Mindconnection eNL, 2019-02-03

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In this issue:
Good News | Product Highlight | Brainpower | Finances | Security | Health/Fitness | Factoid | Thought 4 the Day

Item 1. Scott Pruitt resigned from the EPA last July. While that doesn't qualify as news at this late date, it certainly is good. What is good news is this harmful idiot "faces numerous ethical investigations into excessive spending on travel, security staff, and office furnishings" (source: Discover Magazine).

Item 2. Due to overpopulation and decades of water misuse, humanity is facing a potable water shortage. Indeed, major aquifers around the world are drying up. The World Water Council estimates a billion people now lack access to clean water. The good news is several recent inventions help answer the water shortage.

For example, MIT researchers have produced a mesh that uses electric fields to attract and condense the water in fog. It can be used near industrial cooling towers, and the researchers estimate that alone could produce 150 million tons a year of clean water. And, as you might expect, some nifty things are being done with graphene in this area too.

However, none of this good news is an excuse to waste water. Conservation continues to be our primary defense against the looking shortage. Make a point of assessing your water usage and finding ways to reduce it.

Item 3. The badly needed reform of our "nothing good about it" 1040 tax system brought many advantages to ordinary victims of IRS malfeasance and terrorism. It also brought nice financial benefits to ordinary taxpayers. This article does the math: https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-tax-law-paycheck-calculator-every-income-level-2018-3

Anything that reduces IRS terrorism is a good thing. The cash savings is icing on that particular cake. Let's encourage Congress to keep going. Think what could happen if they raised the standard deduction to $20,000. Compliance costs would plummet, just as they did with the increase to $12,000. Terrorism would decrease even further.

Laying off thousands of IRS "workers" (people who spend 50% of their office time surfing porn and gambling sites according to the GAO and much of the other 50% engaging in illegal scams according to numerous accounts such as the Hoyt Fiasco) would save far more than pointless salaries and lavish benefits. Every IRS job eliminated in IRS Collections would likely result in 150,000 new jobs in the private sector. And that would be very good news indeed.

Item 4. The national boycott against Dick's Sporting Goods is having a strong effect. While sales are up for their leading competitors, the company's sale were down 4.5% during the period between August to November. And that particular period is a peak buying time for sporting goods stores.

At some point, shareholders will have to demand that the board sack CEO Ed Stack (and maybe have him committed, as he clearly has problems). But by then, it may be too late. Most of the many disrespected customers now boycotting Dick's will never return.

It's always good news when a rogue corporation suffers from a boycott. The boycott against Circuit City for its race discrimination brought the company down. Dick's has been engaging in age discrimination directly and in race discrimination indirectly, while also baselessly accusing its law-abiding customers of all sorts of terrible things.

You have to wonder about a board of directors that lets a CEO behave this way. Dick's shareholders need to clean up Dick's board, also. But since they are mostly institutional investors, they will just let the irresponsible board dissolve when the company does. That's how our system works.

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1. WILL THE REAL DUMMY PLEASE STAND UP? AT&T fired President John Walter after nine months, saying he lacked intellectual leadership. He received a $26 million severance package.

Perhaps it's not Walter who's lacking intelligence.

2. WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM OUR FRIENDS: Police in Oakland, CA spent two hours attempting t! o subdue a gunman who had barricaded himself inside his home. After firing ten tear gas canisters, officers discovered that the man was standing beside them in the police line, shouting, "Please come out and give yourself up."

3. WHAT WAS PLAN B? An Illinois man, pretending to have a gun, kidnapped a motorist and forced him to drive to two different automated teller machines, wherein the kidnapper proceeded to withdraw money from his own bank accounts.

4. THE GETAWAY! A man walked into a Topeka, Kansas Kwik Stop and asked for all the money in the cash drawer. Apparently, the take was too small, so he tied up the store clerk and worked the counter himself for three hours until police showed up and grabbed him.

5. DID I SAY THAT? Police in Los Angeles had good luck with a robbery suspect! who just couldn't control himself during a lineup. When detectives asked each man in the lineup to repeat the words: "Give me all your money or I'll shoot", the man shouted, "that's not what I said!"

6. ARE WE COMMUNICATING? A man spoke frantically into the phone: "My wife is pregnant and her contractions are only two minutes apart." "Is this her first child?" the doctor asked. "No!" the man shouted, "This is her husband!"

7. NOT THE SHARPEST TOOL IN THE SHED! In Modesto, CA, Steven Richard King was arrested for trying to hold up a Bank of America branch without a weapon. King used a thumb and a finger to simulate a gun... Unfortunately, he failed to keep his hand in his pocket!

8. THE GRAND FINALE! Last summer, down on Lake Isabella, located in the high desert, an hour east of Bakersfield, CA, some folks, new to boating, were having a problem. No matter how hard they tried, they couldn't get their brand new 22 foot boat, going. It was very sluggish in almost every maneuver, no matter how much power they applied. After about an hour of trying to make it go, they got it into a nearby marina, thinking someone there may be able to tell them what was wrong. A thorough topside check revealed everything in perfect working condition. The engine ran fine, the out-drive went up and down, and the propeller was the correct size and pitch.

So, one of the marina guys jumped in the water to check underneath.

He came up choking on water, he was laughing so hard. NOW REMEMBER...THIS IS TRUE. Under the boat, still strapped securely in place, was the trailer!

Many costly solutions have been proposed, but guess what? You can do things that save you money and reduce your pollution footprint. Here are some examples:

• Combine trips, if driving a car. If every driver in America did this for a 20% reduction in fuel consumption, how many billions of gallons of wasted fuel would they not be paying for?
   
• When car shopping, set a minimum mileage standard. Absolutely do not consider anything that gets less than 22 city / 38 highway. If you put a heavy emphasis on fuel economy, you may just drive off in a car that gets 35/48 or better. And costs a whole lot less to operate.
   
• Painlessly turn your heat down in the winter. Dress a little more warmly, sure. But close a few doors and some register vents so you are heating only the most important spaces the most. For example, bathroom vent wide open but living room vent half open. I've played with this zone heating theme quite a bit and now have it figured out such that I am just as comfortable as when I paid $40 a month more to waste the heat.
   
• Take shorter showers in the winter. After all, you're not perspiring like you do in August. Consider skipping a daily shower (heresy in the USA, but in most other countries the heresy is the daily shower) and simply washclothing the key areas.
   
• Increase the percentage of unpackaged food you buy. You reduce waste and save money, while also having a healthier diet.
   
• Don't buy bottled water. This should be obvious to everyone over the age of three, but apparently it's not because stores stock massive quantities of this economic and ecological insult and zombie consumers load up on it. On the off chance you don't know how very bad this is on multiple levels, invest a quarter hour to research it online. Or just estimate the cost per gallon of the water and estimate how many tons of waste plastic are generated by the morally bankrupt bottled water industry.
   
• Fix home energy waste. There are all kinds of things you can to do make your house, apartment, etc., more energy efficient. Some are really cheap, such as installing those foam insulators behind the faceplates of electrical outlets on exterior walls (the walls are inside, but the other side of them is outside). In bedrooms, you can replace cheap metal blinds with insulating fabric blinds, which also darken the room to improve your sleep. It's worth your time to get a book on this subject and start following the suggestions.
   
• Examine your waste stream. Why is a particular item in it? What can you do to eliminate purchases of things that add to your waste stream? What can you re-use? What can you recycle?
   
• Examine your toxin sources. Perfumes and harsh cleaners are two types of items that needlessly toxify the air you breathe, and making them is also harmful to the environment. Look for sustainable alternatives. For perfume, just eliminate "processed food" from your diet and you won't have a bad smell that needs to be covered up. If you're married and you both do this, your natural body odors will be a natural aphrodisiac and improve your marriage. As for cleaners, vinegar and baking soda work great and cost little.

See this: https://www.youtube.com/embed/6MHYOB5uptc

Corruption is rampant at all levels of government in the USA. There's been a proposal to force politicians to wear the logos of their corporate sponsors, same as NASCAR drivers do.

Ignorant people believe we have a "democracy". Officially, it's a democratic republic. In reality, it's a kleptocracy.

Our system is dominated by a single political party with two wings: Republicans and Democrats. These criminals work for the same gangsters. There is a second party, the Libertarian Party; I am a card-carrying member.

Unfortunately, most Americans vote for crime as usual (D or R)--totally wasting their vote. They justify this with the irrationality that to vote in the affirmative for rule of law is a waste of their vote.

If the national average for effective IQ rose by 90 points, then we might have some hope of ending the gangsta government problem. With stupidity now the most popular national pastime, the criminals don't have to worry.

You CAN stand up to gangsta government, even if our sham "elections" keep proving to the gangstas that they can keep pillaging and plundering. Of course, voting in a way that makes your vote count (vote in the affirmative for rule of law, instead of "choosing" whether the left or right end of the turd is clean) is a good step. So is explaining to others how "voting" really works.

Take a look around your own city. Where is waste, fraud, and corruption evident? Maybe you can't readily see it; do a little online research to find if anyone is reporting on the local shenanigans. Pore over your city and county magazines, reading between the lines of spin to determine whether specific expenditures are necessary or worthwhile. Once you find a problem, go on the offensive.

Write to your (mis)representatives on the city council and county board, asking probing questions. Consider organizing a group to force reform. Or consider running for office. Perhaps start a blog exposing the goings-on, if you have time to attend the council and/or board meetings. Find people who are more action than talk, and work with them to stop the stealing.

Locking the doors to your home is all well and good, but if you are letting local politicians rob you blind then you have to wonder what the point is of locking your doors. Security needs to be holistic, not ala carte. Don't let crooked politicians rob you. The vast majority of politicians are running a con game. They are likeable and tell you what they think you want to hear, all the while separating you from your money.
 

People who understand "No pain, no gain" are referring to the effort involved in training. If you can't push past your comfort zone, you can't get to the place where you trigger your body's adaptive response.

People who talk about "blasting" or "annihilating" their muscles confuse overwork with productive training. You need to train to stimulate, and that's hard work. If you continue to train past the point of fatigue, you must compromise your form to continue. This doesn't provide any benefit, and it is how you get injured. You have to know when to stop.

Another common expression is "Practice makes perfect." That simply is not true. "Practice makes permanent" is more accurate. If you practice something in bad form, then you create "muscle memory" based on doing something the wrong way. Exactly the opposite of perfection.

I have a climbing partner who insists on periodically climbing very easy (for him) problems. But he does them perfectly. He looks so graceful when he moves. When he climbs at the edge of his ability, he draws on this stored graceful movement pattern.

Photo taken about one week before 40th High School Class Reunion

It is much more common for climbers to "move up" and not practice at lower levels where their practice can be perfect. Many believe "climb badly but climb often" is the secret to . These kinds of climbers burn out in half the time the "practice perfection" climbers do because they lack the grace and efficiency of motion. Not only that, they hit a plateau. Their solution, to climb more often, doesn't help because they just do more practice of the same inefficient movement.

Another false expression is "Fat makes you fat." The idea here is you need to reduce dietary fat to get leaner. My diet includes quite a bit of fat. I average 10 whole eggs per day, plus I eat butter, avocados, and nuts. You don't see competitive bodybuilders going on low-fat diets, either.

Then there are the expressions that are true only in special cases. For example, "you can't reduce body fat and  gain muscle at the same time". Over one million people proved this expression wrong when they completed the Bill Phillips Body For Life Challenge. The expression is based on the ideas that you lose body fat only by calorie deficit and gain muscle only with excess calories; both of those ideas are false because all calories are not the same and fat loss isn't much more an endocrine management game than it is a calorie counting game.

You don't need to go into calorie deprivation to lose fat. As for building muscle, you need just enough calories rather than a surplus.

So generally, the expression is not true. But in special cases it is true. For example, good endocrine management can take you only so far with fat loss. Once you drop to a certain level (this varies by individual), further fat loss can come only with a net calorie deficit. That deficit will prevent you from building muscle. The average person never needs to be concerned with this, but anyone seeking rapid fat loss (not a good idea) or seeking to get lean enough for a bodybuilding competition must go the calorie deficit route temporarily.

I thought that by talking briefly about a few expressions you might hear in the gym or on the athletic field (or equivalent thereof), I might stimulate you to think beyond the common misunderstandings that go with these and other expressions. You need to think about what you're doing, not follow some pithy saying because it sounds good.

Focus on understanding the principles behind nutrition, rest, and training.

And also think about your goals. Training so that you are chronically fatigued or frequently injured serves no purpose, yet it's a common outcome of training. The most common outcome of training is what I call "near zero effect" training. It's training done so badly, it's not much better than no training at all. You see this kind of training at gyms all the time. People show up and randomly exercise, rather than have a purpose for that particular session. When it's shoulders day, I work those shoulders. I don't diffuse my training by tossing in something unrelated.

To me, a good training program has these goals:

• Prevent injury. If you get injuries, that defeats the purpose of training. Good form is the solution.
• Respect time efficiency. Do the correct exercises correctly rather than wasting your time overtraining.
• Have sustainability. Can you do this program indefinitely? I have not missed a workout in over 40 years. I enjoy training. Design a program you can stick with. Then stick with it.
• Produce good physical results. This seems obvious, but many people have zero progress. They don't get leaner, stronger, or more coordinated. Why? Because they are going through the motions instead of working in a way that counts.
• Improve stamina, energy, and overall health. People who have adopted a training lifestyle are just healthier, period. We can do more than people without this lifestyle. But that assumes the training is well-designed. If you grind out two hour workouts six days a week and are always sore and tired, why are you training in the first place?

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

Paradise for liberals would be a place where everybody has guaranteed employment, free comprehensive healthcare, free education, free food, free housing, free clothing, and free utilities. And only the authorities have guns. We have such a place. It's called prison.