Checking out the scene.

My wife and I went up to Lowell this afternoon to check-out the race course. We walked from the starting point, an otherwise undistinguished street in downtown, to the end, which is the baseball stadium.

Here and there, we would see runners: They had white and blue race packet bags and were all skinny bony types. This caused me a little panic since I am neither skinny nor bony. I am not as young as these people looked either.

Hmmn

All Recipients of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Campaign Contributions, 1989-2008

Name	Office	State	Party	Grand Total	Total from PACs	Total from Individuals
Dodd, Christopher J	S	CT	D	$165,400	$48,500	$116,900
Obama, Barack	S	IL	D	$126,349	$6,000	$120,349
Kerry, John	S	MA	D	$111,000	$2,000	$109,000
Bennett, Robert F	S	UT	R	$107,999	$71,499	$36,500
Bachus, Spencer	H	AL	R	$103,300	$70,500	$32,800
Blunt, Roy	H	MO	R	$96,950	$78,500	$18,450
Kanjorski, Paul E	H	PA	D	$96,000	$57,500	$38,500
Bond, Christopher S 'Kit'	S	MO	R	$95,400	$64,000	$31,400
Shelby, Richard C	S	AL	R	$80,000	$23,000	$57,000
Reed, Jack	S	RI	D	$78,250	$43,500	$34,750
Reid, Harry	S	NV	D	$77,000	$60,500	$16,500
Clinton, Hillary	S	NY	D	$76,050	$8,000	$68,050

And way down the list...

McCain, John

S

AZ

R

$21,550

$0

$21,550

And McCain has been in the Senate for around 20 years to Obama's 2. Source

Added note: McCain is only a couple of points behind Obama even though he has been outspent 2 to 1.

Astronomy done in your head...

On my trip this last weekend we were driving back from hiking and noticed the Moon. It was low in the sky and looked to be a couple of days away from being full. It was hilly country, but the sky was bright and I thought it might be right at or right before sunset based on how light it was. The Moon was high enough that I figured it rose before sunset. I didn't know the answer yet, but figured that given what we know about the moon we should be able to figure out if it was getting fuller or less full. (Waxing or Waning, I know)

I tried to picture the above sketch in my head and got the answer exactly backwards: Now that I have the sketch (and assuming I am right that the moon orbits from West to East) the Moon should be growing if it rises between sunrise and sunset.

Now I will go check the Internet tubes to see if the Moon is waxing...

Hmmn. It is full tonight and it wasn't full on last Saturday, so I guess I got it right.

In 1492...

And in 2008 Google commemorates....Paddington Bear.

Meanwhile, the kids are off from school today since, as we all know, public school teachers are such huge fans of Columbus. Their minds are so full of admiration for the bravery and intellect of the great Italian explorer, they couldn't be expected to concentrate on mundane math, reading & etc. Best to just keep them home today.

Photo from here

Who "caused" the mortgage crisis?

I think the problem has more causes than what this video presents, but it is right as far as it goes. Other issues were the trade imbalance with China. They had to put their $'s somewhere and they put them into US financial markets, which depressed interest rates and drove up property values. Also, who doesn't know at least one person who used their home appreciation as a piggy-bank?

My wife's cousin and I taking a break...

Hiking by the Del. Water Gap

Ann's great commenters part 2 of many...

Last night Prof. Althouse put up a post called, The Gold Liquid Café which seemed to evoke reflections on the good things in life. The below comment was one of the best: A perfect little essay in the middle of a comment thread.

Michael_H said... I developed an odd habit during this past summer. I am a motorcycle rider who enjoys taking off a few weeks now and then and logging 3,000-5,000 miles.

I began wearing foam earplugs under my helmet this summer on the advice of my physician, in order to reduce the noise that leads to hearing loss.

I have come to enjoy the quiet that comes from wearing earplugs. Weird, eh? Wearing them makes the ride very quiet, with only a little engine, road and wind noise intruding. Over a few months I began keeping them in after each ride ended,and wearing them while mowing the lawn as well.

After that, I began wearing them when I went shopping in a mall. And quite a few other places as well, but never when out in the wilderness.

The strange part is, I've come to enjoy the quiet. I can hear my own footfalls; my own breathing. I can pretend to not hear people who want my attention.

My wife is in on it, and now she sometimes wears her earplugs when we are out shopping. It feels like we are aliens from another planet, quietly making our way unnoticed among earthlings.

A nice young woman at a Barnes and Noble noticed and asked whether we needed a signer. I said "no, we learned to read lips a long time ago. At Galluadet.

"When we got to our car, laughing, my wife said "read my lips: I'm an alien from the planet of the horny women".

Welcome to the quiet world!

Observation...

Yesterday I took the window air conditioning units out and stored them in the basement. If anybody noticed this yesterday, they didn't mention it to me.

This morning I was opening Dahlia's room curtains and she looked at the spot where the unit was; her expression showed the thought forming in her head, "Oh, thanks for taking out the air conditioner". She has always been the observant one.

Let's see how soon the others notice...

That reminds me: I need to take my in-laws units out.

Also, my wife does read this thing sometimes but my bet is she notices the A/C missing before she reads this.

Cause or effect?

This is a classic vicious cycle: The voters (being dumb on average) go for the new guy when the market is down. Shareholders (being smart on average) see that the Senator is gaining popularity and know that Obama's policies will likely hurt the economy. So they try to get out of the market and stock prices go down.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

Update: Just saw that the Club for Growth had the same idea--and better charting.

Update 2: Maybe electing The One will help...

A run I hope to take in NJ this weekend.

I can't seem to embed it, but here is the link...

Practice start...

I did this run today in the morning. I ran it as a kind of rehearsal for the marathon's first 10 miles. It gave me a chance to try out the new racing shoes I purchased last weekend and it gave me a chance to try and set a reasonable pace--fast enough that I get a little ahead of my 8 min/mile plan, but not so fast that I burn myself out.

Today I did the 10.3 miles in 78 1/2 minutes, for a pace of 7:37/mile. That is more or less perfect and I hope to do exactly that on the 19th.

Physical contrasts

In our first house we had 3 acres of forrest and a wood stove: It was a no-brainer to heat with wood. Turning a tree into firewood involves heavy and hard instruments: Chainsaw, axe, sledge hammer and chisel. In the 4 years we lived in that place, we had two children, so we had small kids around--they were infants and toddlers.

The pleasure of wood heat was in the contrasts: The house was very warm because it was small and easy to heat and the fuel was effectively unlimited. Yet, I made and hauled firewood when it was cold out. I would spend my time at hard labor in bitter cold or relaxing in a warm house. After handing the loud, hard and heavy tools of firewood making, I would come inside and play with my small, delicate, soft and cute little girls. They seemed even more delicate and soft after smashing apart great wheels of oak and maple with my axe.

My wife was out walking Meenah and met some folks along the way. They live in a cape, much like the one we had in Vermont and they even had wood stoves in it. They had the stoves removed because they have small children! Ack! Our kids never showed any impulse to touch the hot stove, probably because it got pretty uncomfortable to get close enough to touch it when it was running. But had it been a problem we could have used a really sophisticated technique to assure safety: Not use it! I just can't believe sane people would rip out two perfectly good wood stoves!

Seems like a stretch...

By DOUGLASS K. DANIEL, Associated Press Writer Sun Oct 5, 10:43 AM ET WASHINGTON - By claiming that Democrat Barack Obama is "palling around with terrorists" and doesn't see the U.S. like other Americans, vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin targeted key goals for a faltering campaign. And though she may have scored a political hit each time, her attack was unsubstantiated and carried a racially tinged subtext that John McCain himself may come to regret.

And what pray is the racial subtext in associating Obama with a couple of white domestic terrorists? Oh, you didn't know who Gov. Palin meant? She meant Bernardine Rae Dohrn and William Ayers. Founders of the domestic terror group Weather Underground and in who's living room, Sen. Obama began his political career.

But Sarah Palin is racist because she knows that "terrorist" conjures-up images of swarthy Arabs right? Well, maybe if the AP had done its job, we would all know about Ayers/Dohrn and know who Gov. Palin meant.

Time for a bit of productivity.

I got back from my outing and the day was still young, so I hoped to get something done. How about finally chopping down that dead ash tree out back? I had just gotten my saw worked on, so it was in good shape. It would be easy to keep my eye on one child, rather than the usual three + one dog.

My aim was true...

The saw dust might make you think I hit those shrubs, but I didn't. The tree hit the middle of the concrete ramp to the shed and then rebounded toward the bushes.

Jemma helped me load the pieces of wood into the weelbarow and it is all split and stacked in the basement...

A saturday of odds and ends

I got the assignment of taking Jemma to a birthday party at the butterfly place since Vaishali had a cavalier king charles meetup at the same time.

Since I was over in Westford anyway, I figured I would go to the observatory and have a look around. It was a perfect Fall day--in the 60's, bright and crisp. I wish I brought my camera since there were lots of cool giant scientific instruments littering the site. Here is a picture from the website:

After wandering around the observatory for an hour, I zipped over to Marx Running and Fitness Center to see if they had any racing shoes. I'm not sure how much difference they really make, but I always had racing shoes in High School and it seems to have a psychological benefit if nothing else.

I was telling the guy who helped me at the store that their advertising with the Bay State Marathon is paying-off, since I didn't know about their store until I saw it on the Bay State site. He kind of chuckled a bit and noted that the relationship went beyond "advertising" as he was the race director for the marathon. I recovered by saying I was glad to meet him and really looking forward to the race in two weeks.

I guess they never took a philosophy course...

Yesterday I was in the waiting area while the J was doing jazz dance and I overheard some women talking.

One was helping her son with his homework and screeched, "What kind of question is this? If a tree falls in the forest and nobody is around to hear it, does it make a sound? Of course it makes a sound!" The lady across from her, who explained that she was a HS chemistry teacher, was in full agreement. I was aghast.

Such sloppy thinking. Before jumping to conclusions they should have wondered about definitions. If sound is defined as vibrations in the air, then yes, it will make sound. If sound is defined as a person having a sensation caused by vibrations in the air, then it is nonsense to say there is sound. Put it another way: If I showed you a nice fresh strawberry and asked, "What does this taste like?" You would probably say, "like a strawberry". But it only tastes like a strawberry while you are eating it, it doesn't taste like anything when it is sitting in a bowl.

There is a lot more to think about with that question such as the whole mind/body issue & etc. Really the issue is that it should be assumed that a question like the falling tree one is meant to provoke thought. To dismiss it out-of-hand is to miss the point and to show yourself a rube--to anyone who isn't--Or in my case, at least is slightly less of one.

Added: In this Family Guy episode, Peter has a vision where the trees are talking to him; so he asks them if they make a sound if they fall down and nobody is around to hear. One of them answers that Steve fell down last week and hasn't shut-up about it since. I don't remember the exact quote and that is why I didn't use quotation marks above.

Random chance plays a big role in the acting biz

My wife and I have watched a couple of episodes of a new show called Fringe. It is sort of x-filesish and the creators seem to think that "Fringe" is a branch of science like biology and physics, so it has problems that may be tough to overcome.

What is kind of sad is that there is really a lot of talent which may not be rewarded if the show fails. It happens all the time, a show dies due to weak performances by the main stars, or poor writing while there are great performances by side characters.

I have really noticed the actress Jasika Nicole. She is an FBI agent, but so far they just have her acting like a lab assistant. This is too bad: She has incredible presence and I would love for her role to expand in an unexpected way. Maybe she and the son of the mad-scientist could get together. It would be a nice change from the two leading parts becoming involved and would open-up whole new areas for plots.

btw. I noticed when "researching" this that Jasika Nicole has a website and some pretty nice art that she has done.

Last LSD until the race

It was 20.6 miles done at a pace of about 8:33 and I have to say it felt much slower.

I left home under overcast skies and it was warm so I wouldn't have worn my raincoat even if I hadn't forgotten it at work. Two miles out it began to rain gently and kept it up for the next 10 miles. I lost some time because my wet t-shirt was irritating me and so I took it off and carried it. I have a million of these, so I should have just thrown it away--even though I wrung it out, it was still pretty heavy and prevented me from swinging whichever arm was holding it. Also, I waited a couple of minutes at two different busy intersections--I didn't deduct this time since in theory the rest it gave me allowed for a faster pace just after the wait.

I should be starting to taper and so today's workout is the last really long distance till the race.

Her posts are really good, but sometimes the commenters surpass

Paul Zrimsek said... "When the stock market crashed in 1929, Tyrannosaurus Rex didn't go on television and talk about the princes of greed. No, he went to Wall Street and ate the princes of greed." -- Joe Biden

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