Intelligent Falling

There's been a lot of stuff recently about "Intelligent Design", the alternative to straight-forward evolution that is being promoted by American religious folks as an equally valid viewpoint that should be taught in grade school biology classes. As you might know, I'm terrifically interested in the theory of evolution, and realize that while it's the foundation of all modern biology, there are still quirks which remain controversial among biologists. So even though this Intelligent Design malarkey is a facade for getting a little bit of God into public schools, I still appreciate that it's asking important questions about evolution -- I myself sometimes wish I'd taken a different career path, one in which I'd be filling the gaps of knowledge about our evolutionary past. It's good to be reminded about the silliness of the movement behind Intelligent Design though, as I was in an article in this week's Onion about Intelligent Falling, the alternative to the theory of gravity.

And I'm back in the Netherlands after a short but fun trip to the States; we got to hang out in Cambridge and Boston with my friend Gary, and had a fun time in Akron for my sister's wedding. My girlfriend and I also joined my folks for an Indians game, my first in years, and despite some rain and bad Tribe pitching, it was nice to be back at Jacobs Field. I had a hot dog and got myself a new cap and my lady friend seemed to not object to her first baseball experience (although it was mainly the funky mustard that excited her, I think (understandably so -- you're missing out if you haven't had the stadium mustard in Cleveland -- I'm not kidding)).