Kim sent me the link for this story a couple of days ago. At first I was a bit skeptical; it seemed almost too much to really be true. I checked it out, and it's in fact a true story, with its own website, lots of independent news stories, YouTube videos, and a segment next week (Dec. 26) on the NBC Today Show. It's a wonderful testimony to the human spirit, and a real life love story. So I thought to share it with you all during this Holiday season.


Dick and Rick Hoyt are a father-and-son team from Massachusetts who together compete just about continuously in marathon races. And if they’re not in a marathon they are in a triathlon — that daunting, almost superhuman, combination of 26.2 miles of running, 112 miles of bicycling, and 2.4 miles of swimming. Together they have climbed mountains, and once trekked 3,735 miles across America.
It’s a remarkable record of exertion — all the more so when you consider that Rick can't walk or talk.
For the past twenty five years or more Dick, who is 65, has pushed and pulled his son across the country and over hundreds of finish lines. When Dick runs, Rick is in a wheelchair that Dick is pushing. When Dick cycles, Rick is in the seat-pod from his wheelchair, attached to the front of the bike. When Dick swims, Rick is in a small but heavy, firmly stabilized boat being pulled by Dick.
At Rick’s birth in 1962 the umbilical cord coiled around his neck and cut off oxygen to his brain. Dick and his wife, Judy, were told that there would be no hope for their child’s development.
"It’s been a story of exclusion ever since he was born," Dick told me. "When he was eight months old the doctors told us we should just put him away — he’d be a vegetable all his life, that sort of thing. Well those doctors are not alive any more, but I would like them to be able to see Rick now." ...   more »

More evidence that the basic "laws of physics" favor evolution of life? (ron)

Nanoscale ice formations resembling the double helices of DNA will form when water molecules are frozen inside carbon nanotubes, detailed computer simulations suggest.
Researchers at the University of Nebraska, US, used a supercomputer to run detailed mathematical models of the behaviour of water molecules. In their simulations, they inserted the molecules into carbon nanotubes under high pressure, before cooling them to -23°C.
The scientists were surprised to see the molecules organise themselves into "spiral staircase" arrangements similar to those of a DNA helix. "It was very unexpected," Xiao Cheng Zeng, the computational nanotechnology expert who led the research told New Scientist. ...   more »

As many of you know, CNET editor James Kim and his family went missing on November 27th, when they were expected to return home after Thanksgiving. A massive hunt ensued, and while Jim's wife Kati and their two children, Penelope (4 years) and Sabine (7 months), were rescued near their snow-trapped car this past Monday, Jim had set out in search of help the Saturday previous. After 11 days in the wilderness of Oregon, Jim's body was found yesterday. Fighting for days, Jim apparently succumbed to hypothermia.
Ars Technica is deeply saddened by the loss of James Kim and the tragedy that has befallen the Kim family. Greg Sandoval has written a touching memorial of James Kim, and while I never met the man, I certainly wish that I had. James Kim was a man who believed in family and integrity, and it's unfortunate that tragedies such as this sometimes have to remind us of what is most important in life. ...   more »