Chi Running

Danny Dreyer's explanation of the healthiest and happiest way to run has been adopted by many runners throughout the world, and the less-effort-more-results approach has also been popularized by Terry Laughlin's Total Immersion technique for swimming. In my quest to survive a triathlon last year, I read both of these volumes, and managed to learn a lot about optimizing my efforts on land and in the water.

In Chi Running, Dreyer highlights the reasons that he thinks runners get injured and then talks about a mindset that can revolutionize anyone's running technique. After that, he describes the ways to actually change your running form, focusing on good posture, a slight forward lean, a consistent pelvic rotation, and a smaller-than-expected stride. After that, he goes into some strategies for learning these changes, some specialized running (i.e. hills, treadmills), and some trouble-shooting techniques. After that, he gets a little ethereal for me and talks about the actual flow of chi and how that impacts not only your running, but also your life overall.

I like this new approach and Dreyer makes some good points that seem to help, though I haven't yet found the dedication to really learn it. I am a little bothered by the commercialization of both Chi Running and Total Immersion, but - hey, if it works...

God is Not Great

Christopher Hitchens is one of those guys who takes his atheism seriously. My take on his take, however, is that he is much more anti-religion than anti-God. He spends a lot of time in this book talking about the way that religion has been used to manipulate people through the ages, and how people always manage to be oblivious to the manipulation as it goes on.

Among other things, he talks about:

• Religious wars and how religion has been used as an excuse for everything from regional conquest to terrorism
• How religion - especially when coupled with a lack of eduction - can be positively dangerous to people's health (especially women's health)
• The contrast of this world and a world that would seem to have been designed intelligently
• The literal and violent rules of the Old Testament
• The lack of non-Biblical evidence for Jesus's existence
• The ridiculous similarities between the three great monotheistic religions and the irony of their epic warring
• The fact that some things that people profess strong belief in are not present at all in the Bible (i.e. Dante's depiction of Hell)
• The interesting-at-best origins of some religions and denominations (he especially picks on Joseph Smith)
• How odd it is that some religions can just end
• The "Samaritan" principle... a point on which Mr. Hitchens and the New Testament authors actually agree... the fact that being religious doesn't necessarily make you a good person
• How interesting it is that we Westerners have such a fascination with the "peaceful" Eastern religions, when we do not understand just how corrupt (like Christianity throughout the years) they also are
• The impact of religious teaching on young people - and not just about jihad either... think about how much the way you are raised impacts the way you think as an adult - overly religious teaching to children can cause a lot more than missed experiences for those who change their thinking in adulthood
• How rational, scientific people continue to cling to religion, even though they no longer need it to explain the world to them

At the end, the book gets a little meandering and preachy, but you can tell that this guy is serious about what he anti-believes. He makes some very interesting points, and I daresay that some religious folks might even agree with much of his treatise.

I learned a lot reading this, but I am not sure exactly how much I can trust what I read. I tend to feel that adamant atheists are being a little hypocritical... I mean, even the astrophysicists can't tell us how the matter that made up the high energy ball that exploded in the Big Bang came to be. Is time a giant loop? Did it begin somewhere? When? Why? Is there a why? Religion has always attempted to answer the unanswerable questions, and has demanded faith when reason would not suffice. The thing that bothers me is the certainty of the devout - how can you be so sure? When does faith cross the line from devotion to demand... and when does anti-faith do the same?

Three Cups of Tea

So I saw someone else’s review of this book and it mentioned that the book didn’t really tell reader anything they didn’t already know… my experience with this story couldn’t be further from that comment. I’m not really one to keep up with current events, and my knowledge of history is sketchy at best, so having some context (even if it is slightly biased) about the warring factions and newly-minted terrorist groups that move throughout Pakistan and Afghanistan was eye-opening to me. From a political perspective, the thing that struck me most was Mortenson and Relin’s matter-of-fact explanation for how America’s Public Enemy Number One came to be – just an angry young man from Saudi Arabia with the finances and manpower to support a heartless and violent attack on anyone who dared oppose him. From a humanitarian perspective, there are so many amazing things about story, including:

1. The desolate conditions of many of the towns and villages in north eastern Pakistan and Afghanistan – and even more so, the conditions in the nearby refugee grounds
2. The power of a relatively little amount of money to effect such dramatic change in hundreds of lives
3. One young man’s life-long obsession with helping the neediest children in a remote region of the world
4. The altruism of donors

As far as commentary on the human condition, the willingness of uneducated, illiterate people in desolate lands to sacrifice their time, money, and health to ensure an educational opportunity for their children absolutely floored me. First, there is the remarkable fact that these people are even able to recognize the role that education plays in a child’s future. Beyond that, the degree to which they are willing to sacrifice to make that education happen – all the while people in our own country are throwing away their free opportunities – is heart-warming, and it also the engine that makes Mortenson’s work possible.

Though Relin’s self-admitted love of Mortenson is almost nauseating at times, this is an amazing story that will make you think about the difference you can make and the far-reaching effects of our actions on the international stage. Check it out, and maybe it will even move you to help!

The Year of Living Biblically

This review brings two exciting news items: 1) I finally finished a book! It has been far too long, and I only have my ultra-short commute to blame. 2) I wonder if the book's author might ever read my review? As a self-confessed self-googler and regular amazon-checker, there is the slightest chance that he might actually come across my thoughts on the topic.

As for the book itself, I can say that I am very impressed and would recommend it to anyone who is interested in Bible-based religion and how it affects our society. This book is a chronicle of AJ Jacobs' "Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible" and focuses on his year-long attempt to follow all of the rules in Bible, no matter how ridiculous they may seem. Throughout the course of the year, he grows a monstrous beard, switches to wearing all-white, attaches tassles to his clothes, almost sacrifices a chicken, visits the Creation Museum, parties with Ultra-Orthodox Jews, and goes to a Bible Study at Jerry Falwell's church. And those are just the tangible experiences... through this project, he also learns to truly rest (sometimes), to put faith in something bigger, to truly respect other religions (including the fanatical ones), and even becomes a better person.

The greatest message that AJ/Jacob learned from his experience is that there is no such thing as taking the Bible 100% literally... those who argue against interpretation are - at some level - interpreting the stories also. He also comes to the conclusion that there is nothing wrong with appreciating parts of the Bible but not all of it - he eventually decides that he can take many of the lessons from the Good Book without becoming Ultra Orthodox or Fundamentalist.

From my perspective, AJ manages to examine the ins and outs of many takes on the Bible with an open mind and an open heart. His stories are peppered with laugh-out-loud humor and he manages to describe even the most outlandish situations with objectivity.

I once recommended this book for a book club analysis, but I have to wonder if its readers would be as objective as its author. In any case, I look forward to going back in time and seeing what AJ has to say about Britannica!

AAAS Science Roundup

This month's edition features a discussion on my future research topic:

Color and Cognition Color is a fundamental aspect of human perception, and its effects on cognition and behavior have intrigued generations of researchers. Previous research on how color affects cognition, however, has yielded inconsistent findings. For example, some research suggests that red enhances cognitive task performance as compared with blue or green, while other studies suggest the opposite. In a Report in the 27 Feb 2008 Science (published online 5 Feb), Mehta and Zhu sought to reconcile this inconsistency (see the ScienceNOW story by G. Miller). In a series of experiments, the researchers manipulated the background color on a computer screen while volunteers performed a variety of tasks. For those tasks that required attention to detail -- such as recalling words from a list or proofreading addresses -- participants performed better when the background was red, as opposed to blue or neutral. Blue, on the other hand, stimulated creativity. When subjects were asked to name as many uses for a brick as they could think of in a minute, they came up with more creative responses and earned higher creativity scores from a jury of their peers when the background was blue. The researchers surmise that the results reflect the different associations conjured by red and blue. Red often alerts us to danger or mistakes, signaling the need to be vigilant. In contrast, blue is often associated with peace and tranquility, which may put people in a more creative mindset.

Someday, when I publish my ground-breaking dissertation, we will all understand the quantitative impact of aethestics on usability!

Being Informed Doesn't Always Make Us Productive

Though I've read this in many forms many times, I can never find it in my heart to take the advice seriously: stop checking your email. I suppose this could apply to any sort of information that is obsessively reviewed - your friend's feeds, your reader application (which is, by the way, where I was reading about this: http://www.technotheory.com/2009/02/little-bit-of-productivity-great-bit-of-happiness), and most definitely your email. Lots of folks encourage us to be smarter about staying informed - pick and choose the things you spend your time on and the people you spend your time with.

Easier said than done... though if I listened, maybe I'd have more time to read actual books?

Jitterbug Perfume

For the last book club that I actually attended, we read Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins. This was my first foray into Tom Robbins books, so I guess it is not surprising that I was pretty surprised. It sort of reminded me of when I first read Christopher Moore and all of a sudden a very normal story of intrigue and oceanography turned into an epic adventure of the Whale People.

So it was a similar feeling when this medieval adventure introduced us to Pan; intermingled with modern-day characters in Paris, Seattle, and New Orleans; and tried to convince us that eternal life is achievable if you just focus on it hard enough.

In any case, this was a very interesting mix of the unbelievable, the overly-sexual, and some moral lessons about life. While it is interesting to think of the implications of a life that never ends - from the mundane business of avoiding detection to the truly deep question as to the purpose of life - it is hard to take that lesson from a guy who is also touting the sexy stinkiness of Pan and describing the nearly-lesbian adventures of two bartenders who can't seem to get it together.

A very interesting book, but it left me with more of a stunned look on my face than a smile. :?

PS: This book also made for a very interesting-tasting theme dinner!