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.
That's what our pal Roger's wife terms them. English Sparrow, aka House Sparrow, aka Dumpster Birds, were imported from England in the early 1800s to help clean the NYC streets of horse manure and other detritus.
Their population spread rapidly.
They are not sparrows, they are a sort of european finch. Like rats, they are highly adapted to live amongst civilization, and can never be found in woods or meadows but they like working barns.
This morning, I ripped up a large loaf of stale bread and tossed it in the driveway to do my version of Loaves and Fishes, without the fish. Within 15 minutes, the MacDonalds birds arrived. Their activity attracted a bunch of Grackles (native to North America), and then a handful of hungry Red Wing Blackbirds. A few chipmunks came out for breakfast, and finally a couple of Blue Jays. A Mourning Dove stopped by to have a taste. I fed multitudes. In 2 hours, it was all cleaned up.
Photo is a female. You can see that they have a finch bill, not a sparrow's.
It's not uncommon to see small family groups of Chimney Swifts overhead during the summer months. Wonderful fliers, catching bugs on the wing.
I've seen parents pass a bug to a child, both on the wing. Cute.
Their numbers have declined drastically over the past 40 years, for unclear reasons. Maybe more chimney caps, or steel flues. They need masonry flues to get a grip.
My best Chimney Swift story is about the day one accidentally came down our old church's chimney and started flying around the church - on Pentecost! I finally was able to snatch it when it was banging against the window, and somebody opened the window and off it went like the Holy Spirit.
There are a couple of other species of Swifts in the western US. If anybody can distinguish a Vaux from a Chimney Swift, good for you. Swifts spend the cooler months in the Amazon basin.
If the ordinance passes as drafted on July 31, set to take effect in July 2019, local businesses that sell takeaway cups and lids made out of compostable plastic can’t use straws made from the same material.
The only form of exercise which has been convincingly demonstrated to be helpful for depression and/or anxiety problems is resistance exercise, ie weights. The reasons are not known.
What about cardio exercises? There is "suggestive evidence" that it could be useful, but it has not been convincingly demonstrated.
My advice to everybody, regardless of personal emotional issues: Do weights, do cardio, do calisthenics. You will thank yourself.
Mark Perry, an economics professor at the University of Michigan at Flint and a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, recently calculated that his university has nearly 100 diversity administrators, more than 25 of them earning over $100,000 a year. Collectively, they cost the University of Michigan, with fringe benefits, about $11 million annually. Adding in other costs such as travel and office space expenses, the total cost rises to perhaps $14 million, or $300 for every enrolled student at the U of M in the fall semester 2017...
"I'm so disorganized..." Yes, she's a lefty (h/t American Digest). This is almost unbelievable. Thanks for police camera. Nice patient cop, nutty lady.
Vote for Berky! She needs a job!
Update: She wanted a job with no work, but she lost. The police video didn't help.
Donald Trump could win reelection in 2020, help the GOP win all 100 seats in the Senate, all 500+ in the House, push the Dow over 40,000, reunite Korea, liberate Iran, cure cancer, walk on water and pay off the national debt and it will mean nothing to these people. He will be hounded for the rest of his life, and then they will try to destroy his kids, grandkids, great-grandkids, wipe out his business empire and whatever legacy he leaves behind as retribution for stealing their thunder and making them look like fools for all the world to see. The other reason is as a warning against anyone who thinks they can do what he did and go against the Deep State elitist-globalist enterprise.
Guy on the radio said that if Trump personally cured cancer, CNN would have on people saying "Trump doesn't care about people with heart disease."
Technically-speaking, we are still in an Ice Age (Ice Ages are when there is ice on the poles), so let's worry about the next glacial incursion: The Next Ice Age
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.
That's what our pal Roger's wife terms them. English Sparrow, aka
It's not uncommon to see small family groups of 
Fun:
Get the L Out: 