Maggie's Farm

Why leaves change color (video)

Coy-dog-wolves in the Northeast

The World’s Driest Desert Is in Breathtaking Bloom

Happy P.C. Halloween!

Trigger or Treat: Halloween Is Filled With Uncomfortable Images

Good grief

Why People Pay to Feel Scared - A sociologist studies the allure of haunted houses.

Love and sex at Yale

Scary: Predatory females

Victory for Kentucky 'Drone Slayer' who took out
aircraft flying over his home with a SHOTGUN as case against him thrown
out of court

Drones are natural targets

Nearly EVERY Eighth-Grader in Detroit Public Schools Not Proficient in Math, Reading

Why Family Structure Is So Important

The Poverty Cure: Get Married - Black children bear the brunt of single parenthood’s harms.

Central planning fail:  Beijing’s Red Bosses Get Desperate——Even Ban Too Much Drinking And Golf

Ace to debate moderators:

Who the F- do you imagine yourselves to be?
Where are your credentials, you stupid nothings?

Debate:  Well now. We actually got our money’s worth last night

... call this condition Bubble Blindness. It’s a contagious ideological disease that afflicts the entire corridor from Wall Street to Washington, and CNBC is the infected host that propagates it.

Jeb Bush's Loss Is Democracy's Gain

Rose to Rubio: What were you thinking when saying Hillary lied about Benghazi?

Young Voters: Marco Rubio Most Relatable Candidate

Via Q&O:

Hundreds of immigrant families caught illegally crossing the Mexican border told U.S. immigration agents they made the dangerous journey in part because they believed they would be permitted to stay in the United States and collect public benefits, according to internal intelligence files from the Homeland Security Department.”

Swedish Female Journalist STONED by Muslims In Stockholm

The Islamic Conquest of Europe: View From the Ground

(h/t, David Warren)

Lyrics, John Bunyan

Who would true Valour see 

Let him come hither; 

One here will Constant be, 

Come Wind, come Weather. 

There's no Discouragement, 

Shall make him once Relent, 

His first avow'd Intent, 

To be a Pilgrim.

Who so beset him round,

With dismal Storys, 

Do but themselves Confound; 

His Strength the more is. 

No Lyon can him fright,

He'l with a Gyant Fight,

But he will have a right, 

To be a Pilgrim.

Hobgoblin, nor foul Fiend, 

Can daunt his Spirit: 

He knows, he at the end, 

Shall Life Inherit. 

Then Fancies fly away, 

He'l fear not what men say, 

He'l labour Night and Day, 

To be a Pilgrim.

A couple of years ago, my fatigue on the ski slopes and on a hunt trip in deep snow (backpack, heavy boots, firearm) let me know that I could either shape up or surrender to decay. It took me a while to commit to the effort to shape up. Why? Because it is hard and painful. I do not want to be a quitter in life, until it's time.

- Physical endurance. Young or old, we all want more of that and enjoy more of that. We do not want to feel lazy or tired and we want to look, and be, fit for life and ready for any adventures (eg climbing Mt. Washington on a crisp autumn day). Improvement comes from regular intense, interval cardio work, not from jogging, plain swimming, or walking - or it can come from intense forms of calisthenics. Cardio work is usually done with a mixed interval approach (2 or 3 of: swim, treadmill, running, elliptical, stairs, rower). It's not the time, it's the intensity that counts. That has to be complemented with high-rep resistance and/or body-weight exercises because endurance is a total body affair. Endurance is about high-rep and high stress, but not high resistance.

Normal Crossfit (not the competitive, high-weight form of Crossfit) is about fitness and endurance through intense and varied calisthenics instead of the tedious machines or the tedious pool. Part of the fun people find in Crossfit is that it's a regular group in which people get to know each other and cheer each other on regardless of their level.

It is generally thought that 20 minutes of intense cardio 3-5 days/week is good enough for cardiovascular fitness, but it is not enough for overall endurance improvement. 40-50 minutes of gradually-increasing intervals will increase endurance. Up the intensity of the intervals every week or two until it's enough and we are satisfied with our fitness level (but who can be?)

My Friday program is basically a Crossfit-type hour. It's a killer. Anytime I can do something, he raises the bar until I break. On Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, I do standard cardio intervals on treadmill, elliptical, and stair machine. If I can walk without stumbling, it hasn't been intense enough to be worth the time.

- Strength and power.  Good things for life and for bones but only obtainable from making special effort with lower-rep heavy weight resistance exercises. We all want to attain and maintain our good normal strength as we grow up or grow older, but building strength takes special effort for those who do not do daily physical labor. Nature, indeed, wants to kill us after we have bred and ultimately will, but nobody wants to live life with the fitness of the gal behind the desk at the DMV - or of your accountant. Physically lazy is shameful and un-American. Sloth is one of the deadly sins.

It seems to me that most people want to be in good, fit shape but do not really aspire to greater strength and power if it takes blood, sweat, and tears. They want what is called "functional" fitness and endurance. That's basically what I wish to maintain or to improve, too but I need a bit more strength and power to get there. Just a few more months, I think. I do not want to get nutty about it but I would like to inspire others.

- "Toning."  It's an aesthetic term, mostly used by females. It is not a physiologic term. It means more muscle, less fat.

- When friends discuss the exercise topic with me, I ask whether their goal is endurance, muscle power, agility, fat removal, mind-body discipline, or just to try to defeat aging.  The answer is always "Yes."

- Structure and discipline.  As in most areas of life, going to war against over-40 decay requires structure and discipline. Many, like me, need discipline and accountability to do the hard things (eg, paperwork, exercise, hedge-trimming, weeding). Some folks do the hard things automatically. God bless them.

Hitchhiking in the Land of the Dead

A Tactical Assault Camera That Isn’t Good for Street Photography

How Dirt Makes You Happy

An Uber for truckers

The turmoil in the trucking industry is a window into the social and economic changes sweeping the country; expect to see more industries faced with similar challenges as the blue economy fades away.

Taking on The Teamsters. Teamsters don't like that.

2014 Health Care Cost and Utilization Report

Americans Are Stupid, New Study of Millennials Uncovers Educational Shortcomings

Campus Feminazis Demand Censorship of Social Media

I demand censorship of these irritating bullies

NOAA Attempts To Hide The Pause In Global Warming: The Most Disgraceful Cover-Up Since Climategate

French Mathematicians Blast UN’s ‘Costly & Pointless Crusade’ Against Global Warming

Time Magazine Names Ahmed The Clock Boy to List of Most Influential Teens of 2015

So inspiring

Even Salon Thinks Trigger Warnings Have Ruined College

A moderating panel of Hannity, Mark Levin, and Rush Limbaugh would be far more appropriate for a GOP debate.

Of course. Why not?

BofA Looks At Europe's Record €2.6 Trillion In Negative-Yielding Debt, Is Shocked At What It Finds

I still do not comprehend a market for NIRP bonds

This Map Shows How Large Europe's Refugee Crisis Really Is - Data visualization company Lucify used U.N. stats to show the recent mass movement of people to the continent.

Culture Clash: How ISIS Could Send Europe Over the Edge

Turkish Government Seizes Opposition TV Stations

Turkey: Kurds Threatened Before Election

As Predicted, the Iran Deal Has Begun to Wreck Global Nuclear Non-Proliferation Efforts

DHS, White House Tout Ability to Screen Syrian Refugees. But Under Oath, FBI Says Opposite

What Just Happened in Syria?

Russia flying Iranian weapons shipments into Syria, sources say

North Korea's slave labor force is growing, U.N. special rapporteur says

It's for the greater good.

Highlights from the 2016 US Military Strength Index

That's the NYC term for people who work at any level in the "rag trade." That is, fashion and attire. It was once a Jewish business in NY, now mostly Asian.

NYC remains a bustling center for design and manufacturing, even though most cheap stuff we buy is made in Asia.

A NYC daughter emailed me her iPhone pic in front of a Crossfit in the garment district, with the comment "Poor skinny Chinese guy struggling with his heavy cart of fabrics for $5 an hour while yuppies pay $200 an hour to lift boxes inside Crossfit."

My thought was "This lucky Chinese immigrant will live to 100, his kids will go to Harvard and end up going to Crossfit to stay in shape with their white collar jobs in finance and medicine."

Photo is your editor, after 6 months of exercising.

-Want to get bigger and heavier? If you are a scrawny and weak guy (or gal) like I was, your fitness job is relatively easy compared to flabby guys and gals. Just lift weights for 40 minutes 3 days/wk, eat carbs and meat, and avoid cardio exercise for a few months.

Here's good advice about getting into better, fit-for-life shape for those people: A Beginner’s Guide to Getting Bigger.

They also have good advice there about exercising in general. I like their idea of eventually getting fit and strong enough to handle just a few full-body resistance exercises involving, combined, pretty much all muscle groups. It is efficient but takes work to get there.  Eg:

• Monday: squats, overhead presses, and pull ups


• Wednesday: deadlifts, bench presses, body rows


• Friday: lunges, dips, chin ups

“It's often safer to be in chains than to be free.”

Franz Kafka (via Europe Surrenders) That is a deep, sad truth about human nature.

Energy Department smashes pumpkins for causing climate change

Modern Art Exhibit Tossed in Garbage after Mistaken for Trash

This keeps happening

NY Times: Greenland Is Melting!

Agency won’t give GOP internal docs on climate research

Government secrets?

Further on the Ninth Amendment

9th has been ignored for many years

Ted Cruz DESTROYS Biased CNBC Cranks at GOP Presidential Debate

The rise of negative bond yields in Europe

Why rich people in Austria want to live in housing projects

It's still called Red Vienna

Germans Panic As Muslims March Through City ‘THIS IS OUR FUTURE

Pope says denying Israel’s right to exist is anti-Semitism