“You feel strong and light, and you feel relaxed.”

Last night I heard a beaut little story on NPR (via Newsradio) about “runner’s high”, that feeling you get when you’re out for a run and you hit your stride.

But first, let’s take a look at this thing they call runner’s high. I caught up with Christina Morganti to learn more. She’s an orthopedic surgeon at the Anne Arundel Medical Center in Maryland, and a longtime competitive runner.

She runs races, but not for medals. “To be honest,” she says as she starts a morning run on a sunny spring day, “I don’t really care that much about the competition as much as that feeling you get when you’re in shape. That’s what I’m looking for.”

She starts slowly. “You know, when you first start, you feel a little stiff, a little logey, but then once you get started, everything loosens up.”

As a doctor, Morganti knows what regular running does for her body. “Your heart gets stronger. It gets bigger. The amount of blood your heart can pump is more.” That’s called “stroke volume.” Oxygen metabolism gets more efficient, as well. “That means your blood vessels and muscles absorb more oxygen,” she says. “Running also builds new bone.”

But when I ask her about “runner’s high,” she lights up. “Oh, it’s really like an empowerment. And zen at the same time. You feel strong and light, and you feel relaxed.”

Sums it up perfectly.

Capital to Coast: A multi-stage 100km run in August

Bones have healed and my training’s back on track. If I make good progress over the next month, I reckon I’ll see about getting a team together for this beauty.

Why does the right have a problem with climate change?

Damian Carrington nails it:

The problem is that global environmental problems require global action, which means co-operation if there are to be no free-riders. That implies international treaties and regulations, which to some on the right equate with communism.

If the ABC was the greenie commie oufit we’re told it is…

…would it have screened this crap?

An Australian television documentary that gives equal weight to a climate sceptic and a believer has been strongly criticised by scientists as unfairly skewing the evidence on global warming…

Scientists and environmentalists say the film gives the misleading impression that the debate on the science of climate change is not settled.

“At best, only a couple of per cent of the world’s climate scientists query the basic science so having an equal proportion of sceptics on any programme totally biases the debate,” said Professor Andy Pittman, co-director of the Climate Change Research Centre at the University of New South Wales.

Quick thoughts on Teys Brothers and the carbon price

A Queensland meat producer, Teys Brothers, is asking for government assistance to “help fix the carbon problems” in its operations. Basically, Teys has realised that its most economically efficient – and presumably profitable – abattoirs will become a liability once the carbon pricing mechanism is introduced.

There are, as always, many sides to this story. Workers at the abattoirs will have a position of their own, the business owners and stakeholders will, too. From the federal government’s perspective, it will seek to handle the situation in a way that meets its stated policy goal of transforming the economy to clean energy with as little economic hardship as possible. (State and local governments may take a different position.)

At the heart of this issue, in my view, is the question of efficiency. Teys has looked at its operations from the perspective of economic efficiency – and when non-economic factors aren’t counted, this is perfectly logical. Now that the emissions generated by its business actually have a cost, the calculation of efficiency has changed.

I don’t know much about abattoirs (being a tofu-munching hippy and all) but I would imagine that meat production is emissions intensive and that business practices need to be changed in order to limit the environmental impacts. The whole idea of Australia’s “clean energy” policy is to aid that change through incentives and, soon, penalties. How this case is handled might be an important indicator of how successful the overall program will be.

Look at the current, not the waves

In an interview with Al Jazeera English, UNFCC head Christiana Figueres discusses the debate about climate change and the need to act.

I don’t look at the waves as much as I look at the current. We have waves and we have spikes up and down. But the important thing is: Are we moving in the right direction? Yes. Are we moving in the right direction at the right pace? No.

If only we could see this on Australian television. Instead we get The Bolt Report.

A Valentine’s message from Widad Lootah

I totally heart this story.

Emirati love guru Widad Lootah is not your typical marriage counselor. She is an ultra-conservative Muslim who wears the full veil and talks a lot about sex, often quoting the Muslim holy book the Quran.

On the eve of Valentine’s day, Lootah is calling on Muslim and Arab women everywhere to “embrace love and love making.”

“Don’t shy away from it, don’t feel ashamed by it. Enjoy it, you’re supposed to,” she said in an interview with AFP, adding that she is trying to break common misconceptions that sex in Islam is only about conceiving children.

“It’s also about having fun,” she said.

Widad is definitely onto something.