The Yin Blog

Portland bomb sting posts

For those of you who are interested mainly in my blogging on the Portland bomb sting case, bookmark this link to stay up to date.

Some notable posts that you may be interested in:

Mohamed Mohamud's not so speedy trial

The defense's motion for a gag order on Attorney General Holder

Examination of 18 USC 2332a (the statute under which Mohamed Mohamud has been indicted)

Thoughts on the presumption of innocence

Why "he had many chances to walk away" does not disprove entrapment

Some preliminary thoughts on the FBI affidavit

What happened to Fox (network, not news) and me?

Once upon a time, or should I say, a long time ago in a TV era far far away, Fox used to be my favorite network. It was edgy, funny, and daring, with the only sitcoms I managed to watch regularly ("The Simpsons" and "Married With Children," and later, "Malcolm in the Middle"), and of course "The X-Files," which I stuck with to the bitter end. When the new century rolled around, it got even better, with my perhaps all-time favorite show ever, "24", and then "Prison Break." I also liked some of the new reality TV shows, such as "American Idol," and who can forget the genius of "Joe Millionaire"???

So it was kind of a shock to look at TV By the Numbers' assessment of this season's shows on Fox and to realize that I don't watch a single show on that network(!). I did watch "Fringe" up to the end of last season and earlier this season, but TV shows on Friday got moved around and somehow I ended up with a three-way conflict on Friday night with only a dual-tuner on my TiVo, and "Fringe" was left out. Last week's episode got recorded, and I tried watching it, but I've missed too much for it to make sense. (Not that things ever really made sense with "Fringe.")

The TV world changes, and I'd say that ABC is now my favorite network for scripted shows, with "Once Upon a Time" being my current favorite, and "Scandal" pretty high too.

ABC's "Scandal": a big continuity error, and my speculation about how it ends

I'm finally caught up on ABC's "Scandal," with one episode left before it goes on a hiatus for the winter, and I've really enjoyed it so far this season. Well, except for the drawn-out storyline about how much Olivia Pope and President Grant can't stay away from each other.

Anyway, this post includes spoilers through last week's (12/6) episode.

***

With me still? Okay, let's delve into the big continuity error. At the end of the previous episode, President Grant was shot as he stepped out of his presidential limousine. At the beginning of last week's episode, which immediately followed, the shooting scene is replayed in more detail, and we see that Grant was hit multiple times, and a few other staffers were shot as well.

In the subsequent obligatory wounded person on rolling stretcher in hospital scene, his shirt is bloody, suggesting at least one torso wound. No facial wound, though.

The news reports of the shooting, however, talked about how he was hit in the head; and the attending physician reported to insiders that Grant had cranial swelling due to bullet(s) in the brain.

Wha????

I'm not looking for excessive gore or anything (even though this is a 10pm show), but if you're going to be talking about headshots, don't we need to see, I don't know, a head injury??? And if you don't want to spoil Tony Goldwyn's looks, then why have it be a head wound? Why not just have the doctor say that the president has a bullet near his heart and build suspense that way?

***

Okay, now to my speculation about how it ends. So far, we know there's a big conspiracy that includes Olivia Pope, the President's Chief of Staff Cyrus Beene, a Supreme Court Justice, and scary businessman Hollis Doyle, which appears to have rigged the voting machines in a key county in Ohio to steal the election for Grant. Doyle arranged for a bomb to kill eight people, some of whom were connected to the vote-stealing plot but others of whom were innocent; and the whole incident was pinned on an innocent woman, who involuntarily underwent an identity change and is now working for Olivia Pope. The conspiracy may be starting to unravel, as Beene's husband (an investigative reporter) is on to the rigged machine story, as is an Assistant U.S. Attorney.

I'm guessing that in the end, which I hope is not for a few seasons, the conspiracy turns on itself. Pope is the star of the show, so I imagine she will end up cooperating with the AUSA to bring the others to justice. Cyrus Beene is a likeable character, so I think he will end up being killed by Doyle, and that will be what spurs Pope to cooperate with the government. The Supreme Court Justice is somewhat likeable, so it's unlikely that Pope would want to destroy her, but the justice is also suffering from cancer, so she'll probably just die of that.

Hopefully we'll get to see if I'm right (i.e., the show gets to end on its own terms, rather than getting canceled/non-renewed).

Rejoicing over my new compost rollcart!

It's been about two years of forced composting of food scraps and yard waste for me. My colleague and blogger Jack Bogdanski has repeatedly complained about the secondary effects of the program -- smelliness, pest attraction, etc. -- and eventually he gave up and paid for the bigger garbage rollcart.

I haven't been as bothered by the composting, but I did notice that the bottom of my green compost rollcart was looking like some kind of precursor to biological warfare. I probably should have cleaned it out, but frankly, I was afraid to.

Imagine my surprise and happiness today when, while wheeling the empty rollcarts back to their usual place in our side shed, I discovered that we had a brand new, clean green rollcart! Woo hoo!

NBC's "The Voice": from 6 to 4 . . . .

All I have to say, after watching tonight's results show of "The Voice," where two of the remaining six singers were cut, is, "Maybe I should've voted."

Wow. I did not expect that.

We're #17!

This list ranks the states from best-run to worst-run. Not surprisingly, California is dead last. I fretted that Oregon would be down there as well, but somehow, we rank as the 17th best-run state:

In 2011, the manufacturing sector accounted for 28.8% of Oregon’s economic output, more than in any other state. The sector is dominated by computer and electronic parts manufacturing, which provided nearly $40 billion in output to the state in 2010. Outside manufacturing, the state’s economy faced several significant challenges last year, despite having one of the highest GDP growth rates in the country in 2011, at 4.7%, Oregon’s unemployment rate was 9.5%, while 17.5% of the population lived in poverty, worse than the respective national rates of 8.9% and 15.9%. However, the state managed its finances well during the recession: 87% of its pension liabilities were funded in fiscal 2010, one of the highest percentages in the nation.

I'm not sure about the accuracy of this summation, though; given the vast problems that PERS faces, it's hard to know what to make of the claim that 87% of pension liabilities were funded. I don't miss the Iowa winters, but that state was ranked #5. Farm land can't be outsourced, so I suppose Iowa is relatively recession-proof. (Hey, maybe we should stop the farm subsidies!)

Asian-American stereotypes?

Here's an interesting article about seven Asian-American stereotypes that the author says aren't true, including the belief that Asian-Americans can't play sports but all know martial arts.

Unfortunately, it doesn't help her case that the list of Asian-American pro baseball players she uses (Ichiro Suzuki, Hideo Nomo, Hideki Matsui, Byung-Hyun Kim, and Kaduhiro Sasaki) are actually all foreign players, so Asian, not Asian-American.

But whatever, apart from that, it's a good refutation of the stereotypes. I thought the "Asian F" (i.e., a grade of a B) was especially hilarious. (Been there, endured that.)

USC vs. Notre Dame: who to root against???

Wow, a weekend of upsets has put Notre Dame atop the BCS standings, not to mention leaving it the only undefeated team. In its last regular season game, Notre Dame plays USC. . . . Now, normally I root against the Notre Dame football team in every game, except when it plays USC, but I'm wondering if this year is different. Notre Dame is 10-0, while USC is 7-4.

1) USC is irrelevant. Whether the Trojans finish 7-5 or 8-4 doesn't really matter. They'll go to a bowl game, but it's not going to be a good one. At 11-0, Notre Dame gets a chance to win the national championship, and if it's against Alabama, I might have to root for the Irish just so the SEC can finally have its BCS streak broken.

2) If USC loses, that means it will have lost 4 of its last 5 games, including devastating ones against traditional rivals UCLA and Notre Dame, not to mention the upstarts Oregon and Stanford. I'm afraid that will lead to Lane Kiffin's being fired. You see, as I noted here, I love that Kiffin is USC's coach, as I think he keeps the team from performing up to its lofty talent level. If he's fired, they might get someone . . . good. A victory against Notre Dame -- without star QB Matt Barkley, to boot -- might save Kiffin's job!

3) USC's beating Notre Dame boosts the value of Stanford's, Oregon's, UCLA's, and Arizona's victories over USC, thus elevating the Pac-12 and adding to the collection of nice non-conference wins by Pac-12 teams: Wisconsin and BYU (by Oregon State), Nebraska (by UCLA), and Oklahoma State (by Arizona).

So . . . um . . . go Trojans, fight on!

NBC's "Grimm" & fictionalized execution drama

Tonight's episode of NBC's "Grimm" relied heavily on an impending execution for narrative drama . . . . Of course, the show makes a big deal about its Portland setting (much appreciated!), with shout-outs to local institutions like Voodoo Donuts and the like. So whereas I wouldn't ordinarily nitpick too much about the finer legalities (okay, maybe I would), this is an instance where reality and fiction clash too much to ignore.

Specifically: (1) Governor Kitzhaber has issued a moratorium on all executions during his term in office, which lasts for two more years, so in fact, there would be no execution at all; and (2) the only two people on Oregon's death row to be executed since 1976 were "volunteers" -- meaning they waived their appeals.

I guess it's possible that the show takes place in the near future . . . .

Lane Kiffin as the best coach in the Pac-12?

. . . best for the rest of the conference that is!

I totally get how USC alums can be so devoted to their football program. It's not unlike the devotion that Yankee fans have to their team, and no doubt the disdain/fear/awe that everyone feels toward that team ratchets up the feelings. But at this point, it's more like the Yankees during their bumbling period in the mid- to late-1980s, when everyone else in the AL East took turns winning the division except them.

And you have to wonder, how much of it is because of Coach Lane Kiffin? It's easy to take potshots at him, as the Oregon fans at FishDuck do . . . repeatedly. Just some "highlights":

• Voted his team #1 in the preseason coaches’ poll, after publicly declaring he would not vote his team #1.
• Revoked a scholarship granted to a walk-on, giving it to a convicted felon instead.  Kiffin’s response when asked about it? “He was fortunate to have one for a year.”
• Banned walkthroughs for visiting teams under the guise of “protecting the Coliseum’s turf”.
• Offered advice to new Penn State coach Bill O’Brien on how to handle sanctions and retain players, then demonstrated the necessity of that advice by poaching the Nittany Lions’ best player, Silas Redd.

The latest mini-scandal is the fact that USC cheated in the Oregon game by deflating their footballs when on offense, thus giving their players an unfair advantage because deflated balls are easier to catch. Kiffin has denied ordering this, but some sports columnists are doubtful, noting the pattern of cheating/win at all costs/etc.:

I'm sure working for a head coach who has a penchant for finding every low-class maneuver in the book to get an advantage had nothing to do with it. I'm sure the "rogue manager" had to come up with this in the isolation chamber of his own nefarious little mind.

Anyway, USC may be 6-3 (3-3 in the Pac-12) right now, but remember that the Trojans were ranked #1 at the start of the season. And you can understand why. Matt Barkley, possibly the #1 pick in next year's draft, came back for his senior season -- the first post-bowl-ban year -- with something to prove. Also coming back was junior Robert Woods, one of the best wide receivers in college football and possibly a top-25 pick next year. Another possible top-25 pick is center Khaled Holmes, described by one scouting report as "the best center in the draft class by a large margin." Woods might not even be the best WR on the team, though, as sophomore Marqise Lee is pretty awesome already.

But wait, in addition to keeping all those skill position players from last year's team, USC -- as noted in the FishDuck post -- poached Penn State running back Silas Redd, who projects to be drafted at least.

Meanwhile, USC's main Pac-12 competition, Stanford and Oregon, both lost key players from last year's teams. Look at this website's rankings of the top 40 Pac-12 players from 2011 and where they are today:

1. Andrew Luck, QB, Stanford [Indy Colts, #1 pick]

2. LaMichael James, RB, Oregon [SF 49ers, 3d round pick]

3. Jonathan Martin, OT, Stanford [Miami Dolphins, 2d round pick]

5. Matt Barkley, QB, USC [returned]

6. Darron Thomas, QB, Oregon [undrafted but left Oregon]

7. David DeCastro, OG, Stanford [Pittsburgh Steelers, 1st round pick]

8. Cliff Harris, CB, Oregon [undrafted but left Oregon]

10. Shayne Skov, LB, Stanford [returned]

12. T.J. McDonald, S, USC [returned]

13. Matt Kalil, OT, USC [Minn Vikings, 1st round]

14. Robert Woods, WR, USC [returned]

18. John Boyett, S, Oregon [returned but got injured in game #1 and out for the season]

19. Delano Howell, S, Stanford [undrafted free agent for Buffalo Bills]

24. Chase Thomas, LB, Stanford [returned]

28. Stepfan Taylor, RB, Stanford [returned]

30. David Paulson, TE, Oregon [Pittsburgh Steelers, 7th round]

37. Nickell Robey, CB, USC [returned]

40. Nick Perry, DE, USC [Green Bay Packers, 1st round]

USC returned more of those top players than Stanford did, and Oregon essentially lost all of its top players. Here's what Wikipedia had to say about the outlook at the beginning of the season:

Along with Barkley, who is a leading Heisman candidate, the Trojan offense returns nine starters, including 2011 All-Conference center Khaled Holmes, a thousand-yard rusher from 2011 in senior running back Curtis McNeal, and two thousand-yard receivers in Robert Woods and Marqise Lee. In addition, former Penn State running back Silas Redd transferred to USC and will be immediately eligible to play during the 2012 season. The addition of Redd means the USC offense now boasts two thousand-yard rushers, two thousand-year receivers, and a 3,500-yard passer from the 2011 season.

On defense, the Trojans return seven starters and four All-Conference players, including first-team All-Conference performers in safety T. J. McDonaldand cornerback Nickell Robey, senior defensive end Wes Horton, and the team's co-leading tacklers in sophomore linebackers Hayes Pullard and Dion Bailey, who was named the Pac-12 Freshman Defensive Player of the Year in 2011.

USC returns 18 starters and thirteen All-Conference performers in 2012.

Yikes, I probably would've voted them #1 if I'd had a vote! And yet, with that stockpile of talent, not to mention the losses that Oregon and Stanford endured, USC lost to Stanford and Oregon, and to top that off, also lost to Arizona, which is a respectable 5-4 overall with a nice win over Oklahoma State, but only 2-4 in the Pac-12, including a terrible 66-10 loss to UCLA.

USC's remaining three games aren't gimmes, either. Arizona State is 5-4 (3-3 in the Pac-12) and still in the hunt for division crown (though they don't control their own destiny). UCLA is 7-2 (4-2) and does control its own destiny. And at the end of the schedule is 9-0 Notre Dame. USC certainly has the talent to win all three games, which would earn a likely rematch against Oregon in the Pac-12 title game. But given that USC found ways to lose to Stanford (did you know that the QB who replaced Luck has been benched?), Oregon, and Arizona, it's also possible that the Trojans could lose all three games.

How is this possible? It's hard to avoid concluding that the Trojans underachieve because of their coach. So, as a Cal fan first and foremost, and then a UCLA fan, I hope Kiffin stays at the helm for as long as he wants!

The iPhone 4S and that "Talking Tina" episode of "The Twilight Zone"

Remember the "Talking Tina" episode of "The Twilight Zone"?

Well, that's a little like how I felt earlier this weekend. We were wondering why my wife's data usage had gone through the roof ever since she switched to an iPhone 4S a little over a month ago. She doesn't stream videos or music, doesn't video chat, or do anything that hogs data. At home, she uses wi-fi. And yet Verizon was sending alerts every other day about how close she was getting to exceeding the 2 GB limit.

When I checked the data usage info on our account, I saw that the phone was sending out huge amounts of data in the middle of the night! (When it should have been using wi-fi, no less.)

A call to Verizon didn't really help, as they suggested "restoring" the phone, and/or turning Siri off. Apple apparently had a software issue in earlier operating systems where the phone claimed to be using wi-fi, but was still on 3G. Maybe that would help, but what was the phone doing in the middle of the night???

Googling -- love the irony there, using Google to figure out what was wrong with the iPhone -- identified a likely source of the problem: the iPhone supposedly sends error reports back to Apple. What kind of stupid phone sends so many error reports that it causes users to exceed the data limit???

As I ranted about its stupid engineering, my wife's iPhone all of a sudden came awake by itself! (cue Twilight Zone music)

I was just waiting for it to say, "Hi, my name is Siri, and I don't like you at all."

Double yikes!! But anyway, turning off the error reporting has solved our data usage problem. For my part, though, I am even more pleased to have a Samsung Galaxy Nexus.

Overreaching voter-initiative measures (Measure 80)

In addition to the Presidential, congressional, state legislative, and mayoral races, my ballot this year included a bunch of voter-sponsored initiative measures. One of the more interesting ones is Measure 80, which would decriminalize marijuana under state law.

To start with, I'm quite sympathetic to the idea of decriminalization of drugs. I would go farther than marijuana and would be open to decriminalizing pretty much everything, although for the protection of society, if not just children, I'd put some limits on how and where you can buy and use the really dangerous stuff.

But that's neither here nor there. Measure 80 speaks only to pot, and it's certainly a plausible position to say that we should start with decriminalizing pot, see how that goes, and then consider harder drugs.

So why did I vote against Measure 80?

- It has an annoying preamble that comes close to "finding" that pot is the greatest thing since sliced bread, although much of this comes from obscuring the difference between hemp and pot ("Yields several times more fiber, for paper and textiles, than any other plant"; "Yields cloth and paper of superior strength and durability without the application of pesticides during cultivation and without producing cancer-causing pollutants during processing"; etc.). Maybe these are true facts, but I'd rather not be enshrining them into the books with my vote.

- It creates a commissi0n to regulate the pot trade, which is probably necessary, but limits the election/selection of those commissioners to pot growers and processors, with the exception of two (out of seven total) to be appointed by the Governor. Can you say "agency capture"?

- It requires the state Attorney General's office to defend Oregonians prosecuted for drug crimes -- which apparently means those in federal court(!). This is a wholly absurd proposal, as it vastly overburdens the AG's office, not to mention, creates the possibility of severe legal conflicts-of-interest. What if a person who must be defended in federal court by the state AG also commits non-drug related offenses?

Overreaching. I would have voted for a more, um, measured approach to decriminalize. Measure 80 asks for the moon, so I voted against it.

Monster Moon Race recap

I've joined the run blogging team at Run Oregon! My recap of the Monster Moon Run 5K race can be found here.

New TV shows, DVRs, Nielsen ratings, and the vicious cycle

I'm not a Nielsen viewer (i.e., one of the families that AC Nielsen uses to sample television viewing), but there's no reason to think that Nielsen viewers wouldn't behave similarly to me when it comes to new shows. And when it comes to new, serialized dramas, the last thing you want to do is to watch a show, fall in love with it, and see it get cancelled after three episodes.

Now, sometimes you can just spot a complete loser show from the start and avoid it. Last year, one of the networks thought it could capitalize on the "Mad Men" 60s-retro nostalgia with "The Playboy Club." Um, yeah. (Maybe something like that would work on cable TV. Regular broadcast TV, though?!?) I was certain it was going to die a quick death, and indeed, it lasted just three episodes.

On the other hand, there have been new serials that critics have adored, but that the general audience has ignored. If you think airing just three episodes is pretty bad, take a look at "Lone Star," which lasted just two! (But the critics loved it!)

Knowing that networks sometimes have itchy trigger fingers when it comes to eating the sunk costs of a destined loser show, viewers like me have developed defense mechanisms . . . like not watching a new show until there's reason to believe it will survive the first season. (Even that is no guarantee, as "FlashForward" started off with an incredibly awesome pilot, steadily lost viewers and logic-comprehending writers or something, and devolved into a mess by the end of the first season, at which time ABC mercifully decided not to renew it.) Even shows that make it past the first season can disappoint, as "V" somehow got to two seasons, only to fail to get renewal, even as it ended on a massive cliffhanger. (Or not -- I guess the show ended with the Vs having won, and humanity on the road to enslavement or being cooked for dinner.)

Anyway, one of the new shows that the critics lavished praise on this season was ABC's "Last Resort," which, I gather, is something like the movie "Crimson Tide" crossed with the TV show "Lost." The premise is that a US Navy sub gets orders to launch its thermonuclear warheads at Pakistan, but the crew refuses to do so and ends up on the run from other US warships, eventually settling on an island run by a dictator. Wow! Nuclear weapons, military drama, island setting, and no doubt political intrigue and hints of conspiracies. Sounds great, sign me up!

Except, let me wait to see how it does before getting invested in it.

And how it's been doing is . . . not good. Actually, "not good" would be a pretty good showing for it, at this point. Its ratings have been disastrously bad. I'm surprised it hasn't been yanked from the schedule yet.

Now, in the pre-DVR days, I would've had to watch the show live and just accept the risk of being disappointed when a show I was invested in got cancelled. Or I could have saved it on videotape, but it wasn't always possible to record one show and watch a different one. (It depended on the cable set-up.) With TiVo or any other DVR, however, I can record "Last Resort" and save it on the DVR's hard drive while I watch other shows, either live or recorded.

So I now have 5 episodes of "Last Resort" saved up. You can see the vicious cycle at work here. If lots of people wait to see how the show does, then the show can't do well, because there aren't that many people actually watching it live for the ratings. And then the show gets cancelled . . . .

I don't know what the solution is, but I guess I am part of the problem. (Except I'm not, because I'm not a Nielsen viewer.)

Portland art tax campaign fail

Check out this election spam I got in the mail today, in support of the $35/person art tax that the city is proposing:

 

Wait, art teachers would make a bunch of kids disappear? Is that a reason to be voting FOR this proposal???

(Of course, note how racially diverse PPS kids seem to be! Out of ten kids, only two appear to be white. One wonders where in Portland you could come even close to such a distribution of students, given the city's demographics: 76% white, 9% Latino (of any race), 7% Asian-American, 6% African-American, and 10% mixed or other race. I get that it's important to show that PPS values diversity, but when it's this unrealistic it just comes across as heavy-handed. Much like this art tax itself.)

 

Zombie Apocalypse (not quite) 5K race recap

Today was the second year of the Zombie Apocalypse 5K race, a fun event where people could choose to run as "survivors" or as "zombies." Survivors were given a flag football-type belt with two velcro-ripaway red flags and a two minute headstart before the zombie horde was let loose. Last year's event took place at Lee Farms in Tualatin; this year, it was a much longer trek down to Heiser Farms in Dayton (about 30 miles away, but an hour's drive because no freeway went there directly).

Okay, first, here's my racing bib:

I was worried that it would be pretty miserable weather during the race, because that's what it was during my son's soccer match this morning: cold, damp, drizzly. But the sky sort of cleared up as I drove down highway 99 from Portland.

Race time was 5:30, but I arrived just after 4 pm. Like last year, the race organizers had really gone out of their way to create an apocalpytic atmosphere:

The military vehicle pictured above didn't move, but the tank below did!

Meanwhile, I found fellow Uberthon runners Eileen (who was running as a survivor) and Brent (who was watching). We chatted a bit about running and strategy, like where to arrange the survivor flags. (In front to make it more difficult to grab? In back, as a sign of confidence in one's speed?)

We also checked out this, which was something I haven't seen before: pumpkin firing cannons (what a waste!):

Okay, well around 5:20 or so, I headed over to the starting area of the course. Last year, it was just a gun-timed race, which given the large number of participants, was kind of dissatisfying. This year, the organizers got the excellent folks at Uberthons to do the timing. Yea for chip-timed races! Not only that, the organizers actually tried to arrange it so that the fastest people were at the front.

5ish mile pace? No, not me. 6ish? Uh, not quite. Still, even my estimated 7 minute/mile pace put me near the front:

The starting signal was a big boom from one of those pumpkin launching cannons. The first stretch was downhill, and I had to thread my way through some runners who'd started in front of me. Among the more notable costumed people I passed were a guy in a suit carrying a briefcase (but at least wearing running shoes), and two high school or college kids who had started off wearing gas masks. By the time I caught up to those two, one had already taken his mask off, and the other was in the process of doing so. "Man, it's so hard to breathe!" he gasped.

"What were you guys thinking?" I asked as I ran past.

The first 1/4 mile took me 1:26, according to RunKeeper, which was too fast, but what can you do about the combination of needing to get past people, and adrenaline, and fear of the zombie horde?

Half a minute later, the pumpkin cannon boomed again. The zombies were coming on the course.

A two minute headstart sounds pretty good. I mean, if I can run 7 minute miles, then at the two mile mark, 14 minutes will have elapsed. For a zombie to catch me by that point, he or she would have to run two miles in 12 minutes. Certainly doable, but not easy. On the other hand, when you consider that in those two minutes, I covered only 1/3 of mile, it doesn't sound like so much.

Anyway, the race course was filled with volunteer actors: some zombies hanging on tree branches, hiding in bushes, or hanging on the side of the trail; some military personnel armed with (fake) weapons. I wanted to tell the soldiers that they should go waste zombies just behind us. There was also a helicopter overhead that boomed through its loudspeakers, "Attention survivors . . . " and something about zombies.

My second mile was considerably slower. Some of that was the trail terrain -- soft, squishy dirt/mud in spots -- and some of it was probably just not having my best mental edge. It's been a couple of weeks since I've done real speedwork, and that week off to rest my foot didn't help on that front.

Part of the course had us doubling back a long straightaway that we had run earlier. When I hit this part, there were still zombies on the course headed out. Some of them were trying to steal our flags -- not cool. I had to speed up to evade one of them. (Others were just pretending to try.)

I got passed by a few runners, and every time as he or she was approaching, I had to turn to see if it was a zombie. It wasn't until just shy of 2 1/2 miles that a zombie finally caught up to me. Since I had two flags, I didn't bother trying to outrun him. (Good thing too, as it turns out that it was the guy who holds the Uberthon's 5K record!)

So he took the flag on my left side. I still had the flag on my right side, and I kept to the right side of the trail to make it more difficult for any other zombies to grab it.

At 2.47 miles, there was a 90 degree left turn, and a soldier who told us we were almost at the end, just 1/4 mile or so. Huh, I thought, how can we be almost done? But in fact, I could see the end of the course up ahead. I took a look back and didn't see any zombies nearby, so I picked up the pace a little (from 7:30ish to 6:45ish), and yes, crossed the finish line with my remaining flag intact! Chip time was 19:24, which sounds really awesome for me, but RunKeeper said the distance was 2.65 miles. Of course, I started RunKeeper a little late, as it clocked me in 19:08, so maybe the total distance was 2.7 or so miles. Anyway, far short of 3.1 miles.

There I am, holding up post-race proof of my survival! I finished 19th overall out of 580, which is my best percentile finish, but of course, this race attracted a lot of people who weren't in top running attire (i.e., some of those costumes were impossible to run in), so I wouldn't put too much stock into that result.

Four zombies ran faster than I did, but only one of those beat me by more than two minutes, so I did earn my survival. (There were survivors who ran slower than I did who finished with both flags; as I had surmised, running fast could subject you to being picked off by an even faster zombie, whereas running with a crowd could get you skipped.)

Anyway, all in all, a fun time. Looking forward to next year. I may run as a zombie.

UPDATE (10/15): Here's the race recap by the zombie who mauled me.

Running from zombies!

Okay . . . picked up my racing bib for this weekend's Zombie Apocalypse 5K race:

Last year, I was devoured about 2/3 of the way through the race. Hopefully I can do better this year, and this can be my anthem:

 

What clothes would I buy if I didn't have to get dressed for work?

An Althouse observes and asks, "It's a miracle the fashion industry stays alive. If we — or I mean, you men — didn't have to get dressed up for work, what would you spend a year?"

Well, at my current running pace (30-35 miles per week), I can expect to burn through about 2-3 pairs of running shoes in a year, and those things run about $70-100 each. And then it's always hard to resist getting new running apparel, like moisture-wicking tech shirts and shorts. And running socks. And funny running-themed shirts, like the "zombies hate fast food" one that I have. And some cold weather outdoor running gear, like gloves and waterproof windbreakers.

So yeah, I'd still buy clothing if I didn't have to get suits, shirts, and ties for work. (Well, I don't really have to wear a suit to teach; that's a choice I make. But I feel better prepared to teach when I'm wearing a suit.)

80s music still packs a wallop on today's TV shows (Fringe)

For a variety of reasons, I'm behind on TV shows . . . still have the premieres of ABC's "Last Resort," "Once Upon A Time," and "Scandal" to get to. But I did watch CBS's modern day Sherlock Holmes procedural "Elementary" (which I'll blog about later) and "Person of Interest" (might or might not say something about this), and of course, "Survivor."

But I also caught the opening of the last season of Fox's "Fringe," which has gone from the twisty parallel universe mythology to what looks to be a straightforward future shock battle between our intrepid heroes and the creepy Observers in 2036.

I won't give anything big away about the episode (and with "Fringe," unless you've been following closely along, it wouldn't make sense anyway), but I'll say that the episode closes with a large chunk of the early 1980s band Yaz's "Only You." It's one of those perfect fits between song and scene -- I haven't heard this song in years, but I instantly remembered the feelings of poignancy that it once evoked. Singer Alison Moyet's voice was so haunting and full of loss.

Granted, I don't listen much to current music (other than Kelly Clarkson or Taylor Swift), but my sense is that pop music is an area, unlike television, where the 1980s (and to a lesser extent, the 1990s) still rule supreme over today.

The Libya attack and 9/11 -- ignored warnings?

I occasionally see snarky references from (liberal) friends to the effect that the Bush Administration ignored warnings during the summer of 2001 that al Qaeda was going to attack the U.S. Usually, this is a reference to an August 6, 2001 Presidential Daily Briefing, in which the CIA reported:

Clandestine, foreign government, and media reports indicate bin Laden since 1997 has wanted to conduct terrorist attacks in the US. Bin Laden implied in U.S. television interviews in 1997 and 1998 that his followers would follow the example of World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef and "bring the fighting to America."

***

Al Qaeda members -- including some who are U.S. citizens -- have resided in or traveled to the U.S. for years, and the group apparently maintains a support structure that could aid attacks.

Two al-Qaeda members found guilty in the conspiracy to bomb our embassies in East Africa were U.S. citizens, and a senior EIJ member lived in California in the mid-1990s.

A clandestine source said in 1998 that a bin Laden cell in New York was recruiting Muslim-American youth for attacks.

We have not been able to corroborate some of the more sensational threat reporting, such as that from a ---- service in 1998 saying that Bin Laden wanted to hijack a U.S. aircraft to gain the release of "Blind Sheikh" Omar Abdel Rahman and other U.S.-held extremists.

Nevertheless, FBI information since that time indicates patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks, including recent surveillance of federal buildings in New York.

The FBI is conducting approximately 70 full-field investigations throughout the U.S. that it considers bin Laden-related. CIA and the FBI are investigating a call to our embassy in the UAE in May saying that a group or bin Laden supporters was in the U.S. planning attacks with explosives.

Left unsaid in these snarky criticisms is what exactly the Bush Administration should have done given what was known at the time. There's no actionable intelligence about any specific target. Should we have locked down all commercial aircraft? And the report alleges that Muslim-American youths are being recruited for attacks, but with no specifics, not even a designated part of the country. It's hard to believe that Bush critics would actually want action of the sort depicted in the movie "The Siege," where the US government rounds up Arab-Americans (and non-Americans) in New York to be detained in concentration camps. . . .

Anyway, the Independent (UK) has this explosive report about the killing in Libya of US Ambassador Chris Stevens:

According to senior diplomatic sources, the US State Department had credible information 48 hours before mobs charged the consulate in Benghazi, and the embassy in Cairo, that American missions may be targeted, but no warnings were given for diplomats to go on high alert and "lockdown", under which movement is severely restricted.

Now, I'll grant that "senior diplomatic sources" may not be the equivalent of a CIA briefing item. They may be disgruntled sources.

On the other hand, if the report is true, the quality of the warning seems much better than that in the Aug. 6 PDB. Rather than having to defend the entire US commercial air system, as well as federal buildings in New York, as well as targets of "other attacks" (talk about CYA!), the Independent report identifies a specific class of targets: our embassies.

I should say, just as I find it unfair to blame the Bush Administration in retrospect for not acting (how?) on the Aug. 6 PDB, I think it would be unfair at this point, without knowing more about the alleged warning, to blame the Obama Administration. After all, who knows how often there may be warnings of this sort, making it hard to separate the wheat from the chaff.

But . . . if you're going to blame President Bush for not acting on the Aug. 6 PDB, I don't see how you can not also blame President Obama for not acting on this warning, unless you think the warning was never made.

UPDATE: Politico reports:

Shawn Turner, spokesman for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, emailed: “This is absolutely wrong. We are not aware of any actionable intelligence indicating that an attack on the U.S. Mission in Benghazi was planned or imminent.”

This is interesting, if you focus on the statement that there was no "actionable intelligence." It's possible that there was a rumor or generalized warning that we might be attacked, but nothing that you could act on -- in other words, something much like the Aug. 6 PDB.

Boy do I miss "24"

Yes, Fox's "24" was totally implausible, and it definitely had its lame seasons (6, anyone?). But I still miss the intense, addictive plotting and Kiefer Sutherland's perfect portrayal of Jack Bauer. I miss it so much that I'll even watch an ad that's a parody of it: