And Wired has another great article, this time on how sweet Lance Armstrong is and professional bikers in general.

Landis rode the Tour using a piece of equipment, made by a company called CycleOps, that allowed him to precisely measure his power output through each stage of the Tour, down to the watt. And what’s more, he and his personal coach, Allen Lim, published the results online.

And the cool part:

Armstrong, unsurprisingly, is one of the great human bicycle engines of all time. According to a seven-year study of Armstrong by Edward Coyle at the University of Texas, Armstrong can simply put out more power without crossing his lactate threshold than other riders, which means he can ride harder, longer.

“The difference is that Lance is still below his threshold while a guy like Floyd is above it,” said Sovndal.

And that’s how you win seven Tours in a row.

Read it here…

Read all five pages, just a stunning article that you should all read. It is one of the best articles I have read on the Internet, two thumbs up.

We Are the Web at Wired.com…

The answer is yes!

Imagine that every time you printed a document, it automatically included a secret code that could be used to identify the printer — and potentially, the person who used it. Sounds like something from an episode of “Alias,” right?

Unfortunately, the scenario isn’t fictional. In an effort to identify counterfeiters, the US government has succeeded in persuading some color laser printer manufacturers to encode each page with identifying information. That means that without your knowledge or consent, an act you assume is private could become public. A communication tool you’re using in everyday life could become a tool for government surveillance. And what’s worse, there are no laws to prevent abuse.

Read the rest at the EFF…

James Blunt rocks! Amazing British singer, you will love this Snake and Dmarsh, every song is amazing!

My favorities:
You’re Beautiful
So Long Jimmy
High

Amazon song list here…

So I’ve decided to go on a trip:
Leave Vancouver in the early morning (3:30 am)
Arrive Dubois, WY (Margo’s house) Wednesday night
Leave Friday, Arrive Boulder, CO (Dougal’s house)
Play an ultimate tournament (GRUB)
Hike in Colorado for a few days
See my dad’s new Colorado cabin, where my family is staying for the week
Friday - Journey to Fayetteville, AR
August 10th - Driver to Winnipeg, MB
Play Canadian Ultimate Championships for 4 days
Drive to Banff National Park in Alberta
Arrive in Vancouver (around the 16th)

Please vote for your favorite Modest Mouse lyrics.

1) All the stars are projectors, yeah
Projectin’ our lives down to this planet Earth

2) Right wing, left wing, chicken wing
It’s built on findin’ the easier ways through
God is a woman and the woman is
An animal that animals man, and that’s you
Was there a need for creation?
That was hiden in a math equation
And that’s this:
Where do circles begin?

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Popularity heirarchy in terms of the number of websites returned in google searches:
“Daniel Marsh” - 4,000
“Lebron James” - 1 million
“Lance Armstrong” - 4 million
“Beatles” - 5.7 million
“George Bush” - 7.5 million
“Michael Jordan” - 10.5 million
“Jesus” - 20 million
“Harry Potter” - 22.7 million
“God” - 52.5 million
“Sex” - 72.3 million (thankfully)
“Google” - 214 million

I used to have a little joke, though by no means a very funny one: whenever I’d hear about some new instance of supposed “progress” that smacked very little of progress to me (say, a new Wal-Mart Superstore or Hummer Hwhatever) I’d sing that little diddy from the Panasonic commercials, “I’ve got to admit it’s getting better”. But I can no longer deny that things are getting better. They’re getting better all the time. What follows are two instances where progress has made my life richer and fuller, further diversifying the tapestry that is the Zach Johnson Experience:

1. XLERATOR Hand Dryers Do you guys have these? They’re installing them all over my campus, particularly in my gym’s locker room where previously I would refuse to wash my hands due to their eschewal of paper towels and reliance on 50s-era hand dryers. As you know, normal hand dryers suck, for a variety of reasons. They stay on for a fixed period of time after you hit the big button on their front. I think they stay on for about 45 seconds, which means that they will remain on for a good 40 seconds after you’ve given up all hope of them actually drying your hands with their weak stream of room-temperature air. The XLERATOR, on the other hand, is bitchin. Not only is it retro-chic, but it is motion activated and provides so much force that your hands are dry within 10-15 seconds. Plus, if you’re a hippy, you might be interested to know that they use 80% less energy, though less energy than what is not specified on their website — I’m guessing that would be less than regular hand dryers. Paired with some of that foam soap and a “trough sink” operated by foot pedal, washing your hands is no longer something to be avoided like the plague.

2. New Candy Bars Candy bars are constituted by varying amounts of no more than a dozen standard ingredients: from nougat to peanut butter to cookie crumbles. However, candy bar companies seemed to languish in the banality of their standard products throughout the 90s. Finally, a revolution took place. I believe the first shots were fired by Twix, when they reissued their Peanut Butter Twix a few years back and by Reese’s when they released Reesesticks, which make me want to cry they’re so good. Recently, Kronmiller hung a grocery bag filled with about a dozen candybars on my doorknob for my birthday. Alongside the old standards were 5 or 6 I’d never even heard of, from Fudge Reese’s to Limited Edition Triple Chocolate Kit Kats. Now pretty much any combination of any amount of the standard ingredients is available in packaged form — you can stop experimenting in your personal candy bar lab and just head down to your local 7-11. I like to enjoy at least one quality candy bar a day.

I’ve got to admit it’s getting better…it can’t get no worse.

Well, I was wrong. I predicted that Bush would select a moderately conservative women; he picked an ardently conservative white male.

But at least I was close. This morning, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Slate, and the DrudgeReport either published or linked to an article suggesting that Judge Edith Clement, the person I picked two weeks ago when everybody else was obessing over Attorney General Gonzalez, would be Bush’s nominee for the Supreme Court. Clement all the sudden had become the blogosphere (all copycats) favorite, and Slate had published an article on how to correctly pronounce her name. By lunchtime PDT, I was already boasting to my co-workers that I had accurately picked the nominee two weeks ago.

Unfortunately, the news media and I were wrong. (It reminded me of the 2004 elections, when Slate and Drudge leaked the early exit polls that showed Kerry with substantial leads in many of the swing states, only to see Bush to win late in the evening. That, of course, reminded me of the 2000 election, when I went to sleep after Al Gore had been declared president-elect and woke up to realize that Bush had the tenative title. That, in turn, was a first-time experience and reminded me of nothing.)

Get this:

Yesterday morning I finished Paul Auster’s The Red Notebook: True Stories. A fairly well-known and successful author, Auster is known for his intricate, absorbing, mysterious, and in the end quite befuddling writing style. This tiny little book, though, is about the mysteries of everyday experience. It mostly just contains very short anecdotes from Auster’s life that involve coincidences (example: some lady’s cat is sick and needs an operation, but it will cost like $286 which she doesn’t have; later that day her car gets hit from behind, and the insurance company’s gonna pay her exactly $286). Not too exciting stuff, but really shows Auster’s skill with the written word. So all day yesterday I was thinking about coincidences and the various ones I’ve run into in my day. Fast forward to around 11:00. L. and I return from lovely dinner of Nepalese food and some time on the terrace looking at ducks. We put in a DVD of The Stone Reader, a documentary about the search for an author who only wrote one book (quite well-received) and then basically disappeared. The filmmaker, Mark Moskowitz, had read a New York Times book review of The Stones of Summer as a young adult, had bought the book, but was never able to get through it. Years later, he picked it up and read it, loved it, and wanted to read some other works by the author, Dow Mossman. Problem was, he hadn’t written again, and nobody’s ever heard of him. I was meant to see this film at last year’s Wisconsin Film Festival (I had tickets in hand) but got a last-minute call from the PIRGs that I could come interview in Chicago over the weekend for a job (this would inaugurate the terrible chapter in my life of working for the PIRGs on New Voters Project, but that’s another story). My current class on documentary history reminded me of this film and I quickly went to the library to check it out.

There’s Read the rest of this entry »

I can’t keep up with new music. I still check Pitchfork every weekday, but I don’t understand a word of it, haven’t heard of any of the artists. I usually end up confused and disoriented and have to go lie down. Plus, given my fairly modest income (about $0/week) I can’t hope to buy even the CDs Pitchfork has named the Best New Music. I’m avoiding both the Pitchfork-curated Intonation Music Festival this weekend and Lollapalooza next (both in Chicago) in favor of reading. So recently I decided I’m giving up on following the latest trends in music. I’ll let Daniel Marsh, Mote Nasty, and my boy Brandon K. fill me in on what I need to listen to and I’ll trust their judgement. Since giving up new music, I’ve retreated to the relative safety of my existing CD collection, which is pretty poor given the Great CD Theft, Gulley Park, Fayetteville ‘99 but which contains a number of gems that hadn’t seen the light of day in years. Foremost among them is The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner by Ben Folds Five. I’m not a Ben Folds fan, and this is his/their only issue that I own. But man is it a dinger. I’ve actually purchased it thrice. The second time after losing it, the third after it was stolen. This is the CD that brings back all the memories of Summer ‘99 to me. It may also contain the finest three-song sequence in the history of recorded music: from “Don’t Change Your Plans” to “Magic”. Have any of you also recently rediscovered a CD from your adolescence that you had all but forgotten?

Before really beginning, let me note that I’m aware that the hipster literati has already forsworn McSweeney’s in search of fairer shores. And don’t tell me you’ve been reading this for years. I’ve been reading it for a couple weeks and already feel confident (with the help of a few brewskies) blogging about it. McSweeney’s is a literary journal whose humble origins involve accepting submissions rejected by other journals. Plus, it was started by and is sometimes edited by Dave Eggers who, if you didn’t know it already, is pretty cool. You should read A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. I’m still staggered. McSweeney’s is all things to all people. But really, McSweeney’s is two things to relatively few people: a quarterly print journal known as McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern and the internet division known as McSweeney’s Internet Tendency.
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I’m picking up a copy of HP6 at midnight, pacific time. I’ll blow the ending for you as soon as I get there. Is anyone else reading this thing tonight?

Comrades —

First of all, I just wanted to tell you all that I have done the (un) impossible — I have updated my blog. You know where to find that mess — for now, it’s tops under “Our other sites” on the right side. Check it out — if that’s what you be about.

Secondly, it just hit me like a bag of trivial rocks, and I’m sure you all have noticed it, but UTAH had both #1 picks in the NFL and NBA this year! That’s AMAZING! I guess those Mormons are devoting all the energy other college athletes use going out dancing to the latest Nelly hit and drinking Peppermint Schnapps to honing their on-field performance. Hats off to those Utes! Anyway, I thought to myself “Surely, this has never happened before — where one school produces the number 1 pick in both the NFL and NBA.” I did a by-mail and telephone trivia service search and found out that indeed it has never happened before. I did, however, come upon some interesting “almosts” –

1. The same city produced the 2 picks in 1969. UCLA churned out Lew Alcindor (aka “K.A.” Jabbar) whilst USC countered with some no-name named Oleander Jasmine Simpson (aka “O.J. Simpson).

2. Notre Dame almost had it before Utah. In 1971, they gave the NBA a man history would forever know as “Austin Carr.” But one year later, they send forth to the NFL a certain young defensive tackle… yes, only a young defensive tackle named WALT PATULSKI.

3. This may be “almost” funny to many (though to me it most certainly “is”), but the only nicknamed feller I found among the #1 picks in either league was 1974’s Ed “Too Tall” Jones, a strapping (I surmise) defensive end outta Tennesse State, drafted by Dallas. This was an official NFL historical trivia representative I was talking to on the phone that told me that on the list such was his name, too, so it must have been a for-real nickname. Hearing this made me yearn for the days in which a man could have foisted upon him such a (to us hardened ironi-whores) “silly” intensive modifier in the midst of his name. I think we should bring it back. Now. Here, I’ll start with myself — Evin “Too Dialectically-Inclined” Demirel… Does that work? I hope it does. It has a nice, hop-off-your-tongue ring to it, and I do like to argue — but usually only for the sake of constructive dialectic and knowledge.

P.S. I didn’t check up on the MLB or NHL because they suck.

According to some USA Today columnist, The Grokster decision is actually a win for file sharing. He’s got a good point. The ruling found fault with Groakster only because of their marketing. this is good for technological inovation because as long as the technology is marketed safely it will probably be fine. This is also great for open/free technology like Bit Torrent which, as I understand it, really has no marketing.

Oh and I havent started reading USA Today. I found this on DowloadSquad.com which is a cool blog I’ve started checking semi regularly. DownloadSuad : Software :: Engadget : Hardware. great source for cool new free programs (and lots of stuff for you OSX types).

“[So,] I was having coffee at a Gaza hotel on Saturday with a group of Palestinian and Egyptian businessmen when one of the Palestinians, half-serious, half-joking, gave me a stock tip…”

I guess I couldn’t have written a more cliche opening sentence to a Tom Friedman column than, say, Tom Friedman himself.

Most of my friends are afraid that with Justice O’Connor’s retirement, President Bush is going to take this opportunity to nominate an extreme conservative to the Supreme Court, in the mold of Justices Scalia and Thomas. (Thomas, in the recent ten commandment cases, again argued for his originalist position that the First Amendment’s seperation of church and state only applies to the federal government and not the states. So Arkansas could establish Baptism as its official religion and, I guess, make you pay state taxes to support the Arkansas Baptist Chruch (est. 2005).)
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Well since my last post was on 4.28.05 I decided I should probably write something. Boy I am nautious. There is a really cool article over at Yahoo entitled “Video gamers may have quicker eyes” and it proclaims that video gamers can scan for objects at a higher rate than normals. For the rest of the article video game players will be referred to as muties (its short for mutant) and non video game players as norms (short for normals).

Specifically, both groups of students were similar when it came to the search principle of “inhibition of return.” According to Castel, this means that when people look for their keys, they look in one place, and if the keys aren’t there, they will look in a number of other spots before giving the original location a second go-around.

In the experiments, he told Reuters Health, video gamers used the same search strategy as non-gamers did. “They just executed it faster,” he said.

This is great news for all us muties who will eventually conquer the world and live in caves rising once a year to eat norms to satisfy our blood list. Although, I dont play games four hours a day so I’ll probably be eaten as well. The interesting thing is the army has known about this for a while and been using games to train new soldiers and seen great results in their ability to spot enemy and make snap reactions, guess gaming is good for something besides obesity. I’m alive and living in Fayetteville for a year or so, sorry Dmarsh can’t travel to CO for ultimate :(

I don’t know if you guys knew this already, but google is the coolest company in the history of the universe. Here is another reason why. Google Earth Is one of the coolest free programs I’ve ever used. Unlike the other freeware I recently posted about It’s coolness derives not from it’s function but from the fact that it is really really fun to play with. That’s not to say that it has no good uses, just that it doesn’t even need them to be awsome. go download it now.