As Rod’s alter ego I often channel him. The channel is noisy and not all the noise is coherent noise.
Rod has spent much of his life seeking to accomplish things he was ill-prepared to succeed at. He earned a BS degree in geology, an MS in geophysics, and an unrecognized minor in Mathematics, all from the University of Wisconsin (Milwaukee). After twenty years in the oil & gas exploration business and a brief stint at a complexity science company, he re-tooled.
Twenty four credits in chemistry at the University of Alaska ill-prepared him (no fault of the University) to matriculate a PhD program in Pharmacology (Case Western Reserve University). He was the oldest student in the department, and probably the entire School of Medicine. Four and a half years later he defended his PhD dissertation (with distinction). He is now enthusiastic about nearly anything related to Systems Biology. His publications in this area have avoided obscurity owing to a greater than zero number of citations.
Rod is ambitious to write and publish a novel. He is largely unprepared to accomplish this. Except he does read a lot.
Rod was unprepared but eternally grateful to marry the Happy Wife, pictured here on her fiftieth birthday (here five years later).
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In the distant past on this blog Rufus the Airedale channeled Rod. With a similar level of noisiness. It has been said that a man’s selection of his canine companion says a great deal about his world view. The man, not the canine. Let there be no doubt.
Airedale Philosophy – What “Sit” Means to an Airedale
By Fran Peck
When I worked Shepherds, you tell them to sit, they sit because you told them to.
With Airedales, they rationalize and philosophize everything.
“You want me to sit? Why? Is it necessary that I sit now (temporal analysis)? What is it about my sitting that pleases you (psychological analysis)? Do I have to sit in that space (spatial analysis). I don’t think it looks nearly as good a place as this one over here (landscape analysis). Besides, I really would prefer to stand or down. Sitting, hmmmm. Yes, well, let’s discuss the intrinsic value of the sit. To sit or not to sit, that is the question. Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of sitting…that is, is it better to sit and not get corrected (or get a treat) than to not sit and get corrected (or not get a treat). Besides I cannot live by sit alone. However, if we analyze this on the basis of Kant’s universal principle: ‘an action can be called right if it can coexist with everyone’s freedom in accordance with a universal law…’ I would have to say that sitting probably can’t coexist with *everyone’s* freedom. It certainly is a violation of my Airedale freedom. What are you, a specist? By the way, I forgot the command. Would you repeat it again, please?”
Anyway, you get the drift…
Fran