Thursday, August 30, 2012

Football's Nearly Here!



Let the exuberance of Michigan legend Bob Ufer get you excited for the football that's about to start.

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Hilarious Song



The guys behind the show "Flight of the Conchords" are back with this song, written for charity, with lyrics sourced from interviews with hilarious Kiwi youngsters.

Monday, August 27, 2012

Paralympians Cheat Too

With the news last week of Lance Armstrong refusing to contest the latest allegations of doping during his legendary cycling career, it seems no sports superhero is untarnished these days. But do even Paralympians break the rules to gain an unfair advantage? Apparently yes, but not in the way you'd expect.

Autonomic dysreflexia is a reaction of the autonomic (involuntary) nervous system to overstimulation. It is characterized by severe episodic high blood pressure, associated with throbbing headaches, profuse sweating, nasal stuffiness, among other equally unpleasant things. It occurs usually in association with spinal cord injury or a disease such as multiple sclerosis. Basically, it's pain somewhere on your body you can't feel, so it manifests itself in some other way, usually by a  huge spike in blood pressure. (Personal note - I have some experience with AD, and can attest that is unpleasant business. Years ago, I had a few bouts with bladder stones that brought on some severe AD - I got the most painful headaches imaginable, thanks to a BP of 180/140. Thankfully, I'm all good now :). )

Athletes however are using their autonomic dysreflexia reactions to their advantage. It's called boosting. By causing pain to a lower extremity, the athletes activate alternate pathways to the brain, giving themselves boosts in blood pressure and heart rate they wouldn't otherwise be able to tap into. Basically, they injure themselves to perform better.

  • A Canadian climber tells the BBC he's experimented with administering electric shocks to his body, to jumpstart his autonomic nervous system. "I took it a notch further by using an electrical stimulus on my leg," he says, "my toe and even my testicles."
  • The same climber also talks about clipping off his catheter, in order to not let his bladder drain. You know how it physically hurts when you really, really need to go to the bathroom? That's pain enough to stimulate the boosting response.
  • A British journalists says he's heard of athletes going so far as to break their own toes with a blow from a small hammer.
  • Other methods include using uncomfortably tight straps bound around the legs, sitting on a sharp pin, or even sharply twisting their own testicles.

Obviously these people are insane. Twisting your own testicles?  Not even if you received your own private island along with your gold medal could I see myself doing that. Some people will really do anything in order to win. But I guess this makes watching the Paralympics a bit more interesting. Imagine: Instead of a world record athlete being suspected of using synthetic testosterone or an anabolic steroid, they instead receive questions about whether or not they punched themselves in the balls before the race.

Sunday, August 26, 2012

Brock Mealer Progress Continues



Brock continues to make huge strides, in preparation for his December wedding, where he will WALK down the aisle. Get updated on Brock's inspirational progress here.

Friday, August 24, 2012

A Michigan Fan in Oklahoma

Click here to watch video


 
A 5 year old in Oklahoma City Public Schools was told last week to turn his shirt inside out at school because it violated the district's dress-code policy. Created in 2005 by an Anti-Gang Task Force, the policy allows only garb bearing the logos of Oklahoma universities. The shirt 5 year old Cooper Barton was forced to turn inside out was a University of Michigan shirt.
 
 
Cooper has now become a cult hero among the Wolverine faithful - as you can see in the video, athletic director Dave Brandon called him personally to invite him to be introduced on the field at a home game this fall at Michigan Stadium. He also received from U-M a shirt with Michigan logos inside and out, so if he has to reverse it again, he's still repping the Maize and Blue. Oklahoma City Public Schools are reportedly revisiting their dress code policy.
 

Thursday, August 23, 2012

MakeAHero.org



This is a well done ad, created by MakeAHero.org and narrated by Sundance aka Robert Redford.

Here's the trailer for the film they advertise too.



Its description: "Accepted into over twenty film festivals and winner of five awards, The Movement, is an inspiring documentary by Make A Hero not to be missed. Narrated by film legends, Robert Redford and Warren Miller."

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

The Olympics, as Toys

Tilt-Shift photography uses a special lens to create a shallow depth of field, and make the subjects of a photo look like toy miniatures. In other words, it's totally awesome.








            

Best Performances of the Olympics

A tie!
Between the actual "Flying Dutchman" Epke Zonderland's virtuoso, gold medal-winning performance on the high bar...

 
and who else but the Fastest Man Alive, continuing his domination on the track.



Honorable mention to the hosts, Team GB, for this cool lip-sync:

Monday, August 13, 2012

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Beautiful Whale Sharks

I came across these amazing photos of whale sharks off the coast of Mexico and was blown away. 50 feet long, yet docile and relatively harmless; apparently it's even possible to catch a ride hanging onto to their massive fin. The photos are part of a series that supports global shark conservation in the face of the rising popularity of shark fins. Shark fin soup is considered a delicacy in some parts of the world, but it's been proven that shark tourism (that is, people wanting to see and swim with sharks - sounds odd, I know) adds over $47 million to the global economy. Killing a shark in order to lop off its fin reduces the shark's value from nearly $2 million to a few hundred dollars. So don't eat shark fin soup! Sounds gross anyway. 



Friday, August 3, 2012

Olga Korbut's Amazing Uneven Bars Routine in 1972



You'll want to see several replays of this (forgive the annoying and oddly placed rock music in the background). After watching gymnastics every night this past week, this move would seem incredible, daring, even spectacular today, let alone 40 years ago. I almost thought it was computer generated the first time I saw it, it surprised me so thoroughly. Apparently, the Korbut Flip on uneven bars is no longer allowed in gymnastics competition because it involves standing on the high bar, a maneuver which is now illegal in the Code of Points. The two bars seem closer together then as well, making this loopty-loop possible.

And look at the conspicuous lack of padding on the ground. I'm guessing there weren't many personal injury lawyers back in 1972.

Thursday, August 2, 2012

LEGO Wheelchair?!



A little slow for my taste, but pretty cool!