Scree

noun : an accumulation of loose stones or rocky debris lying on a slope or at the base of a hill or cliff.

Our oil predicament

Published May 11, 2015  ·  All posts on May 11

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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Boston Gauntlet 2015

Published May 9, 2015  ·  All posts on May 9  ·  

This entry is part 17 of 72 in the series My Journey

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

Published May 9, 2015  ·  All posts on May 9  ·  

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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Calm down and be civil

Published May 5, 2015  ·  All posts on May 5  ·  

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

Published May 4, 2015  ·  All posts on May 4

This entry is part 17 of 25 in the series M. Eades' Blog

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

Published May 3, 2015  ·  All posts on May 3  ·  

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

Published May 2, 2015  ·  All posts on May 2  ·  

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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FitBit Charge HR

Published April 29, 2015  ·  All posts on Apr 29  ·  

This entry is part 16 of 72 in the series My Journey

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

Published April 28, 2015  ·  All posts on Apr 28

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

Published April 28, 2015  ·  All posts on Apr 28

This entry is part 16 of 25 in the series M. Eades' Blog

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

Published April 27, 2015  ·  All posts on Apr 27  ·  

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

Published April 26, 2015  ·  All posts on Apr 26  ·  

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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Creating habits that stick

Published April 25, 2015  ·  All posts on Apr 25  ·  

Rather than try to force myself every day, I simply created a “micro-habit” that I knew would lead to the intended behavior. A micro-habit is a single, tiny action that necessarily leads to a bigger action.

. . .

But here’s the trick: Once you perform the micro-habit enough times, it becomes much harder NOT to complete the entire habit than to simply do the whole thing.

~ Maneesh Sethi from, How to Create Habits That Stick

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Low-carb adaptation

Published April 22, 2015  ·  All posts on Apr 22

This entry is part 15 of 25 in the series M. Eades' Blog

There is an adaptation period that takes place when starting a low-carb diet. Someone who has been on a high-carb diet–the standard American diet, for example–has to metabolize a lot of sugar. All metabolic processes require enzymes to carry them out. Our DNA codes for these enzymes, but we don’t make them unless we need them. And when we do need them it takes a while for them to get brought up to the necessary levels. So, when we’re on a high-carb diet, we’ve got a lot of sugar-metabolizing enzymes kicking around, ready to metabolize sugar. All the sugar-metabolizing pathways are working efficiently.

~ Michael Eades from, «http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/ketones-and-ketosis/lt-frederick-schwatka-and-low-carb-adaptation/»

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Switch to slow mode

Published April 21, 2015  ·  All posts on Apr 21  ·  

Being in Fast Mode leads to constant switching, and constant busy-ness. It leads to overwork, because when do you switch it off? It leads to exhaustion, because we never give ourselves breathing room.

Learn to recognize when you’re in Fast Mode, and practice switching to Slow Mode now and then. It’s essential to doing all the things that are really important.

~ Leo Babauta from, The Brain’s Fast Mode

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