kendra's next school
in january kendra travels to australia to attend southern cross university at lismore by the border of queensland and new south wales. more on this later.
posted by Will Ross at 23:59

memorial for edward b. lewis
on monday 25 october peggy and i were fortunate to attend a memorial service in beckman auditorium at caltech for edward b. lewis, one of the foremost geneticists of the 20th century. we were invited to this rare gathering by keith lewis, ed's son and a close friend of mine from high school decades ago in the seventies in pasadena. keith also invited my brothers brian and darrell, in light of many youthful adventures we managed to survive together. (in some future post i'll recount my 21st birthday, where brian and i were invited by the bartender to leave the vananda tavern on texada island due to our unruly behavior. keith lewis, also in attendance, was sober enough to help us hitchike back to our campsite that night down the island near davies bay.)

dr. lewis, who was 86 when he passed away, won the nobel prize in 1995 for his ground breaking work in the field of developmental genetics. he first proposed a concept we now take for granted: specific sections on a gene control development of specific portions of an organism, based on his detailed studies of the bithorax complex.

the memorial ceremony honoring dr. lewis was a wonderful and upbeat event. speakers and attendees included some of the best geneticists on the planet. numerous nobel prize winners were on hand. personally i enjoyed the symmetry of simply sitting at an event in beckman auditorium involving ed lewis. this was my second time in beckman; the first was in the early 1970s at an awesome lecture on mayan mathematics by richard feynman, which i attended as a guest of ed and pam lewis.

during his turn at the podium, keith's older brother hugh told a fascinating story of one night when his father got him up before dawn. hugh was five or six years old. it was probably 1949 or 1950. they stood in the street and watched the eastern horizon until there was a flash in the sky. his father told hugh the flash was an above ground nuclear test, and it was a very bad thing that had to be stopped. in the 1950s dr. lewis drew the ire of american political hacks for speaking out about the link between radiation and cancer. his understanding of radiation and genetics led him to dissent against prevailing views on the hazards of radiation. fifty years later dr. lewis's dissenting views are now accepted as the truth. in the late 1950s he joined linus pauling, another nobel prize winning professor from caltech, and others in public opposition to above ground nuclear testing. during his moving remembrance of his father, hugh lewis publicly thanked caltech for the academic freedom they provided to his father as a scientist in pursuit of the truth.

the ceremony was closed by a stunning performance on flute by dr. lewis's music teacher, patricia farrell, from the san francisco opera.
posted by Will Ross at 22:42

"it'll be kerry by a landslide"
at the burbank airport this morning i was in line at an auto rental counter. a man in front of me saw the kerry - edwards button on my coat. he said, "you've got a kerry - edwards button, good for you. it'll be kerry by a landslide." a woman in line turned towards him and asked, "can i hold you to it?" i said to them both that i expect the election will not be as close as the tight horserace the media is selling us as the big campaign story. a woman who had just walked up and was getting in line behind me said, "we have to get rid of that corrupt, evil man in the white house." i grinned at the spontaneous poll result: four random passengers and no votes for bush.
posted by Will Ross at 11:19

site design changes 2
fix header layout in archive? check
enable comments? still trying
add blog roll? soon
posted by Will Ross at 13:11

the fog of war
two weeks before election day the biggest messages emanating from the bush-cheney campaign are to describe kerry as a massachusetts liberal and to whine about what was a relatively minor comment on mary cheney's sexual orientation but is now persistent front page news. this is fairly incoherent behavior from a ruthless and discliplined republican team more commonly on message than most political machines. are they out of ammunition? why did they change messages from kerry the flip-flopper? where is the bush-cheney october surprise? mary cheney is not an issue that deserves so much coverage. what am i missing that makes this appear to be a target of opportunity for the republicans? from my scan of the news the biggest issues of the week are:

• a military unit refusing to go into harm's way in iraq (the beginning of the breakdown in the chain of command, the fatal flaw that most characterised the conspicuous public failure of the american military in vietnam)
• new admissions that torture was widely used at gitmo
• a general consensus among world leaders that the world is more dangerous now than it was before america assaulted iraq, complete with a sound bite from u.n. secretary general kofi annon
• persistent questions about the impact of voter registration on the election
• alleged unpreparedness for recounts should they be needed (colorado and florida lead the pack for evidence of brittle polling systems)
• allegations of republican dirty tricks destroying voter registrations among democrats

when i look at our situation i see the bush-cheney neocon debacle destroying our professional military and sowing chaos across the planet in a catastrophic failure to lead. the pentagon's recent stop-loss orders expose the disastrous impact of the bush-cheney policies on the american all-volunteer force, which is obviously no longer all-volunteer. national guard enlistments are failing to meet force target levels for the first time, ever. team america under bush-cheney behaves like a thug on a looting spree. "you're either with us or you're against us." they act like their headlong rush in the wrong direction is leadership, but when the only superpower behaves like an armed and dangerous blundering fool, the world runs for cover. we have completely fulfilled the powell "pottery barn" doctrine:  "you break it, you own it.".

meanwhile, on the home front, there are concerns about the ability of the american balloting system to manage a clean polling process on tuesday november 2nd. legal strategies are in place to drive this election back to the supreme court like in 2000. i remember in one marathon i was so exhausted that i stopped thinking coherently somewhere after the 25th mile, which in retrospect i likened to the fog of war. like the end of a marathon, this presidential campaign has entered the fog of war stage, and the bush-cheney campaign has just changed messages. are they that desperate? is this a diversion? or is it an early indication of their coming defeat? we'll know soon enough.
posted by Will Ross at 10:34

iraq tragedy destroys a local life
it is difficult to describe how terrible it feels when global events spinning out of control reach out and hurt someone you know. last week we were shocked to learn of a local casualty in the despicable bush war on iraq. manuel mendoza, a local boy who my kids grew up with in anderson valley, was critically injured while serving in the u.s. army in iraq, losing both his legs. he is now at walter reed, where a year of rehab awaits him as a double amputee. when i told my daughter about it she said, "what! i just hugged him when he was home..." and her voice trailed off. i remember buying 50:50 raffle tickets from manuel during high school sporting events in 1998.

as if i needed one, this is another reason to vote bush out of the white house. and let's not stop with the executive branch. i respect honest conservatism, but i don't respect the corrupt and mean-spirited special interest neocon fools who have siezed control of the conservative wing of american politics. they don't represent the america i grew up in, and i refuse to let them represent the america i live in.

i wonder why manuel's tragic sacrifice for bush has not made the local media...
posted by Will Ross at 13:23

site design changes
add blue to header? check
add subtitle to header? check
adjust date size and color to mute its importance and free the post title? check
alter archive to monthly? check
enable comments? first attempt failed, still trying
fix header display problems in archive? out of time now, do this later
posted by Will Ross at 06:05

new foot injury
after months of persistent heel pain (but more importantly, after using up the annual deductible on my so-called health insurance) i sought medical advice. the answer, plantar fasciitus. details available at www.footphysicians.com. i forgot to ask dr. c. how soon i can run again. i'll ask him in two weeks at my follow up appointment.
posted by Will Ross at 05:59

last night's pesto
place in blender:
   1 cup olive oil
   1/4 cup whole garlic cloves, peeled
   1/2 cup pine nuts
liquify.

add to blender:
   1 cup (packed) washed basil leaves
liquify.

add to blender:
   1/2 cup olive oil
   1 cup (packed) washed basil leaves
liquify.

pour contents of blender into a small mixing bowl.

add:
   2 cups grated parmesan / romano blend
stir until thoroughly mixed.
makes about 3 cups pesto.

that was the first batch. for the second batch i substituted pecans for the pine nuts. i still have enough basil leaves to make another seven batches. plus i already have 13 pints of pesto in the freezer.
posted by Will Ross at 09:11