Webs’ Random Ideas

How do you strech? Hopefully not like we were all taught to…

The old presumption that holding a stretch for 20 to 30 seconds — known as static stretching — primes muscles for a workout is dead wrong. It actually weakens them. In a recent study conducted at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, athletes generated less force from their leg muscles after static stretching than they did after not stretching at all. Other studies have found that this stretching decreases muscle strength by as much as 30 percent. Also, stretching one leg’s muscles can reduce strength in the other leg as well, probably because the central nervous system rebels against the movements.

I might have to change my sterching routine. I haven’t been doing the same streches as everyone else, I have some I found from a book I found to be pretty credible, but they are nonetheless still static stretches. But if the old way is wrong what do we do?

THE RIGHT WARM-UP should do two things: loosen muscles and tendons to increase the range of motion of various joints, and literally warm up the body. When you’re at rest, there’s less blood flow to muscles and tendons, and they stiffen. “You need to make tissues and tendons compliant before beginning exercise,” Knudson says.

This I knew, but I just haven’t been going about it the right way. My method was to warmup with say a 5 minute jog or quick and easy low resistance workout. Then static stretch my muscles, workout, and then static stretch again. Apparently not good…

Stretching muscles while moving, on the other hand, a technique known as dynamic stretching or dynamic warm-ups, increases power, flexibility and range of motion. Muscles in motion don’t experience that insidious inhibitory response. They instead get what McHugh calls “an excitatory message” to perform.

Controversy remains about the extent to which dynamic warm-ups prevent injury. But studies have been increasingly clear that static stretching alone before exercise does little or nothing to help. The largest study has been done on military recruits; results showed that an almost equal number of subjects developed lower-limb injuries (shin splints, stress fractures, etc.), regardless of whether they had performed static stretches before training sessions. A major study published earlier this year by the Centers for Disease Control, on the other hand, found that knee injuries were cut nearly in half among female collegiate soccer players who followed a warm-up program that included both dynamic warm-up exercises and static stretching. (For a sample routine, visit www.aclprevent.com/pepprogram.htm.) And in golf, new research by Andrea Fradkin, an assistant professor of exercise science at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, suggests that those who warm up are nine times less likely to be injured.

Whether or not stretching beforehand illiminates injuries is still up for grabs. But it’s generally a good idea, and if done correctly will not hurt you. So I think I will keep warming up before exercising. But I might change my routine…

Must have sound…

http://tinyurl.com/4ht84j

So now I am on the new hosting system I have made a few changes to plugins and such. I had to change the CAPTCHA plugin as the one from before is no longer being kept up-to-date. The new one is really spiffy, but if  I remember correctly, you have to have JAVA enabled on your browser to use it. Let me know if you have any issues by sending me an email at [webs05admin] [@] [gmail] [dot] [com].

As always, for those of you with user accounts you already created, things should run just as they always have.

There’s an article in the Chronicle ttitled “The Real Great Depression” by Scott Reynolds Nelson. Its about what happened in 1873 when there was an econmic crisis like we have now. Unfortunately you have to pay for this article, but if you have a University or College nearby I bet you can find a copy for free that may have this article in it.

Any highlighted sections in blockquotes that follow are of my own doing…

As a historian who works on the 19th century, I have been reading my newspaper with a considerable sense of dread. While many commentators on the recent mortgage and banking crisis have drawn parallels to the Great Depression of 1929, that comparison is not particularly apt. Two years ago, I began research on the Panic of 1873, an event of some interest to my colleagues in American business and labor history but probably unknown to everyone else. But as I turn the crank on the microfilm reader, I have been hearing weird echoes of recent events.

[SNIP]

In fact, the current economic woes look a lot like what my 96-year-old grandmother still calls “the real Great Depression.” She pinched pennies in the 1930s, but she says that times were not nearly so bad as the depression her grandparents went through. That crash came in 1873 and lasted more than four years. It looks much more like our current crisis.

The problems had emerged around 1870, starting in Europe. In the Austro-Hungarian Empire, formed in 1867, in the states unified by Prussia into the German empire, and in France, the emperors supported a flowering of new lending institutions that issued mortgages for municipal and residential construction, especially in the capitals of Vienna, Berlin, and Paris. Mortgages were easier to obtain than before, and a building boom commenced. Land values seemed to climb and climb; borrowers ravenously assumed more and more credit, using unbuilt or half-built houses as collateral. The most marvelous spots for sightseers in the three cities today are the magisterial buildings erected in the so-called founder period.

(more…)

Look whats happens when you do a Google Define search for the word weird, but spelled “wierd”.

The Test…

This one from fit-PC. The thing I really like about this one is the built in wireless. What’s the hardware:

CPU: AMD Geode LX800 500MHz

Chipset: AMD CS5536

Display: Integrated Geode LX display controller up to 1920×1440

Memory: 512MB DDR 333MHz soldered on-board

Hard disk: 2.5” IDE 60GB

Ports: RJ45 Ethernet port 100Mbps WLAN 802.11b/g 54Mbps 3 x USB 2.0 HiSpeed 480Mbps mini RS-232 (cable available from CompuLab) VGA DB15 Stereo line-out audio (headphones) Stereo line-in audio / Mic

The ever popular AMD Geode. I think these kind of computers will likely become the systems of the future for those that still buy physical boxes. As CDs become more of a thing of the past less people are having a need for them.

What’s even more impressive?

Power consumption: 4-6W

Another trend of computers we are seeing is lower power consumption. Even with more powerful CPUs like the latest from Intel and AMD we are seeing lower and lower power consumption. In fact when data centers started switching from Intel to AMDs for CPUs in their servers because of power consumption per processing power, Intel got the hint and they now make more efficient CPUs.

As with the other computers I have reported on, I wish I could get my paws on one.

found via EnviroGadget…

Found via DOF.

First my wife and I saw Dave Coulier at a comedy club close to home. He was one of the stars of Full House. At first I was a little apprehensive because I heard he was funny, but he was also the star of Full House. A show with comedy so dry it would surprise me anyone funny was involved.

He killed the joint! Everyone was laughing their ass off. In fact the only time the place wasn’t rolling with laughter was when he told a Republican joke (these don’t go over well in the Quad Cities). My wife and I told him after the show we appreciated the joke!

Then we got tickets for a Cubs game that ended up being the one that got them into the playoffs. Super exciting! The whole place was going nuts. Fans were chearing and having a great time. Katie and I were interviewed by the Associated Press and ended up making headlines all over. Just check my previous post.

We got to the game early and were able to watch batting practice. This was a blast as we were sitting in the bleachers and were showered with hard hit balls. Now the force of a base ball is pretty damn strong. You have a basball thrown at around 50-60mph (batting practice) plus the force of the bat being swung around by steriod pumping ball players.

Albert Pujols hit one that finally came right to me. I was waiting forever to catch one. I put my hands up (I didn’t have a glove) and for some reason I lost it at the last second. Must have gotten scared…

The ball came down and hit my hand about an inch to the left of fat part of the lower thumb. This was on my right hand BTW. I tried to close on the ball right when it hit, but taking my eyes off the ball didn’t help. It was done and someone else got the ball. But I was stuck with the pain.

Right off the bat it hurt, it stung. But a few seconds later and the pain was gone. I thought I would just get a bruise. But the next morning, today, I have one hell of sore wrist. Nothing broken (sorry for the sensationalism) but I can tell the tendons are sore as all hell and little movements give me the tender feeling within my wrist.

All in all it was a great time and it’s not over yet. A friend called with tickets to today’s game, Sunday. So Katie and I are sticking around for another one.

This time I will use my left hand to try and catch something and this time I will also keep my eyes of the prize!

Check out most of these links on a Google search for “Jon Weber Chicago Cubs”. There are articles upon articles with me mentioned. From the Chicago Tribune:

CHICAGO - The famous Wrigley Field marquee scrolled a celebratory message on Saturday: “2008 NL Central Champs Chicago Cubs.”

The Cubs defeated the St. Louis Cardinals 5-4 and the Milwaukee Brewers lost, giving Chicago the NL Central title and a trip to the playoffs. In the city’s Wrigleyville neighborhood, tens of thousands of fans erupted into cheers and screams and spilled beers at the game-ending catch.

Patrick Rodriguez, 23, of Chicago and his friend Stan Lasko, 23, of Chicago didn’t have tickets to the game. Instead the friends roamed Wrigleyville listening to the game on a small portable radio.

“It’s always in the back of my mind that something unexpected really could go wrong,” Rodriguez said, standing outside a packed bar across from Wrigley Field. “But I really do think this could be our year.”

In Wrigley Field, the 41,597 Cubs fans in attendance stood and sang in the stands after the game ended. The Cubs haven’t won a World Series for 100 years, since 1908.

Outside Wrigley, revelers celebrated on streets closed to traffic by police outside the ballpark, randomly parading around and high-fiving strangers.

Among those high-fivers were Jon Weber, 26, and his wife Katie Weber, 24. The couple was headed out of Wrigley for a 3 1/2-hour drive home to Rock Island. Jon held up a sign that read: “The Hunt for Blue October” and echoed the day’s confidence.

“I’m convinced that this is the year they’re going to go all the way,” he said.

And I meant every word!