regulate it, detect it, degrade it, etc etc.

Home Remedies

I stumbled across this website in the most peculiar way: I was looking up that old wives tale about not swallowing gum for it will "sit in your stomach for 7 years." This is just not true. Anyway, I was looking up the ingredients for chewing gum to give an answer to those that quote this myth (unfortunately, the specifics are proprietary, and I got distracted by the following website to look deeper).

www.otan.dni.us/webfarm/emailproject/rem.htm

I am not even going to start defending some of these home remedies. I do know that some (perhaps I should say "a few") work from personal experience. Some just perpetuate old wives tales. Have a look the next time you have an ailment.

Polls and Fairytales

I recently came across another blog that summarizes a collection of polls about different scientific and nature issues www.pollingreport.com/science.htm, one issue being evolution. I won't bother to recopy what was written in these two places, but basically it shows that a lot fewer people believe in evolution that the media lets on.

How much does the media influence what we believe?

Could this be a real life example of "The Emperor's New Clothes" by Hans Christian Andersen. For those unfamiliar with this fairy tale, it is about an emperor who is tricked into thinking that is wearing clothes of a special fabric that is invisible to anyone who is "unfit for his office or unforgivably stupid." No one wants to admit that they don't see the clothes, especially the emperor's advisors or the emperor himself, for this would mean they were stupid and unfit for office. It wasn't until a small child exclaims that the emperor is not wearing clothes that everyone felt free to say the same thing.

Perhaps there are prestigious scientists around the world that see the serious flaws in evolution, and yet fear for their careers enough to remain silent. Laymen see this and say that they trust the professionals, and therefore also profess a belief in evolution (kind of like all these fad diets like Atkins). I know from my own classes in biochemistry and neuroscience, that much of lecture personifies the design of biological systems, speaking as if they were planned, organized, and carefully fit together by a design. However at the end of these kinds of statements, the speaker often ends with "Isn't it amazing that this all came about through evolutionary mechanisms?" I wonder if the speaker really believes this, or if s/he is afraid of being labeled an "intelligent designer?"

An interesting book written on the subject of the validity of evolution is "Darwin's Black Box" by author Michael Behe. He does an excellent job of taking complex biological ideas and simplifying them so that laymen can understand.

Cars and the problems that eventually ensue

Gotta car? Then you probably know what I am talking about.

I have this thing with radiators...My first car I bought used. The previous owner apparently never flushed herr radiator (or else only put water in it with no rust inhibitors that are normally included in antifreeze). So after a month, my radiator lost all of its water, causing my engine to seize up (the thermometer guage never told me a thing, since it doesn't work if not submerged in water). This cost me a new engine ($4000 including labor).

Then four years later, the engine seized up again, because of the radiator. Not sure how it lost the water this time, since I was keeping a closer eye on it, due to my previous experience. I ended up scrapping that car and buying a new-to-me one.

And then it happened again, two years later. I was very good about keeping everything in check. However, somehow my upper radiator hose got a nick in it and started to spew coolant. I smelled this immediately, stopped the car, and luckily was within walking distance of a GI Joes. I fixed the hose, but foolishly forgot to fill up the coolant again. A few days later, engine overheated. I added water back in, and milked it along, but it just kept overheating.

Fearing that I had blown a head gasket, I took it into my mechanic expecting to pay a bundle. After testing and testing it, he said it probably just had some air in the radiator, and he only charged me $90 (which I was happy to pay). But a few days later, there was a big puddle of coolant on my garage floor (never a leak before or after this). I replaced it with water, but the problem continued and just got worse.

This past weekend I spent mostly just trying to get everything working again. I sure learned a lot about radiators. But after all of this, I still had the same problem after driving 25 miles. After that I couldn't get more then a couple miles (yes, that would be about 1-2 miles) without it overheating.

So back to the mechanic it goes, most likely the head gasket. They really should design cars so that you can fix the silly little $100 item without having to spend $2000 worth of labor.

And it is amazing at how expensive they are even when they are working smoothly! Let's see...I drive about 40 miles per day on average (25 of this is just the roundtrip to work). At 20 MPG (my 1997 Subaru Outback), and with gas prices around $2.50, that comes to $5 per day, $150 per month, $1800 per year JUST IN GAS! Then there is the $1100 in car insurance, and (if you are still paying it off like myself) $2200 per year on the loan. This comes to a wopping $5100 per year (about $14 per day)!!!!!!

Walking analogy

A few months ago I saw a video by this guy named Rob Bell. I haven't looked too much into who he is, but he sure does produce some powerful videos. He is the perfect mixture between storytelling actor and theologian. His videos are only about 10 minutes long, and is more of him telling a story from his life as he walks along, or unloads his car. But the analogies he attaches are profound, real, and raw.

I bet this is how Jesus was when he walked the earth: not preachy, not judgmental, but instead using things of everyday life to explain to the common folk how life works.

www.nooma.com

Most samples on this website are 10 second clips, but here is a full length (11 minute) film
Rain 001
(Windows Media)

In Rain 001 Rob tells about a walk he went on with his 1 yr old son, when suddenly it started to rain. His son was screaming from the rain and the thunder, and if he was articulate enough may have asked why his dad was allowing him to be so uncomfortable. How often we ask God the same thing.

Retreats

Ahhh...retreats. Aren't they great? The one I just went to was at a small town on the Oregon Coast. Not a touristy place, nice and slow. I went with 10 others from my small church, and we rented a beautiful house up on the hill. We could see the coast for miles.

It was time that I needed away from the noise. So a small group with a light schedule was just what I needed. There were short teaching times, given by fellow church-goers, not clergy. I valued this since it was real and raw.

And the free time was freeing. Do what you want, no pressure to even do anything. I chose to go for a solo walk on the beach. I had a lot to talk to God about.

Foot washing. Always heard about it, never have done it. I was determined to drop my issues and wash the feet of those in the group that people probably felt the most uncomfortable with. One was a guy who is socially awkward, and actually has some disfigured feet. But in that moment that I washed his feet, I did feel so much better. It wasn't about me, and it felt good. I was expected to feel uncomfortable, and so I was right in my element. The rest of the release I just can't explain...I am not a poet. But God did something in me, and I didn't feel so alone anymore.

So the retreat had some unexpected benefits. I have let some of my crap go. Just got to keep letting it go.

Synthetics

"Essay question: What defines "existing in nature" - - what does it take for something to be synthetic? If you use two rocks to chip out an arrowhead, is that synthetic? What about polyethylene? (Isn't it sort of made through products that do (pre-)exist in nature?)" (taken from found_drama )

What a great point. I mean, there are so many people into organic, natural foods these days, especially in the Pacific NW. But why do people think that natural means better? I find myself scratching my head a lot at ads and things for sale in the grocery store. Why pay so much more for natural vitamin C than the synthetic stuff? Do you know the difference? NADA! Ascorbic acid is ascorbic acid.

And this whole "raw foods" thing: how do you think vegetation is able to stay around with hungry animals on the prowl? Natural toxins! Many legumes (kidney beans, fava beans, soy beans) contain natural stuff that could kill you if you didn't cook them first! In the lab, we use soybean trypsin inhibitors to keep the proteins we are working with from being broken down by proteases (laymen: trypsin breaks bonds between certain amino acids in proteins; proteases: proteins that are made to break other proteins down when a cell dies). If you ate soybeans without cooking them, these inhibitors would keep your body from digesting protein that you ate. Or fruits such as cherries, apricots, peaches, apples...The reason you aren't to eat the pits/seeds is because you will get a dose of cyanide, which can be lethal after eating a surprisingly few number of pits.

Many synthetic drugs are actually better than the natural version, because it is chemically modified to be specific to what your body needs with fewer side effects. Or it might give you a longer effect so you don't have to take it so often.

Let's stop jumping on the overcrowded bandwagon, and start thinking.

Evolution of evolution

There are few things in this world that really get me going. So my passion about evolution really stands out from my everyday demeanor.

Evolution, as the word is commonly used these days, is so off. The evidence around us just does not support the theory. And yet this dogma is maintained in the sciences because the only other alternative, that everything did not happen by chance, is 1) not allowed in public institutes, and 2) not able to be proven or disproven. And this is the sole reason evolution remains in education. People want to know where we came from, and they look to science for answers. Science responds that they can only give answers to questions that can fit within controlled experiments. Since the idea of something bigger than us can not fit within the confines of our experiments, it immediately is put on the shelf.

And then there are our senses. I am currently finishing up my PhD in neurotoxicology, so I know a little about how the body works, especially the brain. And I must say that our senses are oh so very limited. Briefly, our body senses the world through contrasts. The way we hear, the way we see, the way we taste, the way we feel textures. It is all contrasts. Look at optical illusions...they play on this all of the time. The brain does a lot of summarizing, comparing and editing before our senses ever get to the parts of the brain involved in consciousness. And yet we believe we could sense a creator if one existed.

And the theory...well, the different sciences may all use the word evolution, but the definitions often CONTRADICT! Evolution to a macrobiologist (e.g. zoologist, botanist, biologist) is very much different than to a molecular biologist (e.g. geneticist, biochemist). And when the macrobiologist sees something, they say that it happened because through genetics, and they leave it at that. When a molecular biologist sees something, they are so caught up in the details that they neglect the fact that it never happens in real life.

Example in point: for evolution to occur, you must be able to record improvements for future generations. For this, you need either DNA or RNA. However, there are a few problems with this:
1) DNA and RNA are the MOST complex molecules in existance. So the most complex must be created first, before amino acids for proteins, and fats form lipid bilayers.
2) Thousands of little protein machines must come together for DNA to be replicated, read, and translated. Before these protein machines came into being, the DNA was useless.
3) Proteins, including novel ones with new functions, can not be recorded back into DNA. No scientist has ever suggested this ever happens, because it just can't happen. So how did all the code get into DNA?

There is so much to say about this topic, but so much has already been argued for decades. Perhaps I will revist this topic at another time.

Rainy-town, USA

Well what fabulous weather we have been having. I actually enjoy it, since I grew up with it. It is nostalgic, ya know? The smells, the shorter days, the sounds of rain on the rooftops and the splashes as car drive through puddles. I played soccer and ran cross-country every fall of my growing up years, so mud and rain are a part of me. Slide-tackling for the soccer ball, daily runs in moist forests, ahhh the good ol' days.

This weekend was the beginning of a new racing season: Cyclocross http://www.crosscrusade.com . Sorta like mountain bike racing, but made to be muddy and hard. The courses are 1.5 to 2 miles long, and consist of dirt hills, tight turns, barriers that you have to dismount and run over. Depending on the division, races are from 6 to 8 laps long, and last around 45 minutes. At the end, everyone is muddy, but you do see grins peeking through though dirty mugs. My event? Well, it is new but catching on fast. We race the courses on unicycles. I started in last year, when there were just 3 to 4 of us per race. Yesterday we had 9 for the first race of the season. We get the most cheers from the crowd, partially because the difficulty level goes up tremendously, and partly because it is just funny to watch a unicyclist do anything.

If you look carefully through the rain, you will find good and beauty.

First times

Well, I guess it is time to join the techno-race. I resisted the cell-phone for years, but broke down a year and a half ago. Now it is blogs. Not that I have anything important to say. But technology can be so useful. Like Wikipedia. The idea itself has so much potential for good.

Unfortunately, in our fallen world, even the good gets twisted into bad eventually.