I'd visited the Bangkok area, but not made it to other parts of Thailand, so the van ride to Korat was new territory. Lots of lush tropical scenery and a climb up onto the plateau surrounding Korat. We found the Royal Princess Hotel comfortable, if much simpler than the JW Marriott. It's quite and the staff is very friendly. High speed Internet access (wired) comes with deluxe rooms. It has a recently remodeled fitness center, but Smith Machine is the closest thing to free weights. It does have a nice lap pool that is the perfect temperature for an early morning swim.

The fifth largest city in Thailand with a population of about 200,000 people, Korat is much less cosmopolitan than Bangkok, but still a vibrant, interesting, industrial center. At about 15 degrees North latitude and 188 meters elevation, the climate is definitely tropical, with high temperatures running about 95 degrees Fahrenheit and lows about 80. Restaurants are largely open air, with limited seating indoors.

Pavel Tsatsouline's The Naked Warrior presents a strength building program based upon body weight exercises that can be performed without equipment. He uses variations of the one leg squat and one arm push-up as the core, though kettlebells can be used for additional one leg squat workload and pull-ups are a good addition if you have access to a pull-up bar or suitable substitute. Pavel spends a considerable amount of time on technique for these particular exercises and methods to maximize neuromuscular training. He treats strength as a skill.

Pavel explains things clearly and concisely, with a dry sense of humor that I find enjoyable. Since I'm travelling for several weeks with limited access to exercise equipment, I'll take this as an opportunity to test these techniques.

The flight across the Pacific went as well as can be expected. I got more sleep than usual while in the air, about 5 hours. I landed at the Bangkok airport at about 23:00 on Friday, getting to the JW Marriott about an hour later. Got to sleep at about 01:00 and awoke at 05:50. The JW is a very nice hotel, if rather pricey.

The colleague I'm travelling went out looking at furniture, but I wasn't ambitious enough to go out. Hanging out around the hotel recovering from jet lag, I did some reading, practiced one leg squats and one arm push-ups, had a massage, and did a Tabata rowing workout to wake up before dinner,

The Sake bar in the JW lower level had a letter waiting for us at check-in offering a free Sake cocktail and 20% off dinner at either of the two Japanese restaurants. I took them on this and my companion showed up as a was finishing my meal to report success in finding the rosewood chairs he was looking for.

My orthopedist told me nine years ago that I was candidate for a double knee replacement and I've worked at preserving my knees. My mother just had here second knee replacement with mixed results, definite improvement, but sub-optimal. Like most knee replacements it was bionic, metal and plastic. The Stone Clinic is doing biologic knee replacements with a claimed 85% success rate. This is an interesting option, though I think it's more like knee reconstruction. It promises unrestricted athletic activity, and that's a good thing, but I'm not ready to go there yet.

Since my blood sugar got high enough to be a concern, I've limited my consumption of foods with high glycemic index. This has lowered my blood sugar and I find that the dietary choices satisfying. The Paleolithic Diet proposed by Professor Loren Cordain offers an evolutionary explanation of why this works. A long history of hunter-gatherer living has adapted us to a diet of mostly meat, leaves, nuts, and berries.

The Paleo diet contrasts with the low fat, high carb diets advocated in the last half of the 20th century. A number of arguments have been raised against Dr Cordain's theory which he addresses in this paper.

Those lucky dogs at Autoblog have had a chance to drive the Porsche Boxster RS 60S. Sounds like fun.

In an Atlantic piece, Not Your Father's Space Program, Glenn Reynolds gives his impressions of the 2008 International Space Development Conference. Big government run space programs like NASA's aren't the only game in town any more. The excitement is centered on private companies incrementally developing for-profit space ventures.

Joel Garreau's Radical Evolution looks at the potential changes that lie in store for humanity as a result of the GRIN technologies (Genetic Engineering, Robotics, Informatics, and Nanotechnology). He considers three general scenarios that he calls Heaven, Hell, and Prevail, interviewing major proponents of each.

A key factor in the Heaven and Hell scenarios is the exponential growth that technology has experienced. Most predictions of the future make the mistake of linear extrapolation from present conditions. Technology has been changing exponentially, so it's reasonable to apply exponential curves to present trends.

Those favoring the Heaven scenario see some presently living humans achieving greatly extended lifespans, if not effective immortality. They expect superhuman intelligence to arise in either enhanced human or computer guise. These are obviously the optimists.

The pessimists favor the Hell scenario. Rapidly advancing technology will render human existence meaningless, destroy humanity, or perhaps destroy Earth. They believe that the only way to prevent this is to forbid the threatening technologies.

The Prevail scenario holds that humanity will somehow muddle through the turbulent future that lies ahead. Humanity has a history of meeting unexpected challenges and finding solutions by trial and error.

Garreau accepts the exponential curve of technological advance as a given, but I don't buy this. While a linear projection is likely to over-estimate the near term changes and under-estimate the long term changes, an exponential estimate may not be much better. What rate of grown do you use? Is the rate of growth constant, and if not, how will it vary? How will different technologies and ornery humans interact? Will there be positive or negative feedback between them? I don't think the future is predictable, but it is useful to consider some possible scenarios.

I'm not enough of an optimist to accept the heaven scenario, and besides, it seems a bit dull. The Hell scenario is likewise uninteresting, and I don't believe stasis is a good thing, if it's even possible. I'm firmly in the Prevail camp. We should be careful, but not be afraid to try new things. I'm signing up for the good ship Muddling Through.

Pavel Tsatsouline's Power To The People is a refreshingly simple strength training program based upon just two lifts with an inexpensive 'Olympic style' barbell set. Emphasizing building strength without bulk, this program consists of one work set and one back-off set of 5 reps of the dead-lift and the side press. He claims the low volume allows one to do this workout every day without over training.

I may give it a try, though I'll probably substitute the standing press for the side press. This is keeping with the basic idea of one pull and one push with heavy weights and low volume.