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- Introduction to Logic and Arguments How to develop critical thinking skills. Probably the most important thing you will ever do!
- Logical Fallacies Errors in thinking described and explained.
- Richard Dawkins A web site for Science and Reason and for Clear Thinking.
- Talk Origins A web site devoted to presenting the evidence for evolution and the lack of evidence for creationism.
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Monthly Archives: May 2008
Karate 43
After 46 karate lessons you might be inclined to think that I know a lot about it. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Well, I don’t. What is becoming clear is how much I don’t know and what should I do about it. The answer is practice. I know what to practice. And although I have attended only 46 lessons, I have practiced a lot on my own. But at least I am getting better and quickly too. What still eludes me is Yakushoku and sparring. I am finding it hard to keep up though. I think I am physically maxed out. I am not finding a lot of time for practice between classes. Karate is very hard on every muscle in my body and also on my knee and ankle joints. Add marathon training and biking into the mix and you’ve got one tired leppad! I don’t have … Continue reading
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Run 45, 2008
I wanted to get up early today to beat the heat so I set my alarm to 7 AM so I could run at 8 AM. The pouring rain woke me up at about 6:30 AM so I decided that if it was going to rain all day I wouldn’t have to worry about the heat and the blazing sun. My run began at 9 AM in the pouring rain. It rained hard and continuously until about the 16 km mark. I got wet. I suppose if I were running in the city I could always zip into the local retailers and find a bathroom somewhere but I don’t have that luxury in the country. Here, we have what are known as “woods”. Does a runner **** in the woods? Runners…yeah, we’re different. It was either that or in the middle of the road. What would YOU do? So I … Continue reading
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Karate 45
I just love these classes where you actually learn something real. Today something that was bothering me became very clear. I knew that kata was stylistic and not entirely practical or transparent. By that I mean some of the moves did not make sense from a practical fighting point of view. One of these moves was the so-called “augmented block” in Pinan Shodan. For the purposes of style and of kata, and yes, to keep the real nature of the move secret or hidden, the moves are modified and often called something else. The real Bunkai, or the real move was revealed to us today. Now I am beginning to see the real purpose behind kata. Very interesting stuff. Anyone can learn the true Bunkai, or the true purpose behind kata by joining a class and being taught by real instructors, real SENSEI. It is not my place, desire, or … Continue reading
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Run 44, 2008
I ran an 8 km at a 6:33 pace today in the indoor track. I wanted to do better but I just didn’t feel up to it, maybe because of my last run on Sunday, I don’t know. Anyway, today seemed like just another chore run rather than something I enjoyed. It was not a total loss, I did enjoy it to a certain extent. It is difficult to keep count of how many laps I have done. 1 km is 4.4 laps which means to run 8 km I need to do 35.2 laps. I have developed a technique wherein i hold the number of completed laps in my head, starting with the number zero in my head for the first lap and not putting the number “one” in my head until I actually complete the first lap and am starting on the second. I keep the number “1″ … Continue reading
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Do you suffer from the heartbreak of hat hair?
Then don’t wear a bike helmet, bozo!: As you can see, I’m pretty broken up about it. I’ve only gone a paltry 34 or so km so far on my bike this year. It’s so hard to find time what with the work, the running, the karate, the liquor drinking and carousing, and so on that biking is gonna be a tough thing to schedule. Nevertheless I have to warm up to first my metric century then a real one. Should be fun. It’s really nice to be able to actually shift gears when you need to. Way cool. Speaking of way cool, apart from porcupines, badgers, moose, geese, hawks, bald eagles, deer, and a host of other critters including woody woodpecker (pileated woodpecker) some demented squirrels, and bunnies, we have coyotes that regularly prowl our back yard. Here’s a quick and dirty video I took out my front door … Continue reading
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Karate 42
We had another productive class today wherein we concentrated on kicks. We got to use the mats. I love kicking the mats because you can use full power and it’s just so much easier hitting a target than kicking the air. We did front thrust kicks, front snap kicks, roundhouse kicks, side thrust kicks, then back kicks. After that we practice ippon kumites 1 through 15. My partner was Sensei Kerrie. Then we did Yakushoku again with Sensei Kerrie as my partner. This I am not good at. In spite of urgings from Sensei Kerrie and Sensei Pat to attack like I meant it, I could not bring myself to really commit to the attack. I am getting better, but still I hesitate. Sensei Pat laughs and points to Sensei Kerrie’s black belt to say that she can handle anything I could throw at her. Intellectually I know this is … Continue reading
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Run 43, 2008
Woo-hoo! Leppad rules! I’m happier than a great big happy thing! I ran 20 km this morning faster than my goal pace of 7:30… I ran the 20 km in 2:28:55 for a 7:27 pace! I really did not think I could make it that quickly, especially since I drank 2 cups of coffee as usual in the morning and I had to stop and pee at least 6 times, which takes a minute per stop. I don’t really know how to handle the coffee thing because it is totally unpredictable. Sometimes drinking coffee has a huge diuretic effect on me and I’m peeing every 10 minutes for two hours, at other times nothing happens. I have not done this but I have to start getting up at least three hours before a race or a run to make sure everything is emptied or else I will regret it later … Continue reading
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