DailyDirt: Assisted Walking And Running
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
Walking upright may seem like the most natural thing to do for most people, but it’s not that easy if you get injured. Thankfully, there’s some technology that can help that isn’t as limiting as a wheelchair or a pair of under-arm crutches. And if you want to get some super-human abilities, some gadgets out there can help anyone run faster (with some awkward-looking stilts).
- Bionic boots could help people run a lot faster without much more effort. There have been other devices like Bionic Boot, so maybe in the future we’ll all be able to run a marathon in about an hour with the right equipment. [url]
- Oscar Pistorius may be more famous for homicide now, but his prosthetic leg technology allowed him to keep up with Olympic sprinters. The spikes on the bottom of his carbon fiber prostheses were extensively tested to ensure consistency in traction and shock absorption, and the technology might re-appear on other athletes. [url]
- The James Dyson Foundation is considering a Dyson Award for an improved crutch design that keeps a user’s hands and arms free (unlike under-arm crutches). This device also allows the wearer to sit without taking it off. No running or jumping with this crutch, though, but then the wearer is likely injured and shouldn’t be doing those activities anyway. (N.B. it only works with lower leg injuries.) [url]
If you’d like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.
Filed Under: bionic boot, crutches, dyson award, oscar pistorius, powerbocking, prosthetics
Comments on “DailyDirt: Assisted Walking And Running”
putting their foot down in the face of "crippling" technology
One of the issues we’re starting to see now is that after years of bending over backwards to the demands of the physically handicapped lobby, some race-sponsoring organizations are finally starting to put their foot down and saying “enough is enough.” Foot races that were previously open to wheelchairs –of all kinds– felt they had to back off that pledge, not decades ago when low-profile wheelshairs posed an obvious tripping hazard, but more recently when these human-powered go-carts started attaining bicycle-like speeds that not only were seriously out-of-synch in a foot race speed-wise, but jeopardized the safety of the runners.
The same evolution will likely occur with spring-loaded prosthetic “legs” when handicapped runners not only start winning races, but start attaining vastly superior speeds than their able-bodied competitors who are forced to follow a different set of rules.
It won’t end there. The era of the “bionic” athlete is closer than ever, and serious decisions will one day have to be made when these so-called “handicapped” athletes achieve clear superiority over natural-limbed people — the day when people who lose limbs in an accident are no longer pitied, but envied.
*never* got that shit about pistorius...
hated on the guy *way* before he got away with murder…
i just don’t get it: okay, tough deal, legs are messed up or gone… so, now i can strap a fucking rocket on my stumps and call myself a sprinter ? ? ?
(you get the point)
i have NO PROBLEM with doing something like they do in drag racing and other sports, where they have various ‘classes’, including an ‘unlimited’ class, where ‘anything goes’…
but can’t we keep ONE class that is just ‘regular’ human beans, not bionic hybrids ? ? ?
we actually do that on ONE level, where we test for various performance enhancing drugs to ensure equal starting points; but strap on some superhuman kangaroo feet, and you’re cool ? ? ?
here’s the thing, i can imagine either being born legless (or armless, etc), disease, accident, shark, whatever takes my legs away, and certainly be hard pressed to have as great a spirit and drive as he had to overcome that…
major compliments for making the best of a bad situation and rising above personal handicaps, bravo…
but then let’s say i get a super-duper prosthetic that takes me beyond normal athletic performance in some fashion or another…
I.
WOULD.
NEVER.
EXPECT
that the rest of the world would let me compete with regularly limbed athletes, just because -well, ultimately- they felt sorry for me, and i was just a poor cripple, so let him have a make-a-wish olympics just for himself…
NEVER
WHAT KIND of presumptuous, selfish, arrogant dickhead would expect such a thing ? ? ?
but then again, i wouldn’t fire into a bathroom door i knew my girlfriend was on the other side, either…
Re: *never* got that shit about pistorius...
But that’s how modern Western society works. The underpriviliged (however that’s defined) always need a leg up to compete — and if private organizations don’t initiate a double-standard on their own initive, the government will step in and force them to.
That’s why we have (government-enforced) racial hiring and promotion quotas. That’s why colleges have racial admission quotas and are also bound by Title IX to discriminate against male athletes despite the fact that they’re the lucrative revenue earners via college sports such as football. That’s why we have a huge government bureaucracy to enforce these policies.
Discrimination is always illegal (except when the government says it’s not). But discrimination (by any name) is only allowed to work in one direction. If it can be called ‘reverse discrimination’ then it’s really not discrimination at all, it’s equality. Because some people are more equal than others.