I’ve always thought that stretching would unambiguously help muscles. But it appears that things aren’t that simple. From the NY Times:

The truth is that after dozens of studies and years of debate, no one really knows whether stretching helps, harms, or does anything in particular for performance or injury rates. Yet most athletes remain convinced that stretching helps, and recently more and more have felt a sort of social pressure to show that they are limber, in part due to the popularity of yoga. Flexibility has become another area where many athletes want to excel.

…
Some athletes — gymnasts, hurdlers and swimmers among them — may need to stretch to gain the flexibility they need for their sport, Dr. McHugh said.

But distance runners do not benefit from being flexible, he found. The most efficient runners, those who exerted the least effort to maintain a pace, were the stiffest.

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Don Boudreaux at Cafe Hayek has a good answer for those who accuse us free marketeers of being “shill for industry.”

If I were a shill for industry…I would oppose free markets. Free markets, after all, are markets open to competition that invariably keeps the profits of existing firms from remaining excessive and, often, even bankrupts firms once thought to be invincible industry leaders. Existing firms almost all deplore competition in their industries. They seek government regulations that hamstring rivals and potential rivals. And, of course, firms are forever pleading for “protection” from foreign competition.

I just wrote a book (“Globalization“) in which I make a strong and principled case for completely free trade – not free trade sometimes, for some firms, under some circumstances, with some qualifications, but free trade always, for all firms, under all circumstances, and with no qualifications.

Whether my book’s case for unalloyed free trade is correct or not, it is surely not the sort of book that causes the heads of many corporate CEOs to nod in eager agreement. The typical reaction of business people whenever they hear or read me make my case for genuinely free trade is to say something like, “Professor Boudreaux, you don’t understand the peculiarities of my industry.” And then each executive launches into a laundry list of excuses for why Congress should protect his industry from foreign rivals.

If I were an industry shill …

• I’d express agreement with these self-serving claims and do my best in my writings and speeches to make a case for “fair trade,” or “balanced trade,” or “trade that’s in our national interest” — but never for free trade.

From Flickr: uploaded by Sabby3000.

I’m growing more and more skeptical that politicians know anything about energy. For example, here’s Rep. Eric Cantor completely misstating the role of oil in the US economy:

“It is high time that we look long term at what is good for our economy here in America. And there is no question that long-term economic health here requires that we get control of our energy policy because, over the long term, we can’t allow American jobs and American prosperity to be held hostage to foreign oil. So that means that we in the federal government need to be pushing alternative energy sources and investment in those sources—such as wind, solar and nuclear power—to decrease and get rid of our dependence on foreign oil.” [March 10, 2008 on 1140 WRVA in Richmond, Va.]

Eric Cantor is not a nobody. He is the Republicans’ Chief Deputy Whip in the House. And yet, he doesn’t understand that wind, solar, and nuclear power are used to make electricity, not to replace oil as a transportation fuel. Indeed, some petroleum is used to make electricity, but only a minuscule 1.6 percent of our electricity comes from petroleum. Here’s data from the Energy Information Association on electricity:

Electricity Production By Source

1.  Coal–49%
2. Natural Gas–20%
3. Nuclear–19%
4. Conventional Hydroelectric–7%
5. Renewables (wind, solar, biomass)–2%

The vast majority of oil used in the US becomes transportation fuel. Wind, solar, and nuclear cannot power cars unless we are talking about electric cars. And electric cars don’t exist yet.

Maybe Cantor misspoke. I don’t know. But when energy policy is written by people that might not understand that infinite amounts of wind, solar, or nuclear power will not affect our foreign imports of oil, we stand a very small chance of actually improving our energy situation.

Here’s an interesting story of an SR-71 pilot who survived having his Blackbird disintegrate around him.