An Unfair Remedy -- To What Should Not Be A Problem

Harvard University, the most famous and selective institution of higher learning in the most powerful nation on the planet, had a golden opportunity for a teachable moment. And blew it.

One of the many amazing perks of going to Harvard are faculty deans:

Faculty Deans
Each Harvard House is under the leadership of Faculty Deans, living in residence. Among varied duties of the Faculty Deans, the role of academic officer in the residential college system is preeminent. In addition, Faculty Deans are responsible for all House staff, tutorial and Senior Common Room appointments. In short, Faculty Deans set the tone for the House in its activities and in its function as a close-knit community within the context of a larger college and university.

Recently, one such dean Ronald S. Sullivan, Jr. was forced out because he was representing Harvey Weinstein who is accused of rape. You can catch up on the details here. If you havn't already heard of the professor, I invite you to look at his Wiki entry. This is not some junior faculty member paying his dues by living in a dorm.

The thesis seems to be that by representing a man accused of rape, this is support of something called "rape culture", as if anyone thinks rape is okay.

Remedy H. Ryan:

“I guess a lot of people told us at the beginning of the semester that this couldn’t be done, and that Ron Sullivan had too much power and was too good at using it,” Ryan said. “This is kind of proof that collective organizing against rape culture can do a lot.”

1. The first point that should be made is that Mr. Weinstein, has not been convicted yet and should be presumed innocent until then.

2. Even guilty people have a right to legal representation.

3. A lawyer who represents guilty people is not guilty of anything by doing so--it is literally their job.

These are lessons that any adult member of a liberal democracy should already have a handle on, that this is lost on students so elite that they can get in to Harvard is troubling.

Someday Remedy H. Ryan will be in charge of something involving other people. Maybe one of them will want her fired because she will not be fair. They will have a much better argument against her than she has against Sullivan.

Selections From A Twitter Thread

The science guy is not a scientist by any stretch and just showed his true colors.

— Joe Pollock (@PollockhjJoe) May 14, 2019

If I throw a molotov into a library I can't predict which books will burn first, but I can sure give you the gist of things. That "they can't predict it exactly" bullshit is just that.

— Garry Boldwater (@HankStormdrain) May 14, 2019

Okay Mr. Science, I am won over by this logical and completely on-point argument.
A closer analogy is a "scientist" claiming that if we turn up the thermostat in the library by 1 degree, a particular book in stack C will burst into flames by 5:00 PM next Friday.

— David Pecchia (@dpecchia) May 14, 2019

It is not that most people don't understand what a minor shift in global temperature will do, it is that nobody knows what it will do. But some people pretend to know. Others think they know, but that is only because they are stupid.

— David Pecchia (@dpecchia) May 14, 2019

Walking Observations/Thoughts

Just as I got onto the footpath that leads out of the office park, two ladies entered the path just ahead of me. My first instinct was that I would soon overtake and pass them. I am not a "power walker" and today, the only reason I didn't go for a run was that I felt too beat-up from yesterday's 12.5 mile run. as it turned out, my regular brisk pace just kept me even with them.

As we walked along, one of them pulled ahead of the other, by about 8-10 feet. All this time they carried out a conversation. It seemed a little weird that two people talking would 1. Get that far apart and 2. would arrange into single file. The path is wide enough for two to walk abreast and they had been walking that way for a while.

Later, I passed a hotel called Extended Stay America and I wondered at the logo:

It seemed a little bit like Holiday Inn. So I wondered: Are they trying to tie all the corporate brands together stylistically? Or are they a new company that is trying to leverage the brand equity of an older, trusted name?

A little research indicated that the companies are entirely unaffiliated. I won't take a position on whether ESA is trying to seem like they are part of Holiday Inn. I would like to note that there is enough stylistic overlap that it isn't a stupid question.

GOT (It Was All A Dream) Plan

What they actually decide to do is send Arya Stark (who can look like anybody and infiltrate Kings Landing) to assassinate Cersei Lannister.

— David Pecchia (@dpecchia) May 6, 2019

Testing Embedding Tweets

If you look carefully, you can see the photographer of this kerosene space heater. pic.twitter.com/BKdmUTAvfM

— David Pecchia (@dpecchia) May 4, 2019

Looking through my digital camera and found this
grand festival de saucisse. pic.twitter.com/Qy1Wq6rnWD

— David Pecchia (@dpecchia) May 4, 2019

Ten Thousand and 7

First all the boilerplate: A mile is a pretty much arbitrary unit of distance and 10,000 only means something because Humans have 10 fingers and hence a decimal numbering system etc, etc, etc.

But

It is what we are used to and see some significance to it and I will be musing on this milestone.

First some kudos to RunningAHEAD. The 10k represents just the miles logged onto this FREE (you can donate) site. The last site I used, VOOMAXER conked out after a few thousand miles and I did lots of running in high school as well as various bouts between HS and really solidly making a habit of it in early 2002.

Okay, so 10,000 miles, what does it mean? I am pretty confident that I will not make it to another 10,000. This one took me about 7 years but at current rates, it will take me about 10 more years to reach 20k.

1. I have been really lucky so far in that the site has lasted this long--I doubt it will go another 10 years.
2. I doubt I will still be running at all, ten years from now. I had a golden few years of injury free running but lately I am very inury prone, with my heels being in pain for about 17 months. Other injuries have come and gone, but the heels will always be with me, or so it seems.

The whole running total is likely to be these 10k, 10k from HS up to 2002 and the VOOMAXER years were about 3,000 miles, so that brings the total to around 23,000 miles.

I Was Raised By My Genetic Parents

It was not obvious when I was a kid that this was true. My three siblings all looked comfortingly alike: Dark hair, in two cases it could fairly be called black, the other had chestnut colored hair. Mine was platinum blonde in pre-school and eventually darkened to a sandy brown later in life. They all had olive complexions and brown eyes, while I have pale green eyes and fair skin. It was noticeable enough that I was teased about being adopted. Which enraged me as a child, but now I could not say if I care or not.

I did a genetic test just for fun and I am related to people on both sides of my family in percentages consistent with my parents being, my parents.

All this thinking about genetics has made me notice just how unusual my dad was, from a phenotype standpoint:

He had red hair and freckles. Freckles often go with red hair, but the latter is still only about 6% of the northern and western parts of Europe.

He had brown eyes--most red-heads have blue or green eyes.

He was left-handed--not as rare as being a red-head, but less common than being right handed.

He was immune to being tickled. I can't easily find how rare this is but anecdotally, it may be the most rare thing in this list.

Packing the Supreme Court

This is the latest brainstorm by the progressive left and as usual, short-sighted.

Fake reason: The court needs to be expanded to handle the work-load.

Trump response: At the inevitable debate, he asks his opponent what size the court should be to handle the all the cases in a timely manner. The Democrat gives his pat answer (say it should go from 9 to 15 members). Trump, "Then will you support me appointing 6 more justices tomorrow"?

Real reason: Progressives want a liberal majority so they can have a free path to re-making the country.

So, the next time there is a Democratic president and Democratic majority in the Senate, they appoint whatever number of justices get them to a majority. Question: Wouldn't the Republicans, once they have the same situation, just do the same thing? Eventually, the court would have thousands of members. Does that seem like a stable situation?

Running Effort V. Sustain Time

There appears to be a linear relationship between effort in running, as measured by miles/hour and the natural log of how long this effort can be sustained.

The four data points are based on the actual times in races or workouts the author could attain as an 18 year-old track and cross country runner.

Data


Chart

I Am So Old, I Now Get Injured By...New Socks?

Strange, but true, though a bit of a chain-reaction.

I purchased a bale of new socks at Costco and being new, they are a bit more fluffy and thick than old ones. I went for a run on a cold day and figured I would just leave my street socks on because they would be a little warmer. It was fine, but my shoes were a little tight and the tops of my feet got sore. These new shoes had round laces, which combined with the snug fit, cut into my feet. I tried switching over to flat laces and it helped but it was too late, my feet were already sore and so even the new laces hurt. Finally, I just took out the in-soles that came with the new shoes. Quit the alarm bells! I have wide feet and this is a really common shoe hack for me and has never given me a problem. Till now. Two miles in, I had a pain in my right hip and I don't normally have hip issues. By the end of 8 miles, it was pretty agonizing. How agonizing? Over the next few days, I got a cantaloupe-sized bruise on that hip. No. I didn't fall down, I got a giant bruise from just running.

What A Splendid Time To Be Alive

The "Democracy dies in darkness" newspaper spent millions on a Superbowl ad, which casts reporters as heroes.

Meanwhile: This:

"Learn to code" was tweeted at me by a sketchy account. I reported it as abusive behavior as part of targeted harassment. Twitter suspended the account within 20 minutes.

Journalists if they tweet "learn to code" at you don't stay silent, take a moment to report it. https://t.co/RXgqqV2ptw

— Ben Popken (@bpopken) February 1, 2019

Oh Brave Hero and defender of...censorship? Well, he made a...comment which may have slightly bruised my ego...so he HAD to be denied a platform of communication.

I replied:

01101110 01100101 01110110 01100101 01110010 00100000 01101100 01100101 01100001 01110010 01101110 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01100011 01101111 01100100 01100101 00100001 0001010

He will have to (kind of) learn to code to figure out what it means. Will he have grounds to complain that I advised him to learn to code, when he will have already figured out how to code to know what I said?

No!

Because my message means, Don't learn to code!

Ha! He learned to code for nothing.

Business Plan for 23andMe Or Similar Operations

Often there are tiered services: The basic heritage report for $x and then more health data for some further charge or upgrade.

What I propose is a barter: The service would give the upgrade in trade for phenotype data. Specifically, an image of the customer's face as well as scans of fingerprints and footprints. AI had made it possible to use facial recognition software as a screening tool for genetic abnormalities and it has been known since before I took medical genetics over 30 years ago, that similar inferences can be made by dermatoglyphics.

It is really a classic win-win. Neither side has to spend much time or effort on their side but gets valuable data for themselves in return.

If any of you service organizations want to do this, toss a bit of money my way first. It will be better than waiting until you have made a billion dollar business out of it and then I come by with a blog post dated from two years before you launched the idea.

Ocasio-Cortez And Palin, Similarities And Differences

Similarities:

Both are women who are unusually likable*, charismatic, attractive and came to national attention via politics.

Both gained their highest office by challenging a member of their own party. Ocasio-Cortez challenged the incumbent in the primary and won--the district has not had a Republican in 25 years, so the Democratic primary is effectively the election. Palin had a more traditional start, being a city council member, then mayor before challenging the incumbent Republican Governor in the primary. Alaska was not nearly as Republican as New York's 14th congressional district is Democratic, but in both cases, the primary win was the larger hurdle.

Both Ocasio-Cortez and Palin are relatively extreme--Palin to the right of the Republican party and Ocasio-Cortez to the left of the Democratic party. In a way, this is both a similarity and a difference.

Both are (even though they each have some elite characteristics) working class in their outlook and upbringing.

Both inspire emotional appeal and repulsion.


*Yes, I know. Lots of people hate one or the other (rarely both) of these women, but be honest--you know you would like them if politics was not involved.

Running in 2018

I've been using the same Running Ahead app for 7 years now and have a total of 9,625 miles. So my total for 2018 does not look great at 866 miles, when the average per year is 1,375. Unless I decide to train for a marathon again, I will not be likely to hit that average again. The most I ran last year was in December, 113 miles. Even this was an outlier, most months were low 70 to low 90. The first two months were 16 and 30 respectively.

What had happened is that my Achilles on both sides, but especially the left, were tender and sore. I tried to be very gentle for healing last Jan and Feb, but they didn't improve. With running, they have improved but are still not anywhere close to 100%.

My goal for 2019 is to average 90-100 miles/month and try to get some speed back. The girls got me a Garmin for Christmas and this might help, since it keeps track of highest speeds at different distances within a work-out. I think my best mile time (7:57/mile) since I got the watch was in an 8 mile run.

Smart-ass Remarks Come Into My Head, Unbidden

Yesterday, I was some 9 miles into an 11 mile run and finishing on the bike path. Ahead of me a ways, was a woman who had a lab and was towing a child's bike which had training wheels on it. There was no child in sight. I thought of saying, once I got to her, "That is so ambitious, We can barely get our dog to sit on command". Before I got to her, I thought of a better one, "If you had a border collie, you wouldn't need training wheels".

But I said neither thing. She toppled the bike a little before I caught her and she was distracted from righting it.

This morning, my wife and I were shopping and really, it is a one-person job. But things happen which make it nice to have a compatriot handy. The PA system came on and asked, "Please check if you have your own cart and if you have someone else's, please take it to the courtesy desk". This is so stupid: If your cart has been taken so completely that you don't recover it right away, then it probably has more of the other guy's stuff in it than your stuff--just start over! Why would you waste your time complaining to management? Nobody is going to return it. They will go back to their own cart and off-load into it. At that point they now have two and are not going to be able to bring both anywhere.

Soon after that, in the produce section, I saw an Asian guy put some vegetables into a cart and another Asian woman say, "Excuse me, that is my cart". My wife came over and I told her what I witnessed and added, "You see, to Asians, all carts look alike".

Yes, I am a bad person.

My Back-Of-The-Envelope-O-Meter Seems Fully Functional

Two Examples:

1. I was musing in my morning shower that I have reached the point where one half of my remaining life will be working and the other half retired. I am 56 and had earlier determined that I will need to work till 70. According to actuarial tables here: I am 14 years from retirement and 70 year old males have a life expectancy of 14 more years. Bear in mind that the older you get, the higher your total lifespan expectation. Since I have avoided death for 56 years, I am likely to have a longer lifespan, in total years--not remaining years, than a newborn.

2. After picking up Dahlia at UVM, we decided to get some breakfast before making the 3-hour drive back to Chelmsford MA. On the Church Street Mall, a random man let us know of an inspiring story of a guy trying to break his own single season total altitude record. I made a note of the name so that I could look it up later. Ken Jones, Whitefish MT. While we were walking, I did a little calculation based on my own experience: When I worked in Sun Valley, I made 60 ski days in one season. Bear in mind, I was working and so did not ski every possible day--my record was 13 straight days, each of which were also work days (I worked a night shift). In addition, I was in the Marine Reserves and this took 4 days per month. I figure, with no job and a decent snow season, 100 days would be reasonable. Further, on my last ski day in Sun Valley, I decided to get as much altitude as I could. I did 25 top to bottom runs at 3,000 vertical feet each. But, as the last day; the lifts opened an hour late and closed an hour early. Also, the conditions were icy in the morning and slushy at the end. Most winter days have perfect conditions all day long. Finally, even on that day, I could have done more--I got bored with high speed cruising on groomed runs and ended up doing about half the runs on moguls. I think a normal ski day at Sun Valley could reasonably give 100 thousand feet. 100 days times 100k is 10 million vertical feet in a season. So, Ken's goal of breaking his 8 million ft record is pretty solid, but I think it could easily be surpassed. Maybe when I turn 70, I will move back to Sun Valley for a season or two.

If Life Was Like a Nihilistic Movie, I Would Have Died Yesterday.

Foreshadowing:
I had to go out and run an errand--pick up a Christmas tree for the season, no less and the dog "asked" to be taken for a walk while I was at the back door putting on my coat and shoes. She is old and sedentary, so it is kind of a thing to take her when she is willing, but I had a lot to do and so promised to take her later, if I could.

Lead-up:
When I got home from getting the tree, I was good as my word and set out on a walk as the bright sun cast rays at a sharp angle. I was about to enter the bike path but delayed a bit, waiting as a biker went past. He inexplicably bade me good morning as he glided by. It was two in the afternoon! I didn't make too much of it--some people are just so used to "good morning" that they stray into non-morning times of the day, no big deal. I say good day sir. Well, just in my mind. The sun was in my eyes and I was still musing about the whole "good morning" fiasco, when another walker approached from ahead.

The big scene:
There was something not right about him. In the movie version, the sun and my general befuddlement would prevent me from seeing his face. The camera would show the audience how creepy he looked, but I would not see it. Nor the knife he suddenly pulled from nowhere and used to stab me to death. In actuality, the only odd thing was that I was having such thoughts on a sunny day, having a stroll with our cute Cavalier King Charles Spaniel.

Coda:
The pathetic and useless (for protection) dog, left whimpering--she wants to go home but also does not like to leave one of her people behind.

Ranking The Last Four Presidents

The final results are not in yet for this mid-term election, but we know the general outcome. Here is a ranking of the last four presidents by how they did in the first midterm after their first term win:


1. George W. Bush 2002 Gained seats in the House +8 and Senate +2 keeping both in Republican hands

2. Donald Trump 2018 Lost enough seats in the House to give control to the Democrats, But Gained seats in the Senate.

3. Barack Obama 2010 Lost enough seats in the House to give control to the Republicans, AND Lost seats in the Senate -6

4. Bill Clinton 1994 Lost enough seats in the House AND Senate to lose control of BOTH

2nd Amendment Conditional Clause

This is what the 2nd would look like if the first part was conditional:

As long as Sally agrees that, A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, then and only then shall the right of the people to keep and bear arms, not be infringed.

What it really has is:

A statement of fact: You may disagree that it is a fact, but it is intended to state something they thought was obvious:

"A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state,"

Followed by a rule:

"the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."

Quoting Niemoller

First they came for the pro-life activists, and I did not speak out--because I was pro-choice.

Then they came for the Tea Party, and I did not speak out--because I did not agree that we are "taxed enough already"

Then they came for the Little Sisters of the Poor, and I did not speak out--because I really have no problem with government forcing people to participate in things that they (foolishly but sincerely) believe are evil.

But now I quote Niemoller in the hopes you will vote for the people who did all of these things.