Monday, May 27, 2002 at 9:08AM The June issue of MIT's Technolgy Review features 100 young innovators, "visitors from the future, living among us here and now," including several Googlers and a CmdrTaco. The article (.pdf), an industry specific index and an annotated link list (nice) are available here.
Sunday, May 26, 2002 at 1:31PM Sarah's (unofficial) 24th place finish in the Indianapolis 500 today may have disappointed her, but it marks her first running finish at Indy (she wrecked the last two years), and that in itself deserves great respect. This is perhaps the world's most demanding sport, which I started following some years back when we had a friend driving in the IRL. The planetary, financial, legal and technological convergences it takes to qualify and finish at Indy are mind-blowing for anyone, and overcoming the gender gap to boot? Well, my hat's off to Sarah. She is likely to take home some $250,000 or more for today's efforts (see last year's results and winnings) - the approximate cost of two of the engines these cars consume almost as voraciously as tires. Sarah also has the soul of a blogger, as shown in her online diaries for ABC Sports. For more on women drivers at Indy, sashay over here (2002), here (2002) and here (2000).Sarah Fisher's second-place finish in Homestead, Fla., last year was the top showing by a woman in Indy-car history. She earned two top-10 finishes and pushed her career earnings to more than $1 million. [Via CNNSI]
And let's not forget Arie Luyendyk, who at 49 this year is the oldest driver ever to qualify for the race (more here). Arie (unofficially) finished 14th today.
The other driver I was pulling for was Eddie Cheever, who had a run at it but then fell back when it looked like something went south with his car. A wreck in the final laps brought things to an anticlimactic and controversial end under a yellow flag, enabling defending champion Helio Castroneves to win and do his signature celebratory fence scramble. [Full coverage via USA Today and The Nando Times] But for the caution, Castroneves would not have crossed the finish with a running engine; the car was so low on fuel his pit crew told ABC it only would have survived half of another green lap.
Sunday, May 26, 2002 at 8:47AM Today is Indy 500 Day - vrrrooom! I never expected to like Indy racing so much, but that was several years ago, before the husband started calling me "Stopwatch." Watching those cars fly around a one mile oval in less than twenty seconds is transformative (this is a longer track, but no less breathtaking). Sarah Fisher's starting in the ninth position and I'm counting on her not to find the wall in turn two. Looks like they have gorgeous weather today in Indy. "Drivers to your cars," was just announced, so I'm off to watch the coverage. Don't miss the live timing and scoring here.
Saturday, May 25, 2002 at 8:09PM If you haven't done it yet, download the review copies of chapters from the forthcoming O'Reilly book, Essential Blogging, and give the authors your feedback about their discussion of your blogging tool of choice (the book covers Blogger, Radio, Blosxom and Movable Type). Code Goddess Shelley Powers has chapters two and six on Blogger (and again I am hugely in her debt for taking time out of her Memorial Day weekend to lend first aid to the back-end of Bag and Baggage). Help them make the book rock (it already does), and read Rael Dornfest's open invitation to submit your stories and tips for possible inclusion in the"Blogging Voices" chapter, still in progress.
