Dearborn Koi pond

Seen on Dearborn and 18th street, in San Francisco.

Holiday tree, revolutionary gifts

Continuing a now one-year old tradition of Holiday Trees, I decided to rotate, and give another vegetable its time in the Holiday spotlight. A while back, I found this little amorphous tree discarded outside of Ace Hardware.

 

It turned out to do a magnificent festive tree, once decorated with some shiny things.

L and I had a nice dinner with heathen friends, and discovered an unexpected revolutionary streak in Santa, who had brought in his bag a most remarkable gift for the 18th-centurist: a Marie-Antoinette Action Figure, complete with "ejector head action!", and "removable wig and dress!".

Bruce, Gunshots

L and I just went to watch "My name is Bruce"; the man himself was at the Guild Theater to present the movie yesterday, but the place was sold out, and we couldn't get in. We got some signed posters today, though (w00t!).

As I came back home, I fist noticed a large gathering of police vehicles, followed by a Western showdown-like series of gunshots; apparently, it was some sort of an experimentation for an automatic gunshot-alert system. Maybe the same system they have on the other side of the Bay, in Oakland?

George Dantzig was here

Last Friday, I had the pleasure to attend Brad's Ph.D. dissertation defense ("Stochastic Modeling and Optimization in Baseball"), which went well, and brings him one step closer to becoming Doctor Null.

I stayed a bit after the deliberations were over, and noticed this cool memorabilia item in the back of the room. As far as memorabilia go, it is extremely impractical, and yet, what could be more fitting for an old-school researcher? The whole trip to Stanford made me strangely nostalgic, and this chalkboard reminded me how in awe I was that George Dantzig could be seen in this very building.