HoodedHawk

Yes, I’m biased, but that doesn’t mean this isn’t a cute picture. And regardless of what her mom says, it’s not gas; she is smiling at Daddy’s voice.

Click the picture below to get a slideshow (mouseover the pictures in the slideshow to see navigation)

Also, a bunch of other pictures are in the Family section.

Olivia Katherine

Olivia Katherine born 11:06am. 8lbs. Baby and mom doing just fine.

More pictures will be posted at: http://OliviaBoswell.net/pix3/ as I get some time.

I often make little smiley faces when I put ketchup on the kids’ plates, but these caterpillar pancakes (from My Paper Crane site) are just inspiring. I’m going to make these for my kids soon!

The Vatican press office today had a presentation on an upcoming conference, “Biological Evolution: Facts and Theories. A critical appraisal 150 years after ‘The Origin of Species'”. The event is due to take place in Rome from March 3 to 7, 2009. The congress has been jointly organized by the Pontifical Gregorian
University in Rome and the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, U.S.A., under the patronage of the Pontifical Council for Culture.

Saverio Forestiero, professor of zoology at Rome’s Torvergata University and a member of the organizing committee stated (emphasis mine):

“It is my view … that this congress represents an opportunity, neither propagandistic nor apologetic, for scientists, philosophers and theologians to meet and discuss the fundamental questions raised by biological evolution – which is assumed and discussed as a fact beyond all reasonable doubt – in order to examine its manifestations and causal mechanisms, and to analyse the impact and quality of the explanatory theories thus far proposed”.

and Fr. Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti, professor of fundamental theology at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross said (again, emphasis mine):

“from the perspective of Christian theology, biological evolution and creation are by no means mutually exclusive. … None of the evolutionary mechanisms opposes the affirmation that God wanted – in other words, created – man. Neither is this opposed by the casual nature of the many events that happened during the slow development of life, as long as the recourse to chance remains a simple scientific reading of phenomena”.

From the conference website:

Thanks to recent discoveries, we can reconsider the problem of evolution within a broader perspective then traditional neo-darwinism. In particular, we refer to the role of epigenetical mechanisms in evolution as well as to new developments produced by the theory of complexity and by the study of incidence on the environment of living species, especially in regards to the value and significance of intelligent behaviour. In this context, which witnesses the intertwining of several fields of knowledge, an appropriate consideration is needed more than ever before.
…
The conference is organized into sections which will first present those facts that are known, then expand on the scientific theories that try to explain evolutionary mechanisms, on humanization, on philosophical questions and finally on the theological issues about Evolution.

I can’t make the conference, but I am definitely looking forward to the proceedings when they are published.

This is an hysterical news brief from The Onion:

A team of nine specially trained handlers have successfully lured outgoing vice president Dick Cheney into a reinforced steel traveling crate in order to transport him back to his permanent enclosure in Casper, WY, official sources reported Monday. “He’s a smart one. Once he sees the crate, he gets pretty nippy, but we’ve learned a few tricks over the years,” chief VP wrangler Ted Irving breathlessly said while applying pressure to a deep gash on his forearm. “If we break a rabbit’s legs and throw it in there, he will eventually go in to finish it off. Doesn’t work with dead rabbits, though. Cheney only eats what he kills.”

– see Vice Presidential Handlers Lure Cheney Into Traveling Crate