"The Art of War" by Sun Tzu

• According as circumstances are favorable, one should modify one's plans.
• All warfare is based on deception.
• The general who wins a battle makes many calculations in his temple ere the battle is fought.
• If the campaign is protracted, the resources of the state will not be equal to the strain.
• There is no instance of a country having been benefited from prolonged warfare.
• Bring war material with you from home, but forage on the enemy.
• Captured soldiers should be kindly treated and kept.
• Supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.
• The highest form of generalship is to balk the enemy's plans. The next best is to prevent the junction of the enemy's forces. The next in order is to attack the enemy's army in the field. The worst policy of all is to besiege walled cities.
• The rule is, not to besiege walled cities if it can possibly be avoided.
• It is the rule in war, if our forces are ten to the enemy's one, to surround him; if five to one, to attack him; if twice as numerous, to divide our army into two. If equally matched, we can offer battle; if slightly inferior in numbers, we can avoid the enemy; if quite unequal in every way, we can flee from him.
• There are five essentials for victory:
• He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight.
• He will win who knows how to handle both superior and inferior forces.
• He will win whose army is animated by the same spirit throughout all ranks.
• He will win who, prepared himself, waits to take the enemy unprepared.
• He will win who has military capacity and is not interfered with by the sovereign.
• If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.
• The control of a large force is the same in principle as the control of a few men. It is merely a question of dividing up their numbers.
• The spot where we intend to fight must not be made known.
• An army without its baggage train is lost; without provisions it is lost; without bases of supply it is lost.
• A soldier's' spirit is keenest in the morning; by noonday it has begun to flag and in the evening his mind is bent only on returning to camp.
• When you surround an army leave an outlet free. Do not press a desperate foe too hard.
• The art of war teaches us to rely not on the likelihood of the enemy not coming, but on our own readiness to receive him; not on the chance of his not attacking, but rather on the fact that we have made our position unassailable.
• Pass quickly over mountains and keep in the neighborhood of valleys.
• In battle and maneuvering all armies should prefer high ground to low and sunny places to dark. If you are careful of your men, and camp on hard ground, the army will be free from diseases.
• Soldiers must be treated with humanity, but kept under control by iron discipline.
• Move not unless you see an advantage; use not your troops unless there is something to be gained; fight not unless the position is critical.

"The Art of Learning" by Josh Waitzkin

• Virtually all situations can be handled as long as presence of mind is maintained.
• The scholastic chess world is a deadly place.
• The vast majority of motivated people make terrible mistakes in their approach to learning.
• A child with a learning theory of intelligence tends to sense that with hard work, difficult material can be grasped--step by step, incrementally, the novice can become the master.
• It is critical to realize that we can always evolve in our approaches to learning.
• The key to pursuing excellence is to embrace an organic, long-term learning process, and not to live in a shell of static, safe mediocrity. Usually, growth comes at the expense of previous comfort or safety.
• Begin with reduced complexity and clear principles. Learn from the foundation up.
• Once you start with [chess] openings, there is no way out. Lifetimes can be spent memorizing and keeping up with the evolving Encyclopedia of Chess Openings. They are an addiction, with perilous psychological effects.
• If you cultivate a perfectionist self-image, then how you you learn from your mistakes?
• One of the most critical strengths of a superior competitor in any discipline is the ability to dictate the tone of the battle.
• Seek out opponents who are a little stronger than you arel. Make losing a regular part of your experience.
• Too much sheltering from results can be stunting.
• The road to success is not easy or else everyone would be the greatest at what they do--we need to be psychologically prepared to face the unavoidable challenges along our way, and when it comes down to it, the only way to learn how to swim is by getting in the water.
• Every loss is an opportunity for growth.
• We have to take responsibility for ourselves and nurture a healthy, liberated mind-set. We need to put ourselves out there, give it our all, and reap the lesson, win or lose. The fact of the matter is that there will be nothing learned from any challenge in which we don’t try our hardest. Growth comes at the point of resistance. We learn by pushing ourselves and finding what really lies at the outer reaches of our abilities.
• Mental resilience is arguably the most critical trait of a world-class performers, and it should be nurtured continuously.
• My instinct is always to seek out challenges as opposed to avoiding them.
• One idea I taught was the importance of regaining presence and clarity of mind after making a serious error. This is a hard lesson for all competitors and performers. The first mistake rarely proves disastrous, but the downward spiral of the second, third, and fourth error creates a devastating chain reaction.
• A key component of high-level learning is cultivating a resilient awareness that is the older, conscious embodiment of a child’s playful obliviousness.
• I believe that one of the most critical factors in the transition to becoming a conscious high performer is the degree to which your relationship to your pursuit stays in harmony with your unique disposition.
• Muscles and minds need to stretch to grow, but if stretched too thin, they will snap.
• A competitor needs to be process-oriented, always looking for stronger opponents to spur growth ,but it is also important to keep on winning enough to maintain confidence. We have to release our current ideas to soak in new material, but not so much that we lose touch with our unique natural talents.
• Investment in loss is giving yourself to the learning process.
• It is not so difficult to have a beginner’s mind and to be willing to invest in loss when you are truly a beginner, but it is much harder to maintain that humility and openness to learning when people are watching and expecting you to perform.
• We must take responsibility for ourselves, and not expect the rest of the world to understand what it takes to become the best that we can become.
• Great ones are willing to get burned time and again as they sharpened their swords in the fire.
• The theme is depth over breadth. The learning principle is to plunge into the detailed mystery of the micro in order to understand what makes the macro tick. Our obstacle is that we live in an attention-deficit culture.
• The constant supply of stimulus has the potential to turn us into addicts, always hungering for something new and prefabricated to keep us entertained.
• The key is to take small steps, so the body can barely feel the condensins practice. Each little refinements is monitored by the feeling of the punch, which I gained from months or years of training with the large, traditional motion. Slowly but surely, my body mechanics get more and more potent.
• Players tend to get attached to fancy techniques and fail to recognize that subtle internalization and refinement is much more important than the quality of what is learned.
• It is rarely a mysterious technique that drives us to the top, but rather a profound mastery of what may well be a basic skill set. Depth beats breadth any day of the week, because it opens a channel for the intangible, unconscious, creative components of our hidden potential.
• The importance of undulating between external and internal (or concrete and abstract; technical and intuitive) training applies to all disciplines, and unfortunately the internal tends to be neglected.
• One thing I have learned as a competitor is that there are clear distinctions between what it takes to be decent, what it takes to be good, what it takes to be great, and what it takes to be among the best. If your goal is to be mediocre, then you have a considerable margin for error. If you want to be the best, you have to take risks others would avoid, always optimizing the learning potential of the moment and turning adversity to your advantage.
• When aiming for the top, your path requires an engaged, searching mind. You have to make obstacles spur you to creative new angles in the learning process. Let setbacks deepen your resolve.
• It is all too easy to get caught up in the routines of our lives and to lose creativity in the learning process. Even people who are completely devoted to cultivating a certain discipline often fall into a mental rut, a disengaged lifestyle that implies excellence can be obtained by going through the motions. We lose presence.
• Once we reach a certain level of expertise at a given discipline and our knowledge is expansive, the critical issue becomes: how is all this stuff navigated and put to use? I believe the answers to this question are the gateway to the most esoteric levels of elite performance.
• Chunking relates to the mind's ability to assimilate large amount of information into a cluster that is bound together by certain patterns or principles particular to a given discipline.
• Carved neural pathways are the process of creating chunks and the navigation system between chunks.
• Chunking relates to the mind’s ability to take lots of information, find a harmonizing/logically consistent strain, and put it together into one mental file that can be accessed as if it were a single piece of information.
• As with all skills, the most sophisticated techniques tend to have their foundation in the simplest of principles.
• It’s amazing how much you can learn about someone when they get caught in the rain!
• In virtually every competitive physical discipline, if your are a master of reading and manipulating footwork, then you are a force to be reckoned with.
• Take advantage of the moment your opponent is switching his weight from one foot to another.
• There is nothing mystical about controlling intention or entering the mind of the opponent. These are skills to be cultivated like any other.
• In every discipline, the ability to be clearheaded, present, col under fire is much of what separates the best from the mediocre.
• While more subtle, this issue [presence] is perhaps even more critical in solitary pursuits such as writing, painting, scholarly thinking, or learning. In the absence of continual external reinforcement, we must be our own monitor, and quality of presence is often the best gauge.
• We cannot expect to touch excellence if “going through the motions” is the norm of our lives. On the other hand, if deep, fluid presence becomes second nature, then life, art, and learning take on a richness that will continually surprise and delight.
• Those who excel are those who maximize each moment’s creative potential--for these master of living, presence to the day-to-day learning process is akin to that purity of focus others dream of achieving in rare climactic moment when everything is on the line.
• The secret is that everything is always on the line.
• Presence must be like breathing.
• In your performance training, the first step to mastering the zone is to practice the ebb and flow of stress and recovery. This should involve interval training as I have described above, at whatever level of difficulty is appropriate for the age and physical conditioning of the individual.
• If you are interested in really improving as a performer, I would suggest incorporating the rhythm of stress and recovery into all aspects of your life.
• It would be an excellent idea to spend a few minutes each day doing some simple meditation practice in which your mind gathers and released with the ebb and flow of your breath.
• Too many of us live without fully engaging our minds, waiting for that moment when our real lives begin.
• I believe an appreciation for simplicity, the everyday--the ability to dive deeply into the banal and discover life’s hidden richness--is where success, let alone happiness, emerges.
• The real power of incremental growth comes to bear when we truly are like water, steadily carving stone. We just keep flowing when everything is on the line.
• The key is to make changes incrementally, slowly, so there is more similarity than difference from the last version of the routine.
• The ideal for any performer is flexibility.
• We must be prepared for imperfection.
• In my experience the greatest of artists and competitors are masters of navigating their own psychologies, playing on their strengths, controlling the tone of battle so that it fits with their personalities.
• We are unique individuals who should put our own flair into everything we do.
• When hit with surprises, if you have a solid foundation, you should be fine. Tactics comes easy once principles are in the blood.
• Handling dirty tricks is a part of the game.

"The Arab Mind" by Raphael Patai

• All those who have made first-hand observations of Arab family life agree that the incidence and severity of corporal punishment administered to Arab children is much greater than is the case in the Western world.
• Local and individual variations aside, the general situation in the Arab family is that it is the father who is severe, stern and authoritarian, while the mother is, by contrast, loving and compassionate.
• The overwhelming desire of all parents is to have sons.
• The idea that it is humiliating to beget daughters has managed to survive in conservative Arab circles down to the present.
• The young wife’s position in her husband’s family (where, in conservative circles, she is treated initially more or less like an unpaid servant) improves only if she gives birth to a son.
• In both child and adult, the verbally stated which, intention, or demand is expected to bring about realization without any additional action.
• The characteristic Arab male attitude to women: that the destiny of women in general, and in particular of those within the family circle, is to serve the men and obey them.
• Arab sexual mores assume that wherever and whenever a man and women of suitable age happen to find themselves alone, they will be irresistibly driven to having sexual union even if they had never before seen each other, and even if the consequences could be most disastrous. The only way to prevent such occurrences is to practice strict segregation, calculated to make it impossible for a man and woman ever to be alone, unless, of course, they are married or are first-degree blood relations.
• Who is an Arab? is usually answered, One whose mother tongue is Arabic. This is the answer many Arabs themselves give; nor has any other valid answer been found.
• Throughout the vast Arabic language area, people hold with relative uniformity that Arabic is superior to other languages because it is beautiful and has a strong appeal, especially for the recitation of classical poetry and for formal or semi-formal oratory. Arabic speakers also hold that Arabic surpasses other languages in beauty because of its inherent qualities.
• For speakers of English, the effect their languages has on them is very different from that of great music. Yet the speakers of Arabic react to both language and music in a basically similar manner, except that their reaction to the language is probably deeper, more intense, and more emotional.
• In the course of learning to speak, Arab children acquire not only the Arabic vocabulary and grammar, but also style, including the specific stylistic devices known as [exaggeration] and [over-assertion].
• When the average Arab uses exaggeration and overemphasis, he actually is either not at all aware, or only barely, aware of employing these specific stylistic devices. In his mind, as well as the mind of his Arab interlocutors, exaggeration and overemphasis register as simple statements.
• Conditioned by the childhood experience of frequent threats often not carried out, the adult Arab makes statements which express threats, demands, or intentions, which he does not intend to carry out but which, once uttered, relax emotional tension, give psychological relief and at the same time reduce the pressure to engage in any act aimed at realizing the verbal goal.
• The intention of doing something, or the plan of doing something, or the initiation of the first step toward doing something -- any one of these can serve as a substitute for achievement and accomplishment.
• In the Arab mentality words often can and do serve as substitutes for acts.
• As anybody who has lived among Arabs can testify, they are much less concerned with time than Westerners.
• The concept of punctuality does not exist in traditional Arab culture.
• Lateness for appointments or not showing at all has remained to this day a fairly common phenomenon in Arab life.
• The Bedouin temper is characterized by sudden flare-ups, which can easily lead to violence and even murder, followed by remorse and long periods of tranquility, inactivity, almost apathy.
• Aversion to manual labor, in particular work that involves dirtying one’s hands is another Bedouin attitude that has widely influence the Arab mind.
• In the Arab world, the greatest dishonor that can befall a man results from the sexual misconduct of his daughter or sister.
• The marital infidelity of a wife, on the other hand, brings to the Arab husband only emotional effects and not dishonor.
• The conviction that the only acceptable method of resolving conflict is mediation by a third party, who serves literally as a go-between, commuting back and forth between the two sides until he gets them to accept his solution, influences and, in fact, determines the behavior of Arab leaders also in relation to non-Arab adversaries.
• It has long been a customary feature of Arab psychology to vent one’s anger on the bearer of bad tidings.
• In historical perspective, the Arabs see the West as a young disciple who has overtaken and left behind his erstwhile master, medieval Arab civilization.
• Almost all Arab thinkers agree that the West is responsible for Arab stagnation in modern times.
• The one form of war permissible in Islam is the jihad, the holy war, which consists of military action for the purpose of defending or expanding the “House of Islam.” It is a collective Muslim duty to convert to Islam all unbelievers, except for the Jews, Christians, and the Zoroastrians, who are “people of the book,” and must merely be made to submit to the political authority of Islam, and pay the [poll tax], and the [land tax].

"The Age of Reason" by Thomas Paine

• All natural institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian, or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.
• It is necessary to the happiness of man, that he be mentally faithful to himself.
• Every national church or religion has established itself by pretending some special mission from God, communicated to certain individuals.
• Revelation when applied to religion, means something communicated immediately from God to man.
• It is revelation to the first person only, and hearsay to every other, and, consequently, they are not obliged to believe it.
• Revelation is necessarily limited to the first communication.
• Jesus Christ wrote no account of himself, of his birth, parentage, or anything else. Not a line of what is called the New Testament is of his writing.
• These books, beginning with Genesis and ending with Revelations, (which, by the bye, is a book of riddles that requires a revelation to explain it) are, we are told, the word of God. It is, therefore, proper for us to know who told us so, that we may know what credit to give to the report. The answer to this question is, that nobody can tell, except that we tell one another so.
• When the church mythologists established their system, they collected all the writings they could find, and managed them as they pleased. It is a matter altogether of uncertainty to us whether such of the writings as now appear under the name of the Old and the New Testament, are in the same state in which those collectors say they found them; or whether they added, altered, abridged, or dressed them up.
• We have no other external evidence or authority for believing these books to be the word of God, than what I have mentions, which is no evidence or authority at all.
• Whenever we read the obscene stories the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness, with which more than half the Bible [NOTE: It must be borne in mind that by the “Bible” Paine always means the Old Testament alone.] is filled, it would be more consistent that we called it the word of a demon, than the Word of God. It is a history of wickedness, that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind: and, for my own part, I sincerely detest it, as I detest everything that is cruel.
• The continually progressive change to which the meaning of words is subject, the want of an universal language which renders translation necessary, the errors to which translations are again subject, the mistakes of copyists and printers, together with the possibility of wilful alteration, are of themselves evidences the human language, whether in speech or in print, cannot be the vehicle of the Word of God. -- The Word of God exists in something else.
• Had it been the object or the intention of Jesus Christ to establish a new religion, he would undoubtedly have written the system himself, or procured it to be written in his lifetime. But there is no publication extant authenticated with his name. All the books called the New Testament were written after his death.
• It is somewhat curious that the three persons whose names are the most universally recorded were of very obscure parentage. Moses was a foundling; Jesus Christ was born in a stable; and Mahomet was a mule driver.
• The only idea men can affix to the name of God, is that of a first cause, the cause of all things.
• Almost the only parts in the book called the Bible, that convey to us any idea of God, are some chapters in Job, and the 19th Psalm; I recollect no other.
• Every science has for its basis a system of principles as fixed and unalterable as those by which the universe is regulated and governed.
• It is in the knowledge of the things that science and philosophy teaches that learning consists.
• It would therefore be advantageous to the state of learning to abolish the study of dead languages, and to make learning consist, as it originally did, in scientific knowledge.
• I moreover believe, that any system of religion that has anything in it that shocks the mind of a child, cannot be a true system.
• Mankind have conceived to themselves certain laws, by which what they call nature is supposed to act; and that a miracle is something contrary to the operation and effect of those laws. But unless we know the whole extent of those laws, and of what are commonly called the powers of nature, we are not able to judge whether any thing that may appear to us wonderful or miraculous, be within, or by beyond, or be contrary to, her natural power of acting.
• Is it more probably that nature should go out of her course, or that a man should tell a lie?
• The most extraordinary of all the things called miracles, related in the New Testament, is that of the devil flying away with Jesus Christ, and carrying him to the top of a high mountain; and to the top of the highest pinnacle of the temple, and showing him and promising to him all the kingdoms of the world. How happened it that he did not discover America?
• It has often been said that anything may be proved from the Bible; but before anything can be admitted as proved by the Bible, the Bible itself must be proved to be true; for if the Bible be not true, or the truth of it be doubtful, it ceases to have authority, and cannot be admitted as proof of anything.
• It is not the antiquity of a tale that is an evidence of its truth; on the contrary, it is a symptom of its being fabulous; for the more ancient any history pretends to be, the more it has the resemblance of a fable. The origin of every nation is buried in fabulous tradition, and that of the Jews is as much to be suspected as any other.
• And to read the Bible without horror, we must undo everything that is tender, sympathizing, and benevolent in the heart of man.
• Take away from Genesis the belief that Moses was the author, on which only the strange belief that it is the word of God has stood, and there remains nothing of Genesis but an anonymous book of stories, fables, and traditionary or invented absurdities, or of downright lies.
• People in general know not what wickedness there is in this pretended word of God. Brought up in habits of superstition, they take it for granted that the Bible is true, and that it is good; they permit themselves not to doubt of it, and they carry the ideas they form of the benevolence of the Almighty to the book which they have been taught to believe was written by his authority.
• The sublime and the ridiculous are often so nearly related that is is difficult to class them separately.
• To be happy in old age it is necessary that we accustom ourselves to objects that can accompany the mind all the way through life, and that we take the rest as good in their day.
• This book, the Bible, is too ridiculous for criticism.
• When a priest quotes any of those passages, he unriddles it agreeably to his own views, and imposes that explanation upon his congregation as the meaning of the writer.
• The christian faith is built upon the heathen Mythology.
• The first chapter of Matthew begins with giving a genealogy of Jesus Christ; and in the third chapter of Luke there is also given a genealogy of Jesus Christ. Did these two agree, it would not prove the genealogy to be true, because it might nevertheless be a fabrication; but as they contradict each other in every particular, it proves falsehood absolutely.
• Were any girl that is now with child to say, and even to swear it, that she was gotten with child by a ghost, and that an angel told her so, would she be believed? Certainly she would not. Why then are we to believe the same thing of another girl whom we never saw, told by nobody knows who, nor when, nor where?
• It is an easy thing to tell a lie, but it is difficult to support the lie after it is told.
• The tale of the resurrection follows that of the crucifixion; and in this as well as in that, the writers, whoever they were disagree so much as to make it evident that none of them were there.
• As to the account of Christ being seen by more than five hundred at once, it is Paul only who says it, and not the five hundred who say it for themselves. It is, therefore, the testimony of but one man, and that too of a man, who did not, according to the same account, believe a word of the matter himself at the time ti is said to have happened.
• I am not one of those who are fond of believing there is much of that which is called wilful lying, or lying originally, except in the case of men setting up to be prophets, as in the old Testament; for prophesying is lying professionally.
• The story of the appearance of Jesus Christ is told with that strange mixture of the natural and impossible, that distinguishes legendary tale from fact.
• There was no such book as the New Testament till more than three hundred years after the time that Christ is said to have lived.
• About three hundred and fifty years after the time that Christ is said to have lived, several writings of the kind I am speaking of were scattered in the hands of diverse individuals; and as the church had begun to form itself into an hierarchy, or church government, with temporal powers, it set itself about collecting them, called ‘The New Testament.’ They decided by vote, as I have before said in the former part of the Age of Reason, which of those writings, out of the collection they had made, should be the word of God, and which should not.
• As the object of the church, as is the case in all national establishments of churches, was power and revenue, and terror the means it used, it is consistent to suppose that the most miraculous and wonderful of the writing they had collected stood the best chance of being voted. And as to the authenticity of the books, the vote stands in the place of it; for it can be traced no higher.
• When we consider the lapse of more than three hundred years intervening between the time that Christ is said to have lived and the time the new Testament was formed into a book, we must see, even without the assistance of historical evidence, the exceeding uncertainty there is of its authenticity.
• Priests and conjurers are of the same trade.
• Nothing can present to use a more strange idea than that of decreeing the word of God by vote.
• We should never force belief upon ourselves in anything.
• The contradictory possibilities, contained in the Old Testament and the New, put them in the case of a man who swears for and against. Either evidence convicts him or perjury, and equally destroys his reputation.
• The most detestable wickedness, the most horrid cruelties, and the greatest miseries, that have afflicted the human race have had their origin in this thing called revelation, or revealed religion.
• Christianity grounds itself originally upon the [Hebrew] Bible, and the Bible was established altogether by the sword, and that in the worst use of it -- not to terrify, but to extirpate.
• The Jews made no converts: they butchered all.
• The Bible is the sire of the [New] Testament, and both are called the word of God. The Christians read both books; the ministers preach from both books; and this thing called Christianity is made up of both. It is then false to say that Christianity was no established by the sword.
• What is it the Bible teaches us? -- repine, cruelty, and murder. What is it the Testament teaches us? -- to believe that the Almighty committed debauchery with a woman engaged to be married; and the belief of this debauchery is called faith.
• Of all systems of religion that ever were invented, there is no more derogatory to the Almighty, more unedifying to man, more repugnant to reason, and more contradictory in itself, than this thing called Christianity. Too absurd for belief, too impossible to convince, and too inconsistent for practice; it renders the heart torpid, or produces only atheists and fanatics. As an engine of power, it served the purpose of despotism; and as a means of wealth, the avarice of priests; but so far as respects the good of man in general, it leads to nothing here or hereafter.
• Not any thing can be studied as a science without our being in possession of the principles upon which it is founded; and as this is not the case with Christian theology, it is therefore the study of nothing.
• The Bible-makers have undertaken to give us, in the first chapter of Genesis, an account of the creation and in doing this they have demonstrated nothing but their ignorance.

"Secrets & Lies" by Bruce Schneier

• Cryptography is a branch of mathematics. And like all mathematics, it involves numbers, equations, and logic. Security, palpable security that you or I might find useful in our lives, involves people: things people know, relationships between people, people and how they relate to machines. Digital security involves computers: complex, unstable, buggy computers.
• Security is a chain; it’s only as secure as the weakest link.
• Security is a process, not a product.
• Any real-world system is a complicated series of interconnections. Security must permeate the system: its components and connections.
• This book argues that in order to understand the security of a system, you need to look at the entire system--and not at any particular technologies.
• computers interact to form networks, and networks interact to form even larger networks, and...you get the idea.
• Once you start conceptualizing systems, it’s possible to design and build on a more complex scale.
• Machines are simple: a hammer, a door hinge, a steak knife. Systems are much more complicated; they have components, feedback loops, mean times between failure, infrastructure.
• Second, systems interact with each other, forming even larger systems.
• The Internet has intertwined itself with almost every major system in our society
• Third, systems have emergent properties. In other words, they do things that are not anticipated by the users or designers.
• And fourth, systems have bugs. A bug is a particular kind of failure. It’s an emergent property of a system, one that is not desirable.
• Bugs are unique to systems. Machines can break, or fail, or not work, but only a system can have a bug.
• Theory works best in ideal conditions and laboratory settings.
• Real-world systems don’t lend themselves to theoretical solutions; thinking they do is old-school reductionist.
• Digital security tends to rely wholly on prevention: cryptography, firewalls, and so forth. There’s generally no detection, and there’s almost never any response or auditing.
• Security is never black and white, and context matters more than technology.
• People are, on the whole, honest; they generally adhere to an implicit social contract. The general lawfulness in our society is high; that’s why it works so well.
• Cyberspace crime includes everything you’d expect from the physical world: theft, racketeering, vandalism, voyeurism, exploitation, extortion, con games, fraud. There is even the threat of physical harm: cyber stalking, attacks against the air traffic control system, etc.
• Where there’s money, there are criminals.
• In the United States, persona data do not belong to the person whom the data are about, they belong to the organization that collected it.
• Wherever data can be exploited, someone will try it, computers or no computers.
• Nothing in cyberspace is new.
• Automation is an attacker’s friend.
• Computers excel at dull, repetitive tasks.
• There’s the so-called salami attack of stealing the fractions of pennies, one slice at a time, from everyone’s interest-bearing accounts; this is a beautiful example of something that just would not have been possible without computers.
• Fast automation makes attacks with a minimal rate of return profitable. Attacks that were just too marginal to notice in the physical world can quickly become a major threat in the digital world.
• Credit card databases have a mind-boggling amount of information about individuals’ spending habits: where they shop, where they eat, what kind of vacations they take--it’s all there for the taking.
• The news here is not that the data are out there, but how easily they can be collected, used, and abused.
• As technology pundits like to point out, the Internet has no borders or natural boundaries. Every two points are adjacent, whether they are across the hall or across the planet.
• Since on the Internet every computer is equidistant from every other computer, you have to worry about all the criminals in the world.
• The third difference is the ease with which successful techniques can propagate through cyberspace.
• The Internet is also a perfect medium for propagating successful attack tools. Only the first attacker has to be skilled; everyone else can use his software.
• Computer-based attacks mean that criminals don’t need skill to succeed.
• Fraud has been attempted against every commerce system ever invented.
• In fact, a hacker with the right combination of skills and morals could probably take down the Internet.
• Digital content has no magic immunity from counterfeiters. In fact, it’s unique in that it can be copied perfectly.
• It’s far easier, and can be much more profitable, to get a bunch of credit cards in someone else’s name, run up large bills, and then disappear. It’s called identity theft, and it’s a high-growth area of crime.
• Users look at brands, and they return to the sites they trust. A brand has real value, and it’s worth stealing.
• Eventually, people will realize that it doesn’t make sense to write laws that are specific to a technology. Fraud is fraud, whether it takes place over the U.S. mail, the telephone, or the Internet. A crime is no more or less of a crime if cryptography is involved.
• Good laws are written to be independent of technology.
• There are two types of privacy violations--target attacks and data harvesting--and they are fundamentally different. In a target attack, an attacker wants to know about Alice. Data harvesting is the other type of privacy violation. This attack harnesses the power of correlation.
• Data harvesting is worthwhile only because it can be automated; it makes no sense to sort through an entire neighborhood's trash cans to cull a demographic.
• Invisible identification tags are printed on virtually all color xerographic output, from all of the manufacturers.
• The surveillance infrastructure is being installed in our country under the guise of “customer service.”
• Individual privacy is being eroded from a variety of directions. Most of the time, the erosions are small, and no one kicks up a fuss. But less and less privacy is available, and most people are completely oblivious of it.
• Traffic analysis is the study of communication patterns. Not the content of the messages themselves, but characteristics about them.
• Often the patterns of communication are just as important as the contents of communication.
• ECHELON is a code word for an automated global interception system operated by the intelligence agencies of the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, and led by the National Security Agency (NSA).
• Surveillance data is only useful when it is distilled to a form that people can understand and act upon.
• One last note: In a world where most communications are unencrypted, encrypted communications are probably routinely recorded. The mere indication that the conversers do not want to be overheard would be enough to raise an alarm.
• Many companies ignore security vulnerabilities unless they are made public.
• Many alarms have a heartbeat back to the monitoring station, and call the police if the signal is interrupted.
• One of the characteristics of denial-of-service attacks is that low-tech is often better than high-tech: Blowing up a computer center works much better than exploiting a Windows 2000 vulnerability.
• The adversaries are the same as they are in the physical world: common criminals looking for financial gain, industrial spies looking for a competitive advantage, hackers looking for secret knowledge, military-intelligence agencies looking for, well, military intelligence.
• I define a hacker as an individual who experiments with the limitations of systems for intellectual curiosity or sheer pleasure; the word describes a person with a particular set of skills and not a particular set of morals.
• Hackers are as old as curiosity, although the term itself is modern.
• Today’s computer hackers are stereotypically young (twenty-something and younger), male, and socially on the fringe. They have their own counterculture: hacker names or handles, lingo, rules. And like any subculture, only a small percentage of hackers are actually smart. The real hackers have an understanding of technology at a basic level, and are driven by a desire to understand. The rest are talentless poseurs and hangers-on, either completely inept or basic criminals. Sometimes they’re called lamers or script kiddies.
• The problem starts with the hackers who write hacking tools. These are programs--sometimes called exploited-that automate the process of breaking into systems.
• Once an exploit is written and made available, any wannabe hacker can download it and attack computers on the Internet.
• A fine line exists between writing ode to demonstrate research and publishing attack tools; between hacking for good and hacking as a criminal activity.
• Insiders can be impossible to stop because they’re the exact same people you’re forced to trust.
• Most computer security measures--firewalls, intrusion detection systems, and so on--try to deal with the external attacker, but are pretty much powerless against insiders.
• The line where investigative techniques stop being legal and start being illegal is where competitive intelligence stops and industrial espionage starts.
• Industrial espionage attacks have precise motivations: to gain an advantage over the competition by stealing competitor's’ trade secrets.
• Even if stealing a rival's technology costs you half a million dollars, it could be one-tenth the cost of developing the technology yourself.
• Organized crime’s core competencies haven’t changed much this century: drugs, prostitution, loan sharking, extortion, fraud, and gambling.
• One person’s terrorist is another person’s freedom fighter.
• There are actually very few terrorists. Their attacks are acts of war more than anything else, and probably should be in the “infowarrior” category. And since terrorists generally consider themselves to be personally in a state of war, they have a very high risk-tolerance.
• A major national intelligence organization is the most formidable adversary around.
• National intelligence is based on gathering information that the country should not know.
• If the adversary learns what the intelligence organization knows, some of the benefit of that knowledge is lost.
• An infowarrior is a military adversary who tries to undermine his target’s ability to wage war by attacking the information or network infrastructure.
• More and more, commercial computer systems are being used for military applications. This means that all of the vulnerabilities and attacks that work against commercial computers may work against militaries.
• But when push comes to shove and work needs to get done, security is the first thing that gets thrown out the window.
• In the United States, individuals don’t own the data about themselves.
• It’s impossible to tell everyone in the United States a secret without it leaking to the government of China. Therefore, if the United States wants to keep a secret from the Chinese, it has to keep it a secret from almost all Americans as well.
• People don’t want their personal pasts made public.
• The CIA mandates that the identities of spies remain secret until the spy is dead and all the spy’s children are dead.
• In the U.S. military, data is either Unclassified, Confidential, Secret, or Top Secret. Rules govern what kind of data falls into what classification, and different classifications have different rules for storage, dissemination, and so forth.
• Data at the Top Secret level or above is sometimes divided by topic, or compartment. The designation “TS/SCI,” for “Top Secret/Special Compartmented Intelligence,” indicates these documents. Each compartment has a codeword.
• These compartments are a formal codification of the notion of “need to know.” Just because someone has a certain level clearance doesn’t mean he automatically gets to see every piece of data at that clearance level. He only gets to see that data he needs to know to do his job.
• Security in the real world doesn’t fit into little hierarchical boxes.
• There are two different types of anonymity. The first is complete anonymity. The person initiating the communication is completely anonymous: No one can figure out who it is, and more importantly, if the person initiates another communication, the recipient doesn’t know it came from the same person.
• The second type of anonymity is more properly called pseudo anonymity. It’s anonymous in that no one knows who you are, but it is possible to link different communications from the same pseudonym.
• Both types of anonymity are hard in cyberspace, because so much of the infrastructure is identifying.
• Superficial anonymity is easy, but true anonymity is probably not possible on today’s Internet.
• Anonymity is more expensive because extra risks are associated with an anonymous system.
• Computerized patient data is bad for privacy. But it’s good for just about everything else, so it’s inevitable.
• The government, and the FBI in particular, likes to paint privacy (and the systems that achieve it) as a flagitious tool of the Four Horsemen of the Information Apocalypse: terrorists, drug dealers, money launderers, and child pornographers.
• Export laws limit what kind of encryption U.S. companies can export.
• A balance exists between privacy and safety. Laws about search and seizure and due process hinder law enforcement, and probably result in some criminals going free. On the other hand, they protect citizens against abuse by the police.
• Privacy is the first thing jettisoned in a crises, and already the FBI is trying to manufacture crises in an attempt to seize more powers to invade privacy.
• Authentication is about the continuity of relationships, knowing who to trust and who not to trust, making sense of a complex world.
• When thinking about authentication, keep in mind these two different types. The first one is session authentication. The other is transaction authentication.
• Integrity isn’t concerned with the origin of the data--who created it, when, or how--but whether it has been modified since its creation.
• Accuracy has to do with a datum’s correspondence to the flesh-and-blood world; integrity is about a datum’s relation to itself over time.
• In the physical world, people use the physical instantiation of an object as proof of integrity.
• Information is power.
• Throughout human history, we’ve used context to verify integrity; the electronic world has no context.
• Audit is vital wherever security is taken seriously.
• Audit is there so that you can detect a successful attack, figure out what happened after the fact, and then prove it in court.
• Traditionally, fraud prevention has been reactive.
• This notion of fixing a security flaw after it becomes a problem won’t work on the Internet.
• It’s not enough to react to fraud after it’s been demonstrated to work; we have to be proactive and deal with fraud before it happens.
• Security is a process, not a product.
• The main idea behind cryptography is that a group of people can use private knowledge to keep written messages secret from everyone else.
• Even today, the National Security Agency (NSA) is the single largest consumer of computer hardware and the single largest employer of mathematicians in the world.
• Algorithms, like locks, can be standardized.
• The public nature of the algorithm doesn’t affect security, because each different group of users chooses its own secret key.
• These algorithms are called symmetric because the sender and receiver must share the same key. The key is a string of random bits of some length.
• Common algorithms are DES and triple-DES, RC4 and RC5, IDEA, and Blowfish.
• The problem is distributing the keys. For this system to work, Alice and Bob need to agree on a secret key before exchanging any secret messages.
• And assuming you want pairwise security, the number of keys needed grows with the square of the number of users.
• Alice and Bob need to keep their keys secret until they need to talk with one another and they need to make sure that no one gets their keys, either before they use them, while they are using them, or after they have used them.
• If an attacker can take a ciphertext message and recover the plaintext, this is called a ciphertext-only attack.
• A known-plaintext attack is more likely: The analyst has a copy of the plaintext and the ciphertext, and can then recover the key.
• Probable known plaintexts are also called cribs.
• Even more powerful is a chosen-plaintext attack. Here the analyst gets to chose the message that will be encrypted. Then she gets the encrypted message and recovers the key.
• If an algorithm is used in products, it will be reverse engineered.
• It is good design to assume the enemy knows the details of your algorithm, because eventually they will.
• There is no secrecy in the algorithm, it’s all in the key.
• For a standard English message, the unicity distance is K/6.8 characters, where K is the key length in bits.
• You can think of a MAC as a tamper proof coating on a message.
• One-way hash functions are like digital fingerprints: small pieces of data that can serve to identify much larger digital objects. They are public functions; no secret keys are involved.
• Given two prime numbers, it’s easy to multiply them together to find the product. But given a single product, it can be impracticable to factor the number and recover the two factors.
• For now, I just want to point out that no one uses public key encryption to encrypt messages. All operational systems use a hybrid approach that uses both kinds of cryptography. The reason is performance. What Alice really does, when she wants to send a message to Bob, is to use a symmetric algorithm to encrypt the message with a random key that she creates out of thin air (called a session key). She encrypts the random key with Bob’s public key, and then sends both the encrypted key and the encrypted message to Bob. When Bob receives the encrypted message and key, he does the reverse. He uses his private key to decrypt the random symmetric key, and then uses the random symmetric key to decrypt the message.
• Nobody uses public-key cryptography to directly encrypt messages. Everyone uses this hybrid approach.
• Like public-key encryption, digital signatures use a pair of keys, the public key and the private key. You still can’t derive one key from the other. But this time we’re going to reverse them.
• Digital signatures can be used to convince a third party, which solves the non repudiation problem: Alice cannot send a message to Bob, and then later deny ever sending it.
• Random numbers are the least-talked-about cryptographic primitive, but are no less important than the others. Almost every computer security system that uses cryptography needs random numbers--for keys, unique values in protocols, and so on--and the security of those systems is often dependent on the randomness of those random numbers. If the random number generator is insecure, the entire system breaks.
• What we really need out of a random number generator is not that the numbers be truly random, but that they be unpredictable and irreproducible. If we can get those two things, we can get security.
• One of the easiest ways to compare cryptographic algorithms is key length.
• A short key is bad, but a long key is not automatically good.
• If the key is n bits long, then there are 2^N possible keys.
• On the average, a computer would have to try about half the possible keys before finding the correct one.
• All of these brute-force cracks scale linearly; twice the computers can try twice the number of keys. But the difficulty of a brute-force crack is exponential with respect to the key length: Add one key bit, and a brute-force crack is twice as hard.
• The nice thing about brute-force attacks is that they work against any algorithm.
• Hash functions should have a length equal to twice the key length in the table.
• Cryptography is a branch of mathematics. Mathematics is theoretical; mathematics is logical.
• Security is rooted in the physical world. The physical world is not logical. It is not orderly
• No matter how good the cryptographic theory is, when it is used in a system, it intersects with practice.
• Despite what I said last chapter, key length has almost nothing to do with security.
• Entropy is a measure of disorder; or, more specifically in the context of cryptography, it is a measure of uncertainty. The more uncertain something is, the more entropy in that thing.
• Just because an algorithm accepts 128-bit keys does not mean it has 128 bits of entropy in the key.
• The “128 bits” is simply a measure of the maximum amount of work required to break the algorithm and recover the key; it says nothing about the minimum.
• You see, a smart brute-force password-cracking engine isn’t going to try every possible key in order. It’s going to try the most likely ones first, and then try the rest in some likelihood order. This is called a dictionary attack.
• One-time pads are the simplest of all algorithms, and were invented early on in the 20th century. The basic idea is that you have a pad of key letters. You add one key letter to each plaintext letter, and never repeat the key letters. (That’s the “one-time” part.) This system works with any alphabet, including a binary one. And it’s the only provably secure algorithm we’ve got. It’s also pretty much useless. Because the key has to be as long as the message, it doesn’t solve the security problem.
• Any product that claims to use a one-time pad is almost certainly lying. And if they’re not, the product is almost certainly unusable and/or insecure.
• The six tools I discussed in the previous chapter--symmetric encryption, message authentication codes, public-key encryption, one-way hash functions, digital signature schemes, and random number generators--comprise the cryptographer’s toolbox.
• A protocol is nothing more than a dance. It’s a series of predetermined steps, completed by two or more people, designed to complete a task.
• Everyone involved in the protocol must know the steps.
• The Internet is insecure, so cryptography is needed to secure it. Hence, you’re seeing cryptographic protocols stapled onto almost every Internet protocol.
• Just as there are different attacks against algorithms, there are different attacks against protocols. The simplest are passive attacks: Just listen to the protocol going by, and see what you can learn. Often, you can learn a lot by eavesdropping.
• In a military setting, for example, you can learn a lot from traffic analysis: who talks to whom, at what time, and for how long.
• More complex attacks are known as active attacks: inserting, deleting, and changing messages. These can be much more powerful.
• One powerful attack is the man-in-the-middle attack.
• Security is hard; while you can show that a particular algorithm is weak, you can’t show that one algorithm you don’t know how to break is more secure than another.
• The problem is this: Anyone, no matter how unskilled, can design a cryptographic primitive that he himself cannot break. This is an important point.
• There’s no way to prove the security of a primitive; it’s only possible to either demonstrate insecurity or fail trying. This is called proving the null hypothesis. The best any security company can say is: “I don’t know how to break this algorithm/protocol/whatever, and neither does anyone else.”
• Anyone who creates his or her own cryptographic primitive is either a genius or a fool. Given the genius/foot ratio for our species, the odds aren’t very good.
• Public primitives are designed to be secure even though they are public; that’s how they’re made. So there’s no risk in making them public. If a primitive is only secure if it remains secret, then it will only be secure until someone reverse engineers and publishes it.
• In cryptography, security comes from following the crowd.
• By following the crowd, you can leverage the cryptanalytic expertise of the worldwide community, not just a few weeks of some unnoteworthy analyst's time.
• It’s hard enough making string cryptography work in a new system; it’s just plain lunacy to use new cryptography when viable, long-studied alternatives exist.
• Historically, computer security has three aspects: confidentiality, integrity, and availability.
• Confidentiality is not much more than the privacy we talked about in Chapter 5. Computer security has to stop unauthorized users from reading sensitive information.

"Scouting and Patrolling" by the United States Marine Corps

• A patrol is a detachment of troops sent out to gather information, carry out a destructive mission, or conduct a security mission.
• A patrol is organized for the task or mission it is assigned.
• Patrols are used for the following six purposes:
• Collect information about the enemy and terrain.
• Confirm or disprove information received by other means.
• Provide security for friendly units and installations.
• Harass the enemy.
• Seek out and destroy enemy personnel.
• Capture enemy personnel, equipment, and installations.
• Combat patrols are assigned missions that usually include engaging the enemy. They are fighting patrols. Every combat patrol has a secondary mission -- gaining information about the enemy and terrain.
• Reconnaissance patrols provide the commander with timely, accurate information about the enemy and the terrina. They rely on stealth rather than combat strength to accomplish their mission.
• When organizing a patrol, you must take three things into consideration:
• unit integrity
• general organization
• task organization
• It is critical for mission accomplishment that unit integrity be maintained as much as possible when organizing a patrol. Do not mix Marines from different fire teams without a specific reason for doing so.
• The task organization is based on the mission and personnel available.
• Patrols of any size, from as few as 4 Marines to as many as 50 or more, are organized into elements.
• Combat patrols are organized around a rifle platoon:
• headquarters: controls the patrol
• assault: engages the enemy in the objective area
• support: supports the assault element
• security: provides security throughout the patrol and secures the objective rallying point
• Reconnaissance patrols are usually organized around a rifle squad:
• headquarters: This element controls the patrol and is made up of a patrol leader and personnel that may include a forward observer.
• reconnaissance: This element inspects or maintains surveillance over an objective.
• Security: This element provides security for the reconnaissance element.
• Combined Reconnaissance and Security
• Every member of a patrol has a responsibility for the success of the patrol's mission. Proficiency in the individual patrolling skills is critical to the success and survival of the patrol.
• Scouting involves observing terrain and/or the enemy, and accurately reporting those observations. Scouting requires proficiency in the use of weapons, cover and concealment, route selection, and skill in unobserved day or night movement.
• When an infantry unit is not actively fighting the enemy, it should be actively searching for the enemy, which is the primary purpose of scouting.
• The six individual skills are:
• land navigation
• cover and concealment
• camouflage
• movement
• observation
• tracking
• Land navigation is one of the most important and complicated individual patrolling skills that a scout must learn.
• Cover is protection from hostile fire.
• Even a slight depression of 6 inches may provide sufficient cover to save your life while under fire.
• Concealment is protection from hostile observation.
• Techniques of concealment:
• Remain motionless while observing. Anything in motion attracts the eye.
• Observe from the prone position.
• Stay in the shadow.
• Keep of the skyline.
• Look around the side, not over the top of an object when observing.
• Camouflage is the use of natural or man made materials to change or disguise the shape and appearance of an individual, equipment, or position to conceal it.
• Principles of camouflage:
• Camouflage is a continuous process.
• Use natural materials first and then artificial materials if necessary.
• Use only as much material as you need.
• Inspect your camouflage from your enemy’s view.
• Replace freshly killed vegetation regularly.
• Individual camouflage
• Start at the top and work down when applying camouflage.
• Tone down all exposed skin area with camouflage paint.
• Paint shiny areas (forehead, cheekbones, nose, and chin) with a dark color.
• Paint shadow areas (around eyes, nose, and under the chin) with a light color.
• Apply camouflage in irregular patterns and splotches.

"Pro Motocross and Off-Road Riding Techniques" by Donnie Bales and Gary Semics

• The Fundamentals of motocross are maintaining the center of balance and mastering the use of all five controls.
• Maintaining the center of balance deals with body positions and movements.
• Mastering the use of all five controls deals with proper control of the clutch, throttle, front brake, rear brake, and shifter.
• When your riding plans call for rain, an automotive product called Rain-X could turn out to be your best friend.
• Controlling body temperature is critical when riding.
• Items typically carried in a fanny pack are Phillips and slot-head screwdrivers, pliers, wire cutters, spark plugs and spark plug wrench, wrenches (8, 10, and 12 mm) and sockets, knife, zip ties, electrical tape, safety wire, master link, driver’s license, emergency cash, energy bars, and a small assortment of nuts and bolts.
• The goal in staying warm is to stay dry. There are two keys to staying dry in cold weather: layering and high-tech fabrics.
• It’s a good idea to maintain a motorcycle setup log, to keep track of what works and what doesn’t.
• An aluminum handlebar is preferable, because of the strength. Steel bars are cheaper, but you can bend them easily. Aluminum bars, especially the better-quality units, are strong and justify the extra expense after a few get-offs.
• Width is another way to tailor your handlebars to your needs. While motocrossers and desert racers usually prefer stock width, cross-country and enduro riders tend to shorten the bars to 28-29 inches. This gives the bike a narrower profile, so it can fit between trees more easily. Note that the narrower the handlebar, the less control you have over the bike, because of the decreased leverage.
• Grips should be glued to the handlebar using a grip glue and then safety-wired to the handlebar, to reduce the chances of a grip spinning and coming loose.
• Position the levers so their ends are about ⅜ inch from the end of the handlebar. This decreases the likelihood of a lever snapping during a crash.
• Adjust the shifter so the bottom of the lever is on the same horizontal plane as the top of the footpeg.
• No matter what the conditions, a worn out tire gives bad results. Once the sharp edge of the knob rounds off, it loses grip.
• The lower the air pressure, the better the traction, but also the more vulnerable the inner tube is to flats.
• One way to reduce flats altogether is to install a solid foam insert known as a bib mousse.
• Suspension setup is the most critical element of motorcycle setup.
• Gearing is one of the easiest ways to customize power. Adding a tooth to the rear sprocket will increase acceleration but will reduce top speed. In contrast, subtracting one tooth will increase top speed but will mellow throttle response.
• As a rule, never go faster than feels comfortable, especially in unfamiliar terrain.
• Anywhere barbed wire is present is a threat to man and machine. Barbed wire can cause flat tires, get entangled in your bike, or rip you off the seat. Though it can be extremely difficult to see, use common sense and pay attention to any signs that may clue you in.
• Fog can reduce visibility to zero, making it one of the most dangerous riding conditions.
• When dry, grass provides loads of traction. However, when it’s wet, it can be extremely slippery. When you’re on wet grass, treat it like ice.
• Riding over gravel is like riding over marbles. Though it may seem harmless, don’t underestimate its capability to rip you off your bike and pummel you into the ground.
• Pay close attention when ice is present. If you come in contact with it, you’ll most likely end up on the ground.
• When it’s necessary to cross water, look for the area that appears the shallowest and narrowest. As a rule, don’t cross any body of water unless you can see the bottom and/or see someone else do it and feel confident making an attempt. Water can be extremely harmful to your bike, especially if it gets sucked into your intake tract.
• Terrain and Obstacles
• Never ride faster than feels comfortable and safe.
• Always look ahead for upcoming obstacles and signs of danger.
• Always make sure you’re traveling at a safe enough speed so you have plenty of room to apply the brakes in case you misread the terrain.
• Obstacles are more than rocks, jumps, trees, cacti, water, and so on. They also include other riders, cars, animals (both alive and dead), barbed wire, angry landowners, and anything else that could cause you harm.
• The basic body position is to have your weight centered on the seat, with both feet on the foot pegs, so you can make contact with the shift lever and brake pedal. Both hands should be on the controls, with one or two fingers on the clutch and brake levers, and your elbows up. You should be over gripping the throttle.
• Body Position
• Your head should be above the handlebar mounts (most of the time).
• Your knees should be bent, carrying your weight.
• Keep your elbows high.
• Overgrip the throttle.
• Have one or two fingers on the clutch and front brake levers.
• Keep your head up, and look ahead at upcoming obstacles.
• A general rule is that if you’re not using the shifter or brake, you should be on the balls of your feet. When you need to use the shifter or brake, move up to the arches of your feet, then move back to the balls of your feet when you’re done.
• Braking
• Body position is crucial. Most braking is done in the standing position, with knees bent, elbows up, and weight back a bit.
• Adjust body position to keep the rear wheel on the ground.
• Complete most of your braking before initiating a turn.
• Apply the brakes progressively.
• Avoid locking up the front wheel.
• When possible, choose lines that avoid sand, mud, or braking bumps.
• Brake before or after braking bumps.
• Apply the brakes gently on slippery surfaces such as sand, mud, snow, or ice.
• If you have to brake when traction is poor, use the brake more gently and progressively. Similarly, avoid overly aggressive braking on off-cambers.
• It’s much more efficient to accelerate in a straight line than while turning, because your bike has less resistance, and the tire has more contact surface with the ground.
• Acceleration
• Select the gear that will allow the engine to work the most efficiently.
• Avoid wheelspin through careful throttle control and clutch use.
• Search for lines that offer the most traction.
• Use your legs to absorb acceleration bumps while standing.
• Try to carry as much momentum as possible.
• Adjust your weight forward and backward to find the delicate balance that gives the rear wheel traction without allowing the bike to wheelie.
• Acceleration is most effective in a straight line.
• You should be either on the gas or on the brakes. Don’t coast.
• Regardless of whether you’re sitting or standing, many riders agree it’s best to pick one gear and stick with it until you’re out of the turn.
• Cornering
• Most cornering is done in the seated position, to lower the center of gravity.
• Weight the front of the bike, to help the front wheel maintain traction.
• Train yourself to roll the throttle on when exiting corners, which allows you to smooth and start your drive earlier.
• Do most of your braking before initiating the turn.
• When possible, try to make wide, gradual turns, to maintain momentum.
• Look for berms and ruts that could help you turn more quickly, especially on off-camber turns.
• Try an assortment of lines.
• It’s critical to avoid hard braking in any turn, unless you have to avoid a downed rider or something else dangerous. Jamming on the brakes will cause your wheels to slide, especially when you’re leaned over, and if you are, the natural tendency is to straighten your bike and force it to go straight.
• Jumps
• Start with small jumps at slow speeds.
• In most instances, maintain a neutral body position on the bike.
• Typically, the idea is to stand on takeoff, in midair, and while landing.
• Adjust your body positioning in the air to control the bike’s attitude.
• Use your knees and elbows to help the suspension absorb the impact.
• Use the motor’s acceleration to help the suspension soak up energy while landing.
• Landing on downslopes is typically much easier on the suspension and the rider.
• Whenever possible, avoid landing with the brakes on.
• If you’re in the air for an extended period, rev the engine as much as necessary to keep it from stalling.
• When jumping double, triple, or tabletop jumps, the usual goal is to land on the downslope and avoid clipping the top portion of the landing area.
• Once both tires drop into a narrow groove, you’re more or less along just for the ride and can do little to change direction.
• Ruts
• Look for alternative lines.
• Scan ahead to see where the rut leads.
• In a straight line, choose the straightest rut possible.
• Pay attention to now the ruts deteriorate over time.
• Avoid following other riders in the same rut when possible.
• Watch out for the chain guide, fork tubes, foot pegs, gear shifter, and brake pedal, which will often scrape the rut walls.
• Keep your toes pointed upward.
• Whoops
• Stand up, so you can absorb the shock with your knees and can frequently redistribute body weight.
• Pick the straightest line possible.
• Look for the smoothest line.
• Pick a gear that will give you a quick burst of power when needed.
• Avoid following other riders.
• Stay off brakes unless absolutely necessary.
• Keep your front end straight.
• Trees
• Watch out for roots that can be hidden under leaves.
• Keep an eye out for low branches that could knock you off your bike.
• When splitting two trees, make sure you have enough room to safely negotiate.
• When riding under a fallen tree, make sure you have enough room to squeeze by, and remember that a helmet and drink system add height when you’re in a crouched position.
• Rocks
• Look for the smoothest line.
• Watch for bowling-ball-sized rocks that could hit your footpeg and injure your feet.
• Watch out for hidden rocks.
• Stay focused and avoid being overly aggressive.
• Avoid wheelspin.
• Make sure your bike is protected with guards.
• Watch for sharp rocks that could cause flats.
• Try to keep your feet on the footpegs as much as possible.
• Water
• Look for the shortest and shallowest place to cross.
• Stand up, so you can use your knees to compensate for any sudden changes in terrain.
• Be alert for underwater rocks that could affect steering.
• Make sure your electrical system is properly sealed.
• Don’t create so much splashing that water gets into your air filter.
• Log Crossings
• Look for the lowest point to cross.
• Loft the front wheel over, and ease the rear across at low speed.
• Avoid wheelspin.
• Watch out for broken branches.
• Look for alternative lines.
• Get your riding buddies to help you lift your bike over if it’s too difficult to ride over.
• Speed
• Look far enough ahead so you can see upcoming obstacles.
• Never go faster than conditions permit.
• Weight the back of the bike.
• Avoid sudden movements.
• Sidehilling
• Look for the smoothest line.
• Avoid excessive speed.
• Weight the outside footpeg.
• Make sure you know where the trail leads.
• Avoid sidehilling near cliffs.
• Look for the most traction.
• Use ruts or pre-existing lines to your advantage.
• Avoid sharp turns.
• Maintain momentum.
• Avoid quick bursts of power that produce excessive wheelspin.
• Downhills
• Never begin a descent unless you know you have a safe path to the bottom.
• Stand up, with your weight toward the back of the seat.
• Avoid building too much speed.
• Watch out for bumps that could cause you to lose contact with the ground.
• Avoid grabbing too much front brake at once.
• Uphills and Cliff Climbs
• Choose a route before attacking the climb.
• Maintain steady throttle.
• Frequently adjust body weight to maintain traction without wheelying.
• Make sure you’ve selected the correct gear and, in most cases, avoid shifting.
• G-Outs
• Adjust your body weight so it’s slightly rear of center.
• Slowing down usually softens the impact.
• Keep your toes pointed up, so if you bottom, your feet won’t get hung up on anything lying on the ground.
• Stand whenever you hit a G-out, so your legs and arms soak up some of the impact.
• Uphill Ruts
• Line up both wheels before the entrance of the rut.
• Avoid wheelspin as much as possible.
• Too much clutch work could make your rear wheel dig in.
• Make sure the rut is not too deep.
• Don’t follow other riders too closely.
• Maintain as much momentum as conditions permit.
• Watch for ruts that split into several lines.
• Make sure the rut exits in a desired location
• Look for alternative lines.
• Watch for rocks, tree roots, or other obstacles protruding from rut walls.
• Avoid being overly aggressive.
• Survival Tips
• Don’t panic.
• Always ride with a friend.
• Carry a fanny pack containing spare part and tools.
• Carry snack bars, water, and matches.
• Carry some type of liquid and energy bar at all times.
• Riding with another person is always recommended. If you get stranded or hurt, that person may be the only one who can provide help.
• Passing
• Avoid following riders in the same line.
• Look for places to pass during practice.
• Don’t try to pass a rider who’s riding off his head. Wait for him to make a mistake or crash, then seize the opportunity.
• Out accelerate the other rider.
• Out brake the other rider.
• Off-road riders can pass riders through faster pit stops.
• Starts
• Get to the gate early for best selection.
• Visualize your entire start, including line choice and braking into the first turn.
• Get familiar with the start procedure before your race.
• Prep your gate for a smooth launch.
• Stay focused.
• Maintain steady throttle control; avoid overrev.
• Minimize wheelspin.
• Use the front brake to avoid rolling into the gate.
• Pay attention to clutch engagement.
• Select the proper gear.
• Lean forward.
• Watch the [gate] mechanism.
• Pay careful attention to upshifting.
• Bike Selection
• Make sure you feel comfortable with the size of your motorcycle.
• The 80s and 125s require more rpm and clutch work to use effectively.
• The 250s have ample power in a broad range, giving you the option of riding with more rpm and clutch work or exiting turns a gear higher.
• Open bikes are usually ridden a gear high, to smooth out power and reduce vibration.
• Four-strokes usually offer smooth power delivery and require you to maintain momentum, because they don’t build revs as explosively as a two-stroke.
• Strategy
• You can’t win if you don’t finish.
• Never give up.
• If you’re racing a championship, think long term.
• Avoid riding injured.
• Pay attention to bike setup during practice.
• Walk as much of the course as possible before your race.
• Avoid following other riders.
• Don’t take unnecessary chances.
• In off-road races that require pits, make sure the pit stops are organized, speedy, and efficient.
• Four-Strokes
• Let the motor help you slow down. Four-strokes offer excellent engine braking.
• Don’t abuse the clutch. Four-strokes overheat easily, and most clutches fade when used like a two-stroke.
• Pay attention when chopping the throttle on jump faces. Engine braking may lower the engine too fast and can cause the front end to drop suddenly on takeoff.
• Four-strokes crave flat turns, so don’t always seek out ruts and berms as your first two options.
• Power delivery of four-stroke engines provides lots of traction and can be an advantage in mud, off-camber corners, and at motocross-style starts. Remembering this will give you more confidence when racing or riding against two-strokes.

Peter Norvig's Lis.py

Here are my notes from Peter Norvig's excellent Lisp Interpreter article. You should definitely read through his post and write your own Lisp interpreter as you go. It only takes about an hour and is quite enlightening.

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• Alan Kay calls it [the Lisp Interpreter written in Lisp] Maxwell's Equations of Software.
• As Steve Yegge said, "If you don't know how compilers work, then you don't know how computers work."
• The syntax of a language is the arrangement of characters to form correct statements or expressions; the semantics is the meaning of those statements or expressions.
• We say we are evaluating an expression when we determine its value.
• Scheme syntax:
• Scheme programs consist solely of expressions. There is no statement/expression distinction.
• Numbers and symbols are called atomic expressions; they cannot be broken into pieces.
• Everything else is a list expression.
• The beauty of Scheme is that the full language only needs 5 keywords and 8 syntactic forms.
• A language interpreter has two parts: parsing and execution.
• The parsing component takes an input program in the form of a sequence of characters, verifies it according to the syntactic rules of the language, and translates the program into an internal representation.
• The internal representation is then processed according to the semantic rules of the language, thereby carrying out the computation.
• program -> parser -> abstract syntax tree -> eval -> result
• In a simple interpreter the internal representation is a tree structure (often called an abstract syntax tree) that closely mirrors the nested structure of statements or expressions in the program.
• In a language translator called a compiler there is often a series of internal representations, starting with an abstract syntax tree, and progressing to a sequence of instructions that can be directly executed by the computer.
• Parsing is traditionally separated into two parts: lexical analysis, in which the input character string is broken up into a sequence of tokens, and syntactic analysis, in which the tokens are assembled into an abstract syntax tree.
• The function eval takes two arguments: an expression, x, that we want to evaluate, and an environment, env, in which to evaluate it.
• An environment is a mapping from variable names to their values.
• One of Lisp's great legacies is the notion of an interactive read-eval-print loop: a way for a programmer to enter an expression, and see it immediately read, evaluated, and printed, without having to go through a lengthy build/compile/run cycle.
• The lambda special form creates a procedure.
• When we look up a variable in a nested environment, we look first at the innermost level, but if we don't find the variable name there, we move to the next outer level.
• The process of looking first in inner environments and then in outer ones is called lexical scoping.
• Scheme manages to do without these [while and for loops] just fine.
• In Scheme you iterate by defining recursive functions.

"Primal Blueprint" by By Mark Sisson

• The 10 Primal Blueprint laws are:
• Eat lots of plants and animals
• Enjoy the natural, satisfying foods that fueled two million years of human evolution.
• Avoid poisonous things
• Avoid processed foods (sugars, grains, and chemically altered fats) that are foreign to our genes and make us fat and sick.
• Move frequently at a slow pace
• Enhance fat metabolism and avoid burnout by keeping active but taking it easy.
• Lift heavy things
• Short, intense sessions of functional, full-body movements support muscle development and delay aging.
• Sprint once in awhile
• Occasional all-out sprints trigger optimal gene expression and beneficial hormone flow.
• Get adequate sleep
• Avoid excessive digital stimulation and sync with your natural circadian rhythm for optimal immune, brain, and endocrine function.
• Play
• Balance the stress of modern life with some unstructured, physical fun!
• Get adequate sunlight
• Don’t fear the sun! Adequate sun exposure helps synthesize vitamin D to ensure healthy cellular function.
• Avoid stupid mistakes
• Cultivate hyper-vigilance and risk management to avoid the stupid mistakes that bring “avoidable suffering” to modern humans.
• Use your brain
• Engage in creative and stimulating activities to nurture your mental health and overall well-being.
• Focus on quality sources of animal protein (organic, free-range, or wild sources of meat, fowl, and fish), an assortment of colorful vegetables and fresh fruits, and healthy sources of fat (nuts, seeds, their derivative butters, certain oils, avocados, etc.).
• Eat when you are hungry and finish when you feel satisfied.
• By toxic I mean human-made products that are foreign to your genes and disturb the normal, healthy function of your body when ingested. The big offenders, including sugars and sodas, chemically altered fats, and heavily processed, packaged, fried, and preserved foods are obvious. What’s less accepted and therefore more insidious as a dietary “poison” are processed grains (wheat and flour products, such as bread, pasta, crackers, snack foods, baked goods, etc., as well as rice, corn, cereals, etc.).
• Ingesting grains and other processed carbohydrates causes blood glucose levels to spike.
• Because insulin’s job is to transport nutrients out of the bloodstream and into the muscle, liver, and fat cell storage depots, its excessive presence in the bloodstream inhibits the release of stored body fat for use as energy.
• It’s as simple as this: you cannot reduce body fat on a diet that stimulates excessive -- or even moderately excessive -- levels of insulin production. Period.
• Today most of us either are too sedentary or conduct workouts that are too stressful and misaligned with our primal genetic requirements for optimum health.
• The uplifting -- but actually catabolic (“breakdown”) -- effect of cortisol in the bloodstream is the reason many people feel fantastic for about four to eight weeks following a severe exercise and diet program.
• What are genes truly crave is frequent movement at a slow, comfortable, pace: walking, hiking, easy cycling, or other light aerobic activities with a heart rate range of 55 percent to no more than 75 percent of maximum.
• Strive to accumulate two to five hours per week of low-level exercise. More is better as long as you have the time and can resist the temptation to “go hard.” If possible, make an effort to go barefoot frequently to develop natural balance, flexibility, and leg strength.
• Today, following a strength-training program featuring natural, total-body movements (squatting, lunging, push-ups, pull-ups, etc.) helps you develop and maintain lean muscle mass, increase metabolism to maintain low levels of body fat, increase bone density, prevent injuries, and enjoy balanced hormone and blood glucose levels.
• Today occasional maximum effort sprints help increase energy levels, improve athletic performance, and minimize the effects of aging by promoting the release of testosterone and human growth hormone (these are beneficial for women as well as men).
• Once a week (or more frequently if you are an experienced athlete), when energy levels are high, choose a simple, brief session and go all out! Examples include sprints on hills, grass, or beach; plyometric drills; and intervals on a stationary bike.
• It’s critical to create calm, relaxing transitions into bedtime and then obtain sufficient hours of sleep such that you wake up naturally (no alarm, except occasional special circumstances) refreshed and energized.
• Don’t be afraid to take naps when your afternoon energy levels lull.
• Take some time every day to unplug from the office or daily chores and have some unstructured fun.
• Adequate vitamin D is nearly impossible to obtain from diet alone, and we cannot manufacture it without sufficient exposure to sunlight.
• Natural sunlight also has a powerful mood-elevating effect, which can enhance productivity at work.
• Devote a little more attention and energy to risk management in your daily choices so you can enjoy a long, happy life, and pass your own superior genes to the next generation.
• The overall functioning of your body is primarily dependent on how your genes respond to their immediate environment.
• When you control insulin production and eat optimal amounts of protein, you become more insulin sensitive.
• Plants and animals are much more nutritionally dense than processed carbohydrate foods, which constitute a large percentage of calories in the typical modern diet.
• Vegetables and fruits (which consist mainly of carbohydrate) are nutrient-dense yet calorically sparse, so that even generous portions of these foods will usually prompt minimal insulin production.
• If you want to accelerate your fat loss for a period of time, lowering your average carb intake to 50 to 100 grams or less per day will allow you to easily drop an average of one to two pounds of body fat per week.
• Eighty percent of your ability to reduce excess body fat is determined by how you eat, with the other 20 percent depending on proper exercise, other healthy lifestyle habits, and genetic factors.
• The Primal Blueprint is based on eating as much as you want, whenever you want, from a long list of delicious foods -- and simply avoiding eating from a different list.
• Most nutrition researchers are in agreement that protein is essential for building and repairing body tissues and for overall healthy function. Intake recommendations among doctors and nutritionists vary, with most falling in the range of 0.5 to 1 gram of protein per pound of lean body mass per day (I favor an average of 0.7 to 1.0).
• Carbohydrate controls insulin; insulin controls fat storage.
• Carbohydrates are not used as structural components in the body; instead, they are used only as a form of fuel, whether they are burned immediately while passing by different organs and muscles or stored for later use.
• If you are insistent upon doing chronic cardio, you must increase carb intake to account for regular depletion of stored liver and muscle glycogen and an elevated metabolic rate. You can experiment with consuming perhaps 100 additional grams of carbs per day for every extra hour of training and notice how your body responds.
• It’s really easy to stay in the optimum range of 100 to 150 grams per day even when you eat a ton of colorful vegetables and liberal servings of fruit -- as long as you stay primal and consume no grains.
• Carbohydrate intake is often the decisive factor in weight loss success and prevention of widespread health problems like Metabolic Syndrome, obesity, and type 2 diabetes.
• Carb zones:
• 0 - 50 grams per day: Ketosis and I.F. (Intermittent Fasting) zone. Excellent catalyst for rapid fat loss through I.F. Not recommended for prolonged periods due to unnecessary deprivation of plant foods.
• 50 - 100 grams per day: Sweet spot for weight loss. Steadily drop excess body fat by minimizing insulin production. Enables 1-2 pounds per week of fat loss with satisfying, minimally restrictive meals.
• 100 - 150 grams per day: Primal maintenance zone. Once you’ve arrived at your goal or ideal body composition, you can maintain it quite easily here while enjoying abundant vegetables, fruits, and other primal foods.
• 150 - 300 grams per day: Insidious weight gain zone. Most health conscious eaters and unsuccessful dieters end up here, due to frequent intake of sugar and grain products. Despite trying to “do the right thing” (minimize fat, cut calories), people can still gain an average of 1.5 pounds of fat every year for decades.
• 300+ grams per day: Danger zone of average American diet. All but the most extreme exercisers will tend to produce excessive insulin and store excessive fat over the years at this intake level. Increases risk for obesity, metabolic syndrome, and type 2 diabetes.
• Carb intake level is the decisive factor in your weight-loss success or failure, and excessive carb consumption is arguably the most destructive behavior disparity between ourselves and what our genes crave to support health, longevity, and peak performance. Eliminating grains and sugars from your diet could be the number one most beneficial thing you ever do for your health!
• Consuming healthy fats from animal and plant sources supports optimal function of all three systems in your body.
• Ingesting fat helps you feel full and satisfied in a way that carbohydrates cannot.
• Fat is calorically dense at nine calories per gram.
• If you consume excessive carbs (150 to 300 grams or more per day), produce a high level of insulin, and eat any appreciable amount of fat along with your high-carb diet your fat intake will contribute directly to making you fat.
• When switching from a carbohydrate-based diet to a Primal eating style, keep in mind that it takes your body two to three weeks to “learn” how to burn fats better.
• You should always satisfy your cravings with abundant amounts of approved foods instead of suffering through them with willpower and other flimsy, short-duration weapons.
• Pick your favorite Primal Blueprint approved meals and rotate them for the first two weeks of your transition to Primal Blueprint eating.
• Never struggle, suffer, or go hungry: Surround yourself with Primal Blueprint approved foods and enjoy them as much and as often as you like.
• The complete lack of regimentation or caloric deprivation in the Primal Blueprint eating style is the secret to its long-term success.
• Eating lots of vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, and animal foods, and avoiding processed foods, creates a more calorically efficient, nutrient-dense diet.
• Eighty percent of your ability to achieve body composition goals is determined by your diet -- essentially, your ability to moderate insulin production so you can access and burn stored body fat for energy, while preserving or building muscle.
• Obtain between 0.7 and 1.0 gram of protein per pound of lean body weight per day. Limit carbohydrate intake to an average of 100 to 150 grams per day (or 50 to 100 grams per day if you seek accelerated fat loss), something that will happen automatically when you enjoy plenty of vegetables and fruits and avoid grains, sugars, and other processed carbs.
• With protein intake in optimum range and carb intake strictly controlled, fat becomes your main caloric energy variable.
• Organic, locally grown vegetables and fruits are the most nutritious and safest. They are teeming with antioxidants and micronutrients that support health and help prevent disease. Organic animal foods are healthy and nutritious and will help you reduce excess body fat and build lean muscle.
• Eggs are healthy and nutritious.
• Plants (vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, and herbs and spices) and animals (meat, fish, fowl, and eggs) should represent the entire composition of your diet.
• 80% of body composition success is determined by diet. Limit processed carb intake (hence, insulin production), and obtain sufficient protein and fat to fuel and rebuild.
• Protein: average 0.7 to 1.0 gram per pound of lean body mass per day -- depending on activity levels (more at times is fine).
• Carbs: 50-100 grams/day (or less) = accelerated fat loss. 100-150 grams/day = effortless weight maintenance. Heavy exercises can increase carb intake as needed to replace glycogen stores.
• Fat: enjoy freely but sensibly for balance of caloric needs and high dietary satisfaction levels.
• Eliminate: sugary foods and beverages, grains (wheat, corn, rice, pasta, breads, cereals, etc.), legumes (soy and other beans), trans and partially hydrogenated fats, high-risk conventional meat and produce, and excess PUFAs (instead, increase omega-3 oils).
• Moderation: Certain high glycemic fruit, coffee, high-fat dairy products, starchy tuber vegetables, and wild rice.
• Supplements: Multivitamin/mineral formula, probiotics, omega-3 fish oil and protein powder.
• Herbs, spices and extracts: Offer many health benefits and enhance enjoyment of meals.
• Sensible indulgences: Dark chocolate, moderate alcohol, high-fat treats.
• It is preferable to select locally grown, in-season, organic vegetables whenever possible.
• It may take some acclimation to center your diet around vegetables, as we are so accustomed to reaching for packaged, high-carbohydrate snacks as a first option.
• Serve yourself heaping portions that crowd everything else on your plate.
• If you decide to eat non organic produce, note that there are varying levels of residue exposure risk depending on the item. Be particularly careful to avoid conventional sources of vegetables that have a large surface area or a skin that is consumed. If you do find yourself purchasing these, be sure to soak and/or rinse them with soap or a “fruit and vegetable wash” solution, which you can find in any health food store. On the other hand, conventional broccoli, asparagus, avocados, cabbage, onions, and other vegetables with an easily washable or non-edible skin have minimal pesticide exposure risk.
• Organic fruit offers vastly superior nutritional value to conventionally grown fruits.
• If you must eat conventional fruits, wash your fruit thoroughly with soap or a special solution.
• I strongly suggest drinking only moderate amounts of juice and sticking with freshly squeezed when you do.
• Fruits:
• outstanding: High-antioxidant, low-glycemic fruits, including all berries and stone (pitted) fruits.
• Great: lower-antioxidant, higher-glycemic fruits, including apples, bananas, cherries, kiwi, and pomegranate.
• Moderation: Low antioxidant, high glycemic fruits, including dates, dried fruits (all), grapes, mangoes, melons, nectarines, oranges, papayas, pineapples, plums, and tangerines.
• Top 10 fruits:
• berries
• cherries
• prunes
• apples
• peaches
• pears
• figs
• grapefruit
• kiwis
• apricots
• Animal foods are healthy and nutritious and will help you reduce excess body fat, build lean muscle, and generally promote peak performance.
• I strongly urge you to look for USDA-certified organic meat whenever possible.
• The healthiest sources of fish are small, oily fish, such as wild-caught Alaskan salmon, sardines, herring, anchovies, and mackerel. Domestic mahi mahi, Pacific halibut, pollock, white sea bass, and shellfish are also healthful and carry a lower risk of contaminants. The fish at the top of the marine food chain are the least desirable, due to their tendency to accumulate concentrated contaminants. Hence, you should avoid or limit your consumption or swordfish, ahi tuna, shark, and Chilean sea bass, to name just a few.
• Farmed fish should be avoided because they are raised in unsanitary, waste-infested waters; have dangerous chemical additives in their diets; and offer much lower levels of omega-3s than their wild counterparts.
• Eggs can be freely enjoyed as an excellent source of healthy protein, fat, B complex vitamins, and folate. Be sure to obtain organic chicken eggs, which contain up to 20 times more omega-3s than factory-produced grain-fed chicken eggs.
• Shifting from bottled waters, juices, and all manner of sweetened beverages to a simple water-filtration system in your home can save money and improve dietary quality. Shifting from designer foods such as synthetic energy bars and meal replacements to such basics as trail mix, jerky, or farm-fresh eggs can also reduce your budget while improving dietary quality.
• Nuts and seeds and their derivative butter products are filling and nutritious and may be consumed liberally in place of high-carbohydrate snacks.
• Walnuts are known for their high omega-3 levels. Other highly nutritious choice that have earned the FDA’s “heart healthy” distinction include almonds, hazelnuts, pecans, pine nuts, pistachios, flax seeds, pumpkin seeds, and sunflower seeds. I’d add chia seeds and macadamia nuts to that list.
• Definitely skip the Skippy and replace peanuts and peanut butter with less objectionable alternatives. Avoid nuts that have been processed with sugary or oily coatings or other offensive ingredients.
• Use a mini food processor to grind nuts and sprinkle onto salads, oven baked vegetables, or even into omelets.
• Almonds have the highest protein content of any nut (20 percent of total calories) and are high in antioxidants, phytonutrients, vitamins, minerals, and plant sterols that support health and lower disease risk.
• Primal Snack:
• beef jerky
• celery
• cottage cheese
• dark chocolate
• dried fruit
• fish
• fresh berries
• hard-boiled eggs
• nuts and seeds
• olives
• trail mix