Pagan Kennedy's NY Times piece on collective vs. personal health becomes "New Rule" on Real Time

Imagine my surprise to see my old friend, Pagan Kennedy, being talked about Friday night in a "New Rules" segment on Real Time with Bill Maher. Pagan's opinion piece in the Times, and Maher's Real Time bit about it, make the rather obvious, but still important, point that you can obsess all you want over your own personal health, but if the environment around you and the public policy that governs it are diseased, your health is still in jeopardy. As Kennedy puts it in the Times: "It’s the decisions that we make as a collective that matter more than any choice we make on our own."

In the article, Pagan catalogs many of the paragons of health nuttery (Pritikin, Rodale, Euell Gibbons, Adelle Davis, Clive McKay) and how they didn't even live an average lifespan. Maher makes funny work of this, and the rest of piece, while making sobering points about the health perils we all face. Maher: "No matter what you do for yourself, how right you eat, if the air is full of lead and the bug populations are out of control and your city is under water, it doesn't matter. You can eat kale until it comes out of your ears. You can stay hydrated, slather on sunblock, steam your vagina, eat your placenta, work at a standing desk, and put a healing crystal up your ass, but there is no escaping the environment we all live in.

(My favorite line from the bit: "Back [in the 1970s] when Scientific American was the name of a magazine. Now it's a contradiction in terms.")

at 4:43 am | | | 58 comments

The Montague Paratrooper Pro is the best damn bike I've ever owned

When you live full-time in a motorhome, no matter how big it is, there’s not a lot of room for extras. In order to have enough space to be comfortable, its necessary to strip your belongings down to the essentials. A library full of books gives way to e-readers and tablets. Full-sized anything? You’re gonna want to swap it out for a compact model or, better still, a version of it designed to collapse down to a smaller size to store when its not in use. My Montague Paratrooper Pro mountain bike does that. I love it.

Bike designer David Montague put together the original Paratrooper folding mountain bike for the U.S. Military. It was designed to accompany parachutists out the door of a flying airplane and, once on the ground, be used to get the soldier riding it to an objective far more rapidly than if the approach were made on foot. I’d known about these bikes for years. I was obsessed with them. Moving into an RV gave me an excuse to finally get one: it’s a full-sized bike that collapses down small enough that I can stow it in one of our rig’s basement compartments, out of site and out of mind.

The bike I ride, the Paratrooper Pro, comes with a few bells and whistles that the original Montague Paratrooper lacks. It’s front forks can be locked for riding on pavement in the city, or unlocked for a smooth, suspension-aided ride down trails and dirt roads. It’s got 27 gears to the OG Paratrooper’s 24. Its tires are only semi knobby, unlike the back country loving OG Paratrooper. This makes the Paratrooper Pro a little bit nicer for riding inside of the the city. And, over all, the Pro version of the bike weighs about a pound less. At 32 pounds, It’s an incredibly light bike. It’s shifters, disk breaks and the comfortably aggressive stance it forces you to take as you pedal your face off makes it a joy to ride.

Did I mention that it comes in flat black? Flat black is the best color for a bike. It makes anyone riding it look like a competent badass.

When I’m not riding my Montague for pleasure, it allows me to ride into town for groceries at times when my wife has our Jeep or scout out questionable roads to make sure that they’re fit to drive our RV on to. It’s an invaluable toy and tool.

There’s just one thing that I’d change about my bike and its such a minor point that it scarcely needs to be mentioned: the trade off for it being so light is that the its frame is made out of aluminum. This is fine, mostly: It’s never shown any signs of fatigue from hauling my heavy carcass around. I’ve noticed, however, that after over a year of throwing it in our RV’s undercarriage and generally manhandling it, that it’s earned a few nicks in its frame that go a bit deeper than its paint job. That I’ve hauled it over a fair number of barbed wire fences while on rides in the country likely hasn’t helped this along, too. I’m fussy about my gear and like to take good care of it—the dings and gouges in my bike’s frame are a reminder that I’ve not always been as careful as I should be. I suspect a steel framed bike might not allow for such noticeable wear. And then there's its cargo rack. I love that it swings down so it can be used to keep the bike upright when its parked, or once its been folded away for storage. But I'm not a fan of the fact that, if you're using it to haul cargo with, you're forced to remove it before you can drop the rack down. I get around this by riding with a backpack, instead of using bike bags.

But overall, this thing has been awesome.

If you’re looking for a bicycle that can be folded up and tucked away behind your desk after your morning commute or live small like I do, you should check a Montague out. It’s one of of my favorite pieces of gear and I’m betting you’d dig it too.

Images via Seamus Bellamy and Montague

at 3:58 am | | | 39 comments

Naked Japanese hermit forced back into civilization after 29 years on deserted island

Eight-two-year-old Masafumi Nagasaki is being called the Japanese Robinson, a reference to Robison Crusoe, the fictional castaway who lived on a deserted island. Now, after living on a remote island for nearly 30 years, Nagasaki has been forced back into civilization by the Japanese government.

News.com.au reports:

Masafumi Nagasaki arrived on the island of Sotobanari, on the Yaeyama Islands, an archipelago in the southwest of Okinawa Prefecture, Japan, in 1989 and lived a life in solitude until he became known as the “naked hermit” as a 76-year-old in 2012. The island is one of the few that remain deserted in Japan where according to locals, even fisherman rarely stop...

It’s unclear how Mr Nagasaki ended up on Sotobanari in the first place...

Mr Nagasaki said he was working in a factory in Osaka when one day a colleague told him about a mysterious archipelago and since then he dreamt of escaping from civilisation. One day, when on a flight, he was “horrified” by the amount of pollution he saw in the sea below and “exploded”. So the self-confessed “city man with no outdoor experience” packed his bags and found his remote island hideaway. He thought he would stay perhaps two years max, but ended up clocking almost 30 years...

Alvaro Cerezo of Docastaway, a company that provides remote island experiences, tracks castaway types like Nagasaki and spent five days with him in 2015. During that time, he was able to interview him in the place he's lived peacefully since 1989:

It had been Nagasaki's wish to die on the island. He told Cerezo in the interview, "I have no option, I’ve already told my family I will die here. My wish is to die here without bothering any one, that’s why I don’t want to get sick or injured. I want to be killed by a typhoon, so nobody can try to save me. To die here is the best, its just perfect for me.”

News.com.au:

“He was kicked out of the island, someone saw him on the island and it seems like he was weak,” Mr Cerezo told news.com.au.

“They called the police and they took him back to civilisation and that’s it. He couldn’t even fight back because he was weak. They won’t allow him to return.”

Mr Cerezo... said that since being removed, Mr Nagasaki is now living in the nearest city to the island, Ishigaki, 60 kilometres away in a government house.

“His health is OK, he was probably only sick or had the flu [when he was taken] but they won’t allow him to go back any more, he cannot go there, it’s over.”

Read this detailed blog post about Cerezo's visit with Nagasaki: I spent 5 days with Masafumi Nagasaki: the ‘naked’ Japanese castaway

Check out this tribute website Cerezo created for Nagasaki.

Also: ‘Naked hermit’ who lived on deserted island for thirty years ‘captured’, brought back to civilisation

at 3:00 am | | | 33 comments

Salvation: second season of the TV drama about an impending asteroid collision

Last week I went to Caltech in Pasadena, CA to see an advance screening of the premiere episode from the second season of Salvation, a terrific series (Mondays at 9pm on CBS) about what could happen if the world learned an extinction-event sized asteroid was on a collision course with Earth.

My friends Liz Kruger and Craig Shapiro co-created the show, and have done a great job researching how governments, the public, and hacktivist groups might respond to such news. (For instance, one government might try to send up something that would cause the asteroid to change course just enough to make it crash into a spot on the other side of the planet in order to minimize the damage in their country. This could cause world powers to consider nuclear warfare to stop that from happening.)

After the screening of the episode, Liz, Craig, and Phil Plait ("The Bad Astronomer") went on stage for a panel discussion about the science of the show. You can check out clips from the panel above and below:

Creating realistic special effects:

Origination of the show:

Putting science front and center:

And here's the promo for season 2:

The premiere episode is re-airing tonight on CBS. You can also watch the full first episode from season 2 at CBS now. You can catch the first season on Amazon Prime Video.

at 3:53 pm | | | 16 comments

Upskirt camera attached to creep's foot explodes, sending him to hospital

The Washington Post reports that a man attached a camera to his foot in order to take upskirt photographs of unsuspecting women, but was hospitalized when the contraption exploded.

He sought out medical treatment for minor burns, Dexheimer told the Wisconsin State Journal. As it turns out, the explosion hurt not only his foot but also his conscience.

The man opened up about what happened to a clergyman, Dexheimer said. The clergyman suggested that the man turn himself in to the authorities and accompanied him to the police station.

At about 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, police officers at a Madison station were contacted by the man, who admitted to his failed upskirting plans. The man was “counseled on his actions,” Koval wrote, but ultimately released because he had not taken any illegal videos.

at 11:19 am | | | 52 comments

Saudi woman celebrates new freedom of driving in rap song

Last Sunday, Saudi Arabia lifted its decades-long ban on women driving. On the same day, a young rapper named Leesa A released a music video celebrating her new-found freedom. The video has since gone viral.

BBC reports:

Leesa A, who previously had a relatively small social media presence, posted her video on Instagram and YouTube where it has attracted more than 1.6 million views combined.

She is filmed driving, pressing the accelerator, changing the gears, all the while rapping: "Yo, you seem to be forgetting that today is the 10th, this means there no taxis," referring to the date of 24 June in the lunar-based Islamic calendar.

YouTube commenter TrueGamerX14 translated the song's entire lyrics:

Yo, you seem to be forgetting that
today is the 10th
That means no need for taxis
The steering wheel in my hands
I smash the pedal under my foot
I won't need anyone to drive me
I'll help myself by myself
I've got the drivers license ready with me
So put the seat belt on the abaya (the
outfit she's wearing)
And keep an eye on the sidewalks and the
other on the mirror
R is for going back, D is for going
seeda (straight)
Watch out for every car
If it was a Ford or Cressida, your life
won't be great
Come! Pick me up! Take me there!
Bring me back!
That'll ruin the plan
If you want me to come pick you up,
you gotta pay up
Gas money! Don't underestimate it!
Debt! If you pay or don't that's still debt
"Careful, don't slam the door hard"
that was before
Now if you slam it hard, I'll tie you with the seat belt

(BBC)

at 7:30 am | | | 2 comments

Bizarre CCTV footage of gas station shoplifters

In this footage from a gas station in Edmonton, Canada, two young ne'erdowells wheedle, wrangle and wrestle with a cop who, all said, appears to be having almost as bad a day as they do. And from there, the story makes less sense even as it attains extraordinary power and meaning.

"What we cannot talk about clearly must be passed over in silence." — Ludwig Wittgenstein

Update: Here is the story: a card declined, a suspicious clerk, a prompt policeman, and all hell breaking loose.

On Monday afternoon, a 29-year-old woman fell through the ceiling of the King Street Reddi Mart and into the store below while trying to escape police. She was arrested without further incident.

She was with a 28-year-old man who was Tasered and then wrestled to the ground by an RCMP officer and the store owner.

The man and woman, both from Edmonton, have been charged with multiple counts, including using a stolen credit card, resisting arrest, assaulting a police officer, attempting to disarm a police officer and resisting arrest from someone aiding the police.

at 8:36 pm | | | 42 comments

Building concentration camps on military bases will lead to the moral injury of American soldiers

We've talked about the fact that the Trump administration wants to house thousands of asylum seekers, refugees and other legal migrants within what amount to modern-day concentration camps, inside the secure perimeter of military installations. Doing so will not only ensure that the migrant's chances of finding their way to freedom is significantly hampered, but also keep the detainees far from the prying eyes of protesters and the media. For a nation once renown for fighting to ensure freedom and democracy at home and abroad, this is bullshit. Worse still, it spits in the eye of every solider who join the military with those ideals in mind; those who come from immigrant or migrant families (that'd be most of us) and anyone who wears the uniform whilst carrying a moral compass. As The Daily Beast reports, many veterans and those still serving are very not ok with this:

Active-duty and retired U.S. military officers and enlisted personnel are expressing a sense of moral emergency over the Defense Department setting up detention camps for undocumented immigrants on military bases.

“It smacks of totalitarianism,” said Steve Kleinman, a retired Air Force colonel and military intelligence officer.

Raf Noboa, an Iraq War veteran and former Army sergeant, said he was astounded by the “enormous moral offense” the camps represent and which the military will be ordered to support.

“America’s military once liberated people from concentration camps,” Noboa told The Daily Beast. “It beggars the mind and our morality that it might be used to secure them.”

“I knew something bad was going to happen. I have always taken [President Trump]’s rhetoric at face value and right now, I’m not banking on the president having good will towards people of my nationality,” said an active-duty military officer of Mexican descent currently stationed at Fort Bliss in El Paso, one of the sites under consideration for the detention camps.

It's a terrible position for a professional soldier to be in.

As noted by The Daily Beast, placing the camps on military bases places the nation's military personnel "... in an agonizing situation that pincers soldiers and airmen between the need for military discipline and a policy harking back to the infamous detention of Japanese-Americans during World War II or the forcible separation of children of native nations after Wounded Knee." Even if a solider is able to sleep soundly with this knowledge, the civilians who the military stands to protect may not. Bases built near the Mexican border are serviced by towns and cities full of people of Mexican, South and Central American descent. Trust and respect for a uniform associated with the incarceration of individuals who come from the same countries as their families did could become a stretch.

Those who joined the military, for whatever reason, did not do so to be put in contention with their nation's people. They did not join to find themselves reviled for having a part in tearing apart families or detaining refugees seeking nothing more than safety. For a solider to say that they were simply following orders has not been enough to shield them from fault since the end of the Second World War. The policy of housing detainees on military property is putting the men and women of America's armed forces in harm's way – moral injury will be unavoidable. It goes without saying, but let's say it: no good will come of any of this. How The West responds to the hatred and vilification and othering of minorities will decide our era's standing in history.

Right now, we're looking pretty shitty.

Image via U.S. Army, courtesy of Staff Sgt. Corinna Baltos

at 4:04 pm | | | 80 comments

Listen: Stuttering John actually talks to Trump on the phone in bold prank

It's hard to believe, but according to Axios and Yahoo Finance, as well as my own ears, The Stuttering John Podcast just recorded a prank phone call with Trump.

Yesterday, comedian John Melendez just called the White House switchboard and was put through to Trump (or a really good impersonator). Melendez told the switchboard that he was NJ Senator Bob Menendez's assistant, Sean Moore – "S-E-A-N as in Sean Connery" and "Moore as in Roger Moore."

The fun starts at about 32:00 into the podcast. After getting hung up on, then getting a vapid switchboard operator who believed him, and then a call back asking why he had a California phone number (to which Melendez responded that he was on vacation), and finally getting a call from Jared Kushner from Air Force One, Trump calls him back (at 1:10:00 on the recording).

“You went through a tough, tough situation, and I don’t think a very fair situation, but congratulations,” Trump tells The Stuttering John prankster.

The two chit chat about various items, including immigration, to which Trump said, "Bob, let me just tell you I want to be able to take care of the situation every bit as much as anybody else at the top level. I'd rather do the larger solution rather than the smaller solution."

And who's going to replace Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy. "I have a list of people, I have a big list of people, Bob, and we’ll take a look at it and we’re gonna make a decision. I’ll probably make it over the next couple of weeks," Trump assures him.

From Axios:

Why it matters: This calls into question White House security. White House staff members are freaking out today trying figure out how the podcast host was so easily transferred from the White House switchboard to Air Force One, per a source familiar.

The whole thing is ridiculous. Melendez, the host, had three different interactions with two White House operators and got through two call screens before Jared Kushner called him from Air Force One. According to Melendez, Kushner asked if he wanted to talk to the president then or have them call him back later, which is what he did.

You can listen to the podcast and hear it for yourself here.

Image: Michael Vadon/Flickr

at 12:13 pm | | | 31 comments

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