So great.
Friday, July 13, 2007
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Disturbing Numbers from Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.
See this article on obesity rates in the US.
The obesity rate in the United States has increased at an alarming rate over the past three decades. We set out to estimate the average annual increase in prevalence as well as the variation between population groups to predict the future situation regarding obesity and overweight among U.S. adults and children,” said Youfa Wang, MD, PhD, lead author of the study and an assistant professor in the Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Department of International Health. “Obesity is a public health crisis. If the rate of obesity and overweight continues at this pace, by 2015, 75 percent of adults and nearly 24 percent of U.S. children and adolescents will be overweight or obese.
The obesity rate in the United States has increased at an alarming rate over the past three decades. We set out to estimate the average annual increase in prevalence as well as the variation between population groups to predict the future situation regarding obesity and overweight among U.S. adults and children,” said Youfa Wang, MD, PhD, lead author of the study and an assistant professor in the Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Department of International Health. “Obesity is a public health crisis. If the rate of obesity and overweight continues at this pace, by 2015, 75 percent of adults and nearly 24 percent of U.S. children and adolescents will be overweight or obese.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Sitting up
Can she do it, folks? Can she master the intense and focused control of her core muscles necessary to get herself from being parallel with the floor to sitting up?
let's follow the photo journaling of this epic attempt at a new milestone:
And she does it! (and the crowds go wild!)
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
The Blue Devils Arrive!
When I was a senior in high school, I ran into Charles Battle over Spring break. Battle's family were members of Central Baptist Church, and he was a year ahead of me and back home from "Chapel Hill" (I had no idea what "Chapel Hill" meant at the time, but I knew that I was supposed to know and that Charlie knew I didn't know.) Charles' parents had sent him off to McCallie instead of allowing him to suffer with the rest of us in public high school. From there he had gone to UNC. By the spring, I had been admitted to Duke, and his comment was something about my going to "the University of New Jersey".
When I was at Duke, the place really struggled with being a school on the make but buried in the South, and probably still struggles with it. During my senior year there, I applied to "Duke Law", as well as to other law schools. My LSATs were OK, but not outstanding. The dean at Duke said he would admit me, but he wanted me to take the LSATs again so that their first year LSAT average might be a little higher. After four years as an undergrad at Duke, I had had about enough of the "Harvard of the South" mierda, and I said good-bye and went to Chicago.
In yesterday's WSJ, there is an op-ed piece in which the JFK myth is pilloried. Toward the end of the piece, the writer presents the thesis that the Kennedy myth makers ruined the Democratic Party, steering it from the party of the little guy to the elites of New England and Hollywood.
But the criteria for president of the United States aren't the same as those set by the deans of admission at Harvard or Yale, Brown or Duke. The happy snobbery of feeling culturally superior and morally virtuous that is at the heart of the Kennedy myth shouldn't be what politics is about. [Bold mine]
University of New Jersey indeed. Eat your heart out, Charlie Battle.
When I was at Duke, the place really struggled with being a school on the make but buried in the South, and probably still struggles with it. During my senior year there, I applied to "Duke Law", as well as to other law schools. My LSATs were OK, but not outstanding. The dean at Duke said he would admit me, but he wanted me to take the LSATs again so that their first year LSAT average might be a little higher. After four years as an undergrad at Duke, I had had about enough of the "Harvard of the South" mierda, and I said good-bye and went to Chicago.
In yesterday's WSJ, there is an op-ed piece in which the JFK myth is pilloried. Toward the end of the piece, the writer presents the thesis that the Kennedy myth makers ruined the Democratic Party, steering it from the party of the little guy to the elites of New England and Hollywood.
But the criteria for president of the United States aren't the same as those set by the deans of admission at Harvard or Yale, Brown or Duke. The happy snobbery of feeling culturally superior and morally virtuous that is at the heart of the Kennedy myth shouldn't be what politics is about. [Bold mine]
University of New Jersey indeed. Eat your heart out, Charlie Battle.
"The Culture Gap" by Brink Lindsey
A good essay about the economic cost of behaving badly and the premium for behaving well.
Football. Football. Alas.
I asked Tom Curtis at church a couple of Sundays ago whether he could do anything about speeding up the beginning of football season. He sighed and confessed that he had spent the previous afternoon watching some sort of golf game on TV that had elements of poker larded into it, he was that desperate for sports. We asked each other whether he had the slightest interest in hockey, and of course neither of us does. And as for baseball? Please.
Which takes me momentarily to a review that appeared in the WSJ Saturday of a non-fiction book entitled The Real All Americans by Sally Jenkins. It is the story of the "the momentous college-football game in 1921 between [Glenn "Pop"] Warner's renowned Carlisle Indian School squad and a vaunted Army team."
Jenkins quotes "the best locker room speech ever . . . to be":
Your fathers and your grandfathers are the ones who fought their fathers. These men playing against you today are soldiers. They are the Long Knives. You are Indians. Tonight, we will know if you are warriors.
Carlisle beat Army 27-6. It helped that Jim Thorpe was in Carlisle's backfield.
As football continues its inexorable migration from free to pay tv, every new season sees me weaken in my resolve to stay with the rabbit ears. The gods have taken away Monday Night Football, and the autumn weeks have dimmed. MNF once redeemed Mondays. Now MNF is no longer a matter of grace, but a matter of money. American Civilization is clearly on the downslope.
Which takes me momentarily to a review that appeared in the WSJ Saturday of a non-fiction book entitled The Real All Americans by Sally Jenkins. It is the story of the "the momentous college-football game in 1921 between [Glenn "Pop"] Warner's renowned Carlisle Indian School squad and a vaunted Army team."
Jenkins quotes "the best locker room speech ever . . . to be":
Your fathers and your grandfathers are the ones who fought their fathers. These men playing against you today are soldiers. They are the Long Knives. You are Indians. Tonight, we will know if you are warriors.
Carlisle beat Army 27-6. It helped that Jim Thorpe was in Carlisle's backfield.
As football continues its inexorable migration from free to pay tv, every new season sees me weaken in my resolve to stay with the rabbit ears. The gods have taken away Monday Night Football, and the autumn weeks have dimmed. MNF once redeemed Mondays. Now MNF is no longer a matter of grace, but a matter of money. American Civilization is clearly on the downslope.
Sunday, July 08, 2007
I think I heard the word "awesome" in Japanese
My birthday is July 16. Plus, it's too late for Carol's birthday, which was yesterday, but I have my eye on this for her next time.
Saving the Banana
We love bananas at our house. They are so cheap, so filling, and so healthy, we buy several hands a week. Among other things, we eat them like Popsicles after we have peeled them, cut them into two pieces, and frozen them.
I read this article indicating that bananas are at risk, and that a scientist in Uganda is doing something about it. (More on the banana blight here.)
I read this article indicating that bananas are at risk, and that a scientist in Uganda is doing something about it. (More on the banana blight here.)
Calorie Reduction Can Be Very Difficult
Having been involved with Weight Watchers for many years, I have had the opportunity to see how people struggle with their weight, especially women, the gender that comprises the very large majority of WW persons. It is harder for women to lose weight and then maintain their weight at a healthy level; in fact it seems to be much harder. Generally speaking, it is very, very difficult to deal with weight matters and physical fitness in our stressful, sugar coated culture. (On the other hand, I have seen some remarkable successes, especially among women.)
My motivator was the cancer. That really got my attention, and Carol's. I thought I was going to die, and half the people in my support group did die within five years of their diagnosis. I was in my mid-forties at the time. My oncologist thought that if I were lucky, I would live until about 60 if I got beyond the first five years. Diet was one thing I thought I might be able to control, and so I started down that road. I don't mean to sound smug when I write about health topics and weight loss. It just seems so vital to me.
My motivator was the cancer. That really got my attention, and Carol's. I thought I was going to die, and half the people in my support group did die within five years of their diagnosis. I was in my mid-forties at the time. My oncologist thought that if I were lucky, I would live until about 60 if I got beyond the first five years. Diet was one thing I thought I might be able to control, and so I started down that road. I don't mean to sound smug when I write about health topics and weight loss. It just seems so vital to me.
Saturday, July 07, 2007
Parkour
My friend Kurt turned me on to Crossfit. Kurt's a Captain in the Army, on his way to med school, and tends to run marathons on a whim - as in he makes the decision 6-12 hours before race time.
So I've been showing him my kettlebell propaganda, and he's seen my kettlebell ante and raised the stakes.
I'm still a bit overwhelmed by the splendor of the site, and I'm going to subscribe to the journal, but this article was too cool to leave unposted.
So I've been showing him my kettlebell propaganda, and he's seen my kettlebell ante and raised the stakes.
I'm still a bit overwhelmed by the splendor of the site, and I'm going to subscribe to the journal, but this article was too cool to leave unposted.
Toward a Theology of the Self
I think orthodox American Christianity lacks a theology of the body or, to put it in a way that does not necessarily separate body from mind/spirit, a theology of the self. Maybe not "lacks" a theology: it does have a theology, but it is not well articulated; it is inconsistent, maybe incoherent; and it may be wrong in large part.
I have thought on and off about this for many years (which, I readily concede, hardly makes me an expert), but what most recently generated some reflection on the issue was seeing so many over-weight people at the Christian Life Conference. (I know. Everyone is groaning. This again.) But I think the over-weight people I saw simply do not connect what they do with their bodies with their calling to be salt and light. I think there is a sort of Gnosticism at work here, a dualism that leads us away from thinking about how we affect our neighbors by how treat our bodies, in this case how we eat.
If every Christian would reduce his calorie intake so that his weight would fall within the mid-range of the charts and if the food that he ate would be nourishing and empty of empty-calories, the demand for medical services would fall, the price of those services would go down, and poor people would be better able to afford those services. Chronic diseases among elderly Christians would fall, reducing the demand on care-givers, nursing homes, and the like, thus reducing the costs of those services, and making them more accessible to the poor. The junk food industry would stop growing and alcohol consumption would go down.
But I hear nothing, nothing about that. I just hear the body mentioned in two contexts: sex and the Lord's Supper (how's that for a combination?).
Sex seems to be the most important thing about the body that Christians talk about. And we talk about it so competently that our divorce rate approaches that of the general population, and we allow the same-sex relationship issue to define whether we are "really" Christians.
As to the Lord's Supper, I come from a tradition where it has been completely and utterly spiritualized. "This is [really not] my body, broken for you."
The Presbyterians, where I presently have a home, are not quite sure about the Lord's Supper. It is a sacrament, not an "ordinance", to be sure. We think something happens. It's not simply a metaphor, as the Baptists seem to believe. But I'm not quite sure that the Reformers completely worked it out. (I could be wrong on this, and I apologize to those in the Reformed Tradition if I am.)
Here is what happens at our church. We "celebrate" the Lord's supper at a worship service once a month. We have little wafers for the bread/body of Christ. We have grape juice for the wine/blood of Christ. (I don't understand the grape juice versus the wine, especially with wine so cheap and plentiful.) Then, after the service, we have a light lunch in the Fellowship Hall. Here's what I think about that: the real Lord's Supper occurs during the light lunch, where our bodies are being nourished along with our spirits through the wonderful fellowship. I would like for the pastor, as the light lunch fellowship begins, instead of saying the blessing, to pick up a sandwich and then a cup of lemonade and go through the litany. (And maybe the deacons would wait on people during the lunch.) Then we would sing a hymn when the lunch is over and go out.
Like a lot of things, the ancient Jews had the body thing right. There is a unity between mind and body. Adultery, being unkind to one's spouse by the use of one's body, is on the same list as having "no other gods before me". Resting on the Sabbath has the same amount of moral weight as does adultery. When the resurrection occurs, the resurrection will be a bodily one. We will have clothes in heaven. We will recognize each other. We will walk on streets. Finally, Christ was not simply God, he was God incarnate.
So eat your vegetables and stay away from the sweets. That would be a righteous thing to do.
UPDATE: American Christians are not entirely bereft of some leadership on this issue, although Mennonites may not qualify as exactly mainstream. And Pam Smith has been featured on Focus on the Family.
I have thought on and off about this for many years (which, I readily concede, hardly makes me an expert), but what most recently generated some reflection on the issue was seeing so many over-weight people at the Christian Life Conference. (I know. Everyone is groaning. This again.) But I think the over-weight people I saw simply do not connect what they do with their bodies with their calling to be salt and light. I think there is a sort of Gnosticism at work here, a dualism that leads us away from thinking about how we affect our neighbors by how treat our bodies, in this case how we eat.
If every Christian would reduce his calorie intake so that his weight would fall within the mid-range of the charts and if the food that he ate would be nourishing and empty of empty-calories, the demand for medical services would fall, the price of those services would go down, and poor people would be better able to afford those services. Chronic diseases among elderly Christians would fall, reducing the demand on care-givers, nursing homes, and the like, thus reducing the costs of those services, and making them more accessible to the poor. The junk food industry would stop growing and alcohol consumption would go down.
But I hear nothing, nothing about that. I just hear the body mentioned in two contexts: sex and the Lord's Supper (how's that for a combination?).
Sex seems to be the most important thing about the body that Christians talk about. And we talk about it so competently that our divorce rate approaches that of the general population, and we allow the same-sex relationship issue to define whether we are "really" Christians.
As to the Lord's Supper, I come from a tradition where it has been completely and utterly spiritualized. "This is [really not] my body, broken for you."
The Presbyterians, where I presently have a home, are not quite sure about the Lord's Supper. It is a sacrament, not an "ordinance", to be sure. We think something happens. It's not simply a metaphor, as the Baptists seem to believe. But I'm not quite sure that the Reformers completely worked it out. (I could be wrong on this, and I apologize to those in the Reformed Tradition if I am.)
Here is what happens at our church. We "celebrate" the Lord's supper at a worship service once a month. We have little wafers for the bread/body of Christ. We have grape juice for the wine/blood of Christ. (I don't understand the grape juice versus the wine, especially with wine so cheap and plentiful.) Then, after the service, we have a light lunch in the Fellowship Hall. Here's what I think about that: the real Lord's Supper occurs during the light lunch, where our bodies are being nourished along with our spirits through the wonderful fellowship. I would like for the pastor, as the light lunch fellowship begins, instead of saying the blessing, to pick up a sandwich and then a cup of lemonade and go through the litany. (And maybe the deacons would wait on people during the lunch.) Then we would sing a hymn when the lunch is over and go out.
Like a lot of things, the ancient Jews had the body thing right. There is a unity between mind and body. Adultery, being unkind to one's spouse by the use of one's body, is on the same list as having "no other gods before me". Resting on the Sabbath has the same amount of moral weight as does adultery. When the resurrection occurs, the resurrection will be a bodily one. We will have clothes in heaven. We will recognize each other. We will walk on streets. Finally, Christ was not simply God, he was God incarnate.
So eat your vegetables and stay away from the sweets. That would be a righteous thing to do.
UPDATE: American Christians are not entirely bereft of some leadership on this issue, although Mennonites may not qualify as exactly mainstream. And Pam Smith has been featured on Focus on the Family.
Africa, the Americans have Landed
Interesting article in July's Esquire Magazine by Thomas P.M. Barnett about US forces in Africa.
Friday, July 06, 2007
Montreat Books
Carol and I attended the Christian Life Conference from June 31 through July 3 at Montreat College, which is east of Ashville about 25 miles. John and Nancy Ortberg were the keynote speakers at the plenary sessions, and they were fabulous. In addition to plenary sessions, the conference offers seminars on various topics. During the conference, book titles dropped like leaves from a hardwood in autumn. Here are the ones I managed to rake up:
These were mentioned by Rob Weingartner, the Executive Director of The Outreach Foundation, during his seminar entitled "What is the Presbyterian Global Fellowship?" (See Rob speak of the Outreach Foundation on a short video here. The Presbyterian Global Fellowship page is here. Walter and Morgan are planning on going to the annual conference to be held in Houston August 16-18 of this year. Carol, Mary and I are thinking of attending as well. We wouldn't want to miss spending part of August in Houston anyway.)
Jenkins, The New Christendom: the Coming of Global Christianity and The New Faces of Christianity: Believing the Bible in the Global South.
Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society.
Escobar, Sowing the Word: The Cultural Impact of the British and Foreign Bible Society, 1804-2004.(Book review): An article from: Church History [HTML] (Digital)
Snyder, Liberating the Church.
Hirsch, Forgotten Ways: Reactivating the Missional Church
Pat MacPherson cited the following during his seminar entitled "Igniting the Men in Your Church":
Hughes, Disciplines of a Godly Man.
Morley, No Man Left Behind.
Nancy Ortberg mentioned these two books:
Everetts, Jesus with Dirty Feet
Lamotte, Travelling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith.
These were mentioned by Rob Weingartner, the Executive Director of The Outreach Foundation, during his seminar entitled "What is the Presbyterian Global Fellowship?" (See Rob speak of the Outreach Foundation on a short video here. The Presbyterian Global Fellowship page is here. Walter and Morgan are planning on going to the annual conference to be held in Houston August 16-18 of this year. Carol, Mary and I are thinking of attending as well. We wouldn't want to miss spending part of August in Houston anyway.)
Jenkins, The New Christendom: the Coming of Global Christianity and The New Faces of Christianity: Believing the Bible in the Global South.
Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society.
Escobar, Sowing the Word: The Cultural Impact of the British and Foreign Bible Society, 1804-2004.(Book review): An article from: Church History [HTML] (Digital)
Snyder, Liberating the Church.
Hirsch, Forgotten Ways: Reactivating the Missional Church
Pat MacPherson cited the following during his seminar entitled "Igniting the Men in Your Church":
Hughes, Disciplines of a Godly Man.
Morley, No Man Left Behind.
Nancy Ortberg mentioned these two books:
Everetts, Jesus with Dirty Feet
Lamotte, Travelling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith.
Thursday, July 05, 2007
Weight Charts
Following up on my comment to Scott's comment to the preceding post, here is a webpage with weight charts. Another chart is here on the Weight Watcher's website.
I am a medium framed male, about 5' 9", and for a few more days I'll be 60 years of age. My range on the chart to which I first link is 148-160. On the WW chart it is 135 to 169. (Today at the Weight Watchers meeting I weighed in at 159, seeking 155 as my target weight.) Those are pretty broad ranges. I am sure that in an individual case one would want to move carefully as he or she approached the limits. But they are instructive.
I am a medium framed male, about 5' 9", and for a few more days I'll be 60 years of age. My range on the chart to which I first link is 148-160. On the WW chart it is 135 to 169. (Today at the Weight Watchers meeting I weighed in at 159, seeking 155 as my target weight.) Those are pretty broad ranges. I am sure that in an individual case one would want to move carefully as he or she approached the limits. But they are instructive.
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