Udderings

Kenyan Olympic Marathon Team

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 13:04:17 -0400

Kenya has gotten itself into a bad situation choosing their men’s marathon team this year. Kenya has a major problem in the marathon; they have a ton of very good athletes with no real guarantees that any single one of them can win on any given day. Kenya has 340 athletes who have run the “A” standard for the marathon, but a country is only allowed to send 3 athletes who have achieved the “A” standard.

Kenya’s boundless supply of elite marathoners has allowed it to dominate marathons over the last 20 years. Looking at the World Marathon Majors, Kenya has won:

19 of the last 22 Boston Marathons
8 of the last 9 London Marathons
11 of the last 18 Berlin Marathons (Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia won four times in a row from 2006-2009, disrupting Kenya’s domination)
10 of the last 11 Chicago Marathons
8 of the last 15 New York City Marathons

I claim that it is Kenya’s depth that allows it these wins, not the consistency of a single runner. Compare to Haile Gebrselassie, who, as I noted, won Berlin for four years in a row, showing a consistent dominance of his competition. During this same time, he won the Dubai Marathon 3 times in a row.

To further emphasize their depth, let’s look at the latest running of each of the Marathon Majors for Kenya’s placement:

And the winners of these races (all Kenyan):

2012 Boston Marathon: Wesley Korir
2012 London Marathon: Wilson Kipsang (4 seconds off Course Record)
2011 Berlin Marathon: Patrick Makau (World Record)
2011 Chicago Marathon: Moses Mosop (Course Record)
2011 NYC Marathon: Geoffrey Mutai (Course Record)

Five different winners in five different marathons full of elite athletes from all over the world, setting course records on three of them, one a world record.

Despite this dominance, Kenya has only won an Olympic Gold in the marathon once. I’ll argue this is because Kenya is only able to send 3 runners, so it can’t take advantage of its depth.

Back in January, Kenya announced the three it would choose would come from a list of six athletes. Let’s review these six and their recent performances:

Patrick Makau: Set the world record in the 2011 Berlin Marathon, but dropped out of the 2012 London Marathon today, lost a half marathon in February
Geoffrey Mutai: Ran the fastest marathon ever in the 2011 Boston Marathon (Boston does not qualify for world records), set the course record in the 2011 NYC Marathon, but dropped out of the 2012 Boston Marathon last week
Moses Mosop: Ran the second fastest marathon ever in the 2011 Boston Marathon, set the course record in the 2011 Chicago Marathon, but came in third behind two Ethiopians in Rotterdam last weekend
Emmanuel Mutai: Set the course record in the 2011 London Marathon, but came in seventh at the 2012 London Marathon today behind three other Kenyans, an Ethiopian, and two Moroccans.
Wilson Kipsang: Won the 2011 Frankfurt Marathon only 4 seconds off the World Record time set by Makau a month earlier, won the 2012 London Marathon
Abdel Kirui: has won the Marathon World Championships in 2009 and 2011, but no one real races those and he came in sixth at the 2012 London Marathon today.

Among these are the three fastest marathoners ever, but two of them have dropped out of marathons in the last week and the other one lost a marathon last weekend. Luckily, Keny has the fourth fastest marathoner ever in Wilson Kipsang, who did win a marathon today. And the other two placed behind Ethiopians and Moroccans at the London Marathon today.

So, Kenya has the fastest marathoners of all time, but they have no consistency; all but one has underperformed in 2012. No matter who Kenya chooses, they will be criticized, and Kenya has no guarantees the athletes will show up able to win, particular if there is any adversity in the weather on the day of the marathon. Without entering ten runners, Kenya’s ability to win becomes a craps shoot.

99percentinvisible: Episode 51- The Arsenal of...

Sun, 08 Apr 2012 10:09:40 -0400

99percentinvisible:

Episode 51- The Arsenal of Exclusion

Download, Embed, Share…(plus, Song List!)

(Above: The Arsenal of Exclusion & Inclusion, illustration by Lesser Gonzales. Click image to go to another site with a larger image.)

“Cities exist to bring people together, but cities can also keep people apart”
- Daniel D’Oca, Urban Planner, Interboro Partners.

Cities are great. They have movement, activity and diversity. But go to any city and it’s pretty clear, a place can be diverse without really being integrated. This segregation isn’t accidental. There are design elements in the urban landscape, that Daniel D’Oca calls “weapons,” that are used by “architects, planners, policy-makers, developers, real estate brokers, community activists, neighborhood associations, and individuals to wage the ongoing war between integration and segregation.”

Daniel D’Oca is an urban planner with Interboro Partners, an architecture and design firm based in New York City. Over the past few years, D’Oca, along with colleagues Tobias Armborst and Georgeen Theodore have been cataloging all the stuff inside of a city that planners use to increase or restrict people’s access to space. They’re publishing their findings in a book called The Arsenal of Inclusion and Exclusion: 101 Things That Open And Close the City (Fall 2012).

D’Oca took our own Sam Greenspan and Scott Goldberg on a tour of Baltimore to demonstrate the subtle ways different neighborhoods are kept apart.

Interboro Partners described more weapons in the Arsenal of Exclusion & Inclusion in a great Esquire article.

(Above: Daniel D’Oca shows Sam Greenspan the iron fence at the site of the former Hollander Ridge housing project on the Baltimore County line. Credit: Scott Goldberg)

(Above: The residential parking permit zones on either side of Greenmount Ave. Permit only parking keeps non-residents, including students from nearby Johns Hopkins, from leaving their cars in the neighborhood.)

Wonderful episode of 99% Invisible

reminded me of this in my neighborhood, see the flickr page for labeling:

Clearview

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 09:25:51 -0500

UniversalHub pointed out another Citizens Connect complaint about the new Clearview street signs. This one made me think though, because the person said:

The capital A is out of proportion to the lower case letters, and it is visually jarring.

They go on to say the all-caps signs are more pleasant, etc. Most commenters, and perhaps the author, seem to believe the complaint is about lowercase letters. Some of the commenters claim that new MUTCD rules require the capital letter followed by lowercase letters, so this sign is what research has shown to be the most legible.

What none of the commenters point out is that the complaint is accurate, the letters are out of proportion. I extract this image from wikipedia:

As you can see, at a consistent font size, the lowercase l should be taller than most capital letters. In the street sign at the top, it is smaller. This is why these signs look so messed up. I went back to a past complaint and found the same thing:

It seems the inconsistent font size is the problem, not the lowercase letters. If we look at a Clearview sign with consistent font sizes and lower case letters, we see a major difference (again, from wikipedia):

That looks much better. The lowercase letters are properly proportional to the capital letters in line with the design of the typeface, no weird changes in font size midway through words. I think these complaints would disappear if Boston would just use a single font size for the street name.

cocochic: Hello! I have a huge favour to ask you all! I’m...

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 22:11:44 -0500

cocochic:

Hello! I have a huge favour to ask you all! I’m entered into the Company magazine casting call competition to become a face of one of their upcoming issues. All I’m asking is for some of you to click here and ‘like’ the image shown above (me in the white skirt), and that’s it! The person with the most votes will automatically win a place in the magazine, and I wouldn’t normally do this but obviously it’s a huge dream of mine to be a part of a huge magazine like Company. If you help me out, make sure you message me so I can enter you into my next fashion giveaway! Thanks so much if you do it!

"Applied DNA Sciences, based in Stony Brook, N.Y., has a new technology that embeds botanical DNA..."

Mon, 04 Jul 2011 09:43:58 -0400

“Applied DNA Sciences, based in Stony Brook, N.Y., has a new technology that embeds botanical DNA into fibers that can then be sewn into a garment. The DNA is detectable under a specific light and can be assigned to a specific brand. It can’t be copied. The company’s clients include two European luxury brands, which it declined to name.”

- Fashion Fakes Get More Sophisticated - WSJ.com

Isn’t the point of DNA that it is easily copied? PCR anyone?

Tulips are always magical. They always look like they been...

Fri, 17 Jun 2011 21:49:11 -0400

Tulips are always magical. They always look like they been added by special effects (via Romantisme à l’Eastern Kentucky University (1963-1964). « greensleeves to a ground)

Diamond League New York (Taken with instagram)

Sat, 11 Jun 2011 14:57:28 -0400

Diamond League New York (Taken with instagram)

putthison: Ascot Chang, the best bespoke shirt maker I’ve ever...

Fri, 10 Jun 2011 23:22:31 -0400

putthison:

Ascot Chang, the best bespoke shirt maker I’ve ever used, just got featured in the Wall Street Journal.

I have an interview with Tony and Justin Chang that will be published soon. It will be featured as part of a special series on custom shirts, so keep an eye out!

It is completely obvious that the WSJ didn’t copyedit this. Kind of a shame.

wtf? I saw outbound N owl service all the time when I would crash in SF… what is the...

Fri, 03 Jun 2011 20:06:24 -0400

wtf? I saw outbound N owl service all the time when I would crash in SF… what is the joke?

merlin:

frakintosh:

For the first time in my life I just saw an outbound N. From my window.

This is what I’d imagine seeing an albino, gold plated humpback whale feels like. I did not know they even existed.

Weather balloon.

Tons of moms at Tav and Sunset

Fri, 20 May 2011 21:46:53 -0400

getthefuckoutofallston:

Attn enterprising Allston dudes or ladies looking to Mrs Robinson it up this graduation weekend.

PARTY TIME!!!

"The current streak of Boston-area films makes this town look like a pit of uneducated psychopaths..."

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 20:26:11 -0400

“The current streak of Boston-area films makes this town look like a pit of uneducated psychopaths who’d love nothing more than to kill someone who’s not from around here.”

- Why I don’t leave my apartment….

ForEyes ads are local ads and local ads are fresh

To convince me of their patriotism, the Russians sent me home...

Fri, 01 Apr 2011 01:04:09 -0400

To convince me of their patriotism, the Russians sent me home with a USA umbrella (Taken with instagram)

Dinner aka Israeli baby food (Taken with instagram)

Fri, 01 Apr 2011 00:39:47 -0400

Dinner aka Israeli baby food (Taken with instagram)

Sputnik Tea Cup (Taken with instagram)

Fri, 01 Apr 2011 00:21:14 -0400

Sputnik Tea Cup (Taken with instagram)

adailydepiction: march 21, 2011. come on, boston, it’s supposed...

Mon, 21 Mar 2011 20:18:20 -0400

adailydepiction:

march 21, 2011.

come on, boston, it’s supposed to be the first day of spring! why is it snowing?!

because the city loves you and gave you a pretty spring break?

patbaer: It cost me $35 to take a cab to my hotel room. I...

Fri, 11 Mar 2011 18:43:04 -0500

patbaer:

It cost me $35 to take a cab to my hotel room. I assume it was 75% my hotel being in the middle of nowhere (its near the convention center) and 25% me not knowing the area and my cab driver taking advantage.

It was probably 100% Boston having the most expensive cab fares in the country.

“Researchers of Canada: pay attention. Get on this. It’s a fully funded grant opportunity in a...

Mon, 21 Feb 2011 20:08:19 -0500

“Researchers of Canada: pay attention. Get on this. It’s a fully funded grant opportunity in a very interesting area of research.”

—Lorna Tessier, director of public relations for Canadian Blood Services, quoted in the Montreal Gazette, on a $500,000 grant available for research investigating whether it could be safe for gay men to donate blood. In Canada, as in the United States, all men who have had sex with another man since 1977 are barred for life from giving blood, due to concerns about spreading HIV. No one has yet applied for the grant, which was created 2 years ago.

Answer My Question on StackOverflow

Tue, 08 Feb 2011 22:13:00 -0500

Answer My Question on StackOverflow:

I asked a question on StackOverflow and haven’t received a correct answer. If you’re a web ninja and can solve it, I would love you to death.

Pretty normal curtains in here (Taken with instagram)

Mon, 07 Feb 2011 21:37:53 -0500

Pretty normal curtains in here (Taken with instagram)

"I’ll continue to congratulate anyone who refuses to knowingly ship shit of any kind."

Sun, 16 Jan 2011 20:22:01 -0500

“I’ll continue to congratulate anyone who refuses to knowingly ship shit of any kind.”

- kung fu grippe: Things Communicated