scottobear | 8579 - Saturday Post by Robot

An auto-post while I'm off gallivanting around points north.

until pictures from the trip can be placed here, have some other photo thingies, dear journal:

Actors promoting a Japanese children's show due to appear in Thailand next week are taken away in a police pick-up truck after posing in front of a tank in Bangkok. Thailand's military rulers, installed in a coup last week, have banned dancers or actors using tanks as a backdrop. The actors were later released without charge.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Clouds of locusts have descended around the Mexican beach resort of Cancun, destroying corn crops and worrying officials in a region still recovering from the devastating fury of last year's Hurricane Wilma.

Traveling in dark fogs, locusts are grasshoppers that have entered a swarming phase, capable of covering large distances and rapidly stripping fields of vegetation.

"Imagine, they fly in the form of a flock. Imagine the width of a street," government official Martin Rodriguez said on Tuesday, describing the fields around Cancun on the Yucatan Peninsula.

Towns have formed pesticide-armed brigades and are winning the war against the 3-week-old plague that has left tourist areas unharmed, authorities said.

Squads wait until night when the flying insects are roosting on plants to blast them. They carry motorized backpack pumps to shoot chemicals in a crusade that has affected from 2,000 to 2,500 acres of farm land.

"It is a war, effectively," said German Parra, a senior agriculture official in the Gulf state of Quintana Roo, home of tourist resorts Cancun and Playa del Carmen.

Hot weather and an absence of mobility-limiting hurricanes have allowed the insects to breed more than normal but authorities hope to end the infestation in the next eight days.

The insects have focused on agricultural areas, sparing beachgoers another disaster after last year's Hurricane Wilma, which ravaged Cancun and other Caribbean coast resorts and caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damages and lost revenue.

Destruction to corn crops has been lessened because the locusts came after most of the harvesting was finished, officials said.

Locusts, which typically come to the region in four-year cycles, are most famous as one of the 10 biblical plagues of Egypt. "We hope that God will take pity on us and help us," said Parra with a laugh.

I love this picture. Surreal and Inspirational at the same time. Is it wrong of me to imagine spring-steel pogo-stick type sounds? Sproinggg!

HAPPY B-DAY

mootpoint! - Birthday wish still holds true: "I hope you get lots of cake and balloons and good sex and laughter today, and from now on!"

1 year ago - Lost season 2, remixed movie trailers, 2l issues, white lines by bush, okcupid test, selfports on newtcam, puppy eats a knife, pervwatch, mistaken abduction

2 years ago - School Training at a library, Auntie's, Spicy Sancocho recipe

3 years ago - Hoom! maps, Monkey Heaven, Robyn goes Psychic on me, Private William D.Huff, Tumbless things, palm doodle, BK breakfast, monochrome=sleepy buspics

4 years ago - landlord a/c, Dorky dinosaur, art ljs, audio books

5 years ago - minor panic, Oyl Family, Red Dog the Pirate Guy, blackjack, mush,revised beliefs, Laundry, freeflow, nosey lj-poll, Newton's Nightmaregame, love poem

6 years ago - apple jacks, chores, bday, CPAP

Current Location: Chesapeake Beach, MD

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

luminere.livejournal.com

"I love this picture. Surreal and Inspirational at the same time. Is it wrong of me to imagine spring-steel pogo-stick type sounds? Sproinggg!"

i didnt get it at first, because i didnt notice till a second look that she didnt have any feet.

From:

shoo.livejournal.com

I hope THAT is not photoshopped. It's sad that I look now, where I never use to. Photoshop stole my innocence...lol

From:

peradouro.livejournal.com

I don't know if sproing noises are inappropriate or not as I have trouble knowing what is PC sometimes. Besides she's out there in a bikini jogging, surely she'd see the humor if you were her friend? Dunno, but they sure look like fun!

From:

myid8myego.livejournal.com

That's an awesome picture. Have fun gallivanting!

From:

scottobear.livejournal.com

distracted by the bonde hair and the bikini, eh?

From:

scottobear.livejournal.com

Jami Goldman, a 30-year-old double amputee, loves to run. And she loves competing against other amputee runners in track events. When she runs, she runs like a deer. She is graceful, proud, confident, strong, her head is held high, and her eyes are fixed on the finish line. Her prosthetic legs propel her strides into powerful springs. When she crosses the finish line, she is exhausted, but buoyed knowing she is a champion.

Goldman has been running for three years. Having competed in the U.S., Germany, Australia, and England, she's the world's fastest double amputee, below the knee, among women track runners. She holds the world records in her class of 16.88 seconds for the 100 meters and 38.46 seconds for the 200 meters. Now she's setting her sights on winning some gold medals in next year's International Paralympic Games in Sydney, Australia, where 250 Americans will compete with athletes from other nations. It'll be the first time she has competed in the international games

I recently spoke with Goldman at an event at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va. She is very smart and very determined, but generous in mentoring other disabled athletes. "My winning increases the awareness of people with physical disabilities competing in sports, and of women competing in sports," Goldman says. She considers herself a role model for other disabled athletes, such as Kelly Bruno, a 15-year-old double-leg amputee, who says, "Jami is my idol and my inspiration. I love to run. It makes me feel whole."

From:

scottobear.livejournal.com

SUPERB CONDITION. Goldman lost her legs to frostbite in a car accident in February, 1988, in northern Arizona. Like many people who lose a limb, Goldman refused to give up on herself. Self-pity is not in her character. She learned to use artificial legs, and while she was adjusting, she earned a BA in child development in 1996 from California State at Long Beach.

Discipline and competition are Goldman's mantras. She exercises two hours a day, five days a week. Her workouts consist of running at different speeds, sometimes by herself and sometimes with others. She's in superb condition. Keeping her body lean and her weight fixed is important to Jami. She follows a strict diet of 40% carbohydrates, 30% protein, and 30% fat. She needs a tough, mental discipline to stick to this regimen.

I tell myself as I am running, "I am going to win. I am going to win. I am going to win"

"When I compete, I compete against at least six competitors -- sometimes as many as 10," she says. "I thrive on the competition. I achieve my fastest speed when I am in competition. I am motivated to win. I tell myself as I am running, 'I am going to win. I am going to win. I am going to win.'" Now she's looking for a coach who has Olympic experience and expects to have one soon. "I know I will do better with a coach. I can only improve with one."

Goldman has been featured running in a national television commercial produced by Germany's Adidas and in national magazines. Among the events the Adidas commercial has been shown in are the International Soccer Games and division playoffs of the National Basketball Assn.

Goldman's running legs are manufactured by Flex Foot Inc. The company is one of several that manufacture prosthetic devices for athletes with disabilities. Her "Cheetah" brand prosthetic legs cost more than $3,000 each, but the price can go as high as $8,000 per leg depending on the number of parts needed and whether the prosthetic starts below the knee or above it. Hers are designed specifically for running.

The feet Goldman wears have a J-design that give her spring when she runs. Combined with a lightweight, carbon-fiber heel, the feet give her a smooth fluid motion through the gait cycle. And the light material in the heel allows her to walk further and faster without tiring.

From:

scottobear.livejournal.com

THE LONG HAUL. When not running or training, Goldman works part-time as a waitress in a sandwich shop near her home in Huntington Beach, Calif. It helps to pay the bills while she's in training. She wears different legs when she's not running. She plans to return to working in the childhood development field when her running career is finished. She doesn't know when that will happen, but she's certain she'll know when it's time to quit. "Competing is winning. When I can not win anymore, I am not competing," she says.

About 1.5 million people in the U.S. have lost a limb. Around one-third of that number have lost one or more legs. Every year, an additional 125,000 people in the U.S. become amputees. Disease, such as diabetes, is the most common cause of amputation, while 23% of amputations result from injuries, and 3% occur at birth. A majority (54%) of amputees lose a leg or legs below the knee.

Technological strides from athletic competition have improved nonathletes' lives, too

Kirk Bauer, executive director of Disabled Sports USA and himself an amputee, says Goldman can run as fast as she does because of the advances in prosthetic technology. In fact, the performances can be astounding when these athletes run, jump, and throw. And technological strides driven by athletic competition have far-reaching consequences for nonathlete amputees who want a richer quality of life. With such technology, people who have lost legs can again have a fairly natural walk. That's especially important for older folks, who often lose interest in life when they have a leg amputated. Sadly, some become hermits. The new devices on the market can dramatically empower seniors.

Many insurance companies will pay for the prosthetic devices. In fact some insurers actually sell them (see BW Online, 12/9/98, "This Bionic Arm Can Do It All"). When a limb is lost on the job, health insurance programs will usually pay for a prosthetic device so the person can return to work as quickly as possible.

SPRINGBOARD. Goldman is certainly pleased with the advances in prosthetics for amputees, and she believes that without such breakthroughs she could not compete as well as she does. "Technology makes all the difference in running and in other important areas of my life," she says.

When she's home, Goldman is adept with a computer. She sees technology as a springboard for everyone, including disabled people, for enriched and improved lives. She wants to take advantage of all the technology she can personally. But right now, "My goal is to bring home the gold for my country next year."

For double amputees, getting used to prosthetic legs -- whether for running, walking, hiking -- takes from several months to a year. But the effort is worth it, because prosthetics provides people the freedom and independence they need to feel whole, as 15-year-old Kelly Bruno put it. In the future, science will be able to replace arms, legs, and other limbs by connecting prosthetics to motor portions of the brain, provide permanent ear implants, grow blood vessels in the lab, improve vision through the use of robotic eyes, regenerate nerves, repair the spinal cord, and perform other miracles of medicine to make the body whole. In the future, the term disability has a chance of disappearing from our vocabulary.

For information on the Flex Foot that Goldman uses, go to www.flexfoot.com. For counseling for amputees, and links to other manufacturers of prosthetic devices, you can visit www.AboveKneeAmputee.com.