People need to travel

Published October 3, 2013  ·  All posts on Oct 3  ·  

Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.

~ Mark Twain

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1953 Ford Jubilee tractor

Published October 2, 2013  ·  All posts on Oct 2

1953 Ford Jubilee: Anyone interested in a tractor? Good condition, running and everything works, 3-point lift, brush hog, scraper/snow blade… fully working, but it is also a collector’s item if you’re into antique tractors.

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Getting to space is easy. Staying in space is hard.

Published September 29, 2013  ·  All posts on Sep 29

The reason it’s hard to get to orbit isn’t that space is high up. It’s hard to get to orbit because you have to go so fast.

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The speed you need to stay in orbit is about 8 kilometers per second. Only a fraction of a rocket’s energy is used to lift up out of the atmosphere; the vast majority of it is used to gain orbital (sideways) speed.

~ Randall Munroe from, Orbital Speed

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Once you start down the path to the dark side

Published September 27, 2013  ·  All posts on Sep 27  ·  

Parkour is about taking the road less travelled by, and choosing the harder path every time. It’s about understanding that excellence does not arise from simply doing what is convenient or what pays well or what advances your personal career. The Olympic Games are sponsored by Coca-Cola and McDonalds. That’s not right.

Have principles. Stick to them. Because if you don’t stand for something you’ll fall for anything.

~ Dan Edwards from, The Business of Parkour: A Question of Principle (or How to Resist the Red-Bullion) – Dan Edwardes

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In struggle there is magic

Published September 25, 2013  ·  All posts on Sep 25  ·  

Western culture has things a little backwards right now. We think that if we had every comfort available to us, we’d be happy. We equate comfort with happiness. And now we’re so comfortable we’re miserable. There’s no struggle in our lives. No sense of adventure. We get in a car, we get in an elevator, it all comes easy. What I’ve found is that I’m never more alive than when I’m pushing and I’m in pain, and I’m struggling for high achievement, and in that struggle I think there’s a magic.

~ Dean Karnazes

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Mastering the skill of observation

Published September 21, 2013  ·  All posts on Sep 21

“In the field of observation,” legendary disease prevention pioneer Louis Pasteur famously proclaimed in 1854, “chance favors only the prepared mind.” “Knowledge comes form noticing resemblances and recurrences in the events that happen around us,” neuroscience godfather Wilfred Trotter asserted. That keen observation is what transmutes information into knowledge is indisputable — look no further than Sherlock Holmes and his exquisite mindfulness for a proof — but how, exactly, does one cultivate that critical faculty?

~ Maria Papova from, The Art of Observation and Why Genius Lies in the Selection of What Is Worth Observing – The Marginalian

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The north pole has not melted

Published September 19, 2013  ·  All posts on Sep 19

Even journalists get tripped up into thinking this is photo from the North Pole. At the real North Pole, history shows this to be a relatively common occurrence.

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You see while they were busy lecturing the faithful, they forgot the one teensy-eeensy little detail about the source of this photo. It is from camera on top of the sea ice, and sea ice isn’t static, it moves. In fact according to the University of Washington who manages and tracks these floating cameras and weather stations, while they started out near the North Pole, they aren’t anywhere close to it now.

~ Anthony Watts from, Al Gore’s “Reality Minions” think the North Pole is melting – except that’s NOT a photo of the North Pole – Watts Up With That?

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Al Gore’s “Reality Minions” think the North Pole is melting – except that’s NOT a photo of the North Pole.

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Stance and posture

Published September 13, 2013  ·  All posts on Sep 13

In the most basic interpretation of an entry-level kata, the aggressor is allowed to grab a wrist, sleeve or lapel, and then you go through the prearranged movements step by step. In more advanced work, if one observes a higher-ranking exponent of the style, just before the aggressor makes contact, the defender moves to a different position in reaction to the upcoming grab. By the time the grab is made, the defender is already well into his movement to take advantage of the attacker’s momentum seamlessly, and then taking charge of the distance and “flow” of the encounter.

~ Wayne Muromoto from, 67. More on Kamae – The Classic Budoka

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Going beyond being busy

Published September 11, 2013  ·  All posts on Sep 11

Going on about how busy you are isn’t conversation and doesn’t lead anywhere—except making your conversation partner bored, or worse, peeved. People who act super busy send the same message, making time spent with them never feel quite whole. Interestingly, I find that most people who are legitimately occupied – with their work, or family, or art, or what-have-you—rarely play the “too busy” card, or go out of their way to make time for meaningful connection exactly because they’ve been busy.

~ Janet Choi from, How to Escape the Cult of “Busy” | Lifehacker

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Part of a whole

Published September 9, 2013  ·  All posts on Sep 9  ·  

A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.

~ Albert Einstein

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The only comparison you should make

Published September 7, 2013  ·  All posts on Sep 7  ·  

Now, I am not saying this to downplay their hard work to get to where they are; I don’t want you saying things like, “I don’t have their genetics or resources, so why even bother?”

Instead, I want you to know that there will ALWAYS be somebody leaner, bigger, faster, or stronger than you. There will always be somebody who’s younger, better looking, and had more success than you. Until you learn to accept that, you’ll never be truly happy.

~ Steve Kamb from, The ONE Comparison You Should Make Today | Nerd Fitness

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