Ilona Beverly

Liza and Charles had a lovely baby girl last week! Documentation of her slightly tumultous first week of life can be seen if you click on her picture. Just in, she already has her very own blog!

French Pride

I just read a very funny article. Here is the link.

Luckily we do not have that problem here in the US.

Como, senor? Yo no hablo ingles.

Florida scenes

Not much public transportation in Florida. Look, even the dogs have their own golf carts! This guy was waiting patiently outside the Ponte Vedra public library.

Jessie was understandably cautious when we visited the Paws Park.

Fortunately, this gator was not at the Paws Park. I sighted him at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm.

At the Alligator Farm, the egrets like to nest in the trees above the gators. Evidently, the egrets don't have to worry about raccoons and other preditors when the alligators are in the neighborhood.

Mars

Another time-wasting, although interesting, website to check out!
mars
I could look at things like this forever, thought there might be some interest across the fam as well!

ISR 2006

As you may know, the International Staff Ride begins this week. Our trip continues the long and celebrated Strategic Studies tradition that has taken SAIS students to explore battlefields across the world. Indeed, this Sunday's departure, to quote Churchill, "is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."

ISR2006 will focus on 20th century irregular warfare in Ireland. For three days, we will explore the series of interconnected small wars from 1916-23. A short but dramatic part of the long history of the Anglo-Irish struggle, this time period directly led to the division of the island, the independence of the southern counties, and the growth of terrorist organizations active throughout the 20th century. After three days in Dublin, we will spend a day in Belfast to view the ground of the current conflict and hear from political leaders how these battles of yesterday still influence Anglo-Irish relations today. In addition, we will explore several broader issues including insurgent and counterinsurgent warfare, irregular and regular forces, and the relationship between violence and politics.

After nearly a year of work, I am delighted that the trip is finally here. Hopefully, my fellow students will find this experience fascinating, gain some perspective on larger counterinsurgency issues, and have a wonderful time.

If you are interested, here is the link to the ISR 2006 webpage.

"Erin go bragh!"

Seattle

I spent this past weekend in Seattle – its just a quick drive from Portland (2 ½ to 3 hours if you miss the traffic) but I had never been there before! Didn't want to hog all the space on the blog, so I've posted more photographs & lengthy descriptions on my website, here. (and hopefully this is working now, my own website seems to be experiencing technical difficulties. Check back if the link is dead, or if the picture below does not appear!)

Riding the A Train

This afternoon Jean and I were going out to buy a new vacuum cleaner (we shoot for the moon, don't we?) and as we took seats on the A train, I was entertained to see that the guy sitting across from us was reading this. I may start keeping a diary on what I see being read on the subway. I've been marveling at how very often the bible/torah is the read of choice, particularly in our area in Brooklyn. There was also the period few years ago when it seemed as if there were no fewer than ten DaVinci Codes in every subway car. And once I glanced over to find my seatmate reading an elaborately illustrated manual on improving the health of one's colon... As for me, these days I'm reading "Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing Systems."

Here's Jean, concentrating so hard that his hair is standing on end.

The New Generation...

will sleep here:



adding a notch in a long line of familial usage in the Brasuell/Civitts clan, starting with sometime back in the very early twentieth century. I don't personally know the whole story, other than the fact that Grandpa Brasuell slept in it and my baby brother Andrew too (personal memory on that one!) Anyone else who remembers sleeping in it, please say so in the comments. So for those who don't know, Liza and Charles are in the family way and this bassinet is ready and waiting for their little one. Due on March 17th, as I understand, so get ready to congratulate them!

Sudoku

From the frontiers of mathematics comes this news item:

Researcher discovers number of possible Sudokus

A mathematician at the Technical University of Dresden has discovered the largest possible number of Sudoku puzzles, the addictive puzzle game that is spreading around the world like a virus. The puzzles consist of nine squares by nine squares, with each row and column representing positive integers. Each puzzle comes with a handful of numbers already placed in squares. The object of the game is to place a digit in each square so that every row and every column has numbers 1 to 9 with no repeats.

Bertram Felgenhauer, working with Frazer Jarvis from the University of Sheffield, found that there are 6,670,903,7523,012,072,936,960 possible different Soduku games.

That news should bode well for the millions of Sudoku addicts who just can’t get enough of the simple game.

Created by American architect Howard Garns for a 1979 publication of the magazine “Dell Pencil Puzzles & Word Games,” Sudoku became popular in Japan in the 1980’s, drawing its name from the Japanese phrase “suji wa dokushin ni kagiru,” meaning “each number shall stand alone.”
In November, 2004, the British daily Times began printing Sudoku puzzle, with newspapers around the world following suit.

Today, Sudoku is just as popular as crossword puzzles in Germany – and nearly every paper features it.

In Germany alone, more than one hundred different books with games and strategies for playing Sudoku have been published.

Source: The Week in Germany, March 3, 2006

PS: I notice a mis-placed comma in the big number, so perhaps this research needs to be done again. Anyone want to try?

Where in the world revealed

Thanks to my 5 fellow bloggers who tried to guess the location for the snowy picture that I posted last month. Incredibly, it was taken in early January just about a half hour's drive from the strip (where the fanciest casinos are) in Las Vegas. The place is called Mount Charleston and the elevation is several thousand feet higher than the surrounding desert. I was truly astounded because I had never heard anyone mention skiing in connection with Las Vegas! There's a small lodge on the mountain where you could buy a sled, hat, or mittens and it was very un-Las Vegas--absolutely no glitz!!!

Ebooks

I found a link to this website as a source of copyright-expired texts. Looks like fun, although I imagine this isn't as paperless as I'd like it to be. Because wouldn't it be hard to read a full book on the screen?



Here are the top 10 downloaded, for your entertainment!

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (390)
The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci — Complete by Leonardo da Vinci (371)
Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte by Karl Marx (302)
Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great — Volume 01 of 14 by Elbert Hubbard (289)
Kamasutra by Vatsyayana (288)
Project Gutenberg "10K" DVD (260)
The Boy Mechanic: Volume 1 by Popular Mechanics (226)
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (215)
Great Britain and Her Queen by Annie E. Keeling (206)
The Art of War by 6th cent. B.C. Sunzi (187)