Archive: July 17, 2010

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TDF stage 13 / rollers / Vinokourov denies sprinters by attacking to win, GC unchanged, Petacchi back in Green

Saturday,  07/17/10  06:49 PM

Vino turns on the gas at the end and attacks to win stage 13, ahead of a hard-charging pelotonOn a day which would seem to belong to the sprinters, a transitional stage with few climbs and lots of rollers, Alexander Vinokourov attacked at the end and won, following his near-miss yesterday.  I think we were all pulling for him, it was a great victory; he had to burn some serious watts to hold off the charging peloton at the end.  Mark Cavendish won the field sprint for 2nd, and Alexander Petacchi finished 3rd, putting enough points on Thor Hushovd to reclaim the green jersey.  The overall GC was unchanged as the climbers rested up for tomorrow's serious tour of the Pyrenees.

Speaking of tomorrow; near the end we have the HC Port de Pailhères to soften up the field followed immediately by a mountaintop finish on the Cat 1 Ax-3 Domaines.  A real mountain stage and we should see some interesting racing!

[ Tour de France 2010: all postsindex ]

 

Dorothea Tanning's "La Sonnambula"

Saturday,  07/17/10  06:52 PM

The New Yorker recently ran a short piece on surrealist Dorothea Tanning's costumes and sets for George Balanchine's dance productions; intrigued, I asked Mr. Google for some examples, and here you go:


costumes for La Sonnambula

Wow.  I'm not the biggest fan of dance, but I'd definitely want to see this production :)

 

staying cool in the heat

Saturday,  07/17/10  07:02 PM

A scorching day, in which I slept in, enjoyed Le Tour, took a great ride up Rockstore (in *ahem* 105° heat), and then settled in for some serious database and spreadsheet work... 


staying cool while riding Rockstore in 105° heat

...oh, and in there somewhere I troubled to do a little blogging...

Last night my Kindle's battery ran out - it lasts so long, I forget to charge it sometimes - and I was reduced to reading an actual book while falling asleep.  On my nightstand was The Last Theorem, a book someone must have given me a few years ago, science fiction by Frederik Pohl ("Gateway"!) and Arthur C. Clarke ("2001"!).  It's a great book - pulled me in immediately, and cannot wait to keep reading it tonight - but it was also an interesting experience.  Turns out in the dimness of night Kindles are actually easier to read, and they certainly weigh less.  Also you don't have to hold a Kindle in such a way as to keep the pages from turning on their own... 

Space travel becomes ever closer to reality: Virgin Galactic's VSS Enterprise makes its first crewed flight.  Man, I wish I had enough money to be one of the first passengers.  I would so like to do this.  Hopefully by the time it is possible I'll be able to afford to travel to Titan :) 

Playing the game of life in HTML5...  I have seen many implementations of this over the years, this one is cool because it is so interactive; it always amazes me that so much complexity can emerge from such simple rules.  Much like life and physics! 

Stay cool y'all and enjoy the rest of the weekend...

 

 
 

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