Maggie's Farm

High-intensity interval training boosts cognitive function, with effects lasting up to five years

I am skeptical about that claim. HIIT is intended for cardiac fitness and, secondarily, for endurance. I do it once or twice weekly, and I still lost my cell phone twice on vacation.

When you get out of routine, things happen.

What the Freshman Class Needs to Read by Niall Ferguson

Where were sharks spotted off Cape Cod since July 12?

Can the Captain of the Sunken Super-Yacht Be Charged?

 Does Reality Still Bite?

 BMA members resign in revolt over transgender children stance

 Path and Pathology: Some Philosophic Aspects of Psychotherapy

 Finding a therapist who takes insurance can feel impossible.

 Personality: HEXACO vs. Big Five

 Demographic Suicide

 Is Joe Okay? “Visibly Shaking” Biden Needed Help Getting in SUV Again (But Reporter Held Story for a Week)

 Zuckerberg: Biden-Harris ‘Repeatedly Pressured’ Us To Censor Free Speech

 Morality and rules, and how to avoid drowning: what my daughters learned at school in China

If the Big Bang wasn’t the first thing ever, what caused it?

 Probability Is Not Propensity or Physical

The Strange Paradoxes Of The Cult Of Safety First!

 Will we survive the sex war? The era of eros is coming to a close

 Personality: HEXACO vs. Big Five

The Energy Transition Ain't Happening: "Clean Fuels"

The Beginning and End of Postmodern America

 How ‘Tranny’ Became a Slur

Beyond Scandal - The 2024 presidential campaign invites a sense of realism.

The Front Page: Niall Ferguson on the ‘Barbenheimer’ Election. Plus. . .

Did anything interesting or important happen last week?

If so, let me know.

I will not rent a beach place without some sort of outdoor shower. You do not have to be an exhibitionist to enjoy standing nude in the sun in an (enclosed) outdoor shower.

It just feels amazing.

I have a long-time friendly acquaintance who is in jail for quite a while. Rightly so, and he doesn't mind admitting it. Not a career criminal, but a real one-time white-collar crime. Bad idea, terrible judgement.

I do my best to avoid committing crime, or moral lapses of all sorts, but I did spend one night in jail decades ago. For hitchhiking on the Taconic Parkway to see a girlfriend. Figures, right? The police thought my roll-up tobacco might be marijuana, but it was not. Lucky me, because at that age it might have been.

Career crims might be comfortable with it, but it is a daunting experience for an otherwise decent citizen. People who do not monitor themselves well can do foolish things. I do not term them "bad decisions" because they do not seem like considered decisions.

Any readers been in jail, or have a friend who did?

Excellent:

The House of God by Samuel Shem

Medical humor tends to the dark side.

Down East-style powerboat hull designs are based on the age-honored design of northern Maine ("Downeast") and Nova Scotia lobster boats.

Generally slow, steady, and maneuverable in seas.

From Downeast boat design:

Although a true Maine lobster boat or Down East yacht still retains its classic lines, things have changed, even for the most traditional builders. “We’re building a 36 now and it has a 560-horsepower diesel,” says Don Ellis. “My father would be horrified. He’d say 200 horsepower would be plenty. But the new boat has air conditioning, a generator, a custom ice maker, a big refrigerator, the list goes on and on. Everything went from a simple package to a larger package, and now that package is getting pretty complex.”

Downeast Benefits

Designs from Down East - From pulling pots to tugging on heartstrings, the classic lines of Down East boats have created a niche that has stood the test of time.

Here's a fine Umbrian meal we were served (and split between us) in the dining room at the Abbazia, all with a hearty 2006 Sagrantino:

Fava Bean and Pecorino Puree

The rest is below the fold -

Mrs. BD wants to. 

The only sandwiches I've had in France are just a way of flavoring a hunk of baguette. In France, baguettes are good.

In my experience, it's some baguette with a little butter or mayo, a slice of cheese, and a slice of ham. Not bad, assuming good baguette. 

This lady makes fancier sandwiches. 

We do not believe that fitness can extend life very much. Fitness is mainly for vitality.

Calisthenics are the best thing for maintaining fitness. If you hate weights too much (weights are for building muscle) or find all "cardio" boring, a daily hour or less of calisthenic workouts might be for you.

They entail enough cardio if you take few breaks between exercises to keep your heart rate up, and at least help maintain muscle strength.

If you take the classes at a gym (recommended) you will do circuits of around 10-12 exercises for 50 minutes depending on rests. Good stuff. If on your own in a gym, it is more feasible to do circuits as below. That's what I do on my calis days.

A sample of my routines below the fold - if you can do all of these circuits in 50 minutes, that's amazing. I can not:

"Following a re-examination of one of the psychoanalyst's key works, The Interpretation of Dreams, Mark Solms revealed mistranslations have led to people getting the wrong impression of the Austrian's views - which are often seen as controversial and outlandish."

The idea of Freud's "Pleasure Principle" was not exactly new.

The physiology of eating is pretty-well understood.

However, it does not explain individual human eating habits at all.

An annual re-post for our travel readers -

Pic is JFK in a snowstorm last week. Managed to get out after an extensive de-icing of the airplane. Got lucky - the plane had managed to arrive the night before in a sleet storm.

I always forget something, so I have a travel checklist to run through.

Obviously one does not need everything for every trip - it depends on what your plans are - but I print it out, circle what I'll need for a given trip, then check them off when they're thrown in the bag. Perhaps it seems obsessive, but it is annoying to arrive somewhere and to find that you forgot to pack any socks. On my last trip, forgot to pack a t-shirt for snorkeling, had to buy one for $25. Mrs. BD does her packing her own way, and always brings too much stuff. That's what females do.

I travel too light, she travels too heavy.

My travel checklist below the fold. Obviously you just bring what you need for a given trip.  Let me know what I have left out, and I will add items.