After eight long days shooting stories in Humboldt County, our tired PBS Suburban gave it up at a gas station in the tiny agricultural hamlet of Maxwell, Calif. Even the minimart attendant heard the tensioner pully bearings seize and shred the serpentine belt that operated the power steering, brake booster, water pump and alternator. We were lucky that our misfortune happened in a safe place since we’d spent that entire morning driving up and down curvy mountain roads. We had been pursuing a story about illegal cannabis growers that had been operating out of the national forest. They were using a banned pesticide that was so toxic that it could kill an adult bear. Cleanup required a special certified disposal crew that we followed into the site. Another customer filling up his…
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American Sumo
MUSCLE & FITNESS – Trent Sabo is in the moving business. He moves grand pianos, iron weights and 500-pound sumo wrestlers. And, on occasion, he himself is moved. For instance, in the summer of 2003 at the U.S. Sumo Open in Manhattan Beach, California, when the 5’8″, 185-pound American found himself standing across the ring from Akebono Taro, a 6’8″, 500-plus-pound tectonic disruption of flesh and blood, and one of the most celebrated postwar wrestlers in the sport of Sumo. Sabo, 26, the coach and founding member of California’s Oceanside Sumo Kyokai, had been called out by Akebono and had no choice but to accept the challenge. He relished the rare opportunity to face a legend. As he stepped into the dohyo (sumo ring) that hot August day, he snugged up his…
Unbreakable
MAXIMUM FITNESS – You’re not Dwayne Wade or Lance Armstrong, and neither are we. But when our bodies break down, you Dwayne, Lance and I are bandaged brothers, with the same roster of breaks and bruises that account for 80 percent of all sports injuries. WEIGHTLIFTING > Acute Cuff TearMetrosexuals aren’t the only guys who monopolize the mirror. Guys in the gym spend a whole lot of time gazing at their biceps, pecs and quads—the anterior muscles often referred to as mirror muscles. But what you don’t see can hurt you, especially at the shoulder. “You get relative overdevelopment of the front of the shoulder at the expense of the rear deltoid and, more importantly, rotator cuff muscles, which can easily be strained,” says Nicholas DiNubile, MD, orthopedic physician for the Philadelphia…
To Persuade People, Tell Them a Story
WALL STREET JOURNAL – Paul Smith had 20 minutes to sell the CEO of Procter & Gamble, and his team of managers, on new market-research techniques for which Mr. Smith’s department wanted funding. As associate director of P&G‘s market research, Mr. Smith had spent three weeks assembling a concise pitch with more than 30 PowerPoint slides. On the day of the meeting, CEO A.G. Lafley entered the room, greeted everybody and turned his back to the screen. He then stared intently at Mr. Smith throughout the entire presentation, not once turning to look at a slide. “I felt like maybe I hadn’t done a very good job because he wasn’t looking at my slides like everyone else,” says Mr. Smith, who also noticed that the other managers didn’t seem very engaged. “It didn’t occur…
The Power of Boing Boing’s Bloggers
BBC WORLD SERVICE – Boing Boing claims that a recent boycott of Bank Of America by its bloggers resulted in $1m being taken from the bank in closed accounts. The boycott occurred after clothing salesman Matthew Shinnick attempted to cash a cheque he had received after selling his bikes online. The cheque had come from fraudsters, and Shinnick was arrested at the bank, according to reports. He says it has cost him $14,000 in legal fees to clear his name. “I posted this on Boing Boing saying that it was unfair that Bank Of America didn’t look into this more closely, and talk to him about it before calling the police,” Boing Boing’s co-founder Mark Frauenfelder told BBC World Service’s Digital Planet programme. “After the poor guy had been arrested and treated…