Friday, July 22. 2016
Up here in the mountains
Thursday, July 21. 2016
At reader's request, I checked out that article: Lifting Lighter Weights Can Be Just as Effective as Heavy Ones
I am not surprised about the testosterone and growth hormone results. Those are good products of extreme physical stress.
A few problems with the article: First, it only went on for 12 weeks. Second, and maybe most importantly, the study had them lifting four times/week. That makes no sense. A set of heavy deadlifts takes 4-6 days from which to recover properly. Next, you can light- deadlift 100 lbs four times a week with 25 reps if you want, but you will still not be able to lift that 200 lb. of rocks a prankster placed on your front porch. And your exercise will not be time-efficient. Part of heavy is the time-efficiency. 5 reps of heavy deads, benches, etc once a week is plenty for the average fellow to stay youthfully strong.
In any event, exercise of any sort to muscle failure is the only way to gain strength. BTW, I do do lighter-weight exercises almost weekly on off-days to failure. Squats, curls, overhead presses, etc. It's just to remind my body that it is not on vacation.
As we celebrate the centenary of the National Park Service, a meditation on “the best idea that America ever had”
Gessner begins:
I am standing on top of Bald Mountain in Sonoma Valley, staring profoundly off toward the far Pacific and the dying sun. I scrunch my eyebrows and squint a little, thinking this will add to my overall air of deep thoughtfulness. My facial muscles are responding not to the transporting magic of nature, however, but to another imperative: I need to look good for the camera. Cameras, actually. Off to my side, a young man named Jimmy, whose easygoing professionalism I’ve come to respect over the past 10 days of shooting, points a surprisingly heavy (I have tried to lift it) camera at my head to film me in profile. Up above, a drone swoops over to capture the full grandeur of the moment. Following instructions, I move closer to the edge of the mountain, striking a pose that is meant to say part world conqueror, part shaman. I am a New Age Cortés...
I keep seeing that phrase "marginalized people." It can be applied to hillbillies, felons, Moslems, black Americans, trannies, crippled or blind people, the mentally-ill, or whomever you want.
Turning the adjective "marginal" into a verb craftily turns a group of people into victims of an active, malevolent force to push people to the margins of life. Many people are marginal to society because they will not, do not wish to, or can not, adjust to or fit into ordinary bourgeois society. That may be deeply to be regretted that they can not or do not, but it is not being done to them by any malevolent forces. I am not a malevolent force, but I do not invite felons or trannies to our dinner parties. They would not fit in.
Felons and trannies rarely invite me either so perhaps they marginalize me.
If you want to see active efforts to "marginalize", just check out today's link about the MSM on the GOP. There you can see an example of institutional marginalization, powers engaged in active, conscious efforts to marginalize a vast group of Americans. This attempted marginalization and organized intolerance of differences will continue until November.
Dynamite essay. Our moral and intellectual superiors in Washington have minimal experience of the real world. Donald Trump Is Right About One Thing: Our Experts Know Nothing:
It was my nightmare scenario come to life. Hard-working, industrious doctors, who spent years in training, often taking on debt to complete their education, having their careers and lives upended by highly educated, highly credentialed, and galactically inexperienced policy “wonks” who had little to no real idea of how their reforms would work in the real world. Obamacare essentially was a case of inexperienced legislative and executive branch staffers, lobbyists, and academics, all of whom had fancy degrees from fancy schools but little to no understanding of the health care industry they were reshaping, going ahead and reshaping it anyway.
All the Kennedy School degrees in the world provide no understanding of what it is like to practice medicine but nevertheless give elites license to tinker, reform, and experiment with the American health care system. They are experts who know nothing. Obamacare was clear evidence that the governing class treats Americans as playthings, as guinea pigs for their social engineering experiments on how to order Americans’ lives.
Donald Trump knows at least two things: how to build buildings and how not to double down when something doesn't work.
Wednesday, July 20. 2016
As government and other medical bureaucracies impose themselves on medical practice, their temptations are to create "practice guidelines" for their practitioner subordinates.
I resist the underlying idea of one-size-fits-all, or even the idea of a tyranny of "best practices." Each patient is unique. Furthermore, most areas of medicine are in constant controversy and dispute, with new ideas always emerging. For one example, the nutritional bureaucracies are about 20 years behind the times.
I have seen plenty of people poorly-served because of fear of rules or of law suits.
Should Dissent Be Allowed in Health Care?
 I would arbitrarily consider any movement High Rep if you can perform over 10 in a row. With or without weights, any exercise over that begins to fall into the Calisthenics category or the Warm-up category in my book. Sure, anything can feel heavy after a while, but high-rep is a different sort of exercise unless you are a professional.
Thus if you can barely do 6 pull-ups, it's strength-building Resistance. If you can do 20, it's more like Calisthenics. Likewise, 20 body-weight squats are Calisthenics, 4 Barbell squats to failure are Resistance.
It matters because High Rep exertions, even if reaching the breaking point, do not effectively improve strength. A useful thing about High Rep is that they do use your existing strength and help maintain. In other words, good for general fitness. Other examples are Jumping Jacks and Jump Rope which overlap Cardio and Cali categories but do not build strength.
Different sorts of muscle fibers are used. From here:
High reps develop Type 1 muscle fibers (“slow twitch”) that are endurance based and slow to fatigue.
Lower repetitions activate Type 2 muscle fibers (“fast twitch”), which have greater power but fatigue quickly.
Getting stronger is mainly about stressing and damaging those fast twitch muscle fibers. You can do High Rep deadlifts all day long and still never be able to lift a 200 lb box of rocks.
Thus the general idea is that, for strength, Low Rep with very heavy (whatever that is for you). For general fitness maintenance, High Rep Calisthenic-type exercise. For overall conditioning, I do both, plus Cardio. Almost everybody can find time for this, especially if you do it at 5 am. Why not?
The topic came up: What sorts of critters move using the least energy per unit distance and per unit weight? Fish swimming, birds flying, or animals walking?
You can guess first - answer below the fold -
Continue reading "Efficiency in locomotion"
I do not think most voters, and not just Republicans, want more "policies" and "initiatives" to "help" the middle class and working class: Rachel Lu: Should Republicans Embrace a Grown-up Version of Trumpism?
What Americans want is government to get out of their way. I might be wrong, but "making America great" still depends on what it used to, which is a culture of self-reliance without government micro-managing, over-taxing, and over-regulating their lives.
In bloom in the high Sierras this week
Tuesday, July 19. 2016
Austin Bay: To All the Peter Pan Republicans: Trump Bests Captain Crook Clinton
By now I’ve read at least four dozen essays by conservatives, libertarians and Republican stalwarts that seriously weigh Trump’s strengths and weaknesses. There are several themes—but I’ll summarize one I find most compelling.
Viscerally despising President Trump as a personality might be justifiable, Trump’s policy inclinations might well be bull-headed if not wrong-headed, and his flamboyant rhetoric may prove to be a diplomatic problem—but all of these dislikes, downsides and theoretical worries are far preferable to living under Clinton’s guaranteed lawless rule and demonstrated incompetence.
I think Trump was the only potential winner in that supposedly-deep Repub bench. Cruz would lose in a landslide, Rubio is wet behind the ears, Jeb is a schlub, etc. All true.
Also, Bushism is past: Is the Party Over for Bushism?
Who represents the future of the GOP?
On trade and immigration, the returns are in. Should the GOP go back to globalism, amnesty or open borders, it will sunder itself and have no future.
And if the party is perceived as offering America endless wars in the Middle East and constant confrontations with the great nuclear powers, Russia and China, over specks of land or islets having nothing to do with the vital interests of the United States, then it will see its anti-interventionist wing sheared off. At issue in the battle between the Party of Bush and Party of Trump: Will we make America safe again, and great again? Or are globalism, amnesty, and endless interventions our future?
Coyote:
Perhaps this is yet another negative legacy of Woodrow Wilson and his "Making the world safe for democracy" meme. We talk all the time about allying with and siding with and protecting democracies, but all "democracy" really means in practice (at least today) is that the country has some sort of nominal election process. Elections are fine, they are less bad than most other ways of selecting government officials, but what we really should care about is that a country protects individuals rights, has free markets, and a rule of law. If a county has those things, I am not sure I care particularly if they vote or pick leaders by randomly selecting folks from the phone book.
 Image stolen from American Digest
The Official Dunkin’ Donuts Power Rankings
The “Cooks vs. Cons” dream: How the Food Network got back in touch with its aspirational roots
Genderism dangers in Connecticut
I think I might be transgender. Now what do I do?
Questions raised about Pentagon’s new sex change manual. Wait… what?
Are Campus Bureaucrats Incapable of Respecting Free Speech?
Ingraham: Why Independence is the New Capitalism - The key issue in 2016 is not whether you trust Trump, but whether you trust yourselves
MacDonald: The Fire Spreads - Three cops dead in Baton Rouge, and the analogies to the 1960s deepen.
Prosecutors of officers accused in Freddie Gray death face pressure for disbarment
Charm City: It’s Not About Freddie Gray, but Baltimore’s Economic Plunge
Obama: Police Can 'Make the Job of Being a Cop a Lot Safer' by Admitting Their Failures
Another Day, Another Allahu Akbar
Muslims Were The Real Victims Of The Nice Terror Attack, The BBC Explains
New War Crimes in Germany
Hell no, we won’t go: Thousands of Muslim ‘migrants’ in Germany evading deportation
GOP Convention Speakers Trash Trump - They said he's a "con artist," "narcissist," "bully," and "pathological liar" whose candidacy is "a cancer on conservatism."
Mark Zuckerberg’s immigration reform group ramps up its attacks on Donald Trump as the RNC gets under way
Students Force Ivanka Trump’s Rabbi to Withdraw from RNC
How the Clinton Foundation Got Rich off Poor Haitians
Democrats' Education Platform: Pro-Government, Anti–School Choice - Language that was mildly positive toward reform efforts was beaten back by public school activists.
Iran's FM extolls country's ability to restore nuke program
AP Exclusive: Document shows less limits on Iran nuke work
Erdogan Purges 20,000 As Europe Voices Concern Coup Was Staged With "Prepared Arrest Lists"
Can China Enforce a South China Sea Air-Defense Identification Zone?
Europe's Impossible Refugee Math: Brexit Was Mathematical Certainty Eventually
From our place in the Sierras, where we are spending the summer.
Monday, July 18. 2016
 Ever tried growing Blueberries?
I have tried any number of times and man, are they picky. I place them on the list of plants that only thrive where they feel like it. If they aren't happy, there ain't nothin you can do about it.
You just have to admit defeat.
Even if you have some modest success, without netting I would lose all of the berries to the Robins and Catbirds.
On the farm where I spent my weekends growing up, wild blueberries grew all along the hayfield edges, reaching out from the woods over the barbed-wire fences. They grew up to 8' high, so every age had his own level to pick. They were so productive that it was no problem sharing with the birds. My Mom took coffee cans, made two holes with a nail and strung a string through them to hang around your neck, and painted our names on them with blue paint spots to indicate "berry can." Those cans hung in the barn for years.
I have seen similar wonderful areas of wild highbush blueberries on Cape Cod, but was never there much during blueberry season. Despite what is said about growing them, the wild bushes seem to like boggy edges, or at least lowlands. There is no doubt that they need acidic soil. Not being a Maine guy except during grouse season, I have no experience with the Lowbush Blueberry.
After a picking, my Mom would always make a Blueberry flat cake with hard sauce. Wow. Such memories. It's too bad there are no wild Blueberries on Maggie's Farm, but there are none.
The Blueberry is not a true fruit. Furthermore, it's in the Rhodadendron family. It's in the (marketing) category of "superfruits" because they are supposed to be "good for you," whatever the heck that means (nothing).
With some new full-sun garden space, I was considering trying again with a row of around 6 Blueberry bushes. Problem is, I want the small dark wild ones that look more black than blue with the intense wild tang, and not the fancy, fat, overly-sweet hybrids that you can get at the store anyway. Plus I don't want to bother with netting.
Wiki has a good Blueberry entry. So does the US Highbush Blueberry Council.
"Tobacco netting" for berries. Other ways to keep the birds from eating all of your berry crops.
Also, in the NYT, a little story about a family of Scarlet Tanagers - a splendid bird - getting caught under bird netting. The netting has to be very well-secured to the ground unless you want to build a bird trap.
These Tanagers are not rare in Eastern deciduous woodlands, but they aren't seen often because they tend to forage high and quiet. Here's the CLO bit on them.
It is a risky plan. Let the police do what they have to do. And do not talk to them, innocent or not. Obey their commands - period. That's the deal.
The common Obsessional and Obsessive-Compulsive spectra range from normal variants to minor inconveniences to the near-incapacitating.
A young writer, Karsh Askari, has done a service by writing a blog about his OCD and his treatment for it: The OCD Memoirist
Sunday, July 17. 2016
 Vit D is essential to health and to healthy growth, especially bone growth. Almost all of human Vit D is produced by skin in response to UV solar radiation. Animals with fur and feathers produce their own.
In its favor, it seems to help prevent some cancers and heart disease, so it is a good guy.
In the US, Vit D is added to commercial milk to make sure kids get some. About 15-20 minutes/day of unprotected sun seems enough to raise Vit D levels but few people get that daily. Sunbathing nude, of course, makes it quicker. Some of it is stored in fat cells for a while, until it gets used up.
Recent evidence suggests that sunblock does not prevent Vit D production in skin very much. In temperate climates, it's not a bad idea to take oral Vit D. I do, and all of my MD friends do. Few people sunbathe in January around here.
When it comes to sun damage and skin cancers, sunburn seems to be the criminal, not some wholesome sun.
 Do you know where these typical American garden plants originated in their wild forms before being genetically-engineered over millennia by clever humans into the international things we know and grow today?
Cucumber
Eggplant
Potato
Tomato
Onion
Zucchini (and all other squash and gourds)
Beans and Peas
Lettuce
Spinach
Strawberry
Radish
Peppers
Chard (including Swiss Chard) - chard is in the beet family - the beet was first grown for its greens, not the root
Corn (maize)
Asperagus
Rhubarb
Answers below the fold
Continue reading "Origins of garden vegetables: A quiz"
"Try" is one of those tricky words, isn't it? "Just try harder." "Try to study harder and you'll get it." Or my favorite: "Try to relax." What do those sorts of things mean?
My most meaningful encounters with "try" are with physical exertion, mainly exercise. When you hit the wall with an exercise the overwhelming inclination is to stop. However, when somebody says "Give me two more" or "Drive it through" you engage your inner "try." Then mind, nerves, and muscle fully engage together to do something you can't do.
I did check out the etymology, for what it's worth.
Luke 10:38-42
10:38 Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home.
10:39 She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to what he was saying.
10:40 But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me."
10:41 But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things;
10:42 there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her."
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40 Percent of the Buildings in Manhattan 
Why Turtles Evolved Shells: