Spinning, What?

I thought I knew what cardio was. I thought I knew how much my little heart could take.

That was all before I found my new gym-love and gym-archnemesis all rolled into one no holds barred, gloves off 1 hour treat: Turbo Kickboxing

At the 13 minute mark I didn't think I had any more turboing, kicking or boxing to give. But my gym ego wouldn't let me leave. So I tried. Hard. I looked like a jackass. I thought I had seen my face as red as it could get - until I hit the 20 minute mark and glanced in the mirror. Tomatoes, I'm telling you. Fire trucks.

Still, I made it the whole hour. It wasn't pretty, but I did it. It was awesome. I'm so going back next week.

Out of Control

Gas station sign seen from bus on the way to the gym: Premium $2.74
Gas station sign seen from bus on the way home from the gym: Premium $2.84

Wow.

Fun In The Sun

Living off the grid. Is it just for the insanely rich and/or those kooky hippies? Jason and I, belonging to neither group (okay, maybe we're kooky hippies) are going to try and find out.

So where to start? Our first step is setting up a small solar generator to power the smaller appliances in our apartment. I'm using this guide as a starting point, supplemented with some additional research. So far it doesn't appear to be difficult at all - or even that expensive - to set up a small system.

Once the initial setup is complete, the solar energy is obviously free, and the system can be expanded to provide more power as needed.

This week I'm going to price components and possibly do some purchasing. I have no idea how interesting this is to anyone else, but I'll keep you updated on my progress. And let me know if you, too, want to join the free energy revolution. We can compare notes. It will be awesome.

CORIE

I went to a lecture today, given by Dr. Baptista of the Center for Coastal and Land Margin Research (CCALMR), on the Columbia River observation and forecasting system CORIE.

It was a good talk. He went into the structure of the monitoring stations themselves and also spoke about dealing with the realities of funding and organizing the operation. I was surprised to learn how many organizations had their hands in the project, from local (town level) to national organizations like NOAA and even DARPA.

The projects make real time data available to the public. They also provide access to compiled data that have been through quality control. CORIE alone has something like 70 TB worth of data gathered over the past ten years.

I think I'm going to try and take his class. I always get excited about models when I see them used in real-life applications.

The Organizer's Organizer

Screw 30 Boxes. Google Calendar is where it's at.

Venus

The European Space Agency's Venus Express has sent back some amazing pictures. I can't wait to see more!

From the press release:

Scientists are especially intrigued by the dark vortex shown almost directly over the south pole, a previously suspected but until now unconfirmed structure that corresponds to a similar cloud structure over the north pole. “Just one day after arrival, we are already experiencing the hot, dynamic environment of Venus,” said Dr Hakan Svedhem, Venus Express project scientist. “We will see much more detail at an unprecedented level as we get over 100 times better resolution as we get closer to Venus, and we expect to see these spiral structures evolve very quickly.”

Kicking It Up A Notch

I joined a shiny new gym. Yesterday I went to a great spinning class. Spinning classes always make my face bright red - it's pretty embarrassing. Today I'm going to a lifting class. It apparently is for "full body strength." Which is nice because I do, indeed, want my whole full body to be strong.

I really, really want to be skinnier. But my real goal is to be able to climb big mountains at a somewhat decent speed. Since I'm so short I always feel like I'm holding the pace back. This season we've set our sights on Mt. Adams and Mt. Hood, two climbs that we'll likely do with a group. My goal is not only to keep up with the group but also to not be the slowest climber.

It's nice to belong to a good gym again - especially on cloudy, drizzly days like today that make getting out and hiking not much fun.

Success

After more than a week with no pre-approved credit card offers in the mail I am calling the OptOutPrescreen experiment a success. No longer do we have to deal with 2-10 pieces of junk mail filled with our personal information stuffing our mailbox each day.

If everyone in the US opted out of having their credit information sold to these credit card and insurance companies these industries may choose a different advertising tactic that would result in a lot less paper and plastic moving from the mailbox to the trash can to the landfills. Additionally, the resources used in producing and transporting the junk mail would also be saved.

Another benefit may be a decrease in identify theft. While I don't believe my identity is worth stealing, and would actually hinder rather than help someone wanting to change their financial identity, other people actually do have to worry about such things. There's a lot of info that comes along in those envelopes.

Just a Weather Note

I walked down to check out the New Seasons that just opened - just opened right by my house I might add, how awesome is that? - in just a T-shirt (well, and pants of course. This would probably be a much different post if I was just in a T-shirt) and I was warm! And the sky was bright blue the whole time I was out. Of course in the past 10 minutes since I got home it got cloudy again, but it was blue, I swear. And it's still warm, so I'll take it.

Hurricanes and Climate Change

Et tu, NOAA?

Junk Mail Part 2

I recently resolved to try and make the insanity of the junk mail stop.

Since using OptOutPrescreen we have seen a decrease in pre-approved credit card offers, but it is still too early to tell whether this method has really been effective.

A few days ago we received yet another set of yellow books from Dex which reminded me that I need to take care of this problem as well. So I called the number on the big plastic bag the THREE books came in: 1-877-2GETDEX. I asked to have our home removed from the delivery list. This didn't seem to be an unusual request. The customer service rep took down my information and assured me that the books would stop coming. Having worked for a mega-large telecommunications company myself I have seen a lot of "Yes ma'am, right away ma'am, it's all taken care of ma'am"s, all while the rep is actually browsing amazon.com - so we'll see.

If you're tired of receiving giant yellow books that you never use, must find somewhere to store and eventually recycle you might try giving 1-877-2GETDEX a shot. Let me know if it works.

Counting is Fun!

Over at ScienceBlogs John Lynch talks about the Discovery Institute's latest - a "Dissent from Darwinism" list which includes 600 PhDs. Among them a guy who writes:

I am a PhD mathematician who has recently (in the last couple of years) examined carefully the claim that the neo-Darwinian synthesis adequately accounts for the variety of life on earth. I have read countless texts on geology, biology (and cosmology) in a multitude of sub-disciplines and can honestly affirm that I am skeptical that the evidence points toward anything like mutation plus natural selection as being the cause of the variety of life that we see both today and in the fossil record.

I'm not writing to address the biology points - I just wanted to point out that it's funny that a guy who has a PhD in mathematics would use the word "countless." Isn't counting, like, his whole job?

Enviromentalists Put Big Yellow Tickets on SUVs

Treehugger's post More Tickets For Big Stupid Cars reminds me of a conversation I overheard a couple of years ago when this type of activism happened in the US:

SUV Lover: Those environmentalists! They're nothing but terrorists! How dare they touch other people's cars!

Treehugger: They aren't terrorists they're just activists. They're putting fliers on people's cars - big deal. It happens at the grocery store every day.

SUV Lover (deadly serious): That's right! They are using fliers! The paper they are wasting - They are causing more damage to the environment than those cars are!

Treehugger (dumbfounded): You seriously believe that a couple hundred pieces of paper cause more environmental damage than a couple hundred large scale SUVs?

SUV Lover: Of course! It's common sense! Not only are they terrorists, they're hypocrites!

My 15 Seconds of (Extremely Local) Fame

Tomorrow morning (and I do mean morning: 5am) one of my pictures is going to be a featured "Northwest Snapshot" on the local news channel. This is the shot (you may recognize it from one of those posted a few days ago...):



This is the mighty Columbia as seen from a height of about 1900'.

This is my second Northwest Snapshot. The first one I missed when they showed it on the air due to a combination of oversleeping and insufficient TiVo communications. It was this shot of Mt. Hood:



Anyway, if you're in the Portland area and you're up with nothing better to do between 5 and 5:30 am watch KOIN News 6 and join me in my 15 seconds of extremely local pseudo-fame!

Not Ready To Make Nice

The Dixie Chicks rock.

I made my bed and I sleep like a baby
With no regrets and I don’t mind sayin’
It’s a sad sad story when a mother will teach her
Daughter that she ought to hate a perfect stranger
And how in the world can the words that I said
Send somebody so over the edge
That they’d write me a letter
Sayin’ that I better shut up and sing
Or my life will be over

Peace Rally

Wind Mountain

Next Saturday: Triple Falls in Oneonta Gorge with Mazamas.

Let me know if you'd like to join us!

Peace Rally Reminder

For those in the Portland area:

Oregon Rocks

Not only does Portland General Electric sell more energy from renewable sources to residential customers than any other utility in the US, our Governor Ted Kulongoski is calling for the state government to use only electricity from new renewable sources by 2010.

"New renewable sources" appears to not include hydropower. This is good because hydropower dams dramatically change the ecosystem of the waterway they are built on. It does appear to concentrate on wind and solar:

Wind and solar sources are attractive "because there's no fuel -- nature is the fuel -- you have very stable prices over the long term," said Rachel Shimshak, director of the Renewable Northwest Project, a nonprofit advocacy group.

Other renewable sources mentioned: geothermal and plant matter biomass.

(Hat Tip: Gristmill)

Tangled Bank

Another edition, the 49th, of my favorite blog carnival, Tangled Bank, is up over at Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted)

Grrlscientist has included such topics as Evolution, Science and Ethics, Neurobiology, Energy in the Future and quite a bit more.