A Free Man

By the time the dust settles in places like San Antonio, Morgantown and Jacksonville on Saturday night we’ll know who will be playing for the NCAA football National Championship. For the first time since I have been an alum of any school, one of my alma maters has a shot at playing for the crown and control their own destiny. Unfortunately, that alma mater is the University of Missouri and the Tigers destiny is a rematch Saturday night in San Antonio, Texas with the Sooners of the University of Oklahoma.

The Tigers are red hot and this year’s Cinderella team. They’ve powered their way to an 11-1 record and number one ranking behind an explosive offense and an adequate defense. They plowed their way Continue Reading »

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“had a dad big and strong turned around found my daddy gone he was the one made me what I am today its up to me now my daddy has gone away…” -Jane’s Addiction - “Had A Dad” It has been a rough week around the ranch this week. I realized that my Thanksgiving turkey was undercooked after I started carving (damn cheap meat thermometer) and required some emergency procedures. Lest you worry that a dinner invitation from me is a poison pen, this is a first in nearly a decade of turkeys and all of my guests are still alive and well. The dog, presumably in protest of his demotion of status in the pack, has reverted to his fence jumping behavior that anyone who came to one of our parties in Columbia will be familiar with. I have been struggling at work, both with motivation and getting any kind of experimental results. And I’m pretty sure that I’m going to fail my driving test again tomorrow (that is a post in itself)*. But the biggest source of stress this week has been the boy. I am really struggling with him this week. Seems that he doesn’t really like the way I do things. I can’t soothe him and can’t get him to sleep. Fortunately, his Mum can. A bigger issue is that, in a move of defiance, he will no longer take the bottle from either of us. This means that I can no longer give Dr. O’C relief with a late night feed or a night out. In an already rough week the pessimist in me comes raging out and I start to worry that I’m a rubbish father. I was talking with a friend today and he was saying that he wanted to make some time to get back into voluntary work, to help make society better. I agreed with him and bemoaned the fact that I just don’t have time to do much with Baby Z in our lives. He responded: “Chris, you being there and raising your son is doing something good for society.” And that’s when it made sense and I stopped feeling like a failure. Just by making the effort - unsuccessful as it may be right now - I am doing my bit to be a good father. Because increasingly fathers just aren’t there. There has been a recent debate in Britain about the reasons for the surge in violent crime involving young men and boys. One of the reasons that’s put forward is the number of these boys that are being raised in a single parent household. Two-thirds of African-American children are being raised by single mothers or grandparents. In Britain, close to 25% of children are being raised in single parent household and in some inner city communities, that figure exceeds 50%. Inner city youth groups cite this lack of a positive male role model as the biggest reason for the increase in gang violence in Britain. It is not a popular position among certain liberal policy makers, but statistically children with two parents are better off than those from single parent households. A survey by the Georgia Department of Corrections found that 80% of youth offenders in detention were from single parent households as were over 70% of high school dropouts according to an American school principals organization. In a study by researchers at the University of Maryland children who identified a father or father figure scored higher on basic learning skill tests, had a stronger sense of competence and social acceptance and were less likely to be depressed compared to children without fathers. I’m not actually sure that it’s “fathers” per se or just two parents that kids need. Recently, in Britain there has been a hubbub because some archbishop or another said that lesbian couple were not as competent to raise a child as a heterosexual couple. I am not jumping on that bandwagon - I believe, and some studies support, that any manifestation that means a child has two parents is better for the child than a single parent family. I reckon that their are gay couples that are better parents than straight couples and some are probably worse and most are probably the same. Throughout my week full of minor disasters, Dr. O’C - in her inimitable fashion - has been accusing me of throwing myself a pity party, a bad case of the pour me’s. There may be some truth to that. I can make Baby Z smile, he loves it when I sing to him (and he is the only person that I can say that about) and I am the king of getting him back to sleep in the night. When I think about it this way, maybe fatherhood isn’t as hard as I’m making it out to be. Just by turning up I’m doing better than a lot of my peers. Just my turning up I’m giving Z chances that other boys will never have. That’s a pretty good deal. Now if I could just get him to drink out of that damn bottle - his Dad never had a problem with that. * At the time of publication, I have now passed my driving test!

 

 Jane's Addiction - "Had A Dad" [3:45m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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My friend and fellow scientist Jason has been hassling me to write a post about the recent stem cell breakthroughs that have been all over the news for the last week. Two research groups, one led by Shinya Yamanaka at Kyoto University and the other by James Thomson at the University of Wisconsin, have published papers in Cell and Science respectively describing the induction of stem cells from somatic cells. I’ve hesitated to write about this because it has been getting lots of coverage in the Continue Reading »

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This week in Science Tuesday we’ll focus on research with implications on the beginnings and the ends of human life. First, a study from Yale looking at the morality of infants and second, a paper from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Seattle suggesting that a certain class of anti-depressant can increase the lifespan of nematodes. Continue Reading »

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“Please press my rec and play
’cause I want to save this moment
This will be my favourite song
This will be my favourite album…”

-I’m From Barcelona - “Rec & Play”

I find most “kids” music tooth-achingly annoying. It tends to be oversimplified versions of traditional or classic top 40 songs performed by sub-par musicians or saccharine sweet Disney creations designed to sell some sort of merchandise line. The thing is, however, that kids really seem like this bold, major chords and primary colors style of music and they’re not Continue Reading »

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Oh, come on. On my My Yahoo home page, leading the Reuters U.S. National News this morning was this headline:

Walmart.com offering online holiday deals all week

How, exactly, is this the most important U.S. news story of the day? How is this news at all? Has Reuters been purchased by Wal-Mart? If you read the story it is what you would think it is - a Wal-Mart advert.

I’ve got a news story:

U.S. PIRG Report: Tainted Toys Still on Wal-Mart Shelves

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I have been following the election melodrama in the States pretty closely - I’m a sucker for political theater. While some people bemoan the extended schedule for next year’s presidential election, I’m thrilled by it - the expanded schedule means months and months of debates and polls and baby kissing and Continue Reading »

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Seven in a row over the North Avenue Trade School. It was a wild and weird game - as Georgia - Georgia Tech usually is - but a solid win for the Bulldogs. Senior tailback Thomas Brown was the Big Dawg of the day with 139 yards rushing and one touchdown.

It’s a great way to finish up a great regular season for the Dawgs - a 10-2 record and likely to be ranked in the top 5 in the country. We just missed out on a chance to play for the SEC Championship, but should end up in a BCS bowl game anyway- I’ve heard chatter about the Orange Bowl. Kudos to Coach Mark Richt for turning the team around after a couple of tough losses against Tennessee and South Carolina with huge wins against Tech, Auburn and the hated Gators. What a year!

Kansas and Missouri kick off in less than an hour and all I need to make rivalry weekend even better is a big Mizzou win. I just found out that my pre-game post was linked to in a Wall Street Journal article! Cool, maybe Rupert Murdoch reads my blog…

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Today was a good day. In my last college football related post of the weekend, Chase Daniel and the Missouri Tigers had a great night in Kansas City with a decisive win over Kansas. Daniel connected on more than 80% of his passes for over 361 yards and three touchdowns - a performance that should really make him a favorite for the Heisman Trophy. With the win, the Tigers should be ranked No. 1 in the country and control their own destiny. They are looking at a rematch with the Oklahoma Sooners in San Antonio, Texas - with a win in that game they are playing for the National Championship. Who would of thought it? (Certainly not me).

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