NowX July 2019

NowX July 2019

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MINTY SHOES DON’T TASTE GOOD – OTHERWISE KNOWN AS ‘FOOT IN MOUTH’ FROM THE DESK OF Terri It’s interesting to look back and laugh at the inaccuracies of the comments from experts! “I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.” –Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943 “Everyone acquainted with the subject will recognize it as a conspicuous failure.” –Henry Morton, president of the Stevens Institute of Technology, on Edison’s light bulb, 1880 “There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.” –Ken Olson, chairman & founder of Digital Equipment, 1977 “This ‘telephone’ has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication.

FROMNICHE INTEREST TO NATIONAL PASTIME F itness C ulture in A merica

America is a nation obsessed with fitness. According to the International Health, Racquet, and Sportsclub Association, over 60 million Americans are members of a gym or health club. Athleisure apparel, clothes designed for both the gym and everyday wear, is a multibillion- dollar industry, and a significant percentage of magazines you’ll find at the airport are devoted to, you guessed it, health and fitness. With the popularity of fitness culture at an all- time high, it’s easy to forget that working out is a relatively new national pastime. The history of fitness is a fascinating one that includes both the ColdWar and Arnold Schwarzenegger. In honor of Independence Day, let’s take a moment to explore this phenomenon. “Thinking of exercise as a foregone conclusion would be a mistake,”writes Shelly McKenzie in “Getting Physical: The Rise of Fitness Culture in America.”“The acceptance of exercise was a gradual process, and one that was met with tremendous opposition.”That may be hard to believe today, but you have to remember that in 1960, nearly 50% of American adults regularly smoked. Our idea of what constitutes a healthy lifestyle has transformed radically since then.

The device is inherently of no value to us.” –Western Union internal memo, 1876 “Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons.” –Popular Mechanics, 1949

“640 kilobytes [computer storage space] ought to be enough for anybody.” – Bill Gates, 1981

“My business is not really a target for hackers.” –Name withheld, 2019

-Terri

PHYSICAL FITNESS AS A FORM OF NATIONAL PRIDE

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Athletics has always been a way for Americans to prove their mettle against competitors from around the world. Think of Jesse Owens winning a gold medal in front of Adolf Hitler or Joe Louis’ defeat of Max Schmeling. This concept was never more apparent than during the ColdWar. The Soviet Union invested immense resources into developing national

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sporting and fitness programs in an effort to demonstrate superiority. During this long- simmering conflict, the Olympics evolved into more than just a venue for individual excellence; they became a referendum on cultural supremacy. Watching the rise of Soviet athletes, leaders at home rushed to create programs that prioritized physical fitness. “Physical fitness is not only one of the most important keys to a healthy body,” President John F. Kennedy told the nation. “It is the basis of dynamic and creative intellectual activity.”The trajectory of fitness culture has continually trended upward since JFK uttered those words. A Vox article, wonderfully titled “When Running for Exercise Was for Weirdos,” notes the existence of a 1968 Chicago Tribune piece detailing a new phenomenon: jogging. Seeing runners dot the roads is a regular occurrence for most of us, but it used to be reserved for boxers and other professional athletes. There EDUCATING THE PUBLIC

are even stories of regular folks being tailed by the cops simply because they went for a run.

‘80s progressed, America’s appetite for exercise grew to epic proportions. You couldn’t turn on the TV without seeing an ad for a program designed to make you look and feel great.

As Americans grew more interested in fitness, they sought out ways to effectively work out. Before the internet, that meant scouring libraries for books and relying on word of mouth. The science itself was also in its infancy. Nobody had studied different exercise types or how much exercise we needed. Unsurprisingly, an approach that favored heavyweights and big muscles was one of the first trends to emerge. Released in 1977, the documentary “Pumping Iron” explored the world of bodybuilding and introduced Americans to a muscle-bound Austrian named Arnold Schwarzenegger. Not long after its debut, an increasing number of people — usually young men — began showing up to places like Gold’s Gym in Venice Beach looking to get jacked. Five years later, Jane Fonda released the first of her many aerobics videos, providing fitness instruction to a much wider audience. As the

EXERCISE SCIENCE GROWS UP

As getting fit became a bigger concern for the general population, figuring out how to get fit became a preoccupation in academia. In 2016, more than 25,000 undergraduates received a degree in kinesiology, aka exercise science. These folks and their professors research the safest and most effective ways to approach fitness. The days of Hulk Hogan appearing as a beacon of wellness and telling us to “say our prayers and eat our vitamins” have long since passed. For many, the gym is their “third place,” the spot where they are most likely to be aside from home and work. That’s easy to take for granted in 2019, but it’s important to remember that exercise in America, like America itself, didn’t come from nowhere.

ON THE TRAIL OF THE MADDEN CURSE Truth, Lies, and Superstition

There is no urban legend in the world of modern video games as well-documented as the so-called “Madden Curse.”The curse revolves around the highly sought-after cover spot of the popular NFL video game “Madden NFL,” formerly known as “John Madden Football.”While the games date back to 1988, the curse is said to originate with the 1999 version. Garrison Hearst, a popular running back at the time, broke his ankle shortly after being featured on the cover of the 1999 edition. This was the first in a long line of injuries and personal issues that resulted in the rumor gaining traction. Soon, the idea that the game’s seemingly innocent cover could have devastating effects on a player’s career was widespread. Once a substantial honor in

the world of football, the Madden cover spot has become one of the sport’s most feared superstitions for fans. The players, however, seem to find the correlation more amusing than scary. Most of the athletes in contention for the spot still consider it to be a great honor, choosing to brush off the rumors as coincidence. Despite the ambivalence of many players, there does seem to be a correlation between the cover and player issues. Of the 22 players who have been featured on the cover, 16 of them have suffered from significant issues in the season that followed. While the causes varied, with severe injuries, contract disputes, and personal issues all afflicting different players,

something about the spotlight appears to have disturbed the powers that be. In fact, sometimes these issues occur shortly after the game is released in stores. Whatever the true cause, the curse seems to have taken a dip in recent years. Only one of the last five players has been affected, a stat that bodes well for this year’s star: Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes. The real answer probably lies somewhere between fact and fiction. The increased pressure of national attention is bound to make players tense up every once in a while, and in a game as physical as football, any distraction can end in disaster.

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Everyone with a smartphone has heard time and time again that looking at your phone before bed is a bad idea. According to the National Sleep Foundation, “The use of electronic devices in the bedroom further disrupts the natural pattern of the sleep-wake cycle” primarily because of the blue light emitted from the screen. While most scientific >Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4

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