For those who have been following the study that says exercise doesn't help you lose weight, etc.

Epidemiologist and researcher Steven Blair has come out and said what should have been said all along. The biggest threat to our health is not heart disease, cancer, or even diabetes. It is inactivity.

In case you are wondering who this person is, Blair was the senior scientific editor of the 1996 U.S. Surgeon General's Report on Physical Activity and Health. He works at the University of South Carolina and is recognized as one of the world's leading experts on exercise and health.

Our lives are designed around inactivity. This is very sad to me.

I very much enjoyed the book Cheaper by the Dozen, and think Frank and Lillian Gilbreth, who helped found much of the science behind saving motions and time, and designing equipment to be less fatiguing to workers, among other things, were geniuses. If there was a faster, easier, and, let's face it, lazier, way to do it, they wanted to find that way, to save time and movement. This is brilliant, if you then use that time for other, productive things. Exercise and activity that keep you healthy can be one of those productive things. If you save the time only to waste it lying on the couch constantly, it is just folly.

Incorporate movement and activity into your day. You won't regret it.



Today is:

Auditor's Day

Chelsea Antique Fair

Discontinued Thoughts Exhibition -- Fairy Calendar

Ethiopian New Year

Harvest Festival, Hungary

Honey, I Want to Start My Own Business Day

Jinnah Day, Pakistan

Make your Bed Day

National Hot Cross Buns Day

National Neighborhood Day

National Tricky Handshake Day

No News is Good News Day

Patriot Day

St. Deiniol's Day

St. Ethelberga's Day

St. Paphnutius' Day

St. Protus and Hyacinth's Day

Wrench In the Works Day


Anniversaries Today:

Diocletian New Year

Remembrance of 9/11/2001


Birthdays Today:

Harry Connick, Jr. 1967
Kristy McNichol, 1962
Lola Falana, 1943
Tom Dreesen, 1942
Brian DePalma, 1940
Paul "Bear" Bryant, 1913
D.H. Lawrence, 1885
O. Henry, 1862


Today in History:

Battle of Teutoburg Forest ends, 9
Michimalonko leads indigenous warriors to attack and destroy Santiago, Chile, 1541
Alexander Hamilton is appointed first Secretary of the Treasury, 1789
Jenny Lind, the "Swedish Nightingale", gives her first US concert, 1850
The Olympia Columbian becomes the first newspaper published north of the Columbia River, 1852
The postal mail chute is patenteted by James Cutler, 1883