mindplunge

Best Presidential Election 2008 FAQ so far…

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Interesting point of Jeffrey A. Miron. Jeffrey A. Miron is senior lecturer in economics at Harvard University. A Libertarian, he was one of 166 academic economists who signed a letter to congressional leaders last week opposing the government bailout plan:

Congress has balked at the Bush administration’s proposed $700 billion bailout of Wall Street. Under this plan, the Treasury would have bought the “troubled assets” of financial institutions in an attempt to avoid economic meltdown.

The fact that government bears such a huge responsibility for the current mess means any response should eliminate the conditions that created this situation in the first place, not attempt to fix bad government with more government.

The obvious alternative to a bailout is letting troubled financial institutions declare bankruptcy. Bankruptcy means that shareholders typically get wiped out and the creditors own the company.

Bankruptcy does not mean the company disappears; it is just owned by someone new (as has occurred with several airlines). Bankruptcy punishes those who took excessive risks while preserving those aspects of a businesses that remain profitable.

complete story here

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Not much to update unfortunately. I’m still feeling a little pull in my calf muscle and I want to take it slow. I’m eager to run but I don’t want to develop the injury in something that would take away my enthusiasm of running. I’m walking the dog and that’s as much as exercise I can take without putting too much strain on the muscle.

I guess injuries are part of running and my age (arrgh) as well. Something I learned from the C25K is to take it easy when needed!

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Fast Eddie Felson. Hud Bannon. Cool Hand Luke. Butch Cassidy. The guy in the race car. The guy on the salad dressing bottle. The blue-eyed dreamboat. The committed public citizen. The husband of a half-century. The father of six.

According to press releases from his his charitable organizations, Newman’s Own Foundation and the Hole in the Wall Gang Camps, Paul Newman died Friday at age 83 at his long-time home in Westport, Connecticut, and with his passing, more has been lost than just a good and fine man.

For a half-century, on screen and off, the actor Paul Newman embodied certain tendencies in the American male character: active and roguish and earnest and sly and determined and vulnerable and brave and humble and reliable and compassionate and fair. He was a man of his time, a part of his time, and that time ranged from World War II to the contemporary era of digitally animated feature films.

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I think the above picture says it all. I FINISHED the C25K! My initial plan was to run yesterday but with temperatures in the mid 90’s (32C) I didn’t feel comfortable running in this condition.

Today was a different story. Temperature dropped to 78 (25C) with some cloud cover. Perfect to end my program! I ran my usual route along the creek and I told myself to start slow. Hitting the 1K spot I was running a 09′38″/mi race. Way too fast! My normal pace would be 10′00/mi and I tried to slow down. After the 1K I zoned out and didn’t bother checking my split times until I hit halfway point. I still was on a 09′38″/mi schedule!

I felt so confident and strong that I decided not to check the time anymore but instead trying to focus on the 5K. My last 500 meters were the most difficult ones and once my iPod told me I finished the 5K Lance Armstrong congratulated me (not in person, duh… but it’s build into the iPod nano) with a new PR for the 5K: 29′58″!

I shouldn’t be focused in speed so much since I’m still a novice runner. Gary of ‘hitting the wall’ has an excellent post about it: The No-Need for Speed. I will remember this next time but I guess my adrenaline got the upper hand…

So what’s next? First of all I’m proud of myself finishing something. I’m pretty impulsive when it comes to new fads but I know running will be a keeper. Tomorrow I will sign up for my first race (scary!) and I intend to run at least 3 X week, preferable 5K. I will continue this until the end of 2008 and as a pre-resolution for 2009 I will start the OHR program beginning of January.

I also want to thank the readers of this blog and giving me positive feedback. Especially Daisy, thanks for the many inspirational and motivating comments! I’ll be virtually running your graduation day (tomorrow?) with you! You can do it!

Enough talk! I’m sure I will dedicate lots and lots more posts to running and give you updates as a runner!

Keep on running!

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On Saturday I tried to run but I still felt a little pinch in my calf muscle and decided to take a 12 mile bike ride instead. Sunday I had the urge to run but as soon as I hit the pavement I felt that little pesky pinch again.

This morning I felt great and throughout the day I didn’t feel any pain or aches. I still was undecided if I should run since on sunday I felt some pain. what the heck… Just go for it. If it doesn’t work out I’ll take another resting day.

when I arrived at the trail I simply felt great. I did a good amount of stretching and a decent warm-up. My calf muscle was cooperating and was well. Since I was so motivated to finally run again after a 5 day drought and a minor injury it kinda got it my head to run a 5K instead of the 30 minute run or 3 miles (4.83 K). why not go al the way and see were it ends?

I have to say that this was my best run so far! everything was just in sync. No pain, no aches, just me running at a steady pace. I started slow just to avoid another injury but after 1K I knew this was going to be a good run… and it was.

5K in 31″30′. I wasn’t fixated on the time, I only wanted to run a 5K. The time would be nice as a benchmark but halfway through my run I knew I was going fast (relatively ). My last 400 meters I increased the pace a little bit since I had plenty left!

So basically I reached my goal of running a 5K. Why on day 2 of week 9? I just needed a confidence builder for my graduation day. I felt so good this afternoon that I couldn’t pass the opportunity to run a 5K. Does this mean I finished the C25K? No! I still need to run W9D3. I owe it to myself to finally finish something. I didn’t start the C25K and not run the last day of it. That would be stupid…

So 1 more day to go and I already feel kinda sad for leaving the program. No more C25K after graduation day…

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So today was another attempt to run Week 9. And again with no success… My dog was once again a big distraction (I should know by now that running with a dog doesn’t work) and I stepped in a little pothole with the result of my calf muscle cramping up. It doesn’t feel like cramp anymore and I think I might have pulled it a bit.

So instead of finishing the program this week I should rest my leg. But how frustrating this is! I know I shouldn’t be so upset about it but I can’t help it. Knowing I have only two days left and not knowing when my next run will be drives me up the f…ing wall.

Deep breathes… That’s all I can do now. Arrggh.

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Mircosoft is pulling the Seinfeld ads off the air. MS only aired two episodes and they were horrible! Valleywag:

Microsoft flacks are desperately dialing reporters to spin them about “phase two” of the ad campaign — a phase, due to be announced tomorrow, which will drop the aging comic altogether. Microsoft’s version of the story: Redmond had always planned to drop Seinfeld. The awkward reality: The ads only reminded us how out of touch with consumers Microsoft is — and that Bill Gates’s company has millions of dollars to waste on hiring a has-been funnyman to keep him company.

Update: In a phone call, Waggener Edstrom flack Frank Shaw confirms that Microsoft is not going on with Seinfeld, and echoes his underlings’ spin that the move was planned. There is the “potential to do other things” with Seinfeld, which Shaw says is still “possible.” He adds: “People would have been happier if everyone loved the ads, but this was not unexpected.”

There ya go Microsoft, No soup for you!

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Happy B-day Dad! Just didn’t had enough time this morning to give you a call. We’ll talk this weekend. Hope you have a wonderful day!

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Ouch… I didn’t go as planned. I was pretty optimistic and I felt great. The first kilometer went great, nice pace and I was happy to be out running. Then came mile 2 (3.22K). All of a sudden my right calf muscle cramped up. I couldn’t move…

The next few minutes I stretched it out and tried to loosen up the muscle with no effect. I continued the run but the cramp was too much. A probable cause could be the track which is slightly slanted at a certain part of the course. I think my feet are trying to adjust the slope which causes my muscles to correct in a forced way…

Could be dehydration, not enough stretching, warm-up etc. I thought I was good to go but apparently I wasn’t. I still managed to get something of a run at the last kilometer and covered a distance of 3.12 miles in 36′56″.

I guess I have to pay a little bit more attention to my body on my next run…

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