Month: July 2008

Run Baby Run

All human beings should try to learn before they die what they are running from, and to, and why.

James Thurber

Heather and I finished the City Arts Center Midnight Streak 5K last night. Sadly I am in bad enough shape that I actually had to train for a 5K. My seven week schedule was devised from a couple different sources but ultimately is worked out wonderfully. Here is the schedule I ran:

Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun
Week 1 Run/Walk 15 Min Run/Walk 2 Miles Run/Walk 15 Min Run/Walk 25 Min
Week 2 Run 20 Min Run/Walk 2 Miles Run/Walk 20 Min Run/Walk 35 Min
Week 3 Run 25 Min Run/Walk 2 Miles Run/Walk 25 Min Run 30 Min
Week 4 Run 25 Min Run 2 Miles Run 30 Min Run 35 Min
Week 5 Run 25 Min Run 20 Min Run 30 Min Run 3 Miles
Week 6 Run 30 Min Run 3 Miles Run 35 Min Run 4 Miles
Week 7 Run 20 Min Run 20 Min Run/Walk 15 Min Run 5K

I have some previous experience running; but I haven’t actually been in an organized event since the half-marathon I ran my Junior year of college. Great date night for Heather and I.

Make More Urgent the Necessity

Luck is the residue of design.

–Branch Rickey

After an Dr. Dobb’s interview with Christos Papadimitriou I have been thinking about design, creation, and development of complex systems.  Specifically systems that are fundamentally efficient.  The most important systems in existence are all amazingly complex (in fact, entirely too complex to ever design) and yet are built (often upon very simply concepts.)  They evolve into existence and are created without ever being engineered.

My favorite example is economics, which has as its basis very simple rules.  Economics sprout markets; which which are not only insanely complex but suffer from constant attempts to control always with perfect failure.  Other example include physics and the universe, computers and the internet.

So my question is, what other systems exist that can be created, but cannot be designed?

Fun Facts

Pulled directly from this website; so you should definately read the original.

Doctors:

(A) The number of physicians in the U.S. is 700,000.

(B) Accidental deaths caused by physicians per year are 120,000.

(C) Accidental deaths per physician is 0.171. Statistics courtesy of U.S. Dept of Health and Human Services.

Guns:

(A) The number of gun owners in the U.S. is 80,000,000. Yes, that is 80 million.

(B) The number of accidental gun deaths per year all age groups is 1,500.

(C) The number of accidental deaths per gun owner is 0.000188. Statistically, doctors are approximately 9,000 times more dangerous than gun owners.

Remember, “Guns don’t kill people, doctors do.”