Top 10 Worthless Degrees

Brilliant!

Should be forwarded to any youth contemplating going to college, just as this book should be mandatory reading for all kids considering college.

But what I particularly like is the comments section where the veritable morons with these degrees come to defend them. Oh, it's priceless!

Enjoy that decline!

Waterstone's Manchester Trafford Centre Book Signing

Other than getting accosted every hour by the giant Waterstone's caterpillar (see the pics below), everything ran smoothly today. After two hours, the regional branch manger pointed out that the fantasy-book author who was also signing books at the same store, had raced ahead of me on sales. As intended, the news stirred up my competitive spirit. I felt suddenly alive.
All offers of food and drink by the kindly staff were declined:
"Would you like us to nip out and get you a bite to eat or a coffee?"
"I don't eat or drink when I'm this focussed. I'm a sales machine. But thanks for asking."
The branch manager approached, "You've taken that movie Wall Street to heart haven't you: 'Lunch is for whimps.'"
"Yes, Gordon Gekko!"
But I did allow Mum two coffee breaks.    

A woman approached with a gaggle of kids who threatened to capsize my display by tugging on the tablecloth.
In order to disract them from the destruction they had in mind, I showed them my cockroach stamps. "I've got a question for you kids. Which colour cockroaches should I stamp my signature with in your mum's book: black or red?"
"Red!"
"Black!"
"Black!"
"Red!"
"Stamp them on my hand!" said a kid, sticking his arm out.
"And my hand!"
Half a dozen kids all stuck their arms out at once, yelling either red or black.
I looked at their mum. "I'm not stamping anything on them without your permission. I don't want to get done for child abuse. That's a KOS charge in prison by the gangs: Kill on sight."
She authorized the stamping of the hands, which proceeded much to the amusement of the shoppers, and the regional branch manager who even offered his hand for a stamp.

The plans I was molling over to do away with the fantasy author didn't need to be put into effect as by mid-afternoon Mum and I had forged ahead on sales. By the end of the signing, we had smashed the previous sales record at that branch for a local author by selling 57 copies of Hard Time. The manager also said that Hard time was the top selling book throughout the country thanks to the signing. The Trafford Centre Waterstone's was the biggest store we've gone to so far. We're back there tomorrow.

Click here for the previous Waterstone's signing blog.    

Shaun Attwood, Waterstone's Manchester Trafford Centre

Support, Indifference, Nag, Complain, or Tantrum

A short one and then I must go.

This one is for the ladies out there who I occasionally like to dispense courting/dating advice to. However, unlike advice you find in Cosmo or Oprah, my advice actually works.

When it comes to your man making a decision (of things that are NOT vital in nature or vital to your relationship) you have five options in how you're going to respond or react to his decision;

Support
Indifference
Nag
Complain
or
Tantrum

Of these five options, only two are acceptable, support and indifference.

Support is preferable in that your man has already made up his mind and is going to take action regardless of whether you agree with him or not. And I want you to understand that statement

- he has already made up his mind and is going to take action regardless

This is what real men do. And if you want a real man, and not some compliant beta type who always asks, "well what do you want dear????," then you have to understand that you are not going to always agree with him 100%, and therefore whether you agree with him or not, he's going to do it. Therefore, you may as well support him.

The man (or at least real men) will be thankful for your support and love you that much more knowing you condone his actions and will therefore brag to his friends, "My god, I have the most supportive wife/girlfriend. She BOUGHT ME ammo for our hunting trip!"

Indifference is also acceptable. This is where your man says, "I'm going to play poker with the guys and smoke cigars." And you, completely indifferent, if not thankful you'll get him out of the house for a couple hours dismiss him nonchalantly saying, "Yeah, yeah, go, have fun."

Then we get into the unacceptable responses.

Nagging - NOT ACCEPTABLE. Again, going back to the premise he is going to carry out his mission regardless, all nagging achieves is raising his blood pressure. It's not even that you are contesting or questioning his decision, as much as you are interrogating him about all the nuances and details that are irrelevant. Not to mention, the more you nag him about it, the more he is delayed from finishing his mission. This only agitates men and does not help you on account he will now entertain thoughts of greener, non-nagging pastures.

Complaining - Again, complaining is acceptable when you are talking about decisions of importance. For example do you want children? Where should you live? But for decisions of not-importance complaining not only has the annoying benefits of nagging, but you now have guilt added to it. The man now has to worry and wonder (while he's carrying out his mission because he was going to carrying it out regardless) as to whether "going fishing with the guys" is angering you and now damaging the relationship. And while he's working the extra hours at work to make ends meet, he now gets the unnecessary and unneeded stress of having to worry about his home/social life. Congratulations! You've now made him plan his next vacation to Greener Pastures!

Tantrum - Your beloved Captain hasn't ran into this one in about 4 or 5 years on account it really is more of a 20 something phenomenon, but he has ran into the occasional 30 something woman that still resorts to this unacceptable response. Tantrum is where you morph into a child and go psychotic. This happens. You Captain remembers starkly having an ex girlfriend throw a tantrum on I-35 in downtown Minneapolis so violent, he had to threaten her that he'd dump her out on the side of the rush hour interstate. Another ex threw one while in the Lowry tunnel on I-94 (what is it with women throwing tantrums on the interstate???). Why were they throwing tantrums? The first one because I had to cancel a date that night so I could work to put food on the table. The second one because I failed to purchase her a soda when we filled up for gas.

Obviously tantrum is not only not acceptable, but understand ladies, it is so vile that you have not upshot at all. The man now will be re-enforced to carry out his mission simply to annoy you. Also, in displaying this drama queen behavior, any real man will dump your psychotic ass and have purchased a condo in Greener Pastures.

Thankfully I've aged to the point this is no longer a semi-annual event, but I mention it for the benefit of the younger 20 somethings out there who through poor parental upbringing, reading too many Cosmo magazines or watching too many movies have been led to believe this is somehow acceptable behavior.

Now go and enjoy a much improved courting life!

Manchester Book Signings This Weekend

Fir further info: http://shaunattwood.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=111&Itemid=59

Hyperinsulinemia, Hyperglycemia and Insulin Resistance

Over in the comments on the Taubes Toothpick post, starting around here, Nostril Damus (funny!) challenged my contention that the only carb implicated in IR is fructose, a carb that doesn't elicit an insulin response.  ND posited that other carbs cause hyperinsulinemia cause self-downregulation of insulin receptors leading to IR.  Then Melchior posted about a study where hyperinsulinemia and hyperglycemia/insulinemia induced insulin resistance which provided more food for thought.  

I thought on this a bit and think it is worthwhile to repeat in a post of its own and add a few more comments.

So a direct quotation of ND's premise:  "Over time, this self-induced loss of target cell receptors for insulin reduces the target cell’s sensitivity to the elevated hormone concentration."

Unfortunately only the abstract is available free online, but it does contain some interesting information.  Here's the study:

Effect of sustained physiologic hyperinsulinaemia and hyperglycaemia on insulin secretion and insulin sensitivity in man.

Read more »

Insulin: Understanding its Action in Health and Disease

Another bookmarking post.  I may or may not have linked directly to this article in a primary blog post before, but I'm doing it now.  Hat-tip to LynMarie Daye in this post at her Adipo-Insights blog.

Insulin: understanding its action in health and diseasel

The Physiologic Effects of Insulin

Mostly a bookmarking post here.  I wanted to share this link:  http://www.vivo.colostate.edu/hbooks/pathphys/endocrine/pancreas/insulin_phys.html

I think it's a pretty good summary of insulin's actions vis a vis glucose transport, metabolism and fat tissue.

Wall Street In La-La Land

Does anybody see the problem here and how it relates to 401k plans and IRA's?

Cripes.

The New Year (by Lifer Renee)

Renee – Only a teenager, she received a 60-year sentence from a judge in Pima County. Fourteen years into her sentence, Renee is writing from Perryville prison in Goodyear, Arizona, providing a rare and unique insight into a women's prison.

So much happened in the last year, I feel as though I just stand still and watch the chaos around me.

I spent New Year’s Day switching bunks with my current roommate. I have been on a lower bunk – well, I can not count the years – for a while. The change was needed for me. We started around 8am, and it was an all-day event because everything was flipped. I do feel a little more settled.

The weather has changed drastically. It rained for a full day and a half. Then it was a full day of bone-chilling wind. For the last three days, I went outside, and there has been ice on the ground. These conditions make me seclude myself inside my room. It was actually a nice break as the waves of negativity around here never stop when you are among the prison population.

Click here for Renee’s previous blog.

Post comments for Renee below or email them to writeinside@hotmail.com To post a comment if you do not have a Google/Blogger account, just select anonymous for your identity.

Shaun Attwood

Music Therapy is a Worthless Degree

Yes, son. Sorry to say, it is.

You see, the primary reason why, despite what your professors will tell you, is that the entire profession, the entire industry, you job can be replaced by a CD or an MP3 player.

If you don't believe me, ask how many of the music professors are music therapists? And what few are actually employed in that field, ask them where they make most of their money. That's right, off of suckers like you thinking you're going to get paid to play music!

It's the old saying,

"When there's a gold rush, don't pan for gold. Sell gold pans."

So kids, listen to your Old Uncle Cappy. He's trying to help you here and make sure you don't impoverish yourself. He isn't trying to be mean. DON'T MAJOR IN MUSIC THERAPY!

Read this here book and find out for yourself. Worth the $5 on Kindle to save you the $60,000 you'd drop on your worthless degree.

The Cowardice of Men

It's late January.

And in the Captain's world that means it's time to start the largest quarter of dance classes-Winter Quarter. A full month has passed. People have received their community ed brochures in the mail. Finally get around to signing up for a class. And BOOM! Off we go for a solid 6 months of teaching dance with the goal of taking a 2 month vacation out west with my motorcycle.

Of course something that continually catches me off-guard is the severe lack of men in the dance classes. The reason why I'm caught off guard is because during January I try to take a vacation, finish invoicing for the previous year, and finish my taxes. And before I know it, BOOM! Classes are starting and I'm starting to get attendance sheets which shows I need to scramble and find 18 extra men for the 18 surplus women I have in my class in 3 hours.

This sets into action a desperate bid on my part to find men. And how do you suppose men respond to me inquiring about their interest in being a pinch hitter in a dance class overflowing with women?

Do they say, "Wow, 18 extra women! COUNT ME IN!"

Do they say, "Dude! Yeah, I'm all over it if there's extra girls!"

or do they say, "Yeah, sure, I'm up for learning something new!"

Hell no.

It's more like,

"WHAT!???? A DANCE class? Are you CRAZY!? There's no way I'm dancing!!!!"

"ARE YOU INSANE!!??? THERE'S NO WAY IN HELL I'M DANCING!!!"

Which has led me to a conclusion.

Men are cowards.

Oh, they'll climb the peak of Mount Everest.

And they'll walk to the South Pole.

They'll land on the moon.

And they'll charge the beaches of Normandy under murderous fire from the nazis.

But when it comes time to spend a FREAKING hour with a girl and move their feet according to a beat or pattern, oh no! That's asking TOO much! That's waaaaaay more daunting that walking through a mine field while getting shelled during Operation Torch.

I often sit here in this little world of mine and ask myself how I compare to my American male peers. And as much as I would like to think that I am just an average guy of average build and strength, I realize that I am not so much a "super man" as much as I am simply an old school man, which despite my physicality, makes me supremely more alpha than my modern day American beta male counterparts. I have this somehow "god like power" to have the courage to (GASP!) ASK A FREAKING GIRL TO DANCE which most men don't. And somehow that just doesn't sit right with me. I've never faced battle. I've on occasion have faced death. But on the grand scheme of things, dancing with girls (even when I was a rookie) just plain didn't seem that damn threatening.

Ergo, men of the Cappy Cap Capposphere-

Get off your ass.

Grab a girl.

Go sign up for a dance class.

And dance!

I honestly don't know why I have to write these things.

The Captain's Adventures in Mexico

This is the explanation for the lack of posts. Vacation in Mexico.

This is me smoking a cuban at 9 in the morning. It was after an early morning swim in the Gulf. Notice the sincere lack of contributing to GDP. Also notice the consumption of a non-US good whilst enjoying the services of a non-US country. I call this my "Enjoying the Decline" face.


This is in Chichen Itza, one of the largest Mayan archeological finds. I have always wanted to go there since I was a kid. The purpose for my pose is to blend in with the skulls carved into rock behind. They were all very smiling.

This is a building.

This is the main pyramid in Chichen Itza. I thought you could climb it, but apparently it is frowned upon by the local federales. No touchy.

As with all vacations your Captain takes, it was more adventure and exploration than lying around a beach doing nothing. However, if you do go to the Yucatan peninsula, I strongly advise NOT going to Chichen Itza on that sad account it takes;

1. 3 hours to get there because the Mexicans drive real slow.

2. When you get there they have unfortunately allowed the local vendors to sell all their trinkets and crap completely ruining the experience for you. And you might say, "wow, how can only a few vendors ruin such a grand experience." NO, trust me, there are literally hundreds of them harassing you the entire time. Imagine Glacier National Park or Yellowstone with hundreds of people constantly hounding you to buy a shirt no matter where you went or what mountain you'd climb.

Coconut allergies anyone?

This isn't so much a science post but an open question to my readers.  Although I did adopt a different skin care regime about the time I started low carbing in 2007, I'm pretty confident in attributing a goodly portion of my cleared skin to my diet.   I had suffered from mild (relative to some images I see) adult acne for years, mostly on chin, hairline and back/bra-line.  This all pretty much cleared up to where I hadn't had a breakout worth mentioning in two years.  And one would think that somewhere in those longer cheats at least I would have consumed enough wheat or other culprit to set off a breakout, but nada.  Then summer 2009 I did an IF experiment.  I consistently followed a 5 hour eating window for 3 months.  I lost 10 lbs in the first couple of weeks but gained several pimples!  OK, so perhaps something about the fasting was killing off toxins and they were coming out my pores??  Thinking back, however, something else changed in my diet.   I was making this peanut butter/coconut oil ball dessert.  PB had been a part of my diet here and there and I have no issues with it, but CO was new.   So anyway, I gradually just phased out CO as it didn't produce any more losses and that was that.  The breakouts had gone away but thought nothing really of it.  

Fast forward to the end of this past summer.  I had been relaxing things a bit for a while consuming quite a bit of sushi.  All of a sudden I was getting rather large pimples all over my back and eventually several on my chin.  I figured maybe the sushi, but there was a spell when I didn't eat it at all and the breakouts continued.  Although I was eating a few more carbs as I've shared, I wasn't eating any more wheat or grains than I might have consumed on a prolonged cheat ... probably less.  Well, then I started thinking, this was when I was eating a lot of coconut shreds, fresh coconut, and using coconut milk in my coffee.

It would be a real bummer to discover it being so, but I fear I have a coconut intolerance.  I did notice a slight weight loss/change in body size eating all the coconut so would hate to have to avoid that possible strategy to lose a bit more.  I regularly use a mix of MCT/olive oil for salad dressing so it's not those FA's in the fat to blame.

Anyone ever experience something like this, or am I just weird?  I keep seeing stuff on contact dermatitis for coconut in skincare products, but nothing really for allergies, intolerance or acne.  Thanks in advance!

R.I.P. Jack Lallane

An icon if there ever was one.  I remember watching his show as a kid.  Ninety Six and looking pretty darned healthy up to the end!!  That's a good long life.  

http://www.bestweightlossmealplans.com/low-fat-diet-plan/jack-lalanne-sample-meal-plan/

Looking at that diet it is actually one that is fairly low in carbs.  But it contained a fair amount of fructose by LC standards, and notice something else?  It was also relatively low fat, and certainly low in added fats.  Just food for thought.

You will  be missed Jack! 

Interview at Berhamsted School

After my talk at Berkhamsted School yesterday, I was interviewed by Sacha van Straten. Here's a link to the interview:

Shaun Attwood - author of Jon's Jail Journal ipadio Talk to your World

The Glucose Fatty Acid Cycle

LOTS of info in this summary by my favorite sci-crush Keith Frayn.  This is mostly a bookmarking post as reader Margaret mentioned this article in the comments elsewhere.  It's a good, if not lengthy read.  Perhaps someday I'll get around to summarizing it, but for now, just a link & the abstract.

The glucose–fatty acid cycle: a physiological perspective 

Glucose and fatty acids are the major fuels for mammalian metabolism and it is clearly essential that mechanisms exist for mutual co-ordination of their utilization. The glucose–fatty acid cycle, as it was proposed in 1963, describes one set of mechanisms by which carbohydrate and fat metabolism interact. Since that time, the importance of the glucose–fatty acid cycle has been confirmed repeatedly, in particular by elevation of plasma non-esterified fatty acid concentrations and demonstration of an impairment of glucose utilization. Since 1963 further means have been elucidated by which glucose and fatty acids interact. These include stimulation of hepatic glucose output by fatty acids, potentiation of glucose-stimulated insulin secretion by fatty acids, and the cellular mechanism whereby high glucose and insulin concentrations inhibit fatty acid oxidation via malonyl-CoA regulation of carnitine palmitoyltransferase-1. The last of these mechanisms, discovered by Denis McGarry and Daniel Foster in 1977, provides an almost exact complement to the mechanism described in the glucose–fatty acid cycle whereby high concentrations of fatty acids inhibit glucose utilization. These additional discoveries have not detracted from the important of the glucose–fatty acid cycle: rather, they have reinforced the importance of mechanisms whereby glucose and fat can interact.

Deleterious Effects of NEFA II: Panceatic beta cell impairment

Non-esterified fatty acids are deleterious for human pancreatic islet function at physiological glucose concentration

Progression from normal glucose tolerance to Type 2 diabetes results from a gradual deterioration in beta-cell function, in the presence of insulin resistance [1]. Over the past 10 years, the role of excess glucose in the alteration of beta-cell function has become increasingly clear and has led to the concept of glucotoxicity [2, 3].  At the same time, the deleterious effect of increased NEFA was suggested by studies on Zucker diabetic fatty (ZDF) rats, an animal model of Type 2 diabetes combined with obesity. The authors showed that altered beta-cell function was preceded by an important increase in the plasma concentration of NEFA and subsequent triglyceride (TG) accumulation in pancreatic islets [4, 5]. This hypothesis, also referred to as lipotoxicity, was confirmed by in vitro exposure of isolated islets to NEFA [6, 7, 8]. However, whether glucose and NEFA alter beta-cell function synergistically or separately, remains controversial.

...In this study, we examined the influence of NEFA on human islet function with or without concomitant increased glucose concentrations. Because lipid metabolism seems to have a crucial role in lipotoxicity [8], we also studied the expression of genes involved in this metabolism. 

NOTE:  GSIS = glucose stimulated insulin secretion  aka your acute or Phase I insulin response to carbs that is lacking in T2's.

With our model of in-vitro human islets, we showed that beta-cell alterations characteristic of clinical Type 2 diabetes, including loss of GSIS and decrease in insulin content, can be reproduced with either increased glucose or NEFA concentrations. The deleterious effect of high glucose is well established [2, 3], but increased NEFA at physiological glucose concentrations were also able to significantly alter GSIS and insulin content. These results are in accordance with previous studies [6, 10, 33], but argue against the hypothesis that increased glucose is a prerequisite for the deleterious effect of NEFA on betacell function [11, 12, 13, 14]. 

Bottom line:  NEFA alone can alter beta cell function.

Cusano Cigars vs. Cuban Cohibas

Cuban cigars, as I'm sure you're well aware of are the "best" in the world.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jesse Ventura and well, whoever else said they were.

But, of course, all good things must come to an end, and once again capitalism has beaten the living crap out of one of the few things to maintain its decency under communism.

Cigars

Your Captain is currently in Mexico right now and exercised his Mexican right to purchase Cuban cigars (because as an AMERICAN I CAN'T buy Cuban cigars in America, because I am afterall an American).

I had one about 4-5 years ago in Canada (you can look up the video here for an excerpt of my trip). Very good. One of the best. Admittedly, I'm not an aficionado, but I do know my cigars.

That is until I found the Cusano M-1.

$4.

Smooth.

Flavorful.

But better than all that what I really liked is the fact I have NEVER had to "work" at keeping an M-1 lit. You light it once, you puff on it at your leisure and you can actually ENJOY the damn thing, rather than feel like you're trying to siphon gas or give mouth to mouth. The drag is perfect and once lit, it burns AMAZINGLY even.

Meanwhile, I just spent the better part of an hour on the beaches of the Gulf of Mexico working harder than I ever did before just to keep a damn Cuban Cohiba lit. The taste was good, don't get me wrong. But I don't want to have my moonlit night ruined huffing and puffing away at a cigar that just won't obey (and paid $13 for it!).

So do yourselves a favor. Instead of going with a has-been, just go here and order yourself some damn fine cigars. You want the-

Cusano
M-1
TORPEDO CUT

This is Not Your Father's Recession

I like using housing starts as a 6-18 month predictor of the economy.

Why?

Housing starts predict unemployment by 6-18 months quite well. Housing starts will tank, and sure enough 6-18 months later unemployment starts to tank. Housing market bottoms out and starts to recover, unemployment sure enough peaks 6-18 months later.

But what if housing starts stay stubbornly low?

Notice in the chart housing starts usually recover immediately, bottoming out and immediately recovering resulting in a very V shape recovery. However, (despite all the stimulus money and low interest rates and first time home buyer credits) housing starts remain stubbornly low this time around, matter of fact, staying quite low and flat for pushing three years;



So, my fine fellow economists, what do you suppose this means for unemployment?

I know the answer is simple, but keep in mind those brilliant economic geniuses at the Fed and Obama's economic team can't figure this out. Which makes you essentially all tippy top super official professional economists!

Insulin Wars IV.1: Todd Becker of Getting Stronger blog responds

I received an email from Todd Becker of Getting Stronger blog who tried to add his comments/responses to my review of his contribution on Jimmy's blog regarding James Kreiger's Insulin Series.

Here is a link to that installment:  Insulin Wars IV: Todd Becker of Getting Stronger blog

I did my best to retain the emphasis/formatting from Todd's email.  So, with apologies in advance if any of my responses are repetitious of my initial post, without further adieu:

Todd writes:

Hi CarbSane,

Congratulations on your articulate, informative and passionate podcast interview on Jimmy Moore’s site. Small world: I’ll be a guest on his podcast in a few weeks. Your interview inspired me to look at your blog, where lo and behold I found your critical review of my analysis of James Krieger’s views about insulin, which I wrote for Jimmy’s blog. I appreciate the time and thought that went into your analysis, and I’ve learned several interesting things from your site. But if you would permit me, I’d like to respond to what you wrote about my analysis. To do full justice to both of us would take many pages, and would bore most readers, so I’d like to just make a few basic points here to set the record straight, and to raise some additional questions:

I'm more than happy to do this.  The comments feature here at blogger is limited.  For one thing, if you use even one HTML tag for emphasis, a length limit kicks in.  For another, detailed responses would not be done justice for discussion purposes due to the flat form non-threaded nature of the response system here.  I do however have a response to many of Todd's points, so I think it is best to do that within the context of a single blog post.  So ... Todd's remarks will be (indented) in a quotation in default font.  My responses will be in purple, not-indented, and I'll try to be consistent to use a "CS:" so there won't be any confusion.

Read more »

Cannot Go Unpublishished, Nor Unforwarded

I neither condone nor condemn any of the commentary here. But here is a simple excerpt from the post that cannot go unpublished, nor unforwarded;

"Listen to me. A good woman ages beautifully. When I look at my wife, I see the most gorgeous woman in the universe. Her wrinkled hands got that way by keeping up with my two boys and working hard for them while I was on the road. The lines under her eyes are from years of shedding tears for me when I was at war, and those wrinkles on her brow are from decades of worry for me and my two sons. It was her legs they held on to when they were learning to walk, her lap was where they learned to read, and her breasts were their first nourishment. The first kiss those boys ever received was from her lips, and God willing, my last kiss will be from her lips."

Those evil alpha males.

Frugality Will Replace the 401k

Because the 401k can be confiscated by the government, whereas living frugally cannot.

Just make sure you don't have kids or get married. The two biggest liabilities in the US.

Duties of the Head of the Race (Part 1 with Wild Man)

Wild Man - My large and fearless raving partner from my hometown. He looked out for me in Arpaio’s jail after we were arrested, and is one of the main characters in Hard Time.

In prison, the inmates separate themselves racially. Each race has a leader called the head. Under the head are torpedoes – inmates who will smash someone for the head of the race no questions asked. Due to his fighting skills, Wild Man was crowned the head of the whites several times. In this blog, Wild Man and I discuss what is expected of the head.

“I know that the head of the race briefs the newcomers, the fish,” I said. “He helps indigent inmates get stuff like hygiene supplies, stamps and writing paper. He handles situations with the other races to try to prevent race riots. What other duties are there?”

“The head has to make sure all of the guys under 35 go and work out,” Wild Man said.

“Mandatory rec,” I said, referring to recreation.

“Yes. The reason is that if anything jumps off like a race riot, you need your youngsters and torpedoes healthy, so they can fight. We even did strong-man competitions with the other races. The heads will get together and throw a $100 of store in for the winner. You’ve got to give the youngsters incentives because if they want to rebel and they do, they can easily smash the older guys. I had six dorms in one of my buildings. In each dorm, I had a dorm head. I had to smack one of them in the face for disrespecting one of his youngsters. I was sat there talking to the dorm head, and he said to the youngster, ‘Hey, fucker, you haven’t even cleaned my floor yet!’ I thought, I’m just gonna ignore this as he’s trying to impress me. Then, as the youngster went past, the dorm head said, ‘Hey, I told you once. Get my fucking floor fucking polished.’ I said to the dorm head, ‘Are you paying him to do that, mate?’ He said, ‘No,’ so I stood up, smacked him, and said, ‘Who the fuck are you, mama’s boy?’ You have to pay the youngsters and give them incentives. You don’t treat them like shit like that. That annoyed me. If your youngsters behave bad, then you have to discipline them. Nine times out of ten, I wouldn’t punch them, I’d open-palm them, which would knock them on their arses anyway. I hated having to do that, but I’d give them enough warnings. You can’t start looking weak or else the old-timers will pull you to one side, and give you stories about what happened to so and so in The Walls who lost control of the youngsters, and ended up getting his throat slit.”

“What else does the head do?” I asked.

“If one of the guards is disrespectful to one of the races, then the head of that race is supposed to stand up, not in an aggressive manner, but to explain to the guards why it is disrespectful.”

“How would he go about that?” I asked.

“Nine times out of ten he would go and see the counsellor and say to the counsellor, ‘Look, shits about to hit the fan ’cause of this guard,’ and explain the reason why. The counsellor will go to the duty sergeant, and the sergeant, nine times out of ten, will pull the guard up. Also, the heads of all the races at some of the yards I was at would have a meeting with the captain every week. They’d sit down and have coffee, and discuss whether the yard was running smoothly or what the problems are. The captains aren’t stupid. The captain might say, ‘Such and such is obviously doing drugs. Tell him to keep it down,’ and it’ll come downhill then. The guards know all of the drug stuff that’s going on. They just don’t want it in their faces ’cause that’s disrespecting them.”

Click here for Wild Man's previous blog

The above photo of Wild Man is a response to all of the emails I've been getting from people who've read Hard Time, and said that Wild Man looks too nice in the photo in Hard Time to have committed the acts I've described in the book. To gauge his size, bear in mind that the jail outfit he is wearing is a 5XL. Some of you may also want to start bracing yourselves for Wild Man's antics in the prequel to Hard Time.   

Wow, Guess We Ain't Going to Sweden

I knew Sweden was known for being one of the more advanced countries when it came to getting women into positions of power, but I had no idea how far and invasive the concept of "gender neutrality" has permeated the psyche over there. And I'm not talking about something legitimate like a "pay gap." I'm talking about things where people are complaining about playgrounds being sexist and girls being denied the right to wear pretty clothes when they're in gymnastics class because that would define gender.

It's an insightful and scary piece, but I have a simple question;

Where the hell are all the men in Sweden?????

My Interview with Jimmy Moore

CLICK HERE

WOW, thanks (not) Jimmy for your characterization of me as a low carb skeptic.  I'm not.  I'm a skeptic of the so-called science.

{Stuff in these parentheses were updated ~2:40 pm 1/21/11 ...  Seems I'm being taken to task a bit over at Jimmy's blog for "trashing" him when apparently I should be thanking him profusely.  I did thank him in an email, at the end of my interview, and previously on this blog, but I did neglect to do so once again here.  Probably because at the time of this post I was a bit miffed by Jimmy's lead ins in the podcast and what I consider mis-characterizations of me.  Kevin over in the comments who actually writes the show notes has claimed authorship for part of this so I won't blame Jimmy for that.  Thanks Kevin for correcting that.  I have since been labeled a "taunter" and essentially had words put into my mouth by Jimmy himself such as fraud though I'm not sure I ever used those words.  Anywho, there's no need to waste good cyberink on minor quibbles.  I do thank Jimmy for the opportunity and commend him for bringing voices counter to low carb dogma to the wider audience.   So, I'll leave the rest of this intact.}

I don't really appreciate how Jimmy characterized me as anti-low carb on his blog either:

Coming up Monday, we’ll hear from an enthusiastic anti-low-carb blogger who calls herself CarbSaneto talk about why she thinks bestselling author Gary Taubesis a fraud and that the low-carb diet is not the whole story. Take a listen for yourself and decide whether she has a point or not. 

I guess your headlines might generate more hits which is fine with me.  Hopefully more will see the truth.

I heard this for the first time today too which made me nervous as I typed this post out.  Just listened.  I'm OK with it except for the nervous laughter at times.  Better than getting a case of the Ummms I suppose.

Some links {fixed them, thanks flo!} to things I discussed with Jimmy with regards to GCBC that were the impetus for the interview:

GCBC Reference Check ~ Part I of ? ~ Metabolic Adaptability & Energy Balance

GCBC Reference Check ~ Part II of ? ~ Insulin Resistance (again)

GCBC Reference Check ~ Part III of ? ~ Is glycerol phosphate rate-limiting?

Insulin Resistance ~ Taubes v. Frayn

Fat Accumulation: Taubes v. Frayn ~ ASP in vivo in humans

A summary of my differences with GT's premises:  The 11 Critical Conclusions of Taubes

{Edited to add}  This is the post that got this ball rolling:  Glyceroneogenesis v. Taubes.  The question on that Reshef paper remains unanswered by Taubes.

Have at me gang!

Countering Anti-Energy Balance, CI=CO Arguments ~ Part I The 3500 Cal = 1 Pound Fat

Calories In - Calories Out = Change in Energy Stored

I continue to be amazed by the number of people who argue against this basic physical law.  This series will discuss the various versions by which folks seek to argue against this.  

This installment will consider the argument that 1 pound of fat = 3500 calories is incorrect.

= 3500 Cals??

Read more »

Credentialism Killed the Radio Star

"Unfortunately, our society is becoming more and more obsessed with standardized credentials, even as there has been a broad devaluation of the credentials themselves"

I would only add to this one aspect nobody has thought of in the credentialism world;

Inbreeding.

In hiring the "perfect" candidates all the time, you hire essentially the genetically same, obedient, automotons you always do. This creates a problem in that like any organic creature, too much of the same type leaves them susceptible to disease, threats, predators or any change in their environment.

While applicable in terms of biological evolution and survival of the fittest, in having psychologically homogeneous employees (of a meek, obedient type), the corporate entity as a whole is;

1. Unable to identify external threats (or opportunities).
2. UnWILLING to inform superiors about threats or opportunities (as rocking the boat ist VERBOTEN!)
3. Too established in their corporate culture to be nimble enough to adapt quickly enough to a changing environment in order to survive.

Consider it this way. In today's American economy do we need another conformist, mass produced, obedient MBA, or Captain Jack Sparrow?

Of course we need revolutionary leaders like Captain Jack, but could you imagine HR EVER letting in somebody like that to their pristine, sterile corporate worlds?

Well, enjoy the decline people. Enjoy the decline.

More on Water Weight & Insulin

There's an interesting related conversation on this topic going on over at Paul Jaminet's site:

Water Weight: Does It Change When Changing Diets? Does It Matter?

For those not familiar with the Perfect Health diet, one component is to get ~400 cal in "safe starches" -- around 100g.  For those transitioning to their diet from a low carb diet, some have experienced a not-unexpected weight gain.  I've added some thoughts to the comments there and -- can't be sure and some is just a hunch -- but I think any weight bounce is probably more carb associated, predominantly glycogen repletion.  It may well be due to replenishing other "carb" molecules with their associated water as well.  My guess is that for the most part these changes show up on the scale more than in dimensions.  That was my experience during the almost 3 years of my "low carb cheating" plan.  I can't know for sure for the first year and a half or so of that, because I never weighed, but I didn't gain size during my cheats (pants still fit fine) and later after I weighed I sometimes saw a few pound gain, but again this didn't effect the fit of the skinny-jeans much if at all.  

However my current interest/focus is building on this recent post of mine:

Insulin, Weight Loss & Water Weight

In that post I referenced two studies that I'll repeat link to here:

Changes in abdominal subcutaneous fat water content with rapid weight loss and long-term weight maintenance in abdominally obese men and women - This one discusses how following rapid weight loss and improvement in insulin sensitivity of the fat tissue, fat mass increases due to increased associated water resulting from improved blood flow.

Disparate Hydration  in Adipose and Lean Tissue Require a New Model for Body Water Distribution in Man.  This one discusses various models of determining total body water content, and the contribution of adipose tissue often ignored for lean populations.  It also discusses the extra and intracellular distribution of water in adipose tissue and lean tissue.

Read more »

Insulin, Weight Loss & Water Weight

Reader kds posted a link to this Peter of Hyperlipid's blog post about the following study:  .Beneficial Effect of Diazoxide in Obese Hyperinsulinemic Adults

Basically, diazoxide is a compound that has been used to treat hypoglycemia and reduces insulin secretion.   Two groups of 12 obese hyperinsulinemic adults were treated with diazoxide or placebo for 8 weeks while each consuming the same Optifast diet.  Compared with the placebo group, DZ subjects had greater weight loss (9.5 ± 0.69% vs. 4.6 ± 0.61%, P < 0.001), greater decrease in body fat (P < 0.01), greater increase in fat-free mass to body fat ratio (P < 0.01), and greater attenuation of acute insulin response to glucose (P < 0.01).   This is pretty phenomenal and difficult to fathom -- almost twice the weight loss.  It was also reported that there was no significant change in resting energy expenditure (REE, RMR, BMR), and substrate use, as derived from indirect calorimetry, did not reveal any significant change in carbohydrate or fat metabolism in either group.  IOW, there was no stimulation of fatty acid oxidation accompanying the proposed decreased lipogenesis (presumably they're referring to esterification not de novo lipogenesis) and/or increased lipolysis (as evidenced by increases in FFA/NEFA levels).

Now, some may accuse me of rationalizing, but for all the claims I may disagree with, I have yet to see any of the "experts" -- even Taubes and Eades and the MA crowd -- imply that fatty acids can magically be "flushed" from the body without being "burnt" off (beta oxidation).  The only way out is for the LCFA to be broken down ultimately to CO2.  Therefore, there HAS to be an explanation here because insulin is not a magic molecule capable of creating or destroying matter.  If the diazoxide (DZ) didn't lead to increased fatty acid oxidation, and REE was unchanged, then likely futile cycling and uncoupling were not involved either -- these would cause increases in both FA oxidation and REE as they "blow off" or "waste" fatty acids.

So ... where did the fatty acid mass go?

Read more »

Comments on Tom Naughton's Interview with Taubes on Why We Get Fat

Why We Get Fat: Interview With Gary Taubes - Tom Naughton

This is a pretty long interview, so I'm not going to address all of the points, but just a few of the exchanges.

GT:  I’m always asking myself, “How can I explain this to a general audience? How can I simplify the science to the point that it is barely noticeable?” In fact, often the best science writing has no noticeable science at all.

OK ;-)

Fat Head: I found those critiques rather odd, considering that Good Calories, Bad Calories includes an entire chapter titled Conservation of Energy, in which you wrote at length about the laws of thermodynamics and how nutritionists misinterpret them. How do you deal with criticisms of your books coming from people who clearly haven’t read them?

Read more »

Another Why We Get Fat review (again, not mine)

http://www.weightymatters.ca/2011/01/book-review-gary-taubes-why-we-get-fat.html

Found this one because I was getting some hits from this unbeknownst to me website.  Towards the end of the review one of my Taube$ posts is linked to.  I've since refrained from addressing Taubes' personal motivations.  My exposing of his omissions and outright misrepresentations should speak for themselves at this point.  

Bypassing HR

I did a little research to see what the rule of thumb was on bypassing HR in terms of finding jobs and found it rather interesting.

Camp One - The "Golem HR Nazi Camp"

"NO!!! YOU NEEDS US!!! MY PRECIOUS!!!! THE POWER WE NEED!!! WE ARE IMPORTANT WE TELL US SO!!!! YOU NEEEEEEEEDS US!!!!!!"

"If you bypass us we'll kick your ass (even though we admit we're pretty useless)"

Camp Two - The Real world

All the hiring is done through networking and bypassing HR.

"Avoid HR like the plague"

"I receive more unqualified applicants from HR than qualified"

"HR can only tell you no."

"I'm from HR and even I'M telling you to avoid HR."


Ah, HR. Crushing deficits, high corporate taxes, frivolous lawsuits and over-burdensome regulation cannot hold a candle to your ability to keep the US economy from growing and booming.

From Polish Avenger (Letter 3)

Polish Avenger - A software-engineering undergraduate sentenced to 25 years because his friend was shot dead during a burglary they were both committing. Author of the classic "Shit Slinger" series.

We nearly lost Jack a while back due to lupus. He’s gaining strength, but still mostly in a wheelchair. Poor bugger. I suggested he demand Buddhist Sky Burial when the time comes. That’ll make the Arizona Department of Corrections have a fit!

I think your repeated attempts to get Hard Time in here are a lost cause. I never ever even knew it had arrived and been sent back. They are supposed to send us a notice, but I suspect that it’s so controversial (i.e. truthful) that the staff just quietly fired it back. Blighters! Ah well, come 2015, I’ll be able to read it on the outside, dammit, so I’ll wait for that. Hell, by then I should be able to just download it to my iPod Mark 7. :)

Making that float was insane, and also the most hours I’ve put into anything in years. One Saturday was kick ass, as we rigged up the stereo and had The Prodigy blasting away.

Click here for Shit Slingers V.
Click here for Letter 2 from Polish Avenger.

Our friends inside appreciate your comments.

Post comments and questions for Polish Avenger below or email them to writeinside@hotmail.com To post a comment if you do not have a Google/Blogger account, just select anonymous for your identity.

Zoe Harcombe ~ Walking Advertisement for Low Carb Eating?

Zoe Harcombe made a bit of a splash in the LC community thanks in part to the following article in the Daily Mail:  Everything you thought you knew about food is WRONG

The subtitle:  Fibre's bad for you. Fat's healthy. And five-a-day is a gimmick to make fruit and veg firms rich. Or so claims a remarkable new book...


Just say no to fruit and starchy carbs that the government is pushing on you ... right?

Harcombe sings the praises of butter and eggs, and meat and *real food*.  She shuns the idea of dieting and restricting foods.   Clearly she's drunk the Taubes Kool Aid on calories and insulin.

So her diet is fairly low carb and extolls the virtues of animal foods -- meat, fish, eggs, butter, dairy.

Read more »

The Canadian Drive By Media

Understand if there is a archetype "Crusader" it is a journalist. Whereas ideally people who become journalists would have the truth be their ultimate goal, most are crusaders who sadly just make themselves shills for a political crusade.

Why is it then journalists and media types are so prone to become crusaders?

Because they are predisposed to it. The type of person who goes and majors in journalism commits the "First Sin of Crusaderism" by majoring in something that doesn't take a lot of effort, doesn't really produce anything of value, yet expects society still provide them a living has a dishonest personality. They don't care about anything as noble as reporting the truth and being the fourth branch of government. They care only of themselves and shills whatever one political group or another tells them to go.

Recession Medicine

Whilst society and the economy collapses, take yourself a respite from the decline and enjoy some Louie Armstrong

The Youth Will Turn on the Left

I know this sounds impossibly optimistic of me, but when I was hastily putting together the Worthless Degree seminar, I saw a TON of YouTube videos on younger folk who are VERY angry about their degrees and how they just got scammed out of thousands of dollars. And although young and completely ignorant enough to be taken in by the "Hope and Change and Unicorns" bit, what they are experiencing is that ultimate crushing collapse that "has to happen" before people wake up and realize the reality of the situation we're in.

Conservatives and capitalists are quite familiar with this "collapse-requirement" simply because when we've argued with liberals and leftists in the past, especially the younger ones, it's impossible to reason with them. Facts and data don't even phase them. And what you realize in a very short time is that NOTHING you say will convince them otherwise and only a crushing, collapse of their well-being and reality will get them to start to think they may be wrong.

I believe that collapse is here.

Not that the entire US economy is collapsing and we'll all be Mad Maxing it next week, but in terms of their lives and perspectives and ESPECIALLY their futures, the youth cannot view it as anything but a collapse. And the culprit?

The left's most powerful institution;

Education.

Understand education is how the left survives. Shamelessly by targeting young, ignorant and uneducated children and brainwashing them into believing in socialism. But now with the recession continuing on into Obama's 3rd year and no turn around or promises coming true or being delivered upon, the youth I believe will turn against the left faster than most of us could hope.

Why?

The one thing the youth had that we didn't have as youth;

The Internet.

It's not like you can't look up tax rates. It's not like you can't look up budgets. It's not like you can't look up any factual data out there and (if you are intellectually driven to do so) find out the truth.

And it is these two things that is going to turn arguably the left's most reliable voting bloc against them.

Just watch some of the videos below and you'll see what I'm talking about;

Family Sues For $3million Over Death of Inmate

At Tucson prison - where I once resided - a mentally-ill inmate, Tony Lester, had just come off suicide watch when he was given access to a razor blade in a hygiene kit. He slit his throat and fell onto the floor. The guards responded. Shocked by the amount of blood, they did nothing to save his life. They just watched him bleed to death. The guards have since cited their lack of medical training and fear that Anthony had a weapon for not trying to stop the bleeding.

Domino Sugar

More proof there's a sucker born every minute.

On a side note, if you're interested about telling Domino Sugar about how you like being proselytized and lectured to about going green, you can tell them here.

Because after all, you are all are a bunch of fascist anti-environmental nazis unless you buy "green" Domino sugar.

Adios "Red Headed Eskimo"

Sadly Richard Winters has passed away.

Hopefully Nix and Spiers can finally get him to drink.

Is My Degree Worthless?

That is an outstanding question. And hopefully if you've searched it on the internet, you landed here.

In short, most of you youth have been lied to about education. The lies are many and varied, but the key ones are;

1. Any education is good education (ie-it doesn't matter what you major in)
2. Follow your heart, the money will follow (or some variant thereof)
3. Employers just want to see that you can get a degree. What you do with it afterwards, is up to you.
4. Education is a great investment
5. You should go to grad school

Behind this is a genuine conspiracy to separate you from your tuition money as quickly as possible as generations of worthless-degreed people before you try to recoup the money they pissed away on worthless degrees via the educational system.

But all hope is not lost. YOu are probably 22 or 23 and think your life is over, but in reality since every school requires so many damn "pre-requisites" you've only wasted half your education.

However, before you return to college or trade school, I would strongly recommend dropping the money ($5 on Kindle, $12.95 for the paperback) on the book "Worthless."

This book was specifically written for young people like you in mind. Kids who either had no guidance in terms of choosing a major or kids who were misled into forfeiting $50,000 and 4 years of their youth on some worthless degree.

Buy it. Read it. Tell your friends about it.

It will be money much better spent on your "masters in sociology" or whatever.

Let Me Explain to You My Step Father

So I get an e-mail from my step father (which is a miracle unto itself because my step-dad LITERALLY just got a computer 3 years ago and a freaking answering machine 5 years ago, but has yet to buy himself a freaking CELL PHONE! but this is all an aside).

So he asks me

"I was stationed in Germany and one of my favorite songs was from Louie Armstrong. It was played back in 1959. I don't remember the lyrics and I can't remember the song, but can you find it for me?"

I do the typity type in the ole Bing and find a group of songs from an album Ole Sachtamo created in BELGIUM in 1959.

We find out the song is title "Ole Sachtmo's Lullaby"



So why am I writing this?

So you schmoes appreciate my step dad! The only REAL purpose of this post is to honor my ole stepfather AND for two things.

1. He WILLINGLY did 4 tours in Vietnam and retired as a senior master sergeant (which now explains to all of you why I am the way I am on account I had a reverend for a father and a drill sergeant for a step father). Regardless, Americans owe him a pound of thanks and gratitude.

2. At a very young age (8 I estimate) he instilled in me the seed of independent thought. He was pointing out some program at some college where they provided free child care for single moms whilst the moms went and pursued their degrees in whatever worthless pursuits they were pursuing. He said and I distinctly remember;

"Isn't that nice they pay for the child care of all those mothers?"

I said in a very 8 year old innocent way, "yes, it is!"

"I wonder who pays for that all." he said.

I said, "I don't know. Who!?"

He said, "Oh, you do kid. You do!"

And (I'm being serious here) that planted the seeds of independent thought in me to inevitably question the reality and logic of everything I heard ever since and made me who I am today (in terms of my political and ideological economic thought). In short he is responsible for bringing you the monster known as Cappy Cap.

For you see, the Ole Sergeant Major certainly did more than his fair share fighting commies and Charlie back in Vietnam. And the Ole Sergeant Major fought valiantly for the freedom of the Southern Vietnamese not to mention the rest of the world from the greatest evil to plague this planet. But I often wonder if he realizes the old adage;

"The Pen is Mightier Than the Sword"

I often wonder with the estimated 50,000 weekly readers I have here if he realizes he did more to advance the causes of liberty, freedom and independence than he might have realized he would back when he dispensed his fatherly wisdom in 1984. I do often wonder if he really truly genuinely realizes just how much he achieved by being man enough to instill independent thought upon a young child and what would happen with the technology of the internet.

Regardless, play the youtube video above and appreciate what the ole Sergeant Major did for all of us.

Going Green Fad Continues!

Six Sigma.

HOw far you have fallen.

Worthless Degree Seminar

I cannot emphasis enough how important this seminar is. Not so much for us readers of the Capposphere, but more importantly for the youth that are about to embark on a college path.

Ideally, this video will be watched, IN ITS ENTIRETY by kids from the ages of roughly 13-18 BEFORE they decide what they want to go to college for. The left are masters at indoctrinating the youth, this is simply a countermeasure to give the poor youth of this country a dose of reality and GENUINE hope of a future productive career and life. Not general pleasantries about them all being winners and somehow good thoughts and going green is going to get them jobs that will put food on the table.

Regardless, here's the first video and subsequent links below. Please force any children, nieces, nephews, etc., to watch this on account it really is about the best thing you can do for them;



Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6

Random thoughts on Why We Get Fat

Why We Get Fat:  So I’m on a cruise ship in parts unknown of the Carribean which has given me the opportunity for people watching in their natural habitat.  Folks, we don’t need a book, or this blog, or any scholarly thesis.  And there are a lot of Europeans on this cruise in addition to the Americans for my observation of the modern human in the wild.  We EAT TOO MUCH. 

OK so you’re on vacation.  Great.  All the food is included in the cost.  Great.  Does that mean you have to shovel as much food as humanly possible down the pie hole three meals a day and midnight buffet?  Apparently for some people!  Do you not get your money’s worth if you don’t eat something from every station or something?  Over at GT’s blog they’re again debating the stupid 20 cal/day balance.  It’s not that folks!  It’s if you spend 10 days on a cruise ship and eat 2000 cal/day more than you burn lying around the deck drinking another 1000 cal/day in cocktails, you will disembark weighing several pounds more than when you came aboard.  If you don’t do anything to compensate upon arriving home, then you’re going to be a little fatter until the next time you let your hair down on vacation or a party, etc.    Thinking back, this WAS me.  Perhaps not stuffing myself silly, but definitely overeating.  So looking around at other’s plates its really a no-brainer why some of the passengers are heavier than others.  Are there thin folks with lots of food?  Sure.  But they apparently have the metabolisms to eat this way.  I also note that it’s not the ones walking laps around or putting in some miles on the elipticals that I later see trying to satisfy that exercise induced hunger I keep hearing about. 

So how am I faring now?  I’m doing quite well!  I’m still comfortably fitting my size 8 pants for casual dinner and karaoke last night.  I had breakfast the first couple of days but have skipped it since.   I just can’t eat 3 meals in a day anymore.  I did feel a bit badly for the heavier lady behind me at the omelet station the first morning though.  All I had on my plate was a few lox and bacon and I ordered 2 eggs over easy.  She was ordering an egg white omelet and commented on how good my breakfast looked.  Felt like telling her to go for it but bit my tongue.   At lunch I make sure to get my veggies in and a protein.  But, had an ABSOLUTELY sinful brownie (it was more like warm melty fudge) with ice cream the other day … shared it with the hubby and both of us felt like we were on sugar highs!  Dinner I let my hair down a bit and have my starch and a few bites of dessert IF it’s worth it.  Two appetizers are not out of the question ;-)   Thing is, I really enjoy the food I eat.  I’m not sure I did back when I was eating so much.  I would probably lose weight if it weren’t for the increased EtOH consumption, because I’m very active on vacation.  On sea days I have been walking, taking (running up) the stairs, etc.  On shore days I get all the exercise I need trying to keep up with my brother-in-law (requires quite the power walking on these short legs o’ mine!) and snorkeling.  No gym required!

Ahhh well.  I’ll check in sometime soon with some comments.  Have a great day everyone!