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Showing posts from August, 2012

Friday Mad Science: Just the Facts, Ma'am

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Several media outlets have noted that  VP Candidate  Paul Ryan ’s speech was factually inaccurate in many details .  Additional media outlets have noted that  no one cares .  And I gotta say that it’s driving me crazy. Sir Issac Newton, big fan of Physics. I mean, it’s fine.  Believe what you want.  Truly.  I already know that I’m not going to change your mind.  What I’m telling you is that it’s driving me crazy the way that you ignore truths that you find inconvenient.  You need to learn to deal with them.  Find a way to assimilate them into your worldview, and *gasp* try keep an open mind to the idea that—it is at least possible—your pre-conceived ideas might be partially incorrect. One of my favorite sayings is that “ when the laws of physics and economics collide, physics wins .”  I’d further postulate that the laws of economics trump politics when faced with the real facts of life, leading to a kind of hierarchy of truth that I personally believe in: Physics >

Friday Hair Metal: Land of Confusion

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Granted, it's not really hair metal. But it is from the 80's.  Surely that's good for some points?

Tri Training Video: Bike Hill Repeats

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I did a variation of this last weekend, and it was awesome. In other sports news, the Titans have their final pre-season game tonight, and the college football season officially starts, with UConn taking on  Massachusetts .  That's on cable locally on SportsNY . Hooray football!

Photos from Sally in Arizona

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I'll admit up front that I'm more than a little jealous. And I sent this one in return. 

The Bachelor Life: Day 3

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Hannah and Emma mug for the camera at a Rest Stop near Sedona, AZ. The girls are out in Arizona for a wedding, while I stayed behind for work and to look after our dog Dixie.  That might sound trivial, but with both my parents and grandparents gone, at this point Dixie is pretty much the only family I have left besides Sally and the girls.  And Dixie is twelve.  Needless to say, I haven't enjoyed leaving her alone all day in the house while I'm at work, but fortunately, we've got some terrific neighbors who've looked after her during the day this week. On the other hand, it's been hard to stay motivated this week.  With just myself and the dog, the temptation to just lay on the couch and do nothing has been damn near irresistable.  But last night I finally managed to bestir myself and get out to the gym, and afterwards I felt better than I have pretty much all week.  Granted, I still haven't ironed or done some of the other things I'd hoped to get d

The Stone Priest's Wife, Part 1: Alaira's Date

For better or worse, I've realized I'm never going to get any further with Centurion 6.  Why?  Because my flash drive crashed, and I lost the draft.  Ugh.  I mean, not that I'd been working on it, but still.  So anyway... * * * I. ALAIRA’S DATE “Well, how do I look?” Alaira asked.  She held her hands away from her sides and turned to show off her dress.  It was the red silk number she’d bought with the proceeds from their last job, and it hugged her waist nicely.  The slit up the side showed her legs to their best advantage.  “You look great,” Belle replied.  “You always do.  Not that it’s going to matter.” “Gods, Belle, do you have to be such a downer?” Alaira turned on her heel and started back towards the Trainer’s Area.  “Modor appreciates me.” Belle hurried to catch up.  “Modor appreciates everyone with a nice set of legs.” “Oh come on!”  Alaira said.  “That’s not fair.  Modor’s had it pretty rough.  But in his heart, he’s just like everybody else. 

The Bachelor Life: Day 1

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Sally and the kids are out of town this week.  They went to Phoenix, AZ, for a wedding.  That leaves me and our dog Dixie in the house by ourselves this week. Hannah and Emma hamming it up at the National Gallery in Washington, DC. Its not so much that I was excited about having a week to myself.  It's more that there's just always so much to do, but without the girls, that workload largely disappears.  So Sally and the girls left yesterday around 7:00am, and Ive been in my own ever since. The first thing I did was to go for a long bike ride.  Usually it's hard to carve out more than about 90 minutes of riding time, even on a Saturday. Yesterday I stayed out for over two hours, and I rode hills.  It was kind of awesome.  Of course, when I got home, my Honey-Do list was waiting for me, but even with breakfast and dishes and whatnot, I was still done and back home by 1:00pm.  So then I took the dog for a walk, went to the grocery store to get myself some food for the

Sunday Comics: The Adventures of Hiro Arturian, Samurai (Day 17)

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The Adventures of Hiro Arturian, Samurai .  Page 17 To see the page at full size, click here . Hiro has a war on two fronts.  He was victorious on the battlefield, but the battle on the Home Front is very much an open question. As always, to read the story from the beginning, use the Sunday Comics tag.  That'll bring up all of the Sunday Comics entries.  Or you can use the Hiro tag if this particular story is the only one you care about.

More Thoughts on D&D Next

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Wizards of the Coast (WotC) released the second installment of their new iteration of the rules for Dungeons and Dragons (D&D), currently called D&D Next .  I wrote a little about this when WotC released the first installment of the Next rules , but seeing as how that was back in June, and we now have a new update to talk about, I figured it was time to finally update my thoughts on the new system here. D&D Next is actually the fifth full ruleset in the game's history.  Insurance adjuster Gary Gygax invented D&D based largely on his work with insurance actuarial tables.  Actuarial tables use probability to enable insurance companies to gauge the risks of various events against which the companies provide financial guarantees.  Gygax took this idea--that in any given situation, there is a certain percentage chance that something will happen (X%) and a certain percentage chance that it won't happen (1-X%)--and used it to develop a basic combat simulator.

Friday Mad Science: Mike Vick vs. QE3

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“The man of great wealth owes a peculiar obligation to the State, because he derives special advantages from the mere existence of government. Not only should he recognize this obligation in the way he leads his daily life and in the way he earns and spends his money, but it should also be recognized by the way in which he pays for the protection the States gives him”.  - Teddy Roosevelt, from a speech on the Estate Tax, April 14, 1906 We’ve been talking in the office this week about whether or not the Fed is gonna do another round of quantative easing (QE3) in the next few weeks.  Minutes from a recent meeting of the Fed suggested this was a distinct possibility, and that sent the markets on a rally early in the week.   According to the minutes of the meeting, which ended Aug. 1 : “Many members judged that additional monetary accommodation would likely be warranted fairly soon unless incoming information pointed to a substantial and sustainable strengthening in the pace

Bonus Friday Hair Metal: Photograph and more!

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Taylor Swift & Def Leppard.  I can't decide if it's awesome or horrifying.

Friday Hair Metal: America

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Today's my Friday, so...

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The New York Times yesterday called this song one of the "songs of summer".  I realized I never heard it, so here we go. Eh.  I take that back.  I have heard it.  It just didn't register very deeply.   Here, let's try again. Better?

Offseason Training Update

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The good thing about the offseason is that it’s a little looser and less regulated than my in-season triathlon training schedule tends to be.  Without any races on the schedule, I’ve got time to work on pretty much whatever I want, and I usually use that time to either rest up after a long season of racing or to focus on one discipline of tri, pretty much to the exclusion or near-exclusion of the others.  The downside of that, however, is that there’s less rigor in my training plan design.  As I’ve written here before, I usually work on a four-week schedule, going hard for three weeks and then cutting back in the fourth week, my so-called “Rest Week”.  However, during the offseason I’m much more inclined to just do whatever feels right on any given day, up to and including skipping workouts when I just don’t feel like working out.  This offseason, however, I’ve been feeling pretty good and pushing pretty hard, both because I’d gained weight during my involuntary layoff and because, b

Comic Review: Saga #s 1 through 6

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I like comics, but one thing I've realized since I started getting back into the scene is that I'm not following them as closely as I did back when I used to review.  For example, I had no idea that Brian K. Vaughn had a new book out, called Saga , and that sucks because I really, really like his stuff. Beware!  This book contains copious amounts of breastfeeding, and an ever-present baby-sling! You probably know Vaughn because he was a writer on the TV show Lost .  But before that, he wrote for Marvel and DC , doing both typical work-for-hire on established characters and breaking new ground on brand new stuff.  For example, he wrote Runaways for Marvel,  Y: The Last Man for DC's Vertigo imprint, and Ex Machina for DC's Wildstorm imprint.  How awesome was that stuff?  Well, Runaways was so awesome that Joss Whedon actually demanded to write it after Vaughn finished up the initial 18-issue run that kicked off the series.  Meanwhile, Y: The Last Man was gene

Daredevil Update: The Sizzle Reel

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Two weeks ago, I wrote a bit about Daredevil reverting to Marvel/Disney and my almost-certainly-vain hope that Daredevil would somehow get made into a TV show.  Well, director  Joe Carnahan ( The A-Team , Smokin' Aces ) made a last-ditch attempt to get a DD movie made at 20th Century Fox using the following as a "sizzle roll" in order to show his vision for the project.  Then, when the project went "tits up" (his words), Carnahan posted the sizzle roll to YouTube .  Which is how I came by  it. Carnahan said this was a 70's, Frank Miller -style take on Daredevil .  And I like it okay, but it's not by any means my favorite take on the character, especially since the first Daredevil movie was also based around those old Frank Miller stories.   I mean, I like all those Frank Miller stories, but to be very clear, there are plenty of other Daredevil stories that are worth telling.  If they're gonna make a new set of Daredevil movies--at this

Lately I've Been Reading...

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Dossey Expat Adventures My friends Amber and Matt just moved to Malaysia.   I've known Amber since the day before R-Day, 1991.  Meanwhile, Matt and I were roommates during our Cow (Junior) year at the Academy--at least, I think that's when it was.  Anyway, they got married and lived happily ever after... and now they're in Malaysia.  And this is their story. Major Spoilers There are lots of comics news sites out there.  I like Major Spoilers because they put out a bunch of terrific podcasts every week.  What makes these podcasts good?  The crew all have experience working in broadcasting.  So they sound like professional radio guys rather than mere nerds sitting around a shared microphone talking comics. Total Pro Sports.Com There is no good reason to read TotalProSports.Com .  The site is a little like TMZ but dedicated to professional sports.  I fact, I mostly don't read Total Pro Sports.  I mostly just look at the pictures.

Sunday Comics: The Adventures of Hiro Arturian, Samurai (Day 16)

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The Adventures of Hiro Arturian, Samurai , Page 16. Click here to see the page at full size . We're coming to the end of Chapter 1.  Hiro has chased off the monster, but the town is still a wreck, the wizard Arkanus is dead, and oh by the way, his wife is still at home with a newborn.  So really, this isn't the end.  It's just the beginning. As always, to read this story from the beginning, you can use the new Hiro tag below.  That's why the tags are there.  Or, if you're new to this whole Sunday Comics thing, try the Sunday Comics tag.  You can use that to read the backstory on this project as well as all of the Sunday Comics entries.

Connecticut Comic Conn

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Early pics from today's Comic Conn.

Friday Mad Science: A Voice Lost in the Wilderness

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Lot's of politics this week.  You have been warned... You probably already know that  former  Massachusetts  governor  Mitt Romney  named Congressional Representative  Paul Ryan  as his vice-presidential running mate  this past weekend.  You may also know that Ryan is famous for his budget, which promises lower taxes and lower government spending.  In fact, given his budget, I think it’s fair to say that Ryan is actually a Libertarian who lacks the courage to actually run on his true party’s ticket.  That said, I’m in no way eager to analyze his budget and prove what a terrible idea it is.  I try not to let my distaste for Client 9's personal life influence my judgement of his writing. Thankfully,  former  New York  governor  Eliot Spitzer  did it for me this week on  Slate   .  I’ll spare you the time that Spitzer spared me; the bottom line is this: “Here is the number that is perhaps the key to his view of the future: 3.75 percent. That number, according to Rya