Commentary « Stephen Skory

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Back in San Diego (Temporarily)

Monday, September 20th, 2010

I’m back in San Diego for the next week and a half in order to graduate. I defend in one week on the 27th. The photo above is of a tarantula that lives in the office that I used to sit in, and that I am sitting in again while I’m here. That is its full significance to this post.

If the tarantula isn’t big enough above, you can make it bigger by clicking on the image!

Posted in Commentary, My Research, Photos | 1 Comment »

Leaving San Diego

Wednesday, July 21st, 2010

Today we’re driving from San Diego to Boulder. The various mapping services give the drive time on the order of seventeen and a half hours. Most of our things have been picked up by the movers and we’re only carrying the things we need, can’t replace, or is alive (meow). The movers were supposed to have come yesterday so we could leave yesterday, but there was armageddon traffic on I-5 so they delayed coming today. The apartment is empty and we’ve turned in our keys.

Not really how it looks in the middle of July, although it did drizzle this morning

I’m sad to leave San Diego, it has been a very good place to live for seven years. I’m leaving behinds lots of friends and a place I’m used to living with weather I like. Boulder is an exciting new place with new friends to make. It has four seasons, which will be a new thing for both of us. I don’t know if we’ll ever live in San Diego again, but I do want to come back and see my old friends and go for a bike ride with them.

Goodbye!

Posted in Commentary, Cycling, Photos | 1 Comment »

At SciPy 2009; Caltech

Friday, August 21st, 2009

I’m at the SciPy 2009 conference at Caltech in Pasadena today and yesterday. It is an amazing collection of nerds and questionable facial hair styles. There have been some interesting talks.

I like this ‘snub cube’ fountain:

The SciPy crowd:

A fountain in front of the building the conference is in:

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Pareidolia

Saturday, June 20th, 2009

For a few months I have subscribed to Shorpy, a site that posts high-quality scans of historic American photographs. I save the ones I like, and I’ve set my computer to rotate randomly through them as my computer desktop picture. This morning I saw something I couldn’t ignore! Take a look at the photo below of the French Market in New Orleans in 1910:

What do you see just above and to the right of the wagon wheel? You can click on the image for the full view, or look at a zoom-in below:

It’s Che Guevara, of course! You can clearly see an eye, his beard, two nostrils and hat. He even appears to be sticking his tongue out. I am forced to wonder how his image ended up on a horse-drawn cart in New Orleans eighteen years before he was born. But clearly it’s a sign of something profound and mystical. Any ideas?