The UA College of Science is launching its spring lecture series, focusing on the mind and the brain, tomorrow night. The talks start at 7 p.m. at UA's Centennial Hall.

Lynn Nadel, a Regents' Professor in Psychology, will discuss "Building Brains, Making Minds":

What does the brain do? The ancients thought it was a radiator, cooling the blood. Modern views see it as an activator, using inputs from the environment in combination with prior knowledge to generate behaviors (walking, talking, eating and drinking) and mental states (feelings, desires and beliefs). Recently the idea has emerged that the brain acts as a predictor, using inputs and stored knowledge to generate models of the world, and of the consequences of possible actions we and others might pursue. These models can predict what will happen in the next minute, hour or decade, and allow us to behave in the most adaptive way.

Our two U.S. senators, John McCain and Jon Kyl, made their first tag-team appearance on Arizona Illustrated last night. Their biggest difference: McCain says the Republicans should not have spent so much money expanding prescription-drug coverage for Medicare patients in 2003, while Kyl continues to defend his vote for the entitlement, even as he complains that the Democratic health-care reform package would cost too much.

Kyl also isn't sure whether waterboarding is torture, while McCain stands by his earlier comments that it is.

Watch it after the jump.

• NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

One more Mars photo from this week's batch of photos from the UA's HiRISE camera.

HiRISE team member Maria Banks tells us:

This observation shows a northwestern portion of the floor of a crater in the Arabia Terra region of Mars.

In the subimage, several light-toned layered outcrops are

Donna DeConcini gave us a call today to let us know about her newish farmers’ market that’s held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., every Friday and Saturday, at 8995 E. Tanque Verde Road, on the northwest corner of Catalina Highway and Tanque Verde Road.

Items sold at the organic market include produce grown on an ultra-small scale in backyard gardens (salad greens, eggplant, spinach, sweet peas, beets and onions), chili rellenos, tamales, meat from San Rafael Valley Natural Grass-Fed Beef, eggs, organic dog biscuits, spice blends from the Doc Kendrick Spice Company, goods made or harvested by the Iskashitaa Refugee Harvesting Network and wares crafted by local artisans. Green chilis, garlic and bell peppers are also roasted regularly.

The market holds a rummage sale the last Saturday of every month, where local groups are welcome to sell goods or collectibles. Call 982-2645 for more information.

• Courtesy Arizona Public Media

I really can't shower enough praise on Joey Burns, John Convertino and the rest of the guys that make up Calexico. I'm hooked on the music, a mash-up of rock-and-roll and mariachi seasoned with a lot of other flavors that could only have been cooked up in Tucson's barrio. And I stand in awe of the size of their hearts; these guys regularly give away the money from their local gigs KXCI, Solar Culture, Humane Borders and other causes. (They're headlining an all-day music fest in the streets of Barrio Viejo in April, so get your tickets now!)

I've been fortunate enough to see them play not only in Tucson, but in Seattle, Portland, Flagstaff and Phoenix in the last couple of years, and I can assure they rock the house whether they go.

But enough fanboy gushing. Arizona Public Media producer Luis Carrión has a profile of the band coming up this weekend on In Tune, a new show featuring local musicians that's hosted by jazz vocalist Katherine Byrnes. The show includes snippets of performances at the Rialto Theatre and inside Eric Firestone's swank new downtown gallery on Sixth Avenue.

The show airs at 10:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 20 and Sunday, Feb. 21 at 3:30 a.m. on Channel 6, but you get a sneak preview right now. Just push play.

"Givenchy" is among the pieces that will be available for purchase during "Pop Up Shop" on Saturday, Feb. 20 at Zoe Boutique, 735 N. Fourth Ave. "Pop Up Shop" will be from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. with live models and a cocktail party from 5 to 10 p.m.

• Good things are afoot when the menu board looks like this.

Today was my day off from the Tucson Weekly and the weather was heavenly, so I rolled out to check out the wonderful road-food scene blossoming in the Flowing Wells/Wetmore roads area.

My first stop was the new barbecue stand called the Mesquite Pit at 1075 W. Wetmore Road. It's a lunch truck with a tarped seating area covering two tables, eight mismatched chairs and little else.

Bob Bjorke runs the place, and we sat for a while talking about his 18 years in the barbecue business. He smiles a lot and is damn proud of the food he serves. His company, the Mesquite Pit Catering Company, has catered events for everyone from the Pascua Yaqui tribe to the Carondelet Health Network. He smokes his meats "slow and low" using mesquite wood. His food is good, and his friendly personality

• JOSHUA MORGAN
• Gaege Root, a mechanical engineering student at the UA, feeble-grinds a ledge in Downtown Tucson.

"Photography gives us the ability to encapsulate the emotionally powerful seconds in life that we wouldn't take notice of normally," says Joshua Morgan, who has been taking pictures since he was 17.

A transplant from Sierra Vista, Ariz., the UA sophomore is developing his visual storytelling skills at the School of Journalism and producing short video packages in his spare time.

For more of his work, visit his blog on VII Visionaires.

Congressman Raul Grijalva thinks there's still hope for the public option in health-care reform:

As a co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, I have championed the creation of a public option since the health care reform debate began, and I believe its inclusion in a reconciliation bill is crucial. Over the past year, numerous economic analyses, including a Congressional Budget Office report, have shown the public option to be a major deficit reducer over the long term. The public option favored