It's my pool party, we do what we like!

Arlen Specter, R-PA for 29 years is looking to serve another term on the blue side of the aise.

"'As the Republican Party has moved farther and farther to the right, I have found myself increasingly at odds with the Republican philosophy and more in line with the philosophy of the Democratic Party,' Specter said in announcing his decision Tuesday."

I feel you, man. A move like that takes balls. I have a lot of respect for Sen. Specter, but I hope this doesn't turn out to backfire like the misteps John McCain made in the 2008 campaign, selling his soul to the Republican base for a chance at electability after running his own race in 2000 and being slimed by the Bush team.

Was running as an independant out of the question? I imagine there's more money available for the man running as the democratic candidate.

A rare piece of news reported on CNN:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/04/29/specter.party.switch/index.html

Now if only Franken could be seated in MN.

I am Five!

And I got a blip.fm DJ name/account/thing!

It's like Twitter, but for music. 150 characters and 1 song to convey to you the state of the spirit of my soul, or something. The songs play quickly without much downloading.

Mine is here: CategorialSpinperative

And get your own, so you can contribute to the amount of ridiculously bloated prose on the internet RE: Music.

Long-delayed post: Freeman Dyson is the shit.

Whatever happened to the celebrity scientist? Was there ever such a thing, or do I just get the mistaken impression from reading histories of the 20th century that men like Bohr, Oppenheimer, and Feynman were household names?


"At Jason, taking problems to Dyson is something of a parlor trick. A group of scientists will be sitting around the cafeteria, and one will idly wonder if there is an integer where, if you take its last digit and move it to the front, turning, say, 112 to 211, it’s possible to exactly double the value. Dyson will immediately say, 'Oh, that’s not difficult,' allow two short beats to pass and then add, 'but of course the smallest such number is 18 digits long.' When this happened one day at lunch, William Press remembers, 'the table fell silent; nobody had the slightest idea how Freeman could have known such a fact or, even more terrifying, could have derived it in his head in about two seconds.' "

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/magazine/29Dyson-t.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&sq=dyson&st=cse&scp=2

Roll Your Own.

This past Friday was the second round of roller races at the Allentown BrewWorks. Pitchers of beer were six bucks, attendance was very good, and the races were hard-fought. A dude even fell off during the first round. Exciting.



Ten laps to the mile. The rollers and dial set-up are property of the Lehigh Wheelmen, and date from the 1930s.




Speaking of old bike stuff, here's my ride:



My bike isn't a great fit for me, and the front end is whippy. It's definitely not light; 20 pounds without bottles, pump, or saddlebag. I've ridden it through three years, a bunch of races, and a bunch of crashes (two of which got me a ride in an ambulance). But for all the times and ways it has come up short, there have been all that many times and more when it has impressed me with it's toughness and sheer refusal to die. Cheers, bike. To many more miles in 2009.

At least until I can get one of these: http://gaulzetticicli.blogspot.com/

Spring BREAAK

The above is a delicious and easy dish I made for dinner today; pork chops with a pineapple-jalapeno salsa. I love pork because it's so easy to prepare, and when seasoned provides a nice, savory complement to the prominent flavors of the sweet pineapple. The jalapeno was disappointingly bland; I removed the seeds to moderate the heat, but without them was about as exciting as a bell pepper. Alas. For 21 cents at Wegmann's, though, it's a disappointment I can live with.

If you're lucky enough to be a student at the finest community college in the tri-county area, you have this week off to enjoy the steadily improving weather. I haven't exactly been diligent in doing that, but tomorrow is looking promising. Bike/Ride report tomorrow.

Derby Shenanigans.

The thinking was the Derby today would be small, due to the training crits later that day. Less riders, safer (from a traffic perspective), easier to manage all together. It would be the first time I rode the fast-paced training ride leaving from the velodrome this year, and hopefully it would be uneventful.

Hah. Great weather and riders reveling in the balmy conditions, after a week that started by dumping 3 inches of snow on us, produced a group of at least 100 eager riders. Suffice it to say, the ride was uneven. Speeds surging on the rollout, some sudden slowdowns and then...

A dude up the way slows and bears right after a turn onto a small tree-lined lane, the dude behind him isn't paying attention, overlaps his front wheel, goes down. I happen to be right behind this fella, and my fate is sealed. Scraped knee, scraped elbow, scraped left hip (read: ass cheek). No pictures of the latter; my assistant was not home. Luckily no one was right behind me; maybe my newb-chic hairy legs kept them away. The bike is fine. After a little assistance from teammates of the aforementioned dudes, we turned around, caught the group on their way back to the track, and I rode the rear of the field on the way back.


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