fpefwnm: Oct 18, 2007

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Improve Your Game with Sport Performance Sunglasses

Sunglasses are fundamental in protecting the eyes from harmful ultraviolet (UV) rays and eye damage. With the popularity of almost every imaginable outdoor sport such as snowboarding, skiing, mountain biking, rock climbing, kayaking and golfing to name a few, the need for sports performance sunglasses is on the rise.

Much research and technology has gone into the making of sports sunglasses. The importance of having lightweight, durable, flexible and safe glasses is of special importance for the avid sports enthusiast.

First off you will want lenses that offer the ultimate in UVA and UVB protection. As UV light damages the cornea and retina causing future problems such as cataracts, macular degeneration, cancer of the eye or photokeratitis (sunburn of the retina), you will want lenses that have one hundred percent UV protection. The UV protection should be stated on the label, if it is not you probably dont want to buy the lenses.

Sports sunglasses offer many excellent features in the design and overall shape that will ensure comfort, fit and safety to withstand the rugged demands of active sports. Features such as shock frames, shatterproof polycarbonate lenses, durability, ventilation and non-slip grips are at the top of the list when selecting youre sports sunglasses. The lightweight shock frames provide excellent coverage that will not bounce or shift during athletic activity. Used for active life-styles the sunglasses will withstand the extra tough demands of active sports. The lightweight frames offer comfort, longwearing and absorbing qualities.

The shatterproof polycarbonate lenses prove great for people needing high impact resistance in a pair of sunglasses. Polycarbonate is one of the newest technologies in lens materials. The material is similar to that used for bullet resistant glass in autos. Because the polycarbonate material is naturally UV absorbing, the clear lenses can even boast one hundred percent UV protection. Some polycarbonate is approved for use in safety glasses. The shatterproof lenses are lightweight, impact-resistant, durable and scratch-resistant; the lenses are virtually break proof, peace of mind for those high impact sports enthusiasts. The polycarbonate eyewear is the only eyewear approved for use with most Police and Fire Departments.

The durability of the lenses is another important quality of the sports sunglasses. Having lenses and frames that are scratch resistant, lightweight yet durable is necessary with the demands of some of the high impact sports. Polyamide is a popular material used today for frames, great because it keeps its shape even under stress. Both sunglasses and goggles offer excellent ventilation systems within their lens and frame designs. This is an important feature to eliminate fog and condensation during activity, ensuring proper vision and safety while at the same time blocking incoming harmful rays. Lastly the no-slip temple grips and nose pads (usually made of rubber) is a feature that goes without explaining. The need for sunglasses to stay securely in place during athletic activity (while providing comfort and non-distorted vision) can be crucial given some sport situations.

Having the proper sports sunglasses can have a profound effect on an athlete's overall performance. Not only do sunglasses and eyewear protect the eyes from harmful UV rays, but also athletes wearing protective eyewear, such as goggles with polycarbonate (shatterproof) lenses are spared injury. Face shields using polycarbonate are also used for baseball catchers, hockey, and football players. Its important to never substitute regular sunglasses during sports. Sunglasses for standard street wear are not made of the same safety materials as sports sunglasses and will most likely not hold up if under impact, the glasses could shatter or bend causing pieces of the frame or lens to cause eye or even face injury.

Sports injuries are not the only danger while participating in athletic sports. Ultraviolet light from the sun is harmful even in the winter. UV light contributes to diseases such as cataracts, cancer, and photokeratitis (sunburn of the retina). It is important for snowboarders and skiers to always wear tinted goggles or sports sunglasses, as UV bounces off snow even on the cloudiest of days, this is also true of anyone participating in water sports as UV bounces off water.

Goggles in an amber or rose tint can be used to enhance the snow shadows on a ski slope indicating ridges or bumps on the surface, helping snowboarders and skiers alike decide where to turn and maneuver as to avoid catching edges and falling.

Other useful features that are appealing to sports enthusiasts are the mirror coatings, polarized lenses and various tints. The available multi-color flash mirror coatings reflect light providing anti-glare viewing. Polarized lenses block the vertically-reflected light coming into the lens making them appropriate for use around water, snow and driving, Some of the popular tints available are gray, amber and yellow. The gray, smoke and gray-green tints are the most common of tinted lens. They block out glare without changing the overall color perception and are great for all-weather use. The Amber, or brown tinted lens are good for blocking blue light which is common on overcast days. Amber helps improve both the contrast and depth perception making them a great choice for changeable weather patterns. The yellow tints improve contrast and give a heightened sense of visual acuity, and are great for driving.

Manufacturers are now marketing towards sports-specific sunwear. Frames and lenses are available that are made specifically for cyclists, golfers, boaters, rock climbers etc. Of course there are sports sunglasses that appeal to a wide variety of outdoor activities. Look into the convenient and practical changeable lens systems that allow the wearer to use clear lenses for darker conditions, dark lenses for sunny conditions or yellow and orange for low light conditions.

In conclusion, whatever outdoors sport you participate in, its a good idea to do a bit of research on what specific sport sunglasses are most appropriate for youre particular needs. Always insist on one hundred percent UVA and UVB protection. Look for sunglasses or goggles with anti-fogging feature such as double lenses, anti-fog coating and wide vents. With all the wonderful technology and modern design features available your sport sunglasses choice is sure to enhance your sports performance.

Stop Debating it -- LeBron James is the Best Basketball Player on the Planet!

Sports fans love to debate. This is part of the excitement of sports, arguing about what players are best at their respective game or position. One that has become surprisingly popular pits second-year star LeBron James against various other greats, such as Kobe Bryant, Tracy McGrady, and others. It's surprising not only because LeBron is so young, so most people would exclude him but also because it really shouldn't be an argument at all.

That's right. This one is a no-brainer. Stop all the arguments, the debates and the loosely-constructed ideas that other players in the National Basketball Association are better than LeBron. I'm here to tell you today that there is no reasonable debate -- LeBron James is without a doubt the best basketball player on the planet Earth!

Okay, before you blow your stack about his age, lack of experience and the fact that he has yet to win a title, like Kobe and others, let's consider the best barometer of a great basketball player.

Truly great players possess all of the fundamental skills: shooting, passing, ball handling, rebounding, shot blocking and defending. Now, players like Kobe, McGrady and Kevin Garnett certainly have these skills. But to truly separate players, we need to go beyond these skills. Consider two more factors: the ability to dominate at any position and to make all players around you better. This is the true test of greatness.

Larry Bird had it, Magic Johnson had it, and Michael Jordan certainly had it. Does Kobe? I say no. Does McGrady? Definitely not. Garnett may, but he still has too many nights of 14 points and 9 rebounds in a losing effort to say he definitely has it.

Now, consider LeBron. The skills are unquestionable. He averages 25 points, nearly 8 rebounds and just under 8 assists per game, in only his second year in the league, at the tender age of 20. Hes the youngest to score 40, to get a triple double, to start in an All Star game, and the list grows every night he plays. Further ponder the fact that at 6-8 and a muscular 240 pounds and with uncanny speed, quickness and leaping ability, LeBron can handle the ball like a point guard, shoot like most decent (not great, yet) off guards, and post up with the best forwards and centers in the NBA. He blocks shots like a center, can shut down anyone, with his size and quickness, and he gets to the basket and draws fouls better than anyone. He creates a mismatch every night, because he is completely unguardable.

Finally, in just his second year, hes taken a team that won 17 games prior to his arrival to a 50-win pace. And for the first time since the early 1990s, the Cavaliers are now a legitimate playoff contender. I doubt any coach in the league wants to face the Cavaliers and LeBron in a seven-game series.

So, when people want to discuss the greatest players in the game, tell them to forget any argument that doesnt start and end with the name LeBron James.

National Anthem

A national anthem in general, is a patriotic musical composition that is recognized formally by a country's government as their country's official national song.

This idea of identy came about during the course of the 19th and 20th centuries, with the rise of the national states. It was at this time when most countries adopted a national anthem, which often times coexisted with other commonly sung patriotic songs. For example, Although Canada's official national anthem is "Oh Canada", another widely recognized national song is "The Hockey Song", due to Canada's strong history in the sport of hockey.

Typically, anthems will try to acomplish the goal of reflecting the unity of a nation by galvanizing the history, traditions and struggles of its people within the song. In the nineteenth century as anthems first rose to prominence in Europe the style of music common then has continued to be used in almost every national anthem. Even where western orchestral music was a foreign notion, like in nations of Africa and Asia, the national anthem is still usually in European style. Some countries have challenged the dominance of dated orchestral music, like Australia for example. "Advance Australia Fair" has been the national anthem of Australia since 1984, but there is much support for the folk ballad "Waltzing Matilda" as a national song. Some even considerate a candidate for the national anthem. This is much like the example I mentioned above with Canada and "The Hockey Song"

National anthems have in the past and will continue in the future to be an important part of the history of the countries of the world.

Winter Olympics: Ice Skating Pointers

U.S. pairs skaters Rena Inoue and John Baldwin made history by landing the first throw triple axel in Olympic history.

Read about the Americans jump at http://www.usatoday.com/sports/olympics/torino/figureskating/2006-02-11-pairs-skating_x.htm.

Midori Ito in 1989 was the first woman to land a triple axel in a major ice skating championship (the Worlds). See http://www.mountaindragon.com/midori/mistats.htm.

So what are triple jumps and what is a triple axel?

"The Axel is a jump in figure skating, named after the Norwegian skater Axel Paulsen (1855-1938) who was the first to perform it in 1882.

A single Axel consists of 1 1/2 rotations in the air. For a jump with counterclockwise rotation, it has a takeoff from the left forward outside edge and a landing on the right back outside edge; this can be reversed for a clockwise jump.

The Axel can also be done as a double jump with 2 1/2 rotations, or as a triple with 3 1/2 rotations." See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axel_jump.

The above article states, No skater has yet accomplished a quadruple Axel.

To read a fun article on figure skating go to http://www.slate.com/id/2136701/fr/rss/. Even the best skaters take there turn (for the worse) on the ice.

Sasha Cohen is the only woman skater in the current Winter Olympics who can do a quadruple jump. She did not attempt it last night. She didnt need to. But she may give it ago. Keep watching. Read about Sasha at http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/olympics/260243_olyfig21.html.

A number of men have performed quads in these Olympics.

Here are some hints for watching women ice skating at the Winter Olympics (Dont watch men skating. They make the jumps look too easy,):

1.Dig those old skates out of that box of junk in the garage. Put them on. Stumble into the room where you have a television set and plop yourself down. Now, dont you feel better all ready?

2.Before you put your skats on, turn the thermostat down to 50 degrees Fahrenheit. To make it more authentic for the Olympics, make that 10 degrees Centigrade. Have some heavy quilts ready.

3.Have your spouse brew up a big pot of hot chocolate. Dont go stumbling out there in the kitchen by yourself on those ice skates. You might get scalded.

4.While your spouse is out in the kitchen anyway, have her (or possibly, him) fry up a bunch of scones. A scone is fried bread dough. Just pic up the dough at the grocery store and plop sections of dough into the grease. Biscuit dough is fine. The scones should be served with butter and honey. (If you must run down to the store to get the honey, for gosh sakes take off the ice skates. You'll look pretty funny wrapped up in a steering wheel.)

5.While you are watching the ice skating, suck the honey off your fingers. Dont try to wash honey off with cocoa. You might burn yourself. Well, you can wait until the cocoa cools a bit like I do. Then you have some yummy sucking to do.

6.Here are some words you will need for ice skate competition watching:

Ohhhhh! Use this when a jump goes awry and the skater lands on her poduka with a thump. The bigger the thump, the bigger the OHHHHH!

Yeah! Scream this at the top of your lungs when a scatter performs a trivial move effortlessly.

Wow! Say this when a scatter makes a routine triple jump.

Holy Cow! Yell this when a triple axel is made and the skater makes a good landing. If the jumper falls on her paduka with a thud, say Holy S

My wife cut me off there.

Now that you know the elements of watching womens Olympic ice skating, do as Red Green says, Keep your stick on the ice!

Oh, Nuts! My wife says that only applies to ice hockey. Well, keep your paduka off the ice!

On reflection I looked up the word paduka in the Hindu dictionary (see http://www.experiencefestival.com/a/Ri_paduka/id/62126). It means sandals of the venerated leader.

When I say lands on her paduka, Im not talking about sandals.

The End

Ice skating, triple, quadruple, lux, axel, Olympics, Torino, Winter Olympics, paduka, Hindu, Midori Ito, Sasha Cohen

fpefwnm

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Improve Your Game with Sport Performance Sunglasses

Stop Debating it -- LeBron James is the Best Basketball Player on the Planet!

National Anthem

Winter Olympics: Ice Skating Pointers

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