"Let the words of my mouth, and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my Strength, and my Redeemer." Psalm 19:14

Whale Evolution 1

Whale Evolution 2

Thursday, February 22, 2007

My Physical Science class had our annual
bridge breaking contest yesterday.
I give the student the balsa wood and
rules (no more than 25 grams, length
and width)...everything else is pretty
much up to them. We go over the forces
involved before they begin building.
I'm always impressed..

This year's winner (it held all my weights -
about 35 pounds total - I'm going to have
to buy more lead pellets!).



And (in my opinion) the best looking
bridge of the lot:



All 8 of my students did a great job!
Pax
Dr. Robert Matheny came and spoke to our
Science(homeschool) students yesterday.

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/20070014869.html

He holds a patent on tissue regeneration
for cardiac tissue and is already using it.
He uses adult stem cells in his research and
sees no need for embryonic stem cells
at all. It was very interesting and
I hope our students came away with a lot
of new ideas and inspirations for careers!
(They asked great
questions so I'm sure they did.).

He also spent some 45 minutes or
more talking about Intelligent Design
and the complexity of cells/DNA etc
that points to God.

I asked (for my daughter who wasn't there
since she couldn't skip class to come)
how close they were to growing heart valves.
She has a bicuspid aortic valve (birth defect)
- two flaps instead of three. They now
replace those valves with pig valves or
mechanical valves when it is needed.
He said that there is an 80% chance that by the
time she needs one
there will be a human grown valve
replacement available.

They are also working on spinal cord injuries
and even regrowing
limbs (they have had success with
regrowing parts of fingers now!).

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,252704,00.html

This was so like WOW!
Pax

Monday, February 19, 2007

JACK BAUER FOR PRESIDENT:

I love to read about politics (it runs
in my family. We were Republican here in
Alabama during the reign of George Wallace.
Not a popular thing to be..)

But this election - I am so not excited.
Who is running that is worth voting
for thus far??

Democrats -
Hillary - she who would rule
the world if she could. Strikes me as
a "let them eat cake" mentality. All
talk and no substance. Wants power though.
Craves power. Makes me worry..

Obama - who KNOWS what the man stands for?
What little I know I don't like. And with
a name like Barack Hussein Obama um...
right. He is consistently very liberal in
his voting record.

Republicans -
McCain - he is now vocally Pro-life. Right.
Maybe so. He's also anti first amendment
(see McCain-Feingold). He's seeks to appease
everyone and that just isn't possible.

Rudy- hum, maybe so. But his social record
isn't that great. He is a leader and he has
that going for him.

Romney- from Mass. Right. Maybe if he'd
consider moving and changing from Mormon
to take your pick he'd be at least worth
considering.

SO thus FAR - after careful consideration
I want to propose my own nominee for
President in 2008 -

Friday, February 02, 2007



This is my daughter, age 22, in graduate
school at the Univ. of Alabama.
Of course I'm proud of her too.
If the Washington Post does an
opinion piece tearing up the
graduate students of the U.S. I'll
properly respond to that as well...
smiles, Proud of all my kids, Pax

PS It is, however, more likely that
I'll find opinion pieces decrying the
number of children that son #1 has.
I adore all of them though and
wait with great expectation arrivals
of even more grandchildren (two of
my three "children" haven't yet
produced any grandchildren. Dogs
and cats don't count - well, most
of the time. So who knows just how
many little ones we'll have someday.
VBG


My son - I'm proud of him..
Pax
From William Arkin, Washington Post:

"So, we pay the soldiers a decent wage, take care of their families, provide them with housing and medical care and vast social support systems and ship obscene amenities into the war zone for them, we support them in every possible way, and their attitude is that we should in addition roll over and play dead, defer to the military and the generals and let them fight their war, and give up our rights and responsibilities to speak up because they are above society?
I can imagine some post-9/11 moment, when the American people say enough already with the wars against terrorism and those in the national security establishment feel these same frustrations. In my little parable, those in leadership positions shake their heads that the people don't get it, that they don't understand that the threat from terrorism, while difficult to defeat, demands commitment and sacrifice and is very real because it is so shadowy, that the very survival of the United States is at stake. Those Hoover's and Nixon's will use these kids in uniform as their soldiers. If I weren't the United States, I'd say the story end with a military coup where those in the know, and those with fire in their bellies, save the nation from the people.

But it is the United States and instead this NBC report is just an ugly reminder of the price we pay for a mercenary - oops sorry, volunteer - force that thinks it is doing the dirty work.

His Follow up to "apologize" for use of the word "mercenary" -

The Arrogant and Intolerant Speak Out

"Well, one thing's abundantly clear about who will actually defend our rights to say what we believe: It isn't the hundreds who have written me saying they are soldiers or veterans or war supporters or real Americans -- who also advise me to move to another country, to get f@##d, or to die a painful, violent death.

Contrary to the typically inaccurate and overstated assertion in dozens of blogs, hundreds of comments, and thousands of e-mails I've received, I've never written that soldiers should "shut up," quit whining, be spit upon, or that they have no right to an opinion.

I said I was bothered by the notion that "the troops" were somehow becoming hallowed beings above society, that they had an attitude that only they had the means - or the right - to judge the worthiness of the Iraq endeavor.

I was dead wrong in using the word mercenary to describe the American soldier today.

These men and women are not fighting for money with little regard for the nation. The situation might be much worse than that: Evidently, far too many in uniform believe that they are the one true nation. They hide behind the constitution and the flag and then spew an anti-Democrat, anti-liberal, anti-journalism, anti-dissent, and anti-citizen message that reflects a certain contempt for the American people."

My son joined the Army about 2 years ago.
He is not a mercenary. He is
not suddenly rich. (We had to
help pay to help move him to his
new posting in fact!). I can guarantee
his IQ is FAR about Mr. Arkin's (probably far
above the MSM's collective IQ in fact!).
I'm outraged..
Pax, mom to soldier U.S. Army