UCS on CSI

In which UCS pops up on an episode of CSI -- here's our nine (awesome) seconds of pop culture fame. You bet I'm concerned!

DC Metro Ads, Cont

I've blogged about the DC Metro's unusual advertising before, but I was still pretty amazed to see this specimen (click for picture) -- spotted by middle-east expert Andrew Exum in the Capitol South Metro stop.

I am, like, 98% sure this is a picture of the southern suburbs of Beirut during or immediately after the July War of 2006. [...] Should the destruction of civilian infrastructure -- civilian housing, civilian businesses, etc. -- really be something we should be slapping each other's backs about, even when the military necessity of such operations is 100% clear? I think you all know the answer is no. [...] But because this is a neighborhood populated by Shia Muslim Arabs it's somehow okay for Northrop Grumman to take pride in its destruction. Gross.

Again, maybe this sort of imagery really appeals to the 0.001% of Metro riders who are their target audience, but it seems pretty remarkably insensitive to me.

Quinn on the Piano

Here's a video of Quinn singing and playing on the piano (split into two parts)... cute! Am I right?

Random Thoughts

Ezra Klein has a righteous rant about the universal crappiness of the "grilled vegetable plate" vegetarian option.

"No. The grilled vegetable plate is not acceptable. Do you have pasta? Or pizza? Or salads? Or an employee trained in the art of putting different kinds of foods together on a plate in order to create a satisfying dining experience for customers? Because if not, my party and I will go elsewhere."

Seriously amen to that! We are always joking bitterly about how meat-eaters at catered events get roast chicken with a side of undercooked squash and zucchini and we get ... a plate-full of that same squash and zucchini with the chicken scraped off. Yum!

Elsewhere: this week's xkcd makes a joke about twitter and earthquakes.


Which reminds me of watching the 1989 World Series between the A's and the Giants and seeing the earthquake hit San Francisco on the TV screen and then feeling it in Fresno several minutes later. I suppose it is only a matter of time before the evil geniuses think of using these twitter feeds to trigger giant piledrivers (or something) that use wave interference to cancel out (or augment) the earthquake.

Dance up on them Haters

I'm totally loving this Janelle Monae video.
Alyssa Rosenberg has an interesting essay about how Monae is a kind of hip-hop Ziggy Stardust, with her James Brown pompadour and her Michael Jackson dance moves. But the thing I love about the video is her unusual screen presence and how she bugs her eyes out when she starts singing. Very unusual, but fun to watch.

10K

Laura Jean, Jamie and I ran in a 10K (6.2 mile) race this morning. The race was down at Hain's Point, which is a public park jutting out into the Potomac River, right near the Tidal Basin. This meant that the entire race course was lined by cherry trees in full blossom - in many places the branches met in the middle and formed a tunnel of flowers and green leaves. (Today is actually the end of the Cherry Blossom Festival and so there were tons of people milling around and taking pictures). At any rate, a totally gorgeous place for a run.

The race was totally fun too -- a small, informal affair (about 300 runners, no t-shirt) put on by these guys. Jamie was nice enough to slow down and run with me for the first few miles before zooming off. I kept up a decent 8:30 pace and finished in 53:20. Laura Jean posted a totally awesome time as well.

[Results here.]