How fast could Bolt go?

Back from the Olympics, and the top moments that I witnessed:

1. Usain Bolt breaks the 200m WR
2. Usain Bolt breaks the 100m WR
3. US (or Hope Solo, as it were) defeats Brazil in women's football final
4. Dalhausser and Rogers defeat Germany in men's beach volleyball quarterfinals
5. Lolo Jones finishes 7th in 100m HH

I was reading a worthless article on wired (via digg) that discussed statistical models for predicting ever faster 100m times as the years go by. In the comments, there was one interesting post:

For those curious about how fast Bolt might have gone without the celebration, track coaches have been grinding the race numbers (10m split times) to see how much might have been given up. The following splits have been calculated:

10m - 1.85
20m - 2.87 (1.02)
30m - 3.78 (0.91)
40m - 4.65 (0.87)
50m - 5.50 (0.85)
60m - 6.32 (0.82)
70m - 7.14 (0.82)
80m - 7.96 (0.82)
90m - 8.79 (0.83)
100m- 9.69 (0.90)

Traditionally most 100m athletes show some deceleration during the last 20-30m due to lack of speed endurance, or failure to relax (uses up extra energy). Depending on how generous you are, a relaxed and focused Bolt might go 0.82 for both of the last 2 ten meter segments; yielding 9.60. If you follow a traditional deceleration schedule for most 100m runners then you accept the 0.83 in the 80-90m segment and follow that with a 0.84 in the 90-100m segment; yielding a 9.63sec 100m.

Given how relaxed Bolt is while running, I would tend towards the lower end of the 9.60-9.63 range.

With a slightly better reaction time (0.165 in this race), a plausible time for Bolt sometime in the near future dips below the 9.60 mark based on his current performance envelope.

Posted by: SpeedFan | Aug 26, 2008 10:50:09 AM

My unofficial split leading off our league championship 4x100m relay was 11.7. Needless to say, watching Olympic track and field was something I'll never forget!

handball stars, goals, saves, air

I am psyched to watch team handball! Some of this stuff is insane, like the "alley-oop"s or spinning the ball in.

I feel bad for the goalie. It was easier in elementary school when the ball was the bigger foamy version and kids didn't know how to throw hard or do jump shots.

So True

Hilarious post at GigaOM about the new Sega robot. Read the part about the author's vision for v2 of the robot, with more lifelike girlfriend behavior. So true.

For all those times when smooching a Slave Princess Leia action figure just doesn’t cut it, Sega is rolling out a line of 15-inch robot girlfriends that will kiss on command.

The Eternal Maiden Actualization (EMA) will enter into “love mode” and plant one on your face when you lean in for a tiny plastic kiss. EMA will also dance, hand out business cards, and serve as a battery-operated reminder to everyone who owns one that they are lonely, lonely people.

EMA will go on sale in September, and Sega Toys, which makes the robot hopes to sell 10,000 of them in its first year.

I never like to buy the first generation of any tech product, so I’ll wait for EMA 2.0, which replicates the girlfriend experience even more by giving you a kiss, then pausing and looking at you. You ask her what’s wrong, she says, “Nothing.” You ask if it was something you did but she just sits there, crosses her robot arms and says, “It’s fine.” You say obviously she’s not fine, to which she responds with, “I’m fine. Whatever. Nothing’s wrong. Let’s just go.” And you say no, let’s talk about it, and she says, “We’re late, let’s just go this party and we can talk about it later,” ruining your whole evening as you try to figure out what exactly you said and — oh. Wait.

Whoops. Kinda drifted off there for a second.

Blame It On the Rain Delay - Papelbon and Del Carmen Remix

NBA season is over... back to the Sox. :)

Kevin Garnett on Knocking the Bully Ass Out + Celtics Pride

So happy for this guy and the entire Celtics crew.

Kevin Garnett - Finals G6 Postgame Interview (June 17, 2008)

Top of the World! Kevin Garnett shows America how to celebrate an NBA title.

Insightful analysis from Slate: http://www.slate.com/id/2193863/

Inside The Finals: Game 6

Nothing more to say.

Manny Being Manny

Special section on Manny's top "Manny being Manny" plays on Baseball Tonight.

Highlight and lowlights

We do this in small group once in a while, but it works out pretty well for blogs. The big highlight of this week? Added more tools to my collection and fixed something. :)

My desk lamp broke (so that's technically a lowlight), but of course, I couldn't just throw it away. After making sure it was the lamp by testing with a new bulb (btw, I'm upgrading from a 2700K color temp up to 4100K color temp bulb) I took the whole thing apart and figured out it was the switch (figures). I replaced the entire switch and the lamp is better than new now!

I had to get a soldering iron to make the repairs, but I figured it's about time I got one anyway. It brought me back to the old days in lab soldering electronics together late at night. I also used a bunch of tools I already had, so that makes me happy. Several pliers, wire cutter, wire stripper, multimeter, etc.

I've had the lamp since middle school and my dad gave it to me, so it does have some sentimental value too. This salvage job ranks right up there with fixing Yuling's oven. My favorite part was when my brother walked in my room and said, "It looks like an industrial accident in here!"

The lowlights:

- tired from allergies ... or working too much?
- injured from playing too much basketball again... couldn't golf in this nice weather

The highlights:

- Celtics 2-0. Powe and Rondo tearing it up.
- NBA playoffs and burning up the remote. It's the most wonderful time of the year.
- Finally washed my car after the winter.
- Actually sank some shots in basketball.
- My bro finished his degree requirements and isn't so stressed out anymore.

Actually, now I recall that when we do this in small group I tend to have a hard time remembering the lowlights and highlights. I really do have a short memory. I think that's why I always think about my present state -- injured, happy, tired, busy, or whatever. It's sometimes a bad thing, but usually a good thing (I think).

Rondo Breaks Nash's Ankles

sick

Tailgating

The other day I was having a discussion about aggressive driving and we talked a little about tailgating. Apparently, the definition of tailgating varies, so I decided to do a little bit of research. Specifically, in driver's ed, did you learn to follow a two-second rule? Or was it a three-second or even four-second rule? These and other secrets revealed below...

Here's the information from the MA and CA driving manuals... not that most people follow them.

From the MA Driving Manual, p. 66

Safe Distances Around Your Car

Always keep enough space between your vehicle and others. Keep a cushion of space on all sides to give yourself room to stop safely or avoid hazards.

• When driving behind another vehicle, use the "two-second" rule for keeping a safe distance.

On the road ahead, pick a fixed object, like a sign post or a tree. When the vehicle in front of you reaches that object, count out "one one-thousand, two one-thousand…..". If you reach the object before you count two, you are following too closely.

Slow down until you’ve put enough distance between you and the other vehicle.

• If following a motorcycle, allow even more distance than you would for another vehicle.
• Allow extra space between your vehicle and heavy equipment (for example, dump trucks, tractors).
• Never cut in front of heavy equipment or tractor-trailers. These vehicles carry more weight and need much more space to stop safely.
• Never tailgate a vehicle ahead of you. Tailgating is illegal and the main cause of rearend crashes."
• If a tailgater is following you, move to another lane if possible or pull to the side of the road to let the tailgater pass.

And, from the CA Driver Handbook:

Don’t be a tailgater! Many drivers don’t see as far ahead as they should because they follow too closely (tailgate), and the vehicle ahead blocks their view.

The more space you allow between your car and the car ahead, the more time you will have to see a hazard and the more time you will have to stop or avoid that hazard.

Most rear end accidents are caused by tailgating. To avoid tailgating, use the "three-second rule." When the vehicle ahead of you passes a certain point such as a sign, count "one-thousand-one, one-thousand-two, one-thousand-three." This takes about three seconds. If you pass the same point before you finish counting, you are following too closely.

You should allow a four-second or more cushion when:

* Being crowded by a tailgater. Allow extra room ahead. Then, if you need to, you can slow down gradually and avoid braking suddenly—and being hit from behind by the tailgater!
* Driving on slippery roads.
* Following motorcyclists on wet or icy roads, on metal surfaces (i.e., bridge gratings, railroad tracks, etc.), and on gravel. Motorcyclists can fall more often on these surfaces.
* The driver behind you wants to pass. Allow room in front of your car so the driver will have space to move into.
* Towing a trailer or carrying a heavy load. The extra weight makes it harder to stop.
* Following large vehicles that block your view ahead. The extra space allows you to see around the vehicle.
* You see a bus, school bus, or a placarded vehicle at railroad crossings. These vehicles must stop at railroad crossings so slow down early and allow plenty of room.
* Merging on a freeway.

If you follow too closely and another driver "cuts" in front of you, just take your foot off the gas. This gives you space between your car and the other driver without having to slam on your brakes or swerve into another lane.

And, just for kicks, here's what the Wikipedia Tailgating entry says:

Tailgating is the practice of driving on a road too closely behind another vehicle, such as less than the travel distance in two seconds or, equivalently, one vehicle-length for every 8 km/h (5 mph) of the current speed.

Causes

There can be several reasons for tailgating:

• a driver travelling at a higher speed reaches a car traveling in the same direction at a lower speed, and the faster driver may tailgate while awaiting the first opportunity to overtake. Such expressions of impatience may be conscious, unconscious, and/or dangerous.
• in its worst form, it can be a particularly virulent form of road rage and a form of intimidation. This is where the tailgating driver (the driver in the following vehicle) can threaten damage to the leading vehicle and its occupants by driving aggressively (perhaps also with use of headlights and horn) to encourage the leading vehicle's driver to do something to placate the tailgater (often illegal, like increasing speed beyond the speed limit or changing lanes without due regard for safety). However, it can also be dangerous to the tailgater as well, especially if he or she is driving closely behind a large vehicle (such as a tractor-trailer, or gas tanker). If the leading vehicle decelerates suddenly (such as when encountering a traffic jam, avoiding pedestrians, etc.), the tailgater has a high risk of causing a rear-end collision.
• Tailgating can also occur because of a lack of perceived risk in so doing. Thus, it is done unconsciously or negligently, very often by people who consider themselves safe drivers and generally obey the other rules of the road. Approximately one third of rear-end collisions involve tailgating.^[1]
• a form of deliberate tailgating known as "draft-assisted forced stop" or "draft-assisted forced auto stop" (D-FAS) is a technique which has been used by people known as hypermilers to achieve greater fuel economy. D-FAS involves turning off the engine and gliding in neutral while tailgating a larger vehicle, in order to take advantage of the reduced wind resistance in its immediate wake.^[2] Note that this practice is highly dangerous: while tailgating itself is inherently risky, the danger of collision is increased with D-FAS as power for power brakes can be lost after a few applications of the brake pedal and, with older cars, the pressure that causes power steering to function can be lost as well.^[3]
• There are cycling disciplines in which the cyclist pedals around the velodrome track tailgating a motorbike that removes air resistance, enabling much higher speeds than in normal cycling. The most popular discipline is Japanese keirin.

If you made it down here, you probably noticed what we realized in our conversation. The CA and MA tailgating definitions differ slightly. In CA they recommend the three-second rule while in MA the minimum is a two-second rule. Too bad most people follow the 0.5 second rule most of the time. What's the rush? You don't get anywhere faster by tailgating. But I do agree, sometimes you need to let someone know that he shouldn't be driving 50 mph in the left lane.

NBA TV Top 10: March 5

Rondo's sick dunk is the #1 play. Good thing he's still a young fella. Not sure if I would have gotten up after that one.