Google Earth is getting a nice plug from Olympic Gold Medal cyclist Kristin Armstrong. When she did her time trials in December, 2007 in China, she took along her husband’s GPS unit to capture the elevation along the route. Then she used that data to find the best training route back home.
My reconnaissance of the Beijing Olympic Time Trial all started in December 2007. My coach Jim Miller and I traveled to Beijing, China to not only check out and ride the Time Trial course, and to experience the heavily publicized pollution problem first hand. (During my Gold Medal ride, it turned out to be a perfect day in Beijing.)
Much of the hype with the course centered on how non-traditional this 15-mile course was, especially with the sheer amount of climbing involved. At the encouragement of my husband (a technology buff) I took along one of his GPS units so as to get an elevation profile. While riding the course,I kept thinking to myself that we must be on the wrong road; there is just simply no way a time trial would have this much climbing! At the reassurance from my coach and much to my delight we were on the right course.
After returning home to Boise, Idaho, I exported the GPS data to several different formats, one of which I was able to launch with Google Earth. I was then able to trace the entire course from the comfort of my home half a world away and find a similar route to train on back in Boise. This capability along with having the elevation profile proved invaluable in my preparation for my Gold Medal race. It was also very nice to be able to show family members and friends the course from the excellent satellite views presented by Google Earth.
I wonder how many other athletes will be doing this now. After all I can imagine marathoners and other distance athletes finding this useful. I know they try to train as close as possible to the way a race may be… but to get a 1 on 1 match (or really close) would definably help. No mention was made of what GPS device was used but I’d assume it could be any one of a number. A lot allow tracking and export.
Welcome to Living in the Whine Country. New design going on, so please be patient and let me know on any issues.
Here are some more unusual Olympic 2008 Pictures That I ran across today. They are weird, strange, Bizarre or just unusual timing. But all entertaining. These have been collected from all over, and yes I’m taking submissions.
I’ve seen a lot of discussion lately about the fact that the Olympics is dropping Softball and Baseball from the Olympics. And lots of articles have popped up why certain sports should be events. Bowling is always one of them.
One reason many have stated that Bowling shouldn’t be, is that many in the US think its a US only sport. That’s not true. There is a International Competition for Bowling going on right now. Currently its going on in Thailand in like a week or two. There are over 80 nations that bowl in it. And no, the US doesn’t dominate.
This Years site: http://www.2008wmc.com/
US Team Site: http://www.bowl.com/tournaments/teamusa/mensworldchamps/
So at least this one sport would make sense. It comes down to a person (Men and Women bowl it) and their skill.
I got passed this one, and I’m sure I’ve seen a version of this without the Spanish Class bit, but its a humorous joke.
A Spanish Teacher was explaining to her class that in Spanish, unlike English, nouns are designated as either masculine or feminine.
‘House’ for instance, is feminine: ‘la Casa.’
‘Pencil,’ however, is masculine: ‘el lapiz.’
A student asked, ‘What gender is ‘computer’?’
Instead of giving the answer, the teacher split the class into two groups, male and female, and asked them to decide for themselves whether computer’ should be a masculine or a feminine noun. Each group was asked to give four reasons for its recommendation.
The men’s group decided that ‘computer’ should definitely be of the feminine gender (’la computadora’), because:
1. No one but their creator understands their internal logic;
2. The native language they use to communicate with other computers is incomprehensible to everyone else;
3. Even the smallest mistakes are stored in long term memory for possible later retrieval; and
4. As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself spending half your paycheck on accessories for it.
(THIS GETS BETTER!)
The women’s group, however, concluded that computers should be Masculine (’el computador’), because:
1. In order to do anything with them, you have to turn them on;
2. They have a lot of data but still can’t think for themselves;
3. They are supposed to help you solve problems, but half the time they ARE the problem; and
4. As soon as you commit to one, you realize that if you had waited a little longer, you could have gotten a better model.
The women won.
I read about the glitch the other day. It showed a golf ball landing ON the water, then as Tiger Woods you could walk out and hit it. Needless to say, it sounded like a glitch, BUT…
As a response to a fan video from Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 08, Tiger Woods and EA SPORTS demonstrate that the “glitch” Levinator25 thought he found in the game, is not a glitch at all.
Tags: cool, Gaming, Golf, Humor, Interesting, Irony, Sports, Video
I have to say that one of the more interesting takeaways from WordCamp was how wildly used it was. There was great presentations of how Education has turned towards it. There was a presentation about a project to use WordPress as a backend to create your own personalized Social Network. But the most interesting in some ways was the fact the US government has found it suecure enough to use it themselves…
Here is a list (probably not all-inclusive) of United States government agencies or organizations using WordPress (whether privately or publicly):
- Air Force
- Army
- Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
- Coast Guard
- Defense Intelligence Agency
- Department of Energy
- Department of Homeland Security
- Department of State
- Department of Treasury
- Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA)
- Marine Corps
- Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
- National Geospatial Intelligence Agency
- National Reconnaissance Agency
- National Security Agency (NSA)
- Navy
[List provided by Mark Janquith]
Tags: Blogging, government, Interesting, Irony, Security, Wordpress
More beers, less effect. The mixer after WordCamp was awesome, bottomless Blue Moon and free pool, plus great conversations made for a killer end of the day. Waiting for hopefully a BART train that will take me home.
Tags: remote post, wordcamp
Below is a tune, you should know. Go back in time and tell me what show this was.
You have 10 minutes to post, and the first post wins!
I love British (or in this case Aussie) humor, so be warned. Here is a great skit in which a Doctor arrives home form a day of work…
