Image of Shroud of Turin showing positive and negative displays by source: Dianelos Georgoudis, CC BY-SA 3.0 https:creativecommons.org licenses by-sa3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
As the “science guy” in school, I got a lot of questions. They weren’t science questions, unless it was for answers on the high school chemistry exam. (And they were asked during the actual taking of the exam!) No, my friends usually asked me questions about science fiction.
That irked me.
OK, so here’s something many people didn’t know about me back then. As much of a Trekker that I was (and still am – but only for Star Trek: TOS), I was no fan of science fiction. Sure, I liked 2001: A Space Odyssey (the movie, I hated the book). Yes, I read Isaac Asimov’s I Robot (during catechism class at St. Pius because I was bored, and it was on the bookshelf I sat next to).
But, in general, I found most science fiction too dystopian, too depressing, and, well, too Continue Reading “Faith, Reason, And The Shroud Of Turin”
Tourist Traps to Timeless Landscapes
We’d long left Chicago’s skyline behind for the flatlands. Of course, before the wide-open spaces, we traversed Wisconsin and Minnesota. It’s kind of arbitrary, but somehow poetic, to declare that crossing the Mississippi River truly makes you feel “out West” for the first time.
I-90 crosses the Mississippi on the Wisconsin-Minnesota border immediately south of Lake Onalaska. Yeah, they call it a lake, but it looks like it’s part of the river. Stretching 4 miles across, this is the widest span of the Mississippi River (if you include the Lake).
Oddly, crossing the Mississippi didn’t immediately scream “out West.” Instead, my brain went Continue Reading “Tourist Traps to Timeless Landscapes”