July 2010 Archives

Chocolate Shake

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Mels_coll_01.jpg
Before heading back to Arizona I had a little time left before my flight so I took BART to downton SF primarily to get a chocolate shake at Mel's drive in LOL. It is really pure yummyness haha.

I also got a veggie sandwich 'cause I'm like real healthy.

Mel's drive in restaurants are actually cool, and they have a few locations in NorCal and SoCal. So, if you're in the area check them out.

And again, you think your winters are cold, welcome to a summer in SF. LOL

What a view...

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There's a hiking trail around The Dish, a radio telescope south of Stanford. Hiking up the hills is totally worth it for the most amazing views of the SF Bay Area. I could see all the way up to San Francisco (about 28 miles from Palo Alto); in the middle right part of the picture you can see the Bay Bridge.

Education

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Stanford_campus_01.jpg
After the SLAC tour I had some time and decided to check out the Stanford campus.

Everything looks so well maintained and manicured; the buildings like a perfectly matching set.

Most of the buildings are kept low and have red roof tiles. Extensive archway surrounded courtyards present spacious grounds with nicely arranged palm trees and greenery.


Acceleration

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SLAC_01.jpg
Today we had the opportunity to tour the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, originally named Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. It is operated by Stanford University for the United States Department of Energy (DOE).

The linear accelerator is 2 miles long, the longest linear accelerator in the world. Most notably, SLAC research has led to three Nobel prizes in physics.

    * 1976 - Charm: The 4th Quark
    * 1990 - Quarks: Structure of Protons and Neutrons
    * 1995 - Tau Lepton

Colorful bikes...

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are colorful. That's one way of transportation for employees at the Googleplex. You can find such bikes all over the campus which is actually a cool idea for getting around efficiently.

So, after the train ride to Mountain View I stopped by Google HQ or Googleplex, Google's original and largest corporate campus

It's a pretty rad environment they have created there (37.422026,-122.084543).

Locomotion

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Another beautiful day here in Palo Alto, so I took a ride on Caltrain down to Mountain View.

There are a few stations on this 6 mile stretch: Palo Alto - California Ave. - San Antonio - Mountain View

The train ride is about 12 minutes.

California...

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caltrain_station_Milbrae_01.jpg
here we come.

It's really easy to get around San Francisco since the airport is well connected to public transportation through BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit). For $4 you can take the train to Milbrae transit station where you can board Caltrain to Palo Alto for $4 and a quarter.

Caltrain provides commuter rail service along the San Francisco Peninsula, through the South Bay to San Jose and Gilroy.





Picture: waiting for Caltrain at Milbrae

Got on board...

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a westbound 737, but I thought before deciding what to do LOL.

The 23rd International Vacuum Nanoelectronics Conference is held in Palo Alto, California which I'm attending to give a talk later this week.

I flew out of Phoenix Sky Harbor (PHX) this morning with Southwest airlines; they do have the decency not to charge you for your bags. It's about a 2 hour flight into San Francisco.

Boom...Boom...

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dam_01.jpg
Tuesday night at around 10pm I heard some explosion causing my windows to tremble badly. Shortly after this helicopters were approaching. What was happening?

The Tempe Town Lake dam just burst. Its remains can be found here (33.433341,-111.948732),  R.I.P.

The dam made of inflated rubber by Bridgestone has to withstand about 1 billion gallons of water in the lake. Since there are no free re-fills Tempe will have to pay $350,000 - $400,000 to turn it into a lake again. Construction of the $45 million lake started 1997 and on June 2, 1999 water from the Central Arizona Project started flowing into Town Lake; by July 14, the lake was officially full.

The second 'boom' for the transformer that blew while I was writing this, LOL. But APS had it fixed in about an hour, so it's all good!

Toasty...

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weather_temps_01.pngToday is our 42nd day this year in the triple digits and the 11th day at 110 or above.

For the metric folks: 115F is a little above 46C.

The low at night is about 92F (33C).

The soles of my sneakers aren't sticking to the sidewalk yet, so it's all good LOL.

Happy Birthday USA...

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Richard_Prince_Cowboy.jpg
fireworks later...









The picture:
Untitled (Cowboy), 1989, Richard Prince (American), Chromogenic print

Photography

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