http://www.slate.com/id/2124500/nav/tap1/

http://www.spokesmanreview.com/features/story.asp?ID=63517
(more…)

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/14/magazine/14CRYOVAC.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5088&en=3d5db18004168139&ex=1281672000&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

http://www.foodportfolio.com/frames/base_frame.html

I decided it was time to venture to Little Saigon in the Tenderloin for a good old fashioned bowl of pho. I consider myself to have pretty good luck with pho. Most of what I’ve had before were on par, and I only had one bad incident. But the problem is, I’ve never really been blown away by pho before. I had heard good things about a place called Turtle Tower, and was anxious to give a review.

We arrived at Turtle Tower just in time for the lunch rush of local patrons seeking their pho fixing. I ordered my usual: a large bowl with rare beef (they didn’t have meatballs, which was disappointing).

Clean. This is only the word that comes to mind when eating Turtle Tower’s pho. I was simply amazed by the clarity of the broth when the steaming bowl arrived–you could probably read the date off of a dime at the bottom of a gallon of it. In other words, clear as consomme. This is typical of the northern Vietnamese pho, which is said to be the original and more minimalist than the richer southern Vietnamese tradition. I liked the clean taste, but I can also appreciate a more flavorful and complex broth.

The condiments were also sparse. If you’re used to Hoison sauce and plenty of green basil leaves with your pho, you’ll be disappointed. This is a no fuss operation–the only condiments were limes, sriricha, fish sauce and vinegar. I usually mix Hoison with sriricha, which I then use to dab the noodles and beef. But this time, I mixed some sriricha, vinegar, and fish sauce for a tasty combination. Although, it really wouldn’t kill them to have a bottle or two Hoison around.

The noodles were homemade and excellent. I’ve never had homemade noodles in pho, so this was quite a treat. They weren’t clumpy at all, and were tender and fresh tasting. The beef, however, wasn’t what I expected. Usually, rare beef means thin slices of sirloin, but this seemed to some sort of mashed up chunky sirloin. But the quality of the other ingredients did a good job in offsetting the beef. Perhaps this style is traditional? Does anyone have any idea?

If you’re in the mood for a nice clean bowl of pho, try Turtle Tower. As usual, the servings are huge, fast, and steaming. However, if you like a darker and more pungent broth, or, if you’re a condiment nut, you probably won’t be impressed. Their chicken pho also looked really nice, and seemed to be popular with the other patrons.

Turtle Tower Restaurant
631 Larkin Street
San Francisco, CA 94109
(415) 409-3333

Andrew Wiles shocked the world when he broke out of his reclusive studies at Princeton to reveal that he had solved one of the world’s most notorious mathematical problems: Fermat’s Last Theorem (FLT). This theorem (or conjecture, as it had not been proved yet) has haunted mathematicians for over three centuries. It was the last puzzle left by Fermat, who claimed he had a proof for which “this margin is too small to contain.”

The problem itself is simple, and any grade school child can understand it. FLT states that whole number solutions to the equation x^n + y^n = z^n do not exist for n greater than 2. It seemed simple at first, and all the best mathematicians in the world threw all their techniques at it without success. Almost every mathematician you have ever heard of–Gauss, Euler, and Fourier, to name a few–have tried and knelt in submission to FLT.

The key to Wiles’s proof is the use of the Taniyama-Shimura conjecture. This conjecture allowed Wiles to attack the problem from a different angle: if he showed the T-S conjecture to be true, he would show FLT to be true. The T-S conjecture has to do with elliptic curves and modular forms. Basically, the FLT equation can be rearranged to an elliptic equation that is so weird that no solutions can possibly exist if the T-S conjecture is true. Thus, the T-S conjecture implies that FLT is true.

The book Fermat’s Enigma, by Simon Singh, details the struggles and triumphs of Wiles’s eight years of mounting a proof for FLT. The story is written with a historical eye, revealing of bits of mathematical history whenever Wiles stands upon the shoulders of giants to further his proof. The narrative is also gripping, and you will find yourself immersed in the realm of mathematical genius and perspiration as you read about Wiles’s risky endeavor on wasting eight years proving a theorem that was possibly out of reach.

Even if you’re not a big math fan, you will find Fermat’s Enigma to be well written, accessible, and exciting.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00005LN4Q/qid=1123866876/sr=8-2/ref=pd_bbs_2/103-9858676-5015865?v=glance&s=music&n=507846
(more…)

http://www.doctoroogle.com/reviews/viewdentist.cfm/pageID/8/dentistID/1099/san_francisco_dentist/dr_james_yu
(more…)

http://www.pearpc.net/comments.php?screenshot_id=476
(more…)

http://www.deathcabforcutie.com/
(more…)