35 life hacks you should know

check it

List of unsolved problems in philosophy

HMMMMMM....

Prison Economics Help Drive Ariz. Immigration Law

NPR--feeding us some truth (full article)

Update

My turn for an update I guess. I'm gonna go bullet-point format so I can keep track of what I'm saying.

-Jhane and I broke up two weeks ago. This seems to be going around (Dante, Michael). The impetus wasn't mine, but it's definitely a move in the right direction. Maybe more so for me, because I loved her unconditionally (literally, without condition) and therefore don't have a problem not being together, because I can still love her and support her if she needs it. Which she does right now, because she's bipolar, went off of her medication two months ago, and is having a hard time finding ways to be happy, mainly due, I think, to a lack of passion and curiosity. We almost broke up this summer because I tried to explain, maybe not in the most delicate manner, how love is best when its a) not exclusive or possessive and b) unconditional. Not sure she's there yet, which is a bummer, but it is what it is. I feel good about it now.

-I decided like three weeks ago to go ahead and do pre-med requirements before I graduate, which basically means a ton of lab classes (Chem. I and II, Organic Chem. I and II, Physics I and II, two semesters of biology, biochemistry, stats...). But I was planning on doing all of those anyways, with the exception of Physics, so I figured what the hell. Might as well set myself up in case I decide to go in that direction later. And then I started thinking more about medical school as an actual possibility, and have been liking the idea more and more over the past two weeks. I'm taking Human Physiology right now, which is hard as shit, but it's a ton of fun and I actually enjoy doing the homework and problem sets. Which is probably an indication that I might want to go in that direction, and advanced physiology, if it's not research, means medicine. So we'll see.

-I've started looking at summer research programs across the country. The National Science Foundation sponsors thousands of undergraduate students to attend hundreds of schools to do research in everything from computer science to neuroscience to ecology and astrophysics. My friend Colin did a program this past summer at UMass in computer science and made $4,000, which is pretty typical for REUs (Research Experiences for Undergraduates). They usually give you a food stipend too, and set you up in a nice living situation. They're all about ten weeks, starting between mid-May and mid-June. This would definitely put a damper on any summer plans, and I obviously wouldn't be able to spend most of my summer at home, but if I can get into one its an awesome opportunity and would help me figure out if I'm interested in that kind of stuff (I'm looking into programs that do research in physiology, molecular and cell biology, neuroscience, genetics, and combinations thereof). Looking into this has also helped me realize how the government fosters the domestic advancement of science, as all of the programs are specifically designed to recruit students to become research scientists. They probably do a good job, spending about 6,000$ per student just in stipend, room, board and travel... makes research seem pretty attractive when they're paying you to get an introduction to it. They usually give about 500,000$ to each research site as well, and they have at least one hundred just in the biological sciences classification. Crazy.

-I've been trying to put on weight this semester, but without access to a scale its pretty hard to track progress. But I've definitely put on a few pounds, if my eyes aren't lying. I've been following the CrossFit Football website, which focuses mainly on developing speed, strength, and power, and I've been having a lot of fun with that. And put 40 pounds on my five-rep max deadlift in seven weeks. Not bad. Working out takes up about seven hours a week, on top of frisbee and whitewater kayaking. Not a ton of free time these days.

-Which reminds me that I've been doing whitewater kayaking, one pool practice session per week and a five-hour day trip every friday. Super fun, and highly recommended to anyone with access to a college outdoors program. It's getting a little cold to be padding in chilly rivers though.

-I'm super psyched to spend January in Guatemala, especially now that Chris, Dante, Mikail and Graham are all coming. Its gonna be a blast. Probably more fun than the WFR last winter.

-Hampshire halloween is on friday and things are going to get crazy, like usual. I'm going to try out ecstasy and see how it treats me. Should be fun. A bunch of people on the frisbee team just ordered reversible pinnies that say hampshire lacrosse on them, with a hammer and sickle and crossed lacrosse sticks, so a bunch of us are going to be lacrosse bros for halloween. Creative? Not really. But so ironic. Hampshire fosters an inflated sense of irony, unfortunately.

Education

Gattaca

Nathan have you seen this awesome film? I think you might dig it!

Rap News vs News World Order (The war on journalism)

CHECK IT!

North Slope Oil Fields--A BIG FUCKING LIE

So it was recently published that less than 10% of oil in the originally surveyed North Slope region actually exists--initially estimated at 10.6 Billion, ONLY 896 Million actually exists...the lies, the greed

stepping out to space

A Sad Truth

Athletic disposition is predetermined. There I said it. I have learned several facts in my kin class that I think you might be interested to know.


Reflex speed/fluency(cognitive not motor reflex "how fast you think"): In healthy individuals the only thing that determines the speed of these traits is axon diameter which is genetically predetermined and cannot be trained. In case you were wondering bigger is better in this case.

proportion of muscle fiber types: Muscle type cannot be converted from fast twitch to slow twitch and the average human has around 50% of each. In a muscle bi-opsy of Hussain Bolt's Vastus Mediallus it was determined that there was 82% fast twitch muscle fiber. Similarly Lance Armstrong would have unusually high proportion of slow twitch muscle fibers. And of course, you guessed it, proportion of muscle fiber type is genetically determined.

Muscle size: you may believe that muscle size is very training dependent, and you would be right, sort of. In a study of untrained mature males on max bicep curl weight there ended up being a very large distribution. The lowest weights were in the 20s and the highs were somewhere in the 80s range. So, assuming a 50% increase in strength via training the lowest would be 30 and the highest would be 120. In other words, though muscle size is trainable, your base mass/strength is genetically determined and as seen, that makes the most significant difference.

Aerobic endurance/VO2 Max: also genticly dependant.
sorry the last one was lacking but I am tired and I still have to do physics homework. punch line--> None of us can train to be lebron james :,(

.

Best Drunk Party Costume

Money = free speech: This lawyer helped corporations spend in election

This man just pulled a conservative Derek Jensen move, its all about the leverage, the pressure points--inducing large impacts. He faces no persecution. James Bopp Jr.


A conservative Indiana lawyer engineered the string of legal victories that have enabled corporations and wealthy individuals to channel tens of millions of dollars into this year's midterm elections secretly, a study by campaign watchdogs has found.

The Passenger

story of stuff

Memetics

something to consider

Some one had to do it...

some crazy wall out in europe--

Black Dynamite!

Just watched this with chris--

WWU this year

Since I like the idea of giving and getting periodic updates about each others lives I thought would spend a little time and let you guys know whats going on in Bham. As you may know over the summer I committed myself to god. just kidding. I committed myself to getting a pre physical therapy undergrad degree. Since Physical therapy is a fairly competitive field the commitment entails that I get great grades until I graduate to compensate for my directionless unmotivated marijuana induced stupor that caused my erstwhile 2.9 GPA. So far so good, all my classes are interesting to me this quarter and now, armed with an intrinsic desire to study, good grades are coming easily. On that note I am taking my first major specific class this quarter, motor control and learning, and its extremely interesting! Im learning about the stretch shortening reflex(plymetrics), dynamic vs ballistic vs static stretching, and many other practical issues related to fitness. I am very impressed Matt, alot of what I have been learning you having been telling me for quite some time. The other classes I am taking this quarter are nomads of Eurasia (surprisingly interesting, I am learning alot about pastoralism, a form of food production that farming cultures dont really understand), Appreciating cinema( easy A GUR), and physics(Blech). Outside of school I am planning on getting my NCAA personal trainer certification this quarter and working as a PT at the rec center for the remainder of school. As for staying active my main activities include indoor soccer, climbing (I got my first v5 dante! Matt P got it the same day... hes so f'ing good at everything) and BJJ/mma. I got a membership at a MMA gym in town and barring the week that I had elbow problems I have been going 5 days a week and it has been an extremely gratifying experience. It is an incredible work out on top of learning practical skills. And as far as the grappling is concerned I find that I am excelling, I submit blue belts that have been training for 3 years and the owner of the gym has asked me if i want to teach kids classes, definitely stoked on that. I suppose a major theme in my life right now that I am exploring is discipline, it can be very taxing at times but also extremely satisfying, well see where this experiment goes. I like my house mates, im waging war on my liver with pabst, and the weather will soon be to cold for comfertable bike riding. Thats my life in a nutshell right now. Hope to see yall over thanksgiving break/what are your plans?

Power house productions

http://www.powerhouseproductions.org/

with the help of Juxtapoz magazine an arts collective bought a couple of houses to experiment with -- i guess they are affiliated with Taubman College

an arts collective in detroit it remodeling a house...

Hey Chris or anybody else interested have you heard of Taubman College?

Update on FourYearsGo

Thank you everyone for the input that you have added in this direction, whatever it may be. generally it seems that most are interested in trying to put together this project--i apologize if it seems to be stumbling blindly forward(if at all). i've been hesitant to grab the reins of plotting the project, kind of letting people step up in the project however they feel is appropriate--but realize that it could at least use a structure. in regards to the contest itself, i'm not sure exactly what the guidelines are for responding to the video they posted i believe that it may be similar to sierra club's best summer job video contest that chris applied for (its archived in the blog). Also i'm not exactly sure when the contest begins or when it ends.

--with all of that said--

///Chris mentioned last night that we may as well ask mark about the project and see if he'll give out any more info--especially what the contest will entail.

///i was thinking that since we have so many great community members around us that we should come up with a set of outline-ish questions, a survey, an interview kind of thing--that could be used at dinners, lunches, or breakfasts. especially in regards to chris and i and our free time--i would love to use this project as an excuss to have dinner with friends and talk. the intention being that we could record either written or tape the conversations and ideas. so for this we need to come up with a set of questions/directions that could be used to explore "the fouryearsgo" concept ----which leads me to-->

///FourYearsGo is a fairly large webiste and we need to go through it and check out all of the alliances, philospohy, videos, all of the stuff on their website to understand what their intention is so that we can allign our project to the same


-so we need to go through the website( if everyone could make a small post about something cool they found on the site )

-so we need to come up with some questions and directions (if everyone could post a little about that too)

Leaves of Grass

If you like Edward Norton so much you wanted to see him act with himself. If you like Grass. If you like Walt Whitman --this may be the movie for you...just watched it its decent, a stoner movie not for stoners

Christine O'Donnell re: Separation of Church and State

Christine O'Donnell is running for Senate in Delaware. This video is of here in a debate that takes place at a law school. She seems to be confused about the constitutional separation of church and state...and its enshrinement in the first amendment. Like, she doesn't know that that's where it is. No joke. Obviously she's a tea partier, but for real?

127 Hours

Check out this movie; starring James Franco, directed by Danny Boyl, based in the Canyonlands... couldn't be better.

theDailyshow

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Exclusive - Eric Cantor Extended Interview Pt. 1
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Rally to Restore Sanity

he's actually got some good talks after the show with his guests unedited

Did anyone else catch this??--i know its sorta old

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Ore on Terror
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Rally to Restore Sanity

New York Times

This is kind of connected to Ben's postings on the ted talks--has anyone else seen this still in the news or have we already conspired...

Network (1976)

i've probably posted this before...--sorry for the intro, all the other versions have been blocked from embedding...it really starts a minute thirty into the clip

if you haven't seen this movi--your missing out!

Reign Of Assasins

Badass action. crazytwistedawsome plot. great cinematography. foreign. need I say more?


Dante you would definitly like this movie! If memory serves you showed me a movie that was very similar to this, i think it had "leaves" or "tea leaves" in the title iand it had a scene where asains where chasing other asaisn on bamboo polls throwing spears, do you know what im talking about?

shrinkage

i recently shrunk the blogs page posts to 30 -- to allow a quicker load of the webpage--previously it was somewhere around 50...does anyone object?