We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
Lefty Harvard Math Prof Eric Weinstein is Brett's brother. Like Brett, a rational calm lefty. I find Shapiro smart as a whip but annoying, and the 3 ads are annoying too but it's good to hear people have a serious talk.
Eric Weinstein joins Ben from the shadows of the intellectual dark web to discuss the lack of free thinking on the Left, the costs and benefits of low skilled vs. high skilled focused immigration, and how the Facebook monopoly negatively affects online publishers.
Look, I really don’t want to wax philosophic, but I will say that if you’re alive, you got to flap your arms and legs, you got to jump around a lot, you got to make a lot of noise, because life is the very opposite of death. And therefore, as I see it, if you’re quiet, you’re not living. I mean you’re just slowly drifting into death. So you’ve got to be noisy, or at least your thoughts should be noisy and colorful and lively. My liveliness is based on an incredible fear of death. In order to keep death at bay, I do a lot of “Yah! Yah! Yah!” And death says, “All right. He’s too noisy and busy. I’ll wait for someone who’s sitting quietly, half asleep. I’ll nail him. Why should I bother with this guy? I’ll have a lot of trouble getting him out the door.” There’s a little door they gotta get you through. “This will be a fight,” death says. “I ain’t got time.”
Why would they think politics has anything to do with it? The authors seem overly worried about science skepticism. I think skepticism about the latest "science says" reports is the only rational approach. Indeed, besides curiosity and intelligence, skepticism is a hallmark of a serious scientist.
Science is not a list of eternal truths. It's a tool, a respected method for testing hypotheses for the purpose of theory-building. It's not a faith. Due to countless factors, the results of this testing tool are frequently in error.
For general fitness/conditioning, probably not necessary and especially not if you do 2 hours of calis or calis classes weekly along with your 2-3 hrs/wk of mostly powerlift work.
What are typical accessory weight exercises? Things like curls, calf raises, cable pulls and pushes of all sorts, leg press, lateral raises, leg curls, and many gym machine activities which target specific muscle groups.
Typical compound-movement powerlift work (deadlift, rows, pullups, barbell squat, military press, bench press, maybe dumbbell lunges) strengthen pretty much all skeletal muscles - and your core too- and are more functional than isolated muscle exercises. (Most people do not do Olympic lifts but if you want to try them, go for it. With a coach, please.).
There are a few exceptions. 1.Beginners often need accessory exercises for a few months before moving forward 2. Some accessory exercises can help ramp up your powerlifts. For example, I work on overhand curls and kettlebell Farmer's walks for my grip strength because that can be a limiting factor for my deadlifts. I have weak forearms. 3. Another exception is for bodybuilders who choose to focus on developing good-looking specific muscles. (That's not really about functional fitness, though - more about looking great naked.)
We stand by our Fitness For Life recommendations for women and men of any age: 2-3 hours of mostly heavy weights, 2-3 hrs of calisthenics without heavy weights, about two half-hours of HIIT cardio, 1 hr of endurance cardio (replaceable with a 5-6 hr hike, bike ride, etc). Not counting hikes, a total of 6-7 hrs/week is sufficient - but no less than 2 hrs of real lifts with some accessories if needed to complete the hour)
Indeed. As we have been saying, there are always trade wars. EU tariffs on American imports have been a bad deal for decades. Time for pushback, and it takes a Trump to do that.
The Villages. There are ten females to each guy, there seems to be a lot of golf and drinking, everything is phony, and the STD rates are skyrocketing. It's the fastest-growing zip code in the US.
From what I hear, it's popular with midwesterners and vets.
Portrait of an Artist as an Old Man: Mel Brooks in His 90s.The comic has stormed though 75 years of show business; he remains prodigal in expression, memory, and imagination.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is the largest art museum in the world. It's the most-visited spot for visitors to NYC, despite being overwhelming. Probably the most-visited spot for people in the metropolitan area too, but those are usually hit-and run visits to new shows like we do.
Place was jammed with foreign tourists. I don't blame them.
We had to walk through the deplorable and creepy "Heavenly Bodies" show (Fashion and Catholicism) to get to the Public Parks, Private Gardens- Paris to Provence - show before it closes.
A good historical view of the invention of public outdoor spaces with dynamite pictures.
Coolest thing in the exhibit? A video of Monet painting in Giverny in old age, rapid painting, the cigarette in his mouth threatening to ignite his bushy Santa Claus beard.
I took just one snap: Manet's picture of Monet puttering in his garden, with his family. 1873. The label said that, later in that day, Monet did a picture of Manet painting a garden picture.
EDS, "Excessive Daytime Sleepiness", has become a thing, a real symptom.
I've been reading up on the topic. Supposedly EDS is a contributory cause for 20% of auto accidents. The list of causes of EDS is lengthy. It includes, of course, Obstructive Sleep Apnea which can reduce sleep efficiency.
In my view, EDS can often be easily dealt with with a brief power nap. I suspect many hard-working people do it but it's difficult to do in a public work space.
Since I am American, I tend to consider people as individuals rather than as a part of any kind of statistical group but at the same time I know that cultures and subcultures can heavily influence individual life choices and goals.
What is of interest to me with any person are basic questions: "What are your goals in life, and how do you plan to pursue them?" It should not be surprising than many people have non-economic goals.
You have your house in Kensington, a flat in Manhattan, get-aways in the Cotswolds, Scotland and Ibiza. Your kids all have trust funds, your first wife is set up very nicely, you have your collection of clubs and art. You have hot- and cold-running help and a cute, sexy personal assistant. You have your favorite charities for world peace and world health. You have a million friends. You do not have a yacht because you get seasick.
Still, your spare cash is burning a hole in your pocket. In a post-austerity UK you need advice from The Financial Times on How To Spend It.
No deep psycho-social comment needed from me. All I can say is that this is not the Yankee Way, not the Yankee Code. I am a live-and-let-live, to-each-his-own guy, but a $35,000 Audemars Piguet gives me a momentary spiritual depression.
nb: I want everybody to be as rich in money, or in life, or in love, or in self-respect, or in fun and diversion, or in relation to God, as they desire. I really don't care too much what others do. Life is brief, so true to myself is second highest on my list. True to my realest instinctual self would be ugly indeed.
Probably 50 years old, petite but not skinny, cute face, tight body. Perhaps a bit of facial youtherizing. Out of the corner of my eye while I was going through my jump-rope routines I watched her place a high box under the bar, jump up onto the bar and proceed to perform 12 chin-ups. I thought she would never finish. After a rest and some water, two more times. She is doing fitness-maintenance.
No visible muscles, just toned. Watching her proved several things to me that I knew anyway: Regular non-athlete women can develop good upper-body strength, people can be very strong and fit without notable muscle, and I suck at pull-ups as I do at many life challenges.
Watching three skinny wiry guys, my roofers these 2 weeks, carrying two packages of 80 lb. shingles (each) on their shoulders up high ladders. That is not just strength, it is balance and agility too. In other words, athleticism. Worthy of admiration and envy.
If nothing else, God and nature and life teaches humility every day. Like it's their job. Maybe it is. Sometimes I wonder whether humility is a psycho-vitamin which, like Vit D from sunshine, we obtain from investing in life challenges. On the other hand, no rewards, however modest, from our efforts are dispiriting instead of healthily humbling. That is a drag for sure.
Or do we live in our own worlds, constructed from various presuppositions, superstitions, traditions, and preferred fantasies about ourselves, about others, and the world?
I have come to believe that everybody including me lives in some degree of a fantasy world, ranging from a little crazy (a few fantasies about self and others) to totally nuts (with minimal reality-testing especially with emotional issues). The further one is from consensual reality, the less effective in life one becomes. And to make it all more complex, consensual "real" is cultural and sub-cultural.
Not asserting that there is no "real," but that that experience is highly subjective and frequently distant from regular "real," in ordinary people. 35% of Americans believe the earth is flat, and God knows how many believe in UFOs. Yes, people are crazy.
TS Eliot: "Humankind can not bear very much reality."
This topic came up over dinner last night. I became the devil's advocate, of course, because everybody tends to think that their reality is the real one. People will defend their own reality to the point of war because so much of what they think about themselves depends on it.
When that is challenged or threatened, people can go berserk. Happens with sports teams, and politics, too. With religion, it's just too much.
" 88’ at 4:30pm and smoke from a wildfire 200 miles away has nearly obscured the mountains and ridge surrounding our valley. However, mountain weather dictates that it will be 67’ by 9pm and 46’ by 6am just as it was 49’ this morning."
Get the L Out: 
The Vindication of Cheese, Butter, and Full-Fat Milk - 
Self Control: 