And about time, too... Today is one of the first recent days where it has felt sultry outside. So I didn't wear a jacket when I went into town to the pool for a swim before Press Conference #1 of the day. On the bicycle, the sultriness turned into a nice breeze that whipped my silk shirt around in a summery kind of way. Surprisingly the pool wasn't too full but I was dismayed to recognise among the few swimmers this annoying elderly man who flails his arms around as he goes, and occasionally swims diagonally across the pool when everyone else is going up and back, and once deliberately/accidentally shoved me to the side as he passed and then complained to my gym management that I was... swimming too fast and creating waves!! (um, yeah, it's a gym...). Those dangerous, nasty old men!!

Anyway, of course he doesn't know me to see (cap and goggles keep you pretty anonymous). I got in to do my laps and in between us was another guy, really cranking out those breaststroke laps. I was grumbling away at the elderly man in my head as he did that flailing thing over on his edge of the pool. Next thing, I hear the old fella asking me if I want to use his lane since he's getting out. And then we had a nice chat about the pool and the beautiful day, he with his great inner city Dub accent and me eating forkfuls of humble pie. Then off he went, leaving me his lane. And that reminded me that it's so easy to harbour your little annoyances and petty grudges and feed them now and then and if you do, you deserve to have them blasted to oblivion in a way that makes you feel ridiculous and reminds you to always try to talk to people that are probably totally oblivious to the way in which you feel they're being deliberately annoying, because the vast majority of people are really pretty nice.

So then, off to Press Event 1, which was the launch of a very cool, totally state-of-the-art Computer Club funded by Intel in the middle of the Liberties, one of Dublin's oldest inner city neighbourhoods. It's right next to, and supported by, Media Lab Europe. I was totally ready to play with the kid-model digital microscopes that Intel has donated, but instead I got to hear An Taoiseach (the Irish prime minister) give a speech. If only I'd had a picture of him on a nearby PC, I could have distorted him with PhotoShop and Bryced him, too, then and there. The Club even has its own sound studio, which as you can imagine is pretty darn popular with the local youth groups who've tried it out. Apparently the Edge, who has loose ties with MLE (Bono is on the board), really liked the studio when he checked it out a few weeks ago. The U2 guys have always put money and time towards many Dublin inner city initiatives, though they don't draw much attention to it.

The rest of the day meandered here and there but is about to conclude most pleasantly with some fresh Irish strawberries (and if you're used to those very pretty, very large, but totally tasteless things you get in most US supermarkets, try the Irish or UK strawberries. They are small, often pale, more pink than red, and packed with flavour). This should be a good strawberry year given our good weather. And tonight is a good night for eating 'em!

  A new report says the dramatic rise in asthma in children in recent years may be in part due to chlorine in swimming pools. But an asthma specialist on radio this morning warned that this was an unexpected finding and needed much more examination. As a life-long swimmer and a fitness swimmer who hits the pools for an hour or so, three times a week, the reports doesn't seem to make much sense. It speaks of damage to deep lung tissues yet I know (from being tested!) that, like most regular swimmers, my lung capacity is at the top range for my age profile. I also know from experience that swimming gives me much-improved lung capacity and aerobic fitness for cycling. And it is very well-documented that swimmers are the ones who tend to have an edge in triathlons, all else being equal. If you aren't a regular, fit swimmer, the swim segment tends to be the biggest challenge. I find it hard to apply this to Ireland's asthma problem since (despite this being an island nation) few people swim and pool facilities are so poor. Kids simply do not use pools as they would in other countries because the facilities aren't there, yet we, too have this leap in asthma cases. My father is also a (well-known!) respiratory expert [hi, dad!!] and believes swimming helps asthmatics.

One important finding in the report is that indoor pools typically lack crucial ventilation to clear nasty chemical compounds that occur when chlorine reacts with other substances (like urine -- and we know about kids, pools and urine... :^D ). A look for alternative means to keep water hygienic seems in order.In my experience in Ireland, pools are either over or under-chlorinated as well -- water gets too dirty, or way too much chlorine is dumped in. None of the pools I use has any ventilation whatsoever. Ugh.

I think a bigger culprit for asthma as well as many of our health woes is 1) the ever-increasing level of airborne pollutants; 2) the chemical cocktails in the processed food people regularly eat; 3) the heavy use of chemicals in regular farming (pesticides and hormones, neither of which we fully understand as long-term additives). And right now? I'm going to the pool...