Oh well…onward August 18

Workout notes I arrived at the pool locker room only to find that I had forgotten my swim suit. Fortunately it is only 10 minutes away from my house.

4000 yards; 500 warm up, 500 of drill/swim (zoomers), 5 x 100 on the 2 (fist, 1:44), 5 x 100 on the 2 (25 3-g, 75 free, 1:47), 3 x (100 fins, 100 free, 100 paddle, 100 free, 100 pull, 100 free) 32:13 (26:32 at 1500), 8 x 25 fly.

I was a bit tired from yesterday, but my body will adjust. I think.

Local gym observations
What is with this “always carry a water bottle with you and drink, drink, drink” stuff anyway? I noticed that during my warm up, this lady was taking sips from her water bottle almost every time I came to the wall.

I really don’t think one needs to drink every 50 yards of dog paddling. Then again, I don’t think that you need to drink after sitting on a water noodle for 10-15 minutes. Oh well, its none of my business; I suppose I have to marvel at the marketing expertise of the bottled water and sports drink companies.

Olympics: I guess this bad primetime coverage will continue. This means more evenings of some airhead talking about trying fried scorpions on a stick and more stuff about what kind of stuffed animal athlete X liked (likes), etc.

But on a positive note, I’ve enjoyed the way Teddy Atlas covered boxing on CNBC.

Open water 10K swim If you like long distance swimming but don’t know how the competition is going to go, check out this site. They have course maps, blurbs on the athletes, articles about the rules, how the swimmers feed (take in water), etc.

The swims are on Tuesday and Wednesday.

More Olympics
I got to watch women’s freestyle wrestling for the first time. These ladies are good! (duh, I know, it is the Olympics).

My experience: in high school, I wrestled my freshman year (3′rd in my league) and as a sophomore (half season, then my dad got sent back to the US so I had to change schools); by then my record was 12-3.

In college, I did some intramural wrestling; mostly when I had to go against someone from the Navy team I got beat up pretty good.

(photos from yahoo)

Science (hat tip to Friendly Atheist)

The first map shows the dominant religion by geographical area. It is a fact that one’s religion mostly depends on where one is born (though there are small scale exceptions and a small percentages of converts and de-converts)

The second map shows scientific beliefs around the world…notice something? Chinese science beliefs are pretty much the same as Nigerian science beliefs which are pretty much the same as German science beliefs….

(larger)

Politics The Presidential race continues. Obama is campaigning hard; here is a photo essay of one of his recent stops.

Note: the Republicans are attempting to split us by trying to created an Obama-Clinton rift. Don’t take the bait; these are typical Republican tricks.

So how to explain the incessant speculation that the Clinton and Obama camps are irreconcilably at odds? There are a number of theories. The primary battles, which went on longer than any prior, are still fresh in people’s minds. Bill Clinton’s off-the-cuff failure to offer even the slightest hint of rhetorical support for Obama is giving observers a false impression. Certainly the relatively slow mutual fundraising efforts haven’t helped matters. And the occasional political misstep (like, say, having a “Pray for HRC and her supporters” event posted on Obama’s website by his backers) is an irritant as well.

But the most significant contributor towards the overstated perception of animosity is also the most obvious: the individuals invested in the idea that Obama and Clinton cannot overcome their differences are the ones speaking the loudest.

NBC Olympic Coverage: Abysmal

I had hoped to watch some Olympic events but unfortunately the only channel that is carrying them is NBC with their prime time coverage.

So this means 10 minutes of athletics for every 20-30 minutes of fluff. Right now these idiots are talking about acupuncture.