5K, Marathon

This past weekend, I ran my first *running* race, and Fritz ran his first marathon! I was going along to cheer him on in the Detroit Free Press marathon anyway, so when he suggested last week that I do the 5K while waiting for him to finish, I figured, why not? Check out my Livejournal for my full race report, and Fritz's for his. Photos to come soon.

Photo of the Day

Bad breath
Originally uploaded by tina_inara.

Taken at a Halloween party I attended Friday night.

Photo of the Day

Fall Colors 044-2
Originally uploaded by tina_inara.

I took this on a gray, fall day at Island Park in Ann Arbor.

Invisibility Cloak

Attention fellow Harry Potter fans, it appears that the invisibity cloak has become reality. Sort of.

A US-British team of scientists has successfully tested a cloak of invisibility in the laboratory.

The device mostly hid a small copper cylinder from microwaves in tests at Duke University, North Carolina.

It works by deflecting the microwaves around the object and restoring them on the other side, as if they had passed through empty space.

But making an object vanish before a person's eyes is still the stuff of science fiction - for now.

Okay, so it's closer to Star Trek than Harry Potter, but still pretty cool to the science geeks (or science geek wannabes) among us.

Empire

Courtesy of WaPo, the Bush administration wants to have free reign to do whatever they want in space, while limiting access for other nations.

President Bush has signed a new National Space Policy that rejects future arms-control agreements that might limit U.S. flexibility in space and asserts a right to deny access to space to anyone "hostile to U.S. interests."
...
A number of nations have pushed for talks to ban space weapons, and the United States has long been one of a handful of nations opposed to the idea. Although it had abstained in the past when proposals to ban space weapons came up in the United Nations, last October the United States voted for the first time against a call for negotiations -- the only "no" against 160 "yes" votes.

Must the administration be so damned arrogant on every international issue that comes up? Perhaps Bush has been watching too many Star Wars movies.

Photo of the Day

Quest for Breath 2006 003
Originally uploaded by tina_inara.

The Huron River taken from the wooden bridge in Gallup Park, right before the Quest for Breath 5K Walk.

Photo of the Day

Halloween Candle holder
Originally uploaded by tina_inara.

Photo of the Day

Ann Arbor 010
Originally uploaded by tina_inara.

I took this outside of the People's Food Co-op in the Kerrytown Section of Ann Arbor.

Coming Soon, To a Theater Near You

Courtesy of General J.C. Christian, it's The Investigators, starring Dennis Hastert and O.J. Simpson. Sounds like a blockbuster to me!

A Political Post!

With the Foley scandal and North Korean nuclear test dominating the news, much of the blogosphere (okay, the four blogs I looked at) seems to have missed this story from over the weekend. (Italics mine.)

President Bush reserved the right to ignore key changes in Congress's overhaul of the Federal Emergency Management Agency -- including a requirement to appoint someone with experience handling disasters as the agency's head -- in setting aside dozens of provisions contained in a major homeland security spending bill this week.
...
The standards for the FEMA director were inspired by criticism of former FEMA chief Michael D. Brown's performance after Hurricane Katrina last year. Brown, a lawyer and judge of Arabian horses, had no experience in disaster response before joining FEMA.
...
White House spokesman Tony Fratto said the actions, first reported by the Associated Press, upheld the president's right to choose his advisers and control executive branch activities.

"There's nothing new here. The president has the authority to choose which of his subordinate officers he'll rely on," Fratto said. "The president has the authority to determine what the relationship is between them."
...
A spokesman for Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.), who chaired a House Katrina investigation, said the White House is slighting Congress and ignoring the political toll of Brown's incompetence and ties to GOP cronies.

"Davis hopes the White House isn't saying they don't understand the need for minimal qualifications, or that they might bypass them. If indeed they are, then we haven't come very far from the days of 'Heck of a job, Brownie,'" Davis spokesman David Marin said, in a reference to Bush's early praise for Brown. "Good luck getting someone confirmed who doesn't meet these standards."

*Sigh* Obviously, he's learned nothing from Katrina. Even though Brown's handling of the situation was an unmitigated disaster, Bush still doesn't recognize the importance of appointing someone with actual emergency-response experience to the most important emergency-response post in the country. Hopefully this time around, Congress won't let him get away with it if he tries to appoint another unqualified crony. If they do, I fear what will happen if the country is hit with another major disaster or terrorist attack.

Photo of the Day

Michigan-MSU game 2006 175
Originally uploaded by tina_inara.

Went to the Michigan-MSU football game this past Saturday. At halftime, Michigan alumnus and 60 Minutes journalist Mike Wallace was honored by the University's president.

Photo of the Day

Vikings Come Home 2006 080-2
Originally uploaded by tina_inara.

I took this a few miles from my parents' house up north.

(X-posted to my Livejournal.)

Update

The last month, in a nutshell:

-I didn't get the job.:-(
-I did get a raise.:-)
-I bought a new digital camera; photography is fast becoming a favorite hobby. A lot of my photos can be found on my Flickr page.
-I've registered for another race, the Quest for Breath 5K Walk.
-I've started running a bit; perhaps by next springor summer I'll be doing 5K runs. Maybe even a mini-triathlon!

I'm going to try to update more often (yeah, I know, I keep saying that), and perhaps even post photos occasionally. Who knows, with campaign season heating up, there may even be a political post or two.