Caught up on some reading when I was on vacation, and these two articles, each over a year old, are fantastic. Don't miss 'em:

• The Bell Curve by Atul Gawande ("What happens when patients discover how good their doctors really are?")
• Coach Leach Goes Deep, Very Deep by Michael Lewis ("It's like he's been given this chessboard, and all the pieces but none of the rules, and he's trying to figure out where all the chess pieces should go. From scratch!")

The first is remarkable for underscoring the simultaneously subtle (in terms of what a person does) and glaring (in terms of the results) differences between very good and great. The second is amazing. If a lawyer can reinvent college football offense, imagine the Ultimate renaissance that awaits us if the sport ever gets out of its infancy.

Read this older NY Times book review of "Wise Man" (a collection of Richard Feynman's letters) while I was on vacation and thought of my school committee duties when I read this:

The title of this book is taken from a letter that Feynman wrote for the California State Curriculum Commission, in which he appraised the science textbooks to be used in elementary schools. His son, Carl, was then three years old, due to go to elementary school three years later and learn from the textbooks. Feynman spent much time and effort reading textbooks and pointing out their deficiencies. He also examined the teachers' manuals that came with the textbooks. The manuals were supposed to explain the material in the textbooks so that teachers could teach it intelligently. Feynman was especially critical of the manuals.

Can you imagine?! Richard-freaking-FEYNMAN reviewing your science curriculum?! Awesome. But wait, it gets better:

He was particularly concerned that teachers using the manuals might penalize children who came up with original ways of solving problems. This actually happened many years later when Michelle was in high school and was penalized for going off the beaten track to solve an algebra problem. When Feynman went to the school to complain, the teacher accused him of knowing nothing about math.

!!!

I mentioned previously the Again Faster Bar, and really liked the look of it. The market inefficiency of spending 20% of the total cost on shipping bugged me though, so I never ended up taking the plunge. So I percolated for awhile over how I'd build one myself. The trick is attaching the pipe to the strap such that it doesn't spin (although a spinning bar would offer a different challenge). Here's what I came up with:

...and here's a detail of the end assembly:

Here is the equipment list and costs:

• 1" diameter 48" long black pipe ($8.96)
• 1/2" x 6" (I think) eye bolts ($3.72)
• 2 1" galvanized Ts ($4.62)
• 2 1/2" lock washers ($0.30)
• 8 1/2" fender washers ($2.00) 4 1/2" fender washers ($1.00)
• 2 1/2" nuts (mine were included with the eye bolts)
• 2 carabiners ($12.50)
• 2 NRS 1" HD Tie Down Straps ($16.55)

Grand total: $49.58. More than I was expecting, but isn't that always the way? You could economize by leaving out the carabiners and just threading the straps right through the eye bolts, and by buying shorter straps. I wanted the straps longer so I could throw them over high things (like swingsets, rafters, and tree branches), and the carabiners make life a little easier.

Anyway, assembly was easy: screw the Ts onto the pipe. I used a pipe wrench and a huge screwdriver through the T for lots of leverage, getting them nice and tight. You'll want them to both be oriented the same way when they are snugged down. Put an eye bolt through one of the Ts. Then, on the other side thread on the two four fender washers (two four because you want the metal to be thick here, as it supports everything three or four per side might be better). Then the lock washer, then the nut. Hold everything centered as you tighten the nut. I got mine tight enough that the washers went slightly concave on me (again, three or four fender washers per side might be better than my meager two). Repeat on the other side, and you're good to go!

I'm no engineer though, so don't be surprised if the whole thing falls apart, the straps break, or the washers just pull right through and dump you. The eye bolts even say explicitly say not to use them to support people. So don't build one of these. If you do, and you get hurt, it's not my fault. I'm just telling you what I did.

UPDATE: be sure to read the comments for design suggestions/concerns.

UPDATE 2: became convinced two fender washers on each side weren't enough, so upped it to four, and updated the instructions above accordingly.

On vacation I came up with this GPP workout that I liked. It won't transform you into a superstar or anything, but it hits a little bit of everything, gets the heart rate up, and works the core at the same time rather than having to do a separate mini-workout:

• 10 pushups
• 20 squats
• 10 super planks (demo in this Minute of Strength video)
• Repeat 10 times

It's a bit along the lines of the Pulling, Climbing, Twisting workout I posted awhile back.

A little over a month ago I tried a 500m sprint on the C2 rower. Since then the Crossfit thread that prompted me to try this in the first place has grown to mammoth proportions. Folks seem to agree that setting the damper to 10 is the way to go for benchmark purposes, so I finally gave it a go. Again, I love that you can set the monitor to show you your 500m pace for each stroke (i.e. how long it would take if all your strokes were like the current stroke). I wanted to break 1:30, and was rowing a 1:24 pace for the first 50 seconds before hitting a wall. It was all I could do to finish. Still, I just barely missed it, 1:30.5. Half a second! Damn!

I stood up afterward and could immediately tell I didn't have a drop of glycogen left in any muscles, anywhere. Almost fell over. My throat was even sore from the breathing (gasping) and grunting (groaning) involved. The best 90-second workout (give or take half-a-second) you're likely to find. Try it sometime.

Our Insulated Congress: We don't live in a very democratic democracy, do we?

As long as we're on the subject of rowing, I just found this terrific PDF (1.7MB) on correcting common technique mistakes: Common Mistakes in Rowers' Techniques and Remedies Therefore. The diagrams assume you're in a boat rather than on an erg, but all the info still applies (except perhaps some of the oar technique stuff). At least, I think it still applies, but keep in mind I know nothing about rowing.

A bit of a link backlog to clear out:

• Ringtraining.com's training guide (PDF).
• Art De Vany: More Against Grains.
• Beast Skills: Clapping Handstand Pushup. You read that right.
• Straight to the Bar links up Campusing.

I really enjoyed browsing through Bil Elsinger's Nationals Open Division Finals photos. Lots of great shots, but I particularly liked teasing a story out of a couple sequences. Two examples:

• First, second, third, and fourth.
• First (holy cow!) and second.

During the season the strength workouts (not one of my strong suits, if I even have a strong suit) are the first thing to fall off the table as I make room for pickup and tournaments and such. I manage to do a pretty good job maintaining, but I certainly don't make any gains. I'm starting to get a good picture of what my off-season is going to look like this year, which is nice. Still messing around with different things though, as I'm going away next week and don't want to try to establish a good rhythm until I get back. Had a nice strength workout tonight though, which I thought I'd share:

• One-arm DB snatch, 4 sets of 5 reps per arm.
• Sandbag shouldering, 4 sets of 8 (alternate shoulder with each rep).
• Grasso Lunge, 4 sets of 5 reps (new exercise, really like it). Interwove these sets with sets of...
• ... Romanian Deadlifts (scroll down until you find it, I've also seen it called a one-legged deadlift). Another favorite. 4 sets of 5 reps.
• Weighted pull-ups, 4 sets of 4 reps, Interwove these sets with sets of...
• ... Weighted ring dips, 4 sets of 4 reps.

Felt good. I'm thinking I'll be just the right amount of sore tomorrow.

I've seen various folks adopting this as their forum avatar:

I like it, probably because I've had days like that.

Another quick AutoHotKey script:

#v:: ; Win-V hotkey
clipboard := clipboard
Send, ^v
return

This converts whatever's on the clipboard to plain text (no formatting) and then pastes. I use this all the time when copying some text from a web page to Word because I often don't want the formatting to tag along. I chose Win-V because Ctrl-V is the normal paste shortcut.

Interesting side effect: if you copy a file or folder in Explorer and then use Win-V to paste it, it's path is pasted as text. Also handy.

UPDATE: ruddym contributed this version, which is almost certainly better reliable. Mine hadn't given me any trouble, but his looks more robust, and I've been using it for months. Thanks ruddym!

#v::
Clip0 = %ClipBoardAll%
ClipBoard = %ClipBoard% ; Convert to text
Send ^v ; For best compatibility: SendPlay
Sleep 50 ; Don't change clipboard while it is pasted! (Sleep > 0)
ClipBoard = %Clip0% ; Restore original ClipBoard
VarSetCapacity(Clip0, 0) ; Free memory
Return