bushwells | September 3, 2008So Spawn the Elder (my son) is an avid gamer in such milieus as World of Warcraft, Halo, Civilization, and Lord of the Rings Online, the latter of which, errr, I might have indulged in a few times -- I'm pretty hopeless with gaming so my foray into Middle-earth was an unmitigated disaster. So the elder Spawn was pretty excited to nab the Spore Creature Creator this summer, but he is really jazzed with the prospect of getting his nerdsome hands on the full-fledged game to be released on Friday.
Erstwhile Science Blogger Carl Zimmer covered the impending release of Spore in his excellent NYT…
bushwells | August 31, 2008The Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission (DRJTBC) recently announced the arrival of a peregrine falcon chick. The proud parents nested in the steelwork under the I-95 Scudders Falls Bridge. I traverse that bridge once a week when I'm attending my little class o' regulatory dabbling at Temple U.
It's a heavily trafficked span, but apparently that didn't bother the peregrines. The article notes that the presence of the raptors is symbolic of the environmental rebirth of the "dirty Delaware." The river valley north of the bridge is quite attractive with bike paths along the canals…
jfiore | August 30, 2008Did Steve Doocy of Fox News really say what I thought he said about Sarah Palin?
Yep. She has "international experience" because Alaska is right up there, you know, next to Russia! Sure. And I must be fluent in French because I don't live that far from Quebec.
jfiore | August 24, 2008So Greg has made it clear that he doesn't think that there's any genetic basis for why some groups of people are able run very far, very fast. At the core of this are so-called "racial traits". Any casual observer of the Olympics will note the dominance of people with dark skin in distance running races, and might lead them to the simplistic notion that "dark people can run really fast". I agree that that is rather goofy, but the arguments are off the rails in a few places. A case has not been made that there is no genetic basis for this phenomenon.
First, let's be clear. In the past few…
jfiore | August 24, 2008It is well documented that as the temperature around an endurance athlete increases, performance decreases. And while one can train for and adapt to warm race conditions to mitigate that decrease, the effect remains. But at the highest levels of competition, control of the mind may make all the difference.
Given the conditions, conventional wisdom would dictate a cautious pace for the Olympic men's marathon, but that's not the way it played out. With temperatures in the 28-29C range by mid-race (mid 80s F), the pace was termed "suicidal", with a 1:02:37 half split. I expected the lead pack…
jfiore | August 22, 2008A very entertaining article in The Times today regarding Olympians and sex. The author, former Olympian Matthew Syed, discusses just what goes on behind closed doors (and sometimes on rooftops) at the Olympic village. He offers the usual bag of "reasons why" (testosterone, being away from home, etc.) but it's presented in a light and humorous manner, a good read. Consider the opener:
I am often asked if the Olympic village - the vast restaurant and housing conglomeration that hosts the world's top athletes for the duration of the Games - is the sex-fest it is cracked up to be. My answer is…
jfiore | August 21, 2008Time for a new category here at the Refuge, namely "Hokey Haiku". It's just a fun way to communicate a simple thought or observation of the day in a mere 17 syllables. Don't expect Robert Frost or e.e.cummings though.
Summer's vanishing
Where is my calculator?
The semester starts
Yep. I'm back on campus.
jfiore | August 15, 2008Spoiler alert: If you don't want to know anything about the Olympic Women's 10,000 meter final just yet, stop now.
The race was amazing on several fronts, but before I go any further, it will be broadcast on NBC tonight at 10:45 PM. I just finished watching the race on CBC. I can't give a lot of comment on the race for reasons I'll explain in a moment, but the winner and second place runner finished under 30 minutes; Ethiopia's Tirunesh Dibaba in 29:54.66 and Turkey's Elvan Abeylegesse in 29:56.34. Both were under the old Olympic record (Ethiopia's Derartu Tulu's 30:17.49 in 2000) although…
bushwells | August 13, 2008After coping with an immediate family member's severe illness (thankfully resolved; better living through chemistry pays off) and discovering that my talents do not lie in management within a very large company, I stepped back from my almost 20 year career in discovery research several months ago. I gleefully wallowed around the home front, decompressing from an especially stressful time in my life and just generally vegetating. But I kept my foot in the door of the Dark Tower of Pharma-dur by taking a class in drug development in a regulatory affairs program at a (sort of) local…
jfiore | August 11, 2008"Once religion takes hold in a society it can't be stopped." So says President G W Bush in an interview with Bob Costas at the Beijing Olympics. Let's all hope that such is not the case.
You can find the video here. The section in question is about 3:15 in. There are plenty of other moments to make you cringe as well.
jfiore | August 10, 2008There had been reports of the usual last-minute rush to complete facility construction at the Beijing Olympics. Now I wonder if they completed the main broadcast center. While watching the coverage yesterday, at one point NBC went to Bob Costas at the center and I noticed something strange. It was apparent that Mr. Costas was close-mic'ed, but it was also obvious that there was an inordinately large amount of room reverberation leaking in. The RT60 seemed long enough that it appeared Bob was speaking from inside of an airplane hangar. I wonder if they had time to install any acoustic…
jfiore | August 5, 2008Enough already with the "Obama flips-flops on offshore drilling"! You can really tell when the news networks need a lead story: They simply leave out some salient details and allow their talking heads to spin. If you haven't seen the original interview that appeared in The Palm Beach Post, here's the most important bit:
"My interest is in making sure we've got the kind of comprehensive energy policy that can bring down gas prices," Obama said in an interview with The Palm Beach Post.
"If, in order to get that passed, we have to compromise in terms of a careful, well thought-out drilling…
jfiore | August 1, 2008It has been said that the Olympics is rather like a genetic freak-show: All of the extreme outliers from the population show up and do their thing. While specific "genetic gifts" are pretty much required to reach the top of most any sport these days, a little technology can certainly assist in the process. This week's Electronic Design cover story is The 2008 TechnOlympics and discussed some of the technology that will be used in Beijing.
One item that caught my eye was the increased use of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software. Although wind tunnel testing has been used on cyclists…
jfiore | July 31, 2008Time for a gear shift on the Refuge. Handy-dandy tip number 105: "How to keep ants out of your hummingbird feeders". I can't say that I blame the ants for swarming over the feeders. After all, who doesn't love a little sucrose in solution with water? Heck, as my brother, an avid cyclist at one time, used to say "I never met a carbohydrate I didn't like."
Anyway, no matter how careful I am about not spilling nectar, the local ants always seem to find the feeders. I don't know if they bother the hummers (mostly ruby throated where we live), but as the feeders are hanging off of our decks, I'm…
jfiore | July 29, 2008I visit certain message boards from time to time, including one called vdrums.com, a site dedicated to electronic drumming. While there's a lot of useful info there and a bunch of friendly and helpful folks, there are also some entertaining end-of-message signatures that folks use. Here are a few examples:
Some people are like slinkies,
They don't really have a purpose,
But they still bring a smile to your face when you push them down the stairs.
I have a mind like a steel trap: rusty and illegal in most countries....
"Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire,…
jfiore | July 22, 2008So says the BBC. Researchers tested oxygen uptake and heart rate for rock drummers, including Blondie's Clem Burke. They concluded:
"It is clear that their fitness levels need to be outstanding - through monitoring Clem's performance in controlled conditions, we have been able to map the extraordinary stamina required by professional drummers."
and further,
"It is hoped that the results could help develop outreach programmes for overweight children who are not interested in sport."
Hey, a study aimed right at the intersection of my avocations. Wonderful! I've been drumming for about 40 years…
bushwells | July 21, 2008The lead article in Salon's newsletter caught my eye this morning when I perused the ol' Google-mail Inbox. Under the auspices of Salon's "Atoms and Eden: Conversations About Science and Faith," Steve Paulson interviews James Carse (retired director of NYU's Religious Studies Program) in Religion is Poetry. The byline: "The beauties of religion need to be saved from both the true believers and the trendy atheists, argues compelling religious scholar James Carse." The interview comes on the heels of the publication of Carse's new book, The Religious Case Against Belief.
Cerberus guards the…
jfiore | July 21, 2008If you haven't been following the Al Franken/Norm Coleman race for US Senate, do yourself a favor and check out some of Al's ads here. I really enjoy their style: direct, informative, and with a twist of humor. Having read several of Al's books, I think he would make a great senator.
jfiore | July 13, 2008The 31st Utica Boilermaker 15 road race went off this morning, almost without a hitch. Rain arrived about an hour before the 8 AM start but cleared out before the wheelchairs took off at 7:45. The streets were left wet and the air humid. Combined with a low 70's start temp, these were not ideal conditions for fast times. The major hitch for the average runner was that the start mat failed about 10 minutes before the start, and consequently no chip times are available, only gun times.
Complete race results may be found here.
(more below the fold)
I was side-lined with an injury this year so I…
jfiore | July 11, 2008A recent article in the Utica, NY Observer-Dispatch (sorry, no link) took a look at the changing demographics of the Boilermaker 15k with the assistance of the race's former timer. Here's a quick run-down:
In 1985, the average age was 33.5 for men and 30.3 for women. There was a steady increase until 2002 when the women peaked at 34.6 and in 2003 when the men peaked at 39.0 Since then, the averages have been flat, with the men at 38.6 and the women at 34.4 in 2006. So we're looking at roughly a five year increase for the guys and four years for the gals. Breaking this down in terms of age-…