Meet The Blueberry
Amy is now almost 7 months along but we still haven't named our little girl. In the early stages of pregnancy, Amy was reading a book that said the fetus was the "size of a blueberry" and of course I adopted that as her nickname. Everyday I asked "how is the Blueberry doing?" Today, I finally got to see her face. It was pretty humbling. I'm still at a loss for words so until they come to me, here is the video of the 3D ultrasound we got this afternoon:
(it's pretty long and there's no sound but pretty cool).
A higher definition .avi file HERE
Pictures to follow shortly.
The Schwarzschild Radius
I've always been fascinated by Black Holes, not because of the movie (though as a kid that was cool and I love the soundtrack) but because of the thought experiments that happen in my head when I think of them. Information loss, relative time, etc. If you have any interest at all in Black Holes, I highly recommend you check out Leonard Susskind's book, The Black Hole War. It's a pretty dumb title but a fascinating read, even if you're not a theoretical physicist.
Anyway, since I read that book, I've done lots of calculations using the Schwarzschild Radius (Rs = 2GM/c2) to determine the size you would have to compress some matter (like the Earth or Sun) to create a gravitational constant (aka a black hole). So I found this cool video on YouTube and REALLY liked the video at towards the end when he describes the evidence of a black hole at the center of The Milky Way. Awesome stuff, I've read about it but had never seen those images.
The Grapevine Fires
Very, very rarely does a video enhance a song. Death Cab for Cutie's video forThe Grapevine Fires nails it.
Great song made better by a great video.
CNBC Gets Political, Gets Slammed by The Dailyshow
I grew up on CNBC and even after I left the financial industry (thank GOD), I still had it on in the background. But in the past two years, they've really messed with the formula, adding sensationalistic reporting and become VERY political. Aside from Larry Kudlow, I sincerely believe that everyone on that network is not playing with a full jar of marbles. Stunningly bad. So John Stewart has his way with them. Regardless of your political affiliation, I think you'll find this interesting, maybe even enlightening. Enjoy.
2009 Amgen Tour of California Solvang Time Trial Photos
I finally got around to uploading and tagging the 149 pics I took at the Stage 6 Amgen Tour of Californina time trial in Solvang, CA. While the pictures aren't great (they're not so bad if you look at the high resolution copies), I was there to see the race, not photograph it. I'll leave that up to Graham Watson! You can view my Flickr Gallery here and I highly recommend using the slides how feature for this set. I did my best at labeling all the riders but missed some. If you know who they are, please leave a comment here or on the Flickr page.
I drove out from Colorodo Springs to experience this one stage because 1) I knew it's where the race would be decided, 2) I love the bike porn of time trial bikes and 3) I've heard the riding is good around the Solvang area (it is). Was it worth the 2 day drive? You bet. When Lance Armstrong announced his retirement and his plans to do the race, most of the elite UCI teams signed up and this was probably the greatest field ever assembled on US soil. Additionally, Amy was still in her first trimester and my projects at work were really quiet enabling me to take most of the week off. The start had truly aligned. I'll never forget it.
Here are some of my favorites of the big name riders (click the thumbnail for the full size image):
Race winner Levi Leipheimer:
2009 ATOC Winner Levi Leipheimer
Here's Lance Armstrong:
Lance Armstrong
Tyler Hamilton:
Tyler Hamilton
Christian Vande Velde:
Christian Vande Velde
Floyd Landis:
Floyd Landis
Michael Rogers:
Michael Rogers
Tom Danielson:
Tom Danielson
Tom Boonen:
Tom Boonen
Mark Cavendish:
Mark Cavendish
2008 Tour De France winner Carlos Sastre:
Carlos Sastre
