Juan Cole over at Informed Comment has a post up today detailing just how badly the US has fucked up in Iraq.

Although it’s very rarely mentioned in the media, it’s pretty clear that Iraq has descended into civil war for a while now and with the US now firing up the bullshit machine aimed at Iran, it’s hard to see how the world is going to get any safer in the next decade or so.

Iran’s only hope is that Iraq stays screwed up enough to keep US troops booged down there long enough for Bush & the Fuckwits to get voted out of office. Hopefully the fact that his approval rating is among the lowest in history, and still trending down, means that the Republicans will get a hiding the next time out. We can only hope…

Race day dawned with a mild panic as I realised there were no buses from my place in to town at 6am, so I had to wake Jacqui and get her to give me a lift to North Bondi. I’d arranged to meet Kev in Martin Place at 6.30 before walking over to the start on Hickson Road. By the time we’d done the obligatory trip to the Portaloo, some stretching and dropped off our gear to be picked up after the race, it was almost time to get going and we only had to hang around for 5-10mins.

I lingered in mid-pack, away from the front as I was realistically hoping for a time around 1:55 to 2:00 so there was no point getting in everyone’s way. Kev had moved up closer to the front as he was aiming for a time around the 1:35 mark. The gun went, the crowd surged forward and I was off on the longest run of my life. It felt like I was going backwards as wave after wave of people passed me by, but I knew roughly what pace I should be running at and had resolved to be fairly conservative for the first half of the race. My aim was first to run the whole distance, and second to break the 2 hour mark.

Within the first two kms I was ruing the fact that I hadn’t gone for a quick piss before the start, so I had to hold it until the 5km mark. The first time up the hill at Hunter St. wasn’t too bad, then it was down to Mrs. Macquarie’s chair and a much needed pit-stop. All was well then and I could relax and get on with the race. People were still going past me, but I stuck to my plan. The second hill on the course was up Argyle St. which was easier than Hunter. The 9km marker was at the top, which was great as I knew that it was flat, or slightly downhill, until the finish.

I went through the 10km mark in 55:16 which was right on target. If I hadn’t had a toilet stop it would have been around 53:40 which would have been the fastest 10K I’d ever run. I was still feeling good at this stage so it was time to pick up the pace a little bit. At the 12km mark Kev shouted to me. His hip problem had cropped up again and he was out of the race, but cheered me on as I went past. Niall was out on the course a couple of kms later and I had a quick chat to him as I went up Hunter St. for the last time.

By the time I got to the 15km mark my knees and my right hip flexor were starting to twinge a little bit, but it was nothing serious. I’d less than 6km to go, so I resolved to pick things up again and hold a constant pace until the top of the Argyle St. hill, at which point I’d 2.1km to go and it was all downhill or flat at least. Kev was there to cheer me up Argyle St., and once at the top I knuckled down to finish strongly. By this time I was passing a lot of people who had passed me at the start of the race which helped a lot mentally.

I was feeling pretty tired by this stage, but I still felt way better than I had for the 10km run at the end of the Canberra triathlon so I knew I could push myself harder still. I continued winding up the pace, corssing the line at what felt liek a sprint, but what was probably nowhere naer it. Final time on my watch: 1:52:00.2, or almost three minutes faster than I had hoped to do, so I was pretty happy. I’ll have to wait a couple of days for the official results, so hopefully I get rounded down to 1:51:59 ;-)

I met up with Kev, then headed back to Bondi for breakfast with John, Tom & the guys who’d all been out watching Munster win the European Cup last night, then it was home for a wash, a beer, then in to the Opera Bar to help Malachi celebrate her birthday. My legs are slowly seizing up, but it’s nothing serious and they’ll be back to normal in a day or two. All in all, I’m happy with a good result.

R: 25.1km

Just got an e-mail this morning confirming that I’ve been granted a one-year working visa for Canada. Woooo hooo! There’s lots of snowboarding in my future ;-)

I’ve a couple of runs I haven’t written up lately. The first dates back to May 2nd. I went to run in to work and had to stop halfway because my left foot was hurting. I had a bit of a feel to see if it was anything serious, and noticed that it was a pain around the knuckle beside my little toe. I had noticed twinges in it before, and had thought nothing of it, but it flared up a lot that morning so I decided I’d better take some time off and let it clear up. It was probably a result of me doing too much mileage too soon.

I took a week off, then got back into it a little last week. Went for two runs on Wednesday, 3km in the morning and 4.5km that afternoon, then followed that up with 6.3km on Thursday. I had planned to get another longer run in at the weekend, but a poker night with beers on Friday, followed by more beers to watch the FA Cup on Saturday put paid to that. However, given that I won $80 on Friday, and Liverpool won on Saturday I’m pretty happy anyway.

NASA have published an interesting video showing the operation of one of the cameras aboard the Huygens probe as it descended towards the surface of Titan, including various data readouts. It’s also interesting because of the amount of data crammed on to the screen, and the way they use sound to convey data as well.

Stephen Wiltshire is a British autistic savant which the ability to draw detailed cityscapes from memory. He was recently taken on a 30-minute helicopter flight over Rome, after which he sat down and drew everything he’d seen on a 15-ft scroll of paper.

As a child, Stephen was mute and did not relate to other human beings. Aged three, he was diagnosed as autistic. He had no language, uncontrolled tantrums and lived entirely in his own world.

At the age of five, Stephen was sent to Queensmill School in London, a school for children with special needs, where it was noticed that the only pastime he enjoyed was drawing. It soon became apparent he communicated with the world through the language of drawing; first animals, then London buses, and finally buildings. These drawings show a masterful perspective, a whimsical line and reveal a natural innate artistry.

He has also done similar drawings of Tokyo and Hong Kong. Have a look through the site, and be sure to check out some of the videos of him in action.

Was down in Canberra this week, but didn’t bring the MTB as it’s now dark by 5.30 and I don’t have a good enough set of lights. It’s also bloody cold down there now. After the massage on Monday I decided to make this a recovery week after building up the run distances over the last three weeks.

Did nothing while in Canberra, but got up on Saturday and went for a 14km run which was reasonably hilly. I abandoned the 150 HR limit and pushed it a little harder, finishing up in 1:19:30 (AvHR 157) which was decent enough.

This morning I clambered out of bed and headed off to La Perouse on the bike, via Centennial Park. Did a few quick laps of the Oil Refinery circuit, then back to La Perouse, and home via CP again. All up, 69.7km.

B: 69.7km – R: 14km

Well I got up early and headed out on my long run without issue, leaving the house at 7.05. Not bad for a Saturday morning. I’d run a semi-hilly 14.6km last week, so the plan for this week was to avoid all hills and see if I could get up around 18km. My legs are starting to feel the cumulative effects of lots of mileage (for me anyway) so I was a bit unsure of how they’d cope with yet another “longest run I’ve ever done”.

I opted to run laps of the golf course as it’s a known distance (4.25km) and fairly flat, and after the usual 15-20 minutes of grumbling, the legs settled down and it was plain sailing. I stopped down at the Rose Bay ferry for a quick slurp of water every lap to keep myself hydrated, and I’d brought along an energy gel left over from my last triathlon which I took on the third lap to give me a bit of a boost.

I was feeling good, so the idea of keeping going and aiming for a half marathon (21.1km) cropped up and I decided to go for it. I had to think a bit and try and figure out how to add on enough to make up the distance without leaving me further from home, so I elected to run down, then back up, Newcastle Street, finishing with a time of 1:57:10 which I was happy enough with, especially as I’d been restricting my HR to a max. of 150, and had averaged 146.

My legs were bloody exhausted, so I did my usual post-long run thing of stopping off at the garage for some coke & Gatorade to get some sugar in to me then began the walk home. Once back at the ranch, I fired up Google Earth to measure how far I’d really run (isn’t technology great!), to discover it was only 20.75km! Damn!

Oh well, even if I didn’t knock off the 21.1km it’s still 6km further than I’ve run before, and at least I now know that I’ll have no problem finishing the race in a couple of weeks.

Thankfully I’ve booked a massage for Monday. I reckon my legs will need it!

B: 33.7km – R: 48.8km

This week is shaping up to be a huge run week for me. Went for a 5.8km run last night just to loosen out after the longer commute run on Wednesday, then just did another cruisy 5km this evening. I’m doing all my running keeping my HR under 150, and despite this I’m running as fast as I was 6 weeks ago when my HR would top out around 165, so I’m slowly getting fitter.

I’ve racked up 28km so far this week, and with my long run still to come tomorrow morning, I should top 40km for the week. Up until the beginning of April I’d never run more than 20km in a week, so I’ll be pretty happy if I reach 40. The aim will be to run around that distance that consistently, week in, week out.

Didn’t get much cycling in this week though. Just cycled in and out of work today, with a few laps of the park thrown in for good measure.

Update: Just noticed that coincidentally, by completing my 5km run tonight, I’ve equalled the total distance I ran for the whole of last year… 218km.

B: 33.7km – R: 28km

After having a few days off, and getting on the beers over Easter, it was time to get back out for a run last night. I’d intended aiming for around 6km, but mis-counted my laps and ended up running 7.3km (41:07). Felt pretty good, though when I got home I noticed that my left shin was a little tender. My first thought was ‘stress fracture’, but then it had been fine during the run so that couldn’t be it. I figured it must be down to only doing a brief stretching session before heading out and decided to see how it was this morning.

Woke up and it felt fine. Did a proper stretching routine, got my stuff together and headed out the door for the run to work. I decided against going the New South Head Road way like last week as it was too hilly, so I headed for Bondi Junction. The hill up Birriga Road was always going to be the toughest part of the run as it was the only real uphill, so I just got stuck in to it and saw my HR rise to 168. After that it was relatively plain sailing for the rest of the way in to town, via Moore Park Road and Oxford St., for a total of ~10.3km in 58:51. I’ll have to measure the route on the bike tomorrow to be sure.

The shin issue I’d noticed last night showed up a lot fainter than last night, despite it being a longer run, so presumably it’s not serious. I’m not going for another run until tomorrow evening at the earliest, so that should be enough rest to clear it up. Running’s going well at the moment, and if all goes to plan I should crack 40km this week.

R: 17.6km

Went out for another long run this morning. I usually do them on Saturdays, but given that we’re off to Graeme’s for a BBQ and there’s likely to be a few beers had, I figured I should get the run out of the way today. I ran 13.25km last weekend, so I decided to aim for 15km today. Looking around for a route to run, I settled on the Vaucluse Variation (large GIF), one of the Sydney Striders’ routes.

As it turned out it was a bit too much. I decide to run it in reverse, and all went well until around the 10km mark, by which stage I was almost at Neilsens Park. I’d run up Heartbreak Hill which was a killer on the legs, and from then on it was slightly uphill, then slightly downhill, which never gave my legs a chance to rest. I hadn’t brought a map of the route with me, so after Neilsens I couldn’t remember exactly where to go. I ended up improvising, and chose to run up Villare Lower Road which is bloody steep. Just what the legs didn’t need! A quick detour down to the lighthouse and back to finish up at the shops for a much needed bottle of coke. I now understand what they meant when their ads claimed “Can’t beat the feeling”… there’s nothing like an ice cold coke at the end of a long run!

Another week’s long run finished without incident, in this case 14.6km (1:24:55). Fractionally short of the 15km I was aiming for, but it was a lot hillier than I expected, and it’s still further than I’ve ever run before, so I’m happy.

B: 74km – R: 28.5km

I ran in to work this morning.

Back when I started doing more exercise, I had to think about how I was going to fit it all in. The logical way was to make the daily commute part of my exercise program, so that’s largely what I did, cycling in to work where possible. I’d thought about one day running in to work as well, but it always seemed to be off in the distant future as running was never my strong point. However, after my long run on Saturday I realised that I’d have no trouble doing the run commute, so I resolved to give it a go this morning.

As usual, the first few kilometres weren’t great, with my lower legs doing their normal complaining while they warmed up. Although it doesn’t happen on every run, I’m used it now and can tell if it reaches the point where it warrants cutting the run short, which it rarely does. I ran down Old South Head, then Dover Rd., along the harbour-front by Rose Bay, then through the back streets of Double Bay to Edgecliff, then through Kings X, down William Street and finished up with a stretch in Hyde Park. All up it was around 9.3km in 51:28.

It was a tough run on the legs, as it’s basically all hills. I ran them all apart from the top 100m of the one from Double Bay up to Edgecliff and the final 150m into the X, as my legs were pretty tired from the hill cycling session I did on the way home yesterday. I plan on doing a run commute once per week, though I think next week I’ll try running via Bondi Junction and Oxford St. as it’s much flatter… well apart from that bit on Old South Head Road which I may walk to play it safe.

B: 74km – R: 13.9km

Israeli troops have a habit of shooting innocent Palestinian civilians, including children as young as three, then claiming that they were a threat, or that they were misidentified as justification for their actions. This is usually horseshit, as most people are killed by sniper fire, which implies that they were shot from a distance, and also that they were being watched through a high-powered scope. How you can’t recognise a three-year-old child through a rifle scope is beyond me.

Anyway, thanks to the dogged pursuit of the truth by the family of a murdered British peace activist, an Israeli soldier has received an eight year jail term for the crime.

Mr Hurndall said the Israelis had initially admitted someone had been shot, but claimed it had been a gunman who had opened fire first.

After photographs of Tom having been shot in the head emerged, the Israeli military later admitted that Hayb – a sentry who had won prizes for marksmanship – had shot him using telescopic sights.

“They just lied continuously,” Mr Hurndall’s father said. “It was a case of them shooting civilians and then making up a story. And they were not used to being challenged.”,1),
(

There had been a “general policy” for soldiers to be able to shoot civilians in that area without fear of reprisals, he added.

Cycled in and out of work yesterday, then went for a run. My calves are still a little sore after Saturday’s long run, but I still managed to get 4.6km in before it became clear that it wasn’t going to go away once I’d warmed up properly. I cycled in again this morning, but I won’t bother running this evening to give my legs more time to recover.

B: 42.4km – R: 4.6km

The nut-jobs in the US are at it again, making plans to attack Iran. It’s a repeat of the bullshit job done on Iraq, with the usual suspects claiming that Iran is a threat to global security, sponsor of terrorists, about to nuke Israel etc. Seymour Hersh has the details in the New Yorker.

“This is much more than a nuclear issue,” one high-ranking diplomat told me in Vienna. “That’s just a rallying point, and there is still time to fix it. But the Administration believes it cannot be fixed unless they control the hearts and minds of Iran. The real issue is who is going to control the Middle East and its oil in the next ten years.”

Another Iraqi official has said that his country is in the midst of a civil war:

Despite the violence, U.S. officials have discounted talk of civil war. However, a senior Iraqi official said Saturday that an “undeclared civil war’’ had already been raging for more than a year.

”Is there a civil war? Yes, there is an undeclared civil war that has been there for a year or more,‘’ Maj. Gen. Hussein Kamal told The Associated Press. "All these bodies that are discovered in Baghdad, the slaughter of pilgrims heading to holy sites, the explosions, the destruction, the attacks against the mosques are all part of this.’‘

Even the U.S’s own assessments admit that the situation in Iraq is a mess, with only 3 out of 18 provinces deemed to be stable, though you’ll never hear the politicians describe the situation as a civil war. In fact, they’re all remarkably upbeat for some reason not supported by evidence. Propaganda perhaps?

Well, I got up for my long run this morning, setting off at 8am. Headed down Military Road to Bondi, then up Curlewis, down Newcastle to Rose Bay, along the promenade then back up O’Sullivan, down Newcastle again and up Albermarle. I decided to keep my HR under 150 and just see how things went and basically just run until I felt that characteristic tightness in my knees which signifies that I should stop soon or it will take a few days to recover. All up it was 13.25km in just under 1:19 which I was pretty happy with.

I had hoped for 10km or so, which would have given me just enough time to build up for the half marathon, so 13km+ was great and I now know that, barring injury, I’ll have no worries finishing the race. On the other hand, my original, somewhat fanciful, notion of running a 1:45 has been shown to be just that: fanciful. Realistically, I’ll be aiming for a sub-2hr finish time.

My legs feel fine now, but tomorrow will reveal how tough the run really was. This run also put me over 30km for the week, which is the first time I’ve run over 30km in a week. Actually, it’s the first time I’ve run over 20km in a week!

B: 92.5km – R: 30.6km

Some interesting stuff:

First up, The Blind Locksmith discusses the reconstruction, and use, of ancestral proteins to figure out how evolution produces complex systems:

Scientists reconstruct an ancestral protein by tracing its evolution into new versions carried by living species. Along each lineage, the gene for that protein picks up mutations, some of which alter the structure of the protein. Scientists can determine many of those mutations, and by working backwards up the evolutionary tree, they can determine what the original gene looked like. Thanks to powerful statistical techniques, they can determine how much confidence they can have in each letter in the genetic sequence they reconstruct. If they find a lot of statistical confidence in the overall sequence, they can then go to the lab and use it as a guide to build the corresponding protein. And once they have the protein in hand (or in beaker), they can see how it works.

Second, we have a news item from Nature on the discovery of a fossil in Canada which illustrates how fish came out of the water and evolved into mammals:

The beast has bony scales and fins, but the front fins are on their way to becoming limbs; they have the internal skeletal structure of an arm, including elbows and wrists, but with fins instead of clear fingers. The team is still looking for more complete specimens to get a better picture of hind part of the animal.

Finally, this one isn’t evolution-related, but rather an account of one guy’s trip to Los Alamos and the site of the first atomic bomb test. The Trinity site is only open to the public twice a year, so this guy went along, took some video and loads of photos, and wrote it up. It’s an interesting read:

Every August, Ed stands downtown with an American flag and a banner that reads WE ARE SORRY FOR HIROSHIMA AND NAGASAKI. It’s not a widely-shared sentiment in this city of bombmakers; sometimes Lab workers show up with signs that read NO WE’RE NOT, ED, and sometimes passers-by yell and swear at Ed. This may, in fact, be the only place that I’ve ever heard anyone express the opinion that nuclear bombs are a good thing.

The Macbook Pro is shaping up to be the perfect computer. My existing Powerbook is bloody good: fast, stable, no malware and extremely well designed, but I occasionally have to run VirtualPC to test out some Windows stuff in work, and that’s a pain in the arse. However, with the announcement of Boot Camp yesterday, the MacBookPro can dual-boot WinXP and there are a number of native-speed virtualisation products out there, and rumours that OS X 10.5 will have virtualisation built-in to the OS, meaning that the days of scratching my arse while waiting for VirtualPC to do something prrocessor-intensive are over. Tom ordered his yesterday, but I’m going to wait until just before the end of the tax year to get mine. Only two months to go ;-)

Apart from Tuesday, when I took the day off as I had stuff to collect my car from Tom’s, I’ve been cycling in every day and doing two laps of Centennial Park on the way in. Yesterday I cycled home via New South Head Road (NSHR), instead of the usual Oxford St., and while it’s shorter, it’s quite a bit hillier. I rode up NSHR to Vaucluse as well which I hadn’t done before as I always figured it was really steep. Turns out that it’s not too bad, and has the advantage of being a reasonably consistent slope, so I could settle in to a rhythm. It certainly feels easier than riding up Old South Head Road (OSHR) in the morning, though that could be a morning/evening thing rather than any significant difference between the grades.

Went for a run last night when I got home. 7.3km in 42:47 with an average HR of 149, right where I wanted it. After the usual 15mins of feeling weird until my legs warm-up, things settled down and it was a pretty easy run, with me having to force myself to slow down and keep my HR under 150. While my legs were pretty tired this morning, there’s nothing actually sore, so I plan on going for a short run this evening, taking tomorrow off, then getting up for a longer run of around 10-11km on Saturday. The race is in 6 weeks, so I really need to start building my long run up. If I can do 10km this weekend without too much issue, and then add 2km per week, then I should be fine.

B: 81km – R: 13.8km

Cycled home last night and then headed out for a run. I was adopting my current tactic of keeping my HR below 150 and just cruising along, but my times indicated I was running a bit faster than usual. I’d also noticed that my HR was very low when I hopped on the bike to cycle home, but I just assumed that the strap was a bit loose on my chest and thought no more of it. However, with my run HR being a bit lower, and me making sure the chest strap had a proper connection, I was left wondering what was causing my lower HR… and the only thing I could come up with was all the altitude training I’d done in Canberra last week ;-)

Legs feel pretty good this morning, so I’ll just do a shorter run of around 3km this evening, then do another 6-7km on Wednesday and see how that goes.

That’s rubbish BTW, as Canberra’s only at 600m or so, and there’s no real physioloigcal effect below about 1500m

B: 32km – R: 6.5km