Maggie's Farm

I took a Gross Anatomy class long ago. We did not just have to learn every muscle, tendon, and bone in the hand and foot because our Prof was more interested in how they function as systems, smoothly in unison.

One of the first things he taught, before we began cutting up human bodies, was that we higher apes were designed to be quadripeds, not bipeds. The adaptation to bipedalism came with great advantages but with disadvantages too. Like joint arthritis.

The thing is that to stay erect much of the day, instead of momentarily like other apes, we need extra anti-gravity systems - including balance. That's "the core." Well, many people sit most of the day and that's not so good.

So let's accept that all of our body needs difficult movement to remain functional, but the core is the core. Foundational.

What is core?  It is primarily the "posterior chain", from glutes to upper back. Secondarily, to counterbalance that, the abdominal groups of muscles. 

While there are plenty of posterior chain exercises, the mighty mighty deadlift done right is the best single thing for the entire core, posterior and abdominals. Some might argue that sit-ups, crunches, and the like are useful but I view them as accessory core exercises.

This gal's technique is not quite right - knees way too close and back too arched, but I give her credit for being there: 

CIA Whistleblower Testifies That Agency Covered Up Lab Leak at Behest of Fauci

Washington Post Seems Surprised That People With Few Private Sector Skills Having Trouble Getting Jobs

Liberal Outlet Politico: Democrats Trying ‘New’ Strategy of Blaming Trump for Everything

The Latest Bluesky Meltdown

Virginia, Sic Semper Tyrannis?

Mayorkas: It Wasn't My Fault!

The Starmer Drama Continues

However you feel about their creator, TrumpIRAs are sorely needed

‘Weird, totally unnecessary, and absurd’: UVA students raise concerns over tampon dispensers in men’s restrooms

Public School Exodus Hits Texas - “Have you looked at the impact that this decline will have on the teacher retirement system?”

California Farmers to Destroy 420,000 Peach Trees After Del Monte Collapses

The Poll That Should Embarrass the Country: 30% Doubt the Bullets Aimed at Trump

The ‘Very Fine People’ Were Paid - A decade-long distortion, a media megaphone, and the story that reshaped American politics.

Is Spencer Pratt the hero LA needs?

Dog rapists in Israel? 

US Unleashes Another Wave Of Crude From Strategic Reserve As Gas Prices Soar

Germany’s Nuclear Confession Is a Crack in Net‑Zero Pretense

It's probably due to the loss of small farms and hay meadows in the Eastern US. When the eastern US was mainly woodlands, they were probably uncommon too.

When I was a kid, Meadowlarks and flocks of Bobolinks were not unusual, especially during spring migration.

The grassland Western Meadowlark has no such problem. 

All about the Eastern Meadowlark 

Reflections on Going Off Into the Deep End of the Pool

Professor quantifies ‘curriculum degradation’ at University of Chicago

A Note on Government Fraud

Union Ad Attacking Spencer Pratt Backfires So Hard It May Be One of the Best Pro-Pratt Ads Yet

Trump Administration Gets Strategic With Offshore Wind

After Losing His Buttocks in Local Elections, Starmer Declares War on 'Right-Wing' and Regular British

Ideological Insanity Has Gotten Way Way Worse In The UK...

Free diapers 

Did Someone Blow the Whistle on Motherhood?

 U.S. women 40+ now have more babies per capita than teens.

When The Mall Turned Into A Party

 Chinese EVs Absent From U.S. Roads, But Parts Under The Hood Are Alarming

VDH: How our ‘new’ Democratic Party is really a blast from the Jacobin past 

The gerrymandering story 

 Europeans Are Also Tired Of Dumb Leftists Ruining Everything They Touch

England: " the Labour Party needs the Muslim vote. Alas for the nominally ruling party, the Muslim vote no longer needs Labour.”

WB Nuthatch, Tufted Titmouse, Goldfinch, Common Nighthawk, Robin, Cardinal,  House Sparrow, Balt. Oriole, Catbird, Grackle, Blue Jay.

Might have more in the morning.

 Coffee May Protect Against Aging, And Caffeine Isn't The Main Reason

 Tracking Dr. Fauci’s Fallout

 Wall Street giant Apollo aims to open ‘second headquarters’ outside NYC — in latest fallout from Mamdani’s war on the wealthy 

 The fall of the Golden State - California’s tech elites have virtue-signalled their way to economic collapse.

These Moments Are Why Republican Spencer Pratt Was Declared the Overwhelming Winner of LA Mayor Debate

Round and round the Money goes, where it stops, Everybody knows (into Democrat pockets). Homeless housing and funding in Seattle.

Abby Phillip Is Raging About the GOP's Redistricting Wins

There is never "settled science" 

 Fungal strains in space spark worry

 New York’s Teachers’ Unions Are So Progressive, They’re Even Alienating Teachers

Why Minimum Wage is Maximum Folly

Politics:"I don't want a solution" 

 New York Told Ken Griffin To Leave...And He Listened

 "This disaster was an ideological choice. If states are the laboratories of democracy, cities had become its meth labs."

What states have lots of DEI in education? 

 Josh Shapiro’s Message to Fetterman Carries a Familiar Party Warning: Conform

 TGIF: Too Crazy and Not Crazy Enough

Marco Rubio is a rock star in the Trump admin – and making himself a serious candidate for prez in 2028 

We’re Saved: Amsterdam Bans Ads For Meat And Fossil Fuels

Tracking Dr. Fauci’s Fallout

 Area Where Zohran Mamdani is Planning to Build Government-Owned Grocery Store Already Has 45 Markets Within Walking Distance

 Iran Spox Blasts 'Unrealistic' White House 'Wish List'

 Mass Migration Doubles Modern Day Slavery in the UK - "Slavery in the UK is at record levels"

That's all I have today

It's Official: The Climate Scam Was a Scam All Along

New Research Shows How the Earliest Humans Got Their Meat

What Will The Future Look Like After Louisiana v. Callais?

DC Judge 'Apologizes' To Alleged Trump Assassin

Alberta Separatists Call on Premier To Trigger Referendum, as Oil-Rich Province Moves To Leave Woke Canada

We have had a Lab. Love them. Very hunt-trainable too, and also life-trainable. The only Chessies I have known were owned by a girlfriend's Dad. Tough as nails, bulky, unfriendly (often termed "protective") - but thrilled to chase a duck or a stick into icy water. 

Article with podcast: The History of the Labrador and Chesapeake Bay Retrievers

Nature vs nurture: How much of our personalities are determined at birth?

"Limiting food and water has been used to hasten death in people dying at home since long before it had a formal name."

Yale Class Day speakers: Only 1 Republican over span of nearly 50 years

Tracking Higher Ed’s Dismantling of DEI

Starbucks flight: Seattle chooses decline

TGIF: A New Tux on the Dirty Hilton Floor

Heavy on sarcasm 

Jonathan Turley vs. the Mob

Now That’s How You Get People Off Food Stamps!

Guess Who’s Big Mad They Can’t Buy Junk Food With Your Tax Money Anymore

Africa Is Splitting Apart Faster Than We Thought, Forming a New Ocean

Lesbian Communists Hijack New Hampshire Public School Curriculum

The Marriage Gap Is America's Most Overlooked Source of Inequality. Every dollar of well-intentioned government assistance comes with a behavioral price tag that we've largely refused to count.

 The Biden admin’s COVID vaccine cover-up and lies can no longer be denied – or the damage they caused

We Can't Talk Anymore Because Our Moral Visions Are So Far Apart

Democrats’ leftist takeover is complete with Graham Platner’s rise in Maine US Senate race

SCOTUS Just Blew Up the Democrats’ Favorite Election Rigging Scheme

Antique system...

Miranda Devine: The Biden admin’s COVID vaccine cover-up and lies can no longer be denied – or the damage it caused

The SPLC Was One Giant Fraud

Are Greeks People of color?

Philip Kennicott's Ballroom Panic is Wearing Thin

FBI Raids Minnesota Daycares in Fraud Investigation

Al Gore worried about a new Ice Age

Obama: Motive of Dem Who Wanted to Kill Trump Unknown

VDG: All the Dream Houses of the Left - The Left’s political imagination
builds heroes, villains, and entire histories untethered from reality,
substituting narrative for fact until it collapses under scrutiny.

The Democrats' Gerrymander Gloating Hits a Brick Wall

Supreme Court Drops HUGE Ruling on the Voting Rights Act

The United States of Pseudoscience

How the Association of American Medical Colleges Lost Its Way

Finally, Some Covid Accountability?

 Pressure on DOJ to prosecute Anthony Fauci grows after adviser indicted—with days left to charge COVID ‘lies’

Blue states are bad-policying themselves into electoral oblivion

Trump Admin Requiring Enhanced Background Checks For Immigration Benefits

Why the UK and EU Keep Doubling Down on Net Zero Dogma

OPEC’s end will be a win for humanity and America — another Trump miracle

Is Ibogaine the Next Miracle Drug?

Gun Control Advocates: About Those Hunting Rifles We Said Were Okay...

WashU student upset new campus convenience store uses term ‘bodega’

Roy Pushes FISA Amendment to Kill Biden-Era  Car Surveillance Mandate

Pritzker: Trump Deserved It, and I'll Justify It by Completely and Hilariously Wrecking Myself

California Wealth Tax Has Enough Signatures to Make the Ballot

12-Year-Old French Girl Collapses After Judge Releases Men Arrested For Gang Raping Her In Airbnb

Administrator plague:  Our Self-Colonized Nation - When the parasites stop riding along and start driving.

A Burrito Stand Qualifies for Hospice Funding Under California’s Medicaid System

We must pass voter ID — it is simply common sense

Mike Johnson's Crusade to Renew Warrantless NSA Spying on Americans Culminates This Week

Why hating the rich has become America’s favorite form of therapy

Manifesto Released: He Believed All the Lies the Democrats Now Claim They Never Said

Trump "fled loud noise" 

Reset Germany: Breaking with an Exhausted Ruling Class