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echoesoftheeast · 5 years

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Sulieman the New Justinian

One of the great historical phenomena we find is when major historical figures seek to identify themselves with other great historical figures from the past through various ways, such as through titles, symbolic gestures, and even through paintings. A fascinating example of this is found in the life of one of the Ottoman Empire's greatest sultans, Suleiman the Magnificent. When considering the most memorable points of Suleiman's reign as sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1520-1566 we find four examples of actions and events which hearken back to the days of the Byzantine Empire and their, arguably, greatest emperor, Justinian the Great. Whether or not Suleiman deliberately sought to identify himself and his reign with Justinian's is a matter of speculation but the correlations are nonetheless intriguing.

The first point of interest lies in the marriages of both men. Both Justinian and Suleiman choose a bride for themselves that came from "less-than-royal" backgrounds. In 525 Justinian married a certain Theodora, who is described by historian John Julius Norwich as not being, "an ideal match. Her father had been a bear-keeper at the Hippodrome, her mother an acrobat - antecedents more than enough to debar her from polite society." Not only was Theodora's lineage considered vulgar but her own youth was considered "less-than-reputable", "while still a child Theodora had joined her elder sister on the stage, playing in farce and burlesque. Before long she had graduated to being Constantinople's most notorious courtesan." Due to her sensational past, Justinian was unable to marry her until his own mother, Empress Lupicina, had died since she considered Theodora origins and past too base. Suleiman's choice was likewise a controversial choice, not because of morally questionable past, such as in the case of Theodora, but due to her status of being a slave. In 1534 Suleiman married the Ruthenian slave-girl Hurrem Sultan (more popularly known as "Roxelana" in the West). This marriage was unprecedented, as in the evaluation of Caroline Finkel, "[Suleiman's] marriage to a freed slave was...a break with convention...[his] marriage to a concubine was shocking enough; his disregard for the one-mother-one-son norm still more so." Despite the popular evaluations of their wives both Justinian and Suleiman were deeply devoted husbands and both Theodora and Roxelana are known to have had considerable influence over their husbands, even in political affairs; Theodora is famous for her rousing speech to Justinian encouraging him not to flee Constantinople during the NIKA protests of January 13th 532 while Roxelana is notorious for her suspected involvement in convincing Suleiman that his oldest son Mustafa, born from another one of his concubines, was plotting against him; leading eventually to Mustafa's execution in 1553.

The next connection between Suleiman and Justinian lies in the scope of the Empires they ruled. Both men are associated with being the rulers of their respective empires at their geographical height. Both men are likewise associated with the expansion of their empires to their geographical height. Justinian's reign is marked by his program of "reconquest" in attempts made by him to retake former territories of the Roman Empire. During his reign, Justinian waged campaigns in Northern Africa, Italy, and Hispania (among others) which brought Justinian's empire beyond being an expression of an "eastern" Roman empire. Suleiman, following the precedence of his forefathers - such as Mehmet II and his father Selim I, likewise expanded his empire through a number of military campaigns. Some of Suleiman's greatest conquests included the taking of Belgrade from the Kingdom of Hungary, the conquest of Baghdad against the Muslim Safavids, as well as the annexation of huge Muslim territories in North Africa.

Another fascinating echo of Justinian in the life of Suleiman is his Ottoman title "the Lawgiver" (rather than his Western title "the Magnificent"). Suleiman is known especially for his work in updating the law-code of the Ottoman Empire as well as formulating new law-codes for the newly acquired territories of his empire. Suleiman's grand legislative work, carried out by Sheikhulislam Ebussuud, was, "a revision and amplification of those [law-codes] of Mehmed II and Bayezid II, containing legislative principles for the empire as a whole on matters such as the regulation of the provincial cavalry forces, taxation...and the affairs of the minority population." This work of updating Ottoman law-codes was not only a revision of laws previously promulgated by the sultans of the past but was also a harmonization between the secular laws and the Islamic religious laws. This dual work of updating imperial law and its harmonization of religious law was also a staple of Justinian's reign. Just as Suleiman carried out his project through Ebussuud so too had Justinian carried out his juridical project through a jurist named Tribonian. In Tribonian, "Justinian found the one man capable of bringing a long-cherished dream to fruition. This was a complete recodification of the Roman law, removing all repetitions and contradictions, ensuring that there was nothing incompatible with Christian teaching."

A final similarity between the two men is found in their ambitious building projects. Justinian is arguably most known for the construction of the church of Hagia Sophia when considering his architectural achievements. During the NIKA revolts, the original church was burned down and Justinian took it upon himself to rebuild the church in greater grandeur than the predecessor. Upon its completion, the cathedral of Hagia Sophia was considered to be the largest building of its time and a marvel of engineering with its enormous central dome, 107 feet across and 160 above the pavement. Tradition has it that when Justinian entered the church for the first time, "[he] stood for a long time in silence before being heard to murmur: 'Solomon, I have surpassed thee.'" Alongside Justinian Suleiman too is known for his construction of religious buildings. While Justinian, as a Christian, was known for his magnificent churches Suleiman, as a Muslim, became known for his mosques. Perhaps the most well known of Suleiman's mosques is the one that bears his name, the Suleymaniye in Constantinople. Just as Hagia Sophia was the most ambitious building project of Justinian's architects so too was the Suleymaniye the largest design of Suleiman's chief architect. The design and size of the Suleymaniye are likewise similar and reminiscent of Hagia Sophia; in fact, it's considered to be the second-largest Mosque in Istanbul right behind Hagia Sophia (which had been converted into a Mosque after Mehmet II's conquering of Constantinople in 1453). Upon its completion, there are whispers that Suleiman uttered the very same words that Justinian had said, marveling and the glory of Hagia Sophia when he entered the mosque for the very first time.

Between these historical circumstances, we can see hints of Suleiman being presented by history as a new Justinian. This would be in fact be quite fitting since the Ottomans considered themselves the inheritors of the Byzantine Empire since their conquest of Constantinople. If an Ottoman sultan wanted to portray himself as being the greatest sultan of the empire it's perfectly reasonable that he may want to draw upon the legacy and image of Justinian to give his own reign an image of greatness. While the lives of Justinian and Suleiman aren't completely identical nonetheless the similarities in marriage, conquest, law, and architecture are intriguing and from these correlations, we can see Suleiman as a new, Islamic, Justinian in a sense. While one's preference for Justinian or Suleiman will largely depend on one's religious convictions (as an Orthodox Christian I make no denial that my own religious convictions place my own personal bias towards Justinian or St. Justinian, as he is remembered in the Orthodox Church) at the very least these similarities can be recognized between them. In calling Suleiman a new Justinian we need not insinuate that Suleiman was greater than Justinian, though no doubt those who hold the Muslim faith would believe so, but rather that since Suleiman's reign bears a certain resemblance to Justinian's, and since Suleiman's reign comes later historically - 1000 years later, in fact, he can be stylized as a new Justinian.

(All quotations regarding Justinian taken from John Julius Norwich's "A Short History of Byzantium" while all quotations regarding Suleiman are taken from Caroline Finkel's "Osman's Dream")

#emperor justinian #suleiman the magnificent #byzantine history #ottoman history

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ciathyzareposts · 5 years

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Game 317: Sorcerer’s Bane (1992)

Unfortunately, the game has no title screen. This is as close as we get.

Sorcerer’s Bane

United States

Wood Software Development (developer and publisher)

Released in 1992 for DOS

Date Started: 27 January 2019

One of the things for which I am most grateful about this blog is that it introduced me to the roguelike sub-genre. The introduction was quite quick, as Rogue was the second game that I played. I had never encountered anything like it–had never encountered permadeath at all, really. The idea that you could invest dozens of hours into a character, and then he could be gone, just like that, with one wrong roll of the dice, is a hard concept to grasp when you’ve grown up playing RPGs that allow liberal saving and reloading. Even recently, when I was playing The Game of Dungeons, I had moments where my mind refused to believe that a character in which I’d heavily invested–hale and powerful only moments ago–was somehow suddenly irretrievable.

Because Rogue itself, with its permadeath and dungeon randomization, is so inherently replayable, games in the sub-genre really have to distinguish themselves with new content to be memorable. Otherwise, all you’ve made is a clone of Rogue. Thus, we find a lot more variance in roguelikes–more than I thought was possible before I experienced them–than we do in many other sub-genres. NetHack, UnReal World, Moria, and Wizard’s Lair I may look somewhat the same, but they took vastly different approaches in mechanics and content, making them all fun to play in their own way.

Along those lines, Sorcerer’s Bane is an admirable effort from Indianapolis-based developer Chuck Wood. (Wow, is that a difficult name to Google. I’m sure there’s at least one “Peter Piper” out there with the same problem.) If I’ve found the right man, he would have been 18 when the game was released as shareware. (He asked $19.95 for it, or $99.95 for a version with the source code.) While it has a youth’s sense of humor in some of the text, the game is competently-programmed and highly-original. Wood clearly played Rogue (and perhaps NetHack) and was familiar with Dungeons and Dragons conventions, but he wasn’t overly restricted by them.

Until you register, you have to see this message every time you quit. I’d happily pay the shareware fee, but I can’t track Chuck down.

The backstory concerns two sorcerers named Lodi and Sabee who together founded a magicians’ academy called Mogadore. Each of the wizards wielded a Staff of Power. For some reason, Lodi turned evil and killed Sabee, hoping to use his Staff of Power in conjunction with his own to achieve near-omnipotence. For some reason, Lodi was unable to use the staff, so he broke it into four pieces and hid them in various parts of Mogadore, guarded by four dragons. Lodi them sequestered himself in the lowest levels of the (now-) dungeon to plot further mischief. The player’s mission is to reunite the four pieces of the staff, figure out how it works, and destroy Lodi.

Character creation has the player roll for strength, intelligence, constitution, dexterity, charisma, and luck on an 8-18 scale. He then chooses from human, elf, troll, dwarf, and gnome races, which further modify the attributes. Classes are fighter, magic user, and bard, and each has unique talents that (unlike the typical roguelike) can’t be acquired by the other classes. In other words, no one but a magic user will ever cast spells, and no one but a bard will ever sing bard songs. I went with a gnome bard which is a little unusual for me.

Creating a character.

The game begins in a menu town with a single shop and a cleric. You don’t have much gold to start, but you can return to the menu level whenever you want. The shop buys and sells weapons and armor, identifies equipment, and recharges wands. The cleric heals, cures sickness, and removes cursed items.

The store has the standard selection of equipment.

Below the menu town, each dungeon level is 12 x 76 squares, with features randomly generated. The levels don’t have twisting corridors of most roguelikes. Instead, most of the space is open, but with occasional buildings or “rooms.” The character is represented by a yen symbol (¥). As you move, you reveal the squares around you, which might contain traps, treasure, or special encounters. Combats appear randomly as you walk, in a separate interface, and monsters are not seen in the environment.

Exploring one of the dungeon levels, I have a special encounter with a throne.

My initial reactions to the game were negative, primarily because it has far fewer options than most roguelikes and thus seemed “dumbed down.” In the exploration window, there are no regular commands beyond movement and inventory. There’s no food system and no complex interaction between items, and no object permanence–when you drop things, they disappear entirely.

A fairly small set of commands for a roguelike.

Soon, however, the game’s strengths and innovations started to come through. Among them:

It has an excellent interface–one of the best I’ve ever seen in any game. It supports both the mouse and keyboard, and also multiple ways to use the keyboard. For instance, you can arrow among the commands and hit ENTER or type the letter of the command. It anticipates multiple ways that different users might want to accomplish things. For instance, in the inventory screen, you can choose to (W)ield, (D)rop, or (I)dentify items (among other commands), or you can select the item first and then see a sub-menu of the different things you can do with it. It offers a few shortcuts; in combat, (K)ill causes the entire combat to play out as if you hit (F)ight every round.

I could have done all these things from the previous inventory screen, or here in a way that’s specific to the elven cloak. And I can either press the appropriate key, arrow to my selection and hit ENTER, or use the mouse.

The “help” system is also excellent. Almost every screen has a (H)elp command that provides contextual assistance with your current situation.

Hitting “Help” on the class selection screen brings up a description of each class.

You get experience just for walking. Every step grants you one point. This makes it possible to play a “stealth” version of the game, at least at low levels.

In combat, you can attempt to avoid battle by simply talking to the enemy. Results depend on charisma, but it works a lot of the time with animals and neutral creatures. There are even “good” creatures like dryads who have additional encounter options if you talk with them.

What kind of monster wants to kill a dog?

After you’ve faced an enemy a few times, you can bring up a “Monster Info” screen the next time you encounter him. It tells you the monster’s statistics (with your own in comparison) and gives you a brief description.

The game shows what I know about hobgoblins.

I like the identification system. Items can be cursed or enchanted, and if you want to take a chance, wielding or wearing the item immediately tells you everything about it. You can pay to identify items in the shop, and you can find Rings of Identify that (usually) identify things automatically.

Yo, dawg . . .

Items have fun effects (both advantageous and disadvantageous) that I’ve not seen in many other games. A “Book of Intense Wealth” gives you thousands of experience points or gold pieces. The cursed “Forward-Only Motion Boots” don’t let you use any up ladders. I’m not exactly sure what the “Attacking Floating Sword” does, but it’s apparently a good thing. Items otherwise offer the types of resistances and advantages that you’re used to in roguelikes, and of course you can keep multiple items to swap in and out of active inventory as the situation demands (e.g., putting on Ring of Disease Resistance when you meet a zombie).

There are interesting special encounters. Dryads give you hints. Gamblers offer you a chance to wager on a card game (and some of them carry Decks of Many Things). Thrones can convey a variety of benefits or demerits. Fountains usually heal (fully) but sometimes improve or reduce attributes instead. (Fountains and thrones, of course, are staples from earlier roguelikes.)

A dryad offers some equipment advice.

There’s a complex “wish” system. Various items and creatures can grant you wishes, which accumulate in an associated statistic. When you want to use a wish, you just hit “W” and a menu comes up offering various options, including raising an attribute, gaining a magic item, healing, extra experience, gold, and “a pet grizzly bear and a dreamwolf to fight with.” I haven’t tried that last option yet.

Some of the wish options. I only have one, so I guess I’d better save it.

Monsters include the standard set of roguelike/fantasy creatures. On the first few levels, you might run into jackals, goblins, kobolds, hobgoblins, floating eyes, skeletons, and giant rats. Later, you get more advanced creatures with special attacks and defenses. Were-creatures can only be hit by magic weapons and can cause lycanthropy, for instance. Amorphous acids can corrode items. Mad dogs and zombies can cause disease. Thieves can steal your money pouch and disappear. After Level 10, there are spellcasting enemies like satyrs, gorgons, and wizards. I’ve found it best to run away from a lot of these creature types, especially the animal ones that never offer any gold or items after you kill them.

Fighting a mad dog is a bad idea. They can disease you and offer nothing once you kill them.

In combat, you have options to attack, talk, run, cast a spell (for magic-users), sing a song (for bards), make a wish, and use an inventory item. A lack of missile weapons and a low variety of items makes combat a bit less tactical than some roguelikes, but it’s not bad and at least it’s over fast.

Health does not regenerate on its own, but in consideration for that, and for permadeath, combat is relatively easy, at least for the first 8 levels or so. A lot of battles end with no hit point loss for the character at all. Running away works most of the time. Every few levels, you find a fountain that usually heals you, and both magic users and clerics have magical healing options. You also occasionally run into wandering clerics. And if you die, the game runs through a humorous scene in which the gods might resurrect you, but at a cost of all your gold (if you don’t have much, your chances of resurrection seem to be lower) or some inventory items.

A silly scene that accompanies death.

I have no idea how many levels the game offers, but I played this first session to dungeon Level 10. My character rose to Level 6 during the process, which each level increasing maximum hit points and improving a few behind-the-scenes statistics (which you can call up) like “magic resistance,” “to hit,” and “alertness.” Many of my attributes improved from potions, books, and fountains. On Levels 9 and 10, the game started to get a bit harder, with tougher enemies like gorgons and wizards, and matters weren’t helped by the fact that an unlucky use of the gambler’s Deck of Many Things caused me to lose my entire inventory.

He did warn me.

I’ve gained two bard songs during the course of the game. “Hypocrita” is a healing song and “Bazerker” is a combat song. Neither seemed to have any effect when I had a regular flute, but once i found a magic “Flying Flute,” they both started paying off. In particular, “Hypocrita” heals 6 hit points per move, which means that combats have become about individual difficulty rather than collective difficulty.

My inventory before the unfortunate event above.

I expected to find shortcuts to the surface the farther down I explored, but it hasn’t happened yet. That means if I want to go back to the shop, I have to climb up 10 dungeon levels. I guess after a certain point, you have to rely on your own resources for item identification and wandering clerics for healing that you can’t accomplish yourself. Since I lost all my stuff, though, I guess I’m going to try to make it back to the surface to buy a new set of equipment, then perhaps grind a bit on lower levels until I find a few magic items again (magic items are most common in treasure chests, but monsters occasionally drop them). If I lose this character entirely, I’ll probably restart as a magic-user so I can experience that side of the game, but I’ll likely backup my character every couple of levels.

Sorcerer’s Bane will end on a high note if it doesn’t last much more than another four or five hours. Character development caps at Level 15, which suggests I’m about 40% of the way through, although it concerns me that I haven’t found any of the dragons yet. Maybe they’re all grouped together on one lower level. For now, the game hasn’t made any major mistakes, and I’m impressed that the young developer showed so much innovation and sense of balance.

Time so far: 4 hours

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/game-317-sorcerers-bane-1992/

#retro games #dos games #retro #crpg #adventure #amiga #oldcomputers #8bit #16bit #blog #repost

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junker-town · 5 years

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Every animal face-off in the BBC’s new nature documentary, rated

Sylvain CORDIER/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images

David Attenborough’s new show is epic ... and sports.

We continue our extremely important mission to conduct a scene-by-scene review of the BBC’s new nature documentary, Seven Worlds, One Planet, in order to see how sports it is. We determined that Episode 1, which focused on Antarctica, was reasonably sports. Asia was very sports. Time for ...

Episode 3 South America

Scene 1: Puma vs. Guanaco

Feeding a family of three is hard, especially if you’re a single mother who is also a Patagonian puma. Mountain lions, the Americas’ second-largest cat, don’t get the reputation they deserve: their glory is stolen overseas by African lions and tigers and at home (at least in South America) by the jaguar. But all big cats are worth our attention, because they’re designed to kill you. Yes, you personally.

Possessing murderous grace, strength complimented by rending claws, surprising stamina and teeth optimized to clamp around one’s neck just so, a puma is a serious predator. And, perhaps unfortunately for Patagonian pumas, they hunt serious prey: guanacos. They’re built for the mountains, with the ability to breathe very thin air. They’re also built for puma attacks. Thick skin around their neck helps protect them from the fatal bite, and their height and heft — over three times that of a mountain lion — does too. A guanaco is not an easy hunt.

But hunt them mother puma must. There’s the family to think of, after all. So we’re treated to a series of puma-guanaco battles, closely matched and extremely well-fought, on scrub and in snow.

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Over a bruising few days, the mother, injured from an earlier attempt, finally makes a kill, sprinting to catch her foe, wrestling it to the ground, suffocating it with a bite and then dragging it over a mile back to her territory. Sometimes you just have to play through pain.

Aesthetics 10/10

Everything about this scene is beautiful, from the shapely mountains that backdrop the hunts to the limpid pools enjoyed by the cougar cubs. And both animals featured are lovely, too — we’ve discussed the murderous beauty of the puma, but there’s an elegant majesty to the hunted guanaco too.

Also, this dude makes a brief appearance:

BBC Earth

This is a dirty look that almost transcends perfection. Well done, grumpy old man puma.

Difficulty 10/10

The puma’s kill was difficult enough without having to drag a corpse a mile across the Patagonia scrubland while injured. That’s some good mothering.

Competitiveness 10/10

Guanaco are pretty spectacular things, and they gave the mother puma almost more than she could handle. An incredible battle.

Overall 30/30

Running to rodeo to wrestling to, uh, dragging? We’ll call this the puma tetrathlon, and it is definitely sports.

Scene 2: Turd Penguins

The Pacific coast of South America is shaped by the Andes above and the Atacama Trench below, where the Nazca Plate subducts under the continent to fuel its belching volcanic spine. The trench, and the Humboldt Current which flows above it, drive nutrients into the surface waters offshore, which attract some of the world’s largest concentrations of seabirds. And, therefore, also the world’s largest concentrations of seabird poop.

Guano has an incredible history. Seabird manure is extremely good for fertilizer, but in most areas of the world, many of the nutrients are washed out by rain. On the Peruvian coast, however, it doesn’t rain, so high-quality guano collects. And collects. And collects. When Alexander van Humboldt, who gave his name to the current (as well as a particularly disgusting species of penguin, whom we will be discussing later), brought back news of the Peruvian deposits, he sparked a massive guano boom.

For years, guano mining was the foundation of the Peruvian economy. Control of guano islands was so important that wars were fought over it, and the United States’ push into the Pacific was at least partly due to the search for new, uninhabited guano sites. The use of guano across the world has even been blamed — how credibly I’m not well-equipped to assess — for the particular strand of blight that caused the Irish Potato Famine. Until synthetic fertilizers were produced in the early 20th Century, guano was vital for world agriculture. Now it’s where some very awful penguins dig their disgusting little nests, coating themselves in the process.

My friends would describe me as dirty, but cute #SevenWorldsOnePlanet pic.twitter.com/TrsLBX0Y7c

— BBC Earth (@BBCEarth) November 10, 2019

NB: If you watch the full episode, be prepared to watch a penguin take a dump. Consider yourself warned.

Turd penguins, like their less smelly cousins, need to get to the sea to eat. And this is a more challenging affair than usual during breeding season, as the rich waters off the coast attract more than seabirds. Blocking off the penguins’ access is a full colony of sea lions.

I like to imagine (probably definitely incorrectly) that these sea lions are normally fairly chill animals. But when your nice, quiet beach is invaded by a shrieking mob of penguins LITERALLY COATED BEAK TO TAIL IN SHIT, it’s hard to be chill. And when those penguins ignore your warnings to go the fuck back to whatever shithole they came from and instead CROWD SURF OVER YOU, it’s even harder.

When you go into a store and the shop assistants pounce #SevenWorldsOnePlanet #amistakehasbeenmade pic.twitter.com/bI8DfPdAcL

— BBC Earth (@BBCEarth) November 10, 2019

Actual footage of life throwing me curveballs #SevenWorldsOnePlanet #oopsiedaisy pic.twitter.com/h5dn54cu5G

— BBC Earth (@BBCEarth) November 10, 2019

Turd penguin don’t give a fuuuuuuck.

Aesthetics 2/10

I’m the father of two small children and so consider myself fairly immune to whatever horrors bodily fluids might attempt to inflict upon me. But this is enormously gross, and not even some sassy sea lions can rescue it.

Difficulty 9/10

Running through a pack of angry sea lions who desperately want you to go away and could kill you quite easily is one thing. Using them as a jungle gym is another. Don’t try this at home. Actually, don’t try any of this scene at home.

Competitiveness 10/10

Humboldt penguins weigh somewhere around 10 pounds. An adult male sea lion can be as much as 20 times as heavy. Being willing to barge your way through/over a wall of angry muscle and blubber like that takes some incredible bravery.

Overall 21/30

Surfing is a sport, even when it’s done by unbelievably dreadful birds. Goodbye, turd penguins. I hated you.

Scene 3: Nerd Bears

There’s nothing wrong with being a nerd. Some of my best friends are nerds, after all. So when I say that the spectacled bear is a nerdy-looking bear, it’s out of affection. And accuracy:

Photo by Blick/RDB/ullstein bild via Getty Images

Cool glasses, nerd.

The spectacled bear is only found in the cloud forests of the Andes, and is correspondingly rare and vulnerable to habitat loss. But, like millennials, who do things like watch the world burning around them and yet spend their time shitposting about nature documentaries rather than actually doing anything useful, these bears love avocados. Even when those avocados are 30 meters off the ground.

These nerds aren’t as heavy as the polar or brown bears we met in the Asia episode, but they’re still reasonably heavy, and the thin branches that the avocados grow on are nowhere near big enough to support them. So the smart bears just bite into the branches so that they dangle down low enough for them to reach. The less smart bears bite them off entirely and have to climb all the way back down. Most fast and break things. That’s the nerd way.

Aesthetics 7/10

I’m mostly giving this a good score because there aren’t any penguins in it. But also these bears have some pretty good vibes:

Me living my best life #SevenWorldsOnePlanet pic.twitter.com/WMreQHmzww

— BBC Earth (@BBCEarth) November 10, 2019

Difficulty 5/10

That’s a pretty big tree to climb, and a pretty big body with which to climb.

Competitiveness 7/10

In the battle of bear and bear, all it takes is a little bit of technique and know-how to get the upper paw.

Overall 19/30

On the surface, the avocado hunt is not exactly the stuff to stir one’s blood. But there’s an important, if unspoken rule about sport-assessing, of which I am now a professional: if you watch cheating, there’s a pretty good chance that it’s sports.

Scene 4: Look at this monkey’s hair!

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These Cotton-top Tamarins are critically endangered, which is a big shame because they have cool hair. Their habitat is being destroyed for all the traditional reasons, and it’s depressing. You know the drill.

Aesthetics 10/10

Someone get me their stylist’s number ASAP. I can only assume Carlos Valderrama was inspired by these little dudes.

Difficulty 10/10

This was going to be a bunch of monkeys sitting around and looking cool while their home is being razed around them, like a primate version of the ‘This is Fine’ dog. And then one did an absurd tree jump, which would kill 100 percent of the humans that tried to match it.

Competition 0/10

Monkeys vs. praying mantis? No contest. Monkeys vs. the inexorable tide of ‘progress’ that is slowly grinding their entire species away. Also no contest.

Overall 20/30

If everyone doing long jumps at the Olympics had these haircuts they’d get way better sponsorships. Sports.

Scene 5: The Very Horny Bird Squad

Birdsong is one of the joys of spring, and it’s only improved by the knowledge that it’s a bunch of tiny dinosaurs loudly expressing their desperate need to make some babies. Cheep-cheep-sexnowplease-cheep. For many birds, mere song is not enough. Bright, ostentatious plumage is a sign that a male is healthy and thus that his courtship attempt is worth responding to. And sometimes, the female bird wants to see some dancing.

Bird courtship routines are a staple of natural history programming, but in the Amazon we’re treated something rather more curious: the Blue Manakin team dance.

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The lead male bird somehow wrangles a squad of subordinates to help him do his *ahem* dirty work. Attenborough claims that “by supporting [the leader] now they may themselves eventually become leaders and get a chance to mate,” which sounds dubious to me. It’s basically a bird sex pyramid scheme, little buddies, so don’t fall for it. The leader’s out to screw you.

This scene is made much better by the fact that the female bird is completely uninterested.

Aesthetics 10/10

Beautiful birds, beautiful dance moves. I particularly love the synchronized shuffle-hop, but the final flap-your-wings-while-screaming routine might need some work (its target seemed to think so too).

Difficulty 8/10

I can’t even dance by myself, let alone in a group. How many hours of practice went into this routine?

Competition 7/10

This very good dance not being good enough strongly implies that there are other, more capable bird squads around.

Overall 25/30

Team dancing is sports, even if in this case it’s extremely horny sports.

Scene 6: Poison Dart Frogs

Living in the rainforest is a pretty good deal for poison dart frogs. It’s nice and damp, there are some great trees to hang out in, and since almost everything that touches you has an unpleasant experience they get a fairly stress-free time.

But there is a problem: standing water. With some deeply weird exceptions (don’t google the Suriname toad if you have trypophobia), amphibians need water in which to lay their eggs. There aren’t too many ponds to be had, up in the canopy. So they have to make use of the tiny pools of water that collect in bromeliads, one per egg. Sometimes they choose badly and the small pool in which the egg has been placed dried up before their tadpole has finished developing:

Blob fish or tadpole? You decide#SevenWorldsOnePlanet pic.twitter.com/DUr5hn8tbm

— BBC Earth (@BBCEarth) November 10, 2019

That tadpole is in trouble, and the only way to help is to get it to a real pool of water. That means relocation via piggyback ride, perhaps even to a new tree, and then a summoning of the tadpole’s mother to lay another (unfertilized) egg to serve as food. Yum yum.

Aesthetics 3/10

Poison dart frogs have bright and flashy coloring to warn predators not to eat them. These yellow-and-black ones are particularly smart-looking. But bright colors alone aren’t doing it for me.

Difficulty 6/10

When you’re less than an inch long, searching through the forest with a baby on your back for a new place to stash it must be very hard work. Remembering where exactly you’ve dumped all your children seems like a tough task too.

Competitiveness 2/10

I’m guessing that there are a bunch of other poison dart frogs looking for egg pools in this forest, so I guess they can have a couple points here.

Overall 10/30

Not sports.

Scene 7: Scarlet Macaws

Parrots jostle and fight for position on the banks of a particular stretch of the Amazon. Are they after food? Not exactly. Parrots’ diet is low in salt, and their chicks need salt to develop, and here, at the edge of the river, is salt-laden clay. So the parrots squabble to grab a chunk of mud, fly up to 50 miles (!) back to their nests, and feed it to their children.

Aesthetics 5/10

Scarlet macaws are pretty birds:

Nothing more romantic than a cheeky head scratch and a chest peck #SevenWorldsOnePlanet pic.twitter.com/kgea0ciCCg

— BBC Earth (@BBCEarth) November 10, 2019

And we get to see more than just them. There are plenty of blue-and-gold macaws (my favorites) battling it out for the mud too, plus a sizable squadron of what I think are probably Amazon parrots in their greens.

Difficulty 4/10

This is more annoying than difficult, apart from the very long distances the birds have to fly.

Competitiveness 3/10

If there was a real free-for-all this would have scored quite high, but there appear to be just enough rules in parrot society to keep the clay harvesting from descending into an all-out brawl.

Overall 12/30

Nope.

Scene 8: Un-diving

This is more like it. A thousand miles south of the parrot clay feast, a troop of brown capuchins is moving through the trees, looking for breakfast. Staring up at them, following their every move, are ... fish. The piraputanga are able to see the monkeys clearly because Bonito’s Rio da Prata is fed by freshwater springs, naturally filtered by the underlying rock.

Are these fish on the hunt for monkey meat? No. Like dogs following a toddler, they’re hoping for their scraps. When the monkeys find ripe fruit — impossible to spot from underwater — they stop and eat. Plenty drops into the river. But an anaconda soon interrupts breakfast, attempting to ambush the capuchins from underwater.

Fortunately, that’s not the end of the piraputangas’ meal. Now that they know where the fruit is, they have schemes of their own:

...Try, try again #SevenWorldsOnePlanet pic.twitter.com/WEGJHlB1sm

— BBC Earth (@BBCEarth) November 10, 2019

I have to admit that I did not see this one coming.

Aesthetics 9/10

This is a beautiful scene. While none of the animals themselves are that attractive, the environments, particularly the crystal-clear waters of the Rio da Prata, are sublime. The anaconda’s slither through the mud carries with it potent, barely-seen menace. And then there’s the piraputanga jump. They have surprisingly good form, for fish.

Difficulty 8/10

Trying to jump several times your body height to grab something you can only barely see would be tricky enough if you were able to use your hands. Now imagine you have to do that with your teeth.

Competition 8/10

These fish mean business, and there’s not enough fruit to go round. After the monkeys are done with their handouts, the highest and best jumper is literally the one which gets to eat. A bonus point for the anaconda hunt.

Overall 25/30

Diving is sports. Un-diving is also sports.

Scene 9: Waterfall Skimmers

Norberto Duarte/AFP via Getty Images

Great dusky swifts will do a lot to protect their chicks. Harried and harassed by falcons, they have a perfect hiding spot for their nests: behind the thundering curtain of the Iguaçu Falls. The falls, on the border between Brazil and Argentina, are the biggest waterfall complex in the world, and the wet rock behind them is all that the chicks know before they take their first flight. Which is right through the pouring water and to the other side:

These great dusky swifts are able to fly right through the thundering torrents of water.#SevenWorldsOnePlanet pic.twitter.com/txtjP3mOFo

— BBC Earth (@BBCEarth) November 10, 2019

Birds nesting in challenging places gives their chicks a great chance in the earliest days but creates a terrible bottleneck later on. This trial by waterfall isn’t the worst thing nature does to baby birds, but it’s an impressive challenge to get past. Blind and bedraggled, these tiny, barely-fledged swifts have to force their way through the falls and out into the open air for the very first time. Their reward is some pretty damn good scenery, and probably getting eaten by a falcon or something.

(Bonus video!) Here is the worst thing that nature does to baby birds:

youtube

Aesthetics 10/10

Lovely. While great dusky swifts aren’t very pretty on their own, especially when wet and flummoxed, the Iguaçu Falls are one of the planet’s most spectacular sights, and watching these 8-inch birds take them on is unbelievably cool.

Difficulty 10/10

This is another thing that would definitely kill you if you attempted it. Well, all flying would, but especially this one.

Competition 9/10

Little birds vs. enormous waterfall is a David-and-Goliath sort of deal.

Overall 29/30

Extremely sports.

0 notes

bacondriver55-blog · 5 years

Text

All Tarik Cohen ever needed was a chance

CHICAGO — Before Tarik Cohen became the Human Joystick — before the Chicago Bears‘ do-everything back was bamboozling All-Pro safeties, landing back-flip catches, rewriting record books, or arousing Soldier Field – he was sitting at a computer in his fourth-period class at Bunn High School, dangerously close to his teacher’s desk, composing emails. Clandestine emails.

“What’s up!” he’d begin after slapping his name in the subject line, operating with caution for fear of the teacher’s watchful eye. He’d conclude with a link to a highlight reel that would hypnotize the uninitiated. In between, a plea, to any college coach that would listen: Give me a chance.

There was an unspoken desperation about the exercise. But this, by the winter of senior year, is what Cohen’s recruitment had come to. He had played his last down of high school football. He’d captivated a rural North Carolina town of 344, and compiled his exploits into a motion picture to dangle in front of college talent evaluators. All he needed was one bite.

Yet recruiters came and went. They saw the breakaway speed and absurd production. They looked right past it, right over Cohen’s head. And they’d invariably leave Bunn coach Chris Miller with an all too familiar parting message: “Coach,” they’d say of the 5-foot-6 Cohen, “he’s too small.”

In other words, before the Human Joystick programmed himself with the power to put Pro Bowl linebackers on the seats of their pants, hundreds of collegiate coaches across America were threatening to unplug him. Possibly forever. So contingency plans began to crystalize.

“I had took the ASVAB,” Cohen says, referring to the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery test. “I had scored real high. … I was going to go to the Navy.”

Six years later, he sits inside Bears headquarters Halas Hall, speaking just like he moves on Sundays: expressive yet succinct; jumpy and dizzyingly quick; and, most of all, liable to burst with exuberance at any instant. But as he sinks into a sofa, a camouflage-colored jacket preparing him for the early-November cold, the topic of conversation isn’t touchdowns or spin moves or schematic versatility. It isn’t stats or speed or size.

It’s the disadvantages and difficulties that could have preempted all that. It is, in ‘Rik’s words, “perseverance.” It’s the poverty endured; the setbacks withstood; the available excuses shunned.

It isn’t the NFL life Tarik Cohen always dreamed of. It’s the obstacles he leapt over and around to live it.

A retelling of Cohen’s journey can begin in many places; after all, he rarely stays still in one for very long. This one begins with sunflower seeds spilling onto a Raleigh, North Carolina, floor. Cohen’s cousin, Cornelius Newell, had bought them. Newell, 11 years Cohen’s elder, has been many things to the now-23-year-old: guardian, role model and trainer among them. On this summer evening, he served as NBA 2K adversary. Against all odds – “He doesn’t even play 2K,” Cohen says – Newell had beaten Tarik. And anger simmered inside Cohen’s teenage body.

After the loss, Cohen eyed the seeds. Because, as he animatedly argues all these years later, “he bought ‘em for me.” Even in defeat, he defiantly thought, “I’m still boutta eat these sunflower seeds.” But Newell had other ideas. Two hands reached for the bag. Pretty soon, neither was chowing down. Instead, they were swinging at each other. The cousins had thrown on boxing gloves to settle arguments before. But this was a legitimate fistfight.

“Our whole family,” Newell later explains, “is sore losers. We hate to lose. But he’s the worst.”

So many elite athletes do. The hatred becomes a work ethic’s catalyst. Cohen, in many ways, is no different. As a child, the rage supplied a temper. After a devastating Madden loss, he hurled his controller at the TV. A separate fit broke his PlayStation. (Cohen, as you’ve probably gathered, was and still is a gaming fiend.)

As the hatred of losing aged, though, it began to stoke an obsession. An obsession with self-improvement. After one set of back-to-back Madden losses to Newell, Cohen begged for a Game 3. Newell refused – and takes the story from here: “He stayed up aaaaaall night practicing, and woke me up in the morning to play again.” The result? “Oh, he beat the hell out of me. He beat me bad.”

Eventually, the competitiveness fused with a love of football and drove ridiculous summer workouts. Newell would devise them: Miles on the treadmill, laps in the pool, pushups, situps, squats. Cohen, more often than not, would complete them. Newell would occasionally float a pair of Jordans or another object of Cohen’s desire as incentive.

But in high school, a new genre of defeat had become incentive enough. Coaches began telling Cohen he wasn’t good enough. Not good enough for varsity as a freshman or sophomore. Not good enough or big enough to succeed at the next level. Cohen interpreted the lack of opportunity as: “I think you’re going to lose.”

And as he says now, “It immediately became fuel” – fuel transcribed in a Twitter bio that begins: “OVERlooked…..UNDERrated.”

Skeptical football minds, though, weren’t the only sources inflaming Cohen’s hunger.

The hardship

Another retelling of Cohen’s journey might unravel chronologically, beginning with a childhood on the move, in search of stability. With uncertainty, stopgaps, and constant upheaval. “We moved so many times when I was in elementary school,” he remembers.

But Cohen isn’t especially fond of talking about all that. Never has been. Never lets it cloud his life. So when I first hint at the family’s struggles, in search of the perseverance that propelled him from backwoods obscurity to this sunlit room lined with Hall of Fame artifacts, he doesn’t take me all the way back. Instead, his mind wanders to eighth grade.

Football, by then, had become a passion. But this particular autumn, several inhibitive factors conspired to make it a void. Cohen didn’t have a ride to and from practice. His mother didn’t have a vehicle. Re-zoned districts left him too far away from school. So rather than strap on an oversized helmet and shoulder pads after his final class of the day, he’d flow right into homework. Or PlayStation. Occasionally tackle football with friends at the park. But mainly “Madden and school,” he says. Football, for the time being, had been stripped away.

The four-letter Q word, though, never infiltrated his mind. Perhaps because adversity, throughout his youth, had been par for the course. Cohen’s father was never a presence in his life. His mother, Tilwanda Newell, toiled tirelessly to support Tarik and his three brothers; to pay for football equipment; to maintain basic necessities.

Sometimes that meant entire weekends away at work, leaving the boys to fix Hamburger Helper, hot dogs and cereal for themselves. Sometimes it meant co-opting the stove as a heater for the whole home. In sixth grade, for Tarik, it meant one pair of jeans. From Walmart. He’d wear them to school three out of five days per week.

But the everyday tribulations, whenever they arose, never seeped onto gridirons. The eighth-grade emptiness merely ramped up ninth-grade anticipation. With coaches and upperclassmen pitching in with rides, Cohen returned to football. By 11th grade, he was a varsity star. In 12th, when Tilwanda moved to Raleigh, Tarik stayed with an aunt, and at Bunn. A scholarship had thus far been elusive. But with one more standout season, Cohen reasoned, he could sustain his dream.

Tarik Cohen took to emailing college programs, asking anyone to give him a look. (Tarik Cohen/Twitter)

The offer

“Can I tell his family?”

That was Chris Miller’s first question for a college assistant when he heard the news. Midway through Cohen’s senior season, the diminutive playmaker was still without an offer. And without an offer, college would have to wait. The Navy beckoned. But Miller, Cohen’s high school coach, caught wind that a then-FCS school was readying one. He knew, he says, because the recruiter had told him so: Absolutely he could tell the family.

So he did. Excitement built. The following week, a coordinator arrived for the follow-up visit. And the happy ending to Cohen’s scholarship-less ordeal was minutes away.

Or so Cohen thought. He doesn’t quite recall a concrete promise. But he was “under the impression … Yeah, they ‘bout to offer me.”

When the meeting commenced, though, the vibe was “funky,” according to Miller. It concluded with a, “Thanks a lot, we’ll be in touch.” Miller sniffed trouble, and asked for a private word. Minutes later, he was seething. “They kind of rescinded the offer,” he says now. “I went off.”

“Then I had to tell [Tarik],” he continues. “And that’s a crusher, man. Because you have the dream. You didn’t think it was necessarily going to happen. Then it’s there. And then it’s snatched. He could have easily just folded up.”

Tarik Cohen received one offer to play college football — from North Carolina A&T. (Getty)

The opportunity

The two-hour drive through the heart of North Carolina, from Greensboro to Bunn, isn’t the most eventful of excursions. The odd southern fast-food staple interrupts otherwise unremitting greenery. But Rod Broadway, at the time North Carolina A&T’s head football coach, is grateful he made it.

Trei Oliver, a then-A&T assistant, had fallen in love with an undersized running back from the tiny town, and had been imploring Broadway to trek east to see for himself. Broadway’s initial response had echoed dozens of others: Tarik Cohen was too short.

Nobody ever told him so to his face. And size hadn’t prevented him from gashing a defense for 262 yards in a state playoff game. But he was aware. Aware that he just needed one believer. But aware he might not have any.

Until Broadway hopped on the road and saw past the physical traits. Rather than being turned off by Cohen’s size, he was turned on by his “bubbly” personality. Less than a year later, Cohen was slipping in between engaged offensive and defensive linemen at Aggie practice, as if ducking underneath a human arch, forcing coaches to rewind film dozens of times in astonishment. Four years later, he’d toppled the MEAC’s all-time rushing record, and scored more touchdowns than any other player in school history.

These days, he remains fiercely loyal. To the family that supported him, of course. And to his new brothers, his Bears teammates – “watch how you talkin bout my QB boy,” he tweets at Mitchell Trubisky doubters. But his attachment to his school is undying. He rocks A&T sweats; gives back to Greensboro kids; and gloats about rivalry-game victories. And on a Sunday night in November, gives Minnesota Viking defenders the sauce in prime time. But he knows he wouldn’t be here without the one institution that gave him a chance.

The moral

Nowadays, no retelling of Cohen’s journey remains complete for very long. Because nowadays, the Tarik Cohen story adds chapters weekly. It’s the boundless energy. The mazy scampers. The video game-like shiftiness that earned him his nickname.

It’s the type of play that became a regular occurrence back at Bunn, when hundreds bore witness rather than millions. The attention-snaring one-handed grabs. The soul-stealing jukes. The scoop-and-scuttles that rendered squib kicks futile.

Cohen poses a similar all-purpose threat today. He lines up in the backfield and the slot; darts in motion or stays split out wide. He is, to Bears offensive coordinator Mark Helfrich, a “fun toy.” And “there’s more there,” says Helfrich, who smiles dreamily at the thought.

But the 70-yard catch-and-runs, the impossible cuts that infuse frigid Chicago nights with Carolina heat … they’re merely a sliver of who Cohen is. Head coach Matt Nagy hails his “infectious” enthusiasm. Others claim Cohen “never has a bad day.” The energy, according to locker room neighbor Prince Amukamara, isn’t quite bottomless. That is, “unless there’s music playing,” Amukamara says. Then Cohen comes alive.

But would Tarik Cohen be Tarik Cohen without all the obstacles? Without the parentless weekends, or the eighth-grade football deprivation? Without his mother’s brief homelessness while he was in college, for which his best antidote was to “hurry up and get to the NFL?”

As if to answer, he heads across town on an in-season off day, to 103rd and South Elizabeth Street, down to Julian High School on Chicago’s South Side. He scans a room full of students, and sees at-risk kids, some from single-parent households, wrestling with hardships. He looks around, and in one sense, sees himself.

He’s reticent to talk about his challenging upbringing publicly, in part because he knows millions of Americans face worse. But here, he’s “equal.” He has come to listen to the teens, to “give them somebody in my position to hear them out.” Somebody who can relate. Somebody who is walking, flourishing proof that perseverance paves a path to rewards.

He now relegates most of his athletic perseverance to back pages. Though he still retweets dismissive scouting reports, and brandishes ignored emails as receipts, most non-believers have become afterthoughts.

But he wants to ensure that kids like 13-year-old Tarik never are. “That’s why I like to share my story and give hope,” he says. Perhaps not hope that others can one day whiz around a football field like the Human Joystick. But hope that endurance pays off.

– – – – – – –

Henry Bushnell is a features writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Question? Comment? Email him at [email protected], or follow him on Twitter @HenryBushnell, and on Facebook.

Source: https://sports.yahoo.com/tarik-cohen-ever-needed-chance-010751303.html?src=rss

#read more #see more #check it out #interesting #learn more

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mensbodybuildingtips · 7 years

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Dirty Bulking: Why You Need To Know The Dirty Truth

Dirty Bulking: Why You Had to Know The Unclean Truth

You're a tough gainer, and individuals tell you that unclean bulking is the only method to obtain pieces of muscular tissue. Don't believe it! Discover the dirty fact concerning unclean bulking right here as well as save your body in the long-term.

Article Summary:

Eating huge quantities of unhealthy food could eventually cause insulin resistance as well as fat gain.

3 olive oil 'shooters' per day can include as long as 1000 extra, healthful calories to your diet!

Avoid weight gainers that use maltodextrin, dextrose, or sugar as the primary carb source.

One could state I spend a lot of time on the teenager discussion forum at Bodybuilding.com. I would certainly state I spend 90% of my time in that specific online forum. I guess I want to socialize in the teenager forum since I remember just what it was like when I was 16 years old and also initial took a rate of interest in enhancing my body. I was entirely clueless.

At times, I bear in mind intending to stop due just to sheer complication. I was so overwhelmed at that time that it's a tiny wonder that I handled to stick it out. That claimed, eight years later at 24 years of ages, among my major objectives is to assist the future generation. I'm aiming to ascertain that today's teens have much less complication and also BS to compete with compared to I did.

I Remember Exactly what It Resembled When I Was 16 Years of ages As well as Entirely Clueless.

Enter...The Dirty Bulk

One piece of poor guidance that I see sprayed all as well frequently is the conviction that hard gainers should unclean mass. For those of you not acquainted with the concept, the idea of unclean mass is simply to consume as high as feasible, adhering to no genuine dietary standards aside from getting a ton of calories down your gullet. There is no distinction between scrap food and also natural food. Calories are calories. You're a slim SOB and you have to eat!

Hey, that appears great to me! Where can I join? Who wouldn't love being told to proceed and also consume pizza, burgers, fries, ice lotion, and also all the other usual no-no foods? Hell, do you want to most likely to an all-you-can-eat-buffet as well as stuff your face till you're on the edge of vomiting? Great! The dirty mass absolutely invites such behavior.

Are you obtaining thrilled to start your unclean mass? Are you all amped approximately stuff your confront with whatever the hell you desire while packaging on pieces of brand-new muscular tissue? Well, hang on there, sparky. I have not given you the complete run-through simply yet, so maintain reading.

You Can not Simply Things Your Face With Whatever You Intended to Pack On Pieces Of New Muscle.

Too Good To Be True?

The fundamental property of filthy bulking holds true, difficult gainers should take in a lot extra calories compared to the ordinary student. After this particular reality though, fantasy takes control of. Sadly, dirty bulking is yet one more 'too excellent to be true' idea. Sure, one could grow on this sort of diet regimen, yet not only is it much from ideal in concerns to muscle gains, it is downright careless in regards to your overall health.

It is great to be involved in a physical fitness program. In a country facing ever-increasing medical diagnoses of diabetes mellitus and unhealthy weight gain among our young people, I applaud people for leaving the couch and into the fitness center. However, even if you raise weights as well as do your cardio (I hope), does not mean that you do not need to worry about just what you eat.

In the exact same vein, simply since a person has a quick metabolism and six-pack abdominal muscles year round does not imply his cardio (heart, lungs, arteries, veins, and so on) or endocrine (hormone) systems remain in good health.

Just Due to the fact that Somebody Has A Rapid Metabolic rate And Six-Pack Abdominal muscles All year Doesn't Mean He Remains in Good Health.

The Reality Of The Dirty Bulk

Sure, processed food consists of an abundance of calories, and those calories will assist you grow. Junk food is called scrap food for a reason.

Carbohydrate resources that are basic, processed, and devoid of fiber take blood sugar as well as insulin levels on a roller coaster trip that will ultimately lead to insulin resistance. If your body ends up being much less conscious insulin, not just are you on the track to diabetes mellitus, yet you're going to have a tough time shuttling nutrients to your muscle cells. This will eventually equate to lowered arise from your training. (Fedele et al, 2000)

Your body will additionally be much extra susceptible to saving fat. Hmmm ... much less muscle gains as well as more body fat? Appears like the specific reverse of exactly what my goals are in bodybuilding. As a nice little cherry on the top, if you establish diabetes, your danger for kidney failing, heart problem, and also stroke all boost by approximately four-fold. (' Diabetes mellitus stats,' 2007)

The wealth of saturated and also trans-fats in the junk food you eat will eventually trigger arterial plaque to develop, placing you in jeopardy for high blood pressure, heart assaults, and also an entire slew of other cardio health problems.

I can not represent any individual else, but I like raising weights and I desire to be able to continue lifting right into my golden years. Going down dead from a cardiovascular disease or stroke in my thirties or forties isn't really an option that helps me.

The fast food that are the staples of filthy bulking are additionally almost totally without vitamins, minerals, crucial fats, bioflavonoids, as well as various other little vital rewards. While you are probably not in jeopardy of becoming malnourished, you certainly typically aren't producing the ideal nutritional setting within your body to develop muscle mass or remain fairly lean.

Junk Foods Are Practically Completely Without Vitamins, Minerals, And Various other Necessary Goodies.

So, What's The Alternative?

Remember what I said earlier: the one point right regarding dirty bulking is the huge quantity of calories. Just what you should do is obtain an abundance of healthful calories right into your system often so you could grow without presenting such a large hazard to your health.

The first point I 'd suggest is eating every few hrs. Pressure yourself to consume if required, but adhere to healthy food choices. It will certainly be difficult initially, but at some point you're mosting likely to adapt to this eating schedule as well as you'll discover on your own starving more usually because your body is 'anticipating' food every few hours.

Make homemade weight gainer trembles from healthy and balanced food sources like healthy protein powders, reduced-fat milk (or perhaps much better, almond milk), natural nut butters, fruit, and raw, antique oatmeal.

Throw a little Splenda or Equal in there and also your shake becomes quite tasty.

You could also use commercial weight gainers, however avoid items that use maltodextrin, dextrose, or sugar as the major carb resource. Make sure to maintain an eye on the saturated fat material as well.

Another valuable method is to take olive oil 'shooters' several times a day. Olive oil shooters are much like they seem, you just load a shot glass with olive oil and also toss it down the hatch. If you do this 3 times a day you'll have included practically 1,000 health-promoting calories to your diet. Since olive oil is a resource of healthy fats. Just Load A Shot Glass With Olive Oil And also Toss It Down The Hatch.

Ah Male, Healthy and balanced Foods? Many thanks For Moistening My Parade!

I understand, I know ... none of that sounds as enjoyable as eating a pizza with 2 liters of soda and a half-gallon of gelato, but I can assure you that it is infinitely more productive. While quantity most certainly counts in the situation of a tough gainer, you do not wish to entirely sacrifice high quality. It could function for a little while, but in the long run it is going to do far more damage compared to good.

Besides, I'm not stating you should not live a little here and there, just keep your overall dietary consumption healthful.

As a body builder, you've already determined you're mosting likely to stand apart from the pack. You aren't pleased being one of the average people. Don't quit at the decision to bust your a$$ in the fitness center. Separate yourself from Joe Schmoe in your nutritional selections as well.

Remember, you go out just what you place in, and also the connection in between your diet and your body is no exception.

The Author:

#bodybuilding #bodybuilding workout #fitness #fitness center #fitness program #health #how to build muscle #physical fitness program #the fitness center #weight #workout

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imsohealthy1 · 4 years

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29 Easy Paleo Banana Bread Recipes (Try these!)

Do you know that there are a number of model of paleo banana bread you can also make? No, actually, there are! Many consider that by chopping out grains and wheat out of your weight loss program you’ll be giving up a staple of the American weight loss program: bread. However because it turns on the market’s loads of methods to make bread with out utilizing the usual elements. It simply takes somewhat creativity and a Paleo mindset and also you’ll discover that you could have lots of your favorites, together with paleo-friendly banana bread.

Espresso Cake Banana Bread with Crumble Prime

paleogrubs.com

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This espresso cake banana bread is simply the correct amount of candy to go along with your morning espresso, and breaking into the crunchy pecan and cinnamon crumble makes it much more decadent.

Easy Paleo Banana Nut Bread

paleogrubs.com

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This fundamental banana bread recipe has been upgraded to incorporate nutritious walnuts so as to add an additional crunch to this paleo concept for breakfast, brunch, or as an after dinner deal with.

Cinnamon Banana Bread Power Balls

paleogrubs.com

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There’s no baking concerned on this recipe, which signifies that it is possible for you to to rustle up a batch of scrumptious banana cinnamon vitality balls in a matter of minutes.

Double Chocolate Banana Bread

paleogrubs.com

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Is it a chocolate cake or a banana bread? Properly, it’s a little bit of each, as a result of this paleo banana bread recipe makes use of each bananas and cacao powder to bake a wealthy, moist creation.

Cinnamon Banana Bread Mug Cake

paleogrubs.com

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If you happen to can resist something however temptation, a complete banana bread loaf is perhaps an excessive amount of to bear, so make a single serving in a mug utilizing paleo elements and your microwave.

The Greatest Paleo Blueberry Banana Bread

paleogrubs.com

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You don’t must cease at bananas once you’re making banana bread – why not add different fruits too, like a cup of contemporary and juicy blueberries for a lift of vitamin C.

Easy Paleo Banana Bread Pancakes

paleogrubs.com

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While you simply can’t make your thoughts up between banana bread and pancakes, try this recipe which mixes the 2 into one scrumptious, filling, and enjoyable breakfast recipe.

Chocolate Swirl Pumpkin Paleo Banana Bread

paleogrubs.com

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Chocolate marble cake meets banana bread on this fairly pumpkin creation which swirls two totally different batters collectively to create one beautiful and completely moreish (and decidedly scrumptious) cake bread.

10-Minute Pear Banana Bread

paleogrubs.com

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That is such a unusual solution to make banana bread and it will be beautiful when served to friends – minimize into the moist bread and uncover complete slices of scrumptious juicy pears.

Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread

paleogrubs.com

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With a shock in each chunk, this banana bread hides a swirl of cinnamon raisin batter which runs all through the loaf, giving a breakfast staple a complete new twist.

Strawberry Banana Bread Paleo Muffins

cleanishlivingkatie.com

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These paleo, gluten-free, dairy-free, and grain-free muffins make a considerable, candy snack as they include extra coconut flour than standard to soak up all of the scrumptious juices from the plump strawberries.

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread Squares

paleorunningmomma.com

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If you happen to’re searching for extra of a bar than a loaf, this recipe will make 16 scrumptious squares of banana bread which has been stuffed stuffed with paleo pleasant chocolate chips.

Paleo Skillet Banana Bread

thealmondeater.com

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Making banana bread in a skillet is definitely a distinct technique of baking, however with this recipe you’ll produce a deliciously moist and fruity bread with complete bananas nestled into the highest.

Paleo Chocolate Chip Coconut Flour Banana Bread

ambitiouskitchen.com

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With no butter or refined sugars, chocolate chip banana bread is wholesome, moist, and stuffed with contemporary banana and loads of paleo pleasant chocolate chips to make it appear naughtier than it’s.

Garlic Paleo Banana Bread

theprimaldesire.com

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Now right here’s a mixture you’ll in all probability by no means suppose to place collectively – banana and garlic! Surprisingly tasty, the garlic tempers the sweetness of the fruit for a very totally different style.

Banana Bread Macaroons

empoweredsustenance.com

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Grain, nut, dairy, and egg free, this recipe will go well with nearly anybody, and makes scrumptious macaroons that are nice to seize and go, or packed into college or work lunches.

Paleo Pecan Banana Bread

foodfaithfitness.com

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Made with coconut flour to maintain it paleo-friendly, this banana bread recipe additionally features a ripple of cinnamon pecan operating by way of the loaf, AND a crunchy cinnamon pecan streusel topping.

Banana Raspberry Bread

paleoglutenfree.com

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Banana bread is perhaps scrumptious, however by itself it will probably look somewhat blah. Counteract the dullness by topping it with vibrant contemporary raspberries and a coconut lemon drizzle.

Crumble Prime Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread

thebigmansworld.com

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With no eggs and no sugar, this banana loaf is vegan, paleo, and gluten-free with out dropping any of the flavour of a traditional recipe, and is sprinkled with a tasty cinnamon sugar topping.

Wholesome Cinnamon Apple Banana Bread

simplyquinoa.com

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Brimming with wholesome elements, this cinnamon apple bread makes use of three varieties of flour – together with quinoa and coconut – for a fruity loaf which additionally incorporates pecans for a scrumptious nutty crunch.

Paleo Banana Bread Waffles

hummingbirdhigh.com

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Given the selection between a slice of banana bread and thick, fluffy waffles for breakfast, which might you select? If it’s the latter, observe this recipe which mixes the 2 superbly.

Paleo Banana Bread Muffins

erinliveswhole.com

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Muffins all the time appear extra decadent than a slice of bread, even whether it is banana bread. This recipe exhibits you the best way to bake this favourite deal with (with chocolate chips) within the type of muffins muffins.

Easy Plantain Banana Bread

unboundwellness.com

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Utilizing plantains as an alternative of standard bananas provides a extra starchy texture which suggests it holds up significantly better with out eggs, whereas the cinnamon rounds it off with a beautiful warming taste.

Triple Berry Banana Bread with Lemon Glaze

theendlessmeal.com

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There may be a lot fruit on this recipe that you just simply realize it’s good for you – bananas, raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries – and it’s completed off with a candy lemon glaze.

Chocolate Chip Zucchini Banana Bread

spendwithpennies.com

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Zucchini would possibly sound like an odd ingredient to make use of in a candy loaf, however you’ll be able to’t style it and it provides an unimaginable moistness – strive it out on this chocolate chip banana bread recipe.

Banana Bread Cookies

simplyjillicious.com

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Vegan, paleo, and gluten-free, these yummy-looking banana bread cookies want solely six elements, together with scrumptious maple syrup and a contact of cinnamon so as to add a warming taste to those distinctive little bites.

Chai Spice Paleo Banana Bread

thenutritiouskitchen.co

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Chai spice is as a lot part of fall as pumpkin spice, so mark the flip of the seasons with this chai spice paleo banana bread recipe utilizing roasted bananas for a distinct style.

Paleo Banana Bread with Cacao Nibs

forageddish.com

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You should use bananas of their prime for this recipe reasonably than over-ripe by including honey to ramp up the sweetness, or swap the cacao nibs for normal chocolate chips.

(You may additionally like: 61 Crave-worthy Paleo Bread Recipes)

29 Easy Paleo Banana Bread Recipes (Strive these!) Jess (Paleo Grubs)

7 Day Detox Plan

#7 Day Detox Plan

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mastcomm · 4 years

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Feisty All-Star Finish a Fitting Tribute to Bryant

CHICAGO — The N.B.A.’s 69th All-Star Game played out just as it was billed — and it also veered wildly off script to a delicious degree.

The evening, as promised, served as the emotional culmination of a days-long Windy City tribute to Kobe Bryant, the former All-Star killed in a helicopter crash last month.

And then, without warning, Sunday’s All-Star Game managed to deliver a second-half dose of the best, most competitive basketball seen on this stage in years.

The result was the sort of spiritual lift, however fleeting, that this All-Star weekend, and frankly this league, needed.

In the face of considerable mocking and skepticism initially, league officials were cautiously optimistic that a significant format change to the game, with a Kobe-inspired twist, would infuse its All-Star proceedings with a much-needed dose of competitive spirit. What they gratefully got Sunday night was a fourth quarter no one could have planned or promised, which had a United Center sellout crowd on its feet and led to countless participants raving about the changes afterward.

The evening began with fans in prayer, song, poetry and shoe dedications everywhere you looked on the court — all flowing from a moving pregame program devoted to the memories of Bryant and his daughter Gianna, who died along with seven other victims in the Jan. 26 helicopter crash.

It ended with unprecedented defensive intensity for an All-Star Game. Team Giannis’ Kyle Lowry of the Toronto Raptors took multiple textbook charges. Both teams agonized over numerous whistles as if something was truly riding on the outcome. Each side formally protested a call through — get this — a coach’s challenge in what is still an exhibition game. All of it added up to a crunchtime of high drama that was totally organic.

“We had a little bit of playoff intensity out there,” said Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo, who captained one side, Team Giannis, against the Los Angeles Lakers’ LeBron James and his Team LeBron.

Said Oklahoma City’s Chris Paul, who helped Team LeBron escape with a 157-155 victory: “I think the best way we could honor Kobe, Gigi and everyone involved was to play like we played.”

It was Paul, in his role as president of the N.B.A. Players Association, who initially proposed to Commissioner Adam Silver that the league adopt what is known as Elam scoring. Based on the league’s adaptation of the concept, a so-called target score of 157 was established by adding 24 — a nod to one of Bryant’s jersey numbers — to the total of the team in the lead after three quarters.

So with Team Giannis holding a 133-124 edge on Team LeBron at that stage, Sunday’s winner would thus be the first to reach 157 points in an untimed quarter.

That commercial-free quarter wound up lasting nearly 40 minutes.

Leading Team Giannis, Coach Nick Nurse of the Raptors played the same five All-Stars for nearly the entire period, while Team LeBron, led by Coach Frank Vogel of the Lakers, used only seven players. Two veterans, Paul, of Team LeBron, and Lowry, of Team Giannis, played all the important minutes over second-year stars who actually started the game: Dallas’s Luka Doncic and Atlanta’s Trae Young.

In perhaps the most telling illustration of how serious the fourth quarter was, both teams combined to shoot an under-duress 35.5 percent from floor — after connecting on a combined 55.5 percent of their shots through three quarters.

“Offensively it was hard to get anything started,” Nurse said of the final period. “Even first passes were being denied. It felt like the end of a playoff game, which was really cool.”

The fact that the Lakers’ Anthony Davis registered the clinching point for Team LeBron with a free throw naturally turned off some, most notably Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid. The same was true for the fact that Davis’s free throw followed a failed coach’s challenge by Nurse after uncharacteristically heavy referee involvement, for All-Star conditions, throughout the fourth quarter.

Yet there was no disputing how much energy the new format gave a game that has increasingly troubled the league office in recent years. Silver himself, in March 2019, once described the previous round of big All-Star format changes — instituting a player draft and abolishing the East vs. West concept — as putting “an earring on a pig.”

“None of us knew what to expect,” James said. “But throughout the whole fourth quarter and at the end of the game, everybody was like, ‘That was pretty damn fun.’”

“The change helped the whole experience,” Lowry said, even though the narrow defeat dropped his personal record in All-Star Games to 0-6.

Lowry, of course, was referring to the in-game experience. Nothing could have completely offset the somber tone that prevailed over what is typically a celebratory convention for the league.

As James put it, given Bryant’s immense stature in the game, anything other than a steady stream of tributes and a melancholy vibe “would be uncivilized.”

Kawhi Leonard of the Los Angeles Clippers took home the first All-Star most valuable player trophy to bear Bryant’s name after leading Team LeBron with a game-high 30 points. Everyone on Team Giannis wore No. 24, in Kobe’s honor, while everyone on Team LeBron wore No. 2 — Gianna Bryant’s number.

Before the game, the former Lakers great Magic Johnson called for an eight-second moment of silence dedicated to Kobe Bryant and the former N.B.A. Commissioner David Stern, who died Jan. 1 after sustaining a brain aneurysm in December. The singer and actress Jennifer Hudson and the rapper Common, both Chicago natives, followed with powerful performances in Kobe’s honor.

The occasion, with or without the wild finish, was always destined to morph into a pre-memorial for Bryant: a prelude of sorts to the Lakers’ official ceremony, scheduled for Feb. 24 at Staples Center in Los Angeles.

On Saturday, I crossed paths with the former 76ers star Allen Iverson at a Panini trading card signing. On the eve of his usual stint as a front-row spectator at the All-Star Game, and bracing for how much sadness was looming, Iverson insisted he would be taking measures to mask his emotions from the cameras.

“Trust me,” Iverson said. “I’m going to have my glasses on, because I have an idea of what it’s going to be.”

Yet when Sunday arrived, so much and so little went as planned. Iverson was a good example of that.

For starters, he called an audible on his eyewear intentions. Iverson indeed packed some sunglasses with all the requisite winter gear he brought for a weekend that featured the coldest Valentine’s Day on record in Chicago in 77 years. But the Hall of Fame guard decided to ditch them for his Sunday ensemble and lean into the bittersweet mood.

Sitting right near the Team LeBron bench, Iverson wore a purple Los Angeles Lakers hat pulled down low over his uncovered eyes and a rookie-year Kobe Bryant jersey in Lakers gold.

Then came the big surprise: A beautiful basketball game broke out, filled with genuine animus between the ultra-talented teams and too many fist pumps to register.

It was a most welcome surprise.

“Probably one of the best All-Star Games ever,” Embiid said.

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cool-danielramos · 5 years

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The Connection Between Quickly Food And Obesity

There is nothing improper with food being fast. To enter an eatery, buy dinner and get it in 5 minutes is great. But there's a trade-off when industrial difficulties come in to the story.

Here are the eight evils of quickly food. Avoid them if you're able to -- it IS possible if you buy with care.

1. Poor Elements

Number, perhaps not every where, or all food in a specific outlet. But big organizations and the wholesale companies to smaller areas have a great opportunity to offload low-quality elements refined to create them adequate, particularly in highly-flavored food (see #2 and #3 below).

The worst'crimes'include mechanically reclaimed beef and using emulsifiers and polyphosphates to retain handling water in meat. How could you inform? When you are able see a diet dining table, mcdonald’s search for the protein to fat ratio. Slim beef will undoubtedly be about 3:1 protein, relying a little on your pet and breed. Highly-processes floor beef services and products such as chicken and kebab beef can differ from 1:1 to 3:1 fat, with a third of the fat included water. Without produced evidence, you'll have to inform your palate!

Therefore bear in mind, and search for higher quality food; most Indian areas use good, fresh elements, like, although plenty of Asian sites get in highly-processed partly-prepared elements to opt for the new stuff. That's not just a hard-and-fast concept; use common sense to choose your store. Burger joints differ from fastidiously genuine food to utter trash in equally beef and sauces -- and Macdonald's and Burger Master are much better than most for purity. But their desserts, shakes and delicate beverages are still another subject -- continue reading!

2. Fat and Sugar For That Blobby Feeling

They are the staples of most fast planning foods. This is very since burning is rapid and sugar could be the core of desserts and drinks. At least the oils used today are healthiest compared to the old soaked pet fats. You'll presently be aware that a top fat, large sugar diet is unhealthy. An unexpected fast food dinner ought to be no issue nutritionally -- your system is great at dealing with occasional overload. But would you fool yourself that the take-away every lunch and every night is'occasional '?

Both fat and sugar are addictive (see #7) and combine to create the best way to grab atherosclerosis, arthritis, diabetes, heart episodes and cancer -- if that is the selection of future.

3. Salt Can Lead To Hypertension

To many punters, delicious equals salty. But salty equals hypertension equals large body stress equals collapsed arteries and heart failure. Consuming less salt is impossible in the event that you significant on fast food, since you never get a handle on salt improvement and if your fast food shared remaining it out, nearly all of its consumers wouldn't come back.

The result is that the fast food diet is more often than not a high-salt diet.

4. Reduced Fiber Means Belly Problems

By client demand, most fries are skinless and bread, pasta and grain are white. The fibre is stripped out to give you what was after a luxurious food, but now could be the inexpensive, health-free option. Rapidly foods rarely contain significantly good fresh fruit or veggies by fat -- they are generally garnishes. When most of the different calories come from enhanced oils and sugar, fast food meals as a whole are very low in fiber.

This really is the reason for slow digestion, dyspepsia and bad food assimilation and poisoning from inefficient waste elimination. It's also reckoned to significantly raise some cancer risks (especially that most also common colon cancer).

If you eat plenty of fast food and different low-fiber stuff, you'll be liable to the usual constipation and dyspepsia. If it's a periodic address and you always eat a lot of veggies and different fiber-rich food, number problem.

5. Additives Can Chaos Up Your Human body

Several food chemicals are fine, but that is not at all times the situation with quickly foods. Additives in many cases are slight poisons, synthetic flavorings can mess up your digestion's signaling program and several industrial colors promote allergies in a large community while they disguise bad ingredients. Be cautious about places that use all of these to improve bad food.

You'll probably know presently if you're specially sensitive to the more horrible chemicals, like azo colors or benzoates, and you'll have the issue of learning perhaps the fast food you're considering is free of your specific horror. Tough! The friers and table team generally have not a hint what's inside their food. If it's a big chain, you just will dsicover they've a formula book for inspection.

6. Nutrient-Poor -- You receive Sick

This evil is maybe the worst trouble with fast food, as well as different prepared meals from supermarkets and those cheaper restaurants that get in cold and icy meals prepared to microwave, grill and and cook for you.

Several elements, from oils and flour to sauces and pickles, are shown an extended rack living for convenience. This calls for eliminating the area of the food that spoils quickly and adding synthetic preservatives. Issue is, the preservatives are mostly detrimental to you and the stuff removed could be the fibre, plant sterols, vitamins and different natural ingredients that you'll require to eat to keep healthy.

That's why most people today are sick in human anatomy and listless, vulnerable to diseases and human anatomy breakdown like diabetes, arthritis and cancer. Being like that is, for most of us, a selection, perhaps not inevitable. If you select this kind of food as your addition diet, you select the consequences, too.

7. Addictive -- You can not End The Gorging

A key reason so lots of people significant on fast food is its addictiveness -- I have provided the reason why for that above. It's similar to that for nicotine and may have similar withdrawal symptoms. The most common result is that you eat a lot more food than you can burn up for energy, and it gets kept as fat. We're a culture of fatties, as you can not avoid knowing. Type II diabetes, heart issues, rheumatic diseases like arthritis, bodily breakdown from the load you have to completely hold and cancers are the usual consequence -- and age that the trouble starts is steadily coming down.

Bear in mind, and you can lessen your addiction on this kind of food, wherever you buy it.

Therefore In Summary...

Overall, then, fast food can be quite a significantly fast solution to Bad Wellness, with an unpleasant long-term potential for you personally in the event that you make this kind of food a method of life. But when you select your outlet and dinner carefully, fast food can be quite a pleasure and at the least reasonably healthy. Actually the most fastidious foodie can enjoy after in some time!

I should to complete, though, by reminding you that Rapidly Food isn't the sole sort that's these Eight Evils! Most people in the West have sick bodies since their full diet is founded on prepacked, refined food with (as we say) most of the goodness taken out. Government agencies all through Europe, North America and Oceania have already been flagging up these issues for many years, however community wellness steadily gets worse. You can not have missed those Community Wellness campaigns, or the media publicity over every new medical record all governments make on'The State Of The Nation's Wellness '.

Yet if you're a'usual'member of American Culture, you'll have used small of your interest on these'discourage campaigns ', and much more on thinking the 1000s of adverts promising an excellent lifestyle if perhaps you'll eat their heavily-advertised trash food. It amounts to, "Participate yourself, and you'll be pleased," with the suggestion as you are able to eat treats often a day without any effects to your health.

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plxyboi-blog · 5 years

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The Pescetarian Helped NeNe Leakes Lose Weight, But Will It Work For You?

New Post has been published on https://healthy4lives.com/the-pescetarian-helped-nene-leakes-lose-weight-but-will-it-work-for-you/

The Pescetarian Helped NeNe Leakes Lose Weight, But Will It Work For You?

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The only way NeNe Leakes would at any time shrink herself is if her waistline is included! And that is exactly what is going on. In circumstance you have not recognized, the Actual Housewives of Atlanta diva has missing a great deal of late lately, and it’s due to the fact she has taken her diet program and health substantially far more significantly in the wake of husband Gregg’s most cancers disaster. Leakes reveals that she has adopted a pescetarian diet program as a way to clear up her health and lately missing twelve lbs.

“I’m not carrying out anything nuts like carrying out the elliptical or driving the bicycle or functioning. I started getting a pescatarian and he was plant-centered, so I started there. It did support me and I felt distinct,” she instructed Hollywood Lifestyle, incorporating that her objective is to drop a complete twenty pounds in the upcoming couple months.

Obviously, it’s doing work for her.

“I missing a pair of pounds. I’m not a significant eater. But what I started to do, was just have compact portions. I come to feel like I consume about four situations a working day – four, sometimes five – just nibbling on stuff, and I come to feel definitely content.”

So what exactly is a pescetarian diet program? Most importantly, will it support you lose individuals unwelcome pounds?

1st, the pescetarian diet program is somebody who consumes a mostly plant-centered diet program (vegetarian) but also eats fish and seafood, and if they want, dairy and eggs. Translation: That implies goodbye to burgers, steak or Popeye’s rooster sandwiches and good day to leafy greens, low-sugar fruits like strawberries and blueberries and salmon.

“Weight reduction and weight administration in general in this working day and age can be tough, primarily if you are taking in what we expression commercial non-organic and natural ‘feed-lot’ meats that are typically identified in the ordinary grocery retail store. This meat frequently consists of hormones and antibiotics which both equally maximize the inflammatory reaction in the system as perfectly as can add to the breakdown of the lining of our gastrointestinal tracts, which in change can result in far more issues with swelling, Njeri Jarvis, a registered dietitian, and certified nutritionist, stated to HelloBeautiful.

“Over time this can result in nutrient deficiencies that alongside with swelling can add to hormonal imbalances producing it far more challenging to manage or drop weight,” incorporating, “So, when you get rid of this meat from the equation by taking in fish as your primary protein source, specially individuals that are chilly water and wild-caught and specially if you are also taking in huge quantities of veggies, It can be a weight reduction and full system video game-changer.”

Njeri Jarvis runs Bear Nutrition and Herbs in Washington DC. Her diet practice handles a variety of health issues like system composition, most cancers, autoimmune diseases, endocrine and kidney imbalances, most cancers, foods-sensitivity, and so forth. We acquired a great deal of gems from her about why a pescatarian life style may perhaps be an best solution for Black women, and how individuals of us who are intrigued can include it into our existence.

For starters, fish are a fantastic source of protein, omega three fatty acids, vitamin B12, Vitamin D, Iron, Zinc and Selenium. Jarvis stated that Zinc and Selenium are key minerals essential for the system to create and benefit from our body’s most important detoxifier, glutathione peroxidase. Zinc also performs a part in mobile growth, wound therapeutic, the breakdown of carbs, and far more. The mixture of the nutrition detailed higher than is crucial for retaining healthy thyroid purpose as perfectly.

“For Black women, in distinct, transitioning to a pescatarian life style also implies acquiring larger quantities of fat-soluble nutritional vitamins [Vitamin A, E, D and K]. Foodstuff-centered vitamin D is critical as is acquiring doses of solar centered vitamin D,” says Jarvis.

“Individuals dwelling in the northern latitudes of the earth have a tendency to have lessen vitamin D amounts, primarily if their skin is darker. This puts Black women at risk for low amounts of vitamin D.”

Scientists at the College of California San Diego University of Drugs advise larger amounts of vitamin D are connected with decreasing risk of breast most cancers. This is crucial as Black women were lately categorised as a significant-risk team for breast most cancers. We know that people who carry extra weight are at larger risk for acquiring significant blood pressure, significant blood sugar, style two diabetic issues, and so forth. In other phrases, getting aware of what and how you consume is crucial. Supplied that Black women disproportionately suffer from all 3 of individuals chronic illnesses, this is surely a way of taking in we really should contemplate adopting.

But there are some things you really should seem out for too. Metallic pollutants in maritime fish are a global concern. Virtually all fish may perhaps comprise some mercury, but the Fda has issued a warning for expecting women, women looking at getting to be expecting, nursing mothers and young small children to keep away from certain fish like shark, swordfish, king mackerel, and tilefish.

Opt for low mercury fish like canned mild tuna, salmon, pollock, shrimp, sardines and catfish, and preserve it to about eight-twelve ounces for every week. Most importantly, how you prepare it issues too! Salmon doesn’t signify anything if you the only you cook it in a deep fryer. So opt for grilling, pan-searing on the skillet, baking in foil or even an air fryer, which doesn’t rely on unhealthy oils for that crispy texture you may perhaps crave.

“Planning is key to transitioning. 1st, on your upcoming run to the grocery retail store, strategy and dedicate to shopping for only maritime protein. Stocking your freezer with fantastic high quality plain frozen fish and frozen shrimp is an straightforward and very affordable way to have healthy fish on hand for any spouse and children meal,” Jarvis indicates.

“Keeping sardines, muscle mass, oysters canned in olive oil or water is an additional very affordable staple that can be packed in a to-go bag alongside with a significant salad for a healthy mid-working day lunch at work or at university. Making tuna salad or planning salmon cakes is an additional very affordable and straightforward way to have a delicious meal that matches the bill.”

You can also faucet dependable women in your daily life to be accountability buddies. You can plan exercise sessions collectively, or even brief walks, chat every single other off the ledge when you’re not conference ambitions or craving one thing counterproductive, share recipes, and frequently be a assist technique doing work towards results. If you acquired it like that, it also doesn’t damage to seek advice from with a nutritionist. Njeri Jarvis can be achieved by using her website, which was hyperlinked higher than, as perfectly as on social media, but you can also look at with your most important treatment medical professional for have confidence in nutritionists. Last but not least, read through up far more on the pescatarian diet program in this article and in this article.

BEAUTIES: Are you a pescetarian? How have you benefited from the life style? Are you pondering about getting to be a pescetarian? How did you make the changeover? We want to hear your views!

Associated News:

Mo’Nique Receives Teary-Eyed More than Assembly Major Physical fitness Aim: ‘Just Really do not Give up On You’

Oprah Receives Actual About Weight Reduction: ‘I Can’t Settle for Myself If I’m More than 200 LBS’

Wanna Reduce Weight Like Missy Elliott? Cut These Two Points Out Of Your Diet regime

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#Nutrition to Lose Fat

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click2watch · 5 years

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Florincoin – the 2014 Altcoin You Don’t Remember – Is Attracting Real Users

One of the most recognizable names in the crypto space (and perhaps even outside of it) is using one of the least recognizable blockchains.

Overstock.com subsidiaries Medici Ventures and tZERO have been utilizing the FLO blockchain for some time in work aimed at re-organizing property rights. At one time, a video of the tZERO homepage even showed the little-known blockchain at work.

Still, if you haven’t heard of FLO before, you won’t be alone. Maybe Florincoin, the blockchain’s moniker when it first launched in 2013, shortly before the 2014 altcoin boom – will ring a bell, at least those who were in New York at the time.

Joey Fiscella was a staple in the growing New York City crypto community during that area. A young, extroverted programmer, he had the ability to schmooze with the best of the business types. While the rest of the scene was focused on bitcoin, to a certain extent litecoin and for the lolz dogecoin, Fiscella was instead always talking Florincoin – a coin that’s visage bears a golden fleur-de-lis.

He was a regular at the New York Bitcoin Center and was always handing out thin strips of paper with Florincoin private keys (I used to have one, but as is the nature of small scraps of paper, it has been lost).

The idea was simple: Florincoin was bitcoin but with additional room for transaction comments, 140 characters at that time. And those characters would allow a decentralized social media (what else had a 140-character limit back then? Twitter), one that couldn’t be censored or stopped.

It’s a dream that’s still being toyed with today – from Steemit to Peepeth to Minds – but since then Florincoin, now FLO, has moved on.

Today, most of the developers and businesses involved in FLO are interested in it as an indexing tool, something that could provide the backbone of a blockchain-based Google.

Not only has Medici Land Governance begun adding property records on the FLO blockchain (and partnered with the state of Wyoming, the city of Tulum in Mexico and a government official in Zambia), but T-zero is adding digital locate receipts, which locate the ownership of a stock, into FLO to mitigate naked short selling.

On top of that, FLO is being utilized by the Open Index Protocol (OIP), a database for decentralized publishing of all kinds, and an app on top of OIP called Alexandria, which allows users to search and browse info in that database.

The list of users goes on too.

The California Institute of Technology, also called Caltech, uses FLO to store more than 17,000 records of information gathered with microscopes, and just recently announced the creation of another repository of microscope data.

So how, a crypto enthusiast might ask, did FLO become a blockchain with actual users (and seemingly without gloating in the hopes of sparking a price pump)?

According to Chris Chrysostom, a senior software developer at Medici Ventures, “As a developer I’m always open to looking at other solutions; people mention bitcoin a lot because right now it’s a good starting point for communicating concepts.”

But, he continued:

“One thing that FLO provides that bitcoin doesn’t is, right now, it has the ability to accept 1,040 bytes of metadata. FLO is able and willing to take on the blockchain bloat that many people are critical of in bitcoin.”

The bytes and the bloat

To understand how one of the most-anticipated and regulated token projects in the space came to use a blockchain that most people don’t even know about, you have to start with its first real business case.

Utilized by husband and wife team, Devon and Amy Reed, Florincoin became the underlying technology of the Decentralized Library of Alexandria (DLOA).

A blatant nod to the ancient world library that was burned down (while it’s become a modern-day symbol for the loss of cultural knowledge, the crypto project used it as a way to illustrate the problems inherent to centralization), the project was initially touted as a decentralized library. According to Amy, the co-founder of the project, in an earlier interview, all types of content, including books, blogs, video, audio and art could be added to the blockchain and secured from censorship.

DLOA was the forefather of today’s decentralized content platforms, hoping to untangle the messy distribution models that currently exist for content creators and viewers online.

The project chugged along for a couple of years quietly, until Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of the World Wide Web and the founder of the W3C, a standards organization for the web, was given a demo of the app.

According to Amy, Berners-Lee loved it, but said: “change the name.”

So the application – a Google-like search for the data, became just Alexandria and the protocol, which allows content creators to decide how their content is categorized before adding it to the FLO blockchain, became known as the Open Index Protocol (OIP).

And as that change happened, the number of bytes that could be stored in a transaction was increased as well – from 140 to 528 and then to 1,040, the limit today. But what’s perhaps the most fascinating about OIP is that in a mess of new competition, the project has stuck with FLO.

From Storj to Filecoin or even more broadly ethereum or EOS, there’s a slew of blockchain projects looking to tackle a similar use case – decentralized file storage – and these new players tout advanced architecture that makes their platforms faster, stronger, overall better.

But Devon remains unphased by the shiny new toys.

“When we started the project, our goal was to build a shared data layer that is censorship-proof, persistent and as interoperable as possible,” he told CoinDesk. “This required certain technical choices, which FLO fit perfectly – and even though other things have been launched since which do a variety of things, they don’t meet those needs better than FLO does.”

For that index that OIP is, Devon contends, the project needs full global state replication (to make censorship attempts transparent), proof-of-work consensus (to make censorship attempts expensive and defensible) and the ability to directly benefit from bitcoin’s developer community (a fork of bitcoin).

According to Devon Reed, sure, OIP could instead store its index on ethereum, and with that gain a different developer community and plenty of hype.

But, he said, the project would lose in other ways. For instance, after sharding is implemented, the project wouldn’t any longer get full global state replication; and after Casper – ethereum’s switch to a proof-of-stake consensus algorithm – the project wouldn’t have the security of proof-of-work.

On top of that, the publishing fees would no longer be decided by the OIP working group, and would instead, entirely be a function of the gas costs – priced by the ethereum core developers – of certain operations.

For many intents and purposes, FLO has become a kind of single purpose blockchain specifically for OIP. And that wasn’t a bad thing for FLO. While other institutions are starting to use FLO now, for many years Devon and Amy were the only ones really focused on FLO and they brought in a significant number of the developers that work on the blockchain to this day.

The original angel

Take Sky Young, a senior full stack developer at Alexandria.io, who started working on the FLO protocol because of her role with Alexandria in August 2015.

Or Jeremiah Buddenhage, also known as bitspill, who began developing on the FLO blockchain after he completed and claimed a bounty posted by the Alexandria team to update the protocol. After that, Buddenhage told CoinDesk, Alexandria offered him contract work until hiring him as a full stack developer in the summer of 2017.

Both developers get paid to work on OIP, which many times involves the development of FLO, keeping the blockchain up-to-date, probably more so than it would be were there not a company so tied into its success.

Before OIP and Alexandria, there was only FLO’s (then Florincoin’s), creator, a pseudonymous developer going by the moniker SkyAngel. It’s pretty similar to bitcoin’s Satoshi Nakamoto, although SkyAngel remains around here and there, said Fiscella.

SkyAngel did not return requests for comment.

In June 2013, Fiscella was trolling crypto forums looking for altcoins to mine and stumbled on FLO – hours after the software was released, he began mining the cryptocurrency and after noticing a couple of bugs (nothing consensus-related) in the code, he contacted SkyAngel within a week of its release. He’s been volunteering his time towards development ever since.

And while Fiscella got his fair share of shit for messing around with FLO – this was back in the day when people thought all altcoins were useless or worse, scams – there’s a sense of pride now.

“FLO is one of the oldest altcoins that is still actively traded and developed,” he told CoinDesk.

And it’s done so, he continued, without a pre-mine for developers, without raising huge amounts of money in an initial coin offering (ICO), without even a million dollars from a venture capitalist. Although, the FLO developers have raised $50,000 from the community over the past six years and the OIP and Alexandria team have raised a few $100,000 here and there, which they used to continue FLO development.

As such, many of the developers working on FLO right now are also pretty happy with the way it’s all turned out.

For instance, Young describes FLO as “hidden” and “undervalued.” And although Buddenhage was initially only attracted to FLO as a way to make money from small programming gigs, his “appreciation and understanding” has grown significantly over the years.

He told CoinDesk, “The big idea that made me want to keep working on this project is the idea of building a public space – allowing users to determine the worth of their own work and for the consumers to determine if it’s appropriate (rather than being held to the mercy of rates decided by a private company or a vague definition of ‘advertiser friendly’).”

In describing my story, meeting Fiscella years later at a crypto meetup and thinking, ‘Holy shit, Florincoin still exists,’ Buddenhage, who’s been in the space since 2013, laughed, saying:

“It’s great to see people react when they re-discover that FLO/Alexandria have not joined the ranks of shitcoin yet nor is it merely idling on but has actually grown in the shadows.”

Enter tZERO

It was Chris Chrysostom, a developer that was looking to build a simple application called a bill of sale on a blockchain, that found FLO and eventually brought it into the Medici ranks.

While he began the project hoping to utilize bitcoin’s OP_RETURN feature, Chrysostom quickly became frustrated with that because cumbersome to use and doesn’t hold enough data to create anything substantial. So he started looking around, reading through some content about Factom and the Storj white papers, both of which mention FLO (again Florincoin at that time).

That led Chrysostom to Alexandria, where he worked alongside Devon and Amy, building out the project’s payment capabilities.

Then in July 2017, he was picked up by Medici Ventures.

Now a senior software developer at the venture capital subsidiary of Overstock.com, Chrysostom brought to the job his interest in FLO. Chrysostom was assigned to a project within Medici Ventures focused on property rights – the idea being a global property rights registry – and FLO and the work being done by the Open Index Protocol seemed like a natural fit there, he told CoinDesk.

“We use it specifically for projects, proofs-of-concept and research for this property rights project,” he said.

While Patrick Byrne, the founder and CEO of Overstock, announced a partnership in late 2017 with Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto with a similar intent, Chrysostom said his work using FLO at Medici Ventures was different, yet could easily support the De Soto project if necessary.

According to Chrysostom, he was looking for a proof-of-work blockchain with similarities to bitcoin, so many similarities that the development work on bitcoin’s core team could then be applied to the other blockchain as well. For instance, security measures and scaling technologies like Segregated Witness.

“FLO was really appealing – bitcoin wants its use case to be focused on value transfer (and that’s fine); FLO has taken it upon itself to have a lot of similarities to bitcoin but with the added feature of application data,” Chrysostom said. “Which is more suited for the property rights use case.”

And sure enough, Chrysostom has similar things to say about the project’s ethos and morals.

“It’s really appealing that FLO hasn’t gone down the path of turning itself into an ICO; it didn’t try to segregate coins in a certain way, like the staking mechanisms; it’s quite admirable that it has remained an open-source project,” he said, adding:

“Four to five years have gone by, and it’s still about what its founding was all about – an open blockchain with a little extra use case. I just find it admirable that it’s stuck to that.”

And as for OIP and Alexandria, those teams get Chrysostom’s praise too since, according to him, they focused on building out the software instead of hyping the coin.

Chrysostom said:

“FLO has been quite the stealth coin in my opinion.”

While Chrysostom would, of course, love to see the developers and projects building on FLO get rewarded for their work, he understands that with investment comes responsibilities that might divert the focus away from the open index goal.

For Medici Ventures part, it does not provide investment to FLO developers, Chrysostom explained, although he continued, “If the day comes that someone wants to make a pitch to Medici Ventures … I think they’d listen. They listen to all kinds of things.”

Keeping it afloat

Still, that’s not to say everything has run smoothly in the FLO community.

For instance, toward the end of 2015, customers of Cryptsy, the only digital currency exchange that listed FLO, began having withdrawal issues, and shortly after the exchange claimed it was insolvent after a July 2014 hack.

While a class action was mounted at Cryptsy in the aftermath, the parties that brought the class action against the exchange didn’t list FLO as one of the coins you could redeem. According to Fiscella, there are 11.5 million FLO coins in one Cryptsy wallet that haven’t moved since February 2014, so he suspects not that the exchange’s founders ran away with the coins (because then they probably would have sold them off at some point) but that these coins could not be recovered by any party, the exchange or even law enforcement.

“It wasn’t worth anything at the time,” Fiscella said. “But FLO was once around 40 cents.”

At that price, the coins lost in Cryptsy would have been worth more than $4 million.

Since then Bittrex and Poloniex have also listed FLO (actually on the same day in March 2015), although Poloniex removed it shortly after the exchange was acquired by Circle. Poloniex didn’t give a reason for the delisting of FLO, though the coin was taken off the site with a handful of other altcoins.

While some thought the reason was low volume, Fiscella argues that other coins that were not delisted had lower volume than FLO, so really he speculates the delisting was about FLO’s low hashrate, which meant that FLO could be relatively easily 51% attacked.

This was right around the same time that Crypto 51, a website calculating the cost of 51% attacking (and then double spending) cryptocurrencies, appeared. Once that website was up, a number of cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin gold and vertcoin, began dealing with attacks.

And FLO, which was on the Crypto51 list with an attack price of only $300, was exploited on Bittrex in September 2018 and 25 bitcoins were stolen. The attack works like this: an anonymous account deposited hundreds of thousands of FLO coins into Bittrex, traded that FLO for the 25 bitcoins, withdrew the 25 bitcoins and then rewrote about 480 FLO blocks. In this way, the FLO deposit was reversed and the hacker was able to reclaim the hundreds of thousands of FLO they had initially deposited and was also out with the bitcoin as well. The wallet at the exchange then didn’t have the FLO to deposit into the accounts that had bought the altcoin.

When Bittrex’s system detected this, it shut down FLO trading for about a month, until the developers fixed the issue.

“And by fixed it, I mean we paid 700,000 FLO to Bittrex,” Fiscella said, adding:

“And by we, I mean me.”

Bittrex did not respond to requests for inquiry.

Joey used the FLO he had been mining since the beginning to pay back the exchange and other FLO developers set up a “Big Mac Fund” for Joey, where community members have donated about half of the 700,000 to Joey for his ongoing work on the protocol.

Before the attack happened, Fiscella had been discussing the issue with Alexandria’s Devon Reed, saying they needed to increase the hash rate before something like this happened. But it was too little, too late.

After the attack, the developers working on the protocol decided that FLO needed to add some additional security measures to the scrypt-based mining algorithm (an alternative to bitcoin’s SHA-256 algorithm) since scrypt-based mining made it easier for an attack to take place.

The developers decided to add an extra rule to the consensus algorithm, a so-called max reorg depth limit feature. This feature requires large reorganizations of the blockchain be rejected, and it’s a similar feature to that used by bitcoin cash and ravencoin.

If that sounds like something that could kill a cryptocurrency, make people so skeptical of its security and value that they sell off their bags and leave it to die, it’s definitely happened before.

But FLO has endured and actually, it’s developers learned from its mistakes and evolved.

“The people who have joined have not asked to be paid, they’re just activists or investors,” Fiscella told CoinDesk, adding: “Everyone joined organically and they’re using their skills and network to grow the community. I think that’s really important.”

Today, there are about 10 active mining pools and another 10 that sometimes mine FLO, which increases the robustness of the coin. Also in early 2018, FLO’s code was updated to Segregated Witness, a protocol change that adjusts the way data is stored, making blockchains more scalable.

Echoing Fiscella’s comments about FLO being successful because of its determined developer community, Buddenhage concluded:

“They all appear to know what they’re doing and why they’re here putting in the effort whenever/wherever life/work allows the opportunity being that it’s a side project and volunteerism keeping it going, perhaps slowly at times but always moving forward with dedication and purpose.”

FLO coins featured image via gunkworks.no; images in the article via Joey Fiscella

This news post is collected from CoinDesk