“Ultrarunning,” a sport that featuresmarathons of 50 miles, 100 miles or even longer, takes such a degree ofcommitment that an estimated 5% to 10% of participants have permanently removedtheir toenails in order to eliminate one of the potential sources of discomfortduring a race. A sports podiatrist told TheNew York Times in October that many “ultras” consider their toenails“useless appendages, remnants of claws from evolutionary times long ago.” Onthe other hand, according to an author of a recent book on ultrarunning,"You know any sport has gone off the rails when you have to remove bodyparts to do it."
Questionable Judgments
The first line of "defense" at the400 Iraqi police checkpoints in Baghdad consistsof small wands with antennas that supposedly detect explosives, but which U.S. officialssay are about as useful as Ouija boards. According to a November New York Times dispatch, the Iraqiofficial in charge, Maj. Gen. Jehad al-Jabiri, is so enamored of the devicesthat when American experts repeatedly showed the rods' failures in test aftertest, he blamed the results on testers' lack of "training." The Iraqigovernment has purchased 1,500 of the wands, known as ADE 651s, from theirmanufacturer, ATSC Ltd. of the United Kingdom, at prices ranging from $16,000 to$60,000 each. The suicide bombers who killed 155 people in downtown Baghdad on Oct. 25 passed2 tons of explosives through at least one ADE-651-equipped checkpoint.
Least Competent People
(1) Walking: Daredevil Scottish stuntbicyclist Danny MacAskill, whose electrifying feats have been featured onpopular YouTube videos, suffered a broken collarbone in October when he trippedon a curb while out for a walk in downtown Edinburgh. (2) Truck-Driving: PhillipMathews, 73, whose logging truck is equipped with a tall boom arm to facilitateloading, forgot to lower the arm after finishing a job in La Motte, Iowa, inOctober. When Mathews returned to the highway, the boom proceeded to snap lineson utility poles he passed for the next 12 miles until people finally got hisattention.
Good News!
(1) The epic drought that hit central Texasthis year, causing a 30-foot drop in the water level of Lake Travis nearAustin, helped police solve three stolen-vehicle casesin that three cars wereexposed at the bottom of the lake. One of the cars exposed in July had beenmissing since 1988, and another, a 1978 Chevrolet Monte Carlo, still had itskey in the ignition. (2) Emergency-room doctors writing in the Archives of Surgery in Septemberreported that light alcohol-drinkers survived brain injuries better than eithernon-drinkers or heavy drinkers.
Cultural Diversity
- What a Difference a Day Makes: (1) Charles Wesley Mumbere, 56, was alongtime nurse's aide at a nursing home in Harrisburg, Pa.In July, however, the Ugandan government recognized the separatist Rwenzururuterritory founded in 1962 by Mumbere's late father. In October, Mumberereturned to his native country as king of the region's 300,000 subjects. (2)Jigme Wangchuk, 11, was a student at St. Peter's School in Bostonwhen a Buddhist sect in India'sDarjeelingdistrict named him its high priest in November. The district covers a territoryextending to neighboring Nepaland Bhutan.Wangchuk will live in seclusion in his monastery, except for Facebook contactwith friends he made while in Boston.
- An unprecedented toilet-building spree has taken hold in India over thelast two years, spurred by a government campaign embraced by young women:"No Toilet, No Bride" (i.e., no marriage unless the male's dowryincludes indoor plumbing). About 665 million people in India lackaccess to toilets, according to an October WashingtonPost dispatch.
Latest Religious Messages
- "Bonnet books" are a "booming new subcategory of theromance genre," reported The WallStreet Journal in September, describing G-rated Amish love stories thatsell well among outside readers but have also found an avid audience amongAmish women themselves. The typical best seller is by a non-Amish writer,perhaps involving a woman inside the community who falls in love with anoutsider. In one book described by the Journal,the lovers "actually kiss a couple of times in 326 pages."
- In September, prominent Egyptian scholar Abdul Mouti Bayoumi of Al-Azhar University urged the death penalty forpeople selling virginity-faking devices that make women appear to bleed ontheir wedding nights. One such gadget, made in China,was reportedly for sale in Syriafor the equivalent of about $15, according to a September BBC News report.
© 2009 Chuck Shepherd
