Fun Foot Facts

     The military has a lot of slang and initialisms, a string of letters made from the first letter of a string of words, but they can’t be pronounced as words. e.g. USN, USMC. 

     Acronyms on the other hand are made from the first letter of a string of words but are pronounced as if they were words themselves. e.g NASA. Any shortened form of a word is an abbreviation. 

     Now that that is cleared up, in the USMC when we weren't moving from one place to another by helicopters (choppers) we traveled by SLT...Shoe Leather Transport. The feet inside the SLTs are remarkable bio-mechanical structures.

     Nearly a quarter of all bones in our bodies are in our feet. Most people, but not all, have 26 bones in each foot. Some people have have accessory or extra bones; they're very rare though. Usually they don't cause a problem and people that have them may not even be aware of it. 

     Fourteen of the 26 bones are found in the toes. Each toe has three bones, except the big toe, which has two. But, it is not uncommon for the little toe to have only two bones as well. 

     A foot has 33 joints, 19 muscles, 10 tendons and 107 ligaments and the soles of our feet contain more sweat glands and nerve endings per square inch than any other body part. Together the two feet have 250,000 sweat glands that are capable of producing half a pint of sweat in a single day. The skin on the soles of your feet is thicker than anywhere else on your body. The Achilles tendon is the strongest tendon in the body.

     Babies are born with more cartilage than bone in their feet. Their arches are filled with fat and does not become fully developed until the age of two or three. 

      Gait patterns: gait is a person’s pattern of walking. It's really not so simple...it is a complex and coordinated series of movements that involve both the arms and legs. 

     Gaits is divided into heel strike, flat foot, mid-stance, push-off, acceleration, mid-swing and deceleration. The gait pattern of the right foot usually does not match that of the left foot. This is usually not a problem, but it can be if there is a significant mal-alignment which can can lead to knee, hip and back pain. 

     When a person is walking normally, the whole foot is never flat on the ground. A normal gait starts with heel strike with weight to the outside of the foot. As we move forward the weight shifts to mid-line and then to the inside, ending with a push-off with the big toe. 

     Each foot takes 1.5 times your body weight when you are walking; more if you are traveling by SLTs and carrying 50-100 pounds of combat gear. Normal running puts five times your weight on your feet. 

     The average shoe size for men and women has increased over the 30 years. 30 years ago the average size for women was 7.5 and 9.5 for men. These days it's 9.5 and 10.5. 

     20-30 percent of the world's population have Morton’s toe, a condition where the second toe is longer than the big toe. The average person walks 110,000 miles in their lifetime. They say ankle sprains are the most common foot ailment, but in the days I traveled by SLTs it was blisters. Lose a toenail and it'll take a year to a year-and-a-half to regrow!

It Doesnt' Mean What You Might Think!

 

     I recently heard someone called "rectitudinous" and immediately thought what a cool description of, well, the name of the person I was thinking of isn't important, but I was wrong about what I thought the word meant. 

     I thought "rectitudinous" had something to do with "rectum", the final section of the large intestine, terminating at the anus. It turns out that the word is defined as "characterized by the quality of being honest and morally correct." This definitely does NOT describe the person I was thinking of. 

 

There are many other words that don't mean what we think. A few...

 

1. Bemused does not mean amused, it means puzzled, confused, or bewildered.

2. Disinterested does not mean having no interest in something. It means unbiased, fair-minded and objective. 

3. Enormity has nothing to do with enormous which means very large in size, quantity, or extent. It means the great or extreme scale, seriousness, or extent of something perceived as bad or morally wrong. A second meaning is a grave crime or sin. 

4. Noisome has nothing to do with noise and ears. It means something has an extremely offensive smell. 

5. Factoid. It does not mean an interesting little piece of trivia. No, factoids are something we are inundated with everyday. Norman Mailer (an American novelist, journalist, essayist, playwright, activist, filmmaker and actor) coined the word in 1973 and he explained the meaning. Factoids are “facts which have no existence before appearing in (print and they are)...not so much lies as a product to manipulate emotion in the Silent Majority.” In other words, factoids are bits of fake news that people believe to be true because they appeared in print. 

6. A travesty is not a deplorable occurrence or situation. A travesty is a false, absurd, or distorted representation of something. You might say it's a close relative of a factoid! 

7. Peruse does not mean idly scanning magazines or websites in a casual manner without paying too much attention to details. It means to read or examine something carefully and thoroughly.

The Sargasso Sea

     Look at any map of the Atlantic Ocean and off the east coast of the United States you'll notice and area mark the Sargasso Sea; it's surrounded by water, not land. What is the Sargasso Sea? 

     All other seas in the world are defined at least in part by land boundaries, the Sargasso Sea is defined only by four different ocean currents: Gulf Stream on the west, North Atlantic Current on the north, Canary Current on the east and the North Atlantic Equatorial Current on the south. 

     The Sargasso Sea is distinctive for its deep blue color and exceptional clarity, with underwater visibility of up to 200 feet. The sea is a vast patch of ocean is unique in that it harbors this free floating vegetation which is known as Sargassum; other seaweeds begin life on the floor of the ocean. 

     Sargassum provides a home to an amazing variety of marine species. Turtles use the seaweed as nurseries and it's a habitat for shrimp, crab, fish, and other marine species that have adapted specifically to this floating algae. It's also a spawning site for threatened and endangered eels, as well as white marlin, porbeagle shark, and dolphinfish. Humpback whales annually migrate through the Sargasso Sea. Commercial fish, such as tuna, and birds also migrate through the Sargasso Sea and depend on it for food. 

     In 1492 Christopher Columbus gave the first known written account when he wrote that he feared the seaweed would trap his ship and potentially hide shallow waters in which they could run aground. He also wrote that he feared a lack of wind would trap them. However, the sea was likely known to earlier mariners because a poem by the late fourth century author Avienius describes a portion of the Atlantic as being covered with seaweed and windless. 

     Columbus was aware of this account and thought earlier sailors had reached the Sargasso Sea, as did several other explorers. However, modern scholars consider this unlikely, but it's quite possible they are wrong...early mariners were not stupid. 

     One more recent interesting story, and a mysterious one, is that in July of 1969, British businessman and amateur sailor Donald Crowhurst, who was competing in the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race, a single-handed, round-the-world yacht race, disappeared after his yacht became mired in the Sargasso Sea. He had reported false positions by radio in an attempt to give the impression that he was still participating. 

     Eventually, Crowhurst wound up drifting in the Sargasso Sea, where he apparently went mad. His yacht was found unoccupied and drifting on July 10. It is unclear whether his death came as the result of suicide or accident.

Fecal Material is EVERYWHERE!

     It's everywhere! Fecal matter and fecal bacterial. It's in your home, your car, your workplace, in your bed...you name it. 

     The term fecal matter sounds nasty, but there is some good news...the risk of catching an awful illness or disease from it is pretty low. Still, the thought of the fact that pretty much any item that you touch is likely to contain some level of fecal matter or bacteria is off putting. 

     One study found that 1 in 6 cell phones are contaminated with fecal matter. Other items covered with it are baby toys and cribs, computer keyboards, toothbrushes and dozens of other everyday items in the home. 

     The best defense is wash your hands frequently with soap and hot water, but alcohol-based hand sanitizer can be used as a substitute. 

 

Some common items reeking with fecal bacteria are: 

 

1) Restaurant menus - these things are rarely cleaned between uses and generally only wiped down with a wet cloth that's probably filthy to begin with. 

2) Cell phones - They are constantly being handled...even when a person is in bathroom, so it’s no surprise they have a heavy load of fecal material and bacteria. Are you ready for this? Researchers at the University of Arizona found that an average cell phone has ten times the amount of bacteria as a toilet seat. That shouldn't be too disconcerting though because it's mostly your own, but think about it if you borrow one from somebody else. 

3) Washing machines - How does a machine that’s constantly full of soap and water end up coated with fecal bacteria? Dirty underwear. Every pair of dirty underwear contains about a tenth of a gram of feces...more is a person is...nasty. Unless washed in hot water with soap and bleach, the bacteria will end up on other clothes and grow in the washing machine. 

4) Kitchen sponges - Surprising these things also have more fecal bacteria than a toilet seat ans think about what all it touches that touch your lips or get put in your mouth. Furthermore, cleaning it by running it through the dishwasher or microwaving it may actually make it worse. Best to sanitize it in a bleach solution.

5) Office coffee mugs - 20 percent of office coffee mugs were found to have have fecal matter residue on them according to a University of Arizona microbiologist. That’s because most mugs are generally not very well cleaned. Again though the good news is that's it's probably your own fecal matter/bacteria assuming it's your personal cup. 

6) Remote controls - Specifically the ones in hotel rooms. They don't get cleaned. You should do it yourself using an antibacterial wipe. 

7) McDonald’s touchscreens - They might as well advertise, "Want some feces with that?" In the UK a newspaper swabbed them and guess what? They were covered with all nastiness. This is just one more reason to hate these things. It's like self-checkouts in stores and bagging you own groceries. I don't work there so why should I have to punch in my own order, scan my purchases and bag my items? 

8) Bed sheets - They have a build-up of bacteria and fecal matter. In fact, researchers compared human beds to beds created by chimpanzees in the wild and found that our beds contain a lot more bacteria. 

9) Air - We all breath and one study published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology found that airborne bacteria is plentiful and could even trigger asthma and allergies. In urban areas, dog feces added a surprising amount of bacteria to the air. 

 

     Think about this. When you nose detects the scent of feces the question arises, "Are you actually inhaling fecal molecules?" 

     Smells register in our noses when microscopic molecules are emitted by the things around us...coffee, flowers, etc., but what about fecal molecules? More good news here! You're not inhaling feces, just gas. 

     However, studies have found that IF someone was naked and they expelled flatus near your nose, you could, according to the British Medical Journal, actually inhale airborne, bacteria-laden droplets of feces.

32-bit vs. 64-bit

     There are 32-bit and 64-bit programs. What's the difference? 

     To begin with, a bit is the basic unit of information. In reality, when it comes to running a program most users can't tell the difference between the two. 

     A 32-bit program uses up to 4GB of random access memory (RAM) while it is running. A 64-bit program is capable of utilizing more than 4GB of RAM. 

     Most programs are 32-bit, but large, complicated programs (like, say, games and really large programs) are 64-bit. That's because 64-bit operating systems and programs can handle larger amounts of memory and data more effectively and they execute commands much faster.  

     So, if you have more than 4GB of RAM on your computer, a 64-bit program is better than a 32-bit one. 

     You can run a 32-bit program on both 32-bit and 64-bit operation. Because they are compatible to both 32-bit and 64-bit operating systems, 32-bit programs are still popular.

Samuel Little, Serial Killer

They don't come any more evil than Little who confessed to murdering 93 women between 1970 and 2005...read his account of his horrendous crimes here.