The World’s First Bionic Olympics, The Cybathlon Championship, is man-and-machining our way.
 
Six disciplines with “assistive technologies” and no, we aren’t talking Performing Enhancing Drugs here, we’re talking, among other things, new-fangled prostheses, that are boosting the abilities of people with disabilities – will be exhibited. This Cyborgville of scientific skill and human will, will vaunt and vault, technology and techniques, the latter used by the subjects, humans...the “pilots” who, however, know - that while they are clearly more than props - realize, just as definitely – they are NOT - co-stars.

Here are the six disciplines.

Brain-Computer Interface Race (BCI); Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) Bike Race; Powered Arm Prosthesis Race; Powered Leg Prosthesis Race; Powered Exoskeleton Race; Powered Wheelchair Race.

Why would powered wheelchairs be part of this? Aren’t we then talking motorized sports – that deal mostly with driving abilities, given that the power, stamina, and speed will be technological, not physical?

Went skeptical way too soon: who would not want to watch “athletes...tackle flights of stairs in the new wheel chairs...”

Will rubber tracks, mounted below the wheelchair wheels, take front and centre, and a well deserved bow - - - or will starfish mounts that are hand powered - once the wheel chair operator pops a wheelie to put the starfish as the surface contact point - be the recipient of applause - or will new approaches wrestling with stairs...take the cheering?

Reading of the Powered Arm Prosthesis Race and one of its entrants, Claudia Breidbach, being born without a left arm - and reading of the complexities involved in copying, at least on a fairly fundamental scope, the human hand, which apparently is, according to Monica Moreo a team leader of a competitor, DIPO Power - the MOST COMPLEX HUMAN ORGAN, leaves the laymen speechless, respectful, and wanting to learn more about the fields of biomechatronics. For instance, Monica avers that body-powered (as contrasted to externally powered) prosthetics could be affordable and within, no pun intended, the reach of many - as a source and a solution - to ramping up dexterity and galvanizing lifestyle self-reliance.

Notwithstanding Monica’s dedication to produce enhancements for the many, will this Cybathlon Championship - though impressive on intellectual, physical, emotional, and possibly spiritual levels - be stillborn, be nothing more than an haute couture display of largely unaffordable aids, or will it morph and become the mainstream runway of many, who will be able to avail themselves of such useful - and possibly one day affordable - technical changes and advancements?

Listen. Who, indeed, right now, can afford these technologies? Will any health care plans, in the States, or Canada, for example, be able to provide help in dollars?

For sure, these games will encourage. They might also discourage, or at least puzzle - maybe piss off - people who would love either themselves, or loved ones, to have increased mobility and improved communicative and rehabilitative possibilities - but can’t see through the financial barriers blocking the way(s).

And are there moral and ethical issues involved with improved assistive technology breakthroughs? Will some who get the best technologies be deemed “OK” and be treated as “normal” - thus ignored by family, friends, or professionals tired of pitching in and helping out? Might their non-disabled strengths and abilities be completely forgotten, or certainly overlooked, by themselves and their inner circle because of these super-duper deliverables? Will technologies be foisted on demented patients? Will the privacy of the patient or person, be threatened by technologies such as Telecare Devices, or be hacked by weirdos, wingnuts, savants, or miscreants drilling in to computer-data-sharing systems and services? We all know personal data for “normal folks” has been maliciously released. And, ironically, could some aids, in fact, reduce independence for people that don’t really need them? And how steep is the learning curve for recipients? Will they blow a gasket in the learning of all?

OK. While only the athletes will be in direct competition, their estimated 300 researchers, neuro-scientists, designers, biomedical-engineers, and kinesiology experts will be in it for bragging rights!

Zurich, Switzerland will host 80 teams from 25 countries, starting October 8th.

Robert Riener, a Swiss native, is the founder and one of the intellectual impetuses behind the Cybathlon - and while he has published some 389 papers – the industry - - - TOTALLY - of the so-called brainiest, including Robert, MUST COME UP, with sexier titles to attract the masses. Here is a conference paper title Robert and four co-authors came up with. Let’s hope it was arrived at late at night, around the kitchen table, with libations surrounding:

Evaluation of a mixed controller that amplifies spatial errors while reducing timing errors

This is not to say that Riener and confreres aren’t what they’re worth, they are. Kudos, thus, to Robert for rising above his titling of treatises to igniting and inciting this SWISS Cybathlon of athletes and academics, this Cyborg “Man and Machine competition alight - to become to us - as a human ONE.

The 2016 Ryder Cup teases: WHERE LEGENDS ARE FORGED. It should taunt: WHERE LOSERS ARE FLAYED. Now, notwithstanding Captain Davis Love’s observation that We have some guys that are really, really long” Europe has the big stick niblick - winning the past 3 Ryder Cups. Will Europe beat the USA for the 4th time in a row? If so, does that mean the EU national anthem, Ode to Joy, might be played yet again? Oh, boy...where’s Kaepernick? 

The USA is ticked off at kneeling, of kowtowing, of losing - and it prays that that sorry song will change at the 7,674 yard Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minnesota. That State, and the States, after learning a man from the Religion of Peace stabbed nine innocents in St. Cloud now, more than ever, could sure use a Ryder Cup win. As for the course? Well, it’s under protection (from golfers, not terrorists.) Club members have been hitting off of fake-grass mats to save fairways. And to make for great TV airwaves, for three weeks prior to, the course has been untouched by the golfing heathen and hackers.  

What also looks great for the Ryder Cup is having no money paid to the players. They play 28 matches for free. Players get their “juice” through national or continental pride, and get their souls stirred playing for teammates.

Europe’s team will feature 6 rookies. (Brooks Koepka is the only American newcomer.) Captain Darren Clarke is already making rookie history. Europe is going for a 7th Ryder Cup victory in 8 attempts. Being Captain is not easy, it leads to unreasonable scrutiny - but being a player oh-so-close to being a Captain’s pick, and missing out is, in the case of Russell Knox, in the school of hard knocks, creating a messed-up head - and an acute case of utter agony, Captain be damned.

Although 20 rungs above Belgian Thomas Pieters in world rankings, Clarke chose Pieters. He said the Belgian, who bashes the ball a mile, reminded him of Rory and Tiger. And Thomas did finish 4th at the Rio Olympics. Clarke doesn’t, however, mess with the heads of the players he picked - regarding their schedules coming into this emotional extravaganza – but he has to be thrilled that Masters winner, Danny Willett, has his head (and schedule) on right, coming in 2nd in the Italian Open.

Davis Love says his starting 8 had input into his picks.

And they picked a law firm: Fowler, Kuchar, and Holmes.

B.J. Holmes drives like John Daly, without the Major victories (and, possibly, without the major crashing, life-style accidents.)

Gotta think here, Kooch may have been into the hooch early when he said it would be legendary if Davis picked Tiger. Hairy is more like it. Woods hasn’t played competitively since August 2015, the Wyndham Championship. He tied for 11th. Davis won - an indubitable, definable, connection there. Tiger is a vice captain, leave it at that.

While the States uses Scouts Inc. analytics to aid their game plans, Clarke avers European Team ethos has factored in Europe’s successful spans in Ryder games. Factor that fact, with Rory’s recent winning of the Deutsche Bank Championship (thanks, new putting coach, Phil Kenyon!) and figure in with the stats of other European vets with Ryder Cup success, like Justin Rose, Sergio Garcia, and Lee Westwood who will, intangibly and viscerally, help the rookies’ peak - or at least not crater – means that Europe is a MEAN team. And word is Henrik Stenson’s right knee meniscus cartilage tear won’t affect his swing.

Meanwhile, Tom Lehmann, a native of Austin, Minnesota, will reaffirm to Love that the course’s big greens requires precise putting, and that some holes demand wondrous wedge shots (necessitating Phil on every hole!) Davis calls Tom “our ace in the hole” calls Tiger his “tactician” but despite Tom’s tutelage, and Tiger’s tactics, with the latter caddying around a 13-17-3 Ryder record, and despite the Bettors, such as Bodog Odds-favoring the Yanks, the Americans still have to play - and playing at home may compound the pressure of finally lifting Europe’s dominance off their backs.  

The States has another, theoretically definite edge, having the course somewhat tailored to its specifications. Love doesn’t want high roughs, wants SHORTER par-5’s to create birdies and eagles – figuring the galleries will go gusto, boosting the homeland team. However if Hazeltine should, say, somewhat disappoint Love’s deep desires - the 18 holes will certainly roll in a price-point, total bonanza-windfall, via “ka-ching” with corporate tents. These tents have necessitated the normal first four holes of the front-nine being played as the back, and visa-versa.  (Whether this makes for great golf is beside the point.)

A gigantic point: are Americans united? Remember Phil Mickelson (who will tie Nick Faldo with his 11th Ryder Cup) ripping Tom Watson’s 2014 strategy, while lauding the pod system Paul Azinger used in 2008? Remember Tom disagreeing with Phil, saying it wasn’t the lack of pods that killed America - it was the fact that “Europe kicked our butts?”

Faldo points out that every time Europe wins, their big three players have done their bit, amassed points, led the way. America’s stars have not shone, nor have the wildcard picks. In the past ten Cups America’s picks were 36-35-19. Europe’s were 39-28-12.

So flayed America formed a task force. It includes best buddies (kidding!) Tiger and Phil, and Rickie (who is winless in his eight matches in two Cups), along with Steve Stricker, Jim Furyk, Lehman, Raymond Floyd, Davis, and PGA executives. Everything is being scrutinized but they already missed scrutinizing - and scrapping - the PGA’s definition of the Ryder Cup: “...our most prized competitive asset.”

The heck does that mean?

Anyway...if Europe beats the U.S. again, will a panel be formed, what with the task force proven a failure?

Here’s what; If America plays as well as their world rankings suggest, and if they emulate 1979 and 2008 when they won every outing - forces, committees, panels, or daises - won’t be needed.
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As Rory says “...it’s not rocket science...” 

​Japan’s 4 x 100 Men’s Relay Team won silver in Rio - barely beaten by the BEST - Usain Bolt and the Jamaicans. Who’d have guessed?

Bolt.

He, as a spectator, saw Japan beat his team in the heats. “...the execution they have is always extremely good.”

Canadian sprint sensation, Andre De Grasse, admits he knew little of this burgeoning team. He was figuratively blown away by their performance, but not totally, however, for he and his mates captured bronze.

Many who are unfamiliar with relays think it a simple matter of finding four speedsters, to then slap them on the track, to then spring them loose. But experts say that isn’t the road to victory; it’s the road to ruin. The best teams are truly a team, they get along, they sacrifice for the other - with the monumental moment of their dynamics being the passing of the baton.

Japan’s team uses the “upsweep technique” to hand the stick - to stick. The relay coach, Shunji Karube, deserves credit for reforming their 2008 baton work, where they took bronze in Beijing’s Olympics, to come up with a new underhand baton pass, where runners transfer and take the baton with the elbow higher than waist level. (Somehow this lessens the lengths runners must go.)

More importantly, however, is Japan’s team - being a team - with fantastic fundamentals to boot. Consider that, while none of the four individually, has run under 10 seconds for the 100-metres, their cohesion has them, now, second best olympically. (And only - astoundingly - a foursome as deep as Jamaica’s, with the incomparable Bolt running anchor, could win gold with JUST ONE TRAINING SESSION in 2016 with Usain. Incredible. And risky...)
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Reputedly Japan is blown away, realizing this relay team is the first to take silver in track since Kinue Hitomi did it in the 800 metres, in 1928, in Amsterdam.

So Japan’s relay-rush rise to the top has been in the works for a while. For starters, they trained together for six months leading up to the 2016 Olympics. In Beijing, they became the first Japanese men’s team to medal in an Olympic sprinting event. They don’t cross lanes - a trespass that American and Canadian relay teams know only too well, and this year, oh dear, in Rio, the Americans were disqualified after initially being awarded third place because 2nd man, Justin Gatlin, touched the baton prior to entering the takeover zone. In fact the States since 1995 has - eight or nine times - either been disqualified, or been diminished, by either its specific baton passes or its general relay recklessness.

Meanwhile, as anchor Aska Cambridge points out, Japan figured it could win a medal. His, and his teammates’ confidence, was not misplaced - heck, coming up the ramp to the track they demonstratively displayed a pretend pose of flashing swords: only a relaxed, confident, ready bunch could do this. Furthermore, watching the race in slow-mo, shows each baton pass pretty-near flawless in execution - amazing - given the magnitude of these games. No wonder their smiles on subsequent Japanese TV interviews are 4 x 100 metres wide and 4 x 100 metres high!

Hey, these four guys set a new Asian record of 37.60 seconds. Japan is proud...but Jamaica can lay a small claim in bragging rights. The aforementioned Aska Cambridge has a Jamaican dad and a Japanese mom. Aska has lived in Japan since he was two. Aptly, Aska means “flying bird” in Japanese.

Aptly and happily, too, is the realization that there is no ideal body type for sprinting. The body shapes of the Jamaicans compared to the Japanese are vastly different in the arms and upper torso. The sprinters from the former show heavily muscled limbs and parts - the latter are much more streamlined and smooth. You know what this means? If you’re fast you’re fast. And that’s that.

Perhaps the squad will train again in Yamanashi Prefecture, and will look up, inspired, to Mt. Fuji. Perhaps, too, they’ll blossom, again, like the cherry blossoms that abound all around Yamanashi - and ultimately, perhaps too, their future races will smell as sweet, and be as beautiful, as the lavender flowers there. Geez, even in practices, they apparently had no baton misses!

Oh, speaking of beauty, did you see the relay team’s hot, tight and pinky-orange “a healthy soul in a healthy body” outfits?
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And more on beauty: who among Aska Cambridge, Yoshihide Kiryu, Shota Iizuka, or Ryota Yamagata will be labeled as cute as Japan’s gymnastic marvel, Kohei Uchimura?

Listen, not everything is peaches and cream in the Land of the Rising Sun. Apart from this country digging the Onbashira Festival (lunatics on a log) Japan has got big problems. Their population is declining, and those around, are aging. The workforce is being replaced by spent-force pensioners and babies are scarce. Given current demographic trends, there’ll be about one million less Japanese watching the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games than viewed the Rio Olympics, in which that nation garnered 41 medals, a record for it.

But for those living, they’ll forget the “Lost 20 Years” economic doldrums (for two weeks anyway) and they’ll forgive population shrinkage (for ever apparently) to fervently watch this amazing 4 x 100 metre relay team – a seasoned, yet, with a young average age of, in four-years time, only 27 - do its fleet thing. The group wants to stick together, get better. Truly a win-win situation for the country and these men.
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Now, with Usain Bolt out of the picture, do they win gold?  

“I want my deal to represent me.” Words of Colin Kaepernick, begging us to ask, was his sitting out the National Anthem a political position or a publicity stunt?
 
Let’s say he’s sincere. Yet, his non-action of sitting - as an inspiration for the “oppressed”- is a far cry from the sacrifice Muhammad Ali made for his principles - no matter what Spike Lee thinks. Ali was banned from boxing for three years, years sitting out when he was in the prime of his boxing life, the UNDISPUTED heavyweight champion. Kaepernick, a second stringer, sat for a couple of minutes, HUGE difference.

Did he really think pissing off patriots (some of whom burned his jersey) was going to shed a positive light on himself as a messenger for reducing supposed racism?

Show some balls. Parlay some Jaguar endorsement funds to some Black Lives Matter events and - at the same time - denounce their disgusting behavior. Sure, he can repeat his grievances of being shunned in early days by those that did not see his football skills as he did - and sure, he can recite gripes for believing that some view his tattoos as taboos - but he’s got no specifics to bolster his oppression opinions – so he’s doing what many quarterbacks do, throw it out there, on a Hail Mary, Wing and a Prayer...  

One thing is for sure. His planting of his keester on the bench during The Star-Spangled Banner will serve as but a tidbit of the tons of time he’ll be benched this season (call it the San Francisco 49ers collective protest against HIS-POOR-PLAY-ACT-2016/2017) if his game doesn’t improve.

Obama, part African-American, has been ruling for nearly 8 years. The present and previous Attorney Generals’ are black, and many mayors across the States are black – so what did they do (alongside the main culprits, the police) to finally cause Kaepernick to snit and sit?  
 
The Francisco 49ers, situated in a sanctuary city that disobeys illegal alien law(s) it doesn’t like, have no problem with his anthem action.

No shock there.

It is a pro trespass place, so if Kaepernick wants to figuratively wipe his cleats on the flag, why should the team and the city care? He’s in THE ideal environment to squat. (Similarly, the NFL doesn’t care, saving its care to nix the notion of Dallas Cowboy players wearing decals on helmets in support of their police and public.)

Kaepernick’s talk is cheap. Shell out monies from his 2014 contract, said to be possibly worth up to 126 million, to Black Lives Matter, the New Black Panther Party, and mostly to the cause of school choice for all parents...and then...he’ll have gravitas, and then we’ll gravitate to his message.

“...it would be selfish on his part to look the other way.”

But do his teammates agree? He has to have divided the dressing room, sitting for a bit. Now THAT’S selfish, that’s not “team.”

And is that it, this sit? To be taken seriously he’ll need more plays up his sleeve to help “learn us” about “police brutality.” Note, too, he first sat at home, not in the stadium of opponent, Green Bay, where, likely, his non-moving move would have been viewed in a more derogatory light. So, like the QB he is, he picked his spot, took what the field scene was allowing for - and yet atrociously and astonishingly - blew it away with a piddling quarterback sneak at midfield.

But it’s a long bomb with celebrities, sports stars, politicians, and ordinary folk exploding: Pro-or-Con, or neither, but wondering what the heck happened to his football skills, and who does he dislike more; Hillary, or the Donald?

In a way, he’s kinda like Hillary Democrat, Secretary of State, John Kerry, who, as a youngin, threw either his medals or ribbons away (the story is murky about what the jerk tossed in protesting the Vietnam War, in which he served) in that both men look like half-ass dissenters - careerists - in not really forgoing anything, while pretending and preening to go for everything
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So far, Kaepernick is symbolism without substance. He’s done little to advance his cause(s) - but, ultimately, maybe he doesn’t really care, having received massive media attention and some street “cred” adoration from college kids who live in safe spaces, and who have been schooled to s--t on their country.

Ok, there is at least one possible substantive result. The Alameda County Sheriff’s Office has invited Colin to check out their regional training centre where police candidates learn the ropes: could be an eye-opener for the man.

Right now his 15 minutes of fame has stretched to a few days. Which could come in handy because A) if his outdoor football abilities continue to atrophy, he has to hope a scout will know of his sitting during the Anthem story - and get him a tryout for indoor arena football - and because B) he’ll have to harangue us with bunk-junk, remonstrating that the reason the 49ers benched, cut, released, or traded him - was due to his politics, not his performances.

To be fair, he deserves some credit. His protest was non violent, and the guy’s not Johnny Manziel mental. Kaepernick doesn’t do clichés in interviews: he seems intelligent and had to have put some thought into this, and then - perhaps – perchance - his thinking was (speculations is) influenced by his steady, Nessa Diab, who thinks Fidel Castro is the cat’s ass. Perhaps she persuaded him the time was right - for him to sit tight.

However he’s already alright in assets with millions guaranteed from his contract. He, sorry to say, sacrificed SQUAT, monetarily, for his sniveling, so let’s not lionize him as a living lion of courage and character - - - but let us chorus: Go Colin GO!