2008 World's Strongest Man Competition, Charleston, WV

The 2008 World's Strongest Man Competition will be coming to Charleston, West Virginia next week, September 6-14. Find the full schedule of events and locations here and a list of the international competitors who will be arriving in Charleston to compete.

Phil Pfister, Charleston native and 2006 winner of the competition, will be competing this year in his home town. Today's Charleston Gazette has a feature sports article on Phil who will likely be competing in his last strongman competition.

I know Phil and his family personally because our sons go to school together at Mountaineer Montessori. Phil is a great guy and ambassador for West Virginia.

The first time I met Phil was through my son back in 2006 when he came home from school one afternoon and said, "Guess what, Wyatt's dad can pull a fire truck." I said, "Sure he can . . ." Then a couple of days later he came home and said, "Wyatt's dad is the strongest man in the world." Again, "Yea, sure he is . . ." Then I met the 6' 6" 375 lb. Phil at a school event and realized my son's stories were not just playground talk.

I hope that everyone in Charleston and West Virginia will come out to support Phil and the event.

UPDATES (CHECK THE LATEST GOOGLE NEWS):

• Photos courtesy of the Charleston Gazette from the first day of the preliminary competition at Magic Island.

• Photo of Phil Pfister showing perfect form in the keg toss by Charleston based photographer and blogger, Rick Lee, who I suspect will get some great shots throughout the competition.

• Photos by Charleston photo blogger, Jason Means. Check out his Flickr stream for more photos.

• Charleston Gazette article on the first day of the event and how it went for hometown favorite, Phil Pfister.

• Strongmen have big hearts too - they made a visit to the East End Family Resource Center to spend time with kids in the after school program. Check out the details at Jim McKay's blog, Wabi-Sabi. Also, if you plan to go to the events stop by the Strong Families Festival. Check out the video highlights of their visit below.

UPDATE (9/12/08):

Today is the first day of the finals of the event. Today's Daily Mail gives a run down of the events scheduled for today and over the weekend. A second article also covers ESPNs film crew and their effort to capture the beauty of West Virginia for the cut away shots during the final produced show for ESPN. Great to see them adding this footage into the final production.

There is also a photo of the 10 finalists. The top finishers in the preliminaries who will be competing over the weekend, including Charleston's own Phil Pfister are:

Sebastian Wenta, Poland; Arild Haugen, Norway; Tarmo Mitt, Estonia; Dave Ostlund, Minnesota; Travis Ortmayer, Texas; Terry Hollands, England; Jason Bergmann, Wisconsin; Derek Poundstone, Connecticut; and reigning champion Mariusz Pudzianowki, Poland. The alternate is Jimmy Marku, England.

Ferrari fans berate Badoer for ‘shameful’ lack of pace

From F1 Racing.net 31/08/09:

Ferrari stand-in Luca Badoer claims that it would be 'absurd' for the Italian team to replace him less than a fortnight before his home Grand Prix. The reserve driver, Ferrari's longest-standing pilot, currently remains set to continue replacing the injured Felipe Massa although media pressure is increasing to change the line-up.

With Kimi Raikkonen having won the Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday, Badoer finished last of the runners and over a minute and a half behind his team-mate. "I can say that, after two races, I have much more of a grip on this mountain of things to learn," Badoer told the waiting media after the race at Spa.

"Monza, Mugello and Fiorano are the tracks where I have driven for most in my life," he continued. "It would be absurd and I would be very disappointed (to not drive) because I am convinced that, at Monza, I have the feeling needed.

"Going to a track that I could drive with my eyes closed, I am sure that I could get a good result. If I had to set myself a deadline, maybe I would do it for after Monza - I would be the first to say 'Lads, it's not working out'."

I’ll say it now, Luca: “It’s just not working out”.

In the meantime, this amusing banner that appeared at Spa at the weekend, pretty much says it all.

Prostitution: Behind Closed… Fence Panels?

From Uproxx.com 28/08/10:

Police in Zurich, Switzerland have set up “drive-in sex boxes” in the city’s red light district. The boxes give prostitutes more privacy when they work, because if there’s one thing prostitutes are known for, it’s shyness. Actually, the boxes are for the benefit of people living in the area, one of whom said, “They get up to all sorts in broad daylight – and we’re sick to death of looking at it.” I think the paper made a mistake. Shouldn’t the last half of that sentence be, “and I’m running out of popcorn and this lawn chair is making my butt look like plaid”?

I guess this is one way of combatting the problem, even if they do look a bit like green fence panels from the average garden centre. And I would have thought that these panels would prove much too tempting for kids to explore when they play hide and seek or whatever kids get up to these days. 

The fact remains, though, that shielding the problem from the watchful eyes of residents isn’t dealing with it.  I can’t see the idea catching on internationally.

As an aside, I’ve never looked at prostitution the same way since a rather unfortunate episode as an undergraduate. (And no, it’s not what you’re thinking).

I naively made a comment in a paper referring to prostitution being illegal under Anglo/Welsh law. The lecturer quickly cut me down to size and explained that it was not illegal per se but rather that certain activities connected with it were. When I received the paper back, it was one of those internal grimace moments that has stayed with me ever since.  Still, it gave me a great chance to legitimately review all things (including the law) relating to prostitution – which can’t be a bad thing.

Twoctor, Twoctor . . I've Got A Bad Case of Tweeting You

Nedra Weinreich over at Spare Change explores uses for Twitter to improve health care in her post Twitter for Health. Great ideas on how Twitter might be used by those of us in the health care industry.

Thanks to Jen McCabe Gorman for tweeting the recent post.

Economic Downturn Responsible for Fewer Child Injuries on Roads

From PR Urgent 18/08/09:

[A] leading firm of personal injury compensation claims solicitors, say that recent research shows the number of children and young people injured in road traffic accidents in the morning rush hour has reduced considerably. Between January and June 2008 there were 344 road accidents involving children, but for the same period in 2009 this number dropped to 228. Some commentators suggest the recession may be linked to the reduction in this type of accident, occurring at the time of the morning "school run".

"Fuel prices and the other overhead costs involved in running a car have become a great burden on many families during the current economic downturn. Many parents are now walking their children to school rather than travelling in the family car. Fewer car journeys have resulted in a reduction in accidents, and which is a good thing."
 
The statistics from the Department of Transport also reveal that the number of children who are either killed or suffer serious personal injury in this type of accident has decreased by 9% in 2009 when comparing the figures for the same period in 2008.

"Traffic is at its busiest first thing in the morning and this may well be the most dangerous time for anyone to be driving, particularly for those taking children to school, as they are often distracted by the demands of the children or are having to rush because they are running late."

Every road user laments the infamous ‘school run’ twice a day which brings otherwise manageable roads to total gridlock. While I hadn’t initially considered the connection between the economic downturn and the number of injuries suffered on the nation’s roads, on reflection, I suppose it is logical. It also presumably means that when the economic slump is over, the numbers may well rise again.

On a related note, I also remember reading a couple of years ago now that personal injuries on Britain’s roads increased sharply when British Summer Time ends and the clocks are put back. Whether it is the fact drivers used to driving home in the light suddenly had to cope with darkness or whether drivers generally have more accidents in the dark per se, I don’t know. I do, however, remember reading that such was the increase in injuries around this time, it was cited as a possible justification for abandoning the rather strange practice of setting clocks back and forwards twice a year across the world.

John Stossel's Perspective on WV Certificate of Need Law

Yesterday's Daily Mail article reports that John Stossel, co-anchor of ABC's 20/20 speaking at the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce's Business Summit spoke out against West Virginia's Certificate of Need laws. Stossel argues that free market is better than regulation of health care.

Regulation vs. free market makes for great conversation. The debate as it relates to health care is made more complex when we have a largely single payor (government funded) health care reimbursement system in West Virginia. I don't know the actual statistics but well over half and probably near 75% of health care costs are paid in West Virginia by Medicare, Medicaid, PEIA and other government payors. As for private payors we only have a few that have any influence in West Virgina. This makes West Virginia close to a microcosm for a wwhat a single payor government run health care system might look like. What impact does this stagnation of competition on charges/costs have on the regulation vs. free market question. Is a single payor system better for West Virginia and the U.S.? Interesting questions as we approach the election in November.

Also, in my inbox this morning was an email from friend and health colleague, Mike Ryan, letting me know about the HealthDecisions '08: Obama and McCain on Health Care. Although I haven't had a chance to explore the site in detail I like the side by side comparison on the main page.

The press release indicates:

HealthDecision '08 by HealthCare.com is an initiative to inform, educate and deploy the power of the web to gather public opinion on the health care proposals put forth by Senators Barack Obama and John McCain. HealthDecision '08 provides a side-by-side comparison of Obama's and McCain's healthcare positions and proposals, along with interactive voting tools that enable users to vote for their preferred health care plan and offer their own comments after weighing through the issues.

What do others think? Post your comments.

Lets Go Mountaineers . . .

Everyone in West Virginia is excited about the start of the WVU college football season. There is a a lot of buzz about the Mountaineers, its #3 AP ranking and Heisman hopefuls, Steve Slaton and Pat White (check out his Pitt growl). Good luck to the Mountaineers as they start there season this weekend. Go Mountaineers and their #1 rated fans!

This clip is a year old but I just saw it after my dad sent it to me. What a great commercial. For those of you who don't get the commercial check out this Google search.