I guess I knew from previous spring blooms that the tree close to my house on the corner is a jacaranda tree, but I realized it again as I walked by it on Tue night. Man! Did you know that? Did you forget? I asked myself. Jacaranda trees are actually native to tropical and subtropical regions, found widely in Asia, and in Nepal .. and in South Africa as well. In fact, my home city for a few years in the 1990s in South Africa was Pretoria, which is popularly known there as ‘The Jacaranda City’. The jacaranda trees lined the street in front of my house there, and would produce carpets of purplish blossoms that had dropped onto the sidewalk.
Tuesday/ who may marry (in the United States)?
The US Supreme Court heard arguments today for and against same-sex marriage. Has the definition of marriage changed over the last thousand years? I would say it has. Should it change to allow gay couples to marry? Should one State recognize the marriage from out-of-State married visitors? (Since some States in the USA allow gay couples to marry and others absolutely do not). Here are some audio transcripts from the court, again courtesy of the New York Times. The justices’ ruling is due in June.
Monday/ the Nepal earthquake
The death toll had climbed above 4,000 in the Nepal earthquake by Monday night. Several historic buildings in Katmandu were destroyed (pictures below, from the New York Times).
I wanted to see where Mt Everest was located relative to the earthquake. At least 18 people were killed when an avalanche from the earthquake hit the base camp. Check out the great maps from the on-line edition of the New York Times, in this article Extent of the damage Nepal earthquake.
Sunday/ the dinosaurs are coming (again)
I see it’s time for another Jurassic* Park movie this summer, the latest one set for release on June 12. I will have to go see it in the theater for the full effect !
P.S. These geological timescales are enormous in length. Humankind’s history goes back, oh, 5,000 years. The Jurassic Period was some 200–145 million years ago. During the Jurassic Period, the super-continent Pangaea started to drift apart.
Saturday/ drink your mat-cha
The Today Show of Friday morning featured matcha, a finely ground powder of specially grown and processed green tea leaves*. Weatherman Al Roker and anchor Matt Lauer each took a sip and pulled a face. The green tea has been around for centuries in Japan, but now gaining popularity here in the USA, especially in San Francisco. So I would have to find a place that serve it up and try it. I think the stuff definitely blows one’s hair back ! It looks a lot stronger than regular green tea.
*Green tea has epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) in abundance, a polyphenol shown to pep one up and fight off diseases.
Friday/ new look on 16th Ave
More than a year ago, in Feb 2014, I reported that this beautiful old house on 16th Ave was being torn down. Well, here is what was built in its place : a modern eight 2 bed-2 bath townhouses. Four have already been sold. The list price is $660,000.
Thursday/ watch out for volcanoes
I saw pictures of today’s Calbuco volcano eruption on TV, as I got home tonight .. so I had to check it out and see what other spectacular pictures I could find on line. The volcano is more or less in the middle of Chile at an altitude of 6,000 ft (2,000 m) with a crater at the top that is some 1,500 ft (300 m) wide.
Hump Day
Yes, commercial from insurance company Geico has been around a long time – but this still picture from it is making the rounds here on our project. It features a camel* that walks around the office asking cubicle workers ‘Guess what day it is?’. Leslie – in the picture – does not even look up as she quietly says ‘It’s hump day’. We like ‘hump day’ .. it means it’s almost Thursday, when we get to go home. Yay!
*One-hump camels are called dromedaries, and two-hump camels are called Bactrian camels. More than half of the world’s camel population is found in Somalia.
Tuesday/ the pressure is on
We are rallying to get ready for the third cycle of testing for the solution we are building, and feeling the pressure. On Tuesday I had a full day of meetings, and I just could not keep up with the e-mails pouring into my inbox.
Monday/ morning joe at SFO
As soon as I arrive at San Francisco airport’s International Terminal on Monday mornings, I march over to Starbucks to get some coffee.
It helps to make me alert so that I can drive the rental car after my little early morning catnap on the airplane, is my thinking (and of course I like coffee in the morning, anyway).
Sunday/ eating out at lark
My friends and I went to Lark Restaurant tonight .. newly located in a repurposed warehouse on 10th Ave in Capitol Hill. It’s nice to see a ‘new’ place that for once did not involve the complete demolition of the original building. I see the restaurant bills itself as offering ‘French’ food .. but I had a very Pacific Northwestern meal of salad and salmon and that universal of desserts, a gooey and chocolate-y. All very nice. The ‘Old German Lager’ style beer I had was brewed in Pittsburgh and did not quite hit the mark for me, though.
Saturday/ a house fire nearby
There was a bad house fire just a block away from my house on Thursday morning. The fire brigade was just clearing out by the time I got home by 7 pm on Thursday night. An elderly lady in her nineties died in the incident and her son had to be taken to hospital. I wanted to find out what had caused the fire, and The Capitol Hill Blog reported that it was improperly discarded smoking materials that ignited a chair in the house.
Friday/ South African coins (1962)
I couldn’t resist these South African brass coins when I saw them on eBay, and so I bought them and found them in my mailbox on Thursday night. I had them in my pocket as a young boy. I remember the 1/2 cent coin with the two sparrows particularly well. The 1 cent coin with the ossewa (ox wagon) was not as common. These particular coins were not minted for long : only from 1961 to 1964, when they were replaced with a new series of coins.
Thursday/ Flight 83 is Paris bound
The San Francisco to Paris on Air France leaves every day at 3.45 pm – the same time that I depart on Alaska Airlines for Seattle. ‘Embarquement’ said the sign at the gate as the large group of passengers were boarding. They fly 11 hrs and cross 8 time zones; I fly 2 and don’t have to adjust my watch. (But hey, I would absolutely not mind flying to Paris again some time).
Wednesday/ go Mediterranean
There’s a new Mediterranean fast- casual* restaurant close to where we work, and we went there for lunch this week. You choose falafels or a kebab, and then they add rice or lentils. They have some unusual side salads as well, such as eggplant and beet and kale.
*From Wikipedia : A fast-casual restaurant is a type of restaurant that does not offer full table service, but promises a higher quality of food with fewer frozen or processed ingredients than a fast-food restaurant.
Tuesday/ how to use less water
There are still no signs posted at the hotel here in Walnut Creek urging patrons to conserve water, given the on-going extreme drought in California that has recently – for the first time in the Golden State’s history – prompted a 25% mandatory cut in household water consumption. Still, I am very sure residents are aware of it with all the media coverage. Here is a diagram published in the local newspaper on Monday, offering suggestions for curbing water consumption at home. Check out the figures for landscaping and outdoor use. Get rid of that lawn! And don’t wash the car every other day!
Monday/ to San Francisco
It was a grey morning in Seattle, and a foggy one in San Francisco, and so we had to wait for an hour before we could take off.
Sunday/ Hillary for President
Hillary Clinton announced her candidacy for the 2016 presidential election only today, on Sunday (by publishing a video) .. but this was known ahead of time, and was good enough to serve as pre-emptive fodder for a Saturday Night Live skit about it. I think it is very funny. Husband ‘Bill Clinton’ makes a surprise appearance (of course). ‘Aren’t we such a fun, approachable dynasty?’ she asks at one point. Check out the YouTube video here.
Saturday/ the problem with wormholes
We watched ‘Interstellar’ on Saturday. It’s a 2014 science fiction-space travel movie that features Earth running out of food (think 1930s-type Dust Bowl scenes) and a group of scientists embarking on interstellar travel trying to save the human race. The movie also features a giant wormhole. Wormholes are fantastic science-fiction constructs, also called Einstein-Rosen bridges (postulated by Einstein and Rosen in 1935). Theoretically they allow accelerated travel from one point in the universe to another very many light years away. There are many problems, though : even if wormholes exist for any measurable length of time, their dimensions are thought to be on the Planck scale (sub-atomic size) .. so by 35 orders of magnitude not large enough for humans and certainly not for large enough for spaceships.
Friday/ National Siblings Day
I see Friday April 10 was National Siblings Day (not nearly as recognized as Mother’s Day or Father’s Day, of course). Still : three cheers to my three brothers! Disney Studios tweeted a cute picture from the 1970 animated movie Aristocats, of the three kitten siblings in the movie. (Psst .. search for Everybody Wants to Be a Cat on YouTube !).