The World According To Dr. Castro: September 2008| Living Strong Healthy Blogger

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Google Searches For Ideas That Can Chage The World

The company cited an example of two people coming up with an idea to
help millions of people carry water long distances by designing the
Hippo Water Roller, a relatively inexpensive 24-gallon container that
can be easily wheeled on the ground. Google also noted a project
undertaken by First Mile Solutions to connect isolated communities to
the Internet. For example, the company is attaching Wi-Fi devices to
public buses so they can detect and send stored e-mails as the bus
travels through unconnected areas.

The users will narrow the results to 20 finalists, and a panel of
judges will choose up to five ideas that will receive funding, Google
said.

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Saturday, September 27, 2008

Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody

I love music, any kind, any language. Music makes me feel happy, melancholic, enthusiastic and makes me pedal my bicycle really fast. We all like different musicians, singers and songs. We all have our own particular preferences and I like to share with you every weekend one of my favorite videos. But I like to give you an explanation of why I like this particular song.

There have been times in my life when I have felt like life was just not worthy to live and that pretty much is described in this wonderful song by Queen. This song is a masterpiece, and Freddy Mercury was the master of masters in regards to musical composition, guitar playing and singing interpretation.
It is too bad we lost the guy so soon. He was amazing, amazingly good.

LSAH Blogger

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Thursday, September 25, 2008

Lance Armstrong Returns To Pro Cycling

YES! My strong hero, Lance Armstrong, is coming back to professional cycling as soon as January 20th 2009 in the Tour Down Under in Australia.
Blog readers and friends, Lance Armstrong is coming back to win, not only to perform well in cycling, but to win an 8th Tour De France and to promote the fight against cancer worldwide.

Some people are criticizing him and doubting that he can come back and win the Tour De France without doping. I cannot believe that there are people out there who don't support what he's doing for millions of cancer patients and for cancer research.
Lance Armstrong has proven hundreds of times that he is not a doper and that he has never been one. He is the athlete that has been drug tested the most in history for Christ sake! And nobody has been able to prove him being a doper nor a cheater.

I am so happy that he is coming back to prove the unbelievers, the skeptical people and the envious that he is the greatest cyclist ever existed. And for me, not only the greatest cyclist, but one of the most wonderful human beings that exist in the world right now.

"The best way to do that is to race the bike all over the world. So you race in Australia, South Africa, South America, Europe, America, ... that is the first priority" "What's important is that we take the Livestrong message to all the other countries in Europe, all the other continents around the world, that's the most important thing. "At the end of the day, as I've said, we've had an impact in Texas, we've had an impact in the US and I think well have an impact around the world." ~~Lance Armstrong said.

Lance Armstrong appeared with Mayor Michael Bloomberg at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York City yesterday and announced a worldwide work in the fight against cancer.
You can learn more about it here

LSAH Blogger

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Friday, September 19, 2008

Digg Banned Livingstrong!

Image via WikipediaI found out yesterday that my account with Digg had been.....BANNED! BWAHAHAHAHAHA! I just couldn't stop laughing when I actually saw my name in the Grim Reaper Digg list. It was hilarious. Me, Livingstrong, banned by Digg, just like that, without a notice or letter to let me know about the reason they had to ban me from their site.
It was funny to me because I was in disbelief. Was I digging to much? Was I becoming too popular for them? I never spam anybody. I hate spam. I try to conduct myself professionally and always respectfully at all times. What was I doing that they decided to "kill" my account just like that.
I have never been banned from anywhere, no real nor virtual place has ever banned me. This is my first and I cannot tell you how good it felt! BANNED!
I felt like a rebel! YAY! I think I needed something like this to happen to me. I was taking the Living Strong And Healthy Blogger too too seriously, I think, and sometimes we all just need to relax a little.
Actually, thank you Digg, thank you for not liking me because you are giving me the opportunity to look around for better Social Networks out there and because, frankly, I was spending too much time in a virtual site -Digg- that has no ethics, no manners and no professionalism at all.

I have erased all my Digg codes and tools from all my blog posts. I want nothing to do with Digg. And don't want to give them free marketing. Digg is not even an effective marketing tool. It really doesn't help much to bring the page rank up.

Until now, they haven't told me the reason why they banned me. I simply DON'T KNOW why they did. Was I gaining too much popularity and traffic to my blog and they thought I had to be banned for that reason? Why does Digg let some diggers stay and Digg thousands and thousands of news, stories and articles and put them in the home page? It's a mystery to me that I got banned without notice. They just didn't like me and decided to cancel my account with them? Why? I am so curious, but my ego and dignity don't allow me to write a letter to contact them and ask them why. If they didn't care about my account, so much that they they canceled me without a notice, then why should I try to contact them? Nah. Forget it.
There are so many other social networks around the Website world which haven't been corrupted yet which offer fun, friends, and personal Website popularity to their members without using a Fascist system like the one Digg has.

....and yes.....Digg sucks!

1) Lack of communication and disregard for the Digg community

2) Unexplained and unacknowledged banning of top users

3) Lack of transparency — Digg only shows you the stories that people have dugg, but not the ones that are buried.

4) The auto-bury list - For months, dozens of sites have been on an auto-bury list, often with no explanation whatsoever.

5) Repeated and flagrant disrespect of its top users

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Monday, September 15, 2008

God Invented The Bicycle

Please friends, have fun reading this hilarious article about how God invented the bicycle. Please, if you don't want to read the whole thing just scroll down to where the 10 commandments are; the 10 cycling commandments that is. They are hysterical. Have fun!

CYCLISTS' APOCRYPHA

In the beginning God created the bicycle, saw that it was good, then went for a nice Sunday ride on the bike lanes He'd made the day before, and they were good, too, because they were new and He had the angels keep them clear of debris. Later, of course, God would get cross and have the flood wash all the good ones away.

And God said to Himself, Let us create man, because cycling is too much fun to keep to Myself, and so He created man, him did He create, create did He him do. And God put man in paradise, and commanded him, Glideth upon the earth anywhere thou wisheth, except for that big hill over there. For on the day thou goeth down that hill, thou shalt surely die.

And God said, Man needs a companion to keep him from spending too much money on new bicycles. So God caused man to fall into a deep sleep by asking him if he wanted to go clothes shopping at the mall, then took a rib from him. Then God said to Himself, Who am I kidding, I'll never hear the end of it when she finds out she was just a rib, so He created woman from frankincense and myrrh and a certain je ne sais quoi.

And God said, Let man have dominion over lathe drills and Philips head screwdrivers, and let woman have dominion over everything else, and as long as thou art naked and unashamed, thou might as well be fruitful and multiply.

Lastly, God created the chicken and the egg, in that order, which should clear up that matter.

Now the serpent, he was a wily one, and he said to woman, Yea, hath God said you may cycle anywhere but down that hill? And the woman said unto the serpent, That's about the size of it: go downhill and die. And the serpent said, Ye shall not surely die, you probably won't even fall off. For God doth know that on the day you go downhill, you will not need to pedal for a long time. Go on, give it a try.

And the woman saw that the hill was good, she did not need to pedal for a long time. She told the man about it, and he also went downhill. Their eyes were opened, they saw they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves into padded cycling shorts because sometimes it got bumpy going downhill.

And they heard the voice of God as He was offroad, fully suspended of course, and they hid their bicycles at the bottom of the hill and started whistling nervously. And God called unto the man, and said, Where art thou? And the man said, We art down here. And God said, Hast thou cycled downhill, whereoff I commanded thee that thou shouldest not? And man said, It was her idea.

And God said unto the woman, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow whilst climbing hills; in pain shalt thou perch upon thy saddle.

And God said unto the man, Because thou hast harkened unto the voice of thy wife, cursed is regular bike maintenance. The inner workings of the hub gear will be beyond thou to repair. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou service thy freewheel.

And God said, Behold, the man doesn't listen very well, so he kicked him out of paradise and guarded the entrance with a sign of a picture of a bicycle in the middle of a red circle. And He had a Cherubim with a flaming sword stop by a few times a week for good measure.

This is the book of the generations. The first bicycle was a single speed, Godspeed, but after that it got complicated. Sprockets begat sprockets and cables begat kinks. Celerifere begat Draisienne begat Macmillan begat Michaux begat Ariel begat Bayliss Thomas begat Lawson begat Rover begat Boneshaker begat Ordinary begat Raleigh.

And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth in a critical mass, God saw that the wickedness of man was great and he did not like to give way to anyone on the road even his mother, so He directed Noah to build an ark made out of renewable resources. There went in two and two unto Noah into the ark every type of bicycle: one to ride and one for spare parts. And Noah gathered two touring bikes and two mountain bikes; two recumbents and two tandems; two road racing bikes and two cross bikes; also four unicycles, just in case there was a misunderstanding, and a brace of Bromptons, as their folded countenance pleasethed Him. And God said there might be Some strong winds in the Southeast. And it rained for 40 days and 40 nights, then drizzled for another fortnight.

And God remembered Noah and asswaged the waters, and Noah opened a door on the ark and set loose Japheth on a unicycle, and God said This is a covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature: that a man on a unicycle is a hilarious sight. The waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.

A bit later, God spake unto Moses, saying, Here are a few ground rules, I hath numbered them for thou for easy reference:

I. Thou shalt hold no other races above the Tour de France.
II. Thou shalt not make unto thee helmets which cost more than £100.
III. Thou shalt not take My name in vain everytime thou gettest a flat tyre.
IV. Remember to oil thy chain, to keep it rolling.
V. Honour the Zebra Crossing and those walking upon the face of it.
VI. Thou shalt not ignore other road users, nor cycle recklessly upon the pavement.
VII. Thou shalt not steal bicycles.
VIII. Thou shalt not kill, except bicycle thieves. (LOL)
IX. Thou shalt not hang onto moving cars.
X. Thou shalt not covet they neighbour's new Cannondale, nor his groupset, nor his £3000 mtb, nor even his stylish shades.
Forget not the Titanium Rule: Signal unto others as thou wouldst have others signal unto thou.

And moving right along, there came four horsemen of the Apocalypse, and they were the Taxicab Driver, and the Motorcycle Messenger, and the White Van Man, and the Man Opening a Car Door Without Looking.

Amen

Published originally by:

Sam Walker
Cycling Plus, January 2001

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Friday, September 12, 2008

Spinning My Life

Spinning is not really my main thing in cycling. What drives me crazy is road cycling, but spinning is OK when the weather is far from ideal to go out and enjoy a 50 mile biking work out. Almost nothing deters me from going out and cycle. It has to be a really heavy rain and a temperature below 30 Fahrenheit for me not go out and stay home to train in my indoor training or if I feel quite lonely and I want to scream and hear loud music with friends or acquaintances and I don't feel like staying home then I decide to go to the gym and do some spinning classes.
Just like thins one:

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Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Lance Armstrong Returns To Pro Cycling In 2009

This is it friends. It has been confirmed by him, Lance Armstrong has said that he is ready to come back next year 2009 to the Tour De France and 4 other races to raise awareness about this deadly disease: cancer.
I am so excited about this news. I love cycling, I just love the sport, but having Lance Armstrong in it makes it simply celestial.
I love this guy so much, I love his for his courage, kindness to others, his strong will to survive and help others along the way.
Hey, he has made millions of dollars, he has a superb mansion and tons of women who would love to share his bed everyday. He could just keep on being retired and not be bothered by anything else that didn't involve pleasure. He could just kick back and enjoy his millions with a margarita and a sexy chick by his side. But Lance is not that kind of a human being, he's way better than that, he's not selfish and wants to share with the world his unmeasurable strength and his persistent research for health and well being.
I can't lie to you guys, I simply can't. I am completely in love with him, I adore him and admire him and support him in everything he does. He has a Website and I'm part of it. You guys should go and check it out. It's pretty cool. Please join his Website and participate. You are going to have fun.

Lance's Comeback to Cycling in 2009 -- powered by http://www.livestrong.com

Well, the news is out, Lance Armstrong confirmed his returned and most likely he will be competing with the Astana cycling team. Ay ay ay ay ay, I just can't wait for the next year to come!

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Monday, September 8, 2008

Paralympian Cyclists Men And Women In Beijing

Image by Getty Images via Daylife
Cycling is practically a new sport for Paralympians and the categories in which it is raced in the Paralympic Games are basically two:

1) Track
2) Road

There are tree classes of paralympian cyclists:

1) Cerebral Palsy
2) Visually impaired
3) Amputees

Cerebral palsy athletes always compete riding standard road racing bicycles. They participate in both categories of cycling mentioned above: track and road. But in some cases where cerebral palsy is somewhat severe, the athlete competes using tricycles and only in road events.

Visually impaired cyclists race using tandem bikes with the help of a sighted cycling team mate. They can participate in both events: track and road.

Leg and arm amputee cyclists compete on road racing bicycles that are usually modified individually and specifically for their physical needs.

Today, the Czech Republic wins men's individual cycling pursuit, bringing that beautiful gold medal home. Yay!

The Men's Individual Pursuit (LC 2) final of the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games Cycling Track event took place at the Laoshan Velodrome on September 8, 2008. Jiri Jezek of the Czech Republic claimed the event's gold medal and broke the Paralympic record, with a time of four minutes and 46.999 seconds.

Jiri Jezek competes

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Saturday, September 6, 2008

Paralympic Games Opening Ceremony

Image by Getty Images via Daylife The 2008 Paralympic Games have started!
Please people, get excited with me, get together with me and let's watch this amazing ceremony. Believe me, IT IS breathtaking!

I only wish that the whole world made a big deal about the Paralympic Games the same way they do with the Olympic ones. It is a real shame that the majority of the world is not excited about these games.
The Olympic Games are great, but these ones, the Paralympic Games, are the ones that really make my heart pound hard and make my spirit complete. My mind and my soul dance happily to their strength and courage and my eyes see wonders that get imprinted in my brain forever and make me stronger. Watching these wondrous athletes gives me hope, gives me puissance, it simply makes me a better human being.
It's just incredibly emotional for me to watch these amazing athletes who are so so so so strong and NOTHING makes them stop. Nothing makes them weak. Nothing is so powerful that can destroy them. Nothing can break their spirit, nothing, nothing, not physical pain, not mental pain. No, there is simply nothing in this world that can make these heroes not to reach their goal in life.
I rejoice watching the paralympic cyclists, runners, swimmers, everyone, all and each one of them have my most deeply respect and admiration. They make this life worthwhile to live.
They are certainly the most invincible, mighty, potent, powerful and strong amongst us, simple mortal human beings.
My heart and my soul is in Beijing right now.
Thank you so much for existing.

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Friday, September 5, 2008

Why Do Some Hateful Poeple Live Long Lives?

Image by Getty Images via Daylife I am a 46 year old female who loves fitness and wellness. I truly believe that being healthy is not only about being thin or not being fat, but about being well fit, eating healthy, about exercising not only the body but the brain and the inner spirit (you can call it "inner self" if you wish). Being kind to oneself and others creates a positive environment around us thus making our body more healthy by keeping the main cardiovascular and metabolic functions at their best.

But, is it creating peace and happiness around us the key factor for a long and happy life? How come there are so many disrespectful/hateful/bitter old men and women out there who continue to harm people, animals and nature and continue to live a long life while doing so? Why is it that some kind and healthy people don't get to live long lives? And why is it that many bitter and angry people live long ones? Is it only genetics what gives us longevity or there are other factors that influence how long the human body is going to live?

Well, I know most of my readers are well educated and know that genetics plays a big roll in longevity, but they also know that eliminating some risk factors can make some of us live longer despite the possibility of carrying some defective genes.

The question stands though:
Why some hateful people get to live long lives?
Is it maybe that just by strongly wishing to live a long life (with the help of genetics of course) one can make the body to obey the mind?

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Tuesday, September 2, 2008

I Have Blogger's Block And Need Help

I just can't believe what I'm saying, but it is true, I promise, I'm telling you the truth: I HAVE BLOGGER'S BLOCK!!!
Need help desperately. Never felt like this before. I always have things to say, to talk about, to comment. And there is so much to talk about right now.

There is La Vuelta A Espana going on for goodness sake! There are so many healthy and positive things to blog about, but I just can't come up with anything in particular. Ay ay ay ay ay ay ay ay.........ad infinitum.
And I'm not sad, nor depressed at all. I actually feel grrrrreat. I'm biking a lot, 5 to 6 days a week, averaging between 225 and 250 miles per week. In fact, my heart (cardiovascular) and muscle endurance have improved a lot. I can maintain now an average of 2 hrs. in my power zone in one sole work out of 3 hrs!

Oh well, you guys are going to tell me that having blogger's block doesn't have anything to do with fitness, right? Or not? I don't know. HELP!

Have you guys and gals ever experienced something like this?