Scholarly News

We have very good news! Nathan had his boards about a week ago, and he was successfully upgraded to a full Ph.D. candidate. According to the system here, all Ph.D. students are technically considered masters students their first year. During that first year they are expected to produce a significant piece of writing, upon which basis they will then be upgraded for years two and three. Here at the University of Edinburgh, the upgrade process includes an oral defense in front of a board. Nathan wrote one of the chapters of his dissertation (here, thesis), and defended that before his board on June 17. I'm sure he'll have more information to post later, but the imporant news is that he was successfully upgraded. Yay!

Another piece of good news is that Nathan has just received word that he's going to have a full length article published in an academic journal called Literature and Theology. The issue goes to press this month, and will be out soon thereafter!

Case against Planned Parenthood

The Kansas Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case against Planned Parenthood yesterday (June 12). Anyone who is interested in the status of abortion issues in America at the moment, or anyone who is interested in how a state supreme court hears arguments, will be very interested in listening to the oral arguments here. This link will take you to my sister-in-law's blog (my brother, her husband, is the attorney for Phil Kline), and you can follow a link there to listen to the entire argument. It is extremely interesting, so I'd encourage you to have a listen. (For background to the oral argument, follow the links in our May 30 post).

Parental Visit

Taking a walk.

Dad the vandal.

Mom and Dad at the Royal Botanical Gardens.

Waiting for the bus.

Z's first taste of lemon, courtesy of Yaya.

Z's funny face.

Fun times in the pool.

Future botanist in the Botanics.

Future botanist eating his subject.

Daddy and Z.