Teenagers and SUV's

When I got my driver's license at 16 I had the best car. It was a 10-year old Chrysler E-class.
It had one or two...features that really gave the car character. If you lifted the driver's side door handle while it was locked, the lock would stick, and you'd have to climb in the passenger side and unlock it from the inside. The clock was lengendary. It would only turn on if the headlights were on, and when it did turn on, it would show either 11:00, 12:00, or 1:00, depending on its mood. I think the most important feature of the Chrysler, was it's speed control. If the car went above 55, the entire thing would shake. It was great. As a 16-year old bad driver, it was crucial.
Why do I bring this up? An article in the Washington Post today (Dec 28th) ,A lethal combination, talks about teenagers in SUV's:

"Forty-nine people ages 15 to 20 died in SUV and pickup truck
accidents in Maryland, Virginia and the District last year, according
to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The problem,
researchers say, is that SUVs have a higher center of gravity and are
harder to control in an emergency, which makes inexperienced teenage
drivers more vulnerable. "

Why do teenagers need SUV's? To be honest, few people outside of those who drive up and down mountain roads, or drive to hospitals in the snow need them? But teenagers in particular are bad drivers: They've just started. Generally they have less sense of control of the car, and of course have little experience reacting to traffic. If 16 year old's must drive, they should be legally required to have cars that near collapse when they get above 60. They need cars with "character" so they can begin to appreciate the power and responsiblity they have. Then, we just need to work on stopping the rest of the population from driving them, but that is another post.

A late Hanukah with the family

Sorry I haven't written for a while (assuming there are any regular readers lurking out there). I was home for the holidays and didn't get much of a chance to post while I was there.
So, what did I do? Well, I spent lots of time with Sam, which was quite fun. He's more lively than ever and will be walking in a matter of weeks. He's discovered how to speak cat, saying the occasional "owwwwww" in a very good cat mimic.
I saw some friends and family, and even got down into DC and saw the brand new American Indian Museum. It was quite interesting, and perhaps I'll write about that later.
One of the best times was making potato latkes with my mom. Perhaps that's corny, but while I was in Madison, I didn't really get a chance to share Hanukah. So, although it was a bit late, I convinced my mom to make them from scratch, and we spent an afternoon chopping potatoes and onions and frying them in oil. Even my brother-in-law liked them, so we felt very proud.
Oh well, enough for now, happy late Hanukah!

Happy Birthday Sam

It's my nephew's first birthday today! My sister had Sam a year ago today. I was in England at the time, so it was the perfect reason to go out to the pubs and have a few pints of beer (like you really need a reason). When I returned home and met him, it was an amazing experience. He was the first newborn I really felt compelled to get to know, to hold and to talk to. I also had the honor of being the first person to get him drunk: I fed him drops of wine during the Bris (the Jewish circumcision ritual).
I've seen him several more times since then, but always a few months apart, as I don't live that close to my sister. When I first returned in september, he was incredibly expressive. He laughed, he giggled, he crawled, he even gnawed at my hair and glasses.
Then, over thanksgiving, he was pulling himself up and standing while holding supports. He was getting into everything. If you brought out a box of his toys, he'd pull all the toys out of the box and play with the box. Boxes were particularly fun if they have things he shouldn't get into in them: cd's, tapes, dvds, etc... Anything he could he hold on to, or get near his mouth.
The most amazing thing, of course, was seeing him laugh and smile. If you made a silly face, or tickled him, or he saw a cat walking by, he'd just break out into this heartbreaking grin. He couldn't speak words, but his face could say so much.
I never thought I could relate to children this young. My nephew proved me dead wrong.
Happy Birthday.

Religion and Gay Marriage

To continue my religious theme, William Raspberry in the washington post wrote a lucid column about religion and gay marriage. Read it here!

My first Nativity, a Jewish perspective

So I was a very good jew last night. I went to watch a few of my friends sing in a choir.
It was a church choir. The second half of the concert was a nativity play. Like I said, a very good jew.
I had never been to a nativity play so I wasn't really sure what to expect. However, it was certaintly moving. The play was quite simple. It had very little dialogue, with the "narration" being sung movingly by the choir.
So why am I writing about this? Is there any grand lesson to be learned by seeing this very Christian of rituals? Have I any plans of converting?
Well to the last question, absolutely not. I'm very proud of being Jewish, and it is certaintly part of who I am. As to the lesson, perhaps it's just about keeping an open mind.
I grew up a reform Jew, and felt that I was taught to resent some of the more observant denominations of Judaism. After I spent a year in the UK involved in an orthodox synagogue, I really could appreciate it what was appealing about the orthodox lifestyle. Was I planning on changing? No! But, I was no longer afraid of denominations that were different or people who lived their lives differently than myself.
Perhaps it's the same thing here. After seeing this simple, beautiful play, I could least appreciate, at it's core, what was appealing about Christianity. Seeing a re-enactment of a story so fundamental to what Christains believe, presented with such honesty and simplicity, was beautiful. It represented charity, faith, and of course love. Even if it is just the simple love of parent for their child, rather than that of God through the birth of his son, as Christians believe.
It also made me long for the simple beauty of lighting the Chanukah menorah, and sharing that with family and friends, something I haven't been able to do this year.
They choir director talked about opening your heart to love. That's an idea that certaintly isn't foreign to Judaism. Any act of kindness, an act of charity, a move to make the world a better place, is in a way opening your heart. It's certaintly a lesson that all of the world can learn, be they Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddist, or Athiest.

Woe is Science

Tom Friedman's New York Times op-ed piece this Sunday upset me. It didn't upset me because I disagreed with him; I agreed with every word. It's just that what he was saying made so much sense, but will likely be completely ignored.
The basic idea was that in the 2005 budget, congress cut the National Science Foundation's budget by about $105 million. So why is this upsetting?
Well let's just say, for the sake of argument, that our country is dependant on a certain quantity, we'll just call it O. And let's also say, that because of O, our country is forced to get into all sorts of political entanglements with countries that we might otherwise have wanted to get involved with.
So, an ideal solution, one with common sense would think, would be to reduce our need of the magical quantity O. Well in order to do this, we need to train and fund our sciences as much as we can so that we can use alternatives.
Oil is certaintly in the top ten list of reasons we invaded Iraq, it's consumption is a significant portion of anthropogenic climate change, and it will continue to get us into more policical troubles. Mr. Friedman goes into a lot more of the political implications of reducing our need for oil, but I'll leave that for you to read.
Another problem of course, is that a major source of science students comes from abroad. Well, thanks to our brilliant immigration and visa system, it's becoming more and more difficult for these students to come to the United States. So, they head to Canada, or the UK, or other European countries whose visa requirements are less stringent. So, with fewer students to draw from, our need for research is even greater.
So once again, our country is faced with quite a difficult problem, and our brilliant government does the exact opposite tact from that of common sense.
Science is fundamental to almost everything we do. From political issues like climate change and stem cell research, to making breakfast, science helps us understand and effects our lives. Most Americans are scientifically ignorant. Of course it's not entirely their fault: science is more and more subdivided and specialized. Even those with some scientific training (like me) can be woefully ignorant about other branches of science. But, it is still acceptable to say, "I don't understand science" or "I don't do math." When those phrases are treated with equal disdain as, "I don't read literature" or "I don't know US history" then we'll at least be heading in the right direction. If we can get future generations excited about it, and make it a priority, then our country will be moving in the right direction as well.

The Worst Journey I've ever read

Ok, try to imagine the coldest you've ever felt. Try to imagine the absolute worst winter you've ever experienced. Perhaps you were caught out with too light a jacket. Maybe you were up in a chair lift with a bitter wind cutting at your skin. Perhaps you decided to sit out on a cold, clear night and gaze at the stars only to forget how bitterly cold those clear nights are when you are away from the warmth of the city.

Now, even at your most cold, you have only a vague understanding of how frighteningly cold Apsley Cherry-Gerrard, Edward A. Wilson and Henry Bowers felt on July 6th, 1911 during their trek across the Antarctic barrier. The noon temperature that "day" was -77 F. -77F! That's absolutely inconceivable. Gerrard writes "I will not pretend that it did not convince me that Dante was right when he placed the circles of ice below the circles of fire". As described by Susan Solomon in her book "The Coldest March", the strings they used to tie the bags of food were "like wire". Their perspiration and breath "had begun to turn their clothing into armor plate. Cherry-Garrard made the mistake one morning of raising 'my head to look round and found I could not move it back'".
If you didn't know, these three were part of the Robert Scott's tragic expedition to the South Pole. After being beaten to the pole a month before by the Norwegian Roald Amundsen, Scott and four other men, including Bowers and Wilson, perished within a day's march from a supply tent. About 9 months before their fatal journey, Gerrard, Bowers and Wilson ventured across the Antarctic continent in order to find an emperor penguin's egg. Wilson hoped that this egg would be a useful key to understanding evolution. So, let me elaborate. They traveled for about a month, pulling 253 pounds per man on a sled in almost complete darkness in unfathomably cold weather for the sake of a scientific expedition that would later prove to be inconsequential to evolution. What incredible strength and bravery. Kinda makes that report you have due in two weeks a bit less scary.
This story and a vivid description of Scott's entire expedition are described brilliantly in "The Worst Journey in the World" by Apsley Cherry-Garrard. "Polar Exploration is at once the cleanest and most isolated way of having a bad time which has been devised", Garrard writes.
His book is one of three polar books that I've read in the last 6th months. I'm currently on Solomon's book, which is an attempt to defend Scott, and counter many of the myths of him as a bumbler and an idiot. She spends a lot of time using modern scientific and meteorological data to show that Scott endured an unusually harsh winter, and that based on the knowledge he had, he had made pretty good decisions. Although it's quite interesting, it doesn't match the power of Gerrard's first person account. "The Worst Journey" is a book I'd recommend to anyone.
Gerrard’s most memorable words come at the end. He writes "If you are a brave man you will do nothing: if you are fearful you may do much, for none but cowards have need to prove their bravery." And perhaps his most famous line and words I'd like to leave you with "If you march your Winter Journeys you will have your reward, so long as all you want is a penguin’s egg."

Searching for a Hobby

So here I go...post number two. I suppose I'll stop counting these things after a while, but hey, I'm still pretty new at this.
So I'm sitting in my apartment on a gray sunday evening and wondering what to do.
I realized something, mainly after talking to my sister. I don't really have any hobbies. I mean, hobbies that I can do any day to keep productive when I'm not working.
I love to read, and listen to music, but I can't play an instrument to save my life. I suppose this writing is a bit like a hobby, but we'll see how long it actually lasts. I'm going to try of course: but how many blogs have a few initial posts and flutter off to nothing; I imagine quite a few.
I like to ski, and do yoga once a week, and those are sort of hobbies. But skiing depends on the weather and costs too much to do regularly. Yoga is great, and I suppose it sort of fits, but it is not something I've moved to do every day.
I guess I just want something else that defines me outside of my job. Something I'm good at, something I can teach to other people, and continue to learn about.
Maybe that's why I'm writing: it can help sort some of these thoughts out. I'll seek inspiration within myself! I figure I'll continue what I've always done: I try new things and succeed at not being very good at them. At least I can't be accused of being single-minded.
Oh well, enough for now.
Gatsby

Welcome to the Guide

It's kind of like "the factor" except much less obnoxious, arrogant, and of course, popular.
I've just decided that writing is a good thing and this is the way to go. So, I'm playing a blog and we'll see how it turns out. It will be filled with random rants, marvelous music, and interminable illiteration.
I'm not entirely sure what it will contain, but I suppose that is part of the suprise. Feel free to send along your opinions, rants, raves, and complaints. I'm not saying I'll listen to you, but if it makes you feel better, than so much the better.
Anyway, Enjoy!