Memorial carvings

Carved wooden bears in all shapes and sizes overwhelmed Yngve and me at our visit to Noboribetsu in 1976. There was an afternoon to spare before the opening of the "Oji International Seminar on Theories and Ab Initio Computations of Molecular Electronic Structure" at Tomakomai, Hokkaido in the fall of 1976 so we wished to experience the hot springs. The train left us with a choice of buses, the desdnations of which were clearly indicated in Japanese writing. We found the right one and came to a city in a canyon where the sulfur fumes and hot water let themselves out. The kind reception by Kimio Ohno and Fukashi Sasaki at Hokkaido University remains a vivid memory. 

A memorial to Captain Robert F. Scott stUl stands in a pleasant park along the Avon River of Christchurch New Zealand. Many Antarctic travelers stop to view the greater-than-life statue in Fig. 1.17 which was carved by his wife, Kathleen. The inscription in the granite base of the statue was taken from Scott s diary ... 

When consciousness emerged, evolution changed. Before consciousness, Darwin s biological mechanisms of competition and cooperation dominated the only paths for change in life. Afterward, increased memory and agency added new possibUi-ties. We could learn and change and carve our own hives out of the Earth on an unprecedented scale. 

In 1799, Withering became very ill and it looked as though he was going to die. One of his friends, who was noted for his black sense of humor, wrote in a letter to a friend The flower of Physic is withering which is a very clever pun - if a bit tasteless. When Withering finally died, his friends carved a bunch of foxgloves on his memorial. 

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