Encephalon

Perhaps I am biting off more than I can chew, but as far as I can tell, the Santiago Theory of Cognition will likely resolve most of these outstanding questions posed, including my general discomfort with teleological explanations. I haven't fully assimilated it; perhaps you intellectuals can get a head start, hmmm?

moved to a separate post

That's fine. You can believe whatever the hell you want. You can even believe in UFOs if you want to as long as hot dates with intelligent and educated women are goals you have crossed off your list. I fail to see where the intellectual roadblock to this simple understanding exists. We use the scientific method to acquire empirical data because science makes use of testability. You can't test the mind of god or the intentions of ETs but you can subscribe to a faith tradition and evolution as long as you understand the difference between the two cognitive processes. You could be right about this ET explanation but why would anyone with your ample intelligence crawl out on the flimsiest limb of the tree to make such a meaningless point? It's one thing to entertain the possibility and think "Oh, woldn't it be cool if that were really true?" You seem ready to bet your life, if not your intellectual credibility, on this piece of science fiction. I thought you said you were gonna get one of those education thingies?

I'm coming up on my 4th year of CK Chu's nei kung routine. It's strong current chi flow but it's also a form of martial art nei kung. What I am experiencing in my young NK career is a dissolution of physical asymmetries. Before, I could only fire out a great round kick with my L, and a good side kick with my R. Now they're even. The same can be said for a lot of torso flexibility in both directions. I'm sure it's preparing me for tai chi practice extremely well as my current is strong, but I am limited slightly by my age. I do three 45-minute sessions of Frantzis' dissolving meditation also.

Back when I was working out heavy I would bench 350 until I got tired and then go out and make out with one of the cheerleaders staring at muscles. Then I'd do a few lines of coke and do a few jump squats with 375 on my shoulders around the pool for a few minutes. Then I'd move on to my deadlifts and just use my manager's Hummer, and then go kick someone's ass and maybe hit on Wesley Snipes' girlfriend. I'd come back and do a couple dozen one-arm pull-ups with this hot yoga instructor wrapped around my waist. I'd speedball and then I'd do walking handstands down Ventura Blvd to Encino, do some script consulting for Emma Stone and spend the night at her house. At the time I weighed 103 pounds with 8% bodyfat.

I have to go with Nanashi here, Vort. This post of yours was the first compelling evidence that sheds doubt on evolution. Your previous screeds on extra-terrestrial DNA being used by the Bilderbergs to grow an army of Manchurian candidates for the Obama Administration in order to open diplomatic relations with Atlantis had a certain imaginative boldness, but this crap is just mean-spirited ignorance. What the hell have you been doing for the last couple of years, Iron Crotch on crack?

This is a topic about processes in nature, the nature of Life, and how the material world works. No, this the latest in 400 year-old temper tantrum being thrown by religionists who think that the Enlightenment kicked God off the throne and left us poor mortals defenseless against the ravages of moral relativism. The only thing is, we're not eating our young or practicing pedophilia just because an authoritarian religious hierarchy is no longer calling the shots. Because of our religious tradition though, we have failed to find our ecological niche and we're going to go down in flames These are fundamental issus that must be resolved and understood in any spiritual path. Only absolutists MUST have ultimate understanding to feel spiritually legitimate. for the rest of us, the acceptance of ambiguity in the world is generally recognized as maturity. Yes it just so happens that it encompasses and exposes a flaw in the theory of eovlution, but that is just circumstantial. Pthhtp! It is not a thread about Intelligent Design, and if you look at the thread, it is not me who brought the issue of Intelligent Design into it. It is only the emotional reactions of some people who can't seem to see a flaw in their understanding as anything but an attack by ID on Evolution. You've been waving this banner since you landed. Why fib now when you've been so professionally disengenuous? However, the source of this is New Scientist, a reputable mainstream source, not connected to Intelligent Design. Ah yes, the "Reader's Digest" of the non-peer reviewed science beat. Your talent for citing irrelevent sources has always been impeccable.

It does so deeply. Gassho.

del

An especially warm welcome to lidaApawlip, WrithMoothkiz, Infoverograrf, agrigammobep, shablangy, lenaharris, and Encassitinsaw! Did all of you arrive on the same space ship? Hopefully you've brought some fresh DNA. The stuff you deposited last time doesn't work as well as it used to. Regards, Blasto

Too late. Just spent my first night in Rehab.

Yes, by all means, we must remain forever vigilant in the face of expressions of affection between our children.

Whew. That's a relief. For a minute there I thought the phenomenologists were about to crash the party, and there's no reasoning with them. Thanks.

I'm serious! All these guys became TTB members yesterday. If they're not genetically related they probably all pump their gas at the same Arco. As far as DNA from outer space, the pointman for extraterrestrials is Immortal4Life.

Sorry gang party's over

I do remember my meridians opening up dramatically right after I took a month off from work at the gym and the workouts. Do you think that holds even if you're stretching routine is extensive? It seems to me the right combo of strength and relaxability is the key to feeling the current.

You would most likely have to pay someone to tease this all out for you. the biggest mistake we often make is trying to train for more than one fitness goal at a time. There are a number of ways you can manipulate variables - rep range, load, cadence, rest time - to address more than one goal at a time, such as squeezing cardio out of your strength or building routine. It's hard not to want every fitness goal NOW, but fitness is best conceived as a lifetime event. If you need to bulk up, take three years to eat like a pig and do no more cardio than what you get from pumping iron. Then you might move in to your Krav Maga era where you'll want to train for speed, power and agility, like a boxer. Here in La-La Land we pig out and bulk up during the "winter" and start jacking up the cardio and lo-carb routine in time for beach season. We're just a bunch of whores in Southern California. Ask anyone. Tai Po

Thanks for the compliment. I can't honestly remember all the criticisms that were leveled at weightlifting. I think the conversation was the liveliest in here about two years ago, an era where TTB seemed to be more body-based and visceral than the current philosophical orientation. That's my imperfect grasp of TTB history. Some of the criticisms are definitely legit - Tightness. You hardly ever see weightlifters committing equal time between lifting and stretching. Tightness reduces your range of motion, torques your joints, creates disproportionate strength patterns in muscle groups that result in 'relative weakness,' and it basically just screws with your biomechanics. There are only six basic moves that the human body is designed to perform* bend squat push pull lunge twist *The New Rules of Lifting Some combinations that you see people doing are perfect recipes for destroying your fluidity of motion all for the sake of an overly developed posterior deltoid! From a martial art standpoint, the added strength and bulk is only worth it if you can maintain your speed and power. Geez, there are so many menacing looking young men out there who would probably lose a scuffle because they've traded their speed for a threatening physical appearance. And of course, if you lift heavy for too long it just accelerates osteoarthritis, or what we used to call "wear and tear disease." I have the brand new titanium shoulder joint to prove it! I was deadlifting 315lb when I weighed 135, but there's no sensible reason for me to deadlift more than 180 anymore. I'm also over 50 now. There were all kinds of esoteric proscriptions against weight-training that I can't recall, but by all means, if you're in your 20s or 30s, lift hard and put on some bulk while you can still heal quickly. As soon as you get your size and strength base you get your reward - you'll be able to cut back to one light workout day every 72 hours and maintain most of the benefits. By then you might prefer bodyweight routines, yoga, or a martial art. Of course I can't recommend nei kung enough. Oh, and the quote about "muscles being the badges of the soul"... wish I could claim ownership, but I read it in Men's Fitness years ago.

2. Take Care with Labels When you teach your children that certain things are good, They are likely to call all different things bad. If you teach them that certain things are beautiful, They may see all other things as ugly. Call difficult things, “difficult,” and easy things, “easy,” without avoiding one and seeking the other and your children will learn self-confidence. Call results, “results,” without labeling one as success and another as failure and your children will learn freedom from fear. Call birth, “birth,” and death, “death,” without seeing one as good and the other as evil and your children will be at home with life. Notice today how your children label things. “That stinks.” “That’s stupid.” Don’t correct them. Just notice and consider how they learned. Start today to teach a different lesson. ************************************************************************************** This chapter clued me into some insights that had escaped me in other translations . I've always been skeptical of human efforts to stamp reality with a template of preference and prejudice, although being human myself I regularly engage in the practice. Like the first chapter, there is a slight Buddhist flavor when it comes to the tenet of Right Speech. A goal of mine as I raise my daughter is to avoid at all cost infusing within her the quality of squeamishness. Part of my home-schooling, starting from an early age will be plenty of digging in the dirt. The paradigmatic shift in science taking place, physics handing over the crown to ecology, is long overdue. Squeamishness is the disability that encourages a disconnect between children and the rest of the living world. It'our job to repair this disconnection. This is the real reason I study Taoism and practice Nei Kung. Tai Po

That's your rebuttal, the best you can do? It's interesting that you've remained too frightened to share anything about your academic background or life history, your disengenuous lying excepted, preferring instead to hide behind a torrent of cut&paste pseudo-science. With that anemic rebuttal it's clear you're hiding something you're deeply ashamed of. My guess is an abysmal failure of academics, and you now spend your time railing about the imperfections of modern education without having the guts to actually check it out firsthand. So far today you have tried to proselytize surgeons, scientists, botanists, and lowly social scientists like myself into accepting your religious fantasies. I'm looking forward to seeing where your next manifestation of delusion is going to take you. I'm sure that UFOs will figure prominently!

Absolutely. I get the honor and priviledge to homeschool my new daughter (ever read "Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling"? Scary stuff!) The World's Religions by Huston Smith is going to be a standard, just like it is in colleges throughout the land. I have at least 30 titles that I'll be using jsut for this subject alone. "The Passion of the Western Mind" by Richard Tarnas is near the top of the list too. Tai Po