tingilinde

maintenance

Several people have asked what I've been doing to stabilize my weight after a weight loss program.  This turns out to be much more difficult for most people (myself included) and is the reason why very few people are successful on the long term.  It turns out the body evolved to regulate weight as well take in high energy density foods when they are available.  It also assumes a certain amount of physical work will take place in a day.  It seems once a higher weight "set point" has been established it is extremely difficult to prevent that body from moving back to that point - you need to read Tara Parker-Pope's piece in the NY Times Magazine if you haven't done so already.

I've been successful so far, but I've only been in this phase for about four months now and it has been an effort.  In addition to my normal exercise (an hour or so of daily rowing, lunch walks and staying away from the car for local shopping) I am still journaling everything I eat along with the exercise I do.  I calculate an effective average metabolic rate - what I am using without the additional exercise - and try to make sure I'm at that level averaged over a week.  Given cravings to snack and overeat, I'm certain the journaling of food is centrally important if I have any hope for long term success.

So the basic recommendations aren't terribly different from what I did to lose weight.  I updated that post to reflect a few learnings.

To make life a bit more interesting I've been trying to prepare and eat better and more satisfying food.  As a lacto-vegetarian it is very important for me to get good protein and I've come to enjoy greek yogurts and skyr.  Fage is an excellent greek yogurt - a great breakfast is a cup of plain Fage with some berries, maple syrup and pecans mixed in.  

You probably haven't heard of skyr ...  It is an Icelandic cultured dairy product that has roughly the consistency of greek yogurt and has a very high protein content.  Some sources note it is a very soft cheese.  In any event Siggi's skyr is excellent.  Their orange-ginger is almost like a dessert and their plain is an excellent base for some maple syrup, fruit and nuts.  All things being equal I prefer skyr to greek yogurt.   If you haven't tried Siggi's, search around and give some a try.

I've found the combination of greek yogurt or skyr, pecans, maple syrup and berries gives me a much longer satiation than almost any other kind of food I've tried.  The mixture also offers good nutrition (no fat from the yogurt or skyr if it is 0% and the fat from the nuts is unsaturated).

The other piece of the puzzle is allowing for treats.  Ice cream with Bjarne (although the commute is a bit difficult these days) was one of them, but daily chocolate too.  Not a lot of it - maybe an ounce or two a day, but then you can afford to justify very good and expensive chocolate.  I note that mixing in a bit of quality dark chocolate with nuts and fruit in skyr or greek yogurt makes and extra-tasty snack or breakfast.

There will be a lot of experimentation ahead.

can you hear me now?

Before radar you listened for approaching aircraft....

there are so many technologies that have fallen by the wayside when a better idea came along...

pray away the gay

Why did Romney support a "pray away the gay" group? Clearly he needs to answer as these are off the wall hate groups.  Maybe it will endear him to ultra far-right homophobes

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the latest "blue marble" image of the earth

Stitched together from images taken during four orbits of the Suomi NPP spacecraft.  The instrument used to acquire the images has multiple uses for looking at our planet and its climate, but putting together a stunning image must have been fun.  It is far from the largest and most detailed image of the planet made, but it happens to be stunning.

facial shapes and politics

How much of a factor is someone's looks in politics? (via Slate)

The linked page to facial types is curious...  the -6 s.d. attractive face is, indeed, out there

The note that the tallest candidate is usually elected president doesn't hold - it is more than average at about 65% of the time, but not a dramatic number.  Winfield Scott was the tallest second place finish in a Presidential race at 6'5 ... he lost to 5'10 Franklin Pierce.

did you give $100 million to your kids?

With no tax consequences?

apparently Mitt did

of course he's better than you because he really works hard and you're just jealous

global warming and the new plant hardiness map

The US Department of Agriculture has just released the updated plant hardiness map - see if your zone has changed from 1990 (the last map).

compare camera sizes

This site may be useful for you

More and more I'm willing to compromise camera for just being able to pack something around.  Most of my photos are from the iPhone these days and my real camera is sub DSLR sized so I might actually pack it around.  

Of course the real recommendation is to get the cameras you are looking at in your hands and see how they feel and how they operate - but this may help you narrow the field.

 

 

early automotive "telephony"

Experiments from 1919 ..   There was a lot of activity in the 20s.  Of course this was amateur radio rather than anything that could connect with the telephone network.

from titania to obereon

great photography from the ESO

dragons eat pizza

indeed (via language log)

a place to start for less expensive velomobiles

If you have an interest in something that is human powered, but protected from the elements there are velomobiles.  Most common in Europe, but still quite rare, they tend to cost $5k to $15k.   

An alternative path is to make your own with an intermediate path being getting a trike or quad and building a lightweight body for it yourself.  Utah trikes modifies commerical trikes into quads and has a nice platform for about $2400 - perfectly rideable without the body, but a good starting point for those who want to go further for a short range non-exotic model.  They will customize to your heart's desire including adding an electric motor.

I could see one of these as a "roadster" with the wheels external to the body.

jon sewart on romney and taxes

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There are undoubtedly better routes, but one of the best investment taxation schemes I've heard is to tax investments held for less than a year at normal amounts and to tax the first $1000 at 0%, the next $10,000 at 10%, the next $50,000 at 15%, and then everything above that as standard income.  Folks like Greg probably have much better ideas.  But, as Stewart notes, the rich have excellent lobbyists and most of the members of Congress also happen to be wealthy themselves.

big numbers

among other things Apple made more money in profits last year than Google did in revenue...

active transportation

The Alliance for Biking and Walking has released their Bicycling and Walking in The United States: 2012 Benchmarking Report.  Good reading if you are have any interest in human powered local transportation. 

Americans biking to work is currently at about 0.6% and walking about 2.9%.  In major cities it increases to 1.0% and 4.9% for a total of 5.9%.  Public transit nationwide is about 1.9% ... everything else is personal car.

 

lots of information...

meanwhile Sweden is planning a bicycle "superhighway" and Kyrgyzstan a 300 mile scenic bike path to attract tourism