Free the Animal

Mockery

I guess it was rather early in the AM, yesterday, when I noted that the top news item on my Yahoo "home page" was that 'ol Barack was about to announce a running mate.

I could only imagine the millions who must've worn out their mice buttons throughout the day clicking on the refresh, over and over. I paid no attention at all, and then when I went to the gym at 4pm pacific, noted afterward on the locker-room TV that Matthews of "Hardball" infamy was being his usual self, acting as though American Civilization was on the cusp of some momentous event. Still no announcement...

Ooh; Ah.

Well, as I understood it, several "reasons" were proffered for the delay. "He wants to lure many more to sign up for the text message announcement," of course so he can send out additional text messages for the remainder of the campaign to tell people just how it's "the most important election of our time" (So send money. Now.), or, at least, the most important since the last one and of lesser importance than the next one, which, he would not say in any event but is implicit in the whole scam. Impotence Importance inflation, I guess. Other reasons were that he wanted to make McCain sweat it out, not giving him an opportunity to go all "politic" on the thing, being it's so momentous, and all. Then there's the Hillary! Factor.

My favorite was Matthews' claim that Obama runs a "very disciplined campaign." I suppose. I've always loved the film "The Godfather" and sequels precisely for the cool and calculating discipline always on display from the Don.

Whatever the precise reason or mix of them, I think William of Ockham bears attention and that the more simple and essential reason for all the delay is because Obama's campaign is assured of something quite necessary in this sort of endeavor. Can you guess what his assurance is? Here, let's have George give you a clue.

So here's my modest suggestion for the remainder of the erection election: keep the link to that video handy and take the four minutes to give it a review every time you start feeling the fool, which you really should feel if you're paying any serious attention to this nonsense beyond the clinical (as in: mass hysteria and psychosis), or simple amusement. Oh, and there's always mockery, too. That's my personal favorite.

Rule #1: don't be anybody's fool.

Bitch Charm II

Those who were around last January and took a look will recall Bitch Charm.

And now I'll introduce you to Bitch Charm II. That's our 3-yr-old Rat Terrier, Nanuka ("Nuke"). The other dog is Spot, a sheep herding breed and a very nice dog. If you saw my flying video from the other day, he's featured in my landing. He does this to all the pilots. At about 300-500 ft AGL ('above ground level') he gets "missile lock," as Page, the human Spot owns, describes it. It's very interesting to watch. Rather than simply chasing underneath the glider in the air, he maintains an angle (that's an "intercept vector"), always turning inside the glider on it's DBF ('downwind, base, & final') and always ends up right underneath at landing.

Every pilot I've seen welcomes it just fine.

Anyway, Nuke likes Spot just fine too. Down, and literally dirty. See for yourself.

Where this moment?

Trials Pub. Hot ckicen & bacon salad.

Anecdotal Data Point

So driving back from getting my wife's new car battery, I encountered the stupidest, most reckless driver I've seen in perhaps months.

First, she runs a red light turning left into a 4-way lighted intersection where the cross traffic had the green (for a while). I had to brake to avoid. Then, she slows and slows, eventually stopping right in the middle of the roadway, looking this way and that. I finally got around, to be done with her.

Punchline: bumper-sticker; "Obama '08."

Not All Work

A curious car-centric day.

First, I had an idea that the battery life on my wife's Infinity FX was coming to an end. I recently had to jump it, but wasn't sure if it was an anomoly, or what. After sitting idle for a week, it became clear. So, the day began with me going down and pulling the thing, which isn't like your father's car. Significant amounts of engine-compartment cowling had to be dissasembled just to access it. But then, it was quick work taking the core over to Kragen, getting a new one and getting it back together. Total time of operation: about an hour or so.

Then I got back to the paperwork shuffle and catch up, review of outstanding issues, and then it was over to Provanta for the monthly Board of Director's meeting, in which I undertake the role of Chairman.

After that, more car stuff. My fellow director Chris just turned in his S-Type Jaguar (now discontinued) and got a new XK. Yowzer! So, this is what I've been "test" driving for the last bit.

It has the paddle shifters right conveniently located on the back of the steering wheel; right for up, left for down, six speeds. Takes a bit of getting used to, but I can definitely see the performance advantages, particularly on winding roads that require a lot of quick reversal steering. My BMW X5 has a 6-speed auto/semi-auto transmission, so I'm already well versed in the impressive advantages of close ratios for performance. Hint: you drive the tachometer, not the speedometer. That may sound like a "Duh" to people who've driven a high-performance 4-speed, but let me just say that's it's way far easier to stay right in a very short power band, and particularly so with semi-auto shifting, by which I mean that you control the execution, the car controls the fundamental procedure (i.e., no clutch or necessity of letting the engine revs dive).

Having said that, if I was to have a pure sports car, such as my '86 Vette, I'd definitely get a standard 6-speed. Oh, speaking of Vettes, a nice late-model red one pulled up alongside on the freeway. First time in a long time I didn't feel a pang of longing envy.

Logical Simplicity

The only thing really complicated about Mike's list of mistakes people make is that most people are so enthusiastic about the havoc they're wreaking on their bodies that they aren't really stopping to assess why it is that they make no gains and often get worse -- chronically worse. That's to say it's rather complicated figuring out why one can observe plain old animals, like dogs, behave in accordance with their natures, while humans have all this benefit of knowledge, science, technology and so very many use these things to violate their biological natures rather than to enhance and promote them.

I'm all for "out-competing god" (one of my favorite metaphors), and I have no problem in the world with artificial or man-made means of either obviating the continued necessity of biological processes in a natural, evolved way, or circumventing nature altogether. However...

Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed. -- Francis Bacon

I might state it that nature, to be commanded, must first be obeyed. You must first understand what you are doing, form hypotheses, test them, and keep testing them and developing new ones. This ensures that you are first obeying nature all the while you are trying to overcome its more harsh realities.

This is critically important and crucial to the unique approach to health and a lean physique I intend to develop. Many in this area are either Luddites, or those peddling useless -- often harmful -- products and information that begin, very first thing, by ignoring nature, being ignorant of it, or simply not caring to ask any questions or see any answers. I don't know which group I hate more.

Now take a look at Howie's story, as reported by Billy Beck. I think that's just fabulous. Bring it on. So, those who claim that science is messing with nature, or any other way they choose to express their disdain -- often on religious or "environmental" grounds -- can just go fuck themselves without delay. And same goes for those who maintain an exclusively medical approach to all human suffering without at least understanding the underlying physiological and metabolic issues from a natural, non-medical perspective. Sure, let's have insulin available for Type IIs who absolutely refuse to eat in a way that will cure their diabetes; but let's at very least make sure they are informed about their options, and for god's sake, fuck the American Diabetes Association and its criminal, murderous approach. While I'm at it? Fuck the FDA as well.

The weird thing is that it's so simple. The fortunate thing is that once one is off the addiction of the highly processed foods and (especially) drinks of "civilization," it's actually quite a de-fogging experience. Man, do I know. After a week of camping with all manner of food and beverage available, I'm happy to get back to normal. I did reasonably well, but at the same time was interested in seeing what a few excursions into processed foods and drink would do to me.

In a word: tired. I can not remember having bouts of being so tired at times in months and months.

All the foregoing is by way of prefiguring my approach to all of this, and forms one aspect of the general basis of the manifesto I'm currently outlining. More is sure to come.

This & That

Back home and in full force, finally. Lots to do. Lots & lots. ...General work involving an existing company, a start-up company, a town home building project, this blog's new nutrition & fitness direction and ancillary projects surrounding that endeavor.

The bottle of scotch will just have to age a bit more.

In the meantime, here's a shot of the full moon I took the last night of camping at Hat Creek, CA.

Presumptions

Here's a conversation with a waitress at a nice little restaurant this morning.

Me: I'll have the eggs, ground beef patty, potatoes; no toast. Over easy and medium.

Her: Oh, the ground beef has almost no fat in it.

Me: That's unfortunate.

Her: Oh, yea, she gets the ground beef with almost no fat in it and cooks it well done, so it's healthy.

Me: I beg to differ. I eat 60-70% of calories from animal fat and have the healthiest blood lipids you will ever see in your life. Anyway, how about the sausage patty? Is that low fat too?

Her: Oh no, not at all.

Me: Alright then. Sausage it is.

Of course, she knows nothing about "health," neither does the cook, and neither do over 99% of the people in the civilized world. Primitives and savages know about nutritional health, but then again, they have to in order to survive. They don't have the "convenience" of being able to blank out and simply follow and regurgitate the "points and authorities" of the anointed, which, I hasten to add, have been a general disaster for most people who've ever followed them. She only spouts off with the "low fat" and "health" crap in the same sentence because of the oos, ahs, and pats on the head she gets from the ignorant, the stupid, and the moronic -- most of whom are probably lard asses: from eating low-fat, sugar, and grains.

When she walked off, I turned and said to Bea: I hate it when someone presumes me to be a moron.

There's no shortcut. You must become your own authority and your own experimental laboratory if a sound and genuinely healthy body is as important to you as a sound mind. There's no dichotomy, and just as you must take on your own study of philosophy, history, and politics to have a genuinely authoritative view of man's life in this world, the other -- integrated -- side is the fitness of your own body.

Arthur De Vany in the UK Times

The diet that really works

Bryan Appleyard thinks he has found a diet that really works: it took him three weeks to shed 14lb with healthy ease. But he had to go back 5,000 years to discover the science behind it

This isn’t just background, it is essential to an understanding of Arthur’s approach to diet and fitness. It is very rigorous and thoughtful – which is why Nassim’s [Nicholas Taleb] advocacy got me on the diet. The first point is that economics happens inside the body as well as outside. His work is all about the dynamics of complex, adaptive systems; he calls himself a complexity scientist. Central to this is the overthrow of old statistical models. Basically, we have all been taught that events – human wealth, earthquakes, blockbuster movies – cluster round an average forming a graph in the shape of a bell curve. This is an illusion and the concept of the average leads to fatal errors.

In reality, almost all events of significance follow what are known as “power laws”. This means, to simplify, that what are thought of as rare events are, in fact, more important than any average. We think of bank crises, like the present one, as rare and the rest of the time the banks go on making money. In fact, they don’t. Bank crashes are so devastating that they wipe out all the investment profits of the banking system. Look at the average and you don’t see this; apply power laws and you do.

“The average,” says Arthur, “is always misleading and may not exist.”

The obsession with the bell curve and the average has corrupted us. We tend to think of stable models not just of the human world but also of the human body. Almost all dietary and fitness regimes are based on a homeostatic view of the body – meaning it is a self-regulating system that maintains itself in a continuous, stable condition. The average is the ideal. So we are told to eat regular meals consisting of a balance of the food groups and to take regular exercise, dominated by steady aerobic activity like cycling or jogging. This is all wrong.