Well it certainly wouldn’t be a boring run…

Wow! US Soldiers really know how to make something, that is normally monotonous, exciting.  Make sure to check out the link at the end of the article also.

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From “Middle East Online”:

Jogger’s guide to Baghdad’s Green Zone
By Bryan Pearson – BAGHDAD – 2007-12-14

Despite petty annoyances, joggers find pleasure, relative safety in running in Iraq’s fortified zone.

Run in pairs, stay alert, do not run at night, do not venture off the beaten track… most of the advice from joggers about running in Baghdad’s heavily fortified “Green Zone” makes sense.

The casually added “just watch for the mortars” does not.

The risk of being blown up by mortar fire in what is also known as the IZ (International Zone) — the most shelled 10 square kilometres (four square miles) in Baghdad — remains the same whether you are walking, driving or running.

And there is little you can do if one comes your way anyway.

While the wide roadways built in Saddam Hussein’s once-gated city within a city bear numerous pockmarks from where shells have hit, the number of people killed in the IZ has not been significant — not enough, at least, to deter the joggers.

The obstacles are rather more predictable — relentless military traffic, loudly clattering helicopters, menacing razor wire, threatening armed guards and offputting checkpoints.

But the experience of jogging past Saddam’s palaces, numerous monuments, the bombed shell of the Baath party headquarters, the riverfront villas where he housed his cronies and the courthouse where he was tried and sentenced to death make it worth braving the petty annoyances.

Favourite with joggers — mainly Westerners, both men and women dressed usually in shorts and T-shirts and linked in some way or other to foreign embassies or the American war machine — is Celebration Square, created by Saddam to mark Iraq’s successes in its war with Iran.

Centred around a large monument and the “crossed swords” parade ground, the area allows about a mile (more than a kilometre) of running away from traffic and alongside open fields, derelict fountains and a scattering of palm trees.

But the excesses of the executed despot are hard to avoid — the bullet-holed helmets of Iranian soldiers killed in the war embedded in the tarmac, the huge reviewing stand from which Saddam would glare down at his troops on the parade ground, the stadium-sized Tomb of the Unknown Martyr.

And of course the crossed swords monument — the main reference point to anyone giving directions in the Green Zone.

On each side of the football field-sized parade ground are a set of two arms, cast from the limbs of Saddam himself, which thrust skywards — each holding a sword in such a way that they are crossed.

“This is the best place to run,” said Frank Hallen, a US soldier dressed in shorts and tracksuit top jogging near the crossed swords with two women runners. “You can get away from the traffic and have some peace.”

The two women, who asked that their names not be published, said that the main problem with running in the Green Zone was that they had to put up with men harassing them — some even stopping their cars to proposition them.

“We always run with a guy,” said one woman, a press affairs officer wearing shorts and a Lycra running vest. “Men stop us all the time — it’s very annoying.”

Regular joggers have many tales of adventure to tell.

“I was running down the street with an air force officer when a mortar shell exploded near us,” said an employee of the US embassy who would only be identified as David.

“We saw an Iraqi man run into a house so we followed him. We found ourselves being stared at by a family of Iraqis. They wondered what we were doing in their house. We hadn’t even realised there were families living in the IZ,” he said.

Most embassy employees tend to stick to a circular running route that tracks through the compound, then out along a road following the Tigris river which is hidden from view by towering blast walls, then down a leafy street and back into the compound.

Every first Friday of the month some 200 people line up at 6:00 am (0300 GMT) for a five-kilometre (3.1-mile) race through the embassy complex, which is dominated by a marble palace built by Saddam.

The route passes a “junkyard” which contains two oversized giant busts of Saddam lying face down in the dirt plus a statue of him cast in bronze made to look like an Assyrian king, sword in hand and a fierce look on his face.

“Very few embassy staff run out in the IZ,” said David from behind dark glasses, and perspiring while jogging up onto the July 14 bridge for a view of the Tigris and some relief from the never-ending blast walls.

“When I tell them I have been running in the IZ they will think I am a hero.”

However do not mention the possibility of leaving the beaten track and doing some exploring in the drab, dusty and grossly misnamed Green Zone.

“The reason that people run the main routes is because it is too dangerous to go off and explore the unbeaten path,” said the second of the two women runners at the crossed swords.

“I would by no means consider the IZ a park to be explored by the curious runner.

“Rather, the object of running here is to run without getting hit by traffic, getting cut by concertina wire, falling over speedbumps and holes left by mortars and not gagging from the smells of burning trash, blowing sand, sewage and overflowing dumpsters.”

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See also: Jogging in the Twilight Zone

Dance, romance, passion, beautiful settings, art, philosophy, life….

I hope they put this 1997 film on DVD. I have watched the VHS version many times. It is amazing. Here is a short plot synopsis that doesn’t do it justice, but I’m too lazy to write one:

“Written and directed by Sally Potter, The Tango Lesson is the story of a filmmaker (Sally Potter) who, dissatisfied with her latest screenplay, stumbles upon the tango and an Argentinian tango dancer (Pablo Veron) living in Paris. Fascinated by both, she places herself under Pablo’s tutelage, striking a deal – if Pablo will make her a tango dancer, she will let him star in her next film. He accomplishes his side of the bargain when they perform in a show, but her attempt to make a film with Pablo in Buenos Aires exposes the complexities at the heart of the story – how do you follow when your instinct is to lead?”

Sally Potter’s Inspiration

Pablo Veron

“Jacob Wrestling with the Angel” – Painter Eugène Delacroix

Genesis Chapter 30

Click here for large-sized resolution image of “Jacob Wrestling with the Angel”

All Video Clips

My favorite clips:

The bird is really good and you will be amused and amazed!

The cockatoo is named Snowball. The people that downloaded the video at Youtube say the he taught himself to dance and like Backstreet Boys. I had no idea that birds taught themselves this type of thing. If you’ll notice he actually has some nice moves and is totally on rhythm! 

He is so cute, that he almost makes me want another bird. But then again, big birds are a lot of trouble in many ways, so nevermind.

Don’t stop the video too early because he does some cool stuff toward the end…

For me to find this interesting, does this mean that I need to get a “life” or is this normal? Discuss!

Are you more right brain or left brain? 

Look at the picture to find out!

Right Brain Inventory	Left Brain Inventory
• Visual, focusing on images, patterns	• Verbal, focusing on words, symbols, numbers
• Intuitive, led by feelings	• Analytical, led by logic
• Process ideas simultaneously	• Process ideas sequentially, step by step
• ‘Mind photos’ used to remember things, writing things down or illustrating them helps you remember	Words used to remember things, remember names rather than faces
• Make lateral connections from information	• Make logical deductions from information
• See the whole first, then the details	• Work up to the whole step by step, focusing on details, information organised
• Organisation ends to be lacking
• Highly organised
• Free association	• Like making lists and planning
• Like to know why you’re doing something or why rules exist (reasons)	• Likely to follow rules without questioning them
• No sense of time	• Good at keeping track of time
• May have trouble with spelling and finding words to express yourself	• Spelling and mathematical formula easily memorised
• Enjoy touching and feeling actual objects (sensory input)	• Enjoy observing
• Trouble prioritising, so often late, impulsive	• Plan ahead
• Unlikely to read instruction manual before trying	• Likely read an instruction manual before trying
• Listen to how something is being said
• Listen to what is being said
• Talk with your hands
• Rarely use gestures when talking
• Likely to think you’re naturally creative, but need to apply yourself to develop your potential
• Likely to believe you’re not creative, need to be willing to try and take risks to develop your potential

I see her going clockwise, what about you? Could you make her switch?

What happens when “World champion martial arts masters…

…meet cutting-edge technology”?

This is an amazing video. Health industry pros should keep an eye on Wolff’s Law in it’s most extreme applications. 

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From the National Geographic Channel‘s description: 

For the first time, “Fight Science” brings together members of the crash-test industry, the sports biomechanics industry, and the Hollywood animation industry—applying their combined expertise and technology to a diverse range of martial arts techniques, including karate, kung fu, jiu jitsu, tae kwon do, muay Thai, and wushu, among others. The results reveal the comparative strengths, advantages, and limitations of the various martial arts styles. And in a breakthrough combination of technologies, scientists are able to peer inside a fighter’s body in real time.

“Fight Science” tests and films world-renowned martial artists, hand-picked to represent various disciplines, in a custom-built combination dojo, high-tech lab, and film studio that took over a year to design and build. Are the legends true? Is there such a thing as a death punch? How much force does each fighter exert? With 32 infrared motion capture cameras, three high-definition cameras, and three ultra-high-speed cameras, the studio allows the crash test and biomechanics scientists to measure and map the speed, force, range, and impact of muscles and bones in the fighters’ bodies.

The motion-capture technique, requiring reflective markers over the fighters’ entire bodies, allows for sophisticated real-time three-dimensional models. These results are combined with other data to create separate sophisticated animations of the fighters’ bones, muscles, and nerves. “Fight Science” juxtaposes the fighters’ movements with their animated selves for unprecedented insight into exactly how the body generates each move.

Over the centuries, martial arts fighters have supplemented their techniques with instruments like staffs, swords, and nunchuk developed to magnify death-dealing potential. “Fight Science” also explores how the designs and techniques of weaponry can exponentially increase an already fearsome fighter’s impact, control, and range.

It looks very clean and pretty in the picture above, huh? The statistics I found (from various sources and rounded in the middle) are at the end of this post.

For $17,000 to $22,000, and risk of death, wouldn’t it be better to just change one’s habits or tackle the psychology instead? One could even take 4-5 fitness cruises in one year and lose 50 pds or more and have fun doing it. Or how about weight loss spas/retreats? Same thinking goes for lipo-suction surgery (although the risks are dramatically lower).

From CBS: “Gastric Bypass Surgery Gone Bad” – “A recent study by researchers at the University of Washington found that 1 in 50 people die within one month of having gastric bypass surgery, and that figure jumps nearly fivefold if the surgeon is inexperienced.”

From Mayoclinic: “..if you return to your old eating habits, you may gain back any weight you’ve lost“. This article gives some of the tips on heathy nutritional habits that will help one not to gain back the weight they can potentially lose from the surgery. Why not put the $22,000 into the psychological treatment beforehand?

Below is the video showing a tutorial and actual Laparoscopic Gastric Bypass Surgery performed on the operating table. Enjoy, if you have the ….ahem…..stomach!

Gastric Bypass complications statistics:

Leakage- 5%

Ulcer – 4%

Hernias – 2.5%

Gallstones – 2%

Stomal Stenosis – 1.5%

Death - .5-2% (depending on which “expert” is being asked)

Blood clots – .8%

Severe infection – .5%

“…a little white thing you stand on.”

It’s a cool idea, but I’m skeptical of the practicality. The trailer just doesn’t sell it. Maybe the next version will be better and have more interesting games.

The original Wii Fit trailer:

The Wii Fit trailer parody:

“New research finds that people who give up on unattainable goals are physically and mentally healthier than ‘bulldogs’ who persevere against all odds. The importance of knowing when to throw in the towel.”

Knowing when to quit something or slow down is something I’m not personally great with. But quitting something that is causing one stress (the bad kind) can free up time for more mentally healthy things such as working out, dancing, etc… (of course I’m biased)

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From Newsweek: “Psychology: Why Quitting is Good for You”

by Wray Herbert

Sept. 20, 2007 – America has been imbued since its founding with a persevering spirit. From Ben Franklin to Horatio Alger to Rocky Balboa, the culture bombards us—children especially—with messages about the value of determination and grit in the face of adversity. This ethos is perhaps best captured in the enduring 19th-century maxim, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.”

It’s hard to argue with such an affirmative sentiment. And no wonder this never-say-die attitude has made such an appealing plot line for dime novels and Hollywood. But is it really good psychology? Or might there be times when it’s better to simply give up?

Psychologists have been exploring this question, and more specifically a possible link between tenacity and both physical and mental health. It would seem on the face of it that persistence would be tonic over the long haul; hanging tough should increase the odds that you’ll succeed, and personal success is closely linked to well-being. But what if the goal is extremely unlikely? Like an infertile couple conceiving a child? Or an average high-school sprinter becoming an Olympic gold-medalist? Is there a point of diminishing returns beyond which one failure after another takes a health toll? When does an admirable trait like perseverance start to look more like beating your head against the wall?

To test this in the laboratory, psychologists Gregory Miller and Carsten Wrosch developed a psychological instrument that can reliably distinguish between people who are relentless by nature and those who are much more accepting of life’s curveballs. For simplicity, let’s call them the Bulldogs and the Quitters. In a series of experiments the psychologists have exhaustively studied these two personality types to see how healthy and well adjusted they are.

And the answer is plain: Quitters are healthier than Bulldogs by almost every measure. For example, in one study the psychologists looked at everything from indigestion and diarrhea to skin disorders, poor sleep and headaches. Quitters suffered less than Bulldogs across the full range of maladies. Further, the Bulldogs’ stress hormones were much more likely to be out of whack, indicating that they are in a state of chronic stress. And in a new study, published in the September issue of Psychological Science, the psychologists followed teenagers for a full year. Over that time the Quitters had much lower levels of a protein called CRP, an indicator of bodily inflammation. Inflammation has recently been linked to several serious diseases, including diabetes and heart disease, suggesting that healthy but tenacious teens may already be on the road toward chronic illness later in life.

But knowing when to throw in the towel is only half the story. The psychologists also sorted both the Bulldogs and the Quitters by their willingness to re-engage and set new goals after they gave up on something important. While they did not find a direct link between re-engagement and physical health, they did find that people who readily jumped back into life had a greater sense of purpose and mastery and were less likely to ruminate about the past. Setting new goals appears to buffer the emotional consequences of failure, especially for those, like the Bulldogs, who have the hardest time admitting defeat.

So what is it that makes the most tenacious Bulldogs finally say, OK, I’ve had it? Paradoxically, it appears that the pathway to health may be through melancholy. Think of it this way: People who simply will not or cannot give up an impossible dream eventually get emotionally defeated by their Sisyphean task. Some get clinically depressed, but many others just shut down; they become pessimistic, passive, physically and mentally depleted. This dysphoria is what allows them—forces them, really—to stop and reassess. It’s said that depressed people have a more realistic view of the world, and in fact some evolutionary psychologists now believe that depression may have had survival value when we were evolving on the savannahs. Depression is what told our bodies to slow down and take stock of the situation, be cautious, don’t dis the silverback. Today a little melancholy might help us give up on that Olympic gold, and in the long run avoid killers like diabetes and heart disease.

It’s important to strive. For young people, setting lofty goals, and then scaling them back, is the crux of forging an identity in the world. As people age they are forced to make tradeoffs, to abandon dreams of an illustrious career or the picture-perfect marriage. We all abandon life goals. The only question is whether we make our life adjustments with grace and good timing. The misanthropic comedian W.C. Fields anticipated much of this science when he cleverly revised that 19th-century maxim about perseverance: “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again,” he said. “Then quit. There’s no point in being a damn fool about it.”

Wray Herbert writes the We’re Only Human… blog.

© 2007 Newsweek, Inc.

He travels, “dances” (jumps around), and has a website about it. What else could one ask for? Even with the humorous dancing, something about his videos are just incredible (to me anyway).

Just in case you missed my other post of his original video:

Some people like “reality” shows, I like bad dancing videos…

I think the following videos are the best of the worst, and that is what makes them so great! They all have something special and unique about them.

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125 Moves!

This is a couple that claim to teach 125 moves in 2 DVD’s. One really can’t put this into perspective until one reads their bios:

“JOHN KELLY: The director and co-producer of the films: “75 Easy to Learn Rock and Roll Dance Moves” and “50 More Rock and Roll Dance Moves” is an accomplished and admired “freestyle” rock and roll dancer. Despite his multi-talents though, he is still “you.” He’s been through the same fear of dancing that many of you beginners have …. and to this day constantly strives to improve himself and learn new moves just as you experienced dancers do.”

“”PHYL” : A student of John’s, had only been with him a short while before “75 Easy …” was made, but in that short while had quickly picked up much of what it had taken John years to learn. Assisting him in “75 Easy’s …” part 3: “Show Biz and Shock Effect” and again in the final segment of “50 More …” she is a perfect example of how quickly you can learn when you have a good teacher.”

“Just so we’ve got some kind of an understanding, I (John Kelly) am a lot like you … I was like you before I learned to dance … I was like you after I learned to dance … And I am very much like you right now; at the present moment. Mean it! Other than my quirky ways and alleged brain damage, I’m just a “Joe Blow” on the streets … just a “working stiff” like you. The only difference between us (and I’m talking to even you “experienced” dancers) is that I kick-ass on the dance floor. Always! Anywhere I go … And every time I go there!”

So, I think I get it……….you are just like us…….except that you “kick-ass” on the dance floor. Okay, I think I got it.

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Traveling Dancer!

This is video of a guy that travels around the world and makes videos of himself dancing quite badly. The exotic locations makes this one worth watching. Does this guy have the life or what?

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Underwear Dancer!

Okay, the guy actually has great rhythm, but I mean come on! What is with the underwear? This is so hilarious!

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“Running in Place” Guy!

What makes this guy a cut above the rest? Persistence! He made 100′s of bad, crazy dancing videos in his apartment, in the morning before work, from 05/05 to 07/06 and even had some guest performances. His dancing never got any better (not that he was trying) nor did he ever do much more than a “run in place” style (like the “traveling dancer guy”) with a few “criss-crosses”. But he made up for it in using some props, having strange (and delayed) interpretations of the music/words, and had a few oddball locations. He is having so much fun that it will make you laugh and put you in a great mood.

It was really difficult to pick just one of his videos for this blog. I chose “Brick House” due to his interpretation of the “brick” part, not being able to hold back on singing “HOUSE”, the flawless “criss-crossy” steps, superfast “tippy-toe” moves, and the “away from the camera to sling body back to the camera” move.

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How to Dance Like a White Guy!

This video pretty much speaks for itself. Just watch for the “over the shoulder point shake and shrug” move. This video is very strange and creepy for some reason, and that is the very reason it makes it to my list. Awesome!