July 4, 2010 by apurvadesai
Rafael Nadal won the 2010 Wimbledon today, a month after his 2010 French Open championship. Nadal is certainly back, regaining top form after injuries derailed much of his 2009. He now has 8 Grand Slam championships, surpassing John McEnroe and tying him with Ivan Lendl and Jimmy Connors in career grand slams. And all of this by age 24.
With these consecutive titles, the discussion of how far can Nadal go is reigniting—a requisite inclusion in any article chronicling his Wimbledon championship (see Bruce Jenkins article, and Greg Garber’s article here). With Nadal’s 8th Grand Slam championship, he’s now halfway to Federer’s total of 16. It’s time to take a renewed look at his current and possible future performance compared to historical legends and update my posting last year about Nadal’s candidacy for GOAT. Continue Reading »
Posted in Sports, Tennis | Tagged Federer as Best Ever, Federer as GOAT, Most Grand Slams, Nadal as Best Ever, Nadal as GOAT, Nadal Grand Slams, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Tennis Grand Slams by Age | 7 Comments »
July 2, 2010 by apurvadesai
Being a San Francisco city pedestrian commuter, I’ve been wondering what’s more common—people walking while listening to music or people walking while holding a coffee cup. I see commuters each day and my curiosity has me asking: has the proliferation of smart phones and ipods made listening to music as essential to the daily commuter as getting that Starbucks coffee before making that last stroll into the office. I, of course, did some research to find out.
As part of my commute each work day, I take the Caltrain near my home to the final stop at 4th Street and King Street in downtown San Francisco (my earlier observations of commuting on the train are here). From there, I’ve decided to walk to the financial district of SF where my office is located—a daily one way walk of about 25 minutes—a great way to get exercise. Here’s a map of my walk with pins for the beginning and end locations.
Continue Reading »
Posted in Commuting, Silicon Valley | Tagged Caltrain, Commuting in San Francisco, Listening to Music while commuting, More common for commuters music or coffee, San Francisco urban commuter demographics | 2 Comments »
July 1, 2010 by apurvadesai
The World Cup has completed its group play stage and has reached the exciting knockout quarterfinals. The remaining teams are now battling for the title of World’s best, with only the razor’s edge of margin separating the very top teams. The drama, excitement and pressure are all building and drawing in more and more fans around the world.
All of this excitement has me lamenting that I have not seen a World Cup event in person. I’ve stated that my goal in 2014 will be to attend the World Cup in Brazil. But as I think about attending the World Cup, I also ask myself which event would be better to attend: the World Cup or the Olympics. After all, Brazil also hosts the 2016 Olympics. To me the answer is clear: the World Cup, and this article from sports journalist Peter King provides the justification better than I ever could. Continue Reading »
Posted in Globalization, Sports | Tagged Nigeria soccer team, Olympics, Peter King, Peter King World Cup, World Cup, World Cup vs Olympics which one to attend | 3 Comments »
June 20, 2010 by apurvadesai
A couple of weeks ago, I made it up to the great Pacific Northwest for a quick weekend summer trip, coinciding with perfect summer Portland weather. Ten years ago, I lived in Portland for a year and after I moved to California, I often traveled to the suburbs of Portland for business reasons. Having the experience of actually living there, I had overlooked what a great tourist destination site Portland is. It offers a clean, uncrowded urban experience, the ability to immerse yourself in legendary floral, forest, and garden environments, and the opportunity to enjoy some of the most aesthetically beautiful waterfalls, stream and river scenes, and mountain views. Continue Reading »
Posted in Travel | Tagged Horsetail Falls, International Rose Test Garden, Japanese Tea Garden Portland, Multnomah Falls, Oregon, Portland, Portland Dragon Boat Race, Portland Rose Festival, Typhoon Portland, Wahkeena Falls | 3 Comments »
June 12, 2010 by apurvadesai
Yesterday, the 2010 World Cup in South Africa began.
As I write this, I’m eagerly awaiting the US-England match later this morning. Some are calling the match the most eagerly awaited match in the history of US soccer. For me, the World Cup spectacle held every 4 years is one of the best of all sporting events; it combines fantastic skill, unbelievable passion and energy from the fans of the teams, globalization and a common them that people around the world can rally around, tradition and history that fans cling to, and opportunity for late game drama. The 2002 run for the US team was one of my favorite sporting moments of the 2000’s, as I documented here.
As I think back to the last World Cup in 2006 and the current one in 2010, I also think about two Internet and social media companies—Yahoo! and Twitter. Continue Reading »
Posted in Internet, Silicon Valley, Social Media, Sports | Tagged #fifa, #worldcup, #worldcup2010, Grant Wahl and Twitter, Twitter's impact to the World Cup, Working at Yahoo!, World Cup 2010, World Cup and Twitter, World Cup and Yahoo! | 2 Comments »
May 31, 2010 by apurvadesai
This past week, my wife and I watched the musical In the Heights in San Francisco. A Broadway production, In the Heights, won four Tony Awards in 2008, including Best Musical. A very enjoyable performance—it made me think where it stacked up amongst the various theatre performances I’ve seen over the years around the world. Here’s my ranking of the 7 major theatre shows I’ve seen in different cities.
1. Wonderful Town– New York Continue Reading »
Posted in Entertainment | Tagged Donna Murphy, Favorite Broadway Musicals, Favorite Theatre Shows, In the Heights, Wicked, Wonderful Town | Leave a Comment »
May 31, 2010 by apurvadesai
I just returned from a trip to New York City and had an opportunity to make it to Central Park for the second time in 3 months. These visits to Central Park reminded me how much I enjoy urban parks- they add real character to the great urban centers of the world. This has inspired a list—my favorite urban parks that I’ve been to and the reasons why…..
1. Hyde Park- London, England Continue Reading »
Posted in Travel | Tagged 16 inch softball, Central Park, English Garden, Golden Gate Park, Grant Park, Hyde Park, Hyde Park vs Central Park, Stanley Park, Urban City Parks | Leave a Comment »
May 15, 2010 by apurvadesai
This week I attended a World Affairs council lecture titled Academic Globalization- How International Universities are Reshaping the World. Author Ben Wildavsky, former Education Editor for US News & World Report and currently a fellow at the Ewing Marion Kaufmann Foundation, discussed his recent book titled, The Great Brain Race, How Global Universities are Reshaping the World.
The focus of the discussion was around the increasing globalization of higher education. Wildavsky focused on three themes:
- Unprecedented Academic Mobility
- Race to create world-class universities
- Emergence of global college rankings Continue Reading »
Posted in Education, Globalization, Silicon Valley | Tagged Academic Globalization, Ben Wildavsky, Global Mobility in Higher Education, How Global Universities are Reshaping the World, IIT Mumbai, International Universiities, KAUST, The Great Brain Race, The Race between Education and Technology | Leave a Comment »
April 3, 2010 by apurvadesai
The NCAA tournament continues this weekend with the Final Four, consisting of Butler, Michigan State, West Virginia, and Duke. Butler is one of the real stories of this tournament- playing in the Final Four only six miles from their campus in Indianapolis. The other angle to the Butler story is the presence of the so called Mid-Major in the Final Four. Every year during the tournament, the talking heads discuss the Cinderella stories of teams like Northern Iowa, St. Mary’s and Cornell and then get into debates whether teams like Xavier, Butler, and Gonzaga are mid-majors or not. Continue Reading »
Posted in Sports | Tagged Butler, Butler University Final Four, Dave Telep, Drew Cannon, Mid Major study, Mid-major, Midmajor, NCAA Tournament | Leave a Comment »
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