Runner's Heights: Take Back Sol Invictus and the Pagan Yule Tree

Cumulative miles: 16
The jury is still out on foot strike during running. There's a new fad that advocates going back to the age-old way of foot strike with the balls of your feet. This takes a little bit of practice if you are a heel striker. One of articles, and I can't recall which one, also recommends striking the ground with the balls of your feet especially if you have low-to-no arch. I have a complicated situation here - my left foot has no arch at all whereas my right foot has a medium arch. So, it's going to be hard to consciously switch the strike (from heel to ball) for the respective feet. Good luck if you are trying out heel strike vs. ball strike. I believe that the body and the feet will adapt to whatever is most efficient for the surface on which we are running.

It's December again in the U.S. and country seems to take a holiday from secularism. Public places - malls, stores, restaurants, and streets -- are rife with Christmas carols and paraphernalia. The sensitive and cunning businesses disguise it as "Holiday Fare" and "Happy Holidays" while trying little to acknowledge the other religious occasions that usually occur in December - Bodhi Day, Ashura, Kwanzaa, and Sol Invictus. Yes, let's talk about Sol Invictus. This is the pagan festival of the "Victory of the Sun" and by numerous historical records, celebrated on Dec. 25th. There are many accounts that note that early Christians appropriated this date to commemorate Jesus Christ's birth. It's time to take back Sol Invictus and reinstate the Pagan Yule tree, the original tree from which the Christmas tree was derived.

Here's Jon Stewart's take the preponderance of the Christmas tree in public places and the man who is protected by the enormity and severity of his ignorance, Bill O'Reilly.
Jon Stewart: War on Christmas Where Christmas is the Aggressor

Runner's Heights: Are You Jew Enough?

Cumulative Miles: 13

As we get older in age, muscular stiffness is probably one of the prevalent conditions that most of us experience during or after any physical exertion. And a lot us, including yours truly, will probably try to deny the onset of this condition for as long as we can because it might be hard to accept the fact that our muscles may not be up to the task that they were just a few years ago. It is here that yoga comes into the picture. A lot of stretching exercises overlap with yoga, but yoga, in my opinion goes one step further because some of the poses such as, the warrior pose, incorporate stretching and strengthening, when done in the correct method. The long-term effect of yoga on an injury-free running regimen is indeed substantial. Just try it.

In recent times, Israel's Ministry of Immigrant Absorption had devised a campaign in the U.S. to urge Israeli expats to the homeland. The campaign ran a series of video advertisements and billboard implying that the expats lost touch with their Jewish identity and had to be rehabilitated into the Jewish creed. The ads questioning the Jewish-ness of American Jews was found "offensive", "insulting", and "outrageous" by several American Jewish organizations. The Ministry pulled the campaign this week in the wake of public outcry against the ads.
Link to the BBC article

Runner's Heights: Two Shining Stars of the Tulsa Sound

Cumulative miles: 8.56
The virtues of run-walk have been extolled ad infinitum and it is, for many of us, a solution to running without injuries. But, the jury is out on whether you should stretch in the midst of a break during your run. In this last run, I did a few quick stretches of the calves and the hamstrings and I didn't notice any debilitating effects of the stretches. So, I shall introduce a few stretches in between breaks during my run and report on the results.

J.J.Cale is one of the most low-key and laid-back rock musicians of the present day. Many rock anthologists associate his music with the Tulsa sound, a style of music with roots in Tulsa Oklahoma. Leon Russell is another well-know musician from Oklahoma and Cale and Russell have collaborated to produce some amazing renditions of Cale's work, such as After Midnight, a J.J. Cale original made especially famous by Eric Clapton.

Here's some footage of Cale and Russell jamming on After Midnight.

Runner's Heights: Cain He Be the Human Fantasy?

Cumulative miles: 3.56
Commenced street running after a hiatus of nearly 2 years. The shoe that made the difference again was the Saucony ProGrid Stabil 6. My left foot is pretty much flat as a pancake and of late, I have had a minor irritation in the plantar fascia. So, you can understand my concern as I hit the pavement this afternoon. I made a 3.56 mile walk-run, trying to stay injury free. As they say, "if you live today, you fight another day."

The book, Revolution in the Valley, by Andy Hertzfeld, has quote from Alan Kay that I am paraphrasing -- humans need fantasy to formulate simple explanations for complex things in our lives. The best example of this, in my opinion, is religious faith. How simple it is for Herman Cain to say that God told him to run for President. It's a recurring motif -- God speaking to Muhammad, Jesus, Moses and who knows whom telling that individual that "he" is the Chosen One. So, if God told each prophet that "he" is the Saviour of our race, then is God using a universal doctrine of "divide and rule?" And, so the fantasy goes on as Herman Cain and Rick Perry, each with decrees from God, decimate each other in the public sphere with their vitriol. In the end, for the supporters of Cain and Perry, the simple answer to the complicated question, "Why do you want to be President?" is rather straightforward - "because God told me to be President!"

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UCU encoded for serine and CUC encoded for leucine.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/14/us/h-gobind-khorana-1968-nobel-winner-for-rna-research-dies.html