Johanna Bobrow is by day a biologist at MIT, often by night a musician (both solo and in groups), sometimes in between an aerialist, and always my friend. When I first saw this video, I told her it was awesomer than the most awesome awesomeness ever. I firmly stand by that judgment.
I did not watch the debate. I chose to go to my aerial silks lesson instead.
When I got home, the debate was half over. I turned it on for about a minute, during which Marco Rubio managed to turn my stomach to the point where I just couldn’t go on.
Apparently he’s all worried about American tech companies “taking advantage” of relaxed immigration laws to hire foreigners who can work more efficiently than Americans. Any firm that does this should be subjected to strict regulations on who they can hire going forward, etc. etc. And there should be a 180 day waiting period before they can hire that foreigner in the first place, etc. etc.
So let’s be clear about this: Rubio cares enormously more about American engineers than about American consumers, American investors, and low-skilled American workers, all of whom benefit from more efficient engineering. Who do you suppose is richer to begin with — the average engineer, or the average consumer/investor/low-skilled worker?
I cannot stand this stuff.
The undergraduate Finance and Economics Council here at the University of Rochester held an event at my house last week, which included pizza, informal chat with professors, a rationality test (out of 31 students, exactly one scored a perfect 5 and one scored a perfect zero), a selfie shot or two, and some time on the aerial silks, where three students were brave enough to go up in the air — and each of them accomplished more in under ten minutes than I accomplished in my first ten weeks. The evidence:
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| Demo | Lance Floto Front Salto Dive |
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| Juan Bernardo Tobar Front Salto Dive |
Lev Bokeria Crossback Straddle |
Thanks to Council president Shucen Wu for making this happen, to Zach Taylor for the video, and to everyone who participated. We should do this again.
Last weekend, while I was in Boston, my fellow aerial arts students put on a show!
I’d have been there if I could have. Thankfully, we live in an age of instant video, so I still get to see the highlights. Congratulations to Caitlin, Celeste, Chris, Erika, Jacki, Maddie, Maia, Mairi, and Maya for a job beautifully done. You can leave compliments for them here or at the YouTube page. Or both!
Here’s proof (which I’ve posted before) that I can do something similar. But maybe not quite as gracefully as some of these other people:
First time doing this move; that’s my daughter’s voice in the background telling me everything I’m doing wrong. Next time will be smoother:
And a bonus picture:
