Fastest Barefoot Run on Ice and Why?

In the never ending quest to be unique and establish a world record, Nico Surings of Eindhoven, Netherlands holds the world record for the fastest time to run 100 m barefoot on ice in 17.35 seconds. Now, all you runners, there has to be someone who can run the 100 m dash on ice in less than 17.35 seconds since the world record is down to 9.9 seconds. Come on, how much harder could it be to run barefoot on ice? I hardly ever wore shoes when I was young and I probably set some kind of world record running across the hot asphalt streets of Phoenix as a child. The worst was getting to the other side and getting a sticker in your foot.

You can check out how the world record has changed over time, apparently the 100 m race is not like some others, great increases in speed just aren't possible it seems. Although it was probably pretty hard to judge the speed without stopwatches or other accurate timekeeping devices. Once performance enhancing techniques (a polite way to say drugs) became available, it is interesting that the times began to drop.

Garden

The word above in the title is either a noun or a verb, take it as you wish. Gandhi said, "To forget how to dig the earth and to tend the soil is to forget ourselves." Orson Scott Card said, "Unemployment is capitalism's way of getting you to plant a garden." There ought to be a lot of gardeners out there with unemployment reaching more than 10% in some states. Thomas Cooper said, "A garden is never so good as it will be next year."

The first year we grew a garden, just after having our first real yard, we had a bumper crop of huge luscious tomatoes. That was almost forty years ago and since then we have manged to kill hundreds of tomato plants without success in getting even a modest crop. I can say with Thomas Jefferson, "Though an old man, I am but a young gardener." If I thought I could make a living gardening, I would have done so years ago. I don't mind the work, the sweat or the bugs, but I do get discouraged with seeds that don't grow at all.

Poet Wendell Berry said, "One of the most important resources that a garden makes available for use, is the gardener's own body. A garden gives the body the dignity of working in its own support. It is a way of rejoining the human race." I don't have to rejoin the human race, I never left it.

Happy Birthday Thomas Clarkson

Lest we forget that many great men gave their lives working for the good of others, it is important to remember men like Thomas Clarkson. A close associate of William Wilberforce, both men were instrumental in the abolution of slavery in the British Empire and ultimately in the United States.

Amazing Grace, a film about Wilberforce and the struggle against the slave trade, directed by Michael Apted with Ioan Gruffudd as William Wilberforce, was released in 2007 to coincide with the 200th anniversary of the date on which Parliament voted to ban the transport of slaves by British subjects.

The poet William Wordsworth was so impressed with Clarkson's achievements that he wrote this sonnet to him.

Sonnet, To Thomas Clarkson, On the final passing of the Bill for the Abolition of the Slave Trade, March, 1807.

Clarkson! it was an obstinate Hill to climb:

How toilsome, nay how dire it was, by Thee

Is known,—by none, perhaps, so feelingly;

But Thou, who, starting in thy fervent prime,

Didst first lead forth this pilgrimage sublime,

Hast heard the constant Voice its charge repeat,

Which, out of thy young heart’s oracular seat,

First roused thee.—O true yoke-fellow of Time

With unabating effort, see, the palm

Is won, and by all Nations shall be worn!

The bloody Writing is for ever torn,

And Thou henceforth wilt have a good Man’s calm,

A great Man’s happiness; thy zeal shall find

Repose at length, firm Friend of human kind!

William Wordsworth

Hippopotomonstrosesquipedalian

No, this word does not mean a four footed hippopotamus, what is does mean is pertaining to a very long word. Antidisestablishmentarianism is hippopotomonstrosesquipedalian, but is outdone by floccinaucinihilipilification by one letter. These words exist just so someone can use them to show that they know a very long word. Once you figure out that other than impress the illiterate they have few, if any, other uses, they lose their mystique and become pretty ordinary.

When playing Scrabble, I always lost to my children because I would be trying to make some long word and they kept playing three and four letters. My efforts could be said to be ficulnean.

Floccinaucinihilipilification

No I didn't make up this word. Yes, it really is a word and yes, it really has a meaning. Can I actually say this word? Would I use this word in casual conversation? Both of those are good questions. The Oxford English Dictionary defines floccinaucinihilipilification as "the action or habit of estimating as worthless."

The first known written instance of floccinaucinihilipilification, as recorded in the Oxford English Dictionary, is in 1741, in a published letter by William Shenstone. The quotation is: "I loved him for nothing so much as his flocci-nauci-nihili-pili-fication of money." Other notable users of the word have included Robert Southey (in the Quarterly Review 14:334, 1816), and Walter Scott (Journal 18, 1829). Scott, however, replaced the "nauci" component with "pauci". The feminine noun construction, floccinaucinihilipilificatrix, can be found in the Robert Heinlein novel The Number of the Beast. Wikipedia.

Look, this word isn't even close to being the longest word ever used, Aristophanes used the word Lopado­te­macho­se­lacho­galeo­kranio­leipsano­drimhypo­trimmato­silphio­parao­melito­katakechymeno­kichlepikossypho­phatto­peristeralektryonop­tekephallio­kigklopeleiol­agoiosiraio­baphetraganop­terygon, λοπαδοτεμαχοσελαχογαλεοκρανιολειψανοδριμυποτριμματοσιλφιοκαραβομελιτοκατακε-χυμενοκιχλεπικοσσυφοφαττοπεριστεραλεκτρυονοπτοκεφαλλιοκιγκλοπελειολαγῳοσιραιο-βαφητραγανοπτερύγων in the Greek alphabet

Neither of these words is legal in Scrabble.

Enchanted

Although the title sounds like a high society greeting, the movie Enchanted is quite a surprise. I would never put this Walt Disney production into a list of best movies, but it is pure entertainment and has all the qualities that make a movie enjoyable, that is, if you can make it through the first 10 or 15 minutes of animation. I had to literally grit my teeth to keep watching the film until Giselle fell down the well and landed in New York.

You know it is New York by the gum spots on the sidewalk, no one would think to put those in sound stage production. I think the themes and story line are a little too much for small children. I was most impressed by the cockroaches cleaning the bathtub and the rats helping to clean the rest of the apartment. It has some long musical numbers that aren't too difficult to endure and moves right along. It was a surprising good movie.

Family

George Bernard Shaw said, "Perhaps the greatest social service that can be rendered by anybody to this country and to mankind is to bring up a family." I would leave off the "perhaps." As concluded by Ariel and Will Durant, "The family is the nucleus of civilization." The only human organization that persists through eternity is the family. No matter what your worldly achievements, as President David O. McKay, "No other success can compensate for failure in the home."

“Individual progression is fostered in the family, which is ‘central to the Creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of His children.’ (“The Family: A Proclamation to the World,” Liahona, Oct. 2004, 49; Ensign, Nov. 1995, 102). The home is to be God’s laboratory of love and service. There a husband is to love his wife, a wife is to love her husband, and parents and children are to love one another.” Russell M. Nelson, “Salvation and Exaltation,” Ensign, May 2008, 8

"We live in a world that is filled with options. If we are not careful, we will find every minute jammed with social events, classes, exercise time, book clubs, scrapbooking, Church callings, music, sports, the Internet, and our favorite TV shows. One mother told me of a time that her children had 29 scheduled commitments every week: music lessons, scouts, dance, Little League, day camps, soccer, art, and so forth. She felt like a taxi driver. Finally, she called a family meeting and announced, 'Something has to go; we have no time to ourselves and no time for each other.' Families need unstructured time when relationships can deepen and real parenting can take place. Take time to listen, to laugh, and to play together." M. Russell Ballard, "Daughters of God," Ensign, May 2008, 109-110