EXPOO CARS: May 2011

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Sinkholes in photos

Sinkhole Swallows SUV

A pickup truck is partially buried at the bottom of a 60-foot-deep sinkhole off the southbound lane of a Pennsylvania highway.

A Los Angeles fire engine topples over in a sinkhole caused by a burst water pipe.

City crews work to attach chains on a City of Houston Public Works dump truck, after it fell into a sink hole caused by a cave-in on Balmforth at Dumfries near Godwin Park, Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2011, in Houston. Officials said the truck was carrying gravel to repair potholes on the street when the road fell out beneath the truck, which fell into the hole backwards. No injuries were reported and the truck was later lifted out by a large crane.

Workers inspect a sink hole caused by flooding at the Pacific Cove Mobile Home Park in Capitola, Calif., Friday, March 25, 2011. A powerful storm swept across California flooding part of Capitola, in Santa Cruz County, and forcing dozens of mobile homes residents to evacuate. The storm soaked hillsides along the coast threatening landslides as the rain continues.

A sinkhole opens up in Nixa, Missouri.

A structure is swallowed up after a sinkhole opened up in Guatemala City.

A bird's-eye view of the giant sinkhole which swallowed a 3-storey building after it opened up in Guatemela City last year.

A homeowner looks at a sinkhole that appeared outside his Hawaii home after a 6.7 tremblor struck the island in 2006.

Powerful thunderstorms and widespread flooding caused this sinkhole to open up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

What is Parkour?

Parkour is the physical discipline of training to overcome any obstacle within one's path by adapting one's movements to the environment.

Parkour requires... consistent, disciplined training with an emphasis on functional strength, physical conditioning, balance, creativity, fluidity, control, precision, spatial awareness, and looking beyond the traditional use of objects.
Parkour movements typically include... running, jumping, vaulting, climbing, balancing, and quadrupedal movement. Movements from other physical disciplines are often incorporated, but acrobatics or tricking alone do not constitute parkour.
Parkour training focuses on... safety, longevity, personal responsibility, and self-improvement. It discourages reckless behavior, showing off, and dangerous stunts.
Parkour practitioners value... community, humility, positive collaboration, sharing of knowledge, and the importance of play in human life, while demonstrating respect for all people, places, and spaces.

skill in parkour

Nos from Parkour Mumbai wrote an article entitled "Skill In Parkour." The article uses sources from different places around the world to explain Parkour.

To read the article read on......

Skill in Parkour

What exactly is Skill in Parkour?
I've had this question crop up frequently in recent discussions, so I thought I'd explain a little more in detail and clarify misconceptions.

Skill in Parkour is NOT about how high or far you can jump, the amount of guts you have to attempt things at higher heights, or how many advanced/technically difficult moves you can perform.
Skill can be many different attributes. But before we go onto those, let's read two important definitions from two well-respected traceurs first.

Mark Toorock:
Now as for what Parkour is about, I personally feel it's incomplete if you don't include all of these elements -
Capability
Speed
Safety (immediate)
Safety (longevity)
Situational Awareness and Decision Making
Understanding Your Limits and If/When to Take Risks

Rafe Kelley:
At Pk Visions, we define effectiveness in Parkour as the balance between - Safety (making the right movement choices, finding safe paths and having control over the movements you use), Fluidity (the capacity to transition between movements without breaking momentum), Speed (how quickly you can execute a given movement), Running Speed (picking the fastest course), and Mental Strength (the courage to fully do what your body is capable, and the mental focus to be completely present in each movement and not slip because of misplaced focus or excessive thoughts).

Notice how Rafe and Mark are both more or less on the same page, and have listed out the same points?

I would like to add the following to the list of factors that qualify for the presence of skill:
Precision
Control
Power
Spatial Awareness
Bailing

So the complete qualifier list for Skill in Parkour would look like this:

1) Capability
2) Safety (immediate)
3) Safety (longevity)
4) Fluidity
5) Precision
6) Control
7) Speed
8) Running Speed
9) Power
10) Bailing
11) Spatial Awareness
12) Situational Awareness and Decision Making
13) Understanding Your Limits and If/When to Take Risks
14) Mental Strength

1) Capability - The broad range of abilities of a person. This also includes your knowledge and proficiency in the performance of basic techniques of locomotion.
2) Safety (immediate) - Immediate safety is about making the right movement choices and finding safe paths in addition to and in preference to finding just the fastest and most efficient paths. Immediate safety pertains explicit injury and accident prevention.
3) Safety (longevity) - Long term safety is about making the right movement choices and finding such paths that protect the long term interests of the traceurs and their ability to be and to last. It pertains to joint damage and injury prevention through taking sensible movement choices which avoid high impact that builds up joint and other damage over time.
4) Fluidity - Fluidity refers to the capacity to transition between movements without breaking momentum.
5) Precision - Precision is about how precise you are in your movements, without making any wasted movements or ending up where you do not want to be, but only moving where you want to move.
6) Control - Control is all about how much control you have over your body and your movements. It is closely related to the attribute of Precision.
7) Speed - Speed refers to how quickly you can execute a given movement.
8) Running Speed - Running Speed is about picking the fastest course (but not at the cost of immediate or long term safety).
9) Power - Power refers to the ability of the body's muscles to generate a large amount of force very fast. This is what determines how smoothly you can overcome even the most difficult of obstacles, in the lack of which you would simply end up fumbling over the obstacles instead of overcoming them. Power is closely related to the attribute of Speed.
10) Bailing - Because there are so many things that can go wrong in Parkour, the ability to bail out of a situation well, save yourself, and come up-tops is a highly prized commodity, and an important attribute in being skillful enough. This is closely related to the concept of Immediate Safety.
11) Spatial Awareness - The ability to be aware of your body with relation to space, of where your body is in space in relation to your surroundings. Lack of spacial awareness causes disorientation, leads to confusion in movement and wasted movements, and can also be a potential for injury or accidents.
12) Situational Awareness and Decision Making - This is more of a mental attribute, and requires the practitioner to be aware of different environmental, bodily and other situations, and the ability to take decisions accordingly, and not always accordingly to a learned/conditioned response to a particular type of obstacle. It also means the ability of the practitioner to think on his feet and make quick decisions according to the demands of the changing environmental variables.
13) Understanding Your Limits and If/When to Take Risks - This attribute is more or less self-explanatory, and is also closely related to the attributes of Safety.
14) Mental Strength - After all is said and done, Mental Strength is the courage to fully do what your body is capable, and the mental focus to be completely present in each movement and not slip because of misplaced focus or excessive thoughts. Mental Strength means to not be overwhelmed and intimidated by the myriad of other skill attributes present to ensure safety, and requires you to step out of your comfort zone to do what you are skilled enough to do.

Skill is always subjective, and varies from person to person according to degree. A person can be classified as skillful if he meets all the requirements in the list above even though they may be in varying degrees. How skillful a person is in Parkour would depend on how much he has of the above-mentioned factors taken together.
But if a person only ever masters the performance of a few techniques, even if he gets better at performing those particular techniques, and can do them powerfully or fast enough, he still cannot be classified as skillful in Parkour because he lacks the above attributes that define skill.

Parkour Shoes

With summer here and Jams coming up a topic that comes up a lot is "what shoes should I wear?". Well that is a very personal question really. Do they have a tight budget, do they like minimalist shoes and how long have they been training? All these questions have to be considered, and they have been many times. Luckily Zach Cohn wrote a list of parkour shoes that are viable options. And While he himself states it's "not exhaustive" he does a good job of getting plenty of shoes in there.
To get the full article read on.....

As parkour has grown in popularity, a lot of companies have created and sold parkour shoes. A lot of people ask me what is the best shoe for Parkour, so I’ve put together this guide to the most common shoes people might suggest for Parkour. This is by no means an exhaustive list, these are just the most common ones that I have enough experience with to review.

One quick note: I am a big fan of minimalist shoes. There’s a lot of research out there that shows that the more padding and cushioning a shoe has, the MORE damage it does to your feet, knees, and hips. That’s out of the scope of this article though.

Full disclosure: In early 2010 I received some free Ariakes from K-Swiss. This has not influenced my review, but I wanted to be transparent.

K-Swiss Ariake

4159FxC8LyL. AA300 Parkour Shoes and Reviews

K-Swiss Ariake Parkour Shoe

Price:
Around $100

Description:
This was the first shoe created and marketed specifically for Parkour. They’re made by K-Swiss. They sent a lot of free pairs out to traceurs a few years ago to help spread the word about being a Parkour shoe. Many people wearing Ariakes got theirs for free, either directly from K-Swiss or from someone who got them from K-Swiss. They also come in lots of different (and crazy) colors, which can be a pro or a con depending on your preference. :)

Pros:
- Pretty good grip on most surfaces in most conditions.
- Pretty flexible
- Flat, solid rubber sole. There’s no dumb plastic arch or anything like that.

Cons:
-Can be very slippery on wet metal objects (rails).
-Durability. The toe will rip open, and the lacing holes will start to rip. You can still wear the shoe, but it will sustain cosmetic and eventually structural damage fairly quickly.

Overall:
Definitely not a bad shoe. I like shoes with less padding, and while this shoe has some, it doesn’t have a ton. The quality is the biggest problem – the shoe will tear itself apart after 6-8 months of moderate use, 2-4 months of heavy use. The shoe is mostly leather, so it’s a nice shoe to wear to keep your feet slightly drier.

K-Swiss Ariake Lite Mesh

kswis264915 145897 lg Parkour Shoes and Reviews

K-Swiss Ariake Lite Mesh Parkour Shoe

Price:
Around $110

Description:
The Ariake Lite Mesh came out about a year after the Ariake and solved many of the problems with the original shoe. It replaced a lot of the leather with mesh, which made the shoe lighter and breathier. They improved the durability by redesigning the toe and the lace holes so they don’t get damaged as easily.

Pros:
- All the pros from the original Ariakes
- Lighter
- Much more durable

Cons:
- Slippery when on wet metal objects.
- Since the shoe is mostly made of mesh, it will absorb water rapidly.
- Very difficult to find.

Overall:
The Ariake Lite Mesh is one of my favorite Parkour shoes. The biggest downside is that they’re very hard to find. K-Swiss doesn’t sell them directly anymore, so you’ll have to search elsewhere online or get really lucky in a store.

Fiveten Freerunner

4131DEMnV0L. SY395 Parkour Shoes and Reviews

Fiveten Freerunner Parkour Shoe

Price:
$90

Description:
I haven’t owned a pair of these shoes, and so I don’t have extensive personal experience with them. I’ve tried on other peoples’ a few times, and then read a fair bit about them.

Pros:
- The rubber is extremely grippy. 5.10 originally made climbing shoes, so this makes a lot of sense.

Cons:
- The rubber is extremely grippy. This is also a con, because this extra grippiness can and will hide problems with technique.
- When wearing them, I found them to be a bit clunky. I had a lot of trouble “feeling” the ground under my feet, which makes me very uncomfortable. The padding was just too thick.

Overall:
- I’m not a big fan of these shoes (which is why I don’t own a pair). I don’t like the fact the thickness of them, and I think the extreme grip is actually a detriment to someone learning parkour. If I was in a wallrun contest, then I’d wear these Parkour shoes, but if I’m just training I’d prefer something more normal.

Feiyue

Feiyue Parkour Shoe

Price:
$15

Description:
These are really interesting shoes. They weren’t created for Parkour or ever marketed toward traceurs. These are originally martial arts shoes, and are often found in China Towns and martial arts stores. They have a cloth top, a thin, extremely flexible, and pretty grippy bottom, and they have simple laces. The most outstanding part of this shoe is it’s price – between $10 and $20. They only last 3 or 4 months, but they cost a fraction of the price of any of the other speciality parkour shoes. Many people buy 5 pairs of Feiyue’s at a time!

Pros:
- Extremely inexpensive.
- Very flexible.
- Very lightweight.
- Very little padding.

Cons:
- You’ll wear through the bottoms of them pretty fast.

Overall:
I love these shoes. They’re comfortable, flexible, light, and extremely cheap. Buy a couple pairs and be set for a year.

Vibram Five Fingers

81fQkNGeNoL. SL1500 Parkour Shoes and Reviews

Vibram Five Finger Parkour Shoes

Price:
Around $75

Description:
I love these shoes. I don’t have a pair yet, but they’re going to be my next shoe purchase. The ultimate minimalist shoe, there is essentially no padding, pretty good grip on most surfaces, and forces you to have perfect technique (in running and walking as well as Parkour!)

Pros:
- Extremely minimal padding. Expect your landing technique to improve dramatically.
- As long as you get the right size, expect a very snug fit. They shouldn’t be going anywhere!
- Paying a premium actually makes sense for these foot-fitting shoes, as opposed to other shoes that are basically just shells for your feet.
- Will force you to improve landing and precision technique.
- Will improve running technique, which can prevent or fix some foot, ankle, knee, and hip problems.

Cons:
- Can be dangerous if you don’t take it slow. It’s imperative you avoid big drops and precisions, at least until you build back up to them.
- Very little protection if something gets dropped on your foot or if you stub your toe.

Overall:
The Vibram Five Fingers are really great Parkour shoes. Some people like to “go big” and do big drops – I discourage this because it leads to a higher rate of injuries. If you want to go big, these will not be good shoes for you. If you want to improve your technique, if you want to train and prevent long term injuries, these will be great shoes for you. You’ll pay around the same price as other high end shoes, but these are definitely worth it.

Conclusion
For the dedicated traceur with no budget, I’d recommend the Vibram Five Fingers. If you don’t want to spend that much, but still want a great minimalist shoe, I’d definitely look into (a few pairs of) the Feiyues. If you aren’t interested in a minimalist shoe, the Ariake Lite Mesh and then the regular Ariake would be my recommendation.

That being said, if you’re just getting into parkour, you should ignore everything in this article for a few months. Head over to a general clothing store, find a pair of cheap $35 cross trainers and use those for a while. Technique is 90% of Parkour, owning “the right shoes” is only going to get you a bit farther, and until then it’ll just mask problems with your technique.

Things to look for in a cheap crosstrainer:
- No plastic arch on the bottom.
- Bottom isn’t slick. If you have to, put your foot in the shoe and rub it against a few surfaces to get an idea of how grippy it is.
- Not too much padding or cushioning.

Now get out there and start training! :)

Parkour in Architecture

As most of you know their are many Parkour practitioners down under. That is, there are lots of traceurs in Australia. In Brisbane Australia Christopher Rawlinson landed a radio interview on a popular radio show, Saturday Breakfast with Phil Smith. This is one interview you should definitely listen too. Read more to hear an interesting viewpoint on Parkour from a different set of eyes the eys of an architect.

Christopher Rawlinson is a master of architecture and a traceur. This gives him a viewpoint that few people in the world have. He sees the need for "play" but he also understands people want to "walk to work without getting knocked over." He loves Parkour but at the same time walks around "in the world of suits and ties" with people "who represent the establishment."

Cheryl Cole won't be on British 'X Factor,' either

After reportedly getting replaced on the U.S. version of "The X Factor," Cheryl Cole seems to have been dumped from the U.K. edition too.

The former Girls Aloud singer, who had been a judge on Britain's "X Factor" since 2008, was not included among the panel members announced by series producer Simon Cowell on Monday, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Those who did make the cut: Destiny's Child singer Kelly Rowland, "Take That" singer-songwriter Gary Barlow, Tulisa Contostavlos of British hip-hop band N-Dubz, and boy-band impresario Louis Walsh.

"These four will be totally up for it, and each of them bring a different attitude," said Cowell.

Cole's departure from the show may have been her own doing. According to the Hollywood Reporter, she is said to have snubbed Cowell after she was reportedly fired from the U.S. series. Cole, who is believed to have been let go because her English accent is too thick for American audiences, has since been supposedly replaced on the Fox show by Pussycat Dolls singer Nicole Scherzinger. Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul and music producer L.A. Reid make up the remainder of the judges' panel.

The U.S. edition of "The X Factor" premieres in September, and auditions are already underway.

Depp will be a legend, says 'Pirates' director

Edward Scissorhands. The Mad Hatter. Captain Jack Sparrow. Johnny Depp has played his share of quirky characters over the years, and according to "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" director Rob Marshall, they're just the types of roles that will make him a Hollywood legend.
“He's as vivid as those great stars of the past, Humphrey Bogart and Clark Gable and Errol Flynn," Marshall tells the L.A. Times. "Many, many, many years from now, when people look at this generation of Hollywood, he will be considered the great star of this era. He's his own thing and he takes major chances every single time he makes a film."

Marshall and "Pirates" producer Jerry Bruckheimer both believe Depp would have made a great silent-movie star.

"He's like a Rudolph Valentino," says Marshall. "He has such a command of expression without words. The humor and the feelings he can convey with his face alone is extraordinary. He's this consummate artist who is also like the nicest, most generous man."

Marshall compares Depp to Charlie Chaplin and swashbuckler Errol Flynn, and adds, "He's a throwback to another time. To me he is, honestly, a star from another time. He is that unique."

Do you agree that Depp is a legend in the making?