CYNTHIA YOCKEY: YES, deconditioning IS a medical condition.

THE SCIENCE OF THE WET-DOG SHAKE:

There’s a certain expression a wet dog wears as it trots up to you, a kind of gleam in the eye that says, “I’m about to shake so vigorously that in a mere 4 seconds, 70 percent of the water in my fur will fly off of my coat and on to you.”

But the wet-dog shake, though it’s an annoyance to us, may be a survival technique to dogs. The water that sticks to a mammal’s fur can lower its body temperature, causing hypothermia, so it behooves wild animals to get rid of all that water as quickly and efficiently as possible.

To find out just how efficient the wet-dog method is, researchers from the Hu lab at Georgia Tech filmed 33 different wet zoo mammals from rats to kangaroos to lions and tigers and bears (oh yes) with high-speed cameras and analyzed the motion of their bodies, skin, and fur. Their research was first published back in 2010, but their latest study, published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface, improves their mathematical model of the wet-dog shake and reveals how much force the furballs can generate. (The paper is not yet online; we will provide a link when it becomes available.)

Dogs shake with a characteristic oscillation, twisting their bodies from side to side at a set frequency to generate so much centripetal force that water droplets go flying. The shaking animals observed in this study generated forces 10 to 70 times greater than gravity, a feat that was easier for the larger mammals.

Just stay clear.

HAVING A BAD DAY: Driver swerves to avoid moose, hits bear instead.

TO BE FAIR, HE’S ONLY COMPETING AGAINST JOE BIDEN: Rex Murphy: In the battle of the vice-presidents, Ryan wins by a knockout. “It was almost funny to hear some Democrats try to portray Ryan as a ‘dangerous,’ too ‘bold’ choice for Romney, exactly at the same time Biden was out on the campaign trail playing to the script of some movie only he could see. In less than two days he gave the world to understand he thinks it is still the 20th century, misnamed the state he was speaking in and most viciously, gave one of the crudest, most demeaning racist shoutouts ever.”

Remember, putting Slow Joe a heartbeat away from the nuclear button was Obama’s first executive decision.

VLADIMIR PUTIN IS SCARED OF GIRLS: The New York Post on the Pussy Riot Persecution.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: “For more than a decade Emory University intentionally misreported data about its students to groups that rank colleges.”

The higher education bubble is looking more like the subprime bubble all the time.

PROF. JACOBSON: So when does the media put Biden’s qualification to be President on trial?

WELL, IT WORKED: The Marilyn Monroe Diet: Eggs, Meat…And Ice Cream? And yet — though people still think of her as zaftig — she was “teeny tiny.” In fact, “She was sort of like Kate Moss but fleshier on top.”

Gary Taubes is no doubt nodding. And while her weight-training regimen didn’t reach Mark Rippetoe levels, it was ahead of its time.

TRACY QUAN: Helen Gurley Brown and the sexual freedom wars. “Sometimes the most vicious, unsympathetic disagreements are those which occur between liberals and radicals.”

AT AMAZON, top deals in Cell Phones & Accessories.

Also, today only: Eureka Quick-Up Cordless 2-in-1 Stick Vacuum with Bonus Filter, $28.99.

HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): Gallup: August Unemployment Not Looking Good.

Hey, let’s run that graphic again:

UPDATE: A Big Version Of The Biggest Chart In American Politics.

READER STUART GITTELMAN WRITES: “They told me if I voted Republican we’d see failing, unprofitable companies with crappy products lay off thousands of workers while their corporate executives got huge payouts and there wouldn’t be a whiff of criticism about it from the president. AND THEY WERE RIGHT!” NY Times boss Thompson eyes $8m payday.

PJTV: Klavan’s Economic Smackdown: Paul Ryan vs. Barack Obama.

LIFE IN THE ERA OF HOPE AND CHANGE: Video: Bodega Clerk Slashed Across Face For Not Accepting Food Stamps For Beer.

IN RESPONSE TO MY REVIEW of the FitDesk laptop exercise bicycle, reader Wilfrid Nixon writes:

I wanted to write and thank you for your review of the Fitdesk X Compact Pedal Desk. Based on your review, I ordered it and it has exceeded my expectations. As you indicated, it was easy to set up. But for me it may have finally cracked my exercise problem. I have never enjoyed exercise and have always viewed it as an intrusion on other things, but now, it intrudes no longer! I have been able since getting the Fitdesk to do about an hour a day of gentle pedaling while also checking e-mails and the like. Whether I will still be doing this in a year’s time remains to be seen, but I have made a much better start than with any other exercise I have begun. Of course, the exercise itself is not very vigorous, but that does not matter right now.

So, thank you. Your recommendation has been just great for me so far. I will write and let you know this time next year whether it is still functioning as intended for me!

We still like it.

XKCD ON “Clinically Studied Ingredients.”

ROMNEY PUNCHES BACK TWICE AS HARD:

In the Medicare debate, schoolyard rules apply: Punch the bully in the mouth twice as hard.

It’s impossible to have a reasonable discussion with people who insist you are going to “kill people” (Paul Krugman’s words). If Vice President Biden hasn’t yet said that the Romney-Ryan Medicare premium support plan will lead to the reinstitution of chattel slavery, just wait until the next time he gets worked up before a largely African-American audience.

Never before, though, have Democrats passed the largest Medicare cuts in history immediately prior to launching their tried-and-true assault. This time, it is a case of the pot calling the kettle a danger to America’s seniors.

Confronted with Obama’s Medicare cuts, Democrats and their friends in the media resort to denial.

On “Meet the Press” the other day, I asked Rachel Maddow if she supported the $700 billion in cuts, and she simply wouldn’t say. Here was the Oxford-educated pride of liberal punditry professing to have no opinion on a primary means of funding what she considers a glorious legislative achievement.

Read the whole thing.

RICH PEOPLE WITH CLOSE TIES TO POLITICIANS: The New York Times doesn’t mind, unless they’re Republicans.

DAVID HARSANYI: What Gives With Henry Blodget? “If Blodget wants to pretend that paying taxes is a patriotic and moral enterprise, rather than simply a necessity, that’s his choice as a liberal. But his consistent mischaracterization and simplification of the his opponent’s opinions is irksome.”

Perhaps he’d care to release ten years of his tax returns.

UPDATE: Senator Blutarsky writes:

Here’s the thing about Henry Blodget and Mitt Romney: Both guys made millions of dollars in the financial sector. Only one of them did it in ways that got him banned from the securities industry. Spoiler alert: It wasn’t Mitt.

And Graeme Hein emails: “Since Henry has a lifetime ban from the securities industry, he’s in an interesting position to try to claim to be holier than thou. Much like Client #9, his colleague on the Slate attempted leftist redemption team.”

Here’s some Blodget-Spitzer background.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Will Allen writes:

I can’t tell you how sickening it is for me to hear the guy who has responsibility for law enforcement in this country talk about his opponent’s tax returns, after he enlisted, as a major bundler, a former Senator and Governor, who then oversaw a company in which hundreds of millions, in what were supposed to be SEGREGATED ACCOUNTS, simply disappeared! Who then testified in front of Congress that he simply had no idea where the money went! With the DoJ now saying no prosecutions are likely! With the Senator/Governor/bundler/money vanisher now reported to be mulling over whether he should start up a hedge fund!

I thought I had seen it all. I was wrong.

These are the Crazy Years.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Higher Education Invests in Marketing: “The Wall Street Journal reports that a number of universities, wary of the public perception that the degrees they offer may not be worth the student loan burden, have taken to hiring highly-paid “CMOs” (Chief Marketing Officers) to build their brands and coordinate their admissions offices’ sales pitch. Although many in academia disdain corporate marketing methods, the practice is becoming increasingly common.”

They’d be smarter to lower tuition and increase value, but that would require sacrifice by internal constituencies. I agree with Peter Thiel here: “If you need large marketing budgets, it suggests that something has gone wrong with the substance of the product.”

PUBLIC HEALTH: Memo to greens: Maybe grocery bags should be disposable for a reason.

THESE ARE THE CRAZY YEARS: Lunch lady faces fine for feeding poor kids in Pennsylvania.

STANDING UP TO HATRED: Lady Gaga Strikes Back at ‘Abusive, Childish’ PETA.

APPARATCHIK DEFENDS THE APPARAT: Tea Party Attacked By Democrats For Education Reform.