Weter Lecture PDF Online

Here's a link to the PDF of the Weter Lecture.

I also have an audio file from the audience and a copy of the Powerpoint slides available upon request.

The video will take a few weeks to get put together/edited and posted on iTunes. I'll let you know ...

Weter Lecture Countdown

Since the lecture's tomorrow at 7:30pm I decided to run through the whole lecture today, in my office, talking to the wall. Time came out to be 65 minutes (and 20 seconds). I think that'll work. I recorded it so if I suddenly get stage fright I can just press play on the recording, right? Now just for last-minute tweaks.

On Saturday (really at the last minute) I remembered a speech I made in college for my parachurch group in which I played snippets of songs to reinforce points. Once that thought entered my mind I knew I had to do the same for the Weter Lecture: the seven stages are even CALLED the "Seven Songs" fer Pete's sake. So we have John Williams, Wagner, the Beatles, Sans-Saens, Mike Roe doing an old spiritual, Pink Floyd, and the Beach Boys to introduce each step.

When this is over it's back to normal, I guess, to take care of all the "normal" stuff I'm putting off right now. At first I was worried about getting done in time when the lecture was moved back to February -- but now I'm glad because it means it's done, and it's only February!

Guess Who? (LEGO version)

Can you tell at a glance who this is? Sam could (I'm so proud!). [piclink]

Book Review: American-Born Chinese

Like The Arrival, this is another beautifully drawn graphic novel aimed at young adults, this one not about immigration per se, but about the children of immigrants in junior high. It is a vivid story with three threads that come together at the end quite nicely. One of the threads is about the Monkey King, a Chinese god-character, and it was mostly what I expected until my jaw dropped as four emissaries of the creator show up and surprising (and deep) stuff starts to happen ... let's just say you have to read it. Someday I hope to hand it off to my kids when they're in junior high.

We Have Changed the Chemistry of Our Atmosphere

Reading Theo Gray's Mad Science I found that silver never tarnished before the Industrial Age. Now that power plants have put more sulfur in the atmosphere, silver will react with that to form black silver sulfate. Back in the pirate days (see previous post), bars of silver would sit out and not tarnish. But now we've changed the chemistry of our atmosphere and silver tarnishes.

This doesn't even necessarily say anything specifically about global warming. But it does say we can change the chemistry of the world, which at the very least is something to consider.

Book Review: Pirate Latitudes

As a Michael Crichton fiction completist I had to read this, even though it's just a draft found on his computer after he died ... and you know, it was fast-paced and clever enough to be a movie. Which it will be apparently because Steven Spielburg has always wanted to do a pirate movie and he'll be doing this one. I detect elements of Great Train Robbery of course, but also Disclosure and Congo. Not much of the stuff that truly made Crichton amazing ... but part of that might have been the fact that I was a teenager when I read his most impressive stuff. Regardless, better than a movie, longer, and cheaper (at least if you get it from the library).

A New Reason to Go to Canada

In the Seattle Times today, an article about eating in Vancouver, and behold, "Japadog"! On-street vendors selling Asian-themed bratwurst, with radish, soy sauce, rice, seaweed ...

[link]

I don't know about this Olympics thing, but let me tell you, I'm trying to figure out how to get up to Vancouver soon to try one of those.