I’ve thought from the start that the Withings had a wonky way of measuring elevation, but I pretty much ignored it.

But today I decided to take the GPS on our walk into town, and compare the GPS elevation rise to what the pedometers were giving me.

Now, from everything I’ve read, the FitBit gives you ten feet of elevation for every floor climbed. That’s easy enough.

But the more I looked at the Withings data, the less sense it made. So this evening I decided to sit down and try and figure out just what the hell the Withings data was trying to tell me.

For my walk, I wrote down the starting elevation and the ending elevation.

My numbers were 1619 ft and 2026 ft, which gave me a change in elevation of 407 ft.

Then I asked Michael to see if he could give me his elevation gain from the website.

His number was 95 ft.

Wha?

So, I go to the website, and get the elevation gain for each 30 minute time period.

Can you read that number? The time is from 6:30 to 7:00 and it gave me 92 ft and 30 floors. Adding the numbers for the three 30 minute periods (16/6, 0/0, 92/30) I get an elevation gain over 90 minutes of 110 ft.

100 != 407

So, I note flights and elevation for every 30 minute time period [(14, 2, 13, 2, 6, 7, 1, 8, 35, 24, 4, 20, 9, 3, 3, 2, 6, 30, 5, 1, 8, 4, 1 flights) and (44, 7, 40, 8, 19, 22, 4, 25, 105, 74, 14, 60, 28, 9, 10, 7, 18, 92, 17, 3, 25, 12, 3 feet)] and I get a total of 646 feet and 208 flights of stairs.

Look back at the image. It’s giving my total elevation gain for the day: 2190 ft. None of those numbers seem to have any relationship to each other.

I fully admit that simple math is not my strong point, but I don’t see how my daily elevation gain total can be three and a half times higher than the sum of the individual time periods.

I’ll also note that the 646 ft measurement is much closer to what the FitBits gave me, (assuming 10 ft elevation rise per flight of stairs) an elevation gain of 640 or 670 feet (64 and 67 flights of stairs) for the day.

This… this makes no sense. And even assuming the sum of the individual time periods give me the correct elevation gain, the flights of stairs it gives are ridiculous, unless the Pulse things that a flight of stairs is only three feet high.

So, now I truly, deeply doubt the information the Pulse has been giving me–at least anything beyond basic step count.

The first part of today’s activities I knew would be problematic for the pedometers: we went biking at Coopers Rock. It’s amusing how far off each device is from every other device.

But, I had my GPS, so I got all that information.

Then I realized that when we walked to dinner, I should take the GPS! Further proof the Withings Pulse can’t calculate elevation for shit!

First up, what Withings recording for me elevation today, all day:

From the time period of 3:30 to 5:30, it gives me an elevation gain of 119 feet.

And now, what the Withings recording for Michael. Keep in mind that we spend the entire day together.

Now here’s what the FitBit recorded for Saturday:

Then numbers aren’t directly compatible, as the FitBit displays the data is flights of stairs. But you can see the trend.

Here’s the route recorded by GPS:

According to my GPS, my elevation gain for the entire trip was 310 ft. So the Withings gave me about a third of the elevation I actually had.

So, compared both to the FitBit and to actual GPS measurements, the Withings Pulse has been giving me only about a third of the elevation it should if I’m climbing hills (versus climbing stairs–it seems to get the stairs fine).

BAH HUMBUG.

Oh, in case you were interested, here was our elevation from our biking at Coopers Rock:

And here’s the route:

More on pedometers! Yay! (The first post is here.)

Because I am a TREMENDOUS dork who loves data, the ability to view my data over time is very important to me.

It’s also what drove me away from the FitBit universe–the inability to view, manipulate, and download my own data in any useful manner.

FitBit Dashboard (web)

FitBit Dashboard (Android)

I’ll admit I haven’t tried in almost a year, but I was never able to get my step data downloaded from the FitBit website in any useful manner.

Withings Dashboard (web)

Withings Dashboard (Android)

Sadly, I got no useful downloaded data from the Withings website. Boo!

Omron Dashboard (web)

The Omron site gives me my data in a pdf. It’s not a cvs file I can dump straight into Excel, but it’s something I can put into Excel with relative ease.

I’ll be curious as to whether they come out with a phone app. I’m betting someone will.

Omron Health Management Software (PC install)

In addition to the many views here, I’ve been able to export the data into a cvs file that I can open in Excel. This gives me EVERYTHING. It’s pretty awesome.

But of course, if you have a web presence, then you can set up partnerships with other companies and web apps. Some of these can be incredibly useful, such as a partnership between your activity monitor and an app that lets you track what you’ve been eating. Combining the two tells you how many calories you’re burning through movement, and lets you know how many calories you can eat that day for your goal (maintain weight, lose weight, gain weight).

I really like MyFitnessPal, even though I haven’t used it for months. It is very good at making you aware how many calories are in what you’re eating, and you can also track salt and other things you might be watching for health reasons. In fact, MyFitnessPal was what convinced Michael that Fettuccine Alfredo was not the best choice at an Italian restaurant. (Oh look! You’re going to eat all your calories for the day! Too bad you already ate breakfast and lunch!) Although I don’t have high blood pressure, I found seeing the sodium content of many foods to be shocking.

And the ability to scan the bar codes of foods is extremely useful. And if you cook from scratch, you can create recipes and calculate from there, though I found it more useful to use MasterCook for the calorie calculations.

I’ve tried lots of other different apps, most of which–for a variety of reasons–didn’t work for me, but that doesn’t mean they’re bad. FREX, I prefer to walk indoors, so RunKeeper didn’t work for me at all, since it relies upon your phones GPS.

FitBit and Withings are partnered with lots of sites and apps. Omron almost none, although when I got the Withings Pulse, there weren’t that many apps that used the Pulse data (in fact, most of the connections are more for their blood pressure monitors and scales).

Here are a few of the more popular apps for each tracker:

FitBit
Lose It
MyFitnessPal
SparkProple
DigiFit
MS Health Vault
MapMyRun
Earndit

Withings
RunKepper
MyFitnessPal
BodyMedia
FitBit
LoseIt
HealthVault

Omron
Runkeeper
EarndIt

So, last year I bought I got a Withings Pulse and was very optimistic / hopeful about how it would work out. It was a new product, the website was still being built, and there were regular software updates to the device.

Unfortunately, the Pulse has failed to live up to my expectations.

1. The pulse rate measurement portion of the device stopped working several months ago. I didn’t use it frequently, but it was annoying that it completely stopped working.

2. The website never developed a way for me to download my data. As that was what made me want to stop using the FitBit, that was a huge problem for me.

3. You cannot edit your data. This means that if you forget to turn off the sleep timer, it says you slept for 12 or 18 or whatever hours. I have obsessive compulsive disorder, so this bothered me IMMENSELY. Immensely, as in, I stopped using the sleep timer completely, because I couldn’t bear to see the incorrect sleep times.

4. Although you are supposed to be able to compare data with other Pulse users, Michael and I haven’t yet gotten that feature to work. So I’m collecting data in a void. Which would be okay if the data was accessible to me to download. But it’s not.

5. The altimeter is off. Michael and I spent a day doing the exact same things, and his altimeter recorded twice the height mine did, when, if anything I should have had a few more flights of stairs than he did. Plus, it gives the distance in feet, instead of flights of stairs. I can grok flights of stairs, but a change in elevation measured in feet means next to nothing to me.

So, I need another pedometer.

After a lot of research, I purchased two: The Omron HJ-32 and the Ozeri 4×3 Sport Digital Pocket 3D Pedometer.

The Ozeri was immediately sent back. First, there was no way to download the data, but more importantly, it did NOT (as stated in the description) count flights of stairs climbed. If I can’t download the data, then I’d have to type it all into a spread sheet, and… just… no. Which is too bad, because it was a nice pedometer.

So now, I’m carrying around four pedometers:
1. My original Omron HJ-720
2. The Withings Pulse
3. My old Fitbit Ultra
4. The Omron HJ-32

These are four very different Pedometers, with four different ways of moving the data from the Pedometer to a computer.

1. The Omron HJ-720 is a dual axis pedometer. This means that it measures most accurately in an upright position (such as sitting in a belt clip). It does not have an altimeter, so it only measures steps, not stairs. Data transfer is done by plugging the pedometer into a mini USB cable, you then open the Omron program on your computer, and tell the Omron Health Management Software to grab all the data from the pedometer.

2. The Withings Pulse uses a 3D motion sensor and has an altimeter, and can be placed anywhere on your body in any direction, and measures steps and altitude. The Pulse uses bluetooth to transmit data from the pedometer to your cell phone, and then your cell phone transfers that data to the Withings website. Which means that you must have a cell phone with a bluetooth connection, and you have to leave your bluetooth on all the time if you want it to sync automatically. I had problems with the pedometer automatically syncing data with the website.

3. The Fitbit Ultra has a 3D motion sensor and an altimeter, so it can be placed anywhere on your body in any direction and measures steps and stairs. The device transmits the data wirelessly to the base station plugged into your computer and from there to the FitBit website. The data is never actually on your computer, it just passes through your computer to the FitBit website. Unless you have multiple base stations, the data is transmitted only when you are near your computer.

4. The Omron HJ-32 (I love Omron, but they do NOT have catchy pedometer names) is a tri-axis pedometer, which means it can be placed anywhere on your body in any direction, but does not have an altimeter, so it only measures steps, not stairs or altitude. It is essentially a USB stick with an attached pedometer. You pull off the cap, plug it into your computer on which you have installed the software, and your data is pulled from the pedometer and put on the Omron website. From the website you can then download you data.

All four pedometers come with belt clips, but I have them stuck in my pocket (because I generally don’t wear a belt).

The FitBit has the easiest data transfer–it happens without you having to do anything.

The Omron is best for giving you your data, in a format you can manipulate as you please.

The FitBit is best if you want to compete and compare with friends and family. There are tons of people using the FitBit. (I don’t know anyone else using an Omron.)

The Omron (at least the HJ-720–we’ll see about the HJ-32) is the sturdiest pedometer I’ve ever seen. I bought mine in 2009 and it still works. I’ve put it through the washer at least twice, dropped it countless times, and it still works perfectly. The FitBit Ultra had problems charging and with the outside case cracking. Not all the features of the Withings still work, although the pedometer still functions as it did when I first bought it. I am pretty sure that neither the FitBit nor the Pulse would survive a trip through the washer.

Pedometers with data display:

Pedometers compared to a tube of lip balm:

Pedometers stacked atop my Galaxy S4 (in an Otterbox case):

Pedometers with charging cables or data transfer cables:

Never fear, I’ll have data comparisons coming up next soon.

As most everyone knows by now, there was a chemical leak into the Elk river in Charleston WV that led to a state of emergency in 9 of our 55 counties.

First, some clarification and geographical grounding.

Here are the watersheds in the state. I live up in the corner near the only straight lines in the state outline, in Monongahela county in the Monongahela watershed. (We’ve biked into PA along the local rail trail.)

Here are the affected counties:

So you can see that despite the fact that the Monongahela river flows north, we’re nowhere near the chemical spill.

This picture shows you the location of the spill, and the affected counties:

Since Thursday afternoon, we’ve had constant updates, notification that for the nine counties, Boone, Clay, Jackson, Kanawha, Lincoln, Logan, Putnam, Roane, and Cabell, were under a state of emergency, and residents were not to use water except for flushing toilets and putting out fires.

I was initially confused by the “putting out fires” bit until I realized that some chemicals can lead to water that could, in fact, catch fire. So it would be best to clarify that putting the contaminated water on a fire wouldn’t cause an explosion.

Yeah.

So what did this mean to those in the affected counties? It meant that all schools, hotels and restaurants in the area had to close.

Stop for just a second, and think of all the times during the day you reach out and turn on a faucet. Can you count the number of times today you turned on the tap and water came out? All those times you went to the faucet without thinking, someone in those counties was attempting to do the same thing, and then remembering they can’t turn on the water.

In the affected areas, you can’t wash clothes, dishes, or your hands. You can’t shower or bathe. You can’t drink the water or cook with it.

All those little thing you do every day without thinking, they can’t do.

In West Virginia, most of us get our water from our rivers.

And our treated sewage goes right back into those same bodies of water.

Well, it’s treated most of the time. In Mon county we historically had problems with heavy rains overwhelming our sewage treatment plants and putting untreated sewage directly into the river. But they changed the storm drains to go directly into the streams and river, which is good, because the amount of new construction–the amount of concrete and asphalt where there used to be woods and fields–in Morgantown has led to more and more run off. Has led to flooding where before the ground would just soak up the water.

When I was growing up, most of the local creeks looked like this:

Confused?

Does this help at all?

Most streams and creeks were orange from acid mine drainage. Water from mines went straight into nearby streams and creeks.

Streams and creeks that fed into the rivers from which got our water.

So, you see, water quality has always been a problem in West Virginia. Big companies, often with out-of-state owners, would come in to take our resources–our forests, our coal, our natural gas–and leave the forests and creeks and streams and rivers damaged.

Why would they care? The owners didn’t live here.

If we didn’t like it, they’d just take their jobs and leave.

So, we took the short end of the stick, and, well, we took it. And our streams were polluted and our forests cut and our mountains flattened.

So when I heard about the chemical spill into the Elk river, I didn’t imagine an isolated incident.

I was instead reminded of how what happens in West Virginia doesn’t matter, unless it gets in the way of taking our resources so they can be used in other, more important, areas of the country.

Oh, just came across this, which made me feel ALL the better.

So yeah, keep those dirty lights on.

ADDENDUM the First:
I forgot to point out that more than 300,000 people were affected by the chemical spill. That’s more than 16% of the population of West Virginia. So although it was only 9 of our 55 counties affected, it is still a large percentage of our population.

ADDENDUM the Second:
Critics Say Chemical Spill Highlights Lax West Virginia Regulations (NY Times)

I heard (but don’t have a link right this second for verification) that the plant was known to be in poor condition.

The article on ScienceBlogs, Sharyn Ainscough dies tragically because she followed the example of her daughter, The Wellness Warrior is a fascinating and well-written read. I recommend you wander over and read it yourself.

But I was struck particularly by the closing paragraph, and what it means in a much broader context.

You might think that, seeing her mother die might have been a wake-up call that leads her to change the course she’s on, but I know human nature. She won’t. After all, if she admits that Gerson therapy is useless, even harmful, quackery that failed to save her mother, then she would be forced to acknowledge her role in the death of her mother. She would also be forced to accept that Gerson therapy can’t save her, either. These are both conclusions that Ainscough would likely find too painful to accept.

Those seem like conclusions that almost anyone would find too painful to accept.

How much tragedy and horror in the world are due simply to our inability as individuals to look at our past actions and see wrongdoing because that would be to recognize the cost of our mistakes?

The southerner who flies the confederate flag and claims the Civil War was only over states rights.

The spouse who claims their partner “didn’t really meant it”.

The parent who claims, “it didn’t hurt me any when I was growing up.”

It’s a defense mechanism. A defense mechanism that I truly understand. Admitting that you are wrong, especially if that caused another harm, is a very hard and very painful thing to do. It’s far easier to bend and twist facts to fit your belief system than it is to take a step back and truly consider the facts. To consider what it means if your beliefs and actions caused damage. Caused harm. Caused death.

No one wants that kind of pain, and I think our brains do everything they can to keep us from it. How many people are truly capable of honestly owning up to their mistakes, and the harm they caused?

How often do you hear someone say, “I was wrong” and truly mean it? Not very damned often.

Maybe Jack Nicholson had it right. Maybe we really can’t handle the truth–at least the truth we hide from ourselves.

When was the last time you changed your mind about an important subject? Really considered both sides of the topic? When was the last time you truly considered a view opposite of your own?

I sometimes think about Truth and Reconciliation Commissions, and I believe they have the right of it. The barriers to admitting the truth are high–higher than most people can reach. It seems to me that only by setting aside the fear of retribution can we truly do the work required to come to terms with our actions.

And only by coming to terms with our actions and stripping away our justifications can we begin to heal ourselves and those around us, and keep others from coming to harm in the future.

(NOTE: Believe it or not, this has absolutely nothing to do with the current political situation. It’s just something that I’ve been mulling over.)

We went to Green Bank Saturday, which is home of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

Green bank is the center of the National Radio Quiet Zone, to reduce the amount of radio interference the telescopes pick up. The most obvious thing this means is that there is no cell phone reception. But it’s a lot more than that. Once you go past the gate, you cell phones must be turned off as must all digital cameras, so I was unable to take any pictures up close to the telescope. (You can buy disposable cameras at the gift shop, as they don’t cause interference.)

But it’s more than that.

On site, all electronic equipment–including microwave ovens–must be kept in Faraday cages. And locals occasionally receive visits from Green Bank personnel, who then fix their faulty electronic equipment (such as microwave ovens).

The telescopes operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and anyone can write a proposal for project.

The telescope sits on four wheeled stands that are a bit like train cars, which allow the telescope to rotate a full 360 degrees to point in any direction.

The angle of the dish can also be changed. The thick white arc with the black stripe running down the center contains teeth that allow the position of the dish to be raised and lowered.

The dish of the main telescope is larger than a football field, so it can been seen from quite far away.

There are multiple telescopes on site, to take advantage of the radio quiet zone.

And in the science center, there is a scale model. I took several pictures of it, if you’d like a better look the structure.

We went to Green Bank Saturday, which is home of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

We amused ourselves at the Science Center.

Here’s Michael:

Some self-portraits:

Michael’s picture of me:

We went to Green Bank Saturday, which is home of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

It was an awesome place to geek out.

But one thing especially struck me, and that was the number of old cars and trucks still in use.

That license plate is new, and expires in 2020. So these are not just junked vehicles that died in place. These are vehicles that are in regular use.

If anyone tries to tell you that scientists are “wasting money” they are completely full of shit.

From yesterday’s post, you can now learn more about women scientists, both famous and obscure.

Emilie du Chatelet

Emily Warren Roebling

Rosalind Franklin

Beatrix Potter

Virginia Apgar

Maria Sklodowska-Curie

(if any further additions are made to the game, I’ll add them here.)

In addition to some skirts and leggings, I’ve also gotten myself some jewelry.

Here is this week’s geek wear:

These are Golden Ratio earrings. (See also fibonacci sequence)

Next up:

Cephalopod Sweater. This one was problematic, since it ran small in the… tracts of land area of the body.

Last up was this:

From the bookshelves of doom Etsy shop. I follow the Bookshelves of Doom blog, so I especially enjoyed this one.

I’ve got more lined up, but it was a little to cold this week for shorter skirts and leggings, so those are waiting a bit.

But most importantly, I’m enjoying this, very much.

I’ve been listening to Radiolab podcasts for awhile, and today, The Bitter End came up.

In an unpleasant coincidence, a friend’s mother died over the weekend, so advanced directives were already in the front of my mind.

This is a subject I’ve written about a lot over the years, because end-of-life care is something most people tend to ignore until it’s in their faces and they can’t ignore it anymore.

First and foremost, I want to congratulate West Virginia University for putting advanced directives and medical power of attorney forms out as something to be discussed NOW. Hell, PEIA will give us a $4/month discount for having filled out and submitted these forms, because it really is that important.

These are decisions that need to be made while and discussed with your loved ones while you are young and healthy.

Yes, it’s a hard thing to do, but it’s IMPORTANT.

In the podcast they interviewed a doctor who said he tries to ask his patients who are over 50, “How do you want to die?”

Good on him, except it’s not a question that should wait until we are 50 or 60 or 70, it’s something to be considered when you’re still young, because even if you are unlikely to develop a debilitating disease, you can still be struck by a bus or an infectious disease that renders you incapable of making your own medical decisions.

We all like to think that our loved ones would know what our wishes would be, but time and again this has proved to be not so for so many families. You know the ones–you probably remember seeing some of the legal fights splashed across the evening news.

Make sure there is nothing to argue about–put what you want in writing, and make sure your doctor knows your wishes.

In West Virginia you can file these medical papers electronically. If you don’t have that option, make sure you tell your family where these papers are.

Put your wishes down in writing.

Talk to your family about what you want to happen and/or where your papers are filed.

Go back to that Radiolab link. See that chart? That’s asking doctors what treatment they would want if they were were to suffer “irreversible brain injury without terminal illness.” When the same questions were asked of lay people–just your average person walking down the street–most of those responses were the exact opposite.

Why? Because doctors know things lay-people don’t.

Take CPR.

As opposed to many medical myths, researchers have reliable data concerning the success rates of CPR (without the use of automatic defibrillators) in a variety of settings:

2% to 30% effectiveness when administered outside of the hospital
6% to 15% for hospitalized patients
Less than 5% for elderly victims with multiple medical problems

(emphasis mine) Surprised by those numbers?

How about this?

…risks of CPR include harmful side effects such as rib fracture and damage to internal organs; adverse clinical outcomes such as hypoxic brain damage; and other consequences for the patient such as increased physical disability. If the use of CPR is not successful in restarting the heart or breathing, and in restoring circulation, it may mean that the patient dies in an undignified and traumatic manner.

Think about that for a bit.

Is that how you want to die?

Once you’re done thinking, talk to your doctor about completing an advanced directive. Then discuss it when your family and friends.

Because these decisions and discussions really should not be put off.

See:
End-of-Life Care in the United States – August 17, 2009
At the End – May 1, 2008
End-of-Life Care – March 30, 2004
Related:
Death, Grief, and White Hot Rage

A Hobbit’s Guide to Walking.

I’m totally doing it. Who’s with me?

It’s really not that bad, tho you’re not going to do it quickly. For comparison:

I’ve gone 970 miles since I got my fitbit. (This includes all steps, which I don’t think will count.)

Since 2005, for WVU’s Walk 100 Miles program (March to June) I’ve gone 1504 miles (logging only active miles, not just walking around the house).

So I’m totally doing this! Who’s with me?!

ADDENDUM the First:
I’m only going to count active miles, which means, only when I’m deliberately walking. For me, this will be my lunchtime walk, walking home, hikes, and walks around town. Steps taken around the house and at work will NOT count, (unless I’m walking more than half a mile, such as walking to a meeting on a different campus.)

ADDENDUM the Second:
I downloaded the file for keeping track of where you are.

ADDENDUM the Third:
More data points!

OMG it is so hot I can’t stand it. Really. If this continues, I’m going to have to move somewhere cooler.

Monongalia County has broken or tied maximum temperature records for June and July seven times. Six of those records were broken in a ten day period. (6/20/2012, 6/29/2012, 7/4/2012, 7/6/2012, 7/7/2012, 7/8/2012, 7/9/2012)

We may have broken that streak today, with a high of only 90F. Which is still unpleasantly hot. (Average historical temperatures should be in the low to mid 80s.)

And rain! (Or lack thereof.) Never do I remember it being this dry. Ever.

Here’s the “departure from normal” for West Virginia.

And the Eastern panhandle is even worse off than we are.

On top of this, there are still “a few thousand” people who don’t have power from the June 29th storm.

That’s right, people haven’t had power while temperatures have hit record highs.

I know full well that the plural of anecdote is not data, but this weather is abnormal, and I really don’t want this to become the new normal.