Inter-Ocean Parabolic

Day Nine: Tour de Malakoff

2012-05-10T07:35:00.001-07:00

I think today is the last day for this particular flower. The recurved petals are definitely turning cool violet, but the whole thing is worse for wear due to the relatively hot, dry weather.

Bonus picture that includes the moss rose, Tour de Malakoff and Clematis montana var. sericea.

Extra bonus picture of Illicium henryi flowers. This was a hard picture to take because the flowers are all facing downward toward the ground.

Day Eight: Tour de Malakoff

2012-05-09T09:07:00.001-07:00

Day eight sees the cool shades of lilac beginning to predominate. I don't think this experiment will last many more days, before the petals begin to fall.

Here's a picture to give context, and also to show the many different stages of color of the roses in bloom on the Tour de Malakoff. Also in this picture are Rosa x. alba 'semi-plena' (foreground) and Rosa 'Sunflare' in the background, along with the moss rose to the right and Clematis montana var. sericea throughout.

Bonus picture of Illicium henryi, a relative of star anise.

And extra bonus moss rose.

Day Seven: Tour de Malakoff

2012-05-08T08:56:00.002-07:00

A bumble bee takes an early morning nap on the Tour de Malakoff.

Bonus picture of the moss rose.

Day Six: Tour de Malakoff

2012-05-07T21:59:00.001-07:00

I got home late tonight, so all I have is this blurry picture taken with a flash after dark. It looks like I accidentally focused on the stem of the Verbena bonariensis in front of the flower. No bonus picture due to the dark conditions!

Day Five: Tour de Malakoff

2012-05-06T21:36:00.002-07:00

Still waiting for the predominance of cool lilac.

And the bonus!

Day Four: Tour de Malakoff

2012-05-05T17:50:00.000-07:00

Day four, and it's looking a little worse for wear. Maybe because it was a hot and sunny day today.

And here's the bonus moss rose.

Day Three: Tour de Malakoff

2012-05-04T20:06:00.002-07:00

I'm beginning to see some "intense parma violet with many intermediate shades."

And here's the bonus moss rose picture.

Day Two: Tour de Malakoff

2012-05-03T20:20:00.002-07:00

No notable changes on day two.

And here's the bonus moss rose on day two.

Day One: Tour de Malakoff

2012-05-02T08:35:00.000-07:00

As an experiment, I'm going to take a picture of a Tour de Malakoff rose and post it every day, based on this passage from Graham Stuart Thomas' The Old Shrub Roses:

The buds are shapely and the reverses of the petals are of light lilac-pink; in a half-open bloom, somewhat cupped and not of formal shape, vivid magenta may predominate, but when the flowers receive full sunshine and the petals reflex, some petals turn to intense parma violet with many intermediate shades. Eventually, before falling, a cool lilac-grey assumes predominance over the 5-inch blooms, and a bunch of flowers of all tones is a startling revelation of what a rose can do.

The Tour de Malakoff was developed in 1856 and apparently named after a tower in Sebastopol that played some role in the Crimean War: Tour Malakoff on Wikipedia.

In 1955, Will Tillotson said this about "Tour de Malakoff" in his "Roses of Yesterday and Today" catalog:

One of the relatively few old roses we are continuing, even if it is not "ever-blooming."

And they continue to sell it today, which is how I was able to buy mine:

As a bonus picture, here is the common moss rose, also beginning to bloom:

About this rose, Will Tillotson says:

Great-great grandmother of all the Mosses, reported brought to England from Holland about 1596. Blooms lavishly in spring and repeats generously throughout the summer. Needs no verbosity from us.

Back Yard in Low Light

2012-04-29T20:21:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple pictures I took as the sun was setting and the fog was rolling in across the Bay:

The madrone (Arbutus menziesii) stands sentinel over the yard, capturing the last rays of the evening.

The Countess of Haddington rhododendron on the left, Senecio stellata on the right.

Dudleya farinosa, with the leaf of a concord grape in the background.

I still haven't been able to figure out what kind of rose this is.

Almost too dark to see, Nierembergia hippomanica.

Tree

2012-04-20T17:22:00.001-07:00

Tree is the latest member of the household on Walnut Street:

He was named Tree, because he was found in a tree outside of the Oakland Animal Shelter.

After a somewhat chilly start, Tree and Morgan are getting along well.

An Eighty-Year-Old Light Bulb?

2012-02-12T14:51:00.002-08:00

I still haven't been able to open up the illuminated globe to replace the frayed cord. I've been assuming that there has to be some way to open it, because somebody must have replaced the light bulb at some point. But, as I looked inside the globe, I saw that the name on the light bulb was "GE Mazda."

When I googled that, I discovered that GE hasn't made Mazda light bulbs since 1945, which means that the globe probably still has its original bulb.

I've emailed the Replogle Globe Company to see if they still have instructions on how to change the bulbs on their 10" library desk globes from the 1930s. Until then, I can't keep it plugged in, because the cord is really frayed:

Polishing Brass Candlesticks

2012-02-11T20:24:00.002-08:00

I've been spending Saturday night polishing brass and silver. I bought these two brass candlesticks at the white elephant sale benefiting the Oakland Museum, and I thought I should take a picture comparing the unpolished to the polished. I also polished a silver stopper that I thought I could use for closing up wine bottles, but the stopper portion is too wide.

Now I need to figure out how to open up the globe behind the candlesticks. Based on its map of Europe, it was made between the two World Wars. The globe has a very frayed wire sticking out of Antarctica, connecting to the light bulb inside. But I can't figure out how to open up the globe to get to the socket and replace the wire.

Yard and Garden Updates on Tumblr

2012-02-09T19:25:00.002-08:00

In case you haven't noticed, I've added a direct link to the Inter-Ocean Tumblr in the upper right corner of this blog. I've been posting regular pictures from my yard that don't need the full treatment of a post her on the Parabolic. For example, if you click through today, you'll see a number of pictures of Senecio cristobalensis in the morning sun, with drops of dew dripping from its fuzzy leaves:

Famous Children of Lutheran Ministers

2012-01-31T09:27:00.000-08:00

Friedrich Nietzsche
Ingmar Bergman
Peter Kalm
David Soul
Roger Williams
Emanuel Swedenborg
Albert Schweitzer
Nash Kato
Angela Merkel

Am I missing anybody?

Garden Monsters

2012-01-29T18:38:00.004-08:00

Because I have a small yard and I like a lot of different plants, I've planted too many plants too close to one another. As these plants grow, that has begun to cause some conflicts. And, since my garden is only three years old, I'm anticipating that these will intensify in the future, as many of my small woody twigs grow into full-blown shrubs. Here are a few of the more egregious examples:

This is a Cheirolophus burchardii. Annie's Annuals says that it grows to "2-3 feet tall & wide," but mine is currently at 5' x 5' x 5' and shows no signs of stopping. If you look closely, you can see a poor 2-foot tall Illicium henryi in front of it. I imagine that the Illicium's ancestors, clinging to a cliff in western Sichuan, never anticipated having to contend with this giant from the beaches of Tenerife.

It looks like the Cheirolophus is about to bloom, so I'll soon see if it justifies its girth:

In my back yard, I randomly planted a hybrid marguerite daisy in an empty spot next to a small meiwa kumquat tree. I thought that the daisy would be a short-lived annual, but it didn't die this winter and is now beginning to overshadow the kumquat:

Finally, I knew that this Geranium maderense was supposed to get bigger than any other geranium, but somehow I didn't picture it completely swallowing up a box shrub. I've had to move the cactus in front of it a couple times, because it keeps on getting shaded by the huge geranium leaves:

Oakland Freeway Plan of 1947

2012-01-26T22:23:00.000-08:00

A while back, I was browsing old freeway plans for the San Francisco Bay area, and I came across this map of the Metropolitan Area Oakland California Proposed Major Street and Freeway Plan of 1947. What fascinated me about the map was this detail section of my neighborhood, Maxwell Park:

It shows the MacArthur Freeway, which currently runs north and east of the neighborhood, cutting directly through the heart of Maxwell Park, a couple blocks away from my current house. It's unimaginable now to think of an eight lane freeway in that location--it would have destroyed the neighborhood. But neighborhoods filled with just as many houses were destroyed by the eventual route. Compare this aerial view of the Laurel neighborhood (just down the hill from Maxwell Park) from 1946:

With the same overhead view from 1968 after the freeway was built:

Woody Plant Update: Arbutus, Hydrangea, Rosa, Ugni, Rhododendron

2012-01-14T19:46:00.000-08:00

When I first planted the madrone (Arbutus menziesii) in my backyard, I was resigned to the fact that it would most likely die. Now, I am a worried that it is growing to vigorously. I didn't water it all summer, and we've been in a drought for most of the winter--but I think it's grown about three feet in the past couple months. Madrones can grow as tall as 100 feet with an 11 foot circumference, something I didn't plan for when I planted it right next to my fence.

Unlike the madrone, the oak leaf hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia 'Snow Queen') is not happy with the winter drought conditions. Even though I've been watering every weekend, the leaves, with their wilted and distressed demeanor, are showing how thirsty they are:

This is an unidentified rose that was in my backyard when I moved in. In addition to its good looks, it smells great:

Around the same time I planted the Luma apiculata in my front yard, I planted one of its close cousins, an Ugni molinae in the back yard. The luma has grown much more quickly than the ugni, but this winter I noticed the ugni beginning to fill out, with reddish green new leaves covering the entire shrub. Unlike the luma, which produced a crop berries this fall, the ugni has yet to show any sign of flower or fruit:

Morgan hates having her picture taken:

The Countess of Haddington Rhododendron is covered with buds this year, unlike last winter, when only one or two buds formed. A promise for a hopeful spring:

Looking toward Candlestick Park from my backyard--a spectacular sunset just as the 49ers beat the Saints:

Oakland Walk--Tuxedo, Glenview & Dimond

2012-01-08T14:24:00.000-08:00

In the spirit of my New Year's Resolution to update the Inter-Ocean Parabolic at least once a week--and with the realization that I am already a day behind on that resolution--I carried my camera phone with me on a walk this morning. Oakland was named one of the 45 places to go in 2012 (just below London) by the New York Times, so I thought I'd take a picture of some less frequently visited areas. Here is the route I walked:

View January 8, 2012 Walk in a larger map

This is a picture from the Tuxedo neighborhood, looking down 28th Street toward downtown Oakland:

Tuxedo is a middle class area on a hill above Highland Hospital. I believe the old wing of the hospital is being gutted as part of a seismic retrofit:

The mayor of Oakland is not very popular right now:

Next I crossed over into Glenview, which is a more upscale neighborhood across the freeway:

The spirit of Mitt Romney loomed over us for much of the walk:

Just below the Mormon Temple, I came across this great panoramic view of Oakland and San Francisco. The air seemed especially clear this morning:

Back in Maxwell Park, here is Walnut Street, leading up the hill toward my house:

Back home again:

Best 9 min explanation of the Healthcare Reform Law

2011-12-16T21:10:00.002-08:00

From the Kaiser Family Foundation and I think, pretty non-partisan.

Health Reform Hits Main Street

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-Ilc5xK2_E

Arrogance

2011-11-29T12:34:00.000-08:00

In my job as a researcher, I've gotten to know the peer-review system well. It certainly has it's faults: I've had papers that I didn't think were that great that got accepted, and I've had papers that I thought were great that got rejected. It depends a lot on whether the reviewers that get assigned to your manuscript have a similar world-view as you do. Although most times I get the review, my initial reaction is, "Who is this idiot! Doesn't he/she realize that if I choose alternative A, then Problem Z gets bigger?" After letting the review sit for a few days, I'm able to come back to the review and rework the paper. And almost always, it's better.

This process has made me realize how important it is to be able to communicate things clearly. Often, when a reviewer says, "Paragraph A doesn't make sense", the answer is that I wrote poorly and did not clearly communicate what the reviewer needed to understand what I did. The onus is on me. Beyond reviewers, when I communicate with the media, if the interviewer does not understand, it is my job to communicate more clearly (usually in 30 seconds or less).

This is in stark contrast to the only person I've ever talked with who works on Wall Street. When I asked him what he was working on in 2006 (?), he said it had something to do with bundling mortgages. When I pressed him on how bundling could lead to substantial profits, he said, "It's complicated Sei. You wouldn't understand."

I remember this conversation clearly (we were walking along the Embarcadero, it was sunny but a little chilly w/fog nearby) because I've thought about it with every newsstory trying to explain the economic meltdown (caused by bundled mortgages or CDOs). Also, his answer pissed me off. I consider myself fairly bright with a wide interests; I felt like I could pick up most things fairly quickly.

Being a researcher undergoing peer-review requires you to be humble. You never win by directly confronting your reviewers. If they don't understand, it's because you didn't explain it clearly.

In contrast the corporate/financial system seems full of incredibly arrogant people. This is Enron all over again--Remember the "smartest guys in the room." The ones who had rolling blackouts in California, causing life threatening injuries (street lights stop working) and several deaths (critical home oxygen, etc). They arrogantly convinced the world they were smarter than everyone. And the financial system had the same attitude. We're smarter than everyone and so we don't need to answer your questions or even abide by your weak regulations (that we lobbied heavily to water down).

In retrospect, I wonder if my questions made him uncomfortable. My question about how profits can be made in bundling gets to the heart of the problem with this. No matter how you slice and dice the bundle, some are going to fail, most are going to not fail. So the only way that someone is going to pay more or less for a slice of the bundle is if they don't have smarts (unlikely) or the information (likely) to make an appropriate decision. The fact that people were making lots of money on this suggested that this was not a free market with both the buyer and seller having equal access to critical information.

My Favorite Yogi Bear Moment

2011-11-22T15:21:00.000-08:00

I've been quoting the line at 4:45 for decades:

Walking the Dog on Google Streetview

2011-07-01T12:05:00.000-07:00

About a month ago, I was walking my dog, Morgan, when I saw the Google Streetview car go by. I was wondering if we were going to show up on Google maps. I checked today--and here we are, about to cross High Street at Brookdale:

View Larger Map

More Images of the Yard at Dusk

2011-06-10T20:16:00.000-07:00

Over the past couple days, I've been experimenting with taking photographs of the yard at dusk. I just uploaded a bunch of close-up images of plants to the Inter-Ocean Paratumblr:

Front Yard at Dusk

2011-06-09T20:54:00.000-07:00