April 2006
For those who have been following the story and measuring the stomach acid, my husband Scott passed his oral exam today–as we all knew he would. This is basically his final intermediate hoop to jump through on his way to get his PhD in math. Now he can focus on his thesis. Apparently it went very well — Congratulations Scott! We’re going out to celebrate . .maybe watch some of the NBA playoffs and get dinner at the Skybox (the great sports bar with a huge screen and stadium seating in the back). Then we’re off to Florida for my conference. Scott get’s to decompress in the heat and humiditity for a few days while I’m getting my feet wet in this field and meeting some important members of the vision community for the first time. Have a great weekend everyone!!
It looks like Lance Armstrong will be running in the New York City Marathon on November 5th. See the story on SI.com. Despite his extraordinary physical condition, he may not be able to dominate this sport the way he has done in cycling. Nevertheless, it may not hurt for the Kenyans to keep an eye on him. FYI, this is not a bad sterotype. The top 2 men finishers (Robert Cheruiyot, Benjamin Maiyo) and the top women finisher (Rita Jeptoo) at the Boston Marathon a couple of days ago were all Kenyan.
In 1991, the governments of Denmark and Sweden agreed to build a bridge to connect the two countries across the Oresund Strait. The 16-kilometer-long Oresund Link between Malmo, Sweden (right), and Copenhagen, Denmark (left), was completed and opened to traffic in 2000. Denmark and Sweden were linked once more —7,000 years after rising sea levels accompanying the end of the Ice Age severed the dry-land connection between the two.
NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team
Check out MONEY Magazine and Salary.com’s Top 50 Jobs on CNN Money. Where does your job rank? Here are the criteria:
“To find the best jobs in America, MONEY Magazine and Salary.com, a leading provider of employee compensation data and software, began by assembling a list of positions that the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects will grow at an above-average rate over 10 years and that require at least a bachelor’s degree.
Using Salary.com compensation data, we eliminated jobs with average pay below $50,000; total employment of less than 15,000; dangerous work environments; or fewer than 800 annual job openings, including both new and replacement positions.
Next we rated positions by stress levels, flexibility in hours and working environment, creativity, and how easy it is to enter and advance in the field.
We then ranked the jobs, giving double weight to compensation and percentage growth. Data for the top 50 appear here. Any job that fell in the bottom third of two job-satisfaction categories, or in the pay or growth category, was removed from consideration for the top 10″
I just finished reading The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon. It’s a nice quick read if you don’t want your next book to turn into a project. You could probably read it in its entirety when sitting down in a bookstore to browse through it. My verdict is that the first half is charming and the second a bit sad. The mystery is actually solved right in the middle, but it may have gotten tiresome if he had kept it up for the whole book.
Here are some movies I’ve seen recently.
1) The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara
2) Capote
3) Brokeback Mountain
While all the buzz has been about the #2 and #3 after the Oscars, I think they were mediocre compared to the first. I recommend anyone who hasn’t seen Fog of War see it immediately. It’s narrated by McNamara himself and surprisingly devoid of propaganda. Music by Philip Glass (who I love but is looked down upon by music some music elitists). I had Fog of War in the house for some time and was putting off seeing it because I just wasn’t in the mood for a documentary. It turned out to be a better version of some of the interesting pieces I’ve seen on the history channel. It’s told with hindsight of someone who’s lived it and had years to ponder the consequences rather than the perspective of a historian. I could have started the movie from the beginning right after finishing it. . . can’t say enough about it.
The 2006 NFL schedule came out this week. See when and who your favorite teams play here. Go Bears!
Looking for something to do on a lazy afternoon this weekend? Check out The Masters – one of the major golf tournaments of the year. In the lead is Chad Campbell at -6. Vijay Singh, the leader after the first round is at -3. Phil Mickelson, winner from 2 years ago is at -2. Last year’s winner, Tiger Woods: -1. See the full leaderboard.
Watch coverage on CBS starting at 3:30 ET on Saturday and 2:30 ET on Sunday.
I think it’s safe to say that no matter which way you lean politically, you hate John Kerry . .check out this story on what’s wrong with him on The Plank.