Amusing? Sad? Aggravating?

[wal]

Australia's fast food is not subsidised as heavily as that in the US, however it's still pretty cheap, and if you don't have a kitchen you have no alternative, you can't subsist on raw vegetables and meat. As well, remember that if you're homeless it's because you have nowhere to go. You're on the street and nobody cares.

Fast food outlets the next soup kitchen. Remember most of the fast food outlets in Aus are franchises from the USA. Subsidised fast food in Aus? Subsisdised fast food has got to bite the government on the bum when people become ill stop working and end up at the hospital on medicare, crazy.

When I was a kid there was no "fast food" if you did not cook it yourself you did not eat, we even had to catch the chook, kill it, gut it and pluck it before we could have Sunday lunch. That was real chicken, no antibiotic filled stuff they serve today. Grandpa use to chase away so we could not see the headless chooks run around the yard. Ahh the good old days.

There are some who still care though the salvos still do a lot of work with homeless people.

[joosejpr]

Maybe they're mentally ill.

I did 2 years volunteer work in LA county and encountered homeless people daily. It was depressing how many of them no longer had a grasp of reality. The shiz they go through on the streets (I am not going to weigh in on whose fault it is) would drive anyone crazy, given enough time.

[b17vic]

Maybe the real problem is the fact that we are all tied to and slaves to money, a human invention of control that in itself has no value just a key to unlock doors. Many times in my life I've felt like walking away never to return to the responsibilities of living a more secure way of life BUT I would question as to what would be the result if I did. . . . . . . .

[MattJ.D.]

Depends on how you define "air", really.

You can't breathe without molecular oxygen, and that does not exist in space, nor can you breathe vacuum. Atomic oxygen does exist in space but that is not breathable even if it was at normal atmospheric pressure. Atomic oxygen, that is oxygen that isn't in the form of di-atomic molecules will not be absorbed by hemoglobin, and in fact it is so reactive it tears molecules apart. In order to breathe we need enough atmospheric pressure for our diaphragms to create first a pressure drop then a pressure increase in the lungs as we breathe. In space the lack of pressure makes this impossible, and a human unprotected from the vacuum of space would die of both suffocation and the 'bends" because bodily fluids start boiling because of the lack of pressure on the body. Gases dissolved in the blood and other bodily fluids will come out of solution, with dire results. With no molecular oxygen and no pressure for our lungs to work with, breathing in the vacuum of space is impossible.

[frosty-g]

Believe it or not, when I was 6 my aunt Elaine accompanied me home to Illinois by way of KLM from Curacao with what was supposed to be a brief stopover in Havana for fuel. So I was told later. We were held there for a couple of hours for some pretext or other before flying on to Miami to get aboard a Pan Am flight to Chicago. This was in 1956 so you can well surmise who was in charge there then. Hint. It wasn't Batista, if you know who he was.

But since you want to snark about this I'll allow as how since then I haven't been back. I doubt I'd keep my clearance if I had. But then again, I do know how to read by way of of my partisan goggles that seem to be attracting so much attention recently. There have been plenty of both government sponsored and private open source summaries and articles about Cuba including some from the liberal US newspapers like the NY and LA Times. None of them portray life in Cuba as a remotely desirable place. Otherwise people wouldn't try to raft their way out of this worker's paradise on flimsy makeshift watercraft. The place has really declined since the USSR collapsed and quit subsidizing it with higher prices for their sugar production collectives. Women queue up for the basics like in the USSR and often end up earning some money on the side in the skin trade. Mostly in the luxury hotels the rest of the enlightened world goes to enjoy in their 3rd world banana republic's snady beaches and cheap rum. Automobiles are all 50's and 60's US make except for a few Moskviches and Zils tha managed to hold together. They all manage to get repaired with chewing gum and baling wire.

Then again there's that wonderful universal healthcare they have. Ask Hugo Chavez how well his cancer is doing these days after treatment there.

I can believe it if it was in 1956, as your country used to allow you to travel freely to Cuba back then, when the island was run by decent gentlemen such as Batista and the mafia, who were obviously fine to do business with. I can also quite readily believe that it was indeed only a couple of hours that you spent there.
I appreciate the fact that you have tried to make an effort to learn about Cuba through reading and attending seminars (I'll assume you have actually attended though you didn't specify), however your knowledge is quite obviously very limited to the generic right-wing US point of view (if you want me to list the misconceptions and errors in your summary I'll be happy to oblige). "Liberal US newspapers"? Really? I've never come across one of those, "comparatively liberal" perhaps you meant. And really, you would have been better off omitting the bit about (US) government sponsored seminars altogether, although I understood your point.

I could go to coaching courses, seminars, personal trainers, academic articles, magazine articles etc etc and tell you guys that proper squats are bad for your knees because I'VE READ IT. Doesn't mean shit if all you guys on the forum can turn around and say "well actually, we can PROVE otherwise based on our experience"... but hang on I READ IT, I WAS TOLD IT. "Sorry mate, all bollocks... "

I don't proclaim to be some great expert on Cuba but I know a fair bit having lived there for more than a year, studied "The History of Cuban Culture" at the University of Havana as part of a Latin American Studies degree, and had a one year apprenticeship learning sports planning and methodology specialising in the Cuban School of Boxing. I also trained 5-6 days a week boxing whilst I was there and have a good number of Cuban friends from all walks of life. I also read a lot about the place and attend seminars and conferences.
Now my point of view may vary from yours regardless, and I'm not a Communist before you go making assumptions- in fact it was my scepticism about the place that made me decide that I wanted to know what it was really about. The funny thing is though, that you have such a concrete view of how the island "IS". I'm quite aware of the fact that I don't know everything and am open to learning, which is one reason why I ended up with Rip's books and also knew to stick with them.

Well perhaps I ought to give a bit of my opinion about Cuba eh?
It's pretty damn good in most ways. There's plenty that is difficult about the life there but I personally believe that it balances out quite well. There is a totally different value system there which I can understand that most people in the Western World won't be able to get their heads around- for lack of mental agility rather than a question of agreeing or disagreeing- but for all the cons there's plenty of good stuff comes with it.

A very nice thing that I'm sure all you guys would be able to appreciate is that commercialism hasn't totally fucked up sport/strength and conditioning like it has everywhere else. In fact there is quite the opposite situation. If you like Rip's approach to strength training you would love the Cuban sports system. The multitude of angered comments about "Globogyms" on this website suggest to me that a lot of you would quite like to see that stuff knocked on the head and a Cuban-style sports system brought in.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Fast food outlets the next soup kitchen. Remember most of the fast food outlets in Aus are franchises from the USA. Subsidised fast food in Aus? Subsisdised fast food has got to bite the government on the bum when people become ill stop working and end up at the hospital on medicare, crazy.

You guys don't have Vegemite Sandwich stands? Why not? What the hell is your culture good for if you can't get a Vegemite Sandwich at a Vegemite Sandwich stand in Australia?

that in itself has no value just a key to unlock doors.

You see no value in unlocking a door?

You can't breathe without molecular oxygen, and that does not exist in space, nor can you breathe vacuum. Atomic oxygen does exist in space but that is not breathable even if it was at normal atmospheric pressure. Atomic oxygen, that is oxygen that isn't in the form of di-atomic molecules will not be absorbed by hemoglobin, and in fact it is so reactive it tears molecules apart. In order to breathe we need enough atmospheric pressure for our diaphragms to create first a pressure drop then a pressure increase in the lungs as we breathe. In space the lack of pressure makes this impossible, and a human unprotected from the vacuum of space would die of both suffocation and the 'bends" because bodily fluids start boiling because of the lack of pressure on the body. Gases dissolved in the blood and other bodily fluids will come out of solution, with dire results. With no molecular oxygen and no pressure for our lungs to work with, breathing in the vacuum of space is impossible.

I'm sure this will be very helpful to Tersh.

A very nice thing that I'm sure all you guys would be able to appreciate is that commercialism hasn't totally fucked up sport/strength and conditioning like it has everywhere else. In fact there is quite the opposite situation. If you like Rip's approach to strength training you would love the Cuban sports system. The multitude of angered comments about "Globogyms" on this website suggest to me that a lot of you would quite like to see that stuff knocked on the head and a Cuban-style sports system brought in.

I'm curious: how many gyms are there in Havana, how many have bumper plates/good bars/platforms/power racks/expert trainers, and how much are the dues? Maybe a Communist Dictatorship is the way out of the Planet Fitness situation.

[DoctorWho]

Oscar Biscet was unavailable for comment.

[Mark E. Hurling]

OK frost, but other than your movement in the relatively rarified air in the groves of academe and the state-sponsored sports palaces you were in, did you get out of the friendly confines of Havana? How are the buildings and infrastructure holding up? Because I've seen the photos of the place in articles that the authors thought they were writing something friendly and praising of the place and how collective it all was that pain a much different picture. Like chicken wire and chain link hold up the edifices of buildings. I could provide other information from other sources that were not so friendly that paint the place even worse than that. But if friendly US journalists couldn't manage the lipstick on a pig, you can bet it goes downhill from there. Like having to hitchhike to get anywhere unless you own a vehicle that actually runs or can find room on rickety busses that look like something out of Romancing the Stone.

You get out to a sugar cane collective for instance? Because other than a little mechanization of the distilling process it isn't much different than the slave labor in Louisiana and Haiti.

Funny how you tossed out some generalities that "it's pretty damn good" but didn't address what I described in terms of lines, the treatment of women, the economy, their healthcare system, the escapees, and their crumbling automoblies. So get a little more specific about what exactly I was wrong about in describing a worker's paradise. "In most ways."

[Mark E. Hurling]

When I was a kid there was no "fast food" if you did not cook it yourself you did not eat, we even had to catch the chook, kill it, gut it and pluck it before we could have Sunday lunch. That was real chicken, no antibiotic filled stuff they serve today. Grandpa use to chase away so we could not see the headless chooks run around the yard. Ahh the good old days.

Street vendors have been around selling such fare as meat pies well before the Tudors. That is just one example of fast food, and it was almost without doubt very dangerous to eat, although not for the reasons you cite.

[Root]

Maybe a Communist Dictatorship is the way out of the Planet Fitness situation.

If it will get rid of Nickelback too, count me in.