Do you remember seeing a video of one of those old "exercise machines" that vibrated a belt around somebody's middle? While that might have been a fad, we now know that was not exercising.
Strangely, there is now something similar that is gaining in popularity and actually seems to work quite well. It's called the Power Plate.
This machine uses something called whole body vibration, a technology developed by Russia to use in its space program to combat the affects of zero gravity. Later, they used this technology to help train athletes; and you've seen variations of this in training methods like plyometrics.
Here is a picture of the Power Plate my5.
They claim that 15 minutes on this machine is the equivalent of about an hour at the gym. So how does it work? Well, as long as you understand that you have to exert some effort, the Power Plate works much better than I would've guessed.
At its simplest level, the machine vibrates 40 times per second. The movements happen in three different planes: front-to-back, side-to-side, and up-and-down. The movements are small enough, and happen so quickly, that they are rarely visible to the naked eye. Nonetheless, your body certainly feels them.
The Power Plate is a little bit larger than your typical doctor's scale. You stand on its platform while performing various movements or stretches. For example, imagine doing a deep knee bend and holding that position when your thighs are parallel to the ground (basically a half squat). As you hold this position, normally, your thigh muscles would get a decent isometric exercise - and you can probably imagine them burning a little. Now imagine what would happen if, as you are performing that exercise, the platform vibrated 40 times per second. Think how many more muscles you would engage. Think how much better this would be as a core stability exercise.
The Power Plate is designed to support a wide range of exercises for all of your main muscle groups - and comes with various accessories, like straps and mats. I found that many of the exercises I enjoy most are movements that my wife says are similar to yoga positions. I try not to let that discourage me from doing them.
The machine gets used every day. My wife and son like it too. It is exercise, and it does take work. With that said, it has had a noticeable effect on my strength, flexibility and my ability to do traditional workouts at the gym.
I don't know if you've ever tried to paint a room - but if you have, I'm sure you've come across some bizarre paint names.
How does that relate to AI?
Well, Janelle Shane is a research scientist, and neural network aficionado - as any good data scientist should, she spends a lot of her free time playing with neural networks (... to varying results).
Recently, she attempted to train an algorithm (specifically char-rnn, a neural network that attempts to anticipate the next character in a sequence) to create new paint colors and accompanying names.
In her lifetime, she saw trains evolve from steam engines to bullet trains. She saw horses fall out of use, and cars and planes come in to use. She saw the rise and fall of many countries , two world wars, and she saw Italy's transformation from a kingdom to Mussolini's fascist regime to a constitutional republic.
Not to mention computers, the internet, and cell phones.
117 years alive is currently a HUGE amount of time - approximately 40-50 years longer than the average lifetime, but in our lifetime - it'll likely become closer to the norm.
Think of the innovations seen in her lifetime - and think of the fact that innovation spurs innovation.
9 years in front of entertainment devices - another 10.5 years spent working. You get the idea.
If you have goals you want to accomplish, aspirational travel and lifestyle plans - this really puts the idea of finding and living your passion in perspective.
Here's another representation of the same data, using jelly beans. I think it's pretty powerful and worth watching.
In my TEDx talk, I talk about the Time Value of Life ...
In finance, the "time value of money" refers to the principle that the purchasing power of money can vary over time (meaning, money today might have a different purchasing power than money later). In part, this is because the value of money at a future point in time might be calculated by accounting for other variables (like interest earned, or inflation accrued, etc.).
A similar calculation applies to life ... or living.
Live Like You Only Have a Year Left.
During the last part of my Dad's life, I think he would have done almost anything for a little more time.
Things that used to be unimportant, or even mildly irritating, took on increased importance. For example, a dinner together became almost a sacred event; a kiss goodnight was truly heart-felt; and saying good-bye meant something ... because it could be the last time.
Nevertheless, as a result of that focus, he took more life out of that time.
Shouldn't we do the same thing? Think about it ... We are never going to be younger than we are, right now. We are never going to have more time to fix a big mistake. Isn't it likely that the time value of your life, is worth maximizing?
If you realize that the time you have now is worth more - what can you do differently to get the most out of it?
So, if an average person only gets 2,740 days to do with what they want, those days are precious.
Based on who's reading this, you may have half that time (or a fourth).
What are you going to focus on? Making the most money? Helping the most people? Spending the most time with your family? Relaxing?
There's never a better time than now, to live a life worth living ... and only you can decide what that means!
Here Are Some Links For Your Weekend Reading - June 3rd, 2017
Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.
Lighter Links:
Trading Links:
Posted at 03:20 PM in Books, Business, Current Affairs, Ideas, Just for Fun, Market Commentary, Science, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0)
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