What a great game! Will was here to watch the Sunday evening match-up: Patriots versus the unbeaten colts in Indianapolis. The old Brady-Moss magic was back. The Patriots were playing really well: stellar performances from the two stars, with Welker, Faulk and the rest of the offense on a tear, while the defense was seemingly able to shut the Colts down. Or so it was until the fourth quarter. For much of the game, the Pats led by 10 or 17 points. It could have been more but for an end-zone interception and a goal line fumble. The Colts got two friendly defensive-pass-interference decisions from the officials, the second one of these was just mind-boggling. The Patriots were able, with good justification, to go into the "prevent defense" during the last half of the fourth quarter with an 13 point lead. Will and I have always joked that the prevent defense usually prevents the winning side from winning, but last night it seemed appropriate. Injuries had reduced the defensive front seven to a situation where there were no backups and they certainly were tired. However, once the lead was down to 6, it was time to just play good football again. But His Hoodiness (aka Bill Belichik) treated us to a new concept in football: the prevent offense. With fourth-and-two at your own 38 yard line, what does coaching 101 tell you to do? Punt! The punt unit were on the field. But, OMG, they ran off and we're going for it. What relief when Kevin Faulk caught the ball for a first down (game more or less over)! But no, the officials have ruled that he didn't have control of the ball until the defenders had pushed him back over the ten yard line. The rest was inevitable. The most disappointing, nay, tragic loss since Super Bowl XLII.
I shouldn't be quite so hard on Belichik. I am a huge fan of his and am amazed how he always makes really good decisions. Maybe he had a headache, or his contact lenses had fallen out. Whatever the reason, this one is going to be discussed for weeks!
Go Pats!
Monday, November 16, 2009
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Marylou
This week we and and a vast hinterland of music lovers around the world were deeply saddened by the loss of Marylou Speaker Churchill. We knew her primarily as Mark's wife, but the rest of the musical world knew Mark as Marylou's husband! Aside from her enormous talent as a violin performer and teacher, she had an incredible grace and a very warm personality. But don't take my word for it – there has been a huge outpouring of thoughts, anecdotes, love and affection on the Facebook page: Friends of Marylou Speaker Churchill. Another source of information about her life is of course the obituary in the Globe.
Our thoughts are very much with Mark, Emma and Julia, who I think are now 14 years old – a time when a mother will be very much missed!
I have many fond memories of Marylou playing with SPM either as soloist, "ripieno" violinist, or just plain audience member. One was the incident of the trousers. You'll have to ask me about that one. Another was her very genuine warmth when playing the Dvorak concerto and having to deal with me as bassoonist! Another (not directly SPM-related) is her being there at our wedding when we asked Mark if he would officiate. My recollection is that it was the "girls", by which I think he meant all three, that persuaded him to do it. Marylou could justifiably have stayed at home – it was so nice of her to come. That was typical of her.
Our thoughts are very much with Mark, Emma and Julia, who I think are now 14 years old – a time when a mother will be very much missed!
I have many fond memories of Marylou playing with SPM either as soloist, "ripieno" violinist, or just plain audience member. One was the incident of the trousers. You'll have to ask me about that one. Another was her very genuine warmth when playing the Dvorak concerto and having to deal with me as bassoonist! Another (not directly SPM-related) is her being there at our wedding when we asked Mark if he would officiate. My recollection is that it was the "girls", by which I think he meant all three, that persuaded him to do it. Marylou could justifiably have stayed at home – it was so nice of her to come. That was typical of her.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Basking in Indian Summer
After a cold snap early in October, we've been enjoying unseasonably warm weather here in the city in the woods. On November 1st we drove up to Pisgah State Park in New Hampshire for a guided nature tour by a local professor, Tom Wessels. The walk was extremely interesting - we learned some things about trees that were completely new to me. For example, trees of different species (nay, families, even orders) can root-graft each other to stay alive. He also pointed out that the ratio of biomass between underground and above-ground can be something like 4:5 for a typical forest and considerably greater than 1 for an "old growth" forest.
However, today is probably the last of our warm days, at least for now.
Meanwhile, TiVo can be very frustrating. Can't live with it, can't live without it. When I first heard about it, around ten years ago, I thought what a great idea! When I first bought one, about 8 years ago I thought what a great idea, but what a terrible user interface. The user interface is still terrible, almost unchanged since then. Don't they have programmers?
Last weekend's SPM concerts were really wonderful: a Gabrieli Sonata
"Pian e forte", the Strauss Vier Letzte Lieder with the most marvellous soprano, Sara Jakubiak, and the Mendelssohn 3rd (Scottish) symphony, his last and probably best. The Strauss songs especially are just incredible. What a treat to be able to play this kind of music! Here's a very favorable review from John Zeugner.
Meanwhile, Marylou is receiving tons of messages in the Facebook group Friends of Marylou Speaker Churchill. She's very much in our thoughts.
However, today is probably the last of our warm days, at least for now.
Meanwhile, TiVo can be very frustrating. Can't live with it, can't live without it. When I first heard about it, around ten years ago, I thought what a great idea! When I first bought one, about 8 years ago I thought what a great idea, but what a terrible user interface. The user interface is still terrible, almost unchanged since then. Don't they have programmers?
Last weekend's SPM concerts were really wonderful: a Gabrieli Sonata
"Pian e forte", the Strauss Vier Letzte Lieder with the most marvellous soprano, Sara Jakubiak, and the Mendelssohn 3rd (Scottish) symphony, his last and probably best. The Strauss songs especially are just incredible. What a treat to be able to play this kind of music! Here's a very favorable review from John Zeugner.
Meanwhile, Marylou is receiving tons of messages in the Facebook group Friends of Marylou Speaker Churchill. She's very much in our thoughts.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Ups and downs at Harvard University
A couple of interesting items concerning Harvard University have emerged in the last week or so. In Saturday's Boston Globe, a headline proclaims "Harvard admits to $1.8b gaffe in cash holdings." Has the world gone completely mad? Or just the people at the Globe and Harvard. How can losing $1.8b be considered a gaffe? Note that this wasn't money they lost from their vast endowment. This was money in the current account, that's to say money they use to run the University day-to-day.
And, on a happier note, Harvard Prof. Jack Szostak shared the Nobel prize for Medicine this year. A Boston Globe article gives a brief description of his work and mentions how his colleagues helped him celebrate.
I went back to Matt Ridley's excellent book Genome and found the section that discusses telomeres – the ends of chromosomes – and likens them to aglets on shoe laces. [As I type this, my computer shows its ignorance by not recognizing the word "aglets", but I'm sure you won't need it explained to you]. Apparently, there is a flaw in the mechanism that copies DNA. It always skips the first (and maybe the last) gene of a chromosome. Too many reproductions will fray the ends (to continue the shoe-lace analogy) and problems will occur. This is where telomerase (the subject of the Nobel Prize) comes to the rescue. It repairs the frayed ends and all is well. Evolution has provided us with multiple copies of the base sequence TTAGGG so that we can also stand copying DNA even when the repair operation doesn't apply (i.e. in some or all of the somatic cell divisions, as opposed to the germ-line cell division where the repair is absolutely necessary). Incidentally, all animals have the same telomere sequence, but plants have an extra "T". We have to go a very long way back to find ancestors with different telomeric sequences.
The reason all this is so important is that sometimes telomerase gets switched on for somatic cells that shouldn't have it. This means that they can keep on dividing without any problems. While this sounds at first like a good thing, it isn't of course – it's called cancer.
Well, that's my garbled take on all this but it is interesting. For more detail, see Telomere.
And, on a happier note, Harvard Prof. Jack Szostak shared the Nobel prize for Medicine this year. A Boston Globe article gives a brief description of his work and mentions how his colleagues helped him celebrate.
I went back to Matt Ridley's excellent book Genome and found the section that discusses telomeres – the ends of chromosomes – and likens them to aglets on shoe laces. [As I type this, my computer shows its ignorance by not recognizing the word "aglets", but I'm sure you won't need it explained to you]. Apparently, there is a flaw in the mechanism that copies DNA. It always skips the first (and maybe the last) gene of a chromosome. Too many reproductions will fray the ends (to continue the shoe-lace analogy) and problems will occur. This is where telomerase (the subject of the Nobel Prize) comes to the rescue. It repairs the frayed ends and all is well. Evolution has provided us with multiple copies of the base sequence TTAGGG so that we can also stand copying DNA even when the repair operation doesn't apply (i.e. in some or all of the somatic cell divisions, as opposed to the germ-line cell division where the repair is absolutely necessary). Incidentally, all animals have the same telomere sequence, but plants have an extra "T". We have to go a very long way back to find ancestors with different telomeric sequences.
The reason all this is so important is that sometimes telomerase gets switched on for somatic cells that shouldn't have it. This means that they can keep on dividing without any problems. While this sounds at first like a good thing, it isn't of course – it's called cancer.
Well, that's my garbled take on all this but it is interesting. For more detail, see Telomere.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Happy Birthday, M
My mother's birthday today and we had a nice chat by phone this afternoon. Will had the day off today and so came over – so he got to talk to Granny too. After dinner he and I went to see the new Michael Moore movie: Capitalism. We thought it was excellent, especially putting up crime scene tape around the NYSE and trying to make a citizens' arrest of bank executives.
After not playing all that well at bridge yesterday with Kim, I had a good game with Len, beating out Sheila and Lew (always an accomplishment) at the club today. Daytime bridge is a little different though – there are a lot more gifts being handed out than in the evening games that I usually play in.
The weather is turning a little cold – light frosts in the mornings lately – and it's feeling a lot more like winter is just around the corner. The leaves are still looking good though.
Finally, a comment on The House on the Strand, which I'm re-reading (or rather re-hearing) at present, with Michael Maloney as the reader, who is excellent. It is so good. The writing is almost like poetry –the words just flow so well. And the story, written in the first person as a man, is so personal and vivid that you just can't put it down (or switch it off). Apparently, Daphne du Maurier was an Ac/Dc type and felt that the male side of her persona was the creative force behind the writing. I can understand that totally.
After not playing all that well at bridge yesterday with Kim, I had a good game with Len, beating out Sheila and Lew (always an accomplishment) at the club today. Daytime bridge is a little different though – there are a lot more gifts being handed out than in the evening games that I usually play in.
The weather is turning a little cold – light frosts in the mornings lately – and it's feeling a lot more like winter is just around the corner. The leaves are still looking good though.
Finally, a comment on The House on the Strand, which I'm re-reading (or rather re-hearing) at present, with Michael Maloney as the reader, who is excellent. It is so good. The writing is almost like poetry –the words just flow so well. And the story, written in the first person as a man, is so personal and vivid that you just can't put it down (or switch it off). Apparently, Daphne du Maurier was an Ac/Dc type and felt that the male side of her persona was the creative force behind the writing. I can understand that totally.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Darwin and newts
We had planned to take an easy hike to round out our summer during the foliage season in New Hampshire's largest state park, viz. Pisgah State Park. It's 20 square miles and parts of it are truly a wilderness. They do allow ATVs in certain areas in summer, and snowmobiles throughout in winter, but it really is a magical place. We found two beautiful lakes: Lily Pond and North Round Pond. After we left the main trail, we never saw another soul, human that is.
What we did see were a couple of newts (not together). One was kind of greenish on top and yellowish underneath (or maybe the other way around) and about 3" long. The other was the same length but reddish. According to my sources, and assuming that I'm reading it correctly, the former was an adult Eastern newt, while the latter was an eft, the stage between larva and adult.
Meanwhile, I have finally released version 2 of my Darwin project: a Java framework for evolutionary computation. That feels good!
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