life, the universe, and everything

"All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree."
- Albert Einstein

Scientists at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Illinois report that they have new clues that may lead to an explanation of the existence of... well, the universe (just so you know, the answer isn't 42).

"In a mathematically perfect universe, we would be less than dead; we would never have existed. According to the basic precepts of Einsteinian relativity and quantum mechanics, equal amounts of matter and antimatter should have been created in the Big Bang and then immediately annihilated each other in a blaze of lethal energy, leaving a big fat goose egg with which to make stars, galaxies and us. And yet we exist, and physicists (among others) would dearly like to know why.

Sifting data from collisions of protons and antiprotons at Fermilab’s Tevatron, which until last winter was the most powerful particle accelerator in the world, the team, known as the DZero collaboration, found that the fireballs produced pairs of the particles known as muons, which are sort of fat electrons, slightly more often than they produced pairs of anti-muons. So the miniature universe inside the accelerator went from being neutral to being about 1 percent more matter than antimatter."

The full New York Times article is here.

WOD
for time:
10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
medicine ball clean to wall-ball @ 20lbs med-ball
burpee pull-up

13:17 rx'd. Smoker!

laughter

"I believe that laughter is a language of God and that we can all live happily ever laughter."
- Yakov Smirnoff





Rest day ;)

reading 101

I was going to post a fun little comment on today's workout, and what looks to be an excellent recipe for home-made spice rub since bbq season is here...

Yeah... false alarm. My complete astonishment over the video below just shot to hell all that happy Friday stuff.



Short version? On April 23rd, 2010 Arizona governor Jan Brewer signed into law the Arizona Immigration bill. It's now the 14th of May, 2010 and the United States Attorney General goes before the House Judiciary Committee and says that he hasn't yet read the law!

Never mind that it's now been three weeks since this law was passed - starting a storm of public controversy - or that the Attorney General has already made public comments about this law - but why can't he bother to read the actual 16 pages of the law? At the very least you'd think he'd do it because maybe the subject would come up while testifying before the House committee that oversees the Justice department???

Now, Representative Poe misstates the actual results of the WSJ/NBC poll, but it seems to me that something is very rotten in the state of Denmark when the US Attorney General hasn't actually read the law that he has been commenting on. That's pretty sad coming from a lawyer with such a distinguished background.

opportunities

"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Winston Churchill


After the latest British general election in which no party won an official majority, the Tories (conservatives who hold the most seats in Parliament) formed a coalition government with the Liberal Democrats (not as far left as the Labor party). The British are facing huge budget shortfalls and projected deficits eerily similar to mainland Europe's - and ours for that matter. Here's hoping that the party of Churchill will seize the opportunity to steer Great Britain successfully out of the difficulties they are in.

hump day musings

“We differ from other states in that we regard the individual who holds himself aloof from public affairs as being useless. Yet we yield to no one in our independence of spirit and complete self-reliance.”
– Pericles

I've been on a political kick lately, and with all that's going on, I doubt I'm the only one paying attention, reading about, thinking through and talking things over... and in doing so I've let this little venue turn into one of my ways to get the last word ;)

Anyhow, I'll have some different stuff (and less frustrating?) up soon. For now though watch out - you are likely to see more of the same...

Happy hump day y'all! Peace.

holy debt crisis Batman

"However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results."
- Winston Churchill

Now I'm no economics expert - but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night. Seriously though, if there ever was an indictment of the entitlement/welfare state, the disturbing diagram below has gotta be it's visual aide. I don't see how any of the schools of economic thought (Keynesian, monetarist, supply-side, etc) could say the situation outlined below is a good idea!


Amounts converted to US dollars. Image courtesy of the New York Times. The corresponding article is here.

Monday fun-day

WOD

3 rounds for time:

400 meter run

21 ring dips

12 deadlifts @ 185lbs

My time was 10:04 rx'd. Felt good this morning!

On another topic, a short rant...

United States Attorney General Eric Holder said yesterday on NBC's Meet the Press that, according the AP,

...the Obama administration said on Sunday it wants to work with Congress on possible limitations of the constitutional rights afforded terrorism suspects - even for American citizens.

Attorney General Eric Holder said changes may be needed to allow law enforcement more time to question suspected terrorists before they are told about their Miranda rights to a lawyer and to remain silent under interrogation.

WTF? Interrogators already have what's called a "public safety exception" where they can question a suspect before "Mirand-izing" them if they believe that person has knowledge pertaining to an exigent public safety threat (see paragraphs 3, 4, & 5 which happen to be labeled as a, b, & c of the court's finding). A rule which by the way, was used in the case of the Times Square suspect!

Again, from the AP story:

John Brennan, President Barack Obama's top counterterrorism adviser, said that Shahzad was questioned for about four hours before he was read his rights. Shahzad waived his right to having a lawyer present in subsequent interrogation.

If you read the transcript, Holder says, referring to Shazad:

"He was given his Miranda warnings after the public safety exception questioning was finished, and he has talked to us and he continues to talk to us."

Question: But would you like interrogators to have more flexibility?

Holder: "I think we have to look at the rules that we have and look at the situation that we now confront. The public safety exception was really based on a robbery that occurred back in the '80s and something to do with a supermarket. We're now dealing with international terrorists, and I think that we have to think about perhaps modifying the rules that interrogators have and somehow coming up with something that is flexible and is more consistent with the threat that we now face."

So again, WTF?

As far as I'm concerned, there should be different rules and procedures for how we deal with terrorism suspects who are not US citizens.

That said, the Times Square suspect is an American citizen, and no matter how despicable an act he attempted, our constitution and the rulings of the US Supreme Court dictate how our criminal justice system treats him.

I'm amazed that the current - and rather liberal - administration is saying it's a good idea to strip an American citizen of their right to legal representation. Hell, I can't believe this is an "issue" at all.

laugh!

"There are three things which are real: God, human folly and laughter. The first two are beyond our comprehension. So we must do what we can with the third."
- Widely attributed to President John F. Kennedy (who quoted it often), or more accurately listed as an Indian proverb, it actually comes from The Ramayana, an epic poem that delves into existential topics like duty through narrative.

Anyway, it's Cinco de Mayo! Have fun and be safe y'all.

weekend update

Saturday about noon... met up with Eric, Nick, Mandy, and several thousand other runners in the country just outside Dallas for a little trail run... with obstacles... and mud... oh yeah a swimming portion too... and fire!

WOD
for time:
Warrior Dash 3.5 mile trail/obstacle run

24:34!

It was a slip-sliding, rope-climbing, bog-swimming, fire-jumping, people-watching, beer-drinking (post race of course), muddy good time!

And the people watching was excellent... I saw a Spartan soldier, a blue body-painted avatar chick, some ninja-turtles, a plethora of smurfs, some Santa outfits, and two gentlemen who ran the race in full suit-and-tie (one of whom carried a briefcase through the entire course). I can also report that I found Waldo. Twice.

I am however reduced to hunt-and-peck typing right now. I jammed the f*** out of the middle finger on my right hand in a muddy slip and fall somewhere along the course. Ya know, one of those injuries you don't feel immediately, but starts to make itself known 10-15 minutes later...

So, after washing most of the muck off, I bid my fellow dashers adios, hopped in my trusty jeep, and headed into Dallas towards the casa of my lovely friend Hilary. There I showered, made myself presentable, and accompanied her downtown to the Meyerson for a performance of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.

Outstanding. Phenomenal. If my finger wasn't killing me right now I'd be flipping through a thesaurus for you. Anyway, if you appreciate and enjoy classical music you know what I'm trying to get at. In CrossFit lingo, they crushed it like a sub-three minute Fran. It was a wonderful evening.

From a muddy obstacle-filled trail run to an evening at the Dallas symphony! Love it. I hope your weekend was a fun as mine!