Ranger's training thread

[whp4]

ranger,

Do I remember rightly that you started out reading medicine but couldn't cut it?

Now that is scary..

A college physics professor was explaining a particularly complicated concept to his class when a pre-med student interrupted him.

'Why do we have to learn this stuff?' one young man blurted out.

'To save lives,' the professor responded before continuing the lecture.

A few minutes later the student spoke up again. 'So how does physics save lives?'

The professor stared at the student for a long time without saying a word. Finally the professor concluded, 'Physics saves lives,' he said, 'because it keeps the idiots out of medical school.'

(I think this is on-topic, because this thread is devoted to things ranger will never do )

[JohnBove]

Mike--

Rowing OTErg is exactly comparable to rowing OTW.

No it isn't, you ignorant gasbag. Anyone who has ever rowed crew can attest to people with good erg scores who can't move a boat and the opposite.

And where do you get the clankers to spout this to Mike, as if you know what you're talking about OTW and he doesn't.

You loathsome welsher.

[Steve G]

Mike--

Rowing OTErg is exactly comparable to rowing OTW.

No it isn't, you ignorant gasbag. Anyone who has ever rowed crew can attest to people with good erg scores who can't move a boat and the opposite.

And where do you get the clankers to spout this to Mike, as if you know what you're talking about OTW and he doesn't.

You loathsome welsher.

I think Rich can row OTW but it has to be in a straight line
Only took 5 years to get to that stage though !

[ranger]

ranger,

Do I remember rightly that you started out reading medicine but couldn't cut it?

No, I got 'A's for two years in my pre-med courses: biology, physiology, vertebrates, physics, statistics, calculus, chemistry, etc.

I didn't end up doing medicine because I thought other things were more interesting and challenging.

And it turned out that they indeed were.

I have been happy with my choices.

Water under the boat now.

I have done my work, had my career.

I am retiring.

I loved the work I did in rhythmics, linguistics, poetics, stylistics, and poetry.

Don't care what people think about it, really.

It was/is important work.

Audiences in the humanities are self-interested.

So it goes.

They only appreciate what they do and disrespect everything else.

Nasty business, politically.

ranger

[bellboy]

Yeah just think. Work a 50-80hr a week in the selfless quest to save lives and help your fellow man. What is it you do again Fucko? Poetry isnt it? How would mankind survive without you.

Doctor's are selfless?

Hardly.

Pay teachers $500,000 a year and doctors $50,000 a year, and most of those who are now doctors would become teachers.

Poetry is dispensable?

Hardly.

Poetry is at the roots of all cultures; no culture lacks poetry. But many cultures don't have access to advanced medical care.

Historically, poetry, with its roots in myth and religion, has been a much stronger force in social and cultural development than any form of empirical knowledge or material labor, medicine included.

On the other hand, it _certainly_ is clear than no one around modern universities, or in western societies at large, believes, or even acknowledges, such things anymore.

So it goes.

My department has just done away with poetry as a gateway into our the literature curriculum.

So, by and large, our department will now just teach prose--and of a pretty narrow sort.

Over the last few years, the literature curriculum in my department has been narrowed down to social and political concerns, the inverse of a liberal education, as it has been normally conceived.

We spend our entire adult lives in the throes of such social and political concerns.

No need to pay $50,000 a year for four years to study them in college.

You just need to poke your head out the window and there they are.

A liberal education used to be designed to prepare us for this challenge, and damage, by developing our complementary sensibilities, skills, interests, virtues, habits of mind, etc.

No more.

Sure, poetry is not very popular in a sick, harried, secular, scientific society.

Kids now prefer cell phones and video games to poems.

It will be interesting to see how their lives turn out, now they they no longer want, or get, a liberal education.

Will kids find the social and political worlds, including the work worlds they are now entering, entirely satisfying, a joy forever, all they need in order to feel happy and whole?

Good luck to them.

They'll need it.

At least governments these days are expanding and extending monetary aid to the unemployed.

If you no longer like to think/feel/imagine/create, etc., and can't work, I suppose it's still good to have someone take care of you so that you can eat.

ranger

If only i had realised this. Instead of asking my Doctor last week if i had skin cancer i should have just asked him if he knew "There once was a man from Nantucket". Next time you or your missus needs a doctor dont forget to impart your wisdom on the subject of Poetics V Medicine. .... Are you actually allowed to vote or operate heavy machinery?

[ranger]

If only i had realised this. Instead of asking my Doctor last week if i had skin cancer i should have just asked him if he knew "There once was a man from Nantucket". Next time you or your missus needs a doctor dont forget to impart your wisdom on the subject of Poetics V Medicine

Sure.

No one laments the wonderful advances in medicine.

There are many diseases that are no fault of anyone.

That doctors have found out how to prevent or cure them is amazing.

On the other hand, sorry to think so, but these days the _vast_ majority of patients that doctors see have just made themselves sick, willfully, by frustrating/avoiding/denying their most basic human needs--a lot of physical exericise, a stable family life, satisfying work, good friends, a workable marriage, a robust local culture, engaging artistic pursuits, intellectual stimulation, good sleep, a healthy diet, peace of mind, relaxation, sunlight, water, etc.

Sorry to say so, but most of the folk in western culture are physically ill, psychologically disturbed, socially frustrated, personally violated/abused/neglected/isolated, vocationally unsatisfied, etc.

And that is the major reason why hospiitals and doctors have become so important these days.

The hospital here at the University of Michigan sees a _million_ patients a year.

Everyone is sick.

Everyone.

Bizarre.

This is a humanistic failure, not a medical triumph.

"Health care" these days doesn't have much at all to do with health.

It is _sick_ care.

In one way or another, we have all made ourselves sick.

If you want another view of 'heath care," you might read my father's work--and example.

I guess I have had a hard time not being influenced by it.

Almost single-handedly, he confronted the medical profession on these issues.

And with a half a century of teaching, advising, mentoring, and scientific publication, won the argument--hands down.

My father's students are now all over the place in med schools and hospitals--everywhere.

My profession is something else entire, but I will always practice what my father preached, nonetheless.

He was right; the doctors were/are wrong.

ranger

[ranger]

I am 60 years old.

I don't take any drugs whatsoever, not even vitamin supplements, etc.

I feel great.

I am never sick.

Physically, I perform like a 30-year-old.

I am in and around 10% body fat.

My maxHR is still 190 bpm.

My resting HR is 40 bpm.

I haven't lost _any_ of my youthful full-body power.

I do two or three hours of sustained, hard physical exercise a day.

Sure, over my lifetime, I have been _very_ glad to have access to good medical care, for various reasons.

But the time I have spent with doctors over the last sixty years has been miniscule.

ranger

[ranger]

If I do 60min, 1:44 @ 26 spm, as it seems that I will, it will be a solid _eight_ seconds per 500m improvement from the 1:48 for 60min that I did when I was 51 years old back in 2002, four seconds per 500m better, despite a normal decline with age of four seconds per 500m.

This gain, if it is indeed realized, will be _entirely_ due to improvements in technique.

It will have nothing to do with fitness.

ranger

[ranger]

BTW, my 16.7K for 60min as a 50s lwt was a _very_ good row, close to the best ever.

The only better 50s lwt 60min rows, really, have been Rod Freed's, and his record has been questioned more generally.

ranger

[mrfit]

Welp, that looks like another day on the ranger-go-round. Not quite as thrilling today. The best row by any 60+ males this year is on the docket for completion by April 30th and 8x500 at 1:30 "will" be a goal. (I guess it's not a goal now?) Lancs's profession took a blow after accusing ranger of some pace/distance impossibility. Then we got a lesson on how great Curetons are at argumentation followed up by a how awesome I am summary of results in the distant past. Throughout the day most of modern society and today's youth had scathing criticism and even poor imaginary Freed took a punch. Whew. No wonder ranger is tired at 8:00.

[atklein90]

Welp, that looks like another day on the ranger-go-round. Not quite as thrilling today. The best row by any 60+ males this year is on the docket for completion by April 30th and 8x500 at 1:30 "will" be a goal. (I guess it's not a goal now?) Lancs's profession took a blow after accusing ranger of some pace/distance impossibility. Then we got a lesson on how great Curetons are at argumentation followed up by a how awesome I am summary of results in the distant past. Throughout the day most of modern society and today's youth had scathing criticism and even poor imaginary Freed took a punch. Whew. No wonder ranger is tired at 8:00.

I love the daily summary! I can skip six pages of useless Ranger garbage and still keep up!

[ranger]

BTW, 1:44/17.3K is listed as the Open lwt 60min WR, although quite a few lighweights, I expect, have done, and presently can do, better.

At one point, Eskild E. regularly pulled 1:40/18K for 60min.

The 60s hwt WR for 60min is a few meters beyond my pb of 1:48/16.7K from back in 2002.

ranger

[ranger]

Then we got a lesson on how great Curetons are at argumentation

My father's work was scientific.

He refuted the claims of the medical profession at the time with empirical data: observation, measurement, replicable experiment, predictable results, etc.

He was the first to rehabilitate heart attack patients with physical exercise--and document the results.

ranger

[ranger]

most of modern society and today's youth had scathing criticism

No criticism needed or intended if the lifestyles chosen lead to healthy, happy, productive, humane existences.

ranger

[macroth]

most of modern society and today's youth had scathing criticism

No criticism needed or intended if the lifestyles chosen lead to healthy, happy, productive, humane existences.

ranger

Is it your lifestyle that has turned you into a narcissistic pathological liar and attention whore, or is that a matter of nature rather than nurture?