<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!--Generated by Squarespace Site Server v5.11.81 (http://www.squarespace.com/) on Fri, 10 Feb 2012 23:39:30 GMT--><rss xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/" xmlns:itunes="http://www.itunes.com/dtds/podcast-1.0.dtd" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" version="2.0"><channel><title>With Both Hands</title><link>http://www.benespen.com/journal/</link><description>Ben Espen's Blog</description><lastBuildDate>Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:54:56 +0000</lastBuildDate><copyright>Copyright 2010 Benjamin Espen</copyright><language>en-US</language><generator>Squarespace Site Server v5.11.81 (http://www.squarespace.com/)</generator><item><title>A wee pint</title><category>Friday Fun</category><dc:creator>Ben Espen</dc:creator><pubDate>Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:54:38 +0000</pubDate><link>http://www.benespen.com/journal/2012/2/10/a-wee-pint.html</link><guid isPermaLink="false">306927:3176268:14974020</guid><description><![CDATA[<p><iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/SGxKhUuZ0Rc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>]]></description><wfw:commentRss>http://www.benespen.com/journal/rss-comments-entry-14974020.xml</wfw:commentRss></item><item><title>CrossFit 2012-02-09</title><category>Clean</category><category>Crossfit</category><dc:creator>Ben Espen</dc:creator><pubDate>Fri, 10 Feb 2012 04:23:21 +0000</pubDate><link>http://www.benespen.com/journal/2012/2/9/crossfit-2012-02-09.html</link><guid isPermaLink="false">306927:3176268:14970325</guid><description><![CDATA[<p>Cleans</p>
<p>7-7-5-3-1</p>
<p>1 RM 60 kg</p>
<p>5 minutes max reps with 40 kg</p>
<p>25 reps</p>]]></description><wfw:commentRss>http://www.benespen.com/journal/rss-comments-entry-14970325.xml</wfw:commentRss></item><item><title>RIP John Christopher</title><category>Favorite Authors</category><dc:creator>Ben Espen</dc:creator><pubDate>Fri, 10 Feb 2012 02:15:16 +0000</pubDate><link>http://www.benespen.com/journal/2012/2/9/rip-john-christopher.html</link><guid isPermaLink="false">306927:3176268:14968785</guid><description><![CDATA[<p>Author <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Youd">John Christopher</a> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/08/books/john-christopher-science-fiction-writer-dies-at-89.html?_r=1&amp;hpw">died last Friday</a>. I can remember reading his <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tripods">Tripod books</a> as a boy, I wish I had known then that he was so prolific! He wrote a number of books under the name John Christopher, and a number under other psuedonyms. I never knew til now that his real name was Samuel Youd. Requiescat in pace, Samuel. My son will read your works someday.</p>]]></description><wfw:commentRss>http://www.benespen.com/journal/rss-comments-entry-14968785.xml</wfw:commentRss></item><item><title>The Food Stamp Diet</title><category>Catholic</category><category>Economics</category><dc:creator>Ben Espen</dc:creator><pubDate>Thu, 09 Feb 2012 15:00:00 +0000</pubDate><link>http://www.benespen.com/journal/2012/2/9/the-food-stamp-diet.html</link><guid isPermaLink="false">306927:3176268:14939148</guid><description><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://darwincatholic.blogspot.com/2012/02/food-stamp-diet-and-how-its-different.html">DarwinCatholic has a post on the Food Stamp Diet</a>. The amount of money you get to feed yourself and your kids on food stamps doesn't sound like much, $33.04 per person per week, depending on which program you are talking about.</p>
<p>However, Darwin looked at the amount his family actually spends on food, and find that it is almost exactly what you would get with food stamps:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>First off, it seemed like the challenge was designed for one adult to take, so I wanted to make sure that I was translating it to family terms right. Here's my formula: The 2011 San Francisco Food Bank challenge (based on average food stamp benefits in CA for that year) was based on $33 per person per week. The USDA thrifty plan budgets $41.50 per week for an adult male between 19 and 50. Based on that, I'm assuming a payout of 80% of the estimated thrifty plan cost. Now I need to figure out how much our family would be budgeted according to the thrifty plan:<br />1 male 19-50 at $41.50<br />1 female 19-50 at $36.80<br />1 child age 1 at $21.10<br />1 child age 2-3 at $23.10<br />1 child age 4-5 at $24.00<br />1 child age 6-8 at $30.70<br />1 child age 9-11 at $35.00&nbsp;<br />Total: $212.20<br /><br />Now you discount by 10% because we're a family with 7 or more members: $190.98<br /><br />Now you assume we only get 80% of that budget as a food stamp allotment: $152.78</p>
</blockquote>
<p>They actually spend $100-$150 a week on food, including diapers. In order to do that, they do have to commit the cardinal sin of eating lots of carbs, and I'm guessing its not organic either.</p>]]></description><wfw:commentRss>http://www.benespen.com/journal/rss-comments-entry-14939148.xml</wfw:commentRss></item><item><title>I understand this makes you uncomfortable</title><category>Science</category><category>Social interactions</category><dc:creator>Ben Espen</dc:creator><pubDate>Tue, 07 Feb 2012 04:58:11 +0000</pubDate><link>http://www.benespen.com/journal/2012/2/6/i-understand-this-makes-you-uncomfortable.html</link><guid isPermaLink="false">306927:3176268:14910939</guid><description><![CDATA[<p>Glancing through the comments on the Art of Manliness post on eye contact, a number of people commented that other cultures see eye contact as dominant or aggressive. Our culture sees it this way too! This is just socially acceptable in America. Asserting dominance is part of the American Dream, because it is the way you get ahead. This can clearly go too far, so we need to figure out how to rein it in in order to be a good citizen.</p>
<p>I learned early on that eye contact was a way to get ahead, and I find it pretty easy, but I also found out that sustained eye contact makes many people feel uncomfortable. Fortunately, I had my taekwondo instructor to balance out the naive motivational speakers who thoughtlessly recommended eye contact heedless of the potential consequences. I had to learn to moderate my gaze to my purposes. That does occasionally&nbsp;include making people feel uncomfortable</p>]]></description><wfw:commentRss>http://www.benespen.com/journal/rss-comments-entry-14910939.xml</wfw:commentRss></item><item><title>Look me in the eye</title><category>Science</category><dc:creator>Ben Espen</dc:creator><pubDate>Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:11:49 +0000</pubDate><link>http://www.benespen.com/journal/2012/2/6/look-me-in-the-eye.html</link><guid isPermaLink="false">306927:3176268:14897489</guid><description><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://artofmanliness.com/2012/02/05/look-em-in-the-eye-part-i-the-importance-of-eye-contact/">The Art of Manliness has part 1 of a series today on the Importance of Eye Contact</a>.&nbsp;</p>
<p>A valuable skill, for certain, but this is what caught my eye:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>And actually, it&rsquo;s probably something men have always struggled with&mdash;females are on average better at making and holding eye contact than males, and in fact,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.autismresearchcentre.com/docs/papers/2002_lutch_eyecont.pdf">it&rsquo;s been found</a>&nbsp;that the higher the levels of testosterone a fetus is exposed to in utero, the less eye contact they make as infants&mdash;across genders. Interestingly, the exception to this rule are male babies who have the very highest levels of T; they end up being as adept at eye contact as their female counterparts&mdash;alpha babies aren&rsquo;t afraid to look you in the eye!</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Interestingly, I don't think this is an exception at all. It's a feature not a bug. For men, the reason it is hard to look another man in the eyes is it constitutes a challenge, and you have to be ready to back that up. I'm not actually making a sociobiological argument either, this is something I learned from my police officer taekwondo instructor. We were of course expected to look one another in the eyes in class, but we were warned what it meant to gaze steadily into another man's eyes on the street. There was a whole dance of eye contact we talked about, and how to read a man's intentions from his face.</p>
<p>Thus of course the men with the highest level of testosterone have the easiest time staring: they are already dominant, and they are just reminding you of that fact.</p>]]></description><wfw:commentRss>http://www.benespen.com/journal/rss-comments-entry-14897489.xml</wfw:commentRss></item><item><title>New time waster</title><category>Beer</category><dc:creator>Ben Espen</dc:creator><pubDate>Fri, 03 Feb 2012 21:43:07 +0000</pubDate><link>http://www.benespen.com/journal/2012/2/3/new-time-waster.html</link><guid isPermaLink="false">306927:3176268:14862495</guid><description><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.professorbeer.com/index.html">Professor Beer</a> explains everything you ever wanted to know, like <a href="http://www.professorbeer.com/articles/oxidative_staling_beer.html">what happens when beer oxidizes</a>?</p>]]></description><wfw:commentRss>http://www.benespen.com/journal/rss-comments-entry-14862495.xml</wfw:commentRss></item><item><title>Where Bars Trump Grocery Stores</title><category>Beer</category><category>Stats</category><dc:creator>Ben Espen</dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 01 Feb 2012 04:31:13 +0000</pubDate><link>http://www.benespen.com/journal/2012/1/31/where-bars-trump-grocery-stores.html</link><guid isPermaLink="false">306927:3176268:14819642</guid><description><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.benespen.com/journal/2012/1/20/an-exception.html">Commenter Bob</a> provided a link to a <a href="http://www.floatingsheep.org/2010/02/beer-belly-of-america.html">nice chart showing us where bars outnumber grocery stores</a>.</p>
<p><span class="full-image-block ssNonEditable"><span><img src="http://flowingdata.com/wp-content/uploads/yapb_cache/bars_groceries.3as6o3htr4mckskg0k4w4gwos.2xne1totli0w8s8k0o44cs0wc.th.png?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1328070893759" alt="" /></span></span></p>]]></description><wfw:commentRss>http://www.benespen.com/journal/rss-comments-entry-14819642.xml</wfw:commentRss></item><item><title>The White Man's Burden</title><category>Friday Fun</category><dc:creator>Ben Espen</dc:creator><pubDate>Fri, 27 Jan 2012 15:00:40 +0000</pubDate><link>http://www.benespen.com/journal/2012/1/27/the-white-mans-burden.html</link><guid isPermaLink="false">306927:3176268:14742127</guid><description><![CDATA[<p><span class="full-image-block ssNonEditable"><span><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-eEh9VH47HTU/TcaT1997R6I/AAAAAAAABlU/-FmT2FO7AyU/s1600/Dead-Lego-Stormtrooper.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1327597680605" alt="" /></span></span></p>]]></description><wfw:commentRss>http://www.benespen.com/journal/rss-comments-entry-14742127.xml</wfw:commentRss></item><item><title>Japanese Craft Biru</title><category>Beer</category><category>Japan</category><dc:creator>Ben Espen</dc:creator><pubDate>Thu, 26 Jan 2012 17:14:06 +0000</pubDate><link>http://www.benespen.com/journal/2012/1/26/japanese-craft-biru.html</link><guid isPermaLink="false">306927:3176268:14742199</guid><description><![CDATA[<p>I'd seen the beer with the cute Owl on it at Total Wine.</p>
<p><span class="full-image-block ssNonEditable"><span><a href="http://eatocracy.cnn.com/2012/01/26/craft-beer-from-the-land-of-the-rising-sun/?hpt=hp_bn8"><img src="http://www.benespen.com/storage/post-images/Japanese_Biru.png?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1327598133500" alt="" /></a></span></span></p>]]></description><wfw:commentRss>http://www.benespen.com/journal/rss-comments-entry-14742199.xml</wfw:commentRss></item></channel></rss>
