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.
In the early 1800s, there were more than 30 million buffalo in North America, ranging in massive herds from Alaska to Mexico. By 1890, only about 500 animals were left. By the early 1900s, there were only about 30 genetically pure animals surviving in isolated areas, such as private ranches and the Yellowstone caldera.
Well, the bison ecological niche was replaced by herds of semi-domestic cattle but sheesh - I thought people were the national mammal.
Pomona junior Steven Glick, admits being taken aback when he arrived in Claremont from his home in Chicago for freshman orientation. “The first day, we got together in groups to go over everyone’s list of triggers and their preferred gender pronoun. I was shocked, couldn’t believe these were real things that people actually did, but it immediately drove home that that’s the way it is at the school, the accepted set of norms.” Still, he says, since he avoids liberal arts classes and hangs out with fellow economics majors and athletes, the political correctness affects him less than it otherwise might; and, while it’s safe to assume that every new acquaintance will lean left, the militant activists remain a minority. This was apparent in the reaction to the editorial. “All we said was, ‘Hey, not everyone supports these protests,’ and we got a lot of support for saying it. Because some people actually do want to be able to talk freely about these kinds of issues.”
Might be my favorite. They can sing like crazy, but most of the time they are rarely seen and skulk in thick underbrush on edges. At the farm, for many years we had a pair nesting in a giant overgrown forsythia in the middle of a field. Stick nests with a little soft lining.
Most people do not care about it. Just look around - it's obvious. That is because, unless your daily work involves manual labor, in the modern world most of us do not use our bodies in the ways for which they were designed.
We are designed to be hunter-gatherers and warriors, which entail day-long physical activity and often required lengthy periods of inadequate nutrition and starvation (which is why human fat cells are such sponges for hoarding carbs). The hunter-gatherer activities involve endurance, and the warrior activities entail strength and athleticism.
All of the people who do not care about their fitness have a strong case. In Western civilization, hunting is recreation, gathering is done at the market or the backyard garden, and we play sports for fun and hire our warriors. Speaking of warriors, last night I watched a live match between McEnroe and Jim Currier. Gosh, what beautiful and powerful games they still have in their late 50s.
But why would any ordinary man or woman want to spend discretionary time imitating primitive hunter-gatherer and warrior exertions? Well, they mostly don't. Furthermore, they know that fitness, except in the case of overweight and obesity, has little correlation with health or life-expectancy.
Here are the reasons Mrs. BD and I devote a mere 5 or 6 hours per week for structured physical conditioning (trying to compact a full day's activity into a brief time via intensity), and generally try to keep our weights at a fit and youthful level. It's about quality of life:
- we feel better, look better, and have more energy without any excess fat on us. Fat fatigues. And a sloppy appearance makes a poor impression in our Anglosphere culture. - becoming stronger makes us more functional in every way. - we want to be at our best for sports - a body is a gift, and deserves decent stewardship - we want to get a head start on fending off the physical deterioration of age - tough physical exertion to exhaustion is good for our heads - the discipline required is a good life challenge. Progress is stressful and unpleasant, and the rewards are slow to come so it's a good test of delayed gratification. Is it rewarding to lift up 200 lbs without spraining a muscle? Yup. It's a cool feeling of masculine competence and it has many practical applications. - and for us dads, we must consider what sort of condition the mothers of our kids would appreciate in us. Chances are they appreciate good attitude, high energy, a bit of visible muscle, and a trim physique.
32:1 Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
32:2 Happy are those to whom the LORD imputes no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.
32:3 While I kept silence, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long.
32:4 For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Selah
32:5 Then I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not hide my iniquity; I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD," and you forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah
32:6 Therefore let all who are faithful offer prayer to you; at a time of distress, the rush of mighty waters shall not reach them.
32:7 You are a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with glad cries of deliverance. Selah
32:8 I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.
32:9 Do not be like a horse or a mule, without understanding, whose temper must be curbed with bit and bridle, else it will not stay near you.
32:10 Many are the torments of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds those who trust in the LORD.
32:11 Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart.
No, Joe. It's Muslims. They use our freedoms against us.
At some point, maybe sooner than we realize, the pols in Washington will
decide they have had enough with the voters. It’s simply too much of a
hassle.
Somehow, over the last half-century, Western elites managed to convince themselves that nationalism was not real. Perhaps it had been real in the past, like cholera and telegraph machines, but now that we were smarter and more modern, it would be forgotten in the due course of time as better ideas supplanted it.
"There’s no doubt the media viscerally loathes Trump — in large part because Trump isn’t afraid to get in their faces and punch back twice as a hard, as a wise community organizer would advise. But they’d be battering any presidential candidate with an (R) after his name right around this time. The old rules are very much in force."
We'll have all the kids etc., the puppy, my in-laws, and friends. Not to mention all of my sibs and their families. Big house on the harbor. Have to buy some more kayaking life vests. Pond kayaking or salt water, both good.
Only progressively-heavy resistance with weight can build meaningful muscle strength with efficiency.
Cardio intervals, and other mostly-aerobic exercises like calisthenics and sports, can build or maintain useful endurance and athleticism, but not much strength.
(Athleticism and endurance are more important to me in life than strength and power. However, I had lost strength and muscle over time and, anyway, I think the Fitness Triad works in a synergistic way.)
- How much muscle mass can be gained in a month of heavy resistance work 2-3 times/week? At the very most, one lb for the ordinary person. Maybe dedicated gym rats can beat that, but not you and me. That would be 10 lbs. of red meat gain in a year, which is not likely or even possible for ordinary people like you and me. Maybe for body-builders who are able to lift very heavy.
Unless you are overweight or fat already, each lb. of muscle mass comes with about one lb. of fat+water. Not belly fat, but fat somewhere. That's the way it works. Because of my body build, I aim for wiry strength and not bulk. My physical structure can't and won't bulk and that is fine with me. As I have reported, though, my superb trainer wants to see some more red meat on me so I am trying to follow his dietary orders to eat more food.
- A proper diet is required for muscle recovery. I am working on that.
- Importance of high-weight and low reps: For large muscle groups - ie back, chest, and legs - pretty much everybody recommends approx 4-5 sets of 3-8 reps, working up towards about 80% of your one-rep max weight. In short, if you can do 10 of a large-muscle group, you need to increase the weight. Basically, high reps (more than 10) of these big movements (bench press, barbell squat, deadlift, pull-ups, leg press, military press, rows, inclined press) at lower weights are probably counterproductive and should be avoided.
- Does that low-rep plan apply to smaller muscles or isolated muscles? Not so much. When it comes to things like curls, tricep exercises, calf lifts, straight-arm pushes, skull crushers, leg curls, pull-downs, and the like, it seems fine to burn it out or do drop sets sometimes.
- Skeletal muscle diminishes with age. It is called muscle atrophy and is a normal part of aging. Unused cells die. That is termed apoptosis, like leaves falling from a tree. Atrophy of age is normal, that is, unless the muscle is put to stressful work. With work, muscle can be maintained or rebuilt to some degree at any age.
- How quickly does muscle lose strength without stress? The strength in a muscle begins to diminish after a month unless it is adequately and regularly stressed. Not used, but stressed. The human body, in its wisdom, sees no need to maintain something for no reason. That's the "use it or lose it" aspect. Similarly, heart muscle needs to be stressed regularly to stay tough.
Please discuss. We seem to have plenty of fitness-oriented readers of all ages and genders sexes.
I think part of the issue is that everything in Disney is fake and phony, and happy happy. A hungry real gator in a fake "lagoon" is therefore inconceivable.
The Pemi (Pemigewassett) Loop trails are famous hikes in New Hampshire's White Mountain wilderness. With a trail map, you can figure out day hikes or do the 30-mile loop over a couple of days, sleeping under the stars. Regardless, bring water and fit legs.
The reality of a transnational political confederation was now its overarching purpose. What had begun for Britons as an arrangement to trade well with our European neighbors turned into an expansive exercise in cohabitation under one roof.
Of course the inexorability of this political union had its setbacks. But the increasingly detached and ever-less-accountable officials in Brussels never allowed these to actually set them back. When the French and Dutch were allowed to vote on the latest iteration of the EU Constitution in 2005 referendums, both publics rejected it. The EU steamrollered on anyway. From then on, whenever countries were granted votes on further unification and cast them “wrong” (such as Ireland’s rejection of the Lisbon Treaty in 2008), they were ordered to redo the vote until they came up with the “correct” answer. The EU’s will was not to be resisted.
During the last two decades the major central banks of the world have been colonized lock, stock and barrel by Keynesian crackpots. These academic scribblers and power-hungry apparatchiks have now pushed interest rate repression, massive monetization (QE) and relentless rigging of the financial markets to the limits of sanity and beyond. Honest, market-driven price discovery is dead as a doornail.
And what is so rare as a day in June? Then, if ever, come perfect days; Then Heaven tries earth if it be in tune, And over it softly her warm ear lays; Whether we look, or whether we listen, We hear life murmur, or see it glisten; Every clod feels a stir of might, An instinct within it that reaches and towers, And, groping blindly above it for light, Climbs to a soul in grass and flowers; The flush of life may well be seen Thrilling back over hills and valleys; The cowslip startles in meadows green, The buttercup catches the sun in its chalice, And there's never a leaf nor a blade too mean To be some happy creature's palace; The little bird sits at his door in the sun, Atilt like a blossom among the leaves, And lets his illumined being o'errun With the deluge of summer it receives; His mate feels the eggs beneath her wings, And the heart in her dumb breast flutters and sings; He sings to the wide world, and she to her nest, In the nice ear of Nature which song is the best?
Now is the high-tide of the year, And whatever of life hath ebbed away Comes flooding back with a ripply cheer, Into every bare inlet and creek and bay; Now the heart is so full that a drop overfills it, We are happy now because God wills it; No matter how barren the past may have been, 'Tis enough for us now that the leaves are green; We sit in the warm shade and feel right well How the sap creeps up and the blossoms swell; We may shut our eyes but we cannot help knowing That skies are clear and grass is growing; The breeze comes whispering in our ear, That dandelions are blossoming near, That maize has sprouted, that streams are flowing, That the river is bluer than the sky, That the robin is plastering his house hard by; And if the breeze kept the good news back, For our couriers we should not lack; We could guess it all by yon heifer's lowing, And hark! How clear bold chanticleer, Warmed with the new wine of the year, Tells all in his lusty crowing!
Joy comes, grief goes, we know not how; Everything is happy now, Everything is upward striving; 'Tis as easy now for the heart to be true As for grass to be green or skies to be blue, 'Tis for the natural way of living: Who knows whither the clouds have fled? In the unscarred heaven they leave not wake, And the eyes forget the tears they have shed, The heart forgets its sorrow and ache; The soul partakes the season's youth, And the sulphurous rifts of passion and woe Lie deep 'neath a silence pure and smooth, Like burnt-out craters healed with snow.
Mrs. BD was discussing the elements of design with me as she has been working on yet another one of her design projects. We talk about rhythm, balance, repetition, unity, etc., but, above all, putting the specs first. Like a sonnet.
We thought that this wiki entry, Design elements and principles, offers a beautiful and succinct summary of the topic. Each section can lead to nifty conversation about almost anything.
Design principles can apply to anything that anybody wants to make beautiful: art, gardens, clothing, buildings, furniture, tools, music, etc. Come to think of it, even writing stories or making up a dance.
I know somebody whose career is industrial design. Give him the specs and he will design a work of functional art. With talent, function can be made beautiful.
Consider the humble sinuous scythe. One of my grampas, the industrialist, was a pro with a scythe on the farm. In Yankeeland, pronounced "sigh." Sad to admit, I have always been lazy and partial to power machinery but a good man with a scythe can do faster and better with the added benefit of keeping in shape.
32:1 Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
32:2 Happy are those to whom the LORD imputes no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.
32:3 While I kept silence, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long.
32:4 For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Selah
32:5 Then I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not hide my iniquity; I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD," and you forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah
32:6 Therefore let all who are faithful offer prayer to you; at a time of distress, the rush of mighty waters shall not reach them.
32:7 You are a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with glad cries of deliverance. Selah
32:8 I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.
32:9 Do not be like a horse or a mule, without understanding, whose temper must be curbed with bit and bridle, else it will not stay near you.
32:10 Many are the torments of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds those who trust in the LORD.
32:11 Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart.
I put a large pot of annuals out on the porch yesterday morning. In a half-hour, one little black ant was exploring the rim.
What? How? Why? It is about time that I read E.O.Wlson's book. Ants are everywhere. What the heck do they do all day? What moves them to explore a new flower pot?
My fitness trainer is no musclehead. It's his second career, following his passion. Yes he is strong and athletic, but he knows physiology and anatomy as well as any civilian and loves learning as much as he can.
He has now instructed me to gain 5-10 lbs over the next 4 months with a correct balance of carb+extra protein+fats.
I may be abnormal, but in recent years - maybe since turning 50 - my appetite has decreased, and decreased even more since I have been working out hard almost daily. He says my current diet is not sufficient to get me through the physical demands he is now putting on me with the weights and calisthenics. He plans to push the heck out of me this year with his daily grind claiming that, after one year, I am experienced enough to work really hard. He is not kidding. It is now brutal beyond my imagining and highly unpleasant. But I can do it, mostly. No pain, no gain. Loud grunts of agony and exertion.
The strong lifts - barbell squats, deadlifts, bench, etc. just kill me at these current weights. He keeps a record of what I do, and ups it every week mostly in weight, not reps. As they say, tho - if you want a 200 lb dead to feel light, do 225. Otherwise, 200 will always feel heavy.
I will grant that my muscles and overall strength, and my endurance, have improved dramatically, as well as the shape of my old cadaver. Same with Mrs. BD. However, my recovery time for a hard (ie weights or calis, not my cardio) workout is about 48-72 hrs. I know, because I am afflicted with DOMS. The consequence is that you never get to feel as good as you deserve to because you always feel sore or weak with fatigue from a day or two before. Sheesh - where is the pay-off? Vacation?
Since I often have to force myself to eat a meal and can rarely if ever clean a plate of food, I told him that this challenge will be as difficult for me as it would be for someone who was charged to lose 10 lbs. BTW, I am not scrawny at all but I do not carry much fat and my belly is cut, as they say.
We agreed that wine is an appetite-stimulant and I should try that with supper. Although I love a good wine, I usually only have wine with meals in restaurants and parties.
Any suggestions? I definitely need to add a second protein shake daily. Another thought was to try McDonald's or Wendy's for lunch for a while. A Big Mac with a small fries is probably a perfect balanced diet. Or a glass of milk, and maybe some ice cream at night. I like Subway, but they don't put in enough meat.
Another trouble is that midday food makes me drowsy for an hour so I can't really eat carbs at lunch. I don't know how other people do that and keep their functional edge. I don't know how anybody can eat breakfast either, beyond 2 coffees. Who wants food in the morning? Gross. Morning is for coffee. I will try to force down a protein shake or protein smoothie to be a cooperative client, but I don't want it. Breakfast is for children.
If I can gain 1/2 lb of muscle per month, that would be remarkable but probably unattainable. I would not enjoy that in adipose tissue. I am not anorcetic, but I just think fatty tissue is gross and definitely not sexy.
Why extremely rare events 
Might be my favorite. They can sing like crazy, but most of the time they are rarely seen and skulk in thick underbrush on edges. At the farm, for many years we had a pair nesting in a giant overgrown forsythia in the middle of a field. Stick nests with a little soft lining.
Most people do not care about it. Just look around - it's obvious. That is because, unless your daily work involves manual labor, in the modern world most of us do not use our bodies in the ways for which they were designed. 
Photo from NY Post: 
Only progressively-heavy resistance with weight can build meaningful muscle strength with efficiency. 
Photo is American Egret in CT this week, via reader 
Mrs. BD was discussing the elements of design with me as she has been working on yet another one of her design projects. We talk about rhythm, balance, repetition, unity, etc., but, above all, putting the specs first. Like a sonnet.
My fitness trainer is no musclehead. It's his second career, following his passion. Yes he is strong and athletic, but he knows physiology and anatomy as well as any civilian and loves learning as much as he can.