Margaret Brooks: A Strong Woman

A feminist to the core, though she denied it to the end. A poet and a scientist. A caring mother and grandmother whilst being an agent provocateur. A woman of contradictions, yet clear of mind and strong of will for the 35 years I knew her, and, from what I know, for the 61 other years that I didn't. In her contradictions, I saw many of my own.

I shared her birthday. I shared her taste for red wine (and, later, martinis). I shared her love of conversation and argument. I shared her love of crosswords. I shared her impish sense of humor that is, I think, funniest only to ourselves.

Now that she has completed this journey, I still share all of these things with her.

I recall not that long ago, she was expressing her doubts about modern technology and, specifically Google. A friend at my work pointed out that she, as an academic, was linked inextricably with Google, especially Google Scholar. Of course, so are my mother and me...(of course, I cannot help but point out that my own service does a better job of listing my and only my papers.) Sharing this academic and genetic lineage (though in point of fact Jewell is not genetically linked with Margaret...she being my Jim's mom...) over 3 generations is pretty cool, actually. And I recall Margaret being a bit struck by those links.

More to the point though, she was around when I was very young and instilled in me, with Jim and Jewell of course, a very open and frank style of addressing truth, and searching for truth via discussion and advocacy. She loved to provoke, to force people find and defend what was important to them, and this style I still find in my own interactions. She could be murder to be around, of course. Poking people in their tender parts isn't always the recipe for smooth interactions. She, however, always expressed disdain for the comfortable and the smooth. I never doubted that she had my best interests at heart, and I reacted to that style by growing very confident in my ideas and my mental abilities. A confidence that has come and gone a few times later in my life, but one that I still draw on. This, among other things, I owe her for.

We knew, of course, that she was dying, and I went home several times this year to be around...just to be around. Now I'm leaving tomorrow for Geneva and some meetings that are inconvenient to miss. Death, of course, refuses to be convenient and fit itself into our self-involved schedules, and with Margaret, she never really valued convenience anyway. Priorities are often thought of as simple rankings. But of course they aren't really simple. It isn't a binary choice. It doesn't work like that, and she would have been the the first to argue with me about that.

A great view of cities

Cities and Ambition

Not what does a city say about you, but what does a city say to you, what does it make you do, subtly. Why do I feel alive when I walk down the streets of SF, but not San Jose (no offense SJers)? Why do people pay so much to live in SF or NYC, and further, what do these conditions force back on the inhabitants. I love this comment:

One sign of a city's potential as a technology center is the number
of restaurants that still require jackets for men. According to
Zagat's there are none in San Francisco, LA, Boston, or Seattle,
4 in DC, 6 in Chicago, 8 in London, 13 in New York, and 20 in Paris.

Women can't do math? Think again

Study: No gender differences in math performance | Eureka! Science News

Good news! I've long heard this idea, especially the variability idea, that female math performance is the same on average, but the variance is smaller, explaining lack of female mathematicians etc (also lack of females who are complete idiots...) however, this study, which appears to have great statistics, manages to debunk not only any difference in mean math ability, but also showed no gender bias on the variance. Nice to know. Thus we must look for explanations of low numbers of female mathematicians in the culture, not in the brain. (or perhaps in the brains of current mathematics/physics faculty).

Clearly our traditional child rearing/marriage roles for women slow them down at the postdoc/asst. prof times in their careers. This is silly in this day and age, since there is no reason why the mother should get to spend more time with the child than the father...but regardless, even preserving those old roles, one sees that this can't be the problem, since it is not a uniform lack of females in academia, but only in math/physics. Bio, history, english, etc are all (relatively) nicely populated with women. I've alwasy wondered it it has to do with math/phys tending to require that the researcher do their greatest work at an early age. Some mathematicians claim that great work is done in the _early_ 20s. This might interact with the "mommy-track" in a negative way for females. However, I still feel that the cultures within the departments has a lot to do with it... Interesting to think about.

Finally of note, but unrelated to gender, the authors bemoan the lack of complex problem solving questions on std tests for no child left behind, hence comparing genders on this topic was even harder, since they aren't tested on it. Idiocracy anyone?

Women can't do math? Think again

Study: No gender differences in math performance | Eureka! Science News

Good news! I've long heard this idea, especially the variability idea, that female math performance is the same on average, but the variance is smaller, explaining lack of female mathematicians etc (also lack of females who are complete idiots...) however, this study, which appears to have great statistics, manages to debunk not only any difference in mean math ability, but also showed no gender bias on the variance. Nice to know. Thus we must look for explanations of low numbers of female mathematicians in the culture, not in the brain. (or perhaps in the brains of current mathematics/physics faculty).

Clearly our traditional child rearing/marriage roles for women slow them down at the postdoc/asst. prof times in their careers. This is silly in this day and age, since there is no reason why the mother should get to spend more time with the child than the father...but regardless, even preserving those old roles, one sees that this can't be the problem, since it is not a uniform lack of females in academia, but only in math/physics. Bio, history, english, etc are all (relatively) nicely populated with women. I've alwasy wondered it it has to do with math/phys tending to require that the researcher do their greatest work at an early age. Some mathematicians claim that great work is done in the _early_ 20s. This might interact with the "mommy-track" in a negative way for females. However, I still feel that the cultures within the departments has a lot to do with it... Interesting to think about.

Finally of note, but unrelated to gender, the authors bemoan the lack of complex problem solving questions on std tests for no child left behind, hence comparing geners on this topic was even harder, since they aren't tested on it. Idiocracy anyone.

SCOAP3

SLAC is now officially part of SCOAP3! symmetry breaking » SPIRES

Test for SPIRES

On the spiresblog, I tried using a tag cload for the topcites and it looks pretty cool

Essential Mountain Goats

For a friend we are making a playlist of Mountain Goats songs to form an intro to my favorite band, led by John Darnielle . It isn't really the _essential_ mtn goats, as a fan I have a separate list of 10-15 songs that to me define the music, however, this is a question of songs that provide a good introduction for the novice listener, therefore they are heavily biased towards more recent things. Without further ado...here they are:

1. Woke Up New (Get Lonely)
2. You and Your Memory (Sunset Tree)
3. Wild Sage (Get Lonely)
4. Linda Blair was Born Innocent (We Shall All Be Healed)
5. Love, love, love (Sunset Tree)
6. Up The Wolves (Sunset Tree)
7. Peacocks (Tallahassee)
8. Half Dead (Get Lonely)
9. International Small Arms Traffic Blues (Tallahassee)
10. Hast thou Considered the Tetrapod (Sunset Tree)
11. Your Belgian Things (We Shall all be Healed)
12. Danu Lipatti's Bones (Sunset Tree)
13. No Children (Tallahassee)
14. Old College Try (Tallahassee)

Joshua Tree 2006

Back from JTree in October 2006.

Trip summary from a climbing perspective:

Yosemite:

East Buttress of ElCap with Jim and Link. V and Link swappwed leads, J an K swapped leads. Started at around 9, done by 4pm, waited a bit behind other party. Both V and K had a bit of trouble leading the 1st of the 2 middle 5.9 pitches, but otherwaise stellar route, very fun.

East Side:

Little lakes Valley (Tom's place turnoff) 4 mile approach to Dade lake on one day, then climb bear Creek Spire (NE Arete). Snow on approach during 1 mile of steep talus (ugh). Slept on it, but decided not to go too much further up talus, and turned back with fun trip but no peak.


JTree:

Arrived Thursday

3 climbs at hemingway

Friday

Lost in Lost horse (3-4 climbs)

Saturday

3 climbs at Future Games wall, then escape heat in town

Sunday

6 climbs in Real Hidden Valley

Monday

4 climbs at trashcan rock
4 climbs at hemingway/dairy queen

Tuesday

1 climb in Steve's canyon-mainly rest day/movie

Wednesday

Picked 4 plums

Double Cross 5.7 *** V
Watanobe Wall 10a *** V
Pope's Crack 9 *** K (not her type but excellent lead!)
Illusion Dweller 10b ***** K (few hangs, one fall, but what a climb! sustained!)

Another Chocolate Tasting (#3)

Just returned from Joshua tree (see next post) and tasting chocolate again:


1) L: Lindt Excellence 80%

V: Good snap, very good melting temperature. hint of cherry. very fudgy. Clean aftertaste.

K: Light and crisp. Maraschino flavor. Clean. Good texture.

2) N: NewTree "Forgiveness" 73% with lemon

V: Texture is a bit hard. Lemon is interesting, but quickly turns ashy and bitter. Hint of soap. On the otherhand this is good when eaten quickly as a snack type bar-the lemon is more interesting then.

K: Sweetness and tartness don't mix in this. Dry. Lemon hits you before chocolate. Weird aftertaste. Bitter and acrid aftertaste. Good until compared to higher quality.

3) SB: Scharffen Berger 41% Milk

V: Caramel-cara mia. Doesn't melt quickly. Very tasty.

K: SB milk c. is soo good. Caramelization of the milk! Caramel! Texture very creamy but didn't melt as quickly as I expected. Milky aftertaste very prominent.



V's favorite: Lindt

K's favorite: Difficult between SB and L, very different.





Notes from an earlier unrecorded tasting of SB 68% Kumasi Sambirano:

Very choc. , fudgy sweet and earthy/grassy

Creamy and dark

accessible and fruity with excellent texture.

Chocolate Tasting #2

SB=Scharffen Berger 70% pure "bittersweet"
VS=Villars Swiss 72% pure "dark chocolate"

Choclate Tasting music (A View to A Kill-Duran Duran)

SB:

V-Firm, doesn't melt, strong snap. Orange flavor. Very strong and clean afterwards. I like it, but not my favorite

K-smells like teen spirit (i mean dried leaves) liquor. Doesn't melt. cherries and maple flavor. Mild aftertaste.


VS:

V: Clean snap, melts easier. More bitter. very different flavor. like a grape, with a clean clear first break, follwed by a tart flavor, but a more bitter coffee flavor. Strong aftertaste. You know you've eaten dark chocolate. Smoky long afterwards.

K: Nuttier. chalkier texture. Bitter orange coffee flavor, followed by nuts. 2 very distinct flavors, in stages. Much stronger aftertaste. Epitome of dark choc. feels lonely by itself.


Final:

V: I prefer the VS. It is more classic dark chocolate. Both are interesting, but the VS is probably a more robust. Would like some port...

K: I prefer the SB. Texture is important and the SB has better texture. By istelf the SB has a shorter aftertaste, which is more pleasant without accompaniment (other than Duran Duran...)

Chocolate Tasting #1

1st (recorded) tasting-not blind.

2 chocolates:

SB62Nib) Scharffen Berger Nibby bar 62% Note that this bar has a distinct texture difference, due to its inclusion of cacao nibs. It is still a pure chocolate, since cacao nibs are indeed processed into pure chocolate, but these are coarse ground nibs, so the texture and taste are different.

GSS) Ghirardelli "semi-sweet" bar including milk fat. This bar came to us via a circuitous route, and thus we are unsure of its exact composition.


Tasting accompanied by vanilla silk to cleanse palate. Note that this is our idea, not necc. in agreement with others. Others claim that you should snap (listen for the snap for a good choc.) then smell, then let it melt on tongue for a few sec. then press to roof of mouth, then chew 3-5 times. Spitting is not neccessary here....


GSS-

K- May have been in purse too long. Taska tastes plastic. Smell is nice full cherry flavor. No snap. A bit chalky, pwdered sugar. No bitterness at all, very sweet. Not a dark chocolate. What little bitterness it has is in the finish. Semi sweet

V- Slight Coffee flavor. no Snap. Reminds me of dark choc. chips, or chips in really good ice cream. Very clean, perhaps simple. Not unpleasant at all. Just enough bite at the finish to tell you that it is for real, but not enough to make you think twice. All in all a pleasant choc., but nothing out of the ordinary.

SB62N-

K- Grenadine and bananas-with brazilnuts. Higher melting point, long time before flavor comes through. Scent almost floral- perhaps.. gardenias or honeysuckle A good amount of Cacao nibs. Sweet coffee. Flovar arrived on swallowing, perhaps better for small bites and faster chewing.

V- Texture is of course very intriguing- bananas are very clear. Clean, almost tasteless at the beginning, finishing with a crunch of the nibs and the rich bitter flavors coming through. Strong snap. Very pleasureable and interesting, very low sweetness.


Final comments

K- More dark chocolate- the more I appreciate it. Curious to see what I would choose were I given a choice of a whole bar to eat. Still might prefer milk, but not sure. Cartainly would have until last few weeks. Think I would now have a hard time eating candy bard from the checkout line...


V- For pleasure-the nibby bar, but for cooking, the GSS seems good, and it isn't a bad snack at all. Not really a fair comparison, of course, since I think the GSS was meant for cooking.
I agree with K that dark chocolate is far more complex in flavor (like red wine..) and I would prefer a good dark, pure bar to a milk bar, but there are really good examples of both (again like wine). Comples tastes are almost always preferable, but there are times and places for both.

Chocolate

About 6 months ago Taska decided that she was interested in thinking about Chocolate in the same way that oenophiles think about wine. We've been trying many different chocolates, including some flavored chocolates (a Vosges 41% "Barcelona" bar that includes sea salt was particularly yummy).

We, and my parents, recently took a tour of Scharffen Berger Chocolate factory in Berkeley (highly recommended!) and the tour guides there were quite enthusiastic about our ideas, and mentioned several things about the already extant chocolate tasting/gourmet chocolate community. For one thing, it was claimed that chocolate has more flavor compounds than wine. I'm not sure, but I believe this means that chemically, it has more compounds that tickle our taste buds. Chocolate, or wine, will vary in the proportion of these compounds, giving rise to complex and subtle differences of flavor. Since chocolate has more, the idea is that it is a more fertile ground for taste variation and experimentation. I'm not convinced that this neccessarily follows, but certainly having more things to play with in terms of flavor can't be bad, and chocolate has the addition of texture as well.

Regardless of its comparison to wine, we're pretty psyched about chocolate, since it tastes better than wine, and nothing is particularly impaired after consuming it, except perhaps your waistline. We hope to embark on a tasting journey among the chocolate varieties that currently exist, and perhaps provoke others to join us via tasting parties and other fun forms of chocovangelism. Interested parties might wish to consult with xocoatl.org as a nice resource.

Chocolate of course must be divided into categories, the most obvious being milk vs. dark, which is probably roughly equivalent to white vs red, if one is interested in furthering the wine analogy. However, before that division, one must also make the distinction of pure vs adulterated. Chocolate + sea salt is amazing and interesting, however, it is not pure. To be pure, by our current off the cuff definition, we must have nothing, save cacao, cocoa butter, vanilla, lecithin, sugar in some proportion. The existence of any other ingredient should be considered as an adulteration. Note that milk chocolate would be one common form of adulteration, but not, by any means the only one. Milk chocolate is common enough to warrant its own category, but there must indeed be a third category for other forms of additions to pure chocolate. We will continue to keep records of our tasting here as they occur.

June Climbing

To continue my halfhearted climbing documentation:

Back in May we get to Yose only once (weather not as good as usual, and we were a bit sick occasionally) and we did:

* The first 3 pitches of a wet Goodrich Pinnacle route (looked like it might be a little bit wet on the runout face parts so we called it after 3 pitches. Taska P1 (5.6) Travis P2(5.7) Jim P3(5.8/9)
* Harry Daley route 5.8 (such a fun little climb over there on GP apron!) Jim P1 Travis P2
* Bishop's Terrace 5.8 Travis P1 Jim P2 (1 pitch to the top, 2nd pitch traverses over to the terrace


Finally got back to Yose on June 4-5 for a 2day trip.

Day1:
*Higher Cathedral Spire-regular route. what a route. 5 pitches, the last 4 are 5.9. Great summit (rarity in Yose!) We did the std route as shown in stopo, the thin hands variation to the right on P2 looked more like 10b (saw another party struggle on it...). THe 3rd pitch was pretty stunning, and the 5th pitch we did a sttep hands variation on the right that was short but fun.
** Travis P1 (5.5) P5 (5.9)
** Taska P3 (5.9)
** Jim P2,4 (5.9)
* Commitment- We got down from the 1500' vertical of the hike to and from Higher spire at about 330 or so, and decided that after a snack we needed to do something more to earn our dinner. So we ran up Commitment in pretty quick time (less than 2hrs-quick for us anyway). V-P1(5.8) K-P2(5.7) J-P3(5.9)

Day2:
A bit sore we decided we needed something to stretch the muscles and be a bit more relaxing, so we did Royal Arches. We ended up finding a couple of new things to do: a 5.7 hand crack just to the right on the big ledge system before the "3rd" pitch. A good alternative to 3rd class scrabming in the gully on the left, fun for 20-30 feet. Also the 5.9?? variation on the 5.7 pitch after the traverse. When the tree at the top of that pitch finally goes (rotten, but gives great holds!) you can move left about 15-20 feet below the tree and do a little crack that has one fisty move-but a #3 camalot should protect it very well, no problem and a good alternative to bringing the treee down. Total time <4.5 hours, not too bad, we weren't really hurying, and we had 3 people, though Jim was self-belaying.

Podcast Test

So I am now getting interested in podcasting, and I tried this podcast from home with just the random flotsam and jetsam I had laying about in my itunes and iphoto stuff (most of my real photos and music are in Taska's account, so didn't use them).

This took about 30 mins from opening garageband to posting it to my blog...

My first podcast


Just click on the link and if you have iTunes you should hear it immediately. Keep an eye on the lower left corner to see images. You may have to open the iTunes artwork pane (in lower left corner, there is a button to do that)-you also have to keep the podcast selected for the pix to show. You can make them bigger by expanding that window...

REM

REM personal top 25 lists are appearing. So here is a joint effort of me and Taska to make this list. It took a lot of vodka, many trips to the iPod, and some serious soul searching to hash this out. Ranking is way out of the question, but we managed to break it into 3 groups.


All REM is Great (Except Monster-which is only good) but these are not in the top 2 tiers (21-25)

Cuyahoga-Lived in Cleveland-Cuyahoga county Ohio long after this album came out-irrelevant, but significant at the time.

Radio Free Europe-Classic-can’t leave it out.

Electrolite-New Adventures is on Compton Ave in Cleveland, Sr year of College. Monster was a bit disappointing (for eveyone) and then this-hours of play- on the big white dusty college couch.

Around the Sun-bought this album in Joshua Tree. How many REM songs are connected to climbing for us! Yet we've loved them for far longer than we've climbed.

Chorus and the ring- Reveal-We lived in the East bay when we got this album and I never really connected with it, however this song is great. There are some other good ones on that album, but Up, Around the Sun and the Great Beyond, all dwarf this album a bit.


Really good songs-but one tier down (11-20-no order):

Nightswimming- A photo of us-dancing at Central taken by Brad?-on the dashboard of the Honda, every streetlight reflected...

Drive- Motivation. A great opening to an album.

Talk About the Passion-muhmuh-The Prelude, in front of 431 Stonewall.

Gardening at Night-I’ve done this...

Perfect Circle-Driving down Forrest St., turning on to Stonewall, again Taska introduces me to this song. Taska: Jamison’s house, music cave, father’s record player, $250 needle-sounds good even without that.

End of the World-Classic-Slamdancing at Shad’s new years party-every year

bittersweet me- Taska:long story-Group sex-AIDS test-poster on the wall-illustrator “M.M.” -bomb strapped to leg- “I’d rather chew my leg off...”-told you it was a long story.

Time after Time-The slow pause is “one of the best moments in music ever: according to Taska. Travis likes So. Central rain here instead....

The One I Love-Classic, though very overplayed, and “oft misunderstood”

Why Not Smile (Taska)/Walk Unafraid (Travis) Up is always in Boulder Canyon.

Obvious Inclusions- top 10 in no particlular order:

Driver 8-It just screams REM. Tri-tone. Taska:First REM song she learned to play on the Guitar

Losing my religion-I bought out of time in a record store in Athens, while there for a bike race with my Dad. I knew and liked REM, but I didn't realize they were from Athens till I got home!

Belong-Resonates. Driving my Honda Prelude to Central High School-the parking lot of Subway on Union Ave, with Taska.

Maps and Legends- Driving through Coventry in Cleveland hgts. listening to a live version of this, long after it came out.

Hope-Taska and I rented a car with a CD player in Boulder, CO and I had UP and we played this song over and over while driving/climbing in Boulder Canyon

Half a world away- Taska:painting in Byron’s room, writing letters to Adam, in college, half a wor.....

King of Birds-Newton. Taska:Anything is cool if it starts with a Sitar

You are the Everything-What can I say? Steamy windows. Romance. Mandolins. Taska: First time I saw them in concert-Green tour Mid South Coliseum with indigo girls.

World Leader Pretend-When I quit my PhD program at Stanford I climbed a route in Yosemite, sat on a ledge above the valley, painted arrows on myself and sang this song.

Swan Swan H--Taska’s first favorite REM song.

Climbing Trip 2

Pinnacles again 2/20

Taska and I, East Side

Nipple Jam 5.8? (V)

Thrill Hammer 5.8+ (VK)

??? 5.7 (V)

North end of East Face Discovery wall...

Insubstantial Man 10a (K)

Not its real name, some other word instead of insubstantial...Good lead-one hard mantle move by a bolt, then thin 5.9ish for 3 more bolts

Wet Kiss 5.9 (V)

always fun!

The Big Pucker 10d (TR)

good climb - hard mantle for short folks crux is after the ledge, well protected

Swallow Crack 5.6 (K)

fun way to end the day-easy but fun. Saw some guys at the base of this with what looked like an El Cap rack. Never did see if they did this or something else, but it looked weird...

Brokeback Murrow

Brokeback Mountain

Great movie. Politically, of course, I have to be behind it, but it is
way beyond that. Ang Lee is just plain good at his job, and does a great
job with a really good story from Proulx and McMurtry, and a great
performance by Heath Ledger. Top it off with Wyoming, and a great little
soundtrack (small, almost precious, pieces of guitar music, just enough to
be interesting, but not enough to be distracting)

The oscars for me boil down to this and Good Night and Good Luck. Both
movies I care about politically, as well as appreciating their craft. The
"free speech vs. patriot act/McCarthyism/bigoted idiots" and "gay rights
vs. hate crimes/Pat Robertson/bigoted idiots" aspect
of these movies resonates deeply with me, of course, and it is hard for me
to evaluate them on a purely cinematic basis. I want them both to be
acclaimed, so that more of the country hears these important messages.

However, cinematically, I think Brokeback is the narrow winner. I think.
It's real close. I guess I could sit around and watch them both over and
over just to decide. Wouldn't be bad, that.

2 cool things

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers

I'm most of the way through it and really like it. Mostly
autobiographical, somewhat maudlin and very introspective. Always witty,
and often inspiring.

Eggers currently is editor of McSweeney's
which is a nifty site/magazine.

From there I ran into freedarko which is an
interesting and intelligent basketball commentary.

Good sportswriting for those of us who appreciate good writing, but also
follow sports, is sometimes hard to find. Bill Simmons at espn.com was as
good as it got for me until I found freedarko, which is better after a few
glances, to my mind. Gregg Easterbrook used to be pretty interesting,
except that he compared Disney to hitler and lost his spot on espn...

Treos

So I got a treo about 2 weeks ago, and as a consequece haven't been
posting here. Basically this is because I am playing with the Treo on the
train, instead of thinking of interesting blog postings.

Anyway, I haven't forgotten this, and of course, I can post from the treo
too, but I haven't done that yet.

The Treo (650) is pretty darn cool, for those of you considering a
"device".

cyberpunk feminists

An interisting paper on cyberpunk women