Of course the big news today is the Columbia accident. Like most, I got up this morning and was blindsided by what I heard on the TV. As the day went on a few more details came to light, but nothing really substantial. I'm sure the news will stay in this mode for this incident until something else happens, like a realy juicy murder or the coalition forces invading Iraq.
My friend Colby makes a point about takeoff vs. landing that I don't quite agree with. While takeoff is amazingly scary, due to the tonnage of explosives strapped to the vehicle, landing is no cakewalk or "poetic serenity" as he calls it. At the moment of disintegration, the shuttle was moving through the atmosphere at Mach 18. The temperature of the wing surfaces can top 1500 degree Celsius. And let's not forget that the re-entry before the accident was visible from the surface 40 miles down due to the fireball created between the lander and the atmosphere. Not exactly serene in my books.
In less horrible news, the Garry Kasparov vs. Deep Junior match continues. Garry took an early lead by winning game 1, took a draw on game 2 but went down to defeat on game three to tie up the series. To my eye, it looks like he got greedy. Junior got into some trouble early but recovered and Garry didn't want to settle for a draw. This lead to time pressure and a mistake that ended up costing him the game. The next game is live tomorrow at 12:30 PST. There are a number of live feeds, but I recommend the US Chess one. The commentary seems a little stronger and the flash interface works pretty well and is fairly stable.
Saturday, February 01, 2003
Sunday, January 26, 2003
This will probaby be the last post of the weekend.
Yesterday was my girlfriend's and my anniversary. We went to our favourite restaurant to celebrate, a little place in San Francisco called Clementine. If you are ever in the neighbourhood, I highly recommend it. It's not at the top end of expensive places in SF, more in the middle, but has very good food for the price,and a nice atmosphere. If you go, try the pain perdu au caramel, glace noisette (caramelized french toast with hazelnut ice cream) for desert. It's the one constant when we go there and is never disapointing.
Today was all about the Super Bowl! Of course, I've never actually watched a Super Bowl before, or any other American football game, but it was still fun. One of good things about football is the that the basic game is easy to understand and it keeps your attention. Like hockey, it seems to have a reasonable amount of scoring in a game. (In contrast to the other popular American sport, basketball, which has so much scoring that I find it unwatchable, or soccer, which has so I feel the same.) As you probably know by now, the Raiders got crushed 48-21. Depending on how you look at it, this seems either better or worse than their performance in the actual game. The first half was all Buccaneers, with the Raider held to 3 points and only a couple complete first downs. They opened it up a little in the second half, and the end of the third quarter and start of the fourth were actually quite exciting football. But then they went back to throwing interceptions, resulting in 2 quick touchdowns for the Buccaneers and that was that.
Yesterday was my girlfriend's and my anniversary. We went to our favourite restaurant to celebrate, a little place in San Francisco called Clementine. If you are ever in the neighbourhood, I highly recommend it. It's not at the top end of expensive places in SF, more in the middle, but has very good food for the price,and a nice atmosphere. If you go, try the pain perdu au caramel, glace noisette (caramelized french toast with hazelnut ice cream) for desert. It's the one constant when we go there and is never disapointing.
Today was all about the Super Bowl! Of course, I've never actually watched a Super Bowl before, or any other American football game, but it was still fun. One of good things about football is the that the basic game is easy to understand and it keeps your attention. Like hockey, it seems to have a reasonable amount of scoring in a game. (In contrast to the other popular American sport, basketball, which has so much scoring that I find it unwatchable, or soccer, which has so I feel the same.) As you probably know by now, the Raiders got crushed 48-21. Depending on how you look at it, this seems either better or worse than their performance in the actual game. The first half was all Buccaneers, with the Raider held to 3 points and only a couple complete first downs. They opened it up a little in the second half, and the end of the third quarter and start of the fourth were actually quite exciting football. But then they went back to throwing interceptions, resulting in 2 quick touchdowns for the Buccaneers and that was that.
Weather update: Here in Sunnyvale, CA the high today will be 64F/18C on Jan. 26th/Super Bowl Sunday. In contrast, in Edmonton, Alberta (where I originally hail from), it will be an un-seasonably warm 31F/-1C.
One of the things that I still haven't gotten used to in my 5 years in the Bay Area is the almost complete lack of weather here. There is less yearly variation in weather here than Alberta might get in a spring long weekend. The forecast for every day between early March and late October could be exactly the same : "light cloud overhead, burning off by noon. Sunny the rest of the day". And when they say "sunny", they don't mean "enough breaks in the clouds that the sun is visible most of the time", they mean "not a cloud in the sky". In the 5 years I've been hear, I've experienced exactly 2 thunderstorms - coincidentally the same as the number of earthquakes I've felt.
From growing up in Alberta, I developed an extreme dislike of the cold. Standing out every morning for 15-30 minutes during the winter in -4F/-20C weather can do that to you. I also don't miss weather forecasts where they give you useful information like the number of minutes it will take for exposed skin to freeze. But oddly enough, I do miss the weather in general. The un-relenting day to day sameness hear can be quite mind-numbing. And there is nothing like spring in Alberta. After the crushing weight of winter is lifted, it truly does feel like a brand new wonderful world.
In California, spring is just another day.
One of the things that I still haven't gotten used to in my 5 years in the Bay Area is the almost complete lack of weather here. There is less yearly variation in weather here than Alberta might get in a spring long weekend. The forecast for every day between early March and late October could be exactly the same : "light cloud overhead, burning off by noon. Sunny the rest of the day". And when they say "sunny", they don't mean "enough breaks in the clouds that the sun is visible most of the time", they mean "not a cloud in the sky". In the 5 years I've been hear, I've experienced exactly 2 thunderstorms - coincidentally the same as the number of earthquakes I've felt.
From growing up in Alberta, I developed an extreme dislike of the cold. Standing out every morning for 15-30 minutes during the winter in -4F/-20C weather can do that to you. I also don't miss weather forecasts where they give you useful information like the number of minutes it will take for exposed skin to freeze. But oddly enough, I do miss the weather in general. The un-relenting day to day sameness hear can be quite mind-numbing. And there is nothing like spring in Alberta. After the crushing weight of winter is lifted, it truly does feel like a brand new wonderful world.
In California, spring is just another day.
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