When I spotted this arXiv posting by Nils Hjort, Six-Minute Man Sander Eitrem 5:58.52 – first man below the 6:00.00 barrier, discussing Sander Eitrem‘s massive gain from the month-old previous record by Frenchman Timothy Loubineaud in Salt Lake City, just above 6’00”.. I was incredulous, not because I am knowledgeable in speed skating records, but because I was thinking of running… Where the World record is twice as large (12:35.36). Beyond my own personal interests, which drove the way I read this title, I was also stuck back in the past, with my last conversation with Nils being about long-distance running and record prediction, which happened quite a while ago when visiting the Isaac Newton Institute in Cambridge! (Nils’ note holds a reference to another famous Norwegian [runner], Jakob Ingebrigtsens.) Sander Eitrem also became the Olympic champion in Milano, breaking the Olympic record as well.
Archive for Salt Lake City
first man below the 6:00:00 barrier on the 5000m?!
Posted in Kids, Mountains, Running, Statistics, University life with tags Isaac Newton Institute, Jakob Ingebrigtsen, Milano, Norway, Salt Lake City, speed skating, University of Cambridge, Winter Olympics, World record on February 14, 2026 by xi'anthe T-shirts I love [book/closet review]
Posted in Books, Kids, Running, Travel with tags amazon associates, book review, Clachaig Inn, Glencoe, Haruki Murakami, longhorn, ochre, Salt Lake City, Scotland, surfing, tee-shirt, The University of Texas at Austin, ye Norse farce, Yellowstone national park on December 26, 2022 by xi'an
When I first heard of Haruki Murakami’s book on tee-shirts, I found the concept sufficiently intriguing to start looking for the book and I eventually found on Amazon a cheap used sale that got delivered to a friend in the US (who was most perplexed by my choice!). Having gone through the book and its 110 photos of tee-shirts, I am feeling like I had a light late-evening conversation with the author and a window into the reasons why he keeps and seeks so many tees. This is a translation from Japanese, so I cannot say how colloquial Murakami was in the original, but this is most enjoyable (in a very light sense!). Having worn tee-shirts for all of my adult life (and none during my childhood), albeit not with any comparable collection, by far!, I can relate with some categories like
- race tees (which have now almost completely vanished, being replaced with synthetic running tops), of which my favourite is the 1988 Skunk Cabbage Classic tee celebrating the 5k race organised every year by the Finger Lakes Runners Club
- beer tees, like my favourites advertising Yellowstone’s Moose Drool brown ale [and supposedly dyed in the beer?!] and Salt Lake City Full Suspension [with the fantastically ironic motto Beers you can believe in!]
- bars/pubs tees, like the one I bought at the Clachaig Inn, Glencoe
- institution tees, with my favourite being the iconic U of T Austin ochre shirt with a longhorn skull
- and, to diverge from Murakami’s surfing section, mountaineering places/brand tees, of which the homemade þe Norse Farce is the obvious selection!
And neither shared tee spotted within the published 110 selected ones, nor any one I would desperately seek.
Grand Canyon [plus haze]
Posted in pictures, Travel, University life with tags Arizona, flight, Grand Canyon, Phoenix, plane trip, Salt Lake City on December 11, 2011 by xi'an
The flight from Salt Lake City to Phoenix today was also uneventful, except for the incredible views it provided! This was the first time I was near the Grand Canyon and the sheer scale of it is definitely impressive. Unfortunately, it was more hazy than I thought (or my Coolpix S3100 camera is even poorer than I thought), but the pictures all came hazy…. Maybe will I get a second chance for better pictures on Tuesday when flying to Minneapolis (and then to London).
I am now at the conference resort, a puzzling place surrounded by a golf course and a huge park (and far enough from anything else to require a car!). A striking coincidence is that I got the same room number (311) as in Salt Lake City (“not that anyone cares…”, TBBT.3.3)
Greenland
Posted in Books, Mountains, pictures, Statistics, Travel, University life with tags ABC, emergency exit, emotional support animal, Greenland, icebergs, North, pets, plane, Salt Lake City, sunset on December 8, 2011 by xi'an
On my (uneventful if rather long) flight to Salt Lake City yesterday, I had the great privilege to fly over a cloudless Greenland and I managed to take a few pictures (with the help of fellow passengers sitting on the other aisle)… The light was terrific as most of the trip was in a permanent sunset (since we were flying way up North!).
I actually had a bit of a fright thanks to my RER train being delayed (surprise!) but for whatever reason Charles de Gaulle airport was almost deserted and I went through all steps in less than the ten minutes I was allowed before they closed the gates (which was also the time it took me to get from the plane to the car rental desk in Salt Lake City!). As my laptop went out of battery very quickly by not suspending properly (!), I managed to read and review three papers on ABC and to start Persi’s book on Magic and Mathematics (which reads very well, even after nine hours in a plane!).
As I was seating on an exit row, I got a leaflet explaining that I should read the instructions, and be ready to “assess, select, and follow a safe path away from the emergency exit” (model choice at work!). Among people prevented from sitting in an exit row, those “requiring the use of a seat belt extension” (only “to preclude the hazard of entanglement with the additional length of the extension by those passengers attempting to expeditiously exit the aircraft”, which sounds both like a short story and legalist caution against discrimination lawsuits!) and those “travelling with an emotional support animal, service animal or family pet” (which again sounds very descriptive for no clear reason, but again hint at some past story requiring the distinction between those different kinds of pets!).
Salt
Posted in Kids, Statistics, Travel with tags cereals, SALT, Salt Lake City on January 12, 2011 by xi'an
In the plane to Salt Lake City, we were served a series of very dumb movies, SALT being the only title I can remember. As we were working (or sleeping), this was of no importance, but the few bits of SALT I watched (with no earphone) seemed quite ludicrous in its complete lack of plausibility… To keep with the salt theme, I also discovered during this same trip that what I thought were healthy cereals were in fact filled with much more salt than chips! To wit, a serving of Raisin Brans had 15% of the daily amount of salt, Quaker Oatmeal Squares 10%, and even the “super healthy” Special K still contains 9% of the (excessive) daily allowance… Even more surprising, one serving of hot cocoa mix also contains this amount of salt!
