12 July 09 AM

Workout notes 3:15 for the Bordeom plus 2 course; my “behind the knee” area of my right leg was killing me. That hurts me from time to time…I do note that we had a rise in barometric pressure and that there are thunderstorms in Missouri headed in our direction, though we aren’t supposed to get them today. I gave into it and took a naproxen tablet after I finished (I hate to do that).

Walking form: a friend of mine had some racewalking shots taken of her:

See her rear foot? That is getting a complete push-off and that is what I am attempting to work on.

Social: Barbara is on her way to her camp; Olivia and I will “bach it” for a week or so.

Articles

Do you think that I am hard on Sarah Palin? Read what Peggy Noonan (a long time Republican) has to say:

Ten months ago she was embraced with friendliness by her party. The left and the media immediately overplayed their hand, with attacks on her children. The party rallied round, as a party should. She went on the trail a sensation but demonstrated in the ensuing months that she was not ready to go national and in fact never would be. She was hungry, loved politics, had charm and energy, loved walking onto the stage, waving and doing the stump speech. All good. But she was not thoughtful. She was a gifted retail politician who displayed the disadvantages of being born into a point of view (in her case a form of conservatism; elsewhere and in other circumstances, it could have been a form of liberalism) and swallowing it whole: She never learned how the other sides think, or why.

In television interviews she was out of her depth in a shallow pool. She was limited in her ability to explain and defend her positions, and sometimes in knowing them. She couldn’t say what she read because she didn’t read anything. She was utterly unconcerned by all this and seemed in fact rather proud of it: It was evidence of her authenticity. She experienced criticism as both partisan and cruel because she could see no truth in any of it. She wasn’t thoughtful enough to know she wasn’t thoughtful enough. Her presentation up to the end has been scattered, illogical, manipulative and self-referential to the point of self-reverence. “I’m not wired that way,” “I’m not a quitter,” “I’m standing up for our values.” I’m, I’m, I’m.

In another age it might not have been terrible, but here and now it was actually rather horrifying. [...]

Health Care: the upcoming debate is over what sort of system we should have and how we should pay for it. Here is Nate Silver’s analysis of the statistics of the politics of the debate: in other words, what is most likely to fly with the public and be politically feasible? I’ll highlight this:

Why pick the income tax hike rather than higher cigarette and alcohol taxes, which are just as popular? For one thing, it’s not clear that higher cigarette and alcohol taxes alone would be enough to finance health care; they were generally being considered along with other funding mechanisms. For another, alcohol and particularly cigarette taxes would be quite regressive. For a third, we have to consider the political fallout from a tax once it actually hits taxpayers, and not just when it’s in the proposal phase. Joe Six Pack might not think it’s a horrible idea in the abstract to increase the price of beer, but when he’s actually paying extra for his case of Michelob Ultra, he might not be so happy about it.

We should point out that raising taxes on the wealthy is probably not the most economically sound way to pay for health care, which would be to limit or remove the benefits tax exemption and tax benefits like all other types of earned income. This alternative, however, is considerably less popular and is opposed by many unions, who have generally negotiated very attractive benefits programs for their employees. In a perfect world, of course, these things wouldn’t be mutually exclusive: you could remove the benefits tax exemption and make the tax code more progressive. But practically speaking, trying to do both those things might just give more people a reason to be unhappy. The surcharge proposed by Charlie Rangel and the House Democrats at least has the benefit of being simple.

The one thing the Democrats ought to be aware of, however, is that if this proposal is passed, it will probably become more difficult later on to repeal the Bush tax cuts for high-income earners. Raising taxes is always difficult, and I’m not sure the Democrats will get more than one bite at the apple, at least until/unless Barack Obama is re-elected in 2012 and has some fresh political capital. But this proposal, overall, is probably more attractive than repealing the Bush tax cuts, since it focuses more of the burden on $800K+ earners.

New York Times: Dick Cheney ordered the CIA to lie to congress. Nah.

Religion/Science: the accommodationism battle continues

Well, here are two more things that can’t happen, given what we know about modern biology: a human female can’t give birth to offspring unless she is inseminated, and people who are dead for three days don’t come back to life. Do Scott and Mooney not recognize that the foundational claims of the Abrahamic religions are truth claims? And that for many, many believers, the truth of these claims is a bedrock for belief? This is, of course, why so many Americans reject evolution: it is in absolute and irreconcilable conflict with the “truth” of Genesis and the view that we were the special objects of God’s creation. There is nothing that better demonstrates the incompatibility between science and faith than the rejection of the scientific truth of evolution by people who have a revelatory “truth” about where we came from. Is that too hard to grasp? And saying that “well, people shouldn’t accept what it says in Genesis” doesn’t solve the problem, for that’s just telling people that they should have a kind of religion that they don’t have. Try telling a devout Muslim that it is impossible for Mohamed and his horse Barack (yes, that was his name) to have been bodily sucked up into the stratosphere, and that this was merely a metaphor.

The final misconception, which I’ve also discussed at length, is this, asserted by Scott in the video:

“Science can’t test statements having to do with God. . . Science can weigh and accept or reject fact claims made by religion. . . The basic idea of whether the supernatural exists or not is not something science can measure.”

Wrong. Of course science can test statements having to do with God. It can test statements deriving from what people claim about their god. Here is one: God answers prayers. (Many people think this is true, of course.) Tests of intercessory prayer have shown that it doesn’t work. End of story. Here’s another empirical claim: God is omnipotent and benevolent. It’s falsified: God fails to prevent natural events, like tsunamis and earthquakes, that take the lives of innocent people. (Theologians, of course, don’t adhere to the same standards of evidence as do scientists, and so don’t see this as a falsification of an ominipotent and benevolent God. They are wrong.)

I think that this is right. Really, name one discovery that came about because of “faith”? That’s right; there aren’t any.

One’s religion can give peace, serenity and comfort, but “faith” can lead to no knowledge. And yes, science can say stuff about serenity, faith and feeling peaceful. If this sounds strange, look up stuff on people who have had brain damage; yes, emotions are affected. In short, these things are natural phenomena.

Francis Collins: Obama’s Pick for the NIH

President Obama has picked Francis Collins to head the National Institute of Health. Collins lead the group that mapped the human genome; clearly he is a world class scientist.

Now some people were happy with this pick:

But this pick is getting panned by many that I respect (here,, here and here). So what are the objections? Here are some:

Jerry Coyne:

Think about this: would a nonbelieving scientist who was as vociferous an atheist as Collins is a Christian have any chance to get the NIH spot? I don’t think so. And a Scientologist who publicly espoused his belief in Xenu and thetans would be considered too much of a lunatic to have responsibility for the NIH. But of course Christianity is a publicly acceptable form of superstition, and Scientology is not.

I had hoped that Obama might end governmental coddling of faith, but it doesn’t look like a lot has changed.

PZ Myers:

#

He doesn’t understand evolution. He has said that he thinks humans are no longer evolving, that junk DNA is functional, and he can’t understand how altruism could have evolved. RPM summarized these deficiencies well. I know he argues well against the specifics of intelligent design, but ultimately, he’s following the same gods-of-the-gaps formula that the Discovery Institute does, as this article on Slate explains:

This formula offers a convenient litmus test for where Collins falls on a variety of questions: If a given problem appears to be merely unsolved, then he’ll leave it to the realm of science; if, on the other hand, Collins deems a question to be unsolvable, it’s fair game for inclusion in a spiritual interpretation of the universe.

That’s not what I want to hear from someone with such a visible position in science.

Most of his detractors are also uncomfortable with his “biologos” website and project:

arlier this year, Collins launched a Web site, Biologos, expanding on his 2006 book explaining how he reconciles his evangelical Christian beliefs with the science of evolution. The project sparked speculation that he was no longer in the running for NIH–or that these extracurricular activities could instead be a plus with the culture-bridging Obama Administration. One question now is whether he will step down from the Biologos project; Varmus, for one, says “he should” to avoid “interference with his effectiveness.”

(link to biologos)

Eric Michael Johnson seems to get what is going on:

I don’t doubt Collins’ skills as a scientist or as an administrator, however, it seems rather clear that part of the reason for his nomination was to undercut challenges from the religious right that would likely be raised during his confirmation hearing. As head of the NIH, Collins would be in charge of the federal agency charged with reviewing national stem cell policy. Collins supports federal funding for stem cell science, but is opposed to creating them for the purposes of research. However, it is his Christian evangelism that makes some researchers uncomfortable, who insist that someones religious perspective should not influence their role as the manager of a scientific agency.

This type of appointment is classic Obama. Clearly, Collins has produced world class results in science and has shown that he is a capable administrator. He is popular with a large segment of the “thinking” public, most of whom are NOT atheist. Also, he has not shown any instance where his religious beliefs (strange as they are) have interfered with his science or with his hiring scientists.

What I think is summed up here:

Collins’ efforts to defuse some of the tension between believers and scientists—that is, to insist that they are not mutually exclusive and that their values are compatible—has received a lot of buzz over the years. He is a firm believer in evolution, an opponent of “intelligent design,” and dubious of the idea that life begins at the very moment of conception. He is also unequivocal in his belief in the divinity of Jesus Christ. His 2006 book The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief was a best-seller, and he’s a go-to guy for debates with Richard Dawkins, et al., over whether religion can coexist with a scientific ethos. Nearly every news story about the appointment mentioned his faith. (Many mentioned his guitar as well.) In many ways, his values are reminiscent of Obama’s: He displays no queasiness about discussing his faith in public but advocates the unfettered pursuit of scientific inquiry.

His passionate defense of religion has earned some harsh criticism. When rumors of the appointment began to circulate in May, University of Chicago professor Jerry Coyne blogged, “I’d be much more comfortable with someone whose only agenda was science,” saying he was worried “about how this will affect things like stem-cell research and its funding.” (In fact, Collins is clear on his support of stem-cell research.) Sam Harris was predictably unimpressed with Collins’ ideas. “Most reviewers of The Language of God seem quite overawed by its author’s scientific credentials,” Harris wrote shortly after it was published. “His book, however, reveals that a stellar career in science offers no guarantee of a scientific frame of mind.”

So, while Collins might appear to offer a poor example of a “scientific frame of mind” (he appears to be comfortable with cognitive dissonance) he has delivered excellent scientific results. So, the “results” part outweighs the “sets a bad example for the public” part and therefore I approve of this pick.

Heck, even Issac Newton believed in alchemy.

Jubilee 10K Trail Run 2009

Trail: muddy; slick in spots. The course was different from last year’s 2 loop course; it was similar to the Swamp Dog 1 loop course.

Time: 1:12 (winning time was 38:xx; only 1 person under 40 minutes). I did take one wrong turn and get tangled up in a downed tree; that took 2 minutes. Nevertheless, I got in a long run-ish workout.

I held my ground after getting back on the course and managed not to get lost.

Highlight: in the parking lot, some lady (in tight black spandex shorts) asked me about my dirty girl gaiters. She also had some bumper stickers; one read “I am no angel” and the other: “My min pin is smarter than your honor student”. I’d ask her out if I were single (and if she were).

The race itself: my legs got a bit heavy but I had a nice back and forth with a young woman toward the end. I did walk up two steep hills and through one “mud soup” section.

Getting Ready to Head out the Door

There is scattered rain forecast but I’ll chance it and go to the trail 10K this morning. We’ll see; last year’s race took me 77 minutes.

President Obama: talks about the economy and the stimulus package.

I am one of those who thinks that we need a second stimulus package.

Of course, there are some who say that we will not really recover but that we’ll end up with a brand new economy. This is Robert Reich:

Problem is, consumers won’t start spending until they have money in their pockets and feel reasonably secure. But they don’t have the money, and it’s hard to see where it will come from. They can’t borrow. Their homes are worth a fraction of what they were before, so say goodbye to home equity loans and refinancings. One out of ten home owners is under water — owing more on their homes than their homes are worth. Unemployment continues to rise, and number of hours at work continues to drop. Those who can are saving. Those who can’t are hunkering down, as they must.

Eventually consumers will replace cars and appliances and other stuff that wears out, but a recovery can’t be built on replacements. Don’t expect businesses to invest much more without lots of consumers hankering after lots of new stuff. And don’t rely on exports. The global economy is contracting.

My prediction, then? Not a V, not a U. But an X. This economy can’t get back on track because the track we were on for years — featuring flat or declining median wages, mounting consumer debt, and widening insecurity, not to mention increasing carbon in the atmosphere — simply cannot be sustained.

The X marks a brand new track — a new economy. What will it look like? Nobody knows. All we know is the current economy can’t “recover” because it can’t go back to where it was before the crash. So instead of asking when the recovery will start, we should be asking when and how the new economy will begin. More on this to come.

Of course, President Obama is being slammed on the left for many things including this one:

Alright, I’m angry. I’m beyond disenchanted. Am I over-the-top? You be the judge. If you want all the details on this issue, I ask that you read jhutson’s recommended diary, NYT: Bush Admin. covered up Afghan massacre.

The mass murder of which I speak was the massacre of about 2,000 Taliban prisoners who surrendered to joint U.S.-Afghan forces in November 2001. They were suffocated to death in metal containers by a U.S.-backed warlord (who later entered the Karzai government!). The mass graves of the victims were tampered with to hide the evidence.

Now the Obama administration is saying it can’t investigate the killings, after years of Bushite cover-up, because the killings took place on foreign soil and involved foreigners! (See AP story)

Emphasis mine. No, that isn’t what the Obama administration said. What they said is that there is no evidence that US forces were involved in this horrific event. Hence there is no jurisdiction.

David Brooks: says that he was hit on by a male Republican Senator.

I admit that I wouldn’t mind being hit on by Barbara Boxer, but that isn’t going to happen.

Has Mr. Morris Ever Heard of Margin of Error?

It is true that President Obama has lost popularity among Republicans. But read this from Dick Morris:

The percentage of Americans who strongly or somewhat approve of how he is doing his job has fallen to 51 percent in the latest Rasmussen polling — the lowest ever. Because Obama got 52 percent of the vote in the presidential race, defeating McCain by 52-47, the fact that his approval has dropped below his vote share indicates that he is actually shedding real support for the first time.

Ahem: from the report itself:

Daily tracking results are collected via telephone surveys of 500 likely voters per night and reported on a three-day rolling average basis. The margin of sampling error—for the full sample of 1,500 Likely Voters–is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Results are also compiled on a full-week basis and crosstabs for full-week results are available for Premium Members.

In short, there is no reason to believe that he is below the level of support he had prior to the election.

Oh yes, there are other numbers too.:

U.S. President Barack Obama’s job approval rating is at 58% for the first eight days of July, down from an average of 61% for June. His approval rating among independents is down to 53% so far in July, from 59% in June, while dropping two points among Republicans and gaining a point among Democrats.

So there is a reason to believe in a slight drop; the economy remains the key.

Rove and rebuttal and other topics

Workout notes 5.3 mile walk (to lower Bradley Park then two 1.2 mile (2000 meter loops) of 2-1: 15:14, 14:35 (this course) Yes, I got caught in the rain, again. It wasn’t that bad though; I did some yoga afterward.

Running I know some people try to use running to keep weight off. Well, running can NOT make up for gross overeating. Here is one person’s experience.

Science

Science quiz: this isn’t really a technical quiz, but rather a quiz on some elementary facts. Astonishingly, only 10 percent of the adult population answered all 12 questions correctly.

(click the image to see a larger version)

Creativity in Science One of the things I never quite understood is the creativity that goes into even making a basic scientific observation. Here is an excellent case of that: a scientist proposes using the moon to help distinguish electrons from positrons when attempting to measure positrons in cosmic rays:

So now Pierre Colin and collaborators have hit upon a cute way to distinguish between electrons and positrons: treat the magnetosphere of the Earth like the interior of a giant particle detector. Ever since cloud chambers, physicists have put magnetic fields in their detectors to help distinguish between positively charged particles and negatively charged particles, which get pushed in opposite directions. Well, the Earth has a magnetic field, so maybe we can use that. The problem is that the positrons and electrons would still all hit a telescope such as MAGIC, so the fact that they were deflected by the magnetic field wouldn’t be very relevant.

But Colin et al. suggest a trick: using the Moon’s shadow. Let’s imagine that the excess positrons really are coming from dark matter annihilating in the galactic center. When the moon is near the position of the galactic center in the sky, it will block out some of those particles, casting a shadow on ground-based telescopes. That’s already interesting, but the fun part is that positrons and electrons will be deflected by the Earth’s magnetic field, so the positron shadow will be in a slightly different position than the electron shadow! Using that effect, it may be possible to distinguish between the signals.

Clever, no?

Science media

One problem with articles written about scientific papers: they are sometimes flat out wrong from the get-go.

In case you’re wondering why so many scientists are distrustful of science journalists, you should take a look at this account from Ben Goldacre. A masters student in psychology gave a talk at a science conference to present her preliminary findings, which, sad to say, were picked up by the Telegraph.

Here’s the title of the Telegraph story.

Women who dress provocatively more likely to be raped, claim scientists
Women who drink alcohol, wear short skirts and are outgoing are more likely to be raped, claim scientists at the University of Leicester

Here’s the actual title of the press release from the University of Leicester describing the work.

Promiscuous men more likely to rape

There seems to be a significant discrepancy in emphasis, yes?

Goldacre called up the student researcher, and got the straight story: the Telegraph title is factually wrong, they found no statistically significant result corresponding to that claim.

Headslap. Moral: if you read a headline about a science article that raises your eyebrow, either go to the source or at least check out an article from a competent science magazine.

Science and politics I’m sure that this doesn’t surprise you:

The comparable figure for Dems is 55%. Here’s the data:

%who are Public% Scientists%
Democratic 35 55
Republican 23 6
Independent 34 32

Ideolog. self-rating
Liberal 20 52
Moderate 38 35
Conservative 37 9

This is from a Pew Research piece on science and scientists, Public Praises Science; Scientists Fault Public, Media

Most of the smartest people are liberal!

Politics
Karl Rove whines about “not being able to trust President Obama’s numbers“:

In February, President Barack Obama signed a $787 billion stimulus bill while making lavish promises about the results. He pledged that “a new wave of innovation, activity and construction will be unleashed all across America.” He also said the stimulus would “save or create up to four million jobs.” Vice President Joe Biden said the massive federal spending plan would “drop-kick” the economy out of the recession.

But the unemployment rate today is 9.5% — nearly 20% higher than the Obama White House said it would be with the stimulus in place. Keith Hennessey, who worked at the Bush White House on economic policy, has noted that unemployment is now higher than the administration said it would be if nothing was done to revive the economy. There are 2.6 million fewer Americans working than Mr. Obama promised.

The economy takes unexpected turns on every president. But what is striking about this president is how quickly he turns away from his promises. He rushed the stimulus through Congress saying we couldn’t afford to wait. Now his administration is waiting to spend the money. Of the $279 billion allocated to federal agencies, only $56 billion has been paid out.

Go ahead and read the rest of the article; it is a valuable addition to the discussion. But I’ll focus on two things:

1. Unemployment: yes, the unemployment numbers are higher than expected; the Obama administration admits that but they claim that it was a matter of not getting the initial conditions right. But no economist expected the stimulus to have an effect on unemployment this early.

2. Yes, the paying out of the stimulus money takes time. We have to get it right, no?

Still a long way to go: Of the $787.2 billion in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds, $499 billion is for stimulus projects, of which $157.8 billion has been made available and $56.3 billion has been spent. The biggest chunk, $22 billion, has been spent by states for Medicare and Medicaid payments.

The other $288 billion is for tax relief. The bill, starting March 1, eased burdens on some people receiving unemployment benefits, Cobra health insurance and food stamps.

The high-profile tax measure was the $116 billion Making Work Pay tax credit that began appearing in workers’ paychecks on April 1.

The Joint Committee on Taxation did not have exact figures for how much in tax relief has been withheld so far, but estimated a total of about $20 billion.

“It’s just not fast enough,” said Bob Brusca, economist with FAO Economics. “There’s a lot of political agenda associated with stimulus, on top of the fact that the economy is clearly in worse shape than administration thought.”

Part of the reason stimulus has been slow-going so far is the number of hurdles projects need to clear before money gets out the door. Projects need to meet certain guidelines, as the government seeks to ensure that the money is spent wisely.

For instance, the electronic health record program has been allocated $20 billion, but the Health Department will not pay out the funds until October 2010 — until hospitals and physicians can demonstrate that they are using the records meaningfully.

Yes, the article I linked to presents the anti-stimulus argument made by some conservatives.

Here Paul Krugman talks about the conservative argument that the stimulus is a bad idea. Of course, he disagrees with it.

Speaking of Paul Krugman: he has yet another honor (of sorts).

Health Care

Here is a rather spirited exchange on health care:

I love the way that conservatives bring up “food”. This isn’t the same thing at all. Sure, it is an essential (and yes, we have food stamp programs). But

1. No one is going to go bankrupt because they suddenly need $ 100,000 of food that they can’t afford or a 1000 dollars a month worth of drugs.

2. No food stamp program is going to turn someone way because they have “pre existing hunger”.

Speaking of Republicans:

Paul Krugman points out that it is nothing new for the Republicans to compare the Democrats to Nazis.

Yes, individual liberals did the same to Bush, but you didn’t see Congressional level Democrats doing that. You would see a blogger or a journalist here and there doing that (and of course, the comparison is beyond absurd).

More Republicans Not all of them like Sarah Palin. I am almost thinking that there needs to be some sort of Whig party; a party of economic and world affairs conservatism that attracts smart, reality based people would be a nice addition.

Republicans attempt to smear President Obama The Republicans show a still of President Obama that, well, is misleading at best. The video clears it up. But, to be fair, some liberals attempted to do something similar to Senator McCain (Senator McCain was merely trying to look at the notes on the lectern).

Nancy Pelosi: she got hammered for saying that the CIA mislead her. Now the CIA admits it. But at least one conservative media member piled on Representative Pelosi at that time:

Extremists in the military Yes, it is a problem. Click on the photos to see what some of our military members say. Sure, this represents a small minority.

Do you want to see what made my heart flutter in high school?

The top photo is of the Kyle sisters; the one of the left used to wear very tight jeans. . The second one is of Patti; she was also a track runner and a cheerleader.

Yeah, at that time I had some, er….hormonal reactions to those young women. This was 10th grade, about 1974.

Main Street Mile: My Humiliation is Complete

Note: if you are looking for results: flight 1 (walking), flight 2 (run), flight 3 (run), flight 4(fast runners).

My stats (6:43 official though I got 6:42): 75 (all flights) beat my time, 68 did not (excluded walkers in flight one). 7 who beat me were my age or older; 18 that were my age or older didn’t.

I talked about my feelings of doom here.

Bottom line: I warmed up with an easy mile of running (legs felt heavy!), felt better after some walk/accelerations (about 1 mile), and then lined up in the second wave.

Yes, I started off too hard (going down hill) and hit the half way point in 3:10; a bit too fast. I started to get “joggy” and when I was close to 5:00 at 1200 meters I knew I had to pick it up some; I was gaining on many in my heat but got passed a few times as well.

My finish time (my watch) was 6:42; we’ll see what the chips say.

Then I watched the last heat (the fast people); they ranged from 4:04 to 6:10. About 9-10 years ago, I would have been bringing up the rear of that group.

I got to talk to many including Lou Murray (a 70 something year old triathlete), Larry McMasters (who is recovering from injuries), The Big Willi Style and to my yoga teacher (afterward).

So, 6:42 on a down hill course. Next mission: to do this time on a track.

Note: it is cool running down main street; if you can make this event, DO IT!!!

Note 2: Was it 2001 when I averaged this pace for 5K? 1999 when I averaged this for 10K??? Groan…

Updates

Article One:

PEORIA —

Tony Jenkins had a few C.H.O.I.C.E. words Thursday night for Main Street Mile announcer George Jacob.

“Four categories,” race staffer Jenkins told the city councilman on the spot at the intersection of Main and Adams Street.

“Walkers.

“Fast runners.

“Faster runners.

“Fastest runners.”

A total of 187 participants in the aforementioned four heats started the Main Street Mile near Main and Sheridan Road and finished a couple of blocks short of the riverfront.

A drop in elevation from 600 feet at the start to 490 feet at the finish increased the likelihood faster than usual times could be had by all.

“That downhill was amazing,” said Metamora Township High School alumnus Nikki Domico, 24, who traveled from Bloomington to compete in the fundraiser for the Peoria Area Track & Field Club and the C.H.O.I.C.E.S. Youth Outreach program.

“I was actually kind of taking it easy, because I was scared I was going to fall,” Domico said. “Once you got to the bottom (of Main Street hill), I’m like, ‘I got nothing to lose, I might as well go all out.’

“The worst that’s going to happen is I’m going to throw up, and that’s OK.”

Domico was the first female finisher in the fastest heat.

But the Illinois State University graduate student took a backseat Thursday to the first person to cross the finish line in the second of the four heats.

That was Tammy Bryan, 36, who was pushed from the start by Main Street Mile promoter Adam White.

Bryan arrived in style, riding in a fire-engine red push chair that arrived Thursday from Adaptive Star in Selah, Wash.

Bryan’s time was 5 minutes, more than 10 seconds faster than Domico’s performance.[...]

Article Two:

PEORIA —

Nobody in Peoria broke a four-minute mile Thursday, despite trucking down Main Street hill as fast as their feet could carry them.

But somebody in the next Main Street Mile might.

Word gets out. People come. …

“This is an event for the future,” Peoria City Councilman Eric Turner predicted, standing on the corner of Main and Sheridan, about 30 minutes before 187 men, women and children took off to see how fast they could get downtown to the intersection of Main and Adams, one mile away.

Turner might be right.

I initially wondered who would enter such an event. Serious runners, yes. Young legs with big egos driving them. That makes sense.

But I did not expect the CityLink buses that rolled up to the front door of the Running Central store, hard by the starting line. The doors opened, and out stepped all kinds of people. Old men, rotund men, little children in soccer shirts, middle-aged women, hot mamas.

That’s right, “Hot Mamas.” So said the fronts of hot pink T-shirts worn by three women from East Peoria: Christa Tucker, a mother of two; Christy Decker, a mother of three, and Julie Burwell, mother of one. The backs of their shirts declared they “Run Like Mothers.”

“We thought this would be a really cool experience,” Tucker said. “It’s all downhill. Our goal is to stay on our feet and not crash and burn.”

At this, they succeeded.

(photo from the Peoria Journal Star)

Main Street Mile: Impending Doom

(Hicham El Guerrouj, 3:43 PB in the mile, 12:50 for the 5K)

Yes, I was stupid enough to sign up for this:

PEORIA —

Parker Thompson is feeling a bit uneasy about tackling the Main Street Mile.

“I am a little nervous about the (Main Street) hill, just for injury’s sake,” said Thompson, the 2007 Class A state high school champion in the 1600 meters, the track and field equivalent of the mile. “I certainly wouldn’t want to be stupid going down the hill.”

The Main Street Mile is Peoria’s first start-to-finish downhill road race and it’s happening at 7 p.m. Thursday night.

All proceeds raised will be split between Youth Outreach and the Peoria Track and Field Club.

The race starts outside Running Central’s front door, at the intersection of Main and Sheridan, goes down and around the curve on Main Street hill, through downtown Peoria and finishes at Washington Street.

“With that in mind, I plan on running the hill relativity conservatively but finding that perfect line between insanity and the maximum speed I can run,” said Thompson, a recent Tremont graduate who also won state championships in the 800 meters and cross country.

Main Street Mile chairman and Running Central co-owner Adam White is looking for big things out of Thompson.

White thinks that Thompson, whose best mile time is 4:18, may have the potential to crack the four-minute barrier.

“I can say one of our individuals, Parker Thompson, has proven himself as an individual who has serious wheels,” White said.

“He certainly has the potential to flirt with four minutes, whether or not he is going to be pushed by other people in a capacity that he chooses to try and challenge that mark.”

As of Tuesday night, White had 125 runners signed up to participate in the inaugural event. But unlike Thompson, White thinks that the runners will have no problem with the Main Street hill as well as breaking the five-minute mark.

“Most runners have run an area of Peoria that has that type of grade downhill at some point in their training,” White said, “and probably a little more regularly than a lot of us realize.

“The extreme grade that most people might be a little bit concerned about, that first swooping down, going along side of Methodist, is no steeper than —in length or grade — what people do in the (Steamboat) 15K.”

Whether or not the runners conquer the hill or the hill conquers the runners, White knows that this race has been a long time coming.

“The mile race down Main Street is something that runners have talked about for decades,” White said. “The inspiration and discussion of a Main Street Mile has been around since before I was ever even born.”

“From a classic distance perspective, the mile is one of the most infamous distances for an individual to be able to run, race and test oneself,” he continued. “It’s not too short, it’s not too long. It’s a distance that just about any person can do. And you have great barriers for each individual, him or herself, to be able to try and break.”

There is one heat of walkers, then three heats of runners. I am in heat II (6:20 to 8:00). Yes, I fit in; I haven’t broken 6 minutes since 2000 (and that was 5:59). In 2005 I managed a pathetic 6:45.

Sure, I am untrained but this establishes a baseline; one that should be easy to beat.

I don’t know why the mile appeals to me; I suppose it is you and your performance; there is absolutely no satisfaction in “just finishing”. Also, due to the brevity, you ARE going to be in pain for most of the way; the last 1/4 is horrible.

Yet it lures me; “victory” means pushing through the pain and not giving into it. Toward the end of the race, EVERYTHING hurts…BAD.

Interestingly enough, my best time 5:30, while poor, represents my best running performance (compared to my 5K, 10K, and so on) and my time of 5:38 for the 1600 meter as a 38 year old was my best “old” running performance; it grades out to 68.04 on the age graded tables.

Anyway, we shall see. This is a downhill course; the computer predicts 6:53.

Note: by the age graded tables, my best racewalk was my 8:31 1500 meter in 2003. This distance seems to be my best; not sure as to why.

Senator DeMint: US is where Germany was before WWII

No, I am not making this up:

Last night, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) gave a short talk and Q&A at at the National Press Club about his book “Saving Freedom.” DeMint told a room of around 100 people about a conversation he’d had with an Iranian immigrant who was panicking about the surge of government spending and control under President Obama and the Democrats. Americans should listen to immigrants like her, said DeMint.

They understand socialism. They understand tyrants. But none of us have ever had it here. We don’t even know what it looks like. Part of what we’re trying to do in “Saving Freedom” is just show that where we are, we’re about where Germany was before World War II where they became a social democracy. You still had votes but the votes were just power grabs like you see in Iran, and other places in South America, like Chavez is running down in Venezuela. People become more dependent on the government so that they’re easy to manipulate. And they keep voting for more government because that’s where their security is. When our immigrants get here, they’re worried, because they see it happening here.

DeMint worried that it was the “eleventh hour” for freedom

Here is a “Republicanspeak” to “English” translation: “boo hoo hoo, we lost the election. That isn’t fair! Obama said he’d do this, he got elected and now he is doing it!”

Here is what I don’t get: don’t the Republicans see that, the more they say stupid stuff like this, the longer the honeymoon Obama will have?