Belly Button Key to Sports Success

Scientists have found the reason why some athletes dominate on the running track and others in the swimming pool: It’s in their belly buttons, a study published Monday shows.

What’s important is not whether an athlete has an innie or an outie but where his or her navel is in relation to the rest of the body, says the study published in the International Journal of Design and Nature and Ecodynamics.

The navel is the center of gravity of the body, and given two runners or swimmers of the same height, one black and one white, “what matters is not total height but the position of the belly button, or center of gravity,” Duke University professor Andre Bejan, the lead author of the study, told AFP.

“It so happens that in the architecture of the human body of West African-origin runners, the center of gravity is significantly higher than in runners of European origin,” which puts them at an advantage in sprints on the track, he said.

Full Article

Posted in Interesting, Sports | 1 Comment

Bag of Randomness

  • On Saturday at a church committee meeting a group of seven or so people guess my age to be anywhere between 24 and 29.  I turn 35 at the end of August.
  • One person said they were guessing my age off the age of WifeGeeding, whom they thought was, well . . . truth be told, she’s turns . . . . a year older on Saturday.  She want y’all go guess her age, so here’s a current picture of her, one I took last week.
  • I had a reader accuse me (possibly joking) of using a photoshopped picture of myself yesterday.  Truth be told, that’s an unedited picture other than the cropping.  Heck, I didn’t even touch that one up with Picassa.  As for how clean shaven I am, I shaved probably just an hour before I took that picture.
  • Speaking of shaving, I don’t think I will ever turn away from my safety razor again.  I tried a Mach 3 the other day and the shave just didn’t feel as smooth and as comfortable as a shave with the safety razor.  Not to mention, refills are pretty inexpensive.  You can get a ten pack of double blades for $6.99.
  • KRLD Restaurant Week is right around the corner
  • Does Having Children Make Parents More Active Churchgoers?
  • How Teenagers’ Faith Practices are Changing
  • In thirty-eight years, The Price is Right never had a contestant guess the exact value of prizes in the Showcase showdown. Until Terry Kniess outsmarted everyone — and changed everything.
  • Christian politicians should start acting Christian
Posted in Personal | 10 Comments

Newspaper Wants You To Pay To Comment

It appears that the Sun Chronicle, which appears to be based in Massachusetts, has chosen to go to a pretty extreme position. Reader Shawn alerts us that The Sun Chronicle disabled their comment system a few months back, after it got upset about a few anonymous readers “disrupting” things.

Shawn says “When the comments went away I found myself spending less time on the site but didnt care enough to complain.” However, he recently went back and was surprised that, in order to comment you need to hand over your credit card, and the paper will charge you $0.99.

Obviously, this is more to prove that you are who you say you are, but it does seem a bit distorted when the newspaper wants to charge people just to comment. Also, once charged, your name and hometown are automatically associated with your comments.

Techdirt.com

It’s funny, but I sometimes I wish my readers would comment more, but then again, I’m the same person that gets frustrated at the people that leave comments on news websites because those comments seem so bat-s crazy.

Posted in Interesting | 3 Comments