Saket Vora

Looks like things are snowballing. My good friend Naman Shah has started his blog, www.topnaman.com, and plans on posting regularly about public health, malaria, and his experiences as an M.D./Ph.D student at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Despite his young age, Naman has had a dizzying amount of experience in the public health field and more specifically about malaria. I met him first in high school, he ended up living in the same neighborhood as me, and after graduating from undergrad we did that month long cross country road trip together. More recently, we’ve been working together on the WaterPLUS project. I’m happy that he’s started this project.

Mike arrived in town Thursday and despite a problem meeting up as planned (Nader and his misplaced cell phone), we finally did. He and Nader had walked around campus a lot — I was finishing up class and was in a meeting. We did a grocery run with Luke to the safeway, and was going to meet Jordan at Celia’s restaurant at 8pm. Simon was going to join us too. Except that Nader forgot $20 worth of meet at the Safeway that he paid for. Sigh.

But anyway. Dinner was good (well made margaritas) and we had good time. We watched a lot of TV after coming back — comedy central, south park, etc. Woke up early on Friday, headed towards the Packard building. Mike had been having trouble getting internet for his laptop, but alas couldn’t make it work on campus. I opened up the WaterPLUS business plan that was due at 5pm today and saw a good number of issues with it. I started working feverishly on it, spending a solid 4 hours continuous time on it. On the side I finished MarkStrat slides and mailed those in. I’m fairly pleased with the final WaterPLUS business plan everything considered and all.

Mike and I were gonna join Lei and Hao for dinner. They came on over and we decided to go to a good Chinese place they know in the mini-Chinatown of Cupertino. It is a shopping center entirely focused on Chinese needs. They have a huge grocery store (think Grand Asia Market in Raleigh, by Crossroads) where we roamed the aisles while waiting for our reservation (the reservation system was writing your name and party yourself on a clipboard mounted up by the door). Hao and Chen explained to me what is authentic, what is traditional, etc. Picked up some pocky, shiitake mushrooms, baked tofu, and udon noodles.

We eventually got a seat and the food was extremely good. Lei and Hao ordered for us off the Chinese menu. The food we had was unlike anything I’ve seen in a typical Chinese restaurant in America..the way of preparing and serving the dishes. This restaurant specialized in northland Chinese food (where Lei and Hao are from).  Really great food.

Getting back at around 10:30pm or so, we did some work in working on Mike’s presentation he’s giving to a company on Thursday. We hit up the Indiana Jones trailer too. Mmmmmm.

Simon came in and he was telling us about a speaker he saw from Yahoo Design Group and the neat data visualizations she showed the colloquium. That started a massive 3 hour diversion into showcasing all the cool data visualization projects on the Internet, as well as information graphics in general. We spent nearly an hour analyzing the design choices and composition of the Sydney, Berlin, and NYC subway transit maps….what? Is that weird?

Simon said the Yahoo speaker emphasized ambient information and I couldn’t agree more.  Anyway, tomorrow we’ll be doing more work and maybe head somewhere or do something. Not sure. Mike will be heading up into the City on Tuesday.

I’m pleased to give a shout-out to my buddy Mike who launched his blog, GameDrinkCode.com. A great domain name and a site which is focused on having new content daily. Looking forward to see what ‘voice’ he develops over time. It took me a few months to find mine!

Here are two quick video clips.

White Plaza, which is the closest thing Stanford has to a ‘Brickyard’ or ‘Pit’, is situated behind the Main Quad. Some students are hawking Valentine’s day carnations. The Obama rally took place right here as well. The video is taken from in front of the Post Office. To the right is the Stanford bookstore, to the far left and behind is Braun Music Center and behind the Post office is where the Law School is. Directly in front is the Old Union, and to the left of it towards the rear is Tresidder Student Union.

This is Lomita Mall, but I like to think of it as the ‘engineering mall’. It is a thin slice of green-space that separates the Main Squad from the engineering/science buildings. The video is shot in front of the McCulloch building, where materials science has labs. One end of the mall (on the right in the video) is the earth sciences building. If you keep going that way, you’ll get to the Terman building where MS&E and the Engineering Library is. Also right there is the Durand building for AeroAstro.

As you go down the mall towards the left, you’ll pass the Gordon and Betty Moore building for materials research. Hang a left at the end of the mall and you’ll be behind the Packard and Hewlett buildings.

There used to be a nice courtyard plaza behind the Packard and Hewlett buildings, but that is a construction site now for a new building. I think that new building will be for nano-related science and engineering.

It’s really nice to have my camera back. Here is a short video I took which shows what I see pretty consistently as I head out of my apartment to get my bike for class.

Pretty good weekend. Got a lot of reading done Saturday, then later in the evening Jordan came over from Cupertino. Got some food, watched the Simpsons movie, then went over to a party that one of Jordan’s colleagues was throwing at Rains.

I got my camera back from Nicks’ place (left it there from Super Tuesday) and took some photos of the fruit trees around Rains.

On Sunday did a bit more reading, then Nader and I went and took a hike up to the Big Dish.

It is located in the foothills behind Stanford.

^ is actually the small dish.

^ the Big Dish from far away.

The Big Dish up close. It’s pointed almost straight up, acting like an ionosonde. I’ll have to take another photo in the morning for better lighting.

Another shot of it as we’re walking down:

The foothills are pretty.

^ no, not a UFO landing pad. It’s some experiment site. Stanford has all this land behind it but can only develop it for educational purposes.

And just to throw it in, here is a shot of the Hoover tower and Green Library I shot before my camera broke.

Maybe this is just the Bay Area teasing us, but today is gorgeous. Very sunny, about 60 degrees, slight breeze. Biking around campus you’ll see almost all the picnic tables full with research or lab groups enjoying lunch outside. Bytes Cafe had all their tables out in the sun and was jam-packed.

I hope this is here to stay for a while.

A quick comment about Super Tuesday before going to bed. It almost went as expected. Obama won more states and is expected to have more delegates than Clinton when all is said and done.

I voted at around 3:30pm at the Graduate Community Center. I waited about 40 minutes in line. Others were waiting for more than an hour. The precinct captain said that this was the largest turnout he’s seen, larger than presidential elections.

Luke and I went over to Nick and Nick’s apartment to watch the election coverage and track results as they come in.

I’m very disappointed in California.  The past week we had been hearing poll after poll that Obama had shrunk Clinton’s lead in California to 11 points, then 3 points, then statistically tied, then finally even Obama leading by a couple points. So what happened on Super Tuesday? Clinton beats Obama in California by 12 points. Huh? Come again?

I don’t want to jump to conclusions, but I’m pretty disappointed at the run-around Californians seem to have given the pollsters and people around this state.  This same thing happened in New Hampshire.

This campaign isn’t over yet. Clinton doesn’t have a huge lead over Obama in the delegate count, and now we enter the long haul of a 50 state strategy. Philadelphia, Ohio, Texas, North Carolina, Virginia are coming up. And Obama has the money and the momentum to keep going full steam up. Fired Up and Ready to Go!

Good news — Dr. Arrow agreed to sign the Philadelphia Consensus Statement. The Universities Allied for Essential Medicines now has endorsements from seven Nobel Prize winners.

There are other distinguished scientists and economists at Stanford, so I offered Derek Lundberg at UNC to help get other signatures if it would help the cause. Hopefully Sapana at UChicago can do the same.

I am so happy! The New York Giants beat the undefeated-no-more New England Patriots in the Super Bowl.

No matter which team you were rooting for –it was a great time. Strong defenses. Tom Brady effortlessly leading an end of 4th quarter drive for the go-ahead touchdown.  It seemed inevitable.

But then the Giants got the ball with a few minutes left. 3rd down, and Eli Manning (whose older brother Peyton won the Super Bowl last year) converts a third down. They are faced with another third down later. Down 4 points, kicking the field goal is not an option. The play unfolds, Eli is surrounded, a Patriot has a fistful of Eli’s jersey. He seems moments away from being sacked. But then he tucks and somehow breaks free, rolling out behind the mass of lineman. He heaves a pass down the field, and his wide receiver Tyree leaps up, somehow makes a contested catch with his helmet and his hand, and miraculously keeps possession as he hits the ground.  A few plays later, Eli Manning throws to Plaxico Burress for the go ahead TD.

Can the Patriots score in under a minute? Not today, friends. Not tonight.

I have been waiting for this day since September.

Many people ask why I hate the Patriots. Don’t get me wrong — what an amazing team this is. Brilliant coaching.  A true team-first spirit. Excellent players. But I like underdogs. The Patriots, rather — their fans, have this swagger that leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. I dislike all the media lavishing of praise and godliness. I hate how my home team, the Carolina Panthers, forced the Patriots to win a Superbowl on a last second field goal, and yet Patriots fans and the media alike just sit back wave their hand and assume it was a God-given right for the Patriots to win. I hate how Belicheck handled being caught cheating and how he refused to say he was sorry or provide any explanation to the media. I’ve got my reasons. But boy am I happy tonight.

United 93 is a film I’ve wanted to see for a long time. I watched it tonight.

I tried writing this post earlier, but couldn’t. I wasn’t able to finish.

It is a very difficult thing to watch. Rarely do I feel my own heart beating madly during a film. Seldom does a film evoke a sense of such absolute dread and raw emotion.

The film is clinically neutral. It makes no judgement. It tells the story of United 93 through the eyes of the FAA, NORAD, multiple ATC centers, the crew, the passengers, and yes, the terrorists.

It is told in real time, and the scenes unfold in front of you like the ticks of a clock you cannot stop. The authenticity is unparalleled.

This is a film I believe everyone needs to experience and, more importantly, think about.

A nice day so far. Dr. Lee is attended the Int’l Solid State Circuits conference in San Francisco next week (the same conference I attended last year on my first trip to Stanford) so he was taping Monday and Wednesday’s lectures ahead. I meant to get there for the first one at 9:30am, but overslept. About 5 or 6 people was there for the 2nd lecture, and he was great as always. What an extraordinary command of history for the field — truly shows his passion. If you’ve ever wondered about some sort of funny thing you see in this field, Dr. Lee knows it. For example. Scientists like to use 300 K as ‘room temperature’ cause its a nice round number. But when one scientist was working on noise power in circuits, he found that using 300K resulted in non-round number. But he found that 293K did result in a round number, so he defined that as room temperature.

Anyway, after that I went to a Barack Obama rally held at White Plaza. Two interesting speakers — one of them is Obama’s key technology advisor, a friend from Law School. He met Barack Obama while playing basketball at Yale. He told the crowd how Obama is THE 21st century president. He gave a shout-out to the former head of the Brookings Institution, another Obama supporter. The other was a former California comptroller and graduate of Stanford University. At Stanford during the 1970s, he was Student Body President and led the “association” (ie, all Stanford students) to oppose the university’s investments that supported the apartheid regime in South Africa. They called for divestment. This movement was so powerful that he led the student body into occupying the Old Union and effectively shut Stanford down. This caused a ripple effect into other schools across the country and across the world, ultimately achieving their goals and helping to free Nelson Mandela. His message to us — don’t believe that a bunch of 18 and 19 year-olds can’t change the world. We have done so and we will do it again on February 5th and in November!

Fired Up and Ready to Go!

After the rally, I went to go meet with Dr. Kenneth Arrow, professor emeritus of economics. I had volunteered on behalf of Naman to talk to him and get his endorsement for Universities Allied for Essential Medicines, a movement he’s involved with a friend (Derek Lundberg) who I played Frisbee with during the summers in Raleigh. They are an organization advocating shifts in university policy that ensure fair and affordable access of essential medicines for the developing world. Ben had made a comment to me about how neat it was that I was going to talk to him — he wrote his NSF proposal off Dr. Arrow’s work. About an hour before the meeting, I wanted to look up Dr. Arrow’s information to get some information…I should have done this a while ago! I see his Wikipedia page and immediately read “Nobel Prize Winner in Economics” and “2004 Presidential Medal of Science award” and my eyes widen. Oh boy. I better get ready for this!

Dr. Arrow was nice to talk to and asked some good questions about the movement. I chatted with him for about 15 minutes, left him the packet containing the Philadelphia Consensus Statement and some more information. Hopefully he will endorse it. That will make it 7 Nobel Prize laureates to endorse the movement.

Gonna use the rest of the day to get ahead on 314 homework (for once) and to do some neuroengineering reading.