Dog Brothers Public Forum

Grateful for another glorious summer, for a little time away for a family reunion, to continue family traditions at a 100+ year old lake place with cousins who were my buddies growing up, for the grandchildren to have extended time with their grandparents, to get to better know our relatives from further away, to see my daughter enjoying the same sports and activities we enjoy and grateful to have added a new family member to the group.   

Still not clear where to discuss the human disaster in Norway.  The one common thread with these pretend tough guy cowards is that the like to shoot in places wherethe other people are likely to be unarmed.  http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2011/07/norway-a-postscript.php

Crafty: "I'm looking for leads on good sources of data concerning just how much impact a human skull/brain can safely take."

I recall an ad for helmet breakthroughs that ran during the high school championships.  I finally went back to dig that out.  It is called the Messier Project, M11
http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=844818
http://www.themessierproject.com/
http://www.themessierproject.com/theepidemic/
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/18/sports/hockey/18concussion.html?_r=1&ref=hockey

A news story this week:  http://www.startribune.com/sports/wild/121813554.html  NHL star Derek Boogaard was found dead in his Minneapolis apartment Friday, five months after he sustained a season-ending concussion with the New York Rangers.  There was a delay to announce cause of death; now they say suicide.  The family has donated his brain at his request to research: http://www.usatoday.com/sports/hockey/nhl/2011-05-16-1035067980_x.htm "... spokeswoman for the Boston University School of Medicine confirmed Sunday that his brain will be examined for signs of a degenerative disease often found in athletes who sustain repeated hits to the head." BU Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy I think will be a good place to start for existing research.

A more simple answer to your question.  Your sport and so many others I think need to figure out how to keep the intensity up but get the impact to the head down.  The better we are able to measure damage, the more we are going to find.  'What's your head worth?'
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(Update: The NHL death above is now called accidental overdose, oxycontin and alcohol.)

“He changed sexually, in his testicles and performance and that.”

And so it goes for a right to privacy. 

I understand Bonds wanting to hit more home runs, but I don't understand a man feeling more manly by abnormally bulking up at the expense of causing the body to stop the production of natural testosterone, cause sexual dysfunction, health risks, etc.  Strange priorities.  http://www.steroidabuse.org/

 

Bring back any memories?
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/the_fight_of_the_century_eK4J5gf5ZqZdlQ6UlwQdOP

Great topic and great ideas.

At roughly the same time as the original post, 5rings had a nutrition post in answer to a different question that I think applies equally here, go to health and nutrition thread for specifics.  I would add caffeine limits to the healthy eating advice.  If I wish to be calm in an unexpected, adrenalin charged moment, I will wish I did not have a second, third or fourth cup of coffee that morning or any other altering substance.

"having to stave off someone harassing me on the street"

I had the good fortune of attending an anger management class.  I remember two themes of advice in the class, one was how extremely often that alcohol is a factor when conflict goes too far.  The other was called keeping your basket less that half full.  We all have issues we have to deal with, work, home, bills, stress, kids, IRS, injuries, whatever.  Make time and deal with them one by one.  Don't let yourself get so near the boiling point that the next smallest thing might set you off. On the flip side, don't assume the other guy is not one comment or dirty look away from flipping. In other words, the more he shows he is a jerk, the more avoidance you need.  My guess is that a typical harasser described above is 99.9% of the time not worthy of what you are preparing for in martial arts. 

P.C. wrote: " Sounds to me like the Sheriff wasn't very proactive in heading this guy off, he could have on a number of contacts with Jared, had him held for a 72 hour mental evaluation under AZ law."

I was carefully trying to think of what in gun law could or should have stopped this pyscho's purchase without destroying everyone else's rights.  But first you would have to mark this sick man with a searchable record of what he had become.  A background check wouldn't pick anything up if his friends, family, teachers and even the sheriff all had looked the other way.

I drove a bipolar woman against her will to the emergency room during an episode.  She thought she was going to see her doctor, but he had said to take her to the emergency room.  The doctor there heard and ignored my concerns, declared her no threat, prescribed her a narcotic and she was back in the same emergency room the next day this time with the 72 hour hold followed with criminal charges for killing someone with her car.  For about 3/4 of a second I gave that same doctor an icy stare I think he will remember. 

A slippery slope but somewhere we need to look into what your rights are or are not, as people around you see your grip on reality deteriorating.

I am grateful to again experience the change of seasons, the beautiful music of Christmas and the welcoming message of peace, love, gratefulness and optimism that comes with Christmas and the new year.  Joy to the world.  Let heaven and nature sing.

Thank you guys for marking the day that shall live in infamy.  It means a great deal to the people who lived through that time when America was attacked.  The lessons of readiness and peace through strength need to be passed forward.  My grandpa served in Pearl Harbor (after the attack) and my Dad in Europe.  I can't know what it was like for them.  I never thought of them as war heroes but they all were for their part of what was accomplished for their families at home and for all of us who came later.

Punks like Obama and Greenpeace or whoever want to question the value of ending that war with 1940s Japan in brutal victory.  Every lesson since then indicates that readiness and willingness to end a war in victory is what prevents the attacks and the wars.  If Japan had known the ending, that attack would never have happened. (MHO)

My daughter has gone through this.

In a slightly different context, 5rings wrote: "he who treats the site of pain is lost".

Under that philosophy or similar, I did not approve of a doc treating the consequences of what was happening before we attacked the likely causes.

My suspicion was exactly what GM posted, the over-weighted backpack.  Add to that study habits that include lying sideways and contorted on a bed or on the floor leaning unsupported against something - for hours.  Not exactly on ergonomic design.  Never using the chair and drafting table I measured, built, adjusted to fit her.

A lot of it goes back to the textbook racket.  There is no reason these kids couldn't be just carrying the pages or chapter they need for each class or just access it all online, instead of carrying 6-8 full textbooks everyday, every where they go.  Second idea would be something with wheels pulled like a flight attendant's carry on bag.  There was no way she was going to be first to change book carrying habits.

As an aside, same was true with hockey gear.  People think hockey is dangerous but I like to joke that 80% of the injuries really come just from lugging the gear in and out of the arena.  Athletes too proud to use wheels.  A couple of years ago I started noticing all the new expensive hockey bags have wheels.

You never know when you will wish you were prepared for inevitable emergencies.

My daughter worked her first hour of her first job ever last weekend at the desk of a small tennis club and a man dropped to the ground with a heart attack, not breathing.  Lucky for her and the man, the club manager/ my friend, was there.  He dialed 911 handed the phone to her and headed out with a defibrillator I believe, while someone else had CPR started.

Backtracking here, a Marine friend of mine emailed this video a few weeks ago saying it is the newest, best and simplest way to perform CPR. Please watch and forward/share.  (If someone here knows better, please post.) 
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http://medicine.arizona.edu/spotlight/learn-sarver-heart-centers-continuous-chest-compression-cpr

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcbgpiKyUbs

Grateful for a glorious summer, in a place that has extremely distinct seasons.

The point about solar lights too dim is true.  The cheap ones will barely light a walkway and don't give the look of someone home.  You need more juice than that.  For anyone who wants to make the effort for an unwired outbuilding or driveway entrance, you can build a more powerful system pretty cheaply.  You can buy a small 12v 3 watt or 5 watt solar panel on ebay fairly cheap and make night power off of a deep cycle or older car battery with some charge left in it.  incandescent bulbs will drain the battery.  For 12v the ones with multiple LED are bright and efficient, or with a small inverter you can use 110v products like a timer or motion detector connected to more efficient CFL bulbs.  I like to leave a radio with talk on in a vacant rental house.  Along with some timers and lighting it makes it seem from outside the window or door very much like someone is in there-  even during the day.  I'm amazed at how often I fool myself with that when I come back in.  I haven't done this yet, but what I would like to hook up is motion detector activation to a recording of a fiercely barking dog to come on with the lights.  The motion detector lights typically come with 2 light sockets.  Put a bulb in one and a socket adapter outlet in the other and run a cord a little further to trigger something else, maybe another light and radio further away, up by the house.

At home, besides living in a crime free area with watchful neighbors, most effective for me is having multiple vehicles that I split usage with and move around quite a bit for various reasons along with varying schedules that was mentioned. The affect is that you never look in our driveway and assume no one is home.  Most people I'm sure don't have extra cars but maybe you know someone who wants one stored or maybe you keep the extra one in the garage to protect the vehicle when having it by the sidewalk or doorstep would better help to protect the house.   A stored car should be started and moved around regularly anyway which is perfect for this purpose.

The extra car trick backfired for me at one of my inner city houses.  They punched a hole through the bottom of the gas tank.  The next time I left a nice note on the dash saying that the gas tank was empty, and made sure it was.  Strategies in a war zone are different than strategies in a neighborhood.

Beyond the fake video camera idea I would like to go to a cheap real video camera saving onto the hard disk of an old computer and activated by the motion lights.  Maybe you could capture a license plate or mug shot of the offenders.

The first hand account from Costa Rica scares me.  No one should have to face a gun in their face unless you are the perp.  A friends young daughter finishing college is traveling there a lot and wanting to move there.

Knowing your premises was invaded is not a property crime to me.  Someone could have been home or come home during the invasion and startled them.  I would never assume someone with that kind of nerve is not likely to be violent.

Richest of the Slavic nations, Mediterranian coast and the Alps in a small space, looking forward to a tourist report for those of us who may never make it there.  I recall that Europe and the U.S. were on the wrong side of history opposing self-rule for Slovenians in 1991: http://www.ljubljana-life.com/ljubljana/ten-day-war

I support liberties lost in FISA.  If my number is discovered even for innocent reasons in the speed dial or recently called numbers of a captured terrorist, I expect surveillance and will live through it.  Hopefully they discover it was a wrong number!

A columnist and talk show host hear put it nicely, that if the 19 hijackers were discovered to be middle-aged, balding, midwest, talk show hosts of French Canadian descent, he would expect to be slowed down a little in airports.

Over to BBG's example of abuse with armadillo.  If the Police Chief orders it in front of the Mayor's rival's house for all the wrong reasons, I think we can all agree that those complicit should be fired and prosecuted.

Somebody puts their reputation and hopefully their career on the line when they order surveillance by the government of a private citizen.   

"The above is bad advice, unless you have committed a crime. If you lawfully used force to defend yourself/another, a brief statement needs to be given."

Fair enough.  I back off my over-generalized, amateur advice.  In my example the fellow was guilty (of shooting the intruder without all the elements of self defense) and his statement made the case against him.

Thinking of a different legal situation, some years ago I owned an apartment building that was firebombed by teenage gangmembers.  The Mpls arson chief investigator asked me to meet him at the bldg and we set up an appointment.  As I was leaving my office someone else told me to keep in mind that I am a suspect.  I laughed thinking that was ridiculous. I was in Montana skiing and not even reachable when it happened. I have receipts to prove it. Then I freaked, realizing that was exactly what a guilty party would arrange.  On the way over, my mind raced to recall everything I knew about everyone in the building.  Instead of my usual smug and flippant self, I was extremely helpful and forthcoming on everything he asked.  He told me he wasn't able to get into the burned unit and I told him I would get him in.  I used landlord persuasion to get them to the door and introduced him to the tenants after we were in.   When I saw the smoke detector disabled I laid into them about how that could have killed people in the other units and besides I had just warned them about doing that some specific time previous.  (Like OJ Simpson, my best bet seemed to be for them to find the real perps and the real motive very quickly.) Everything worked out fine for me but I no longer carry insurance on any of my properties.  I would rather fix the property out of pocket than fight insurance companies and carry a motive.

What I take from the defense video is that their advice (don't talk to police) applies best in the situation where they are about to arrest you anyway.  You will have opportunity to respond to the charges.

Back to Crafty's piece, the people here seem acutely aware of the requirements of self defense.  I think that is far less true for the general public.

Denny,  I think there is good humor in the protest photos with the national guard and I don't want it lost in translation.  Do I understand that the troops or pretend trooops are being handed eggs for the balls they lack for closing stations to hide from criticism?  Also clever is to peacefully hand over the eggs.  If thrown they would invite a reaction or just reflect badly on the themselves. 

Thanks for the updates and keep up the good fight.

Thanks for all the contributions here - what a wealth of information. The alignment  topic has been central to my life for about 35 years.   When I was 17, I was hit hard as a pedestrian by a car going roughly 50. I was hit on the lower left leg.  There was swelling like a basketball and about 50% overlap on the tibia and fibula. They decided that the set was good enough to heal and fill in, and I was plastered from hip to toe. 

On the first follow up the swelling had gone down and the alignment was checked by x-ray and modified by cutting and shimming the cast at the break with a cork and re-plastered over it.  Still the inside of the cast was loose and the resulting alignment was better but still off. 

I had doctor reports about alignment.  If I recall, the lower half of the lower leg is angled forward and out by 11-14 degrees, the foot is angled a little inward and the knees are fairly loose and slightly knock-kneed on both sides.  Amazingly, only one doctor thought to measure length and discovered that I lost 7/8 of an inch.  If I didn't notice almost an inch, there are people out there unaware of a 1/16 that foxmarten says should be addressed.

When I exercised and trained and built muscles around the knee I felt pretty good.  When I didn't play sports I would also lose the strength to stand or walk much.  My senior year in college I went on a mission to decide what to do about the alignment .  At each stop the first orthopedic surgeon would call in a colleague and then the department head.  It was amazing to me that I could sway their recommendation by whether I complained or downplayed my symptoms.  It seemed like there was little science to it.  I saw the head of the orthopedic department at the Mayo Clinic.  He wouldn't say he recommended re-breaking to correct the alignment, but said he would do it if that is what I wanted and we set an appointment for an osteotomy.  They would re-break higher on the bone than the original break and take out a notch for alignment.  I would actually have lost even more length.

I saw another specialist who recommended against it, wouldn't take on the risks of non-union, non-healing etc.  I canceled the procedure, got on with my life and have rarely looked back.

I tried to find out about a lift for the shortened leg.  Heal lifts were no good because they change the ankle position which is instant pain for me. I walked into medical supply places, asked questions and finally got a referral to a custom orthopedic shoe provider.  They build a 7/8 inch full length lift on a leather shoe, high topped to prevent ankle rollover and I wear it for everything, even golf. I felt better instantly and could feel years of damage go from 'hurt to heal to harmonize'. 

Now I'm 52 and doing well.  It's hard to tell which aches and pains are from sports, which are from aging and which are from this battle.

Some comments and observations:  Kids often notice the unmatched shoe heights instantly while many adults I've known for decades have no idea.

As I think Richard wrote, the alignment and function at the hips is the key to the back and spine.  Sitting and standing too long are strangely harder for me that playing up to 10 sets a day of tennis. 

Maija: "Everything is connected to something or how does that go?" - Lol.  When I tell people that their knees are connected they think I'm crazy, but the knees are only separated by a couple of hips, and the alignment on one side directly affects the other.  Limping to favor one side hurts the other. 

Paul (Foxmarten): the joke about being careful when you talk to someone who carries a knife is prophetic for me.  I've already got more good years without surgery than they would have predicted with it.  They were not selling a fast, certain or complete recovery.

Interesting point about the knee hurting with a shim.  In the ski boot business they do something called canting.  My racing boots have allen screws that allow you to set the sideways tilt of the boot to the footbed so that the ski will sit flat on the snow as you stand naturally. 

I am grateful for intelligent dissent on this board, especially from Rachel.

"Every time I go to post all I seem capable of writing is snarky comments or a harangue. I deleted these kind of  comments before they were posted.  I'm sure you all could handle my negatively but that is not the person I want to be."

Likewise, I have seen other boards digress that way and wish for my own postings and thoughts to not stoop that way.  I regret when my replies to you have crossed that line without being cleaned in the proofread.  My intent was always to challenge you politically, intellectually and morally on the issues, such as pro-life vs. reproductive freedom, not to put you down or myself as superior.  And to be challenged back which is often lacking, especially in your absence.

Following up on some excellent info GM posted in 'politics' page 5 regarding speed, driving skills and accidents.  We accept a lot of carnage for mobility.  We also trade away some liberty, such as how fast to drive on an empty freeway, in exchange for attempts at safety and conformance including speed limits that are often established from far away. 

No question speed magnifies the damage in collisions and I wholly subscribe to the cushion of air theory where you refuse to let people follow in your blind spot and refuse to allow trucks (or anyone else) to surround you in a center lane of a freeway.  I quibble slightly with a few smaller points made.  Following distance IMO depends also on visibility PAST the vehicle you are following and other factors like equipment and attentiveness.  3/4 of a second may be average but I would certainly like to think that I am faster than that to begin applying brakes.  A second sounds fast but counting them out: one-thou-sand-one-pause-one-thousand-two... an attentive, anticipative driver should not take 3/4 second to get started.

A quote regarding ABS brakes: "we strongly recommend that buyers choose a car equipped with antilock brakes (ABS)...in order to get the most out of ABS in emergency braking situations, you have to know how to use it. And really, it couldn't be easier; you just stomp on the pedal...Many new cars come with antilock brakes as standard equipment, but you must often purchase them as an option on low- to moderately priced cars.

Of the vehicles I drive, 2 have ABS, 2 don't and on 2 others I'm just not sure.  Now let's assume a child darts out on one of our snowy-salty-icy Minnesota streets.  Would you really like my reflex to be to "just stomp on the pedal" rather than the old fashioned way of trying to maximize braking without locking up? 

I appreciate very much Denny's contributions from the front line of Venezuela.  I don't know enough Spanish but with a help from freetranslation.com offer a rough translation of the story (?)

Arrived in the email... 

The History of the Rat

One day, a man entered a store and remained looking at a beautiful statue of a rat, in natural size. 

Very keen on the beauty of that work, the man asked the price of the salesperson: 

"¿How much does it cost?” 

"The statue is worth $50 and the history of the rat costs $1,000." 

“¿Are you crazy. ..?  I will take only the statue." 

Happy, the man left the store with the statue under the arm.  As he walked, he realized, scared to death, that thousands of rats, the scavengers from the pits of the street, began to follow. 

Running desperately, the man arrived to the spring of a port and with all his force, he launched the statue to the sea.  Incredulous, he saw that all the horde of rats were launched to the sea after the statue, dying all drowned. 

Still without being replaced of the scare, the man returned to the antique shop, and the shopkeeper says to him: 

"You returned to buy the history?” 

"No, no, no, simply I want to know if you by coincidence might have the statue of (Hugo) Chávez." 

Crafty wrote: "...the movie "Miracle" (2004).  My son is getting involved in playing hockey and this could be a good movie for us to watch.  To help me with my search, do you remember the name of the lead actors?

Kurt Russell played the coach Herb Brooks.  Like the original Rocky, it is more about training, winning and the human side than about the sport.  Here's a clip: http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi379191577/

My first 'martial arts' post, not perfectly placed here, but a good story about a citizen's defense of self and family that led to the arrest of a fugitive. Perhaps his martial arts skill was wrestling(?) He is a law partner of John Hinderacker at Powerline: http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2007/08/018281.php http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2007/08/018280.php

Radtke was listed in good condition at Regions Hospital in St. Paul on Saturday and, although he didn't want to talk about his ordeal, authorities had a message for him: Thanks.

Sgt. Andrew Ellickson said he was convinced that if Radtke's brave actions hadn't stopped the suspect, he would have caused more damage and injuries.

"He wouldn't have been stopped," Ellickson said.

Leland Klanderman agreed: "The guy was determined."

Radtke, an attorney for Faegre & Benson, and his wife, Jody, had just put their three sons to bed Friday.

They were headed downstairs to relax when the front door flew open, according to Jody's mother, Sandy Brandt.

The Radtkes were staring at a ragged-looking man with a rifle, she said.

Authorities said the man forced Keith and Jody Radtke toward the garage.

Quick decision

At this point, Washington County Sheriff Bill Hutton said, Radtke's world began to narrow into a "funnel."He had to make a decision," Hutton said.

When they got into the garage, Radtke saw an opportunity and pounced, knocking the rifle out of the suspect's hands.

Radtke put the suspect in a bear hug and yelled for his wife to go inside and call 911, Hutton said. She did.

Radtke didn't realize there also was a .45-caliber gun in the suspect's waistband, and the suspect was able to get a hold of it and shot Radtke in the lower back.

Radtke continued to struggle with the suspect and knocked the handgun across the garage floor. The suspect bit Radtke several times, and Radtke put him in a wrestling hold.

Nearby officers arrived at the scene, separated the men and used a Taser to subdue the suspect.