Linda Pompeo (Worden)

Hello Betty.

Hopefully we all are on the more 'healthy diet'.  I sure can't eat what I used to and still get into my clothes.  Yes....healthy food is the goal.  Sounds like you have made a career out of researching the most beneficial ways to stay on top of eating and exercising.  If you have any great tips for us all, post some on line.

Glad to hear that you are feeling good and staying busy. The old age aches and pains sure catch up when you aren't looking.  

Marty Ellison

Come on - nobody remembers the guy who took our yearbook photos?  He had a shop on 152nd next to the hobby shop.

MRT

Al Peffley

Hi Betty,

I am an angina and plaque rupture/LAD (main artery to your heart) collapse [heart] attack survivor. I have never been exceptionally body mass/weight heavy, but I obviously have a history of artery plaque buildup problems and hypertension (high blood pressure) which is part of my genetic makeup.

Tom is right about refined sugar and many processed foods being harmful to a person's health. I will add to that advice that high fructose corn syrup is also bad for your health. As I said in an earlier post, carbohydrates in excess harm the body in many ways. If you are a diabetic you are very well versed on the perils of carbohydrates in ones diet.

As Tom also said our bodies are also not getting the natural minerals and oils needed to produce the enzymes and necessary fluids to properly digest our foods for energy and vital body chemistry functions.

One book Bonnie & I found useful to loose weight, lower our bad chlorestral, and reduce my blood pressure was written by two medical doctor specialists several decades ago. Both of us are allergic to statin drugs. and I pass out using ACE inhibitor blood pressure medicine.

The medical help book is called Protein Power by Michael R. Eades, M.D., and Mary Dan Eades, M.D. (a husband and wife medical team). The book was first printed in 1996 and the ISBN is 0-553-10183-8. My wife and I both had success with the common sense, health monitoring practices and diets described in the book. After starting the diet adjustment process you begin to read labels on food packaging. You will seek foods that are more natural and have low carbohydrate content (not calories content counting.)

By lowering your total food intake in a balanced and disciplined mannor, doing low joint impact exercises weekly, practicing meditation & prayer daily (I use the Jesus Prayer & the Lord's Prayer, some like Tom use Yoga & Prayer or other similar mental/spiritual "exercise" means), and getting enough deep sleep at night you are perfecting the essentials to achieve better body & soul health, for sure. Gregg shared some living activities that reduce stress and provide a feeling of personal achievement and inner peace.

Even if you decide not to try the diet regimen process decribed in the Protein Power book, you might learn something useful from the book. :o)

There are a lot of physical and mental factors that need to be considered when developing healthy living habits. Most of the time it's the simple adaption of changes and discipline to complete those life style changes that yield positive results in my life.

Another change I made was to reduce my skin exposure to industrial and household cleaning chemicals by always wearing high quality latex or nitrile gloves (high quality gloves bought at janitorial supply stores.) I no longer buy thin, inferior skin protection gloves at retail chain stores. Many people I know use 3-M style breathing protection respirators and saftey glasses, but then fail to buy good protective gloves and inexpensive Tyvek painter suits (sold at Home Depot or Lowes) to reduce the absorption of harmful and potentially lethal powders and liquid compounds into their body's porous skin membrane tissue. Tissue cancer and persistent nervous system malfunctions often are the body malfunction outcomes of poor or absent personal protection equipment and lax safety practices. Most people's skin gets thinner as they age.

“While we may not be able to control all that happens to us, we can control what happens inside us.”

― Benjamin Franklin

I hope this information I am sharing here helps you in your quest for better health and happiness in life.

Virginia Wolfe (Scheffer)

Several years ago we switched to a gluten-free diet along with fresh fruits and veggies.  Walk and bike everyday.  Probably the best health we have ever experienced.  Of course living on the beach in sunny Florida helps a bit too.  Cheers to a healthy lifestyle!

Tom Chavez

Virginia, if you have a younger brother named Dave, he and my brother Dave are good buddies if not best friends.

Al, nice amplification.

Linda, yoga asanas are great for old age aches and pains. Take the postures slow and easy, gradually stretch into them. Be conscious of your breath, don’t push so far that you can’t breath comfortably. I usually hold the pose for a certain number of breaths. Many asanas are aimed at the endocrine glands, to keep them in shape. I particularly like the “plow”, neckstand and headstand. I feel it gets blood into the brain and helps me keep mental gyroscopic-like orientation in any position.

Carol Tucker (Schnorr)

Marty, I believe his name was Parker at least that was the studio name.

Tom Chavez

The third stage of the hatha yoga system is asanas or postures. At our age you might want a teacher to guide you. I taught myself from a book called “Light on Yoga” by Iyengar. 

Steadiness over time is important. It may take months of daily practice to gradually ease into a pose; some postures may be impossible for some people. But, actually, stretchy ligaments and supple muscles are not the goal of yoga.

The word ‘yoga’ means to yoke or connect. ‘Ligio’ means to link, it is related to the word ligament. Religio means to reconnect, it is the Latin root of the word religion. So, yoga has a similar meaning to religion in the sense of connecting with God.

Most people think of yoga as a means to better health or sex life, but the real purpose of yoga is spiritual. The yogi trains his body and mind in order to sit tight and totally focus his mind within, in search of the ‘supersoul’ or the Lord in the heart.

Actually, yoga is not recommended in this age. It was effective in previous ages, when life was more peaceful, harmonious and natural. 

When Krishna described the yoga system to Arjuna, 5,000 years ago, he objected. “I think it is easier to control the wind than to control my restless mind.” The hatha yoga system is not a recommended process of self realization in this age.

Virginia Wolfe (Scheffer)

Love the pic's, so Tom.......which one is you?

Linda Pompeo (Worden)

I think about the time I tried the one up on the forearms  I would either do a face plant or be a permanent pretzel!

Al Peffley

Ah, to be in my 20's or 30's again with some "reasonable" body flexabilities. If I had known I would live this long I would have been much more careful participating in water sports activities.  Pre-running muscle stretch preparation excercises are pretty much the extent of my current body exercise capability with a torn left ACL, LOL! That "pretzel"-looking pose reminds me of competition gymnastics, Tom, which I never excelled at in my youth. Some of our classmates excelled at gymnastics and won state competitions to prove it under the talented coaching of Mr. Sarver. I broke both of my big toes improperly dismounting from the rings in high school gym class...

Linda Pompeo (Worden)

Al,

Ordered the book you recommended, Protein Power, from the library.  Sounds interesting since my husband has some of the same med allergies.

Diane Paulson

I do a few standing poses only, no kneeling or floor, due to joint issues. But sometimes if I am upset I find the yoga poses are very calming, almost miraculous in helping to focus on what matters.

Virginia Wolfe (Scheffer)

Yes Tom, our brothers have been best friends since High School, a mere 50 yrs ago.

Tom Chavez

Where is everybody?

As the story goes, Nobel prizewinning nuclear physicist Enrico Fermi, most famous for creating the first nuclear reactor, casually asked this question in 1950, long before scientists found planets outside of our solar system.

We have now discovered more than 3,000 planets, with more being found frequently. There must be trillions of planets in the universe, many of them far older than Earth, giving plenty of opportunity for advanced alien civilizations to develop.

Fermi realized that any civilization with modest rocket technology could colonize the entire galaxy within ten million years. That may sound long, but it's quite brief compared with the age of the galaxy, which is roughly ten thousand million years.

The Fermi Paradox asks the question, “Where are the aliens?”

Many answers have been suggested: space travel is too difficult, aliens skipped the earth, advanced civilizations are too new, intelligent life is killed off by climate change such as occurred on Venus (runaway greenhouse effect) or Mars (atmosphere lost into space), self destruction by warfare, etc.

In fact, we have records of contact with alien civilizations in the ancient Sanskrit literatures. These Vedic literatures are associated with the Hindu religion, which they far predate.

Carl Sagan certainly did not endorse Hinduism, but he noted: “Hindu religion is the … only religion in which the time scales correspond, no doubt, by accident, to those of modern scientific cosmology. Its cycles run from our ordinary day and night to a day and night of Brahma 8.64 billion years long. Longer than the age of the earth or the sun and about half of the time since the big bang. And there are much longer time scales still.”—Cosmos p. 213-214

Perhaps if Sagan had studied the Vedas in more detail, he would have realized that what he considers an “accident” was actually the result of contact with more advanced civilizations.

(Of course, extraterrestrial researchers would know for certain that aliens exist and are in our midst if they could just meet Gregg Wilson.)

Al Peffley

Gregg is a good guy, Tom. You just know how to pull each other's "chain" too well. I believe there are ET's and I am also open to alternate theories of particle physics. Proof of theories sometimes is elusive, but often is discovered as "unpleasant truths" are experienced when lab experiments fail or come out with unexpected outcomes. Scientists and technologists are constantly developing new instruments to look into the particulate levels of what matter consists of in many materials (electronics development and composite metals) and applications of unique hybrid cellular structures (organic LED's, nanotechnology drug advancements, etc.) I worked on several DARPA advanced development programs over the years.

There is a maturity scale for development (that NASA created), manufacturing/production, and the operational phases of all things -- cellular alterations, hardware, AI, and system software alike. Replication, materials availability, and human integration in the field all have maturity requirements to be met for anything to be useful and safe for human use. As one of my advanced technology assessment bosses use to say, "When there are no longer people running around and behind the operation of a device or system wearing white lab coats and making it work, then it might be ready for production and integration."

The two 737 MAX foreign airline accidents are a good example of fatal development, production, and fielding (training) immaturities. Airbus is politically using the accidents to recapture market share from Boeing. Boeing had a similar flight control software problem on the initial, fly-by-wire 747 models with Asian pilots trying to manually override new autopilot functions on takeoff or landings (poor implementation and crew training.) Some cultures have difficulty communicating and understanding new features on complex control functions. Teaching critical flight control procedures after lunch is also not a good idea...history repeats itself when we fail to study history and learn from it. The human operational failure studies research area is called "Trust in Automation".

I am glad to help, Linda. Talk to your doctor and be sure that there is nothing about the diet that might not fit your husband's individual body chemistry and special health diet needs. The diet is pretty Spartan to start out losing weight and to get your body conditioned to the new diet with greatly reduced carbs. Unlike some diets, it seeks a balance of natural food types that do not contain a lot of processed or natural food carbohydrates. Most "diet" foods marketed in food stores today have a lot of carbs and chemicals to enhance texture and flavoring. You can order your own copy of the book from Powell Books in Portland online, and have it mailed to your home, Powell Books often has new and used copies of Protein Power for sale. It comes in paperback or hard copy (we have bought both forms, but we found the paperback books are more compact for kitchen area storage and use.)

Gregg Wilson

Tom,

How did you know I have antennae?!

Al,

Chemical rocketry obviously gets you to the Moon and perhaps Mars (doubtful).

I have described in my book how to make polydeuterium (once you have deuterium). Polydeuterium, formed in a rod, could be ignited on its surface by neutrons - maybe from plutonium. On a weight for weight basis, polydeuterium would release ~50 times as much energy as plutonium. And there is no radioactive debris. The waste is hydrogen. This would give us the ability to go anywhere in the solar system.

But it would not give us the ability to go to another star. I hypothesize that a ship, which could ride the gravitational "wind", would get us to other stars. Such a system would depend entirely on the geometry and composition of the ship. Much like a sailing ship at sea.

Have we been visited by extraterrestrials? I give that 50/50.

Betty Weiks (Rickard)

Love those pictures, Tom!  I've never seen our yellow lab do that move!  Lol! I am not into Yoga as a spiritual practice. I have used the movements and poses, just not as you were suggesting.  I do believe in purposeful movement, and daily exercise. 

I agree though,  that it is important to recognize we are more than just our bodies. If I may, let me elaborate. The program that I coach isn't just about weight management.  It's foundations are based on six macro habits of health, and from each of those macro habits come other micro habits of health that support them. The macro habits are:  habits of healthy weight management, habits of healthy eating and hydration, habits of healthy motion, habits of healthy sleep, habits of a healthy mind, and habits of healthy surroundings. Every day we each make thousands of choices that lead to those six basic healthy habits.  For example, if I'm beginning to work on the habit of healthy motion, I might start with taking short breaks each hour to move my body.  It could be deep knee bends or just simply taking a five minute walk. Gradually over time each of those micro habits build up to make the habit of healthy motion a part of my regular daily practice. We call that "installation" of a habit. If I'm working on the habits of a healthy mind, I would strive to develop those micro habits that would contribute to mind health. Scientists at Brown University found that when rats were trained to accomplish a new motor skill, their brians changed over the course of the training.  The synapses of the brain cells that were used actually grew. Our brains need a workout just as much as our bodies do. Examples of micro habits to exercise are brains may be as simple as reading, writing, word searches, crossword puzzles, or sudoko puzzle games. With the increase of Alzheimer's in our generation we would all be wise to work on this one.

Of all that makes up who I am as an individual, the aspect most significant to me is my spirital health. That's because I believe that the God of creation, who set the stars and planets into our highly complex universe desires to have a personal relationship with me. What an incredible thought! Knowing that gives me hope for the life that is coming next. I became a believer as a very young child, but it was in high school that my beliefs were firmly put into place. It was there I became active in a club on campus called 'Youth for Christ." That's when I learned that Jesus was interested in every detail of my personal life. Not just me of course, but all of us.  It hasn't always been easy for me.  I've had a lot of bumps in the road, believe me, but each twist and turn and bump has been with the knowledge that Jesus is walking with me.  

I know that was a bit of a ramble, but hopefully there is something of worth for all of you who took the time to read this. (At least you were doing something for a healthy mind!) I'd be happy to dialogue with anyone who would be interested in knowing more.

Al Peffley

Hello Again Gregg,

Actually, aerospace company teams working for NASA studied all of your ideas for transfer and lander spacecraft stage main propulsion system options during the Space Exploration Initiative (SEI) studies conducted around 1990. Nuclear-powered manned spacecraft concepts were the preferred spacecraft advanced designs for travel to Mars because they greatly reduced travel time from earth. The nuclear power systems (three different proposed nuclear system options) also provided more than ample power for life support systems in transfer stages and the reusable Mars landers. Some of our Boeing team's proposed large lander concepts had wings since Mars has an atmosphere. The designers would develop their vehicle concepts on CAD computers listening to the Dire Straights MTV song (LOL!) I worked on the SEI for Dr. Dana Andrews (PhD in astrophysics) from late 1989 to 1991 on NASA Huntsville R&D contracts. G. H. W. Bush kept the Reagan era SEI contracts going after being elected as POTUS. He was visiting NASA Huntsville the same week the Gulf War started. President Bush gave a speech at the NASA facility. My colleges and I attended President Bush's speech outside of an Apollo era hanger with our contractor teams and NASA customer. It was an interesting week for all of us working SEI, to say the least.

The concept of using sails on large unmanned spacecraft probes snd freighters was proposed by Dr. Dana Andrews (whose son and daughter-in-law own Andrews Space company.) I worked for Dana at Boeing and with him at Andrews Space for NASA Huntsville Manned [Space] Transportation Systems (MTS) offices after retiring from Boeing Phantom Works.

NASA has looked at extracting hydrogen and oxygen from the Moon's soil to fuel chemical propulsion spacecraft based and launched from moon outpost "spaceports", Some Moon spaceport facility concepts used spent Shuttle External Tanks for work and storage capsules at the Moon's outpost work sites. Of course, the Space Shuttle Program is now extinct and we are regressing back to an Apollo-like rocket system instead of a reusable, two stage to orbit or single stage to orbit national system. I worked on NASA and USAF contracts for all of those systems from 1977 to 1997 at one time or another. I am NOT a propulsion expert or rocket scientist by any definition of aerospace job skill capability.

Gregg Wilson

Hi Al,

The big blindness is that deuterium can be fissioned and supply an incredible amount of energy. They think that deuterium undergoes nuclear fusion to release an incredible amount of energy. They look upon the hydrogen bomb as a fusion bomb. No. It is a fission bomb, using a massive amount of deuterium. As long as they have it backwards, we ain't going nowhere.

I know that there are a large number of brilliant, very hard working engineers and scientists. But, if they start with the wrong premise, they are forced to figure out complicated ways to get manned rocketry to Mars, using chemical fuels.

Such an endeavor requires that the mass of the fuel to be "~99%" of the mass of the rocket ship. Using polydeuterium for fuel means that "~1%" of the mass of the rocket is fuel.

Using plutonium as the fuel still requires a huge amount of hydrogen as the expelling gas. It would be a step forward but it is politically unacceptable.

Using polydeuterium, the breakdown product is hydrogen, the expelling gas.

I am going to skip yoga and continue to chop up trees for firewood.

Tom Chavez

Al, you are right, Gregg is a good guy. He’s my old roomie from UW. His father drove us the first time we moved into the dorms at UW and treated us to dinner. The last time I met Gregg was at the U when he returned from the Navy. I kid him because that’s easier than delving into the details of his philosophy / science. Your comment has inspired me to read his book and give a more respectful reply. His book is dedicated to Tom Van Flandern. I’m studying his ideas now to more fully understand where Gregg is coming from.

Tom Chavez

Gregg, according to the Vedas, travel to other worlds is definitely possible, but requires subtle technology involving higher consciousness and the principle of mind over matter. We can’t live happily on other planets without a body adapted to conditions there. From what I read, astronauts are very uncomfortable living in space suits. What to speak of living where there is no air or water, or where it rains sulphuric acid. Count me out.

Tom Chavez

Betty, I whole-heartedly agree with you. We are eternal spiritual beings in temporary physical bodies. The universe appears to be a place of implacable mathematical laws, but behind the external façade of matter there is personality and consciousness on every level.

In the Vedic frame of reference Jesus is an acharya—one who teaches by example—a pure perfect Son of God. He lived his life selflessly for the sake and benefit of others. One who follows the example of Jesus cultivates love and devotion for the supreme Father, and can become pure and perfect. That is the goal of human life.

Bhaktivedanta Swami taught that the name Christ comes from the Greek Christos, which is related to the Sanskrit “krista”, the evocative form of Krishna. Krishna is a name for God the Father in Sanskrit.

God has all opulences—all beauty, fame, knowledge, power, wealth and renunciation. Yet, he lacks one thing—our love and devotion. We have free will to love the temporary things of this mundane world or we can turn our loving propensity toward God and cultivate our eternal relationship with Him. Unfortunately, most people have only vague or misguided ideas of who or what God is. How can we love someone we don’t know?

Genesis says: “God created humans in his own image, male and female created He him.” That is a hint.

In India there is a village named Vrindavan where all the inhabitants are devotees of the Supreme Lord. They believe that Krishna took birth there over 5,000 years ago where, disguised as a cowherd boy, he performed many superhuman pastimes. Some of the cowherd villagers (the cowherd boys) were Krishna’s friends, some were his superiors (parents and elders), some were his servants.

Spiritual authorities say that the highest perfection of love was exhibited by the cowherd damsels, who were romantically attracted to Krishna. Of all these feminine devotees, Radharani is considered the epitome of devotion. We can learn much about love of God by studying the lives of the inhabitants of Vrindavan, as described in the Tenth Canto of the Vedic classic Srimad-Bhagavatam.

Here is a picture of Radha and Krishna in Vrindavan, as they are worshipped today in the Krishna Balarama Temple in Raman Reti, Vrindavan.

Tom Chavez

Gregg, I’m learning about the theories of Astronomer Tom Van Flandern. Of course, in science theories may be discarded or modified over time as more facts become known. So, before I go further, please let me know which of his ideas you consider relevant and which, if any, should be discarded or modified. Please add any clarification or information as you like.

1. Exploded planet hypothesis: caused by run-away nuclear reaction of uranium core, and/or the absorption of heat from gravitons.

2. Mars was a moon of Planet V before it exploded.

3. The human species originated on Mars.

4. Le Sage’s theory of gravitation is accurate, and is based upon an omni-directional flux of invisible superluminal particles (which I will refer to as “gravitons”, if that is all right).

5. Gravitons could be harnessed as a limitless source of free energy.

6. Gravitons could provide faster than light propulsion for spacecraft.

7. Gravity propagates at least twenty billion times faster than light, or possibly infinitely fast.

8. The Mars feature known as the “face at Cydonia” and other Martian geological features were definitely produced by intelligent extra-terrestrials.

9. The extra-terrestrials were probably the inhabitants of Planet V, which exploded to form the asteroid belt.

10. Planet V exploded about 3.2 million years ago.

11. The Big Bang model of the universe is wrong. A steady-state cosmology is correct.

12. The field interpretation of general relativity is correct and allows faster-than-light propagation in forward time. The geometric interpretation violates the causality principle.

Al Peffley

Gregg,

Here is a nuclear power systems in space Presidential Memorandum about launching space nuclear systems on government or commercial launch systems signed by Trump last month (I think this is Really Cool!):

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/presidential-memorandum-launch-spacecraft-containing-space-nuclear-systems/

Any spaceborne nuclear power and/or propulsion systems carried on conventional earth-to-orbit rocket launchers that can catastrophically fail after launch (release hazardous RAI materials within the earth's atmosphere) has been the greatest safety concern of the US Federal Government in the past, and obviously today. Containment methods have been developed for spacecraft nuclear power RTG's and such.

A national aerospace industry team I worked on and NASA in a commersial space transportation market study looked at making a business case of using commercial rocket systems that could transport and deposit spent nuclear fuel rods and other residual radioactive materials onto the moon or large astroids. Launch system catastrophic failure risk was even of greater concern in the study if a launch system critical event released hazardous radioactive material resdiuals from reactors with a half life many times longer than the original uranium or plutonium unspent fuel parent materials. Rocket launchers (expendable or resusable) will fail -- it's not "if" but "when", and "how often" over the expected lifecycle of a regularly used system? If propulsion fuel control and containment is not the ultimate failsafe problem, then it's usually a human interaction failure induced into the command & control system during launch preparation and/or operation. Space Shuttle Commander J.O. Creighton once told me (quote): "If you are sitting in the Shuttle cockpit seat strapped in on your back at full thrust ignition before release and you are not ready to pee your pants in your space suit, then you don't really understand what is going on behind you!"

Some agency (DoE Los Alamos or Sandia Labs?) and physics academic institution team (like Cal Berkley?) has obviously made some advancement in space nuclear power and propulsion systems technology. It looks like the White House is preparing the way for a demo test of the new system in an insitu space environment fairly soon.

SYSTEM INTEGRATION QUERIES:

Will the polydeuterium fuel need a seed agent or small explosive device to start the reaction? If the power output of a polydeuterium system is as efficient and high as you say, then is there a special housing (plenum chamber) design requirement and transmission line/path materials and shielding structures system requirement to handle very high joules or megajoules output levels?, and what about control mechanisms to regulate power levels, idle, and/or halt potential excessive or unwanted power output levels during space mission flight phases?   [Gregg -- This line of questioning of mine reminds me of the past Mr. Peabody & Sherman cartoons and the latest movie (have not seen the latest movie yet, but will buy the DVD) - LOL!]

Mr. Peabody & Sherman Movie PR Graphic Source: rogerthomasreviews.wordpress.com

Gregg Wilson

Tom,

Here are my simple answers:

1. Exploded planet hypothesis: caused by run-away nuclear reaction of uranium core, and/or the absorption of heat from gravitons.

No.

2. Mars was a moon of Planet V before it exploded.

Mars is a moon, probably of Planet V. It has no nuclear core and no magnetic field. We don't know how or why Planet V exploded.

3. The human species originated on Mars.

I very much doubt this.

4. Le Sage’s theory of gravitation is accurate, and is based upon an omni-directional flux of invisible superluminal particles (which I will refer to as “gravitons”, if that is all right).

Le Sage's theory is basically correct.

5. Gravitons could be harnessed as a limitless source of free energy.

Perhaps, but we have no idea how.

6. Gravitons could provide faster than light propulsion for spacecraft.

Yes.

7. Gravity propagates at least twenty billion times faster than light, or possibly infinitely fast.

Not infinitely fast. Twenty billion times faster than light is probably a good estimate.

8. The Mars feature known as the “face at Cydonia” and other Martian geological features were definitely produced by intelligent extra-terrestrials.

Maybe.

9. The extra-terrestrials were probably the inhabitants of Planet V, which exploded to form the asteroid belt.

A reasonable assumption. We don't know why Planet V exploded, but it did.

10. Planet V exploded about 3.2 million years ago.

Possibly. When is a guess.

11. The Big Bang model of the universe is wrong. A steady-state cosmology is correct.

Correct.

12. The field interpretation of general relativity is correct and allows faster-than-light propagation in forward time. The geometric interpretation violates the causality principle.

Correct. More important is existence exists. No alternative.

Oh. Marines, not Navy.