It’s a Start

In an effort to provide all of our Challenge competitors with a better understanding of the history, mechanics and rules, I’ve prepared a series of articles that will appear here on the BlogSpot as well as being sent to all the registered competitors in our database. There will be at least four Blog Posts in this series. So, here’s a start (pun intended). 

Three years ago, we significantly modified the race start procedure to remove the subjectivity of ruling on false starts. The compelling reason is that timing technology has advanced with speeds never before thought possible. Previously, ill-fated attempts would be made to recall the racers and restart the race. This had proved to be near impossible since the offending party would be well up the stairs and out of visual or even audible range. 

Computers are much better than humans in recognizing timed events. 

There are a number of sports in which time is the criteria by how the order of finish is determined. Reproduced in the next paragraph is text from Wikipedia. 

In sports, a false start is a movement by a participant before (or in some cases after) being signaled or otherwise permitted by the rules to start. Depending on the sport and the event, a false start can result in immediate disqualification of the athlete from further competition, a warning in which a subsequent false start would result in disqualification, or a penalty against the athlete's or team's field position. False starts are common in racing sports (such as swimming, track, sprinting and motor sports), where differences are made by fractions of a second that often cannot be comprehended by the human mind, and where anxiety to get the best start plays a role in the athletes' behavior. False starts are signalled by firing the starting gun twice.

A race that is started cleanly, on the contrary, is referred to as a fair start or clean start.

“Can’t you stand still for 2 seconds!?”

Sound familiar?

Well, that’s the requirement presently. And apparently, the answer for some is “no.”

In further reflection, it occurred to me that we might have made a mistake by using the NHRA (National Hot Rod Association) start system. You see, by doing so, we’ve imbued many competitors with this idea that like in drag racing, the guy who’s first off the line is likely to be the winner. Makes perfect sense when you consider the E.T.s for quarter mile races. But we’re not an event like NHRA Drag racing or the 100m sprint with a 9 second elapsed time. We’re a race event that more like 10 times 9 = 90 seconds or longer. 

So, by using a Christmas tree start system, we actually encourage our racers to see how fast they can react to the visual (not the audible) signal. So, get this: in track if you moved within .1 second after the firing of the gun, you’ve false started. The rationale is that humans cannot process information any faster than .1 seconds. So, clearly, you had to be moving before the actual start. The result is disqualification. This has pretty much eliminated the “gaming” of the start in track events. Not so for us. There seems to be a disproportionate focus on the reaction time to the light (versus the siren) in an attempt to get the fastest start.

So, we‘ve asked this question continuously, “Why would you risk a five-second penalty to gain- what, a .5 second benefit in a race that lasts up to two minutes?” 

The Auto-Start feature did accomplish what we had hoped it would: the referee’s judgment was replaced by precision from a computer. But, competitors continue to believe that they have been treated unfairly when they get a red light. No one is ever guilty. And we seemingly can’t shake the idea that the outcome of the race is not decided by who’s off the line first. With 90-120 seconds to play with, there are a lot of other places where significant time can be made up, versus the milliseconds of gaming the start.

In our beta testing of the current start system, we had a number of athletes who false started and were incredulous that they had moved. Not until they were shown the video tape did they realize their fidgeting before the green light was sensed by the pressure pads.

In my next posting, I’m going to discuss what happened in Verona, at the New York Association of Fire Chief’s Annual Convention, the application of the rules, and the implications for the future.

Drivers: Start Your Engines...Days of Thunder

The Charlotte Coca-Cola 600 (May 26) was my first NASCAR event. It was also the first time that the Firefighter Combat Challenge® visited a motor-sports event. I have to admit that I approached this venue with some degree of aloofness. Sharing 2,000 acres of real estate with about 250,000 somewhat inebriated rednecks was not exactly my first choice for the Memorial Day weekend. But, our presenting sponsor, LiftMaster (the garage door opener/control people) were paying and the prospects of large crowds were enticing. 

We were staged just outside of Gate 16 on a nearly perfectly flat asphalt pad that had been used in prior years by Dodge as well as some errant donut burners- as evidenced by the black burnouts decorating the pavement. The weather was spectacular and the crowds enthusiastic. Pit crews from some of the race cars participated in our event, as did a team of Wounded Warriors who were playing in a softball tournament on Memorial Day. 

A foreboding sense of what awaited us inside as the cars were running tune-up laps only a few hundred meters away. Already the noise levels were permeating the ambiance of our competition- not that we don't create our own cacophony, but not like being on the approach glide path of incoming F-15s. 

View of a NASCAR Car Hauler and Support Trailer

We caught the History 300 on the 25th; but the big event, NASCAR’s longest race turned out to be a real treat. The Chief of Staff of the Air Force, 3 Medal of Honorees, Chairman of the Coca-Cola Board, the 82nd Airborne Chorus, LtCol Oliver North, Governors, Senators, Congressman, were all on the dais.  I’m still attempting to rap my head around the notion of the Duck Dynasty “Star” giving the invocation. 

Robin Meade did a great job with the National Anthem. Some 70 y.o. airframes - P-51 Mustangs did a fly over. And the biggest US flag you’ve ever seen was unfurled. 

The events of the weekend culminated with some great races and we retired to the Luxury Skybox Suite of LiftMaster- a great place from which to watch the action in air-conditioned comfort. But the best part was the HOT pass and the time in the pits. 

Here’s a video link to give you an idea of the excitement. I sat in upper level of the Cart and watched the “physiology” of the #1 car. All of this was absolutely fascinating. 

http://youtu.be/ybbwoGBICYU

The view of the Coca-Cola 600 from the LiftMaster Skybox

The #1 Car’s “Physiology” is monitored remotely by computer

James Doolittle and the Raiders

By Bob Greene CNN Contributor 

It's the cup of brandy no one wants to drink.

On Tuesday, in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, the surviving Doolittle Raiders gathered publicly for the last time.

They once were among the most universally admired and revered men in the United States. There were 80 of the Raiders in April 1942, when they carried out one of the most courageous and heart-stirring military operations in this nation's history. The mere mention of their unit's name, in those years, would bring tears to the eyes of grateful Americans.

Now only four survive.

After Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, with the United States reeling and wounded, something dramatic was needed to turn the war effort around. Even though there were no friendly airfields close enough to Japan for the United States to launch a retaliation, a daring plan was devised. Sixteen B-25s were modified so that they could take off from the deck of an aircraft carrier. This had never been tried before -- sending big, heavy bombers from a carrier.

The 16 five-man crews, under the command of Lt. Col. James Doolittle, who himself flew the lead plane off the USS Hornet, knew that they would not be able to return to the carrier. They would have to hit Japan and then hope to make it to China for a safe landing.

But on the day of the raid, the Japanese navy caught sight of the carrier. The Raiders were told that they would have to take off from much farther out in the Pacific than they had counted on. They were told that because of this they would not have enough fuel to make it to safety.

And those men went anyway.

They bombed Tokyo, and then flew as far as they could. Four planes crash-landed; 11 more crews bailed out, and three of the Raiders died. Eight more were captured; three were executed. Another died of starvation in a Japanese prison camp. One crew made it to Russia.

The Doolittle Raid sent a message from the United States to its enemies, and to the rest of the world:

We will fight. And, no matter what it takes, we will win.

Of the 80 Raiders, 62 survived the war. They were celebrated as national heroes, models of bravery. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer produced a motion picture based on the raid; "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo," starring Spencer Tracy and Van Johnson, was a patriotic and emotional box-office hit, and the phrase became part of the national lexicon. In the movie-theater previews for the film, MGM proclaimed that it was presenting the story "with supreme pride."

Beginning in 1946, the surviving Raiders have held a reunion each April, to commemorate the mission. The reunion is in a different city each year. In 1959, the city of Tucson, Arizona, as a gesture of respect and gratitude, presented the Doolittle Raiders with a set of 80 silver goblets. Each goblet was engraved with the name of a Raider.

Every year, a wooden display case bearing all 80 goblets is transported to the reunion city. Each time a Raider passes away, his goblet is turned upside down in the case at the next reunion, as his old friends bear solemn witness.

Also in the wooden case is a bottle of 1896 Hennessy Very Special cognac. The year is not happenstance: 1896 was when Jimmy Doolittle was born.

There has always been a plan: When there are only two surviving Raiders, they would open the bottle, at last drink from it, and toast their comrades who preceded them in death.

As 2013 began, there were five living Raiders; then, in February, Tom Griffin passed away at age 96.

What a man he was. After bailing out of his plane over a mountainous Chinese forest after the Tokyo raid, he became ill with malaria, and almost died. When he recovered, he was sent to Europe to fly more combat missions. He was shot down, captured, and spent 22 months in a German prisoner of war camp.

The selflessness of these men ... there was a passage in the Cincinnati Enquirer obituary for Mr. Griffin that, on the surface, had nothing to do with the war, but that captures the depth of his sense of duty and devotion:

"When his wife became ill and needed to go into a nursing home, he visited her every day. He walked from his house to the nursing home, fed his wife and at the end of the day brought home her clothes. At night, he washed and ironed her clothes. Then he walked them up to her room the next morning. He did that for three years until her death in 2005."

So now, out of the original 80, only four Raiders remain: Dick Cole (Doolittle's co-pilot on the Tokyo raid), Robert Hite, Edward Saylor and David Thatcher. All are in their 90s. They have decided that there are too few of them for the public reunions to continue.

The events in Fort Walton Beach this week will mark the end. It has come full circle; Florida's nearby Eglin Field was where the Raiders trained in secrecy for the Tokyo mission.

The town is planning to do all it can to honor the men: a six-day celebration of their valor, including luncheons, a dinner and a parade.

Do the men ever wonder if those of us for whom they helped save the country have tended to it in a way that is worthy of their sacrifice? They don't talk about that, at least not around other people. But if you find yourself near Fort Walton Beach this week, and if you should encounter any of the Raiders, you might want to offer them a word of thanks. I can tell you from firsthand observation that they appreciate hearing that they are remembered.

The men have decided that after this final public reunion they will wait until a later date -- some time this year -- to get together once more, informally and in absolute privacy. That is when they will open the bottle of brandy. The years are flowing by too swiftly now; they are not going to wait until there are only two of them.

They will fill the four remaining upturned goblets.

And raise them in a toast to those who are gone.

Firefighter gets healthy after life-changing event

From the North Oaks News

By Kathy Laur/Editor

The death of a parent is difficult to imagine for those who haven’t gone through that loss, and the idea that you could die someday in the same way can be scary — maybe even alarming enough to inspire you to make some significant lifestyle changes.

North Oaks resident Jeff Rhein experienced this firsthand with the death of his father at the young age of 64 from prostate cancer in September 2011. Both of his grandfathers also had prostate cancer at the time of their deaths.

Most prostate cancers are slow-growing; however, there are cases of aggressive prostate cancers. Globally, it is the sixth-leading cause of cancer-related death in men. In the United States it is the second. Many men with prostate cancer never have symptoms or undergo therapy, and eventually die of other unrelated causes. Numerous factors, among them genetics and diet, have been implicated in the development of prostate cancer.

During the last year of his father’s life, Rhein was extremely motivated to get in shape.  Having to travel often for work as a territory manager for a company that manufactures fire apparatus (trucks), he was eating poorly and wasn’t exercising. Also employed as a firefighter on the Lake Johanna Fire Department, Rhein set a goal to train for a competition called the “Scott Firefighter Combat Challenge,” which is held several times a year. Firefighters around the world participate in the demanding, five-event physical challenge and try to complete the course with the fastest time. Competition events include a stair climb with a high-rise pack, hose hoist, forcible entry, hose advance, and a victim rescue. The primary purpose for the Scott Challenge is to promote physical fitness, an essential part of structural firefighting.

“Originally, I was planning on doing the competition the first week in October 2011,” Rhein said, “but with my dad’s passing in September, it had to be postponed. I’m now planning on doing the competition in April in Indianapolis.”

Rhein plans to compete in memory of his dad. “He went through some tough last months on this earth and for me, mentally having a mission and a goal to compete in the challenge and finish helped me immensely to get through that time,” Rhein said.

In his early 20’s, Rhein worked out 2 to 3 hours a day and was diligent about his eating habits. Between the ages of 25 and 40, his life seemed to be about everything but fitness. Family, work, house, vacations, etc. all took precedence over his health. At that point in his life, he was 5 feet 11 inches tall and weighed 268 pounds.

Jeff Rhein, Regional VP Pierce Manufacturing

Rhein now hits the gym by 5:15 a.m. at least six days a week and stays at hotels with workout facilities in them or nearby. “It’s really about planning more than anything,” he says. He includes 30 minutes of cardio and resistance training into his workouts and mixes it up weekly. Now at 194 pounds, he has begun his final phase of training for the contest: he exercises in his heavy firefighting gear.
Rhein feels obligated to do his part in an effort to inform men, especially those over the age of 40, about prostate cancer and staying physically fit. He said, “Any doctor will tell you to cut back on the obvious stuff and exercise, but everyone has their own way of doing that. Finding that balance and making it a lifestyle change is what will make you successful.”

Jeff’s “Before” photo

Editor’s note: Jeff finished with gas in his tank at the FDIC this year and is looking forward to going sub 2 in the not too distant future. 

A Double Standard?

Since we spend a significant amount of money each year (as do some of you) on airline travel, this article in today’s Washington Post seemed like something that should be shared.

George F. Will Why Judicial Activism Matters

"The legislative department is everywhere extending the sphere of its activity, and drawing all power into its impetuous vortex." -- James Madison, Federalist 48 WASHINGTON -- But under today's regulatory state, which Madison could hardly have imagined, the legislature, although still a source of much mischief, is not the principal threat to liberty. Suppose a federal executive department flagrantly abused its regulatory powers for the unmistakable purpose of suppressing truthful speech that annoys the government. If you assume the Supreme Court would rectify this assault on the First Amendment's core protection, you would be mistaken. The government has done this and the court has declined to do its duty to enforce constitutional limits. Herewith an illustration of why conservatives must abandon their imprecise opposition to "judicial activism" and advocate for more vigorous judicial engagement in protecting liberty from the vortex of the regulatory state. Spirit, Allegiant and Southwest are low-cost carriers that have thrived since the deregulation of the airline industry, which began in 1978. The government retains a narrow authority to prevent deceptive advertising practices. But as the airlines argued in petitioning the Supreme Court to hear their case, the government is micromanaging their speech merely to prevent the public from understanding the government's tax burdens. The government's Total Price Rule forbids the airlines from calling attention to the tax component of the price of a ticket by listing the price the airline charges and then the tax component with equal prominence. The rule mandates that any listing of the tax portion of a ticket's price "not be displayed prominently and be presented in significantly smaller type than the listing of the total price." The government is trying to prevent people from clearly seeing the burdens of government. These three low-cost carriers compete for the most price-conscious travelers, and want to tell those travelers which portion of a ticket's cost the airlines control. The government, far from regulating to prevent customer confusion, is trying to prevent customers from understanding the taxes and fees that comprise approximately 20 percent of the average airline ticket. Timothy Sandefur, of the public-interest, limited-government Pacific Legal Foundation, notes that decades ago the Supreme Court, without justification in the Constitution's text, structure or history, created a binary First Amendment. So today the amendment gives different degrees of protection to two kinds of speech -- strong protection to political speech, minimal protection to commercial speech. The court has never clearly defined the latter but has suggested that commercial speech proposes a commercial transaction between the speaker and the audience. And the court has held that freedom of commercial speech cannot be abridged if the speech is neither false nor deceptive nor related to an illegal activity. Note two things. The airlines' speech the government is regulating with the Total Price Rule would be protected even if it were just commercial speech. And it actually is political speech: It calls its audience's attention to, and invites disapproval of, government policy. In permitting the government's regulation of this speech, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia held, 2-1, that the Total Price Rule "does not prohibit airlines from saying anything; it just requires them to disclose the total, final price and to make it the most prominent figure in their advertisements." But this ignores the government's obvious purpose of preventing the airlines from drawing attention to the government's exactions. In their brief asking the Supreme Court to reverse the D.C. Circuit's decision, the airlines noted that the government is forbidding them to do what virtually every American industry does -- advertise the pre-tax price of their products. Shirts and shoes and salamis are sold with the pre-tax sum on the price tag. D.C. Circuit Judge A. Raymond Randolph, dissenting from the court's permission of this unauthorized and indefensible regulation, asked: How can the government's supposed interest in consumers having "accurate" information be served by requiring "significantly smaller" typefaces for taxes and fees that make up a larger share of the prices of the low-cost airlines than of the older airlines? Randolph said the government's purpose is "to control and to muffle speakers who are critical of the government." Government is violating one of the natural rights that the Founders said government is "instituted" (the Declaration's word) to protect. This episode confirms conservatism's premise that today's government is guilty of shabby behavior until proven innocent. And conservatives enable such behavior when their unreflective denunciations of judicial "activism" encourage excessive judicial deference toward the modern executive's impetuous vortex.

How About This Idea? Pay by the Kilo?

U.S fliers believe obese should buy second seat

Americans are getting bigger; airplanes are flying fuller, and the price of jet fuel remains stubbornly high. Is the solution to too many "seatmates of size" to weigh passengers in the terminal?

According to a public opinion survey by YouGov, an Internet market research company, 4 in 10 Americans say they wouldn't mind being publicly weighed at the airport. Conducted April 12–14, the results suggest that a once-unthinkable concept could become a fact of life for fliers.

“The airlines are always looking to reduce weight or the cost of carrying it,” said YouGov Senior Vice President Ray Martin, “and we’re finding that more people don’t seem to mind the concept.”

One airline, in fact, has already begun charging by the combined weight of passengers and their baggage. With a fleet of small planes and a local population with the highest obesity rates in the world, Samoa Air now charges passengers 93 cents to $1.06 per kilogram, depending on the flight.

“If Samoa Air can do it, then there’s scope for other airlines to follow suit,” said Martin, adding that “whoever it does it first is going to take the flak.”

They’d also take the brunt of any claims of discrimination: “If you’re going to treat people like freight, then you have to accommodate those people the way freight carriers do,” said Peggy Howell, spokesperson for the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (NAAFA).

“Freight carriers don’t try to fit a big box into a space the size of a 17-inch seat,” she told NBC News. “Are airlines going to reconfigure their planes so you have small, medium and large seats for passengers of different weights? Anything less would be discriminatory.”

As for the 40 percent of people who favor pre-flight weigh-ins, they might give new meaning to the phrase "penny wise, pound foolish." For airlines operating hundreds of flights and carrying thousands of passengers per day, implementation would likely be a nightmare, says George Hobica of AirfareWatchdog.com.

“You’d have to get to the airport two or three hours early; flights would be delayed, and you’d need more staff so it could lead to higher fares,” he told NBC News. "People just think they don't want fat people on planes but it would slow everything down — and planes on the ground don't make money."

A more sensible approach, says Hobica, would be for airlines to enforce so-called second-seat rules in which passengers are charged for a second seat if they can’t fit in a single seat with the armrest down. Such policies vary from airline to airline and are often inconsistently applied, which can further aggravate what is already an uncomfortable situation for all concerned.

In fact, according to Martin, 63 percent of survey respondents agreed that passengers should be required to buy a second seat if they couldn’t fit in a single seat with the armrest down.

“If you pay money for a seat, you expect to have use of all of it,” he said, “and even larger people said that if you don’t fit into one seat, you should pay.”

And that, suggests Martin, could be a first small step toward pay-by-the-pound flying beyond the South Pacific: “People are already comfortable with the two-seat concept,” he told NBC News. “That could be the way for the airlines to move along toward the point where they start weighing people.”

Hobica, on the other hand, says it will never happen, although he does see one potential benefit if the idea ever becomes standard operating procedure.

"A lot of people don't even weigh themselves once a year," he said. "It could be a good reality check for people and good for the health of the American public.

Rob Lovitt is a longtime travel writer who still believes the journey is as important as the destination. Follow him on Twitter.

Milwaukee FD In the News

This short news feature caught my eye.

http://fox6now.com/2013/03/13/firefighters-focus-on-health-wellness-nutrition-to-aid-in-fighting-fires/#ooid=F0NjM2YToD6G5BRvCbLnUlKP7W8HG0qy?utm_source=Testimonial&utm_campaign=february+2013&utm_medium=email

On the one hand, as a citizen of the city (or any municipality), you might say, “That’s impressive.” But then again, “What’s taken us so long?”

It’s 2013. By some accounts, the fitness movement in this country peaked around 1979- based upon survey data from the general population. I can tell you that there appeared to be a great awakening within the fire service for the need for physical fitness during the 1970’s.

I was in constant demand as a speaker at conferences across the country. My company was contracted to prepare instructional materials, implement pilot programs and conduct Fitness Coordinator training certification. We conducted over 100, 40-hour programs. And then, like a lot initiatives in the fire service, it petered out.

A couple of years ago, I attended the educational sessions associated with the Congressional Fire Service Institute in Washington, D.C. The topic of discussion was the 16 initiatives for the “Everyone Goes Home” program. I listened incredulously to some fire chiefs who were pleading ignorance on how to get their departments physically fit. Really? Is it that hard.

All of this validates my theory that fitness is not a priority. Take a look at the recruit classes. Are these people really the best we can muster? If fitness was a priority, we’d hire the best. I could be wrong, but I don’t think that my eyes are deceiving me.