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2008-05-12

  • 22:03 UTC (new) (history) Ducky Rock Creek Trail . . . . Zzz – A pair of mallard ducks, male and female, are paddling along Rock Creek Trail in front of me, traversing a mega-puddle (or mini-pond) left by early morning rains. I'm putting in a few extra miles on my way to a low-key footrace this Saturday morning. As I approach the ducks they lumber into flight, then glide around a curve out of view. When I round the corner I discover that they've landed in another small lake. This time they let me trot past, a few feet away from them on the soggy grass at one side of their temporary habitat. Notes on that run, plus other recent jog log entries: ...

2008-05-11

  • 13:05 UTC (new) (history) Overcoming Bias . . . . MarkZimmermann – "Overcoming Bias" is a well-written group blog that son Robin recently introduced me to. One of the technical topics currently under discussion there is a personal favorite of mine, the Many Worlds Interpretation of quantum mechanics. If I'm mildly fixated on Many Worlds as a good theory, Eliezer Yudkowsky has eaten far too much red meat; his rants are quite entertaining. Here's the conclusion of the latest:
  • 01:58 UTC (new) (history) Hot and Sour . . . . MarkZimmermann – If you were marooned on the proverbial desert island, what food would you crave most? Well, putting aside questions of nutritional completeness and health, my answer would have to be: ...

2008-05-10

2008-05-09

  • 01:18 UTC (new) (history) Shakespeare versus The Philosophers . . . . MarkZimmermann – Martha Nussbaum is one of my favorite philosophers; so is Colin McGinn. Both write brilliantly; both are often totally wrong; both are real people. Nussbaum runs marathons; McGinn body-surfs and plays video games. It goes without saying that I'm also a devout fan of Shakespeare. So when The New Republic recently offered a review ("Stages of Thought") by Nussbaum of three books on Shakespeare's philosophy, including one by McGinn ... well, who could resist? But when I started reading I got stuck on the second paragraph, where another of my great addictions — lists — appears. Nussbaum, warming up her critical juices, raises three big hurdles: ...

2008-05-07

  • 10:14 UTC (new) (history) Peter Neumann . . . . MarkZimmermann – Another small world encounter: several years ago my family was invited to dinner at our friends' home a half mile up the street. We originally met them ca. 1990 via my chance conversation with another patient parent at a childrens' chess tournament in downtown DC — I mentioned that we were seeking a piano teacher, and an opponent's mother told me about her kids' lessons. Although her family lived far away they were going to an instructor in my neighborhood. So began a relationship, first as piano/harpsichord students, later as friends, for the past two decades. Anyway, also visiting our friends that evening was Peter Neumann, ...

2008-05-05

  • 23:07 UTC (new) (history) Meaning of Blog . . . . MarkZimmermann – The true origin of the word "blog": it's not an abbreviation of "web log" at all. Rather, it's simply a linguistically evolved version of the century-old word **bloviate**, meaning "to speak verbosely or windily"! ...

2008-05-04

  • 09:58 UTC (new) (history) Mystery Men . . . . MarkZimmermann – The 1999 movie Mystery Men (written by Bob Burden and Neil Cuthbert) is a clever, funny, well-made parody of the superhero genre that also stands alone. Among dozens of quotable lines that have become catchphrases around our household, some samples: ...

2008-05-03

2008-05-02

  • 00:48 UTC (new) (history) Steely Eyed Missile Man . . . . MarkZimmermann – As I was rewatching the excellent movie Apollo 13 not long ago one line suddenly caught my ear. An engineer praises another with the words, "You, Sir, are a steely-eyed missile man!" The term appears in the book that was the source of much of that movie, Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13 by Jim Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger. From Chapter 6: ...

2008-05-01

  • 02:36 UTC (new) (history) Sharp Focus . . . . MarkZimmermann – "Pike's Peek" is a play on words. It's also an annual Sunday morning scamper down Rockville Pike, a major suburban Maryland street that on weekdays is clogged with automotive traffic. I ran it once, in 2002 (see Soggy Jog). This year on 27 April I'm a volunteer race official for the Montgomery County Road Runners Club that puts on the event. Before dawn I'm at the finish line, taking photographs and helping set up the fences and banners and chairs. Upon telephoned signal we start the big display clocks. Less than half an hour later the leaders appear, blasting out 10 km at a sub-5 minute/mile pace.

2008-04-29

  • 01:24 UTC (new) (history) Color of Water . . . . MarkZimmermann – Good biographies let you peek into another person's life. **The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother** by James !McBride (1996) is a good biography, full of love if not always rational, well-written if not always brilliant. !McBride's mother was a deeply flawed person; some of what she did in raising her dozen kids could well be viewed today as child abuse. The family survived only via vast infusions of charity from family, friends, strangers, and society. Chapter 8 ("Brothers and Sisters") offers a glimpse of their home life. It begins:

2008-04-27

  • 00:13 UTC (new) (history) Normal Distribution . . . . MarkZimmermann – A Gaussian, aka normal distribution or bell curve, is what most statistical averages converge toward. The "Square Root of N" rule-of-thumb says that if you toss 100 coins you'll get half heads, plus or minus 10 or so ...

2008-04-25

  • 17:28 UTC (diff) (history) bannedhosts . . . . ZZ – Deleted
  • 01:19 UTC (new) (history) Mostly Sane . . . . MarkZimmermann – Most people are basically **sane**. For the majority of their lives, they support themselves and interact peacefully with others. Their beliefs track reasonably well with reality. They make a net positive contribution to society. Or so I used to think; now I'm less sure. ...

2008-04-23

  • 02:22 UTC (new) (history) Joan Benoit Samuelson on the Marathon . . . . MarkZimmermann – Earlier this week Joan Benoit Samuelson achieved a personal goal: she ran a marathon (the US Olympic Team trials) in under 2 hours 50 minutes after her 50th birthday. Many years ago in her autobiography **Running Tide** she observed, in Chapter 8:

2008-04-20

2008-04-19

  • 23:20 UTC (new) (history) Bull Run Run 2008 . . . . MarkZimmermann – At mile 20 Caren and I stop running to examine a handful of feathers scattered on the ground. They're iridescent blue on one edge, black on the other, and white at the end. Has a bluejay met an untimely end? No time to look for further evidence of the crime — our own doom is looming if we don't make the next cutoff! It's a hot hot day on the trail, 12 April 2008, and my good friends Wayne Carson, Caren Jew, and I are trying to do the Bull Run Run 50 miler. ...

2008-04-15

2008-04-14

  • 09:10 UTC (new) (history) Swimming Fine . . . . MarkZimmermann – For some things just a little refinement of technique can make a huge difference. A few years ago Paul Amman, in one of his triathlon reports, mentioned swim coach Terry Laughlin. His Total Immersion training philosophy, like "Chi Running", suggests that a fluid, beautiful, efficient style can be taught. From Laughlin's essay with the charming title "Disregard the following ...", an example:

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Last edited 2008-03-11 01:33 UTC by MarkZimmermann