Monday, March 24, 2014
Sunday, March 16, 2014
Some brief thoughts on skiing at Williams College
Yesterday, 15 March 2014, over a hundred gathered for the official retirement event for two Williams College ski coaches, Ed Grees and Bud Fisher. Beyond having a larger crowd of 160+ show up for a combination of ski races, dinner, reception, and slideshow, which was awesome, the evening was remarkable for two speeches by members of the classes of 1955 and 1957. Certainly, there were congratulatory remarks of all sorts, photos of ridiculous neon suits and former ski areas, and talk of some of Bud's "Bud-isms" and all the other aspects of both coaches- personally and professionally- that will be remembered for a long time.
But the discussion of skiing at the College under Ralph Townsend was extra special in terms of building a ski community and the continuation that Ed and Bud provided. Ralph "built" the ski program at Williams and was crucial in transforming the team into a varsity program with real coaching, facilities, and introducing the skiing lifestyle to Williams. And the days of ski jumping, wooden skis, packing runs and track setting are what we love to hear and think about. But it was Bud (and Ed) who began to specialize the teams, work tirelessly to introduce women to the sport, and continue skiing as one of few D1 sports at Williams, which is dominated by academics and liberal arts. Their tenure, alumni success, and performance at the alumni races speak to their success in building a program, a family, and a lifestyle. We can only hope their predecessors can continue this trend in a changing climate.
But the discussion of skiing at the College under Ralph Townsend was extra special in terms of building a ski community and the continuation that Ed and Bud provided. Ralph "built" the ski program at Williams and was crucial in transforming the team into a varsity program with real coaching, facilities, and introducing the skiing lifestyle to Williams. And the days of ski jumping, wooden skis, packing runs and track setting are what we love to hear and think about. But it was Bud (and Ed) who began to specialize the teams, work tirelessly to introduce women to the sport, and continue skiing as one of few D1 sports at Williams, which is dominated by academics and liberal arts. Their tenure, alumni success, and performance at the alumni races speak to their success in building a program, a family, and a lifestyle. We can only hope their predecessors can continue this trend in a changing climate.
Monday, March 3, 2014
Vcontakte and Telegram versus Facebook
Sometimes places need something to call their own. Social networks are one of them, especially in a more controlled state than the US.
Enter the world of Vkontakte and Telegram. Russia's answer to Facebook's push into their internet territory and the historical USSR. Sochi has shown us that few mess with Russia's big business, government, or people, and the current Crimea which luckily came after Sochi has expanded this into military prowess and brevity as well. So for Facebook to sue Russian serial entrepreneurs for creating a lookalike site in Russian- well, now with English beta- that has hundreds of millions of users is difficult to unwise. Something should be done, however, to strengthen the connections between networks and leverage social media as a development tool in the CIS.
Enter the world of Vkontakte and Telegram. Russia's answer to Facebook's push into their internet territory and the historical USSR. Sochi has shown us that few mess with Russia's big business, government, or people, and the current Crimea which luckily came after Sochi has expanded this into military prowess and brevity as well. So for Facebook to sue Russian serial entrepreneurs for creating a lookalike site in Russian- well, now with English beta- that has hundreds of millions of users is difficult to unwise. Something should be done, however, to strengthen the connections between networks and leverage social media as a development tool in the CIS.
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