Bring out the Sky Zamboni

Getting off the MARC train tonight, I looked up to see twenty or thirty con trails crossing the sky. I'd never seen so many, most of them stretching from one horizon to the other. Apparently they decided to turn off high-altitude wind today. Whatever the reason, it was striking. I'm a relic without a camera built into my mobile, so you don't get a picture, but I'm not sure that a picture - at least one that I could take - would do it justice.

But speaking of Zambonis, Kerry's taking me to a Capitals game tomorrow night. C-A-P-S, Caps, Caps, Caps!

Framing the debate

"Bush Versus Chavez: The battle for hearts and minds in Latin America"

So reads a skybox on the front page of today's Financial Times. Pity Latin America if those are actually the only two contenders.

Some translation

According to Deutsche Welle, the building at the heart of the riots in Copenhagen was a symbolic "Youth House". And "squatters" had actually been granted permission to live there in the 1980s by the city council. (An odd definition of "squatters", but permission was also extended to "punks", so there's still some mystery.) Anyway, the current owners of the building concluded it was beyond repair, so they've knocked it down, but not before rioters could do $2.4 million of damage (including to a school and a nursery) and accumulate 647 arrests.

Dave goes to school

See Dave go to school.
Go, Dave, go.

This week Dave starts working on his... hmm, I don't remember if it's a masters in education or some other sort of program. The point is, he's starting about a year of work that will lead to him being a high-school teacher of math or science.

Dave left Microsoft after seven years or so because it was time to do something else. "Something else" included 18,000 miles and 6+ months of touring around the US, seeing family and friends. All along the way, he went to classes, from elementary school art through law school, not just because he is a Renaissance man, but because of his interest in teaching.

Notwithstanding his preternatural social skills, Dave is a nerd who really enjoys math, coding, and word puzzles. I suppose another way to say it is that he likes to think. I am glad Dave is becoming a teacher because he's got the smarts and the personality to be good at it. I am excited for Dave because he might be able share his own enthusiasm for thinking with his students. It's a long shot - they'll be high schoolers, after all - but I think that Dave has as good a chance as anybody.

Lost in translation

Hundreds of people are demonstrating throughout northern Europe because the Danish police have evicted 35 squatters from an unused Copenhagen theater, which was sold six years ago.

Umm, what? People are turning to violent protest because the city is selling an unused building? In Copenhagen? And this is mobilizing people in other countries, too? I'm obviously missing something.