2010-04-27 2230: The other evening, I happened across several interesting blogs devoted to nuclear energy. One of them, Atomic Insights, had a remarkable blog post concerning the Cato Institute as an opponent of nuclear power. It turns out that the Cato Institute (the well-known Libertarian think tank) was founded and heavily supported by Robert Koch, a billionaire in the oil industry, and Cato Institute positions on energy issues favor the fossil fuel industry. This includes hostility to nuclear energy (a big competitor of fossil fuels), and vigorous promotion of the skeptical point-of-view on global warming. On one of these blogs, I found a striking assertion: the most effective opposition to nuclear energy is not from environmentalists, it's from the fossil fuel industry. [Unfortunately, I haven't had any luck finding this assertion; it might have been on the Atomic Insights blog or else on the Nuclear Green blog (nucleargreen.blogspot.com/).] This is depressing to think about: some of the greatest problems facing the world involve fossil fuels, and it may be that the only reason why we can't seem to make real progress to solving these problems is that a large and enormously wealthy industry is obstructing solutions to these problems. Perhaps the simple fact is that even if 'peak oil' is true, there are tens of trillions of dollars of petroleum and coal left to exploit, and these industries will not permit anyone to interfere with these potential profits if they can help it.
2010-04-27 2200: I was distressed to read that Reed College has been threatened with punitive actions by state and federal authorities over its reputed lax attitude towards drug use on campus. I'm not sure if Reed College is being unfairly singled out or if the particular concern is warranted (the threatened actions were triggered by the second death in two years of a Reed student to heroin overdose). But if I were still a Reed undergraduate, I would forego drugs, regardless of my attitude about drugs, to protect the college. In fact, I regret my own drug use at Reed, because I now recognize that the marijuana I smoked interfered with my personal growth and substituted for other more healthy or enriching forms of recreation. (What seemed harmless at 20 years of age seems a lot less benign 30 years later.) I now think that Reed College's stature as a leading liberal arts college would only improve if Reed shook its permissive reputation regarding drugs, and became known as a safe and healthy place for students who want the challenge of Reed's uniquely intense intellectual atmosphere and curriculum.
Added 2010-05-02 2030: I should clarify what I believe about drugs. While I do not use illicit drugs, and I would rather that folks I know don't use these drugs, I believe that they should be decriminalized, especially marijuana. I think I have a friend (or two or three) who might nip into the cannibis a bit, but to be honest, I'm a lot less concerned by that than I would be by a friend who drank a sixpack or two of beer every evening.
2010-04-25 2200: Yesterday, I ran my first half marathon, the Kentucky Derby Festival Mini-Marathon. This was the first time I had run that distance (13.1 miles); my previous longest runs were 10 miles. (This was the Papa Johns 10 Miler, which I ran earlier this month; see my post for 2010-04-03 below.) I'm glad to say I finished the course without too much difficulty, and while I was sore and tired, I avoided any real injury (not so much as a blister). My time was a bit slower than I hoped—2:06:56, about a 9:45 pace.
The race course began near Iroquois Park, the same hilly, forested park that the Papa Johns 10 miler goes through. But for the Mini-Marathon, the course began with that park, and the rest of the course was flat. The course went north from Iroquois Park to downtown Louisville, where it ended at the waterfront park there. Because the end of the race was so far from the beginning, they provided shuttle busses to runners. We had to board these before 6 a.m. to be taken to the starting area in time for the 7:30 a.m. starting time. This in turn required getting up at what a friend of mine referred to as "Oh Dark Thirty". To me, that was almost as daunting as the run itself—I really do not like getting up at 0330 hours.
It was wet at the beginning of the race; a light rain continued until the 5 mile mark of the race. Then it began to dry out and the sun peeked through. But in fact, running conditions were ideal: cool and pleasant. My running group friends said the previous year had much more grueling conditions—80° temperatures.
There were 15,000 runners in the race; it was impressive to be with so many runners at the start of the race. I was quite a ways back from starting line; it took me 12 minutes to get to the starting line. (Everyone's racing bib, the numbers we pinned to ourselves, contained an electronic strip which was read by machine at the starting line and at the finish line, so everyone got an accurate time.)
The excitement was high at the start of the race; there were three news helicopters circling overhead. And a rather peculiar object ascended into the sky from some where near the beginning of the race at the start of the race. It took me a few moments to realize what it was—a balloon in the shape of a horse, life-sized. I assume this was in honor of the Kentucky Derby, for which the race is part of the festivities. The race itself was very colorful; for a while (before fatigue really set in), it was like a big party. They had several live rock or jazz bands along the way. At about mile 7, I passed a troupe of four or five Elvis impersonators who were running in the race, pushing a boom box on a baby stroller playing songs by The King. Several other runners were in white tuxedos. One highlight of the race is when the course goes through the infield of Churchhill Downs, where of course the Kentucky Derby itself is run. As we ran through the Downs, they had speakers set up playing famous horse races: And two lengths behind is Secretariat, who is moving up fast…
Added 2010-05-02 2115: I might have spoken a bit too soon when I said I didn't have an injury from my mini-marathon. I was all right the next day, but after mowing my lawn on Monday (a 45 minute chore), my left knee became rather sore for several days. I read in a runner's guide that 'runner's knee' is the result of running too hard (increasing your miles too rapidly), and that the remedy is to avoid running for a week or two. That I did; fortunately, by this weekend, my knee felt all right, and I ran about 5 miles yesterday with no trouble. Currently—cross my fingers—it's still fine.
2010-04-22 1815: Today is the fortieth anniversary of the original Earth Day. Earlier this week, I saw part of an American Experience episode on public television about the first Earth Day and the birth of the modern environmental movement. They told the story through interview clips with activists, politicians and writers who played various roles in the conception of the first Earth Day, intended to be a national day of environmental teach-ins, and which became a day of demonstrations of unprecedented scale (20 million Americans participated). Many of the images they showed were familiar to me, such as the television public service spot showing an Indian chief with tears in his eyes as he surveys a polluted landscape. Another familiar image: protesters taking sledge hammers to an old car to protest the pollution due to automobiles. I was ten years old on the first Earth Day; my memory of the day is of sitting on the lawn at my grade school on a warm and beautiful spring day, where they told us about the environment. (I have no recollection of who spoke or what they actually told us.)
John Tierney mentions the new Stewart Brand book Whole Earth Discipline in his column this week in the New York Times. Brand is famous as the author of the original Whole Earth Catalog, a manual for the back-to-the-land movement of the late 1960s. (This, by the way, was charmingly portrayed in the public television show on Earth Day with period footage of naked hippies doing garden work.) Now the Tierney column was characteristically irritating (for some reason, the Times needs to have a science columnist with a libertarian political philosophy and a weak background in science). But in this column, he raises an interesting point: Stewart Brand, and a number of other high-profile environmentalists, have become pro-nuclear power. Brand has the entire text of his new book online, and his treatment of nuclear power is quite compelling. One especially damning bit is when he quotes energy activist Amory Lovins, a long-time nuclear opponent, as saying nuclear power is withering on the vine for economic reasons—while nuclear power is actually undergoing a substantial revival around the world. Brand gives many reasons why nuclear would be good environmentally, particularly with regards to carbon emissions, and why the problems with nuclear are overblown or easily solvable. Brand highlights the book Power to Save the World, by Gwyneth Cravens, a novelist who once protested nuclear power but now whole-heartedly supports it. I've read this book, and found it both convincing and extremely interesting.
2010-04-18 0745: The news about the Icelandic volcano shutting down European air travel brings to mind something I experienced in December of 1989. I was heading home on a Delta flight from Atlanta to Portland. But at least an hour early, the plane began to descend. Finally the flight crew informed us that we were going to land in Salt Lake City because the airport in Portland had been closed due to volcanic ash from Mount Redoubt in Alaska. I spent the night at a hotel at the Salt Lake City airport, not knowing if or when I would be able to get to Portland. Fortunately, they reopened the Portland airport, and I was able to get to Portland in the morning.
Apparently, the Europeans are not so fortunate, because air travel there has been shut down for three days, and the volcano in Iceland continues to erupt. The experts say that this volcano is capable of producing weeks or months of activity.
2010-04-16 1915: After spending a little while reading about Icelandic volcano eruptions, I checked out Andrew Sullivan's blog, where I found another surprise from Iceland: an Icelandic singer named Ragnar Bjarnason, who has a lounge version of the classic Nirvana grunge anthem "Smells Like Teen Spirit." But rather than being a parody, it's a surprisingly clever and effective arrangement of the song as a pop song. Andrew also passes on a link from a reader to Pat Boone singing a wonderfully over-the-top but impressive big band version of "Paradise City," the old Guns N' Roses song. Earlier, he had a soft, lush cover of "Black Hole Sun" by Soundgarten, identified by a reader as a recording by Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme (from a late 90's CD called Lounge-a-palooza).
Links to the above:
2010-04-11 2300: I found out that today is the birthday of Alberto Ginastera, who was born on April 11, 1916. Ginastera was a prominent Argentinian composer (he died in 1983). I originally heard of him because the 1970s progressive rock group Emerson, Lake and Palmer performed an arrangement of a movement of a piano concerto of his ("Toccata," which appears on their album Brain Salad Surgery). A couple of years ago, I was curious enough to look for a recording of the original Ginastera piece; I found it at Music Millennium in Portland. (This is Ginastera Allen / Tarrago / OFCM / Batiz, Academy Sound and Vision CD DCA 654, 1989.) The piano concerto is his No. 1, Op 28, composed in 1961; what ELP recorded was their "realization" of the fourth movement, Toccata concertata (Presto). The original version is naturally much richer in sound than the synthesizer/rock version of ELP, and more chaotic and dramatic. The CD contains two other pieces, his Harp Concerto, Op. 25 (1956), and his Ballet Suite Estancia (1943). The Harp Concerto is beatiful and dramatic, and the Ballet Suite is rhythmic and powerful. I was delighted to have sought out this CD, it is now one of my favorites.
2010-04-03 1700: I ran the Papa John's 10 Miler this morning. I hoped to complete the race with a 9 minute pace, a time of 90 minutes. In fact, I finished it in 89 minutes (chip time of 1:28:56), and 2 minutes 45 seconds better than my previous best time at this distance. (I think this is my fourth Papa John's 10 Miler.) I was 96th of 335 participants in my age group. The weather started out in the 60s and breezy, which felt good. But the sun soon gave way to clouds, and rain arrived at about the 7.5 mile mark, so the end of the race was wet and a bit cooler. Nevertheless, it was a lovely run, with the middle section of the run through Iroquois Park, a large, hilly forested park. Fruit trees and red bud were in bloom.
This race has an interesting tradition: On top of the usual bananas, granola bars and sports drinks, at the end of the race Papa John's gave us free slices of pizza. This is the 10th running of this race, and it has grown to be one of the six most popular 10 mile races in the country, according to Runner's World magazine. Nearly 7,000 completed the ten miles.
I'm glad to report that I didn't get a migraine at the end of the race this year, unlike last year. I think this might be because I had something to eat before the race (a good serving of cream of wheat), which I think also helped me improve my time in the race. I ran the race in new shoes, which can be risky, but they fit well and I didn't get any blisters.