I got fed up still being congested post-flu and not exercising as a result, so I decided I’d get back in the pool and see what happened. Either the water would help clear things up once and for all, or I’d suffer a relapse. James, the fast swimmer, was back for good now that he’s managed to get himself a working visa for Australia so there was no slacking off. He’s about 10secs/100m faster than me which is good as it will force me to do a bit more work in future, and give me someone to drag off.

400 FS
200 Pull
100/200/300/200 FS, 15s rest
Total: 1400m

The sessions have been getting increasingly predictable since our coach doesn’t really have a clue. I’d made the mistake of giving her a few ideas of different sets a month or two ago thinking it would encourage her to experiment a bit, but she just uses the same set over and over. The 100/200/300/200/100 is mine, and I originally suggested it as an alternative warn-up, but now we keep getting it as a main set. I told her she’d have to start coming up with more varied sessions and that she should talk to the morning coach and get some ideas from him. Hopefully things will improve shortly.

S: 1400m

An excellent article on Surveillance and Oversight by Bruce Schneier illustrating the differing approaches of US and Dutch law enforcement when faced with a need to obtain information. It’s particularly relevant since Australia seems to be heading down the US path towards secrecy and underhandedness.

These differences illustrate four principles that should guide our use of personal information by the police. The first is oversight: In order to obtain personal information, the police should be required to show probable cause, and convince a judge to issue a warrant for the specific information needed. Second, minimization: The police should only get the specific information they need, and not any more. Nor should they be allowed to collect large blocks of information in order to go on “fishing expeditions,” looking for suspicious behavior. The third is transparency: The public should know, if not immediately then eventually, what information the police are getting and how it is being used. And fourth, destruction. Any data the police obtains should be destroyed immediately after its court-authorized purpose is achieved. The police should not be able to hold on to it, just in case it might become useful at some future date.

The Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal has a great article entitled Intelligent Design or ‘No Model’ Creationism: A Total Fraud And A Scam – Why It Can’t Qualify As Even A Pseudoscience, which, you might correctly surmise, demolishes the whole ID argument. It’s a long read, but it does make the effort to point out the difference between the dictionary definition of ‘theory’ and what the word means in a scientific context, a distinction often overlooked and which makes the ‘debate’ possible in the first place.

Most people tend to think of the word “theory” as meaning pretty much the same thing as their concept of “hypothesis”—namely, a guess or surmise. A “theory” is thought of as a very tentative proposition. This is only natural, because that is the “ordinary English” meaning of the word outside of scientific contexts, and our citizens’ educational experiences have rarely done anything to disabuse them of this notion. As I define “scientific theory,” it is a great, overarching, explanatory scheme which explains a vast number of phenomena; which makes connections between phenomena that would otherwise be perceived as having nothing to do with each other; which makes wild, off-the-wall predictions which nonetheless turn out as forecast; which is supported by an overwhelming amount of evidence and has been tested countless times in countless ways without being falsified; shows consilience to a truly remarkable extent; and which is, for all practical purposes, universally accepted by the scientific community. A scientific theory has content, in spades. By this definition (and powerful arguments can be made against any other) there are only about a dozen scientific theories that I can think of right off the bat, and no scientific theories have ever existed which are not currently accepted. Examples would be the modern atomic theory, theory of plate tectonics, Einstein’s theories of relativity, the microbe theory of disease, the heliocentric theory, the modern synthetic theory of evolution, the gene/chromosome/DNA/RNA theory of inheritance/protein synthesis.

Watched Australia beat Uruguay last night at the Beach Road, to qualify for the World Cup for the first time since 1974. Being 1-0 down from the first leg, they had to win last night to have any chance, and if Urugauy scored they’d be in real trouble. The game took about 10 minutes to settle down and Australia were on the back foot initially. Uruguay had one or two shots which came close enough but weren’t on target. Kewell was brought on after 30mins and he changed the game as the Uruguayans couldn’t cope with him down the wing. He fluffed a shot on goal, but it fell to Bresciano who knocked it in.

The second half was pretty tense, but the Aussies maintained the upper hand and spent most of the time trying to break down the Uruguayan defence to no avail. It stayed 1-0 at full time, and the same after extra time so it was all down to the penalty shootout. Kewell fired home the first, followed by a save from Schwarzer and the Aussies had the upper hand. The advantage was squandered by Mark Viduka of all people when he dragged his penalty wide, but Schwarzer came to the rescue again with a second excellent save and it was all over.

Now that Ireland didn’t make it, and since I’ll have my residency by the time the World Cup comes around, I’ll have a team to support after all ;-)

The ABC‘s 7.30 Report had a great interview with Chris Patten last night on his thoughts on the Iraq War which included the following snippet:

KERRY O’BRIEN: Why do you dislike Dick Cheney?

LORD PATTEN: I think he gives conservatism a bad name. I think he associates conservatism with making rich people even richer, with more perks for the corporate world, with the most assertive sorts of nationalism. If you look at things – the arguments at the moment, America 2001 had the huge sympathy of the world after the attacks on New York and Washington. Now, three years down the road, four years down the road, we see the Administration, particularly Vice-President Cheney, trying to prevent Senator McCain writing into American law the fact that Americans don’t torture people. So America is on the back foot on human rights issues. America, which stood for and argued for Helsinki and the sort of approach to human rights which eventually helped us sink the Soviet Union. How have they got themselves into this mess? They’ve got themselves into this mess because of that implaccable ultra-conservative presence at President Bush’s right hand and I think that it’s a pity that the President doesn’t listen more to his father and less to Vice-President Cheney.

I managed to pick up a nice dose of the flu at the weekend. Throat felt a bit scratchy late on Friday night, then woke up with just a sore throat on Saturday so thought that was it. By Saturday night I had a bit of a fever and it was downhill from there. Sunday & Monday were write-offs, yesterday was OK but decided to stay home from work just to be on the safe side.

It’s amazing how much it knocks back your lung capacity. Any sort of exertion is liable to produce a bout of coughing with all the gunk that brings with it. I definitely won’t be exercising for the rest of the week. On the plus side, lack of appetite coupled with body working overtime to deal with the infection sees me emerge a kilo lighter ;-)

With both the Catholic Church and the Dalai Lama admitting that science provides a better explanation of the origins of the world than religious texts, you’d think it would sound a death knell for ID proponents of ID.

OK, a bit to catch up on. Wednesday lunchtime saw me in the pool for another swim session. I can’t remember what the session was, but did my usual 2km. Went for another run on Wednesday evening, following the same protocol as Tuesday. Managed a total of 5.35km this time, though went out fractionally too fast on the first half and I was pretty tired too. Felt a bit harder that Tuesday’s run.

Laps:
4:30 – 145
4:43 – 153
4:44 – 156
1:58
4:51 – 156
4:51 – 159
4:46 – 161
HR @ 1min: 122

The short lap is from the end of the 3rd lap until 15mins, at which point I turn around and run back to the start of the lap and proceed as normal.

Cycled home from work today and did a couple of laps of Centennial Park. I’d been out for a few beers on Thursday with Kev, Lisa, Chantal and Franciska, having our Sydney-Gong reunion so wasn’t that keen to get on the bike, but I felt surprisingly good. Came home and went out for another run, same deal as Wednesday (5.45km). Felt great too.

Laps:
4:25 – 142
4:40 – 151
4:42 – 153
2:16
4:42 – 155
4:40 – 156
4:32 – 160
HR @ 1min: 121

S: 4000m – B: 69.3km – R: 16km

Oh how the mighty have fallen…

Certain binding legal principles, affirmed unanimously by the UN, emerged from the Nuremberg trials . . . It was made absolutely clear that law must apply equally to everyone. Putting the captive enemies on trial was seen by America’s Chief Prosecutor, Justice Robert Jackson, as “the greatest tribute that power has ever paid to reason.” His successor General Telford Taylor, my chief and later law partner, was more succinct: “Law is not a one-way street.”,1),
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Nuremberg Prosecutor Benjamin B. Ferencz

Remarks on the International Criminal Court

March 11, 2003

From billmon

After watching the whales last night I headed off for an evening run. I decided to head up to Christisson Park and just run for 30mins with the aim of keeping an even pace. I ran anti-clockwise for 15mins, then turned around and ran clockwise for another 15 and tried to cover the same distance. I managed a total of 5.25km quite comfortably without any complaints from my legs.

Laps:
4:39.6 – 142
4:45.4 – 150
4:49.8 – 152
1:20.5
4:47.8 – 152
4:57.3 – 152
4:49.0 – 155
HR @ 1min: 120

My CHO + PRO supplies had arrived, so when I got home I put my plan into action. Mixed up a bottle, drank half immediately then the other half 40mins later. Didn’t feel tired all night, and felt much better when I woke up this morning. It’s too early to tell from one sample, but the potential looks good.

Finally, jumped on the bike for a ride this morning and headed in to City Bike Depot who offer free coffee and croissants to cycle commuters on the second Wednesday of every month. Free breakfast – mmmmm!

S: 2000m – B: 31.1km – R: 5.25km