Another old vacation photo

Again, from 1984. I had a day at Sea World and took some photos. As I was lining up a shot of an aquatic animal these individuals got in front of me…so I went ahead and took the photo:

14 October 2010 pm

I didn’t post much today but I did write this post about the “method of undetermined coefficients” for solving inhomogeneous second order linear differential equations with constant coefficients.

14 October 2010 rehabilitation

Last night: no shoulder pain at all, knee had some minor twinges. Mostly I was bothered by allergies.

The back and piriformis feel good too.

Workout: leg weights, sit ups, arm bike, AMT, outside walking (sunny)
One legged squats (Smith machine): 10 x 45, 10 x 95
Two legged squats: 10 x 135, 10 x 175
Leg press (no locking out!): 20 x 270, 20 x 360
Sit ups (4 sets of 25 on the incline)
Leg extensions: 3 sets of 10 (slow)
Leg curls: 3 sets of 10 (slow)
toe/calf: 3 sets of 30
vertical leg lifts: 3 sets of 20
arm bike (15 minutes, just over 4 miles)
AMT: 3 miles in just under 33 minutes
Outdoor walk: 3 easy miles in West Peoria (sunny by now)

The AMT really pumped my thighs.

13 October 2010 pm posts

Running: does long distance running hurt your knees? Studies are, surprise, inconclusive.

Humor: this guy lowers the bar for all of us.

Republicans: they seem to be in love with stupidity. Here is their high profile Senate candidate:

Barack Obama: this New York Times Magazine article is 8 paged long, but is worth reading. It is even handed; it isn’t written for supporters or detractors.

A friend linked to this Huffington Post “Open Letter to the President” who says that one of the President’s biggest mistakes is thinking that the Republicans might bargain honestly with him.

An attack on a Republican that I don’t approve of:

A five-year-old rape case that was never prosecuted is suddenly causing major ripples in the Colorado Senate race and headaches for Republican candidate Ken Buck.

Three weeks from Election Day, stories have suddenly emerged about Buck’s refusal to follow up on rape allegations involving a University of North Colorado student during his stint as Weld County District Attorney. He declined to file criminal charges against the alleged victim’s attacker on the belief that not enough evidence existed to win the case, a conclusion that is not entirely rare with such delicate cases.

Renewed criticism, however, has erupted over Buck’s handling of the case in light of some of his newly-resurfaced remarks, including a conversation he had with the victim and his suggestion that a jury would view the rape charges as merely her “buyer’s remorse.” [...]

Again, a district attorney has to make decisions on which cases are winnable and that is what appeared to happen in this case. A defense attorney made this comment that I agree with:

No applause here on either side. As a defense attorney I can understand why the prosecution would not go forward. Even if the prosecuting authority believes a rape occurred, beyond a reasonable doubt is another question. That said, the case seems to have been handled cavalierly and perhaps insensitively. It’s easy to see how this victim would have come out of this feeling like she had been told “You were asking for it.”

On the other side, it seems like this poor woman is being abused again, albeit this time with her consent, by people trying to score political points with her pain. Win at all costs, no matter who gets hurt. Is it any wonder that so many people come to distrust ALL politicians. Meanwhile, someone somewhere is being taken out for cocktails to celebrate their accomplishment in digging up this old issue and exploiting this young lady to gain a couple of points in a poll and throw the opponent off message.

Side note: one of my less than rational facebook friends appeared to take offense to my posting this; she appeared to “know” how the DA was supposed to do his job (e. g., which cases to bring forward) but had zero experience and provided zero data/examples. Yep, there are emotional idiots on the left as well….

Religion
The mine rescue in Chile was an impressive feat of human endurance and engineering. But you knew that this was coming:

The rescue of the trapped miners in Chile is a truly wonderful story. The careful plan put together by international teams seems to be working smoothly in bringing the stoic miners back to the surface and 21 of the 33 have been rescued so far, after spending over two months trapped half-a-mile below the surface. See here for how the rescue was carried out. It is a triumph of perseverance, endurance, cooperation, patience, technology, and science.

But apparently three different Christian denominations are claiming it was their prayers that resulted in god intervening that resulted in the successful rescue and are vying to claim credit for the successful rescue. They did not explain why if god wanted the miners rescued he didn’t simply lift them out of the mine himself or why their gods were silent when the 29 miners died in the West Virginia in April. It is pathetic to see people so desperate for a sign from god that they clutch at these straws.

Now had this deity teleported the miners to safety, I might “believe”.

Creationism: another example of those who oppose evolution really don’t understand it:

Casey Luskin is at it again. The Intelligent Design Creationists are trying to argue their way out of the obvious implications of the path taken by the recurrent laryngeal nerve, especially in giraffes.

Now they’re saying that, far from being an example of sloppy design, the path of the nerve has to have some selective advantage according to science. Thing is, you need to have a proper understanding of evolution in order to discuss this intelligently.

Surf to the link to get a link to the lunacy.

(ps: I recommend Your Inner Fish by Neil Shubin for an easy to understand explanation of how this nerve got to be the way that it is in humans).

Woo: homeopathic deodorant!

Science:
Cosmic Log has an interesting series on the electric car (they took a trip and took notes). Scroll down.

Wind Energy: is moving offshore in the US; we lead the world in “land based” wind energy.

Genetically based medicine: is moving closer to reality:

In an approach that many doctors and scientists hope will form the medical care of the future, Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston has for the past year and a half been offering people with cancer a novel diagnostic test. Instead of assessing tumours for a single mutation that will indicate whether a drug is likely to work or not, the hospital tests patients for some 150 mutations in more than a dozen cancer-causing genes, with the results being used to guide novel treatments, clinical trials and basic research. This form of personalized medicine tailors treatments on the basis of the molecular and genetic characteristics of a patient’s cancer cells, potentially improving the treatment’s outcome.

Now Britain is set to test whether an entire health-care system is ready for the approach. Plans were unveiled this week to deploy broad genetic testing for selected cancer patients in Britain’s government-run health-care provider, the National Health Service (NHS). This form of ‘stratified medicine’ uses genetic information to group patients according to their likely response to a particular treatment.

“The United Kingdom is really the ideal place to do this,” says James Peach, who heads the programme for Cancer Research UK, the charity that is leading the effort. As the NHS treats millions of people each year, unprecedented numbers of suitable patients could be enrolled in the genetic-profiling programme. “The idea is to scale this up to every patient in the NHS,” says Peach. In its first phase, the programme will be rolled out to as many as 12,000 NHS cancer patients over two years, beginning in early 2011. By contrast, Massachusetts General has tested about 1,600 patients, and other hospitals’ efforts each number in the hundreds.

The tests, which will look for several dozen mutations in about a dozen genes linked to cancer, will be carried out on people with lung, breast, colorectal, prostate or ovarian cancers, or metastatic melanoma, who are being treated at six NHS hospitals. Therapies that target specific tumour-causing mutations have already been approved, or are on the verge of approval, for most of these conditions, says Peach.

Surf to read more; Massachusetts General is doing something like this.

13 October 2010 Rehabilitation

The shoulder: slightly achy until I put on a sweatshirt (last night). Knee: no troubles.
But I have lost some flexibility and my knee doesn’t straighten; I have to keep diligent on that for a long, long time.

Workout: am:
sit ups, back stretches,
arm bike (15 minutes, 5, 10, 15 level), upper body weights:

curls: 3 sets of 15 with 15
pull downs: 3 sets of 10 with 120
rows: 3 sets of 10 with 70 on each arm
military presses: 20 with 50, 10 with 60 (machine)
bench presses: one set of 30 with 25
rotator cuff at home.

The back is sore (from sitting on the hay bale for hours on Saturday), the knee is slightly wonky and the shoulder is ok.

(I am in the red shirt and white ball cap)

One other note; this is the time of year when my mood just flies south; I always get irritable and “depressed” (not clinically) in the fall. It gets worse over winter and then perks up in the spring. It has very little to do with how my life is going; my only complaint is that I have a few niggling injuries that need to clear up.

Update: walked 3 miles over lunch; very steady. Felt great and nothing hurt; this lifted my spirits.

This Modern World’s Post 2010 Election…if the Republicans win

Scaling of Graphs and Charts for effect.

Paul Krugman makes an economic point in this article: if one measures government spending by percentage of GDP, this number can grow in two possible ways: the spending can go up, OR the GDP can go down. That is true, and in fact, our GDP has dropped. But what I am interested in here are the charts:

Oh my, look at the line go up the chart! That represents about a 16 percent increase in spending as a percentage of GDP.

Now look at absolute spending:

Gee, that is, well, rather flat. Oh wait, over the same length of time, that is about a 25 percent increase in spending.

Yes, I know, “percentage of GDP” is a different measure than absolute. But the scaling cracks me up; it adds visual effect.

Old Vacation Photo

In 1984, I toured Balboa Park in San Diego. I took lots of photos. Here is one that I didn’t set out to take: a hot mom showing her hot daughter how to wear tight blue jeans.

Old Family Photos

I scanned in some old Barbara shots (from 1995-1996)

Fall of 1996

Her “moon” dress, in 1996

One of my office photos

1995 with her family. We are eating pasta; she can’t have this now (celiac disease). Note the big blue jean butt.

12 October 2010 Rehabilitation

Shoulder: slight ache last night; probably due to the tough shoulder workout (“tough” meaning “tough given my tender rotator cuff).

But it was slight; not at all like the days past. This morning I saw the PT and we did the massage thing.

Walking: hilly 6.3 mile course in 1:28:35. My yoga teacher called me and told me that I was super focused and didn’t hear her harassing me as she drove past (she often yells “NICE ASS” at me…yes, I bring it on myself and no, I don’t mind. )

I did feel some twinges at first; my quads are tight. I’ve been neglecting stretching.