The Farmer’s Market: Come for the Russian Belugas, Stay for the Fitness Secrets

Comrade Beluga, Please Stop Harassing the Fishermen: You Have Work To Do

The Russians might be using beluga whales as spies. I have wildly mixed feelings on this, as I do all news that comes out of Russia.

• First, of course they are.

• Has Putin been watching a lot of James Bond movies?

• Can they not afford drones?

• The poor whale, wearing a Russian harness around.

• It seems more interested in begging Norwegian fishermen for treats than carrying out its mission.

• Maybe the Russians will contribute to saving whales if they’re an important part of their military operations.

Can the US do better than spy whales, or should we steal this idea? If there’s anyone out there reading this, feel free to tell me in the comments what brilliant trained animal ideas you have. Bonus if they involve the military, and double bonus if they team conservation goals with military goals.

From the Science Desk: Desalination in Israel

Israel is using lots of desalinated sea water

There are apparently environmental concerns to the desalination process, but alas, I got home from the dump and had to begin work before the BBC News Hour report got to the environmental concerns.

Whatever the environmental concerns, it’s encouraging that there are some technological innovations being driven by climate change stressors. It seems clear to me that, wise or not (I’m no policy wonk so won’t hold forth on this), we’re not going to regulate CO2 to safe levels (I am not opposed to regulation, though I think the government would do it wrong, enforce it poorly and unequally, and it would be exploited every step of the way). We’re going to have to buy some time with short term technological solutions until we can come up with proper long term (likely technological) solutions like carbon capture and renewable advancements.

Genesis 3:17 includes "cursed is the ground because of you;". Is there any questions that this is true? Every human advancement comes with a cost, and it’s often to nature ("the ground").

Sidebar: Israel is also using a high percentage of their wastewater in agriculture.

The Two Essential Elements to Fitness (Three, Tops)

The two things you really need to achieve your fitness goals are consistency and effort. I mean, you have to do something that’s not totally stupid and useless. For example, if you want to run a sub 3-hour marathon, don’t work on getting your bench press up to 300 pounds at the same time. But if you’ve picked a reasonable fitness program, then you need consistency and hard work.

I said two things are necessary for achieving your fitness goals, but only because the third is assumed: coffee. It’s hard to find time to work out. I sit here after warming up for my squat workout, about to do a heavy 4-5 rep squat set followed by some also-heavy backoff sets, likely followed by some bench press sets if the caffeine is still with me. It’s 10:21 PM currently. That’s no fun. It helps that I had a cup of coffee at about 9:30 though. Now to find the consistency and effort parts.