As the owners of Denali Fitness, we were invited to Nishino’s 10 year anniversary party. Nishino’s is located next door to the gym and a lot of our members are frequent diners there. It’s my favorite restaurant in Seattle and used to eat there about once a month but not nearly as often now.
It was a first class affair–they even had valet service for the evening. They served drinks and some delicious hors d’oeuvres. (I always have to look up the spelling for that word.) I ran into a number of gym members as well as some other friends during the evening. Overall, it was a wonderful event and I was so very happy to have been invited.
Archive for September, 2005
The benefits of ownership
Wednesday, September 28th, 2005Good Read
Sunday, September 18th, 2005I finished Lance Armstrong’s War a few weeks ago. It’s a great book that I highly recommend. My lone issue with the book is that Daniel Coyle demonstrated that he has a lot to learn about aerodynamics. In Chapter 21, he states that increasing speed requires more energy due to the greater volume of air that the cyclist must push. The idea that an object moving through air is pushing that air is inaccurate–this isn’t shoveling snow. A cyclist–or any object for that matter–has a coefficient of drag that is an inherent property. In the case of cyclists, the coefficient of drag depends on their body shape, body position, materials, etc. The force of drag is equal to the coefficient of drag x area x 1/2 x air density x velocity^2. So while it is true that drag increases faster with higher velocity, it increases with velocity squared rather than the volume of air being pushed. Note that there are other forces that affect the force required such as rolling resistance and mechanical drag but I think it’s safe to assume that aerodynamic drag is the biggest factor for cyclists riding at higher speed. FYI, power = force x velocity, so the power required to match the force of drag increases with velocity^3.
I was surprised to read that the T-Mobile doctors gave Jan Ullrich some antibiotics during the 2004 Tour. I’m no doctor but it sounded like the typical over-prescription of antibiotics (prescribing antibiotics for what is most likely a viral infection).
Reading between the lines
Tuesday, September 6th, 2005Amidst all the horrific images of Hurricane Katrina’s wake are some video clips and stories that really highlight the ineptitude of the Bush administration.
I just saw clips of this press conference on The Daily Show and managed to find a commentary on it.
And this guy is the head of Homeland Security?
Michael Brown, FEMA Director, got his job the same way that Bush got most of the jobs in his career.
Katrina
Friday, September 2nd, 2005Four days later and the picture keeps getting worse. Even after seeing the images and reading the stories, I’m sure that these don’t fully describe how bad it really is. I’ve even heard the word “refugees” to describe those people left in Katrina’s aftermath.
How did we end up in this situation? We knew for days that a big hurricane was going to hit the area. Why weren’t emergency services better prepared to rush in right after the hurricane passed? It seems to me that the federal government wasn’t doing anything to prepare.
Maybe Bush should stop taking long vacations…
There are a lot of places online to donate. United Airlines is offering miles to anyone that donates on their site.