MDK10 Outside

California Trailrunnery and Outdoorsy News Roundup

2012-02-19T11:15:00.000-08:00

I'm very fortunate to have home-bases for the moment in both San Francisco and San Diego, so dear reader, you'll be seeing links from up and down the coast of the whole great state of California.

French broom, a severe invasive from the Mediterranean. I hope they eat it all. The stuff is like California's own kudzu. If you see it in a park, call it in. If you see it in your yard, pull it out.

1) With the warm dry winter, French broom is already in full bloom along Route 13 in the East Bay area - but completely absent from Redwood Preserve, as far as I can tell, due to a concerted effort by volunteers over the past few years. Good job! A few years it looked like it had completely taken over.

2) Oil platforms off Venture and Santa Barbara Coast to be re-opened, if this already-passed House bill becomes law.

3) A great resource for San Diego trail runners: Scott Capistrant's systematic trail running reviews.

From Scott's Los Penasquitos post. It looks hot. You can smell the dust and sage in this picture.

4) There are albino redwoods in several places around the state, like the one e Mark at Tales from the Trails found below. Of course it's not true albinism in the sense of vertebrates, but rather a lack of chloroplasts, which in turn means they can't photosynthesize; but since redwoods often share root systems, they can get away with it (not surprising in retrospect that redwoods do this but still cool. Clonally reproducing organisms like redwoods often share resources since it's identical genes cooperating with themselves.) I'm going to be heading down to Henry Cowell State Park tomorrow to check some out and go for a nice Santa Cruz Mountains run.

From Mark's Tales from the Trails

5) If you're in the East Bay and want a fun Wednesday night trail running group, the WEENIES is a good one. (Wednesday Evenings East Neighborhoods International Exercise Society.) Last week we were up on the deer and fire trails in Tilden and above Strawberry Canyon, and in the dark we startled a deer that almost bulldozed us as it was running.

6) For hashers: thinly concealed heresy on the San Francisco Hash House Harriers website! And needless to say, right before I moved up here I just started really enjoying the North County Hash in San Diego (they did an Elfin Forest run a while back that was fantastic) but the East Bay ruffians are a good time too.

7) Finally - I'm going to post something I'm doing on the awesome site nobodyhikesinla. Hopefully it will make it even more helpful for people who like SoCal trails!

The Bay Ridge Trail in EBMUD land south of Tilden Park, Oakland. David Sanger Photography.

The Seattle Sonics Moved; What Happened Then?

2012-02-07T15:22:00.000-08:00

In 2008 the Seattle SuperSonics professional basketball team moved to Oklahoma City and became the Thunder. The reason, more or less, was the stadium: newer stadiums have more ways to part fans with money (i.e., space for selling expensive food and beer, plus branded merchandise), which is why professional sports organizations' demands to the cities they're in usually revolve around getting new stadiums. To do this they often demand (and get) tax money; a pretty ballsy demand from a private organization. The way the teams get their way with government is their unstated threat that, if they leave, there will be backlash from fans against the mayor and other government officials for the loss of jobs from the area where the team played, as well as the emotional impact of losing the franchise.

That's the fear the team ownerships play off anyway. So when the Supersonics left Seattle, what happened?

There's a whole documentary about this, Sonicsgate: Requiem for a Team, embedded below. First, there was a referendum passed that essentially disallowed any taxpayer supported stadium* with 70% voter approval. That wide of a margin is amazing in itself; and in fact around the country any time these kinds of discussions have happened in the open, taxpayer opinion has been similarly negative. And this makes sense, because it's been proven, by economists, in impartial peer-reviewed journals, that sports stadiums do not help their local economies. Of course, they do help the franchise owners, but it's not taxpayers' job or desire to line the owners' pockets. Literature fans will recognize writer Sherman Alexie in the documentary but his and others' argument that capitalism always ends up redistributing taxpayer dollars to the wealthy is transparently irrelevant ("but everybody else does it!"); most taxpayers don't mind as much if that wealthy person is going to be creating jobs, and again: professional sports arenas do not create jobs.

So when cities do cave in to professional sports groups and give them our tax money, why? Are they just delusional about the job-creation prospects? Or is there backroom corruption? That's possible of course, but what's certain is that voters react irrationally when things happen to their favorite teams and players (remember LeBron James leaving Cleveland? Holy sheesh). In this case, Mayor Greg Nickels was defeated seeking a third term, and this was at least partly blamed on the Sonics' leaving. You can imagine the NBA distributing a copy of the story of Nickels' unsuccessful run directly to the mayors' offices of every NBA-hosting city in the U.S. The Supersonics weren't even that popular as sports franchises go.

So what's the point of all this? Lots of us, sports fans and otherwise, recognize that it's not the taxpayers' jobs to keep the Chargers or Niners or whoever in our town. When a local team tries to shake us down for a new stadium - and it's when, and not if - that's when the taxpayers (and the mayor as our representative) have to send a clear signal not to let the door hit them in the ass on the way out. We have to remember that the sports teams are private organizations that are playing hardball with our cities trying to make money, and when they leave, it's to make more money, and they don't care that they're going to ruin childhoods. And most importantly, we have to remember, when the next election rolls around, that the mayor stood up for our interest. Otherwise we can't complain when the mayor spends our tax money on facilities for private businesses that only enrich the owners, and not the rest of us.

*To be clear, what the referendum said was that any taxpayer investment had to produce positive returns, which is basically the same as disallowing it, and is certainly how the average voter thought about it.

Three Sisters is Cool

2012-02-06T10:58:00.000-08:00

From world-of-waterfalls.com.

The falls are still going even after this dry winter (although picture above is not current), and after tomorrow they'll be stronger. If you haven't yet done this hike, I recommend that you don't want to do it when it's rained recently because of slippery rock and dirt. Here's a Cro-Magnon we saw coming down the final little run the non-rope way. Didn't know there was a remnant population in the canyon.

Sh*t Barefoot Runners Say

2012-02-02T17:02:00.000-08:00

In fairness, Born to Run is about a lot more than barefoot running. But as a takedown of athletic and exercise cults in general this is pretty funny.

H/T Boingboing.

Awesome Ice Skating...On the John Muir Trail

2012-02-01T08:24:00.000-08:00

You can hear the thought process..."No snow in the Sierras, so what else can we do...wait, it's cold and we can get to the high lakes...hmmmm...." Talk about making lemonade - some genuine California ice skating. And the BEST PART: no soundtrack. When people watch nature videos, we want to hear, you know, water gurgling, wind, the scraping of ice and rocks...not annoying Euro-pop. This video is pretty much perfect. Thanks to the folks who made it and thanks to Mark at Marks Tales from the Trails for posting it on his awesome blog.

Proposal to Keep Mount Palomar S.P. Open

2012-01-31T10:04:00.000-08:00

Palomar Mountain State Park is going to be closed by the state, like many in California. Friends of Palomar Mountain State Park submitted a proposal to the Dept of Parks and Rec to keep Palomar open by closing the funding gap; here's NBC covering it. Once the proposal is submitted, they'll need our help for this.

Go here to learn more and keep alive a San Diego County treasure.

Safety Alert: Runner Assaulted in Mission Bay Park

2012-01-29T17:08:00.000-08:00

The Union-Tribune has other details - happened 6:30pm, Saturday 28 January.

San Francisco - the Ridge to Bridge

2012-01-28T10:18:00.000-08:00

The Ridge Trail is putting on the 16th annual Ridge to Bridge on Saturday April 28 2012, raising money to help complete the trail - and as I learned on my little journey around the Bay, it's not complete yet. It's a day of trail running or hiking or whatever you want to do out there. Learn more here.

From bahiker.com.

Mongolia Must Be Awesome For Running

2012-01-26T18:26:00.000-08:00

How bad is it that I see this video from Boing Boing about a ger-raising (filmed in real time and accelerated), and I'm drooling at the running that the countryside behind them promises. Not unlike a green Montana or Wyoming. The Kenyan highlands can give the same reaction.

L.A.'s Griffith Park Is Neat-o

2012-01-24T19:09:00.000-08:00

View of Mt. Lee from Mt. Hollywood in Griffith Park. From Planetrambler.com.

I have to admit I always thought of LA city parks as probably kind of gross and trashy and pretty small anyway. Wrong-o buster. Today I ran around a bunch of trails in Griffith Park, which is where the Hollywood sign is. The problem with the smaller or less isolated LA parks and canyons for us Diegueños is that they're not really worth a special trip, but if you're on your way somewhere, your stuff (often including your computer) is vulnerable in your car, and if you've been broken into before you understand why I'm nervous about that. So if I go to LA, it's for the Natl Forests up there, and I end up looking at places like Griffith Park and hoping I'll eventually get to explore them. And today I did.

Some nice green areas on the east side and some fun little climbs in there too to get up to Mt. Hollywood. Start on the east side by the merry-go-round to find these; Nobody Hikes in LA has the info, although hell if I was going to try to follow all the instructions in that post. (Signage in the park is pretty much absent.) The snow on the San Gabriels was pretty clear once you started getting up on the hill.

Critter sightings: some birds whose calls I didn't recognize, and a woodpecker that was damn determined to mmake progress on a telephone pole. I saw a very young horse getting trained to be comfortable walking along the ridges, plus there was a drum circle down in the east side parking lot and best of all, two brazen coyotes wandering around. (Picture below, sorry about the fuzziness, but then again it's an iPhone.)

Also, a big thank you for dlockeretz at Nobody Hikes in LA for that awesome website. I've been using it before but what I really like are the categories (region, or distance, or quality). Awesome. Much appreciated!

THE DOUBLE WOODSON

2012-01-23T10:47:00.000-08:00

Finally, been wanting to double this for a long time, and got there early enough in the afternoon (gate closes at 5:15, and it's dark then anyway). And turns out there was a race there the day before. Who knew? People not as out of it as me I guess.

One strange thing: beginning around 2:15pm, several people heard very low frequency booming sounds. They tended to come in clusters of two or three, separated by several minutes. It didn't sound like thunder; much more even attack and decay. It could have been mining explosions, weapons testing or training on nearby base, a sonic boom, or even an earthquake - I've heard earthquakes before but they didn't sound like this. A Google search on both the web and news for Mt. Woodson, Ramona, and Poway plus boom, thunder, and rumble didn't yield anything.

I've been up to the top several times before on single up-and-downs but refuse to go on Potato Chip Rock myself for religious reasons. Specifically, the the anti-potato-chip religion.

[Added later: apparently there was some kind of marathon in Carlsbad yesterday too. I truly have my finger on the pulse of the San Diego running scene.]

Safety Tool: Crimemapping.com

2012-01-15T18:13:00.000-08:00

This is a lot more useful, and user-friendly, than the ARJIS system. Here it is centered on San Diego, but with this one site you can look at crime in many cities around the country.

BCS Officials: We Love the Taliban

2012-01-13T11:04:00.000-08:00

...at least the Onion says so. This very subtle, totally nuanced piece, "Unpopular BCS Crowns Alabama National Champions, Endorses Rick Santorum, Spits On World War II Veteran, Pushes Elderly Woman Down Flight Of Stairs, Wishes Osama Bin Laden Were Still Alive" is made of win and is in line with previous articles. If you're a fellow BCS-hater, you may like previous entries in the "series".

Happy New Year!

2012-01-09T03:25:00.000-08:00

Point Reyes

Happy New Year to all! To those of you I got to see, it was great. To those of you I haven't seen enough of in the last few months, congratulations on getting away from me, but it won't last. You've been warned.

A fun trip to San Francisco and back involved the usual silliness at such visits of running in Redwood Preserve in Oakland (i.e. French Trail), Muir Woods, the Marin Headlands, Purisima Creek Redwoods and Point Reyes - including, at the latter, more oysters than can really be healthy. I've also never seen that many elk hanging out at the McClure Beach area. I also got out to Mt. Diablo where I rediscovered the Eagle Peak route from Mitchell Canyon that I'd "lost" years ago - always good to recover a memorable route that you couldn't place on a map anymore. (But if that's happening to you it's a sign you've been out on too many trails.) On the way up I took this little detour through Angeles NF to see if there were any trails worth exploring on Angeles Crest Highway/Angeles Forest Highway/Big Tujunga Canyon Road. (Route below - I'm biased against desert-like terrain, so for me the answer is no, although if I'm missing anything feel free to comment.)

View Larger Map

Names will be disguised or left incomplete to protect the guilty: thanks to Greg and Will for letting me crash with them (again!) and to Greg and Rene for inviting us to a fun little New Years party in San Francisco. No thanks to professor MG for letting me stay in his squalid hovel in Santa Barbara. However this last visit reminded me again of the many trails in the Santa Ynez right there above Santa Barbara; Cold Spring Trail and Montecito Peak is one of them.

News Flash: Central Coast is Still Awesome

2011-12-27T17:46:00.000-08:00

Happy holidays! In case you needed reminding, a weekend in SLO is never wasted at any time of year. And I guess this is where I tell you I'm quitting blogging since I successfully auditioned for Jackass. On the way up there from San Diego, for the heck of it first we stopped at Wee Man's Chronic Tacos in Redondo, and lo and behold the man himself was there:

(No word on what my first stunt will be.) Then right north of Santa Barbara on 101, at the U.S. 1 exit, we stopped in the little lot east of the highway and meandered the half-mile or so up to the hot spring. It's a nice little stop if you're taking 101 to San Francisco. (Many mini-hikes was the theme of the trip.)

After that we checked out La Purisima Mission outside Lompoc (pictures below not mine) and then visited the southern end of the Pismo San Dunes at Oso Flaco before getting to SLO.

Seeing frost on the grass Sunday morning, we headed up to Missions San Miguel and San Antonio, before taking the beautiful and precipitous Nacimiento-Fergusson Road up and over the spine of the Santa Lucias. Here's your loyal blogger on Mill Creek trail, low on the ocean-facing slope of the Santa Lucias in the southernmost part of Ventana Wilderness.

Picture above mine (duh). Picture below not.

The southern part of Ventana is where the very southernmost stand of redwoods is, which continue to recover from the fire a couple years ago. (We never found the campsite, the trail just petered out, as the folks who made this trail report said.) Finishing the hike ahead of schedule at least gave us extra time to see a typical spectacular sunset along Route 1.

We wanted some tacos by the time we got back down to Morro Bay, and tried to go to Taco Temple, which was closed for some reason. Apparently it was Christmas Day. This theme was continued in downtown SLO. Then again, one of the benefits of being in your late 30s is you no longer panic if it's a Saturday night and the dearth of entertainment options forces you to actually relax with people you like!

The next morning we screwed around on the dunes too long so we had to skip going to Big Falls (next time!) - although Chiquito Falls in Trabuco (Cleveland NF) was dry just a couple weeks ago, and we've had no rain since then, so maybe we didn't miss anything. Seeing as a certain anthropologist was too cool to be home when we were visiting, we headed first to the Coronado Butterly Preserve, where monarchs spend the winter (image not mine):

After that we went up and over the mountains behind Santa Barbara to the Santa Ynez river canyon. NOTE: Gibraltar Road is CLOSED, apparently always the case at this time of year. I like driving over those concrete things to go through the river so I was a little disappointed, not to mention that the Red Rock area is pretty cool. But still, the Oso campgrounds aren't bad either.

We finished off with a visit to Painted Cave before continuing south for some good Chinese food in Irvine. My only regret: I still haven't figured out a way to bottle the smell of Central Coast oak forest.

Film of San Francisco in 1955

2011-12-27T16:37:00.000-08:00

Via Boing Boing, Check out this color film of a 1955 San Francisco (thank you filmmaker Tullio Pellegrini.) It's long, so here are the highlights of that differences from 1955 to 2011 that jumped out at me:

- 0:30, Pedestrian overpasses on 101 are missing
- 0:50, first exit (to right) off Bay Bridge to Fremont street doesn't continue turning right (it was rebuilt after Loma Prieta in 89)
- 2:30, I wish traffic on Van Ness were still that light
- Past 7:00, the Cliff House has more structures, but the real money
shot is the sky tram and waterfalls over the now-gone baths and amusement park
- 8:00, you can see a pier at the northern end of Ocean Beach
- 12:10, it looks like the dunes were lower than today.
- 15:45 has a view from Twin Peaks so you can see the relative lack of high rises
- ~18:45, just funny to me, an ad for a sukiyaki restaurant on the side of a cable car

Bears in San Diego County

2011-12-22T14:50:00.000-08:00

There are some. What do you know! No I didn't see any, but i was just doing some research to see if there are any in the Ventana or Santa Lucia Wilderness, and according to DFG there are.

They're mostly in the mountains, but hey, this could still happen. From the Nine Commandments.

You SoCal outdoorspeople might be chuckling to yourself that I'm surprised by this, but what can I say. When I first looked at this map I thought the CA Department of Fish and Game's map, which I thought was being overenthusiastic - for example, they have all of Marin County as bear territory, and to my knowledge there was has been one unconfirmed bear sighting in Point Reyes in recent history.

But here are sightings, tree-ings and cooler break-ins (including Julian and Ramona) through 2000.

From CA DFG.

The BCS Bowls: Interesting Take By Two Economists

2011-12-21T19:14:00.000-08:00

At Grantland there's a great article than answers why a system so unfair and unpopular as the BCS rankings persists, written by Kevin Grier and Tyler Cowen (you may recognize that last name from columns in the New York Times). Why economists? Because the answer is money, that's why. To be clear, this isn't a screed against college football - it's a screed against people who think the current system has been picking the best teams. Chances are your own team has been screwed by this, which led me to do this analysis of pre- vs. post-season rankings.

One heading in the Grantland article is "Bowls often take money over merit when making match-ups". It links to an August piece by political and athletic oddsmaker Nate Silver, who shows that part of the reason for such an opaque system is that vested economic interests want their bowls to host teams whose fans buy tickets and T-shirts, even if those teams suck. There are plenty of objective figures to consider. BCS stupidity exposed here; BCS hijinx here.

[Added later: I spent way too much time making scatterplots out of BCS data compared against the annual undergrad college rankings from U.S. News during the 2006-2010 period. Guess what? There is zero relationship, either with the rankings, the academic scoring system, or the trends over time; that is to say, football doesn't help or hurt the academic rankings, but still, it seems kind of strange that an athletic team gets to use the brand of an academic institution that they seem to have zero influence on.]

Of course the Onion is not to be left out of the fun either:; this is just fantastic.

Mini-Profile of Jenn Shelton from Born to Run

2011-12-16T11:56:00.000-08:00

If you read Christopher McDougall's Born to Run about the Tarahumara, you'll remember Jenn Shelton as the party girl. That's an image she's trying to shake. I read elsewhere that she complained that McDougall's book romanticizes the lifestyle of the Tarahumara, which is in large part dictated by poverty. That doesn't sound like a party-girl thing to say. Profile here, which struck me because even top-notch ultra-runners are afraid of mountain lions.

Chia Experiment

2011-12-14T15:34:00.000-08:00

Southwest Indians are supposed to have eaten chia seeds on long runs when they started to get tired, and in Born to Run Christopher McDougall discusses the chia smoothies used by the Tarahumara of Chihuahua for the same reason. Yes, chia, the seeds for the stuff that grows on chia pets.

It pays to be skeptical of these claims (and the great blog Science of Running can help you with that). People always want a magic fix for things like this, and unfortunately most of it is nonsense being peddled by a profit motive - though there's nothing wrong with profit, unless you're B.S.-ing people about your product. And I wanted to try it out, so I decided to do a small and admittedly poorly-controlled study: I carried chia seeds with me, and started eating them an hour into my run. I did this five times, in flat to slightly-hilly runs, at temperatures ranging from 55 to 65 F. I could feel no difference in fatigue versus previous runs under the same conditions, and my times on the same routes were the same.

If you want more, then read this paper in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, which reported that chia seeds showed no statistical advantage over any other form of carb loading.

Snow at Mt. Laguna

2011-12-14T15:22:00.000-08:00

The cold weather in SoCal recently has been fantastic for running; also for scenery. I took these purty pitchers at Mt. Laguna, about an hour east of San Diego yesterday:

And here's a charming acquaintance of mine who came to visit from NorCal for some surfing, sun and warm weather in San Diego. He's clearly thrilled.

A Win-Win-Win Scenario: Do Away With the BCS Rankings

2011-12-14T15:09:00.000-08:00

An article by Richard Thaler. Mathematic evidence of the sheer stupidity of BCS rankings here.

How Many Miles per Gallon Do You Get Running?

2011-12-05T01:38:00.000-08:00

UCSD physics professor Tom Murphy does something I was always curious about and calculates the MPG conversions for walking and biking. The conversion is based on the energy density of gasoline burned in cars vs. food energy burned in muscle. "Long-haul" walking comes in at 40 MPG eating regular food; running will be less efficient than that. A Prius is more efficient in energy terms than a runner.

Note that of course this doesn't measure climate impact or dollars per unit energy. Murphy also points out that those kcal you're eating could either be trucked in from all over the place (burning more gas) or be grown closer to home.

Houston Scrambling to Get More Undefeated Before BCS Picks Title Game

2011-12-02T12:13:00.000-08:00

From The Onion, which always has great BCS-mocking humor, as linked in this article.

Conservatives For the Environment

2011-11-30T17:38:00.000-08:00

"There is a small subculture on the Right, known as 'free market environmentalism,' that offers an alternate path toward environmental protection consistent with conservative principles, including respect for property rights, a strong preference for markets, and our congenital suspicion of government and regulation. The conservative movement would be well served to take those ideas more seriously."

- From Steven Hayward's call to modernize conservatism in Breakthrough Journal.

Running in Pennsylvania is Awesome

2011-11-30T15:22:00.000-08:00

Autumn woods from my mom's back porch:

The warm Thanksgiving weather made PA's woods and fields and rolling hills even more fun to run in than usual, and even though the leaves are down there's a lot of green undergrowth to make it feel alive. The November air smelled fantastic. The one drawback to PA is its old geology and broken up granite and shale that give it the Appalachian Trail hiker's nickname of Rockylvania. Neversink's trails are a lot of fun and totally under-utilized, but a bit rocky. Fortunately the western shore of Blue Marsh, my new favorite place to run in Berks, is almost all soil rather than rock.

So is there any kind of a "Berks County Triple Crown"? I.e., you've completed the Thun Trail plus Blue Marsh circumnavigation plus Neversink? It's a neat interlocking trail system and seems ripe for something like this. There are cool races around those parts already like the Mt. Penn Mud-Run, how about an ultra for all those trails?

I had a side trip to Western PA but unfortunately didn't have any time to run - was going to do the Thousand Steps near Mt. Union but that will have to wait until my next trip to State College. I also had never heard of the 70-mile Laurel Highlands Trail until I drove under the pedestrian overpass across the turnpike. Coolly enough, there's already an ultra. Here's a video of the trail, one end of which is at Ohiopyle falls and rapids, which is in turn close to Wright's Falling Water:

Sports Stadiums Don't Help Local Economies

2011-11-30T13:40:00.000-08:00

Sports are great, but private enterprise is better, so don't stick taxpayers with the bill for stadiums. And here's why: "Few fields of empirical economic research offer virtual unanimity of findings. Yet, independent work on the economic impact of stadiums and arenas has uniformly found that there is no statistically significant positive correlation between sports facility construction and economic development." A paper in the Journal of Economic Perspectives covers the topic, further expanded upon in a current, concrete instantiation by Maggie Koerth-Baker at Boing Boing.

These big structures are typically built where the land is cheap, in out-of-the-way locations, ex-industrial zones or bad neighborhoods, and I don't think too many people stop to shop and eat after a game in those kinds of places.

The Worst Things About the Sandusky Scandal

2011-11-10T19:28:00.000-08:00

...at Penn State, besides (obviously) the fact that so many kids were hurt, and people didn't go straight to law enforcement over it, are as follows:

1. That the sincerity of the fans is being called into question. Yes, we're sad that our beloved team and institution is involved in this. Yes, we still like them, and no we're not personally responsible. (Those who were responsible will receive justice, too late for some unfortunately. That's how we do it in the civilized world, not by blaming all members of the same tribe for something they didn't do.) Yes, we're wearing blue on Saturday, a team color and the color of sexual abuse survivors. This is so terrible and phony? What's the morally superior action then? Should we pretend nothing happened? Should we all sit at home weeping in dark rooms or beating ourselves bloody in shame? No, we shouldn't, because here's a fantastic opportunity to get the message out that sexual abuse remains a horrible problem. If hundreds of thousands of Penn Staters do not wear blue this weekend, we've wasted that opportunity.

2. That some idiot students didn't realize the one thing they could do to further besmirch the school was to riot. Thanks guys.

3. That sports journos who always had an axe to grind with Paterno, and/or just see a chance to write a controversial article to get their name out there, are villifying the entire history of the man and the program. Really: as a consumer of sports media, I ask you to read these articles closely. If concern for protecting children is what this is all about (and it should be), then you'll notice that surprisingly, many of these articles are surprisingly devoid of all but the most perfunctory expressions of empathy.

4. That a team and figure not incorrectly associated with fairness and decency will forever have this association. Programs not nearly as clean as PSU will roll their eyes when they see how Paterno ended up and say, "See? All those years of throwing people off the team for getting caught with drugs or having bad grades amounted to nothing. Let's go take steroids and beat prostitutes." Paterno made a huge mistake, but I fail to see how that makes every act throughout his career evil, and I especially fail to see how villifying him will help serve justice or protect kids in the future.

Humans are often bad at moral thinking, and this scandal has exposed that - and unfortunately not just in decision-makers at Penn State, but in the public's reactions to it, and misplaced demand for shame in people who did nothing wrong and are trying to make the best of a bad situation. Penn Staters, our ashamed silence right now does not help anyone. There's nothing moral in sitting idly by and indulging the media's moral chest-thumpers who seem to think that the ruination of these kids' lives can be undone by impugning the motives of Penn Staters who had nothing to do with the tragedy. To put a point on it: imagine that after 9/11, a citizen of Jordan (where several of the hijackers came from) went on a U.S. speaking tour to argue for tolerance and non-violence, to show the world that the vast majority of Jordanians and Muslims are not homocidal maniacs. Would he have been insincere and immoral? What would have been the more moral act, for him to stay home and hang his head in shame just because he happened to share his religion and country of birth with a few evil men, or go out into the world and try to make things better and keep the same thing from happening again? I keep reading articles about how shameful it is that PSU's players are still focused on beating Nebraska. So what should they do? Forfeit the game? Lose intentionally? Would that take away these kids' suffering? And why just the football team, how about Penn State employees, like the facilities people who prepare the field every week, or the stadium janitorial staff, should they all shirk their duties or mope around with heads down while they do it? Would that help?

Once kids are safe and justice is underway, then there's nothing immoral about Penn State fans increasing awareness of the problem that caused this. Once kids are safe and justice is underway, there's nothing immoral about Penn Staters being concerned with the school's reputation. What's most moral now is making sure justice is served, and doing whatever we can to keep this from ever happening again. Part of that is increasing awareness of the problem, which the blue-out will do. Browbeating the team, the fans, and alums will not accomplish this, it will only distract.

Joe Paterno

2011-11-09T08:53:00.000-08:00

I went to Penn State. So did my dad. He was a Penn State football maniac. Despite his best attempts to reproduce this part of himself with frequent family trips to Penn State during the autumns of my adolescence, I have to admit that aside from the fun of tailgating and hanging out with friends, I never cared that much about football (or any team sport); although, tellingly, the one ranking system that I pay attention to is college football. That said, Penn State football was quite literally the closest thing I had to a religion growing up. At age five I began reporting to adults that when I grew up I wanted to be a Penn State football player. My room was blue and white. We had blue and white cars. My dad was the president of the county alumni association and I eventually arranged his funeral to be held in a Penn State conference room. So even though I haven't watched a single game since I graduated (other than ones where I was sitting in Beaver Stadium drinking beer with college buddies), it still hurts when I hear on the news that they lost, and it hurts when they lose a bowl game. And this scandal has really hurt.

I once joked that I felt silly when Metallica's bass player quit in 2001 just before the inauguration of George W. Bush, because my worldview was more shaken by a line-up change in a metal band than by the changing of the guard in the most powerful office on the planet. At the time I said the only thing that could shake the natural order more - the thing that would revert the whole universe to a primitive chaotic state - would be a Penn State football team without Joe Paterno coaching. And that was assuming that he would exit gracefully with adoring fans thronging him. It's not going to happen that way now.

This is sad for many reasons. It's sad first and foremost because of what happened to the kids involved. It's sad if people acted to protect the institution more than the kids, as also seems to be the case; and the justice system will find these things out. But what's also sad is that, regardless of any mistakes he made in this affair, Paterno is a one-of-a-kind who (to understate it) worked very hard to keep values in college football. Bad grades and behavior could and would get you thrown off the team. Really. And he no doubt lost games because of it, and he no doubt lost recruits who went elsewhere where they knew they could get away with bad behavior - but he was willing to make that trade. Where else in college athletics has that been the rule for a half century? Of course, whatever anyone did, none of that makes it okay.

Joe turned down opportunities to go pro to stay at Penn State. Huge amounts of his money have gone to the library and, mostly, to other non-athletic institutions. His house, just off campus, is well-known by students and, while nice, is certainly not huge or attention-drawing. And just two weeks ago he officially became the winningest coach in college football history. I had thought he would retire anyway, but now he'll leave under this cloud. I hope it doesn't pollute his whole legacy because he was an example for all of athletics, and I hope any mistakes were sins of omission. But ultimately football is a game, and real life - the lives of these kids - is more important. And justice will tell us what happened, and that's what I'm waiting for.

Finally! I Can Go Long!

2011-11-06T19:23:00.001-08:00

Since a) I'm done with boards and a lab project and b) the weather is BEAUTIFUL (i.e. cold and rainy) I have gone for long runs for the first time in I don't know how long. And I don't even feel guilty for taking three hours out of my day without carrying an iPod to listen to lectures. Amazing. Simply amazing. Aerobic exercise really does have mood stabilizing properties!

The San Diego Blackout and the Sunrise Power Link

2011-11-06T19:21:00.000-08:00

There's a great article at Voice of San Diego about the blackout we just had, and how the answer is not to depend more on foreign energy, but good ol' locally generated renewable stuff. It's really not a trade-off between cheap electricity (which is good!) and conservation (which is also good!), although that's the story we usually hear. In fact in this case it seems to have been a no-brainer, with all the bad stuff (loss of wilderness, fire danger, no improvement to power grid, increased dependence on foreign energy) all on one side.

...The problem began at a substation in Arizona, and a series of triggering events caused failures all the way to San Onofre nuclear plant on the coast. At the cost of an estimated $100 million in damages, and major inconvenience to millions of people, the San Diego region received a crash course about the fragility of depending on a grid that runs mostly on distant sources of energy.

But it didn't have to turn out this way. Four years ago a San Diego engineer, Bill Powers, published a groundbreaking report, San Diego Smart Energy 2020. The report was all about how to use off-the-shelf technologies in order to build and generate power locally to enhance the existing grid, and provide protection against these sorts of events. The report isn't a pie-in-the-sky vision of the future. It uses affordable technologies that are available and ready to deploy. It's a practical guide that includes a 20 percent reduction in energy usage through existing efficiency measures and 2,000 megawatts of local solar projects. To back up the solar, which doesn't generate at night, Powers' report proposes 700 new megawatts of small co-generation facilities, similar to what is already in use at Qualcomm, UCSD, SDSU, and Children's Hospital, which are highly efficient users of natural gas.

Bike Trails Improve Property Values

2011-10-30T12:36:00.000-07:00

It turns out people are willing to pay a premium to live near bike trails (nine thousand smackaroos to be within a thousand feet). That is to say, if someone builds a bike trail near your house while you're living in it, when you sell, you get more money. Trails and open space = increased property values.

Mountain Lion and Housecat Not Best Buddies

2011-10-19T11:02:00.000-07:00

Needless to say, while San Diego is having the most awesome weather evar - that is, cold and foggy and marine layery, I can't run much because my big test is next week. Yeah. You read that right. I said that. San Diego's sun and warm weather suck. San Francisco is better. What are you gonna do about it?

Now that I'm finished perfunctorily insulting San Diego, enjoy this amazing set of photos of a housecat being visited by his cousin the mountain lion (through a sliding glass window. Not gory.)

Coyotes in Rose Canyon

2011-10-15T21:23:00.001-07:00

It's not a surprise to many people that there are coyotes there, but what's interesting is they seem to be there, or at least be noisy, at the same times of year. This is the third mid-October in a row that I've noticed there were a lot - a lot - at night in Rose, as revealed by their responses to a passing siren. I have yet to hear them at any other time. Maybe the bunnies are extra juicy in UTC in October.

Broad Daylight Robberies in UTC - Near Rose Canyon Along La Jolla Colony Drive

2011-10-11T11:27:00.000-07:00

It's worth mentioning that there were two robberies reported on Saturday, in broad daylight at two and three in the afternoon, next to Rose Canyon near I-5. This is at the southwestern corner of what most would call the UTC area of San Diego. They were reported as being on Rosenda and Porte La Paz, so it may be that the robberies happened on those streets, or just near them, along the path next to La Jolla Colony Drive next to Rose Canyon. Either way it's worth knowing if you use that path or Rose Canyon.

You can sign up for SDPD's automatic emails here, and find out every crime reported within a mile of your front door, on a daily basis.

Continuing Decline of SoCal Fisheries

2011-10-05T11:02:00.000-07:00

If you like to eat or catch fish from the California coast, read this. If you've ever read Mancur Olson's Tragedy of the Commons paper, also read it.

Councilwoman Lightner's Office Responds RE Air Show

2011-09-29T12:01:00.000-07:00

If you live in UTC, in 24 hours you won't need this reminder, but the Miramar Air Show starts tomorrow, and goes until Sunday. They're already doing practice runs. I loved watching these as a kid, when my dad (who was a Naval officer) took me to an airstrip to watch the planes - and that's key - it was at an airstrip, not over top of our houses - and he wouldn't have been happy if it was. Along with many other people, I don't love having them fly fast and at low altitude all day long over my house. The government never bothered to ask our consent for this. It would seem important to do so, after two deadly air show crashes, not to mention one deadly non-air show crash right here in Rose Canyon that took an entire family.

I wrote to Mayor Sanders (who hasn't responded) and to Councilmember Lightner, whose office did respond. They've asked the base officials to address the events of the last couple weeks as they pertain to us here in San Diego. I also just now emailed the University City Community Association to find out if this discussion is ongoing; I'm probably not the first person who's had these concerns.

Moving the Miramar Air Show inland to the desert would be a huge improvement, not just in safety and noise. Imagine the tailgating! Merchants able to set up in one place and sell food! Camping over night and beer! Best of all, no risk to non-consenting property owners. Let's not wait for a tragedy to occur to go through the moral motions. Let's do something now.

Tiger Sharks Eating a Whale Carcass

2011-09-28T19:25:00.000-07:00

In Queensland (where else). For tigers those are some bigguns.

Sub-Two-Hour Marathon in 2038

2011-09-26T23:56:00.000-07:00

Inspired by Patrick Makau Musyoki's new marathon record in Berlin yesterday, I looked for trends in the marathon world records for each decade going back a century. I only included the fastest time in each decade. I expected a plateau like this, but I didn't expect it to be so neatly logarithmic. Explanation of the graph: the Y-axis times are in seconds, so 10,800 is a 3 hour race and 7,200 is a 2 hour race. The horizontal red line is a two-hour marathon, the vertical dark line is 2038, and the light gray prediction line is the trend for future marathons. (Note that the prediction line on the graph is for illustration only - the numbers come from the best-fit equation printed on the graph.)

Look at that R. That's a damn good fit. Marathon records are a very logarithmic phenomenon.

A whole crop of articles commented over the last year on statistically improbable sprinter Usain Bolt, who is ahead-of-trend by thirty years. In the same vein, looking at the marathon plot, we shouldn't expect a male human to break two hours in the marathon until 2038. And it's reasonably assumed that the incremental improvements we see in these times is a result of (decreasing marginal) improvements in training, nutrition, and running equipment. Therefore, if this record is broken significantly ahead of that (you can decide how to calculate standard deviations if you want to define exactly what "significantly" means) then I predict one or more of the following will have happened:

- A genuine new mutation and a recruitment sifting system that can deliver the talent to the field, as is presumably the case with Bolt in short distance (someone sequence this guy already);

- New technology allows undetectable doping, either to increase blood oxygen carrying capacity, muscular oxygen efficiency, or muscle strength;

- Deliberate breeding has occurred by nation states with long-term views and an overbearing need for international prestige (China, we're looking at you, and here's why);

- Most interesting possibility: a population of humans still mostly reproductively isolated and thusfar not competing in marathons, and that has gene variants which benefit them in this event. (Tarahumara, we're looking at you now).

Intrade doesn't have a market for this prediction. But they should.

2 Days, 2 Airshow Crashes, Here Comes Miramar Air Show

2011-09-17T16:18:00.000-07:00

[Note: On Facebook? Look for "Move the san Diego Air Show Way Inland".]

Miramar Air Show is next month. There's no problem with an air show. What there is a problem with is the government placing risks on the people that live nearby without their consent. Those risks are real. A plane crashed next to Rose Canyon three years ago, killing four on the ground - not during the airshow, but it shows that it can happen.

Why not move the airshow out to the desert? Imagine the opportunity for merchants to set up in one central spot that we don't have when it's done over San Diego. Then you could tailgate out there and make a day of it, drink beer, drive around off-road if you want, go home at the end of the day or camp out. It would be a great time. Win-win for everyone!

Join the group on Facebook, and write the Mayor and your Councilmember.

Beer-Lovers: Help a Developing Economy, Try Cassava Beer

2011-09-15T14:04:00.000-07:00

Support micro-brewers in the brand-new country of South Sudan!

How we get their beer I don't know, but I bet here in San Diego a) lots of us would try it and b) someone knows how to do the importing.

How Times Change; Sobering

2011-09-13T22:00:00.000-07:00

I just read Encounters with an Angry God, by Carobeth Laird. It details her time with John Harrington, an interesting character who did a huge amount of work cataloguing the then-dying (and now dead) languages of Southern California. Sobering to think that, in some cases, native languages vanished in the space of a century and he was the only person to write them down before they were gone. Laird's account of the man is interesting but is to be viewed with some suspicion, since after all they were divorced. (If this were fiction we would assume "unreliable narrator".)

A pre-Kerouac California road trip. And Harrington was documenting more than his partying.

The book's best value is probably as an artifact preserving what life was like in California a century ago, and this is why I'm mentioning it in my outdoors blog. In 1915 the travails of crossing Tejon Pass were still considerable, and even by car, a trip from San Diego to what is now the Grape Vine was not undertaken lightly. To this day our knowledge of the language of the people that lived there is so scant that we're not even sure what language family it was in. We think it was Uto-Aztecan, i.e. related to Aztec, Paiute, Luiseño and Shoshone.

Can you imagine if two centuries from now, somebody finds your drivers license in some rubble and dusts it off and says, "What language is this?" And all anyone can say is "I don't know. It looks like it's related to Finnish. Or maybe German." How times change.

Possible Snakebite Death at Mission Trails

2011-09-12T14:03:00.000-07:00

Not confirmed, but be careful out there! Here's the story. Below is a video from The Running Fat Guy so you know what a rattler sounds like, if you've never heard one. Here's how to avoid getting bitten.

Controversy About USC TV Show

2011-09-08T23:09:00.000-07:00

FOX has canceled a show that "mocks" USC students who didn't know anything about football.

A clip from it is below. But I'm confused. I'm not tone deaf to the ethnic basis of people's reactions to it, but seriously: how is this clip mocking the students? These folks are clearly interested enough in learning and working hard and building a future and saving money and having good credit (unlike many sports fans) that they couldn't be bothered to care about a bunch of idiots in colored pajamas chasing a ball around like cats. If you go to USC, you should be proud to be in school with these guys and gals (or even better, to be one of them.) The only guy being mocked in this video as far as I can tell is the dude in the tie who's implying that stuff is important. Who probably has a lot of debt and struggled for C's in all his science classes. Way to create value there bud.

The Sound of Mountain Lions Mating

2011-09-07T16:27:00.000-07:00

Yikes! In Rawah Wilderness in northern Colorado, courtesy Jeff (who was there with his son):

He told me he actually saw them and they went on like this for a half hour.

Sunset During Long Run, Labor Day Weekend

2011-09-07T02:46:00.000-07:00

Monday it rained in Southern California, which some of us actually like. There was even a little thunder. The air smelled great and the sunset was superb. It was an excellent day for a 16-miler. Pictures taken looking WNW toward the ocean across Torrey Preserve.

Neat Bits from Medical Journal Article about Crocodile Attacks

2011-09-06T09:12:00.000-07:00

From an article in Wilderness and Environmental Medicine (Caldicott DG, Croser D, Manolis C, Webb G, Britton A., "Crocodile attack in Australia: an analysis of its incidence and review of the pathology and management of crocodilian attacks in general." Wilderness Environ Med. 2005 Fall;16(3):143-59.)

Crocodilian hemoglobin has 12 unique bicarbonate binding sites, allowing far more oxygen to be released from the molecule for a given oxygen tension than from the human equivalent. A hybrid human-crocodilian hemoglobin (Hb-Scuba) has been developed and has potential as a synthetic hemoglobin.

In the only reported Australian series to date,77 cause of death was attributed to either decapitation or truncal transection (Figure 2). It should be assumed that massive blood loss90 and drowning are the cause of death in a large number of crocodilian attacks. Assessing the actual cause of death can be complicated by the fact that bodies are sometimes not found, have been eaten, or are decomposed to an extent that makes cause of death difficult to ascertain. Mercifully, death appears to be swift, with little or no bruising seen on postmortem examination.

The power and size of some animals are such that, if not lethal in the first instance, injuries can be as severe as those seen in major road trauma or in the military arena.

Shark Sighting Near Children's Pool, La Jolla

2011-09-01T08:52:00.000-07:00

Great whites eat seals. That's why it's not good to swim where the seals are. So it's surprising that it's taken this long for a shark sighting at Children's Pool.

One local expert says this shark was big enough to do some damage, he thinks the harbor seals near the Children's Pool may have attracted the shark to shore, and have surfers now keeping an eye out for fins...It was around two Wednesday afternoon that lifeguards say four boogie boarders spotted a 12 inch dorsal fin poking out of the water. What does a 12 inch dorsal fin mean to you?, we asked shark expert Doctor Jeffrey B. Graham, and he responded "well it means a shark at least, 10 feet long".

Join Friends of Palomar Mountain State Park

2011-08-26T22:49:00.000-07:00

A group of citizens is forming to preserve Palomar Mountain State Park in the face of its imminent closure. Join and become part of the solution! Direct link here; More information here.

From wildrecovery.org

Solution to Keep Tomales Bay State Park Open - Blocked

2011-08-18T12:36:00.000-07:00

I have a neat story about Tomales Bay S.P. (most people who've been there do). It's right next to Inverness and Point Reyes National Park, about an hour north of San Francisco on the rugged Marin County coast. My girlfriend and I had begun a tradition of going to parks on Superbowl Sundays when people were inside. So we went kayaking at Tomales Bay. And within 20 minutes of putting in what did we see, but a healthy-sized bobcat on some rocks at the water's edge, staring down into the depths. When we rowed over to get a closer look at him he was in no hurry to scramble back up the cliff either; he just looked up and glared at us with those yellow eyes as if to say, Hey, I'm fishin', and you're botherin' me. I think a place like that is worth preserving and keeping open so other people can enjoy it.

Here's Tomales Bay:

If you live in California and love the outdoors, you already know that many of our state parks are going to be closed (see here and here. These parks are one of the reasons many of us choose to live in California.

There's an unfortunate narrative in open space discussions, which constantly tries to portray public lands and private ownership as opposing forces. This is just about exactly bass ackwards, but it persists because there are vested interests on both sides of the discussion. Private landowners often (in fact, usually) benefit from adjacent open space; and public lands benefit from partnerships with private ranchers or concessionaires. Win-win.

And that's exactly what's being proposed now in Tomales Bay S.P., and what has been discussed for many others. Tomales Bay Oyster Company has approached Tomales Bay S.P. with a deal: give us a few tables in the park where our customers can eat oysters - we won't even sell them there, we're just asking for a place for customers to sit and eat them. In exchange, Tomales Bay Oyster Co. will pay for the upkeep, open and close the gate - in short, the stuff the state can't afford to do anymore. Similar solutions have been discussed for Annadel State Park in Petaluma, and I wish they were available for San Diego's own Palomar and San Pascual, which are also on the chopping block. If the deal up in Tomales Bay goes through, the park stays open for us Californians and gets maintained, a local company gets to expand its business - win-win, right?

Unfortunately, other local interests have allowed dogmatism to get in the way of keeping the parks open, and they've asked the park not to accept this deal. Doing this is at this point is the same as saying you want the parks to close.

So let's look at our options:

1) Close the park, prevent public access, and allow the infrastructure
to decay, to be re-opened - when? On what plan?

2) Keep the park open at zero cost to the state, in exchange for some tables and probably a little more traffic. And not even any product sales inside the park.

Am I the only person who can't understand why everyone isn't enthusiastically signing up for #2?

By all means, look at the additional visitors and the impact, but don't let that delay implementing this deal to keep the park open. The damage to the park system will be greater if the park closes, not to mention to us outdoorsy taxpayers who want to enjoy the parks. At least in this case, no one who even pretends to want to preserve the parks should be obstructing this solution. It's very frustrating. It's really just plain knee-jerk dogmatism that is blocking a solution immediately at hand.

(If you haven't already written your Rep and Senator, do so - links and template letter here. Both Fletcher and Davis wrote me back. And thanks to Thurston for the pointer.)

Mountain Lions in Connecticut?

2011-07-30T08:38:00.000-07:00

One was hit and killed by a car last month. Interesting summary of DNA detective work here, showing how this animal is related to others in the Black Hills and elsewhere. I had earlier predicted that mountain lions would be reestablished in my home state of Pennsylvania by 2025. Now that this has happened I realize I have to more clearly define what I mean by "reestablished". I wouldn't count this one because it's still debatable whether it was caught and released.

Pretty soon there will be PA mountain lions made out of more than just stone.

So: "reestablished" means once there is good mountain lion documentation of two separate animals in Pennsylvania. Physical specimen for DNA evidence is best, but video is fine too as long as there's some way to be sure there are two different animals. Of course if it happens twice in a surrounding state it's just a matter of time, and PA is prime mountain lion country, so probably not much time at that. There's already one in Indiana.

So, even with my definition of "reestablished", would anyone bet against this? On one hand I like that a wilderness animal is returning to my home state's ecosystem; on the other hand I kind of like going for a run in the PA woods because I know nothing is going to jump out at me, unlike in CA.

Google Map of Closed State Parks

2011-07-02T10:17:00.000-07:00

Seeing it this way drives it home:

View State Park Closures in a larger map

San Diego River Foundation

2011-06-30T20:01:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I found myself at the OB Fair and met some very nice young ladies from the San Diego River Foundation. They gave me a cool map of the watershed, running all the way from Cleveland National Forest to where the river meets the Pacific between Ocean and Mission Beach! They were so nice I told them I'd give them a plug - so you should check them out - there are lots of trails along the river and they're doing a great job helping to preserve open space.

Photo from San Diego Natural History Museum Website.

New Awesomest Blog - Science Based Running

2011-06-30T12:36:00.001-07:00

Excellent! Visit them here. Maybe they'll start complaining about Art Devany in my stead.

Woman Visiting All Soon-To-Be-Closed CA State Parks

2011-06-25T00:27:00.000-07:00

Read her blog here and subscribe.

Castle Crags, one of the ones on the list.

"The Hypocrisy of Lebron James Hatred"

2011-06-25T00:21:00.000-07:00

What a great article this is. The Lebron James story has really provided a great window into the psychology of professional sports fans. More really fun, vicious stuff here specifically about Lebron James; more here about how we impose narrative on sports stories (both during the game and after) where there is none.

La Jolla Children's Pool Seal Legal Updates

2011-06-25T00:17:00.000-07:00

Two going the right direction:

- Seal disturbance ticket thrown out

- The seal rope at the beach is being kept down

Angeles National Forest - Annoying Road Closure Near Chantry Flat

2011-06-25T00:13:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I drove all the way up to Angeles National Forest from San Diego to start a hike from Chantry Flats, my new favorite spot in the whole National Forest, only to be blocked at the top of Santa Anita Avenue by a sign that said ROAD CLOSED. There was a car that had hit a very large tree branch stuck there, and a bunch of kids standing around with the driver; they told me the road was blocked off for brush clearing. Given the nature of the vehicular mishap (the driver was okay), I had to wonder if this was coincidence. I don't know - but it would have been nice to know what was going on. Emergencies happen and sometimes the Forest needs to close roads, but as it was all I knew was that I'd just driven 2.5 hours, to get turned around by an unannounced closure of unknown purpose. Suck!

Icehouse Canyon, where I ended up. Still manages to make this NorCal boy homesick. From the Rambles in the Brambles blog.

I ended up hitting over to Icehouse Canyon instead and still had a nice hike, but Angeles NF is starting to seem pretty opaque in its closures (first the confusion and delay in releasing information and maps covering the fire-restricted area, and then this personal snafu.) Dan Simpson, whose SoCal hiking website is an amazing resource, also passed along this link with scheduled closures - if you hike in Angeles, bookmark it to avoid the same irritation.

Solutions Discussed to Keep State Parks Open

2011-06-11T10:47:00.000-07:00

In Petaluma, a group met next to Annadel State Park (one of the parks on the chopping block) and floated the option of a partnership between parks and private non-profits. There are already lots of private organizations operating in parks in California, and if this keeps the parks open (and relatively inexpensive to use) it's the best option anyone has suggested.

In Hendy Woods State Park, one of the parks slated to be closed.

A point of criticism for the media in general: these articles rarely say what it would mean to "close" the parks. I have a lot of respect for journalists who knock on politicians' doors and ask hard questions, and even saying that they asked but didn't get an answer would be an improvement for most of these articles (there's no discussion of what "closed" means in this one either.)

If you want to write your representatives, I included the text of the letter I sent here. Notably, if you live in northern San Diego, then both your state senator and representative (Christine Kehoe and Nathan Fletcher) are running for mayor of San Diego. Make it clear to them that how they vote on the parks issue will affect whether you vote for them for mayor.

Sponsor a Student in Guatemala to Conserve Natural Resources

2011-06-08T16:43:00.000-07:00

Want to help save the rainforest AND educate kids?

The Peten is the northeastern part of Guatemala, a mostly-flat rainforest that contains many of the famous ancient Mayan city-states, and an amazing amount of biodiversity.

The Volunteer Peten School of Natural Resources desperately needs your help to sponsor students. Volunteer Peten is a growing NGO that is making an obvious, undeniable difference, by giving kids a shot at a real education, improving the economy, and preserving the natural environment of the country. I've seen what they've done and they were even nice enough to let me teach these kids some chemistry, even if it was only 10 minutes-worth. AND sponsoring a student is only $350. Isn't that like a weekend trip in California? A couple days at Disneyland? If you're up for it, instead of donating you can even volunteer yourself! (You can talk to previous volunteers by email too.)

Meet the kids here.

Horny Toad

2011-06-07T16:19:00.000-07:00

I finally saw one of these critters and yes, I'm very excited about it. I actually keep a list of varmints I haven't yet seen in the wild and this was one of them. Taken about 2pm yesterday on Chiquito Trail in the Trabuco unit of Cleveland National Forest, on the way up about halfway between the lower creek and Chiquito Falls. He was digging a hole right on the side of the trail. He wasn't that shy; once he got into the brush he just stared back at the trail. I briefly considered trying to catch him to get him to squirt blood out of his eyes but it would have been wrong to harass the little dude just to get him to do a trick.

Note, if you want to do this hike, best directions and video from at Frank's CA-hiking.com - link in this article.

Paleo Workouts: Running and Lifting Outside

2011-06-07T16:08:00.000-07:00

"No no, let's move him this way. I've been neglecting my delts this week."

Move Naturally (MovNat) seems to be kind of a hybrid of middle-distance running and high-impact gym-type workouts. More importantly, it looks fun. I might try this. The idea that
is probably a useful vehicle for thinking about fitness, but it has holes, and people aren't consistent iin the way they think about it. Case in point, the subject of this very article talks about eating paleo but then gets inspired by the Tarahumara of Mexico. News flash: the Tarahumara are about as non-paleo-diet as you can get! They get HUGE portions of their calories from corn.

Still, this is the first time I've been intrigued by a trendy work-out philosophy. Because you can do it outside. And it's fun. And it would also seem to correct the deficiencies decried in lifting-oriented exercise (by endurance types) as well as in endurance exercise (by lifting types).

Previous entries on the paleo/lifting vs running debate:

- Paleo Running in Kenya and Mexico Highlands

- Paleolithic humans did eat grains - #1, #2, #3, #4

- The endurance vs. lifting jihad, in paleo terms: #1 and #2

Do Not Ever Eat Jolokia Peppers

2011-06-05T01:40:00.000-07:00

No matter how much people named Garron pressure you, do not ever put these in your mouth. They are bad. For your family, be stronger than I was. Jeff Gordon from Tap Hunter was in evidence and he wisely spared his palate the ravages of uber-capsaicin. You, too, have a long life ahead of you. Don't throw it away so carelessly.

[Added later: Razib Khan is very brave to admit his capsaicin problem. My friend isn't nearly this much of a freak.]

Which leads to greater pain? It is a mystery.

Fine, The UCSD Snake Exists

2011-06-02T13:19:00.000-07:00

Previously I had dismissed the existence of the "snake path" at Geisel Library on the UCSD campus, despite the insistence of others that it was real. I had gone to the library specifically to look for it. Not finding it, I declared, "The snake does not exist." Reminiscent of Einstein's dismissal of the ether, or Buddha and the Atman.*

But:

This will come to no surprise to any student at UCSD who uses their sense to form a model about the external universe. Apparently this does not include me. I discovered it while running up the trail, and didn't notice anything amiss until I thought to myself "well why are these tiles making this big forking kind of shape? Oh."

Well there's a lesson in how expectations affect the perception of reality! I thought the "snake path" was only a path that looked metaphorically like a snake; I thought in the woods preserved north of the library, that there would be some twisting trail that when viewed just so, would look like a snake, so I squinted out the window trying to force those rough-hewn dirt tracks in the canyon to come together into some kind of a snake-shape. I didn't know that these literal-minded philistines in San Diego meant there is an actual, obvious snake made out of tiles coming up the east side of the hill the library is on. That's B.S. Things should always be metaphorical. So really you can't blame me for missing it.

*always skip these parts if you're not high

Why Isn't Meb Keflezighi Better Known?

2011-06-01T11:38:00.000-07:00

[Update: he did the half and no one saw anything but his back. 1h2m40s, ahead right from the gun. Congratulations Meb.]

Hometown boy Keflezighi was a silver medalist at the 2004 Olympics, and the first American winner of the NY Marathon in who knows how long. And according to this article in the U-T, the guy can't get a shoe deal? Something's wrong there. I remember how excited I was in 2004 to see an American take the silver. I hope athletic marketers start to realize what an undervalued asset he would be. If you go out to see the start of Rock n' Roll, look for him!

Follow-up on Noyo Redwoods - SUCCESS!

2011-05-30T09:05:00.000-07:00

In November of last year I passed along an an appeal from the Save the Redwoods League to help protect the Noyo redwoods. It was marked for harvest and was set to be cut down on April 1st. It turns out that we (the people of California) were successful and dug in to make a difference - the Noyo redwoods now belong to the Save the Redwoods League, where they're safe. Some of the trees even bear marks where they were planned to be cut down - talk about the nick of time. This was done privately, without taxpayer support, which is increasingly how it seems we're going to have to do conservation.

Unfortunately the same is not true of our state parks. Out of the 70 that are being closed, SIXTEEN of them contain redwood forests. California can't afford to lose this resource. They're a symbol of the state. The Redwoods League is working to protect them too - learn more here.

How Do We Understand Sports Events?

2011-05-30T08:48:00.000-07:00

From XKCD:

Seriously. Go read the game summaries on ESPN after a baseball series or especially after March Madness games. Somehow the consruction of a cause-effect narrative out of somewhat random events is much more obvious in print than when you just hear it.

It works for end-of-the-day stock market narratives, especially noticeable on the radio. "Profit-taking caused..." "...on investor anxiety..." etc.

If basketball is your thing, an interesting article about the bias in how the Lebron James story plays out in the media. Here's another one having fun with all the Cleveland fans boo-hooing last summer when he left.

Best Hike in Cleveland National Forest

2011-05-28T11:49:00.000-07:00

Just want to give a shout out to Frank at CA-hiking.com for his quick resonse to my question about a previous hike in the Trabuco Unit of Cleveland National Forest. Start at San Juan Trail across from the candy story on Ortega Highway (74), then across the creek and up up and away on Chiquito Trail to the falls. The area above the falls has easily the nicest riparian woodland I've seen anywhere in this NF. Frank has a trail description and a great video of the falls too:

Many people do this as a car shuttle and come out above the falls at the top instead of returning to the candy store parking lot.

To stay on-message: let's hope Cleveland National Forest doesn't get closed down like the state is trying to do to its parks. For those of you fiction-minded outdoorsy types out there, Kim Stanley Robinson predicted back in 1988 that exactly this will happen in his novel The Gold Coast, about an Orange County in 2067 where people are packed in like sardines - including in the by-then-fully-developed former National Forest.

San Jacinto = Lots of Snow as of 25 May 2011

2011-05-26T16:46:00.000-07:00

Tried San Jacinto yesterday. Too snowy! It just wasn't fun so I turned around just before Little Round Valley. Someone I know went up the east side from the tram and made it but said it was still damn annoying. At least the waterfalls and creeks are going, and I got some purty pitchers.

It's worth mentioning that San Jacinto isn't one of the 70 state parks that's set to close this year - unless you help stop it.

Sharks and Sherpas

2011-05-26T16:25:00.000-07:00

1) Friend Anup sends me an article from Surfer Magazine about some total nutbar in Northern Territory, Australia who rides great white sharks. What's wrong with people.

2) Check out this Outside Magazine feature about a Sherpa former Himalaya-guide, current taxi driver in New York. I've seen someone make the opposite transition when I met a Nepali guy in a mountain village there who had just come back from New York and brought his new American wife with him, so now the circle is complete. I should point out that I disagree with this Sherpa guy strenuously on the value of Oregon pinot noir but aside from that seems like an interesting dude.

We're Losing Our Best State Parks

2011-05-13T15:03:00.000-07:00

Gone.

Gone.

Gone.

Gone.

If melodrama is ever appropriate, it's appropriate now. Jerry Brown has proposed a list of state parks to close, which is being discussed as a done-deal. Many of the state's gems are on it. This seems to have become an annual occurrence and I wonder how much longer it can last without actually happening. In the meantime, WRITE THE GOVERNOR AND YOUR SENATOR AND REPRESENTATIVE IF YOU CARE AT ALL. I've put a template at the end of this post. The parks themselves have a website where you can learn more here.

I can't describe how sad this makes me. California is the most beautiful spot on this planet, and we're not taking our responsibility to take care of it for our kids seriously. For many of us, Each of these parks is a reason to live in California. Each of these parks that closes is one less reason to want to live here. If you run across this post please contribute your own list.

You can read the full list at the Union-Tribune or Chronicle articles, but here are the ones that just break my heart. In total there are 70. Maybe it's time to visit the state parks website and plan your summer vacation. Quickly.

San Diego:
- Palomar
- San Pasqual

Bay Area:
- Castle Rock
- Henry W. Coe SP
- Olompali
- Petaluma Adobe
- Portola Redwoods
- Samuel P. Taylor (This is an absolute disaster. How could this happen?!?)
- Tomales Bay

Rural Sonoma and points further north:
- Annadel
- Castle Crags
- Del Norte Coast Redwoods SP (OLD GROWTH REDWOODS! Maybe the Feds could take it over since it's adjacent to national parks.)
- Hendy Woods SP
- Sugarloaf Ridge

It's pretty annoying that the people who write these articles never say what "closed" means. (Come on, Mike Lee at the Union-Tribune and Adam Weintraub at AP!) (UPDATE: Mike Lee at the Union-Tribune was good enough to write me back and said this: "Great question...i'll include that in next version... short answer: putting locks on the gates and doing their best to keep people out... will have irregular patrols. Thanks for the query.")

Does it mean the land just won't be manned or maintained, but the state will maintain possession of the land, and members of the public enter at their own risk? (Not great, but the best outcome if they're ("closed".)

Or does it mean that five years from now the redwoods will be gone and there will be condos there?

In one case in the last couple years (Fort Ross) the state convinced Russia to shoulder some of the burden of keeping it open. At the time Schwarzenegger billed this as a positive development, but I don't know about you; having to beg for money from Russia to keep a park operating doesn't seem like it should be a point of pride.

Whatever happens, these lands must be preserved as open space.

Today, for the first time, I considered raising my future children somewhere besides California.

Here's the one I'm sending. Cut and paste and modify if it helps you. I have already dropped this in the mail to my senator and assembly member. Look up your state legislator here).
=============

Address
Number

Dear []:

I am deeply saddened by Governor Brown's proposal to close 70 state parks. This is an abject disaster.

One of the reasons I chose to move to California to live and work and raise a family, despite the high cost of living and challenged educational infrastructure, is the state's amazing park system. Each park that closes tips that equation in the wrong direction, for me and many, many other voters and taxpayers. For the first time today I imagined taking my California-funded medical degree, and raising my family outside the state. There is a point beyond which living in California no longer represents a good deal for the taxpayer, and we're approaching it.

Regardless of the eventual solution for these lands - that is, whether they remain state parks, or are administered by another entity or in another way - they absolutely must be protected from development, preferably in a way that keeps them open to the public. Even if this means making them state-owned use-at-your-own-risk zones, that's certainly better than redwoods being cut down to build condos. Otherwise California will become New Jersey, and the flow of high-earning in-migrants from elsewhere in the country will stop. It bears mentioning that growth has already slowed substantially in the past decade.

Please do the right thing and do not support this aspect of the proposed budget. Cutting these parks won't put California in the black. It will also be noticed by the many voters in your district who are organized and who value open space and parks.

Sincerely,

[Name]

Marian Bear Canyon Looking PRETTY Good

2011-04-30T11:51:00.000-07:00

If you noticed the beaches and canyons and creeks look pretty good today, there's a reason: today was the creek-to-bay cleanup, and an army of volunteers was out this morning, making them look good. Did you volunteer? Why the heck not? It was actually a lot of fun! It was also a pretty good feeling to contribute the conservation of Marian Bear which is a canyon that I run in all the time.

Above and below: before and after pictures of Marian Bear today. Well okay not really, but we did make it purtier by taking trash out and it was fun. Image sources UMN Library and Socaltrails.com resp.

I also have to give San Diego credit where credit is due: in the past I've kvetched about trash in the canyons, but to be honest there wasn't a huge amount. It's great to see people taking care of their resources. Still there's always room for improvement and I'm glad I got to take part. I was glad to see the UVA Alumni group out there, and some folks from the Surfrider Foundation. It's much harder to get people willing to help inland and in the canyons then along the coast, so if you volunteer, you can make an even bigger difference by volunteering at an inland site.

Want to help in the future? I'm sure there will be chances before then but Coastal Cleanup Day is September 17, 2011. I'm putting it on my calendar now.

Follow BoonDOCS Medicine on Twitter

2011-04-28T23:31:00.000-07:00

If you're on Twitter (and why the heck wouldn't you be, you throwback reactionary Luddite counterrevolutionary)* then you should follow @boonDOCSwildmed. This is the Twitter feed for BoonDOCS Medicine, the Outdoor Channel show where I just joined the writing team.

The BoonDOCS Medicine logo, which if you haven't noticed is cool.

I've long wanted to know more about practical medicine in the backcountry, and now that I'm in med school I damn well should - so here's my opportunity to contribute to people's knowledge while also building my own. I'm pretty excited about it. I'll be writing the tweets and most blog posts for May so if you have any ideas about what we should cover, please don't hesitate to let me know. And make sure to follow @boonDOCSwildmed!

*This is what's called "the fervor of the newly converted"

Poison Oak - Different Species in Sierras and Coast?

2011-04-28T20:48:00.000-07:00

[Added later. Says Dan Simpson from Dan's Hiking pages: "A single species of poison oak (Toxicodendron diversilobum) can take on variety of appearances...part of its malevolence!"]

Ever noticed that poison oak in the Sierras doesn't look like the poison oak along the coast? It doesn't. I've long thought about this and today a link in Sequoia NP's Twitter feed prompted me to post this comparison:

Sierra poison oak at top, coastal on the bottom (images from NPS photo site and Yoga Slackers resp.) Different, huh? Though it's not to scale, you can tell how the Sierra variant has larger leaves that are much less rounded, much more like their namesake oak leaves. Coastal P.O. is really just small bumpy ovals. This difference may be relevant. Why? For one thing, do the oils from each necessarily induce cross-reactions? Is one worse than the other? It's possible they're the same species, but they look different when grown in cooler, more extreme seasonal conditions - or that there's an actual genetic difference, and we're looking at different species or subspecies that have long been incorrectly classified. I hate poison oak with the obvious motivation of personal experience, so if I can spare one other person (maybe you!) the nightmare of contact dermatitis, I'll be happy.

Note that the Sequoia NP folks said it's found up to 5,000' elevation. Up in the Bay Area we usually assume a cut-off of 4,000', and then further north, somewhere between Portland and Seattle the grow-line drops to sea level and you don't see it anymore. It also survives just fine in the desert (I've seen it in the Mojave) as long as it can grow in a shaded canyon near a water source.

I was surprised not to find any literature on these variants, but what's both frustrating and exciting is that you can't assume someone has properly studied plants like this. That's how it often goes: common organisms described centuries ago, if they don't cause disease or have an economic impact, don't get grant money dedicated to them. Consequently there are basic discoveries waiting under our noses even though we think science has already swept out all this space. So what's going on, West Coast naturalists? Help us out!

I should add that further confusing the nomenclature, a) other western states (non-coastal ones) use the term "poison ivy" for what appears to be the same plant as "Sierra poison oak", and b) true poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans) and poison oak do in fact overlap in their ranges - I have encountered this in Austin, Texas as well as Moab, Utah. Sure, as a rule it makes sense not to touch plants with the word "poison" in the name, but it seems clear that we still have a lot to learn about the plants literally growing in our back yards.

Cool Gadget For Keys and Money While You're On Trail

2011-04-23T23:42:00.000-07:00

At Boing Boing I ran across this awesome gadget. Hate leaving your key in a magnet under your car body where thieves know everyone leaves them, but you're afraid you'll lose it while you're hiking/climbing/etc.? How about a combination lock you can install in your trailer hitch?

I hate worrying about mundane security stuff when I'm trying to bask in the glorious oneness of nature so this is pretty cool. You can get one at Amazon.

Welcome, BoonDOCS Medicine Visitors!

2011-04-16T21:56:00.000-07:00

If you're visiting from BoonDOCS Medicine, welcome! I'm grateful to Dr. K. for selecting me to contribute to the site and show and I hope you stay a while to check out my personal blog here - operative word personal. So, usual disclaimer stuff: because it's my personal blog, anything you see on here is my own personal opinion and doesn't reflect anything to do with BoonDOCS Medicine, the Outdoor Channel, UCSD School of Medicine, yada yada or anyone else besides my own bad self. What it WILL reflect is cool stuff that I dig, like trail running and related stuff in San Diego, San Francisco and Pennsylvania, and conservation and safety topics in general.

To those of you who were already reading my blog, let me announce that I'm lucky enough to now be able to write for a wilderness medicine show on the Outdoor Channel called BoonDOCS medicine. Right now I'm starting out blogging and tweeting and eventually (if time commitments allow) would like to move on to contributing to the show. Here's my totally BS bio for your amusement.

Do you have ideas for wilderness medicine topics you'd like to see on the show? Leave a comment! Because if you just email me, I'll steal it and not credit you. No seriously, comment so then other people will start thinking too. I want to know what's important to folks!

Off-Line Until End of June

2011-01-11T16:45:00.000-08:00

Dearest readers, I must again sign-off, this time until late June, so I can focus on more pressing issues. Until then: stay safe, enjoy the outdoors, and protect open space and individual property rights! Unless you read this within a few hours of my posting it, I will have already updated the previous post about BCS rankings with the 2010 season stats, as promised previously.

Do Some College Football Teams Get Unreasonably Good Pre-Season Ratings?

2011-01-06T21:57:00.000-08:00

On the heels of my previous speculation about path-dependency in BCS college football rankings, I was recently discussing the not-infrequently-heard assertion that some teams (and some entire conferences) seem to get overly generous preseason rankings in the BCS polls - most famously, Notre Dame. (And if you're a Notre Dame fan, please stop making my blog dirty with your eyes right now, thank you.) I freely admit to being an outsider so while I hope I can provide a new perspective, it also means this may have been done. Still, so far as I know no one has actually run the numbers. My prediction before I started crunching was that schools with historically strong "legacy" programs (even if they aren't so strong any more) would get overly gentle pre-season ratings (e.g. Notre Dame) and also that certain conferences would get an advantage, in particular the Big 12 and SEC. (Skip ahead to "THE BOTTOM LINE" if you don't care about the individual team numbers.)

Before I commence BCS bashing, I would be remiss not to link to all the excellent Onion headlines about the BCS over the last few years: "Coaches Thought BCS Computer Would At Least Make a Noise When Boise State Lost", and then comparing to March Madness, "Cheering Fans, Thrilling Tournament Disgust BCS Officials"; also see "BCS Picture Made Clearer by Pretending Certain Teams Don't Exist", and a 2001 Space Odyssey reference for the win, "Lip-Reading BCS Computer Kills Officials Who Want to Shut It Down". It's curious that any discussion of the BCS rankings usually connects to a discussion of the bowl system (why is this? Keep reading.) Having mentioned that, can you imagine an NFL or MLB or NCAA basketball official suggesting changing to a bowl system in those sports? They'd be laughed out of their organization.

Back to the cold hard math. How, statistically, can we tell who's getting an unfair break? Easy. For each team that's been ranked in the Top 25 in the coaches' poll at the beginning or end of a season, look at the average movement between preseason and the end of the bowls. Same for conferences. This is how it shakes out for all teams in the rankings at the beginning or end of 2006 through 2010 seasons:

Team	Post Minus Pre Rank Diff
Boise State	8.4
BYU	5.2
TCU	4.8
Stanford	4.4
Oklahoma State	4.2
Boston College	3.2
Utah	3.2
Arkansas	3.0
Alabama	2.8
Hawaii	2.8
Missouri	2.8
Nevada	2.6
Michigan State	2.4
Oregon	2.4
Georgia Tech	1.8
Texas A&M	1.8
Wake Forest	1.8
Oregon State	1.4
Illinois	1.2
Texas Tech	1.2
UCF	1.2
Arizona State	1.0
Kansas	1.0
Pittsburgh	0.8
South Carolina	0.8
Maryland	0.4
North Carolina State	0.2
Arizona	0.0
Ball State	0.0
Cincinnati	0.0
Connecticut	0.0
Northwestern	0.0
Rutgers	0.0
USF	0.0
Virginia	0.0
Fresno State	-0.2
Wisconsin	-0.2
Ohio State	-0.6
Tennessee	-0.6
Auburn	-1.0
Mississippi	-1.2
Louisville	-1.6
UCLA	-1.6
LSU	-2.0
Virginia Tech	-2.0
Michigan	-2.2
Notre Dame	-2.2
Clemson	-2.8
Iowa	-2.8
North Carolina	-2.8
Miami (Fla.)	-3.4
Nebraska	-3.6
Penn State	-3.6
West Virginia	-3.6
Oklahoma	-3.8
Florida State	-4.8
Florida	-5.4
USC	-6.2
Cal	-6.8
Georgia	-7.2
Texas	-9.4

*Note: this system counts un-ranked as 26, and of course un-ranked (and no-conference or small-conference) teams do break into or drop out of the rankings all the time, so it's a non-zero sum game, hence at the conference level most (or even all) of the teams can in principle either win or lose on average.

The conferences look different too. Here are the pre-season vs. post-season average ranking changes for the conferences, calculated the same way:

Team	Post Minus Pre Rank Diff
Mountain West	4.4
WAC	3.67
MAC	0.0
Big East	-0.629
Big 10	-0.725
Big 12	-0.725
SEC	-0.92
ACC	-1.125
Pac 10	-6.80

Mountain West and WAC teams do better than expected, and ACC and Pac 10 do the worst. (I had predicted SEC and Big 12 would be at the lower end, and they were until I added 2010 to the 2006 through 2009 numbers.)

And here's how the distribution of the mis-rankings of individual teams looks for 2006 through 2010:

Are there any characteristics the outliers on the left, i.e. the consistently under-rated teams, have in common? Yes. Many are from newer programs with smaller fan-bases in the less-populated western states. And although it looks basically like a normal distribution, it's worth noting that there's a little cluster at the overrated (right) end of the distribution, but not so much at the unfairly-ranked-to-start-out end. The overrated cluster actually became even more pronounced when I added the '10 season data; that is, this curve got less normal, statistically speaking, which makes that overrated bump harder to explain away as mere incompetence (that is to say, as just random unbiased inaccuracy). Sure, the median postseason-minus-preseason ranking difference is zero, but if the BCS polls knew what they were doing, the individual teams' differences should all be zero - i.e., they would all individually be zero if the polls accurately predicted performance during the season. One objection to this might be summarized as follows: "Well, the coaches (or any other poll) can't possibly be expected to accurately predict the rank of all these teams, because anything can happen during the season." And for those people who say that: YES! THAT'S EXACTLY THE POINT! SO WHY ARE THEY BOTHERING WITH PRE-SEASON RANKINGS AT ALL?

THE BOTTOM LINE

There are teams that consistently get an unfairly high or low ranking at the start of seasons, relative to how they end up performing. And it turns out that there's a single clear explanation for not only this observation, but in fact for several mysteries in college football. Those mysteries are:

1) Why does college football bother with pre-season rankings at all?

2) Why are there certain college football programs that are consistently ranked unfairly low in the preseason, and why are some consistently given an advantage in the preseason?

3) Why there are so damn many bowls?

For crying out loud, I started writing this the Thursday night after New Years when we're all back to work and there were still 4 more bowls to go at that point! Why so many? It's not your imagination; there are more every decade. Again the visual makes it more striking:

The answer for all of these is the same, and to red-blooded American males who know how the world works, it should be obvious: there's money to be made from the bowls, namely $400 million in revenues (and that number is 3 years old). If there's a conflict between identifying an unambiguous champion on one hand and revenues on the other, revenues will win. (Anytime you hear someone grunting about how talking about money misses The True Meaning of The Game and/or If I Have to Explain It You'll Never Understand It, run away. He's either justifying his own irrational spending on his team, or he's trying to sell you something.) So, if you want to maximize how much money the bowls make, you have to load the dice at the start of the season to make it more likely that those bowls will be packed with people wearing the classic school colors of legacy programs - people who spend money - regardless of whether those teams suck that year, or have sucked for many years. Sorry, Boise State, for all your talent and hard work, your fans don't spend enough money at bowl games, and your sparsely-populated part of the country doesn't have enough fans watching the advertising during the game to drive up ratings! Prove that your fans are tcotschke-buying suckers like Notre Dame and Cal fans, and soon you'll get better pre-season rankings!

Suddenly the more byzantine aspects of the BCS ranking and bowl system start to make sense. The rankings are how you can give the bowls some semblance of athletic legitimacy without a play-off system. So if it's all driven by dollars, you ask, then why even worry about seeming legitimate? Because that semblance of fairness is necessary to keep the fans coming - even the die-hard fans of those legacy teams will stop coming once they realize their team is on BCS affirmative action, and they're actually playing in the "We're All Winners!" Bowl. Solution: seed the rankings with big-market teams. That way you can have your cake (a semblance of legitimate athletic competition) and eat it too (profit maximization).

On the other end, have you ever actually heard a good argument for why there's no play-off system? The only attempt I've ever heard is that play-offs would take more time out of the student-athletes' schedules which would damage their academic performance. Yes, I've actually seen people say this with a straight face. Seriously? That's all you got? I guess we must not care about basketball players then, since I've never heard anyone say we should stop March Madness for that reason.

While you're in the mood to read more cynical sports economics, how's this for a quantitative definition of loyalty: price insensitivity relative to win-loss record. In other words, fans who are loyal to their team buy stuff with logos on it and go to games consistently, even when the teams lose, even when the teams always lose year after year. In other words, winning doesn't necessary correlate with sports club income, and the less it correlates with income, the more loyal the fans are. (In all sincerity - is there a better definition than this?) I'm going to measure that at some point but that's a later post.

I recognize that I'm probably not concluding anything that perceptive sports fans haven't figured out a long time ago, but the relationship between sports, business and human psychology is damn interesting.

Redwood Fix

2011-01-05T19:10:00.000-08:00

I got mine over New Years up in Tha Bay. If you didn't get yours, here it is:

Note: all those redwood cones that I planted don't seem to have sprouted. I found out after the fact that the groundskeepers would have gotten them when they came up. Too bad, because if ever there was redwood-friendly weather in San Diego, we've been having it this year.

Sign Up for Friends of the Children's Pool Email

2010-12-27T13:16:00.000-08:00

I was down by the beach in La Jolla a couple weekends ago and signed up for their mailing list, partly because I believe in what they're doing (keeping public property and open space accessible for everyone), partly in retaliation for the seal vigilante who was also standing there and gave me a pretty smug comment when I decided not to sign up on his list. (As it turns out, given the attitude they project, "seal vigilante" is to be a pretty apt description. I've been a Sierra Club member in the past but I don't support or even really understanding what the vigilantes are doing.)

Bottom line, harbor seals are not even close to endangered, they're not even truly native to San Diego and the Children's Pool was set aside specifically...for children! My cousin is a San Diego native and learned to swim there, and now he can't do the same for his own sons. To preserve it for families now and for future generations, visit Friends of the Childrens Pool and sign up for their email list.

What Copperheads Look Like

2010-12-25T16:13:00.000-08:00

They're purty, but they can't rattle to tell you they're there. This is a post for the PA folks, since we don't have them in California - this one is on the trail to Chickies Rock along the Susquehanna in Lancaster. There's supposedly a monster that lives around Chickies Rock (the Albatwitch) but copperheads are known to exist and are therefore more worth looking out for:

Clip from pahogger.

Carlsbad Cavern and Chaco Canyon

2010-12-23T18:22:00.000-08:00

Notable events and destinations in order:

- I didn't stop in California or Arizona except for gas. If I have an excuse one day I'll stop and look at the Cochise monument.

- El Paso: this was my second time there and I remain underwhelmed. For a city its size I would expect more going on. Maybe they saw a Californian coming and hid all the cool stuff. In 2006 I went over to Juarez and didn't get killed and actually had fun listening to an Iron Maiden cover band but I wouldn't go over there now, even during the day.

- Hueco Ranch: There was what looked like a small village of tank-style houses at El Hueco Ranch Road east of El Paso. Looking it up online, it looks like there are cool petroglyphs around there, but honestly after about 1 day in the Southwest you get petroglyphed out. Hey Pennsylvania readers, don't judge now - you have some right there in the lower Susquehanna that nobody ever goes to see.

- Carlsbad Caverns: it's big. As in, miles' worth of cave hiking (actual hiking). You should go. Pictures don't do it justice and mine sucked but look at some anyway. The NPS missed an opportunity to make a funny in their website. Their URL formula: http://www.nps.gov/aabb, where aa and bb are the first two letters of each of the first two words in the park name (hence, Lassen Volcanic is nps.gov/lavo). Therefore, Carlsbad Caverns should be nps.gov/caca but some prude changed it just to cave. Boo hiss!

[Added later: it turns out that this part of New Mexico, i.e. the southeast, is in the Southern accent dialect zone of North American English. If you're a linguistics nerd roadtrips on the East Coast are more interesting because you're guaranteed to get into a different dialect zone on one tank of gas. Took me a day and a half from San Diego. Don't believe me that some New Mexicans sound Southern? Check out the cops in this video, one of whom could be Kerry King's twin brother.]

- Guadalupe Mountains NP underwhelmed me. Glad it's preserved; nothing unique about it though, especially to someone who considers abundant chlorophyll a must for a good hike or run (hence my bitching about SoCal, although after the last year it seems to be turning into NorCal's climate. NICE.) Guadalupe contains the tallest peak in Texas. As is usual, the highest point of every Frontier Strip state is near the western border.

- Avoid Roswell. If you think it's a conspiracy, why do even the lampposts have alien eyes painted on them? And how does the CIA let the credit union have a UFO right in their logo? (More mocking of conspiracy theories here.) Do yourself a favor and skip this town unless you're stopping for steak and green chilies.

- Albuquerque: hadn't been here for years, since a friend who went to grad school there left (Icehouse, anyone? I had an experience there which proves it for the dive it is which if anyone with experience in Alb. wants I will gladly post publicly.) What I did do was eat at Frontier. Mm-mm! Nothing like eating burritos with green chilies and reading J.G. Ballard (TGP, it's the full short-story collection.) I decided not to go to any wineries.

- Bernalillo: right outside Alb. is where Coronado camped on his way to find the cities of gold, and where the Tiwa got sick of him and tricked him into leaving. The Rio Grande is right next to it, which as the pun holds, is in fact not so Grande, especially way up in the middle of NM.

- Chaco Canyon: been wanting to see it for years, finally got to, pics here; I'm fascinated with the masonry. The rain made it real fun to get to because the approach is on unpaved roads for 20-odd miles in all directions, and that Colorado Plateau clay just turns to crap when it's wet. I guessed at why they keep the roads unpaved and as expected, a ranger explained that this is partly intentional; it keeps the yahoos out, and they don't have to limit viewing to guided-tour-only as in Mesa Verde.

From Chaco Canyon

Chaco surprises, at least for me: the trade links from their later period. Later construction on Chetro Ketl showed Meso-America style colonnades in one case, unheard of on the Colorado Plateau. There were macaw skeletons found in Pueblo del Arroyo, which can only have been obtained via trade links with central Mexico or beyond. Oddest for me was the absence of ball courts, which you can find not too far away, throughout southern Arizona and at least as far north as Wupatki above Flagstaff (official site here.)

- Zuni Pueblo: easily the most unique rez "capital" I've been to. Lots of dense, turn-of-the-century to 1920s type stone construction rather than the prefab homes you get used to on other Southwest reservations. It almost reminded me of small towns in Pennsylvania. My interest in Zuni is linguistic (the language is an isolate relative to other Native American languages, like Basque in Europe) and their blood type is odd too - largely B, which has spawned all kinds of weird theories, for example that they're Japanese pilgrims who got blown off course. From there I decided to go back up to I-40 because it was dark anyway and the Very Large Array will just have to wait for another time.

- Avoid Flagstaff in inclement winter weather. Last night was literally the worst blizzard driving of my life, and it snuck up on me, transitioning from rain to snow in literally one mile. Fortunately I-17 gives back altitude fast as you head south and soon it was just rain again, although oddly there was lightning off and on all the way down to Phoenix.

Know what's better than trails? More trails.

2010-12-19T16:32:00.000-08:00

The Appalachian Trail is being symbolically extended to Europe (whether it's meaningfully an extension of the AT is debatable, but it's definitely a real trail.) This is great. Thanks to the Europeans for doing it and I can't wait to see it.

Help Save San Bruno Mountain

2010-12-18T12:36:00.000-08:00

Bay Area types: San Bruno Mountain is that big mountain right south of the City, just west of 101. It's a state park, but of course in California that's unfortunately less than a guarantee for its future. If you want to not only preserve open space but some of the rare species that live there (like the Mission Blue butterfly) learn more here or here.

Army of 750,000 Occupies Rural Pennsylvania

2010-12-07T20:26:00.000-08:00

No, it's not the Red Dawn re-make, it's hunting season.

Next Time You're Out On Trail

2010-11-20T06:16:00.000-08:00

...thank the park officers and law enforcement personnel and volunteers that keep these places safe. A Utah State Park Ranger is in critical condition after having been shot near Moab, and they're now looking for the shooter. In fact, this event is newsworthy precisely because of the efforts of park rangers and law enforcement. In most of the world you can't go out into the woods or the wilds without taking your life in your hands.

Sea-to-Sea Trail, Done Through Sycamore Canyon

2010-11-14T15:55:00.000-08:00

Sycamore Canyon. Imagine credit San Diego County.

Recently I was thinking that I should put some actual, you know, running stuff on here sometimes, so it doesn't seem like some kind of a leftist hippie blog. So, just for you, today I went for a nice run in the nicer-than-I-expected Sycamore Canyon. I'm not exactly burning up the miles on this project but hey! I'm busy! So sue me!

Thanks to the Sea to Sea Trail people for their continued work to make the trail a reality. I haven't been 100% religious about sticking to the (as yet not-fully-finished) trail as indicated on the maps they've kindly put together, mostly because bush-whacking-running in the desert is a good way to get bitten by various members of genus Crotalus, a healthy but irritable 2.5' long member of which I met just a few hours ago, stretched out and sunning itself near the Sycamore Canyon Road trailhead. It wouldn't rattle at me but it hissed a lot. It was a southern Pacific, based on this photo (credit Gary Valle):

What's funny is I just did an image search for southern Pacific rattlesnake, and the best image on the first page was from Gary Valle's awesome blog, which I already have in the links at the right. See, those are high quality links I put over there. And who do I do it all for? You, that's who. Now you kids run along or I'll tell your father what you've been up to.

Noyo River Redwoods Will Be Cut Down April 1st

2010-11-13T15:24:00.000-08:00

...unless you do something to help stop it. See what the Save the Redwoods League is doing at their website, and save places like this.

Guess What? Power Bracelets Don't Work!

2010-11-12T11:45:00.000-08:00

Story here. Big surprise!

Come Down to the W on Saturday Night

2010-11-11T11:55:00.000-08:00

This Saturday night the 13th, come down to the W - have a few drinks and support a good cause.

50% of the proceeds go to the Free Clinic that UCSD Med School runs, and the other 50% go to Pencils of Promise. Only *$10* online! Get your tickets here. Doors at 9.

Interested in Tutoring? Young Athletes Need You!

2010-11-09T21:48:00.000-08:00

Any Body Can Youth Foundation takes at-risk kids from south San Diego and teaches them confidence and discipline through boxing. Recognize the name Archie Moore, the legendary boxer? He started this organization and his son is continuing it. They need tutors! They also need donations. If you can help with your time or dollars (no matter how modest) you would make a big difference.

Here's their website. Find on Facebook here.

Grand Tetons Land Use Agreement

2010-11-06T19:47:00.000-07:00

I have a soft spot for the Grand Tetons (as I'm sure many people do) so I'm glad that more land is being preserved.

Friday Round-up: Runs and Votes

2010-11-05T19:08:00.000-07:00

- There's a neat little back trail where you can drop down into Tecolote Canyon directly from USD. Many trail types probably already know this, but it took me over a year to figure it out. Started off a fun little run back up to UTC in the canyon there.

- My progress on the Pacific-to-Salton Sea trail has been stalled out. Hopefully I can knock two decent chunks off this weekend once we're out of this Santa Ana B.S.

- Prop 21 didn't pass - no support for state parks. Response from the parks and summary at Northern California Hiking Trails. Nature is a big reason people like living in California so it's disappointing that when there's an opportunity to protect that, people don't spring for it.

- SANDAG has recommended allocating real money, $2.6 billion, to improving bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure. Now the city governments have to agree. Call your mayors and representatives! More information (including their contact info) here.

- Dry winter more certain. By late summer some of the weather models were already predicting a La Niña pattern, meaning a dry winter, especially in the second half. Want to go see waterfalls? Do it by Christmas.

- Has anyone noticed that the local coyotes have been hanging out in Rose Canyon a lot more the past couple weeks?

Bleg for Locals: Is There ANY Way Up the East Side of Mt. Soledad?

2010-11-02T20:05:00.000-07:00

View Larger Map

You see there? That little side road (Gilman Court) just barely west of I-5 that splits off just north of the Gilman/La Jolla Colony on-ramp? I just noticed it tonight on the satellite images on Google Maps so after I voted I ran over there and up onto the hill I went. I was happy to have found it because I thought it would give me the "Northwest Passage" from Rose Canyon up the east side of Soledad which I have long sought, with pluck and dash like explorers in days of yore. It's a nice little traily-trail to know about, but the La Jolla Northwest Passage it ain't.

So is there a way up that doesn't involve:

a) running across I-5 (non-starter), or

b) doing a 16 mile loop down to PB and back up to UCSD (fair enough if you have the time), or

c) running across La Jolla Parkway, if that's even possible (which is what stopped me tonight)

The reason I won't let this go is that people have told me there is a way. In particular the taciturn aboriginals of La Jolla have repeatedly hinted that there is indeed such a passage, but I have found only scant evidence - a glance over a campfire, pregnant with meaning; or, tantalizing clues on fragments of wizened pages from dark tomes filled with the incoherent scrawlings of madmen in languages long dead. Or the rantings of oracles, eyes wide and gripped with fevered dreams.

Why yes, I did vote for Prop 19. Why do you ask?

Sorry, I used to play Dungeons and Dragons. But I really do want to know if anyone knows a good way up the east side of Soledad from Rose Canyon. Thanks in advance. Now I have to go polish my +5 Sword of Reckoning.

One of the aforementioned wizened pages, putative translation "Yea, forthwith there be a Subway at La Jolla Shores and Torrey Pines, but find ye the true path to Soledad in the heart of oneness." Okay really it's Tocharian, an extinct Indo-European language of Western China. Image from Salon. Kind of funny how ancient languages always translate into archaic English. I guess that's how you know they're ancient. What's wrong with me that I'm putting this here.

Yes on Prop 21

2010-11-02T14:55:00.000-07:00

So I'm a little late to the party on this one. I was studying the propositions and candidates prior to heading to the polls and ran across Prop 21. For $18 a year, you can support the state's constantly cash-strapped park system AND (most importantly) park for free! Got that? No more $10 for Torrey Pines beach! No more parking a mile from the trailhead and walking along a busy road because you don't want to pay! For most of the people who read outdoors blogs that's a no-brainer because it pays for itself in a single year.

For what it's worth, I'm a registered Republican, and this is the ONLY time on this ballot or in memory for that matter that I'm voting for a tax or fee increase.

YES on PROP 21

Pony Express Has Been Run

2010-10-26T18:34:00.000-07:00

Outside reports on Karl Meltzer's accomplishment. I and some other under-medicated individuals had done the last leg of the route, from Martinez to Oakland, twice a few years back. And Karl didn't do that part...what do you say Karl? Meet you at the train station in Martinez? :)

Did You Participate in the Great Shakeout?

2010-10-25T22:11:00.001-07:00

I posted about it before, and then I completely forgot about it until today. It was last Thursday. Information here (about how it went, and more importantly earthquake safety.)

Sounds of the Intermontane West

2010-10-25T22:03:00.000-07:00

I have some sound files from my roadtrip this summer I'm only now posting. These are from Glacier National Park in Montana, and one from Cedar Breaks in Utah. My iPhone can't capture video but recorded soundfiles of water and wind and footsteps. There's something that I actually like more about having sound and discrete stills; somehow it captures my memory of the experience more closely.

Meltwater Creeks in Glacier National Park, 1 of 2

Meltwater Creeks in Glacier National Park, 2 of 2

On Trail in Glacier National Park

Wind and Glaciers at the Top of the Trail, Glacier National Park

Wind Through Pines in Cedar Breaks, Utah

Thanks for Blogs Like Bikesd.org

2010-10-24T04:05:00.000-07:00

Kudos to Thomas at bikesd.org for following up on an important story. Most of us outdoors bloggers are opinion jockeys bragging to the world about how awesome our runs or rides are, whereas Thomas is very actively pursuing a story of a cyclist who was struck and killed by a police car at the intersection of Governor and Genesee, a story which neither the SDPD nor the local press seem to find interesting enough to follow up. To do this takes time and cojones.

He and his blog are a real asset to the outdoors community in San Diego, and I just wanted to take a minute to publicly say "thanks".

Connecting Mission Bay With Northern San Diego With Trails and Canyons

2010-10-24T03:54:00.000-07:00

This is great news. The San Diego County Bicycle Coalition got a grant from the California Coastal Conservancy to study a trail connection (see the possibilities here). This will further protect the canyons and open spaces. Full article here.

With the rain, it's fascinating to run along these creeks, full of crawdads and frequented by bobcats and coyotes (which I now know firsthand!) and think that just 3 miles south at the Grand Avenue bridge, you can watch stingrays searching the shallows for food underneath the careless webbed feet of ducks.

Get involved:

Rose Creek Watershed Alliance
Friends of Rose Canyon
Marian Bear Natural Park Recreation Council
San Diego County Bicycle Coalition