Dave Latham's need for speed

I'm in Cambridge, MA for the celebration of Dave Latham's 50 years in astronomy. Dave is an astronomer at the Harvard Center for Astrophysics (my soon-to-be home) and one of the pioneers in the field of precision radial velocity measurements. In fact, in 1989 he found the first planet, HD114762b, which is now known as Latham's Planet (read here or see Latham et al. 1989).

At the celebratory dinner I learned that, among many other interesting things, Dave was once a world-class endurance motorcycle racer. Seriously. He was once the best in the US and ranked #14 worldwide. He was even sponsored by Kawasaki Motorcycles who provided him with a competition bike. Here's an ad I found after a bit of Googling:

The caption reads

Dave Latham is an astronomer for the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, a profession which demands technical precision. He is also a motorcycle competitor---a gold medal winner at the Isle of Man I.S.D.T. Dave chose the Ossa bike for his competition bike. His Ossa bike has successfully completed the following events:

1970 International Six Day Trials El Escorial, Spain

350 Mile Lonesome Pine

National Enduro, Virginia

500 Mile Greenhorn National Enduro, California

Trask Mountain Two-Day International Trials, Oregon

The Corduroy 500 Mile Canadian National

…plus hundreds of miles of riding, and winning local events. 1972 Dave Latham Ossa competition bike – Reliability above all

How appropriate it is that the add highlighted Dave's precise velocity!

Comments

A view from your shut down

The Daily Dish has been posting reader emails reporting on their " view from the shutdown ." If you think this doesn't affect you, or if you know all too well how bad this is, take a look at the growing collection of poignant stories. No one is in this alone except for the nutjobs in the House. I decided to email Andrew with my own view. I plan to send a similar letter to my congressperson. Dear Andrew, I am a professor of astronomy at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA). The CfA houses one of the largest, if not the largest collection of PhD astronomers in the United States, with over 300 professional astronomers and roughly 100 doctoral and predoctoral students on a small campus a few blocks west of Harvard Yard. Under the umbrella of the CfA are about 20 Harvard astronomy professors, and 50 tenure-track Smithsonian researchers. A large fraction of the latter are civil servants currently on furlough and unable to come to work. In total, 147 FTEs

back-talk begins

me: "owen, come here. it's time to get a new diaper" him, sprinting down the hall with no pants on: "forget about it!" he's quoting benny the rabbit, a short-lived sesame street character who happens to be in his favorite "count with me" video. i'm turning my head, trying not to let him see me laugh, because his use and tone with the phrase are so spot-on.

The Long Con

Hiding in Plain Sight ESPN has a series of sports documentaries called 30 For 30. One of my favorites is called Broke which is about how professional athletes often make tens of millions of dollars in their careers yet retire with nothing. One of the major "leaks" turns out to be con artists, who lure athletes into elaborate real estate schemes or business ventures. This naturally raises the question: In a tightly-knit social structure that is a sports team, how can con artists operate so effectively and extensively? The answer is quite simple: very few people taken in by con artists ever tell anyone what happened. Thus, con artists can operate out in the open with little fear of consequences because they are shielded by the collective silence of their victims. I can empathize with this. I've lost money in two different con schemes. One was when I was in college, and I received a phone call that I had won an all-expenses-paid trip to the Bahamas. All I needed to d

Mahalo.ne.Trash

Search This Blog