The Tower

Well, we're back home...but our luggage isn't. We saw it in Chicago, and they're supposed to deliver it...well, a couple of hours ago.

The last touristy thing we did in Paris was to go up the Eiffel Tower. Here's what it looks like when you're waiting in line...



Here's a view of our hotel from the tower's second level. Those soccer fields were right in front of our window; the Hilton is the building directly to the left of them. You can see the Seine in the background.



It had gotten dark by the time we got to the top. Here's the Palais de Chaillot at night.



Afterwards, we headed with a colleague to the Latin Quarter to a small restaurant (bistro?) called Le Petit Vatel for a wonderful dinner to close out our Paris experience.

And to close it out completely, our luggage arrived as I was typing that last sentence.

Toupary

We had the conference dinner for the second conference of the week at a restaurant called Toupary.



It was on the 5th floor of a department store on the bank of the Seine. Here is a view from the restaurant window of a ship going under the famous Pont Neuf bridge.



We enjoyed ourselves at the banquet.



Especially dessert.

Another Picture

There's another picture from the Louvre over at Christina's TravelBlog, for you fans of The DaVinci Code.

Mona Lisa Overdrive

Yesterday, after the first conference I'm here for ended, we went to the Louvre. It's open late on Wednesday, so we were able to get a few hours in. They say you can spend a whole month there, but since I'm generally interested in more modern works (a preference Christina shares to some extent), I think we had enough time.

We started out with some Egyptian antiquities...



Then we made the obligatory pilgrimage to the Mona Lisa...



There she is!



One of their Vermeers was in Frankfurt, but they still had "The Astronomer" around.




We amused ourselves by making up fake captions to some of the pictures. My caption for this Reubens was, "Can I get a little help here?"



My favorite painting may have been Hieronymus Bosch's The Ship of Fools. And not just because I like saying "Hieronymus Bosch." It's a fairly cutting satire of religion...see the nun in the center playing the lute and attempting to take a bite out of some sort of food. (Sorry that the image isn't clearer, but it's hard to take pictures without a flash.)



Despite the best efforts of the museum staff to fail to give us directions, we made our last stop at the Venus de Milo. Perhaps because of the lack of crowds, perhaps because of the size of the piece, perhaps because of the setting, she was more impressive to me than the Mona Lisa.

More Images of Paris

Yesterday, between the conference and banquet, we snuck over to the Musee D'Orsay. Sadly, it closed at 5:45. This was particularly sad since the sign said they closed at 6. Ah, Paris.

Here's Christina with Whistler's Mother...



Here she is with a Degas painting...



When we woke up this morning, it was snowing. It make look pretty, but it makes getting to the conference a little tricky. (The coffee never arrived at the conference due to snow delays. Luckily, I don't drink coffee.)

Here are a couple of pictures out our window.

Images of Paris

Greetings from Paris. I suppose I (or Christina) will have a travel commentary later, but I need to run to lunch soon. So in the meantime, enjoy these pictures I've taken.

The first one is of Paris from the Pompidou Center. I kind of like the "artistic quality" of this one.



We went to see the modern art museum in the Pompidou Center. Here's Christina walking through one of the pieces.



Here's a piece called "Fibonacci Crocodile".



If you look closely, you see the Fibonacci numbers coming out of the crocodile.



Here's Andy Warhol's "Ten Lizes".



Here's the Eiffel Tower from our window. They have a light show every night that is actually fairly tacky.



And here's Christina on our walk home from dinner last night.

The Quantum Rose

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I started Catherine Asaro's "Saga of the Skolian Empire" explicitly to read The Quantum Rose, the sixth book in the series, which won a Nebula. (I'll probably end up reading to the ninth, which I got her to sign.) Here are a few reasons why it may have won the Nebula:

• The entire novel is an allegory for quantum scattering theory. This is a clever and unexpected device.
  
• The series brings back the old "space opera" style of science fiction. (Think "Star Wars.")
  
• The technology described in the books is much more carefully balanced with current scientific knowledge than in most "space opera" books.
  

And here's one reason why maybe it shouldn't have won a Nebula:

"If thwarted passion could have powered space ships, she and Vyrl would have launched an entire fleet by now."

I Surf The Web For Comics-Mocking Web Sites So You Don't Have To

Once upon a time, I enjoyed a column in the Baltimore City Paper (online) called Funny Paper. It summarized, and made fun of, comic strips, specifically those in the Baltimore Sun. It stopped publishing in 2003, though they squeezed out a few more columns in February 2004. If you've never seen it, the "back issues" are still worth reading -- they're a funny take on the comic strip medium. Its tag line was "We Read the Comics So You Don't Have To."

After the demise of that column, I eventually found my way to Gene Weingarten's on-line chats. While the topics of the chats vary, a major focus is the comics, specifically those of the Washington Post. Every week, Weingarten gives his "Comics Pick of the Week" and names a few runners-up. There is also a fairly involved discussion of the meaning of other comics.

Recently, someone mentioned to him the web site joshreads.com, which analyzes a comic per day in depth. Its tagline was "I read the comics so you don't have to." It focuses on the Baltimore Sun comics. Because of the Baltimore connection and the tagline, there was some confusion, and the Funny Paper authors (who claimed that their column is just on "hiatus") asked Josh to change its title. So now it's "The Comics Curmudgeon".

Anyway, I suggest anyone interested in thinking about comics more than you probably should to check out these web sites. I actually read these more than the actual comics, since I stopped (for the most part) reading the print edition of the newspaper.

50/50 Chance of Leaving the Skins?

Redskins receiver Rod Gardner -- nicknamed 50/50 for his chance of dropping a pass -- is supposedly being offered to teams for a second round pick.

Here's a hint that he won't be back: Rod Gardner jerseys on sale for $9.99 at the recent Redskins tent sale. At least with Jeremiah Trotter they waited until draft day before marking him down.

Au Revoir, Lillipilli

I'm easily distracted. It's thus that during a web search for a place to eat on my birthday the other day, I discovered that the Lillipilli restaurant in Sydney closed last year. Christina and I visited this restaurant in July 2002 and enjoyed such foods as emu triangles, roast kangaroo, and barramundi baked in eucalyptus bark.

I have no trips Down Under on the horizon, so I lost no planned meals there, but it's a little sad to hear that a place we enjoyed is no longer in business.

Go Blue!

I had occasion to take pride in my alma mater's basketball team recently -- however, not for its on-the-court achievements. First, though, let's start with the shame. One of Michigan's star players was booked on a domestic violence charge. This sort of thing has happened enough to players on my favorite teams that I go through a fairly standard set of reactions. First, hope that it's not true. Second, realize that it probably is (although who knows). Third, hope that the team will suspend him. Fourth, realize that they'll probably, at best, wait until the athlete is facing some jail time before doing anything. (See the recent case of Jamal Lewis of the Baltimore Ravens -- not one of my favorite teams, and even less so after that incident.)

But, hey, what do you know, they suspended him.

"Given the seriousness and sensitivity of the situation, we feel it is in everyone's best interest that we suspend Daniel pending further review," U-M Coach Tommy Amaker said. "We feel this is the right course of action at this time."

After the Fab Five scandals of the 1990s, I'm glad to see Michigan's determination to run a clean program.

Christina expressed less pride in one of her alma maters this morning after being informed of last night's "riot" in downtown College Park.

One student standing in front of Wireless Solutions resisted. When two officers tried to push him back, a surge in the crowd sent the student and the two officers into the window of the store, causing them to break the glass.

Then again, they did beat Duke, so a lot can be forgiven.

Civilization: The Board Game

In a previous post, I mentioned that we had punched out the pieces for Sid Meier's Civilization: The Board Game. Sunday, as part of a pre-birthday fiesta of sorts (more on that later), we broke out the actual game.

Martin, Ben, George, Paul and I started out. We were learning the rules as we went along, but we forged ahead. Martin put down in Asia, Paul in Europe, me in Africa, Ben in S. America and George in N. America. Here you can see the basic layout.



(Martin was purple, Paul was green, I was blue, Ben was red, and George was orange.)

We stuttered through expansion for a few turns. Martin had to leave, but initiated an attack on Paul first. We left his pieces dormant for a turn, but Steve showed up to take over where Martin left off.

That included the attack on Paul. Here we see them at the special "battle table" we set up, with Ben refereeing.



Ben managed to expand to Australia and George to northern Europe before the game ended early in the Medieval age. It ended there because we were playing the "short game" which took us 3 or 4 hours. If we knew the rules as well as we do know, we could probably play the "medium game" in that time frame.

It was a fun game, but confusing. The element of luck in the game seemed a little bit high. Also, some rules were a bit weird -- if you discover a minor civilization, a new city goes not to the discoverer, but to whomever has the fewest cities. While this might mitigate the luck, it added to the sense of unfairness. Maybe over a longer game (with better strategy), this luck would even out. Also, because all minor civilizations were discovered when there was a tie for fewest cities, the city ended up being a barbarian instead.

When the game came to a close, Ben and George were tied with the most points. The rules gave no tiebreaker, but we ended up declaring George the winner. Now I can't remember why.

Stat Boy, Vikings Chapter

After watching yesterday's episode of Pardon the Interruption, I was moved to send them the following e-mail:

To: PTI

Subject: Wilbon & the Vikings



Dear PTI,



Where was Stat Boy on this one?  Today (1/24), Wilbon said that the

Vikings ended up 8-8 and exited the playoffs in the first round.  Tell

that to the Green Bay Packers...



Jon Grantham

(Many of you will recall that Minnesota bested Green Bay in the first round of the playoffs.)

This morning, I got the following response from Stat Boy:

Yeah - I guess I blew it... Didn't even hear that one.  Had four other

errors, but this was a big one.    My bad.



Good job outta, you, though.  I hereby promote you to Stat Boy, Vikings

Chapter.  Hold the office with honor.





Reali

Hmm, maybe I can get traded to Stat Boy, Redskins Chapter as part of the Randy Moss trade.

Wine Update: Beaucoup Wines

It's been a while since my last wine update, so I have a lot of ground to cover.

• 1995 Bodegas Faustino Faustino I Gran Reserva Rioja: I picked this up at duty-free on my way back from my last trip to the UK. It counts as the most expensive wine we've tried -- around $20 US. (We haven't quite made it into the category of "wine snobs" yet.) It was definitely a good wine. I think we've reached the point where we can easily pick up a good wine for more than $10, and with some work pick up a good one for less than $10. The next trick may be to figure out how to pick up a great one for more than $10.
  
• 2002 Navarro Correas Malbec: Malbec is a Bordeaux blending grape that has come into its own in Argentina. This was an enjoyable wine, but not a "buy-again".
  
• 2001 Trumpeter Merlot: Another Argentinean wine. Christina shared this with some friends while I was out of town and really enjoyed it.
  
• 2001 Pepperwood Grove Merlot: This came from the same producer as Smoking Loon, one of our favorite Syrahs. It was somewhat disappointing, and not surprisingly, peppery.
  
• 2002 Charles Back Goats do Roam: I had wanted to try this wine since I first read about it. It was very good, and increased my interest in both Rhone-style wines and blends.
  
• 2002 Los Vascos Cabernet: This was an enjoyable Chilean Cabernet, but not so good that it's at the top of the list to become our "house Cab".
  
• 2003 Trumpeter Merlot: When we went back to the wine store, they had no more 2001 or 2002 vintages of this wine. A guy from the distributor happened to be at the store, offering samples of other wines. Christina asked him how the 2003 vintage was, and he said it was very good. He then made a weird comment that sounded like it was about Riunite. We couldn't figure it out, and I thought maybe he was making fun of us for asking about vintage on an under-$10 wine. It turned out it was a reference to the Rutini Family, who make the Trumpeter wines. It was a very good Merlot.
  
• 2002 Errazuriz Ovalle Grand Selection Carmenere: We enjoyed this, but it wasn't as good as the Carmen Carmenere I got at Piggly Wiggly.
  
• Korbel Brut Sparkling Wine: We popped the cork on this New Years Eve. Combined with giving away some other sparkling wine, that freed up a bunch of space in the wine chiller. Yay!
  
• 2001 Concha y Toro Casillero del Diablo Cabernet: We bought the 2003 vintage of this wine because of a recommendation on an episode of Simply Wine with Andrea Immer. Because of the recent vintage, we decided to let it age for a while. We were excited recently to find the 2001 vintage in a store. Coincidentally, that episode was re-running the evening we opened this wine. It turns out we made a mistake -- she was recommending the Carmenere, not the Cab. It was a decent wine, anyway.
  
• 2003 Indaba Merlot: This is a South African Merlot. They use some of their proceeds to fund scholarships for South African wine producers. That's pretty cool. Also, they make some very enjoyable merlot. Christina and I both really liked it. She didn't think it quite matched up to the Trumpeter; I'm not sure. It had a little bit of spice which matched up well with the pizza.
  

A Loon-y Trip

My cousin Ian works as a mechanic for Southwest Airlines. This job comes with certain perks -- free airline tickets among them. He was kind enough to share some with us on Monday, when we headed up to New Hampshire for the day to go skiing.

Yes, for the day. The only other time I flew anywhere for the day (and as people who know me know, I fly a lot) was 1993, when I flew from San Francisco to San Diego (ironically, on Southwest) for the day. The only other thing I can compare this to is when I was visiting my parents in England in 1994 and had a train pass. So I had a free place to stay, but only if I got back home for the evening. I spent a lot of time riding trains.

Anyway, we left home at 5:15 in the morning, met Ian at the airport, and flew off to Manchester, New Hampshire. We rented a car and drove an hour and a half north to Loon Mountain.

While the Pennsylvania resorts we usually frequent are desperately trying to keep their snow from melting, Loon Mountain had great conditions. Well, actually, Ian said they weren't as good as what he had seen on past visits. But it matched the best conditions I've seen in the mid-Atlantic. We had a fantastic time, and made it back home by around 10 pm. Forthwith, some pictures of our skiing adventure.

Subscription Drive

Last fall, I mentioned that I had created an option to subscribe to the Android's Dungeon, so you could get e-mail notification when I actually get around to updating this weblog. Since my posting is sometimes sporadic, I thought it would be a convenient feature so people wouldn't need to check back all the time. Unfortunately (for me or for you?), only 4 people have signed up. 2 of those are Christina, and 1 is me. So I thought I'd do more to advertise this option. To that end, I've put a "subscribe box" at the bottom of all these pages.

	Subscribe to Android's Dungeon
	Email:
	Browse Archives at groups-beta.google.com

So I encourage you to subscribe. I won't be heartbroken if you don't (since, after all, I don't know who is reading this), but I think it's a useful thing.

Game Playin' Weekend

I played a lot of board games this weekend. Yesterday, George, Doug, Ben and I played a number of games. The complete list (for all of January, actually) is available here at boardgamegeek.com. After George headed off to par-tay, Doug, Ben and I ended up with a particularly devlish game of Robo Rally (using a board from the Armed & Dangerous Expansion). Robo Rally aficiandos will realize the painful strategy needed to complete this game:


I made a wrong turn after touching flag 4 and lost my last life. Doug touched flag 5 and was very close to touching flag 6 (and winning), when Ben killed him and won the game.

Unfortunately, Ben's mechanic had not properly re-attached his front left wheel, so he stayed over until he could figure out how to tighten the lugnuts. So he was still here today, and ready for some board gaming. We spent some time punching out and sorting the pieces to "Sid Meier's Civilization -- The Board Game".



After that work, we didn't have enough time to play the actual game (well, maybe we did, but we perceived that we didn't), so we had a nice game of Puerto Rico.

That's what I looked like in 1999?

One of the conferences I'm planning to go to this year, is SERMON, which I've attended 10 of the last 11 years. In looking at the web page, I came across pictures from 1999. For those of you who are not interested in pictures featuring other mathematicians, I am here and here.

Scenario

Well, now that the early games are over, I can more easily sketch the scenario under which the Redskins make the playoffs. I'm not sure if this is the only way they can make the playoffs (it may be), but this is what they need...

• The Redskins win their remaining 2 games.
  
• Either Seattle or St. Louis loses the rest of their games.
  
• The Giants lose one of their remaining two games.
  
• Whoever wins the Tampa Bay-New Orleans game today has to lose one of their remaining two games.
  
• Carolina loses one of their two remaining games.
  

In an earlier version of this post, I left out Carolina, and computed the probability that the Skins would make the playoffs, assuming each game is a 50/50 proposition. The probability drops a little bit once I do this (ahem) correctly, but the fact remains that if the Skins win out, they have a 12.9% chance of making the playoffs. Not high, but not bad for a 5-9 team. That probability should go up after St. Louis loses to Arizona today.

Disclaimer: Of course, the Skins don't deserve to make the playoffs after the season they've had. Still, it amuses me to figure out the possibilities.

[Update: St. Louis did lose. New Orleans won. The scenario simplifies to:

• The Redskins win their remaining 2 games.
  
• Either Seattle or St. Louis loses the rest of their games.
  
• The Giants lose one of their remaining two games.
  
• The winner of the final week's Carolina-New Orleans game has to lose next week.
  

So in order for the Redskins to be eliminated next week, one of the following things has to happen.

• The Redskins lose.
  
• Both Seattle and St. Louis win.
  
• Both Carolina and New Orleans win.]
  

Tiebreakers

OK, during the conference, I have wireless access to use during the...less interesting talks. It's my turn to have the laptop today, but don't feel bad for Christina -- she has the Town Car today.

Aside from researching video poker strategies, I'm using this time to follow NFL games. The Redskins, at 5-9, ridiculously have not been mathematically eliminated from the playoffs. What better to do during the mathematics conference than figure out what it takes to be mathematically eliminated?

Of the teams they might end up tied with (at 7-9) for a playoff spot, the Redskins would win the tiebreaker with Seattle, Minnesota, Carolina, Detroit, Chicago, Tampa Bay, and New Orleans. They would lose the tiebreaker with St. Louis, Dallas, and the Giants.

Therefore, if Seattle, Minnesota and St. Louis win today, the Redskins are eliminated. Seattle and Minnesota would have better records than the Skins, and St. Louis would win a tiebreaker. One of Seattle and St. Louis would win the division, and the other would beat out the Skins for the tiebreaker.

If any of these teams lose, the Redskins have their hopes alive for another week. (Though to be truthful, I don't know how many of them are actually thinking about this.) Seattle looks like it's going to lose, and Minnesota is in a close game, so we'll see.