STEER CLEAR OF TREADMILLS!

     0nly kiddin'.................if it's good enough for these steers ............it's good enough for me....can you believe that they put "poor defenceless animals" on such machines to study the "Effect of exercise on the quality of beef"!   In contrast my 3 miles on the treadmill was completely voluntary and not designed to prove anything other than a mile on a treadmill is a lot further than a mile outside and seems a great deal harder.
    Compensation was the Janet Jackson video "Design Of A Decade" including Rhythm Nation.....all military costumes and dance moves kept alive today by Britain's Got talent winners Diversity and Cheryl Cole.
    Got to thinking about the word TREADMILL.  Yes, we all know it's an exercise machine in a gym. For the less athletic it conjures up images of any monotonous , wearisome routine or daily life ; but as a combination of the words TREAD and MILL it's hardly seems appropriate, does it?  But.....did you know.....TREAD  is an old Anglo Saxon word meaning to "step on or walk on".   MILL?  Did you know....The first TREADMILL machine was invented around 1820 by Sir William Cubill as a means of employing prisoners to rotate a wheel or large cylinder through a series of horizontal treads.  As the prisoners stepped on the treads, the axle was turned to operate a MILL  to grind grain..  Hence, the derivation of the word.  I think they should be renamed RUNGRINDERS !
    Want more?  Did you know......American cardiologist, Robert A. Bruce, (1918-2004) promoted the idea of TREADMILLS as an exercise device and a means to monitor heart rate as the subject increased speed.
Amazing that before long every gym and many homes had them and many prefer to run on the machine than outdoor even in the best of weather. For me it's still a "fallback" in bad weather.
    Seems the best choice for tomorrow is gritted road rather than risk falling offroad or sliding along the canal towpath.  I'll be thinking about those steers!