Port Side Observation deck 
Sunset with a glimpse of Africa from Quantum of the Seas 
Ponta Delgada 
Mallorca 
A rare point of view 
North Africa 
The Rock at sunset 
Picturesque mediteranean island
Scree
noun : an accumulation of loose stones or rocky debris lying on a slope or at the base of a hill or cliff.
The paradox of barefoot running
So the explanation here is clear: Our skeletons, musculature and nervous systems are highly refined and well-coordinated adapative systems which adjust both instanteously and by means of longer term adjustments to in order handle the terrain. These “proprioceptive” adjustments take place virtually beneath the level of consciousness, through the exquisite feedback systems of our body and brain. Try to circumvent these systems, and the protective mechanisms will weaken, exposing us to injury.
~ Todd Becker from, The paradox of barefoot running
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Sorry, no actually I’m not
So this happened in Cartegena.
This is funny, but that’s not why I posted this. See the bottom.
Imagine if you will, a bus load of 45 tourists — a perfect stereotype bus tour from a cruise ship. We all walk up a hill/road to see the Castillo overlooking Cartegena. (Very nice by the way! Photos coming soon.) Then we walk all the way back down. We reach an intersection, near our bus in the home stretch, and across the street is a small park with one of those long railings meant to keep people from J-walking.
The cross-walk says “go”, so there’s no traffic. Without thinking, I J-walked straight across and vaulted the rail.
…and I hear 44 people do a group groan. They had all followed me across the intersection and everyone had to walk all the way around the railing. (My mom shouted out, “Brat!”)
SO? Well, I did it without thinking, but FORGET ME.
Imagine what YOUR LIFE would be like if you vaulted a little railing after a long walk AND THOUGHT IT WAS FUN. What, really, is your excuse?
(…and if you’re in shape, or under 20, or can already vault a rail. Kudos to you! …but I’m not talking to you.)
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Secret society of … adults
Postman argues that our modern concepts of childhood and adulthood (and the gulf between them) were birthed by the printing press. Literacy became the dividing line between these stages of life; adults were competent readers, children were not, and they thus had to become adults by mastering written language.
~ Brett Mckay from, The Printing Press, Literacy, and the Rise and Fall of the Secret Society of Adults
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Our oil predicament
A person might think that oil prices would be fairly stable. Prices would set themselves at a level that would be high enough for the majority of producers, so that in total producers would provide enough–but not too much–oil for the world economy. The prices would be fairly affordable for consumers. And economies around the world would grow robustly with these oil supplies, plus other energy supplies. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to work that way recently. Let me explain at least a few of the issues involved.
~ Gail Tverberg from, Eight Pieces of Our Oil Price Predicament
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Carbohydrates are addictive
You think carbohydrates aren’t addictive? You think it’s easy to give them up? You don’t think it possible that people might prefer carbs to life?
Think again.
~ Michael Eades from, «http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/ketones-and-ketosis/carbohydrates-are-addictive/»
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Boston Gauntlet 2015
Group photo from the end of the “Gauntlet” event in Somerville.
I think my biggest accomplishment was the “didn’t hurt myself.” I certainly did a lot of physical things that were impressive (for me, and my ability.) But just being able to continue to ‘dig deep’ for hours on end — that was great.
As usual, I want to avoid name-dropping. But we did this one neat turn-vault landing on one foot and continuing on to step down and off the wall… that was something very different! Also, one of the first times I’ve EVER just “done” something and actually felt like I was really moving simply.
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Thriving in uncertainty
Yet from the first encounter, the theories unraveled in the face of situations that could never have been predicted. The most respected generals in the world were made to look like amateurs. Their faith in abstract planning blinded them to the reality of the situation. It took years of conflict before they began to really adapt to the reality of their situation.
~ Kyle Eschenroeder from, 5 Tools for Thriving in Uncertainty
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Genius versus talent
…a genius is simply a person who originates something never known before. Nobody but Melville could have written Moby-Dick, not even Whitman or Shakespeare. Nobody but Whitman could have written Leaves of Grass; Whitman was born to write Leaves of Grass and Melville was born to write Moby-Dick.
~ Jack Kerouac from, Are Writers Born or Made? Jack Kerouac on the Crucial Difference Between Talent and Genius
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Bespoke, hand crafted engineer
There are ramifications to my job not being done correctly, and there are ramifications to your, as well. They’re probably not always (or even usually) dire, but how many times does it have to be?
~ Matt Simmons from, Bespoke, Hand Crafted Engineer
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You can, and should, also follow Matt directly on Twitter @standalonesa and on his blog.
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Calm down and be civil
You laugh, and then you probably think to yourself (like I did), “oh crap…that’s me…many, many times.” Whether it’s a delayed flight, or slow service at a restaurant (where we’ll overeat and then complain about being full) it’s amazing what we can complain about just so we have something to complain about!
~ Steve Kamb from, Does It REALLY Matter?
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Persistent organic pollutants
Organochlorine pesticides (DDT, lindane, etc), organochlorine and organobromine industrial pollutants, solvents, placticizers, and a host of other such substances are in the stored fat of all of us. Their use over the previous decades has so filled our environment with these chemicals that we can’t escape them. The are in the air, they fall in the rain, they are in the groundwater. Consequently, they are in our food. Whenever we eat, we get a load of these persistent organic pollutants (POPs) that make their way into our fat cells and cells in other tissues. And they build up because we can’t get rid of them.
~ Michael Eades from, «http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/weight-loss/a-legitimate-use-for-orlistat/»
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Instant gratification
Certainly, our march from one level of gratification to the next has imposed huge costs—most recently in a credit binge that nearly sank the global economy. But the issue here isn’t only one of overindulgence or a wayward consumer culture. Even as the economy slowly recovers, many people still feel out of balance and unsteady.
~ Paul Roberts from, Instant Gratification
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Boosting your adaptive reserves
Heart rate variability turns out to be a generalized, deep measure of health. That’s because higher HRV is a strong indicator of resilience to stress, while low HRV is a sign of reduced capacity to tolerate stress. And at the deepest level, health is resilience, and diseases in various ways compromise resilience.
~ Todd Becker from, Track your HRV to boost adaptive reserves
This is a REALLY good article on understanding heart rate variability. Turns out, the MORE your heart rate varies — in terms of the variation of the timing from one beat to the next — the more that indicates good cardiovascular health. I found that idea to be counter-intuitive. I would have guessed, wrongly, that the more regular the heart beats were, the better.
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Your vote didn’t matter
My working hypothesis had been that Obama was a lying bastard when trying to get elected and didn’t actually care about civil liberties, or even limiting foreign wars military actions. It now occurs to me that maybe he does care about these things but just finds himself unable to change government policy.
~ Vikram Bath from, «http://ordinary-gentlemen.com/blog/2014/11/06/your-vote-didnt-matter»
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FitBit Charge HR
I’m working with a friend of mine — Mike Bowyer — on a designed, intentional, training program. One of the critical components is working for specific times in very particular heart rate zones. So I’ve bitten the bullet, and am trying a FitBit. Online commentary seems to be that it’s not super-accurate, but I’m hoping it will do at least an ‘ok’ job of thoroughly recording heart rate during — saw this coming didn’t you? — parkour activities.
…until I smash it on a brick.
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The End
It’s taken me nearly a year to go through the 2,000 odd photographs and videos that Mike and I took. Time well spent.
Looking back over the posts continues to bring back floods of memories.
th-th-th-th-that’s ALL FOLKS!
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Longevity and membrane saturation
The cell membranes of both young and old honey bee queens are highly monounsaturated with very low content of polyunsaturates. Newly emerged workers have a similar membrane fatty acid composition to queens but within the first week of hive life, they increase the polyunsaturate content and decrease the monounsaturate content of their membranes, probably as a result of pollen consumption. This means their membranes likely become more susceptible to lipid peroxidation in this first week of hive life. The results support the suggestion that membrane composition might be an important factor in the determination of maximum life span.
~ Michael Eades from, «http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/uncategorized/longevity-and-membrane-saturation/»
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Dunbar’s number
Dunbar’s Number is a favorite blunt diagnosis for the pains that affect rapidly growing teams. The number, which is somewhere between 100 and 250 describes a point at which a group of people can no longer effectively maintain social connections in their respective heads. What was simple from a communication perspective becomes costly. What was a familiar family that you saw wandering the hallway becomes Stranger Town.
~ Rands from, The Old Guard
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Also, Dunbar’s Number on Wikipedia.
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UNESCO’s best kept secret
I was recently made aware of a UNESCO document known as their “International Charter for Physical Education and Sport”. I’m quite sure not a lot of people even know of its existence (and most certainly not within our community). This document contains some of the most beautiful thoughts and ideas on physical education and sport that I have ever come across, and what is more interesting, a lot of them seems to be identical with what we believe is good, beautiful and right with our chosen discipline of parkour/freerunning/ADD.
~ Mikkel Rugaard from, UNESCO’S Best Kept Secret
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