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Just 4 sets of four-minute-long bursts of intense exercise was all it took for sedentary people aged 60 -88 to get an improvement in memory scores of up to 30%.
They worked out three times a week for 3 months, and the short sharp sets were better than 50 minutes of moderate exercise. Five hundred million years of evolution will do that — hone organisms to adapt to common stressors. And even if don’t need to outrun lions very often now, we still carry the genes that did.
This won’t surprise people who’ve been reading medical research papers. High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) appears to be good for fat loss, anxiety, depression, improves blood vessel function, may slow Parkinsons, and colon cancer, is quicker, can restore glucose uptake in diabetic muscles in just two weeks.
Obviously the 30% memory boost mostly happens to people who start out sedentary. There may not be such spectacular gains for people who are already semi fit. But it only took 12 weeks.
Researchers at McMaster University who examine the impact of exercise on the brain have found that high-intensity workouts improve memory in older adults.
Researchers suggest that intensity is critical. Seniors who exercised using short, bursts of activity saw an improvement of up to 30% in memory performance while participants who worked out moderately saw no improvement, on average.
“This work will help to inform the public on exercise prescriptions for brain health so they know exactly what types of exercises boost memory and keep dementia at bay,” she says.
For the study, researchers recruited dozens of sedentary but otherwise healthy older adults between the ages of 60 and 88 who were monitored over a 12-week period and participated in three sessions per week. Some performed high-intensity interval training (HIIT) or moderate-intensity continuous training (MICT) while a separate control group engaged in stretching only.
The HIIT protocol included four sets of high-intensity exercise on a treadmill for four minutes, followed by a recovery period. The MICT protocol included one set of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise for nearly 50 minutes.
To capture exercise-related improvements in memory, researchers used a specific test that taps into the function of the newborn neurons generated by exercise which are more active than mature ones and are ideal for forming new connections and creating new memories.
They found older adults in the HIIT group had a substantial increase in high-interference memory compared to the MICT or control groups. This form of memory allows us to distinguish one car from another of the same make or model, for example.
Researchers also found that improvements in fitness levels directly correlated with improvement in memory performance.
“It’s never too late to get the brain health benefits of being physically active, but if you are starting late and want to see results fast, our research suggests you may need to increase the intensity of your exercise,” says Heisz.
She cautions that it is important to tailor exercise to current fitness levels, but adding intensity can be as simple as adding hills to a daily walk or increasing pace between street lamps.
I don’t usually put these on the blog, but figure plenty of readers here would care about their brain health. For those who do read medical papers, in this case BDNF, which people thought might be important, was not found to be involved in the gains, leaving the mechanism “unknown”.
Obviously, best start slower and ramp up. Years ago I found the UNSW Sprinterval system of 8 seconds fast, 12 seconds slow on an elliptical was a great way to raise that heart rate. It was easy to ramp it up in a saw-tooth pattern. But it could work with cycling, running, or stair climbing. Readers might like to share what works for them. As the cliche goes, the best exercise is the one you do.
REFERENCE
Kovacevic et al (2019) The effects of aerobic exercise intensity on memory in older adults. Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism, 2019; DOI: 10.1139/apnm-2019-0495
Thanks. I keep track of all such medical data.
90
Well, well, welll !
Best we get to the gym all us old buggers !
After all the alternative is pretty grim
Compulsory sedation
And medcalisation
At an aged care home !
With $6.00 a day spent on meals.
70
Last year I made this suggestion
to my local MP For Mayo :
Introduce a policy of encouraging the retired to go to gym
By subsidising memberships 50% each month.
It would cost maybe $20.00 a month per person
But save many billions of dollars on the health budget for the elderly.
She did not approve.
Possibly because she thought it a reflection on her being over weight.
She said “Go walking !”
Well I thought, “Bu**er you fat lady “
130
Gives me an idea for a short poem:
go to the gym
or it be pretty grim
10
I am a 61 year old triathlete. Interval and threshold training is very useful for improving overall performance but I really hate doing it. I suppose that if it stops my addled old brain from deteriorating any further it would be an extra incentive to endure it.
171
61. Ah so young. I remember the age fondly. Anyway, I haven’t the time to exercise. I have to replace the fuel filter in the tractor, consolidate what’s left of the hay in the shed and take a couple of bales down to feed the cattle. Then I can get on with fencing. I guess I will never get fit.
200
Lucky old bastard !
You’ve still got a job working & staying ‘unfit’
On your farm !
60
Made me laugh Brian. For quite a few weeks in the winter I was trundling a couple of small squares in an old wheelbarrow to our daughter’s cows!
Now having a break for a few days in Dubai. A little walk to the pool, a little swim and a little walk back…a treat after the long cold muddy winter in Nth Central Vic!
30
I think quite a few of us would like to be 61 … again. 🙂
20
Hmm I think I went to the gym yesterday or was it the other day..
40
Medical research, eh?
The results were based on …
[my bold]
64 participants. Yes a good regime of quality exercise can be good for all people, just how much better this is for older adults I doubt as the sample size is so small.
I’ll carry on with my daily walk (2-5 miles) at my most comfortable pace as I’ve done all of my life. Unfortunately I’ve slowed over the years as my joints are becoming very stiff (family problem of arthritis).
141
Oops forgot the link again …
The research paper is here https://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/10.1139/apnm-2019-0495
80
you better start exercising
110
Gee Aye,
Glad to see someone got the joke! 🙂
50
IMO it doesn’t hurt to mix it up. For blokes some weight training is good as well. Personally I hit the gym three times a week, do some HIIT, some weights and then a cool down of 6km walking on the treadmill. Weight loss only went so far using this. What really helped this year was skipping breakfast, thereby limiting food to an 8 hour window. Down over 20kg since last December, and now a healthy weight for my height.
The silly thing is, the BMI charts still show me as overweight (90kg at 185cm, male, 55yo), but BMI charts are only a rough guide IMO. In my case playing (field) hockey through my younger years left me with skater’s thighs, so some leniency in BMI chart interpretation is required.
Funny how you don’t hear the diet industry talking about the daily fasting diets (or 5:2, or short term fasts), despite evidence showing it is effective. Could it be that they make no money from it? Surely not…
61
Also, I should point out that I never go nuts in the gym, I strictly adhere to the philosophy “no pain means no pain.” Interestingly a top exercise guru & fighter said almost exactly the same thing on Joe Rogan a while ago.
50
The older I get the better that philosophy looks.
30
That and NSAIDs (Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs) are friggin amazing. Always take with food. Having had bouts of gout since my late 20s, I can testify how effective NSAIDs are. Haven’t needed them much at all since the weight loss, since that seems to have ameliorated gout incidences. I presume this may relate to there being less hydrostatic pressure forcing urea out of solution, but who knows?
20
My cardiologist chewed me out big time for taking them. Go figure.
10
Im a fan of Grit classes at the gym….30 mins and youre sweating like an eventing horse afterward.
Mind you, its good as it primes you muscles and I go off and do unsupported bench weights afterward.
The exercise helps also with sleep etc.
60
The stated connection to evolution is purely gratuitous, entirely speculative, and wholly unnecessary. It makes much more sense as a latent feature of robust intelligent design to ensure humans can survive across a very wide range of environmental conditions, like the surge of adrenalin that enables superhuman feats in times of great need.
Such a remarkable capability to operate at such widely spaced operating points not only did not come about through natural selection acting on random mutation; it could not have done so.
416
Hi Dean.
Strikes me that it was a bit gratuitous of you to include “gratuitous” and “unnecessary” in the same sentence. That’s straight from the school of tautology school.
Anyhow, I’m disappointed your argument hasn’t evolved much since we last engaged. Still with the certainty. I’ll refer you to those earlier comments to refresh your memory on why you are mistaken to look probabilistically at something that has already happened.
I don’t think I’ve seen you comment here for any other reason than to gainsay evolution. AFAIAC, you’re welcome to continue, but it would be nice to hear your views on the main themes here too. Mind you, maybe you have; my memory isn’t all that great. Perhaps I should try some of this high intensity exercise.
122
gratuitous
adj. Given or granted without return or recompense; unearned.
adj. Given or received without cost or obligation; free.
adj. Unnecessary or unwarranted; unjustified.
You’re welcome.
Praying for you!
03
Well thanks for that Dean. Not much need to pray for me though — I’m already here.
70
I was awarded my MBE a couple of years back, the “Made Bloody Eighty” variety, and may have accidentally adopted the short term high activity since I took early retirement and moved on to my farm in the same year. I don’t think this is a reliable test, but I think I’ll be able to find my car again later today, helped along by a phone call to say the new radiator has been fitted.
A bit of log rolling and splitting quite often, and other things around the place give the short bursts, with ample rests to catch up here, seems to be working, but I keep a journal to check on what I did recently…
Cheers
Dave B
80
Dean,
the recent adoption by The Church of the anti evolutionary stance is a modern day tragedy.
Literal exposition of Biblical content is dangerous because the current Bible was assembled back in the fourth century and with all the best information available about that period the Elites of that time were no smarter than our current lot and no doubt, just as focused on the main issues: power and wealth.
We should question what’s put before us because others might be preying on the gullible.
KK
60
Keith,
Thank you for your comment. You do sound Kalm, so it’s working! 🙂
But here’s my point: it’s not a tragedy if it’s true. Which it is. Darwin’s theory of evolution is an out of gas, rusting wreck, with no wheels and half buried under sand, baking in the Outback, probably with a BoM thermometer placed inside the cab. Perhaps you haven’t followed the issue of evolution in recent years, but scientists who reject neo-Darwinism are multiplying.
Here’s a group that doesn’t support creation or intelligent design (yet), but have rejected neo-Darwinism due to its inadequacy to explain reality: https://www.thethirdwayofevolution.com/people
Here is the ID-friendly group that’s reached the same conclusion: https://dissentfromdarwin.org/
Darwinism has become its own religion, with a false god and everything. Christians should beware of embracing it, given scriptural sanctions on idolatry: https://www.discovery.org/a/9721/
as recorded in the gospels of Matthew and Mark, Jesus himself affirmed a necessary belief in Adam and Eve and the account of their special creation in Genesis. Here’s Matthew’s account:
Since you’ve opened this comment in the context of Christian faith, I’ll note that it’s rather difficult to believe in evolution and in the account of Adam and Eve. But Jesus affirmed the historicity of Adam and Eve and built the doctrine of marriage squarely on it. He also states that that the primary cause for not believing in the special creation of Adam and Eve and all the implications of that historical event was a hard heart then. I assert it is also a hard heart now. I recommend reading the book of Hebrews from start to finish. I’ve found the five warning passages included there very bracing to my own faith; perhaps you may find value in them too.
I don’t know what your view is on Adam and Eve, but here’s some recent work from the scientific side evaluating related genetic evidence: https://uncommondescent.com/intelligent-design/ola-hossjer-and-ann-gauger-sketch-genetic-scenarios-for-adam-and-eve/.
Your view of the assembly of the scriptures appears to be dated as well. Fragments of the New Testament books date to the second century A.D., and are consistent with the nearly 6,000 other Greek manuscripts that have been discovered: https://biblearchaeologyreport.com/2019/02/15/the-earliest-new-testament-manuscripts/
But to bring the discussion back to the original post, I assert that we ALL ought to be more skeptical of the “consensus,” scientific or otherwise, that is fed to us every day. If we are truly and properly skeptical in attitude, it’s silly to turn it on for global warming alarmism but off for other major topics.
Many commenters on other sites, and even some here (yourself excluded), seem to have a split personality in this regard: they rightly ridicule the establishment as it throttles inconvenient dissent in climate, but lovingly perform the eager throttling themselves, with earnest squeezes of their own ridicule, on other topics such as evolution. How can one be a skeptic and anti-skeptic at the same time? I don’t know; it seems to be the opposite of the original meaning of the word integrity: integra – whole, sound, connected from one end to the other.
Here’s what Jo Nova’s biography on this very site (the “about” menu) states about her skepticism of the climate narrative:
I don’t know what Jo thinks about evolution, creation, intelligent design, and origins in general, and I certainly won’t pretend to speak for her or about her on that topic, other than admiringly note her courage and endurance, which are both inspiring and legendary. But I have to believe that a skeptic, an honest one anyway, finds it very difficult to run to stamp on skeptics who raise questions in other areas (again, yourself excluded). Shouldn’t all the readers here carry that same healthy skepticism, that same open-mindedness, that same absence of ridicule, about new ideas that don’t agree with the dogma they have received?
In any case, the original post above made some gratuitous (freely bestowed to meet some unconscious need in the speaker, not to be returned by anything from the hearer), speculative (without sufficient evidence), and unnecessary (unrelated to the point being made) comments about origins, which makes it fair game in these comments.
I’ll close with words from St. Richard (Feynman): “The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.”
33
Dean.
Thank you for demonstrating so well the problems that come with Literalist interpretation of the Bible.
Unfortunately the adoption of current fads like the anti evolutionary stance and the Global Warming just go to show how intellectually lazy the Church has been.
With the recent crises of credibility of the two main western churches there appears to be an attempt to gain attention of the crowd by adopting current feel good memes.
Both the Angles and the Romans have been caught out in their demonstrated inability to follow the message they are preaching.
Recovery will be difficult and the rigidity of Literalism won’t help.
Religious guidance in our lives can be of great benefit but beware of worshipping false gods like literalism.
It’s a dead end.
KK
71
Too many of the above counter comments missed the brilliant comment here.
KK, get some more thinking like this going please!
10
Thank you.
00
Well that’s a lot of writing that says nothing. Do some science and come back to us.
65
Indeed. Huxley was known as “Darwin’s bulldog”. Maybe Dean from Ohio is “Bishop Wilberforce’s pug”.
20
Robert Swan:
Bear in mind that the term bulldog in mid nineteenth century meant something different to the current breed. The phrase “Darwin’s bull terrier or rottweiler” would be more appropriate.
Huxley was quite unpopular because of his abrasive attitude and atheism. When the PM (as Chancellor) put up 3 names to Oxford University for the award of Doctor of Civil Laws (their highest honoury degree with nothing to do with legal matters) the University agreed to Tyndall and Darwin, but refused adamantly to award Huxley.
00
Actually, I prefer “Bishop Ussher’s Corgi-Chihuahua” if you don’t mind.
00
Bishop Ussher died 200 years before Darwin’s book. I doubt he ever saw a Chihuahua.
10
“Well that’s a lot of writing that says nothing”
As oppose to your usual empty twitters?
21
—Perhaps—you missed:QED
10
Consider LaMarck’s take on DNA changes due to stressors in the environment and not just the sole process of Natural Selection. He was a Natural Selection Denier as to the sole means of explaining the process of evolution, so most of us Deniers probably understand what he went through with Woke neighbors. But, new scientific research into his theory is yielding some thought provoking results. It’s science man!
30
🙂
00
Lamarck had no knowledge whatsoever of DNA
10
Dean from Ohio:
You are mistaken in thinking that Darwin invented evolution. Before he was even born his Grandfather Erasmus and the Compte De Buffon had raised the subject, following earlier speculation. When Darwin was only 4 William Charles Wells read essays to the Royal Society on the evolution of man and the principle of natural selection.
Then Humboldt, the most famous scientist of the age, expounded the same idea, which was taken up in The Vestiges of Creation published 15 years before Darwin’s book. (It was a best seller and outsold Darwin considerably).
What Darwin proposed was a mechanism, i.e. evolution proceeded slowly by a series of minor changes which eventually resulted in a new species. This was in accordance with Uniformitarianism, as formulated by Lyell for geologists (Darwin trained as a geologist before his voyage on the Beagle). This had the advantage of not frightening his readers as any change was a long way off.
Neo-Darwinism is a hodgepodge of genetic discoveries with some Darwinism grafted on. It has pretty much been replaced by Punctuated Equilibrium in which Darwinian evolution stabilises a species (as pointed out by Alfred Russel Wallace in Darwin’s lifetime) and rapid evolution after mass extinctions (or other causes such as isolation) when natural selection didn’t apply because of a lack of competition.
Intelligent design goes back to the Rev. William Paley in Natural Theology (although David Hume had already shown a flaw) which Darwin studied as a young man when thinking of becoming a clergyman.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNPSiaU62yk
[Strictly speaking this is off topic. I’m going to allow it because the comment it replies to, which is also off topic, is visible and getting some attention. This is in rebuttal of Dean from Ohio. So have a good debate. I take no side here but I hope the rest of this thread can stay closer to the topic of Jo’s post.] AZ
10
Are there any examples of species changing into a new species?
10
OK Dean, I’ll bite. Evolution has some holes in it and isn’t very satisfying to me as a thinker. But it’s hardly a rusted out shell of a failure.
On the other hand, if you know anything about genetics at all you’ll know that the literal descant of everyone now living from Adam and Eve would have failed long ago. And for that matter there were no other women, if you take it literally, to provide a wife for the remaining son of Adam and Eve — nice fella, you know, the one who murdered his brother. Literal belief in the Bible demands all or nothing. It’s either the authority, all objective truth or you must pick and choose, making it subjective and resulting in the umpteen branches of the church and the cults along with them that we have today.
So right there on page 1 I’m forced to believe I cannot take the Bible literally. Can I still make use of it? Of course I can. Can I find something in it it to incorporate into my life because it’s beneficial? Of course I can. But it ill behooves me to use it as a club to beat others over the head with.
You cannot prove what you’re saying is true. No one can prove evolution is true. So why is this continual fight going on? Could it be that having something to beat the other guy over the head with is what’s important and the truth has nothing to do with it?
I’ll let you be the judge.
40
No.
Thanks for your comment, though. You kind of made my point, when you write, “You cannot prove what you’re saying is true. No one can prove evolution is true.”
All true. But one can prove that the grand narrative of Darwin’s evolution, namely that natural selection acting on random selection produced the biological information we see, is false. One can likewise prove punctuated equilibrium false too.
Why does it matter? Because bad ideas have consequences. Darwin’s ideas were a vital part of the substructure of the deathly secular regimes of the 20th century, with a hundred million deaths as a result. That’s why it’s critically important to be able to recognize bad ideas, especially when they are swallowed whole, and uncritically.
Here’s a short video about the bitter fruit of Darwin’s ideas (and Huxley’s): https://stream.org/biology-second-reich/
To bring this back to the original post, what additional mischief will the discredited idea of “five hundred million years of evolution” cause before it is detected and excised? How much insight will be lost in medical innovation because researchers may be looking in the wrong place? The researchers are apparently on to something, but if so, they are doing so in spite of their reliance on Darwinian evolution, and not because of it.
The global warmers are about to enslave half of humanity to death because of a pernicious falsehood, which many of them fully know to be false. We need full-strength skepticism to defend against these lies. But full-strength skepticism exists, and is sufficiently powerful, only when it is unfettered, and not brought to heel constantly to save one’s own pet ox from being gored*. What should we do with healthy skepticism? Turn it loose, and it will defend itself**.
*warning: Biblical allusion
**warning: Christian allusion
01
Dean, as I’ve mentioned here before, the theory of evolution and the story of Adam and Eve used to exist peacefully together, side by side.
That was 65 years ago.
I haven’t read any of Dawkins work and can only get the barest indication from the title of one work.
Over the last two years I’ve come across several literalist interpreters of the Bible and the experience is frightening.
The literal presentation of the Bible over the last 1650 years has not been of great credit to the church hierarchy.
I have known of and seen the good that has been done by local Christians at work in the community.
But the people involved have understood the real message that Literalism tends to distract from.
That’s the good side of Christianity – holding a community together in the real world.
The world of Tele-evangelism, radio evangelism and DVD evangelism is a Big business.
Dean, if you wanted to improve Christianity you might first look in those areas to criticise falseness.
The real foundation of Christianity can be found in Matthew 18:20. No mention of Cathedrals or Popes, just people being decent and considerate to each other.
That’s the message, people working out problems together in the way that they imagine God might work.
In chasing the anti evolutionary bait thrown out by the Tele Christians you have missed the real point.
KK
40
Keith,
Thank you for your reply.
It comes down simply to this: either you let the Bible judge you, or you judge the Bible. Only one of these leads to life.
Dean
00
Dean,
After reading your reply to me below and the long comment to Roy I must say, I am amazed.
The rigidity:
“either you let the Bible judge you, or you judge the Bible”. That’s a cop out.
How about another view.
“God is in you”.
So after consulting with God on situations that crop up we should be able to respond to life in a reasonable manner and accept responsibility for our actions.
The comment to Roy is just Verbalism on steroids and is the type of approach used continually by Climate Change activism.
You seem to have missed the point.
KK
00
Keith,
No, I haven’t missed the point. Evangelical Christians who believe the Bible literally have perhaps the lowest rate of belief in catastrophic anthropogenic climate change (CAGW) of any group in the world. So no, their reasonable belief in the inspired word of God is not similar to that of the climate change crowd; it is the opposite of it.
Conversely, a decrease in the inspired word of God is highly correlated with belief in CAGW as well as other unscientific systems such as astrology, UFOs, the paranormal, and so on.
By “inspired word of God” I mean a belief in verbal plenary inspiration, which is that God breathed out his own words through the 40 author’s of scripture, so that the 66 books of the Bible are inerrant and the final authority for faith and practice, and apply to everyone. The most natural hermeneutic, or interpretive principle, has four elements: literal, grammatical, historical and contextual. This means we take the words of the Bible in their plain sense unless a figure of speech, idiom or other literary construct is plainly meant.
So the Bible speaks of God’s wings; this is a metaphor for his perfection. It speaks of God’s hand; that is a metaphor for his influence and power. Why do we know that? Because elsewhere scripture states that God is spirit, and those who worship him must do so in spirit and in truth (Jesus, John 3). Similarly, history, grammar and context—both in the immediate passage and the Bible as a whole—must be considered in arriving at an interpretation. Where scripture interprets scripture, as in the passage I included about Jesus interpreting Genesis, that interpretation is authoritative. Poetry can be literal or figurative.
Isn’t this approach a high-fidelity process to interpret nearly any writing, whether ancient or modern? When you read the climategate emails, don’t you interpret them in essentially the same way as the literal, historical, grammatical and contextual method I’ve described? Obviously the authors are human and not divine, but words have meanings that we may not stretch or break.
Indeed, the prerequisite to interpreting reality that we can see is having a firm grasp of the reality we cannot see, and that is obtained only by direct revelation from God through his word. Newton, Boyle, Maxwell and countless other scientists of first magnitude all believed this. Why shouldn’t we? Find what is written above the doors of James Clerk Maxwell’s Cavendish Lab; you may be surprised.
The saying is true: if you don’t believe in something, you’ll fall for anything.
That is why evangelical Christians are the firmest allies of the climate skeptic, and why this discussion is especially relevant on this blog. Writers and commenters here ought to be encouraging evangelical Christians like me to come here and participate; you don’t know how solid allies they will be to you.
Honestly, though, I wonder if you and I are reading the same book. Can you be reading the same psalms where David says to God, “When your words enter, they bring light, and bring understanding to the simple.” And Jeremiah says, “I found your words, and I ate them [metaphor alert], and they became for me the joy and rejoicing of my heart!”
So I propose a test: read one chapter of the New Testament every day for a month in an up to date translation such as the English Standard Version or New Living Translation. Ask God to point out one command or principle in your reading that day, But before you read, determine in advance that you will obey it that day, no questions asked.
Then, and only then, you will know the awesome power and profound joy of scripture. Because with God’s word, obedience precedes understanding. And, as the motto of the U.S. State of Ohio says, “With God all things are possible.”
00
a test or torture?
00
Dean
“. So no, their reasonable belief in the inspired word of God is not similar to that of the climate change crowd; it is the opposite of it.”
Neither issue is about belief, it’s about knowing.
I suspect that what you are saying is that Evangelicals know that CO2 didn’t raise Earth’s atmospheric temperature because they know who did.
The history of the Mediterranean for the period from about 500 B.C. to 500 A.D. is interesting with regards to the development of the Roman Christian church. The adaptation of mythological religious characters present in pre-Christian systems can be seen in the present bible.
Read up on it.
00
Keith,
You really don’t understand me or evangelical Christians at all. Your statement about CO2 is nonsensical; that never entered my mind, and I don’t agree with it, at least as I understand it.
Gee Aye,
It’s both, isn’t it? But you’ll never know unless you do it.
Cheers, Dean
00
Dean,
You have said that you don’t believe in natural processes so it was logical for me to assume that you believe that God controls atmospheric CO2
Ref:
“Your statement about CO2 is nonsensical; that never entered my mind,”
KK
00
Keith, you wrote,
That’s what C.S.Lewis thought, until J.R.R. Tolkien convinced him it was the other way round. The myths of the dying and rising god found in the world’s cultures were only dim reflections of the true Myth, the death and resurrection of Jesus the Son of God.
As I wrote above, we understand the reality we can see only when we rightly understand the reality we cannot see, and that can come only from God’s direct revelation. Both Lewis and Tolkien grasped that with both hands.
You can read up on that too 🙂
00
Keith,
God set natural processes in motion. But complex, function-specifying information comes only from a mind, an intelligence. There is no other known source. Earth warms and cools, but only a superintelligence could write, as Meyer calls it, the signature in the cell.
Cheers,
Dean
00
Go ahead then. If you can you’ll be the first person the world has ever seen who can prove a negative.
Be my guest. Take all the time you need.
20
Roy,
What I mean is that a hypothesis can be falsified to a given level of significance. Surely you are familiar with that.
When the subject is historical, hypothesis tests can still be constructed even though the experiments can’t be directly observed. This can be done with one or multiple hypotheses. In the multiple hypothesis case there is an inference to the best explanation.
Say that Greta the Grouch has a little sister, and she arrives in New York in a swimsuit, dripping wet, and says that she has swum, alone, without assistance or supplies or break, from Sweden to New York, and that she’d like a coffee or whatever it is Swedish teenagers drink.
What is your response? Do you say, “She must have done it, and no one can gainsay her, since no one has proven a negative in all of known history or philosophy!”
Granted, perhaps her bathing suit is constructed of a special fabric that filters salt water and provides fresh water, and also filters plankton from the water and collects it as she swims, and the process also creates a gas that serves as flotation when she needs to sleep, and insulation to keep her warm. She happened by sheer chance to avoid every storm and was shepherded by a troop of friendly dolphins. She dries, changes into clothes, then says she is forever done with swimming. Her suit goes missing. So none of this can be repeated.
Well, that’s the end of it. It happened, so it could have happened. No one can prove a negative, after all.
What a genuinely curious professional could do, however, is to test the claims by creating a series of hypothesis tests of each part of the story. The null hypothesis is that every claim is true, and the alternate hypotheses are that they are not. These statements can be quantified and joint random variables created, tested and assigned. P-values can be calculated.
At some point, the p-value will be small enough so that we can declare the null hypothesis to have been falsified to a given level of significance. The smallest practical probabilistic threshold I’ve personally encountered in actual use is 2×10^-9, which is the FAA’s allowed chance of providing hazardous misleading navigation information to the pilot of a commercial transport aircraft during landing in zero visibility. There actually in the context of a Type II error, but the principle holds. Beyond that humans can’t practically control or test events in real life, at least that I am aware of, and the probability is on the level of being struck by a meteorite. At that level, we can’t do anything to prevent such incredibly unlikely events, so we assume they are, for us, not worth worrying about.
Back to evolution: Douglas Axe has estimated the chance of the chance synthesis of a single protein of a modest length to be 1 in 10^77. For more than one protein to form independently, the joint probability becomes (1×10^77)^2. Even if one takes the whole time of the universe and all the particles known in the whole galaxy and attempts occur every Planck interval (~10^-40 sec), there are not enough chances to make this happen.
Is Greta’s little sister’s story false?
Is the Darwinian evolutionary account of protein synthesis false?
00
🙂 🙂
10
Roy, your problem is solved when you realize that the Genesis story did not mention Eve’s daughters. She may have had many. Clearly since we are here she had many.
10
Good ad lib. 🙂
The problem is that as soon as you allow some assumption you have jumped out of any possibility of taking the thing literally because you have an ambiguous situation. If you allow assumptions I can assume one thing, you can assume another. Which one is correct? What happens to the authority of what is written if you allow assumptions.
Literally makes exactly what is stated the authority without ambiguity. The statement taken literally stands on its own without needing any help from anyone or anything. Dictionary definitions are wishy-washy about it but I assure you that our friend Dean is not.
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A skeptic wouldn’t be quoting from a 2000-year-old book of fairy tales written by arabs.
02
That book, and the world view it contains, birthed science as we know it. Congratulations, you’ve just cut off your access to objective truth and the philosophy of science.
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racist nutbag!
20
please remember that evolution is the observation and natural selection is the theory proposed to explain the observation
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So are the flat-earth clowns and denyas of moon-landings.
20
*facepalm*
13
Here, let me get that for you
11
(pulls clean handkerchief from pocket)
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GA needs a mop and a bucket….
…. to clean all that egg off his face. !!
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Actually,
I give GA a retrospective green thumb for that one!
Since then Dean has defended his original #5 comment at #5.2.1. However, we must remember that Gee Aye is an expert on evolutionary biology.
For those who like Richard Dawkins (Darwin fanatic and author of ‘The God Delusion’) there was a review of his most recent book in the Australian Review on the weekend. Many criticisms but the main one was the Dawkins has a very shallow knowledge of the Bible and the Christian faith.
When I first learnt about Darwin’s theory it also affected my thinking about religion. But is does not explain everything. First problem is the Origin of Life!
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God is not the answer to a lack of data
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God is though – “the god of gaps”
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Punctuated equilibrium is not the answer to a lack of data. Surely you’ll condemn that too?
01
Dean, stop nit picking.
The concept of Evolution has been of great benefit in guiding thinking into new areas of biological research.
Is that us moving forward.
Micro examination of Darwin and then extrapolating rigidly is just silly.
The theory of evolution was a stepping stone, use it and move on.
There’s been a comment from AZ that this discussion is O/T but when looking at memory loss and the effect of exercise it does give a small opening for talking about this.
What we put into our memory is also relevant.
What we allow into our memory needs better control and this discussion highlights some of the factors working on memory.
KK
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I take vitamin B12 for a good memory. Works for me.
Vigorous exercise? Not quite. I park away from the entrance to where I go shopping and walk at least three times a week.
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As one great wit once said; “exercise! everytime I get the feeling,I go and lie down until the feeling passes”
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Maybe the bloke who reckoned his exercise program consisted of lifting a pencil and a penis wasn’t just boasting then?
10
“ . . . walk at least three times a week ”
Me too. The rest of the time I float, sort of like Casper the Ghost.
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My blueprint for health and well-being…
If I’m walking down the street and see a lawyer approaching I cross to the other side. If a doctor approaches me on that side I walk in the traffic.
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The full article is paywalled.
Superficially, nothing particularly new here though the authors highlight that executive function does not appear to be usefully affected. The benefits of (almost any) exercise on psychological and physiological metrics are well established, compared with sitting about doing little. Exercise also requires high levels of task specific brain function in the somatosensory and motor regions, aside from driving up cerebral blood flow. One wonders whether the complexity of exercise is relevant? With activity, mood altering neuropeptides (endorphins, enkephalins) bathe the brain and cells of the body changing perception, reducing pain, and lowering anxiety. Exercise enhances a sense of self-efficacy and control. All may improve memory. Separating out confounders appears nigh on impossible.
In this study, the abstract refers to ‘memory’ though it does not appear clear from the abstract alone whether long term or short term memory is being evaluated. One presumes short memory because of the reference to ‘memory interference’. The abstract does not describe the effect size of the exercise intervention upon the participants. Given that there were 3 groups of 21 with one extra in one group, it is not possible to see whether the study design was sufficiently powered to adequately detect and measure the predicted effect size of the intervention, although at face value it seems so.
Of particular interest to me was the use of memory interference theory and the assertion that this study demonstrated that exercise usefully affects high interference memory. It is an interesting theory and may go some way to explain some of the changes observed in older individuals.
So, we are left wondering why we have this mildly interesting article presented here and now with so much going on in the politics and the globalist frawd of climatism with its sacraments (outward signs of inward meddling) of infinite adjustment and funding? Is Jo testing conspiracy ideation among the visiting population? Are we being provoked to wonder why and what might conceivably be the reason for mission drift? Is there something big in the offing or has Jo been recruited by the Australian psycho-mangler, Stephan Lewandowsky? We can but wait and see, though perhaps the last laugh is on them, it is us that are being studied here?
While we wait, here is another interesting study to peruse. It is about health span: Life-long spontaneous exercise does not prolong lifespan but improves health span in mice
The findings of a study (Garcia-Valles et al. 2013) highlighted the idea that regular activity does not prolong life-span. On the other hand, it extends the health-span. They also reported that brain derived neurotrophic factors (BDNF) remain elevated in exercisers, as does mitochondrial activity (energy generators) in the muscles of exercisers. BDNF is important for neuroplasticity, that is, the biological ability to learn, feel and intellectually orchestrate new things, to lay down or modify neural pathways in the brain, in essence to possess a potential toward readily adaptable behaviour.
The authors concluded from their study that:
“life-long spontaneous exercise did not prolong longevity but prevented several signs of frailty (that is, decrease in strength, endurance and motor coordination). This improvement was accompanied by a significant increase in the mitochondrial biogenesis in skeletal muscle and in the cortical BDNF levels.”
It appears true that any “movement” — psychological, intellectual or physical may help build quality of life through ‘health span’. Humans are required to be dynamic.
If there is surely one thing we have learned here, it is that the natural world including climate is unfailingly dynamic, never static.
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Perhaps if more people spent more time running away from hungry lions, we would be at less bothered about imaginary threats in the distant future.
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I am a 77 year old farmer with lots of exercise, short burst and long, but my short term memory is still failing. At least I think it is. I forget.
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It’s that bow tied which is doing it David
Take it off and let the blood flow to your brain!
🙂
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Similar here.
ATM I’m waiting for a pair of fencing pliers to remember where I put them
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There was this bloke that went to the doctor and asked ‘Well Doc, what’s the verdict, do I have AIDS or dementia.’
The Doc replies’ I have bad news for you, you have AIDS and Dementia with short term memory loss’.
The bloke wipes his head in relief and replies ‘Whew that was close , for a moment I thought you were going to say I had AIDS.”
20
I heard a young comedian actually tell a joke that is funny.
20
The One Minute Workout book shows the aerobic benefits of different versions of short term anaerobic training methods.
Here
There’s No Such Thing as Cardio | James Steele is also fascinating.
Here
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Going to the gym for 20 minutes a day is stimulating and makes us feel alive, it may also improve memory but not intellect. There is a lot of stuff I’m trying to forget.
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E G I aim at working out
3-4 times a week at the gym
Roughly 90 minutes
But that includes catching up with
Other old geezers like myself
The social part of it is important as well !
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I’ve been running since I was 19 and I’m now 65. I also played a lot of footy until I was 27. Like Stonyground above (#2) I’ve been doing intervals on and off for about 40 years and I run marathons and longer distances. I don’t particularly enjoy the training but I do like the benefits.
My message to anyone who may be a bit shy about getting started for whatever reason is that the vast majority of athletes (which includes swimmers, cyclists, runners etc) admire anyone who is “out there doing it”. It doesn’t matter what they look like or what pace they are moving at. The standard advice for anyone over 40 thinking of starting is to check with their doctor first. There may be underlying reasons why sudden exercise is not recommended straight away.
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A side issue to the “capacity” to remember involves the “what” or content that is laid down.
It’s a fact of life that difficult moments are laid down more intensely than everyday matters and come back to haunt us too often for comfort.
The evolutionary process of human brain development is fascinating with so many twists and turns and just one of the events in that history may tell us about turning points.
Neanderthal man, despite having a significantly larger brain than modern humans, is no more. Just a detail in the evolutionary process.
Perhaps modern human brains have reached a crisis point that needs some thought and maybe redirection to enable us to survive and enjoy the future.
How much human misery is being caused by the bombardment of media histrionics, urgent ecopolitical and individual rights content that is virtually unavoidable.
Twenty years ago the media weapon was dragged out at election time: now it is flogged day and night and we have the Greta Syndrome infecting society.
A turnaround is essential if we are to reduce stress on humanity and enable us to live without being constantly told that the end is nigh.
The mental health of the world should not be trusted to politicians, but we do need to reorientate society and also get the Elites off our backs.
KK
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Keith there is one thing to be said for evolution
Greta does not know it yet
But she WILL get old and decrepit
What a wonderful thought to meditate on !
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Bill
Rudyard Kipling knew it:-
“My rival”
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I have no social media accounts and read news with heavy filtering, so that keeps my stress levels down.
Rather than getting into arguments with people, I just ask them tough questions…..if they cant asnwer, you have your answer.
As to the Greta syndrome – its symptomatic of a society with little backbone and a narcisstic view of itself. Smartphones are the worst things ever – they give voice to people who shouldnt say much.
I like silence regularly – allows you to engage deeper with your own mind. Society now is set up to flit from pathetic pile of nonsense to next pile of just as pathetic nonsense.
When you look back at the 60s & 70s, while our news sources were limited, at least people used thier brains a bit.
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‘The evolutionary process of human brain development is fascinating …’
Homo habilis used tools and is the most likely candidate linking us to gracile apes, and the evolution of homo sapien around a great big watering hole 200,000 years ago, is truly fascinating. No risk of a genetic bottleneck.
‘ … redirection to enable us to survive and enjoy the future.’
There is an effort to introduce meditation into the education system, to get students in the right frame of mind, what do you think of the idea?
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‘ … redirection to enable us to survive and enjoy the future.’
We need to organise society on the basis of a few understandings.
First, there’s too much screen interaction that needs to be reduced as a spare time indulgence.
Working, doing set tasks is OK. For instance typing up a report, an plan drawer doing house plans for the builder and council approval process.
Social interaction on computer and phone has become dangerous, but please, don’t shut down this blog.
Meditation is a great concept. One of my long term activities has been to walk through the local bush and observe the wildlife. Snakes, lizards etc but the most rewarding thing was to finally get up close and see a Coachwhip in my 50s.
Have also done Buddhist meditation, the art of not grasping at thoughts. There’s a solid basis in neuroscience for the benefits of meditation based on memory theory.
Too often in modern life we ruminate on the unpleasant experiences and the more time we can be “meditating” and leaving those thoughts alone the better off we are.
The world, at the moment is way too loud, too chaotic and damaging to we poor inhabitants.
KK
00
Give ’em the cuts! Six of the best!
00
Ok, ok, I’m going to get up after I type this, and go for a brisk walk!
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Don’t forget to come back!
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Help for the old folks to remember how they lived before climate change
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After a brisk bout of exercise involving three cups of tea
O/T but testing
If this comes up as in moderation either I’m on a list or an overseas reference has something to do with it
“Deplorables: Trump, Brexit and the Demonised Masses”
http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/index.php/2019/11/03/deplorables-trump-brexit-and-the-demonised-masses/#comments
10
Testing
Trump
20
Testing
http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/index.php/2019/11/03/deplorables-trump-brexit-and-the-demonised-masses/#comments
00
Ahah!
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This is actually spot on and describes me to a tee , unsure if memory was affected by the various pain meds or the sedentary lifestyle I’ve lived for the past 11 years .
I consider it a win if I can remember why I’m in the kitchen !
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It is known as the Portal Effect. You cross a portal and it happens.
It has been happening to me for close on 40 years (I can remember one occasion in the mid 80’s when working in the laboratory). The cure is suposed to be to go back the way you came and then you will remember what it was that you went there for in the first place. The real problem is when you go back again and start wondering why you came in again.**
**just blame it on AGW if you can remember when that was the main hysteria.
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Just because the memory is bad doesn’t mean I’ve stopped working on projects .
I’m currently working on aqua thermal treatment of ceramics , glass ,steel and aluminium in a constrained environment.
Or if you prefer washing the dishes in hot water under the wife’s supervision!
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Thanks! I’ve quoted that
20
I’m 70 years old, I run and I cycle.
I can’t remember why.
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Vigorous tennis is apparently recognised as one of the best forms of exercise with it’s 10-20 seconds of high intensity followed by brief rest as one walks back to serve or receive. I’m 73 and have played comp tennis for the past 8 years 3-4 times a week and the difference it has made to my fitness, co-ordination, and balance is remarkable.
The downside was quite a few injuries initially.Thirty years as a field geologist and I thought I was reasonably fit but now, in retirement, I feel fitter than ever!
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I just did a max-effort sprint to the fridge. Felt great afterwards.
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No one has made ‘Flying off the handle’ or ‘jumping to conclusions’ jokes yet? 🙂
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I find dragging 2 wheely bins the hundred yards to the front gate each Friday morning & back Friday night is about as much & as intense as I can manage these days. If the worn out knees don’t get me, then lack of breath does.
Besides I inherited a Rhodesian Ridge Back from acquaintances who went into a retirement village, & couldn’t take him. You know, the African lion dog. He is pretty good too, I haven’t seen a lion around here since he arrived, so don’t need to run much.
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Short memory must have a …
Wind farm rejection leaves clean energy advocates baffled
“Renewable energy advocates have been left disappointed after a proposed wind farm on the NSW Southern Tablelands was rejected because of the visual impact on residents.
Wind farm advocates have questioned the IPC’s decision.
The way wind farms look on the horizon is very much a subjective thing.”
>> They could have just asked Bob Brown, or Jonova …
“Former Greens leader and veteran activist Bob Brown is campaigning to stop a $1.6 billion wind farm development in Tasmania because it will spoil the view and kill birds.”
http://joannenova.com.au/2019/07/former-greens-leader-bob-brown-campaigns-against-wind-farm/
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Oops.
Missing link: https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/financenews/wind-farm-rejection-leaves-clean-energy-advocates-baffled/ar-AAJFoaW?ocid=st
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Yes. I forgot the link.
20
Exercise? That’s what I go to work for: get paid to keep fit, and now our ‘spring heatwave’ (sic) is here – 3 pleasant days doth not maketh a heat wave but anyway – I can sneak in a quick lunchtime swim as well, woohoo!
“The spring heatwave that brought near-record temperatures to much of New Zealand over the weekend [note: 2 days] … hit 34.5C in Kawerau and 31C in Christchurch and Ashburton yesterday, close to the country’s hottest ever November day of 35.6C recorded at Lake Coleridge in 1920“. Still not as hot as what it used to be a hundred years ago, huh? More than one degree colder. Dang history – should be banned!
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12282071
Before I forget: 7 days of snow for Victoria’s Baw Baw – if the Bom Boys call it right – check out the snowflake symbols and sub-zero temps:
http://www.bom.gov.au/vic/forecasts/mountbawbaw.shtml
A week of it: cold rain and snow and freezing temps for your high country, VIC & NSW, right through to the weekend. Does ‘renewable energy’ still work when it’s raining and snowing? In November? In Australia?
https://www.snow-forecast.com/maps/dynamic/nsw?over=none&symbols=snow&type=snow.next3to6days
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At least no one claimed it was a Heat Wave.
One idiot did say “this could be a new normal for November.
Just one day?
Had to be joking!
30
Apparently Bom’s long term outlook didn’t include the weekend big rains but then again I’d be surprised if they were right .
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Had the misfortune of hearing Chris Brandolino this morning on the radio spouting his usual nonsense. The NIWA meteorologist “said it was unusual to have such a spike in hot weather so early on in November”. Huh? He’s only lived here for 5 or 6 years:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/402460/november-heat-spiked-unusually-early-this-year-meteorologist
For some UN-known reason, his New York-apple-pie-blathering completely ignored the massive snow-bearing low under Australia (pushing warmish air ahead of it) keeping parts of southern Oz ‘unusually cool’ for this time of year. As he dribbled last year, “if the factors behind man-made climate change were not addressed” we’d get cyclones and floods and pleasant weather in between – like we always get in summer. He needs to improve his memory (or at least develop one, preferably based on experience/knowledge and not make-believe).
https://www.thejakartapost.com/life/2018/03/06/new-zealand-summer-heatwave-sets-all-time-record.html
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Lovely automated webcam pic of fresh overnight snow on Mt Buller, Victoria,
same day as the Melbourne Cup horse race, 5 November:
https://www.snow-forecast.com/resorts/Mount-Buller/webcams/latest
The 10.02 am cached pic shows snow fell as low as the webcam; the 12.02 pm pic shows it fast receding back up to the summit. No panic, there’s more on the way later this week…
10
Thanks for the post. Comports with my experience,
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I find that it’s not exercise unless I am ….. exerting myself.
I had a horrendous lower back problem in late 2013. It was becoming more frequent and lasting longer, and getting worser.
My GP sent me off for a ‘temporary’ cure, a facet joint injection under a Scanner. They did it in two adjoining joints over three days, and I was ‘miraculously’ cured immediately. On the way home, I stopped in to thank my GP profusely, and on the way out he added, almost as an afterthought ….. “you know, walking would help with that.”
I started the next morning, slowly and built up to six Kilometres five days a week. As I mentioned, I wanted to exert myself, so I walked as fast as I could, so the 6K was covered in under 50 Minutes.
Six years later now, and the back pain has never returned. Even if I get a twinge, I know it will be gone by the end of the next morning’s walk.
I had the Pacemaker fitment in December of last year, and I asked the heart specialist how long before I could get back to it. He told me to start slow and build up again, and I don’t need to go that former 6K, but he said I was good to go after three weeks. Same with the DVT problem recently. Again, back at it after 4 weeks.
I do 19 to 20 minutes five days a week, and 28 minutes on Saturdays, (an extra one K) with Friday as my day off. The heart specialist and after the DVT, I wanted to be certain how far I could get my heart rate up to, and they were happy for me to have that at 120.
There’s little clues about walking fast, not power walking, but they refer to it as ‘Fitness Walking’. It’s all in the pace length. Shorten your pace length, and try to move your feet through as fast as you can, and in a straight line, pushing off with your toes. Lots of really short steps as fast as you can. You’d be surprised how much time you can shorten your walk by doing that. Get the breathing right as well. I find in for three paces, and out for three paces, really deep breaths too. Arms up near your chest.
While I was quicker when I started in 2013, and I got down to eight minutes per kilometre, now it’s closer to eight and a half minutes per kilometre.
Get good shoes too, and I use Brooks Adrenaline GTS, and those little moisture control socks, Lightfeet, so no blisters.
Stretch beforehand just leg muscles, and a warm down walk say three minutes at the end of the walk.
I keep records on time taken as well. Saturdays, the extra distance day, I actually cheat, and have a big black coffee before I leave, say four spoons of coffee. Knocks time off the walk.
Rolled over 4500 Kilometres just a Month back now. On my seventh set of Brooks, after the initial set of Adidas.
(Google fitness walking)
Tony.
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Looks like you may enjoy doing a Parkrun of 5 km on Saturday mornings Tony. Many people walk them. They have sprung up all across Australia in last five years.
20
Ian,
My running days are long over now.
I played (numerous) sports during my time in the RAAF, and cricket was the longest, playing that right up to my 41st Birthday.
When I gave up smoking in the RAAF in 1987, my weight ballooned out to 105Kilos, (slower metabolic rate post smoking) and the RAAF wasn’t keen on overweight people, so six of us got together and started jogging. Only two of us kept at it, and we built up to doing ‘The Airfield’ at RAAF Wagga, around 7Km, and a regular marked track by the PTI’s around the perimeter of the airfield, and you can still see it on Google Earth at that Base, so the kilometre marks were all accurately marked, and we both did that five days a week during our lunch break. 35 minutes. Got my weight back to (RAAF Standard at the time) BMI level, 89 Kilos, but it took me a year to get back to that, as I wasn’t going to diet for any reason. Once there I stayed around that.
After discharge I kept jogging, but the older I got, the more my knee problem, (opening bowler front foot thing) played up and it was pretty painful all the time, so I stopped until the back problem came up. Our GP knew of my active earlier sporting life, and was always at me to resume some sort of exercise, and told me that walking was far better than jogging, but it took that back problem to provide the spur, and I have a sturdy Knee guard I wear for that left knee whilst walking.
I just do it now at a pace I’m comfortable with, although on those Saturday mornings I always try a little harder. After that fainting scare which brought on the Pacemaker, my family got me to cut back from the six Km, which was three out and three home. Now I have a 2.25 Kilometre circuit (add an extra K on Saturday) around home where I live now, so I’m never more than 500 metres from my front door.
They gave me a fitbit which they weren’t using, but it was pretty much useless. I have an old DSE hand held very basic stop watch which gives me the timing intervals I have at the five or six marks during my walk.
The heart specialist was pleasantly surprised (more like astonished) when I asked him how soon I could get back to it after having the Pacemaker inserted, as most patients just get scared of doing any exercise, and he said I was one of very very few who did any sort of exercise at all.
Tony.
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Fair enough Tony.
The stop-smoking-weight-gain-start-running is a common story I see often. Trouble is these blokes who start doing this in their 50’s can now beat the pants off me by the time they reach 60 whereas I’ve slowed down through ageing wear and tear! Still, I admire them greatly.
My son’s in the RAAF. He reckons he will run a marathon one day. I’ll believe it when I see it. Like you Tony he was an opening fast bowler in his teens.
30
There has been a breakthrough in China against a debilitating disease.
https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201911/03/WS5dbe0993a310cf3e3557510b.html
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What disease are you talking about EG, before I bother following the link?
20
I hope their regulatory regime set up by the China Food and Drug Administration is better today than it was in the days of Melamine milk.
30
behind paywall – clearly non-partisan XR:
3 Nov: UK Times: Extinction Rebellion and the Stop HS2 campaign team up in attempt to make Boris lose his seat
by Jonathan Leake
Extinction Rebellion (XR) is to launch a campaign to unseat Boris Johnson as an MP by mobilising opponents of the HS2 rail scheme, which runs through his Uxbridge and South Ruislip constituency.
XR plans to work with the StopHS2 campaign, which has 5,000 supporters registered in the constituency — roughly the same size as Johnson’s majority. “The constituency also includes Brunel University, so there are a lot of students,” XR said. “Johnson could be toast. We are just as opposed to HS2 as we are to climate change.”
The news comes as the campaign group launches a star-studded election video developed by Richard Curtis, known for films such as Four Weddings and a Funeral, demanding that politicians explain their plans to combat global warming…
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/ad4cf738-fda1-11e9-8343-786bb3fac9c1
re the video below: Variety: British kids exhorting the authorities to tackle a climate emergency open and close the short. One holds a picture of an animal skull bearing the words “Tell the Truth.”
proud to say I know none of the celebrities. participants aged 8 to 80, according to MSM and as “diverse” as XR can pretend to be:
VIDEO: 1min32sec: Nov: TheDrum: Rankin, Richard Curtis and Extinction Rebellion tell Government to address climate emergency
By Imogen Watson
Rebel photographer, Rankin, has joined forces with British screenwriter Richard Curtis, to help Extinction Rebellion make a big statement as the forthcoming general election looms closer.
On the ominous date of Friday 13 December, the UK will decide in whom’s hands it will place the future of the country…
Directed by Jordan Rossi for Rankin, in a series of short clips starring a number of famous faces, the film intends to give a voice to every generation so that it represents a whole lifetime.
The film features the likes of Simon Amstell, Ellie Goulding, Daisy Lowe, Jaime Winstone and Imelda Staunton, who all make an emotive demand to governments for their plans to address the emergency…
Discussing the campaign, Gail Bradbrook, co-founder of Extinction Rebellion said: “If the British Government were to cut carbon emissions within the so-called carbon budget we have, we would need to go from 1.5% annual cut to about 24%. That needs a serious plan. Our children, our future and our wildlife need our Government to step up and face reality. “
https://www.thedrum.com/news/2019/11/03/rankin-richard-curtis-and-extinction-rebellion-tell-government-address-climate
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this story began on Nov 1, behind paywall:
Shades of Stasiland in Attorney-General’s office
by Janet Albrechtsen
The Australian – 1 Nov 2019
still haven’t found a mention on theirABC, yet this editorial goes on to defend MSM’s “right to know”! what about the public’s “right to know”?
4 Nov: The Australian Editorial: Bureaucrats’ ‘Stasiland’ move against Tony Abbott absurd
In July, outgoing ASIO chief Duncan Lewis warned that Australia faced threats of foreign interference on a daily basis, with security agencies confronting “unprecedented” espionage. Globalisation, Mr Lewis said, had generated a mass movement of people, goods and ideas. Amid serious concerns about foreign influence at Australian universities and research organisations and lucrative overseas donations to political parties, effective laws to weed out nefarious foreign influence undermining our democracy are vital. It beggars belief, however, that over-zealous bureaucrats enforcing those laws have targeted Tony Abbott, asking the former prime minister to register as an agent of foreign influence because he addressed the Conservative Political Action Conference in Sydney in August. Mr Abbott spoke about the need for civility in politics.
In the first action of its kind under the foreign influence laws, the event’s Australian organiser, Andrew Cooper was ordered to hand over documents and threatened with jail. As Mr Abbott told Janet Albrechtsen on Saturday: “It’s oppressive, it’s coercive. I thought the commissars had gone when the bloody Soviet Union went out of business.” In a letter dated the day before Mr Abbott spoke at the conference, the deputy secretary of the Integrity and International Group of the A-G’s Department, Sarah Chidgey, told him that as a former cabinet minister, he had “a lifetime obligation to register any activity you undertake on behalf of a foreign principal”…
Mr Abbott and Mr Cooper were correct in refusing to co-operate with the bureaucracy’s jack-booted edicts, which would have suited a Cold War eastern European politburo. Given the controversy that surrounded the CPAC conference, the bureaucrats’ actions smack of politiking. Before the conference, Labor frontbencher Kristina Keneally claimed Scott Morrison was “importing people’’ from the US who wanted to relax Australia’s gun laws. Senator Keneally also linked the rhetoric of some CPAC guests to a wider “alt-right” movement and the radicalisation of alleged Christchurch terrorist, Brenton Tarrant. When laws can be used to target a former prime minister for speaking at a conservative conference that includes foreigners, and a bloke who hosted the event because the co-host is from the US, our closest ally in the free world, those laws must be revisited, in the interests of our democracy and free speech. This saga demonstrates how, in the hands of overzealous bureaucrats, such laws become even more dangerous…
FROM COMMENTS:
Betty: And the master mind of this bureaucratic affront, Ms Sarah Chidgey, is obviously beyond Porter’s public rebuke for bias and incompetence…….
And oh yes, unsackable.
Sickening.
Peter: This editorial is on the money until the reference to recent ‘raids’ and the publics ‘right to know’. There is some irony in that Chris Kenny’s article today targets the ABC’s relentless pursuit of their favourite agendas, but they blatantly ignore alternate opinions, particularly in relation to climate change and refugees. Why not include criticism about this? The public definitely has a right to know, particularly when everyone is forced to fund the ABC, and they are supposed to operate under a Charter.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/editorials/bureaucrats-stasiland-move-against-tony-abbott-absurd/news-story/35d1007036768aa2e9d23b958b184b83
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3 Nov: Catallaxy Files: Statement from the Liberal Democratic Party
By now you may have read the media reports in relation to the Attorney General’s department targeting the organisers and key speakers at the recent CPAC event in Sydney…
Andrew Cooper, President of the Liberal Democrats, wears many hats in his private capacity. We note that in addition to his Liberal Democrats commitments, Andrew is also the President of LibertyWorks, the organisation primarily responsible for organising CPAC Australia…
In a recent letter from the Attorney-General’s office, Andrew has been ordered to “produce any information or documents relevant to the question of whether LibertyWorks is liable to register under the Act in relation to the American Conservative Union (“ACU”)”, including but not limited to, “Any agreement, contract or other document detailing any understanding or arrangement between LibertyWorks and the ACU; Any invitations, letters or other correspondence from LibertyWorks or the ACU sent to individuals invited to speak at or attend the Conference, including correspondence subsequent to the initial invitation; Copies, transcripts or video or audio recordings of speeches made by speakers at the conference, including of speeches by members of LibertyWorks or the ACU to introduce or conclude the Conference or specific day or event at the conference; Summaries of the topics covered by speakers at the Conference, and; Material produced or distributed by LibertyWorks promoting the Conference or the ACU.”
Andrew has been given 14 days to hand over all information under the threat of 6 months imprisonment…
The Liberal Democrats call on the government to start an immediate review of the Foreign Interference Transparency Scheme Act 2018 and given they are responsible for the passage of this illiberal document, to immediately explain themselves to the Australian people.
The Liberal Democrats call on Christian Porter, the Attorney-General, to immediately suspend the enforcement of the Foreign Interference Transparency Scheme Act 2018 until a review has been conducted, especially, removing the power of the faceless, unaccountable, deep state bureaucracy to threaten political parties and actors with imprisonment should they not kowtow to their outrageous demands…
Finally, in the absence of any proven wrongdoing by Andrew, the Liberal Democrats call for an immediate suspension of Sarah Chidgey from her position at the Attorney-General’s Department and a full investigation into the circumstances leading to this perversion of our liberal democracy.
http://catallaxyfiles.com/2019/11/03/statement-from-the-liberal-democratic-party/comment-page-1/
Biographical details — Sarah Chidgey, Deputy Secretary, Integrity and International Group
https://www.ag.gov.au/About/Seniormanagement/Pages/BiographicaldetailsSarahChidgey.aspx
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OT but the nutters are at it again , this story beggars belief .
https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2019-11-04/mountain-pygmy-possum-extinction-save/11658418
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Thanks for this.
It’s not every day that this site contains advice directly relevant to me.
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How intriguing.
Yet Monsieur Marcel Proust, the most sedentary of men, managed to write the world’s longest novel, In Search of Lost Time, in a cork-filled room in Paris without ever going for a jog; a work that is a fictional version of his own life and a classic study in the psychology of memory – et autre choses aussi.
Memory is such a fallible variable. Courts do not accept it without other supporting evidence.
I wonder how they “measured” it with such confidence? Error bars please.
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This sounds like a variation of the Super High Intensity Training. We get a lot of this at work.
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But Jo, if I do that I’ll no longer have an excuse and I might have to get everything right. You wouldn’t want that would you?
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But can I remember to do the exercises?
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Instead of going to a gym or building one in a spare room, or wherever, …
Why not actually do something useful? Or fun?
Volunteers are needed to do all sorts of things, many requiring significant activity.
Get involved.
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These days have a bloody good look at what you’re considering volunteering for.
Bureaucratic “must have/ must do” is inversely proportional to willingness to volunteer
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Mostly sedentary !
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It’s bureaucracy that is holding a lot of people back from volunteer work. I don’t have the link, but only this week I read of a retired magistrate in Britain who wanted to assist with the care of the dying, to help out short-staffed nurses. She already had various clearances, strange to relate, as a magistrate, but no. She was going to have to jump through more time and money wasting-hurdles so has decided not to pursue it.
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The UK is heading down a very steep, slippery slope. Their so called Conservative Party has given in to the Extinction mob. How stupid can they get?
” Breaking news: the British Conservative Government has just agreed Extinction Rebellion’s demand to form a climate change citizen’s assembly. 30,000 invitations will be sent at random, then 110 of the respondents will be chosen to sit on the assembly. The budget allocated for the assembly is £520,000. £120,000 will be provided by the government, the rest will provided by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and the European Climate Foundation. ” h/t WUWT
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Ross –
XR is not a protest group. XR are CAGW insiders.
from the comments in your WUWT link, read all the dennisambler comment with LINKS:
2 Nov: WUWT: Nigel Farage Exposes Extinction Rebellion’s Plan to Topple Representative Democracy
by Eric Worrall
FROM COMMENTS:
bonbon November 3, 2019 at 4:20 am
Exactly, the Gov’t does not list XR, despite calls for illegality, on any terrorist action list. In other words openly supports them.
dennisambler November 3, 2019 at 6:11 am
You are absolutely right. They had a meeting with Environment Minister Michael Gove earlier this year…etc
Labour MP Ed Miliband, he who gave the UK the Climate Change Act, is hand in glove with XR. The Institute for Public Policy Research is a Labour Think Tank and in April this year they launched the IPPR Environmental Justice Commission. Miliband and Caroline Lucas of the Green Party, are co-founders…
It is clear that XR is no spontaneous arising of concerned citizens, although many of those who support them will believe their message. XR’s costumes, their banners, their material, are all professionally produced and they are being funded to lobby government, which in turn will say it is responding to public concerns, when they introduce ever more draconian energy control measures…READ ALL
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/11/02/nigel-farage-exposes-extinction-rebellions-plan-to-topple-representative-democracy/
the same is true of Greta. out of the blue, XR & Greta appear on the scene, and both claim Govts are doing nothing about CAGW, when they’ve wasted trillions, and both demand Govts & everyone else must spend trillions more NOW.
and official bodies, incuding Govts, applaud. how convenient.
there are no grass-roots protests demanding Govts spend even more money on CAGW.
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Vacuous post.
The right to protest is a fundamental part of democracy
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“Vacuous post.”
There’s that heading of yours again
We know your posts are always vacuous.
No need to signpost them, PF !!
The STINKIES are yet another leftist con-job.
You really don’t like the TRUTH and FACTS being brought to the light of day, do you.
/PF hates FACTS even more than he HATES CO2
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I see that the right to protest is limited to ‘anything the right approves of’
/fascist rule
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yawn!
Just stop getting in other people’s way.
The STINKIES are just another deep totalitarian leftist fascist group like Antifa.
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“30,000 invitations will be sent at random”
If that is true I have no worries.
have you looked at the weather the UK
Has been having in October ?
Foul storms & a cold early Winter !
I suspect most Brits want some MORE
Global Warming not less !
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“Fartlek Training” (nothing to do with flatulence) is the best form of aerobic exercise – used by high level sporting teams. It is a form of “interval training” – gets the heart rate up. It is much more beneficial to do “Fartlek Training” e.g. sprint/power walk/sprint/power walk for ~ 30 minutes than jog around an oval for 30 minutes plus. Same applies to swimming in 25m pools. Better off doing lap sprints with a 10-20 sec break at each end for ~ 30 minutes than just swim laps (gentle pace) continuously for 30 minutes plus.
I have been doing swimming interval training for a long period of time – keeps me very fit and I am in my late 60’s. So I guess based on Jo’s article my memory capability must be OK.
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It’s not that simple.
Long slow distance training builds capillaries. Increased capillarization is fundamental to endurance. And it’s good for the heart. More capillaries in the heart muscle are always good.
The great athletics coach Arthur Lydiard used this approach to achieve the amazing performances of athletes like John Walker, the first man to get under 3.50.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Lydiard
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Sounds good SS but most folk, if not retired, are “time poor” so “running slow for hours on end” poses issues. I am stilling working so I will stick with the 30 minute interval training option.
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The interval training developed in Europe, fartlek, was the basis of my development in running.
Already generally fit from body surfing and bike riding, fartlek was a big help. Run 440 fast, jog a lap slow eight times.
Run 220 fast, jog half a lap.
Good results.
The coach was from Czechoslovakia after WW11 and he had been in the same club as Emile Zatopek and had seen him training.
In the end it’s good activity that keeps us healthy.
KK
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“Fartlek Training” originated in Sweden back in the early 1930’s. It was introduced in Sweden to combat the dominance of the middle distance runners of that time “The Flying Finns” (Finish) e.g. runners like Paavo Nurmi. The Finish runners dominated during the 1920’s- early 1930’s. I was told this back by my uncle who ran for England in the 5,000m in the Berlin 1936 Olympics. This training regime was adopted by Czech runner Emil Zatopek who dominated the middle distance races at the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki winning gold in the 5,000m, 10,000m & marathon. He used to burn his opposition off by sprinting during races. He was able to do this because of the “Fartlek Training”, ie rapid recovery after an effort. This is why sporting teams today use this training technique e.g. AFL, soccer, hockey etc.
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On the exercise front, I remember reading a few years ago about a guy in the US who did a PhD in exercise physiology in the early 1970s.
He got a group of guys together and over a period of time got them as fit as he could and measured that by their “work output” or energy output on certain exercises. He then put them into bed in a hospital ward and did not allow them to move ( going to the toilet and shower was in a wheel chair) and he measured how long it took for them to lose their fitness.
About 35 years later he wondered what would happen if he repeated part of the study on the same guys now they were that much older. He managed to get a reasonable sample of them together and put them through their paces again. All were surprised that he got them back to about the same level of fitness he had them at in the first study. He did not repeat the second part of the study –ie. how quick they lost their fitness.
So it is never too late to start exercising again, if you have fallen out of the habit.
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I think Ken Stewart is having an impact with his examination, one by one, of all the BOM’s weather stations.
His blog has today been the target of a hack attack
More news here :
https://kenskingdom.wordpress.com/2019/11/04/hack-attack/
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Bill
Has he used
https://www.whois.com/whois
to see if he can get an address to report abuse?
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Must be getting close to the target for this to happen !
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I am 74 and grew up in Sydney. I still remember the blackouts and my mum heating water on a coal or wood stove (I think) to have our baths. Also, I remembered the heatwaves and attending primary school with overhead fans in the classrooms. When I revisit the beaches, where I used to swim (Coogee/Maroubra), I cannot notice any sea-level change from the early days. Whoops. gym time.
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Been to the gym today.
Some intense weight pushing for an hour.
All systems good !
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Off-topic but on climate… Germany seems to be turning against windmills:
https://business.financialpost.com/pmn/business-pmn/germanys-giant-windmills-are-wildly-unpopular
Got to love the MSM .. the Greens support windmills but the AfD “militates” against them. No biased reporting there… oh no.
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Regardless of the proposed benefits to well being going by the comments of senior Novarian’s the ability to laugh and have humility is very healthy. 🙂
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3 Nov: Breitbart: Private Jet Sales Soar as Elites Urge Holidaymakers to Stop Flying
by Simon Kent
https://www.breitbart.com/environment/2019/11/03/private-jet-sales-soar-as-other-flyers-urged-to-stay-at-home/
28 Oct: Guardian: Super-rich fuelling growing demand for private jets, report finds
Growth centred in US and China, with slowdown in Sweden attributed to Greta Thunberg
by Rupert Neate, Wealth correspondent
Over the next decade, the number of new private jets taking to the skies is expected to total 7,600 – costing buyers a combined $248bn (£193bn)…
Almost two-thirds of the jets are expected to be delivered to customers in the US and China, while Europe will account for about 20%…
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/27/super-rich-fuelling-growing-demand-for-private-jets-report-finds
00
Hoping it works
How many times a week
10
Hoping it works
How many times a week
00
3 Nov: SMH: Retooling schools for an era of climate change
By Neil Selwyn
(Neil Selwyn is a distinguished research professor in the Faculty of Education at Monash University, where he works as part of the Education Futures initiative.)
At the same time, there is a pressing need to revitalise the Australian school curriculum to prepare students for the climate crisis. This includes re-tooling all existing subject areas to foreground complex conceptual issues such as climate science, climate politics, climate demography, climate-related health and economics.
Schools also need to give young people practical skills and dispositions necessary to survive across their lifetimes – what are often referred to as adaptation and mitigation strategies. Schools also need to educate young Australians how to engage democratically with environmental issues and debates, not least the capacity to participate in collective environmental decision-making at local, national and global levels…READ ON
https://www.smh.com.au/education/retooling-schools-for-an-era-of-climate-change-20190814-p52gx7.html
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“…READ ON”
No thanks.
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3 Nov: AP: Trump now has opening to pull US out of Paris climate pact
by Seth Borenstein
WASHINGTON – For more than two years President Donald Trump has talked about pulling the United States out of the landmark Paris climate agreement . Starting Monday he finally can do something about it.
Even then, though, the withdrawal process takes a year and wouldn’t become official until at least the day after the 2020 presidential election…
The terms of the deal say no country can withdraw in the first three years. So Monday is the first time the U.S. could actually start the withdrawal process, which begins with a letter to the United Nations. And it doesn’t become official for a year after that, which leads to the day after the election.
If someone other than Trump wins in 2020, the next president could get back in the deal in just 30 days and plan to cut carbon pollution, said Andrew Light, a former Obama State Department climate negotiator now at the nonprofit World Resources Institute.
Light and other experts say the withdrawal by the United States, the second biggest climate polluter and world’s largest economy, will hurt efforts to fight global warming…
“Global objectives can’t be met unless everybody does their part and the U.S. has to play the game,” said Appalachian State University environmental sciences professor Gregg Marland, who is part of a global effort to track carbon dioxide emissions. “We’re the second biggest player. What happens to the game if we take our ball and go home?”
Someone else, probably the biggest polluter China, will take over leadership in the global fight, said MIT economist Jake Jacoby, who co-founded the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change.
The penalty for the U.S. “is not in economic loss. The penalty is in shame, in discrediting U.S. leadership,” Jacoby said…
Asked what the U.S. plans next, State Department spokesman James Dewey on Friday emailed only this: “The U.S. position with respect to the Paris Agreement has not changed. The United States intends to withdraw from the Paris Agreement.”…
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education…
https://apnews.com/76a78488ddb547d4a6280a023b2e733b
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3 Nov: ABC America: Federal probe launched into Tesla for possible battery defects after ‘alarming number of car fires’
By Julia Jacobo
https://abcnews.go.com/amp/Technology/federal-probe-launched-tesla-battery-defects-alarming-number/story?id=66722728
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It’s all about lifestyle to exercise and switch to a low-carb diet.
For those “Down Under”, visit this site
https://www.youtube.com/user/lowcarbdownunder/videos from the moderately popular Low Carb Downunder.
It will, literally, take years off your life.
And there are lots of sites on the science and methods to start including Dietdoctor.com (founded by Dr. Andreas Eenfeldt) to youtube sites of KenDBerryMD to Dr. Boz (Annette Bosworth, MD).
And some great books such as Eat Rich, Live Long, Good Calories Bad Calories and Anyway You Can – all available on Amazon and other sellers/sources.
And it’s free. Most even find they spend less on food since the food they’re eating is real food that’s high density and more satisfying.
And, after all, it’s just food.
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I’m 59 and run 75 k’s each night in 30 minutes.
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Do you really run 150 KPH? That would be quite remarkable. Perhaps you are missing a decimal point (0.75K?).
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7.5km in 30 mins sounds about right. But that is still very very quick for a 59 year old – 4mmins / Km! Elite level actually.
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It only seven minute miles.
Still good.
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Oxygenated blood is a great thing for the brain.
Just as important is a hydrated brain.
But above a certain age, the winged is “I’ve got to pee all the time”.
Being able to think is much better than dehydration.
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Thanks for sharing this Jo. A world of warning through, anyone who has a relatively sedentary lifestyle should get a proper cardio stress test before undertaking an HIT workout. Any underlying problems will be exposed if you suddenly push your heart to near its maximum. A stress test is no guarantee but it does provide some screening of existing problems. Talk to a doctor first.
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Start slowly and build.
10
I started riding a bike and jogging a few years ago. Its not a bad thing to do but bursts of 200m fast running has done a better job of keeping me fit.
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Human sexual function and excretion processes also work vastly better when you exercise vigorously. Fertility likewise rises with fitness level. And surprise-surprise, we find the fittest people the most sexually attractive, positive and pleasant. “Survival of the fittest” is undeniable, though you could modify it to, “The most motivated survive the best.” This seems to be the same principle for brains, low-motivation or a reduced imperative to exert your brain leads to lower processing capacity plus a weaker more foolish mind (for example, see the Extinction-Rebellion clods).
In WWII Islander natives were famous for their strength and endurance in moving heavy loads over rough terrain. Most fit western soldiers couldn’t match it. The Islanders were also less likely to weaken and become sick in rough tropical conditions, as the soldiers routinely did. In their lives they’d constantly exerted themselves enough to develop a body that could do that and survive. While most soldiers fell apart in just a few weeks of jungle warfare. About 90% of them became so ill as to require hospitalization. It was the same for the Japanese too. Neither side was accustomed to harsh conditions and constant exertion. Unless you hardened-up you just died. About 10% of the soldiers never weakened or got sick. These became stronger, they were more determined, motivated, and apparently smarter. It was a perfect example of survival of the fittest and most motivated. The really did have a “steel will”, and unflinching resolve, they became natural leaders in wartime as the weak leaders fell apart.
When the required survival exertion threshold drops again in peacetime, we get the ‘leaders’ we deserve, and the bodies, minds and capacities equal to our exertion, for instance:
Bill Shorten running:
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/afja6NT8McE/maxresdefault.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afja6NT8McE
That’s not a leader kids.
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