Shoes are bad for your feet? Vindicating the barefoot set!

By Cory Doctorow:

Adam Sternbergh's long investigative New York Magazine piece, "You Walk Wrong," makes a compelling case for shoes as inherently damaging to your feet and spine. I have very flat feet, which has always meant problems with my hips, knees and back, and I've work custom orthotic inserts since I was a teenage. Last year, I picked up a pair of Vibram Fivefingers "barefoot shoes" that do a pretty good job of simulating the experience of going barefoot without the tetanus and laceration risk, and I've done a lot of city and country walking in them, and I have to say, my back and knees and feet feel pretty damned good after a couple days in them.

At first glance, this seems like a sensible and obvious approach—to work with the foot, not against it. But it represents a fundamental break from the dominant philosophy of shoe design. For decades, the guiding principle of shoe design has been to compensate for the perceived deficiencies of the human foot. Since it hurts to strike your heel on the ground, nearly all shoes provide a structure to lift the heel. And because walking on hard surfaces can be painful, we wrap our feet in padding. Many people suffer from flat feet or fallen arches, so we wear shoes with built-in arch supports, to help hold our arches up...

Admittedly, there’s something counterintuitive about the idea that less padding on your foot equals less shock on your body. But that’s only if we continue to think of our feet as lifeless blocks of flesh that hold us upright. The sole of your foot has over 200,000 nerve endings in it, one of the highest concentrations anywhere in the body. Our feet are designed to act as earthward antennae, helping us balance and transmitting information to us about the ground we’re walking on.

But (you might say) if you walk or run with no padding, it’s murder on your heels—which is precisely the point. Your heels hurt when you walk that way because you’re not supposed to walk that way. Wrapping your heels in padding so they don’t hurt is like stuffing a gag in someone’s mouth so they’ll stop screaming—you’re basically telling your heels to shut up.

And your heels aren’t just screaming; they’re trying to tell you something. In 2006, a group of rheumatologists at Chicago’s Rush Medical College studied the force of the “knee adduction moment”—basically, the force of torque on the medial chamber of the knee joint where arthritis occurs. For years, rheumatologists have advised patients with osteoarthritis of the knees to wear padded walking shoes, to reduce stress on their joints. As for the knee-adduction moment, they’ve attempted to address it with braces and orthotics that immobilize the knee, but with inconsistent results. So the researchers at Rush tried something different: They had people walk in their walking shoes, then barefoot, and each time measured the stress on their knees. They found, to their surprise, that the impact on the knees was 12 percent less when people walked barefoot than it was when people wore the padded shoes.

*****

Now, this is interesting!

Airstrip in a box: 1938

Now here is something interesting:

In December 1938, Popular Science featured this fantastic, gigantic 12-ton "landing strip in a box" for converting cow-pastures to airstrips.

Rolling swiftly down highways on ten oversize balloon tires, a revolutionary airport-in-miniature for use by passenger air lines and military air forces now provides quick and complete assistance to stranded airplanes.
This curious “twelve-ton tool box” is the invention of Kibbey W. Couse, of East Orange, N. J.
It is capable of turning any level cow pasture into an airport complete with machine shop, repair parts, floodlights, and radio.

Toppy Times Seven

Cloned dogs to sniff out drugs:

Five cloned dogs, all sharing the same name: "Toppy", a combination of the words "tomorrow" and "puppy", look at a ball during their exercise at Defector Dog Training Center in Incheon, west of Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, April 24, 2008.

The country that created the world's first cloned canine plans to put duplicated dogs on patrol to sniff out drugs and explosives.

The Korean Customs Service unveiled Thursday seven cloned Labrador retrievers being trained near Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. The dogs were born five to six months ago after being separately cloned from a skilled drug-sniffing canine in active service.

Due to the difficulties in finding dogs who are up to snuff for the critical jobs, officials said using clones could help reduce costs.

The cloning work was conducted by a team of Seoul National University scientists who in 2005 successfully created the world's first known dog clone, an Afghan hound named Snuppy.

The team is led by Professor Lee Byeong-chun, who was a key aide to disgraced scientist Hwang Woo-suk. Hwang's purported breakthroughs in stem cell research were revealed as false, but independent tests proved the team's dog cloning was genuine.

The seven new cloned male dogs are all healthy, though one was sent to a university laboratory a few days ago for a minor foot injury it received during training, according to training center head Lim Jae-ryoung. For now, the dogs all share the same name: "Toppy" - a combination of the words "tomorrow" and "puppy."

"They have a superior nature. They are active and excel in accepting the training," said Kim Nak-seung, a trainer at the Customs Service-affiliated dog training center.

In February, all seven dogs passed a behavior test aimed at finding whether they are genetically qualified to work as sniffing dogs. Only 10 percent to 15 percent of naturally born dogs typically pass the test.

If the cloned dogs succeed in other tests for physical strength, concentration and sniffing ability, they will be put to work by July next year at airports and harbors across South Korea, according to the training center.

The agency says the cloned dogs could also save money.

"We came up with the idea of dog cloning after thinking about how we can possess a superior breed at a cheaper cost," said agency head Hur Yong-suk.

Normally, only about three out every 10 naturally born dogs it trains - at a cost of about $40,140 each - ends up qualifying for the job.

Lee of Seoul National University said it cost approximately $100,000 to $150,000 to clone each of the seven golden Labrador retrievers.

He said the seven are the world's first cloned drug-sniffing dogs.

The university team did not ask for payment from the customs authorities because it created the clones for academic purposes with government funds, Lee said.

He said his team has so far cloned 20 dogs and five wolves.

On Thursday the dogs frolicked with trainer Kim, running together and chasing a red rubber ball he threw across a playground - a part of training aimed at bolstering their stamina.

"If I look at them very carefully, there are now some small differences in their facial features," said Kim, who has been training the dogs since they were born. "But it's still hard to tell."

Daily Funny

My wife Sylvia and I have been staying at our fancy digs in Boca. The other night, we were on their way out to dinner, when Sylvia comes into the living room and asks, "Darling, do you think this Chanel suit is OK, or should I wear my beaded Oscar de la Renta dress?"
"Wear whatever you like, darling. You look lovely in either."

Ten minutes later, she's back. "Should I wear my diamond earrings or the emerald and sapphire ones you bought me for my birthday?"

"Either one," I say with growing impatience.

Soon she's back, modeling shoes. "Should I wear these Gucci sandals or the Ferragamos?"

"Enough already!" I yelled. "If you don't get your act together right now, we're going to miss the Early Bird Special!"

Five Hundred Posts!

12 things to avoid doing at the last minute.

Waiting until the last minute

In a nutshell: don't.

Bad situations to wait until the last minute:

• Catching a transcontinental flight
• Asking your secret crush to the prom
• Applying for a summer internship
• Setting customer expectations
• Studying for the SATs
• Saving for retirement
• Giving up smoking
• Asking for a raise
• Teaching ethical behavior to your kids
• Winning a primary
• Asking for directions
• Sharing an idea

Daily Funny

This advertisement for an insurance company was put on the back of buses in Amsterdam

Non Sequitur

She Still Has A Chance?!

Flower of Scotland

O Flower of Scotland,
When will we see
Your like again,
That fought and died for,
Your wee bit Hill and Glen,
And stood against him,
Proud Edward's Army,
And sent him homeward,
Tae think again.

The Hills are bare now,
And Autumn leaves
lie thick and still,
O'er land that is lost now,
Which those so dearly held,
That stood against him,
Proud Edward's Army,
And sent him homeward,
Tae think again.

Those days are past now,
And in the past
they must remain,
But we can still rise now,
And be the nation again,
That stood against him,
Proud Edward's Army,
And sent him homeward,
Tae think again.

0 Flower of Scotland,
When will we see
your like again,
That fought and died for,
Your wee bit Hill and Glen,
And stood against him,
Proud Edward's Army,
And sent him homeward,
Tae think again.

Priest Kicks FauxNews In The Nuts - Figuratively Unfortunately

Normally I don't have any interest in what FauxNews has to say.
But when I found this unedited interview with a priest I just had to post it.



A swift one to the gonads! Alright, way to go, Father.

Wingnut Shows True Colors

Public relations-officer for Southern Illinois University College Republicans sends misogynistic hate mail and is forced to resign

The Ether says;

I thought you'd like this story from Feminsting.com

Feministing recently received some really badly written hate mail, something which is not in itself unusual. This time, however, it was sent from a school address, and it turns out that it had come from the public relations officer of the Southern Illinois University College Republicans. That's right: a public relations officer. He's obviously not very good at his job.

In the comments section the secretary of the organization (who seems like a very decent person) came in and apologized profusely, and even made the culprit do the same. He has resigned from his post.

Some people might argue that there's a right to privacy here, but when you send extremely hateful mail over the internet from your school address, and especially when you're a public relations officer, you pretty much give up that right.

The internet is full of real bastards who posts hateful things all the time, and seemingly takes pleasure in hurting people. It's nice to see this one get his comeuppance.

Here's the email sent by the now-ex-public relations officer for for Southern Illinois University College Republicans:

"Men are better than women look at the comparison in IQ men are scientifically proven to have a higher IQ by roughly 5 points, or 5% you cannot dispute science sorry and if you want a much better website than your shitty one you might want to go to [redacted]. I think you would gain a lot more knowledge from that website and you might learn about the truth that way you would not be so stupid and ignorant you stupid cunts."

*****

Would that they all receive their comeuppance!
The wingnuts howl and bray at the moon, attacking and reviling everything and everyone who does not toe the dogmatic line - then whine that they are the 'victims' of 'attack' when someone stands up to them and says ... NO.
It has begun to change ... people are tired of the wingnuts and more and more are standing up to say ... NO and doing so in a very loud voice - too bad the wingnuts are deaf.

This is how the cabal treats our troops!

Forced to leave the combat zone after his two brothers died in the Iraq war, Army Spc. Jason Hubbard faced another battle once he returned home: The military cut off his family's health care, stopped his G.I. educational subsidies and wanted him to repay his sign-up bonus.

It wasn't until Hubbard petitioned his local congressman that he was able to restore some of his benefits.

Now that congressman, Rep. Devin Nunes, is leading an effort to pass a bill that would ensure basic benefits to all soldiers who are discharged under an Army policy governing sole surviving siblings and children of soldiers killed in combat. The rule is a holdover from World War II meant to protect the rights of service people who have lost a family member to war.

"I felt as if in some ways I was being punished for leaving even though it was under these difficult circumstances," Hubbard told The Associated Press. "The situation that happened to me is not a one-time thing. It's going to happen to other people, and to have a law in place is going to ease their tragedy in some way."

Hubbard, 33, and his youngest brother, Nathan, enlisted while they were still grieving for their brother, Marine Lance Cpl. Jared Hubbard, who was 22 when he was killed in a 2004 bomb explosion in Ramadi.

At their request, the pair were assigned to the same unit, the 3rd Brigade of the 25th Infantry Division in Hawaii, and deployed to Iraq the next year.

In August, 21-year-old Cpl. Nathan died when his Black Hawk helicopter crashed near Kirkuk. Jason was part of the team assigned to remove his comrades' bodies from the wreckage.

Hubbard accompanied his little brother's body on a military aircraft to Kuwait, then on to California. He kept steady during Nathan's burial at Clovis Cemetery, standing in dress uniform between his younger brothers' graves as hundreds sobbed in the heat.

But Hubbard broke his silence when he found his wife, pregnant with their second child, had been cut off from the transitional health care the family needed to ease back to civilian life after he was discharged in October.

Quote of the Day

“Do you think if Barack Obama had left his seriously ill wife after having had multiple affairs, had been a member of the “Keating Five,” had had a relationship with a much younger lobbyist that his staff felt the need to try and block, had intervened on behalf of the client of said young lobbyist with a federal agency, had denounced then embraced Jerry Falwell, had denounced then embraced the Bush tax cuts, had confused Shiite with Sunni, had confused Al Qaeda in Iraq with the Mahdi Army, had actively sought the endorsement and appeared on stage with a man who denounced the Catholic Church as a whore, and stated that he knew next to nothing about economics — do you think it’s possible that Obama would have been treated differently by the media than John McCain has been? Possible?”

~ Crooks and Liars Blog

The Strip and Dip Specialist

SKINNY-DIPPING at an Edinburgh beauty spot just wasn't daring enough for 23-year-old Jackie Brown – so she's decided to do it 138 times.

The keen swimmer (pictured above) is preparing to spend the summer getting closer to nature by taking a dip in the nude in all of Scotland's major lochs. She will swim around ten metres in all the lochs – including Loch Lomond and Loch Ness – to raise around £3000 for breast cancer charities.

She will be photographed at each location for a series of pictures to go on sale when she completes the task.

Miss Brown, who lives in Barony Street, has already had a trial run for her intensive three-week charity swim in the summer by plunging into the freezing Duddingston Loch.

She got rid of her inhibitions and took the plunge, much to the surprise of a nature-lover who happened to be looking through his binoculars at the time.

But it was realising just how freezing Scottish waters are that gave the Australian the biggest shock. She said: "As with all good ideas, it was thought up in the pub. I left Edinburgh to go home for a while last year and I said my biggest regret was not skinny dipping in the lochs, so it all stemmed from there.

"Saturday was my first dip and it lasted a maximum of three minutes. When I got home, I spent the rest of the night in bed with a fever and I must admit I thought then 'What am I letting myself in for?'. But I'm not worried about it, I'm just really excited."

Miss Brown, originally from the Australian city of Perth, is going to seek the advice of her doctor before embarking on the potentially dangerous swimathon.

She said: "I'll be careful about it and make sure I'm eating right and that I have lots of blankets with me. I've had my injections and I won't be putting my head under the water." She will be starting her challenge in the Capital on July 7, then heading up north.

She estimates she will take in just over six lochs a day to complete the task in three weeks. She will be accompanied by her friend, amateur photographer Jenny Humberstone, who will be taking snaps at each location.

As well as raising sponsorship money through the swimathon, Miss Brown hopes the "artsy" photos will make some money when they go on sale. She plans to get a stall during the Edinburgh Festival to sell the photos.

Miss Brown, who teaches theatre skills in schools, welcomes supporters along the way but says she will only strip off at secluded parts of the lochs so as not to offend anyone.

She added: "The guy with the binoculars must have wondered what we were doing, but he never asked for an explanation and we never offered one. We just did what we came to do and left."

Miss Brown plans to split the money she raises between a number of breast cancer charities after she saw the illness strike some of her friends' mothers.

Angela Kilday, spokesperson for Cancer Research UK, said: "We invest some £27 million in Scotland annually. Without the support of individuals like Jackie, this vital cancer research work would not be able to continue."

*****

Want to check out more about Scots and Scotland go to Scotsman.com
Direct link to story above here.
Or find out all about the Scots and Scotland at Electric Scotland

Daily Funny

Jose and Carlos are both con artists who pose as panhandlers.
They panhandle on different areas of town, and although Carlos panhandles just as long as Jose he only collects 2 to 3 dollars every day.
Jose on the other hand, brings home a suitcase FULL of $10 dollar bills, drives a Mercedes, lives in a mortgage free house and has a lot of money to spend.
Carlos says to Jose 'Hey… I work just as long and hard as you do, so how do you bring home a suitcase full of $10 dollar bills every day?'

Jose says 'Look at your sign; what does it say?'
Carlos sign reads 'I have no work, a wife and 6 kids to support.'

Jose says 'No wonder you only get $2-3 dollars!'
Carlos says 'So what does your sign say?'

Jose shows Carlos his sign... It reads 'I only need another $10.00 dollars to move back to Mexico’

The RIAA's lawsuit against a homeless man isn't going according to plan!

The RIAA's file-sharing lawsuit against a homeless man has run into some snags:

In Warner v. Berry, where the RIAA was suing a man who lives in a homeless shelter, the Magistrate Judge -- Hon. Kevin Nathaniel Fox -- recommended that the plaintiffs' application for a default judgment be denied, and that the plaintiffs be ordered to show cause why they should not be sanctioned under Rule 11. The Judge agreed that the default judgment should be denied, but chose not to sanction plaintiffs' attorneys...

The Magistrate Judge found that "[b]y affixing the summons on April 9, 2007, the plaintiffs demonstrated they never intended to conduct 'a thorough address investigation ...' because they employed the 'affix and mail' method of service without exercising due diligence to effect personal service pursuant to CPLR s 308(1) and (2)." Magistrate Judge Fox concluded that Plaintiffs' representation to this Court to the effect that they intended to conduct an investigation to locate Defendant's current address implicated Fed.R.Civ.P. 11(b) because it was made for the improper purpose of unnecessary delay.

We can only hope that this won't prejudice the court in the matter of Warner, Electra et al Versus Charitable Hospice for Dying, Helpless, Starving Children Who Rescue Puppies From Burning Buildings and Volunteer at the Old Folks Home.

(No, that is not sarcasm you detect in the sentence above.)

The Zen of the Spiritual

Surprised ... Yes and No.

A Mexican federal official says the police chief of the border city of Reynosa has been arrested for allegedly protecting members of the Gulf drug cartel.

The official says Chief Juan Muniz will be flown to Mexico City on Thursday to be questioned by organized crime investigators.

Muniz has been arrested by federal agents in Reynosa, across from McAllen, Texas, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to discuss the case.

Reynosa city officials have issued a news release saying Muniz was arrested Thursday afternoon. Muniz could not be immediately reach for comment and it was unclear if he had a lawyer.

The Gulf cartel is based in Tamaulipas state, where Reynosa is located.
*****

And this surprises me, how?
Okay, the Mexicans actually arresting the chief does - the fact the chief was fronting for a drug cartel ... nope, not surprising at all.

He was "depressed".

Relatives of a Fresno high school student who was shot to death after he attacked a police officer with a baseball bat questioned the department's version of events Thursday and said the depressed teenager never received the help he needed from school officials.

Jesus "Jesse" Carrizales, a 17-year-old sophomore, died Wednesday of a single bullet to the chest, fired by a school resources officer, Junus Perry, whom police said Carrizales had ambushed in a crowded outdoor corridor of Roosevelt High School. Officers found a small knife protruding from Carrizales' pocket, police said.

Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer said Thursday that the 6-foot-tall, 250-pound teen sought out the violent confrontation, which he called "a case of suicide by cop."

It wasn't the first time Carrizales had a run-in with police. In 2005, while in middle school, the student was cited for concealing a small knife in his backpack, Dyer said. Relatives said the knife belonged to a friend.

The next year, however, Carrizales' 10 brothers and sisters noticed he had become withdrawn, and the family decided he would do better at an alternative school where he could pursue independent study. He was prescribed Lexapro and Geodon, drugs used to treat depression and bipolar disorder, and in January he transferred to Roosevelt High, said his sister Elisa Ortega.

"He was a boy who needed help," said Ortega, 27. "He was depressed and he was on medication and the school knew it, so maybe they could have treated things differently."

Carrizales' family said the officer didn't have to shoot the teen, and questioned authorities' version of events.

"He never said he wanted to die or anything close to that," Ortega said. "They didn't have to kill him. The Taser guns, the batons they have, that should have been enough to calm the situation down."

Dyer said after Carrizales surprised the officer from behind and struck him in the head with the 21-inch bat, Perry feared for his life.

The officer fell down dazed, and reached for the gun in his hip holster, but the clip fell out.

As the student came at him again, yelling obscenities and raising the bat above his head, Perry grabbed a semiautomatic handgun he carried as backup in an ankle holster. He fired one round, Dyer said.

"It is unfortunate that the officer was put in a position where he had to take a student's life," Dyer told reporters Thursday. "Had he not defended himself there could have been further tragedy."

At least five students and a probation officer on campus witnessed the incident, police said. No one else was injured.

Fresno Unified School District spokeswoman Susan Bedi said a confidentiality agreement kept her from commenting on Carrizales' history in local schools.

Acting Superintendent Ruth Quinto said in a statement that the district was proud of how staff and students handled the situation.

"They have shown great strength and maturity," Quinto said. "We are continuing and will continue for as long as necessary to support them in any way that we can."

Carrizales' siblings described him as a lighthearted aspiring chef who preferred to play video games with his young cousins rather than take part in adult conversations.

"He was more of a kid himself. He was a momma's boy," said another sister, Irene Ortega, 25, speaking outside her mother's modest Fresno home. "We just want to know what happened before that incident to see what made him do what police say he did."

Perry is recovering at home after being treated for a 2-inch gash on the right side of his head, Dyer said. He is on administrative leave while the department reviews his conduct in Fresno's fifth officer-involved shooting this year.

*****

Ok, I am no wingnut fundie but come on people sometime it is not the boogey-man and sometime it is, but the continuous stream of he was - depressed, sick, slow, retarded, high, drunk, etc., ad infinitum - (take your pick), is getting a bit thin.

Which is making legitimate cases of depression, illness, retardation, etc., fall to the wayside as when the boy cried wolf twice and the men came to kill the wolf carrying off the boy's sheep and there was no wolf, so when the boy cried wolf the third time the men ignored him and the wolf ate all the boy's sheep.