jfiore
Posts by this author
August 30, 2008
Did Steve Doocy of Fox News really say what I thought he said about Sarah Palin?
Yep. She has "international experience" because Alaska is right up there, you know, next to Russia! Sure. And I must be fluent in French because I don't live that far from Quebec.
August 24, 2008
So Greg has made it clear that he doesn't think that there's any genetic basis for why some groups of people are able run very far, very fast. At the core of this are so-called "racial traits". Any casual observer of the Olympics will note the dominance of people with dark skin in distance running…
August 24, 2008
It is well documented that as the temperature around an endurance athlete increases, performance decreases. And while one can train for and adapt to warm race conditions to mitigate that decrease, the effect remains. But at the highest levels of competition, control of the mind may make all the…
August 22, 2008
A very entertaining article in The Times today regarding Olympians and sex. The author, former Olympian Matthew Syed, discusses just what goes on behind closed doors (and sometimes on rooftops) at the Olympic village. He offers the usual bag of "reasons why" (testosterone, being away from home, etc…
August 21, 2008
Time for a new category here at the Refuge, namely "Hokey Haiku". It's just a fun way to communicate a simple thought or observation of the day in a mere 17 syllables. Don't expect Robert Frost or e.e.cummings though.
Summer's vanishing
Where is my calculator?
The semester starts
Yep. I'm back on…
August 15, 2008
Spoiler alert: If you don't want to know anything about the Olympic Women's 10,000 meter final just yet, stop now.
The race was amazing on several fronts, but before I go any further, it will be broadcast on NBC tonight at 10:45 PM. I just finished watching the race on CBC. I can't give a lot of…
August 11, 2008
"Once religion takes hold in a society it can't be stopped." So says President G W Bush in an interview with Bob Costas at the Beijing Olympics. Let's all hope that such is not the case.
You can find the video here. The section in question is about 3:15 in. There are plenty of other moments to…
August 10, 2008
There had been reports of the usual last-minute rush to complete facility construction at the Beijing Olympics. Now I wonder if they completed the main broadcast center. While watching the coverage yesterday, at one point NBC went to Bob Costas at the center and I noticed something strange. It was…
August 5, 2008
Enough already with the "Obama flips-flops on offshore drilling"! You can really tell when the news networks need a lead story: They simply leave out some salient details and allow their talking heads to spin. If you haven't seen the original interview that appeared in The Palm Beach Post, here's…
August 1, 2008
It has been said that the Olympics is rather like a genetic freak-show: All of the extreme outliers from the population show up and do their thing. While specific "genetic gifts" are pretty much required to reach the top of most any sport these days, a little technology can certainly assist in the…
July 31, 2008
Time for a gear shift on the Refuge. Handy-dandy tip number 105: "How to keep ants out of your hummingbird feeders". I can't say that I blame the ants for swarming over the feeders. After all, who doesn't love a little sucrose in solution with water? Heck, as my brother, an avid cyclist at one time…
July 29, 2008
I visit certain message boards from time to time, including one called vdrums.com, a site dedicated to electronic drumming. While there's a lot of useful info there and a bunch of friendly and helpful folks, there are also some entertaining end-of-message signatures that folks use. Here are a few…
July 22, 2008
So says the BBC. Researchers tested oxygen uptake and heart rate for rock drummers, including Blondie's Clem Burke. They concluded:
"It is clear that their fitness levels need to be outstanding - through monitoring Clem's performance in controlled conditions, we have been able to map the…
July 21, 2008
If you haven't been following the Al Franken/Norm Coleman race for US Senate, do yourself a favor and check out some of Al's ads here. I really enjoy their style: direct, informative, and with a twist of humor. Having read several of Al's books, I think he would make a great senator.
July 13, 2008
The 31st Utica Boilermaker 15 road race went off this morning, almost without a hitch. Rain arrived about an hour before the 8 AM start but cleared out before the wheelchairs took off at 7:45. The streets were left wet and the air humid. Combined with a low 70's start temp, these were not ideal…
July 11, 2008
A recent article in the Utica, NY Observer-Dispatch (sorry, no link) took a look at the changing demographics of the Boilermaker 15k with the assistance of the race's former timer. Here's a quick run-down:
In 1985, the average age was 33.5 for men and 30.3 for women. There was a steady increase…
July 10, 2008
The Utica Boilermaker 15k goes off once again this Sunday, July 13. Currently there are over 11,000 entries, including for the first time, the governor of New York State. The Boilermaker is known for many things, including an elite international field, huge community involvement, and perhaps one of…
July 8, 2008
The raspberry cane borer, Oberea bimaculata, is a particularly nasty garden pest and for some reason there seems to be an unusually large infestation of them this year. Our property contains all manner of cane berries including a large patch of local wild black raspberries (my favorite), wild…
June 30, 2008
This past weekend was high school graduation weekend for most of the schools in our area. At times like these, I sometimes hear folks waxing nostalgic about certain teachers who made an impact on them. I never had a chance to thank a couple of teachers who taught me extremely valuable lessons that…
June 23, 2008
Two things that seem to be in the headlines of late: oil prices and overweight Americans. How do these things go together? Time for a fun "back of the envelope" calculation.
According to the CDC about two-thirds of American adults are overweight or obese (a BMI over 25 tags you as overweight while…
June 19, 2008
As part of my continuing adventures in drumming symmetry, I have been working on a dual electronic hi-hat pedal. The idea is to have a single hi-hat pad respond equally well to either a left or a right foot pedal. It is similar to having both left and right kick drum pedals. For the hi-hat, this…
June 18, 2008
If you happened to be watching C-SPAN last night you got to see a parade of conservative Republicans prattling on about House Resolution 284 (AKA National Year of the Bible) and related concerns. It's gotten to the point that a showing of middle-aged and older conservative white guys from Texas, in…
June 17, 2008
The Freedom From Religion Foundation will hold its 31st annual convention in Chicago, October 10-12. Speakers include journalist Eleanor Clift and Daniel Dennett. Clift has been a contributing editor at Newsweek for a number of years and appears regularly on some of the "political pundits" shows.…
June 6, 2008
Congressman Rohrabacher (R-California) gave a presentation yesterday concerning global warming which was carried live on C-SPAN. I have not been able to find either video or a transcript but here's the gist of it: Rohrabacher resides firmly in the lunatic fringe. He's a global warming denier and a…
June 5, 2008
What could've been the national symbol of the USA if Ben Franklin had his way, the wild turkey (meleagris gallopavo) is having a bit of a resurgence as of late. In our neck of the woods (central New York state) they have become a common sight and small bands of them are often seen crossing the…
May 28, 2008
You gotta love Glenn Beck. This guy knows how to bring the crazy. On last night's show he had a segment on hydrogen-powered cars. You can find a transcript here, about 2/3rds in (you'll probably want to avoid the first section featuring Ben Stein unless you have vomit buckets handy). So Glenn…
May 13, 2008
And now for something completely different, the tongue drum:
The tongue drum is also known as the slit drum or xylo-slit drum. It is the modern descendant of the ancient log drum. This is a large 14 key unit tuned to a pentatonic scale in G. It can be played with mallets or your fingers (with…
May 13, 2008
Humans have an ability to recognize patterns, even if they're not really there, like the face of Jesus in a pizza or Elvis on the side of a Holstein. Apparently, a local lumberjack recognized something in a certain tree trunk and decided to flip it upside down and paint it blue in order to help…
May 13, 2008
Have you been paying attention to science news? See if you can answer the little quiz below (my mind was wondering while proctoring my Science of Sound final exam yesterday).
Which of the following is not both a planet and an element in the Periodic Table:
A. Mercury
B. Uranus/Uranium
C. Neptune/…
April 16, 2008
This is for the faithful drummer-readers of the Refuge (uh, both of you), particularly those of the electronic kit persuasion. For years I've had difficulty keeping my electronic hi-hat pedals in one spot. They always seem to skate around the kit carpet no matter what I do. I've extended the steel…