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.
The "woke" Superbowl, starred virtue signaling liberal self-congratulations, and a cussing halftime rapper repeatedly blinked out, aside from boring ball, should have instead aired this ad CBS refused:
I wish someone could explain the moral difference between going to a NICU unit and injecting poison into a premature baby that is causing the mother emotional stress & injecting poison into another baby – same age; same reason– that's in the womb?
It's a docu-drama by Mike Cernovich about fake news. Scott Adams suggests that you have no distractions during the final 15 minutes (he appears in the film - as does Prof. Peterson who Scott says "totally re-programmed my brain about religion."
With two criminal parents, no surprise he made the wrong turn. Still, a great talent. I'd like to own one of his Picassos.
He's now an excellent forgery-detector because he knows the artists, and knows forgery, from the inside-out. A highly-talented and charming sociopath.
One of the world's most notorious art forgers, Guy Ribes is profiled in this documentary. For over three decades, Ribes has scored major deals selling works by Picasso, Matisse, and other legends, with a twist: Ribes himself painted the facsimile works himself. Fake heirs, ruthless dealers, and more - it's all here in the life of Guy Ribes, a Genuine Forger.
13:1 If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
13:2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
13:3 If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
13:4 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant
13:5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;
13:6 it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth.
13:7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
13:8 Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end.
13:9 For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part;
13:10 but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end.
13:11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways.
13:12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.
13:13 And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
Not a big-time Debussy fan, but Mrs. BD is so I gave her tix for Pelleas at the Met for Christmas, with a light supper at a little trattoria on Columbus on Thurs. night - Il Violino. Cozy. Excellent home-made fluffy gnocchi.
But not only was Pelleas unbearably tedious but was also 4 hours including intermissions. We got out at 11:30 and home God knows when. It beats me why this is considered a great, innovative piece. It's one endless tone poem, and the plot - and the libretto - are so dull that I can't find words for it. "The sun is going down." "Yes, see it going down over the sea." Perhaps we two are too unsophisticated?
So as we walked down the red-carpeted stairs at The Met, I mentioned to Mrs. BD that we needed something like Carmen as an antidote. And, voila, WQXR had Carmen live from the Met today! Call me philistine if you must, but you can hum Carmen lines all day. Got a lot of paperwork and cleaning up done to Carmen while Mrs. packed for a girl garden tour trip. I will await her southland garden photos.
On Friday, one of my opera afficionado pals told me that he and his wife walked out of Pelleas a week or so ago, but didn't tell me so as not to bias my impression. And that guy and his wife are musicians.
This is a spliced Youtube, which begins with the semi-humorous political and winds towards the infinite. "Tragedy is the precondition of being. Being is the interplay between the finite and the infinite."
The man sure can talk powerfully. He's a preacher of sorts.
Their 60% polyester semi-dress pants are comfortably stretchy, hold a good pleat, do not wrinkle, and are as comfortable as sweat pants. So are $200 wool trousers obsolete? For me, yes, mostly.
Since I wear sport jacket and tie to work - not a suit - these are perfect for me. They are not really "casual" trousers, but can double as that too. Did I mention that they look good, and are cheap as dirt?
They have a slim fit for the youthful hipsters, and a less-slim but also trim-looking line so you don't look like an old fogey but not like you live in Brooklyn.
The wartime memoir of Siegfried Knappe. Exciting read by a good guy and excellent soldier who was on the wrong side. BTW, most German soldiers were not members of the NAZI Party. After the war, he and his wife had a good life in Iowa.
From Amazon:
Based on Knappe’s wartime diaries, filled with 16 pages of photos he smuggled into the West at war’s end, Soldat delivers a rare opportunity for the reader to understand how a ruthless psychopath motivated an entire generation of ordinary Germans...
So when there was once a bimodal distribution of mortality - infancy and youth, and then old age, now there is only one. All of those deaths in youth skew average or median statistics to the point of meaninglessness. Antibiotics and immunization have made a huge difference.
Regarding infant mortality, it is difficult to compare the rates across countries because it depends on at what point the medical system declares an infant viable. In the US, where almost every infant is viewed as possibly viable, many more infancy deaths are named as such than in other places. It's the same phenomenon that rates Sloan-Kettering (cancer) hospital the worst hospital in the US. Many of their patients do not survive, obviously, despite possibly being the best cancer center in the world.
After the huge effect of public health, immunization, and antibiotics, medical advances have accomplished remarkable things in improving the function and independence of the elder cohort even though I have seen no stats to measure and compare this. In some ways, this is more valuable than life span alone. A generation or two ago you never saw people in their 80s playing tennis, skiing, or hiking up Mt. Washington. Now, it's common in the US (not so much in Europe).
The blessing we all have now, whether we are the half who live past the mid-late 70s, or the half who do not, is the opportunity to live what we're given with as much richness and independence as possible.
With the upcoming Super Bowl, is it any surprise that race politics dominate the pre-coverage of the game? At one time enjoying professional sports provided a respite from all the mind-numbing back-and-forth of politics. Those days have been stolen from us since former San Francisco 49ers Quarterback Colin Kaepernick disgraced our National Anthem in protest to a perceived injustice involving police use of force against black males—none of which is supported by evidence or data.
It's a topic which is rarely discussed, but one which can make a big difference. After all, almost no exercise is improved by holding one's breath during its execution.
-Aerobic exertions (ie, not sprints which are anaerobic, but swims, runs, biking, elliptical, etc) call for a good breathing rhythm. A typical aerobic breathing rhythm is 2:2, that is, breathing in for 2 steps and exhaling during 2 steps. Swimmers know all about breathing rhythm, typically one breath every two strokes or maybe every three strokes, and exhaling with face down in the water. I like to swim with breaths every 4 strokes, but it's just endurance swims, not speed.
- Breathing during sprints (as in HIIT): Sprints are of short duration. Many sprinters inhale once every 10-20 yards. Slow deep breaths, slow exhales. Panting is counterproductive. However you breathe in sprints of any sort, you will not keep up with oxygen needs. You can pant and gasp after you finish.
- Breathing during planks: Planks are typically 30 seconds to 2 minutes. Lots of trainers' advice is slow "in thru nose, out thru mouth," while others suggest in and out both thru nose. The latter is better.
- Breathing with resistance work: As the weights get heavier, breathing patterns become more important. Typically, inhaling during the eccentric motion and exhaling during the concentric motion. (Eccentric and Concentric movements). An exception might be an exertion which demands special core stability, like weighted squats. In such cases, a deep breath can be taken before the eccentric movement begins, and the breath held until exhaled on the concentric stand-up.
Also, with the powerlifts, there is no federal law against taking an extra breath after 5 or 6 reps of an eight rep set, at the end of a concentric motion. Why not? It's not meant to be a sprint. The purpose of weights is just to stress the heck out of muscle to the point of some micro-tears, not to be anaerobic cardio even if it tends to be.
Fitter or younger people than I am have far more ambitious programs, but we all do what we can.
Not including my two calisthenics days (which are, say 60% HIIT or regular cardio), I fit in two pure cardio days partly as recovery days from my weight-lifting days. Those two days are constructed (all workouts have to be planned) for heart strength and hill-hiking endurance and speed. Something like this:
- 10-min elliptical warm-up - 5 mins misc jump rope drills. I'm working on one-footed, but it doesn't come easily to me - 45 mins treadmill drill - A5 min/1 min/30-second/1 min pattern, like this: 5 mins 3.2 mph walk at 8-10 incline; 1 min slow walk at 2 mph at 1.5 incline; 30-45 second sprint at 7-9 mph,;1 min slow walk; 5min jog at 4-5 mph with a 2 incline; 30-second "sprint" at 7-9 mph; then the 1 min slow walk. Rinse and repeat according to time availability. It's not boring because it is always changing. - Finish up with 10 mins on the stairmaster, not too fast, to make sure I am a wobbly physical wreck by the time I am done.
I'm sure some readers can handle a more intense program, but I think mixing it up like this at whatever intensity one can handle is far more effective than monotonous trudging along for 60-70 minutes - that's a waste of time unless in cardiac rehab. Ya gotta push it to improve.
"You know, it's kind of sad to see journos getting all pissypants about being yelled at to "learn to code" on social media because they've been laid off. Their attitude is, like, what did we ever do to deserve such calumny. Well, let me tell you: I think the reason you see so many commenters on my side of the aisle sporting such gigantic schadenboners because of the loss of jobs in "journalism" is the fact that modern journalism is nothing but a litany of failure, and it's chief perpetrators refuse to see it, or even see there that there even might be a credibility problem: The UVA rapes that never happened, Duke Lacrosse rape case, Covington Catholic, the NAACP "bombing" that wasn’t, church fires and swastikas painted on synagogues that turn out to be set by liberal activists, attacks by Trump supporters, that weren't, the Jewish cemetery vandalism, racist remarks scribbled on credit card receipts at restaurants, etc. And all reported with hair-on-fire urgency and hyped 24/7. And all fake news. And the bad actors never seem to suffer any consequences for their spreading of fake news. They just drop the fake story and go on to the next fake story. And it's not like they get a few things wrong, they seem to get everything wrong. And the more they screw it up, the more outraged they become when we sneer at them. It's like they're not real journalists. They've killed real journalism and they're now walking around in journalism's skin and demanding respect."
The Day the Music Died: 60 years since that fateful plane crash,
Like Apple Pie and a bit easier. Much easier than a Tarte Tatin.
Fitter or younger people than I am have far more ambitious programs, but we all do what we can.