[extropy-chat] grand challenge - good blog

[spike]

bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of Neil H.
Sent: Sunday, October 09, 2005 5:24 PM
To: ExI chat list
Subject: Re: [extropy-chat] grand challenge - good blog

>  I was there! It was a fantastic event. Academic allegiances had me
cheering for the Caltech and CMU teams, but I'm still quite pleased at how
Stanford's team performed...



Cool!  Go Stanford!  My wife and I planned to go down
on the bike.  Because of obligations in the coming
weeks, we realized our only chance to do our customary
fall foliage tour in the Sierras would be this weekend,
so we took off early Friday morning.  Circumstances
intervened in the form of perfect weather conditions
in the Sierras, along with the good fortune of hitting
right at the peak of fall color.  So we decided to stay up
in the mountains riding all three days and blow off the
DARPA races.

Unfortunately, the only available accommodations were
run by primitive savages.  They had no television in
the room, none in the lobby, no telephone, no radio,
no wifi.  They didn't even know what wifi is.  No 
exaggeration, they had never heard of it.  The town 
is called Lee Vining, on the western shore of Mono 
Lake.  They didn't even have newspapers there, 
claimed there was no daily delivery that far out
there.  So we were in a total news blackout.  

I did get to see one really cool thing.  We walked
down to the shores of Mono Lake after dark, just
as Mars was rising.  I have seen the reflection of
the moon on the water many times, but I had never
seen Mars on the water.  It made a very narrow
shimmery red strip all along the surface from 
horizon to nearly our feet.

Still I think we woulda had a more fun at the
robot races.  Last year was a blast, and nobody
even did very well that time.

spike