Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Dream come true
Now ... remember back to when you were a child ... and no fibbing now, did you ever wish you could take the springs out of the couch, strap them to your feet and go bouncing around the countryside? (You don't have to play if you are too young to remember that couches uses to have springs!) Well, you couldn't then - just like you'd have to have hundreds of helium-filled party balloons to be able to "fly". But you can now with "Powerbocks" which are, according to Wikipedia, elastic-like spring-loaded stilts. They were originally patented on 2 July 2003 by Alexander Bock who had called them PowerSkips. They will set you back about $1000 a pair -but well, worth it, don't you think? [This reminds me of the double-amputee runner who was disqualified from the Olympics because his carbon-fiber, prosthetic feet made him too fast to compete with other (able-bodied) runners. Oscar Pistorius' case was considered, and rejected, by the International Association of Athletics Federations, because the devices appeared to give him an "unnatural" (my word) advantage - up to 30% mechanical advantage and using 25% less energy.]
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