Mindconnection eNL, 2017-01-01

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Item 1. T minus 20 days! Here (again) is the counter we've been featuring:
http://www.timeanddate.com/countdown/generic?p0=263&iso=20170120T00&msg=Time%20left%20until%20Obama%20leaves%20office

Item 2. Graphene made the news yet again, but I can't find the article! The good news is something to do with making better cell phone cameras. I wonder if graphene can be used to make a better government?

Item 3. A criminal psychopath may soon be indicted. Read the full story, here:
http://www.freedomsback.com/content-partners/worldnetdaily/trump-gets-green-light-to-go-after-hillarys-emails

Of course, this doesn't have anything to do with her gross misconduct in the Benghazi fiasco in which her State Department thwarted US military rescue operations consequently getting some Americans killed. Note that the Americans were finally rescued by the Syrian Army, not US forces. They were also extracted on a Syrian jet, not an American one.

Perhaps Hillary will plea bargain in the e-mail case in exchange for her cooperation in going after Barry Soetoro for his key role in murdering the innocent Americans. Maybe a year in prison rather than life in prison for her, and  the most damaging criminal in USA history gets indicted, tried, and sent to Guantanamo. That would be very good news, indeed.

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Among the many things wrong with this study, no flossing methodology was prescribed. Did these people floss correctly, or merely drag floss between two teeth?

Those of us who do regularly floss occasionally get a whiff of "oops, missed that the last time" so we know that we're removing something that's fermenting (producing acid). We also know that acid eats enamel, so, there's one issue identified. Flossing is crucial to maintaining dental health.

The idiots who conducted the idiotic study used only one metric: plaque removal. Well, whatever plaque the floss won't remove is not a health threat. Let the dentist scrape that off and you're fine. Removing food from between the teeth and also massaging the gums by flossing is hugely beneficial for dental health. A dentist can tell if your "home care" is good by measuring your pocket depth. The correlation is 100%.

As for general health, the mouth is a diagnostic paradise. My dentist is trained to look for a litany of disease indicators inside my mouth, including not just the teeth and gums, but the palate, uvula, and tongue. My sister is a Physician's Assistant and works in pulmonary care. She always does a mouth inspection.

Maybe this particular idiotic study takes idiocy to a new low, even for idiotic studies. All kinds of idiotic studies have been used to persuade people to cast aside ration and reason, and to believe something that's patently and obviously false.

Usually, someone with a profit motive sponsors the study. We already have a caries epidemic due to idiotic food choices, so I don't see that the dental care industry is behind this. Hard to figure.

Think of some other idiotic studies that people have accepted on faith despite overwhelming evidence the studies were bogus and their conclusions wrong. Among these:

• Smoking is good for you. At one time, the lung cancer creation industry (also known as Big Tobacco) ran ads showing doctors smoking.
• Dietary cholesterol is bad for you. The stomach totally breaks it down, and the body uses it to make hormones it needs--such as testosterone.
• Butter is bad for you. Well, yes, in large amounts. It's saturated fat after all. But no study ever looked at reasonable amounts of butter such as those used by European chefs. Nor has any study been confined to organic butter (which is what all butter was before Big Dairy moved in with the cow torture system). Guess who sponsored these studies? The folks who peddle disease-producing margarine.

Don't accept a study at face value. Studies just have a really poor record. Take a smarter approach by either ignoring the study entirely or by researching the hypothesis on your own. Using the flossing study as an example, it does not take much research to see the hypothesis is idiotic.

Everyone's read ad nauseum about calk, insulate, etc. You probably don't have to be told that if you dress a little more warmly, you can turn your thermostat down to save big bucks on your heating bill. So I'll try to go off the beaten path a bit. What, me? Off the beaten path? Ha, ha.

OK, here are some suggestions you may not have read more than a dozen times already:

• Buy humidity gages and USE them. I  have several in my home. I keep the winter humidity at a level that helps increase comfort, thus reducing the need to crank up the heat.
   
• Use many small humidifiers rather than just one. The little stone humidifiers work well, and you can easily clean them with vinegar. Always let one run dry, then clean it before refilling. Place one or two at each register.
   
• Don't let delivery people or sales people or anyone else stand outside your door yakking at you. This hugely wastes your expensive heated air. Invite them in and if they demur, shut the door on them or go outside and shut the door behind you.
   
• Don't do like the retards in the movies, who leave refrigerator doors open. Organize your refrigerator so that you know EXACTLY where each item is. Open the door, quickly grab what you want, and close the door.
   
• Don't eat processed foods. These make you unhealthy, and you waste gasoline going to the doctor for almost useless treatments for disease that you brought upon yourself. If it's processed do not eat it! No processed food!
   
• Also if you eat a diet fit for humans (e.g., no processed foods), you won't create a holy stench when using the toilet. This means running the exhaust fan seldom, if ever.
   
• Let your wash clothes air dry after only a brief tumble in the dryer (I mean a tumble for your clothes, not that you should take a tumble in the dryer yourself, but you're not a libtard so you figured that out already). This not only hugely extends the life of your clothes, but you save all that energy wasted by heating up room air and exhausting it outside (and heating the new cold air that replaces it).
   
• Change your furnace filter more often, now. After all, your furnace is running more often. Shut off the blower and check the filter WEEKLY. For example, do this every Wednesday. When you buy a replacement filter, buy more than one so you don't have to make a special trip to get one.
   
• Do not idle your car's engine to "warm it up." If you use synthetic oil (not a blend), you get full lubrication from the moment your engine starts (not true with a blend or with the outdated paraffin-based oil). Idling causes the fuel to drop out of suspension and into your motor oil, thus reducing the efficacy of the oil and reducing both your fuel economy and your engine life.
   
• If you did put up Christmas lights, shut them off now. Christmas is over. And think hard on this before ever doing it again. Those lights cause light pollution (bad in many ways, look it up) and needlessly waste energy. That energy is probably generated by burning coal. The burning of coal is why the mercury levels in tuna are so high now the fish are unsafe to eat. It's also why eating salmon increases your risk of pancreatic cancer by several orders of magnitude (this once rare disease is common now, think about that if you want to light up next Christmas). Burn Obama in effigy, instead. Just as much light, but it's much more satisfying.

Back in the 1980s, I taught some girls how to be bully-proof. For "I didn't start it" reasons, I always taught them to let the other kid throw the first punch. Then respond quickly and brutally.

A third-grade girl whom I had trained for several months was attacked after school by four fifth grade boys. She broke the collar bone of the main bully (would be rapist?) and that ended the fight. She could just as easily have dislocated his kneecap, torn off an ear, or broken a finger. We had drilled on these and other techniques. She just happened to choose the collar bone of the ring leader--the target presented itself and she struck.

The parents of "collar bone boy" raised a ruckus and threatened to sue. The girl's mother said, "That'll get published in the paper. Do you really want to make everyone aware that your fifth grade boy could not defend himself against a third grade girl? Even with his buddies helping him? Hasn't he been humiliated enough already?" No legal action was taken.

A seventh grader moved to a new area and thus a new school. She was smart and the teachers liked her. She was pretty and the boys gave her a lot of attention. A gang of other girls resented this successful newcomer and decided to gang up on her on the way home from school.

They pulled her hair, hit her, and spit all over her. She had a couple of massive bruises on her back by the time she got home. Her mother brought the spit-drenched, bruised girl in her torn clothes right back to the school and into the principal's office. Rather than doing anything useful, the principal said she couldn't do anything about fights off the school property.

This was not a smart decision, because this girl was my student.

Her mother said, "I suggest you reconsider, because if this happens again my daughter won't just stand there and take it like she did this time. Trust me, it won't be pretty."

The next day after school, the same gang surrounded this girl again. This time she went into full assault mode, immediately taking out six bullies. This caused the others to lose their "courage" and flee. Those gang girls got an education about bullying. It was an education their school and parents had failed to provide them by less painful means.

And guess what? Nobody at that school bothered that girl ever again. In fact, all bullying--which had been rampant--abruptly ceased. Just like that. The school's "intractable" bullying problem was solved in a single afternoon by one girl who unleashed a big can of industrial-strength whupass. While it did cause (a lot of) pain for the bullies, it made many students at that school much better human beings by causing the entire school to stop a toxic behavior pattern.

When an innocent person is confronted by a much larger and stronger attacker, or group of attackers, the safest option is a quick, violent response. It ends the fight quickly, with the innocent person left unharmed. This is why, for example, if you pose a threat to a police officer you are likely to get shot; this stops your attack and protects the officer. So the principle isn't my idea, it's a fundamental principle of self-defense.

I don't have a video for you to watch so you can see the techniques (that I taught the girls) demonstrated. But there is no mystery here. All you have to do is "play act" with a partner for a few one-hour sessions each week and keep this up for several months before tapering off to a few times a month just to stay sharp. Put your mind to it.

Practice in "soft motion" and visualize while you do. Practice execution from different positions, and from different angles to the attacker. Also work on balance. How do you keep your feet under you and stay reasonably stable? Once you get the techniques down, try to practice them while moving or while slightly off balance.

The idea is to learn the movements by practicing them, but safely. You don't actually strike hard. You want to watch the lines of force in your mind; this will help you learn where and how to strike.

For the kneecap, for example, you can use the heel of your palm to strike sideways against the kneecap. Moderate force there, and the attacker can no longer stand on that leg. Imagine how this changes a child abduction scenario. A low kick works especially well for this; if you drill so that you can deliver it without looking down you will have an amazing ability to stop almost anybody.

Remember, a kick to the shin hurts but a kick to the kneecap disables. Always disable rather than hurt. Attack the attacker's weapons or ability to use them.

The collar bone break is a hammer blow down at about a 45 degree angle. Nobody expects a blow to hit there, they think you are trying to punch them in the nose.

Don't hit someone else in the face; all that bone (way more than in a collarbone) can hurt your hand. Other targets are easier to hit and more productive when you do. The face isn't a weapon, so hitting it is pointless. Hitting the back of the hand really hard is entirely a different story.

What about tearing off the ear? The ear is large enough that you can grip it with sufficient force to really hold on to it. Practice grabbing an ear (gently) to see how this works. If you grab the attacker's ear very hard and simply throw your feet out from under you (sit down); your weight will either tear the ear cartilage (and likely tear the ear off the attacker's head) or cause severe neck injury. Either way, fight's over.

Speaking of neck injury, my favorite fight-stopper is a punch to the side of the neck. Nobody expects this and an attacker who's facing you doesn't see it coming because you change your body position to deliver it. A very dynamic movement. It can be delivered only with the proper body positioning (footwork). It's totally devastating to the opponent, but it requires a grace and precision that does not come easily. When I taught this, I taught it to my black belt students only.

How do you break a finger? Simple. Grab it and quickly snap it backwards. Or snap it hard to the side. A child can use two hands for this on an adult, if need be. Grab one finger with one hand and the one next to it with the other. Then pull apart hard or push the hands across each other (and use your body weight in the push). Those fingers easily snap.

Figure out with your kid how to do this, and nobody will ever snatch and grab your kid. You can't hold a child or a weapon if your fingers are broken. The drill is you grab the kid, putting your fingers in the kid's range. Then the kid simply slow-executes the move without really hurting you. You can also drill by having your kid execute quickly on a make-believe finger.

Practice by grabbing the kid's hair from in back. The kid should respond by pushing back toward whoever grabbed the hair while reaching up to grab the attacker's hand and quickly feeling for a finger to break. The natural response is to try to pull away, and it doesn't work. Move backwards into your attacker while executing the counter attack. Drill on this response, until it becomes the new natural response.

In most cases, the attacker controls you by depending upon you to try to pull away. But if you move toward and into the attacker (practice turning into the attacker, also) you considerably reduce the attacker's control while putting your own weapons close to vulnerable targets. Stomping on the instep, kicking the knee, driving two fingers into the solar plexus, or bending down to grip and twist the kneecap all can end the attack. Especially if two or three of these are executed in rapid succession.

I realize these kinds of techniques are brutal and merciless. But if you practice them and make them second-nature, you need fear no man. Even if you're just a little kid.

Why go through this every year, when there's a permanent solution? Just have your legs amputated and you'll lose weight. What, don't like that idea?

Could it be that people mean do not mean "lose weight" at all? Could it mean they want to change their body composition so they don't look so fat anymore?

Yeah, buddy. Diet down and get back into those 38-inch waist pants.

What if I showed you a permanent solution that will get you guys into 32-inch waist pants (and women similarly lean)? Those pants would be a couple of inches too roomy on me, but for most men a 32-inch waist would be a realistic goal.

There are all kinds of diets being floated around. Do you cut carbs? Reduce fat? Eat carrot sticks and celery only? Buy expensive meal replacements?

No to all of those!

Let's talk about carbs, first. Rule number one is do not worry about getting too many carbs. For the most part, it's not how many carbs you get but what kind of carbs.

Some carbs are endocrine modifiers, and they greatly distort the traditional carb math. Traditionally, the story goes that if you eat 3500 calories beyond your personal limit, you gain a pound of fat.

The reality is quite different:

•  If you eat only 200 calories of an endocrine modifier (e.g., high fructose corn syrup), your whole system will go out of whack and you could gain several pounds of fat until it's back in whack.
• If you eat 2000 calories of sweet potatoes, you may actually have a net LOSS of fat.

And it doesn't matter what your "personal limit" is; even if your limit is somehow calculated at 2200 calories and you consume only 1800 but 200 are endocrine modifiers you will see a net gain of fat (you'll experience a loss of muscle, too).

That's because so much is driven by your hormones. Foods hugely affect your hormonal environment.

Rather than starve yourself and count calories, just eat reasonable portions (e.g., don't stuff yourself) of quality carbs.  What are these? Fruits, vegetables, and some grains (rice, quinoa, millet, etc.). Nothing processed!

Top photo taken 16SEP2016, just days before 56th birthday; bottom photo taken 3 days after 56th birthday

The right carbs are good for fat loss because they promote the right hormonal environment. They are also good for fat loss because they provide fuel for training. If you train hard, you get a fat-burning boost that lasts for days after the training session.

So forget New Year's resolutions to "lose weight". That goal is vague (lose how much?) and it aims at the wrong target.

It's not the weight you want to lose, but the fat. Which 160lb guy do you think looks better with his shirt off after losing 30 lbs:

• Aaron. Dieted down by restricting carb intake. Lost 8lbs of muscle and 22lbs of fat.
• Brad. Switched to quality carbs, and trained hard. Gained 8lbs of muscle, lost 38lbs of fat.

Or what about Charlie, who started the year at 160lbs because last year he adopted a lifestyle of making smart food choices. Six months later, he still weighs 160lbs, but he's changed the mix by gaining 5lbs of muscle and losing 5lbs of fat.

Note that the carb-restrictive diets have these disadvantages:

• They tend to taste bland.
• They don't provide enough calories for you to feel energetic.
• You miss out on a nutrition bonanza.
• Only a true masochist can stick with such a diet.
• The typical carb dieter rebounds off that diet after losing muscle to end up fatter and heavier than when s/he started. Also weaker and sicker.

And the advantages of a healthy-carb diet are the exact opposites of the disadvantages of the carb-restriction diets. I think the great taste alone is reason enough to go with healthy carbs, but looking and feeling great are also compelling reasons. A small bowl of berries or an apricot is a great way to get carbs.

When they're in season, I eat peaches every day. I also eat sweet potatoes every day, unless I am taking a break from those to eat purple potatoes or some other kind of exotic potato. I love those carbs and they are very, very good to me!

Note that many "carb" foods are high in B vitamins, iron, and other nutrients that make the difference between being anemic and being energetic. Eat a variety of carbs!

Next, let's talk about fats. It's pretty much the same set of arguments. So don't go on a low-fat, fat-free, or other "fat is bad" diet unless you want to be fat, have an adverse hormonal environment, and have poor musculature. You need fat to burn fat, and you need fat for many other positive purposes.

Saturated fat isn't "bad" and you actually need it for optimum health. It is high in calories, so use fats to enhance dishes you prepare rather than just chug down the fat. For example, eating a 4-egg omelet where (organic) butter was used in the pan is a good way to get saturated fats (from the egg and the butter), and it tastes great. Fold the omelet over with wilted spinach and kale, and now you have a super-meal.

The typical avocado has over 3 grams of saturated fat! If this stuff clogged your arteries, bodybuilders would be dropping like flies from heart attacks instead of having incredibly robust cardiovascular systems.

I suppose if money were no object you could sit down and eat a dozen avocados a day and start having health problems from doing that. But using avocados as an ingredient in meal-making (e.g., dicing up half of one onto a raw veggie mix) is an entirely different consumption level.

If you prepare meals with the idea that doing so is an art form, you're going to put foods together in sensible ways. The fats complement the other foods, and it all works well together. Same thing with carbs. In this mode, it's impossible to get too many carbs or too much fat. Just make sure the ones you do get are worthy of being included in your meals. Your waistline will show whether you got this right.

• The best workouts are short and intense.
• A good diet contains far more flavors and satisfaction than the typical American diet.

Are you programmed by television and other brainwashing tools, or do you make your own decisions?