The Right Dose of Exercise for a Longer Life - NYTimes.com

The Right Dose of Exercise for a Longer Life - NYTimes.com

by Gretchen Reynolds

They found that, unsurprisingly, the people who did not exercise at all were at the highest risk of early death.

But those who exercised a little, not meeting the recommendations but doing something, lowered their risk of premature death by 20 percent.

Those who met the guidelines precisely, completing 150 minutes per week of moderate exercise, enjoyed greater longevity benefits and 31 percent less risk of dying during the 14-year period compared with those who never exercised.

The sweet spot for exercise benefits, however, came among those who tripled the recommended level of exercise, working out moderately, mostly by walking, for 450 minutes per week, or a little more than an hour per day. Those people were 39 percent less likely to die prematurely than people who never exercised.

At that point, the benefits plateaued, the researchers found, but they never significantly declined.

Sculls in the Bristol Floating Harbour — Crooked Timber

Chris Bertram - a University of Bristol political scientist - took this shot in the Bristol Floating Harbor.  Six miles up the Avon River (as in Stratford on Avon) opened in 1809, it was built so that ships could stay afloat at low tide.  The tidal range there is 12 meters!
Sunday photoblogging: sculls in the Floating Harbour — Crooked Timber

Sculls in the Bristol floating harbor

The Wayward Wind - WG 2802 « Hercules and the umpire.

WG 2802 « Hercules and the umpire.:
by Judge Richard Kopf (District of Nebraska)

"For part of my growing up years, I lived in Florida. My parents taught themselves how to sail. Ultimately, they bought an old sail boat before it was scrapped for salvage.

They called their boat the “Wayward Wind” after a song made popular by Gogi Grant."

It was an appropriate title on many levels. With my mother’s love of drink and my father’s uncanny ability to emulate Willy Loman, the Wayward Wind was emblematic of life in the fifties for a certain segment of the American population following the horrors of WW II.

I remember sailing, particularly with my mother. She claimed to be the first woman in Florida to be commercially licensed to take up to six passengers for hire on jaunts in the Gulf. Whether the Coast Guard really gave her that license is suspect, but I like to think it was true. Like all truly dedicated alcoholics, she was strong-willed, persistent and perfectly capable of daring do. She was hard too. She didn’t give a damn when I got badly rope burned hands playing out the big sail called a spinnaker.

Only 28 feet long, the boat had been used as sponge boat in and around Tarpon Springs. Free divers would find sponges on the bottom, and pile them in the boat. The sponge market, at least for real sponges, was and is pretty strong. But even the frugal Greeks who sought the sponges knew when a boat had reached the end for commercial purposes.

For those who know anything about sailing, the boat was a gaff rigged ketch. Here’s a sketch of the type I mean:

I learned a lot on the Wayward Wind. I could set the sails by myself. I became adept at sailing the little boat using the antiquated single tiller rather than the customary wheel most people envision as the steering device. I loved standing on the bowsprit (the wooden peace that extended out over the water in the front of the boat) and feeling the rush of wind. I learned about radio direction finders. I loved sailing with a stiff wind as this ponderous little craft, designed for stability rather than speed, plowed through the seas causing water to come over the side of the boat like a rushing river.

Best of all, I learned how to call the Tampa Marine operator. I would pick up the radio, press a button and declare: “This is WG 2802, the yacht Wayward Wind calling the Tampa Marine Operator.” Asking for a time check or a weather report from the operator was my first step into manhood.

All of this was very long ago. Perhaps it is all a dream. It seems like that now.

RGK

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Russia's Oblique Icebreaker "Baltika" Tested in Arctic Ice - gCaptain Maritime & Offshore News

Russia's Oblique Icebreaker "Baltika" Tested in Arctic Ice - gCaptain Maritime & Offshore News:

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The Right Dose of Exercise for a Longer Life - NYTimes.com

The Right Dose of Exercise for a Longer Life - NYTimes.com



by Jane Brody

Exercise has had a Goldilocks problem, with experts debating just how much exercise is too little, too much or just the right amount to improve health and longevity. Two new, impressively large-scale, studies provide some clarity, suggesting that the ideal dose of exercise for a long life is a bit more than many of us currently believe we should get, but less than many of us might expect. The studies also found that prolonged or intense exercise is unlikely to be harmful and could add years to people’s lives.



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Pescadotes: wave study

Pescadotes: wave study Joseph Warren



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Signs of spring

Mortality Risk Drops With More Exercise--A Little or a Lot

Mortality Risk Drops With More Exercise--A Little or a Lot

"BETHESDA, MD — Good news on the exercise front, including for those who do a little and those who do lot, with a new study showing that any amount of leisure-time physical activity is associated with a significantly lower risk of death when compared with no physical activity at all[1].



 Those who did a little, such as those individuals who did less than the amount outlined in the 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, still had a 20% lower mortality risk compared with individuals who did no exercise at all. Those who achieved the minimum recommended physical-activity target—defined as 7.5 to <15 MET hours per week—had a 31% lower risk of dying compared with the physically inactive.



 Those who did a lot more, such as those exceeding the weekly recommendations, had an even larger reduction in mortality risk. Compared with those who did no exercise at all, individuals who performed approximately three to five times the recommended minimum had a near 40% reduction in the risk of dying. The benefit peaked at around 22.5 to 40 MET hours per/week, report investigators.

"Individuals should engage in a level of physical activity that meets the recommend minimum," lead investigator Dr Hannah Arem (National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD) told heartwire , "but clinicians don't need to caution their highly active patients about a higher mortality risk.""



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An 1850s-Era Oyster Barge Is Saved for Yet Another Life on the East River - NYTimes.com

In The Big Oyster Mark Kurlansky tells the history of oysters - focused on New York where oyster stands were once on dozens of corners.  Until we over-harvested the ancient oyster beds, etc.  Oysters have been undergoing a renewed popularity.  Now a couple of entrepreneurs propose to bring back theold days. - gwc
An 1850s-Era Oyster Barge Is Saved for Yet Another Life on the East River - NYTimes.com

"By COREY KILGANNON
APRIL 3, 2015
NEW HAVEN —

For years, a shoddy shed of dilapidated wood has cluttered up the boatyard of the Fair Haven Marina, a hub for recreational boaters on this stretch of the Quinnipiac River, just east of Yale University.

Brought up from New York City nearly a century ago, it is an 1850s-era oyster barge that has had various incarnations — as a speakeasy, a restaurant called the Old Barge and, finally, as a dive bar before closing for good in 1987. It was then left to languish in the boatyard, too leaky even to use as a storage shed.

“Most people wanted me to tear it down, but I said, ‘That can’t happen,’ ” the marina’s owner, Lisa Fitch, said. “Everyone who grew up around here had a beer here.”

She drank there too, as a young adult, she said, and had eaten there as a child, when the barge was still a restaurant."



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