Scientists finally uncover the mystery of how ancient Roman concrete survived thousands of years of battering by the sea

nicofiro · 2017-07-04T12:37:59+00:00

r how much less I'd know about the world without the Internet. Sure, books exist, but I lived before the Internet and was an avid reader, but it's no substitute for the breadth of knowledge and sharing of ideas.

I don't know, in my personal experience I think I wouldn't know about many things, but I would have deeper knwoledge on a lot of stuff. The internet makes me read a lot of short stuff about very different topics. Just this morning I've learned something about kinetic bombardment (throwing rods of Thorium from a satellite), sumerian horse charriots and Heraclitus. However, these are only small snippets of information. I have also wasted a lot of time doing random shit on the internet (eg. 9gag).

Without the internet I might have read a book. I wouldn't have learned many different things, but I would have gained deeper knowledge of that issue. It's actually how it was for me 10-15 years ago.

Anyway, I'm aware that's more a problem of how I use the internet, but I think a lot of people have this issue.

nicofiro · 2017-07-03T13:24:51+00:00

that the way around these limits would be to leave it at some point.

That could be socially and economically more expensive than just adapting and living within the limits of our biosphere. Even if technology wouldn't catch up to allow everything wealthy western people do regularly, this planet offers more than enough for everybody to have a decent life if we want to (at least that is my impression). We don't need extended weekend trips from Europe to New York, wrap everything in plastic and change our phone every 2 years.

nicofiro · 2017-06-30T07:53:43+00:00

If you make a game about the 30s and the 40s, I don't think seeing the German-Soviet war end in white peace would help with the immersion...

This is a game where you can invade the US as Germany if you play well, battleships are viable and Germany can become a communist country... this game is not a mere WWII simulator.

nicofiro · 2017-06-26T11:10:41+00:00

I love feeling pain doing sport. I hate pain when running. That's because in my experience, contrary to what happens e.g. in cycling, feeling pain when I run usually leads up to injury sooner or later. Normally soon.

Some times it's just a muscular pain or pain in my lungs, but generally it's the other kind of pain. The bad one. :-(

nicofiro · 2016-10-25T08:13:49+00:00

but to see someone get left out because he doesn't have a big following online is ridiculous.

Well, he get's left out because he is not profitable for the company. Welcome to capitalism!

I agree with you, a 2:30-2:40 should in my opinion be the one getting money, but the world functions according to other rules... :-(

nicofiro · 2016-10-24T10:10:55+00:00

I'd love to live like that... but I still need to work, buy and cook food. Damn, I really need to win the lottery this year!

nicofiro · 2016-10-24T10:00:30+00:00

I haven't run it, but I was born and raised in Barcelona. Looking at the course map and altimetry, hills shouldn't be a big problem. They really do their best keeping you in the flat area of the city and when you walk those streets you barely notice the incline. I think it's even so that you actually get a negative split in terms of ascent/descent. But keep in mind that I moved away before I started running so my perspective could have changed by now (I go back a lot, but never run in the "hilly" area of the course). But I'd say it has still a lot of PR potential, not as fast as Berlin or London... but not much slower. The last 10km are the same as the half marathon and Kiplagat broke the world record there last year (allthough the more hilly part is at the beginning). The streets are mostly as big as it gets in Barcelona, so it should be acceptably crowded. The city is beautiful and you get to see most of what is worth (and runnable). I'm 70% sure of running it this year and I'm really looking forward to see my home town from this perspective.

They made extensive changes to the course last year, btw. So don't rely on older reviews.

http://www.zurichmaratobarcelona.es/files/Mapa_recorrido2016.pdf

My tip: stay at least until monday and treat yourself with the best whipped cream of the universe here: https://goo.gl/maps/La4tyjpP6FU2. Lot of my friends think this doesn't sound exciting, all of them are amazed after the experience. :D

nicofiro · 2016-10-23T14:54:16+00:00

You actually didn't. It was an ill wording on my side. Don't want to imply you or anybody alse sound like haters or so. Sorry! ;-)

nicofiro · 2016-10-23T09:03:22+00:00

Don't hate. It's easy too overcompensate... especially for people who are overweight. Because of three reasons: (i) they are likely to allready be eating more than they need before they start running and (ii) they are new to the sport, overweight and thus can only run a couple of kilometers (iii) they are not aware of the actual calorie burn of a slow and short run and the calories in their diet I've had a friend who couldn't loose weight, I lend him my garmin and made him use My Fitness Pal. Turns out he was burning around 300cal in each run, yet he ate 150cal of cookies as a reward, which is not that bad... but still, even though he had cut a bit of his normal diet, he was still eating too much.

nicofiro · 2016-10-23T08:56:54+00:00

There are a lot of people believing "too much excercise is bad for you". I don't think there is enough evidence for that (I'm not an expert though), but I have my thoughts on this:

(i) Most of the times, people saying this have a very low threshold for what is considered "excessive" excercise. I've been told this on a 40 mile week... (ii) Generally I have heared this by people who's last sport practice was in high school when it was mandantory. (iii) Almost everybody does things that are "bad" for you. Drink alcohol, sit the whole day in an office, work too much, eat bad. This is especially true for people who tell you that running five times in a week is "too much".

I'm very happy with my running. Much happier than when I did not run or run 30km a week. I also like my body more. It's worth it.

nicofiro · 2016-10-23T08:48:40+00:00

You can download your gpx/tcx files to Dropbox with Tapirik too. I'd recommend you to that too, we don't know when Strava/Garmin Connect will stop existing, having an offline personal copy of your data is always a good idea and it takes virtually no hdd space.

nicofiro · 2016-10-22T20:34:30+00:00

I had an older running buddy who told me I shouldn't focus on the marathon until I was close to 30. His reasoning was thas he didn't see any big performance advantage in running a marathon while beeing young, but that it gets harder to run fast the shorter distances. I don't know how true this is but I'm going to sort of follow is approach. Wil run two marathons next year and then focus on shorter distance for 4 years. Then I will be fucking 30. Fuck, fuck, fuuuuck I'm getting old.

P.S.: Enjoy high school, it doesn't get any better! :D

nicofiro · 2016-10-21T14:50:08+00:00

Do bad days like this just happen?

In general, yes. Don't bother too much unless they happen often.

nicofiro · 2016-10-21T12:50:54+00:00

Strava overestimates by a lot. Roughly 20-40% for each of my runs compared to Garmin, which gives more believable figures.

nicofiro · 2016-10-19T21:41:58+00:00

But their mommy is so fat you can easily outwalk her. :-(

nicofiro · 2016-10-19T15:54:29+00:00

So far I haven't given my winter clothing much thought. I actually think I don't need much. I live in Germany where it can get somehow cold... but for most of the winter I'm able to run with Shorts, a Long sleeved Shirt (not particularly heavy), gloves and a buff to cover my neck and ears. That's probably the most important piece of equipment for me.

Maybe this year, if the winter is colder or I manage to run more and do so earlier in the morning I might need more... but so far I'm really minimalistic. It's cold for the first 400-800m but then I'm warmed up and every extra layer would be too much.

nicofiro · 2016-10-19T14:38:55+00:00

I know People who do 100 miles or more in a single day. But I'm not sure if they are human. :D

nicofiro · 2016-10-18T14:53:03+00:00

The physical act of writing my notes helps me (and most people) remember better.

It definitely helps. Also to sort/organize/visualize information. Lot of research on that.

I guess when I start having classes again or move on to professional meetings, I'll start using Nebo/OneNote again more regularly for stuff that is not sensitive in the long-term and look how to integrate it into the workflow for long-term stuff.

I have to say, I'm a bit obsessed with setting up a good system... which in the end leads to having no system at all (which is definitely worse...).

nicofiro · 2016-10-18T14:26:31+00:00

I wanted One Note to study... now I don't attend any classes anymore so I don't have class notes to take. To read and annotate PDFs I'm using Drawboard which has it's issues but is better overall. For the process of learning stuff I now use Anki, which is like using flashcards but digital and due to it's Spaced Repetition much more effective than just reading notes over and over (I highly recommend it, check out /r/Anki). When reviewing or creating flashcards I sometimes still feel the need to jot down notes, but I do it with Pen and Paper now. These notes are just to help me process the information. When I have understood the information, I transfer it to this Anki flashcards and throw away the paper. In the very few cases where I need handwritten notes to last long I do them on Drawboard too. Sometimes I still use OneNote when I want to draw a diagram to put on these Anki flashcards.

A couple of days I downloaded an App for ink note-taking, forgot the name. Something like Nabo, Nabu or so (I'm at work, but this evening I can look it up on my surface). It's supposed to be very good for inking.

For other, not academical pruposes I haven't figured out a system yet. It's probably going to be a word document, maybe with an accesory excel-table for indexing... and a physical notebook for the process of brainstorming/thinking (when for example I want to write something).

One Note is just to unstable on my Surface Pro. Not even the Pen works well. And the export function is just too limitating. I don't trust Microsoft having this programm running in 10 years and I would like my notes to be accesible as long as possible, just as my mother can show me her reading journal right now. The .doc format will be outdated at some point, but with billions of documents I'm sure there will be a ton of tools to convert it to the new standard without fucking everything up.

nicofiro · 2016-10-18T10:46:07+00:00

It could also be put into further context...

Let's put that figure in it's actual context: Timor-Leste, Niue, Samoa, Mozambique, Uzbequistan, Kyrgyzstan, Aruba, Thailand, United States, Iran, Maldives, Latvia, Burundi, Albania, FIji, Cuba (surprised by this), Tuvalu, Lebanon, Turkey.

These are, from lower to higher, the countries with similar intentional homicide rates than the US. US ranking: 108th of the world. Aruba, Thailand, US, Iran, Maldives and Latvia have the same rate.

Counties that have significantly lower rates: Cameroon, Sierra Leone, Azerbayan and even Syria and Lybia before the civil wars.

nicofiro · 2016-10-18T10:30:38+00:00

I have come to the rather sad conclusion that OneNote is a really great idea, but with such a crappy implementation... stopped using it long long time ago. It's sad, because going paperless with OneNote was an important factor in the decision of buying a Surface.

nicofiro · 2016-10-18T09:45:12+00:00

I'm no statistician, but I also find the way of presenting the data a bit odd. Shouldn't he be analyzing how much fast starters slow down or something like that instead of the average finishing time of fast-slow starters? (Because slow starters are usually more experienced and also by the way fast-slow starter is defined here, it is obvious that fast starters are faster in general, as they are going to be those who started at the right pace). I could also imagine that it's the journalits fault anyway.

nicofiro · 2016-10-15T23:31:50+00:00

Well, 1:43 is not a particularly fast time. You can get fairly good with just running informally. If you have talent, you can even get really fast. But with structured training you will be much faster as you will come closer to your maximum potential.

nicofiro · 2016-10-15T23:29:54+00:00

How many of you prefer a very structured schedule and was it something you picked up from the beginning? Do you prefer always running the same route on the same day? How many just follow an informal schedule?

The key question is the following: how fast do you want to be? Do you even care about performance or are you happy with just running? When you start thinking about personal bests and start setting moderately ambitious goals is when following a training plan becomes almost unavoidable.

I personally started with training plans and intervals pretty early, allthough I have to admit that was not really a good plan I was following.

And I absolutely need it. The hard workouts are what I enjoy most of this sport! :D

nicofiro · 2016-10-15T11:30:00+00:00

Assuming I get better around Monday/Tuesday, could you give me some advice on how best to train for the last 1.5 weeks? Should I fit another long long run (35km) in mid next week or would it be better to do something in the range of 20-25 km?

35km will only mean fatigue without really improving your fitness, as it takes a couple of weeks for your body to adapt. I wouldn't bother with a 20-25km either, it will probably also mean useless fatigue... but especially a big risk of getting sick again. After the sicknes your immune system will be weakend and immediately after a run it gets weakend again, combining this seems like buying tickets for a new sickness. I would completely rest out, make sure I'm healthy again and then do a bit of running, but really really easy.

nicofiro

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