30 Day Workout Challenge Week 3 Recap

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After three weeks, I’m in the final stretch of this 30 day challenge.  Over the course of this challenge, both my stamina and strength have increased, and I feel much healthier and energized overall.  In this final week, I will be making one big change to the schedule as compared to previous weeks.

There will be little or no cardio this week.  It will be pure strength training.  Why?  It’s the area that needs the least work.  I increased my distance last week to 2 miles, but due to my increase and stamina and good pace, I was able to increase it to 2.3, 2.5. or almost 3 miles at times, still getting around a 7 1/2 – 8 minute average for each mile.  Afterwords, I didn’t find myself to be all that tired physically, and I had a lot of fun doing it.  So this week, I’ll be amping up the strength training.

TabooSci: Heightened Intellectual Experiences

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Carl Sagan, under the pseudonym “Mr. X,” became widely well known for his advocacy of cannabis use, claiming it had helped him on a wide range of intellectual levels, as well as pleasurable levels.  Some looked at Sagan with dismay and disappointment, while others, particularly cannabis users no less, embraced his writings on the subject, and many others who had never previous delved into recreational “experimentation” were “inspired” to take part.

From a scientific perspective, does cannabis use result in a heightened intellectual experience, and if so, how?  Is it the only method to reach such a heightened sense of reality?

The Science of Abortion

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Abortion is a political issue that seems as if it will never be solved.  One side is convinced it is murder.  The other, imperative it’s kept legal to ensure reproductive rights of women aren’t infringed.  These are the two arguments flaunted by either side, generally with an heir of arrogance and distaste (or downright hate) for the opposing side.  Seldom are the real questions ever talked about.  And, as it seems, when they are, the arguments behind them are fundamentally flawed.

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Rarely is there a refutation to the claim, “Abortion is murder!” in most debates on the issue.  It seems as if both sides have accepted the stalemate and merely vocalize a rationalization for their position, as opposed to a rationalization and refutation of the opposing side.  In this post, I’ll be examining the real questions.  Is abortion murder?  What criteria does one use to determine this?  Can the debate be settled?

Let’s begin by examining the major flaws of either side of the argument.

30 Day Workout Challenge Week 2 Recap

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I’m officially halfway through this thirty day challenge and I can say it hasn’t been all that difficult making it this far, motivationally speaking.  Physically, however, is a different story.  Over the past two weeks I’ve been pushing my body to some pretty big extremes for someone who merely spontaneously began working out.  However, it seems to have done some good.

Let us begin with a recap of my progress this week, then I’ll show my maxes and talk about the upcoming changes to the workout for this week.

 

News Alert: Water Found on the Moon!

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It’s official.  The NASA LCROSS mission has concluded that there is indeed water on the moon!  The team of researchers who worked on the mission released their findings today, November 14, 2009:

The argument that the moon is a dry, desolate place no longer holds water.

Secrets the moon has been holding, for perhaps billions of years, are now being revealed to the delight of scientists and space enthusiasts alike.

NASA today opened a new chapter in our understanding of the moon. Preliminary data from the Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, indicates that the mission successfully uncovered water during the Oct. 9, 2009 impacts into the permanently shadowed region of Cabeus cater near the moon’s south pole.

This exciting news will forever change our understanding of the moon and the planets elsewhere in our solar system.

Kirk Cameron and Charles Darwin

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Seeing the names side-by-side is at first shocking, and then one realizes a controversy is sure to follow.  A recent article in The Huffington Post tells of how Cameron wishes to spread awareness about the “undeniable connection” between Adolf Hitler’s holocaust and Charles Darwin’s work on Evolution.  He and others supporting his radical cause plan to distribute 50,000 copies or more of an altered version of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species to students in universities all across the United States on November 21, which is Darwin Day – the 150th anniversary of the first publication of his work.

What type of alteration will be made?  A wonderfully written introduction to the book, which Cameron describes as a passage that will “…highlight Darwin’s racism and his disdain for women.”  The introduction will also make a gigantic leap in scientific theory by exposing that all along Darwin’s work has been an elaborate hoax  and it’s actually Creationism that holds the key to knowledge!  Exciting, is it not?

Cameron also makes it clear that he will be presenting this wonderful information as a “balanced view of Creationism.”  I certainly can’t wait to get my hands on this, as Cameron describes, “very special” edition of On the Origin of Species.

As a blog upholding ethics:

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The Logical Science blog would like to release this statement on the execution of John Allen Muhammed:

The State of Virginia, prosecutors who worked on the John Allen Muhammed case, and all of those people who have stood up in support of capitol punishment, murdered a man tonight. These people stood, as if ordained by God or some higher power, pointed their finger at a man, evil, deranged, twisted as he may be, and said “You deserve to die.”

Tonight, the American justice system failed. Tonight, justice wasn’t served, rather, the perpetuation of mindless violence and killing was preserved as acceptable and ethical in our society, when nothing could be further from the truth. Tonight, the state of Virginia, prosecutors, and capital punishment supporters gave John Allen Muhammed exactly what he wanted. They gave him the status of a martyr. A martyr for his cause.

Tonight, all these people should be held accountable for murder. These people stand and say, “Killing is wrong, so we’ll kill you.” Those that derive some form of twisted justice from capitol punishment are as deranged as those sentenced to endure government sanctioned murder.

Tonight, justice wasn’t served. And now, it never will be.

30 Day Workout Challenge Week 1 Recap

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It’s been one full week since I started my latest 30 Day Challenge.  In this post, I’ll recap how I’ve performed the past week and how I’ve felt after doing so.  I’ll also be discussing my new maxes for the upcoming week, as well as the new workout schedule.

To review what I did each day this week, I alternated days focusing on strength training and cardio.  After maxing my pushups, situps, and crunches last Sunday, I focused on cardio Monday, running a mile in 7:53.  Wasn’t too shabby for my first mile in a couple years.

Newborn Babies and Language

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Yes, as crazy as it seems, new studies have shown that the cries of newborn children in the countries of France and Germany (where the study was done) match melodic patterns the children have heard in adult conversations.  According to Kathleen Wermke of the University of Würzburg in Germany, the programming of the child’s brain to recognize the melodic nature of their mother’s language begins even while still in the womb.

Wermke and her colleagues found that 2-5 days after birth, the babies match the tuneful signature of their parents’ native language, a sign that language learning has already commenced, the researchers report in a paper published online November 5 in Current Biology.

30 Day Challenge: Workout Update

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Yesterday I maxed out my pushups, situps, and crunches.  I managed 50 pushups before my arms felt like Jello.  I then brought out my Perfect Pushups for the first time in several months, which cut me down to twenty-five.  For situps, I manged 50 with good form, and I managed to get another 25-30, but they were sloppy, so I decided 50 was a good start.  Crunches I managed 100 before my abs started burning like hell.

On day two, (today), I ran my first mile in two years.  I managed to finish in 7:53, which is a lot slower than I used to be able to run a mile.  However, I was surprised at how I was able to immediately start and stay on a good pace and not wear myself out too much.  I was certainly very tired by the end, so I need to increase both my endurance and speed.  Overall, however, I was pleasantly surprised with my ability to still run a mile in under eight minutes.