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Archive: July 2010
Tour de France 2010 Following are all my Tour de France 2010 posts, in ascending chronological order...
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TDF prologue / Dutch treat! - Cancellara wins, Lance beats Alberto |
Greetings all! As I did last year, I'm going to make separate posts each day for the Tour de France... that way you can read them after you've watched the stage on your Tivo (!), or ignore them entirely if you are so inclined. These posts contain my commentary; for complete reports I suggest the Tour de France website and Velonews and CyclingNews.
Tomorrow is a stage for the sprinters - the GC guys will just try to avoid crashing - stay tuned as we find out if Mark Cavendish is going to dominate the flats again! |
Gulf Sky and Water (New Yorker, 7/5/10) |
"after Escher, Gulf Sky and Water"
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independence weekend |
Today was a good day; got up early to watch the Tour de France prologue, worked, worked out, did a little tanning and reading, watched Germany annihilate Argentina (man will they be a formidable opponent for the Oranje in the World Cup final), and enjoyed a great BBQ / dinner with friends (at which the appropriate wine pairing for Buffalo wings was determined to be Riesling rather than Grenache...) We also managed to debate the chances of Meg Whitman over Jerry Brown (judged lower than we all want !) and the culpability of BP for the Gulf spill, shared with the government, and judged nearly infinite in view of the economic and ecological harm being caused... An amazing article in the Economist: Intelligence tested, which floats the theory that intelligence is correlated with "disease burden". Once again an amazing exercise in confusion between correlation and causality, caused by excess political correctness. The best part is this chart (copied for posterity) showing the measured IQ in 184 countries, together with the measure of "disease burden". Further columns showing economic well-being and birth rate would be quite revealing, I think...
Science: stem cells from blood a huge milestone. "Blood drawn with a simple needle stick can be coaxed into producing stem cells that may have the ability to form any type of tissue in the body, three independent papers report in the July 2 Cell Stem Cell. The new technique will allow scientists to tap a large, readily available source of personalized stem cells."
A new definition for slow: Forth in Lisp. Why?
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Happy Birthday, USA! |
On this day I think about what it is like elsewhere; there are so many people who are not free, who do not have liberty or the ability to pursue their own happiness, who must hide their dreams and who may never have the chance to work to make them real. But I do, and my family, and my neighbors, and all my countrymen, and we must never take this for granted. My biggest challenge today is compete in a sailboat race, and eat BBQ, and ponder the best wine to drink while doing so. I hope you have an equally great day! Happy Birthday!! |
TDF stage 1 / flat / crashes mar finish as Petacchi wins sprint |
Onward to stage 2 - a classic ride through the Ardennes forest - could be a chance for a breakaway as there are a number of climbs toward the end... |
third on the fourth |
Today I celebrated the Fourth of July as usual, headed down to Westlake Yacht Club for the annual 'Round the Island Race; I managed to finish *third*, okay but, well, not first. This race is a reverse start, slowest boats start first, fastest last, and the race was won by a guy who started ten minutes ahead of me, and I could never catch up. So be it... there's always next year :) We did manage to have a great time enjoying a beautiful day on the water...
I hope your Fourth was equally good? |
Still no link between cell phones and cancer. Whew. Still, I'm sure the researchers out there will keep trying, there *must* be a link, right? Kind of like cold fusion, the publicity at stake is just too huge...
Steve Steinberg: new developments in AI. Fascinating and illuminating article, for those of us waiting for intelligent machines... [ via BoingBoing ]
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TDF stage 2 / rollers / crashes on slippery descent cause peloton to stop racing; Chavanel escapes to victory |
My own view is that while Cancellara did the right thing for his teammates, the peloton was under no obligation to stop; rain, slippery roads, crashes, and so on are part of bike racing, and it is what it is. I'm honestly surprised some of the sprinters didn't race it out for second. I've read that the officials have neuralized all the points for the peloton after Chavanel, which makes sense given the way they didn't race, but if ten guys had sprinted for the finish, surely they would have been awarded points also? How very weird. Tomorrow we have the infamous stage 3 over cobblestones; doubtless there will be those who fall, and those who have mechanicals, and so on; let's hope the peloton race it out! [Update: the various reactions from riders are interesting; I am a little more sympathetic now to the peloton's actions...] |
And so it was back to work for me today (after a relaxing weekend "off"); much to do, much to catch up on, and while I got a lot done I have a lot left to do... so what else is new, I know, cue the violins :) Seems like everything is due at once, feels like finals week! Meanwhile it was a quiet day "out there" - I think everyone else was on holiday - but tomorrow will be a big day; we have The Netherlands against Uruguay in the World Cup semifinals (go Oranje!), and the much-anticipated stage 3 of the Tour de France on the cobblestoned streets of Belgium. And the work week gets going again for everyone... but in the meantime, a quick filter pass...
Random thought: what the heck happened to Hilary Clinton? Is it just me, or has she disappeared?
Razib considers Authenticity and the Fermi Paradox. It defies synopsis but it's an interesting hypothesis. (The Fermi Paradox is the apparent contradiction between high estimates of the probability of the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations and the lack of evidence for, or contact with, such civilizations.) There really is such a thing as underwater basket weaving. Who knew?
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TDF stage 3 / cobblestones! / Hushovd siezes the day, takes green, Cancellera back in yellow |
The real battle among the GC contenders was pretty interesting; Cadel Evans had a great day, and now leads among those considered capable of winning the GC, and Alberto Contador had a good day too, not only surviving but picking up time on Lance Armstrong and Ivan Basso. Cancellara paced Andy Schleck to a strong finish, and Alexander Vinokourov had a strong day, leading out Contador and ending up high up on GC himself. Wow! Tomorrow we all relax and have a "normal" field sprint. I bet the peloton takes it easy, there are a lot of tired and bruised riders after the first four days... |
NED 3 URG 2 - we're in the final! |
On tivo-delay, yippee! The Oranje prevailed convincingly over Uruguay today, 3-2, and now face the winner of tomorrow's Germany-Spain match in the final. I'm picking Germany to win that one, they looked incredibly strong against Argentina. But Spain are good too, and defeated Germany in the 2008 European Cup final. Meanwhile the Dutch clearly outclassed Uruguay, the outcome was never in doubt. They've looked pretty good in South Africa, the only team which has won all of their matches. Should be a great final on Sunday, stay tuned! |
TDF stage 4 / sprint / Petacchi wins another, reclaims green |
Tomorrow is another field sprint - it will be interesting to see if Cavendish becomes a factor. |
A happy day; got up early, worked out, watched Le Tour, and worked steadily and productively all day. Capped it with a little ride in the cold damp mist and a nice dinner. And had pleasant thoughts running around in my head all through :)
Truth is stranger than The Onion: A giant step toward stupidity. "The astonishing story of the Obama administration's reorientation of NASA to serve a whole new purpose--building up the self-esteem of Muslim countries by reminding them of scientific achievements of millennia gone by." Unbelievable! Congratulations to Spain, who defeated Germany pretty handily in the "other" World Cup semifinal. This sets up a final showdown between the Spanish and the Netherlands, arguably the two best countries never to have won the grand prize. I thought Germany was the better team and that Spain would have to get lucky to win, but the Spanish defense shut down Germany entirely, while Spain had a bunch of scoring chances and could easily have won by several goals. It will be quite a match on Sunday. Go Oranje! ![]() |
TDF stage 5 / sprint / Cavendish [finally] wins one! Jerseys unchanged... |
Is Mark back? Will the confidence from this win carry him to others, or will his rivals come back and best him while fighting over the green jersey? Tomorrow will tell, as we have another flat stage... |
I'm back home, whew, after a long day; again got up early, worked out, watched Le Tour, and again had a productive day, although new projects seem to be cropping up faster than I can deal with them. I'm finishing the week with more to do than I started, for about the fourth week in a row. Yikes!
Jerry Pournelle schools the U.S. space program: "NASA's budget since Apollo has been big enough that we ought to be halfway to Alpha Centauri by now. Perhaps that's an exaggeration, but we certainly had a budget that could have taken us to Mars and the asteroids. We certainly could have a Lunar Colony." Not to mention, we certainly could have learned a lot more... I continue to mess around with Foursquare, but I'm almost fully convinced there's no there there. Okay, I could see how it might be useful if you're a 20-something with a zillion friends and you're looking for the action on any given night, but for me - and for most everyone, I suspect - it's an input-only system; you checkin where you are, and that's it. I am open to the possibility that it will grow on me - I wasn't a big Facebook user in the beginning either - so I will continue to try... Tomorrow it's another early morning of watching the tour, and then a little work before heading way up to Bear Valley for the Death Ride on Saturday... please stay tuned! |
TDF stage 6 / sprint / Cavendish notches another, Cancellara, Hushovd keep jerseys |
(blogged from a Marie Calendar's in Merced, driving to Bear Valley for the Death Ride)
[ Tour de France 2010: all posts | index ]
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You want your phone back? Our haircuts are half price today... |
This you will not believe... so I pulled off into a truck stop while driving up Route 99, had a bite to eat and did some work, and as I drive away I have that *bad* feeling like a left something behind... yep, left my phone. Yikes!
To make a weird story short, after five minutes I did finally get my phone back, and I did not have to get a haircut. Whew. On the road again... |
on the road... driving to the Death Ride |
Just hanging out in a Marie Calendar's in Merced, driving to Bear Valley for the Death Ride, and thought I'd make a quick filter pass...
Tomorrow is a big day in the Tour de France, and also in the World Cup, with the third place game between Germany and Uruguay. I'd have to pick Germany to win - they looked great until their loss to Spain - but I'm going to be rooting for Uruguay as the underdogs...
Here's a helpful article: The best South African wines to drink while watching the World Cup. I will be driving tomorrow night so I will not partake; but maybe for the final on Sunday...
Scott "Dilbert" Adams continues his string of thought-provoking posts as he considers Problems. "I like problems. Where there are problems there are opportunities... Please answer any one of these: What problem does your company's product try to solve? What is the biggest problem for people in your profession? What is the biggest problem in your industry? What is the biggest problem/constraint in your current project?" Great stuff. Facebook have killed their gift shop, apparently a $100M baby. You might be thinking the same as me, what, Facebook had a gift shop? Who knew? Virtual gifts? Here's a great question for me, while a on a long drive: What's the fastest you've driven? I'll give you my answer on Sunday :) ![]() |
TDF stage 7 / transitional climb / Chavanel wins, takes back yellow! GC unchanged... |
(blogged from a Carl's Jr. in Bishop, driving home from the Death Ride :)
Tomorrow morning the Tour really starts; stage 8 is serious alpine climbing, with two big category 1 climbs at the end including a mountaintop finish, and we should see a significant selection among the GC men. Will Lance be able to do it? Will Contador stamp his authority on the peloton? Will Andy Schleck gain back time? What about Evans? And Menchov? And Wiggins? And... Can't wait! |
on the road again... returning from the Death Ride |
I rode the Death Ride today, and survived (!), in fact it went rather well (9:48!)... I am tired but happy. But tired. I'll post more about that tomorrow when I have a chance to catch my breath. Tonight after the ride I had a nice dinner with my brother Jeroen, my cousin Anita, and her husband Tom... this ride is my annual opportunity to see them :) and so now I am driving home, currently in Bishop taking a break, and making a brief filter pass...
Looking back over my blog, I must tell you I can't believe the Fourth of July was last weekend. Must have been the longest week of all time! Yesterday I wrote "Tomorrow is a big day in the Tour de France, and also in the World Cup", but now I can write it again, in fact Tomorrow is a bigger day in the Tour de France (the first real mountain stage), and also in the World Cup (the final!). I will be watching both with great interest. Go Lance! Go Oranje!
Liran Shapira makes a subtle point: Be Impressed. "When you tell people they're making a positive impression on you, they automatically turn up the behavior that caused it." When a girl has a beautiful smile, always say so :)
A key question, asked on Slashdot: Has any creative work failed because of piracy? I can't think of anything quickly, can you? Man I need some of this: A chemical to make brain cells grow. I have been using Diet Coke and Red Wine with limited results :) My answer is 155. So far... ![]() |
not a good day, as Lance and Holland lose... |
Man, some days are not good, and this is one of them... got back *late* last night (3:30AM), slept for a while, woke up nursing my coffee and was in a great mood, still buzzed from the Death Ride yesterday and eagerly anticipating today's Tour de France stage and World Cup final. So what happened?
So be it... But I don't have to be happy about it. Not a good day :( |
TDF stage 8 / mountains / Lance crashes and cracks, Schleck attacks for win |
And so tomorrow is a rest day - and a digestion day, as everyone lets today's results sink in - and then we have more serious climbing on Tuesday... |
Death Rider |
Yesterday I rode my third consecutive Death Ride - yay me - and I enjoyed it quite a lot. The weather was nicer than in previous years; I thought it was going to be hot, but it wasn't, and it didn't hail or rain on the final climb. And I felt reasonably strong on that final 15 miler up to the Carson Pass, all things considered... for the record, I finished in 9:48, a personal best by about 20 minutes. route profile - click to enbiggen As usual I managed a few snaps for your perusal (and please click to enbiggen)...
After the ride I met my brother Jeroen, cousin Anita, and her husband Tom at the Lake Topaz Lodge for an amazing prime rib accompanied by a '95 Stag's Leap Artimus. The perfect recovery meal :) |
As noted,yesterday was *not* a good day... My weekend started out great, with a nice road trip to Bear Valley, a successful Death Ride, and a nice road trip home, but then ended crummy, with Lance crashing and cracking, then Holland loses, and then I spent the afternoon working on expense reports. Blech. I ended up maximally frustrated and cranky. And today began another long work week as I have multiple meetings in Vista... (As noted previously, I seem get more work done at home than at work :/ ) Well, so be it; when the going gets tough, the tough get blogging!
I love this: Jeff Bezos 2010 commencement speech at Princeton: "We are what we choose". Very thought provoking. And more than a little scary... Powerline: The World is Full of Bad Jokes, "But the worst joke of all is the United Nations." Sadly it isn't even funny... Scott "Dilbert" Adams commenting on the iPad: The Amazingness of Instant. I'm not sure I think the iPad is so amazing, but I am sure his point is well taken: "instant" is a compelling value that makes things qualitatively different.
Excellent: Full immersion in the Cyberworld is coming; "People will separate themselves from the physical world and adopt lives of virtualization." I absolutely believe this. In fact, it may have already happened :) BTW am reading William Gibson's All Tomorrow's Parties, in which this is foretold... This is truly horrible: Pathology "code injection". Don't say I didn't warn you :) ![]() |
TDF stage 9 / mountains / Casar wins as Contador and Schleck pull time on GC |
Tomorrow seems to be one of those transitional stages with enough climbing to prevent a field sprint but not enough to have a GC shootout; could be a "breakaway" stage. But nothing has been normal in this year's Tour, so stay tuned! |
bad day, good night |
The White House, the House, and the impact of a majority in the balance. "Democrats are being forced into a process conversation about whether or not their majority is in jeopardy -- a conversation that the House leadership did their damnedest to avoid by adopting a concerted strategy not to mention publicly the idea that control was at stake in the fall." Even the threat of losing their majority is causing Democrats to act as if they don't have one - and this is a good thing. Yay: Nuclear power could see a revival. I honestly think in the long run this is our only way out. You see the BP Gulf spill disaster and you just know fossil fuels cannot be the future of our civilization. Onward! Andrew Grumet is a sucker for a good pun :) This is cool: the cell counting cryptogram challenge. "If you can decipher the posted cryptogram, you get a cash prize as well as a free lab analyzer of your choice! Let the nerdy fun ensue…" ![]() |
TDF stage 10 / transitional / Paulinho wins from break! GC unchanged |
Tomorrow looks like a stock sprint stage - long flat ride with only a few bumps - as the battle shifts from the yellow jersey to the green... |
TDF stage 11 / sprint / Cavendish wins another in a wild and woolly sprint |
Tomorrow is a rather interesting stage; some Cat 2 climbs and a lot of rollers, with a really steep short climb up to the finish. It seems like a day for a break, with some climbers fighting it out to the finish, but there could be a battle between the GC contenders at the front of the main field, too. We'll see! |
TDF stage 12 / rollers with a kick / Rodriquez wins, Contador takes 2nd, 10s from Schleck; Vinokourov 3rd |
Oh, and another cool thing? Thor Hushovd made that 18-man break and took sprint points all along the route to regain the green jersey; the wily veteran always seems to do this once or twice a tour. It was beautiful to see him driving the break up those mountain stages. After the last sprint he threw out the anchor; job done for the day. And so tomorrow we have - more fireworks? We'll see. On paper it looks like a lot of rollers but without enough bite to let a break stay away, so maybe it will end in a sprint. But on the other hand this has been a wild tour and you never know... |
week stuff |
I haven't been following the iPhone4 antenna issue closely, but as always the PR disaster comes from the cover up and dishonesty instead of the original problem. My high-level arms-length take is that Apple has screwed this up badly, and it isn't over yet...
Never say I don't post useful stuff; here we have the periodic table of swearing. It isn't searchable unfortunately, but I don't think I see "Karumba!"
in there anywhere... Have a great weekend! ![]() |
TDF stage 13 / rollers / Vinokourov denies sprinters by attacking to win, GC unchanged, Petacchi back in Green |
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! |
Dorothea Tanning's "La Sonnambula" |
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:
Wow. I'm not the biggest fan of dance, but I'd definitely want to see this production :) |
staying cool in the heat |
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...
...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...
Stay cool y'all and enjoy the rest of the weekend... ![]() |
Like-ing Facebook |
I'm not a big fan of "Web 2.0" websites and social media; mostly there is a lot of hype, and the signal to noise is *really* low. (I challenge anyone to show me a Twitter feed that's worth following.) I make an exception for Facebook however; I like it a lot, and find myself using it more and more often. I don't have a lot of friends - right now, around 80 - but they're actual friends; people I care about, and for many of them this is the only and best way I know what they're up to. Quite a few people now use their Facebook as a sort of blog; they send messages, report status, post pictures, and so on, and it's fun to follow them this way.
So, the grand social experiment is under way. If you think this is cool, please "Like" this post :) |
TDF stage 14 / climb! / Riblon wins from break, Menchov and Sanchez 2nd and 3rd |
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So ends a nice weekend; it was so great to have nothing specific planned - the weekend had infinite potential - but now that it's over I wish I'd done more with it. Today I watched the Tour (great stage!) and worked, and spent some quality time reading poolside and drinking Pastis :) but now it's Sunday night and on into another week. A complicated week. So be it!
Slight seepage from the BP well, now capped, has been detected. Let's hope it stays slight. I guess the plan is to drill a new well which will relieve the pressure. fXf! According to NOAA this past June was the hottest in recorded history. Whew. And based on this weekend, this July is going to be a contender, too.
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TDF stage 15 / climb! / Voeckler wins from break, Contador attacks, takes yellow after Schleck's mechanical |
There will be a lot of controversy over whether Contador should have stopped and waited - Team Cervelo owner Tweeted "Contador just gained a great chance to win, but he lost the chance to win greatly". My initial reaction was that it was bad luck, and that's racing, but on further review I think Contador might have waited just a beat or two to see what had happened. Menchov and Samuel probably would have waited, too. Still in the heat of the moment you have to react, and Alberto reacted like he always reacts to anything - by attacking.
It all sets up a great battle in the queen stage tomorrow, with two Cat 1s followed by two HCs over 200km. By all means stay tuned! |
manic Monday |
Just another manic Monday, wish it was Sunday... calls and meetings and status reports and emails and waaaaaaaah! If only I wasn't so busy working, maybe I could get some work done. I did manage to sneak a nice 20 mile ride into a two hour gap. And I did have a delightful conversation with a good friend. And I watched the Tour stage which was amazing, if frustrating. And ... I did blog a bit... CNN FAQ on the oil spill: Is the disaster over? Quick answer: no. Huh: China passes USA as world's biggest energy consumer. That's surprising. It's not all those people though, it's all that manufacturing... And China passed the USA as the world's biggest polluter some time ago :(
Scott "Dilbert" Adams admires Apple's response to the iPhone 4 reception issue: High Ground Maneuver. "If Jobs had not changed the context from the iPhone 4 in particular to all smartphones in general, I could make you a hilarious comic strip about a product so poorly made that it won't work if it comes in contact with a human hand. But as soon as the context is changed to "all smartphones have problems," the humor opportunity is gone. Nothing kills humor like a general and boring truth."
Shocker: HP files for "PalmPad" trademark. Can't wait! Kindle books outselling hardcover books on Amazon. Tipping point reached! I lost one of my longtime favorite bloggers Halley Suitt for some reason - but found her! - and am catching up on old posts, like this one: What?! You're not lost in a book?!: "I can't believe how few people around me take the time to read for pleasure." Same! Good night, off to read a little before falling asleep... ![]() |
TDF stage 16 / climb / Lance attacks and almost wins! Fedrigo prevails; Hushovd back in green |
Tomorrow is a rest day - much needed, you can be sure - and the day after we'll have fireworks for sure as it will be Andy Schleck against Alberto Contador mano-a-mano on the hilltop finish to the Tourmalet, which they'll climb from the other side to the way they took it today. Will be amazing! |
totally Tuesday |
A long day of work for me - drove down early, many meetings - but overall things are going quite well. I've been working on a project which is taking shape, and it's great to see it finally moving... tonight I find myself in San Clemente - all the hotels in Carlsbad are occupied by ComicCon, apparently - and so I did a rather weird ride, lots of residential streets, kind of fun though as you never know what will be around the next corner, and the next...
I don't necessarily agree with the New Yorker on most things, but Borderlines hits the nail on the head. "The problem of illegal immigration isn’t a matter of violent criminals storming the walls of our peaceful towns and cities. It’s a matter of what to do about the estimated eleven million unauthorized residents who are already here." I think of this every time I drive through the useless border checkpoints along I-5 between Oceanside and San Clemente, which I did tonight...
WRONG: Guy Kawasaki explains why too much money is worse than too little. He's making a valid point - that companies develop bad habits if they have too much money - but not having enough money kills a company more surely than anything else. A re-introduction to JavaScript, on the Mozilla website; great article, linked as much for me (so I can find it later) as for you (so you can find it now).
Speaking of 3D, did you know? Avatar and Aliens are the same movie!
On Slashdot: the rise of small nuclear power plants. "The prevailing wisdom is that nuclear plants must be very large in order to be competitive. This assumption is widely accepted, but, if its roots are understood, it can be effectively challenged." Yay. Most excellent from Jeff Atwood: Groundhog day, or the problem with A/B testing. It celebrates Groundhog Day, one of the most excellent movies ever, and then goes on to make solid points about the virtues and limitations of A/B testing of software... yeah, it's a stretch, but let's give him credit for celebrating the movie :)
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Brains of the Man and the Woman |
I love it |
TDF stage 17 / climb! / battle royale on the Tourmalet ends in draw; Schleck wins but Contador keeps yellow |
And so ... tomorrow we have a pure sprint stage, and then it is Saturday's time trial which will decide the winner. The green jersey also lies in the balance with points available tomorrow and Sunday. And chapeau to Anthony Charteau who has won the polka dot jersey as King of the Mountains... |
thinking Thursday |
Wow, where to start? I've had an amazing couple of days, but if I tell you that and no more would it be a tease? I can report I've been working a lot, and working out, and riding; did a nice loop around Miramar Air Base yesterday, that was fun, with the theme from Top Gun playing in my head... and I am now back home after a battle with traffic*, and of course blogging.
While my brain churns (as I take out my "who do I want to be" box :), a filter pass... Paul Graham: The Top Idea in Your Mind. "I realized recently that what one thinks about in the shower in the morning is more important than I'd thought... I'd say it's hard to do a really good job on anything you don't think about in the shower." Fascinating, because one way to view his point is that you can only be working with one box at a time... Paul is male, so I wonder ... would a female "philosopher of business" have the same insight? :)
Apropos, Dave Winer considers Flipboard and reading surfaces. Flipboard could definitely be considered a 'personal information dashboard'...
Comic Sans fights back. I love it. The whole fight about a type face is pretty comical :) News you can use: What Duran Duran taught me about girls. "...bringing people together is what music has always done best." So, I'm Ole, and I like Duran Duran. Consider it The Reflex...
MG Siegler: HP wants to become Apple, and WebOS is the key. Absolutely.
Finally: The longer you sit, the shorter your lifespan. In other words... get off your ass and live!
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TDF stage 18 / sprint / Cavendish wins another, Petacchi reclaims green |
Tomorrow we have the most excellent time trial through the vineyards of Bordeaux - and the yellow jersey and team competitions will be decided. Stay tuned... |
friendly Friday |
Cool: Spitzer Telescope finds first-ever Buckyballs in space. Buckyballs are molecules consisting of configurations of geodesic configurations of 60 carbon atoms, named after Buckminster Fuller. The lack of gravity in space enables these configurations to form, apparently, and they can be detected by their spectral signature...
Here's a weekend project for you: turn an inkjet into a 3D printer. I want one! (Not sure I want to make one, though... ;) Up for debate: Women most attractive at 31. Huh. I will conduct personal research on this subject and report back :) Another research subject: Sex makes you smarter. Not so sure about virtual sex however, seems like it would lead to virtual exercise, and the health benefits of that are questionable. The weather is going to be amazing, so get out there and enjoy it; I plan to do some mountain bike riding and some sailing ... and some working ... and some blogging. Have a great weekend! ![]() |
TDF stage 19 / time trial / Cancellara rips course, Contador survives Schleck, Menchov takes over third |
Tomorrow we'll have the usual parade to Paris and bunch sprint, with the extra drama that the green jersey is still up for grabs; Alessandro Petacchi has it now, but Thor Hushovd and Mark Cavendish both have a shot at it. One more day! |
A key part of enjoying a mountain bike ride is of course the choice of music; Van Halen is great for gnarly climbs, for example, and UB40 for gliding singletrack descents. I do not recommend anything too mellow as you must keep your speed and concentration *up* for safety.
So, it's been a week since my Like-ing Facebook experiment; last Saturday I added "Like" buttons to all the posts on my blog. So far I'd say nobody has been hurt, but it hasn't exactly taken off either; I think like four posts have been "liked", by like eight people. So be it. In the name of science, the experiment will continue :)
Cheers, I'm off to eat and drink, see y'all tomorrow! ![]() |
TDF stage 20 / parade + sprint / Cavendish unstoppable again, Contador crowned, Petacchi keeps green |
It was a great Tour - the best really since I began paying attention, in terms of the competition and the route and all the side stories - and I'm sad it is over. More perspective in a future post, but au reviour Le Tour for now. |
sailing Sunday |
A great Sunday; we watched the final stage of le Tour, and then I went sailing with Meg on Westlake. Somewhere in there we had a marvelous late lunch, sitting lakeside and enjoying the day of the world. I have quoted Wind in the Willows many times: "there is nothing half so much worth doing as messing about in boats", and so it was today. Is anybody out there? The Times of India reports 140 'earths' found... out of 700 new planets. All by NASA's Kepler space probe. I wonder how many of those 140 'earths' have intelligent life, and have launched space probes?
And so ends another great weekend. Onward! ![]() |
reliving an amazingly great Tour de France! |
Here are the highlights for me:
As I said, a *great* tour, every day there was something new, something cool, and often a bunch of things going on at once. I already cannot wait until next year... |
Ouch! |
Well I'm fine. But my poor little car is not :( Heading home on the 405 tonight, about 30mph, two lanes closed due to construction. Suddenly the car in front of me hits the car in front of him who had hit the car in front of him. Bam bam. I slam on my brakes and try to swerve into the other lane but there is a car there. Bam bam. Wow. Did that actually just happen? I'm ... okay. Wearing my seat belt, air bag didn't deploy. Car seems ... okay. It can drive. Turn on flashers. I move over to the right gingerly, there is no shoulder due to construction, nowhere to go. Head for the next exit, there it is, I creep off the freeway and into a nearby gas station. Inspect the damage. Ouch. My poor little car is hurt. Badly. Cannot open the driver's door, so climb out on the right. Left front side smashed, headlight gone, wheel well collapsed. Right front side all scraped up too. I call 911. Report a collision. I was involved, I'm okay. No, I have no idea who else was involved, or what happened to them. Yes, I will wait for the highway patrol. I wait. The patrolmen show up in force; three cars six people. I answer many questions, they take many notes, they leave. Apparently no other cars stopped, nobody else reported the accident. Huh. I drive my car slowly to the repair shop. My daughter picks me up, takes me home. Well I'm fine. But my poor little car is not :( |
Ouch! the morning after... |
I am weirdly disconnected from my accident last night. I know that it happened, I can visualize the whole thing perfectly, but it seems like a dream. Not even a bad dream, just something that I experienced, but not in real life. I talk to the repair shop, I talk with my insurance agent, I talk with friends, and it all just seems like stuff someone else is doing as part of someone else's life. Maybe I just can't accept that my poor little car was thrashed so badly. Thinking about it, I do believe it will be okay in the end; I don't think the frame was damaged, or the engine, or anything fundamental, but it is going to take time and money to recover. The main damage will be to my wallet, yikes. BTW thanks for all your well wishes. I *am* fine, but my poor little car is not :( |
Wired: cockpits |
|
en vacance... |
Meanwhile, let's make a filter pass... A great article with a great point: Are you a social networking mutant? On the generational differences in the usage of Facebook... I have totally noticed this myself. I am definitely in between, I think my approach to things like Facebook is "younger" than I am, possibly because I am philosophically interested at a meta level as well as directly interested in networking. The line between one-on-one private interaction and one-to-many public is definitely blurring...
A Linux experiment gone horribly...perfect! It is interesting to contemplate, would it be possible to live without Windows? As I look at my usage of my laptop, the answer is "no"- I run Visual Studio, for example - but for much of what I do it could be done. Email, surfing, and blogging are easily done on any platform, and [apparently] it is now possible to edit Word documents and use Excel spreadsheets and create Powerpoint presentations as well. Windows is definitely under siege.
Related: a new take on the Fermi paradox. (This is the observation that if alien life existed, we would have found it by now.) Maybe we've found it already and don't know it, or maybe [as this link suggests] there are structural reasons why civilizations won't "find" each other... Meanwhile: teams of physicists closing in on the God particle. That is, they are starting to figure out where it is not.
Scott "Dilbert" Adams with another great thought experiment: Startup Countries. "My idea for today is that established nations could launch startup countries within their own borders, free of all the legacy restrictions in the parent country." I love it. Interesting to contemplate what kind of immigration laws would such a country have?
Stieg Larson ("the Girl who...") is Amazon's first Kindle Million Author. He won't be the last!
The Chinese can't figure out why we don't love their World's Fair. Are we losing our ability to be impressed by the future?
So be it... and now, off to buy a Mini! Please stay tuned... ![]() |
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