Category: Rants

Technology Rant Continued

A while back, I hit on why it’s not an awful thing that science and engineering jobs, etc, are getting moved offshore.

Surfing back through a couple of old links I’d saved, I found this Reason interview with Neal Stephenson, who has way to much of my mindshare for a living mortal. (and if the idea of a “Reason” interview doesn’t get you chuckling, please go read Snow Crash). In any case, part of it focuses on how abandoning the model of science and engineering driving the economy isn’t unprecedented –

If the emblematic figures of earlier eras were the pioneer with his Kentucky rifle, or the Gilded Age plutocrat, then for the era from, say, 1940 to 2000 it was the engineer, the geek, the scientist. It’s no coincidence that this era is also when science fiction has flourished, and in which the whole idea of the Future became current. After all, if you’re living in a technocratic society, it seems perfectly reasonable to try to predict the future by extrapolating trends in science and engineering.

It is quite obvious to me that the U.S. is turning away from all of this. It has been the case for quite a while that the cultural left distrusted geeks and their works; the depiction of technical sorts in popular culture has been overwhelmingly negative for at least a generation now. More recently, the cultural right has apparently decided that it doesn’t care for some of what scientists have to say. So the technical class is caught in a pincer between these two wings of the so-called culture war. Of course the broad mass of people don’t belong to one wing or the other. But science is all about diligence, hard sustained work over long stretches of time, sweating the details, and abstract thinking, none of which is really being fostered by mainstream culture.

The common theme is that control shifts over to the next group once a challenge is conquered. The pioneers figured out how to move from the post-iron age to the industrial age on a large scale, without the inefficiencies of kings and royalties. The plutocrats figured out how to manage manpower and capital on large scales. The technical class – well, crap, what didn’t they figure out?

Not that there’s not still technical work to be done; however, the biggest transformations that need to take place in the next 50 years are in mindset – how do we urge adoption of efficient energy technologies? How do we manage increasing urbanization and still fulfil basic human needs to create and build? How do we communicate; find people who share our ideas, ideals, wishes and dreams? And how do we negotiate with other groups without resorting to blowing them up?

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Mooooore things the RBF could’a told you

Researchers have shown that Chocolate Milk works well as a recovery beverage.

Joel M. Stager, Ph.D., professor of kinesiology at Indiana University, said “Chocolate milk contains an optimal carbohydrate to protein ratio, which is critical for helping refuel tired muscles after strenuous exercise and can enable athletes to exercise at a high intensity during subsequent workouts.”

I’ve indirectly pushed moo juice here and here, not only for recovery but for weight loss, too. Plus, it just tastes great.

Which brings up something that’s been nagging at me for a couple of months. I started an as-yet unpublished exploration of how to set up a project to re-evaluate running and fitness memes by mining the blogs on the RBF. We’re somewhere north of 500 blogs, or a potential half of a person-millenium of raw data each year on real-life fitness. The advantage I’d see in mining RBF data as opposed to studies is that we’re essentially using real people, with real commitments, existing health issues, and lives to gather data on fitness, weight loss, injury and recovery, diet, etc. Most of the studies that current fitness wisdom is based on, like the one that Dr. Stager did, uses either groups of college atheletes or other easily identifiable controls to develop theories.

What I’d like to do, were I tech-savvy with a couple of weeks on my hand, would be to set up a flexible fitness correlary to Wikipedia, a place where we could list the various theories on weight loss or marathon training, for instance, and then tie them back to revelant real-world data. Answer questions like “What works for treating ITB syndrome?”, etc.

We’ve run the tests. We have the data. There’s an opportunity to re-write or confirm basic ideas about health, fitness, and going from a couch potato to a runner/cyclist/swimmer/whatever. Call it an “Open-Source Fitness” process; merge it with the work that the Cross-Fitters have been doing, whatever.

So somebody, please – write this up as a grant. Get yourself six months of funding and a new MacBook Pro out of the deal. Let us know things we’ve already told ourselves.

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Open Letter to Amazon.com

So, about 7 years ago, when I was building my kayak, I ordered a couple of books (actually, about a half-dozen) off of Amazon to learn how to keep my head above water, literally and figuratively. Likewise, before the first kid, ordered a couple of baby-type books to have something to thumb restlessly through while trying to figure out why Pinky wouldn’t stop crying.

However, it’s been nigh-unto six years since I’ve even looked at another kayak book – water’s still wet, paddling in bad weather and rough seas will still leave you exhilarated or dead, and there’s still a dozen potentially life-threatening conditions that could be happening for every observable feature of a baby.

So, Mr. Bezos (or lackey) – run on down to the folks who draw up your algorithms. Hand them this idea:

Instead of recommending based on who I used to be, see what folks who used to be like me are buying now, and offer me that crap instead of the fifth edition of a book of which I bought the third edition…

Public Apology

I’d like to take this space to issue a public apology to Al Trautwig. I took a cheap shot only because I figured VeloNews would publish me. I’m shallow, venal, and really like seeing my name on other people’s web sites. That, and because I endured one too many obvious comment on French culture over the past few Julys.

What I failed to grasp until watching the 50K XC final on the Olympics last night is that Al has happily made a career trying to make endurance racing understandable to non-endurance athletes. It’s not a leap a lot of programmers or talent have been willing to make.

Watching the 50K, Al’s appreciation for what the skiers were doing was apparent. And if listening to Al gets me more of the content that I want, then I’d listen to Al every Saturday and Sunday during the classics season happily. Doubly so if they keep him on with Bobbke.

So, here’s hoping that somehow my apology makes a difference. After the 50K, I’m still glad Al was in Turin. But for a completely different reason.

As a bonus, dig on today’s Frazz:
A bicycle race? In February? Up in Belgium? They don't sell enough waffles to afford a Jimmy Buffett album?
More on Het Volk.

Swim

Ever have one of those weeks where you just can’t get anything going? That’s what I’m up against right now. Somehow, I feel like I’m occasionally my own worst enemy – too wrapped up feeling sorry for myself to get anything done. Give me rope, and I’m tying metaphysical nooses.

It’s a terrible feeling when you realize that the biggest stumbling block remaining in your life, and the source of most of your stress, is yourself.

Scratch that. Not terrible. Liberating. All I need to do is figure out how to focus, and I’m Visa, baby – everywhere you want to be.

Let’s change that noose into a lasso. I’ve got goals to wrangle.

So.

Finally got back in the pool tonight for the first time in two weeks. The swimming felt good. Felt smooth. Felt strong.

‘Til I noticed the guy in the next lane, hardly moving, but going way, way, faster than me.

No, it shouldn’t bother me. Not in the slightest. ‘Cause I don’t swim enough to have reason for it to bother me. Plus, the whole “bothered” thing interferes with the whole “Wow, what a great swim” feeling.

And y’know what? it doesn’t bother me. ‘Cause one day, perhaps years from now, I’ll be smooth like that.

1500 yards. 35 minutes.

The Blizzard of Aught Six 2.0

Proving yet again that life is out to get me (actually, I’ve got it good. Very good. Better, indeed, than my friend the Giant Head. Who I love like a brother, despite the dark cloud that follows him around. But I digress), I stopped at the Kingstown Rail Trail tonight on my way home. Took some pictures, but haven’t downloaded them or posted to Flickr.

Anyhow, there was a goodly amount of snow still on the rail trail. Enough to let me know that if I’d taken the easy thing yesterday, the sure thing, that I’d have gotten the XC bug out of my system for another winter. But no, I had to go tilting at windmills, and try to get in some hard-core backcountry posing. After a day with a high around 40, there was not, however, enough snow for me to ski tonight. Almost, but right out of the station, there was a stretch of about 300 yards without snow.

between you, me, and the fencepost, I should have skied anyway

So, I stripped down to my skivvies in my car yet again, pulled on much fleece, fired up the iPod to catch the end of the BBC’s “The World” Technology podcast, and headed on down the trail. The run was pretty good. Running on the combination snow, asphalt, and somewhat crusty ice was good for form, overall. If I was striking my heels on the soft snow, I felt like I was going to have my feet slip out from under me and I’d fall on my tuchus. If I was pushing off too hard, my feet were slipping out from under me, much like the Road Runner between the “Beep-Beep” and the “bz-twang”.

But when things were just right, well, they were just right. 4.2 miles total, 37:51 total. Miles were 9:01, 9:26, 9:19, and 9:16.

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The “Blizzard” of Aught Six

First, a bit of cross-promotion – I’m trying to collect jokes about the Veep shooting the lawyer over here. For the record, I wouldn’t be collecting funnies if it were a larger load than quail shot, or if the other guy had been critically hurt.

Second, The Boy (as opposed to The Baby, who isn’t long for being a baby) and I have been digging on the Olympics. Skiing seems to be his favorite – we may be dragging out Massachusetts or Vermont way weekend after next to get him a half day lesson, and see if I can’t break a bone or two.

Friday – well, I didn’t run. Or swim. Or bike. I thought about it, but didn’t want to press things. Glad I didn’t. Part of this fitness thing is knowing when to say “eh”, and get on with life.

Saturday – worked most of the day to get the house ready to have some friends over. About an hour before they were supposed to be here, we wrapped stuff up, and I said “Hey, I’m going out for a run.” Mostly as a trial balloon – there was probably not enough time. But the wife said “Go ahead.” Not waiting for her to think about it, I was gone. Through the woods, past the closed school, over the hill, past the burnt out house. Down to River Road, back through Old Mystic, up the hill, and home. 5.5 miles, 50 minutes or so. Yippie.

Sunday – the blizzard wasn’t by the time it got to us. Bleh. Maybe 7″ of snow. Pilates that night.

Today, I dragged the skis to work and checked Arcadia on the way home, but they didn’t get much more than we did.

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Stupid fearmongering headline grabbers…

So Reuters has a bit up today with the headline Injuries Common Among Cross-Country Runners.

During the 2003-2004 school year, more than 364,000 students in the United States participated in high school cross-country running, which was ranked as the seventh most popular high school sport nationwide for girls and boys, respectively. Previous reports suggest that the incidence of injury among cross-country runners ranges from less than 2 percent to nearly 50 percent, but little research on the topic has been conducted among high school athletes.

(The investigation) team followed 421 male and female runners from 23 cross-country teams at 12 high schools in Seattle, Washington during the 1996 cross-country running season.

Overall, 162 runners experienced a total of 316 injuries during the season, the investigators report in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

The rate of injury was generally higher for girls than for boys, the study findings show, and girls were four times more likely than boys to experience an injury that kept them from running for 15 or more days.

What’s not mentioned is the number of injuries that kept runners from running for 15 or more days, or comparisons with other sports.

Why this gets my ire up completely is that it’s just another reason for parents to let their kids sit on their increasingly fatter (ed-posteriors) – “Oh, Sammy can’t run XC – he might get injured”. Or, to insist on further regulation and supervision of what ought to be just straight up play.

Sure, it’s sad when kids get hurt. But hey – twisted knees and ankles are far closer to skinned knees than to concussions, fractures, and cracked vertebrae. Suck it up, put on some ice, and let the kids go get muddy. There are far better stories with which to “raise awareness” and sell fish wrappers.

Jank’s Road Bike Buyer’s Guide

This has come up a couple of times via e-mail, so I thought I’d throw it out for general discussion. Your mileage may vary; this is just my bit. Full disclosure – I’ve bought a grand total of two road bikes in my life – a second-hand Trek for $140, cash, and a 2001 Cannondale for about $1200. Most of this is second-hand experience with folks I rode with, mainly in Texas, and from talking with folks at bike shops.
Continue reading Jank’s Road Bike Buyer’s Guide