Raised Sugar

Star Donuts, Sunnyvale.

Sunlight through my coffee.

Potential fire hazard if the liquid were clear?

Terminal B

The new international terminal at San Jose Airport has recently opened.

Luther Burbank Quote

Luther Burbank, noted (and respected) horticulturalist, was an atheist.

Chinese Cemetery

At the corner of First and Eastern, East Los Angeles.

Harvey

Seen as OSCon.

Bug

Bzzzt.

My dream lunch

Tuna poke; salmon nigiri; fruit salad; and French fries!

Pittosporum tenuifolium

Seen at Yamagami's. From New Zealand. Also known as Black Stem Pittosporum. Grows up to about 25-feet tall, but can be maintained as a hedge through pruning.

Sesame Ball

From Star Donuts, Sunnyvale.

Washington Park

Random photo from earlier in the year.

View from a conference room

Nectarine

Sadly, nearly all our nectarines split early in the growing season due to an ill-timed rainstorm.

Almost monochrome

Took this shot of my desk a couple of days ago -- I noticed that it is almost a black and white shot. The only hint of color is my cola and part of the ink pen.

Nectarine

I spy five crenshaw melons in the garden this year.

Oakland Post Office

Near Lake Merritt.

Telegraph Avenue

This was a familiar view for students returning to the dorms at night from the library.

USS Hornet

This Essex-class aircraft carrier, active from 1942 to 1970, sat decommissioned in a naval shipyard for over 20 years. Just before it was about to be dismantled for scrap metal, it was saved and turned into a museum. It currently sits in Alameda, California.

Shattuck Hotel

Shattuck Hotel, newly renovated in 2009. Nice bar downstairs. Convenient to public transportation (BART and AC Transit). Shops, restaurants, and theaters nearby. Civic offices nearby. Big university nearby.

Gmail is no longer beta software

It's all over the news this morning -- Google has officially dropped the "beta" designation from their Gmail web mail application. What this means in practical terms for users is somewhat hazy; but Google appears to be as firmly committed to the product as ever before.

http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/gmail-leaves-beta-launches-back-to-beta.html

Corpse Flower

I read that the name Titum Arum was given to the flower by a British broadcaster who felt that the Latin name of the plant, amorphophallus titanium, was inappropriate for television audiences.

This one did not smell as foul as I had expected, perhaps because it had just opened that morning.

Apollo 11 Quarantine

The interior of the Airstream trailer that served as the quarantine site for the Apollo 11 astronauts for three weeks after their return to Earth. The docent at the museum told us that the microwave in there was developed as part of the space program, and was the first one in the world.

I looked it up later and found the facts were a little different: commercial microwaves were available as early as 1967, two years before Apollo 11, and they were not developed as part of the space program.

Chocolate Coconut Cake

From Daily Donuts. I don't like coconut, so Erin helped me out with this one.

1985 Trek 410

About ready to get rid of this one so I can get a mountain bike.