Shoes

Yes, shoes. This review of Vivo Barefoot footwear, from running shoes to dress shoes, fits my experience based on the one pair that I own and wear almost all of the time. At this point, other than buying some Converse All-Stars to play ball in, I can't imagine buying a different brand shoe. Yes, I've enjoyed my Vibram Five-Fingers, but these shoes are more comfortable. Great stuff. I agree with this review, next to barefoot, these shoes work best for me.

The Weight Thing

From Gary Taubes: a succinct summary of the path he advocates as the best hypothesis about our national obesity problem. I've posted about this many times before, but this is a really good summary in a response to an article in the NYT Magazine by a writer who tried all of the conventional methods and found that they just didn't work. She apparently decided it was her weak will and now she's stuck. (I admit that I didn't read the article, so correct me if I'm wrong.) Anyway, you can preview what Taubes has been saying for two excellent books now in this brief summary signed by a lot of knowledgeable folks. To health!

Diet & History

An interesting TEDx by Stephan Guyenet on the history the American diet. Watch it and you'll know why we as a nation are getting fatter & fatter. Everything has a history, and this is a sad one.

Exercise Anyone?

The linked photos from Conditioning Research say a lot! I just received some photos of my 99 year old aunt, and I have no doubt that clean living of all sorts helped. (Her brothers, who died young and not so old, did indulge in some unhealthy habits.) I don't know that she formally "exercised", but I think that she has always been quite active mentally and physically, like the nuns study folks. Anyway, if you're doubting your need or ability to go out and exercise, especially when you get older, then take a look at these photos for motivation!

Dialogue is an Ancient Form of Communication

Cleaning up my computer, I came across this item that I wrote back in 2005. I haven't read it again carefully, but in glancing at it, I think that I'd still endorse its main premises. Sometimes I surprise myself!

The dialogue is an ancient form of communication, perhaps first made famous by the Socratic dialogues of Plato, varied by St. Thomas Aquinas in his Question & Answer form, and in contemporary times the dialogue is favored by psychotherapists, starting with Freud himself. So I have decided to write a dialogue between one character whom I call "The Question Master" (QM) and the Student (S). The dialogue goes like this:

QM: My dear how are you today?
S: Not very good.
QM: Why not?
S: I received a crappy assignment with a bunch of losers.
QM: Why is that bad?
S: They are a waste of time--And my co-worker was equal to them in ineptitude.
QM: So you got nothing out of this?
S: No
QM: Did you learn what you don't like?
S: Well, yes, but I already knew that!
QM: As well as you do now?
S: Well, it's certainly been reinforced.
QM: Ah, reinforcement is a pillar of learning.
S: I could have done without it.
QM: Well, what was so bad about it again?
S: The students weren't motivated to learn.
QM: Why not?
S: I'm not sure, maybe they were forced to come by their parents.
QM: Could you give them motivation?
S: I tried, but it didn't catch on?
QM: Isn't motivation contagious?
S: It can be, it's like fire, you have to have the right conditions to get it going.
QM: Well put. What conditions are those?
S: Well, mostly a person's mindset.
QM: Can you control those?
S: No, who can?
QM: Can you control your own?
S: Well, more so than someone else's.
QM: Well put. So did you motivate yourself to ignite the fire?
S: I tried.
QM: "Do or do not", I once heard someone say.
S: Well, it's not easy.
QM: What's the value of "easy"? About the value of a penny, I'd say.
S: Well, it was just to uphill, it got me down.
QM: What is it?
S: Well, the collective attitude?
QM: So you bought it?
S: Bought what, Question Master?
QM: The collective attitude?
S: Well, I guess so.
QM: Why did you buy it?
S: Well, I didn't really buy it. I caught it like a disease.
QM: Which metaphor--contagious disease or purchase--is more accurate?
S: Disease, I think.
QM: Well, let's pursue that for a moment. Is their a vaccine for the disease?
S: Not that I know of.
QM: Can your thoughts inoculate you?
S: I don't know how.
QM: Two fellows from ancient Rome, one a slave and one an emperor, thought you could inoculate yourself from others.
S: Oh, really? Who?
QM: Marcus Aurelius & Epictetus.
S: Those names are familiar, I think someone gave me books by them.
QM: Now, going with the other metaphor, do you think that you bought an attitude.
S: Certainly not on purpose!
QM: Got flim-flammed?
S: Well, in a sense.
QM: So you gave your "money", your energy, your chi, away to someone on a scam?
S: I don't follow you.
QM: Well, when someone is in a funk, depressed (or more accurately, depressing), they always show signs of a lack of energy. So the person either gave their energy away or allowed it to be stolen from them.
S: Well, that's not always true, some people can't control those circumstances.
QM: That's true, if the body malfunctions, the mind can suffer. Have you experienced this?
S: Do you mean how I feel, in the body, can effect my mind?
QM: Well, have you ever experienced this?
S: Well, yes I suppose so. Sometimes I'm grouchy when I first
wake up. So what's a person to do?
QM: You mean, how can the mind out-fox the body?
S: I suppose you could put it that way.
QM: Well, what does the mind have that the body doesn't have?
S: Well, it's hard to say, let's see, it's a bit of a chicken and the egg problem.
QM: Well put, but chickens and eggs don't co-exist in time together, as each follows the other, while minds and bodies co-exist.
S: And each influences the other!
QM: Well put, but again I ask, how can the mind get the upper hand?
S: Well, the mind can imagine the future, while the body is much more immediate.
QM: True.
S: And the mind can hold the image of the body in time, and the body can't do that.
QM: Yes, indeed.
S: So the mind can anticipate the body, know what it might do.
QM: Excellent. Tell me more.
S: Well, if we know what the body is likely to do, we can do something different, through the operation of the mind, to alter the course of the body.
QM: Can we control the body completely?
S: No, I don't think so, but if we know, for instance, that the body will grow hot in the sun, we can where a hat and a light colored shirt to reduce the heat, and thereby affect the body.
QM: How about the emotions?
S: Wow, are emotions mind or body?
QM: Or both?
S: Yes, maybe so.
QM: So what might one do with the emotions?
S: Well, since the body and mind are both involved, then, actually, you have more tools, as the body can effect the mind and the mind the body.
QM: You are a bright student.
S: What does all this have to do with me, how'd we get here?
QM: Well, you had a bad experience?
S: Oh, yea, a real bummer!
QM: And where was that experience?
S: Here at a camp.
QM: Really?
S: What do you mean "really"?
QM: Well, where was the real action?
S: Well, you know, out there.
QM: So everyone saw and experienced what you saw?
S: Well, they probably saw the same things.
QM: But did they experience the same things--not just see them.
S: Well, maybe not, some just didn't care.
QM: So where did their different experiences come from?
S: Well, you know, what they thought and what they expected.
QM: So where did you're experience occur?
S: Oh, I get it, you're saying that it's all inside my head. Bug off!
QM: Did I say that?
S: Well, not in so many words . . .
QM: How do you know what I meant?
S: Well, a good guess.
QM: Yes, just a guess. Why did you buy that guess? Was it the cheapest, most handy item on the shelf?
S: There you go again with the purchase metaphor.
QM: Why guess? Can you mind read?
S: Well, no. But I can take a guess, can't I?
QM: "Take a guess" Now it seems that you're getting into theft.
S: You get carried away with these metaphors.
QM: Me or you?
S: Well, are you or are you not suggesting that this is "all in my head"
QM: Yes--and no.
S: Brilliant!
QM: Yes, things happened, some things that might have been unpleasant, irksome, even painful.
S: You can say that again!
QM: If everyone shared the same space, the same sounds, the same sights, the same senses, how come they felt differently than you?
S: I know, because of how I interpreted it, what I "bought".
QM: Did you buy anything of value?
S: Well, I know what I don't like and what I don't want to do!
QM: What a valuable lesson!
S: I know what behavior can bring someone down--if that person is inoculated, or isn't suckered into buying into it.
QM: And how did you get here?
S: I was put there, against my will and better judgment, I might note!
QM: What can you do about it?
S: Not much, it's done now.
QM: So you can't change the past?
S: No, can you?
QM: No, sorry, time is a one-way street.
S: So everything remains the same?
QM: Can't you travel down a one-way street?
S: You mean the future?
QM: Yes, is the future closed?
S: Well, not completely.
QM: Somewhat opened, somewhat closed?
S: Yeah, that's a good way to put it.
QM: So what part do you want to travel on?
S: Well, the open part, of course!
QM: A wise decision, indeed.
S: So let me get all of this straight. You're saying that the future is open, the mind and the body are really two peas in one pod . . .
QM: You may say the mind-body.
S: I may, but maybe I choose not to.
QM: It's you choice.
S: Yes, it is, isn't it. Anyways, you also say that I "buy" ideas or attitudes from others and that maybe I have allowed myself to be ripped-off in the process.
QM: Yes, I think that's a fine metaphor.
S: Or you suggest that I've caught a nasty virus that I could have inoculated myself against. You make it sound like a public health problem.
QM: Interesting, do you know anything about that? It's out of my league.
S: I'm working on it.
QM: What fun, your own inter-personal relations public health problem!
S: Fun to you maybe, not to me.
QM: Sorry, carried away.
S: Okay, Question Master, it's late. I gotta go.
QM: Thank you for talking with me. I learned a lot. I ,hoped that I didn't waste your time.
S: Well, I was looking for someone to throw a party for me.
QM: Oh, what kind of a party?
S: Never mind.
QM: Could you not find a host or hostess?
S: I decided I didn't want a party, not any kind of a party.
QM: I'm not sure I follow.
S: Never mind. Besides, I thought that you were teaching me something.
QM: There you go supposing again!
S: Good-night, you weirdo!
QM: Thank you. Sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite!

The End.

Dan Buettner on the "Blues"

Researcher Dan Buettner @ a TEDMED talk. Some really interesting stuff about movement (exercise without all the equipment or clothes), food, and how ineffective modern medicine and public policy have been in dealing with issues of preventable diseases of civilization. The good news? Some simple, community changes can reap some real benefits. Very interesting viewing.

1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created by Charles C. Mann

This book was such an adventure and joy, I hardly know where to start.

If you have an interest in early American (north and south) history, malaria and yellow fever, the silver trade of Bolivia that went to China as well as Europe, Chinese trade with the Philippines, slave revolts and communities, privateering, the world-system of the early modern era--I could go on and on--then this is your book. Mann, a journalist, goes from topic to topic effortlessly, weaving personal observations with wide-ranging research in the scholarship of these topics. He interviews the scholars as well to add a bit of spice to his research into the scholarship on these myriad topics. Not limited by academic boundaries, he can take us from here to there. By listening to this book, I learned a huge amount in this period in which I am distressingly weak. I'm improving, but I have a long way to go. Fortunately, Mann has gotten me off to a great start.

The Columbian exchange, the first significant step in globalization, for good and ill, begins here. Europe, Africa, and China--human, animal, and botanical-- come to the Americas, and vice versa. It's a fascinating topic, and a story that is ongoing as you read this.

An Honourable Englishman: The Life of Hugh Trevor-Roper by Adam Sisman

In my first semester of college, when I took Western Civ,I had had to read one of my first really grown-up history books, The European Witch-craze of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (an intriguing topic). Now, all these years later, I've read his biography. He's best known for his The Last Days of Hitler, the result of investigation he did immediately after the war for British intelligence. This journalistic endeavor boosted him immensely, and then he went into the history business at Oxford, and later Cambridge. He never wrote the big book, but he was the master of the essay. Alas, while Hitler made his career, the topic also caused him great grief when he mistakenly (and to his credit, preliminarily) authenticated Hitler diaries that were a fraud.

I enjoyed book. For a better reviews (and there are many), go here or here. A well-written biography of an interesting character (as interesting as an academic historian can be!).

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy: The Movie (2012)

Gary Oldman as Smiley

The acting and the casting is solid with fine performances. The script makes sense. The staging and setting are well-done in 70s Britain drab, and the score (except for the final piece) creates an appropriate atmosphere. But in the end, you feel like you've just tried to enjoy a 60-minute Hamlet. Yes, we see the plot, we see some of the characterizations, we view the ending. But there's so much more!

I can say this not just because I've read the book, and I find LeCarre a rich writer who can use detail to set contemporary scenes in a world of bureaucrats and spies as well as anyone could imagine. In fact, even modest literary efforts can get become lost in translation to the screen. (An exception, I expect, is The Godfather, but I speculate because I've not read Puzo's book.). No, the reason that I hold this criticism against this film is that I've viewed--on multiple occasions--the BBC production of it from 1979. It's not that Alec Guinness's performance is better than Gary Oldman's--it is, but Oldman provides an admirable performance. No, rather, it's the time that the BBC took--about seven 45-minute episodes--that allows the richness of the plot and relationships to develop and reveal the characters and the intrigue. This pace allows the viewer to absorb the intrigues and relationships, much as one would when reading the novel. And in the case of this novel, it will not be completed in a single sitting. The Odman film starts and moves slowly in the beginning, I think trying to capture the rich texture of the novel and its television predecessors, but in the end, to get in all of the main plot elements, it has to speed up. There has to be a sacrifice, and in this film, the screenplay sacrifices much of the backstory of the other (non-Smiley) characters.

Thus, it's a good, solid movie, worth seeing. However, to give yourself the best experience, watch the BBC production (free on Youtube). It's a terrific show. You'll appreciate the difference, and for this one occasion, television beats the movies hands-down for the quality of the experience.

Moyers & Colbert

First, for some background for any younger readers (if there be any). Bill Moyers has been a staple of thoughtful, insightful television journalism since the 1960's. He seems to bring a thoughtful, learned, yet modest and inquiring attitude to each interview, whether it be a woman on the street or someone of the highest learning or office. His initial program will feature two political scientists (Jacob Hacker of Yale and someone from Berkeley), and then he'll do someone on the street, and with each interview he seems to speak to the palace where the individuals are at and draw the most from them. Having him back on the air is good news, indeed.

His interview with Colbert shows he's lost nothing much with his advancing age (good news to those of us not far behind him!). He goes toe-to-toe with Stephen, and in the end, leaves Stephen a bit speechless. Fun viewing.

One side note: Are corporations "people"? Moyers got it right when he said "persons", not "people" (that's Mitt Romney). Colbert got it right when he cited the nineteenth century Santa Clara case decided by SCOTUS. Both sides have to be correct in some sense. Of course, on one hand, corporations are not individuals; on the other hand, corporations are organizations of individuals (human individuals, no androids allowed as of yet) that must have some legal standing and, yes, rights. If group entities, corporations (profit and non-profit), partnerships, married couples, churches, etc. don't have some legal rights as "persons", we're in deep trouble.

The Citizens United case (and I admit to not having read it) does trouble me, but it has to do more with the equation of money with speech than with the characterization of a corporation as a "person". I define "person" as a entity with legal rights under our Constitution--I don't equate person in this context as an individual. (To go further, distinguish a "soul" (religious), a "self" (philosophical/psychological) and an "individual" (biological)--it all depends on what you're asking and why. In any event, the equation of money with speech is a brutalization of our political discourse, and a sad chapter in this history of SCOTUS. (Perhaps more on this later.)

Stephen Colbert Explained (Sort of)

Stephen Colbert is a comedic genius. I have to admit that I get much of my news from him and his mentor, Jon Stewart. Dependable? Not exactly, but usually good for some laughs, even when one is tempted to cry at the foolishness that they highlight. Anyway, this is an interesting appreciation of this comedic genius.

It Yoga Dangerous?

This blog post by Martha Peterson based on a NYT article she links to raises some interesting points for me. I've had some back & hip issues for a while, and yoga did seem to aggravate them, although I can't blame the problems on yoga. I don't know what brought them on. I've gotten the most relief and improvement from somatic exercises, like the ones that Peterson teaches, which are based on Thomas Hanna and Feldenkrais. These are very gentle movements and not done to a beat. I'm continuing and expanding my experiments in this area, and I will report more at a later point.

I must say that sometimes vinyasa yoga class seems like fancy calisthenics to me. I've now slowed down on my own--so what if I miss a chataranga? I also try to feel what I'm doing. And, yes, when upside down or twisted this way or that, I do see others around me who are twisted into shapes that I then aspire to, almost always unsuccessfully. So, yes, I plead guilty to competitiveness, and I will try to keep in mind that I should not try to compete. Most teachers are good at stating stating that we should "listen to our own body", etc., but it's a hard lesson for most. A number of participants and yoga teachers (at least at our studio) are intense athletes as well.

P.S. I have now read the complete original article. It does provide food for thought, but as 1HP pointed out, almost any physical endeavor, if not performed properly, or if performed indiscriminately, can cause problems. She also noted our tendency as Americans to push to extremes. Points well taken. Again, my new emphasis is on mindfulness of movement.

Gary Taubes on Best Diet Books

Anyone who reads this blog knows of my admiration for the work Taubes has done in the field of diet and health. He is to contemporary journalism what a Lincoln Steffens or Upton Sinclair were at the beginning of the 20th century, only this time the target is a set of misplaced scientific paradigms instead of slums or slaughter houses. The list of books Taubes provides is interesting, with most of the books older, revealing some of the extensive historical work he performed in Good Calories, Bad Calories. The most recent book he cited, Sisson's Primal Blueprint, is an excellent choice (and on my 2011 reading list). If you want to consider how to lose weight (in particular, excess fat) to improve your health and fitness, then this would be a great place to start, and then read Taubes's books in reverse order (i.e., Why We Get Fat and then Good Calories,Bad Calories). And another shout out to Five Books, a great site.

Best Books of 2011

Reported books completed this year. The very favorites @ the bottom:

1. Nasar, Grand Pursuit
2. Wills, Rome & Rhetoric
3. Brooks, The Social Animal
4. Sisson, Mark, Primal Blueprint. A fine guide to primal living. Highly recommended.
5. Kissinger, On China
6. Baumeister, Willpower
7. Lukacs, Hitler & Stalin
8. Davies, No Simple Victory
9. McCall-Smith, The Sunday Philosophy Club
10. Lukacs, The Hitler of History
11. Faber, 1938, Munich: Appeasement & WWII.
12. Diggins, Why Neibuhr Now
13. Parks, Teach Us to Sit Still
14. Taintor, Collapse
15. Phillipson, Adam Smith
16. Lukacs,The Future of History
17. LeGuin, The Lathe of Heaven
18. Armstrong, Karen, The Spiral Staircase
19. Armstrong, The Case for God
20. Frye, The Double Vision
21. Wills, Biography of Augustine's Confessions
22. Overy, 1939: Countdown to War
23. Bacevich, Washington Rules
24. Cowen, The Great Stagnation
25. Foer, J., Moonwalking with Einstein
26. Morris, Why the West Rules--For Now
27. LeCarre, Our Kind of Traitor
28. Taubes, Why We Get Fight & What We Do About It
29. De Vany, The New Evolution Diet
30. Simmon Schama, The American Future: A History. Not having reviewed this earlier was a major mistake on my part. A fine look at the American past and the American now, which points us to the American future.
31. Ferris, Tim, The Four-Hour Body. Very interesting reading based on self-experimentation. Lots of interesting investigations & tips.

Okay, 31 books that I finished this year. The favorites among favorites? Tough, but let's say Kissinger's On China, Morris's Why the West Rules--For Now, Brooks's The Social Animal, Lukacs, The Future of History, Armstrong's The Spiral Staircase, and Parks, Teach Us to Sit Still.

Looking forward, I'm working to finish 3 fine books now: Gaddis's biography of George Kennan, a biography of the British historian H.R. Trevor-Roper, and 1493 by Charles Mann. All great reads.

On Sleep

Conditioning Research posts another great chart. As for me, now in my 6th decade, I think that nothing quite makes life so good as getting enough sleep. (Well, behind having loved ones, and you might say good books, but they work much better with enough sleep.)