Scree

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

Is motivation useless →

Published May 25, 2015  ·  All posts on May 25  ·  , ,

This entry is part 20 of 72 in the series My Journey

Instead of berating yourself when you’re not motivated to exercise, or getting mad at yourself when you struggle with eating unhealthy food, take a step back and look at it from a different angle:

“How can you build the habit of success and put your focus there, instead of chasing the motivation to make it happen?

It’s easy to become ensnared – to chase motivation and fail – or rationalize inaction and never try. Every single one of us has fallen into this trap. I’d love to hear about your experience with this, and how you plan to (or already have) overcome it.

~ Steve Kamb from, Is Motivation Useless?

Elsewhere, this is 4unebo8. — slipbox

In a vague sort of way, I found this idea in my own training. As usual, Steve Kamb brings clarity to the party. This idea of incremental actions, of habits, and little processes that make success a foregone conclusion is at the core of my Parkour training.

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Oil price slide →

Published May 23, 2015  ·  All posts on May 23

… demand doesn’t pick up quickly as prices drop. We are dealing with a world that has a huge amount of debt. China in particular has been on a debt binge that cannot continue at the same pace. A reduction in China’s debt, or even slower growth in its debt, reduces growth in the demand for oil, and thus its price. The same situation holds for other countries that are now saturated with debt, and trying to come closer to balancing their budgets.

~ Gail Tverberg from, Oil Price Slide – No Good Way Out

Elsewhere, this is 4uouoi3. — slipbox

I have now discussed this a few times, and a common objection raised is that she is over-complicating a simple case of supply-and-demand. To which I say: What part of our enormous, intertwined, legacy, critical to everything from food to medicine to transportation to energy production, global dependency on petroleum is simple?

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Agriculturalists and hunter-gathers →

Published May 22, 2015  ·  All posts on May 22

This entry is part 20 of 25 in the series M. Eades' Blog

The anthropological record of early man clearly shows health took a nosedive when populations made the switch from hunting and gathering to agriculture. It takes a physical anthropologist about two seconds to look at a skeleton unearthed from an archeological site to tell if the owner of that skeleton was a hunter-gatherer or an agriculturist.

~ Michael Eades from, «http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/low-carb-diets/nutrition-and-health-in-agriculturalists-and-hunter-gatherers/»

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Language of lying →

Published May 21, 2015  ·  All posts on May 21  ·  

When you combine the science of recognizing deception with the art of looking, listening, you exempt yourself from collaborating in a lie. You start up that path of being just a little bit more explicit, because you signal to everyone around you, you say, “Hey, my world, our world, it’s going to be an honest one. My world is going to be one where truth is strengthened and falsehood is recognized and marginalized.” And when you do that, the ground around you starts to shift just a little bit.

~ Pamela Meyer from, The Language of Lying: Animated Primer on How to Detect Deception

Elsewhere, this is 4ubala1. — slipbox

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Less interrupting please →

Published May 20, 2015  ·  All posts on May 20  ·  

I have seen this happen more times than the number of yaks I’ve shaved. At nearly every job I’ve had, I’ve walked this fine line. I’ve had performance reviews where I’ve been called pushy, aggressive, assertive, abrasive, or bitchy simply for speaking up in a similar manner to that of my male colleagues, and on the other side of things, I’ve been interrupted and spoken over more times than I can count. I’ve worked at places where I was the only one being interrupted (backstory: I’ve been the only woman in a lot of engineering departments), which has bothered me. But I’ve also worked at places where everyone interrupts each other all the time. For a while, I thought that was better. “At least I’m not being spoken over because I’m the only woman; the guys get interrupted too,” I thought to myself. But everyone interrupting everyone else really isn’t that much better.

~ Katherine Daniels from, «http://beero.ps/2015/01/13/on-interrupting-interrupt-culture/»

For, let’s say, the first half of my life, I was always the one doing the interrupting. As I’ve begun to listen, I now realize how much everyone interrupts everyone else. When I’m relaxed and on my game, I try to have a meta-listening happening so I can tell when to stop talking to keep the conversation working. As best I can manage, when I’m interrupted, I simply stop talking.

But sometimes, just for fun, I like to toss this in quietly while the interrupter is still speaking…

Oh! I’m sorry, did the middle of my sentence interrupt the beginning of yours?

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Be specific about what you don’t do →

Published May 19, 2015  ·  All posts on May 19  ·  

Following “via negativa” may seem like a defensive and risk-averse way to live. But by focusing on what you don’t do, you actually put yourself in a position to be more aggressive with life. The man who has never been arrested, doesn’t have debt, and doesn’t have the drama that comes with bad relationships has more opportunities presented to him and more money, energy, and willpower to capitalize on those opportunities when they appear; the man who has gone though life making stupid mistakes, doesn’t. In other words, you’ll never get a chance to work on the “shalls” if your life’s been wrecked by ignoring the “shall nots.”

~ Brett McKay from, Via Negativa: Adding to Your Life By Subtracting

Elsewhere, this is 4uaovi1. — slipbox

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Photography from Italy →

Published May 18, 2015  ·  All posts on May 18

  • Beach in front of the “new” side of Monterosso
  • Vernazza in the sun
  • The coastline of Cinqa Terra
  • Picturesque Cinqa Terra
  • The sea shall embrace them
  • Sunset in Manarola Italy
  • Piazza de Ferrari in Genoa Italy
  • Piazza Navona
  • Are you not entertained?
  • These stairs were made for sitting?
  • Mosaics of St. Peter’s Basilica dome
  • Dome of St. Peter’s Basilica
  • Victor Emanuel II monument
  • Florentine hitching post
  • En route to Piazzale Michelangelo
  • Stern statuary at Santa Croce
  • Reflections of Florence
  • Tuscan countryside with a view of San Gimignano
  • Invitation to a Tuscan view
  • Towering medieval tower
  • Perched on a hill in the heart of Tuscany
  • Exemplary medieval tower
  • Even the spectacular (copy of) the Statue of David is enthralled
  • Library of the Medicea designed by Leonardo da Vinci

Trained to hate women? →

Published May 17, 2015  ·  All posts on May 17  ·  

Well, you have to keep in mind that what we learn as kids is really hard to deprogram as an adult. And what we learned as kids is that we males are each owed, and will eventually be awarded, a beautiful woman.

We were told this by every movie, TV show, novel, comic book, video game and song we encountered.

~ David Wong from, 5 Ways Modern Men Are Trained to Hate Women: Update

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Dietary protein increases lean mass →

Published May 16, 2015  ·  All posts on May 16

This entry is part 19 of 25 in the series M. Eades' Blog

I know that many female readers will not want to gain extra muscle.  They shouldn’t worry, however, because in the absence of exogenous anabolic steroids women won’t become ‘muscle bound’ or non-feminine appearing.  What generally happens is that the muscle replaces fat within the muscle.  We’ve all seen marbling in beef, which is fat within the muscle tissue.  With the extra protein, new muscle replaces this fat, and the muscle may even become a little smaller in females while at the same time becoming more dense and stronger.

~ Michael Eades from, «http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/weight-loss/dietary-protein-increases-lean-mass/»

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What causes allergies and autoimmune disease? →

Published May 15, 2015  ·  All posts on May 15  ·  

The agent of our immunological misery is the disappearance of something we co-evolved with in a mutually beneficial relationships: microbes and parasites that have lived inside our bodies for millennia.

This new hypothesis is brilliantly summarized in a recent book by Moises Velasquez-Manoff: An Epidemic of Absence: A New Way of Understanding Allergies and Autoimmune Disease.

~ Todd Becker from, What causes allergies and autoimmune disease?

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