Listening to a Bobby Fischer interview later in his life, and he made the observation about chess at the highest level among grandmasters that it was about finding that slight advantage at the 17th or 18th move that would decide each game, that is, until about that point in the game, the positions were pretty well known and established.
Author: Henry Barnard
I am a voracious reader and also enjoy writing. I often have a very different point of view than the popular one. I do see value in debate, and thought it might add to the public debate on controversial issues if I were to express my contrarian opinions. I also started keeping my poems recently (I've written little pieces my whole adult life but never kept any); and I've been a photographer now for over 25 years. So I will be adding an occasional poem and hopefully interesting photograph to the blog along the way, just to spice things up.
The Press and Truth
As recently as just 4 years ago, I used to associated the press in the US with truth. Now, I see that attitude as hopelessly naive. In my opinion, the press is more akin to propaganda than truth. It peddles dubious opinions bolstered by very questionable assumptions to argue for a particular point of view — that’s propaganda, not truth.
And in addition to this outright deception to argue in favor of a particular bias, there is also the additional element of sensationalism to engage the public in order to sell more newspapers, sort of speak.
So I would advise people not to go and search for truth from the press anymore. There is scant evidence there is any to be found there. But then, that’s not what people do with the media and the press today, that is, search for truth. Instead, they are all just searching for their own particular biases to have them confirmed.
Climate Change Tradition
Something you can actually do about the climate change crisis. Instead of buying a tree with clipped roots to put in your house for Xmas and then throw away, buy one with full roots to plant it somewhere on your property or in some other protected location. If you do that for 30 years, you will extract a lot of carbon from the atmosphere, and will have done something about the problem, instead of just talking about it. Talk is cheap.
Make planting one tree — not destroying one — the new Xmas tradition.
Manhattan, A Photographer’s Journey — Ebook
Supreme Court and the Election
So what should the Supreme Court decide relative to the presidential election? My take is there is ample evidence that election fraud took place, and the results were therefore illegitimate. If so, I think the SC should call for a second round of voting in the 7 crucial swing states: Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Florida, and Arizona — just these 7 states, as the results in all the other states are pretty much uncontested. But this time around, perhaps the voting should be limited to in person voting — no mail in votes — and there has to be present in the counting of the votes representatives from both parties so that there are no shenanigans.
If Biden and the Democratic Party believe the first vote in these 7 crucial swing states was legitimate, they shouldn’t fear the results the second time around.
Omega 3 Fat Hurdles
Food in general has to go through quite a thicket of hurdles before its nutrition can actually be used by the body. First, there’s digestion that begins in the mouth, accelerates with the acid in the stomach, and really takes off in the small intestines with digestive enzymes and all those critical bacteria doing their thing, but then the nutrition that the small intestines admits into the body must first pass muster with that filtration system of the body, the liver, before it finally gets admitted to the blood stream and can actually be used by the body. Any inefficiencies in any of these processes along the way and that means the food you think your body will take advantage of — because you did eat it — won’t actually be fully utilized by the body but, to the extent it was not properly “processed,” instead passes right through you with no benefit.
This brings us to what many nutritionist speak about constantly — the all-important ratio between the very valuable Omega 3 fat and the commonly overconsumed Omega 6 fat. Why is this ratio so important, you may ask? It’s important because both fats use the same digestive enzymes in the body, and therefore compete for their use. And there is a finite number of these specific digestive enzymes in the body at any given time, (although the healthier your diet, the greater the number). If the ratio between Omega 3 fat and Omega 6 fat becomes too skewed in favor of Omega 6 fat, then the Omega 6 fat utilizes a disproportionate amount of those limited number of digestive enzymes, and the Omega 3 fat gets left out in the cold, so of speak. So this skewed ratio, which is very common in the SAD diet, produces a huge inefficiency in digestive processes mentioned above relative to the Omega 3 fat you ate versus the Omega 3 fat that the body actually ends up using.
They think the modern contemporary diet can be become as skewed as 1:16 when our caveman ancestors had a diet that was 1:2. Exactly what ratio is the ideal ratio is a controversial subject, but there is no question that the SAD diet is hopeless skewed in favor of Omega 6 fat, and therefore those people who have this skewed ratio in their diet may think they are getting enough Omega 3 fat in their diet, but because of their warped Omega ratio, are in fact not fully utilizing the amount of Omega 3 fat they eat, perhaps to an alarming degree.
And so it is not enough to know how many grams of Omega 3 fat are in your daily diet — you have to also know your ratio.
My Almost-Vegan Diet
High carb, high fiber, high protein, but low fat (except Omega 3); GBOMBS (Joel Fuhrman); plant-based with a small amount of turkey each day for the lysine (thus the “almost”); dairy-free except for the use of Pillars Greek yogurt as almond-milk substitute for cereals (ditto “almost”); no processed foods with the exception of Dave’s bread, cereals (Alpen, Muesli, Grape Nuts), and Pillars, which has live culture, but low fat and no added sugar (unlike most commercial yogurts where they add so much sugar that it’s practically candy). Macros: 50% carb, 30% fat, 20% protein — fat has been trending down and protein trending up, intentionally. Incorporate all high-nutrition foods and avoid or minimize low-nutrition or downright unhealthy foods. Therefore, say yes to all vegetables and fruit and various fermented foods, and say a big fat no to almost all processed foods. Avoid or minimize saturated fat, salt, and sugar — the 3 demon S’s. Reduce meat consumption to an absolute minimum, especially processed meats (carcinogenic) and red meats in general. No alcohol except red wine for cooking. 19:5 intermittent fasting every day. Learn how to make plant-based dishes that are nevertheless delicious — garlic, onions, tomato paste, lemon juice, and curry powder are your allies.
You’ll live to be 100 but in good health.
I use Cronometer each day, and it will tell me if I’m weak or outright deficient in anything at a very granular level. For instance, it has shown that my diet was weak in lysine, calcium and iodine, and so I’ve take measures to address these shortcomings.
Don’t but negligent. Be good to yourself. Eat healthy food.
Lunatics in Charge
Putting Sanders in charge of anything in the government is like putting a lunatic in charge of the insane asylum.
People were afraid of what a Trump government would bring 4 years ago, but what a Biden government will bring is much scarier imo. There is such a strong anti-American rant going on in the left wing that I fear this will impact the federal government — and not in a good way.
Nutrition Challenge
Make your meals as intensely nutritious as possible — as in way over-the-top nutritious — but still be savory. I practice the GBOMBS diet, and Cronometer is indispensable to achieve super duper nutrition. It’s your body…you are in charge of it, no one else.
Super-duper nutrition involves two very different elements — finding the foods that have powerful nutrients and including them; identifying the foods that undermine your health and avoiding them. You have to do both.
Weight Loss
Weight loss from 198 to 155 in one year. Nutritarian diet (Joel Fuhrman) with intermittent fasting.
I’ve recently found that baked potatoes are also a useful tool, as they are filling and very low in fat. Having days with a very low number of grams in fat really accelerates weight loss. It may not be true that “fat makes you fat,” but it is clearly true that low fat will make you skinny because low-fat days tend also to make for low-calorie days.
Henry's Views 