Archive: July 20, 2010

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TDF stage 16 / climb / Lance attacks and almost wins! Fedrigo prevails; Hushovd back in green

Tuesday,  07/20/10  09:50 PM

Wow, Lance *almost* pulled it off, and I think everyone was pulling for him to do it.  He almost won from a nine-man break, almost putting a great punctuation mark on his fabulous Tour de France career.  At least he gave it a shot!

Today we had the "queen stage", a huge climbing day with two Cat 1 climbs and two HC climbs... and [unfortunately] a rather long flat run after the final climb down to the finish.  It was tailor made for a breakaway, and indeed there was one, and among the twelve riders in it was #21, Lance Armstrong himself.  Also in it was Ryder Hesjedal, ensuring the peloton wasn't going to give the break too much leash.  After a while they were joined by Alexander Vinokourov, Carlos Sastre, Sandy Casar, and Anthony Charteau, the current KOM leader.  That was the status after the second Cat 1 Col d'Aspin.  Soon Casar attacked, and soon after so did Lance!  The peloton absorbed the break as other riders attacked off the front, even as Lance passed Casar on the lower slopes of the HC Col d'Tourmalet.  For a while he was all by himself, and we all wondered whether he'd be able to hang out there all day, with two HC passes ahead of him...

But it was not to be.  A nine-man break formed, with no GC contenders, and they made it all the way to the finish, but Pierrick Fedrigo out sprinted the rest of the break, leaving Lance to finish sixth.  I was a little sad but it was fun watching it all unfold however :)  Also great on this day: Thor Hushovd does what he always does, race his bike in the mountains as well as the flats, and as a result he took enough sprint points to reclaim the green jersey from Alessandro Petacchi.  We'll see if he can keep it, but it is cool that he can compete for the green jersey without actually being one of the top sprinters.

Tomorrow is a rest day - much needed, you can be sure - and the day after we'll have fireworks for sure as it will be Andy Schleck against Alberto Contador mano-a-mano on the hilltop finish to the Tourmalet, which they'll climb from the other side to the way they took it today.  Will be amazing!

[ Tour de France 2010: all postsindex ]

 

totally Tuesday

Tuesday,  07/20/10  10:09 PM

A long day of work for me - drove down early, many meetings - but overall things are going quite well.  I've been working on a project which is taking shape, and it's great to see it finally moving...  tonight I find myself in San Clemente - all the hotels in Carlsbad are occupied by ComicCon, apparently - and so I did a rather weird ride, lots of residential streets, kind of fun though as you never know what will be around the next corner, and the next...

... (and yes, of course, I did wear my sunglasses at night :) ...

... meanwhile it's *all* happening, what a day in the world and the blogosphere!

Today is the 41st anniversary of the lunar landing.  As I do every year, here's a link to the video; wow, *still* gives me goose bumps.  Everyone can remember where they were when this happened, right?  (Well, assuming you were alive :) 

I don't necessarily agree with the New Yorker on most things, but Borderlines hits the nail on the head.  "The problem of illegal immigration isn’t a matter of violent criminals storming the walls of our peaceful towns and cities. It’s a matter of what to do about the estimated eleven million unauthorized residents who are already here."  I think of this every time I drive through the useless border checkpoints along I-5 between Oceanside and San Clemente, which I did tonight... 

NewScientist: Why Facebook friends are worth keeping...  (linked to the Google cache, to bypass the paywall.)  Apparently those "weak ties" to your not-really-best-friends have more value than we might think.  Maybe I should be friending more people?  Maybe. 

WRONG: Guy Kawasaki explains why too much money is worse than too little.  He's making a valid point - that companies develop bad habits if they have too much money - but not having enough money kills a company more surely than anything else. 

A re-introduction to JavaScript, on the Mozilla website; great article, linked as much for me (so I can find it later) as for you (so you can find it now). 

Massively cool: create a 3D hologram with your iPad...  best part, no funky glasses required :)  Seriously this technology could lead to some amazing things...  a home entertainment room with 3D? 

Speaking of 3D, did you know?  Avatar and Aliens are the same movie

Apple's billion dollar data center will be done this year, and TechCrunch [as many others] wonders why are they building it?  Their answer: "iTunes in the cloud", and they might be right...  of course another possibility is streaming movies, and that's my own guess... 

On Slashdot: the rise of small nuclear power plants.  "The prevailing wisdom is that nuclear plants must be very large in order to be competitive. This assumption is widely accepted, but, if its roots are understood, it can be effectively challenged."  Yay. 

Most excellent from Jeff Atwood: Groundhog day, or the problem with A/B testing.  It celebrates Groundhog Day, one of the most excellent movies ever, and then goes on to make solid points about the virtues and limitations of A/B testing of software...  yeah, it's a stretch, but let's give him credit for celebrating the movie :) 

Google had a big announcement day for a series of image search enhancements they're rolling out...  some UI improvements, and some new functionality, and ... image ads.  Cool for the most part, blech for the ads... 

Finally via Little Green Footballs, this awesome video about dolphins blowing air bubble rings.  You must click through, please, you will be amazed! 

 

Brains of the Man and the Woman

Tuesday,  07/20/10  10:30 PM


I love it
from a friend... who thinks Descartes was wrong (at least for men :-)

 
 

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