Letter from Kurt Vonnegut to Marianne Brown shared on Letters of Note. Kurt, we miss you.

Partytime!

Tapping a keg of Foothills Sexual Chocolate Stout and grilling goat sausages down by the pond. Good fun!

Dan poured the first pint on 11/11/11 at 11:11 AM EST. Funny: that keg was filled at Foothills Brewery on 1/10/11.

In the NY Times, Christopher McDougall writes about barefoot running and raves about the merits of a 100-year-old training exercise called 100 Up:

It was five months since I discovered W.S. George’s “100-Up,” and I’d been doing the exercise regularly. In George’s essay, he says he invented the 100-Up in 1874, when he was an 16-year-old chemist’s apprentice in England and could train only during his lunch hour. By Year 2 of his experiment, the overworked lab assistant was the fastest amateur miler in England. By Year 5, he held world records in everything from the half-mile to 10 miles.

McDougall tells the story of barefoot running like no one else, and he is really excited about the “100-Up” thing. I’m not sure running in place will cure all that ails ya, when it comes to running. But the 100-Up exercise does point to an important issue: technique. I think it’s a widespread misconception that we know how to run. In school, the gymn teachers teach the kids how to do all kinds of sports. They teach how to play basketball, how to do the long jump correctly, how to benchpress properly. But when it comes to running, most coaches just point to the track and yell “run faster!!”

At the other end of the spectrum of coaching runners lives Alberto Salazar.In her  recent New Yorker article, Jennifer Kahn chronicles Salazaar’s quest for running perfection as a runner and as a coach for the Nike running team.

Salazar believes that a runner striking even slightly in front of his body will experience a momentary hesitation while the hamstring labors to pull his torso forward over the grounded foot. “It’s like having a square wheel on your car,” Salazar said. “Each time it comes around, there’s a moment where the car will lurch.”

Switching to a video of Bekele, Salazar grew animated. “If you look at Bekele and you look at Gebrselassie—and Gebrselassie is the first one we saw this with—he’s not sitting,” he said, stabbing a finger at the runner’s pelvis. “His hips are directly under his body, which is directly above his foot. So all that force is going up through his legs and hips into his upper body, to propel him forward. There’s nothing being lost there.”

Both Salazaar and McDougall are on a quest for perfect running technique, but they take very different approaches. McDougall promotes minimalist running, and now I guess the 100-Up exercise as a cure-all for bad technique. Salazaar likes to throw exotic methods and lots of technology at the problem of bad running. And of course he works for Nike. But I think ultimately they both come to the same conclusion – efficiency is the key to good running. Clearly it’s the key to speed. Sprinters have known that for a while. But I think we’re learning that efficiency is also the key to healthy, injury-free running.

11/1/11 (or 1.11.11) – crazy date today! And most likely we’ve also crossed the 7 Billion mark in earth’s human population and we’re now gunning it for the 8 Billion mark sometime around 2020. Is it time to panic? Depends on which estimate in the graph below becomes a reality.

The reality is also that the rate of growth of human population has steadily decreased over the years. In most of the world, more and more parents decide to have fewer children. Empowering women in particular, and giving them access to birth control are critical factors for this trend.

However, population growth in and of itself is not the key problem we’re facing.  The single biggest problem standing in the way of a sustainable human population on this planet is the massive and disproportionate use of resources of a fairly small portion of the human population:

Reducing the total footprint of the human population means we – who live in rich consumer societies – have to cut back dramatically our overuse of resources. That, even more than overall population growth is the real challenge.

Turns out P. T. Barnum never did say “There’s a Sucker Born Every Minute” … this is the crazy story of the Cardiff Giant

From 1866 until 1868 Mr. George Hull, of Binghamton, New York studied archeology and paleontology. Over this period of time Hull contemplated how to pull off a hoax. It seems that many an evangelist at the time had been preaching that there were giants in the earth. In June of 1868 Hull traveled back to Fort Dodge, Iowa where there was a gypsum quarry he had recalled seeing two years earlier. Even then, he had noticed that the dark blue streaks running through the soft lime rock resembled human veins. Realizing this its appearance was tailor-made for his hoax and it was easy to carve, Hull hired a group of quarry workers to cut off a slab measuring twelve feet long, four feet wide and two feet thick.

(Continue on HistoryBuff.com)

Yesterday I went on a bit  about how I think how cool Durham is. Little did I know that Durham is in fact Apple-cool. World-series level. Two fine Durham business establishments make a cameo appearance in the World-series Apple ad for the new jesus-phone. The ad features a new voice assistant called Siri and the lady tells her jesus phone that she’s locked out and the phone presents her with three nearby locksmiths, two of which are in Durham. I know the folks at Don Hill’s Lock and Safe, because they make all our registered keys at work, and they are Durham local business bedrock. They must be lovin’ all the attention :)

The neighborhood email lists are abuzz about this and there is plenty speculation how this cameo appearance came about. Over at the Upstager, they are trying to triangulate the location of the lady in the ad:

we can use the indicated distances (3.3 miles from Don Hill’s and 4.0 from Clayton Locksmith) to do a rough plotting of its two possible locations:

• just south of the Durham Freeway near the Bacon Street side of the Durham Tech campus,
• or just east of northern Sherwood Park and south of Cheek Road, possibly on Castlebay Road or Andover Drive.

However, Google Maps says that the two businesses are 13 miles apart, so I don’t see how you can find a location that’s 3.3 miles from one and 4 miles from the other. But be that as it may … Durham is Siriously cool!

This afternoon was one of those Durham-is-cool moments. When I got off work and I was waiting for Julia, I saw that they were unloading a truckload of vintage Porsches from a truck parked across the street. One of the cars was an original 1950s Type 550 Porsche Spyder – worth about $1 Million!

DSA was just out, and so there were a bunch of parents gawking at the cool, old cars. Several times the oldtimers got stuck in the pickup traffic, and the millioin-dollar Spyder was parked in by a minivan for the longest time, with several people circling taking pictures. I don’t think they were thrilled about all the attention.

After gawking at the cool, old cars, we went over to Fullsteam brewery,  where I had my growlers filled with fine, locally brewed beer. We ordered a couple of gourmet pizzas from the Pie Pushers truck, and I had a pint and Julia a soda while we waited for the pizza. We met some friends and Julia drew flowers and rainbows and dragons on the bar. Across the street, at Motorco,  a band was practicing for their concert tonight. I saw that one of my favorite local bands, Southern Culture on the Skids, will play at Motorco next Friday. I definiely want to see them!

More photos of the Porsches below …

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Last Saturday, October 8, at 11:30 PM Laura’s mom, Dolores, died at Eaton Community Hospice in Charlotte, MI. She had been in the hospital, then in rehab for a broken hip, when a CT scan revealed that she had advanced pancreatic cancer. When we found out, Laura managed to get her mom into hospice fairly quickly, as the cancer was too advanced for treatment. Last Wednesday she got a place in hospice and John helped her move. On Thursday the nurse called us and strongly suggested we come to see Dolores. So on Friday we drove 14 hours to Michigan, with the children, to see Dolores. We got there around 8:00 PM and went to see her right away. She was awake and recognized Laura and the kids and Laura’s brothers. Later, she went to sleep, and I took the kids to the hotel. Laura stayed with her mom until late that night. Dolores never came back on Saturday, and she passed away Saturday night.

Dolores was a kind soul and a wonderful person. Her friends and family miss her very much. But at least she passed away peacefully and surrounded by her children, who came to see her from Hawai’i, Arizona, Virginia and (us) from North Carolina. The local funeral home was very helpful and got all the organizational things done, as well as the cremation, and we did the funeral on Tuesday, while everyone was still in town. Laura’s brother Paul officiated the ceremony and he did a great job. It was very moving, and then we went to put her ashes to rest at the cemetery in Olivet, next to her parents and her brother.

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At the #OccupyWallStreet protests today, one of the 700-or-so entrapped and arrested protestors was a 13-years-old girl, wearing a green GIR hat in the video below.

Really, NY Police?! Really?!

Happy International Blasphemy Day!

This guy takes the Second Amendment to a whole new level:

Stephen Forthman shoots first and asks questions later. He wears a shirt proudly displaying the words “I don’t dial 911” next to a picture of a hand gripping a sixshooter. When it comes time to contact local emergency services for assistance, he’d rather just shoot at the problem until it goes away — even when the problem is his own home being on fire.

…
“When we arrived at the scene, the house was completely engulfed in flames,” said firefighter Daniel Cummings. “Outside, the homeowner was shouting and firing a semiautomatic pistol into the fire.”

…This isn’t the first time Forthman has refused to dial 911. In 2004, Forthman tried to shoot himself in the torso after having chest pains. His brother-in-law wrestled a rifle away from Forthman and called an ambulance.

And no – this is not an Onion News Story …

Romero Studios is the side business of musicians Roderick and Anisa Romero (founders of the 1980s-1990s trancey/alt.rock group Sky Cries Mary)

The tree houses they build are not only gorgeous, they are also made almost entirely from reclaimed lumber. They have built tree houses for artists like Sting, Trudie Styler, Julianne Moore, Val Kilmer and Donna Karan.

(via BoingBoing)

Today, I ran along Guess Rd, five miles North to the Citgo gas station at S. Lowell Rd, and back … 10 miles (16KM). The weather was beautiful, but the road seemed a bit busier than normally on a Sunday morning. I was only planning to add a single mile to last week’s 8M run, but I felt great at 4 miles, so I went for it. I did fine, but the last couple of miles I was pretty pooped, and my feet were sore. But I had to concentrate on my technique, so I would not hurt my feet. Every little sharp rock I stepped on sent a jolt of pain up my spine. But I kept my stride short and very light, my upper body relaxed, feet straight, head up, and finally I made it up that last hill! My feet were sore, but I had no blisters, no real pain or bruises from the rocks. I did get a few looks from the church ladies, again, but that was about it. Now my goal is to make it all the way to the county line.

This horse is CRAZY!

He’s a KILLER!!

Seriously … a couple of weeks ago Wally attacked me and Laura. He tried to kick me, backing up to me and kicking in my direction and then he bit Laura!

But why?

Usually he’s a gentle soul, always trying to please. Sometimes he can be stubborn. But he never before attacked us! We puzzled over his behavior, we tried to assert our authority, we tried to coax and bribe him. Nothing worked. He’d either run away or threaten us. The really odd thing was that sometimes he was OK. Especially with Julia and the other girls he was OK most of the time. Julia could put a halter on him and then even I could lead him and lunge him. No problem. But as soon as I took off the halter he’d start threatening me.

After several days of agonizing over this problem we realized that we had recently run out of flax seed. In early summer, when the flies started getting bad, we started giving him flax seed to help him with his allergy to the fly bites. It worked great! He used to grow huge welts for each fly bite. When we gave him flax seed the flies were still biting, but his allergies were much less severe and in the places where his fur had fallen out, it was growing back. But then we ran out of flax seed.

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A few weeks ago, they finished repaving Guess Road from Umstead Road to the Orange County line and I was really happy to see the nice, wide shoulder they built. They added about 2-3 feet on either side of this fairly busy rural, 2-lane highway. I used to bike up Guess Road to Little River Park to go mountain biking, and it had a bit of a shoulder in some of the turns. Now it has a nice wide shoulder all the way out to the county line.

So this morning I was trying to decide where to go running. I had been running in our neighborhood and in the nighborhood across Guess road, all the way down to Latta Road. But I wanted to push my distance and so I went North instead, all along Guess road on that new, smooth, wide shoulder.

Nice, quiet Sunday morning. 70 Deg. F – a bit humid, but not bad. I ran four miles out, to Big Horn Road and four back. It was a great run. Eight miles – my longest run in 2 years. A little downhill in the neighborhood to warm up. Then a long gentle climb up to Russell Road. then down, past the convenience store at St Mary’s all the way down to Big Horn Road. Turn around and climb all the f@#$’n way back up to Russell. Miles 6 and 7 were just smooth and easy downhill, even though it was getting warmer and church traffic started picking up. Finally, the last mile in the neighborhood, I was pushing up the hill – my feet a bit numb and legs just a bit sore. My feet were fine, too. I stepped on a rock towards the end, distracted by the traffic. But no blisters or problems.

I got a few looks. The church ladies don’t usually see folks running along the highway on Sunday morning with no shoes on, so some of them had to slow down for a double-take. Well, I ain’t no Jesus, and I’m not walking on water. But I am running barefoot, Ma’am.

This morning, Irene made landfall near Cape Lookout on the North Carolina coast as a Cat 1 hurricane. We’re about 180 miles (290 KM) inland from Cape Lookout and so Irene was not a big threat to us. Still, we stocked up on food, gas for the grill and gasoline for the chainsaw. Just in case.

Below, the red X – that’s us.

As it was, we just had a pretty rainy and very blustery Saturday.We had a few branches down and Laura’s store lost power in the afternoon. The horses were a bit nervous from all the wind and they probably did not get much sleep last night.

I drove all the way to Greensboro to get Jacob set up with a Bass Violin, since he’s decided to join the strings orchestra at his middle school. On the Interstate, we saw several convoys of line crews headed east, toward the coast. They’ll have their hands full for a few days.

So far, it sounds like Irene’s impact on the state was not too bad, although 4 people died in accidents related to Irene. Let’s hope Irene won’t make too much of a mess for folks up north.

Today, at 1:51 PM I was in the bathroom getting ready to take a shower after a long run this morning and an hour of horseback riding, when the damn house started shaking. “Wow – that’s an earthquake” I thought. I was right – it was a 5.9 earthquake in Virginia that was felt all along the east coast. The kids were amazed and incredulous. “Really?? An earthquake??” Yup – that was an earthquake.

This was not the fist time I experienced the earth shake. Back in Germany in the mid 70s I remember waking up one morning and seeing the bookshelf next to my bed sway dangerously. Nothing much happened, but I remember the experience. Today’s tremor just felt like a truck rumbling by – but without a truck. It was quiet. All you could hear was the sound of stuff rattling. And then it was over. Apparently this was one of the strongest earthquakes on the East Coast ever recorded.

Saturday morning cartoons … Enjoy!

Super Chicken:

Mighty Mouse

Batman

Spiderman, The Jetsons, Felix, and Woody Woodpecker below the fold …

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Saturday I rented an 11hp “Billy Goat” brush mower from Best Rent All and spent about 5 hours this weekend mowing in and around the pasture. The horses are pretty picky eaters and the pasture is not well seeded, so there are areas where weeds and tree saplings are choking any grass that may want to grow.  Also around the pasture grass and weeds and lots of tree saplings  (maple, mostly) were really taking over.  That mower is great for stuff like that. The huge blade and powerful engine will shred weeds and saplings – no problem.

However – Sunday afternoon the drive belt broke on the mower. So When I returned it this morning I talked them into letting me have the mower for another half day on Friday, so I can finish up.