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.
Russel Brand shows how to do a serious and earnest interview based on his own curiosity. In other words, he doesn't want to make his own points. Wants to learn. An exciting conversation, I feel, and rather deep for Youtube.
I like his point that learning new things is painful because it kills something in yourself. I do not know what they mean when talking about equality, though. What is equality?
Image:My selfie just to show how buff I have become with my program after almost two years.
We dare not presume to tell our smart readers what to do to build and maintain fitness. We are telling you what we do, based on our research and the advice from our very stable genius trainers.
This is not about fat loss. That is nutritional. This is only about building and maintaining full functionality despite the efforts of Father Time (patriarchal, isn't that?) to destroy our bodies, spirits, and minds.
Monday: Hour of powerlifts and weights, #1 sequence Tues: Met Con (calis/cardio) class Weds: 60-80 mins mostly calisthenics, or "technical" training* (at least half of my list) Thurs: Powerlifts and other weights, #2 sequence Fri: 1/2 hr HIIT cardio (elliptical, treadmill, stair machine, ski erg,or row erg) and 1/2 hr "technical" Sat: Tough calis class, or another half of my technical, or a long hike Sun: 1 hr long/slow* before church
No program is perfect, but this at least covers all the bases of strength, calis, and cardio. Biggest challenge is keeping one's weight increasing a bit in a relentless program like this.
Note: doing the same thing any two days in a row is not a good idea, because weights need recovery, and the same cardio becomes too efficient to be effective. Need to keep your adaptation off-balance. I alas have no sports this winter, for various reasons.
Yes, George Washington did go to Barbados, to visit with his brother for a while.
Barbados is a coral island situated a bit east and south of the other West Indies. Caribbean on its west side, Atlantic on the east. A popular winter getaway for Europeans and Americans. People tend to have their favorite islands, but I am not a big Caribbean fan. Its east coast gets a consistent pounding from the Atlantic, and a constant and welcome strong ocean breeze which makes the 75-82 degree temps feel cool.
- The island is an approximate triangle. The southern coast has the "city" of Bridgetown and is lined with mass market resorts and hotels like Sandals, etc.. The west coast has elegant old elite resorts like Sandy Lane where you dress for dinner. The north coasts are rugged. The interior is a combination of wild and agricultural. Except for the sugar cane, the agriculture (vegetables, cattle, goats, banana, plantain) is small-scale and not mechanized.
- The east coast, around 20 miles north to south, faces the raw Atlantic and is rocky (actually, coral rocks, boulders, and cliffs), rugged, with massive surf and is not safely swimmable due to crossing surf, sharp coral, and strong currents. Surfers drown there sometimes. There are only 3 little, simple places to stay on the entire east coast - no resorts, etc. We stayed in a nice little place on the east coast - 8 small suites - no pool, tennis courts, TV, or golf course and a little honesty bar in the dining shed which always had a gallon jar of rum punch.
- Photo is our porch, ocean surf behind the trees. During our visit there, the guests were French, Canadian, and Brits. One American, besides us. From Boston. I was reading Faulkner on this trip.
Our trip was not the conventional Caribbean getaway with "relaxing" and water sports. Photo travelogue below the fold -
Everyone knows that journalism has been transformed in recent years, especially in the news magazines, right and left, from reportage into new forms of paralogical rhetoric: political argument disguised as dramatic reporting. It would be fun to spend the rest of my hour simply describing the new rhetorical devices, and the new twists on old devices, that Time magazine exhibits from week to week, all in the name of news. Mr. Ralph Ingersoll, former publisher of the magazine, has described the key to the magazine’s success as the discovery of how to turn news into fiction, giving each story its own literary form, with a beginning, a middle, and an end, regardless of whether the story thus invented matches the original event. “The way to tell a successful lie is to include enough truth in it to make it believable—and Time is the most successful liar of our time.”
The purpose is to keep up this drum beat, to make him so beyond the pale, so unpopular, that the independent fence sitter-voter just doesn't feel comfortable going against the grain and supporting him
There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.
Rick, with some input from Josh, is plotting out a Brooklyn route. As usual, it will be around 6-7 hours with pizza stop and beer stop(s).
I do not know Brooklyn at all (although I have a young daughter who now lives there). All I know is Brooklyn Heights, the BAM, and Peter Lugar's Steak House, so I am looking forward to it. I want to see DUMBO or whatever they call it. I guess it is "Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass".
We will re-announce with details, but our out-of-towners appreciate a heads-up.
I want to begin with the water taxi across the East River to Williamsburg, but Bulldog wants the Brooklyn Bridge. His call. I'm a good follower when I have a good leader.
“It must be considered that there is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle, than to initiate a new order of things.”
Readers know that when the Bird Dog family travels, we often stay clear of the madding crowds. It is a preference for certain sorts of things, roads less traveled and all that.
When I get my photos in order (I took around 40 snaps which is a lot for me, mostly corny landscapes), I will show and tell about some parts of Barbados many visitors never see, far from the beach resorts and the golf courses but never far from Flying Fish Sandwiches and rum. This pic from one of our hikes, along the north coast:
Bajan Rum Punch - The recipe is so deeply ingrained in Barbados' culture that its recipe is a well-known rhyme: "One of sour, two of sweet, three of strong, four of weak."
(Makes about 2 1/2 quarts)
1 cup freshly squeezed lime juice 2 cups simple syrup (equal parts white sugar and water, heated until sugar dissolves) 3 cups Barbados rum (Clear or amber, and just 2 cups if you want to enjoy more of it) 4 cups water (or partly orange juice or papaya, or mango...) A few dashes of Angostura bitters Grated nutmeg
Many thanks to Roger for the past week's Morning Links. I can't compete with his wit and wisdom, but we all do the best we can with what we have. Pic is Bajan Rum Punch - highly refreshing after a 4-hr mountain hike in Barbados.
The great cartoonist Roz Chast put her campy irony aside to produce a heartfelt and mostly hilarious cartoon book about the aging and decline of her parents. OK, lots of gallows humor.
If you have or have had declining parents, it's required reading and you will recognize everything except Brooklyn (unless you grew up in Brooklyn - the 7th largest city in the USA if it were still its own city).
Our strength potential has a lot to do with genetic physical architecture. However, this is a statistical phenomenon, not a law. Two reasons why shorter people can be "stronger":
- More compact muscle mass. A smaller person might have the same genetic muscle base as a 6'2" person.
- The laws of levers. Most physical movements involve Third Class Levers of bone, tendon, and muscle. Longer bones mean the range of motion (say, in inches) in a physical effort has further to go, and is thus more challenging. When the fulcrum is in the same place, and the lever is longer, it takes more force to move. Basic mechanics.
So if your 5'8" friend can bench more than you, this might be part of why that is. Speaking statistically, of course, because there are plenty of short weak people and plenty of giant strong people (like Thor, in photo).
9:8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him,
9:9 "As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you,
9:10 and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark.
9:11 I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth."
9:12 God said, "This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations:
9:13 I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.
9:14 When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds,
9:15 I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.
9:16 When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth."
9:17 God said to Noah, "This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth."
Painting is a copy of a now-lost Leonardo painting
Leda and the Swan
A sudden blow: the great wings beating still Above the staggering girl, her thighs caressed By the dark webs, her nape caught in his bill, He holds her helpless breast upon his breast.
How can those terrified vague fingers push The feathered glory from her loosening thighs? And how can body, laid in that white rush, But feel the strange heart beating where it lies?
A shudder in the loins engenders there The broken wall, the burning roof and tower And Agamemnon dead.
Being so caught up, So mastered by the brute blood of the air, Did she put on his knowledge with his power Before the indifferent beak could let her drop?
For powerlifting and related high-resistance exercises, we tend to alternate between higher (10) rep days and lower (5-6) rep days. Obviously, the number of reps reflects the max weights that we can do at those reps. 10 reps means you can't do 11 with good form.
Of course, over time you keep upping the weights.
Our format is to do a light warm-up with the specific exercise, then only four-five working sets. And that's it for my weekly deadlifts, for example. A younger person could do more each week (like twice), but there is a time consideration too.
Unhinged Conspiracy Theorists: Leftwing Professor Lawrence Tribe Floats Theory that a Carter Page Associate Was Murdered in an Engineered Plane Crash, Then Deletes His Noxious Tweet
Dr. Michael Robillard is a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Oxford working on the ethics of counter-terrorism. He has also written on the ethics of autonomous weapons, military recruitment, veteran moral injury, and war and its relation to future generations. Michael is an Iraq War veteran, United States Military Academy graduate, and Airborne Range
- The Eastern Chipmunk supposedly hibernates, but I see them venture out on warmer winter days in the 40s (F). Their extensive burrows have bathrooms and food storage rooms. We have lots of them around probably because we have few big snakes here. Yes, they take bites out of my tomatoes but I like the little buggers.
- What is the home range of the Common Crow? It depends on whether they live in urban, suburban, agricultural, forest, or plains habitats. Crows are adaptive. According to one study, their home turf in urban areas can be under a half square mile, and in more open areas up to 15 square miles. Crow tribes' home turfs overlap somewhat, and many tribes often travel to share winter roosts.
When they want to, they will wander far from their home turf but might run into trouble from other Crow tribes defending their turf.
How 
Notes
Powerline: 
Rick, with some input from Josh, is plotting out a Brooklyn route. As usual, it will be around 6-7 hours with pizza stop and beer stop(s).
The Forgotten History of New York’s Bagel Famines -
Many thanks to Roger for the past week's Morning Links. I can't compete with his wit and wisdom, but we all do the best we can with what we have. Pic is Bajan Rum Punch - highly refreshing after a 4-hr mountain hike in Barbados.
The great cartoonist Roz Chast put her campy irony aside to produce a 
Our strength potential has a lot to do with 
For powerlifting and related high-resistance exercises, we tend to alternate between higher (10) rep days and lower (5-6) rep days. Obviously, the number of reps reflects the max weights that we can do at those reps. 10 reps means you can't do 11 with good form. 
Two things I've been wondering about: