A startup is hawking a custom artificial knee. Sounds interesting.

It's been 40 years since the first human steps on Luna. It's time to go back, and stay.

We got the camper out of storage and drug it down to Elizabeth, Colorado for their Celtic Festival. They have camping on site and despite a slight mix-up with our reservations, we had a beautiful camp site. Competing in the Men's Masters Heavy Athletics Class, I had my most consistent performance to date. New PR in the Braemar Stone and I tied my PR or came close to it in the other events.

Falcon 1 has made it's second successful launch for SpaceX and first launch for hire. Fly Falcon Fly!

Learning Probabilistic Relational Networks are a generalization of Bayesian Networks. They can take advantage of the large volume of data available in relational databases and it is claimed that they are more robust than Bayesian Networks.

Return of the Kettlebell is Pavel Tsatsouline's latest book. It focuses on building muscle mass while maintaining or improving strength and conditioning. The tools of choice are double kettlebell exercises organized in alternating two week blocks. One block is devoted to slow grinding movements: the Double Kettlebell Press, the Double Kettlebell Front Squat, and the Double Kettlebell Deadlift. The alternate block is devoted to explosive movement, specifically the long cycle double Kettlebell Clean and Jerk.

This looks like fun, but it's a pretty intense program, not something I want to do during the throwing season. Pavel suggests that you shouldn't start it until you've reached the "Enter the Kettlebell" Rite of Passage goals of a half bodyweight Clean and Press, and 200 Kettlebell Snatches with the 24 kg implement as used by the U.S. Secret Service. I'm some way from that, so I'll work on the Rite of Passage until the end of throwing season and see where I am then.

This program in this book is really intended for elite athletes who want to add lean body mass. I found it interesting though I don't think it's the right thing for me at this point in time. I'll practice the double kettlebell movements on some of my "variety" days which can be considered a kind of active rest. Good book, but not for everyone.

Python 3.1 was released last week. The faster IO module should go a long way toward making Python 3 a viable option for new projects.

Never Let Go is a collection of Dan John's writings on strength and conditioning training. Subtitled "A Philosophy of Lifting, Living, and Learning", it provides a pragmatic approach to navigating the tangled web of information about health, fitness, and athletic training. A certain amount of strength and conditioning is necessary for good health and is fundamental to fitness and athletic performance. How much and what kind depends on your goals, and Dan emphasizes that you need to need to stay focused on your goals.

The main points of Dan's strength and conditioning philosophy are:

1. The Body is One Piece.
2. There are three kinds of strength training:
   • Putting weight overhead
   • Picking it off the ground
   • Carrying it for time and distance
3. All training is complementary.

Each chapter is a lesson in the guise of an entertaining and enlightening story told by a master practitioner of the strength arts. Reading and rereading these stories will help you in your own strength practice, whether as a coach, athlete, or fitness enthusiast. As you read it you will sometimes think "I knew that", while realizing that you've just reached a better understanding. Dan teaches movements rather than muscles and you need to train the full spectrum of normal movement. However, if you try to emphasize everything, you end up emphasizing nothing, so he recommends a warm up that works a variety of movements which allows you to focus on specific goals in the main workout.

Since the body adapts to novel stresses, everything works but nothing works forever. Combined with everyone's unique genetics and history, this implies that you should try different things long enough to see how they work for you. If they don't work, move on to something else. If they do, continue with them until you stop progressing, then try something else. Keep a training log so you'll know what has worked in the past and can profitably be repeated.

"Never Let Go" is a worthwhile and enjoyable read for just about anyone. It's a great book on the pursuit of althleticism that should be read and re-read by anyone with more than a passing interest in health, fitness, and/or sports performance.

Since reading Enter the Kettlebell last year, I've made kettlebells the mainstay of my athletic training but haven't tried the Rite of Passage (ROP) training program advocated in it. It consists of a pull (Kettlebell Snatch or Swing) and a push (Kettlebell Press) in a light/medium/heavy pattern plus a couple of variety days and, leaving two days off each week.

I've decided that it's time to give ROP a shot and tested today to see where I am. I've been pressing the 24 kg kettlebell so I tried the 32, getting one rep with the left arm and two with the right. In the U.S. Secret Service Snatch Test with the 24 kg kettlebell, I managed 110 reps in 10 minutes. Should've been good for a few more reps, but I tested shortly after lunch and was flirting with Pukie.