Yesterday I began my third triathlon season with the Los Angeles Triathlon Championship #1 event. As it's name implies, this is the first of a series of events at Frank Bonelli Park in Pomona, CA. The first is a classic sprint event, followed by an international distance event in May and an olympic distance event in June. I really enjoy this venue and participated in the entire series last year. The course is challenging, but picturesque.

A few weeks ago, my son, Kieran, and I happened to hear a fresh new sound on KCRW that really grabbed our attention. It was a quirky, up-tempo tune that had us tapping our toes instantly. Turns out, it was a song titled "A-Punk" from a NY band by the name of Vampire Weekend. As often happens when we listen to Anne Litt's "The A Track" show, we'd found another gem that demanded further exploration!

In response to a solicitation from the campaign for words to woo super-delegates, I posted the following today to the Obama website:

I'm a technology professional who's lived most of my life in So. Cal. I've been a registered Republican for my entire adult life - until very recently. Over the years, I've become increasingly disenchanted by the direction of the Republican Party. I'm a fiscal conservative (believing in small government, low taxes, individual responsibility) but a social moderate (believing in abortion rights, gay rights). I've never voted strict party lines, always looking for character in our public servants rather than specific positions on issues.

On the eve of Super Tuesday, I'm hoping for a tidal wave. I'm secretly praying for a seismic event of national proportions - a political upheaval across America. And when we wake up the day after Super Tuesday and look around, I'm hoping we see Barack Obama at the epicenter. This country desperately needs that kind of day tomorrow.

At first glance, one might mistake this for an image of our familiar lunar neighbor, but it's not. It is, in fact, one of the first close-up images of Mercury taken since Mariner visited the planet over 30 years ago - and it's of a region not seen before. This week, NASA's Messenger spacecraft slipped within 125 miles of Mercury to begin what will be a multi-year exploration of this most unusual planet. The heavy cratering certainly reminds us of the Moon, but looking deeper reveals vast differences between these two solar system bodies. In particular, Mercury is extremely dense - nearly 50% of it's volume is iron - making it denser, even, than the Earth. How did this planet come to be so dense? The Messenger mission has been designed to help scientists answer this intriguing question and a host of others.

The sudden dramatic brightening of comet Holmes 14P last month sent many amateur astronomers, myself included, scurrying to their telescopes. On October 23th, Holmes 14P was a very faint object (magnitude 17) in the constellation Perseus. A day later, it had brightened nearly 1 million-fold to approximately magnitude 2.5. Even in light-polluted skies, such as those over Los Angeles, it had become a naked-eye object overnight. Perseus had sprouted a new "star"!

I do not often critique music. However, KCRW's recent release, Sounds Eclectic: The Covers Project, is so delightful, I'm motivated to share my impressions. KCRW has a long tradition of recording artists appearing on its flagship music program, Morning Becomes Eclectic (MBE), and releasing compilations of these recordings as membership premiums. Over the years, I've collected several of them, yet none have evoked emotion, nor sustained my interest like this latest offering.

On Saturday night, May 19th 2007, amateur astronomers from all over the world will bring their passion to the public. The goal of the 1st Annual International Astronomy Night is to setup over 1000 telescopes across the globe in public places in order to provide all comers with a view of the night sky's magic. I, for one, plan to participate by setting up at least one (perhaps two) scopes on or near the pier in Hermosa Beach, CA. Cloud cover permitting, we will glimpse a beautiful crescent moon, a bright venus, Saturn and perhaps even Jupiter, if people stay around long enough. I'm looking forward to opening more eyes to the wonders over our heads. Please come join us!

Saturday evening, March 17th-18th, I made the trek with fellow South Bay Astronomical Society (SBAS) members to our observing site near Red Rock Canyon State Park for a night of dark-sky observing. As the "new moon" weekend in March, this would be the best time to attempt a Messier Marathon - an annual adventure in which astronomers attempt to view all 110 Messier objects in a single night. Having completed a marathon in 2004, I was more interested in another event which, coincidentally, was anticipated that same evening - an occultation of Pluto.

I'm no marathoner, but triathlon has rekindled my interest in cycling. With a new high-performance tri-bike at my disposal, I've been looking for opportunities to test my improved speed. So, when I learned recently that there's a bicycle tour staged in conjunction with the Los Angeles Marathon, I decided to give it a try. Technically not a race, this "tour" is attended by all types of individuals on all types of bikes - literally thousands of them. What was not immediately apparent was that, in order to ensure the bike course is cleared before the runners arrive later in the morning, this tour starts at the crack of dawn.

So, I found myself rising at 3:45am for a quick breakfast and a traffic-free drive downtown in time to join the crowd somewhere reasonably close to the starting line. There we were, a swelling throng of bodies and bikes, huddling in the pre-dawn chill alongside the Coliseum, trying to keep warm and waiting for our anticipated release at 6:00am. Luckily, it was not particularly cold, but after 45 minutes, I was ready to get going! Overhead, I spied brilliant Jupiter and a number of familiar stars, but the gradually approaching dawn soon overpowered them. Suddenly, fireworks erupted from within the Coliseum and I knew the start must be close! Sure enough, a horn blared shortly thereafter and we were off - well, sort of.