The exercise to do to get smart

This clip includes the intro music for all five seasons of “Get Smart” and the 1989 reunion movie:

Fun fact: “Get Smart” is my father’s favorite comedy.

I have learned the hard way that I have to exercise to think clearly and function well, and these rewards are so obvious to me that I dread missing my exercise classes and time on the cross-trainer.

So I was delighted to come across a piece in the New York Times about what kind of exercise to do to, well, get smart — here are the highlights, but I recommend reading the whole piece (boldfacing mine):

For some time, researchers have known that exercise changes the structure of the brain and affects thinking. Ten years ago scientists at the Salk Institute in California published the groundbreaking finding that exercise stimulates the creation of new brain cells. But fundamental questions remain, like whether exercise must be strenuous to be beneficial. Should it be aerobic? What about weight lifting? And are the cognitive improvements permanent or fleeting?

Other recent studies provide some preliminary answers. In an experiment published in the journal of the American College of Sports Medicine, 21 students at the University of Illinois were asked to memorize a string of letters and then pick them out from a list flashed at them. Then they were asked to do one of three things for 30 minutes — sit quietly, run on a treadmill or lift weights — before performing the letter test again. After an additional 30-minute cool down, they were tested once more. On subsequent days, the students returned to try the other two options. The students were noticeably quicker and more accurate on the retest after they ran compared with the other two options, and they continued to perform better when tested after the cool down. “There seems to be something different about aerobic exercise,” Charles Hillman, an associate professor in the department of kinesiology at the University of Illinois and an author of the study, says.

Similarly, in other work by scientists at the University of Illinois, elderly people were assigned a six-month program of either stretching exercises or brisk walking. The stretchers increased their flexibility but did not improve on tests of cognition. The brisk walkers did.

Why should exercise need to be aerobic to affect the brain? “It appears that various growth factors must be carried from the periphery of the body into the brain to start a molecular cascade there,” creating new neurons and brain connections, says Henriette van Praag, an investigator in the Laboratory of Neurosciences at the National Institute on Aging. For that to happen, “you need a fairly dramatic change in blood flow,” like the one that occurs when you run or cycle or swim. Weight lifting, on the other hand, stimulates the production of “growth factors in the muscles that stay in the muscles and aren’t transported to the brain,” van Praag says.

What then of the Taiwanese mice, all of which ran? According to the investigators, mice on a running wheel “usually show little improvements in the conventionally defined” measurements of fitness, like elevated muscle strength and improved aerobic capacity. They enjoy themselves; they don’t strain. Those on the treadmill, meanwhile, are forced to pant and puff. Jen says researchers suspect that treadmill running is more intense and leads to improvements in “muscle aerobic capacity,” and this increased aerobic capacity, in turn, affects the brain more than the wheel jogging.

Does this mean we should relinquish control of our workouts to a demanding coach? Jen cautions against assuming human bodies work exactly like those of rats. But there are lessons from his work. “It would be fair to say that any form of regular exercise,” he says, if it is aerobic, “should be able to maintain or even increase our brain functions.”

For stronger bones — jump!

Thanks to Little Miss Attila, I was browsing the New York Times and came across a piece on new research on what exercise is best for making your bones stronger — the last I heard it was weight-lifting and weight-bearing exercises, but newer research has a different recommendation:

… the current state-of-the-science message about exercise and bone building may be that, silly as it sounds, the best exercise is to simply jump up and down, for as long as the downstairs neighbor will tolerate. “Jumping is great, if your bones are strong enough to begin with,” Dr. Barry says. “You probably don’t need to do a lot either.” (If you have any history of fractures or a family history of osteoporosis, check with a physician before jumping.) In studies in Japan, having mice jump up and land 40 times during a week increased their bone density significantly after 24 weeks, a gain they maintained by hopping up and down only about 20 or 30 times each week after that.

If hopping seems an undignified exercise regimen, bear in mind that it has one additional benefit: It tends to aid in balance, which may be as important as bone strength in keeping fractures at bay. Most of the time, Dr. Barry says, “fragile bones don’t matter, from a clinical standpoint, if you don’t fall down.”

Uhhh — what do you suppose they did to get the mice to jump?

Gone to lynch

Huzzah, Jenny, The Bloggess, whom I love pure and chaste from afar, is back from Japan. Before watching this video, I have to caution you that there is a reason I made up a new Internet acronym for her: PFNFNDHITN (Pee First, No Food, No Drinks, Have Inhaler and Tissues Nearby):

Thank you, my dear Jenny, for making me laugh until tears ran down my face and forget for a few minutes how worried I am about my father. I’m up late to watch over him tonight. (He seems better now and if I don’t go to bed soon I will suck at watching over him tomorrow.)

Carrie Prejean made 15-20 sex videos and she was 20 at the time

MSNBC, 11/13/2009:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

When Carrie Prejean dropped her lawsuit against the Miss California USA pageant last week, she acknowledged making only one video of herself masturbating and claimed she was 17. Saying she was 17 is convenient because it means distributing the video or possessing it is illegal because she was a minor. However, this claim forced her ex-boyfriend to go on the record to TMZ, release several photos and say she was 20-years-old in the videos. Oh, and apparently there are 15-to-20 Carrie Prejean sex videos, rather than just one. The money quote from the ex-boyfriend, “She’s not the girl she’s presenting herself to be.”

I began predicting on May 1 that Prejean lacked integrity and would make her supporters sorry. The only thing Carrie Prejean truly believes is that she can say and do anything to get what she wants.

The following is from a post I wrote on June 10 after Carrie Prejean was fired as Miss California USA:

I attended the NOM [National Organization for Marriage] press conference yesterday [April 30] and sat just a few feet away from the podium when Ms. Prejean spoke from prepared remarks. She is not in a class with Ann Coulter either for brains or beauty. My impression of her personality is that the more people get to know her, the harder it’s going to be for her to get a date or find employment.

(snip)

I doubt that the National Organization for Marriage will be interested in Ms. Prejean for very much longer since she no longer has her crown and lost it by her own actions. After posing as a martyr for her integrity, it turns out that she committed career suicide through her lack of integrity. But, if NOM does continue to work with her — and they have some serious integrity issues of their own — I predict she will make them sorry sooner rather than later. I feel certain she has no idea what she did that was wrong. The School of Hard Knocks is in session for this young woman and it is not going to be pretty.

Ace of Ace of Spades HQ is classy enough to admit he feels used:

On the other hand: She knew all this stuff was out there, she knew it was coming out, etc., and yet I and many of her supporters have been impressed into duty as her defenders through deception.

Because it wasn’t ever true that there was no reason, save anti-Christian animus, to kick her out of the pageant organization. A masturbation tape is, well. I’m not really offended by it but other pageant-hopefuls have gotten the boot for the same thing, and even a lot less.

So what do I feel about her? I feel she chumped me in order to advance her own legal interests. And there’s nothing hypocritical about that, and nothing about Christianity about that, and nothing about sex about that.

It’s just dishonest, and mercenary, and I don’t appreciate it.

So, that’s that. Yes, she got a raw deal. Yes, a lot of other pageant hopefuls have sexual skeletons in the closet that never come out because the gay left in the media isn’t determined to bring them down, by hook or by kink

But still, for me, I’m very much done defending her. It’s not like it cost me a great deal to defend her — quite the opposite; taking a popular position among your political confreres is never really a costly position — but still, I feel a bit taken for a ride, and don’t really want to defend her any further.

Whether she has anything more interesting to say is up to her. But the Perez Hilton/pageant stuff? I really don’t care to hear how unfair it all was anymore. It was unfair, and a book deal was gotten out of that; that’s enough. A book deal can bandage up a lot of wounds.

And Allahpundit quotes Ace, too, and then ponders:

I’m wondering if he’s [Ace] in the minority on that or if sentiment is spreading that her defenders, in some way, have been had. I agree with him (and said so yesterday) that the left’s “hypocrisy” charge is overblown, for the simple reason that Christians don’t claim to be perfect. On the contrary, it’s the fact that they’re imperfect and prone to “stray from the path,” as we all are, that draws them towards redemption in the faith. There does, however, come a point where you stray so far from the path or so frequently that your commitment to it comes into question.

My next prediction is that it will be established as fact that Carrie Prejean’s mother is a lesbian, which will prove that she sold out her own mother for personal gain and will cast doubt on her assertion that her parents raised her to believe that marriage should only be “opposite” — in other words, just as her ex-boyfriend says, and just as I’ve said, she is not the girl she has presented herself to be.

Update, 11/15/09, Sun.: Welcome, Little Miss Attila readers, and thank you, Joy, for the link and kind words — also your quote of Tommy Christopher, who put his finger on how supporters of same-sex marriage should have responded to the National Organization for Marriage and their use of Prejean.

As for Darleen, I really do not understand why anyone thinks Prejean’s attack on gay marriage was brave or non-PC in the wake of its defeat in California — and part of the point of the pageant interview is to determine whether the contestant is able to make intelligent, diplomatic and inoffensive replies to controversial questions. Prejean’s remarks against gay marriage at the pageant were sure crowd-pleasers and triumphantly cruel and divisive  — but the fact that she was rubbing salt in a wound that was so large and so fresh when she could have given a diplomatic reply without compromising her beliefs — assuming she has any, which I do not believe — is what disqualified her from winning the Miss USA pageant.

Also — I am mystified by Darleen’s claim that conservatives keep their sex lives private. First of all, there is really no such thing as a private sex life because your sex life shapes your entire life. Do straight people really not know they are rubbing homosexuals’ noses in their sex lives every time they say, “I went on a date with (name), I am engaged to (name), my wedding …, my wife/husband, my child, Mrs.,” or they hold hands in public or show wedding photos or wear a wedding ring or a thousand other tells? It would be wonderful to have same-sex marriage equality and be able to have/do all that public stuff without risking one’s life, job or home.

Any error will do for a smear campaign

Via Instapundit, I see that Mark Steyn is saying that the fact that it took 11 Associated Press reporters to find six extremely trivial errors — quibbles, really — in former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s forthcoming autobiography, Going Rogue, which will be released on Monday, Nov. 16, shows why newspapers rapidly are becoming obsolete.

I don’t know why I’m the one explaining this to the likes of Mark Steyn, but what the AP was really hunting for was the tiniest wisp of a shred of a rationale to print the headlines damning Gov. Palin — “Errors found in Palin’s biography!” — that they had already written because they know their headlines will drive the narrative they want to push.

The AP’s behavior reminds me of Aesop’s fable, “The Lamb and The Wolf,” from which we have the expression, “Any excuse will serve a tyrant.”

Update, 11/14/09: News magazines, too: here.

Reminder: Of the four persons on the Democratic and Republican tickets in the 2008 presidential race, Gov. Sarah Palin was the most qualified by virtue of her experience, leadership ability, intelligence, eloquence, policies and vision for America.

From HillBuzz, THIS is the kind of passion that Gov. Palin inspires:

We here at HillBuzz fully intend to campaign for the Republican nominee in 2012 so that Dr. Utopia gets only one term and there can still be time to save this country from the socialist cancer this terrible man has stitched into the fabric of our nation. If Sarah Palin runs for President, we will quit our jobs and move to Iowa to ensure we do everything we can to stop Dr. Utopia from gaming the Caucus like he did to Hillary. We will relive the nightmare of the last two years’ of our lives, learning from everything Dr. Utopia and the DNC did last time and make sure they do not win again. Those crazy Leftists must be defeated so that, someday, the Clinton Coaltion of 1996 and the Hillary Dems of 2008 can take back the Democrat Party and boot the deranged Carter/Utopia elements out.

(snip)

2012 entirely hinges on three things:

(1) the GOP running a candidate who turns out their base, so that few idiots sit at home “to teach the GOP a lesson” because they believe the candidate is not conservative enough

(2) that candidate needs to talk only about creating jobs, lowering taxes, reining in spending, providing law and order, stabilizing the economy, securing energy independence for this country, protecting our citizens, and providing a solid education and path to a good future for our children. NO talk about social issues…no attacks on gays…no crusade on abortion…no fodder for the Race Industry

(3) balancing (1) and (2), the candidate needs to appeal to conservatives while standing tall and strong as someone Jacksonian Democrats, PUMAS, independent voters, and Clinton Moderates, whatever you want to call us, can get behind.

Ladies and Gentlemen, that person is Sarah Palin.

If she goes for it, she’ll be the 45th President of the United States.

Do read the entire post, it is well worth your while.

Understanding Obama: learn the four types of enablers of narcissists

Conservative Pup is a nurse and she was disturbed by Obama’s cold and inappropriate behavior right after the Ft. Hood mass murder — you do not do “shout outs” just before announcing a mass murder unless you are doing a comedy skit or you have a sociopathic lack of empathy.

Come to find that a LOT more people are searching Google with key phrases like, “is Obama a narcissist” now than when I checked in February.

But the Pup also found an author who describes the four types of people who enable narcissists, and I think this is so useful a contribution to my occasional series on how to recognize Obama’s sociopathy that I will link and quote it here — do go to Pup’s, though, and read the whole thing:

Dr. Sam Vaknin, an expert on narcissism, identifies four types of people who aid and facilitate narcissists: the adulators, the blissfully ignorant, the self-deceiving, and those deceived by the narcissist. Dr. Vaknin continues:

“The adulators are fully aware of the nefarious and damaging aspects of the narcissist’s behaviour but believe that they are more than balanced by the benefits — to themselves, to their collective, or to society at large. They engage in an explicit trade-off between some of their principles and values — and their personal profit, or the greater good.

“They seek to help the narcissist, promote his agenda, shield him from harm, connect him with like-minded people, do his chores for him and, in general, create the conditions and the environment for his success. This kind of alliance is especially prevalent in political parties, the government, multinational, religious organizations and other hierarchical collectives.”

Does this remind you of anyone? Then go to Conservative Pup’s and read the rest.

Vicious backlash for ALL gays because Perez Hilton called Carrie Prejean names she keeps proving she deserves, but no backlash for Muslims after an Islamist jihadist kills 13 at Ft. Hood

One of the hurdles that beauty pageant contestants must hurdle effortlessly is proving they have the ability to answer polarizing questions in a way that offends no one. No one who lacks that ability deserves to win a pageant.

Carrie Prejean proved at the Miss USA pageant last spring that she is always determined to have everything her way and that she is always spoiling for a fight, so she did not deserve the crown because she is unsuited for the job. She showed her true character again during her recent interview on “The Larry King Show” (above) when he asked her a question that a gracious and/or mature woman would have seen coming and memorized five or six charming and disarming replies for and then changed the subject. (I am ripping off the “charm and disarm” expression from an episode of “The West Wing.”)

King tossed Prejean a softball that hinted at her masturbation video, which she has acknowledged exists. A pro knows that is her golden opportunity to frame the controversy her way and move on — there’s nothing inappropriate about King’s question at all because THIS IS HOW IT’S DONE. However, Prejean is not a pro, so she did not recognize her golden opportunity for what it was, and instead, she took off her mic and prepared to storm off the set — because, you know, she is just that special — or, more likely, because that is how trailer trash think real ladies behave and Prejean was aiming at aping her betters.

Well, I found Prejean’s fit of pique intolerable. I have to admit that I think Perez Hilton correctly summed up Prejean’s character when he called her “a bitch” and a “cunt” right after the Miss USA pageant last spring. I’ve asked her a question myself — he was right on the money.

But the problem I really want to call my gentle readers’ attention to is NOT whether or not Prejean is … cruel, selfish, domineering and immature.

The problem I want noticed is that the backlash by conservatives from Hilton’s questioning Prejean at the Miss USA pageant, followed by his name-calling, which ought to roll off the back of anyone in public life, SHOULD have been limited to Perez, but instead was vicious and literally murderous toward ALL gays. So, because Perez Hilton, who is FAMOUS for being bratty and rude, was bratty and rude to a beauty queen whose primary career skill is her ability to cause erections, conservatives were quick to condemn THE ENTIRE HOMOSEXUAL COMMUNITY TO LIFE-DESTROYING PERPETUAL SECOND-CLASS CITIZENSHIP. THAT is the level of backlash gays have to cope with. Oh, and we’re all supposed to be submissive and cheerful about it, or else we’ll get more where THAT came from.

In contrast, Islamist jihadist Maj. Nabil Hasan killed 13 of his fellow soldiers — including a woman whose husband and two daughters live not far from me in Havre de Grace, Maryland, Lt. Col. Juanita Warman, a 55-year-old physician’s assistant — and wounded 31 more — yet conservatives are working over-time to parse the distinctions between Muslims and Islamist jihadists AND CALLING FOR NO BACKLASH WHATSOEVER except where it can be proven a crime has been committed or a terrorist act is being planned.

Well, it strikes me that if pretty much everyone — conservatives and liberals alike, despite the real crimes of Hasan and the worlds of hurt he inflicted so maliciously in the name of his religion — is able to make those distinctions with such a provocation, that it’s time to commute the unjust and amoral sentence passed on all homosexuals that we must endure the death of a thousand cuts of second-class citizenship — which is premised solely on our likelihood of reproduction with a same-sex spouse AND the violation of the Constitutional guarantee of separation of church and state — because Perez Hilton called Carrie Prejean a couple of names that she proves over and over that she richly, richly deserves.

H/T Gateway Pundit and Breitbart TV. Celeb Maxim is a celebrity gossip Web site and has the back story on Carrie Prejean AND a link to download the Carrie Prejean sex video.

Why does Michelle Obama only wear cheerful colors when she's attending memorial services for U.S. soldiers?

Michelle Obama, ever fashion forward in her signature ammo belt and wearing the cheerful colors that always characterize her wardrobe when she is celebrating the deaths of, um, attending the memorial services of U.S. soldiers who have died in the service of their country, stands next to Jill Biden and watches her husband performing the traditional ceremony of laying a wreath on Veteran's Day at Arlington National Cemetery.

Michelle Obama, ever fashion forward in her signature ammo belt and wearing the cheerful colors that always characterize her wardrobe when she is celebrating the deaths of, um, attending the memorial services of U.S. soldiers who have died in the service of their country, watches her husband performing the traditional ceremony of laying a wreath on Veteran’s Day at Arlington National Cemetery.

H/T HillBuzz, where they are giving thanks Michelle Obama didn’t wear her favorite dress. Really, the ONLY times the FLOTUS doesn’t dress like a funeral director is when she’s attending memorial services for U.S. soldiers. Just what IS it about these occasions that cheers her up so much?