Living the dream...

texts from last night:

"(516): im stripping for him via video chat, but the sound is turned off cause his students are taking a test"

Training.

10/31 - AM - Atlas 1&3
PM - Atlas III pushup, Atlas situp, hindu squats, Atlas situp, Atlas III pushup, MILO DSR/Dynamic Tension - Atlas 1&3

10/30 - AM - Atlas 1&3
PM - press, row, pushups, curls, goblin squats, pullovers, sldl, leg raise - Atlas 1&3

10/29 - AM - Atlas 1&3
PM - Atlas 1&3, 20m interval/kickboxing

God's Gonna Cut You Down.

I don't even believe in god, but I love this song. Go figure.

Run on.

Happy Halloween.

Hallow'en is safe, your kids are safe, the only scary thing is the warnings - Boing Boing:

"And the fact is: No child has been poisoned by a stranger's goodies on Halloween, ever, as far as we can determine. Joel Best, a sociology professor at the University of Delaware, studied November newspapers from 1958 to the present, scouring them for any accounts of kids felled by felonious candy. And...he didn't find any. He did find one account of a boy poisoned by a Pixie Stix his father gave him."

Never really thought about it that way, be he's actually quite right.

H. L. Mencken - Wikiquote:

"The Gettysburg speech was at once the shortest and the most famous oration in American history... But let us not forget that it is poetry, not logic; beauty, not sense. Think of the argument in it! Put it into the cold words of everyday! The doctrine is simply this: that the Union soldiers who died at Gettysburg sacrificed their lives to the cause of self-determination – 'that government of the people, by the people, for the people,' should not perish from the earth. It is difficult to imagine anything more untrue. The Union soldiers in the battle actually fought against self-determination; it was the Confederates who fought for the right of their people to govern themselves."

That's actually about right - TV Pie Chart.

Hilarious, and only mildly disturbing.

Fedor! Oh Fedor! from All Elbows on Vimeo.

Via Awesome. - Fightlinker - MMA, UFC, and other funny fight crap

"No matter what it is—cigarettes, trans fat, incandescent light bulbs—chances are some nanny wants to ban it. And this past month was no exception."

It is, in fact, somewhat popular in Japan.

Carbohydrates control insulin; insulin regulates fat accumulation; chronically high insulin and insulin resistance lead to disease.

Outstanding article.

Zeroing In On Health – The Blog! Carbohydrates Kill People:

"I know, that appears to be quite a statement, but it’s true. Refined carbohydrates, starches and sugars are the dietary cause of coronary heart disease, and diabetes. They are the most likely causes of cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, and the other chronic diseases of civilization.

Carbohydrates affect insulin secretion by the pancreas and the more eaily digestible and refined the carbohydrates, the more chronic the effect on the hormonal regulation of homeostasis, the entire ensemble of the human body. This has an adverse affect on health, weight and well-being.

...What exactly regulates fat tissue? The answer is insulin. Carbohydrates increase insulin secretion, which increases hunger and decreases the amount of energy we expend in metabolism and physical activity. Theodore Van Itallie of Columbia University testified to McGovern’s Select Committee in 1973 that “There is an increased need for these vitamins when more carbohydrate in the diet is consumed.” Moreover, researchers have known since the 1930s that B vitamins are depleted from the body by the consumption of carbohydrates.

...In 1957, diabetologist George Campbell suggested an incubation period for diabetes. He found that amongst Zulu populations who worked in the physically demanding sugar cane industry that once sugar consumption reached 70 pounds per person, per year, the diseases of civilization would begin to appear. This same conclusion was drawn by missionary and colonial physicians who worked with isolated populations such as Schweitzer with African nations of the sub-Sahara, Hutton with the Eskimos of Laborador, or Hrdlicka with the Native American of the Great Plain. Once the people abandoned their native fat-rich diets and adopted the European dietary of refined and easily digestible carbohydrates, they could look forward to all the diseases of civilization, starting with dental caries all the way to dementia..."

Courage Wolf wants you to man the fuck up.

More here.

Jesus Saves. Tacos.

I believe the children are the future.

Dream big, little dude.

According to this, I should be Buddhist, Hindu or Atheist.

If I got a cat though, I could be a Wiccan.

The stupidity is shocking, it really is.

Council bans parents from play areas - Boing Boing:

"Score one for Britain in its contest with the United States to create the stupidest fear-based society. The Watford Borough Council took the lead by banning parents from supervising their own kids in public playgrounds, 'because they have not undergone criminal record checks.'

The only adults allowed to monitor the kids are idiocracy-vetted 'play rangers.' The children's parents must 'watch from outside a perimeter fence.'"

"The moment you begin to think of your job as “important,” you become more stressed and less innovative in your career."

Great article.

The Simple Dollar » Is Your Work Too Important?:

“One of the symptoms of approaching nervous breakdowns is the belief that one’s work is terribly important. If I were a medical man, I should prescribe a holiday to any patient who considered his work important.” - Bertrand Russell, The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell"

Training.

AM - Atlas 1&3
PM - hindu pushups, hindu squats, bridging, pullups, chins, pushups, bear squats - isometrics - Atlas 1&3

Unsurprisingly obvious point of the day.

Torture makes you seem guilty - Boing Boing:

"A Harvard psych study published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology shows that when people are present during torture, they gradually come to believe the torture victim is guilty as a way of assuaging their consciences for their complicity in torture..."

Headline Win.

Terrified London cops spending millions gathering useless intelligence on peaceful protestors - Boing Boing

Courage Wolf - my newest favorite meme.

More here.

Via Courage Wolf | Know Your Meme

Greatness.

Via TheChive » Blog Archive » Taking the tramp stamp to new highs…or lows (18 Photos)

Problems.

Overheard in New York | Wednesday One-Liners Were "Working Late":

"Girl on phone: I'm so sick of this! He keeps making excuses not to see me! I feel like I'm being used! (pause) No, really. (pause) I just can't deal anymore! We only hang out when he wants sex! (pause) And his excuses! Ohmigod! They are getting so lame. (pause) If it's not his work or boss, it's his nanny or his wife or his kid. (pause) I mean... what's his deal?

--Broadway & 20th St

Overheard by: Cali in NYC"

Training.

10/27 - AM - Atlas 1&3
PM - Atlas 1&3

10/26 - AM - Atlas 1&3
PM - push press, row, pushups, curls, goblin squats, pullovers, sldl, leg raises - Atlas 1&3

Batman + Liam Neeson in 'Taken' = This Guy.

Father kidnaps daughter's killer - Boing Boing:

"Emerson says:'In a French court, a German doctor is found guilty in absentia of manslaughter, for the death of a 14 year old girl. Germany refuses to extradite. Twenty seven years later the girl's father drops off the gagged, tied, and beaten doctor on the steps of the French courthouse.'"

The Internet - Helping me procrastinate since 1996.

Most via Fuck Yeah 4Chan

Truth hurts.

Overheard in New York | Nuh-Uh!:

"Boy, passing smokers: Daddy, I smell cigarettes.
Dad: I know, it's smelly...
Smoker #1: Daddy, I smell obnoxious children.
Smoker #2: I know, they're smelly...
Dad, leaving: Poopie-heads.

--120th St & Amsterdam Ave

Overheard by: smoker"

"That's just powerful" - Office Karaoke Video Makes Cubicle Life Fun.

Lip synching, actually, not karaoke. But other than that, awesome.

Via Office Karaoke Video Makes Cubicle Life Fun - Boing Boing


Via the comments, this older, similar, gem.
Lip Dub - Flagpole Sitta by Harvey Danger on Vimeo

Lip Dub - Flagpole Sitta by Harvey Danger from amandalynferri on Vimeo.

"I know ya'll hate Jesus... and I know ya'll have 7 Jew bankers that control the world's money supply, right?"

"The South - and again, I've been all over, I've lived in so many places all over the country - The South has a certain kind of ignorance that is deeper and truer, more unwavering and steadfast than an ignorance that the rest of the country has. And just for lack of a better term let's call it Southern Baptist."

"Feed the hungry and you're a saint. Ask why they are hungry and you are a communist."

I'd actually never heard that. More at the link.

Rick Steves' Travel as a Political Act Blog - El Salvador's Civil War:

"There's a popular saying in the poor world: Feed the hungry and you're a saint. Ask why they are hungry and you are a communist. In the 1970s, Central American priests started asking why. These Liberation Theologians threatened the powerful…and were killed..."

49 year old grandmother - who looks to be in awesome shape - looking for her first MMA match.

You're Never To Old To Get In The Ring | KIMA CBS 29 - News, Weather and Sports - Yakima, WA - Yakima, Washington 29 | Local & Regional:

"She's not your typical cage fighter, but that's not stopping a Walla Walla grandmother from trying. DeEtta Petersen is 49 year old. She is a mother and grandmother, but age isn't stopping her, it's pushing her."

Haven't had a flu shot in a decade; none the worse for it...

Is It Really A “National Emergency,” Mr. President? | Free The Animal:

"...suppose we were able to make the epidemiology better. How would one do that? Well, the easiest and surest way would be to not vaccinate at all for a year, and then compare the death rates to the years when many were vaccinated.

THE HISTORY OF FLU VACCINATION suggests other reasons to doubt claims that it dramatically reduces mortality. In 2004, for example, vaccine production fell behind, causing a 40 percent drop in immunization rates. [...]

And how did that work out? It wasn't a total moratorium on vaccination, but maybe it'll lend a clue. But let's wait. Maybe we can get even more data.

[...] In addition, vaccine “mismatches” occurred in 1968 and 1997: in both years, the vaccine that had been produced in the summer protected against one set of viruses, but come winter, a different set was circulating. In effect, nobody was vaccinated. [...]

There we go...and, the punchline:

[...] Yet death rates from all causes, including flu and the various illnesses it can exacerbate, did not budge. Sumit Majumdar, a physician and researcher at the University of Alberta, in Canada, offers another historical observation: rising rates of vaccination of the elderly over the past two decades have not coincided with a lower overall mortality rate. In 1989, only 15 percent of people over age 65 in the U.S. and Canada were vaccinated against flu. Today, more than 65 percent are immunized. Yet death rates among the elderly during flu season have increased rather than decreased."

Yet both "National Emergencies" and associated corporate profits persist...

Had enough? Well, much of the remainder of the piece is about resistance over controlled trials, which, if you read regularly: observational epidemiology only gets you to the hypothesis stage. You need to control variables to tease out real causes. So, let's explore.

The annals of medicine are littered with treatments and tests that became medical doctrine on the slimmest of evidence, and were then declared sacrosanct and beyond scientific investigation. In the 1980s and ’90s, for example, cancer specialists were convinced that high-dose chemotherapy followed by a bone-marrow transplant was the best hope for women with advanced breast cancer, and many refused to enroll their patients in randomized clinical trials that were designed to test transplants against the standard—and far less toxic—therapy. The trials, they said, were unethical, because they knew transplants worked. When the studies were concluded, in 1999 and 2000, it turned out that bone-marrow transplants were killing patients. Another recent example involves drugs related to the analgesic lidocaine...

Don't have a short memory and don't be dumb. Realize that those who are in power are in power because they like to be in power (Duh!); they don't really give a damn about you or your family, and You. Are. On. Your. Own.

Not entirely untrue.

Speaking as an Academy grad, that is. Not entirely true, either... but, you know, funny.

Fred On Everything:

"In re Afghanistan, why, you might ask, is the world’s hugest, expensivest, most begadgeted military unable to defeat a few thousand angry tribesmen armed with AKs and RPGs?

Easy: Character. The men running the war are mentally the wrong ones to do it.

...Should you be so unwary as to suggest the foregoing in print, the response will usually be that militaries need discipline. True, and so do newspapers. However, there is a distinction between discipline and ritualized lunacy. At every publication for which I have worked, the editor was clearly and absolutely in charge. Yet I, seldom senior, could say, “Yeah, Wes, but if we do that, won’t thus-and-so bad thing happen?” His decision was law, but he was happy to hear from subordinates, who might know something he didn’t. Editors do not require vaguely sadomasochistic submissiveness.

This hoopla is not of use in combat. The Taliban seem to be doing rather well. Do you suppose their commanders check their beds to be sure that a quarter will bounce from their blankets?

Now, what kind of kid wants to go for robot training at West Point or boat school at Annapolis? Statistically these kids are bright, gregarious, “motivated” (a favorite military word), athletic, perhaps Eagle Scouts. Psychologically they want (need?) to live under a regime of rigid conformity and obedience that would appear as absurd as it is if we were not accustomed seeing it among soldiers. That is, they are autoselected not to think for themselves or question decisions from above. They are exactly what universities exist not to produce.

The service academies reinforce these unfortunate characteristics. Their schooling consists of four years of learning what to think, not how to think. There are hours of running in formation (“If I die on the Russian front….”), close-order drill, manual of arms (“Hen-spection…harms!”). Why? There is no military value in being able to shift your rifle from shoulder to shoulder crisply. Like the endless inspections of everything, all of this participation in the hive inculcates groupishness and a curious sense of safety in conformity.

The effects are remarkable and, from a standpoint of civilization, undesirable. Large authoritarian organizations make easier the compartmentalization of morality. A colonel typically will be a good neighbor, civic-minded, responsible, unlikely to steal your silverware or kick your dog. If the Pentagon tells him to bomb a city he has never heard of and has no reason to bomb, killing people who pose no threat to him, he will. He feels no individual responsibility for atrocious behavior ordered from above. “I vas only followink orders,” the Nuremberg defense, is the bedrock of military ethics, if any.

...they have in their minds a view of war that is partly that of offensive linemen—you close with the enemy and destroy him—and partly martial romanticism. They speak of duty, honor, country, bravery, fallen comrades, proving oneself. Military history is rife with silly pageantry, nobility of spirit, glorious charges, and impracticality. Having been trained to think rigidly, they do.

...A consequence is a tendency for militaries of the First World to gravely overestimate themselves, and thus underestimate their enemies. This is why they usually expect wars to be far shorter and cheaper than they turn out to be.

...The US military in particular has a compulsory can-do attitude, with slogans like “The difficult we can do today, the impossible takes a bit longer.” This substitution of morale for comprehension is regularly disastrous.

Having no idea what they are getting into is almost doctrine among professional officers..."

Shogun got robbed.

UFC 104: Mauricio "Shogun" Rua is Robbed by the CSAC Judges, Champion Lyoto Machida Gets Off Lucky - Bloody Elbow

Machida lost but won - Fightlinker

Mauricio "Shogun" Rua Picks Lyoto Machida Apart to Lose UFC Light Heavyweight Title - Bloody Elbow

Japan Pepsi Fail.

I love some azuki, and daifuku is my hands-down favorite Japanese snack treat, but this was not good. Sadly. Like cough syrup, kind of.

From 2009-10-24

Training.

10/25 - AM - Atlas 1&3
PM - Atlas 1&3 - pushups, chinups, rows, pullups, hindu pushups, hindu squats, bridging

10/24 - AM - Atlas 1&3

10/23 - AM - Atlas 1&3
PM - db press, row, pushups, curls, goblin squats, pullovers, sldl, leg raises - Atlas 1&3

10/22 - AM - Atlas 1&3
PM - 20m intervals/kickboxing - Atlas 1&3

I may be in trouble.

Via Cola Shock Zero | Japan Probe