So ... the shortest day of the year ... did you make the most of it? I hung out reading, then went to two different parties and saw friends I only see once a year. Ate a lot and drank a bit too. And admired some Christmas lights. Oh and ... printed some more ornaments! A good day :)
I must tell you, my friends are basically a right-leaning crowd, but not all of them. Plenty of them voted for Obama, and plenty of them rooted for healthcare reform. But tonight this slow-motion disaster was the talk of the town, with zero people defending it.
I don't watch Duck Dynasty and until this week I had no idea who Phil Robertson is. I haven't read the GQ interview and I don't know exactly what he believes. I've read enough to know that I probably don't agree with his views. But ... he is entitled to believe what he believes. We should not force everyone to agree with the "politically correct" views of the moment. Apparently he has always been rather individualistic and outspoken, and he hasn't changed because of pressure. The one thing I haven't heard Phil doing is telling other people what to think.
Also in the news ... Sea World. Since the release of "Blackfish", a documentary critical of their treatment of killer whales in captivity, Sea World has seen a lot of bad press and cancelled concert performances, and recently bought full page newspaper ads defending themselves. A lot of wildlife experts like Jack Hanna seem to agree that parks like Sea World are good for animals, through their research and conservation activities.
I'm not much of a gamer, but I do enjoy the escapism of visiting "other worlds", and great/weird plants are an important part of that...
Gaia takes off: "Europe has launched the Gaia satellite - one of the most ambitious space missions in history... Gaia is going to map the precise positions and distances to more than a billion stars." Excellent.
It's five-year mission, to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before
This is awesome: Speedy trains transform China. "Just five years after China’s high-speed rail system opened, it is carrying nearly twice as many passengers each month as the country’s domestic airline industry... Economists and transportation experts cite it as one reason for China’s continued economic growth when other emerging economies are faltering." Wow. Sounds like part of the plot of a Nevil Shute novel :)
Seth Godin suggests: pick three. "Select three colleagues, bosses, investors, employees, co-conspirators or family members that have an influence over how you do your work. Identify three books that challenge your status quo, business books that outline a new attitude/approach or strategy, or perhaps fiction or non-fiction that challenges you. Books you've read that you need them to read. Buy the three books for each of the three people, and ask them each to read all three over the holiday break." I like this idea!
Yes, you will wear funky glasses.
And you will experience 3D as never before, and you will love it.
You will feel like you did when you first saw Star Wars
or Alien or Terminator 2 or The Matrix
as you realize that moviemaking has again reached a higher plane. And you will say to yourself, as I did: "soon we will all have 3D in our houses".
Yes, the story is amazing and moving;
it will remind you of Fern Gully, and this is no bad thing.
You will sit through three hours and it will feel like one.
You will love every minute of it.
Today I received an email from Adam Winer, a friend and fellow member of the Conejo Valley Cyclists riding club; he reported that "I spoke with one of my friends from San Diego... Floyd Landis has been showing up to his clubs weekly rides to help train. I guess these guys must really be fast!" This started a little discussion about the type of power a pro cyclist can generate, and as a result I'd like to revisit Floyd's incredible ride on stage 17 of the 2006 Tour de France.
In cycling this is now just called "stage 17". You might remember, the previous day on stage 16 of the 2006 tour - another tortuous mountain stage - Floyd had bonked, giving up eight minutes and the yellow jersey and seemingly putting himself out of contention. Then on stage 17, the most difficult of that tour, he broke away on the first climb and in an incredible performance stayed out in front all day, finishing over five minutes ahead of the desperately chasing peloton.
Floyd ended up winning the 2006 tour, largely due to that performance, but shortly afterward was disqualified because he tested positive for testosterone - on stage 17! More about that below.
Here are some numbers from Floyd's amazing performance:
5 hours 23 minutes and 36 seconds.
Covering 125 miles (81 miles alone in the wind).
At a speed of 19.3 mph/hr.
Hitting a max speed of 52 mph/hr.
Averaging 281 watts when moving for the whole ride and 318 watts over the last two hours.
Averaging 324 watts while pedaling for the whole ride and 364 watts over the last 2 hours.
At an average cadence of 89 rpm.
Transferring 5,456 Kjoules of energy to his Cycleops PowerTap.
Taking, no joke, a total of 70 water bottles (480 ml each) from the car to keep himself cool and hydrated.
Attacking about a quarter of the way up the Col des Saisies for 30 seconds at 544 watts, which settled into a 5-minute peak of 451 watts, which continued for 10 minutes at an average of power of 431 watts, and left everyone in his dust after 30 minutes at an average power of 401 watts.
Spending 13.2% of his time or 43 minutes coasting like a rocket on the descents and another 60% between 4 to 7 watts per kilogram of body weight (aka, the pain cave).
Holding onto 373 watts over the Col de Joux-Plane.
Rewatching that stage gives me goose bumps. I remember vividly watching it "live" (well, via Tivo) when it happened, not knowing what was going to happen, and yelling at my TV; it was the most incredible athletic accomplishment I have ever witnessed. Even on rewatching it doesn't seem possible that he could stay so far in front of a hard-charging peloton for so long, and I find myself tensing with anticipation even though I know how it ends.
A note about the drug test: I still believe Floyd was innocent of doping. Nobody would take testosterone for one stage – it wouldn't help anyway - and he was clean on stage 16 (he was tested, because he had the yellow jersey going into the day) and on stage 19 (the time trial where he was tested again because he retook the yellow jersey). Not to mention testosterone wouldn't help a GC rider anyway; it builds muscle, not endurance. And not to mention his testosterone level was normal, it was only the ratio to something else which was abnormal. I don't know if he was framed or just a victim of bad test process, but either way it is too bad that this unbelievable athletic accomplishment has been tarnished.
What strikes me in retrospect reading articles about stage 17 from that time is that nobody thought Floyd couldn't have done it. Everyone knew a world-class cyclist like Floyd could put together a performance like that, if all the conditions were right and they really applied themselves. Cycling is so mental, despite being so physical! It was definitely a white swan...
Happy winter solstice to you, as the shortest day comes and winter descends upon us... gray skies and rain out here, and snow pretty much everywhere else... but I have a sunny mood for some reason. Must be all the great food I've been eating :)
Today was an awesome day for football - did you catch the Chargers come from behind victory against Tampa Bay? (Note: I am nominally a San Diego fan since L.A. still doesn't have a pro team.) Or the Redskins nail-biter against Philadelphia? Great great games. I can't wait for the Carolina / Giants game tonight, that one should be great too...
[ Update: it was better than great. Extremely well played between two of the best teams in the league, and came down to a 50-yard field goal at the buzzer - missed! - which sent the game into overtime. Excellent.
Bonus points to the music director at the Meadowlands, who played Black Sabbath, Van Halen, Scorpions, and then with the game on the line for the final field goal, selected Europe's The Final Countdown. ]
Lately I've been getting a lot more LinkedIn, Facebook, Plaxo, etc requests from old friends and colleagues; everyone seems to be gardening their networks, either because they've lost their job or possibly might lose it in future. Or [more positive spin] maybe everyone is refocusing on friends instead of work. Anyway it's really nice, I've had several email correspondences and a nice lunch come out of it so far...
Gerard Vanderleun: the Solstice as seen from Newgrange. "Deep inside the world's oldest known building, every year, for only as much as 17 minutes, the sun -- at the exact moment of the winter solstice -- shines directly down a long corridor of stone and illuminates the inner chamber at Newgrange. Newgrange was built 1,000 years before Stonehenge and also predates the pyramids by more than 500 years." Now that is cool...
Here's a nice tip for you: make files with no extension text files. More useful than you might think, you can just type notes to yourself and leave them on your desktop. In Windows Explorer, select Tools | Folder Options | File Types. Select New, then click Advanced, and associate a blank extension with Text Document. That's it! You're welcome...
One minute you're blasting along at 61 knots, and then... you're wet...
Cool: TTAC reports Obama will adopt 14 month old child from Israel. About him and his advisor's monitoring the progress of Better Place, the electric car company / system you're read about here many times now. I don't know how real they are, but they've certainly attracted attention!
An oldie but goodie from Rogers Cadenhead: World's Oldest Person Dies (Again). "The world's oldest person has a high mortality rate (tough job), and every time AP covers the story using the same formula: who kicked the bucket, how old was she down to the day, what was her secret for longevity, and who's now the oldest person." A weird concept, and he's right, there will always be such a person. In fact "when the oldest person expires, it moves the living memory of the world past a certain number of historic events, a concept I've dubbed the Line of Oblivion. Although it's a grim notion, I check Wikipedia to see what crosses the line each time the oldest person croaks."
Well, it's here - the BIG day! We're having 80+ people over for a party tonight. And it is the winter solstice - the first day of winter, and the longest night of the year.
And in the blogosphere it's all happening, too...
Time Magazine's 2003 Person of the Year is The American Soldier. A perfect choice.
Libya's leader Colonel Gaddafi has promised to dismantle his country’s secret weapons of mass destruction program, as announced by British Prime Minister Tony Blair. This is excellent news, a sign that U.S. "diplomacy" is working. Hopefully the leaders of North Korea and Iran are paying attention. This is exactly the kind of good effect of the war in Iraq we were hoping for; anyone who thinks this is unrelated is not paying attention.
It will be fun to watch the Bush-dislikers try to spin this...
[ Later: Unbelievable. CNN's main coverage of this is about the Lockerbie bombing, and how some victim's families are upset about "the deal". First, horrible though it was, that was 15 years ago. Second, there is no deal - Libya is voluntarily giving up their WMD programs. That's it. But the main thing is I can't believe how blatantly anti-Bush CNN has become. For me this clearly crosses the line. ]
CNet reports Online Holiday Spending Up, Up, and Away. On top of the good news on the military front, the economy is definitely improving, with declining unemployment and improved wages without inflation.
I must tell you, in my neighborhood Christmas lights are everywhere :)
The design for the "Freedom Tower" to be built on the World Trade Center site has been unveiled; at 1,776 feet it will be the world's tallest building. An exclamation point! I like it.
Glenn Reynolds wonders: "If Jose Padilla were still known as Abdullah al-Muhajir, the name he was using when he was arrested, would the decision have come out the same way?" Good question.
It's so cute! Talking about The Beagle 2, England's Mars Express lander. It has successfully separated from the "mother" orbiter and is headed for the surface.
I'm sure you've heard about this already; the RIAA lost an important battle to Verizon. The Washington D.C. circuit court has ruled Verizon does not have to turn over the identities of people the RIAA suspects of illegal file sharing.
Do you like iPods, but don't like white? Or are you just a colorful character? Then ColorwarePC may be just the ticket; they'll paint your iPod for you!
Apple is apparently hiring video engineers for work on the iPod; does this mean a videoPod is in the works?
This is a little weird. A Chinese court has ordered an online role-playing game host to create new instances of artifacts looted from a player-character's account after it was hacked. The line between the real world and virtual worlds keeps getting blurrier... [ via Cory Doctorow ]
Oh no! It's coming! iRobot... (Cue Alan Parsons...)
Oh, and here we have - Mr. Picassohead! Design your own Picasso using this cool flash-based tool. Excellent.
So ... the shortest day of the year ... did you make the most of it? I hung out reading, then went to two different parties and saw friends I only see once a year. Ate a lot and drank a bit too. And admired some Christmas lights. Oh and ... printed some more ornaments! A good day :)
In cycling this is now just called "stage 17". You might remember, the previous day on stage 16 of the 2006 tour - another tortuous mountain stage - Floyd had bonked, giving up eight minutes and the yellow jersey and seemingly putting himself out of contention. Then on stage 17, the most difficult of that tour, he broke away on the first climb and in an incredible performance stayed out in front all day, finishing over five minutes ahead of the desperately chasing peloton.
