Archives for June 2008

I am momentarily relieved…I am not impressed.

Billy Beck, on the SCOTUS DC gun ban decision.

Update 8/17/2008: Since Art changed his blog around, the links below to his photos are no longer available. However, I've written a lot of stuff about Art, and you can skim through all my "EvFit" postings here. Also, here's a recent video clip of Art, taken a few months back at a seminar I attended in Vegas.

For those skeptical about Evolutionary Fitness (diet and exercise) and its long-term health benefits, here's a look at Art while at the gym getting some photos done for his book.

He turns 71 years old in August. I would say that almost anyone should be able to obtain those kind of results in just a few year's time, depending on where you are when you begin. It's 80% about the diet, and the workouts should be short (30-40 minutes max), intense, and no more frequent than 2-3 times per week at the gym.

By the way, I'll probably devote a post to this and a few other items, but I dumped the Lyle McDonald Rapid Fat Loss Diet early in the week and went back to eating EvFit/Paleo and I'm not looking back, ever. I bring this up because I think a lot of people look at someone like Art, who has been practicing EvFit for 25 years or so, and they conclude it's going to be hard work, requiring too much discipline, etc. Nothing could be further from the truth. I'm just one person and I guess that perhaps some would not enjoy an EvFit lifestyle, but all I could think of while on that low-carb, low-fat, mega protein diet in order to speed my progress in getting to 10% BF was getting back to the EvFit way of eating that I have come to love. This is a way of life, or "Life Way," as Art calls it, not a diet or "exercise program." All that Art has really accomplished by eating and exercising as he does is to let his 2-3 million year evolved genes express themselves as they were meant to do — even into one's 70s, 80s, and most likely well beyond.

Let me show you. This would apply to any of millions worldwide who think Al Gore is a great guy and good for the environment.

In the past year, Gore’s home burned through 213,210 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity, enough to power 232 average American households for a month.

[…]

Since taking steps to make his home more environmentally-friendly last June, Gore devours an average of 17,768 kWh per month –1,638 kWh more energy per month than before the renovations – at a cost of $16,533. By comparison, the average American household consumes 11,040 kWh in an entire year, according to the Energy Information Administration.

In the wake of becoming the most well-known global warming alarmist, Gore won an Oscar, a Grammy and the Nobel Peace Prize. In addition, Gore saw his personal wealth increase by an estimated $100 million thanks largely to speaking fees and investments related to global warming hysteria.

Suckers & Fools.

(that link was via my brother in email)

Think about it. Why on earth should children get tooth decay (see addendum)? Stephan thinks he knows.

Weston price was a dentist and scientist in the early part of the 20th century. Practicing dentistry in Cleveland, he was amazed at the poor state of his patients' teeth and the suffering it inflicted. At the time, dental health was even worse than it is today, with some children in their teens already being fitted for dentures. Being a religious man, he could not bring himself to believe that 'physical degeneration' was what God intended for mankind. He traveled throughout the world looking for cultures that did not have crooked teeth or dental decay, and that also exhibited general health and well-being. And he found them. A lot of them.

The diet experiment went OK last week, though if anyone has been checking my FitDay data, I haven't updated since Thursday (but I will). Add to that, we had a going-away party Friday night, another one at friends' on Saturday night, and then there was the Father's day festivities at mom's yesterday. Mom does low carb, and after the previous two nights of overindulgence I was off the alcohol, so it was about one for three.

And now both Bea and I — with her off school for the summer — are back on Lyle's program. I really hate it. It's just too low in fat. But I'll stick with it until we head down to SoCal on the 2nd of July. Then I plan to resume a bit lower fat version of paleo / EvFit. Principally, I'll forego nuts and cheese until I get the last couple dozen pounds of fat off. Maintenance will be a cinch. Hey, I already love eating this way and even when pounds were coming off excruciatingly slow, I never gained anything more than the typical fluctuations of a pound or two, which is probably digestive and water retention.

By the way, I had the idea of going to a low fat regime temporarily by reading these two entries from Dr. Michael Eades, author of Protein Power (with a new book off to the publisher). If you're doing low carb and have had issues with losing weight (fat), then those two blog entries and the comments are essential reading. I have steadily lost fat the whole year + I've been doing this, but at times it has slowed to as little as a pound to two per month. Cutting out alcohol (at least during the weekdays), as well as nuts and cheese really did the trick and a couple of weeks ago I dropped four pounds in three days (prior to beginning Lyle's program).

In other news, Stephan has interesting updates on the Masai. The first deals with the binary nature of the stats on atherosclerosis, and the second, how their low cholesterol on a very high-saturated fat diet went way up when the saturated fat was cut out. Also, this comment of Stephan's on the first of the cited links is a must.

Next up, my friend Justin Owings has a couple of interesting ones. The Stochasticity of Life bears serious reflection, with a quote from someone I link to a lot. As someone who places a lot of weight on the notion that ideas shape the future and serve to explain the past, this is a good reminder that ideas and principles, while crucially important, aren't everything. There is still a randomness. Here's why: there are hundreds, perhaps thousands of people living this very minute even more evil than Hitler in terms of the ideas they hold. Consider that. And, you will never eliminate them. You must understand that a great deal of what happens is not caused by bad and/or evil ideas — they have always persisted and always will — but by random and stochastic events and cycles that simply happen and that nobody can ever predict, much less have any idea of just what combination will set off a chain reaction of evil that results in the murder of tens of millions.

Justin again, this time on the topic of Hormesis. Here's his entry, which you'll note references me. In an email exchange we determined that the idea I'd actually passed on to him was one of using the clod dip if one is availalbe at your gym. That was on Stephan's Hormesis post, and my comment about getting into 40 degree water after the workout, sauna, steam room and hot tub.

Art is making progress on his redesign, and it looks good. "Super Mike" has turned 55 years old and is looking better and leaner than ever. Now, I can imagine that the untrained eye doesn't think he looks as good as he does, but that's an illusion created by the camera, owing to his twisting sideways at the waist and getting a 2D instead of 3D image of it. Trust me.

On the mental health front, Karen has fired HP and Microsoft. And hired Apple. My first email out of the day this morning was a note of congratulations.

I got wind of this just yesterday.

So, let me see… My current provider, AT&T, delivers very reliable DSL (down once that I'm aware of in 2 1/2 years) that's advertised as "up to" 6 Mbps down and "up to" 768 Kbps up. That's their top end service, and they sell it for $35.00 per month, which I consider a good value. I consistently get the same test results from Speakeasy: 5.x megs down and 5.x kilos up. Pretty good, and as I say, it's consistent, even from the far away servers.

But how on earth can that compete with 20 meg synchronous (up and down) for under $50 per month? That's 5 times faster download and 40 times faster on the upload. I'd probably do more YouTube videos, because it's really the slow upload that's the issue, there. This is god news, too:

With PAXIO you will not need to purchase any routers, hubs, modems or other specialized equipment. Furthermore, you won't need to install any software on your computers. Just plug your computers into any of your home's CAT5 data outlets (all of the CAT5 outlets will be active). You can plug a computer or router (or wireless router) into every CAT5 data outlet in the home.

Directly wired into the network. Believe me, having done a lot of LAN: not going through routers and/or "modems" at your end is a big plus. When there's a problem, it's going to be your machine(s) or theirs, and very likely nothing in-between short of a downed line.

But that's not even the best part. The best part is that I filled in their form to request service yesterday, and have had no less than four personally written emails from no less than two separate representatives, the latest one delivering this news below, after I suggested that myself and another tech geek at our lofts approach other HOAs in the near vicinity in hopes of making it highly worth Paxio's investment in hooking up our buildings.

Hello Richard,

Our fiber network may be as close as 200-300 ft. from your building (I am assuming there is a single building at this location).

In the past week PAXIO has been contacted by almost 15 residents at [your building].

There is clearly sufficient interest and the proximity is close enough that PAXIO will proceed with a site inspection and meeting with your HOA president next week. I am optimistic that PAXIO will be able to run a fiber and offer you and your neighbors service.

Please contact your neighbors. The more interest we have the better.

Regards,
Jim Brenton

The other gentleman who emaild is Geoff Muth, no less helpful at all. By every single indication, I want to do business (trade) with these guys.

The moment I publish this and get the link, I'm sending it out to these guys to tell them that's what they get for being pros and on the ball. Even if it doesn't work out, I'm confident they have and will continue to do everything they can to get a deal done.

Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha…Ha…

The Chinese think we're insane and self-destructive, while the Saudis laugh all the way to the bank.

Ha. Ha.

(Beck & Bidonotto)

As usual, Stephan the biologist delivers. Takes apart the biases in the study and all. Of course, the biases were incorporated in order to explain away the fact that one of the healthiest diets ever observed is one high in saturated fat and animal flesh, to the exclusion of much of everything else.

Let me sum it up: the heavy smoking Masai, who eat almost nothing but raw cow's milk, raw cow's blood, and meat, are healthier – far healthier in every marker — than you, Mr. and Ms. low-fat America.

Later: Just thought of something. Look at the picture on the link to Stephan's blog. Notice anything? How about that nice set of white sparklers in the one tribesman. This reminded me of a Discovery episode the other night I surfed into. It was covering some deeply indigenous population way far from any civilization in Papua New Guinea. I forget the name of the peoples, and they do live in squalor (I'd eat white flour and sugar first), but they looked remarkably healthy. They subsist on tadpoles, frogs, sweet potatoes, and tobacco they grow and dry themselves. The men were all lean, with nice pecs, shoulder decks, and defined triceps. Guess what else? White sparklers all. No missing teeth, and their gums looked quite healthy as well.

I simply have no stomach for this election disaster whatsoever, and even, politics in general, just now. Life is full, otherwise. Those of you who come here for the rants and ridicule, I sincerely apologize. I'm sure I'll hit on some things here and there. In the meantime, we've always got Billy.

It's way past time for people to start owning up to what they laughingly call their "ideas". Fucking morons. I hope they freeze in the dark, listening to the cries of their children. The real sin in all this is how they take sensible people along with them on the ride.

Goddam right. I am fortunate in that the price of gas doesn't affect me very much, but I know it's effecting alot of other people, and for no good reason. If we truly were "running out of oil," then we should rightly welcome such increases in prices, as such is a natural, free-market means of both rationing what's left of supplies, as well as driving the search and development of alternative energy sources and alternative means of getting shit done, such as getting from point A to B. But you have the state, globally, in the whole mess from top to bottom and wall to wall. That's not a free market. If it's a "market" at all, then it's a market in force, favor, and influence above all, and only the biggest get to play in that game.

He links a column from George Will, which of course is a must read.