Polystachya Ottoniana

The EU's Antitrust Action against Intel

Galileo Blogs has a good post on the subject over at the New Clarion.

Phalaenopsis

Speal - a Paragon of Fitness

One of the areas in which I find inspiration and motivation is athletic performance. I've posted a few profiles or stories of pro athletes here, but today I wanted to highlight an amateur competitor. As a bit of background, when I started following the crossfit workouts, I'd compare my times to other posters'. Crossfit suggests scaling workouts according to bodyweight which is what I did. So after learning the movements, my typical experience was to do a workout in 30 minutes, then check the website and see that most people completed it in 20-25 minutes with a few standouts finishing in 18 minutes. Then there'd be the inevitable post: 12 minutes as RX'd (meaning unscaled) signed by "Speal" who happens to weigh 140 lbs. I never really doubted the veracity of the posts, but as they say, seeing is believing. There are a number of videos of Speal on the crossfit site, but for a taste of his fitness level, check out the videos of the crossfit game qualifiers: first wod, second wod, finals (the first and last are particularly impressive when you see the size of some of his competition). I'm definitely cheering for him to win the overall games.

Yaron Brook on Islamic Totalitarianism

I haven't been able to keep up with all the interviews ARI has been doing for PJTV and other media outlets (which is a great problem to have), but I did manage to see this interview by Dr. Brook which is fantastic. Check it out for yourselves!

Questioning the Value of Regulation

My editorial "Questioning the Value of Regulation" has been published by Pajamas Media. Please feel free to leave comments or to pass it on to others who might be interested. More comments and views help the article become one of the "most popular" on the site, thereby increasing its visibility -- and my chances of being published in the future.

Dendrobium Rainbow Dance 'Akazukin'

Dr. Bingswanger on the Beck Show

I very much enjoyed his appearance and hope he's invited back to do more of them.

Cause and Effect

George Will has a good column out on California's economic crisis and its cause: the high regulatory and taxation costs levied by the state coupled with an exploding government bureaucracy.

California’s business costs are more than 20 percent higher than the average state’s. If, since 1990, state spending increases had been held to the inflation rate plus population growth, the state would have a $15 billion surplus instead of a $42 billion budget deficit, which is larger than the full budgets of all but 10 states.

Since 1990, the number of state employees has increased by more than a third. In Schwarzenegger’s less than six years as governor, per capita government spending, adjusted for inflation, has increased nearly 20 percent.

Liberal orthodoxy has made the state dependent on a volatile source of revenues — high income tax rates on the wealthy. California’s income and sales taxes are among the nation’s highest, its business conditions among the worst, as measured by 16 variables directly influenced by the Legislature. Unemployment, the nation’s fourth highest, is 11.2 percent.

HT Instapundit

Fascism Comes to America

First it was Bush's team forcing Ken Lewis to takeover Merrill Lynch. Now it's Obama's aptly-named czars who are robbing and threatening Chrysler's bond-holders.

The brazenness of these attacks -- and the very muted protest they elicit -- suggest that full-blown fascism is a very likely possibility in the not too distant future.

I strongly suggest you make your voice heard before it's no longer possible.

Government Destroying Science

I found this discussion by Donald Miller to be quite informative. It shows the pernicious effect of having science regulated via the grant system. (Caveats: in my opinion he doesn't go far enough with his proposed solutions, and he seems to be associated with Lew Rockwell which makes me hesitate to even link to him.)

Fitness and Aging

I enjoyed this article on Willie Gault. It confirms some of the ideas which crossfit and Art de Vany espouse. I also liked Gault's attitude as expressed here:

In this steroid and HGH-obsessed age, it’s a fair question to ask: Is Gault on the juice? He said he’s clean, and his consistently swift performances the past 30 years without the injuries associated with drug use would argue against any chemical shortcuts.

“What would I have to gain?” he said. “I’m not getting any money from running. I do this because it keeps me in shape. This is the only body I get. I understood that in high school.” (emphasis added)

OActivist April 2009 Compilation

A summary of April's OActivity is now available. Great work everyone!