11 April 2011 pm

Workout notes
Slept in (sleep patters are still off) then lifted over lunch:
Squats (Smith machine): 10 x 45, 10 x 135, 5 x 185 (shallow), 10 x 155, 10 x 155
Curls: 3 sets of 15 x 20 lb. dumbbells.
Incline bench: 10 x 115, 8 x 130, 8 x 125
pull downs: 3 sets of 10 x 120 (shoulder friendly grip)
rows: 3 sets of 10 x 220 (Hammer machine)
sit ups (4 x 25).

Sleep: my patterns are still a bit screwed up; I might skip yoga tomorrow morning.

Posts
Many times, woos and religious people accuse scientists of being arrogant for, well, dismissing claims that lack evidence. Nothing new here. But I like what Jerry Coyne says here:

Religionists’ claim that scientists are arrogant always amuses me. Really, who are the arrogant ones? Scientists are nearly always tentative in their conclusions. Lately I’ve been reading a bunch of papers on evolution, and was struck by how often conclusions are qualified by words like “this suggests that” or “this conclusion should be regarded as provisional”. Many papers suggest additional lines of research that could support or falsify their conclusions. In the end, it is religious people who are the certain ones, the overbearing ones. How often do you hear, in religious discourse, that “my conclusion that there is god should, of course, be seen as provisional, subject to refutation by findings of unjustifiable evil,” or “maybe there’s a heaven, but maybe not; I don’t have much evidence.” If they relied at all on evidence, the faithful wouldn’t be able to say anything.

And it’s bogus to suggest that all scientific truth is ephemeral, for some truths of today will remain truths of tomorrow. A water molecule will still have two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom; AIDS will still be caused by a virus; the Earth will still go around the Sun. Although the concept of absolute and unchangeable truth is alien to science, we’ve found out a lot of things that are likely to remain “true” in that they’re unlikely to be overturned.

Blog Commentary…

Awwwww…

Aw.

Really, I was hoping that Sarah Palin would be the GOP nominee in 2012; in fact I was looking forward to voting for her in the 2012 primary. It. isn’t. going. to. happen.

My predictions for 2012: the Republicans lose House seats but retain a narrow majority (but perhaps a more moderate one) The Senate ends up 51-49 or 50-50 (not sure who would control the 51-49) and Mr. Obama cruises to reelection by roughly his 2008 level.

10 April 2011 Zzzzzzz…..

Ultramarathon Results: I worked the McNaughton Potowatomi Trail runs this weekend; this is a race I’ve done several times. But I wasn’t even remotely ready this time.

I showed up at 5 pm and staffed the start-finish line (where the runners check in and out after each 10 mile loop) and finished at 6 am. i was too sleepy to do a loop myself so I went home. Then I went back out and got there 2 hours prior to the course closing and did a very slow 10 mile loop in which I stopped to take down the trail markers (tape) and pick up trash; that slowed me down quite a bit. But I saw what the runners faced; though the trail was no longer muddy it was very warm (88 F). The loop took 4:15 to do which is about 45 minutes slower than my usual “leisurely stroll” pace. But it was still faster than some of my “end of 100 mile” loops! Then again it was a good approximation to my “end of the race zombie” walking as it was start, stop, start, stop…except this time I was stopping to clean up rather than stopping for nausea, fatigue, etc.

The runners did well.

But that was most of my weekend; I hope to get back on schedule tomorrow. But I am finally feeling good enough to start training again; I am thinking about running 8-10 miles on Saturdays when I am not racing and walking 3:30 or so at a training pace on Sundays. I am planning a few races: April 23 (trail 5K), April 30 (road 5K) and perhaps 12K on May 6. We’ll see. On race weekends (except for the 12K race) I’ll walk some later in the morning and do a 8 mile training run the next day. That’s the plan anyway. But endurance athletes know that life can often get in the way of plans.

I hope that I can work out something with my hiking buddy as I enjoy the socializing.

Science
Here is a fun post about a trinary star system; what is interesting is that the large red star in the system is unusually quiet.

Politics
I have to agree with Millard Fillmore here.

Now about that budget deal: yes, I think that it is a big victory for the Republicans. I am not alone in thinking that way.

But Nate Silver says “not so fast“. Mr. Silver’s analysis is based on roughly this: the Republicans have a huge majority in the House, and they are very conservative. On the other hand, the Democrats are generally moderate and not liberal. Hence it was unrealistic to expect anything like a good deal for the Democrats; that is, we lost but covered the point spread.

But the larger loss is that the Republican vision of what the problems really are was the framework instead of a better, more accurate vision (e. g., we have a demand problem, not a “taxes are too high problem”).