OH, joy, Gustav is heading into the Gulf, and the storm track has it bulls-eyed on Louisiana. And I have to work the weekend over Labor Day. So much for my quiet holiday weekend, where I'm working till 10PM on Sunday and picking up again 8 AM on Monday.

Why walk if you can run?

How far do you have to go, and how soon do you have to get there?

God, my head hurts. I'm only scheduled to be here until three (and then physical therapy) but it feels like years off. Perhaps I should take lunch or something.

But it isn't appreciably longer than the mens marathon! (Though a marathoner might hurt me if I tried to make them go an extra 5 miles.)

I tend to think the Modern pentathlon would be the best survival skills indicator, since it involves long distance running, swimming, horse-riding, swordsmanship, and pistol firing. Unless you have a decathlete that can run faster than a horse and throw clip's worth of javelins with more accuracy and deadlier force than a pistol, anyway...

I think there should be an Olympic event called "Fix your computer after the latest service pack hosed it."

I tend to think the Modern pentathlon would be the best survival skills indicator

Especially if you happen to be a (late) 19th century European cavalry officer!

Of course, the run isn't long long -- it's 3K, so definitely longer than I could run, but it's hardly marathon distance. Of course, since the riding event specifies an unfamiliar horse, I guess you only have to run as far as the next horse you can steal commandeer.

I find MP fascinating, in a completely wtf way.

Oopsie!

Whoops! Top Republican Admits That GOP Is Running "Ministry Of Truth" Against Obama

Um, this guy must not have read 1984. Or else he's just honest.

Wow -- a leading Republican appears to have just inadvertently admitted that the GOP's spin machine set up to counter Barack Obama during the convention is a propaganda machine spewing nothing but lies.

The GOPer in question is Colorado GOP chairman Dick Wadhams, who accidentally made the admission when describing the GOP's war room in Denver set up to hammer Obama during convention week.

Wadhams described the GOP's outfit thusly to the Denver Post: "Just consider this the Ministry of Truth."

I do love the Olympic sports where you trace their origin to an actual useful skill. I think that would my "reform the Olympics" platform rather than just on objective/subjective measures. (So long, beach volleyball.)

But it isn't appreciably longer than the mens marathon! (Though a marathoner might hurt me if I tried to make them go an extra 5 miles.)

Men's and women's - same distance. Also, there are the whackaloons who do "ultra" marathons, for which the marathon is a mere training run.

(I say "whackaloon" in the admiring "holy shit, I could never do that, marathons killed me" way.)

I tend to think the Modern pentathlon would be the best survival skills indicator

Especially if you happen to be a (late) 19th century European cavalry officer!

Or a survivor of the Apocalypse! (I love MP.)

Yes, I think marathoners have run just about as far as they're going for now.

I think the survival difference between decathlon and MP is whether or not you have a gun or a horse. It's easier to improvise a javelin and a pole for vaulting.