Justice
Topic: Racism
Finally, Edgar Ray Killen is going to jail. This man has escaped justice for 40 years and he is finally going to jail. I think the only sad part about this is that the media is focusing on the killer (ironic last name!) and not the victims. I'll try to add something to this but you should have some web surfing yourself. First, here are the victims:

The two white men, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, were intended to spend the summer of 1964 as part of a movement by CORE called 'The Mississippi Summer Project', organized to ensure that blacks in Missippi registered and excersized their right to vote along with just trying to help educate people about the process. The simple idea was turned out to be not so simple. The Klu Klux Klan, abbreviated as the KKK, is a violent hate group that is organized with the goal of complete racial segregation and the return(?) of America to its 'White, Protestant roots'. They suck, but in the 60s in Mississippi they were powerful and dangerous. Michael and Andrew were on a mission to investigate a Klan church burning and beating of the congregation that was a symbol by the KKK to punish the church members for aiding the CORE movement. They were joined by a young activist local, James Chaney, and were arrested by the local sheriff. The sheriff, a Klan member, held them without any means of outside contact and then released them in the middle of the night to face the whims of Killen and his cohorts. That was their last night on alive.

Finally, Killen is going to jail. Most of the other people involved did some jail time or have since died. None received appropriate jail time and Killen had escaped justice altogether. No longer. Finally the families can feel that justice is done. Hopefully Killen will get great medical care so he has plenty of time to regret the life he has led.

Here are the celebrating families. James' brother and Michael's wife.

To get some more history lessons check out a Google
on the victims.

Finally, things in the world are getting a bit better. Caltech is finally desegregating.

Boston
Topic: Travel
Okay, we started the morning in T?rnby, a section of K?benhavn near the airport there in glorius Denmark. We had booked a hotel 'near' the airport, and in fact it wasn't too far, the problem was that it looked good on the internet but it turned out to be somewhere between a hostel and a real hotel. The room was really small. We had our own toilet and shower; however, the two were the same meaning that I could use both at the same time. Maybe it was cool.

Next we took the train (didn't buy a ticket) to the airport. Got on the plane and headed to London. Heathrow was a short stay and now we are back in Boston. Goodnight and god bless america.

Final Update
Topic: Travel
Well the wedding was fantastic. We had a wonderful time in the north of Denmark and enjoyed watching the ceremonies of our friends. Although we missed out on all the speeches (in Danish) we did still enjoy all of the customs that surrounded the wedding. The ceremony started at 2pm and we got back to the hotel around 2:30am. The sun was coming up.

Our trip has been a success and we are now in the train station in Kobenhavn preparing to go to our hotel. We have been measuring our days in beds and we only have one more left.

Next update in Boston.

Copenhagen
Topic: Travel
The weather has been great. We are having a wonderful time. I've been hosted by a friend for a seminar at Carlberg Brewery. We are actually living in the brewery and get all the free beer we want. It is amazing.

Copenhagen is a nice town so far. We have had a chance to visit Elsinore as well and got to see 'Hamlet's' Castle. Nice. We also ate dinner in our friends garden which was about as lovely a way to spend an evening as one can enjoy. The long evenings here really allow one to enjoy a nice day.

Okay, I'm off to Tivoli gardens and the rest of the city. Tomorrow, we head north to Frederikhavn (not pronounced as it looks) and then Saturday, Wedding! We're excited and our livers will be ready.

In-Laws
Topic: Travel


The last two days we spent with my wife's parents. We had a nice visit although it is still hard when I don't speak the language.

Yesterday we again saw the royal family, go figure, and witnessed the opening of the new Nobel Peace Prize center. It was an impressive showing. Music, navy men, etc...

The rest of the day we spent touring different parts of the city. The town was having a celebration about Oslo but also celebrating the 100th anniversary of independence from Sweden.

Today we rented a car and headed south. Unfortunately it rained nearly all day so we spent most of the day in the car. We did get to a point called Verdens Ende where the rocky coast met the sea and we walked on the rocks out to the waters edge. The weather had finally let up and we enjoyed it a lot. See pick on the right, very nice.

Norway and Royalty
Topic: Travel
Today was a good day. The weather was perfect. It is now about 10 past midnight here and it isn't completely dark yet. Really wild. Not sure it will get dark but I guess I won't stay up to see, still I am curious. We saw some cool things today. Went to the island of Brygdoy and visited a Viking Ship Museum, finally, some stuff about Vikings. Saw some ships that originated around 900AD. So cool. Also went to Thor Heyerdahl's Kon-Tiki Museum and saw the Ra II, the reed ship he took from Africa to America. It was interesting. Then we saw some works by Munch at the National Museum. The coolest was 'The Madonna' and, of course, the remaining copy of 'The Scream'. It definitely seemed like security was low-key but we are finding that to be a common Scandinavian trait. People here have better things to do than steal.

That being said, the prices are crazy. Spent over 40 bucks on a very simple lunch. Hard to keep the prices down. No beer for us. Should get in another update before we leave here. Tomorrow, the in-law day.

Science Day part II
Topic: Travel
Wow, the weather has really turned for the better. We woke up to a day of fantastic sunshine and clear blue skies. The temperature hadn't climbed too high but it was definitely nice to be outside.

Unfortunately (?) I spent the day inside. I use the question mark sincerely because I had a wonderful day visiting the Biochemistry and Biophysics Department at Stockholm University. It turned out to be very beneficial because I was able to learn about their methods for high throughput protein overexpression. They have used some ingenious techniques that I will hopefully be able to use at home. Additionally, I had the chance to talk science with some real experts in my field which is always a pleasurable experience. I learned quite a lot.

This leaves me with a thought for the day. It is common knowledge (?), look up the refs., that GFP does not fold in the periplasm of eubacteria and therefore does not flouresce. The question is, why?

We are off to Oslo tomorrow morning taking the train with a change in Gothenburg. Hopefully the weather will hold. Oslo, according to the news, has been warmer than Stockholm over the past week so we will get to have some T-shirt weather (fingers crossed).

History
Topic: Travel
The highlight of today was a visit to the Vasamuseet which is a museum built around a 17th century warship built by King Gustav Adolphus to fight in the wars against his cousin, deposed king of Sweden, current king of Poland. Unfortunately, this huge and ornately decorated ship sank only about a kilometer after first setting sail. Due to the lack of shipworms (the kind that eat wood under water) in the Baltic, the ship was preserved for almost 330 years before it was resurrected from the mud and restored into the museum. Very cool.

We also took a boat tour which allowed us to view many of the islands which make up the city of Stockholm, all diverse, with different communities physically separated.

Sverige Day
Topic: Travel
Okay, second update for today. Today was great. The weather was warm enough and it was partly cloudy skies all day. A new thing for us. We connected with my Aunt and Cousin and then had a visit around De Gamla stan and toured a bit around the city. Stockholm is huge. We only saw parts of it but in a lot of ways it reminded us of other lively bright european towns such as Prague, Paris and Vienna. We also found out this morning that today was the first celebration of Swedishness as a holiday called Nationaldagan. Evidently this extreme display of patriotism was a bit much for the average Swedish citizen, still, as a holiday, the streets were packed and people were out and about. Of course, the turn in the weather didn't hurt, hope it holds out. Typically the day is remembered as the coronation day of the first true Swedish king, Gustav Vasa, crowned on June 6th, 1523. A true day to be remembered. Of course, the day was marked by the fascists as well:

"We are demonstrating on behalf of all those who still believe in nationhood and race," said Per, a demonstrator who would only give his first name.

Who came out in record numbers (400) on Odenplan square, not far from our hotel. We on the otherhand, were across town and witnessed the Anti-fascists who numbered about twice the others, but, of course they were anti-globalization as well. Mixed messages. Still, interesting.

SWEDEN
Topic: Travel
Made it successfully to Stockholm. Weather is....grey, cold, wet. So, you are missing out on a lot. Actually the town is lovely so far, keep watching.