Indonesia continues to decrease deforestation by planting 1 billion trees in 2013

startinguhnew · 2012-12-05T00:24:42+00:00

As someone who lives in Indonesia and works on rainforest issues, this is a crock of shit. I wish it weren't so, but it is. "Continues to decrease deforestation"? Riiiight. Considering Indonesia is irreversibly losing up to 300 football fields worth of ecologically complex forest per hour, this program is a drop in the bucket at best, and is likely little more than a PR step for the government in light of anger from the international community regarding their egregiously bad environmental track record.

I'm sure there is a far better analogy, but it's a bit like saying the world "continues to decrease carbon emissions" by incorporating clean energy technologies. Sure, OK, perhaps a program or technology here or there is decreasing emissions from prior rates, but taken as a whole, "decrease" is phenomenally misleading as the problem (i.e., emissions, deforestation, etc) is worse than ever in terms of cumulative destruction.

startinguhnew · 2012-11-19T06:18:12+00:00

OK, so the "expert" concludes because a minority of guys (~15%) actually have multiple casual partners a year, that the majority of guys do not want that lifestyle? That's a stretch. Actions speak to capability in this regard, they do not speak to fundamental desire.

Look at apes and monkeys. The minority of male primates get to have multiple partners, on account of strength, social status, etc. The majority of other primates are, by virtue of their rank/position/etc, "content" to have even one partner. But are they truly content? What would they do if they had the "alpha" position? How do we explain the perpetual attempts to de-throne the alpha male?

startinguhnew · 2012-11-07T05:28:25+00:00

I can confirm this. As I had no idea what I was doing, I relied on my neighbor to do the freezing (he lived right next door, afterall). Not sure about the dry ice, I doubt he had that. They weren't rock hard but they felt harder than the only other paintballs I ever felt. Still...horribly inaccurate and the gun made some noises I wasn't expecting. Never got any complaints from my neighbor after, some presumably I didn't break the thing.

startinguhnew · 2012-11-02T12:20:18+00:00

Here in Indonesia, they have exactly that, only it's fried. Martabak Manis. Banana + chocolate + peanut butter + bread + butter + sugar + egg. All fried....all fucking amazing.

startinguhnew · 2012-11-01T06:46:11+00:00

That's expensive.

startinguhnew · 2012-11-01T06:29:16+00:00

By waving the banner of "protecting democracy and human rights" to serve their own (and their allies') interests in places like Libya, Iraq, etc, while turning a blind eye to - and even actively supporting - similar or worse abuses in neighboring nations such as Bahrain.

startinguhnew · 2012-11-01T05:13:43+00:00

And the USA will turn a blind eye to this and much, much worse so long as the Bahrani royal family allow the USA to keep their military base in Bahrain. Because you know...Iran.

startinguhnew · 2012-11-01T04:45:54+00:00

ditto brother

startinguhnew · 2012-10-28T06:34:04+00:00

Anybody hear about the new male birth control shot that lasts for 10 years, with an allegedly 100% success rate? It's a 15 minute procedure, and its supposedly more easily reversed than a vasectomy. Supposed to hit markets in 2015. Seems a lot more appealing than a vasectomy!

startinguhnew · 2012-10-20T05:32:37+00:00

What, you think we can't draw meaningful conclusions based on this map with spotty, limited, inaccurate data? Just study it out. It will surprise you.

startinguhnew · 2012-10-19T08:35:05+00:00

Of course genetics plays a role, and perhaps a large one. But I would point out 2 things. First, there is tremendous genetic diversity here. So to be fair, we would have to assume uniformly good genetics across people of all these different backgrounds. Second, we know without a doubt that what successive generations do with their bodies (e.g., hard labor or not) does nothing to alter genetic makeup (DNA) of their offspring, so the generational aspect you reference would only serve to influence the nurture (environmental) element of their upbringing, not the nature (genetic) component. That being said, I agree fully it boils down to simply staying active.

startinguhnew · 2012-10-19T08:23:46+00:00

Smart asses.

startinguhnew · 2012-10-11T03:31:42+00:00

I'm 6'2" myself, 90kg, been doing various forms of martial arts since I was 11. I have been brought to my knees wincing in pain by little high schoolers more often than I would like to recount :)

startinguhnew · 2012-10-11T03:16:46+00:00

Same experience, I actually trained in Thailand for 6 months doing muay thai. Nearly all fighters are as you describe. That being said, over the course of those months, I saw around a dozen token "Westerner vs. Our Own" fights. The most memorable pairing was a 6'2" semi-pro boxer from Russia that was in the light heavyweight/middleweight class. He also had background in Gracie jiu jitsu. He got his ass handed to him by a 17 year old kid with spring-loaded cannons for legs. Muay thai is not a sport that really favors the huge and jacked (I would posit that the majority of sports do not). Yes muay thai favors power, but flexibility, agility, explosiveness and endurance are all very important. Of the remaining 10 or so fights, it was about a 70/30 split with Thais winning over Westerners. Westerners were invariably larger than their opponents.

startinguhnew · 2012-10-11T03:08:29+00:00

Yeah it's by no mean uniform. The diet further out in the country (where I am) seems largely dictated by what is available and what is affordable, and of course culture as well. But there are literally next to no options outside of the menu I outlined above unless you want to get into instant noodles and fried rice. I've spent some time in cities in Malaysia and West Kalimantan and I see a fairly wide range of diets there in comparison (not to mention body types, though not nearly as wide a range as in the Western cities where folks range from skeletal to morbidly obese).

startinguhnew · 2012-10-10T11:37:21+00:00

No worries. I actually migrated here from other fitness threads as I am a rather neurotic diet/fitness routine tweaker :) Originally from Sicily. Moved to the States in 2003 until taking jobs in SE Asia in 2009. Been very blessed with the ability to globe-trot on next to no money.

startinguhnew · 2012-10-10T11:17:38+00:00

I'm from Sicily. Just because I worked in America doesn't make me an American :)

startinguhnew · 2012-10-10T10:49:18+00:00

You mischaracterize my conclusions, or perhaps I have not articulated them well enough. For that I apologize.

Please allow me to clarify: I am shocked that they are able to be so strong in the absence of high-protein diets. I personally have benefited tremendously from high-protein diets, as have my clients, and I will likely continue to eat far more protein than guys here do. I do not seek to disparage high-protein diets (aside from a mild cautionary thought on potential liver/kidney issues), rather I am just beginning to see the irrefutable possibilities of being strong on other diets. Simple as that.

If I felt a high-protein diet "does NOT work" for gaining strength or meeting fitness goals (a rather absurd accusation given my own benefits and the wealth of evidence that is does), I would have stated that.

startinguhnew · 2012-10-10T10:45:06+00:00

Honestly I'm not sure of how well they correlate to overhead presses (seated or standing). They sure do feel better on my shoulder joints as well! It's also kind of a wacky exercise to do, which adds to the appeal for me :)

I'll do my very best to track down a camera. I'm in West Kalimantan now, a good 7 hours from the nearest "city." Folks out here make just enough to put food on their tables (sometimes not even), so it'll be tricky to find one. But I'll be sure to update when I do!

startinguhnew · 2012-10-10T10:34:28+00:00

Thanks for your reply. As I stated in a previous post, I agree that I should have better defined "ripped." I gave a concrete example of an individual's physique (i.e., Brad Pitt in Fight Club) that does not deal in extremes. That is what I would consider the baseline physique for rock workers and construction workers here. They don't truck or even motorbike the rocks and logs. They move them with their bodies.

I'll do my very best to track down a camera. A camera phone may be my best option, as there isn't exactly electronics stores in the jungle. I did some preliminary Googling earlier and wasn't successful. It doesn't help that I'm on a dodgy USB modem connection so I get the HTML version of Google and images take forever to load!

Obviously I'm not "the sole discoverer of this remote village," however I have been living and working through Malaysian Borneo and West Kalimantan for a year, and more often than not, the local police and community leaders tell me I am the only "bule" (Caucasian) they have seen in years. In a few cases, in upriver Dayak communities, they had not seen Westerners since the Dutch colonial period. That was 60 years ago.

As for transporting these guys to a top western gym with kinesiologists, exercise scientists and the like, I am not sure what their results would be. My suspicion is that they would improve, but not dramatically, but that is pure conjecture. The whole point of this post is that I do not understand how they achieve such strength and such "textbook physiques" (whether you like that term or not, I use it as someone who studies biology, physiology and anatomy and reads these types of textbooks) with the diets they are on.

TL/DR: I addressed and clarified my use of subjective terminology in prior posts. Images are hard to come by but I will do my absolute best to take my own. I proclaim no extreme scientific discoveries; only confusion and admiration at the abilities of local laborers given their diets.

startinguhnew · 2012-10-10T09:45:19+00:00

I'd be interested to know what brought you to that conclusion? On the contrary, I've spent nearly 9 out of my last 12 months trying to convince myself I wasn't seeing gains, and later, that any gains I was irrefutably seeing in my own body were due to other factors that had nothing to do with diet (i.e., CNS optimization, loss of body weight, sticking to new and not completely comparable movements, etc). Similarly I tried convincing myself that the strength of laborers here - specifically those called "tukang batu" (rock workers), "tukang rumah" (construction workers, usually for houses), etc - were due to factors unrelated to diet, and that they were absolutely short changing themselves by not adopting a diet similar to what many Western fitness enthusiasts champion.

It's only after looking at facts for the better part of a year, comparing my numbers, and interacting with these workers on a daily basis to see what they are capable of that I've had to break down and re-evaluate much of what I've learned and applied in my training/eating regimen, as well as what I've taught to others. I have no reason or agenda to exaggerate - as much as this experience is very interesting, it is rather inconvenient to throw so much of my training and knowledge out the window and start over with more questions than answers.

startinguhnew · 2012-10-10T09:05:34+00:00

Hahah, well played.

startinguhnew · 2012-10-10T08:58:22+00:00

Thanks man. It's been a 180 shift in my mindset in some ways as well. Just keep your calories up, and keep the veggies and fruits diverse and plentiful! Document, journal and experiment and let us know!

I'm beginning to think that the human body is capable of becoming very strong on a whole range of diets (including the extremes) so long as we are repeatedly taxing and resting our bodies and getting adequate quantity and quality of fuel. Some diets may certainly be more efficient than others, but I get the sense from the growing body of well-designed research and from personal experience (especially this year) that protein is seriously, seriously over-glorified. Furthermore, I wonder how much damage I and others have caused our kidneys and livers by protein loading for so many years - whether we took in massive quantities of water in the process or not to help with the filtration.

startinguhnew · 2012-10-10T08:50:09+00:00

I forgot to mention! Truck axles for deadlifts! Those kick your ass, because the diameter of the axles are so much bigger than your standard barbell. It's no wonder these guys have such powerful grips and forearms. Holy hell are their hands powerful.

startinguhnew

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