Having been attacked by al Qaeda, for us now to go bombing Iraq in response would be like our invading Mexico after the Japanese attacked us at Pearl Harbor.
Richard Clarke
Against All Enemies
Quote
September 18th, 2006, underQuote
September 14th, 2006, underRemove Justice, and what are kingdoms but gangs of criminals on a grand scale.
Augustine
The City of God
High Sierra Century
September 12th, 2006, underOur trip out to the East side of the Sierras turned out to be lots of fun. Dan Clark and I did the High Sierra Century on Saturday, which consisted of us biking 100 miles around the high desert just south of Mono Lake. The views were amazing, but so were the climbs and the head winds. Combine that with the fact that we were starting at 7,000ft and you have one but kicker of a ride. All together it took us 8 hours to complete the course, but the amazing views of the lake and the Sierras made up for the pain. 
We met up with Molly Huber and company at the Mobile station on 120 for a concert after the ride. Sunday was spent driving around and taking pictures. We made visits to Convict Lake and Mammoth Lakes before heading north to explore the ghost town of Bodie. The town has been left amazingly intact, consisting of dozens of buildings and the original stamping mill that processed the cold from the surrounding hills. Most of the buildings and their contents remain as they were 100 years ago, it was quite remarkable. The inaccessibility of the town kinda explains why it was abandoned once the gold ran out. We finished off the trip by visiting the Tufa formations on the South side of Lake Mono. The formations made for great pictures, but I only wish we could have arrived a bit later in the day to get some sunset colors. We drove back through Yosemite picking up a CHAOS friend who was in need of a ride back to the bay area.
Photos:
http://www.kocevski.com/photo-album/album/2006-mono-lake/
Jon’s Lamb Strew
September 5th, 2006, underHere’s a way to make a tasty stew:
1.5-3 lbs lamb or beef, cubed into roughly 1″ chunks, salt and peppered
and refrigerated overnight or as long as possible
one onion, diced
a few garlic cloves, crushed and diced
root vegetables if you want them, chopped into fairly large chunks
raisins, apricots, and/or other dried fruit–maybe a total of 1 cup
minced ginger–about an inch of a skinned root or a tablespoon or the
minced.
1/2 tsp cinnamon or one stick
about 3/4 cup red wine
one juiced orange
mint leaves
bay leaves
other spices like parsley, rosemary (available wild all over Berkeley),
marjoram are good.
Heat the pan with a thin layer of oil on the bottom over medium high heat. Put in the meat to sear. It is really important to do this right: the meat must be placed with a little bit of space between pieces, not just poured in, because you want to sear the meat, not steam it–often you end up having to sear the meat in two or three batches. Turn the meat with prongs or a fork to sear on all sides; this typically takes about four minutes per batch (Unless you want to make this right away, you may want to watch someone do it right before attempting it yourself.)
Remove the meat from the pan, pour off excess froth, and saute onions and garlic until semi-translucent, 2-3 minutes. Put the meat back in, deglaze the pan with the wine (turn heat on high for a few seconds, pour in the wine, scrape the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon to take up the seared bits), then add all the other ingredients and cover. If you’re doing this in a pressure cooker, seal the cooker, bring the pot to it’s high pressure mark (80 kPa gauge pressure), stabilize the pressure (medium to medium low heat usually suffices), then cook for about 20 minutes. Turn off heat and allow to cool naturally until pressure valve is released. In a regular pan, cover the pot, reduce temp to low, and simmer for at least 2 hours, checking every half hour or so whether there is adequate liquid and topping off with broth or water.
CNN Article on 060218
August 31st, 2006, underCNN carried a story on the Pian et al. Nature paper(s) on XRF 060218. Josh Bloom, Maryam Modjaz, and I are putting together our own paper on the near infrared observations of the SNe which should be out soon. At least now I can point to this article when someone asks what I work on.
CNN Article:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/08/31/space.star.reut/index.html?section=cnn_topstories
Quote
August 22nd, 2006, underThe way he condemned that match, the pathetic solemnity of his protest against the ignominy of being “insulted by a mere inanimate thing” lingers with me to this day.
Music Camping Trip
August 15th, 2006, underThis weekend a few chaos people organized a music camping trip, in which everyone would bring with them a musical instrument to be played around the camp fire. I thought it was a great idea, so ended up driving down Saturday afternoon with Phil Chang from the astro department along with Alex, another chaos member. The trip turned out to be loads of fun. There was a meteor shower on Saturday night, so we found an open field and watched the sky while taking turns at the guitar, it was really great. I gave my hand at the little guitar that I know, but mostly stuck to the drum that I brought in. It was amazing what people hiked in, someone even brought in a saxophone! The whole experience did inspire me to get better at the guitar though, so that’s my new goal for the summer – learn my chords.
http://www.kocevski.com/photo-album/album/2006-music-camping/
Mono Pass Trip
July 18th, 2006, underWell, I had a great weekend overall, the kind of weekend that reminds me of why I wanted to move out to California in the first place. Went into the city to meet up with some friends (Emily and company) for drinks at the Top of the Mark Bar on Nob Hill on Friday night, then a BBQ with some friends at Stinson Beach and a campfire under the stars in Yosemite all in the same day on Saturday. Finished off the weekend with a very mellow hike up in the high country on Sunday with to Mono and Parker Passes. A good weekend overall.
Quote
July 5th, 2006, under“Sometimes there’s so much beauty in the world I feel like I can’t take it and my heart is going to cave in. ”
-American Beauty
“Sometimes I feel like I’m seeing it all at once, and it’s too much, my heart fills up like a balloon that’s about to burst… And then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold on to it, and then it flows through me like rain and I can’t feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life…”
-American Beauty
Quote
July 5th, 2006, under“This above all: To thine own self be true.”
-Hamlet”