Snow camping

Winter storm warnings forced us to leave our snow camping outing early but it was wonderful while it lasted. I have never seen a thicker snow pack near Truckee than this year. My son and I built this igloo using a snow saw and scoop shovel in about 3 hours and slept in it over night. We were warm and toasty and the inside didn't drip. There is nothing like the magical interior of an igloo after dark with a few candles glowing against the walls. I made a snow saw this year, out of a 24" by 2" by 1/8" piece of aluminum, and it worked like a charm. I cut and smoothed a nice oak handle for it.

Gay Scout Practicalities

With reference to today's WSJ article about Philadelphia's problems with the Boy Scouts, it seems that those who want to force the Scouts to accept openly homosexual scouts and scout leaders have never led a Scout overnight camping trip. Scouts typically sleep two to a tent, but in the case of Venture Patrols which include both teenage boys and girls, opposite sexes are not allowed to share tents, for reasons which most scout leaders and parents consider obvious. If openly gay scouts were to go on overnight outings, there would be several options: 1) have the gay scout share a tent with a straight scout, in which case all the boys would try to avoid sleeping with the gay scout, or 2) have the gay scout tent with a girl, in which case all the boys would claim to be gay, or 3) have the gay scout be alone in a tent, in which case the gay activists would charge discrimination, or 4) have two gay scouts share a tent, which would rarely be possible and would be inconsistent with policy toward heterosexuals. I haven't heard any discussion of these practicalities which leads me to believe that those with the greatest anti-boyscout hysteria on this issue, have the least experience.

Expelled, No intelligence allowed

In January we went to the Rethink Conference at the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California near Anaheim in the LA area. This church has a beautiful campus with many detailed, life size, bronzes depicting biblical stories. Here are Mary and Joseph with a chrome plated (!) baby Jesus. It was great, despite the chrome (what were they thinking).
We were fortunate to hear Ben Stein speak and to see a pre-release viewing of his upcoming movie Expelled which should be appearing this spring. You must go see this.
If discussing ID is verboten, I'm wondering if TJ's computer simulation TuSIM (Darwin's Dove) would get him expelled; or perhaps he would just disappear. Someone call Dawkins.

The Dogs of Elim

The greatest sporting event of the year is almost upon us. The iditarod starts on March 1 this year. The iditarod website has a great new introductory video this year. The other great race coverage is at the Cabela page. For a California guy who grew up in the frozen north, it is an emotional experience to watch these superb dogs, who love to run, do what they do best. They have been bred to turn up to 10,000 calories of high fat dog food per day into 120 miles at 10 miles per hour over some of the most desolate, dangerous, and beautiful terrain on earth. There is no finer relationship to witness than that which develops, over the 1150 mile race, between a trail hardened team and a musher fighting exhaustion.

Heath Ledger RIP

Very sad. But, look on the bright side; one less potential customer for Al Qaeda's opium.

Mennonite Computer Scientist

The Mennonite branch of the protestant reformation sought a return to the beliefs of the early church as recorded in the New Testament. They taught non-violence, baptism upon belief, and direct access to God or "the priesthood of the believer". I was raised Mennonite and then acquired a Master's degree in Biomedical Engineering and a PhD in Computer Science from Caltech. These two beautiful threads of science and religion have blended in some unusual ways. During 2006 I wrote the novel "Darwin's Dove" to present this fusion. Darwinian evolution turns out to explain Christianity far better than it explains atheism.